Ding! Ding! All change, please... (now replaced with new diary on MFW)

RelievedSheff

The log in details for our PB account are at home so not been able to check ours yet. Not going to hold my breathe though 🤣🤣🤣

badmemory

Did you know that you don't have to log in to check if you have won.  You just need your holders number.  That doesn't give anyone access to your account just lets you see if you have won that month & how much.

Jellytotts

There's an app too!

EssexHebridean

I use the app JT - well I do now they've sorted out the log-in glitch that kept making it go loopy and refuse to let me in, anyway! Actually badmemory I did use the prize checked with the holder's number the other day to confirm I'd not got a bigger win ahead of withdrawing! usually the app is more straightforward though I find. Rosa I'm definitely taking it as a parting gift! 

Thanks to everyone else for popping in too - SH I think you're right about everyone having the moving anxiety - let's face it, that's why they say it's one of the most stressful things you can do isn't it! We've not done it for 20 years and of course we're "first time sellers" too. when we bought the chain was literally us and our sellers so being in a chain is a new thing with it's own stresses...we'll get there.

House Move Stuff:
There is news!
Selling agent is still being a pain and trying to stir up panic - she is now being told both from us and our solicitor (MrBoss) that she needs to stop - she emailed yesterday in a flap and saying if she didn't get a response by close of business she would be advising the sellers to remarket - this in spite of her knowing we've had the survey done, and having heard from all parties not long since too. Sigh. 
MrBoss has our mortgage offer! Apparently it's coming to us in the post, but I have a copy of it and all is in order so it's just a case of waiting for Royal Mail to get their act together. 
Removals quote was bang on the area I was expecting, and MrEH was very impressed with the chap who visited too, so all good there and we'll be going with them. they're a local, long standing family firm with a great reputation so extremely happy that we can use them.
I got three boxes packed, taped and marked the other night - two of books and one of maps. We also now have a master list of where in the new house the contents of each room in the flat will be going although we do keep finding things we've forgotten to add to that! Our movers will apparently be supplying 80 boxes of varying sizes which we hope should be plenty so I'm holding off scouting for any more at the moment. I will pack any others we already have of decent sizes though, and the smaller ones will be used to pack small items inside larger boxes. 

MSE Stuff:
Banks checked and all good.
Negotiated with the owner of the holiday cottage for next year (we're going back to the same one we've been in for a few years prior to this, and we know the lady who owns it reasonably well) that I can have a bit of breathing space to pay the deposit. the price has increased rather sharply - which we were sort of expecting - but after a chat about it at our end we've decided that the budget will adjust if needed and we'll stretch to it. Prices across the board are up - it's just the way things are sadly. Being somewhere different this year also really underlined how much we love the little cottage on the headland too, so while we can stretch to it, we will. 
A bit more CC money shuffling done - food spending (ouch) from the weekend transferred over - I just need to work out where the celebratory Indian takeaway is coming from now, although I may just pay that myself as it was for Mr EH's birthday!
We've decided to make use of time at home tomorrow morning rather than making a day of it on the way down to Dorset - this means we'll eat lunch at home which will be cheaper.

General:
Food has been right on plan all this week - and I remembered to get the fish out of the freezer last night for the thai inspired fish stew for tonight. (More of the wretched curry paste will be used...the jar is still going strong though!) That will be relatively quick to cook. 
We'll be shopping on the way home on Monday so I will need a meal plan and a shopping list ahead of that.
Voluntary role stuff is ticking along - our final orders should be run later today, although we are still chasing two of our suppliers for their pricing! The hope is we can get away with just email firefighting over the weekend while we're away, then pretty much the same through next week and next weekend when I'm away, then crack back into really getting sorted with the reports we need etc the week after. 

A Good Thing:
The mortgage offer, of course!

A Bad Thing:
People who cause panic to try to make themselves look like they are doing something - without truly appreciating the damage that can do... 

