NST AUGUST 2024

abundant1972

Good evening 🌔

Now - I'm getting confused because there are posts by grandmanerd and mothernerd!!! I thought you were one and the same haha 😅

Sorry to hear about your house goings-on. There's nothing like the promise of money to cause rifts between people. 

I had a quiet day yesterday and managed to bag an NSD. Got myself out today for some exercise and did some shopping for fruit & veg (and some hula hoops accidentally fell in my bag lol). Having a chilled evening at home. 

Today I am grateful for: 

1) The sunny weather 🌞
2) Old Eastenders re-runs LOL
3) A friendly smile from a lady at the gym

Yesterday = NSD number 8
Today = spend day

Have a lovely evening xx

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for my morning coffee, for getting a Dr appointment for Pip and seeing a nice lady, for sorting a few more bits of the kitchen out, for dh finding a theatre performance that's local to us (Pip needs to see one as part of the summer holiday work/ sixth form prep) and me and Pip are now going to see the Rocky Horror show on Monday!

grandmanerd

abundant1972 said:

Good evening 🌔

Now - I'm getting confused because there are posts by grandmanerd and mothernerd!!! I thought you were one and the same haha

I am one and the same. It's laptop problems. I morphed into grandmanerd when I got a new laptop - despite several attempts, I could not get back on the site. At the end of last year I was having problems with the laptop and ordered a new one before the old one gave in completely. I tried using the new one but had forgotten how annoying a certain software manufacturer can be - forcing 64 'news' stories on me, mostly about 'celebrities' I'd never heard of. One of the benefits of not having had a tv for many many years.

Then I had the bright idea of having DS3 order me a new charging cable and I got the old one working (still slow but at least moving). I spent about 3 months trying to check through all the sites I used and jotting down the passwords - also which email address they were on - and getting them set up on the 'new-ish' one. The second  email address was originally for all the pestering e-mails but over the years it's become my 'go to' one. 

I had another go at using the 'new one'. It still annoyed me but I persevered. The old one cracked along the seam at the back and the screen and keyboard started to part company. 2 months ago there was a general melt down - the old one was being held together by wires and the new one decided it was 'poorly sick'. It spent 2 days diagnosing itself and trying to fix itself whilst the old one decided it was too tired to go on. The new one then said it's permanent battery was reaching the end of it's useful life. They both gave up the ghost within days of each other and when the new one came (DS3 chose it) I had to try setting up my sites again. 

i got back on here but hadn't noticed I'd used an old link and was mothernerd once more - now it depends how I get back on-site (via which email address). Add into the mix the laptop's desire to 'update' itself when it throws away all my regular sites - the food delivery ones, the ones I keep an eye on for 'bargains' (mainly organic cotton/ linen bedding as that's what I've most recently bought). 

Let's just say I have issues with technology. Or rather it has issues with me. I seem to have my own magnetic field and any laptops that come into proximity with me start to malfunction. Add in my recent bank problems and I'm just settling for whatever I can get - a lot of my 'history' has been lost, I regained 3 games I started to play until bookface decided not to support them any longer but lost a lot of simpler but still fun ones, some embroidery patterns I'd downloaded and my old CBT mindfulness exercises have gone. 

abundant1972

Good morning 🌞

Aww bless you mothernerd/grandmanerd. Apparently there are people out there who affect technology/electric fields. Often these folk can influence the weather also! Make friends with your laptop and send it calming vibes! 😉

A family day for me today. Am aiming for an NSD - have plenty in the fridge, and freezer. The temptation comes going into the supermarket with my Dad. I'll have to delete all my cards from my phone (🍎-Pay) and leave my wallet at home! 

Today I am grateful for: 

1)  A cool breeze blowing outside meaning my apartment isn't like an oven
2) Full food stores 
3) My cousin, and for happy memories we have of their family

Today = NSD number 9 (hopefully haha!)

Have a lovely day everyone!

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for a morning gym session, for audiobooks, for making good use of the paddling pool, for cake.

Thrifty_Taylor

Had a good day yesterday. Took DS3 to town, picked up my mum, then did a CS haul. Had tea with mum, then DS went to hus GF"s & I got ready & met with my 2 work besties for cocktails. Had the best night out we've had together, lots of laughs! Stayed overnight at my mum's.

Walked to collect my car, then dropped sewing off & collected more. Pinned a lady into half her wardrobe, then we went good shopping. Bought some PJ's in the sale for sproutmas presents. Put the shopping away once I got home, then had a nap. Washed the dishes then did some knitting & watched TV with DS1.

Grateful for a fab time with my friends, fun with mum, nearly finishing the second sleeve if my toadstool cardigan

grandmanerd

Sunday 18th August 2024

Letting Go
At some point you just have to let go and move on. It might be the hardest thing in the world to do, but you have to summon all of the strength you possibly can to finally let go. Some people and things just aren't going to be meant for you, no matter how much you wish they were. Some jobs and situations won't work out, no matter how much you hoped they would.....But know that it's okay for things to not work out. Nobody's life is a straight line that makes perfect sense. Everybody has twists and turns and everyone has to turn around every now and then. So when you find yourself wishing and hoping things out of your control would change, summon all of your strength to let go and start heading in a new direction because it will lead you closer to your true path.
(Nikki Banas)

If I say 'First of all' run away because I will have prepared charts, data and research and will destroy you.

grandmanerd

On Saturday I found myself shaking at the thought of the forthcoming meeting with my brother and niece, so I phoned DS2 (I'd already signed up DS3) and asked him to be there. I still need to phone DS1 at some point, I think I'll be fine with DS2 and DS3 but DS1 will get huffy if I don't talk to him. DS2 unfortunately said I can't do what I wanted and claim the £20 k added value I've put into the house but I'm going to ask him to put on his poker face whilst I bluff my way through, just to wipe the smiles off their greedy, entitled, freeloading faces. They are still going the Trotskyite route of making impossible demands rather than engage in reasoned argument or sensible discussion and this should (I can only try) bring them back down to planet earth. 

