Milann’s mutterings through retirement

Seasidegal58

I'm glad to hear your arm has healed nicely with no scarring after that nasty scald!
The new gym sounds nice and economical compared to your other one. It'll be good to get back to swimming again. 

milann

We just been to dds in-laws for a few days. It’s a long journey about 5 hours but we had a lovely time. We arrived Thursday and met up with a friend who moved down there several years ago then went to where we were staying. Our host is an eccentric octogenarian and a real character. We took him for a meal on The Thursday evening which was very nice. There are so many lovely country pubs around there which are independent rather than the chains we tend to get near home. For Friday  I’d taken a meat and potato pie (stew with a pastry crust) as he enjoys home cooking and tends not to bother) for the following day. We did our own thing in the daytime and wanted to do a walk in The New Forest we’ve walked previously, however there was a road closure and the alternative had a width restriction which we weren’t happy about chancing in Millie Motorhome. So we just had a drive around seeing the wild horses and donkeys and ended up in another lovely pub for a drink. The rest of the family arrived on Saturday and the hosts daughter had ordered a massive Mr T food drop. We all mucked in together and had a great time. We went to his local town for a look around before we headed home yesterday.
My hayfever was really bad…..don’t think I’ve had it that bad for years. But we were in the garden pretty much all of the time. It was warm and very windy so the pollen was really blowing around. 

I’m really tired today…so I haven’t done much  at all. 

I’ve paid my cc in full. We got a bargain at one of the M&S service station stops. A Chinese meal for 2 reduced from £13 to £5. So that’s for tea this evening. 👍
We’re going to ds house tomorrow to help him brush some sand and cement in the cracks of his paving in an attempt to stop the weeds. On Wednesday I’m on a different felting course. I’m going with a friend so we’re going to a NT place nearby for a wander and lunch before heading to the craft shop. I’m looking forward to this as it’s making a picture of some poppies.

beanielou

Glad you had a good time. 

milann

It seems ages since I’ve posted. I was shattered after spending time helping ds do his garden….i loved doing it and we could really see the difference. I was so tired afterwards though.
I loved the felting course. I think I could really get into it…but what do you do with the things made. I don’t want hundreds of pictures or animals and I’ve got no interest in selling them. Think I’ll have to give them to gks😂😂and hope they don’t get fed up of Grandmas homemade things 😂 and just bring them out when I visit 😂😂😂😂
We’ve just arrived home from a few days in Skegness. I haven’t been there since we spent an afternoon when my kids were tiny. I remembered very little of it. The site we stayed on was a walk away from the centre of town and transport interchange. We did visit town and it’s had a lot of improvements since I was last there. The attractions on the front are a tad busy for me but a few hundred yards from the noisy rides we spent a lovely hour on a deserted beach with a cuppa. We travelled on the bus for free with our passes to a NT place and to different places along the coast for walks and cafes and of course a cheeky tipple 🥂👍😁 so we had a good time. I could have done with the temperature dial turning down a tad but we remedied this some of the time by travelling on an open top bus with a lovely breeze. We started off on our journey home at 10 this morning and all was going well until we hit them resurfacing a road near the NT place we visited a few miles into the journey. Traffic was stopping for long periods whilst they laid tar and stones. It was stop start for miles EXCEPT we didn’t start as the man turned the paddle green for us to go after waiting ages 😳 It was down to 1 lane on a busy country A road…..fields either side of us for miles with drainage ditches by the side of the roads….it wouldn’t budge….not a spark or flicker of the engine starting. It was a rolling procedure as they tarmacced along the road coming towards us. From nowhere 6 guys in orange jackets jumped from various vehicles and pushed us to the side where luckily there was a farm entrance. Dh was not best pleased and looked at the engine- the workmen all looked and none could understand why it wouldn’t start. They radioed someone who is a mechanic and said they’d try and help us….especially when we told them how far we were travelling.These workmen were brilliant and needed to keep the traffic flowing as best they could without a blooming big Motorhome blocking the 1 and only lane 🥴I found the breakdown cover we have and was just about to phone them…..1/2 hour must have passed by this time Dh tried the engine and it started no problem 🤷🏻‍♀️ Dh went and told man with walk-in talkie who was directing tar trucks and things that needed directing and we managed to get going again. Dh reckons it was something to do with the automatic cut off and start thingie (yes I’m very technically minded 🥴😂) . My heart was in my mouth every time we stopped but we made it home for 5 pm after stopping at a lovely pub outside Sheffield (using Mr T vouchers for food 😁) A journey I don’t want to repeat again.
Dh has gone out to his ukulele group…..well deserved r&r for him after today. I’ve got a lovely peaceful evening to myself 😁👍

Sun_Addict

Glad you got home safely in the end - what an experience 😬 Skeggy is our nearest seaside resort, aren’t we lucky 🤣 although we haven’t been since Mr SA’s illness. The last time we went was to take the dog for the day at the beginning of March 2013. By the end of the same month Mr SA had started going downhill rapidly. 

