NST August 2022: Lights, Camera, Action!

apple_muncher

Belated Happy Birthday beanie 🎉🎈🎈🎈. Here are some balloons for you!!!

Today I am grateful for finding enough blackberries to fill two Tupperware pots (most have gone over massively, and I really should have been picking them 2+ weeks ago, but was poorly), for my slow cooker Spanish omelette working well, for visiting cats, for a good book, for kind of feeling ready for work tomorrow.

beanielou

Thank you apple    x

BadBookkeeper

Miss counted my NSDs got one today so achieved 15/15 wow!!

Its my payday tomorrow and will be spendy.  

Grateful for:
Parents giving DS money to buy footy boots, an ok work day, cleaning 3 shelves (nothing decluttered but now clutter is dust free & tidy)!

Thrifty_Taylor

Hope you feel better soon @ldee2111

🎈🎈60🎈🎈 & a few more @beanielou x

NSD#15
Felt really tired when I got up. Dreaded which pupil I'd be with today, in case it was a repeat of yesterday, but had someone else, still a tricky day...
Loaded the car with stuff to take to the dump after work tomorrow. Will save making s special trip. After filling up my tank yesterday, I've driven very carefully today, & stayed under 50mph to make it last as long as possible.
Polished mine & DH walking boots, then did the ironing. After tea I altered a waistcoat for a customer, then had a bath.

Grateful for getting jobs done, making 6 year olds giggle, chasing after a 10 year old in fun (I caught him 😃)

DrCarrie

Hi all, 

Doing a quick round-up for the month - 14 NSDs, not at target but not too bad for coming back into the Turtle fold after a break. It's been a very interesting month in many ways. Lots of patterns for 'wants' were noticed. Menu planning kicked back in and the flat is tidy. 

I haven't bought a coffee, lunch at work or a lottery ticket.

Grateful for:
- August sunshine 
- Roast duck leftovers for lunch
- not being burgled when leaving the front door ajar overnight!

Thank you for the challenge apple. 

See you in September. 

grandmanerd

Belated Happy Birthday beanie. My mum's neurologist told her to look at it as getting older more slowly - as in she would only be 1/82 nd older next birthday whereas he would be 1/ 58th older and therefore was getting older faster than her (and I'm thinking the neurologist is younger than me - help - blue hair emoji).

Well I'm making progress. Started well yesterday but then had a slump and could not find the 'whatever' to get up and go to mum's (all the things I've not got done are about to go crunch and fall on me). I say 'whatever' because it wasn't even motivation I wanted, just to be able to acknowledge what needed doing and get on with it. However the rest did me good and I did a phone interview with the woman from Social Services (early intervention) and made an appointment for a home visit on Thursday (fortunately does not clash with the PIP interview).

Art therapy was good - a whole bunch of new people came (all from one place - been told about it by someone from another care/ independent living facility. This week and next we are making A3 placards to be carried in the procession at the Diggers festival on the 10th September (we might have a day trip back on the bus from the canal boat - live music all day + poets, food and other stuff). I only heard about the festival last year. I never realised Gerrard Winstanley was local (well those locals at the other end of the borough who we don't talk about) even though DS2 went to Winstanley College - I knew it was one of the Ward names so presumed it went with that locality.

I am loving my placard - it's a labour of love and a work of art (I'm not going to be modest, I'm really proud of it). I've gone with Gandhi's "Be the change you want to see in the world" but I've started with 'Bee' and my 'e's' are yellow circles with black stripes on the letter and two outline wings coloured in silver. Change and World will be in the largest 3" letter stencil but so far I've only got as far as 'Change' which is rainbow coloured 
Red 'C' is filled with red and pink flowers - flowers not flagstones written in tiny letters on the outside 
Orange 'H' has 'cooperation' and 'community' written vertically on the down strokes and a simple ouroborus on the cross bar (even got a nerdly Red Dwarf reference in)
Yellow 'A' has a half sun with rays perched on the apex, 'Solar Power' written directly underneath and 'Nuclear Power Nein Danke' at the bottom
Green 'N' has little rows of vegetables across it with 'Grow your Own' on the adjoining 
Blue 'A' and 
Purple 'E' has 'Wind', 'Wave' and 'Solar' on the cross bars in deep blue with a white 'outline', filled in with purple.

World will also be 3" letters with infills (have a list including bicycles, piles of books, local shopping and some version of the 5 'R's). I would have liked to have You in 3" letters but my measuring says this will not be feasible (not impossible but would be unbalanced) so will go with some other way of making 'you' stand out. Think that will be the 'personal' bit on being/ loving who you are and loving whoever you choose. So far I' very pleased with the way it works both as a placard (distance) and up close.


We were told to take what we wanted from the leftover food - I was given the unopened grapes and a banana and chose a biscuit and a very small pack of basic plain crisps. Tea was foraged from the fridge, ignoring all the dates (none of it had been opened). Did manage to drag myself back downstairs and add to the bins (had told DS3 to bag up his extensive collection) and moved a few more things onto the broken raised bed at the bottom of the yard (DS1 smashed it for me because I wanted to take my honeysuckle to the other house 16 years ago and that was the only way to get the root ball). 

Going to go now - I need to get dressed, move a few more things before the workmen come (bins have just been emptied so they can come back) and I need to round up the deeds, death certificate, probate authority and my passport (it's in my bag) to take to the bungalow for the meeting with the estate agent. Made good progress so far on processing scraps of paper and junk.

wishus

Happy birthday @beanielou - my birthday week NST twin!

I am back from my working holiday in Edinburgh! Work-wise I earned considerably less than I spent, but it was my birthday and we treated ourselves to some paid shows as well as a dinner. We had a smashing camp site, fantastic friends who fed us on one of the nights with delicious fish, and we took a few easy camping supplies as well (instant porridge, my new pal!). I still overspent my budget by £25, which just cancels out one week's saving pot, so not horrendous. Most things in Edinburgh around festival time are horrendously expensive, especially in the student areas, which is surprising, but the busses are modern, clean, comfortable, frequent and cheap! We could have saved a bit more if we had realized there's a 'tap-cap' which limits your bus expenses to £20 a week, but OH and I split who was paying for different journeys. 

Had an amazing time! Saw a few famous people, stayed up late, walked thousands of extra steps!

1 more NSD yesterday.

Payday is here though and I have been adjusted for company benefits so I actually have a fiver less, not too bad compared to colleagues who are a bit miffed. I think that's because I pay extra tax outside PAYE on this freelance stuff so I already submitted my P11D. 

Happy end of meteorological summer. See you in September NSTs!

Toni'sfriend

What a lot of birthdays in August! I hope you all had a lovely time.

Do you know I've only just realized that it's the last day of the month? How did that creep up on me.

So how did I do? I stopped counting NSDs this month as I was regularly buying fresh fruit and veg but I did have some nonetheless. Weight loss started off well but kind of fell away again as did walking every day. Decluttered a lot but was scuppered by the bin strike at the end. Used lots of stuff from the freezer that's been in there for ages. Donated to the food bank whenever I went to Aldi. Got my passport renewed. Read a whole series of books but didn't listen to the radio. Kept up the skincare but didn't get my ears pierced because I couldn't find anywhere locally to get them done. Started the holiday box. So kind of mixed success. 

Thanks for the challenge, Apple.

Well, I best go look out my life jacket and I'll see you on the canal.

beanielou

@wishus. 

Aww my birthday twin. 

Glad that you enjoyed your break in Edinburgh. 

I am about 35 miles from there. 

beanielou

Grandmanerd ~~ your placard sounds fabulous.