Moving on

redofromstart

Happy new year and new diary Cherryfudge

Cherryfudge

Thank you, @redofromstart.  

Today was DH's last day off till the weekend, so we decided to go out, but it's so wet it had to be mostly indoors. We drove somewhere with good charity shops (and some half-underwater roads on the way). I thought I might come away with a book or an ornament but actually succumbed to two jumpers and a baking tray. Oops. Well, sort of oops. I can't pretend I didn't walk into that with my eyes open, and the polo neck jumper is exactly the colour I've wanted but been unable to find. The disadvantage is going to be that the neck is really close fitting! I was going to unpick a seam and ease it out but on closer inspection it's a one-piece tube so I'll see how it goes. The other jumper is a big chunky grey, white and gold cosy thing. Both are now washed with vinegar to get rid of other people's perfumed products.

I had a good baking tray in my Secret Santa but this was too good to leave in the shop so now I have two, meaning I can make a full batch of biscuits in one go. Both are the sort with no rim top and bottom, so things should slide off without breaking.

In the evening, I've been wading through course dates and prices. I think I could start one of the courses online rather than the more expensive virtual classroom, thus not only saving money but avoiding having half an hour from the end of the course to presenting for an interview twenty minutes away and having to grab enough to eat or drink to give me more blood sugar while putting on an entirely different head to convince them they want me to do cleaning.

I have still to negotiate my way through selecting where to start, and make the choice whether or not to pay a membership fee and get courses more cheaply, along with access to other resources. That's only a problem if I can't see it through, but I'm telling myself this has been along-considered option, and I could register on their database eventually to increase my chances of being given work.

If I don't give it a go, I'll never know.  

in_need_of_direction

Bite the bullet, invest in yourself and pay the membership fee.

redofromstart

Two jumpers and a baking tray sound like my kind of shopping trip! What a lovely thing to get from secret santa too

Sun_Addict

You are always really successful in charity shops, sounds like a good haul. I would go for the membership fee, I’m sure you’d make best use of it. 

Cherryfudge

@in_need_of_direction, @Sun_Addict, you are quite right. I think I've about sorted out where I'm going with it so tomorrow I can sign up. I've also heard back from the digital skills tutor and she says I'm down for that course. That's as well as the two I've started on Futurelearn! One of those is fairly straightforward, though, it's basic French, just from a different angle than I've tried before.

Today wasn't rainy so I washed bedding and towels, but they didn't dry at all. The ground stayed wet all day. I went out for a few minutes to cut back a bramble I could see growing through a tree, and the ground was squelching underfoot.

Lunch was ham and cheese with oatcakes and beetroot (I'm fruit and veg deprived), then I decided to have a quick look at the market in case there were any relevant bargains, which there weren't. I wandered round a few charity shops too, and resisted everything. However, I'd remembered to check vouchers and coupons before I went out, so on the way back I went to Mr T (they hadn't got what I wanted but I got three cartons of extra thick cream at a third the usual price, and reduced custard tarts); Lidl (where only one of the vouchers turned out to be the best deal for the item and worth getting at this point, but I did buy loads of veg; and Ice land, where I bought half the shop, to wit, 9 chicken breast for £6, a gammon for £3.50 and 400g of broccoli for 50p.

The really amazing bit is that all the meat fitted in the freezer, thanks entirely to taking out two pieces of salmon for tea.  

We also sauteed a huge pan of red onions, peppers, aubergine and tomatoes as a sort of stove top Mediterranean veg. It was supposed to do two meals but we ate most of it.

Expenditure:
Housekeeping: £20.48
Gift £1.50 (for older GD's stocking next Christmas)

liselle

Very best wishes for the New Year Cherry.
I heard that mice hate the smell of bleach so leaving a small cupful out seems to do the trick for me.

Cherryfudge

Thank you for the tip, @liselle! I tend to bleach around where mice have been, I'd not heard of using it as a deterrent.

Since the latest mouse went on his country holiday, there have been no more takers though the humane trap is still there and baited. I think where there's one, there may be another, so it's staying out for now.

Plans for today: nothing much has happened yet but I want to get signed up for the proofreading courses. I found some interesting threads on here that are relevant so I have those to read too. I was going to arrange coffee with a  former colleague but for some reason I'm stalling on this, and I also need to sort out whether my Tuesday group can meet in some form next week. The person who had offered to host now has something else happening. I'm reluctant to host that day as it would be right after my interview and I want to be focussed. I've yet to sort out whether one of the proofreading options is the same afternoon but I think I will be taking the online option instead, as it's a lot cheaper and I can do it in my own time.

I'm also going to water the houseplants, ring the Union (who rang me yesterday - they want my current wage status as I'm currently on the wrong rate though I'm not complaining as I accidentally underpaid for ages, which they know about!) and also email the Union to say where I'm up to employment-wise. I had the conversation while walking through town so I'm not quite sure what I've agreed to do, but I like things to be in writing.  

There doesn't seem to be much else pending but if the weather stays fine I'll walk into town and see if I can find the right sized diary on discount to use for recording spending. Last year I had a page a day one but the weekend gaps were a bit small for Saturday spends! I suppose I could just overwrite onto Sunday, as I don't spend much then. 

Cherryfudge

I've managed very little in the past few hours, at least very little of what was intended. The Union has been contacted, so that's an item off the list. I haven't got my facts together to contact HR for itemisation of the holiday pay and possible overpay the previous month - when I started looking into it, I found I hadn't sent my time sheet in the other day. That led to all sorts of confusing ends to tie up: where on earth did I store the spread sheet where I need to itemise my hours? What days did I work and exactly what hours did I do? I think I've sorted out the hours, but the spreadsheet isn't on this computer. It's probably on the one that belongs to work, which I've not used for a few weeks (emails are accessible from the laptop that's always on).

Memo to self - don't assume you'll remember.

I had to break into that part way through to make sure we got some dinner tonight, so now there's veggie chilli in the Instant Pot, made with things from stores. It's not a recipe I've used before but it's beautifully colourful, albeit varied as I didn't have black eyed beans, so I threw in a tin of baked beans of a make DH won't eat. I hope he doesn't taste them. I was able to cut celery from a plant I grew last summer from a root of bought celery, so I'm pleased with that. It's more leaf than stalk, but I don't care.

Lunch, by the way, was ham sandwich (first sandwich of the year, for what that's worth), the rest of yesterday's veg and a beetroot. More fridge space is now available. I abandoned going into town as diaries will be cheaper in a week or so.

I've also washed some shirts so DH has something to wear for work tomorrow, and seem to have had a load of dishes to wash too. (Things I'd prefer didn't go in the dishwasher). Then I remembered I needed to pay off the boiler amount on my credit card, so that's done. Somewhere in all this I fetched the recycling bin from the gather point at the end of the road and started to refill it. There are an annoying amount of supermarket meat trays where the film won't come off the top and I've ended up cutting the top edge off. Grr.

My confused head is taking a break before arranging my social life and all the training I feel I need to do. At least I can put training on the credit card and get a few more pence out of Mr T for the privilege, and the cc won't mind as I've just fed it.

Seasidegal58

Happy New Year Cherry and here's to reading many of your lovely future posts via your new diary!
I've been off the boards for a couple of months and was just getting round to catching up with your old diary and realised you had moved. I'm still going to read the old one though!

You appear to have had some challenging times since I've been away from what I've read from your introductory post, but the courses you are planning on taking sound interesting and I do hope 2024 proves positive and peaceful for you and your family.