Holiday Jobs

There are so many things I want to and need to do it's hard to know where to start.  As I've said before I am a great procrastinator or as my mum called me a "gonna" gonna do this and gonna do that but actually end up not doing anything.  As a child my school reports use to say I'm easily distracted, even the nurses in hospital when I was born told my mum that if they were feeding me and someone came in the room I moved my head round to see what was going on. (I was ill when I was born and my parents had to leave me in hospital and visit me daily but the nurses obviously fed me when my mum wasn't there).

I have all next week off work and hope that I can achieve some of the things I need to. We have a few maintenance issues with our home that need sorting and I want to give the place a good clean and sort out.  I hope to make a start on our spare room as it needs new floor boards.  It has been used as a dumping ground and I want to be able to use it more as an office/snug.  I want to decorate it with an Indian theme in mind with orange and purple walls but my husband isn't so keen so we shall see... ;)

When we bought our house the furniture was given to us to go with the few bits we had as we couldn't afford new or even second hand.  Now we have been able to put some money aside to replace items of furniture, some of which are well past it and as we haven't had to think of what we would like in terms of style we are struggling, there is so much choice out there.  We are starting with upstairs first, hence doing the spare room.  Our room has blue walls which we are sticking with just going to re-decorate to brighten it up and are going to buy white wardrobes.  We have ordered a new bed as after 20 plus years the old one has finally given up and so has our backs!


 

My Birthday

It was my birthday at the end of February and I was very spoilt.  Flowers and quality time with my husband.

I went out for lunch with a friend who gave me my favourite chocolates.

Had sushi with another friend.






















It's my best friends birthday a few days before mine and there has been a restuarnt we have both wanted to try so treated ourselves and we not disappointed. The whole experience was great, from the moment we walked in to the end.  The staff friendly and professional and the owner took time out to talk to us about cooking the perfect Scotch egg, even checking with the chef the correct temperature.

Roses on the table for our arrival

Melt in your mouth steak

The meat platter

Runny Scotch egg

Refreshers instead of mints

 

 

Then a light supper at my friends.

 

 

 

Plus a little gift from another friend...

 

Busy, Busy, Busy

It's been ages since I've blogged. I really admire and appreciate bloggers who manage it every day.

Things have been busy with the new house, work and a few days away.  Also my mother in law who has a stroke just before Christmas has been diagnosed with cancer and we have been caring for her.

Things that are in the pipe line are more work on the new house (it needs more specialist work than expected), a self reliant weekend away and training for to do the Race for Life.

 

Starting as I mean to go on

I've done this weeks menu plan and made a shopping list of what we haven't got in. Lunches are homemade soup. salads or sandwiches. The soups are already made and in the freezer. After this week I think I will need to stock it up again.  I will get the shopping tomorrow as I am visiting a friend and drive past the supermarket. 

Mon - Meat balls and pasta
Tue - Lemon and Herb chicken, potatoes and vegetables
Wed - Pulled Pork, sweet potato mash and roasted vegetables
Thur - Leftover pork and Chicken
Fri - Homemade chicken goujons, wedges and salad
Sat - Thai chicken curry and rice
Sun - tbc

I need to get some moisturiser as it has completely run out and another mattress protector so I am called in to Wilcos before I went to work today. Strangely there is no protectors in Wilco or either of the Tescos in town.

I made a goats cheese and beetroot tart this morning. I've not made it before but it smells good. This will be to have with salad for lunches.

 

Some Things Change...

...and some never do.

Things that have changed = I love my job. I'm a lot more chilled. We have more time together. I've made new friends. We (hopefully) are going to be landlords.

Things that haven't = The clutter. My weight. My lack of motivation. These are things I hope will move into the changed section during 2016.

 

A Day Off

Today I had a day off from work.  The plan was to go to a spa but that fell through so instead we had a day at home.  As I’ve said before we never get a day off together apart from holidays so we wanted to make the most of it.  I got lots of washing dried on the line and my OH cut the lawns while I dismantled one of the wardrobes in our bedroom.  It wasn’t too bad a job but we discovered that there had been some mould on the wall behind where it had been.  I think it had maybe been there as before we brought the house it had been empty for nearly a year.  I wiped it down but it needs to be cleaned properly before we decorate.  We put in Mum’s tallboy wardrobe (we’ve always called it that but it’s basically a small wardrobe with a couple of drawers at the bottom).  I had hoped to be able to fit all OH t-shirts in it but it’s not wide enough so I’ve stacked our towels and bed linen in the wardrobe bit.  I then put Mum’s single wardrobe.  It is a nice, art deco wooden one.  Eventually we will buy a white double wardrobe and this one will go into the spare room.

