Mortgage Free now aiming for FIRE

TallGirl

Not much excitement here nearly got all the windows done yesterday but the scraper was crap really not worth the money. Hopefully I can find a new one in Germany. DG keeps finding stuff she wants to buy as we need it and I just want to hang on until Germany so we can get bulk and cheap. She did state at some point yesterday I do not want to spend my birthday shopping. Well you will but not all day. I think she is going to love the heated outdoor swimming pool I cant wait.

I bought her a drinks cooler but forgot to put it away so she spotted that in the back of the car. Actually I think it gives me an idea for a way to give it to her tonight as I could put the note with the hotel stay inside it and give it to her tonight. I think that will be better as she might stay up until the early hours which is not ideal as I would like to get off in a reasonable time tomorrow.

It is hard to get the present wrapped as she is not going for her lesson so if I try to take the hamper out of the office.

Today I need to clean the last few windows and I promised I would clean the bar as it is utterly filthy. DG is not one for cleaning only tidy so it very much needs it.

Also I applied for an online bank account with a new bank and said I was going to use it to transfer money in from abroad. Well it took 10 working days for them to ask more about the transactions and I am still waiting. DG applied and chose the paid for version and did not mention about transferring in from abroad and she got her within 1/2 day. It is good as she really needed a Danish account.

My niece came over yesterday and we got the AI stuff done and sent off I do hope it is ok. I would love to get more work too I recon it would be about 45 min work for $50 now that it is all set up. We shall see. She can cat sit for us in August so we will now book a weeks trip to see friends plus it is also the week we have been invited to a 60th at some joint friends so that will be amazing. We can then take the car in Autumn if we go for the new electric one.

So a new to do list:

Book flights for August

Book parking for Aug plus May for DG

Clean pool bar

Wash windows

Wrap up presents

Washing

TallGirl

Had a great time at the weekend. The pairs competition on Friday was really fun we did play ok but not enough to win. The meal afterwards was really nice too spare ribs, coleslaw and potato wedges. Meat fell of the bone no fat and home made bbq sauce what is not to like.

Got home, settled in the pool bar and after a few hours DG asked if she was going to have the present she had seen in the boot of the car earlier in the day. I had accidentally left it but it worked to my favour as I put the card with the German trip in the cool bag. She opened it and was surprised but also very happy we were going. We left quite later Saturday so had lunch on the way (breakfast for DG). Got to the hotel at check in time and then realised that Lidl is not open on Sundays in Germany. Had to rush to visit one which was a disappointment so was the next one. We had booked dinner for 7pm so there was only time for a quick swim for me DG could not be asked as it was so rushed. The pool was cool as you could swim indoors to outdoors. We had a nice meal in the restaurant and I had breakfast the next day. After checkout we got into the spa and used the pool, hottub and saunas. We then realised they had a big sauna hut on the otherside of the pool which you could only use naked lol.

We then hit the Danish border shops and £700 later we were done. That was a lot of stuff, mainly alcohol (fully stocked pool bar now), cans of soft drink and beers, wine at €3 a bottle (really nice German Riesling), lots of sweets, dishwasher tablets, wash tablets, toothpaste etc etc. We did have to stop for lunch/dinner on the way back and got in about 8pm. Felt like we had been on a proper holiday will definitely do again.

Got so much to do this week my to do list has got bigger and the weeds are coming up so fast in the paving it is hard to keep up. You cannot buy round up here so it is hard to keep on top of manually. I might have to buy a burner to use instead. Anyway best crack on with the marketing for the week.

To do list:

Book flights for August

Book parking for Aug plus May for DG

Clean pool bar DONE

Wash windows DONE

Weed paving

Strim the front lawn

Mow spent dandelions.

TallGirl

Just coming on here for a bit of rant as things really have gone a bit astray today.

We finally got around to signing the printer up for instant ink. We had it in the UK and the printer we came over with was fine for a while and then it died do needed a new one. I spent over £220 on one last September because it came with free HP ink subscription. Well turns out it is not compatible after a phone call to HP support. You have 2 weeks to send something back but because it came with ink I have not tried it until now. It might be my fault but I am sure the webpage said it had it but maybe not and I cannot prove it. I have given it one last shot with customer service but not holing out much hope to be honest. It £133 for a full set of inks but only £7 a month on the subscription so very annoying. It is almost worth spending another £200 on a new one just to save long term on the ink. Definite spent far too much on printers over the years but we do really need a working one.

Also the company that you can get work from is now stopping this so we really really need to get the marketing off the ground on the other business side. I am posting every Monday but it is just not doing anything anymore. I need to belong to more groups or be able to get our name out there. I think I might need to try via DGs Linked in but then it is a risk of her employers getting a bit in trouble (long story).

I really do not want to touch anything else today everything just seems to be going a bit astray really. Maybe start again tomorrow.

TallGirl

Still no luck with the printer sent one last email but no reply I think that it is and we will have to get another one which is most annoying actually.

Also got my app for the operation and the pre op and its when we are on holiday and also when I need to take my dad to his hearing test so cancelled that all and they will send me a new app.

Got some more interactions on our Facebook posts so that is good but still no clients. I will need to do more of that marketing course for sure. DG is really busy and I am helping her where I can. Booked her car parking for the next short trip so that is all sorted £30 for 3 days which is cheaper than me driving her and she has to be there for 5am the joys.