They are now both demanding that I should give my brother half the latest valuation. I know my niece knows this isn't accurate as she did similar calculations to myself ie IF the house were sold on the open market for the optimistic value (the EA only suggests offering it to the market at that price) then EA and solicitor costs would come off that, along with the cost of implementing the cleaning and decorating the EA asked for and a Capital Gains Tax liability. There were errors in my niece's calculations but I know she did them. 

I'm sorry to go on about this but I'm trying to get the points I want to make in the order I want to make them, so that on Monday I can articulate them before I get to the shouting, screaming or bursting into tears stage. I only want to 'demand' the £20 k because my niece pulled her face at our last meeting at my taking taxis - well me and my taxis is how the £20 k added value came about (at least 10 bin bags of soft toys and clothes brought to my house, washed and taken to cs, dragging mattresses and broken beds downstairs - DS3 did most - and then putting them outside on the day the Council were going to collect them, 7 rubble sacks of chopped up greenery, tackling the bin bags blocking the back door where the tenant had just dumped all the jars of beetroot, branston pickle etc and clearing coffee and spice jars out of the cupboards because I wasn't going to pay for people to take away rubbish that could go in the normal recycling, then meetings with the waste wizards and commando gardeners).

So far they've done nothing, criticised everything I have done and queried my accounts (we spent 6 hours going through them last year and about an hour last month on more recent transactions which I've now formatted into a third page of accounts). They've caused numerous delays (6 weeks waiting for my niece to phone me, which she couldn't do because she was unwell), stopped me doing work suggested by the EAs (if it cost more than tuppence), taken another year of my life and done untold damage to my physical and mental health (I'm sure my failure to lose weight is down to all the cortisol in my system caused by the constant stress).

So I'm ready (do need to get some photocopying done) so I've tried to put it all aside and have a good weekend. Monday is also the day when BHF will collect 5 items, so my main focus for the weekend is clearing and clearing the items that are going and getting them nearer to the door. I wanted to get as many books as possible out yesterday (the bookcase they're on is much taller than me), so I took 2 very full bags of books to the furthest cs on the main street. I called in at the land of ice for a small shop of salad and a very large bar of fruit and nut choc (on offer), declined carrier bags and then bought 5 afterwards (to save time hunting for bags - I know there will be more in the house but my shopping mostly comes in paper bags and we have lots of re-usable bags for life, so the remaining carriers are scarce).

I sat on a bench and drank the can I'd taken out with me, took my time getting back to the house, filled 2 of the new carrier bags then ate and had a little rest. I was hoping to do 6 bags in all (only 1 or 2 cs open today) and get the photocopying done but my body refused to get back up off the bed and I had a little sleep (felt wonderful afterwards). 2 boxes were ripped up (one had toilet rolls which are now lined up on a shelf), 1 rubbish bag, 1 sack of cans (2nd one just filled) and some small items for a mixed cs bag. More soft toys and clothes which were buried under the washing pile. Washing came in, washing went out. Will do what I can today but not going to kill myself (may end up making a heap in the yard and covering it with a tarpaulin to deal with later). Beloved has an appointment today so can expect no help from DS3 (he'll go with her and they'll probably go back to bed exhausted when they get back - it's a consultant appointment so probably not our infirmary).

Grateful for cs, books and my sons.

grandmanerd

Operation getting ready for tomorrow's furniture collection Part 1
I took 2 bags (one mainly cookery and craft books, the other random bits) to the cs. 1 large and 2 small rubbish bags binned + a load of cardboard bits that are too dirty to go in the paper bin. 3 cardboard boxes have been split up and put in the paper recycling + a bag of loose papers. The cover off the old accounts book has gone, DS3 has instructions to get those scales down and 2 large sacks of cans and bottles have gone. 2  armfuls of green waste binned.

I then removed all the remaining books and jigsaws from the tall black shelves and put them in any gaps on the cube shelves. I then asked DS3 to lift the 2 glass lanterns down from the top of the bookcase and put those on top of the cube shelves, then afterwards he pushed my couch back against the cube shelves and drawers so we have more room to move things across the room (and pull the exercise bike out of a tight corner but think that may be better waiting until tomorrow).

They are ready to head off to Beloved's appointment and I'm resting on the bed with a pillow firmly tucked into the small of my back before I go back to tackle paint cans and incinerator lids. The paint cans may go on the shelves under the stairs (I think the food is only enough to fill one shelf now). I want the incinerator lids in the corner of the backs with the junk pile from next door but I'll be happy if I can just get them outside in the yard instead of under the kitchen table (which is also leaving tomorrow).

I phoned DS1 before I came upstairs (just so he didn't feel left out) and he was alternately concerned for me and incredulous at the antics of my brother and niece, so he's coming to tomorrow's meeting as well. Hopefully our  combined business, legal and accounting knowledge and experience will be enough to bring brother and niece back to earth.

So feeling much happier (although still shaking when I start thinking about the meeting). I don't care whether I end up with the house or not, which seems like a sensible way to go. I could have brought it back to life but they've tainted it a bit so it's not the end of the world if I don't. I really just want to not have to deal with them any more and get on with my life.

Shrewbie

Hope the meeting goes as well as it can do @grandmanerd. Glad your boys will be there with you.