Milann’s mutterings through retirement

beanielou

Glad your roof is finished. 

Happy birthday to your DS. 

Seasidegal58

I hope the swelling in your arm goes down milann. 

Enjoy your new roof! 

milann

Mega clean up didn’t happen today. I went on auto pilot last night when we arrived home and tried to pick the kettle up and very nearly dropped it full (2 cups anyway) of boiling water. I haven’t been able to lift anything since 😢 I can still bend it so it’s all a bit bizarre. I’m hoping the builder stays true to his word and comes and does a clean up outside as everywhere is covered in gritty dust and sweeping with one arm is tricky 🥴
I went to the singing group this morning and our usual guy is currently on tour with Wet Wet Wet so he had a stand in. The songs all seemed very melancholy and didn’t do much for me at all…..or maybe it was just me. Anyway I’ll be pleased when our usual guy is back….not sure if it’s another 2 or 3 weeks…..he’s released a single and I’m hoping he does well but don’t want to loose him as I love the sessions he does with us. If he makes it big time I don’t suppose he’ll continue with us. 

Had a lovely time with ds and Dh yesterday we drove to a city about an hour away and the restaurant we’d booked did tapas style food. All the veg dishes were half price and we had a varied selection as well as delicious meat dishes. We were so full 😁 We shared a couple of deserts as we were too full for one each. So a delicious and bargainous meal was had. We walked along the river and docks which were very pretty reflecting the light from the buildings once it was dark. We do tend to go there fairly regularly but there is always something different to see there. 

Not sure what’s happening over weekend. We might go into the big city nearby to see the Chinese Dragon parade for Chinese New Year…..depends on the weather. But whatever happens we will go to see ds who will cook us one of his delicious paellas. 

Money has been spent celebrating this week but it has all been done in true MSE style. 

I’ve just had a message from the gym I go to saying the swimming pool will open mid week again as it’s been closed since it was badly flooded in the New Year day floods. I have a month left on my membership but I won’t be renewing as it’s difficult to get to without a car and I don’t think I can swim atm. I’m going to give it a go and if I’m ok swimming will join the local council run pool at the corner of my road. 

milann

Just looked at my finances and I’m quite pleased I can transfer some cash back into the savings account to build it up after having the roof done. I’ll continue adding to it when I can as I want it back to the previous total. I quite fancy some decorating doing and a new suite sometime soon. I was quite surprised when I realised I’ve had the suite 19 years…..no wonder the springs are being to go. It’s frustrating as there no way I can put the settee in a different place and Dh always sits in the same place…..
I’ve been to the dentist today- just a check up. I need to send the receipt off to HSA for a refund. 

The roofer still hasn’t been back for the big tidy up he promised. Dh cleaned the heavy up over weekend. Watch this space…….

Baileys_Babe

When you replace the suite could you just buy a number of armchairs and then you could swap them around to even out the wear?

milann

Good idea Baileys Babe, unfortunately it’s a long, thin room that lends itself to a sofa flat along one wall….the verdict is out as to whether we go for a 2 seater in the alcove or 2 armchairs again. We will see what’s available when we’ve save d enough o go shopping.
Well the roofer still hasn’t been to do the big clean up he promised. I don’t suspect he will now. Can’t fault his roofing though.
Last weekend we went to redeem Dh free coffee from Octopus. The chain of shops are usually ok but it was busy and every table full of pots and in need of a clean. I’d moved the pots from our table and waited for it to be wiped…..nobody came……in fact nobody wiped any table all the time we were in there 😡 Dh got the drinks and I was peckish so I bought a cinnamon swirl. It was raw in the middle- I could pull the dough in my fingers 🥴😳😡 so I took it back for a refund. There was a man sitting nearby and as he left his seat he thought he’d lost something so lifted the cushion on the armchair he was sitting in. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was filthy….he lifted the cushion so staff could see it. Somebody else came to sit in his place, saw the mess and promptly lifted the cushion on the chair next to it. It was the same. He pushed both chairs back in the alcove which he said was also dirty and pulled some different chairs over. I checked to sofa we were sitting on….it was the same as the chairs, so I took a photo. I have contacted the head office and had a reply that they’re following it up by requesting the area manager to put more training in and order a deep clean of the shop. I’m going to go back in a week or so and if it’s still the same will get onto trading standards. It was a recognised chain and not a cheap place….i know a lot of people sit on the chairs but I don’t think they’d seen a hoover nozzle or cleaning cloth for a looooooonnnnnnggggg time.
I've been trying to up my walking. My ankle and hip are objecting but I’ve been taking breaks by sitting on benches. I’m concerned that if I stop walking and swimming I’m going to become more and more stiff and it’ll be harder to keep mobile. I’ve not been able to swim atm as my arm is bad. So it’s a case of mind over matter as much as I can. 

