NST July 2022: A Turtle Triathlon

ditty1234

Hi all luckily I have tested negative the whole way through so worked Monday and Tuesday with a suspiciously runny nose. SO kept my distance and - well did it. 
Grateful for a lovely evening, a short walk, for being back in the car and for boys being lovely and relaxed. (Ds1 after a day at work and ds2 after doing marine training with a friend who is joining, and not not working a free shift today. I don't think it is right to work a 5 hour free shift, 3 weeks after interview! He is now looking at disposable warehousing jobs. Reporting on said shortage of bar staff - could be created by a shortage of basic respect for workers in service industry! 

ldee2111

Caravan day 6

Had a lie-in this morning, cup of tea in one hand, phone in the other, OH’s snores rumbling away while I caught up with turtles updates. Then I logged on to my bank account to find £11.42 had appeared from a cash back site. Transferred straight into mortgage OP. 

DS and OH got up for breakfast and I stayed in bed listening to a podcast about learning to be more patient - something I’d like to have more of! 

Mid morning we visited a little port town. We planned to sit by the water with fish and chips in a paper poke… but there was nowhere offering this delectable delicacy! What?! Instead there were a number of pub and cafe options. We’d been looking forward to fish and chips, so went into one of the pubs. Their award-winning fish and chips were wonderful but cost us £46! 

Spends today 

£40 fuel 

£46 lunch 🫢

Grateful for fresh air, the best cod I’ve ever had, and bedtime carryon with DS. 

Deni_debt-free_dreamer

evening

achieved another NSD and didn't use my car either.  WfH , spent some time with DD1, made a veggie roast for tea then walked to pilates.  

Gratitudes - relaxed day at work after a busy week, nice chat with pilates teacher, nearly Friday

love Deni

BadBookkeeper

Evening turtles sounds like you’ve all had a busy day.

I’ve been grocery shopping today No unintentional spend and 90p under budget but overspent last week so still slightly over for the month.

This challenge is making me mindful of wasted food/fuel & time.  I’ve wasted a lot of food this week.  I usually blame the fact I can’t buy loose veg in aldee but it’s cheap to buy a big bag of carrots knowing I only need 2, if I’m doing this I need to think of ways to use up the excess.  Car only used for essential journeys and fuel topped up by £15.  Didn’t even move a bar on the gauge!  I’m shocked how much time I spend on my phone but a lot of it is work calls.  However I’ve put a 2 hour limit on my Fb access to see if I actually use this every day.

Work was stressy today due to workload.  I got a lot of fiddly jobs done today so can crack on tomorrow.  Had a miniature gin and lemonade this evening so not an alcohol free day so still 4/31.

DH is home from his business trip tomorrow so I’m smiling about that and happy I caught the local post office van to post a parcel today so don’t need a special trip in to town on Saturday.

Budgets holding up for 1st week of July.  Already starting to think of August from what I’m learning in July.

Used 2 supermarkets to keep costs down used clubcard to gain points & used cash back credit card & paid back straight away for cash back.  
More watchers on my bay of E item 

Every spend today was necessary.  I really can’t cut back anymore on food shop if anything I should be buying more fruit but it’s just so expensive! 

Will be donating to school fundraiser tomorrow and a bundle of clothes I had for sale hasn’t sold so that’s going in the charity bag.

Still using up toiletries

not an NSD so still 2/16.  

Nothing decluttered today so 6/31 will try to find 2 items tomorrow to catch up.

wonderfulwinnie

Loving reading these updates 🐢 I had my first NSD today but I didn’t leave the house so that is probably why 😂 Grateful for a bit of sunshine in Scotland today! 

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for dc being in a fab performance of Matilda, for a good consultant appt with dc, for having enough change to pay the extortionate parking costs at the hospital when my card was declined both in the machine and at the wave it in front of this part too, for scrambled egg done in the frying pan after doing dc's bacon in there first, for dh researching and finding and buying us a new cooker cos the grill and one burner just don't wanna work no more.

Thrifty_Taylor

Happy holidays @f0xh0les! 🎉 That's our first week over & it's rained every day bar 1... Hoping the sun will appear soon!

Had a phonecall from the Dr first thing, I'm not diabetic nor have thyroid problems. Going to.see the Dr on Mon, but means I could fill out the living donor forms now 😃
Went for a walk with DH. I'd ordered 22 bags of smokeless fuel & 2 tonnes of sand, so took money out the corresponding sinking funds to pay into my bank account whilst passing the post office. It's all being delivered tomorrow, so will have to park round the corner on our neighbour's driveway until we've barrowed it all off ours! My turn to buy the local paper on the way home too.
Spent the afternoon sewing, only have 3 items left to alter in the first big bag now. Phew! Went outside & moved lots of building stone, to make the 'path' wider for transporting the bags of coal. Had to nip to the shop for eggs, DH hadn't realised one of our DS's had eaten the last one.
Did the ironing after tea, a tiny bit of crochet, then a bath with my book. (Won't be staying up late to read it tonight 😉)

Grateful for good blood test results, lovely smelling body lotion (received for my birthday last December), progress with different things

Thrifty_Taylor

Well done @apple_muncher jr!