After all our hard work we went into town to see the Olympic Torch.  It was a great atmosphere and we got to see it.  I would have be able to show you a picture of it but a) I can’t find the cable to put photo’s on the pc and b) my OH excitedly nudge me to say “can you see it” and I got a great photo of my arm!

All in all a very productive day with a bit of fun too – I don’t how I find time to work!

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.

We're Back

We had a really relaxing holiday. The hotel was nice and the weather fabulous. It was just what the doctor ordered. I slept lots, read lots and ate lots. It was just nice spending time with my OH, chatting or just sat watching the world go by. One of the people we met said something that I’m trying to do which was “take the holiday with you”, when you get back home. It is easy to come back home and then feel like you have never been away as you get bogged down with the daily grind. I also did a lot of thinking and planning of what I’d like to achieve, both in terms of our home and also on my Life List, which I will type up and post on here. We also thought about our next holiday and are thinking of maybe one of the Greek Islands.

With all our hopes and dreams we defiantly need to stick to budgeting. So even though we are “back to reality” I feel excited and motivated with challenges to aim for.

PS – thank you for all your great comments on our mortgage overpayment, they are very encouraging and hopefully we will be making another one next month.

Holiday Countdown has Begun

To quote Peter Kay we “saw it, booked it, f**Ked off”, well not until March. We went with the laying by the pool option as I feel I need a complete break. So we have booked two weeks in Egypt at the beginning of March.

We did really well and had £1065 in the holiday fund and still have £123 left in it. We’ve been weighing up the pro’s and con’s of driving verses the train to the airport. We have always gone on the train, even when we had a car before because it worked out cheaper but with the train fares rising and because of our flight times we would need to get a taxi back from the train station to our village. So at the moment we are leaning towards me driving there. Some of the £123 left will go towards parking costs and petrol. We also need transfers to the hotel and I’ve found a bus company that will do it for £3.40.

We are still going to save each month into the holiday fund as we hope to have another holiday later in the year and I’d like to go camping for a weekend.

And a warm welcome to my new followers xx

Meanqueen – Thank you for the hug and the advice.

Dannie – I feel so much better letting it all go. You have inspired me with the great things on your life list.

Pink Fairy Vicky – Thank you, I hope I can stay motivated!

Mum – Happy New Year, I’m trying to be organised lol

SFT – Thanks for the positive thoughts, fingers crossed 

Jayne – I agree, the support I have got from other bloggers has been amazing.

Anger

I woke up angry and am still angry now!!

My role at work has been added too.
I was more or less told yesterday that my work isn’t as important as colleagues, I can put mine aside to answer calls but they can’t, they are far too busy. We are all busy and should work together as a team. That is fine but part of my responsibility is ensuring a legal requirement with deadlines is met. And we have been meeting them as the figures show but, no this new phone structure is more important. So guess what happened this morning when the report I have to do wasn’t done, “RC can you drop everything and do the report by 11am”. It just bugs me so much that when we expressed our concerns before they introduced the new system and they were just completely ignored.

The other thing I am absolutely fuming about is mum. Since being diagnosed she has been on medication for her dementia which has to be kept up. This was expressed by her mental health nurse and I checked while she was in the main hospital and they agreed. Today she had moved into a care home and I was discussing her meds with a member of staff and they said that this hasn’t been prescribed. I rang the hospital she was discharged from only to find out that a junior doctor had taken her off these tablets on the 4th November but they don’t know why. There is no note in the file. I am so bloody angry because she shouldn’t have been taken off the tablets and also if there is a physical, medical reason that should be recorded. They have said they will ensure she is put back on them, which to me says there was no reason for her to be taken off them. A manager is going to ring me tomorrow.

Sorry for the rant, I’m going to have a cup of tea and relax – deep breaths now :)

STF – I will start again with a new list, just got to keep battling on

Dannie – Thank you for your support, it is emotional but in a good way if that makes sense as I have so many happy memories.

Thanks for the video to dvd info, I will look into it.

Did I get it all done?

Short answer is no. Thank you for all your encouraging comments. I have completely underestimated and forgotten how much work goes into packing up and moving.

Thank you for the prioritising idea. I did it, with the cheque’s being first off the list.

I managed to pack up all of the things from mum’s kitchen and defrost the freezer. I didn’t empty the cupboards under the sink out as I will need to use the cleaning things.

