NST OCTOBER 2022: Autumn Leaves and Sloe Berries

ditty1234

Grateful for a lovely day of walking the themes in London and going to an exhibition in glorious autumn weather. Nothing like the bark on a London Plane in autumn. And all was pre-booked and planned so all I spent today was £3 on Parking. 

beanielou

@BadBookkeeper.  Years ago I used to clean/tidy one room a day to aviod the weekend being over taken by chores!

ldee2111

Sunday I didn’t manage a NSD. Stayed on NSD 5

OH, DS, Dad and I went for a woodland walk late morning then we invited Dad back to house for food. Popped into the shop to buy rolls, bacon, and cakes.

Dropped Dad and OH off at local pub and DS and I went to visit Mum who’s going on a weeklong bus trip with her friend. 

Before picking up Dad and OH, I drove past our nearby garage which was selling fuel at 1.65… headed to the next garage where it was 1.55.

Picked up Dad and OH from pub, took merry Dad home to his gf. And then headed to our own to start making dinner.

Roasted a chicken, potatoes, carrots, and made Yorkshire puds. OH and I enjoyed it but DS nibbled a couple of bits but mostly left it. Stripped the carcass of meat for tonight’s stir fry. 

And that was that!

Gratitude - For doing something different with Dad (OH says he was telling all the pub regulars that he went for a woodland walk - I think he liked it), for Mum giving us some perishables before she headed off on a week’s bus tour with her friend, and for having tipsy deep chat with OH at dinner. 

hazeldreams

Morning all,

Outside Managed a 20 min walk with the pooch

Inside Rerranged the freezers, made an inventory. We have so much food in the house, we really won't need to do anything other than a top up shop next week.

Fun Not really. Need to sort this out. This could be why I go awry a lot...boredom!

Food/Drink AF again. Have managed 10/31 days this month so far. Water has slipped and choc has crept back in.

Read nope

Plan 4 Dec Sorted out OH access to N'wide new a/c, transferred £1000 to start earning the 5%. Nothing through for my a/c yet - will chase today.

Gratitudes Feeling marginally better in time for work; chats and cuddles this morning with DD2.

Yoga/Meditation Managed 10 min of gentle yoga this am, plus 5 min meditation. Aiming to build it all back up again this week.

Spending NSD 3/10. Decided to exclude grocery shopping day plus any top ups over the weekend. No top ups allowed in the week!

Hazel x

grandmanerd

I had a restful and fun day watching Denzel movies and finding a delightful Stephen Poliakoff drama about a 1930s Jazz Band but didn't get much actual progress on things that need to be done (which are now piling up at an alarming rate after last week's 'doing okay-ish despite being ill). Some of my symptoms were going away (still felt rather fragile) only to give space for others to step in.

I did manage a trip as far as little Arseda (ran out of drinks as my original Saturday evening delivery slot had gone when I went back to do my order) and got a few useful additions - a selection of ys sandwiches with soft fillings and 3 chilled ready meals for £7 picked by the traffic light system, plus a small toast loaf. My delivery included drinks (hopefully enough until the end of the month), a seeded loaf (tuna butties) and fresh fruit plus the celery and other veg I couldn't get on Friday (and ice lollies for my sore throat).

Started a list of what needs doing and need to work out how to tackle things

FOOD I was doing quite well using up cans with additional fresh fruit and veg to crunch. A lot of the time I don't feel hungry but then get to being ravenous and make poor choices. I keep telling myself I'm a grown up and should be able to feed myself but it's only making me feel guilty and a failure (the cotton wool head, stuffed/ runny nose and the simmering headache didn't help with the logical thinking). I really enjoyed the cauliflower pickled with turmeric and the prawns in paprika from the m'n's deli section, so may ask for them as a present or buy myself as a festive treat.

CLOTHES Most of my clothing is still draped across the yard. I think the rain has washed out most of the soap powder (did a sniff test yesterday - I know if I can smell the detergent, it will very likely set off my dermatitis and I have enough itches and sore patches). I need to track down the details for the washer repair man (one of only 3 business cards I kept out of mum's collection of several dozen - kept in a stuffed purse and in the pages of an address book, so they all fell on the floor at regular intervals). I have one clean nightie and have just seen I still have one clean sundress hanging up at the bottom of the stairs so can scrape by for a few more days. I may need to buy another twin pack of leggings - I forgot how long the warmer thicker joggers take to dry when the weather won't co-operate. My gate hadn't arrived so Mrs Builder asked if the back wall/ gate (and new washing poles) rebuild could be put back until November when they return from holidays.

FINANCES Very pleased that I have more in the bank than I thought but need to get the receipts tied down. I will feel happier if I know exactly where I am (even if the whole UC/ PIP/ future income is still up in the air). However I'm not looking forward to the 'gets worse before it gets better' bit or dragging out the receipts and getting them onto sheets of paper (sellotaped if I can't find the min stapler). All the earlier ones are in a stuffed plastic wallet - I don't think I could face the stapling/ sticking then either (but most do have notations ie 1/ 22 through to 50 something / 22 receipt number 1 of 2022 etc although the phone credits are only on my bank statement - £70 in January when £10 normally does 3 or 4 months).