Ordered a cool box finally, it is electric can run on a power bank, electric and car charger so it covers all bases. £120 for 29litre which should be a good size for us. We are going on an overnight golfing trip next month so if we have that we can buy meat and even frozen things in Germany this time. We can also bring drinks with us for the room at the hotel. Really missed having one on the last trip so this will be great always have a fridge in the room. The power bank was £15 and it should last 8 hours so that sounds good to me. We can go completely off grid lol.

The ladies trip will cost us £200 each with one night, dinner, breakfast and two rounds of golf plus a ferry one way but we might do the return it is another £20 so not bad.

Our ditch is being covered tomorrow so look forward to see the plot after that. It should be huge actually. Right now the 3 apple trees are in blossom plus the 2 crap apples it is stunning. I am so glad i got this trimmed down. The crap apples also covers the view of the neighbours completely which is ideal.

Tonight is golf and Thursday is cinema but no plans for the weekend which is bliss actually. Lots to do in the garden not sure I will have time today but I would love to finish my stone shovelling it is so boring.

TallGirl

Morning weather has turned here it was so so cold playing golf last night but it was nice and the ladies were lovely. DG actually played really well so that was good too. We are now booked to do Friday and Sunday just us to practise. We have cinema Friday night so that is nice and cheap (volunteering that is).

Booked flights for the UK happens to be on the day of my dads 90th birthday. He has dementia and is not really with it. He cannot travel so we would all have to go to his and he does have that horrible girlfriend who is now back much to my sisters annoyance. I have asked my sister we will see what she says but to go any later would cut the break short as we need to be back for an open air cinema my sister gave us as a present.

They actually started work on the ditch yesterday the pipe is laid and the stones are in. It looks like they are back with the neighbours today but I assume they will carry one. Once they are done it is will a flat area that we will then need to sow grass seed on and also get started on the net. It looks like we can place it directly on top of the new drain so that will help with digging down. I think we will need to lay tiles or maybe those grids filled with stones might be enough. More stone shovelling the joys. I feel we need more machinery it would make life easier. Next door is building a barn (the one with the vines) he defo has lots of kit but I am not sure how friendly they will be now after the dog incident. Not that we did anything wrong but I do know my cats do go over on their land and there is no fence or anything between us yet.

I have some work to do for DG today plus a call with a woman I speak to from back in the day of a work course. I did hear from an ex workmate yesterday she is leaving too so gave me her personal email address. That was really nice but I do wonder what is going on.

As for the trip to the UK we have 7 nights and the first night is sorted staying in London. We can't rent the mobile home we stayed in last time but our friend might let us use her flat. That would be great but I do not want to chuck her out of her own home and she has not said she is going away. If that works out it will be free so that is quite cool plus we have the car over there so just the trains from Gatwick and down.

Got my call now so best get off.

Book flights for August

Book parking for Aug plus May for DG Done May

Weed paving DONE but never ending

Strim the front lawn DONE

Mow spent dandelions

TallGirl

Morning it is a 4 day Bank Holiday weekend here but we are working which is quite sad but hey ho. I got accepted by the online bank which is great we can now apply for a joint account and get all our bills etc set up properly. It has been a bit all over the place. Got the bill for the bin shed it is super expensive and I knew that I wish I had gone and bought one and got them to fit it but it is what it is.

I am going to be quite busy today as I have some work to finish from DG and we also had an enquiry from my Monday marketing post which is great news. I also had to send a couple of other emails out and prep for Mondays posts.

The ditch was filled yesterday so that is another bill to pay but hopefully one of the last really big ones before the car purchase.

I have so many gardening jobs to do but I decided to treat myself to a nice one and planted up 3 huge pots that the previous owners left here. They are brown but lovely size so I do not mind. I bought some plants last week so they really needed to get in the bigger pots. I do have some tomato's that needs to go in the grown bags but it is still really cold so I will repot them and keep them in the cold frame for now. Hopefully get that done today.

Right I best get on with them.

Book parking for Aug

Weed paving DONE but never ending

Mow spent dandelions

TallGirl

It is only 11.30 and what a stressful morning. The client that contacted us told us there was mentioned of another company on our website so we have now corrected this and got a pricing page much clearer. What a mess still room for improvement but it is better though.

I still need to do something for our Facebook page we now actually have quite a few followers so that is a great.

I hate updating our website but the more I do the better I get. I cannot believe we had all that crap on it well scary. Hopefully this latest lead will convert!

TallGirl

thought I would share some pictures

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Crap Apple in blossom works as the perfect privacy screen from the neighbours property. The door is the new one in the pool bar.

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Apple trees on the new plot with the ditch filled in.

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Not bad for free pots

savingholmes

Love the blossom.

Glad your pre-op went well. Hope you manage to shift the op to a suitable date.

Glad your DG liked her gift.

Good luck with the buisness.

TallGirl

Thanks Savingholmes, things are looking up on the business front we sent a polite email yesterday to our only other customer and he has come back asking for pricing. The other one DG made a mistake on VAT but hopefully she will come back as we have offered her a really good price.

I got a bit more stone shovelling done it is almost at the bottom and it does look better. We did get the website sorted but there is still come more work to do as it is not that clear our prices but that is for another way.

Today I want to get the lawn mown and then we are off to play golf at 2pm. We are volunteering at the cinema tonight but neither of us wants to watch the film as it is a horror. We hope no one turns up which might be the case as it is a bank holiday so people might be busy with confirmations and other things. Fingers crossed.

We had our tickets through for the holiday really cannot wait it is two weeks today. Will be nice with some sunshine.