beanielou

Sounds yuk. 

WinterWarrior

I hope they refunded the cinnamon swirl too! You would think any food place would always have an eye on cleanliness from the environmental health angle, if nothing else. 

Exercise is so hard, but I think it will be easier for you to keep going now, rather than stopping and then starting again from scratch. I like to listen to an audio book while walking, I sometimes zone out and have to go back and listen again, but somehow it helps to have a bit of background chatter.

Baileys_Babe

Well done on letting the head office know of the problems at this branch, hopefully, it will be dealt with promptly.

milann

I’ve been busy doing nothing these last few days. I’ve been to a show in the big city with some ladies from singing. It was about Dolly Parton. It was a last minute booking and I hadn’t heard anything about the show so presumed it her life story. It wasn’t and was set during COVID. It was a good laugh though and we had a great afternoon. 

Apparently the roofer came and did a big clean up whilst I was out. I can’t say I noticed much difference. Dh had done a clean up though just to get the heavy up…..so presumably that was good enough for the roofer. So this morning I’ve been out with my hosepipe and sweeping brush. It does look much better….i even cleaned the wheely bins 😇 which were thick in muck from the roof, but I’m shattered now. I expected to be cold but I wasn’t at all. The window cleaner has just been and I’ve paid the for the last 2 times when they couldn’t get near because of the scaffolding. I told them I expected a good job doing- which they did 👏👏It’s quite a novelty to be able to look out without the motorhome, scaffolding or mucky windows. I need to tidy inside the house now. It’s not that bad tbh. I just need to motivate myself.
On Friday we went to a neighbours funeral. She lived in the next road backing onto house and her daughter lives next door to us. She was in her late 80s and a lovely character. We spent the afternoon in a local club with other neighbours reminiscing, eating and having a drink in her memory. She’d have loved it. 

I was wanting to get the downstairs decorated soon but the man who usually does it for us was there on Friday and was telling us he’s going in for surgery in a couple of weeks. We’ll have to find somebody else but the other guy did us ‘mates rates’ as we’ve known his wife since we moved here 40 years ago. Not looking forward to finding somebody else but I can’t do it myself any more. I used to love decorating.
Tomorrow I want to shuffle some things around upstairs and start putting the z beds up ready for Dd and gks to come at weekend. Once she has gone home I’m going to empty Dh junk room into the other rooms and decant and declutter everything as it goes back in there. Not sure how much Dh is looking forward to this 😂😂😂 but there’ll be no room for him to get in there, if we don’t shift something- there’s so much junk ‘important items’ apparently 😂😂😂😂😂 He is finishing work in a few weeks and I want to sort it before he finishes then he can enjoy the space without having to think about sorting it first.
Money wise, I’m doing ok. Everything is within budget and plodding along nicely. Dh isn’t happy about the billing for emptying the garden rubbish that has been proposed from April. They’re offering reduced priced compost bins…..not sure how much they’ll work out yet but it might be worth getting one. Half of the year I only put a small bag or 2 of food waste in the bin with no garden waste. I bet it’s only full a couple of times a year as we have no grass or hedges. I’ll let him decide whether he wants to have a few tip trips or pay £50ish a year. Watch this space.