I emptied the book shelf into boxes. I found a video that had the name of the farm on it. I can’t remember what is on it or if I’ve seen it. I have a feeling it might be a bit emotional as I think my dad could be on it. Can you transfer videos onto dvd’s?

I cleared out the chest of drawers in the lounge that housed things like light bulbs.

I started to bag up clothes for the charity shop. I didn’t drop them off as there was a Christmas market and parking was difficult.

It was a trip down memory lane, more of which I will post another time.

All the Christmas cards are written, stamped and ready to post. I have written mums too, working from a list that she had in the Christmas card box. Once I see who sends cards this year I will write a little note explaining that mum has been ill, and also of her new address.

Secret Santa’s for mine and OH brought and wrapped, with a couple of other pressies.

I had planned to do more yesterday but had a migraine so struggled a bit.

I visited mum on Saturday to be told by a nurse she was moving into a home today. It was all very sudden. However I got a call this morning to say she had a bit of an upset tummy over the weekend and they couldn’t risk moving her in case it was an infection. They hope to that she will move this week. We haven’t visited the home yet so I hope its ok. We have to wait 4 weeks for the financial assessment as they have a backlog. I will be glad when that is sorted as I’m worrying that it.

I picked up the fire guard from a Freecycler for my friend. It was a surprise for her as she mentioned last week that her new kitten – who is sooo cute – keeps trying to hurl herself onto the fire! She has been away this weekend so I left it outside her home, with a little note. She rang last night to say it fits perfect and to hear the joy and surprise in her voice was lovely.

OH has managed to pick up another shift tonight so that is some more money for the holiday fund, every little bit counts.

A Good Day...

..you know the kind of day when everything just is right.

It was an early start as I picked OH up from work before going to mine. It was so windy last night it would have taken him forever to cycle the 6 miles to work so I gave him a lift. Just seeing the smile on his face when I picked him up made getting up a bit earlier alright and I got to read a bit of my book before going to work.

My colleague who gives me a lift had made me a coffee to drink on the way in, which warmed me up and was a nice surprise.

When I got to work another colleague showed me pictures of his gorgeous little girl, born on Wednesday. Any baby is a blessing but this family have been through a lot over the last few years. No one knew his wife was expecting as they didn’t want to tempt fate, I’m so pleased for them. And to celebrate he brought mince pies and biscuits in.

My section were set a target of 99.5% at work which was deemed unattainable but this week we beat it. Our new manager actually acknowledged this (something the old one’s didn’t) and gave me and my two colleagues some chocolates. It was nice that our hard work has been recognised.

Friday is Buttie Day and I was treated to one which came with a runny egg, yummm.

Although we were short staffed and were busy we managed to chat and laugh while working. I am lucky to work with a good bunch of people(most of the time!), including one of my best friends.

We had a cheap tea of bubble and squeak (left over mash and veg), sausages with onion gravy that were reduced to 50p. We then looked at old holiday photos and laughed at a video of my OH doing some sort of dance!

All in all a good day. Hope you’ve all had one too.

15p, 90 cents and a sixpence

On the way to pay in the contents of my sealed pot I found 15p on the pavement, so the pot got a last minute top up. I was very pleased with the £46.23 total, plus 1 sixpence and 90 cents! I have another pot that I put £2 coins in and have £52 in there, so just short of £100. I think I am going to use the money for a new car stereo as the one in my car doesn’t work.

I cleared mums cupboards of her food and emptied her freezer. It was a good job we had nearly emptied ours as it is full again. The plates I am going to try and sell on ebay as they are Hornsea pottery and someone said they sell quite well. The other plates and pots and pans I don’t want I am giving to a charity that helps people moving into their first home, usually from being homeless. They also take furniture but until mum is settled somewhere I don’t know what she can take with her.

I have a note pad that I carry round with me and each time I think of something else to do I jot it down. A friend came up with a good idea to put a card in the local shops where mum lives to sell some of the furniture that we don’t need.

There are 3 main bits of furniture I would like to keep, a blanket box, a revolving book case and my dads desk.

When I visited mum today one of the nurses had cut and styled her hair, she looked great. I kept asking mum if I could cut it but she wouldn't let me. It was so nice of the nurse just to do it and I'm sure it made mum feel better.

I had a meeting with a lady at the bank, just running through things. She asked what we spend on groceries etc and I said around £150 at the most and I'd like to reduce it but that includes the cat/takeaways/eating out. She said "oh right so that’s a week"!! When I say a month she couldn’t believe it. I didn’t dare mention some of my blogging friends budgets!

