Moving on

Watty1

eek. The first mouse of the season.  I suppose the mice are moving in off the fields now it is cold and damp. My neighbours chickens means the rats will be about soon too.   Ergh.  Shakes self, think positive Watty, you managed last winter without rats taking over, this one will be the same.

rtandon27

My narrower and more elegantvery old  F!tbit does the same thing, the screen has all but faded but it still transmits to the app.  I keep it charged up and ready to use when I have on occaision wear or even an event at work.  I also have a newer version which is chunky for my taste, but still smaller than the big sqaure things I see many sporting.  I've switched out the strap to a metal one & have a leather one bookmarked and also bought a screen protector as I wear mine even when gardening and it's prone to easy scratching.  I do wish they would think of those of us with small wrists who are not particularly sporty and like to wear something a bit more feminine!

Cherryfudge

Sun_Addict said:

The past few FitBits I’ve had start doing the fading screen thing before they stop working altogether so probably best to replace sooner rather than later. I gave up with them eventually and treated myself to an 🍎 watch. 

I think my daughter's is an Apple. I've never had the disappearing screen thing on previous Fitbits, but now I see it's not as unusual as I thought. People don't speak of them as well nowadays, which is why I was looking at going for something that's not a big brand, but when I realised I could postpone the research and shelling out stage for a year or so, I opted for the easy route!  

Cherryfudge

Watty1 said:

eek. The first mouse of the season.  I suppose the mice are moving in off the fields now it is cold and damp. My neighbours chickens means the rats will be about soon too.   Ergh.  Shakes self, think positive Watty, you managed last winter without rats taking over, this one will be the same.

Eek - glad I've not had rats to worry about, though they must be around. I saw the mouse again this morning - not in the trap, which it's ignored, but on the outside of the back door, cheekily looking in!

rtandon27 said:

I do wish they would think of those of us with small wrists who are not particularly sporty and like to wear something a bit more feminine!

I use a leather strap too as I dislike the plasticky ones and metal makes me itch. And I agree about size: most are too chunky for me as my wrists are small. The current one (I think slightly larger than the one I've ordered) keeps slipping round as the metal bit is is longer than the width of my wrist.

badmemory

I must say I don't like my charge 6 as much as I did my previous ones even the charge 5.  Since it had to be done on a pad not a computer it doesn't seem to update the day very well at all.  The joys of being owned by google.  It sems incredible that a few years ago I had a problem with one & just rang fitbit & they sorted it over the phone.  No chance of that now.

Cherryfudge

This morning was the last of the car boot sales for the year, so we went. Determinedly. Winter coat an' all. It was parky but tolerable!

Even more than last week, prices were reduced to tiny amounts so I came away with a bag full of stuff. A bag of cooking apples (£1), four huge rosy cooking apples (free to a good home: I took two then went back at the end and the other two were still there), five items of clothing at 20p each, a nice cardigan for 50p, a child's football, also 50p, a notebook and five biros for 60p. A grand total of £3.60. DH didn't buy anything.

The five items of clothing are all things in plain fabric from the sort of stall where everything is thrown in a heap. I realised this was a cheap way to get material to dress the wooden spoon puppets, so all but one are now in the wash and will then be cut into useable pieces. The fifth is a jumper dress which I thought was a sweater. The proportions are a bit odd but the colour really suits me so I'm treating it as a cheap source of yarn for some knitting project. I know people do unravel commercial knits but I've never tried it - but if it doesn't work, it was only 20p.

I remembered I'd promised a couple of plants to the friend I had coffee with the other day, so those are now dropped off at hers and no long cluttering the hall floor here.

Home for lunch and to put the washing on the line (it nearly dried). We had the usual battered fish with peas and cous cous: we like to live adventurously. We also watched 'Long lost family' again. Such a moving program: why do I feel all right about watching that but not about other things where people's emotions are being used as a source of entertainment?

I was still cold after lunch, and falling asleep, so I took a hot water bottle up to bed and slept till nearly tea time. Then Dh and I had a trying on session for wedding outfits, including coats as realistically coats are going to be needed. I remembered my old pink coat (worn once) and it looks okay over the burgundy dress but is too tight to do up! At least I won't have to wear it much.

I'm having doubts about the shoes: the court shoes cut across the toe joint. Even with sticking plasters to buffer the effect, they aren't going to be easy to wear. I also noticed that once I have tights on, my heels slip up and down, so I need to get heel grips. (Sigh). And I thought I had the perfect solution. I've also remembered a pair of gold flats so I might try those with the dress. The pink shoes I got for dancing match the coat perfectly but wouldn't be worn with it, and perhaps the gold shoes could be worn all day...? Oh, I do hate formal outfits!

