NST October 2023 A New Start

Thrifty_Taylor

Storm Babet has truly arrived here too. Did a JW workout, then after breakfast me & DH were just about to fight our way for a walk, when he noticed the pallet on the side of the bin store was wobbling a lot in the wind. Did my 100 skips in the shelter of the trees, then held the bits in place, whilst he screwed them together. Fought our way into the wind (& uphill) for a mile, then thankfully the wind was behind us on the way back.

Dropped DS3 in the village to catch a bus to go swimming, collected DH"s prescription & the weekly newspaper. Spent the afternoon sewing.

Did a big if my rug after tea & played some games on my phone.

Grateful for a cosy fire, DS1 having a great day in Italy, listening to the storm raging whilst in the bath, DH finally sorting through his paperwork on the computer desk!

grandmanerd

Friday 20th October 2023

Calmness is a human superpower, The ability  to not overreact or take things personally keeps your mind clear and your heart at peace.

Stress, anxiety and depression are caused when we are living to  please others
(Paul Coelho)

Reading 20 pages a day is 30 books a year
Saving £10 a day is £3560 a year
Running one mile a day is 365 miles a year
Decluttering one room per week finishes your whole home in 3 months (glad I don't live there)
***************Don't underestimate the power of small habits
((Becoming minimalist)

10 Minutes To Tackle the Impossible
Write out
One thing you used to think was impossible but you went ahead and did it anyway
Three things you did to make that impossible thing happen
One thing that feels impossible now but probably isn't
One reason it feels impossible
One reason it probably isn't
(Christie Zimmer - 10 minute guided journal prompts)

Toni'sfriend

Morning, everyone.

Haven't posted for a few days as literally nothing been happening.

Not sleeping at all well. Side effect of the steroids apparently but as a result I'm powering through an enormous amount of books. There's always a silver lining.

I did have lunch with the lovely cousin yesterday. She's such a great person. So kind and thoughtful.

Weather here is dire. Not so much rain as gales. The trees have been pretty much stripped of their leaves overnight.

Getting into soup weather so off the make a big pot of lentil.

Take care. xxx

f0xh0les

I fear we may have another uninvited guest living with us......  and not one of my making. 

Have listed a load of stuff on a local gifting/recycling site this morning, so today many items should leave the house... so far I have got rid of 2 old mobile phones (to a nursery - imaginary play), a wii bundle, a Skylanders bundle, and a stack of cassette tapes, and whilst packing these things up, I noticed 3 shiny yoghurt lids in a place shiny yogurt lids should not be.- namely in the back of the cupboard under the sink where all the pipes are..... so all humane r..a..t.(shhh!) traps relocated and reloaded with tasty apples ......  and the humane mouse ones filled with bird seed - just in case it is a small mouse who has come in from the cold - it will be going straight back out to a new riverside home if if is either of them.

So motivation for cleaning and clearing is back on the front burner and that is what I am doing today. I want to be finished by Monday.

Still no sign of the scaffolding that was supposed to be here on 9th.............

abundant1972

Good afternoon ☔

Thanks for the thoughts for the day grandmanerd.
Glad you are feeling better for not being in work too Apple. I need to find a job I feel truly joyful about doing!!! There's a rude joke in there somewhere but I am not going to lower the tone!!! 🤣
Stay safe everyone who is affected by the storm. 

Winds not too bad here but has been raining. Consequently I have had a duvet day so far, but need to get out for a walk at least. Realised all my vitamins/supplements are low - so have spent some time re-ordering for the rest of the year as it works out cheaper. Need a descaling kit for my coffee machine too so I can start using it and stop being tempted by Costa! Lastly, I need a get well card for a cousin. 

Today I am grateful for:

1) Running water and electricity (not together!)
2) The sound of rain on the windows and a nice cool breeze blowing in (to my subtropical apartment lol)
3) My dressing gown (which I am still in lol)

Today has been a spend day
NSD total 8

Enjoy the Autumn weather and have a lovely day everyone! x

laura_lau

Good evening everyone! First time today I had the time to catch up with posts, and write a little post myself. Hope everyone has been keeping safe in the storm!

My week has gone in a blink. Wednesday and yesterday I had to go to the office, so 2 spend days there, and I came home fairly late last night because I had to stay for some leaving drinks. It was nice, and everyone was being very social, I had some good chats with people I have barely seen since 2020, but it cost me so much more effort than it used to, and I was absolutely drained by the time I got home. So much socializing, so loud, people speaking to me so close to my face. So not used to that anymore! Good thing is, I only drank the complimentary prosecco, and ate the accompanying food, so spent less than anticipated. 

It has also been a very busy week at work, and my manager told me that next week she will share some new exciting projects with me and she expects I will be very busy in the next few months, which is great and exciting on one side, and a bit scary on the other side, as I was secretly hoping for a bit of a quieter time till the end of the year. The few posts I read about putting work and personal life things behind separate doors resonated particularly with me today, as I'm not very good as separating the two things, so I really want to get better at it, for my mental and physical health.

