Moving on

Cherryfudge

Today I am having an attack of not getting down to things, or at least only doing non-urgent stuff.

So, I've tidied away yesterday's laundry, put some items on the calendar, done some skin care, thrown out two foot care products and four might-come-in-useful empty tubes with lids (that weren't coming in useful) and spent too long meandering round the boards on here. I've checked emails and there's no sign of H's birthday present being dispatched yet, let alone arriving, and her birthday is today. I was going to make some truffles to go with it, but that's gone on the 'deflect from' list so it may be bought chocolate instead.

We're going to tea with J and L and I promised pudding. I'm going for good old-fashioned pineapple upside down cake, and have got as far as setting out a dish and a tin of pineapple. I haven't dared look at the maths learning yet, though I did a lot of Duolingo and am edging near the top of the league.

No sign of the mouse, not even a miniscule note saying 'Your cupboard stinks of bleach, Missus. Sort it!' I suspect Duo has been listening as one of this morning's translations was 'That's a pretty mouse'.

I forgot to say yesterday that I made use of the oven being on to make banana bread, but it's got odds and ends of dried fruit thrown in so I'm eating it myself, not taking at along tonight. I don't really like the coconut in it, though the apricots are okay. It might even be nice with apricot jam swirled through.

Well, I have two hours to do any shopping and making before we go, so I will have to pull my socks up.

redofromstart

Sounds like something is wrong altogether on the pay front - emergency tax, two jobs and a T code is usually 20 percent of everything maximum.

Sun_Addict

Hope you get the pay sorted quickly.

I got to the top of the top league in Duolingo (diamond?) a while ago and oh my days never again. It got really competitive between me and a bloke called Gerard and every time I got to the top he overtook me. I was determined not to let him beat me and I won the league in the end but vowed never to compete like this again, it was really stressful 😆 I'm happy to hover around just below promotion zone in a lower league now. In fact if you could opt out of the leagues altogether I would, all I'm interested in is doing the daily challenges. I'm sure 'that's a pretty mouse' will come in very useful someday 🤣

Good luck for tomorrow.

liselle

Such a pain that there’s something extra to do when you start a new job, as if the job itself isn’t enough!

Yes my mouse apparently turned tail and exited the way it came in, after getting one whiff of the bleach, and was never seen again!

milann

I’ve just been reading your diary…..you are so busy 👍 
Hope you don’t see your mouse visitors again……even if you can tell it that it is a pretty mouse 😂😂
I’m another fan of Leeds. I have family that live on the outskirts in some beautiful countryside and my Dh has visited with me many times. I hadn’t realised Dh hadn’t actually visited the town centre - I have visited lots when I stayed with family as a child. We had a lovely day out there before Christmas. I love the old market. We had some amazing Chinese food in a shop on the market. I’ve never seen anything like it before. 

Cherryfudge

redofromstart said:

Sounds like something is wrong altogether on the pay front - emergency tax, two jobs and a T code is usually 20 percent of everything maximum.

It helps to hear it, @redofromstart. In fact you convinced me and I fired my work laptop up before I realised it was that or a birthday gift for H, and went down to the shops. However, when I re-read this tomorrow, I have much of the day to start emailing.

Sun_Addict said:

Hope you get the pay sorted quickly.

I got to the top of the top league in Duolingo (diamond?) a while ago and oh my days never again. It got really competitive between me and a bloke called Gerard and every time I got to the top he overtook me. I was determined not to let him beat me and I won the league in the end but vowed never to compete like this again, it was really stressful 😆 I'm happy to hover around just below promotion zone in a lower league now. In fact if you could opt out of the leagues altogether I would, all I'm interested in is doing the daily challenges. I'm sure 'that's a pretty mouse' will come in very useful someday 🤣

Good luck for tomorrow.

Thank you. I'm on Diamond league and I've challenged myself to stay there throughout the year, but there are other things in life, so it may well not happen. I've very impressed that you won, and presumably got the badge. I was up around this level last summer so I know it gets very active around the top, and somewhere just below is a lot saner, though still takes quite a lot of effort.

J'ai vue une souris. Ou? La! La sur les escaliers... I think I need sleep.

No accents because I have yet to find them on this computer.

liselle said:

Such a pain that there’s something extra to do when you start a new job, as if the job itself isn’t enough!

Yes my mouse apparently turned tail and exited the way it came in, after getting one whiff of the bleach, and was never seen again!

I must admit I feel a bit less mean now the weather's not so cold. That bleach trick is worth knowing, thanks.

Hi @milann, did you know I read your diary? I'm nearly up to date too! I wonder if we were in Leeds around the same time? I love the Christmas decorations, and the eateries. Great place to shop.

Onebrokelady

Sun_Addict said:

Oh no not another mouse 🙁 They really like your house don’t they. It’s a shame it’s not a tidying up mouse - did you hear about the bloke who has one in his shed that tidies up? 

Good news about the job start date, hope it goes well. 

I saw this on the news😀

badmemory

á  alt160

é  alt130

I haven't found the grave accent yet, I'll see if I can find it tomorrow if this works for you.  A few years ago I was bored one night so I printed them all out.  Sad I know but when I accidentally found one well I couldn't stop there.

Cherryfudge

So urgency finally hit home late afternoon and I went to buy lots of chocolate for H, then whizzed round getting all the various things we were taking with us while the pineapple upside down cake (with stem ginger as we had no glace cherries) was cooking. Eventually we were only a a bit late starting off.

We called to see H and her parents are visiting so we stopped to chat to them as well as give her the chocolate and explain there's more gift to come. Then we spent the rest of the evening with J and L, which was a mini Christmas as they'd saved the dog's Christmas stocking from us for when we were there, and we brought them a couple of things left over from Christmas for various reasons. The dog got very excited when L opened some Epson salts with hemp in! I don't know how she smelled that through the plastic but she definitely knew there was something different there! She spent most of the time wearing a Christmassy collar and playing with a toy pheasant though.

They gave us bream for dinner, with a lemon coating, vegetables and chunky chips. I'd not had bream before but I liked it.

Poor DH is coming down with something: he's temperature-y and coughing a bit. He's had paracetamol and a drink of water and hopefully that will help him rest.

Today's expenditure:
Gift £5.87
Housekeeping 3.25

Cherryfudge

@badmemory, I've been trying and there's just no response! So maddening! Thanks for those, though. Perhaps it's something different on Microsoft 365? I even set it up so It has the option on a French keyboard, but can I find that? Of course not!

And just like that; the cursor hovered over the letters ENG at the bottom right with the instruction to press the Windows key and Space, and lo and behold, I switched to a French keyboard lurking under the English keys. So of course I've had to change back because it wanted to spell 'Windows' with a Z instead of W. Every a became a q, and an inverted comma became ù. In fact, I will have to stay in English unless I have my phone to hand to tell me what French is hiding under the keys.

It's too late in the evening for this kind of malarkey, but at least I might eventually find é & à!