Scuba's Saving the Ha'Pennies

ZTD · 7 January 2017 at 2:19PM

scubaangel wrote: »

It's a blue one.....Its a HP, it'll do what I need.

:rotfl:

Reminds me of my Mother when I told her I'd bought a new car: "What colour is it? Is it a pretty colour?"

It could have been a Trabant...

I'm on the lookout for a new laptop. This is coming up to 5 years old, and the battery life isn't great.

scubaangel wrote: »

I do but its on the old lappy, not finished transferring files yet - cant remember my dropbox log in to make life easier although the pics need to be backed up on the external HD along with my S.E files as well.

Dropbox probably have a "password recovery" thing if you have access to email.

scubaangel · 7 January 2017 at 3:00PM

My old one is as best I can remember close to 6 years old so it was probably time..... the box for the new one tells me its a HP 15-ba080sa. I say its a 15inch screen, 1TB harddrive, win 10 (still not sure if I like it), with an optical drive since so many don't come with them any more that was a challege in itself! I don't really look at battery life as I almost never unplug the thing, if am travelling I'm more likely to be reading the kindle or playing games on the fire than anything I need the lappy for.

Am sure dropbox does, but as its saved on the old one it'd make more sense to reset it after I transfer the files I need in to it from there.

ZTD · 7 January 2017 at 3:26PM

scubaangel wrote: »

I say its a 15inch screen, 1TB harddrive, win 10 (still not sure if I like it),

Take a look at http://www.classicshell.net/ - it was a God-send when Win 8 was on the go... :eek:

scubaangel wrote: »

with an optical drive since so many don't come with them any more that was a challege in itself!

Yes, I had that problem when finding a laptop for my mother. I just use a USB cdrom myself.

scubaangel wrote: »

Am sure dropbox does, but as its saved on the old one it'd make more sense to reset it after I transfer the files I need in to it from there.

It's probably a little late now, but look at something like https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Cables/EkoBuy-Drive-Adapter-Backward-Compatible/B01EQ7PNZY it lets you hoover stuff off an old HD as fast as the HD will go.

scubaangel · 11 January 2017 at 2:08PM

Right despite having a couple of days off I've managed to be busier than a normal day!

Yesterday I applied for a job online - local rail operator, station based position which from reading around the web seems to be considered both a good job and a decent employer for the industry. Also had a phone call today from a recruitment agency, my logging in to the job site yesterday to download my cv must have triggered something to show it's active again, the job would be a hospitality/catering role about 15 miles from home on a salary almost £3k better than my current, need to write my rota for next week then set up a skype interview with them.

In the meantime I have washing in the machine because the new white blouses we bought for work despite being the same size as the last ones we got are considerably smaller which means I don't have the 3 spare clean ones I thought I did (I reckon I can get away with wearing them at job 1 as the apron will cover the gaping buttons but def not at the hotel where I only have a tie to cover myself with).

Also have three s.e visits to conduct so just reprinting the paper work as the colour ink died half way through yesterday evening.

scubaangel · 13 January 2017 at 8:31PM

Spent an hour or so this evening sorting through various boxes and drawers trying to have a clear out, the result is a meagre 1 carrier bag of rubbish. Although things are a little tidier and while sorting the drawer with my travel stuff I found an unexpected 50 euro note which is now safely tucked in to my euro purse - meaning while I thought I was down to about 30 euro cash I actually have 130 euro as I already had my emergency stash in the forgettable compartment in my purse (I thought I'd spent it on my last trip) so I might get away with not changing much cash before the trip in Feburary.

I've read three or four of my goodreads wins in the last week so took a couple of the prepublication proof copies to work and will hopefully get them rehomed over the weekend, if not I'll bring them home and put them in the bag of stuff I'm going to drop off at the local Hospice shop next week.

In the meantime I'm waiting for my phone to finish running through its set of swagbucks mobile videos for the points then will see if I can ziffit any of the ones with barcodes currently sat on my living room floor.

Going to have to make dinner shortly as my tummy is making ridiculous gurgling noises, think it'll be a cheese and mushroom omelette tonight to use up the eggs and some of the mushrooms before they start to turn.

ZTD · 14 January 2017 at 12:24AM

scubaangel wrote: »

Yesterday I applied for a job online

:T

scubaangel wrote: »

- local rail operator, station based position which from reading around the web seems to be considered both a good job and a decent employer for the industry. Also had a phone call today from a recruitment agency, my logging in to the job site yesterday to download my cv must have triggered something to show it's active again, the job would be a hospitality/catering role about 15 miles from home on a salary almost £3k better than my current, need to write my rota for next week then set up a skype interview with them.

:T:T

scubaangel wrote: »

In the meantime I have washing in the machine because the new white blouses we bought for work despite being the same size as the last ones we got are considerably smaller

Are these women's sizes? New "inch"! Same size always and everywhere...

scubaangel wrote: »

which means I don't have the 3 spare clean ones I thought I did (I reckon I can get away with wearing them at job 1 as the apron will cover the gaping buttons but def not at the hotel where I only have a tie to cover myself with).

