Renewed focus: the (less-than?) five-year plan to move

themadvix

Morning all,

No work today (or not until much later on), but I know I've got a big project I have to get through on Wednesday, so I'm getting ahead with various other chores and errands in the meantime. Unfortunately my spun iron bread tin did not like being stored in the oven for 3 weeks (away from mices), so my loaf yesterday stuck horrendously. It's edible (what came out of the tin), but the pan needs re-seasoning. This was on my list for the summer (free power), but I hadn't got around to it, so it's the kick up the bum I need. I've also got invoicing, pay and money shuffles to do/cc bill to sort (I've not been keeping on top of this weekly admin lately - partly because the cat fund doesn't have anything in it and a lot of the expenses were for cat-related items), a parcel to post, pills to collect from the vet (not that I wasn't there on Saturday) and I need to pop to the library. I also need to do some bits in the garden, visit the allotment and finish shifting our old bed to the caravan garage for storage. It's a nice mix!

Right, I've managed to put looking at my accounts off for long enough (I could have sat down at my desk at 7.50), best crack on…

Have a good day!

beanielou

Spoilsport 🤣

TallGirl

Love the teardrop it is just gorgeous hope you get to test it out before it is too cold. I do get the cat thing my ginger does the same at 4am sounds like he is going to die if I do not let him in. Trying to stay strong but hard when you have people staying.

Jessy103

Teardrop looks amazing! Hope you get to test it soon x

Greying_Pilgrim

The teardrop caravan is superb - well done Team tmv (as i know you had a hand in it's making - but Mrtmv is clearly a very talented engineer).

I hope you do get a chance to test it out before winter - such an adventure to get to sleep in it, although I should imagine any passing fellow campers will be quizzing you and wanting 'showing around' its loveliness 😁 You'll have to get an info board made for it - like you see at classic car shows - ie how many hours on the build/kit price/how many panel pins used/how many litres of varnish….. 😁 Is there a little blind for the door, or have you stitched a little curtain?

Greying X

themadvix

Morning all,

Thanks for the lovely comments about the teardrop. @Greying_Pilgrim it has little shutters for the windows (bits of ply that slot in). I'm not entirely convinced about how claustrophobic it might be with them in, but hoping they'd only need to go in last thing at night/on one side for privacy. I might make some curtains at some point! Not sure about a board (I know exactly what you mean though), but Mr MV has done his bit for the kit manufacturer (a bloke in his barn) and posted his build on a FB group. I suspect you're right about the nosey neighbours though - he's already attracted a following from the neighbours local to the garage!

Had a productive day on Monday - accounts all sorted, although that was more difficult than normal as it took me a while to realise the file version I was using wasn't up to date (I thought I was going completely mad). For some reason the system had saved the latest one with a weird file name, so I'll need to look at what happened there (or Mr MV will), but at least I found the right one eventually and wasn't going mad. Unfortunately most of what should be savings went to paying cat bills for the month 😢 I'd like to say this will be a cheaper month cat-wise, but B&W Cat has bloods next week, which will either be £160ish or, if he refuses and has to be sedated, more like £800 😬 and the following week Ginger has his investigations, which while most will be covered by insurance, will require two premiums and a 20% co-pay for each condition. That said, these can all go on the 0% cc, which Mr MV mostly covers (I just pay for the endless drugs and food). Also harvested quite a bit from the allotment and did various other chores, although didn't season my pans.

Discovered yesterday morning that the top I intended to wear to the funeral had stains on it. As I was meeting a friend at the refill shop for a cuppa, I went early and trawled the shops for a replacement - no luck; checked the big shopping park in her town after I dropped her home - no luck (and got called by mouse man who wanted to come a day early - fine, but I had to rush back); no luck in Mum's town either. In the end, decided to try some stain remover and would you believe it, it worked! (It's a cream top, so I didn't hold out a lot of hope for an eco stain remover). So a pointless day of rushing around, but I only paid for a brownie at the refill shop as I had a voucher that covered my tea, and some parking. Did end up with a supermarket pizza for dinner as I was exhausted! I hate shopping… and I was really surprised by the number of items I found in the shops that had foundation marks on them - so no point buying them - even in John Lewis. Which I supposed saved me money in the end…

Super busy with work today - the big project I was expecting and then another 2 hours from UK client 😬 Plus I need to pack, prep a bowl of french beans for the freezer and have an early night (train just after 4 tomorrow morning).

MS things:
* Failed to buy a top - and stain remover fixed the existing one
* Free WR cuppa
* Used voucher for cheaper catch-up
* Resisted takeaway for dinner (Mr MV was in London and fed there)

Gratitudes:
* Popped in and saw Mum and Niece - 3 hugs from Niece 🥰
* Mouse man has taken away the bait boxes
* I got my steps (and then some!)

Have a good day all!

themadvix

🥱🥱🥱 Morning all,

Am on the train, B&W Cat was not impressed at being pilled so early - and made this clear by loudly asking to go out afterwards - if we’re going to get him up for unpleasantness at such an early hour, then the least we can do is let him out to play… Er, nope, sorry puss!

