Riding the wave

peb

Thats so hard. I sympathise, i used toncoverbmy mums care for a day a week so dad could have time for himself but evwn with a two.minute journey its so hard. 🤗

AntoMac

Love your positive attitude and how you recognise that things could be a lot worse, despite your considerable challenges.

Keep_Buggering_On

Up to Mum and Dad’s tomorrow. I am taking our big family scrap books with me. I print off all our photos, add in tickets, leaflets etc. and add a little write up of things we do as I was sick of everything going onto a mobile or laptop and never being looked at again. Its really so that we can look back in twenty years’ time at the memories, but Mum will enjoy seeing what her grand children have been up to over the last few months as she doesn’t get out much. On Sunday, I need to get some baking done and I would like to get some fire wood chopped as my stock is looking a little low and we are still having the odd stove lit as May has been so cold- I want to get the log store refilled this summer as not having to worry about fuel to keep warm over the winter is a blessing.

I am going to pop into the charity shop in the village at lunch time and hopefully they will still have a stone coloured denim jacket I saw yesterday for £5- OH is treating me! I already have a cream denim jacket, that my Mum bought me for my 16th birthday over 25 years ago. I have loved that jacket and worn it every year since, but it now has a massive hole across the back, worn out cuffs and is looking very shabby and OH has been on at me to get a new one for several years. I can’t bear to part with it, so I will pack it away as I have very fond memories of how grown up I felt when I first wore the jacket all those years ago and it has been with me throughout my life- maybe I should take it on The Repair Shop and see if they could fix it for me… It’s certainly been very money saving how much use I have got from it, but in my 40s, perhaps it is time for a new one now.

beanielou

Hope you get your new denim jacket.

Keep_Buggering_On

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81992283#Comment_81992283

Thanks, I did and it looks very nice! Just need some nice weather to wear it!

Keep_Buggering_On

An enjoyable and productive weekend. Got a call from Dad on Friday night before I went up to theirs on Saturday- Mum has been struggling with her mobile so she has got a new, really simple one with big buttons. The problem is, her o2 simcard was a micro one and her new phone needed a full size one, so could I sort it out for her on the way up to theirs. I was envisaging having to buy a new sim card and then transfer her number, but the man in the o2 shop just opened up a packet with a sim card in, popped out the adaptor and gave it to me when I explained what I needed, without charging a penny, so it was a nice simple solution! Mum and Dad were in good spirits, although both have lost a lot of weight- Mum as she is having to eat most things through a straw and she has no appetite and Dad because he is running round stressed all the time. I did point out that they had been on Slimming World for years and never had such good results…

Sunday was a very productive stay at home day- refiled the cake tins, chopped a load of fire wood and got the garden mown and tidied. I found some blackberries I had picked last year in the freezer and Dad gave me some frozen apples from their trees, so we had a very tasty blackberry and apple pie after tea, with enough left over for after tea tonight, and I made enough pastry to also make a dozen jam tarts. I sat down and did my budget for pay day this morning, now assuming I haven’t forgotten anything and I don’t have an emergency, I will have enough to cover everything I want to cover and still leave me with a little bit left over. I think I am due an increment in this month’s pay packet, although as UC take off most of anything extra I get, its not going to make much of a difference in reality!

Keep_Buggering_On

DD and I had a fun day on Saturday at the Keighey and Worth Valley Railway’s 1940s weekend. We got into our 40s kit and had fun riding up and down the line, seeing the singing and dancing, catching up with old friends and visiting the little museums along the line. Not a cheap day out, but it was something I had paid for several months ago, so I just had to find the bus fare to get us there. We weren’t too late back as DD was tired, but it was a lot of fun. Next weekend me and DS are off to see the new Star Wars film as I often do things with DD and get a grunt if I suggest it to DS, so its nice to have something we can go out and do together- being 14, doing things with your old man is uncool, but an exception can still be made for Star Wars!

We had a fun family evening on Saturday watching Eurovision, yes its silly, camp and hugely political, but its funny and Graham Norton’s sarcastic, ironic commentary makes up for the fact that we never, ever win! I found a 2L bottle of coke in the shed left over from Christmas, so we had that as a treat (not normally fizzy pop drinkers) with a bit of black cherry rum in it for me and OH, kids had it without the spirits, obviously enough! That and a couple of share bags of crisps and we had a great evening, laughing at the bonkersness of everything. My father would cringe at us watching anything so populist, but we enjoyed ourselves.

After the late night on Saturday, yesterday was a quiet, lazy sort of Sunday- still got a load of baking done and chopped some more firewood, but I also settled down with a film in the afternoon (Downton Abbey- A New Era. One I haven’t seen yet and 50p for the DVD in the charity shop). I am looking forward to next weekend as its bank holiday Monday and we get an extra day on the Tuesday at my workplace, so four day weekend- whoop, whoop!

Keep_Buggering_On

Had a meeting request at lunchtime today summoning all the department to a meeting on Teams tomorrow lunchtime for 30 mins entitled 'University Business Discussion' and a request that we all do everything in our power to make it there. Having been made redundant several times in different HE institutions over the last five years, my heart sank. I might be completely wrong, but these sort of meeting requests are never good ones and at the least I am expecting a restructure where we all have to reapply for our jobs again 😫. I am hoping nothing happens until the second week in June, as at least I will have hit two years at the institution then and be entitled to some redundancy, before that date, technically I wouldn't be entitled to anything! Maybe I am just worrying about nothing, but I am now debating with myself whether to bite the bullet and speak to OH tonight and then deal with her panicking until the meeting, or wait and see what the meeting is actually about first… maybe there is no point in worrying her until there is something to worry about?

in_need_of_direction

I’d say there’s little to be gained by sharing speculation.

Keep_Buggering_On

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82003520#Comment_82003520

I did end up talking it through with OH as she could tell there was something on my mind. She was very calm about it all, very sensible and we worked out the finances and if worst came to the worst we could survive, although that belt would need to come in yet another notch! I am glad I told her as it didn't seem as bad after talking it through together. We will see what lunchtime brings…