To add to the general stressed feeling of the moment, I had decided to switch bank account, to take advantage of a switch reward, which would come up very handy in my current situation, and the switch happened yesterday. However, the old bank messed it up, and, after they transferred the remaining balance to the new account, they didn't close the old account. Last night after 7pm I received n automated message that my old account was in overdraft, and when I logged in I saw the old bank had allowed 2 payments scheduled for today to go through at the end of the day, even if my account was supposed to have been closed, and all payments should have been redirected to my new account. The chat 24/7 was useless, and they said I need to call the dedicated switch team, which is only available during normal office hours.... My day was sadly full of meetings and things to do, so I wasn't able to call them. Now I'm here wondering if I will ever get the switch reward, since one of the qualifying conditions are that your old account gets closed during the switch, which it didn't happen in my case, even if for no fault of mine (the person in the chat admitted that it was a mistake on their end, but they didn't have the training to fix it for me).

Tomorrow I am meeting a friend in London, whom I haven't seen in 6 years! I am actually looking forward to it. We will walk around a bit and then go for lunch and generally catch up and have a good time. It will be another spendy day, but hopefully worth it! 

Today I am grateful for:

1. Joy of anticipation for tomorrow's adventures
2. It's the weekend!
3. Spending the evening watching cozy Autumn movies

laura_lau

f0xh0les said:

I fear we may have another uninvited guest living with us......  and not one of my making. 

Have listed a load of stuff on a local gifting/recycling site this morning, so today many items should leave the house... so far I have got rid of 2 old mobile phones (to a nursery - imaginary play), a wii bundle, a Skylanders bundle, and a stack of cassette tapes, and whilst packing these things up, I noticed 3 shiny yoghurt lids in a place shiny yogurt lids should not be.- namely in the back of the cupboard under the sink where all the pipes are..... so all humane r..a..t.(shhh!) traps relocated and reloaded with tasty apples ......  and the humane mouse ones filled with bird seed - just in case it is a small mouse who has come in from the cold - it will be going straight back out to a new riverside home if if is either of them.

So motivation for cleaning and clearing is back on the front burner and that is what I am doing today. I want to be finished by Monday.

Still no sign of the scaffolding that was supposed to be here on 9th.............

oh no I'm so sorry to hear about your uninvited guest! I hope it's just a one-off type, maybe just looking for shelter from the bad weather? I had a problem a few years ago in a house I lived (rather the neighbour's problem, but they never did anything and it ended up ovespilling occasionally into mine) so I know the feeling, wish you a swift resolution!

lcc86

Evening turtles 

Last day of work today before 2 weeks off, had loads to get done. But started with a gym session first, the storm has pretty much bypassed us so got to walk there and back. Sorted all my admin ready for when I go back to work and attended a few meetings.

Did pop the heating on for a bit to help dry the washing as have a few loads to do before holiday.

I emailed a local hair and beauty college to see if they still do cheap haircuts (website says they do them for £6! But that is an old list so want to see if they're still doing it, fed up of paying loads for my haircut). Hoovered and chased up a couple of things I needed to do. Paid the parking ticket my lovely employer gave me as they rejected my appeal    I used the credit card as I've got an expenses claim due so going to use the money from that to pay it - I always budget enough for my fuel each month so count my expense claims as "profit" if that makes sense.

Went for a walk at lunchtime and again at the end of the day. Time for a bath and then relax.

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for the new-to-us chest of drawers I got off gumt, for ordering a few of those presents, for a quick chat with big sis, for my neighbour helping me shift the drawers from the car to the house, for bread and butter pudding.

grandmanerd

Busy day.More rubbish and recycling left the house -  this was along job as I cleared several more work areas, bits in the front room and the kitchen including a very rusty tin of tomatoes. Did the shelf shuffle with the remaining tins and threw  out some dried fruit 2 years past it's sell  by date (kept one bag of sultanas, slightly dry but can use them in rice salad and they should plump up  a bit). Ate bacon and tomatoes (not the rusty tin).

Came upstairs to stretch my back and did lots of cutting and sticking until my glue stick ran out. I have another half one but was ready to do something else anyway (had a multi pack on one of the  craft orders I abandoned) Made up some paper bags yesterday evening and I've put larger cut outs in those. Did one load of washing (still in the machine as everything left outside is wetter than when it started). Cleaned parts of the bathroom and half the floor.

Am making good progress sewing a river (or brook) onto  the farm playmat (to use up no name threads that have been around a while). I also finished using the book envelope to cut out thread bobbins. Beloved received another one yesterday so I asked for that. More craft things tidied - not away but I have a bag with paper and card and a bag of textiles (close to hand but leaving me space for the things I'm doing atm. 

Got DS3 to send copies of our catalogued records to his brothers and he sent  an email to the vinyl  place in Newton-le -Willows asking if they would be interested in auctioning the Rock and Folk for us. Also asked if there is any interest in Welsh language records (folk and choral - Eisteddfod and also Gaelic (Irish and Scottish). Found the file with my divorce paperwork as I needed the date (knew it was the 26th or 27th) and brought that up to deal with 

Put a  box on the landing for book donations and have read about the 'Operation C*** Child thing organised by the local zero waste food place. Phoned the estate agent as they had not responded to my email. I don't know when I can get across the Pennines (rail line is being upgraded which probably means nothing running at weekends) and wanted to  know if I could arrange for a surveyor to visit.  Girl told me to save my money - they've had multiple offers and were expecting to close the sale before the end of the day. I've registered with them and have been sent details of the other house I was interested in. £10k more but I think I'm going to make an offer (told DS3 they have to get much more proactive about this - cue more bleating). I've written a budgetting 101 for them but not given it to them yet.

Lots more to do but happy with the progress I've made. Grateful for my bed/ refuge/ workspace, putting shelves in order, not having to go out (wanted to but not enough).