Living the Good Life - mortgage free and living in line with our values

badmemory

I have been rebuying Anne McCaffreys books for my kindle whenever they reduce the price as they are normally £4.99.  Usually they only reduce to either 1.99 or 2.99 but I got the Ship Who Sang yesterday for 99p.  Eventually I am going to suffer from my usual lck of patience & spend £4.99 & then be cross with myself.

themadvix

It’s frustrating when you want to read one but you’ve not got it because it’s not been on sale! I see the issue! 99p is a bargain though.😁 I’m lucky that my dad has the full set of dragon books (some probably in the original covers) - we both enjoy them and her books are always good to reread for a bit of escapism. Sadly our library doesn’t seem to stock them at all these days. 

badmemory

Some of the actual books of hers I own were actually hard backs from the library, bought when everybody had read them.  With the discontinued type stamp on the first page & the date stamp page torn out.  I must confess that my kindle is a godsend.  My hands are getting more arthritic & holding a book has become more difficult & more time limited.  My kindle is liighter than a paperback, let alone a hardback.  When I got my first one over 10 years ago it was a retirement present bought for me because I had gone on holiday & when I returned complained that I had had to leave most of my clothes behind to fit the weight of my books in.  I really thought I would only use it for holidays, I was wrong.

rtandon27

@themadvix - OH has all the AMcC books - when we moved in four years ago he just popped them all on the shelf in no particular order. It drives me mad as you know all mine are categorized  and in order 😆 🤣  - He said to me the other day - I best sort those for you so you have them ready to read when I'm gone.  I'm not sure if he thinks I'm suddenly going to become a hermit or if he's thought of all the extra house things I'll need to pick up when I'm on my own! If I've not bothered to organizer them in four years it's because they are not being read!

themadvix

badmemory said:

Some of the actual books of hers I own were actually hard backs from the library, bought when everybody had read them.  With the discontinued type stamp on the first page & the date stamp page torn out.  I must confess that my kindle is a godsend.  My hands are getting more arthritic & holding a book has become more difficult & more time limited.  My kindle is liighter than a paperback, let alone a hardback.  When I got my first one over 10 years ago it was a retirement present bought for me because I had gone on holiday & when I returned complained that I had had to leave most of my clothes behind to fit the weight of my books in.  I really thought I would only use it for holidays, I was wrong.

I'm a die-hard real book fan (and will leave out clothes when packing if necessary!), but it's really good to know that your Kindle is good for your hands - it would be so awful to have to stop reading!

themadvix

rtandon27 said:

@themadvix - OH has all the AMcC books - when we moved in four years ago he just popped them all on the shelf in no particular order. It drives me mad as you know all mine are categorized  and in order 😆 🤣  - He said to me the other day - I best sort those for you so you have them ready to read when I'm gone.  I'm not sure if he thinks I'm suddenly going to become a hermit or if he's thought of all the extra house things I'll need to pick up when I'm on my own! If I've not bothered to organizer them in four years it's because they are not being read!

Oh, but what order? Publication date or order in the series? (The dragon books, at least, have several additions that slot in between other books in the timeline!) So rubbish for you both to be having to think like that 😢

rtandon27

themadvix said:

rtandon27 said:

@themadvix - OH has all the AMcC books - when we moved in four years ago he just popped them all on the shelf in no particular order. It drives me mad as you know all mine are categorized  and in order 😆 🤣  - He said to me the other day - I best sort those for you so you have them ready to read when I'm gone.  I'm not sure if he thinks I'm suddenly going to become a hermit or if he's thought of all the extra house things I'll need to pick up when I'm on my own! If I've not bothered to organizer them in four years it's because they are not being read!

Oh, but what order? Publication date or order in the series? (The dragon books, at least, have several additions that slot in between other books in the timeline!) So rubbish for you both to be having to think like that 😢

Too funny! Publication order of course with each series together. If I said chronological order within the books, my 3 librarian friends would disown me!

ETA - I think it's more poignant than sad if truth be told - we are both very accepting of what life brings us and given the 15 year difference always knew it would be like this - would have been nice if it was in another 10 to 15 years but c'est la vie. Life is for Living!

themadvix

rtandon27 said:

Too funny! Publication order of course with each series together. If I said chronological order within the books, my 3 librarian friends would disown me!

ETA - I think it's more poignant than sad if truth be told - we are both very accepting of what life brings us and given the 15 year difference always knew it would be like this - would have been nice if it was in another 10 to 15 years but c'est la vie. Life is for Living!

😮😮😮 That would drive me mad! I want to pick up the books in the right order to read! 😆

I hadn't realised the age difference. It's still sad, but I take your point - not quite so unexpected, but timing could have been better. I'm quite sure though, that you'll make the most of whatever time you have together!

themadvix

Morning all,

Had a lovely time at our friend's 40th on Saturday. Got to the hotel in time for a walk, despite allowing ourselves a good 1.5 hours of free leccy 😊 (we get the benefit of having the car plugged in, even if it's not charging - i.e Octopus will give us the equivalent as credit). I wasn't feeling brilliant much of Saturday (think I'd had a dodgy beer the night before), but perked up in time for the party. Wasn't a hugely expensive night either - think I owe Mr MV a tenner, but otherwise, I bought a £20 round and that was it. I was absolutely delighted with the hotel - I am very very rarely impressed with a chain hotel, but this was clean, relatively recently refurbished, the blackout curtains did their job, there weren't random lights in the room, bed was comfy and pillow just right, and we were in a quiet wing with virtually no one walking past loudly all night. I didn't sleep particularly well, but that was entirely down to my body, not the room - and I was still refreshed in the morning. Such a nice change! Free breakfast was taken advantage of, meaning we shared a slice of toast at home for a late lunch and just had a main meal in the evening. 

Yesterday was not a productive day, but we did do some wiring on the teardrop and I went for a short walk to the woods and allotment (where I picked some raspberries and that was it). We had masala carrots for dinner and there's a portion left for lunch today.

Main client has sent me a fairly chunky project to get on with (am awaiting clarification of a key point before I continue). Otherwise, there's the usual Cambridge stuff to do. Weather is forecast to be warm and sunny, so hoping to get two loads of washing done and dry on the line. I think the first has just finished, so will go and get the next load on when I've finished typing. Not sure about dinner tonight - possibly mac n cheese? I need to do a meal plan (or maybe a master meal plan for the next couple of weeks). I am planning on using lots of lentils and beans this month as we're now fully into stew and curry season - this should keep costs down.

October has a variety of pre-booked (and paid for) events happening: a gig next Friday (tickets paid for, in our town's theatre, so cost will be for the usual drink in the tap room beforehand), Disney the following weekend (paid for/pot is sufficiently funded), a lunch at the Savoy (40th birthday present; travel to be met from travel fund) and then, at the end of the month (aka half term), the heat pump is finally being installed. So it should be an enjoyable month, hopefully with money in personal spends and grocery pot to spare (and spare in the Disney pot too I hope). 

MS things:
* Did loads of surveys yesterday while helping Mr MV with the teardrop/watching the GP
* Less than £1 to go on 1P - aim to finish this today or tomorrow
* Free electricity - battery topped up (although yesterday's sunshine meant battery was pretty much topped up before the hour started!)
* Home yesterday - didn't spend anything

* Comps entered
Gratitudes:
* Lovely time with some excellent friends on Saturday night
* A windy walk around a lake on Saturday afternoon
* The woods yesterday - only a short walk and nowhere special, but it energised me
Have a lovely day all!

Cheery_Daff

Sounds like you had a lovely time away, hooray for a decent hotel room!