The day leader where I volunteer is leaving at the end of the year. She is still going to be looking after all the food stores but unfortunately feels that she can no longer deal with some of our clients. She was explaining what she does as part of being in charge and asked if any of us wanted to take over her role. W said she would nominate me and B then seconded it. I didn’t say anything. I am very flattered that they think I could do the job but I’m not sure. I will think about it.


Thank you all for your kind words and support and for listening to my ramblings. xx

Hello

Things have been a bit busy.

After being told several weeks ago on a Friday that the doctors didn’t think that mum would last the weekend, they now want to discharge her from hospital.

As you know mum has dementia but I think that we were putting a lot of her behaviour down to that and didn’t realise how physically ill she was. She had pneumonia, her blood count was very low and something was wrong with her heart. The day the docs called me in so explain how poorly she was they had also found a massive blood clot on her lung, which was pressing on her heart. She had a blood transfusion that night and also had several B12 injections which boosting her blood count. As she was refusing food and also refused a food tube I asked if I could go in at meal times to try and feed her. The nurses had to respect mums wish if she said she didn’t want to eat, where as I could be a bit more encouraging “one more spoon” kind of thing. As I blogged before seeing her feed herself was a great sight, not only was she well enough to pick up the spoon but she also wanted to eat, which was good, as some people wondered if she had given up.

The hospital she has been in for the last few weeks has been for rehab. They have managed to get her walking again and getting dressed. Now we are at the point where they feel that they have done all they can, and she is ready to move, this time into a care home, as she would be unable to cope and wouldn’t be safe living on her own.

So we are starting the process of finding a new place for mum to live, and the minefield of social service procedures. Everything seems to be based around whether you are self-funding or not. This is where the confusion begins as I thought mum would be as she has some savings, however after a brief telephone call to her financial advisor it appears they can’t touch her money because of how it is invested. It’s all very complicated and now we have to have a financial assessment. Of course money talks to which home you can go in. We looked round 3 today. The first one we weren’t that keen on, the second one from what we saw was fantastic, I could have moved in there myself. And third was nice and only a 5 mins walk from where we live.

As well as finding a new home, I have give notice and to sort out mums flat, organising what to keep, if we want anything and how to get rid of things we don't need/want.

Needless to say my head is spinning and all this has to be done before Christmas – wish me luck!!


Update on OH
I didn’t post much about what happened as I think we were both in shock. OH works in a hotel and heard a lot of shouting; he investigated to find a man beating up his wife in the reception. She had ran from their room to try and get away from him. There was blood all over and their room had been trashed. He tried to calm the man down but got two punches in the head. The police were called and the man arrested.

Thank you all for your hugs and kind words, they mean a lot.

Just a quickie tonight

We’ve had a couple of stressful days as OH was assaulted at work on Saturday night. He is ok but was a bit shook up.

I managed to use some of the frozen stir-fry veg from the freezer for dinner tonight and served it with noodles and tuna steak yummm.

Got My Wheels Back

I got my car fixed. I mentioned to a lady at work that something was wrong with it. She had a flat tyre the other day and had called into a small garage near work who sorted it out for her. I gave them a call and they said they could have a look at it but couldn’t guarantee they could repair it that day. No problem and I popped it round. Within an hour she called me to say what was wrong, not a big job so they could squeeze it in and the cost. At the end of the morning it was done and I picked it up in after lunch. I’d worried that it was going to cost us the holiday fund but with parts and labour the bill was £37.44. They were fantastic, great customer service and price.

This morning was spent at the food kitchen. I really enjoy it there and this week I'm going to have a look round a local homeless shelter that some our clients use. I would like to do more to help out but at the moment this isn’t possible.

Dinner tonight went down well, a cheap jar of curry sauce, half an onion, handful of frozen peas, and a packet of cooked chicken served with homemade wedges, rice and yellow label naan breads. Not the healthiest but was a lot cheaper than a takeaway and we really enjoyed it.

I nipped to the supermarket for cat food - £10 for 24 tins, which with biscuits keeps him fed for the month. Not many bargains to be had but I got 3 small baguettes for 5p each that I’ve cut in half and put in the freezer.

Tomorrow I’m going to do some chores and visit mum.

Hope you’ve all had a great Bonfire night.

KESHLING – I completely agree, you save so much money doing it.

CAROL – I was surprised at how ill I felt and glad you are enjoying reading
MEANQUEEN – You just feel so much better eating properly, I love the smiley faces you make with your dinner :)

SFT – I should have explained, OH is having mackerel and I’m having the veggie burger, however a combination of the two sounds good. Maybe it could be one of my new recipes for this month.

