NST September 2022 Picture yourself on a boat on a canal

beanielou

Take care Greent 

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for not needing to spend too much time after work preparing my room for tomorrow's open morning event, for teaching some lovely kids, for all the greenery still out there, for some of my plants blooming again, for dh prepping tea.

Esmeralda2662

A lovely chap rang from hospital to discuss my symptoms and plan what needs doing. He will send blood test forms and once they have the results they'll book me in for the endoscopy. Have arranged to go to a smaller local hospital as the teaching hospital is mean with anaesthetic for any procedures. Appointment arrived for Wednesday for my thumb x-ray, hurray.

DS rang to say he starts a new job on Monday. Long hours during the week but hopefully full weekends off unless he wants generous overtime. Really hope it works out and he gets additional training that he wants.

NSD#3 as I only bought top up petrol that was budgeted for.

Gratitudes: progress on hospital appointments, a lovely walk in the sunshine, DS getting new job, OH feeling more normal today.

Have a good weekend. X

Thrifty_Taylor

Thank you @apple_muncher & @beanielou.
Sending hugs @greent & @Esmeralda2662.

Work went ok today, despite working more closely with the snappy teacher. Only she was over the top saccharin sweet. Pah!!

DS2 had a lovely day, wanted a very quiet birthday. Me & DH watched a film after tea, I cut out chickens to see for next week's craft fayre, then felt restless as I've got no knitting on the go!

Grateful that DS2 had a nice day, it's fri-yay, my bed as I'm exhausted!

BadBookkeeper

Didn’t post yesterday so here’s that update and I’ll pop back later with todays.

Simplify- Nothing here.

Essential Spends - Still NSD 10/15 as went to cinema (planned & budgeted for). 

Planning & Preparation- Have a meeting in my office at work next week so cleaned and hoovered it so looks presentable.

Think about spending- Bought treats from T£sco for cinema to save a few ££££s.

Eat to nourish- Mostly chocolate consumed and felt rubbish for it.

Mindfulness - So I’ve been paying more attention when in conversation but I’m starting to notice people when they are not paying attention to me!!  Very frustrating!

Be kind - Cleaned the office hoover it was minging!!

Exercise - Steps achieved 

Report daily - Didn’t do yesterday will do twice today.

Have a lovely weekend. 

ldee2111

Friday 

It’s a holiday weekend here so DS was off school. OH, DS and I went bowling. It was DS’s first time. We had really good fun and I particularly enjoyed getting a higher score than OH.

Dropped off 2 large bags of toys, games, clothes and costumes at the CS. 

Grateful today for time with the loves of my life, for beating OH at bowling, and for an easy dinner from an earlier batch cook. 

Today (Saturday) 

Deep sleep was abruptly woken by Saneberries grocery delivery this morning. Garbled some words at the delivery guy. He was amused. I was embarrassed. Enough said.

This week’s groceries are almost exclusively for me. OH will be working away for a few days. So I decided to order ingredients to try out some recipes from a book on gut health. On the menu for the three nights he’s away:

• Noodle soup
• Miso broth
• Black bean and nectarine tacos

Felt extremely healthy unpacking the miso paste, bean sprouts, pak choi, red cabbage, spring onions, ginger, garlic, mint, coriander, nectarines, sweetcorn… I’ll probably be able to do triathlons after eating them… actually I wouldn’t be surprised if I could fly with all these super foods!

This evening the three of us plus granny are going to watch Scotland play Ireland at football. OH’s Mum is coming to our house for dinner which is the best superfood of all… pizza. 

Still on NSD 9/15 but hopefully I’ll get a few more in the bag by the end of the month.

Have a good day, turtles. x

grandmanerd

Saturday 24th September 2022

Anti-ageing Foods (no guarantees but most of them taste good and are good for you in various other ways)
Bell pepper          Dark Chocolate          Yoghurt          Green tea            Mixed Nuts           Blueberries          Sweet potatoes
Spinach               Avocados                   Broccoli          Lemon                 Tomatoes

Self-Care Saturday
Hugs for everyone. Treat yourself gently today. You are all precious.

