December 2022: The Turtles do the Cha Cha Cha

abundant1972

Good evening 🌓

Oh Apple just wait until you quit your game. I'm on day 2 of no gaming/social media and I've felt so lost! I dragged myself out for a walk and read a few chapters of my book... but the thought of reinstalling it crossed my mind more than once!!! Felt very restless and at a loose end. Apparently it gets better by the 3rd week 😳😬😰

Today = NSD number 17

Today I am grateful for:
1) New learning
2) My local park and some greenery and fresh air
3) My sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch and emotions. 

Happy NYE Eve lol  x

Thrifty_Taylor

Good luck with the game detox @apple_muncher & @abundant1972.

After I posted yesterday, I then had to make a third trip into town, this time to collect DS1 after his staff night out.  He was quite upset, has been trying to be strong to support a friend, but it's breaking him in half.  Trying to do all we can to support him here.  So I only ended up having 5 hours sleep.  Did my yoga, then after breakfast, I went for a walk with DH.  Went into the local pharmacy and managed to get something on the minor ailments scheme, but spent £1 in there on another medical item needed.  I know you say it doesn't count, so that should make me on NSD#15.

After dinner, I took a bag of things I'd made back out to the shed, ready for the next craft fayre, & brought in a roll of wallpaper.  Scrubbed & lined 3 shelves in the kitchen, threw out some very OOD items, that we'll never use.  Then lack of sleep caught up with me, so I had a nap for half an hour.  Did the ironing, after tea I washed up, then printed off the sheets ready to make up my budget folder for 2023

Grateful for a warmer, less windy day, tidy shelves (I keep looking at them whenever I pass), the excitement of getting organised with things

f0xh0les

NSD 12  in the bag and £7 left in my purse which will be used for £1 all day car  parking on Monday and Tuesday. 
Hooray!! The budget held!
Going to blitz-clean the house tomorrow and sort laundry.
Change beds - New Year demands clean sheets!
Might de-Christmasify the house, but leave some fairy lights up. 
I either need a 2023 diary, or an academic diary for August 2023/24.  I have seen one I like in Sainsbury's of all places. Will investigate further. Can't be rushing in to these things. The right diary is priceless 😂

pollyanna_26

greent said:

That sounds lovely, polly x

More recently the fire station have been helping out our local council with meals, company and entertainment for any who would spend Christmas alone. A lot of people have been glad of it and have many a sing song or a good chat.

Some of my best friends are retired firemen and each has a heart of gold. Perhaps it's being able to retire earlier because of the nature of the job.
One used his pensions etc to buy and renovate lovely edwardian and victorian houses in a village nearby. My dd2 originally rented one of those lovely modernised houses as it was 5 minutes from her workplace later buying it.

He and I have discussed me selling him this too big now house or renting if I prefer.

He has done  a lovely job on a couple of bungalows now which would be ideal now the arthritis , fibro etc are becoming a real pain. Much as I love my little blue Henry with his smiley face I'm constantly wondering Henry or GTech when it comes to hoovering the stairs so I'm weighing up my options. I love my gardens and there are lots of memory plants I could take with me. A blue and a white Rosemary the blue for Freddie Mercury the other for best beloved rescue silver tabby who adored Queen and would watch every one of Freddies moves very closely.

I remember one of the tv channels suddenly showing the latest song from Queen which came as quite a surprise when we knew Freddie was hidden from view very ill.

As soon as the camera focused in on him youngest and I knew he had lost his battle and it was his .final goodbye. I'm not someone who cries easily but realised the tears were rolling as I watched his final whispered I still love you.

Best beloved cat was killed by a hit and run driver so the only thing we could do for him was to bury him alongside the rosemary we'd planted in memory of Freddie with his own Rosemary.

We never owned another cat although an obviously ill female cat made herself at home under a shrub. She wouldn't come near us or indoors  so all we could do was leave food and water near her shrub.

She grew worse so we somehow managed to get her in to the cat carrier while she snarled and screeched. Driving witha vry angry cat in the car isn't something I'd like to do again. The vet diagnosed terminal kidney disease which I'd suspected as she always seemed thirsty and I often saw her drinking from puddles after rain.

Vet said kindest thing was to pts. Youngest got upset and pleaded for her to be allowedt to fade away under her favourite shrub vet gave her some painkillers and helped get her back in the carrier.She howled all the way home and next morning we found her stretched out in the sun in front of her shrub free from pain.

Youngest rescued two tiny kittens a few years ago about to be abandoned by a vile man posting on face book to ask if anyone wanted them as he was off to some hot country to find himself a wife. God help her was our first thought as he was perfectly at ease leaving  tiny brother and sister Kittens to fend for themselves.

When youngest contacted him he assured her they were used to fending for themselves as they were shut outdoors when he was abroad and the brother would hunt food. Youngest had a word with her boyfriend. The neglectful owner lived a long way away so she said if he would bring the to the NW the cats would have a home

They were very thin and terrified looking around the kitchen for somewhere to hide and it took a year before they felt ok engaging with any of us.

