Moving on

Cherryfudge

Phew, the heat has passed for now. It was 20C today. Pleasant. I think DH slept badly so I let him lie in while I got up to finish planning for the children's activity, and it went more or less to plan though I nearly forgot to give them drinks and biscuits. Someone mentioned it so they weren't left without, but they enjoyed what I'd thought might be too complicated a craft session and that took up a lot of time when they would normally have been off and into something else.

DH and I had chicken and chorizo pasta for lunch, and during the afternoon he did some work on the shelf that holds my collection of D3nby china. I noticed last night that it was sagging at one corner. Unfortunately the drill bits he has won't handle the job so the china will be sitting on living room chairs for a while.

I've potted on a couple of vegetable plants and the rescued allium bulbs from the batch I bought in the autumn. There are only 11 left, but at least those now have a chance. I also discovered that the water barrel hadn't refilled in yesterday's rain, as the entry pipe had silted up. It's clear now but the tap on the barrel is leaking so I'm not sure how much will be in there tomorrow.

We rounded off the day with a short walk out into the fields this evening. Lovely.

Cherryfudge

Another somewhat cooler day, and no work scheduled till Thursday. We have a week off from childcare as they are on holiday, so I have time to catch up on housework.

An advert came through this morning for an administrative post I went for a couple of years ago. I know the person who got the job, and know it will have been left in good order (they moved on for personal reasons) but for various reasons I don't immediately want to apply again. I think I could have done it, but also that it would have been a stretch and I value the reduced stress levels I've bought for myself by not working as much!

Well, there are a hundred and one jobs I really could be doing at home, so I'll get started and see if I can get 100 done!

Cherryfudge

I somehow suspect there aren't 101 jobs or at least if there are, I won't get through them, so I thought I'd see how far I get (list will be updated rather than multiple posts).

11.23 am

1. got dressed
2. spot treated a few blood stains!! (DH suspected eczema)
3. hand washed toe foams! (Blister still bothersome)
4. taken out recycling
5. put hot wash on to 'cook'.

12 noon:

6. Several kettles of boiling water poured on paths to kill weeds.

7. Energy company rang to moved appointment to tomorrow morning.

8. Answered a few texts.

9. Did Duolingo (just enough to get the points boost for later in the day as I only just avoided demotion last week).

1.45 edit:

10. sheets onto the line: its grey and I thought I felt a couple of spots of rain but it's breezy and I'm holding out for them drying, especially as

11. another hot wash into the machine (towels etc.)

13. Lunch - used up pasta leftovers from yesterday

I'm now putting off making inroads into the ironing mountain.

3.55 update:

14. major part of ironing done while

15. I listened to today's Bible study and some music then tried to switch channels and

16. got side tracked into a battle with the worn out TV remote (can't turn the volume down) so I

17. checked prices online (£21+) then had an inspiration and

18. ordered on V1nted (£4.34).

19. a third load of washing has been started - somehow very little got done in the heatwave but now I need trainer socks!

6pm update:

20. bed remade

21. Dishes done

22. last of the washing onto the line

23. All ironing put away

24. Tidied my tee shirt drawer, after listening to internal voice of reason that said I might as well get it over with and be able to find what I wanted again.

25. Picked more slate chips out of what would be a lawn if it didn't still have a significant bald patch and some displaced plant pots.

26. Took the paper recycling out.

27. Cleaned up a couple of forgotten electrical tin openers found under the stairs. No decision made on whether they work.

DH was kind enough to fetch my prescription and a couple of food items on his way home.

Cherryfudge

I had a call yesterday tea time to see if I was going into work. Well, no, as I'd not had a text telling me where I'd been allocated, so had assumed they didn't need me. Apparently there had been a text but reception can be very poor and it never got to me. Anyway, I have shifts on Thursday and Friday.

Tea last night was sausages, and not much else got done.

This morning there is still ironing left over from yesterday but all the other laundry is put away. DH's hay fever is back - a day's relative break from it was helpful but generally speaking mid-June to mid-July is a blight for him.