Today 
This is back-tracking further than I wanted to go but it's quite entertaining. It was written by a Wiganner (Pie eater) in 2009 and he was uncomplimentary to Leigh (he said it was a dump) but that's nothing to what he called Stretford.

This is a walk along the canal from Worsley to Altrincham so repeating some of our route but with a few more details. 

Lighthouse - had to search but did find a photo. It's a little diddy one (squat and about 3 level high - one red stripe between two white). I think it's actually a buoy - sure I've seen them somewhere before - a light buoy that goes out in the sea with a light on top. No idea if it's still there as the walk was done in 2009. I've only walked from Leigh as far as Monton - wasn't sure how the towpath went from there, it was starting to get a bit industrial (in a small under the railway arches type way, motor vehicle repairs etc - places that need cheap premises and have no need to be posh (or even presentable).

Barton Aqueduct As I say I've not walked this part of the towpath but it's visible from Barton Road when on the bus to the Trafford Centre. From the review "Further along we had to leave the canal for a few hundred yards because of the Barton Aqueduct which carried canal traffic over the Manchester shipping canal. What a marvellous piece of engineering! this was a swing bridge built in the 1890's which swings over the Ship Canal over a central island. The 235' long bridge weighing 1450 tons carries the canal  some 39' above the (river) Irwell."

In Trafford the group was attacked by a goose which would not let them pass, so they left the towpath and rejoined by the Kell oggs factory. This is my favourite bit -

Stretford
"Well what can I say? It was an experience we won't forget in a hurry. I think the word I'm looking for is 'rough'. A rotten smelly dog on the towpath, a man and woman arguing loudly, choice language etc. A lady was sunbathing amongst the graffiti and litter, perhaps it was the nearest she would ever get to Blackpool!"

I'm sure it's all changed by now - most of the canal has been gentrified, 3 storey flats and houses squeezed onto any spare patch of ground. The group stopped for lunch and then travelled into Sale. "It was still built up in places but the whole area had a different feel to it. We were safe."   I'm going to hop off the boat here and go to see my beautiful grand-daughter.

5 'R's'
Recycling Crafts
Old magazines - as well as decoupage (cover any old tat with pictures - garden mags work well - and varnish) and making bits for card making. Someone gave our craft group a box of expensive card making magazines. These sometimes have one or two templates to cut out and sometimes pretty papers (need to paste them onto thin card for most purposes), the bulk of the magazine tells you how to make a particular card by purchasing a long list of stamps, dies (to use with very expensive machines for cutting shapes) and other materials. I cut them up, using the stencils where available and using anything and everything (the same adverts were repeated in multiple magazines so I could make 'sets' of flowers in a range of sizes and complimentary covers) to make card toppers - flowers, birds, greetings - for our group to use.

Magazine strips can also be rolled into beads (round or tubular like penne pasta) to make jewellery or bead curtains or folded for basketry or coiled (and used like the long crocheted tubes produced by the knitting dolls/ or four small nails hammered into the top of a wooden cotton reel if you're old school) into baskets, vases and mats.

Toilet rolls and cardboard can be used to make nearly anything including furniture. Small boxes can be used as drawer dividers (mum liked a particular brand of crackers and the boxes for those were a useful size and not flimsy) if you have time and wince at the price of commercial alternatives. They can be used for stationery and desk tidies. Toilet rolls in a shoe box or similar can keep all those pesky wires (computer/ laptop/ ear buds etc) under control.

Metal beer tops can make pretty flowers (or nail them onto a stick to make a Shilleylagh/ Shillalee - Irish blackthorn staff but the bottle tops make it a musical instrument - as used by scouts etc and demonstrated by The Scaffold in Gin Gan Goolie.    

grandmanerd

Wasn't going to go out yesterday but went in a taxi to pick up particulars of a ground floor flat from a local estate agent. Crossed to Icyland (shop was visible from the EA) and bought a small basket of food, then went home in stages. Decidedly creaky today (especially my knees) so will stay close to home. Food delivery is coming between 4 pm and 5 pm so will prep potatoes to go in soup with the leeks that are on their way.