Nowadays they rule the house  and the much bigger brother cat who we did witness foraging for his sister  early on. We live on the coast and often dds boyfriend would be trying to catch a seagull dragged through the cat flap by Stimpy we could never work out have that could be done but it was ad b f working in our local hospital had his eye on the clock so he wouldn't be late.

Stimps has trained his elderly ladies in the next door care home to supply large amounts of Cheese Dreamies for his daily visits.

They're banned by dd but they keep adding them to their online orders.They're like naughty school girls now they're used to online ordering and the staff have to keep a close eye on some of the things they order.

Foe anyone in the NW Stav the weatherman has been doing a pretty bleak wet and windy forecast and the wind is now howling. It's keeping me awake and reminds me of the three storms one after another that raged here, Arwen killed my gas boiler and there was a fair amount of flooding as we aren't far below sea level.

United Utilties are working a couple of miles down the road in a village with a bad history of floodng. It's actually down to bad roadworks.  I used to walk my older children there in the mid 70s to the little library then later the younger two and school pupils and still the roads were flooded .Some time later the little library was gone but then followed by the big closing of nearly all the local libraries.

Now we have been warned by internet providers and phone companies to expect outages.

 Life seemed better in the winter of discontent though it didn't seem so at the time.

PersonallyI  would like to see Prof Chris Whitty back at his lectern on a regular basis, just him noone else. He delivered solid scientific information and advice as someone who'd been involved during ebola and other serious pandemics.

He was my voice of reason. no waffling, misinformation  but instead  proper info backed by years of experience.

Parents must be needing some solid information about the scary amount of children with the horrible latest virus but it doesn't seem forthcoming and as a retired teacher I can understand how parents and staff must feel.

The standard childhood illnesses were what were usual however dd 2 developed hearing problems at 5 years old after a bad case of measles although she'd had her jabs and was already in hospital having had her tonsils removed due to frequent infection.

As a child in the 50s there was an outbreak of polio and another serious disease and all school children were to queue outside the school clinic with a parent or guardian.I'd never had a jab in my life and being grabbed by the hated senior school nurse and two needles in my arm in quick succession actually left me with needle phobia.

She was like Miss Trunchbull in Matilda and although my children had their jabs  or polio vaccine on a sugar lump in childhood it wasn't until the pandemic I braved a needle though ensuring ECV youngest had hers. She's so used to needles they don't bother her.

A few years ago a large NHS building on the outskirts of town was torn down and replaced with a number of floors , big windows to let in lots of air and became a health and wellbeing centre. Youngest used to have physio there and see her pain doctor and counsellor.

As soon as the news broke about Covid most GPs in this area adapted part of the building as a  vaccination hub with medical staff present.

I was dubious but was so busy chatting with the volunteers drs and nurses I didn't notice the jab although I had agreed I was needle phobic. Afterwards I walked down to the high street to buy a cold drink in Boots and sat on a bench in the sun talking to dd on my phone and feeling very pleaded with myself. I'd almost chickened out but she'd had hers and I wasn't prepared to put her at risk after Superdoc had ordered her  to stay indoors apart from important appts.

I'm having trouble remembering what day it is , just had to check milkmans list of delivery days for Christmas and New Year. I buy my imilk in glass bottles and it keeps far better than in the dreaded plastic. He'll deliver today then back to normal from Monday. It seems much quieter outside now hopefully the wind has died down.

Just noticed an error. re we aren't far below sea level. We're actually built on reclaimed from the sea land so seashell heaven when the chidren were small and could dig in the garden for shells with their buckets and spades . We are just about 3m above sea level and as our sea defences are pretty poor unlike those on the seafront have had flooding in storms.Alerted by police and fire service we were lucky flood water rose to slightly below the very high thresholds of front and back doors I;d always wondered about and then i realised why.

Just up the road bungalows built sloping down to the shore were wrecked  and it was a long time before those who wanted to return were able to move back.

Moving to the village bungalows is beginning to seem more tempting. I've studied lots of the local history over the years and no mention of historical flooding. DD2 doesn't have any sea shells in her gardens and they're the clue that once up on a time the tide used to come in.

Over the main road from here leads to our local primary. A house on the corner is calledTides Reach so I asked an elderly man who'd lived here all his life about that. The tide did use to come up to there and the main road beyond leading to Preston.

Improved sea defences prevented that but we were a sort of 70s experiment of reclaimed land that was actually mainly sea bed pity was noone told us that before we signed for the mortgage and it was the mystery of seashells when converting what had resembled a building site as they moved concrete mixers and other equipment from plot to plot to establishing functional front and rear gardens that prompted investigation . Once established the gardens were fine although we came close in the three winter storms we haven't had flooding since .the really bad storm.

pollyx

DrCarrie

What a wonderful initiative and outcome Polly, hope you are feeling a bit perkier mothernerd.

