So close, we can smell mortgage freedom!

newgirly

Has he been neutered Vix? I’m guessing he has but if not that can cause issues. 

themadvix

Oh definitely NG - he never knew what his bits were for! 

newgirly

😂 Great way of putting it! 

themadvix

Morning all,

@newgirly They came off as soon as the vets would do them, ironically because I was concerned about them spraying around the house!

Let's move on from cat wee, though, shall we? 

Dropped Mr MV at the station this morning and have come home and used half the house battery to partially charge the car. Am relying on the sun to shine today to top it back up before our 1.5 hour saving session this evening! We're harvesting half a kilowatt now, so hopefully it'll be fine (already back up 5%). I will use the IP for my lunch (only to hard boil some eggs), but hopefully that won't use too much.

Workwise, I'm cracking on with a small project from my main client, and expecting two more from him later today. Feeling a bit more on top of my Cambridge work, but mainly because my 'other boss' there hasn't replied to my emails! If I stay on top of things, I'm hoping to meet mum at a garden centre later - she bought me gardening gloves for Christmas (thermal and waterproof) but they didn't fit (despite measuring my hands and using their size guide), so we're hoping to find some replacements - I need them now for the allotment!

If I have time, I'd like to walk to the cats today as I'm seeing the benefits of the exercise in my weight, resting heart rate and general energy levels.

Dinner tonight will be dal - normal for Mr MV and parsnip for me - already out of the freezer - with rice and a garlic flatbread (also in freezer).

MS things:
* Clicks and HW done - I've had a fix through from VB about my account - just need to get it to work.
* Sunshine is helping with energy costs
* Dinner from the freezer
* Olio bread for lunch
* Successful savings session last night - didn't use any energy from the grid; hope to replicate that this evening.

Gratitudes:
* Sunshine - for mental and energetic reasons!
* Prospect of a trip out later with Mum
* No evening class tonight (teacher has gone to the Carribbean for a sailing holiday - jealous, moi?!)

Have a good day all!

EssexHebridean

The correlation of resting heart rate and movement is one of the best markers for general fitness - and to an extent general health too I believe. It fascinates me seeing what my RHR does when I'm a bit under the weather, and indeed that I can get a warning sign of an issue incoming from my RHR too. Mine is traditionally low - I hover around 50bpm (And while I'm reasonably fit, I'm not super-fit IYSWIM) - but when I had Covid it shot right up into the 60s for several days!  Definitely a good motivator to keep up with increased activity levels!  Don't underestimate how things like good sleep can also play into bringing it down too - even increasing your sleep quantity or improving quality by a small amount can make a difference there. (Stress too, but sometimes worrying about being stressed can make us more stressed, so dwelling on that one outside of what can easily be changed/managed can be counter-productive!)

Fingers crossed that the sun continues to play ball about recharging the battery! 

Karmacat

themadvix said:

Dropped Mr MV at the station this morning and have come home and used half the house battery to partially charge the car. Am relying on the sun to shine today to top it back up before our 1.5 hour saving session this evening! We're harvesting half a kilowatt now, so hopefully it'll be fine (already back up 5%). I will use the IP for my lunch (only to hard boil some eggs), but hopefully that won't use too much.

* Successful savings session last night - didn't use any energy from the grid; hope to replicate that this evening.

I just love this, it makes me smile just to read it.  Love it.

themadvix

@EssexHebridean you are so right about it being an indicator of general health - my RHR before Covid was 63, but when I had it it was well into the 80s. Now back down to 66, so getting there - I'll freely admit I was somewhat lazy before Christmas re exercising but prior to that my back was an issue and it did take me a long time to properly recover from Covid. Sleep, ha! Sleep is often my nemesis, but not too bad at the moment (no doubt to do with the additional exercise), so that may have been a factor.

@Karmacat, the battery recharged to 97% in the end So we're doing our saving session now, but apart from not being able to use anything with a high load (kettle, oven, microwave), we're fine.

Which leads me on to say that that is a good thing as it helps lower our bills. .... We're pretty sure that Mr MV's boss has been made redundant today. Not good news at all. We're not entirely sure what's going on as communication from the company has been non-existent. Mr MV may find out more tomorrow when he goes into the office. Further reason to really tighten the belts though. Mr MV has been semi-actively looking at other jobs for a while now though, so it's time to ramp that up.