I have waded a little further through the backlog of coffees: I finished the 'Gorilla' one which was a present from Uganda, the other day and moved on to an instant coffee that was already opened. I had about one and a half cups of that and have just thrown the rest out. It was more endurance than joy! Now I've opened what I think is the last of the out of date sealed filter coffees, which is 'Crazy Cat'. The seals on filter coffee give it a much better chance of long-term drinkability and so far it tastes okay, even if it's bound to have aged somewhat. At this rate, come Christmas, I'll be able to put coffee on my gift suggestions list again!

DH has the new drill bits he needed and they have been used to fix the shelf for my china so that will be going back soon, then I need to tidy up before the (changed) solar appointment. I think a chunk of their time will be them surveying to see what would fit on the roof. I really hope I can understand them as the people I spoke to on the phone were very broad Glaswegian!

peb

I think it's sensible not to look at the administration job unless you can drop something else.

I never got on with Abbey books - unless they are very rare I'm afraid they won't have much value.

Cherryfudge

I think the fact I didn't get the job first time around and while waiting for the results of my interview I was still uncertain if it was right for me… those things seem to indicate I shouldn't try for it unless something has changed that I don't know about. I'm not actively pursuing it at present, and possibly won't.

Some of the Abbey Girl books are definitely better than others. I got rather fed up with endless redheads! Not that I've anything agin redheaded people, but they seemed disproportionately represented in some books. My favourite is the original one, which gives a glimpse into the early years of the last century and the fashion for rambling clubs, the very different social world the girls are living in and so forth. I don't expect to get much for them - I think the generation who remember them from their childhood is passing or isn't on line (or already has a full set!) and they aren't in good enough condition to go to book collectors.

Watty1

I remember them being very sought after (and expensive) back in my younger days when we had a second hand bookshop as a family. I think older generations collect their childhood books and sadly the generation that remembers those has or is passing as you say.

Cherryfudge

Oh, that has such potential for a story, @Watty1 ! Growing up in a second hand bookshop, I mean. I would have formed a relationship with each book and it would have had to be prised out of my hands to make a sale.

You are right about adults collecting books (and toys, cars etc.) from their childhood, and those things are different as the generations move on. DH's hobby car (50 years old) is an example, and so is my vintage D3nby china and a lot of my books.

Cherryfudge

This morning's chat with the solar salesman was very interesting and I feel better informed. He made sure we got lots of facts, he took photos of all the relevant things and has given us a recommendation for an optimum system and a price, which isn't cheap. I'm glad this project doesn't need to be financed as that saves us a massive amount in interest. All the same, he being in sales, I wonder what questions he didn't raise, if any. His job is to sell the product, though he did point out possible problems with solar. The one that went home to me was that 1 in 600 solar installations has an associated fire (I think I've understood that rightly), so this particular system includes ArcBoxes to stop sparks going awol.

I'm looking forward to this afternoon's talk with another company to give some perspective, but I'm quite keen.

Another thing that impressed itself on me was that (apparently) we are low usage and the aspect of the house, plus the fact we aren't overshadowed, would mean we would more than pay our bills, though obviously when the days are shorter we would probably draw quite a lot from the grid. This particular system runs on AI, so it works out how much we are using, what we need to store and what we can put into the grid, and at what rate. It even enables us to top up batteries on cheap electricity and sell back at higher rates!

Given the numbers from our energy bills and the likely amount generated, we could have recouped the cost in as little as 6.6 years, which is quite a bit less than the average, but I'm not relying on that as a statistic as so many things are variable (like wars and rumours of wars) and can change the numbers.

If we replace the diesel car with an EV, there are obviously savings to be had there, though replacing a car isn't cheap. (But we've had ours nine years and the power steering, which won't last much longer, would cost more than the car is now worth).

Anyway - I sold something on V1nted yesterday and I need to get it sent off before regrouping with DH ready for the video sales call.

peb

I adored TGothHC but don't think I've finished another.

The EjO soc have republished some of the rarer ones including very reasonably on Kindle