Happy Birthday

Today it was my Mum’s 82^nd birthday.  A mile stone, especially after last year.

I went to see her with a bunch of flowers and box of her favourite dark chocolates.  We chatted for a while then she adamantly said she wanted to go out to Helmsely.  She hasn’t been out since moving to the home and to be honest I’d been a bit worried about taking her but we had a great afternoon.  The home lent me a wheelchair, and off we went.  Luckily it didn’t rain so we just had a wander round the town then went for a cup of tea.

I had strict instructions to get her back to the home by 4.30pm as they had organised a birthday tea.  I really didn’t expect it but they had made her a cake, with candles and strawberries and everyone sang Happy Birthday.  It was fantastic and really brought a tear to my eye seeing how happy Mum is there and how lovely they are with all the residents. 

Money Out

It's been a bit of an expensive month.  The cost of the petrol while emptying Mum’s flat seem to have hit us, as well as I’ve had to use the car to go to work as my colleague (who has a work vehicle and normally gives me a lift) with has been on annual leave for two weeks.  Also, still car related, the MOT and insurance were due.  The MOT cost £365 and I managed to save just under £200 on the car insurance from their initial renewal quote, bringing it down to £274.  Next month the tax is due.  Last year when I first got the car I worked out how much all these things cost me at the time, divided it by 12 and set up an account so the money comes out of my wages before I get them and have been saving that amount each month so I can pay for everything upfront. 

Mum is still doing well, has good and bad days but overall the improvement is incredible.  She has even started knitting again but laughed when I asked what she was knitting as she said “I don’t know”.  It doesn’t matter, the fact that she is sat just knitting away like she use to is great.  We managed to sit out in the garden for a bit today and she said that she would like me to take her out one day as she feel’s up to it.

My greenhouse blew over taking everything with it!!  So back to the drawing board with the planting.  I thought it was secured enough but guess not.

I’m back to the hospital tomorrow, having a chest x-ray and ultrasound on my tummy.   A couple of friends have been great and offered to come with me but I’ll be ok, my OH might come depending on his work.  What has made us laugh, is I have to not eat for 6 hours before, and only to have a light meal tonight and not to have milk but drink 1 litre of water 1 hour before the ultrasound.  All the people that know me know that the not eating and not being able to have a cup of tea with milk will be the worse bit J  Also the appointment is not until 4pm,they could have made it first thing in the morning lol.

Another Festival

We had been looking at having a short break in May to Barcelona and had managed to find some reasonable flights however….

I was browsing on the net when I found out that one of my favourite bands are going to be playing at a festival in July.  This lead to looking at the line up and with a bit of gentle persuasion, manage to get the OH to agree to come with me.  He hasn’t been to a festival before and I think that camping might have been a step to far, also the price inc. camping was ridiculous so will book into a bed and breakfast near the festival.  To be honest its not too far from where we live so we could always drive back if we can’t find anywhere to stay.

So the money we had started to put aside for Barcelona has gone on a festival.  I know that money wise it would have been more economical to go to Spain but I love seeing live bands and the fact the lineup included bands that we both love was too good an opportunity to miss. 

What I’ve be Up To

The main thing has been clearing mums flat.  We managed to empty it this weekend.  Most of her things are now in our home and I need to sort through everything.  We only have a small house and it is choc-a-block, wardrobe on the landing, one in the lounge and a chest of drawers in the conservatory!  We already had too much stuff and now it’s just ridiculous, to be honest I don’t know where to begin.   

I managed to get out in the garden on Sunday and got the lawn’s cut for the first time this year.  I also planted some more seeds and a couple of fruit bushes.  We are still going to our course; I think we have about two weeks left.  I’ve enjoyed it and have learnt a bit more about what to grow.

Redundancies are coming around again at work and whilst I’m not losing sleep over them you never know if you are going to be next, and I know that I would struggle to find a job with the same level salary.  With this in mind we are considering using a sizeable chunk of our savings to bring the balance of our mortgage down.  We need to do a few more sums but it is something we are leaning towards.

I’ve been having a few blood tests over the last few months, which resulting in my GP referring me to hospital.  I met with the consultant last week and she wants to see me again in about 6 weeks after I’ve had an x-ray and ultrasound.  I think I was a bit in shock as don’t even know that they are x-raying or ultrasounding!  All this started when I went to get some iron tablets (I’m anaemic) and the lady behind the counter said they don’t give them out if you’ve not had a blood test in the last 3 months, which I hadn’t.  So I asked the GP to test my blood so I knew what dose of tablets to take and the result’s showed up something else.  Anyway I’ll find out soon what is wrong.  As I haven’t any symptoms (subclinical and abnormal blood the doc said!), I guess it is hard for them to figure out what could be wrong.

