Watty's Awakening

Watty1

PA tends to do the "tech" related stuff rather than general PA duties and she is excellent at what she does but KK's question made me wonder.  I employed her for the tech stuff and she has admitted she is not so good at the rest but willing to "have a go"      I have no angst about this, I would never have got my courses up and running without her, and she is currently working on some projects that will save me a lot of time in the long run.  But, I might have a chat with her. 

VNM given the job of finding a lawnmower which is needed for the garden by the house, the lawn is small and oddly shaped and eventually will not need cutting much, but, for now it does and the current lawn mower is excellent but large and does a great job of just throwing everything everywhere even when the collection bag is fitted.   I just asked him "to do it" but said I would pay and one will be delivered soon (cost £30 as I had a lot of nectar points and he used those).

I am reluctant to give anything else to do to the VNM.   His mothers "stuff" is the reason.  He (and his daughter) have just taken so long to do anything and there always another form to fill in, or a need to go to the house or whatever and hearing about it makes me wonder why they dont "just get on with it" allocate time and "do".  Finally I did say I was struggling with this "continual flux" when I was so overwhelmed and could they just not take a week "to do" and there has been some progress.  The house is now ready to go on the market, the last proofs of identity sent off and he has an appointment in September to remake his will.   The house needs serious renovation, the roof leaks, the neighbour complains continually about the garden and of course now the place is emptied there are no tools to do anything.  I finally sat on the floor, and sorted another pile of the papers left by her and threw much away a few days ago because I was so fed up with it in my living room.  

I get grief and not wanting to admit she is gone, but I am reluctant to ask him to do much when he really needs to get on with her stuff.   I have said as much

TallGirl

Totally get why  you would not ask VNM when he’s still to do his own stuff. My DG said right from the off you don’t know what it’s like to lose a parent until you do. 6 years later she’s only just able to look through the last few boxes she packed up when her mum died. They’ve sat untouched in the loft and I know they would have stayed there had we not been moving. 

I hope he gets there selling the house does sound rather urgent and I totally get impure fed up with that dragging on. 

Watty1

Goodness that was a bit of download.  An update on my list, I have made an appointment with a local company to take MH there to look at getting him a saddle.   Have to take MH to their workshop but that is a doable thing.  

Dog groomer rung (cancelled); vet rung (follow up booked), email provider to call me back within 3 days to sort out a permanent solution. Now I have access they can help and make sure we can separate the accounts.

Then as house insurance expired yesterday I sorted that.  Last year I knew only the house was insured, this year I decided to sort out getting the out buildings and land part covered and after some research I ended up with the usual house policy and a separate one to cover the barns and so on.  They have never been insured, but, part of me has always felt they "should" so that is ticked off now (approx £700 on top of house insurance and that was the cheapest I could get).  It was cheaper to have separate policies than to put all on one.   

Diary ordered so I can start noting these things for next year I can shop around rather than doing it very last min (on the day does not leave much negotiation room).

Spoke with one law firm re something the business needs, did not like them (£99 a week for one year and they do all that is needed, but I only want one thing done and they started to tell me a whole list of things were needed and it seemed a serious upsell, especially when they said they wanted a 5 year plan - good lord says Watty if you cannot do what needs doing in one year you need more staff LOL).

Have appointment next Monday for an exploratory chat with another.   Need a bit more research.

There is still a long list of stuff on my paper download but today I will try and tidy my office as that is a bit of a stressor, clear the cupboard under the stairs as there is a "project" in there, find battery chargers and research new phone and sort out my icloud account as I think ex could access that.

KajiKita

You sound focused, like you are getting organised and back on top of everything. (I know outward appearances can be deceptive.)
Understand why VNM can’t be asked to do more at this time but am hopeful PA can be helpful. 

Well done for identifying your iCloud as a possible ex-access-point. Also well done for thinking ‘sod off’ to the upselling law firm and the getting a diary for next year 😊

Maybe it’s time to think about scheduling in some fun time for this weekend or next …? 🤔😉😊

KK

Watty1

Planned a Sunday morning hack and gossip with lovely neighbour.  She will only do one route which is very boring but it will be lovely to get out.   

The week has exhausted me.  Spent the morning on the sofa pretty much staring into space then this afternoon began to tackle the office.  Not work but clearing.  It has taken all afternoon to do what looks like very little but the bins and recycling box are full and there is yet another pile of papers for VNM to sort.  My aim is to get a tidy office as I think this will help with my mental health which has struggled since email-gate.

I've found two old phones so I need to find out how to recycle them.  (Iphone 5 and 6 so not worth anything but if anyone knows what to do with them please do comment).

daisy_1571

I've got a wee bagful of old phones - as in ancient ones.  Like you, no idea what to do with them

Clearing and cleaning in office is a great idea.  It will feel so much better with it all organised and under control. 

Dxx

Slinky

Watty1 said:

I've found two old phones so I need to find out how to recycle them.  (Iphone 5 and 6 so not worth anything but if anyone knows what to do with them please do comment).

If you can, charge them up and see if there's any personal info or photos stored on the phone itself. Try doing a factory reset. Remove the sim card. There's a phone recycling bin at our local tip.

Sorry to hear the past few days have been tough, hope you enjoy your ride out in the morning.

Debsnewbudget

You can send any phones etc to 
https://www.littlelives.org.uk/donate/donate-phone-tablet-charity/

Print off their label and post them 

TallGirl

I’ve used music magpie ok. Or recently Vintedcashcow is another one that takes them but you might need other stuff to go with it. I can refer we get £20 each or just go direct via their website only used them once. 

Suffolk_lass

Re your email - you probably know you could set up a g-mail account that gives you 10gb of cloud storage in a google drive for free. You could use one to archive the email from the linked account straight to the drive, and then link that account to a presentation system (whatever the latest equivalent to MS Outlook is; where the source accounts sit behind it and could be multiple). When I last used outlook, it also allowed me to set up an automated equivalent to out of office, advising people the account is dormant, or ceased, and redirecting them or auto-forwarding to another account. You might need more than one new account, as I think you know