So close, we can smell mortgage freedom!

themadvix

@rtandon27 WFH is always a distraction for me - except when I'm really busy and then I'm pretty good at knuckling down. That being said, I know most people are amazed that I have the discipline I do, so maybe I'm not as bad as they'd be if left to their own devices. I think it both helps and hinders my productivity that I'm not paid by the hour in my line of work - it's an incentive to get things done, but means I can take breaks without making any progress!

@EssexHebridean I'm amazed you have time to be commenting on other people's diaries! Your banana makeshift muffins do sound rather lovely though 😋

Anyway, once piece of work out of the way, meeting in 45 mins - how much of the next bit can I get done by then?

rtandon27

themadvix said:

...but means I can take breaks without making any progress!

Ha ha - Vix I'm much the same on my WFH days - I took a nice long break this afternoon, for an appt & a country drive to pick up our bi-weekly veg box - what it does mean is that it's now 9pm and I'm only just finishing up prep for tomorrow's day in the office!

themadvix

Morning all,

Sounds like a nice trip out RT!

Well I slept terribly last night, so today is going to be a gentle one. I did get caught up on all my work (some Cambridge bits to do, but that won't take long) and I also got to the allotment, where I transformed a patch of ground that's at the side of my shed (and adjacent to one of the main paths) into a space for some shady plants in pots. It was very overgrown (couch grass mainly, up as far as the top of the photo) and now it looks like this:

There's a thick layer of cardboard under the chippings (the council had helpfully provided additional wood chip since my last visit!). I did disturb a lot of frogs, but I'm sure they'll be OK - I think they live under the shed. Saw a newty type thing the other day too (different to the newts we had in the garden, so it might have been something else?). I plan to grow alpine strawberries, wild garlic and mint in pots here - none of them mind the shade and this part of the plot is in the shade all the time. Picked blackberries, strawberries, a couple  of golden raspberries and more french beans.

Olio was fine - we've ended up with two pots of guac and a portion of prepared veg (actually all OK in terms of UP-ness). Veg is in the freezer and I need to make some tortillas and buy some bits to have fajitas tonight.

Today I need to visit the flea-y cats, and then I have a long list of things to do in and around town. I'm hoping I'll receive my wormery too today so I can get it set up. But all will be done at a slow pace, rather than dashing around like a mad woman and if it doesn't all get done, well so be it (apart from tortillas, I guess!).

MS things:
* PA surveys - at £23 now
* 1P surveys - also at £23...
* Clicks, comps and HW done
* Guac (although this appears to be costing money in sour cream and a pepper!) and green veg
* Dinner was courgette pasta, using hg courgette, spinach and garlic

Gratitudes
* The stress-relieving effect of a couple of hours at the allotment
* No brainy work today (given my sleep-deprived brain)
* Caffeinated tea

Have a good day all!

EssexHebridean

Good plan to put the wild garlic in pots, although I suspect it will probably stage a bid for freedom anyway!  

Swayingseaweed

Good use of space. Alpine strawberries are so much nicer than standard strawberries pity they are so little. You might find your wild garlic needs lots of water as it tends to grow in damp shaded areas in the wild.
Seaweed x 

themadvix

Thanks EH and Seaweed (or Swaying, do you have a preference?!) Good point about water for the garlic - maybe I'll have to divert the guttering that's directly above it.

Managed to get nearly everything done on my list this morning (it seems Aldi doesn't sell dishwasher salt, let alone in cardboard boxes like Lidl?). I dropped off the old router at the Vodafone store and an old pair of glasses into Specsavers for recycling. I then popped into a very sad Wilkos - £15 spent - three pairs of gardening gloves, a jam funnel (have been meaning to buy for ages and was one of the last things in the aisle) and a bamboo chopping board (we have a couple of old plastic ones we're trying to replace but I don't want glass/stone and really I find the wooden ones we have awkward - partly cos they won't go in the dishwasher, but partly because they're quite heavy - this bamboo one, while it won't go in dishwasher is lighter and thinner than our wood ones, so I'll see how it goes). Popped to fish shop and bought a couple of bits of salmon (£5.84, seemed reasonable), paid some cash in at bank, and wandered through market where I came upon the delight of a handmade chocolate pistachio croissant... £3.80! But worth every penny - and I doubt there was anything UP in sight as it is a proper sourdough bakers. Then to Aldi, Curry's for a gas exchange for the sodastream (discount via Mr MV's work utilised) and then M&S for a few bits (paid for by MS Rewards). By the time I'd got home I'd cycled 10 miles and it was lunchtime. 

Some Cambridge work this afternoon and then an unintentionally long nap (!) and then I managed to retrieve the wormery - my friend wanted to clean it first, which I said was ridiculous - and it was actually, it just needed a wipe over on the outside - it was wormery-ish inside but nothing too gross. So worms are now ensconced and I hope they stay there - instructions are all very keen to say they like it damp but not too wet... it's very hard to tell where the line is! Friend also gave me a baby aloe vera, which I hope I manage to keep alive this time - the last one I had Mr MV overwatered. (She did get a courgette in return and the wormery is likely a long-term loan (assuming that it's probably not big enough for our waste.)

 Dough is resting for tortillas for fajitas and having soaked the beans for the day I've just put the IP on to cook them - only 3 mins so a huge energy saving over doing from dry. It sounds like Mr MV has had a very stressful day, so I think it will be a chilled evening - have a good one!

Swayingseaweed

Hi what IP do you have, as I'm thinking of getting one. 
Seaweed x

themadvix

Swayingseaweed said:

Hi what IP do you have, as I'm thinking of getting one. 
Seaweed x

There's only two of us, so I have the Mini. There's definitely things it would be useful having the bigger one for, but we don't have the space and most of the time, don't need a bigger one. I love it - use it for beans and lentils from dry all the time (and sometimes I remember to soak them), boiled eggs, the cats' chicken, rice, dal. There's far more I could do with it too - I have a recipe book and there are some nice recipes in there but as I tend to cook with what I've got rather than buy for a recipe, I don't often have the ingredients for the recipes IYSWIM. The downside of the smaller one is that the pot-in-pot stuff is limited because of the small size of the pan.

Swayingseaweed

Any particular make? 

themadvix

It’s an Instant Pot - sorry, I thought that’s what you meant you were thinking of getting. 😊