@wonderfulwinnie whereabouts in Scotland are you? I'm in Orkney & no sun here....can you send some this way please? 🤞☺️

Toni'sfriend

f0xh0les - We have the bowler hatters here in my part of Scotland too. I was not amused to be awakened at 6.00am last Saturday by their band belting out The Easton Boating Song (very badly). Why they chose that particular piece of music is a bit of a mystery to me.

BadBookkeeper - If you peel the carrots, put them in a Tupperware type container and cover them with water they last for ages in the fridge. Just change the water every couple of days. It works with green beans, mange tout and sugar snap peas as well. Alternatively, chop them up and freeze them to use in soups and stews. That works with onions and peppers as well.

Yesterday was Himself's birthday. He was really pleased with his presents but just to explain his lack of technical expertise when he saw "Galaxy" on the box of his new tablet he thought it contained a chocolate bar. Oh well. We'll get the Boy to set it all up for him. Lidl was selling Polish chocolate which he loves so we had a walk (three and three quarter miles) to buy him some as an extra present.

So this week's successes. Weight loss three and a half pounds, walks total twenty two  and three quarter miles (not nearly as good as Thrifty), no alcohol consumed and my skin is looking much, much better. Bad news. No NSDs but we're in budget for everything.

So today's plan is to investigate a "new" park which one of our neighbours told us about. It's not too difficult or far to get to so hoping for a nice walk. Weather is looking a bit cloudy but never mind.

Have a good day.

grandmanerd

Yesterday was long, tiring but ultimately satisfying (still didn't get everything done but that's just me overestimating my capabilities). Started by taking approx 3 dozen items to the food bank. Collected a young man on the way who was going for a food parcel and didn't know where to go. A very long walk (don't compare with old self) and went to collect cash for brother/ repairs on the way back and shopping from little Arseda (it was their cash machine - did mental calculations about which was the shortest route home from where I was) including a few ys bits and 3 months hayfever tablets (they were on my list). 

Very grateful for the workman who let me go across the car park as the thought of going all round the library might have been enough to make me give up and go back home. It's all happening here folks (aka the joys of town centre living). On Wednesday I did my long mindfulness exercise (well 3/4) trying to tune out what seemed like a whole building site outside my window. Turned out to be only one man using a generator to power the machine he was using to clean a load of concrete blocks that arrived last week (2 lorry loads). Yesterday both entrances to the car park were coned off and staffed - only working vehicles were allowed in. 

They've built a stage, erected 2 towers for speakers, set up 11 port-a-loos, a mini digger was moving the concrete blocks one by one - the front of the the Civic square now has them in between the 3 tier flower displays ranged alongside the main road. The trees along the front of the square and the row between the square and the car park have wide ribbon streamers in the team colours of the matches we are hosting - I think Ukraine, Portugal and Norway are in our group ('we' is my town and 'our' is the country I live in atm - we're petitioning to go in with Scotland if they win the referendum).

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. I was back home from the food bank in good time to wait for my parcel (the first of 2 one hour slots with an hour in between). I had time to peg out a few clothes and settle my stuff around me on the couch (DS3 was not occupying the couch so I felt guilty about not getting on with cataloguing records but definitely needed a rest). First parcel was left on the doorstep (got a text) the only time I had to leave the room - sure I was in the room when it came (had to get up and cross the room to get my phone out of the other bag).

Spent the time finishing my book, playing games and messaging DS2 - mummy to be's blood pressure shot up on Tuesday, they'd admitted her and were going to induce her but the ward was busy and nothing much happened after that. The consultant saw her yesterday and it's going to be a while (maybe today or tomorrow).

After the second parcel came I ventured out again (went across the car park again, without asking but was well away from where the men were working), took one huge sack and 2 carrier bags full of cans to the recycling point (Beloved has been struggling but is now slowly clearing up her space) and then carried on. Had a good haul of 50p sandwiches in B00ts and bought some larger packs of antiseptic cream (HB still no progress and picked up the last 3 from the pound emporium on Saturday, I think).

Very tired, had a short rest downstairs before coming upstairs but did go down again after eating. More progress on hoeing/ scraping the yard, separating out weeds, rubbish and stones. Many trips to the bins and swapped the clothes which had dried for the last few in the machine (clinging onto the washing line). My little friend the robin came to visit/ check on my progress (getting bolder, landed withing 3 feet of where I was sitting) and two of the men were working at my end of the car park. Finally came back in, absolutely exhausted thinking it was 9 o'clock. Only just gone 7 pm but I was done for the day (no long mindfulness exercise, no everyday mindfulness - although the soil sifting was probably a good substitute for washing up, no progress on food, tried making urgent phone calls but they were engaged).

Today I want to return some library books and check out the one day exhibition but suspect all the crash barriers will now be up so that might be a long walk and might renew my book online. Tomorrow is the first fan day. According to the Council website there will be music, dancing and entertainment on the square (and the car park) for visiting fans/ everyone else, the library will have craft activities and card swaps and then about 2.30 pm there will be a procession (saw the open top bus yesterday) from the Civic square to the ground (arriving at 4 pm for a 5 pm kick off). I deleted the email after I'd read it so don't quote me.

Happy about getting things done, being able to see some progress, having a phone call from one of the people I wrote to last week, meeting Mrs Builder whilst I was out, enjoying the company of young men, my friend the robin, taking time to sit and look around. I suspect today will be home based - think I need a SWAT team for the kitchen (although just noticed some of teh washed dishes and cutlery are back in the cupboards).