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

badmemory

Re the 3 yr fix, house ins too.  You probably aren't old enough but Mr Cheery will be.  The first year they are a little more but good cover, the second year on a par & third year cheaper.  Well they have been so far.  Bonus is they don't ask for your mobile number so that they can sell it on. Saga.

I had had the same mobile number for 15 years & never had a duff call.  Some idiot drove into me & my then insurer insisted & I do mean insisted on having my mobile number & since then they have never stopped & I am sick of them flattening my battery.  I can't block them because I am not on a monthly contract.  I spend about £5 a year on it.  I only have it to ring the AA & say I'm going to be late type stuff.

rtandon27

@badmemory - is your mobile an android or a fruity phone? - I've been playing with my android phone settings and found a way both to both block numbers and have suspected spam flagged.  I'm not sure how up to date your mobile needs to be, but happy to PM you a link to the instructions if it helps!

badmemory

My mobile is way older than that.  I don't use it really.  The signal during a working day is pathetic although better very early morning & late evening.   I have a landline at home, that I suspect BT is going to make even more unusable than it already is, but it is a good intercom.  Despite me paying what seems a small fortune to BT for my internet etc they don't seem to be able to stop the phone from cutting the internet off for 5 minutes after hanging up & also cutting the phone off too.

EssexHebridean

When checking with the council about help that might be available for Mr C Snr don't make the mistake of even hinting that family can afford to make any of the repairs for him, else they will just default to not even offering anything as they'll see a route to not needing to. 

fannyadams

EssexHebridean said:

When checking with the council about help that might be available for Mr C Snr don't make the mistake of even hinting that family can afford to make any of the repairs for him, else they will just default to not even offering anything as they'll see a route to not needing to. 

^THIS^
See also home care (or whatever it's called - when they send out 'carebears' to help look after the older person, like feed them meals, or get them up in the morning etc).

Cheery_Daff

Thank you all for your excellent advice xxx

I am somewhat on the periphery of decision making as an in-law but am feeding in information of course, and am more knowledgeable than them about some things because of other circumstances. So we'll see. 

I'm sure you'll excuse me if I don't post all the details on here about decisions etc, but I am reading very gratefully xxx

This week is turning into a bit of a palaver.

Monday, was SO tired in the morning I started work late, and ended up working very late to compensate, getting less and less effective of course. So didn't do anything on my list except assemble the bed.

Yesterday took the car to the garage, and they didn't finish fixing it 🙄 So I had to stay at work late until Mr C finished his band practice and could take me home in the other car. 

Today we're both having to go in together, so he can drop some stuff off, and I can (hopefully!!) collect the other car later. 

Thursday annoyingly he has a docs appointment (near home) and I have a dentist appointment (near work) at the same time - wouldn't be a crisis if there wasn't a risk of only having one car, or if we weren't heading straight off to Mr C Snr's layer in the day (work is part of the way). If we don't get the car back, one of us will have to rearrange our appointment. 

We've booked a Premier Inn for Thurs/Fri, and I think we'll drove over at lunchtime on Thursday. We'll miss the traffic, and i can do a few hours of work in the hotel room while Mr C visits his dad and does some running around to get us ready for Friday.

Friday is big DIY day, a friend is coming over to help us. What we do depends on how damp the place still is.

More DIY on Saturday (just the two of us) then Mr C has a gig on Saturday night, near work, so we'll do that, then head home.

So a fair bit of logistical coordination required, quite a bit of equipment of various types, and several outfits 🙄😂

Very much looking forward to Sunday. Need to do some washing if nothing else. Haven't even managed to watch Call the Midwife yet, i'll be watching 2 episodes in a row at this rate! 😂

Oh, and I heard i didn't get an interview for the job I applied for before Christmas. A shame, but I'm actually not that disappointed - it would have been great, but I feel like there's enough going on right now without a change in job too. 

Right, onwards. I'm on a training course this morning so best get a shift on!

themadvix

Entirely reasonable that you don't want to go into details here Cheery - it's not your life to share.

Pity about the job, but I can see why you feel now might not be the right time. The logistics of your packing alone for this weekend are daunting!

EssexHebridean

Definitely enough going on without needing to think about a job change as well - completely understandable that you feel relieved, to a degree at least! As has been proved, there will be another job option along at some stage before too long, and the stars may align better then! 

Cheery_Daff

Thank you @themadvix and @EssexHebridean xx you are right, the stars may align at some point! There's a promotions round coming up soon at my current job which I was considering, but I think I may sit this one out, we'll see, a few conversations needed.

So. I have the car back, but it's not fixed. It seems the wiring to the heater keeps shorting - possibly due to a mouse having chewed through it 🙄 Given that we removed two mice from the house yesterday evening, one this morning, and another one just now, mice are currently NOT my favourite animal! 

(And before anyone says 'it's probably the same mouse, ha ha!' Please see my previous review of the academic literature on mouse navigation, and understand that 'removing them from the house' involves driving them 1.5 miles to an isolated lay-by on the moors, so no, it's not the same mouse, we just have a minor infestation 🙄)

They are cute though - we get field mice, not house mice, they're tiny with massive ears 🥰

So the car has to go back again next week to see the electrical engineer - on the one day I didn't actually need to be in the office 🙄 hey ho.

Mr C has rearranged his docs appointment tomorrow, so that helps logistically. 

He won't be back for another hour, and we still have to pack for our epic multi-activity trip, so...

greenbee

I think it's time you got a cat. Or several.

You can get 'working cats' that live outside (although that won't help with the mice in the house).