In other news, Mum and I found some suitable gardening gloves at the garden centre, so I've no excuse not to get down to the allotment and get weeding/preparing/planting (broad beans) now.

I was up to date on work, so walked to the cats - and still up to date when I went to garden centre, but since then I've had three pieces arrive from main client (including a big one), so that's good.

Suffolk_lass

The other big indicator of fitness is of course recovery time; the time it takes post exertion, for your HR to slow back to the pre-exercise level. I'm grateful to you for reporting that Covid increased your RHR. I test my CO2 levels and it tells me my RHR - it was into the high 70s when I was feeling really grim, up from normal 50-60. My Oximeter usually reports 99% oxygen but it dropped a fair bit to 96% while ill. 94% is the threshold, below which we have a problem.

Jellytotts

Returning briefly to the subject of cat pee. You need to remove the pee soaked wooden flooring as it will be acting as a scent reminder that this is where I pee for the cat concerned.  Even when it's got to the point of humans not being able to smell it, cats can.  

When I removed our parquet flooring there was a huge patch with damp markings that didn't smell but once I pulled it up, blimey was that hideous.  It was from the previous owners cat and had soaked through and started to turn the concrete floor underneath into slime.   Once it had all dried out I had to cut a section of concrete out and make good before I could lay floor tiles.  

Grim.

themadvix

Morning all,

@Suffolk_lass oh yes, as EH said, RHR is a really good indicator of your health in terms of whether you're going down with something. 

@Jellytotts you make a really good point. We have and liberally spray the enzyme-based cleaner that is meant to help, but room stinks now, so it's possible it's reached a tipping point. We want to replace the floor with waterproof tiles, but wanted him to stop doing it first as we'll have to move the litter trays elsewhere as we'll have to take the vanity unit and toilet out to relay the floor (Mr MV is really not looking forward to it), so it's not a quick job and there's a risk to other floors! There's waterproof sheeting underneath the flooring, so hopefully that has protected the concrete floor a bit, but your warning is well taken. I also forgot to mention that the little b*gger is on Zylkene, so should be perfectly chilled out. I think we might have to bite the bullet and get the floor up sooner rather than later. Annoyingly I don't think he does it when we're not here (i.e. when we're away and a cat sitter comes) - because he's not getting cross with us for not letting him out quickly enough!

Am working on the bits for main client currently, but will switch to Cambridge for a bit shortly. Would like to get one project there off my desk as I've finally received the info I was waiting on. Meant to have a meeting this afternoon but thinking/hoping we can cancel so I can head to cats and then into town - I need a couple of bits for the cats and would like to get them before I put in the last cheque from client (so expenses are paid straight away).

Mr MV is in the office today and says it's all very odd - some 250 people were made redundant yesterday, so there's lots of people missing. Boss still presumed made redundant, but no actual information and it'll involve a change of structure, so poor not to explain anything. Mr MV is owed £500 of expenses too, which his boss didn't sign off before he disappeared.... Needless to say, I didn't sleep brilliantly last night (I think Mr MV slept OK though - just my brain! In reality, it wouldn't be great if he was made redundant, but we have an EF, we have enough to pay off the mortgage (some in S&S ISA, so not ideal) and we know we can live on very little. He's also been there 15 years, so they'd have to give him a relatively good package. Hopefully they've finished with redundancies for now though. 

MS things:
* HW and clicks - got back into VB and have done a quick survey there as well as the polls. Balance about £4 (payout £12). A few pence won on the HW and found another free wheel to spin (last night as I started the long process of updating passwords in LP).
* Lunch is going to be an Olio roll and leftovers for me (I've not had breakfast yet, so not sure when/if this will be). Mr MV is still working through his loyalty points in the canteen (more necessary than ever)
* Olio collection tonight
* Not sure if I mentioned but I've moved my savings pots for holiday and presents out of Starling and into savings accounts - not a lot, but better than nothing, given there's already some £800 between the two pots
* Will open a Kroo account later
* Used Am voucher from client to buy some CR2032s that we need (car key is saying battery is low)
* Have checked out what I can use my L2S vouchers for and identified some possibilities (and also now understand how the L2S codes work from RM survey - can also get Morrisons vouchers, which I may well do).

Gratitudes:
* Mr MV still has a job
* Plenty of work for me
* My laptop functions like a laptop - after having one that didn't for so long, the novelty of taking it downstairs and doing things in the evening in comfort is still novel!

Have a good day all!