I’m still working on my Life List and promise I will post it soon.  I really want to achieve some of the things this year.

Gardening Course

Last night was the 1^st night of the 5 week Spring Growing evening class.  My friend unfortunately was ill so couldn’t come but I went anyway and collected lots of info for her.  It is being held at the Environment Centre in our city.  The building itself is set in a 24 acre nature reserve.  It has solar panels, collects rainwater and has a very cosy wood burning stove.  They seem to run lots of courses, either free or some of them for £1!  http://www.stnicksfields.org.uk/ Hope the link works.

There were about 20 people there and it was interesting to see how we all seemed to want something different from the course, hard for the man taking it and trying to cram it all into 5 weeks!  Some people had been growing fruit and vegetables for a while, others have just got an allotment and there were a couple of people from different community gardens.  Our city has a project running where throughout the city in unsuspecting places there are vegetables growing for anyone to eat. 

I think the course will be good.  I’ve already got a bit more of an idea what to plant and also thinking of getting another little plastic green house.  Who knows we might actually get to eat something I grow this year!

Not going to Plan

Well I had hoped to be saying how much we had managed to overpay on the mortgage, however my OH only got paid half his wages this month (they “forgot” his holiday pay) so things are a bit tight. We are lucky that we have savings should we need them but will try and hold out until we get the other half.

So this month there has been lots of NSD and a lot of invented meals from what we have in. The freezers in the shed have been emptied and there is not much left in the in the kitchen. I have menu planned for the last two weeks and it has been so easy to know what we are eating each day, if it’s something from the freezer I just take it out on the morning before going to work. Also it is great for the shopping list and budget.

We had a nice day out on Bank Holiday Monday. As I work Mon-Fri and my OH works weekend nights we don’t often get to spend a whole day together so this was great. We went walking at Dalby Forrest. It cost us £7 to get in and I took a pack up and flask with us for lunch. We only walked just over 3 miles but it was quiet hilly and so peaceful we only saw a couple of people on their mountain bikes. It got my heart pumping and the fresh air certainly blew the cobwebs away. On the way back we called into a little coffee shop for a hot chocolate. (I did take pictures but can't work out how to get them onto here from my new phone!)  So for less than what we would spend on a takeaway we got some quality time together, getting some exercise in the fresh air – perfect.

Bit of an Update

I’ve had a busy, but good weekend. It now seems very likely that Mum will be able to stay in the home she is in, which is great, we just need it confirming. So tomorrow I will give 4 week notice on her flat. We nipped up there yesterday morning and my lovely OH (after coming off a night shift) helped me load the car up. We still have a lot to move/get rid of but now I have a deadline to have it empty I have to do it. I need to ring round and get a few quotes for bringing the furniture we want to keep here. I have written a little note explaining mums health problems last year and am going to send it, with an Easter card to all her friends that sent Christmas cards. Unfortunately I don’t know who some of them are but hope that they all still keep in touch with Mum. We have asked the joiner that did our loft hatch for a quote to board out part of our loft. We had free insulation fitted so he needs to raise the joists. I have no idea how much it will be but hope we can soon save up for it. We only have a small two bedroomed house and storage space is lacking so it would be so useful to have it done. I have spent most of today in the garden. Last week a friend and I went on a free 2 hour course/lecture to learn about growing fruit and vegetables in pots. It was interesting and certainly gave me lots of ideas of what I want to plant this year. The couple that held it where very environmentally friendly and I learnt about where I’ve gone wrong with composting. So with the composting in mind I did what they advised which involved emptying my compost bin and then putting it all back in but with more cardboard and paper as instead of compost I had mud. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be and hopefully it will work. It amazes me that all the veg peelings and things from the garden rots down into something I can use to grow plants with. I also planted some vegetables. I maybe a bit late with some of the plants but may as well give it a go. From this course we came away with lots of info to read and found out about a 5 week course to learn more which we have booked on, again free. It is once a week and we will take it in turns driving there. We feel very lucky in finding these courses, like the ones last year on crafting. Hope you all have had a good weekend too xx