NST July 2024: A July jaunt around Madrid

Thrifty_Taylor

NSD#6

Wednesday I did some sewing in the morning, went to a small town to see the opening of their Shopping Week festival. My friend's granddaughter was the flower girl & I'd promised to go & see her. Worked in the garden when I returned home.

Thursday I met my classmate. There were only the 2 of us in our class at school. She now lives in Australia, so we had a lovely walk & long overdue catch up. Headed to mum's afterwards, had lunch together then sat knitting all afternoon & watched more of a series we started ages ago.

Today me & DH walked to the village to deposit a small PB win (£25). En route I received a phonecall to say the coat I'd won in the local newspaper competition, has arrived. Spent the rest of the morning & afternoon moving big bits of stone, digging over the newly exposed area & carting soil to increase the depth, ready to plant roses. After tea, did a quick sewing job, started prepping a new initial to fill with quilled shapes (in the style of William Morris) for a friend's birthday, then half an hour of my jigsaw.

Grateful for dry days & rainy nights, reusing things in the garden, finding a use for the free to us railway sleepers, getting washing nearly dry

Thrifty_Taylor

Went to town after breakfast to drop off & collect sewing. Took mum shopping, I did my big monthly shop with my 10% off at L1DL. All shopping put away, then I creosoted 3 railway sleepers, planted 4 sprouting potatoes, then dug over more of the new rose area.

Had a 20 minutes nap then started outlining the initial ready for quilling. It's an E this time. Have a film on in the background, DJ & DS1 are watching it too.

Grateful for the sun shining, seeing the rose area starting to take shape, seeing a tiny rabbit up close in the garden 

lcc86

Afternoon turtles, lovely day here today and also yesterday. I was on call yesterday morning but didn't have to go in. Went to the gym before lunch, then batch cooked some lunches and got some washing done. Started reading a new book which I'm enjoying thus far. No spends yesterday, got the shopping list and meal plan together ready for my delivery on Wednesday. 

Today I woke up really early, my back has been bad, got up and had a coffee, then went to see my share horse. Had a schooling session booked, it was certainly hotter than I'd hoped it would be and I was very sticky and gross by the time we were done. A good session though. Came home and treated OH to an ice cream so lost a NSD. Put the washing away, need to jump in the shower shortly and then get ready for work. 

laura_lau

Good afternoon turtles, the sun is shining and temperatures are rising. I must admit I am loving the warmer weather, and am a bit sad that I will be missing most (if not all) of it, as I am ready to fly to stay with my mum tonight. I read that tonight it would be a good sky to see some northern lights, I wonder if they are visible from the plane? Probably not

I'm very excited to finally see my mum at home, and had some troubles closing the suitcase yesterday, I've got lots of clothes for her, as she lost lots of weight. I bought some through my work discount and some come from my wardrobe that are maybe a bit tight on me or that I don't use as much as I used to. I also had to pack some things I bought at the internal sample sale at work, which I have set aside as various presents for the end of year festivities. I do not want to spend any extra money for that this year, which is why I tried to go to the sample sale with my list in mind! Now I'm bringing everything there already so they don't take up too much space in my flat. I only need to remember where the stuff is later in the year!

I only need to finish work for the day, pack the work equipment to bring with me, and before that I wanted to water the plants and send the meter readings for July. 

I will have to be very mindful as I love wandering around in the airport and I always end up buying something I don't need! Airports and stations are some of my weakest spots!

lcc86

Happy Monday all.

Had enough of work today so handed my notice in  I know it'll be a matter of time before HR get their act together but have decided to force their hand. Worst case I have some savings to fall back on. Went to the pub for a little beer after work but OH paid so it's still a NSD for me.

weenancyinAmerica

@laura_lau - A friend and I were once waiting in the Belfast airport because our luggage hadn't arrived with us. The airline said if we wanted to wait until the luggage arrived, they would pay for our taxi to where we were staying (Queen's University - so a long trip) as they had to deliver our luggage anyway. Unfortunately, we managed to find the bookstore in the airport - and ended up with another suitcase of books before we even made it into Belfast! I too love shopping in airports and stations when I am visiting over there. Sadly, our airports in the US aren't quite as good for shopping.

Thrifty_Taylor

Have a lovely trip @laura_lau. Hoping it all works out for you @lcc86, cheers! 🍻

Woke DS3 up to catch an early bus, which he just missed! Finished my yoga session then took him 5 miles to catch a different bus. Walked to the village & back with DH. Phoned the planning Dept on our return, as we'd still not heard anything after our chat on 13 May! The lady we spoke to previously was in the process of writing us a letter, telling us to go back to the drawing board! We can build an extension, just not with an upstairs. Have an appointment to see her on Wed. Felt quite flat after that...

Pinned a lady into a dress, then a man into s Ghostbusters suit. Picked DS3 up, then took him to another parish to camp by a beach with his friends until fri. Wanted to go out & work in the garden, but needed to work on the quilled picture. Finally finished it at 9.15pm, so @5 hours spent working on it today! It looks good though. Will wrap it up tomorrow, ready to hand over to my friend in the afternoon.

Grateful for finishing the picture, washing drying on the line, DS having lots of friends

grandmanerd

Another appointment today so went by taxi and ate in their cafe (soup and a roll and a huge baked potato). I think my guesstimate time on my phone is more or less right and it's the laptop which is out of kilter. No book to read but took a notebook and started to write down all the things that need tackling (some I want to do and some I don't but they aren't going to go away).

Went to my appointment (all good) then went to weight management to get a phone number. Unfortunately they are not taking anyone on atm and are being shut down by the end of the year but I've been given the 'Be Well' number as they are carrying on. The receptionist mentioned things like 12 weeks free gym membership (I need to lie down after an appointment). 

Got off the bus one stop early and did a £9 shop in the zero food waste shop. My veg (5 for £5) were 2 leeks, 2 huge sweet potatoes, garlic, spring onions and a box of mushrooms (box bigger than a shoebox). My other purchases were veggie 'meatballs', other bread-crumbed ovoids, cooking chorizo, a huge bag of SW sausages and a large bag of veggie picnic pies (had a pack of 4 of these before and they're scrumptious). Plus 2 small bottles of branded diet coke. Lots more on offer but I haven't a lot of freezer space.

Walked home with lots of sitting on benches, put the freezer stuff away (in their freezer and found some of my previous purchases) and sat on the couch until I felt able to get myself up the stairs. Shoes and ankle strapping off and lots of relaxing. I wanted to go and do a bit more weeding but gave up at the top of the stairs. Have a radical clear out plan (items for cs furniture collection, items for bulky waste collection, bringing the bins back and utilising them (next door's bin already has some of the things that were in the corner of the backs - a wooden kitchen chair which was peeling apart, some very dirty cardboard, 3 of the signs from the Euro parties). There's a traffic cone which I might ask the Council men to take away with them on Saturday.

I've been looking at bungalows again but I also need ideas on making my daily life better until I get where I'm going. I did ask DS3 if he and Beloved could live upstairs (using my bedroom). It would help sort out what's mine and what's theirs. Things need to change.

Grateful for lovely NHS staff and the cafe ladies, the zero food waste shop, making it home slowly (I'd started limping slightly before my appointment).

grandmanerd

Did I volunteer to do September (I might have been hoping to be more on track by then but I can work with chaos).

grandmanerd

Sorry I meant August - getting the days mixed up is one thing, getting confused over what month it is/ is about to be is another. Stress, it's all stress