So close, we can smell mortgage freedom!

badmemory

Talk about unto the rich even more riches shall be given!  This shower seem to have so many brown envelopes passing round it is a wonder that they can remember who they owe favours to.  They need to checkout history as trickle down has never worked it just gives the rich even more.  Still I wouldn't be surprised if it led to even more spending on the lottery - out of desperation.  I am finding it all a bit depressing.

QueenJess

I’m back to limiting my consumption of news to under 5 mins a day and then just limiting my thoughts down to my own little world as I can’t do anything about it.

In terms of tax, when I see what extra I get in my payslip, it’ll be going straight to charity as they’re going to need it.

Karmacat

themadvix said:

Afternoon all,

Utterly, utterly livid with our selfish, greedy new government and their utterly irresponsible and short-sighted 'budget' (no actual budgeting has occurred - that's precisely the point). Sorry, I shouldn't expect anything better from utter Tory **** but I honestly cannot believe it. The actions they have taken will vastly worsen inequality and increase inflation. It's like they've entirely dropped the pretence that they care about the poor... just beggar's belief.

/Here ends political rant/

This.  All the way.

Solar people won't be here until Thursday 🙄 Not at all impressed about this as they were the ones that kept pushing for an early date and now they'll be lucky to finish and get scaffolding down before we go away (can't see the scaffolding happening at all) - and I'm not letting them take it down while we're away as I don't trust them not to do more damage - unless I can get a relative to come and sit and put up with the noise.... (don't really think going away and leaving scaffolding up and brand new solar very accessible is ideal either). Hmm....

Bleep!  That's becoming as problematic as Ed's builder sorry to hear it.

Gratitudes:
* Super affectionate cat sitting kitties - the friendliest ever (friendlier than mine!)
* It's Friday! (Football tomorrow - still need to discuss with Sis)
* Win on the HW - love money for nothing

Have a good afternoon all!

😺😺 lovely!  And you have a lovely weekend too  

newgirly

Hi Vix, I’ve just caught up with your diary finally. The veg you are growing looks amazing you must be so pleased and it must be helping fight the rising costs at the moment a little, I’m glad you managed to see the Queen, we were away (although managed to see the funeral) and I just felt like we should have been in London, it was so moving. 

savingholmes

Hope the solar people sort themselves out.

Agree with the rants. They just all seem corrupt.

themadvix

badmemory said:

They need to checkout history as trickle down has never worked it just gives the rich even more.  Still I wouldn't be surprised if it led to even more spending on the lottery - out of desperation.  I am finding it all a bit depressing.

Couldn’t agree more - history has shown that neither trickle-down nor tax cuts during periods of high inflation helps the situation. It's shocking that they appear to be so stupid (I don't give them much credit generally but at least Rishi understood that tax cuts was not the way to avoid an inflationary spiral).

themadvix

Morning all,

Karma - no, we're fortunately nowhere near the drama of Ed's builders yet and please Lord may that remain the case! The combination of builders/scaffolding, back issues, laptop issues and the cold is/was definitely getting to me though. At least we now know that they aren't coming until Thursday and can get on as usual with life.

Jess - definitely with you on limiting my news time - it's more depressing than anything I've seen in a long time - every single thing they come out with seems to be a backwards step on the environment and people. Never have I felt so tempted to emigrate.

Newgirly - thanks. I know exactly what you mean about 'being in London'  - if the queue had been too long (8-9 hours was our cut-off in any case, which is what it said when we joined), I still wanted to have gone to London and 'been there' - odd but that was definitely my feeling. The food has helped (not had a veg box in months), but I wish some of it had been a little bigger - I appear to have grown two-portion romanesco and cabbage (I rejoiced last night that there was slightly more than enough for us both to have cabbage - some went into the fridge!).

SH - thanks!

We went to see the Arsenal v Spurs WSL match at the weekend - was an excellent day out and enjoyed by all (Sis and Niece came too). Bought food there, so not particularly MSE, especially as Mr MV and I went out for dinner in the evening. But it was really fun and nice to do something different. We're now eyeing up the Arsenal v Manchester United match in November (Finsbury Park is very easy for us on the train, which helps).

Yesterday was spent catching up on household jobs (and Mr MV fixing the mini ready for our trip) - I picked all the remaining tomatoes and have brought them in to ripen (plants composted). Popped to the allotment to retrieve the onion sets and garlic that my allotment neighbour has kindly given me - I'm hoping I'll get them in this week. Picked another cabbage while I was there, which we had with dinner, along with roasted tomatoes (toad in the hole). Also made a banana cake using some more of the Olioed bananas. My banana chips came out well in the dehydrator and I have two boxes of them to snack on now (I didn't think I liked them, but turns out I do!).

Work is a bit quieter today - nothing from my main client, so taking the opportunity to finish some household stuff, get to the zero-waste shop and start preparing for our trip to Devon. Next weekend is going to be busy, so the more I can do in advance the better. Solar workers arrive Thursday (no idea how long it's going to take them); I/we have a funeral to go to on Friday; we're planning on oiling our wooden hall floor on Saturday (we bought the kit when we laid the floor, but haven't yet ever done anything with it!), which entails moving us and the cats out overnight - family holiday to the in-laws!); and hopefully seeing my family on Sunday afternoon before we go Monday.

MS things:
* HW - ~40p earned
* Clicks done
* PA surveys - have been working in Edge since Mr MV tried reinstalling Windows *again*, so have been out of sorts and haven't had PA open. Have now downloaded Chrome and re-settled myself (no doubt will hear from laptop company today), so have got this back open again
* NV survey
* Veg for dinner entirely homegrown
* Still cat sitting - think they were surprised to see me at 7am this morning after I dropped Mr MV at the station!
* Washing line dried yesterday (there's no other option really), and brought in slightly damp after checking the forecast - after an airing it's fine today
* S&S submitted (another thing I had to reinstall)
* Various Ebay sales to convert postage on

Gratitudes:
* Lovely day out on Saturday
* Cat cuddles - it's amazing how they remember they like laps again when the weather turns
* A decent night's sleep

Have a good day all!

themadvix

(Oh, and I have enquired with Cambridge as to whether there's an employer contribution to the staff pension (given the low earnings, I would have to opt in and there's no compulsion on them to contribute) - if so, I'll be signing up for that. My friend has indicated that I can basically keep doing what I'm doing for them for the foreseeable future and that there's another project in the offing at some point too, so that's really useful for 'filling in the gaps' with my self-employment.)

Jellytotts

Our solar panels were installed in a little over 3 hours from start to finish if that helps. I think it all depends on where your meters and wiring has to go but as we are in a bungalow it was much easier to get to the fuse board.

themadvix

Thanks Jellytotts, that does help I think. Ours will be a bit more complicated probably as panels on two sides of roof and a battery (and an upstairs!), but that gives me hope that they may be done in a day.