Realised yesterday afternoon that the Isle of Man isn’t included (being non-EU 😏) in my roaming phone plan… so have purchased an e-sim for data (£3.50 for 1gb for 3 days) and added £5 to my phone account for calls. Would have made it work with just the data (or even just WiFi) except for the fact that I’ll be with family over there and may need to call and coordinate stuff. No idea if any of them (mum, two uncles and aunt) have considered this aspect of the trip - mum should have done as she’s been before…

I did get all my work finished yesterday which was good, and Mr MV topped and tailed the bowl of French beans for the freezer.

Have a good day all…

themadvix

Afternoon all,

I had a lovely couple of days on the Isle of Man - saw lots of family and the funeral went well, and got to do a whistlestop tour of the island and have a paddle in the sea and an ice cream too. Very MSE one way and another - partly being hosted by my relative and partly ending up in Wetherspoons for dinner because it was the only place that could get its act together to feed us (which reminds me, I still owe an uncle for this - whether I'm allowed to pay is another matter entirely).

Had a quiet weekend in the end, which was good as I was exhausted. First visit to the gym on Saturday (we were meant to be seeing friends but they cancelled due to illness) and saw Dad and Stepmum for a brief walk and quick pub drink on Sunday. Mr MV took me out for delayed date night on Sunday - a cheap roast dinner (we really had autumnal desire for a roast) and we won the pub quiz (no actual prize, just the honour of winning and a good laugh). Second gym visit last night, so we're at £40/visit so far this month. Aim is to go 3-4 times a week to make it good value - and I think we should be on for doing that (and a longer visit at the weekend to use the pool and sauna/steam room too). Yes, it's expensive, but it's a nice place, which means I'll want to be there and (for me, at least) it's likely to be only for 6 months - I don't think I'd have time when allotmenting in the summer.

Met my ex-Brownie friends for lunch yesterday at the Turkish in town, so £18 spent there. Had to be a quick catch-up as I have been busy with work for main client and this looks set to continue. Have just returned a project to him and he'll hopefully send me something more. Have also sent him an invoice for September (I have to wait for information from him each month, so there's always a small delay) - it was a pretty chunky one too.

B&W Cat had check up and bloods this morning - all good and he's put on 200g, which is really good given the difficulties we've had with feeding him. £306 paid there - but that's for a month's supply of chemo and anti-sickness tabs, as well as the blood tests themselves.

If main client doesn't come back immediately with more work (or even if he does), I need to get to the allotment this afternoon - I'll be taking the car as there's a large pumpkin I need to bring back! Plus beans to harvest and probably other stuff too.

MS things:
* Eating from garden and allotment - hg leeks are beginning to be ready; still getting lots of beans; need to pick peppers and last tomatoes from garden
* Economical visit to the Isle of Man
* Saved expense of pub dinner with friends on Saturday night - won't be until next month at the earliest now
* 1P surveys
* YG survey
* VB clicks
* PA survey

Gratitudes:
* Lovely to spend time with family and catch up with relatives I've not seen for years (albeit in difficult circumstances) plus chat to some people who are related by marriage who live in our town
* A paddle in the sea!
* An adventure on my own (well at least as far as getting off the plane - Mum and Uncle met me at the airport!)

Have a good afternoon all!

beanielou

Glad B&W cat has gained some weight.

themadvix

Morning all,

Thanks @beanielou, it is certainly a relief.

As expected, main client sent me another large project straight away, so I've not yet made it to the allotment (bar briefly to collect the pumpkin). It's raining today, but I need to get down there and pick beans if nothing else as some of the french ones are threatening to burst out of their skins.

Dinner last night was Dishoom rajma, using a jar of kidney beans from MnS as recommended on GP's thread. It was certainly a novelty to just open the jar rather than soak/cook the beans myself. And I'm very happy with jar size (which was the main reason I bought them!). The recipe also used homegrown tomatoes, and frozen tomato-onion masala sauce. Tonight we have blue banana squash risotto, using hg squash and onion. I roasted the squash at the weekend, when I had the oven on for bread, granola and biscuits, so it will be a quick dinner (in the IP) after gym.

Friend popped round last night to check on arrangements for cat care while we're away in France on Friday night. I'll be looking after her cats in due course, so no money exchanges hands (I'll probably buy her a little something in the hypermarket - she usually brings me something back for looking after her cats too). All quite straightforward for her - no meds and B&W Cat is on the ear cream for a few days so he'll eat when she puts food in front of him.

Friends we are going with have offered us car picnic breakfast when we pick them up on Friday morning, so shouldn't need to buy anything (except maybe a cuppa) at the Shuttle terminal. Spends for the weekend will either come from personal funds or holiday pot (as the odd night here or there is likely to be all we can do for a while) - train and hotel (inc breakfast) are paid for, so will be dinner, hypermarket (only a small list for there) and snacks/lunches (which might well be a hypermarket picnic - to make the most of the cheese while we're there!).

MS things:
* Opened a couple more savings pots in Starling this morning - existing non-savings pots funds transferred into them - they might as well earn a bit of interest while they're sitting there.
* VB polls
* 1P surveys
* Quick dinner planned for post-gym - this is something I need to get into the habit of so we can make the most of our membership without resorting to 'oven' meals all the time

Gratitudes:
* Busy with work
* Caught up with the Traitors last night (after a 1P survey spoiler!)
* Cats all behaving!

Have a good day all!