OTHER Need to book men for roof repairs, tackle the records, all the general mess everywhere, start packing away stuff to make space for the new kitchen and make a start on packing up DS3 and Beloved (even though it will be next year now before I can move them on).

Anyway I think I'm stable enough to have a shower now, I'm stocked up with caffeinated drinks (only before noon), strawberries and easy peelers, ys sandwiches and yoghurt and then there's always toast, will use ear drops and cotton wool and find the lavender roll on to help with the headache and then set to.

Being grateful (or at least positive) the luxury of being ill is blissful (in the days of many jobs I've worked with  a sprained bandaged arm, many strapped up ankles and even flu - a very small DS3 telling me to get up, I was not ill, I was never ill when I was trying to get some rest in between jobs). I didn't get sick pay or even pay for BH (no holidays for the first year, we only got BH because the 'workers' hadn't been in, so no mess to clean up). I've also worked beyond the limits of exhaustion - 70 hours, 40 in a new job, 30 working out my notice on existing jobs and an hour commute each way. 

Grateful for getting outside yesterday, even if it was only a walk to little Arseda (did vaguely consider the outside jobs on my way back in to the yard but listened to my body), seeing trees and fields on my journeys to and from the hospital and noticing the gorgeous autumn colour. the car park and Town Hall square have boring trees, no particular shape to the leaves and they just go from dull green to dull yellow. Saw a tree on Friday that still had a green centre ball with branches turning from glorious golden yellow through several shades of orange and almost red at the tips.

Still have my sense of humour. this made me laugh and I wrote it down
Chancellor Rota for the next Seven days
Fri   Jeremy Hunt
Sat   Sajid Javid
Sun  Sam Allardyce
Mon  Mr Tumble
Tue   Skeletor
Wed  Inspector Gadget
Thurs The evil guy at the end of Inspector gadget with the cat

Toni'sfriend

Got all the essential things done yesterday. Got cheap peppers and tomatoes in Aldi so made pepper soup for lunch today. Enough Thai curry left for dinner tonight.

Ordered some more gifts for Sproutmas. I've been putting money into a small savings account regularly since Boxing Day last year so figure I might as well get on with it now and enjoy December without the chaos.

Today's priority is to give the kitchen a real deep clean and move as much as possible before the electrician comes on Wednesday. Also to get Himself to make an appointment with the doctor. He did try to make one last week but it was going to be in three weeks time. The receptionist suggested if he phoned at eight in the morning they might be able to give him one earlier but as, I suspect, they are saying the same thing to everyone I think the chances of that are very slim (even if you can get through to them al all at that time). He's agreed with me and decided to just to take a later one and wait.

Well, that's going to be my not very exciting day. Just going to finish my coffee and get started.

Have a good day.

lcc86

Afternoon turtles

Today has been my first non-working day of my new flexible work pattern and I must say it's been lovely! I did as many of my chores as possible over the weekend so that I only had a few little things left to do today.

Cycled to my friend's house this morning and took her dog out, cycled back so got my exercise ticked off. Did a few jobs in between reading a library book - it's good but the material is very, very dark (crime thriller) so not sure if I'll carry on. I have other books I can read in the meantime and about 5 magazines to get through (all freebies). Have also collected a prescription so a small spend there.

Paid £400 off my credit card to clear it, was lucky that I got paid extra from my old part-time job last month, decided to be sensible and just clear the lot to reduce the monthly outgoings. 

Finished all my chores, might give the place a quick once over with the hoover but that's it. Going to treat myself to a bubble bath and face mask and really make a day of it before the chaos of work begins again tomorrow!

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for a quiet day, for dc loving their art trip, for finding some gifts for people, for getting dc a bargainaceous present, for dried mango.

BadBookkeeper

Evening turtles, another Monday survived! 

Outside - Saved our outside table cover from being blown away!  Also picked up everyone elses recycling from the street as it was collection day but a lot was left behind!  

Walked to a nearby post box to post traded footy cards. 

Inside - Sorted a pile of papers into bin/shredding/filing.  Only because I was looking for something but still small steps….

Fun - Binge watched a program about our local football club and their American owners. 

Food / alcohol - Cereal, hm soup & chicken casserole today.  No alcohol. 

Read - Just did some reading with ds.  He’s finished the most boring book I think he’s ever read and he/we are excited for starting a fresh one by David Walliams. 

Plan for December - Starting to think there may be family issues around the main day.  I’m keeping out of it & letting everyone else sort it out!

NSD - Yes another one 9/15

MSE - Tried to sort my pension and chased up a refund. Checked my budget against what’s left to come out.  Still too much month left at the end of the money!! 

Gratitude - DS doing homework without too much hassle, tasty simple food and wfh (got really cross about something today & if I was in the office it wouldn’t have been good)!

ditty1234

Hi tonight I am grateful for what I achieved after work: taking ds1 to hydrotherapy, eating a half(arsed dinner) running(up and down a hill), shopping and cooking a nice lunch for tomorrow. Now off to the shower and bed.