A Food For Thought Thing:
I was properly thinking through the HRT thing - the boob soreness appears that it is going to settle down into something that ties in with my cycle - which fingers crossed makes it manageable. I think I may also need to tweak how I use the medication that helps me cope with the effects of the fibroids too - so from my next TOTM I'll make some changes there and see if that helps things - the reading I have done about the tablets in question suggest that it might, and I will still be taking them within the way they have been prescribed, so no issues there. In fact there has been far more improvements than negatives - I'd not realised quite how problematic the brain fog stuff was, OR that is had been making me quite anxious (when you know dementia runs in the family, not being able to find the right words for common objects on a regular basis makes you twitchy!) so that suddenly not being an issue any more is wonderful. The niggly headaches have gone. My joints generally do feel better - aside from the wretched back/hip, but that I think is a separate issue. Something that literaly just occurred to me this morning is that the voluntary role stuff has been by far the hardest we've had it this year - and yet I've almost had none of the huge feelings of overwhelm and it all being impossible that I'd had in previous years - I'm sure some of that is us getting more familiar with it, but I wonder if also my general mood and stress levels are better, which enables me to cope with it more easily? All interesting stuff, and I suspect there will be more things I'll notice as time moves on too. 

themadvix

How ridiculous from the selling agent! Other than that though, it all sounds very positive!

foxgloves

@EH, I know we women are all different, but I just thought I'd kick in my experience.....I had a dreadful perimenopause - brain fog, anxiety, migraine, wobbly blood sugar & frankly, I was dreading the menopause itself & expecting to feel even worse! But the truth was the complete opposite. Last period 3 months before my 52nd birthday & goodbye symptoms! No hot flushes & rarely seem to get headaches these days. I think I must have got all those wretched symptoms in at the peri stage. The only annoying thing has been the myth that fibroids shrink post-menopause - a complete fallacy in my case, as recent scans (for something else) have shown. Trust me to be an outlier in the statistics!
It all seems to be progressing on the packing front. Agree that labelling boxes with the correct room is key.....& having the coffee machine, coffee, mugs & spoons travel with you & not on the van, of course.
I think removal firms are generally expensive, but it is worth it to have the big day go smoothly. At least you've budgeted for it & it came in at around your expected ball park figure.
F

EssexHebridean

Haha Foxgloves there will absolutely be a designated box for all hot-drink making paraphernalia sitting next to me in the car as I go to collect the keys for the new house! Completely agree that paying a fair price for removals is going to be worth it too - we used a local (to us then) firm when we moved to where we are now - they were the same firm my parents had used when they moved in to the house I grew up in in 1978, and used again 20 years later when they moved to where Mum is now...I was really quite disappointed that they had been bought out by a far larger operation when I looked. I'm very happy with who we have chosen though - their trucks have been part of life in the area for so long.

I know fibroids can shrink at that stage - and technically they ought to as of course it's oestrogen that makes them do their thing isn't it - but I suspect that is a very individual thing unfortunately. The main issue mine give me is TOTM related, so I'm hopeful that at least once that all stops, life should get far easier to manage! 

TMV - honestly that agent is being totally ridiculous. She has now had the professionally worded version of "wind yer neck in!" from MrBoss - and has had a firm response from MrEH too. The sooner we can get direct contact with the sellers, the better. She needs to understand that this sort of creation of uncertainty among the various parties is the very thing most likely to make a transaction fail! 

lucielle

All sounds like it’s heading in the right direction, despite solicitor trying to mess it up. Glad the chaps you’ve picked to move are up to standard. The ones we had were really good. 

L

Blackcats

Just caught up after binge reading a few pages of your diary.
house move sounds positive - apart from the seller's EA.  Hopefully their neck is wound back in and they step back while the transaction  is progressed by the experts such as your MrBoss.
absolutely agree about the value of a good removal firm.

rtandon27

When we moved in 2021, it was the first time we had not done it ourselves.  The removals team was amazing! - A local firm that actually quoted a few hundred above the others but were careful, respectful and just a joy to be around!  They were extra careful with my potted plants, which made me a very happy plant momma.  Worth every penny &  the least stressful part of the moving process!