NST December 2024 – the TARDIS awaits

laura_lau

@abundant1972 so nice to hear from you and know that you are on the mend! Looking forward for you to be back in January! 

@Thrifty_Taylor happy belated birthday!

today Long day at the office. It took me forever to get there, with train disruptions, and when I got there I was really busy. Had a Christmas lunch in the canteen offered by the company, which was nice, we even had crackers and crowns. Afternoon was even busier and finished work late, hence missing my only direct train and having to change twice, with last two trains also delayed. Lots of waiting on freezing platforms today! Had a lovely healthy dinner with salmon and veggies made by OH, who is starting enjoying his new job a little bit more, hopefully he is slowly getting the hang of it! Today it was a spend day, so my NSD are not going to change yet.

i haven’t properly planned the month, as the days have been going so fast, and this week is super busy again, I have something happening every day until Sunday. On Sunday I will pack my suitcase, ready to fly to Italy next Wednesday evening. My mum is very much looking forward to it, and I am very grateful to be able to spend this time with her and the rest of the family. 

I’m going to finish crocheting my last tree for the market now, yesterday I ran out of stuffing which is a bit of a problem, however I found some polyester wadding, which I think it might still work, as it’s only the base of the tree, maybe I can cut and shape it in discs so it fits better? I definitely don’t want to order a full new bag of stuffing when I only need such a little amount! This will have to do. 

I wanted to add, I love the 1000 days idea! I know that by 6th September 2027 I definitely want to be debt free and in a good place with my savings. I also do have some business ideas, but it’s something I have been pondering on for a very long time, let’s say at least 2 “1000 days”!!!! Maybe I should really just try and do it, rather than letting another 1000 days go, imagine where I could already be if I had given it a go 1000 days ago!

Thrifty_Taylor

NSD#7

Good luck with the waste wizards @grandmanerd. May your heart feel lighter after they've worked their magic!

Another fan of the 1000 days challenge. I would love to have my extension built, be fitter & have accrued/maximised some savings

Yoga & Norwegian done before work. Enjoyed working with the new young lady who was shadowing me this morning. Got some sewing done after tea, & a friend popped over with the perfect present 🥰 thank you all for your birthday wishes too!

Grateful for being excited at the new challenge, a like-minded new member of staff, another sewing job out the way

beanielou

The new challenge sounds fabulous. So that takes us to roughly June 27. Have I got that right?  Thanks. 

Edited to say September 27. 

DawnW

NSD #7 for me today, as I have not been out, and not bought anything online

Dog walk first thing - OH always wants to take him, as he says he needs the exercise, but he was playing golf this morning so I got to do it. Then cleared some leaves from the front garden path. Just threw them onto the border, as they will disappear into the soil eventually, and this border needs all the organic matter it can get.

Washed my hair, cleaned the main bathroom and hoovered and dusted the bedroom and landing.

Made pastry for Xmas mince pies, then realised I had no mincemeat   I normally make my own and thought I had some left. Too late to make it now, as it needs to mature, so I will look in W*itrose tomorrow before work to see if they have anything decent. At least I have the pastry done and it will keep fine in the fridge. I did make a quick plum pie and a mincemeat slice (I found half a jar, which I rejuventated with some brandy) to use some bought puff pastry that was in the fridge. Desserts to last well into next week. They aren't large, but we only have a tiny portion.

Got a refund for a faulty mobile phone from a somewhat reluctant Amaz*n marketplace seller. Pleased that I didn't have to involve Amaz*n as it had been enough hassle already!

Made mushroom risotto with mushrooms from yesterday's L^dl box, for a somewhat early dinner. It was so dark outside I thought it was later than it was

Grateful today for getting some jobs done as I am at work all day tomorrow, nice puddings and realising I had run out of mincemeat before the weekend, as my son and daughter in lay asked me to bring some for a family gathering on Saturday.

dizzyblnd

NSD#6 today. They are slowly going up. It’s very hard in December though as things keep popping up that need to be paid for. Had a Christmas performance at work today that actually gave me goosebumps. It was lovely. I was very proud of all the kids and reminded me that all the hard work is worth it. 

ldee2111

Amazingly, I’ve reached NSD5! Today I was working from home but had to nip into the office to pick up a replacement laptop, as mine decided to stop working… again! It keeps cutting out, which is so frustrating when you’re in the middle of working on something and lose it. It’s been acting up for months, but the last time our IT people looked at it, they diagnosed it as having nothing wrong—well, there bloody well is! 100%! It is not a figment of my imagination!

