Moving on

Cherryfudge

An imperfect night's sleep as I woke DH up through my snoring! In the end, the guest bed already being occupied, I went down to the sofa, and I'll do the same again tonight but take an extra blanket: I sleep best when I'm snuggly warm.

It's grey and dampish here: DH and Auntie have been out for a few hours and she's now gone to her favourite local shop while DH came in for some quiet and a cup of tea. He's now gone to charge the car: for some reason two chargers locally wouldn't work last night and he had to use a slow one, but at least that's better for the battery.

I've had my few hours of peace and quiet and the cold has settled down a lot. I printed out old bank statements in case they didn't carry over to the new bank, then spent ages filling in a form for a chosen switch that includes a nice £210 for changing. Right at the last minute I discovered the earliest date I can now switch is 2nd November, so I've gone ahead and set up the Ll0yds account, and at some point I can go back and do the incentive-laden switch. I must say, though, that changing to Ll0ys was super easy and it seems to be the same interface, just green instead of blue.

No actual paid work done yet so I'll head off and chip away at that till it's time for tea and to change for the evening shift.

WelshmansDaughter

Just don't do what I did and forget the date of the switch then try to pay with your phone 🤦‍♂️

Cherryfudge

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82166636#Comment_82166636

Oops. Too easy to do.

Thankfully this is the account we use for bills rather than ad hoc spending. I think we now need to wait for things like debit cards to be sorted, then have another go at changing. Meanwhile, Ll0yds seems to have a few fun things so I might just win a million while I'm their customer. Then again, I might not. Very likely, I might not.

Further development in the payslip saga: the cleaning manager discovered that A N Unknown Other has authorised a couple of my pay claims (June and September) as she has no record of them. It gets weirder but I'll wait to investigate till our guest has gone home.

Only two hours cleaning tonight, but that's okay. The cold and the feet have both been well behaved today and it's really nice not to hobble and only to sneeze occasionally. A couple of hours of CPD stuff got done, but not the rotas for Small Fry. That's another for later in the week.

I may have wandered into a couple of shops on the way home from work and spent about £20, £8 of which was on an autumnal throw that we don't exactly need. On the other hand, I had vouchers that I didn't use because we already have the stuff they are for and don't need more.

Cherryfudge

Yesterday - Tuesday - was child care as usual. Auntie came with us first thing, then DH took her to the station so she could spend the day with friends. In the evening she treated us to a meal out, which was very good. DDiL also gave us a voucher for 40% off mains, which is an unusually brilliant bargain. Later in the evening while Auntie was watching TV, I went to my friend's for coffee and chat.

I had another V1nted sale which I must get packaged up and sent soon.

Today Auntie went home and I went to the dentist. I've had a slight toothache for a couple of weeks and remembered she had found a small area of decay under a filling, which we had decided to leave as I couldn't feel it. Expecting to hear that this was spreading, I was surprised when it turned out I have a chip off my tooth. She explained that her experience is that amalgam fillings change in size a bit over time and this pressures the tooth, meaning micro cracks can happen. She therefore always uses white fillings, which don't have the same effect. Result: I have an appointment in a month to have the old filling removed and replaced with an extended one to cover the recent damage - and it will all be white, so I'm happy about that. I don't remember how much she said it would cost, but it began with £200.

DH has had the day off work but has, as usual, been coming and going, staying still long enough to sort out some stuff to do with the flat he manages for the family. Meanwhile I tried really hard to do some studying for work but it was very stressful. Talk about tearing your hair out… I got to the point where the words didn't make sense anymore. In the end I gave up and wrote a slightly shirty email to Payroll to tell them my manager had approved my payclaim and this should be taken as evidence it came from her department and I'm looking forward to a corrected payslip. At least I actually have the money, which I suppose is nine tenths of the law - or should I say 90%, seeing as I'm working my way through understanding percentages.

In the middle of all this I took an hour out to try to sort out what feels like an incompletely thought out situation that I was asked to deal with. It could work out as a positive, because it solves another problem, but it took me a while to get there emotionally.

On the way back from the dentist I had called at 4sda for some tea bags and came out with y/s salmon and roasting veg, so that was our tea. I've also spent about £8 on more eye drops and some anti-histamines, as the dentist suggested a chat with the pharmacist about managing the swollen sinuses (even though the x-ray showed they aren't the source of the the niggle).

The evening was the best bit of the day, despite the brain being scrambled and on half power (I mean 0.5 %, I think). It was the first time in a while that I've met up with the mid-week church group. A few were away but a couple managed to join us online and that worked well.

Lastly, I'm nearly at the end of the grace period to make a decision on the solar and despite not having had the focus to examine the paperwork to the end, I think I'll go with it. I messaged them late this evening about a fire safety query and have received about as good a reply as I can expect - they are certainly helpful with information.

Baileys_Babe

@Cherryfudge have a look at Corbett Maths to get you up to speed with your Maths, he does walk through videos from primary upto A level.

Cherryfudge

I'll check that out thanks @Baileys_Babe !

WelshmansDaughter

50% power Cherry 😀

Cherryfudge

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82169563#Comment_82169563

That looks more like it! 🤭My brain was completely fried yesterday, but I'm not normally much better. 😊

rtandon27

That's OK Cherry - you knew what you meant and we knew what you meant!

I have a feeling that yesterday you were too tired to care - lol

Cherryfudge

Yesterday was a lesson learned in terms of 'sometimes I just need to stop trying to engage the brain'! It's tricky because while they don't have enough classroom hours for me, I'm spending half my working time on the computer. I'm trying to balance the maths with a different course but yesterday I was really struggling with that, partly due to the way it was set out. One of those cases where a classroom discussion would have been vastly better.

Today, I'm glad to say, has been a lot easier. I've started the antihistamine recommended by the pharmacist, and my eyes have stopped itching. I'm hanging onto another pharmacist's advice about keeping up with the dose for maximum effect, as other hay fever / cold symptoms are still around. I also fell asleep for an hour after work.

DS2 has asked if anyone in the family has booked a June holiday, so we are all excited in case they are booking the wedding! No date confirmed yet.

We've finally paid the deposit for the solar panels, after months of learning more, getting quotes and being too tired to engage with it. The company comes recommended and it's cheaper than the one I liked earlier in the year, but for a better spec of product. Next step in this, apart from any further pre-building communication, will be to take the money out of long-term storage for the rest of the payment. That needn't happen yet.

This leaves me with a couple of pending work or work-type things: revamp the rota for Small Fry and do more CPD. I think I need a third course that I can dip into so I'm less likely to get utterly bogged down as I did yesterday.

Another Squid Company hour of reduced electrical use this evening. My tea was microwaved tuna mayo spud, so that probably didn't take too much power.