Just started on cleaning the bathroom in 5 minute steps and have brought 3 small baskets to the bed (I had to go over to a drawer to get out a new foil of tablets and the baskets were just to one side). I started new rubbish and can bags yesterday evening (recycling ones are opaque so will use another for paper and card. Going to have my shower, do another 5 minutes of bathroom cleaning and then weed out rubbish and recycling and gather small useful bits into the baskets (more prescription and OTC meds can come out of their boxes as am getting to changeover time). Have my list of fridge and freezer foods and a receipt listing the things I bought yesterday so can do some planning and will file stray bits of filing from the assortment I took to the solicitors (at one point I asked whether I had done enough to link mum and my brother and myself to the bungalow - she said yes so I left the next pile of possible proofs in the cover). 

Clothes will be dried and put away and a new pile will be loaded. But starting where I am, using what I have and doing what I can. For entertainment I may cut out a couple of acorns and an owl (2 pieces for each as they will be sewn together and lightly stuffed) from some old felt and then proceed to doing fall coloured leaves or some toadstools. will stop when my hands ache.

The ground floor flat is a possible alternative. I've spent 5 years planning what I need to do to my house to make it fit for the next 20+ years - new lighting as I can't go up  ladders to change bulbs (even DS3 won't do the kitchen ones, he can reach all the others from the ground or a chair), easy close drawers to replace kitchen cabinets, shelves and hooks above so that I can easily see and reach everything I might need whilst cooking). After Tuesday's experience - one hour to get from my bathroom to the Town Hall square I don't know if I need a back up plan. I don't want to leave my little house or the town centre. The ground floor flats I've seen within my price range are dark pokey little boxes - a bit more than you'd get in a nursing home room but not much more. 

So this is another avenue to explore. I know how the property was arranged several years ago, not sure which bits they've used to separate the ground and first floors. It's unlovely and awkward in places with some unfinished bits but it's a  possibility. I don't want to leave my house or the town centre but this is nearer the infirmary, about the same to the town centre shops (from a different direction) and maybe a little bit further from the library and little Arseda (nearer the new venue for film club) and most of the places I would want to access are on the infirmary- sports Village bus route.

Grateful for a chance to rest, things I can do from the bed (starting with the bed), my new bath board and shower curtain (it's on the cusp of being easier/ harder than my previous method but will soon become the easier option, silly series (Father Brown made a cameo in Sister Boniface), options.

f0xh0les

I am back!! Kisses all round (mwah! and mwah!) Missed you, but was reading along with you all.

- well, the silver that I was going to sell turned out not to be silver after all when the man zapped it with his magic metal ray gun. All S/plate. Worth bobbins, but it gave her a feeling of security while she was alive as it was her back up plan ( I can always sell my silver if I run out of money).  Oh well, I am no worse off than I was before.  For anything else, there's E-b0y.

Worked long hours, had a laugh with lovely people, ate and drank out every day, but it is all on expenses so will cost me £0.  Bonus!

Was in a hotel near Black Sabbath Bridge!! Lovely canal and lots of places I would love to have had the time to explore.  Saw the Commonwealth Bull, did a spot of sightseeing - lusted after the tile floor in the Museum and Art Gallery - wondered why they did not clean the beautiful glass roof of the Edwardian Tearooms in there. The Afternoon Tea multi-storey-display-plate-stands looked lovely on the tables, if you are ever in the neighbourhood of 'the floozy in the jacuzzi' and at a loose end.

The city centre has had a major tart-up (whispers quietly) it looks very European.  Walked loads, and generally just had fun whilst being on the payroll.

Now I am home and normal service should resume.  Watch this space........

hazeldreams

Afternoon all,

Bit late posting today, but here goes...

Yesterdays update;

Gratitude - Grateful for the weekend! It was the longest 4 day week ever! Grateful we're still under grocery budget for the month after shopping day on Friday. Grateful for making it to the gym for the first time in a week!

NSDs/ Pausing before purchasing shopping day so still on 7/10 NSDs

Yoga/Meditation No yoga or meditation yesterday. I've let this slip this week and I've really felt it.

Eating and drinking Ate my own body weight in chocolate and really paid for it with stomach pain. I did manage 2L water though and today has gone well on food and water front so far.


Hazel x