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

Cheery_Daff

Ha, yes, my whole house has been largely ignored, as well as the garden 🙈

Delighted to report I now have tea 😁 And, despite having avoided a pastry an hour ago, I have now succumbed. Hey ho. I'm on the next train for 2.5 hours and likely won't make it to the buffet car so this is stocking up! Might try and have a nap, I was awake earlier but now feeling considerably less so...

rtandon27

Haha - I mis-read that as you had bought food that WAS pastry!  Glad to hear you have succumbed to the sweet treat - sometimes it's the only way.

I've only had one coffee this morning & a breakfast of leftover pizza and wings from 🍁-day celebrations on Monday - think it might be time for a greens smoothie to stave off malnutrition and then on to tackling the next thing on the list!  There is a whole lot of deadheading that needs to be done of the various rose bushes!

Cheery_Daff

Ha, good luck! 

I made it to the hotel and paid for an early check in, much needed as I've been able to just sit and have a cuppa and a sandwich in peace, and now dump all my stuff and not have to drag it round for the rest of the day 😊

Can't really be bothered going back out now, mind you, but I'll miss the start of the conference if I don't leave in the next four minutes, so...

themadvix

Glad you made it and had time for a cuppa and sit down!

EssexHebridean

Hurrah for successful travelling and early check ins, even if tea was a bit in short supply. This is why I invested in a decent insulated mug a few years back. The only issue is that it's almost too good - it takes ages for the tea to cool enough to drink! 

Cheery_Daff

Evening all 😊

Gosh, that was a long week! I've spent 12 hours on trains in the last three days 😮 Conference was great, my presentation went down well, there were more people there that I knew than I thought, and I met some new people too, including a couple from my own organisation 😂😂

Also had an evening with an old stripey MSE friend 😊😊😊😊😊 So lovely to see @Pippilongstocking and her cheeriest of dogs 😊😊😊😊😊 It's been ten years, I think 😱😱😱😱😱 Anyway, well worth missing the conference buffet for 😂

Last night I had a much-needed evening in the hotel on my own with an M&S salad and a doughnut 😂

Got all uncharacteristically feisty too 😮 The first night there was a weird throbbing noise in the room, like a distant fan, that I hadn't noticed til I was in bed (I'd been out and got back late) and then couldn't be bothered getting dressed to go to reception, but I had a shabby night's sleep, and since I was in a hotel which advertises itself based on a good night's sleep... I put on my brave pants and asked if I could swap rooms 😊 Of course they said yes. You have no idea how out of character that is for me 😂

Equally out if character - i got into bed in my new room, and a weird whooshing started up outside, and lasted about an hour, before I'd finally had enough and put on enough clothes to be decent. Stomped out to the car park, where a man was sat in a hire van with the engine on, which was overheating, then cooling itself, then overheating, and it was being amplified under the scaffolding 🙄

Being even more brave (and quite grumpy by this stage) I knocked on his window. He proceeded to ignore me 😠 so I knocked even longer, and eventually he answered. I asked how long he was going to be sat there, and if he could please turn the engine off - he told me he would be freezing without it on 🙄 so I just rolled my eyes and walked off, intending to report it to reception - and he turned it off 😁 so my second night was far more peaceful! 

Now I've got an earlier train home, but Mr Cheery (who is meant to be collecting me) isn't answering texts 🙄 Remembered that a neighbour rang me earlier and didn't leave a message, so instantly started fearing the worst 🙄 But he said there had been a van parked at ours for a long time, and he'd spoken to Mr C and it was fine. I've still not got hold of Mr C myself, so what's the mystery?! Who was in the van?! Is Mr Cheery enjoying himself too much to answer my calls, or has a mishap befallen him?! Will I have to walk 6 miles home from the station?! 

(I'm assuming that the van belonged to a friend, and that Mr Cheery is just busy, and will likely not get my message, and I'll have to sit in the pub until the time of my original train, which isn't exactly a hardship). Will report back 🙄

Cheery_Daff

Ah, he's reappeared, thankfully. Couldn't have a conversation on the train so no idea what's been happening, but he is alive and will collect me so all good 😂

Not exactly a money-saving few days. Work is paying for hotel of course, but I'll stump up for early check in, dinner with pal (conference buffet was included in the conference fee so can't claim twice), train to another City & late night taxi from the station, and I bought 2 books from a publisher stall (both £10 which is very cheap for what they normally sell at, but still £20 I didn't need to spend). All in well worth it though, all good decisions 😁

I've eaten a lot of rubbish though 😱 walked a lot and did a hotel room workout last night (more to stretch than anything else) but I still feel in need of eating nothing but cabbage soup for the weekend to recover. (That'll likely last as far as tonight's tea though 😂)

rtandon27

Loving the feisty stories!

Glad you found Mr. Cheery & that all is OK with him! Though if it was me, I'd have been just as pleased to wait it out in a pub with a book or my laptop & do some organizing!

OH has just informed me that AcheofFace has told him that our Pips has had to walk home with the dog as her train home was cancelled!!!

KajiKita

I remember I once checked into a hotel for work and as SOON as I walked in to it, I knew there was NO way I was spending a single microsecond in there! It was right next to a huge extraction system from the kitchens and stank of fried food, was noisy with the fans, boiling hot and the size of a shoe box! 

I was tamping and went down to the reception immediately. They moved me into a completely different wing of the hotel which was obviously an upgrade and was very quiet, all new and pretty plush … 😉

Ever since then, when ever I check into a hotel, I try and get there early in the booking in slot and ask for a quiet room, as I had no idea that they could have so much flex in allocating rooms (depending on occupancy of course.)

KK

LadyWithAPlan

Cheery_Daff said:

In the meantime, doing some totting up. June was a bumper month for extra cash! 

£25 1P payout
£185 my bank switch
£185 Mr C's bank switch
£100 my NW share
£100 Mr C's NW share
£2.20 bank rewards
£4.99 MB
= £602.19 😱

That's £2041.26 this year 😱

Quite a lot of that is bank switching - £695 since April (I've only got monthly totals before that in this notebook). 

Had quite a bit of cashback too, £131.55 since April (although some of that was linked to bank switches).

MB is being a bit pathetic - I barely do much at the minute, an occasional flurry of low risk casino but not every day and not remotely systematic. I dropped one of my annual subscriptions this year, but kept the other one - including that, I'm at minus £213.19 🙄😂 (that figure is taken into account in the overall amount). Need to spend the rest of this year deciding whether to ditch it, or actually just do it more often. Same decision as the gym really 😂

Right, 8 minutes left on this train and I will heading directly for a cup of tea!

My casino is down the last 3 months but first 4 months were amazing so ... I am up over the year. Last euros I made loads but I am gubbed by a lot of bookies now so...  I also paid up for extra software for a year on EPs and horse accas  etc - so far am up there as well on that but I am tracking every trade on EP + lucky 15s to see if over the year its worth the additional cost. I used to track every MB and casino trade but now I have faith in the Long term ev but these horses are more volatile 

Well done on the cb very impressive

I always come away from conferences feeling a bit yuck - all that sitting down and eating. Since I became strictly GF its easier as I cant eat the free biscuits!  A few days of kale and dark green salads will fix you hopefully