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

Cheery_Daff

Ha, I've barely put a dent in that list! 😂

Washing is on the line, we've nipped into town but the gym has been scrapped. I spent considerably more than 15 mins, but the pantry shelves are now sorted 😃 we had SO many pairs of gloves 😮 woolly, rubber, gardening, drain cleaning, all thrown in one giant tub,  along with assorted woolly hats 😂  all sorted and separated now and several holey gardening gloves consigned to the bin! 

Mr Cheery's national insurance saga continues 🙄  I've checked YNAB, and we paid £491.40 in Feb 2023, which I have noted was "3 years back pay" of class 2 contributions. He was given the amount by an adviser on the phone,  along with a bank account and reference number.

Luckily I have also found an old notebook from that time,  in which I have helpfully noted which years were missing. Not counting the ones from the 1990s (we were sorted with that letter the other day) there were more recent ones - 15/16, 17/18 and 20/21, so I assume this was the 3 years that payment was to cover.

The first two are now showing as full on his record - but 20/21 isn't. SIGH. 

So that'll need another letter, but we do have proof of payment and a reference number so hopefully straightforward.  

He's currently only missing 3 years for a full pension, so if we can get that one rectified, and pay the next two (23/24 and 24/25) through the self assessment process (won't hold my breath as he's ticked the box every year since the system changed and they've never gone out) then we should be all done by April next year! Thank goodness.

Glad I started this whole process 7 years before his state pension is due - the rate they're working it'll be a miracle if they've sorted it in time! 

I found the first letter - Jan 23. They responded Nov 23. We replied within a week and just had a response this week. That's a 9-10 month response time for every letter! 😮

beanielou

That is just beyond ridiculous. 

Cheery_Daff

Tis indeed. I just keep thinking about people who don't have someone like me, persistent and not intimidated by bureaucracy, to fight their corner 

Anyway, I'd made a mistake - 20/21 IS credited now (I'd just neglected to write it in my notebook this afternoon) so at least we don't need to go through the rigmarole of a letter. So the decision is just whether to back pay the last two years (and then the current one) which means it's all over and done with this year (my preference, but does involve a phone call), or just pay the next three years. Decision after holiday. 

Cheery_Daff

Right, I have packed, have made flapjack to take with us, chopped remaining veg and put in the freezer, and spent what feels like HOURS removing all the photos off my phone. Over 7000 😱😱 No wonder it gives me warnings every five minutes 🙄 Took forever because I wanted to make sure I had them all on both laptop and external hard drive, and there kept being glitches in the copying process (likely because there were so damn many!)

Still, done now, and I have LOADS of space and can hopefully be more organised from now on! 

Mr Cheery's not packed, but we don't need to rush off tomorrow - I'll just get out and scythe until he's done 😁

rtandon27

Happy Vacationing Cheery & Mr Cheery - enjoy your well deserved time away!

Tescodealqueen

Happy holidays xxxx

PermacultureGirl

Have a great holiday - take loads of pics with all that space  xx

Cheery_Daff

Thank you all 😊😊

We are here,  and it is great 😊😊 very much is the bustling heart of things though so rather different to our silent homestead where the most we can hear in bed is sheep,  birds, and distant farm machinery 😂😂 i was woken this morning by a large truck idling outside,  and now there are motorbike,  excitable children and,  of course,  at least a million seagulls 😂

Our room is lovely,  can't believe our luck as we only booked about 3 days ago.  It's a'superior sea view room', heavily discounted so I assume there must have been a cancellation. Also discounted as the hotel kitchen is closed so it's room only.  There were pictures of two on the site so we assumed booking late we'd get the smaller,  but no,  we have a double width one with a four poster bed 😁 or also has five sash windows including a bay with chairs looking down to the sea.  A iittle dressing table and,  most helpfully,  a FRIDGE, so we can keep milk for tea,  and yogurt to go with the granola i made 😊😊

So glad we came here.  We were going to go somewhere new, but somehow ended up here.  It's familiar but we've only been for one night before so feels luxurious to have some more time to explore 😊 weather forecast is nice today so we'll stay local,  and then when it's a bit more drizzly tomorrow go further afield for some more touristy stuff 😊😊

Not spent much so far, although obviously we don't have cooking facilities so it'll add up.  Found some unexpected free parking.  £11 on tea and cake for yesterday's lunch 🤭 and £7 on a takeaway - yes,  between us 😂😂 we always just share bean curd in black bean sauce and yesterday had it with a single portion of plain rice,  which apparently they were doling out for free.  So a bargain, which we ate in a shelter on the seafront (it was raining) while the local running club did interval training 😂😊😊

Only disadvantage of only having one room is that Mr C and I tend to have quite different sleep patterns so I'm trying to stay quiet till he wakes up!

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, I forgot we also picked up some booze for the week,  and shared a small pot of supermarket ice cream while watching the Olympics which was so cheerful we'll probably do the same tonight 😂

beanielou

Sounds fantastic.