And you never thought you'd miss the kipper tie... :rotfl:

scubaangel wrote: »

Spent an hour or so this evening sorting through various boxes and drawers trying to have a clear out, the result is a meagre 1 carrier bag of rubbish.

That may mean you're already pretty clear.

scubaangel wrote: »

Although things are a little tidier and while sorting the drawer with my travel stuff I found an unexpected 50 euro note which is now safely tucked in to my euro purse - meaning while I thought I was down to about 30 euro cash I actually have 130 euro as I already had my emergency stash in the forgettable compartment in my purse

And some money in there too.

scubaangel wrote: »

Going to have to make dinner shortly as my tummy is making ridiculous gurgling noises, think it'll be a cheese and mushroom omelette tonight to use up the eggs and some of the mushrooms before they start to turn.

Always made me wonder if bad mushrooms grow mushrooms...

Good to hear you sounding a bit more chipper than of late. Work/lifeload calming down?

scubaangel · 18 January 2017 at 4:20PM

Well after my busy days off things got even more interesting. Skype interview on Monday turned in to a phone interview. Then a meeting with the employer's MD (he refuses to call such things interviews), and I'm off to visit the cafe in the next couple of days to essentially mystery shop it, reporting back to the agency to then set up a second meeting with the employer early next week.

In the meantime I've not heard back from the rail operator yet but that job didnt close until today.

Also in the midst of my annual bubble watching obsession as the Spine Race is in full swing. As always mostly I find myself watching the bubbles, reading the contours and assorted other OS map features and saying utter utter nut jobs* to myself.

Just thinking about chucking some washing in the machine as this is about the first time I've been home since Friday.

More decluttering is meant to be occuring as I've done the easy bits it's mostly on to the stuff that will take longer now, partly because I want to photograph and list on facebook/gumtree etc any of the stuff I'm not instantly certain I want to keep. But at the moment I'm sat on the sofa with my Dory blanket over my lap, and my Ikea shark as a head rest and its somewhat too comfy sat here to want to be moving.

*other less forum friendly words may also feature.

scubaangel · 19 January 2017 at 6:59PM

Visited the cafe. Really liked what I saw and can see alot of potential for simple improvements to the way things were being done - and I assume the staff were on best behaviour while I was there as the founder was in the place doing some work on the retail product range.

Currently working out potential costs for the commute. At the moment I've got as far as a rail season ticket would be £2230, and at the current cost of petrol it'll cost roughly £6 to drive, trying to find out if the local council have a car parking annual pass scheme as parking would be at least £5 per day in the nearest car park and £4.50 in the slightly less close but cheaper one near the train station (so a similar walking distance to the train option).

Found the parking pass options £1041 for the nearest one and £809 for the slightly further away one.

Leaving the numbers there for now as my brain is starting to hurt and thats before I factor in additional wear and tear on the car causing higher maintainence costs.

ZTD · 20 January 2017 at 8:28PM

scubaangel wrote: »

Currently working out potential costs for the commute. At the moment I've got as far as a rail season ticket would be £2230, and at the current cost of petrol it'll cost roughly £6 to drive, trying to find out if the local council have a car parking annual pass scheme as parking would be at least £5 per day in the nearest car park and £4.50 in the slightly less close but cheaper one near the train station (so a similar walking distance to the train option).

Found the parking pass options £1041 for the nearest one and £809 for the slightly further away one.

Leaving the numbers there for now as my brain is starting to hurt and thats before I factor in additional wear and tear on the car causing higher maintainence costs.

Numbers are easy: Assuming you work 240 days a year (46 * 5 day weeks plus a bit of overtime)

That's £1,440 in petrol, or £2,481 total for the close carpark, £2,249 for the further one.

Versus £2,230 in trains.

You could add in wear and tear etc, but it's not really necessary.

scubaangel · 20 January 2017 at 9:04PM

It's not easy when you're knackered and spent all day working over the options, potential and telling that annoying internal voice that keeps reminding me about how out of my depth I felt at the job before this and the new one would be a higher turn over, a bigger staff to manage and generally much much scarier for it.

I would qualify for a parking pass - helpfully priority is given to people working in town centre businesses or living there - which would bring the parking costs + petrol down to almost the same as the train even in the more expensive car park. But chances of petrol staying at the same average price are slim.

Hopefully will be able to set up the second meeting on Monday - agent hasn't been able to get hold of the guy today, he's been in meetings, which will slow things down a bit as I was hoping to meet him Monday morning as I've got full days Tuesday-Thursday and my only day off is Saturday next week (having had 4 days off this week I figure there isn't much room for me to complain when I both do the rota and theres a strong chance that I'll be flinging a resignation letter at them fairly soon one way or another).

Scuba's Saving the Ha'Pennies

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