Enjoy your peaceful evening 🙂

milann

SA I did think of you as I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many mobility scooters in one place 👍

beanielou

That was a horrendous journey. 

milann

Not much going on here. I was very pleased to see a cloudy sky and cooler temperatures here today. Dh has gone into work to help them with a job….i think he regretted saying he’d do it 😂 he’s settling into retirement much better than he expected. I’ve been catching up on a bit of housework but it isn’t too bad so not much to do 👍
I went to see a fabulous amdram show with the folks from the singing group on Saturday. It was as good as any professional show I’ve seen. The story of how Carol King started her career. The lead singer sounded so much like her….she should go professional 👏👏👏👏
I was out with friends from an old workplace yesterday. It was lovely to catch up but we had a laugh as we stopped ourselves just chatting medical stuff 🥴😳 how did it come to this 😂😂
it was so hot yesterday afternoon so Dh and myself just went out for a ride….the best way to stay cool….air conditioning in the car mmmmmmmm….
we ended up at a lovely pub on a hill about 20 minutes away. It looks over the big city not far away. The air pollution and heat haze around town was very obvious - quite an eye opener to see.
I have been looking at the bank accounts this morning as I have an ISA about to come to the end of its term. I thought it was the beginning of July but it’s the end. There is a little surplus in my current account that I want to transfer to it too so I must remember to do something at the end of the month. 

I’m going to run the carpet shampooer over the living room carpet this afternoon then the plan is to sit and crochet whilst it dries. It won’t take long as it’s not a big room.

milann

I’ve posted a couple of long posts but they’ve gone forever into cyberspace thanks to the gremlins that have been lurking recently. Thankfully it looks as if the MSE folk have sorted them. 👏👏
id been doing a bit of banking and sorting the other day and realised Dh hasn’t transferred any cash into an isa for a good while. Seems pointless having surplus cash sitting in an account earning diddly squat so we were on a mission to find one with a reasonable return and a passbook. He has a 🐝 in his bonnet about having proof of the account existing should he meet his demise…..🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️ I think this stems from the agro we had with his mums estate. So we ventured to a local town to open the chosen account, they couldn’t fit us in until tomorrow so we went on the tram to the big city and visited several banks and building societies. We could have opened one there and then with our bank but it’s all done on line….he wasn’t budging about wanting a pass book.  We headed to the original bs and booked an appointment for tomorrow…just incase they do mess with the isa accounts in the near future. It’s not a fortune by any stretch of the imagination and we might have to use it in the future as  we might need a damp proofing course in the near future. But it might as well earn a little interest in the meantime.

I had a message from the dentist cancelling my appointment a while ago and I completely forgot to re book one. I had another curt message yesterday suggesting I book an appointment or loose my nhs place. I called in as I was passing. She was just putting the phone down cancelling somebody’s appointment for today so I snapped it up. It was just a check up and no follow up so £27 ish.
We went into town for Dh to choose some glasses, he’d had his eyes tested a couple of weeks ago but wanted me to be with him when he chose….😂I’m not sure why as he did his own thing any way 😂
I need to sent the receipts to HSA for some cash back. I also have some older dental eceipts which I’m hoping they’ll still honour. It used to be so much easier when you just posted them instead of doing it on line. I find I just put on line things off for as long as I can…I hate doing things on line with a vengeance.
Right better go and battle sending the receipts……

milann

The HSA receipts have been paid in and I now have the cash in my bank. 

My ISA is up for renewal in August….is it easy to transfer it into a new ISA account over t’internet. It’s the only on line one I have….doesn’t pay the best interest but I can withdraw 3 times without any loss of interest. It’s my emergency and household job fund. 

It was my late mum in laws birthday yesterday. We had half a dozen phone calls over the day from my SIL asking if we had taken her out for the day as she couldn’t get hold of her…..had she changed her phone number…..Alzheimer’s is so sad. We told her as gently as we could that mum was no longer with us. Fascinating that she remembered the date of her birthday but couldn’t remember that she’d died best part of 10 year ago…..