Moving on

Cherryfudge

There's rain again this morning but I'm going to start the washing anyway, as it should dry up later. Other than that: wash my hair and do some skin care, have a (further) search for my Italian book, do at least one item from the mending pile, sort out something for my dinner, find a scarf to take with me on Saturday, do some more in the garden.

Cherryfudge

Some of today's list got done: the hair is washed, the skin is pampered, the Italian book is (unsuccessfully) searched for, my main meal was an adventure, but a very satisfying one. The mending, scarf and garden didn't happen - unless you count putting away two potential scarves that I'd set out.

I had two hours at work then made some cheesy coleslaw for my tea, so that's a bit more used up. The rest of the corned beef curry is now defrosting for tomorrow night's meal.

Two loads of washing got done, but also got rained on so they're now drying indoors. In terms of decluttering, one magazine, a couple of glass jars and some plastic tubs have gone in the recycling. No finances have been done, but neither has any shopping. I'll attempt to log a couple of receipts before I go to bed, and make a note if there are any of the Sains offers that we 'must' have so I can shop tomorrow.

Things to do tomorrow if I can get past the procrastination: decide on a scarf and another outfit to take on hols, check my credit card statement, plant one or two of those poor neglected peppers, go to Sains. There may be more: I will look back at recent posts and see what I thought was a good idea a few days ago.

Cherryfudge

Another grey day - but I'm putting towels in to wash and if they aren't dry when we leave (tomorrow morning), they can stay on the airer.

I went looking for things for my toiletries bag and side tracked myself into cleaning out two drawers in the bathroom. I'll finish cleaning in there then throw those cloths into the towels wash.

I have a paper list for today - and I've gone back over previous posts and discovered I seem to have covered quite a lot and nothing significant has dropped off the 'must remember to's. A scarf has been identified, you will be relieved to know. It's peach so it doesn't go with anything, but neither does it clash with anything and will give me a cover-up if needed.

DH told me a friend has had a medical emergency, then we had a text this morning to say said friend is now on the waiting list for a pacemaker. Alarming at the time but in fact he's relieved as he had a medical tracker fitted after previous episodes, and this provided a diagnosis.

I'm working again this evening but it won't be a high-earning month. Never mind, if we have enough, that's all we need. I'm finding it's making me more mindful of 'small' spends, but that's not a bad thing. 'Shopping from home' is helping reduce the amounts we have in (a slow but necessary process), but the other significant thing seems to be the NSDs. Those little trips to buy cheap pastries after work were doing neither my purse nor my waist any good!

It feels a bit chilly and I'm quite tempted to put the heating on for a boost! That would also help dry the clothes and keep away damp so I'll do that.

Finally for now, Duolingo gave me a fairly timely three free days last night. I have the freebie version anyway, but this will give me access to some useful other features. Of course, a lot of it I won't be able to use as I'll want the phone data for other stuff once we leave home. Ironically, a friend sent me 15 minutes at bonus rate and the app did the same within minutes of the promotion landing, but I only used a minute of it as I was absolutely shattered.

Cherryfudge

The sun came out again - probably to see if rumours of our central heating were true. The house feels better for both heat and sun.
 The towels are now line drying, and I've mown the grass.

Fridge-wise, I've finished the soup from yesterday and made more cheesy coleslaw just because I love it (and had a spare carrot). Then I had an inspiration and investigated the red cabbage that's actually been in the fridge since Christmas. I know that's a while... but I checked it some time ago, took off the outer leaves and re-wrapped it in paper towels and a plastic bag, and it's kept well. Now, however, I've added the remainder of the white cabbage and had the whole lot braising in the slow cooker. When it's cold, it can have that bit of freezer space that happened when I took out tonight's dinner, and I won't have to worry about it any more (not that I lost any sleep).

There was a bit of a re-think on holiday clothes but I'm nearly there with that, and medication and toiletries are packed. The trip to Sains isn't going to happen, but there was nothing I really needed there. I've also got my Clubcard statement which has massively increased in value. The near-out-of-date voucher I used the other day was £4.50: this one is £15.50. At least some of that will be co-incidence of paying hotel bills on my credit card, and of taking advantage of the double points on certain shops, when I also stocked up on some things and took full advantage of as many things as I could with bonus points. Of course, £15.50 doesn't recoup the amount spent but I'm not aware that any of that spending has gone to waste.

Right, work beckons.

Cherryfudge

There still seem to be a lot of things on my to do list, but the ironing is done, plants are watered and bags are substantially packed. We don't leave till mid-morning so I'm not too worried.

I've not spent anything today.

WelshmansDaughter

Don’t forget to enjoy it!

Cherryfudge

WelshmansDaughter said:

Don’t forget to enjoy it!

Ha ha thanks, I'll try to remember!

Sun_Addict

Have a fabulous time!

Cherryfudge

Arrived safely and in good time - and everything went smoothly thankfully! We had a main meal in Manchester before leaving, then on the short journey to the airport I had a quick conversation with an Irish lady who knows Rome and was able to give some good suggestions.

I completely didn’t get my head round taking a snack for tea (DH sorted his as usual) so I got a meal deal at the airport. I used up a gift card so some hefty sandwiches, a yogurt and drink only cost a couple of pounds. The downside of that was I looked as though I’d put on a couple of stone due to the amount of bread.

Our seats were separate so I got lots of reading done while DH got a bit of reading and lots of chatting to the passenger next to him. Thanks Francesca, if ever you read this, your excellent information is proving very useful!

This morning I was about back to normal and enjoyed my hotel breakfast before we set out to explore. The hotel receptionist was exceptionally helpful telling us how to get to places, and when we went to the metro, I suddenly remembered it was cheaper when in Venice to tap the turnstile with a payment card and tap again on the barrier at the other end, than to buy tickets from the machine. After that I felt super-confident and could conquer anything, but at the other end of the trip there was nothing to tap so I worried we’d be charged as though we went to the far end of the line.

We then didn’t know how to get to the gallery we were heading for, so DH asked a lady who not only turned out to be an Anglophile with great English, but was going to the same place and let us walk with her. She is from Milan and told us that the train system in Rome and Milan is similar to London so you pay a flat rate within the area and don’t need to ‘sign out’. So no extraneous charges.

And then we reached the gallery, but this is so long already, I’ll have to publish the next instalment separately. 😊

And yes, some sort of record for super-nice, truly helpful people. 😊

peb

Have a fantastic time 😁