I went for a run at dusk, which once again turned out longer than planned despite sticking to town roads. I do feel better for it. Then after tea we went to pick up some parcels and when I got there I realised I'd misread the app and they hadn't actually arrived. Duh. Apologised to DH who had only come in case they were in a high slot, and have now found the place on the app to request an accessible locker.

He went home and I went to Mr T to look for a suitable bra for the dress, but didn't see anything that really worked. Saved £18 there. I did get quite a few groceries between there and L1dl, in order to use coupons up.

Expenditure:
Clothing 70p
Hobbies 60p
Donation 50p
Stationery 60p
Housekeeping £26.17

badmemory

As for Long Lost Family, any bad emotions are not on screen, so we don't really see the someone is dead how awful bits.  What we do see is the oh how great type emotions.  Both may bring tears but there is a very big difference in the type.

Cherryfudge

Fair point @badmemory. I love a happy ending!

Cherryfudge

First rain for a couple of weeks, so I think we needed it. At least it was dry for the first half of the day, we caught Mouse One and took him on holiday to the countryside, and DH got to take his hobby car for a run. 

I helped with the little ones this morning: an easy job! This afternoon I've been playing on the computer, disinfected the bird feeders, tried to unpick a jumper (where have they hidden the thread in the side seams?) and updated the finances notebook a bit.

DH made us a chicken curry for dinner: very nice and there's plenty for another day too.

The plan for the week to come:
Monday: meet DD and various others for coffee. See if I can take a plant along for my friend who's asked me to save one for her! Work in the evening.
Tuesday: Childcare during the day and course in the evening.
Wednesday: Sort out what days I can work in the coming week and send out any notices for the children's group. Church meeting in the evening. DH's day off.
Thursday: Work in the evening.
Friday: DH on leave. Set off to Auntie's.
Saturday: go to hotel for early check-in. Lunch at hotel and get changed there. Wedding 3pm onwards. Hotel overnight.
Sunday: Take Auntie home, head home ourselves.

Cherryfudge

Today's been a bit unusual: DH was at work and I met up with DD and some others for coffee late morning. I was good and just had a cappuccino but I treated DD to her tea and a cheese scone as I could see the other grand-mums buying them for their daughters! In total we were three grand-mums, three younger mums and two babies. We had a really nice chat and I got to know one of the other ladies who I'd not really talked to before. Afterwards DD and I wandered round admiring the autumn decorations. I fully intended to sneak back in after she'd gone and get her the first one she'd admired but somehow I ended up mooching and getting lots of things on my list, but wore myself out and didn't get back to the original shop.

Most of the time was spent wondering about shoes for the wedding - I found a couple of charity shop pairs that fitted but neither was suitable for the wedding. However, it's shown me that H0tter wide fit could be an answer, so I will try to go in on Wednesday or Thursday and see what's in the shop. I must admit I was put off them by some I saw advertised as 'pretty' and which were as frumpy as they come, but where I've seen them in real life, there have been a few I would like to wear. I'm hesitating because it's a lot to splash out for something I will rarely wear.

However, I have two more items in my quest to survive attending a wedding: new bra (not yet tried on) and new mascara (ditto) which is hypoallergenic as I need mascara if I'm to look at all dressed up and the ones I have at present make my eyes very dry.

Other than those, I bought more wooden spoons to make puppets (though not needed this week), food for the wild birds, a net of plastic squashes (as one does - actually they look quite convincing when arranged in a vintage pie dish!), a few groceries and a couple of nets of chocolate coins as a contribution towards Christmas gifts.

This shopping took all afternoon, so I grabbed a cinnamon bun for my lunch/tea and ate it on the way home, giving me just enough time to throw on my uniform and arrive at work two minutes late. I had a three-hour shift in an area where there's a lot more than three hours' work to be done, but I prioritised.

Food has been a case of grabbing what I could: granola and coffee for breakfast, which is what I usually have, then coffee and a biscuit while out, a couple of low-calorie cereal bars and a bottle of flavoured water for 'lunch', then two pastries, some grapes and a flask of water to get me through till I was home and cooked some beans with vegetables as a sort of veggie stew for a late dinner. Oh, and a few squares of chocolate and a hot choc for supper.

A quick total-up of spending:
Clothing £10
Entertainment £11.10
Gifts £2
Toiletries/makeup £14.95
Housekeeping £6.10
Household £5.99
Pets £1.99
Donation £2.96
Photo storage £0.99