SIMPLEMISS – I had a headache the next day, which was probably down to poor eating.

MUM – I’m going to have a go at baking bread this month, last time I did it was “heavy”, more practice is needed I think.

Food Glorious Food

What was interesting by doing my food challenge last month was finding out the things that went down well with my OH were things that I thought he wasn’t keen on. He enjoyed meat from left over roasts which I had frozen with gravy and he also like the homemade vegetable soup. The baguettes I’d cut into four and froze along with some rolls that were yellow stickered at 10p where handy to have will soup or sausage casserole. I also know what not to buy again. I still have some frozen stir-fry veg and peppers that I haven’t used. I also found some frozen grilled aubergine from when I made mousakka once, there isn’t enough to make another one and I don’t want to buy any more some will have to think of a way to use them up.

I think I will have a meat delivery next week. I can’t remember the last time we had one. I hope that his prices haven’t gone up but I think that in the current climate they will have. I have found a new place for fruit and vegetables. I’m not sure if they are cheaper than Aldi but the fruit I got from there the other day was so tasty it was worth it. Also it is a local independent trader which I like to support.

I will definitely keep up with the menu planning and want to try some new recipes this month.

Here is next weeks menu plan, using up a few more bits from the freezer.

Fri
Mince and onions, jacket potato & veg
Sat
Home made chicken curry & chips/rice
Sun
£5 meal deal from Morro’s/ or Roast Chicken
Mon
Tuna steaks, new potatoes & veg/salad
Tue
Pasta carbonara
Wed
Fish pie/pork, mash potatoes & veg
Thurs
Mackerel/veggie burger, jacket potatoes & salad
Fri
Seafood risotto

You Are What You Eat

I have eaten a lot of rubbish today. Started with a sausage roll, then some parkin cake that a lady in the office had baked, then someone bought some biscuits left from a meeting, then there was some banana crisp things - that didn’t taste at all like banana -, then a ham sandwich, then more biscuits. I just don’t have the will power to say no. By the time I was due to drive to see my mum I was shattered so got an energy drink, something I’ve never had before and will not again it was disgusting.

I have just felt tired, sick and headachey. I’m sure it’s because of all the sugar and fat I have put in my body today.

After eating all homemade food for the last month I have noticed the difference in how better I feel, so tonight I had a light dinner of salmon and salad. I have bought some vegetables and am going to make lots of soup to freeze. Tomorrow for lunch we are having some turkey that I have cooked with spices, salad, homemade hummus and pitta bread. We will be having tastey homemade food again this month, maybe lose some weight again and hopefully feel better again.

PS Hello and welcome to my new followers.

First Thing off my Life List

Following Dannie’s example I’ve been working on a Life or Bucket List. Today unexpectedly I crossed one thing off it – eat goat. As you know my colleague and I share lunches and she phoned me last night to say her partner was making goat casserole and would I like some for lunch. It was nice, to be honest didn’t really taste of anything really distinctive; I thought it would be more like lamb. What food would you like to try?

My car is making a horrible grinding noise. It started when I was taking a friend home tonight, sounded like something scratching on the road, but I had a look underneath and couldn’t see anything. We phone her mechanic brother as I was worried about driving the 7 miles home but unfortunately he couldn’t help. I decided to give it a go and the noise didn’t get worse but I’m worried if driving it is causing more damage. So tomorrow will be spent trying to get it fixed, who knows how much it will cost and where the money will come from!

SFT – I’m defiantly going to do the rounding down principle. We got the mortgage total today and I’ve already looking at figure to knock off. I use the little tray lots, thank you xx

MEANQUEEN – I think the blueness is probably as I took the pictures with my phone! I hadn’t had fish & chips in a while and really enjoyed them.

MUM – I can’t wait for the next party :) I might have a go at baking!

DREAMER – Thank you, as much as I love my friend I couldn’t let her have it lol. What a coincidence with the piggy cup.

ANNE – I would like to say I’d made it but it was shop bought, a bargain at £1.50.

Mum's Tea Party

Hopefully better late than never.

Cucumber sandwiches (egg for OH as he doesn't like cucumber), fruit cake with cheese and a couple of biscuits.

The stand was brought for a friend by my mum but it never made it to her!

And the plate, I won from a very kind SFT from one of her excellent "give aways" and the mug my OH got me when we were on holiday in Scotland once.

I hope you've all enjoyed your tea parties, I hope we can do it again.