Cheery's path to fulfilment - finishing the DIY, looking after myself, appreciating the garden 🌻

EssexHebridean

Ugh - consider me to be sending your potential cold “get lost” vibes on your behalf - I’m still getting rid of the residue of the one I had the other week - you definitely don’t want it! 

That sounds like a good method of growing potatoes. MrEH has gone for thr classic ridges for ours, but I just bet we’ll never get round the earthing them up as they grow - presumably with your method you just chuck some more hay on? Of course, that does rely on having hay, which is something we tend to have a lot of round here! 😂

The patio looks fantastic - I’m most impressed! 

redofromstart

That made me laugh EH, I have been known to chuck a few in but not actually harvest them, and I noticed this week that we have a lovely and definite row growing, so I must have forgotten them again last year. I was busy with work, honest.

love the patio, and the re-using of inherited materials Cheery,  think we have a few rows of those tiles but all yellow that came with the garden here. I may use them to edge a border having seen how good yours look.

Cheery_Daff

Thank you all 😊

EH, I intend to do nothing at all to my potatoes - I didn't last time I grew them like this 😂 I will endeavour to get round to harvesting them though! 

Ooh yes Redo, do use your cheerful yellow tiles and show us what you do with them! 😊 

Exciting morning of cashback here - on top of the £18 I cashed out the other day, I now have another £50 ready and cashed out this morning! £25 for the latest bank switch, and £25 for referring Mr Cheery 😂 Which, of course, reminded me that I had referred Mr Cheery, and it turns out he has £37.12 ready to cash out - £10 from being referred by me 😂 £25 from the bank switch, and a few odd bits from elsewhere. I don't recognise the bank account for his payout though, it must be one we used for a switch, so need to check before I cash out, although I think if it is one that's been closed as part of a switch, the payment should be forwarded to whatever it switched to. There's a PayPal option, but the bank has requested their cashback not be paid out via PayPal- not heard of that before! Hey ho. 

Still, £87.12 of free cash right there 😃

I am also £1.09 off payout with 1Poll so I shall endeavour to do that by the end of the day (although I've been endeavouring for several weeks now 😂 I think I got to my first payout within a single month and everyone marvelled how quick it was - this second one has taken me about 4 months 😂)

Right, best get up. I'm still snuffling and Mr Cheery had to decamp to the spare room to escape my snoring, but I'm otherwise functional and my cold seems to be staying pretty minor, thankfully. I can even mostly breathe through my nose! Let's hope it stays that way.

In the office today, Mr Cheery is coming too, so it'll be a long day, but there's a lot to do so plenty to fill it! It's marking season, plus I have two big projects ending in the next 4 weeks, including the one I've been running and which has taken up most of my time for the last 2 years 😱 I will miss it very much (although there will be plenty of follow on work to do). 

Anyway, all this to say I am trying to take it nice and gently, eat well, exercise lightly, get enough sleep, and generally not make myself more ill! 😊

Foggy out there today, can't see past the garden gate. Not been that foggy here for a while! 

Hope you are all due a cheerful day 😊

Cheery_Daff

Oh, and I meant to say, Mr Cheery was offered some regular-ish work recently, which sounded good initially and we were both quite excited by the prospect of the extra dosh. However, the terms seem to not be quite what was expected, and rather less favourable, and it seems he may turn it down unless they will negotiate. He was initially torn and will remain a bit disappointed, but we are both feeling VERY fortunate that we are in a position not to have to take on something that will likely turn out to be a bit of a burden in the future. If it was necessary, of course he would, and the extra money would be nice, but it's a lot of hassle and a fair bit of late night travel, and if they won't negotiate, the terms aren't good enough, and he will leave it for someone with less experience for whom it will probably be a good opportunity. 

Feeling both very lucky and very pleased with ourselves to have reached a point in life to be able to be so picky 😊

Having said that I do still have a day job (which I am on the whole very fond of) so I really must get out of bed! 😂😂

CathT

The patio space is lovely. What's the plant/shrub to the right? Will it come into flower. What a lovely space to sit in the sunshine - hope you get the chance to enjoy your efforts. 

Cheery_Daff

CathT said:

The patio space is lovely. What's the plant/shrub to the right? Will it come into flower. What a lovely space to sit in the sunshine - hope you get the chance to enjoy your efforts. 