I had a NSD yesterday, bringing me to 15/15. I was tired after my adventure on Thursday! I had a very restful day but also a call about some self-employed work to earn a bit more and save a bit more. It's good pay for psychologists, am thinking of digging in really hard for the first 4 months of 2023. 

I am grateful for, rest, binge-watching Happy Valley before the new series, post-Christmas Lush goodies in the bath.

apple_muncher

Morning turtles! Wow, it's the last day of the month already, so have a look back over those 31 days and see how your cha cha cha went. I'll be back later with my own summary.

KxMx

@pollyanna_26 I am 35 and moved from a 3 bed house to a ground floor flat 6 months ago... Honestly it is amazing, the amount of energy needed now to get from bed to couch is just a few steps, not two long hallways and a load of stairs! I find I have a little more energy on the good days and the bad days are SO much easier to cope with all on one level and no stairs, I also have a wet room so no bath to contend with either- much to my surprise I do not miss the bath at all.

My Mum is downsizing from said house next month to a sheltered flat, I told her she has no idea how much her life will change and improve being in a flat- I certainly had no idea!

DrCarrie

Thanks so much for the challenge apple. 🐢

IN REVIEW: 
 I have mainly been charting my spending... and my saving. NOT using credit cards and really learning that I don't set realistic budgets and watching my spending urges

- Overspent significantly on the Christmas gift front and food and treats a bit too, but that was not as bad. I was a bit horrified by how my little pots for this and that (e.g. clothes and haircuts) were ravaged by the Christmas gift buying. Learning points: up the budget and plan more, utilizing black Friday where possible. I have also made a budget for each 'family.' I already have money set aside for sprout day '23. However, I do need to give myself a pat on the back; Christmas 2019 was all on credit nad now all the Credit has gone. Its a lot to learn for essentially one day, but I think its bedded in and its a huge change in attitude and habits in 3 years 😇

- I have been scraping and charting all the little windfalls and extras that are available for me to appreciate and save. 

• I had a windfall from the power company of £67 (I am still dialing down the usage - but keeping this for a potential hike in my bills).
• I saved £296 from my commute budget and that is now in my house deposit pot.
• I Tilly tidied £2.56 > house deposit 
• My roundups were to the tune of £9.49 > house deposit 
• Overall I was paid £8.12 in interest > house deposit 

My budgeted target for the house deposit per month is £1,3695.75. 

Overall I deposited £1722.87 in the house deposit pot. If I hadn't been cha cha charting, I think that £326.12 would have totally slipped through my fingers. 

So I am giving myself a virtual glitterball, as I am very pleased with my learning and my saving. 

I am really pleased with my success and fortuitous events this year.
- gave up smoking in April - £1500 saved 
- In July with going back to the office and clinic I was awarded £6,500 per annum for London Clinic allowance 
- Got a promotion in September - with a bit of a pay increase of £4, 223 per annum
- Final payment on the debt was made in November - started my debt free journey with over 21K in September 2020

I am grateful for all the challenges along the way, and words of encouragement from all of you turtles.  I am proud of my determination. 

Happy New Year all. x

pollyanna_26

Thank you Dr Carrie for the reminder of the new Happy   valley tv series, I watched the previous series over the years and made a note of this final series date. As usual fibro fog decended and it's been niggling at me that I was planning to watch something but couldn't find the little reminder I'd written .KxMx thank you for your post. The bungalows are ideal no stairs to climb or hoover. Last year carrying my laptop downstairs not really concentrating I managed to drop it all the way down to the hall which has a wooden floor.

The family techie pronounced it beyond help when I took it for them to assess. It was almost new but I had to bite the bullet and buy this one. It is better cared for than any I ever owned.

I began to use the shower rather than the bath a few years ago as it was too painful sitting for long spells. Youngest dd has the same problem and uses a shower stool for both showering and washing her hair under the shower. Easier less painful and quicker. Shower stools are really cheap and make a big difference.

I'm pretty sure Iwill be in the other village when Spring arrives. The bungalow is in beautiful condition as my friend looks after his properties . Middle dd already lives in one of his houses just minutes from the village bungalows. I'm twice yor age and was shocked to reach 70 however I'm still quite mobile and think restricting however often I leave the house to avoid picking up infection when youngest is still so vulnerable has slowed me down as I always walked a lot and the legs aren't getting their usual exercise.

The last few years have felt very strange as we always travelled  round the uk a lot from the Scottish Highlands down to Devon and lots of places in between we share the same conditions but lack of proper exercise has slowed us down.

Suppose it's a case of use it or lose it. So will start doing the physio exercises dd was given by her physio a few years ago which are very effective and she printed a copy of for me.

I did use to go to yoga and other classes which helped but seem to have hit a slump the last few years so time  to make the effort again.

pollyx

apple_muncher

That definitely calls for a virtual glitterball, DrCarrie! Well done you!