I was in and out of the office in five minutes flat, then back to the warm, cosy confines of my own home. OH is working away overnight tonight, so I get to enjoy the bed all to myself as well as the TV! I watched a programme about how dogs are trained to become assistance dogs—it was really interesting and lovely to watch the dogs being paired up with people. Also good to get some training tips for our future dog… planned for 2027! 🤣

Grateful today for securing two tickets to DS’s festive show tomorrow morning—taking Mum along. Also grateful for working from home and getting to enjoy my beautiful Christmas tree which brightened up the dull light of the day, and grateful to Dad, who came over for a quick visit this evening to give yet another advent calendar to DS… what is it with grandparents thinking us parents are incapable of providing a Christmas staple to our child?! 🤣

ldee2111

I meant to say that I also love the idea of the 1,000 days plan and have been thinking about it a lot since it was mentioned. I’ve decided to start mine on 1st May 2025, the month after we pay off our mortgage. During those 1,000 days, I’ll be going, as one financial ‘guru’ puts it, “gazelle intense” on saving for several goals: retiling the roof and renewing the roughcasting, building a fully funded emergency fund, creating a garden room, and getting a dog! Not necessarily in this order. I have no idea how much it is to tile a roof or rough cast a house, but I have an idea on the others. If I managed to do all these within the 1000 days I would have them ticked off my wish list by January 2028 which would be fantastic!

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for getting Pip into school, for a very good meeting with the head of KS5, for dinner with the lovely bunch of invigilators, for clearing yet more detritus away, for time to jot down my own ponderations for the next 1000 days.

Thrifty_Taylor

DH had a hospital appointment today, so had to catch the bus into town, leaving me s couple if things to add on to my before work to do list. Managed it all, but got muddled up in the Coop & said I was needing 20p change, when it should've been £1. Oops!

Work went well, took DS3 to get hus stitches out afterwards. Unpicked a long coat zip, then replaced it after tea, along with a zip in another coat's pocket & fixed a third zip. Didn't leave much time for r&r, but relieved I'd got it all done & the 3rd zip wasn't a total replacement after all!

Grateful for a nice smelling perfume sample in the post, having a nice morning with pupil & new member of staff, that the sewing job was easily sorted 😀

grandmanerd

I think I win the prize for most items out this month. 5 large appliances and pieces of furniture, at least 4 small appliances (and the free things I left at the car park entrance have gone), large collections of metal, wood and plastics (freezer drawers and things that have been recycled as containers in the garden - now broken or just unsightly but used for years beyond their intended purpose), 2 sofa cushions, polystyrene packaging (from WM and bed) and 3 items that came from next door's yard but have been cluttering up the backs for years, including a tyre.

I kept the 3 seater sofa as I reasoned that I'd have no energy to put together my new sofa bed and still needed somewhere to sleep (and DS3 would still have been sulking into next year if I'd got rid of his 'couch'). The prize is several yards of visible floor space and room to start shuffling pieces of furniture to where I want them. 

I started the day with sore knees and my right shoulder hardly working, by the time the wizards left most bits of me were hurting. I cooked and ate sausages, mash and beans and then sat on the couch watching Die Hard for the ninety somethingth time (I couldn't concentrate on anything involved). I did a little more tidying by pulling things towards me with a broom, scooping them up on a wide shovel, picking out any useful bits (pennies and pens mostly) and binning the rest.

I'd collected a full bin bag or rubbish from the garden after moving things to be collect into the backs and found my book with addresses in, my next year's diary and the small hardback a-z notebook I bought to use as a new address book so I can address the Christmas cards and transfer stuff to the new book. My emergency toilet rolls came at tea time instead of today so I might get to the hairdresser on standby once my knees recover.

Grateful for waste wizards, lovely food space and the power of plodding (the getting rid of stuff has been going on for months now)