Thanks Cath 😊 It's a rose growing up the wall, it does flower but not much. There's another rose in the pot behind which is much nicer and has loads of really fragrant pink flowers, so I'm trying to get that to grow more. I keep cutting back the first one as I don't like it that much, but it's very persistent 😂 It's growing in a little cut out in the concrete next to the house, there's not enough room to get in to dig it out 😂 

Cheery_Daff

Evening MSE chums 😊

Just popped in to report (because I know you'll all be on the edge of your seat waiting for this news) that 1Poll now stands at £24.56 🙄😂😂 44p to go, and obviously there are no remaining surveys for the day. How did I get to that odd number, when most surveys are 15 or 20p?! No idea! 😂

Nothing else to report. Been in the office all day. Feeling rather drained but cold hasn't turned to anything other than a light sniffle, thankfully. It'll be an early night for me though.

Cheery_Daff

Morning chums 😊

I slept well but still snuffly and am looking forward to not driving to the office today. Lots to do though! And things lined up for the weekend too - a little train trip to another city on Friday daytime for an event and lunch with an ex boyfriend 😂 and then Mr Cheery has a gig on Saturday which I'll join him for and stay over with some friends 😊 All cheerful 😊

Looks like it might be a bit rainy, but Sunday might be dry - I'll try and get a bit more time on the patio, but my priority will be to rest up and feel better. 

Only one more week at work before we go to Ireland to see our friends! 😱 Bad timing work-wise - I booked it because it was well after the end of a project, but since then the project has been extended to end while we're away, and another one added which ends a couple of weeks later 🙄 So the next few weeks are busy, and I could do without feeling rough today, but maybe a holiday in the middle will help... 🙄😂

MSE things to attend to over the next few days:
* get to 1P payout
* retrieve £7 cashback from hotel stay
* pay car tax
* check car insurance and breakdown for Ireland trip
* retrieve dosh from Mr Cheery's switch account
* change payout account on Mr Cheery's TCB account
* check banks & YNAB
* set up co-op regular saver if I've not missed it

Oh, and ring the dentist! Last time I was in, I checked there was nothing else to pay, and they assured me there wasn't. A few weeks ago they sent me a letter saying I owed them £44 🙄 Apparently they'd forgot to add the hygienist appointment to the last amount they charged. I paid, and checked there was nothing else - they assured me that was it.

Then they sent a letter saying I hadn't finished my treatment (ie had my dentures fitted) and that if I didn't make appointment in the next 2 weeks they'd discharge me (whatever that means in this context). I informed them that I hadn't 'finished' because I'm on the waiting list at the dental hospital to have a tooth removed - which they well know - and can't have the dentures fitted until it's gone 🙄 Checked i didn't owe them anything - no.

Yesterday I had a text saying I owed them £246!! I've not seen them since January, so can only assume they've suddenly decided to charge me for the inconvenience of keeping my denture plate sitting in a drawer while I wait for the hospital appointment 🙄 I'm not inclined to pay right now, although I suppose I'll have to pay at some point, but it would be better to wait til it was done. Right now I don't trust them to not find something else to charge me for! 🙄

I think that's it. Might try to tick a few of those off tonight if I've got the energy.

Cheery_Daff

🙄 Just had a quick look at breakdown cover - Auto Aid want £61 and the RAC £66 to cover us for being away for 5 days 😱 Possibly because our car is ancient and they expect it to breakdown every 5 minutes 😂 Going with the RAC - we have normal cover with AutoAid, but they don't cover cars over 15 years old, and apparently ours was registered on 28th May 2009, so hits exactly 15 when we're away, and I don't want any quibbling if we do break down.

I assume our normal cover is valid for the full year we bought it for, but that ends in June I think, so it looks like no more cheap breakdown cover after that. We'll keep the car til it does - it's s getting a bit raggedy round the edges but so far (touch wood 🙄) still running fine. The other one is only a year younger and they've both done about 160,000 miles now, so I expect we'll have to replace at least one in the next year or so... 

Not right now though - right now I need to get up and get dressed!

themadvix

We have the Flexplus account for the old car breakdown cover in Europe Cheery. Unlikely to need it now unless we take the Mini (a possibility), but we’ve stuck with it (and claimed on it, the travel insurance and the phone insurance without any issues). But that’s interesting that Autoaid don’t cover you in the UK anymore if you’ve got an older car (if I’ve read that right).