Fifteen-Hour Day

Not enjoyable, not cheap and not recommended. Renewing one's passport for a certain country requires a trip in person, meaning Pugsley guzzled about £60 worth of fuel while tootling across the country. Me being me, I was willing to walk an hour if I found not-£20-parking, so I researched it last night and selected four streets that seemed to have little or no restrictions - and yes, this took well over an hour of looking on Google Maps. Well! It turns out that I also had to (1) figure out the difference between the London Congestion Charge, the Low-Emissions Zone and the Ultra-Low-Emissions Zone, and (2) try to avoid getting an extortionate corresponding charge, all while navigating stupid London traffic and (3) getting lost and going the wrong way over and over again. It turns out that I just had to stay out of the ULED (easier said than done) and which meant I was actually an 80min walk from the consulate. Fine! Oh yeah, in the rain. And parking the car just 80 minutes before my appointment.

I walk/skipped/ran the entire way and made it in the nick of time, and my typical ankle reaction was I now hate you and I'm not playing this game anymore and so by the time I was walking back to the car it was stiff, sore and uncooperative. While I was getting rained on. And busting for a wee.

I decided my three hours of walking earned me a takeaway and I'm not even sorry. ULEZ + parking would have set me back about £30-40 so I don't even care that I threw £5 of my £20 weekly food money on one meal. I had also intended on paying for priority processing, but it turns out I saved myself another £20 because the current wait time is super quick.

At least there was lovely scenery walking along the Thames. Still, it was really not worth it 😂

Vile Illness

I was forced to actually miss a day of work yesterday, thanks to being incredibly snotty and cough-y. It also meant a trip to the supermarket for cold medicines. And from the state of me, it looks like I'll be missing another day tomorrow. Unimpressed.

Had myself a pork steak for dinner last night, which I haven't done for about a year (see what shopping in budget supermarket finds you?). I couldn't really taste it, mind you, but here we are. I also had the "delicious" potato salad with it, again, which I couldn't taste. Planning to eat flavourless toast this afternoon just to top off the food enjoyment 😂

18 degrees in my flat right now and I am stubbornly refusing to turn on the heating. This is Not Fun. But it's reality now, I suppose, with how much power is going to cost us all.

Currently contemplating the merits of a walk...

Accomplished

✔ returned yarn for refund

✔ collected a dozen apples

✔ did grocery shopping

✔ bought far too much food

I also have an annoying cold, which is not an accomplishment. It made me skip the gym twice, too. Boo.

I spent the yarn money on food, and also spent my airer money from last week on food, and now have £2 cash left for the week (but there is absolutely no reason I should need any more food, since I went overboard on treats and snacks). I have chopped the bruises out of the windfall apples and dunked them in lemon juice. I also ate my second-last sickening protein bar tonight... hopefully I'll have enough food money next week to buy some more SlimFast shake mix.

Now at 84kg, four more to go for my first goal.

I Sold Some Plants!

Ok, so it was at a knockdown price and took two months, but today I sold seven potted Begonias to a lady who was over the moon to have some instant colour for her back courtyard. Now I, too, am insanely pleased to have that little bit of cash in my hand. I have put it straight into my food money for next week.

Neighbours #8 have given me a little pot of African Daisies, they're lovely. I have put them into a larger pot with a little trailing vine, and parked them in the sunshine. Hopefully they make it through the winter ok.

I'm a little bit annoyed at having a day off AND all the shops are shut though. I have yarn to return for a refund since I bought more appropriate colours for the baby blanket I'm making. I can hear hymns coming from someone's tv outside. I have decided not to watch the funeral. I didn't know her, and there are enough mourners invested already, I don't think she'd have minded me not watching.

Speaking of the blanket, it's looking nice, although my cacky wrist doesn't cooperate for more than an hour a day. That's what I get for probably breaking several bones years ago 😁 I overdid it the first night I was making it and then couldn't figure out what I had done to my hand. I am not the brightest woman on the planet!

Set off for my long walk but no, my ankle has decided it would prefer not to, not today, thank you. Sigh. On the upside, I found a couple of windfall apples outside the fence of a neighbour, and they are lovely. One eaten, one in my fruit bowl. If I am feeling brave I might use my broom to reach a few more later this evening. Or even (gasp) sneak into the yard - it's a church, so I'm not convinced they will mind someone collecting apples off the ground anyway.

The Beer Garden

Neighbour #8 referred to our backyard as "the beer garden" and I am ridiculously pleased that it has been renamed. We had drinks outside this week with Tenant #2a and it was lovely. They have added some garden lights and we've resolved to bring table lights next time and keep our meetups going into the winter.

Winner: I had been tossing up buying a second clothes airer, to dry my clothes without the tumble dryer. Me being me, I kept putting it off. Until today, when a customer returned her airer as faulty (it had one broken rail out of 24) and I have now brought it home for a reduced price of £7.20 (down from £12). A liberal dash of superglue and the rail is repaired. Winner. I have paid for it out of my £20 cash weekly food allowance too so I can almost count it as free, or something.

Currently: feeling guilty that I'm not doing one extra hour today at work. Ridiculous, but here we are.

Hmmm, oh yeah

What's frugal lately? Well, I managed to get three packs of "hot and spicy chicken" this week for 50p each. They are now in my freezer. I've also realised I have no idea what I normally spend on groceries, mostly because of random spontaneous purchases such as the chicken (and long work days where I wobble and buy food for lunch, which I shouldn't be doing, either for economy or weight reasons). So at the beginning of the week I withdrew £20 in cash, and we will see what gets spent. I'm walking over to LIDL today so maybe it'll all get blown in there...

Currently washing my trusty old backpack which I bought in 2017 and which seems to have collected a layer of mould. I am hoping it comes out looking new.

I used the petrolprices app to find cheap fuel last night in my area. When I got to my chosen place, the price was higher. Sigh. Well, I tried.

Fail: Totally Shit Bank emailed me to nag that I hadn't viewed my monthly statement. I hadn't viewed it because I don't use their rubbish services, it just has an interest-free debt that's automatically paying off the minimum for another year and a half. But I log in, and my credit card account has completely disappeared. Same in the app. Well done, Totally Shit Bank, take a bow. If they never find it again, that would be a bonus, and to be honest, not all that surprising.

Fail/win: work offered me an extra day today, and I turned it down, because I'm so tired. I'm annoyed at myself, but I think it was the healthy choice. I did calculate, however, that if I manage to get fulltime hours for six months, I can save more than £2,000 (or, put it towards bills/debts/flights). Something to keep me motivated, I guess.

Wheee

Head Office has now given an official statement that they are granting an extra day of leave for the Queen's funeral day, not forcing us to use one we accrued. That'll do, Donkey.

I am now tossing up whether to work an extra day.

So Much Work.

Not really a complaint, since I do want the hours, but I will be absolutely shattered by the time I emerge from the current nine-day stretch. However, I'm going to use it as ammunition to ask for a bigger contract. Maybe. If I'm feeling brave enough (since I also want to ask for fixed days). Unfortunately Big Boss is being a bit annoying and fiddling with my overtime, deleting the odd hour off here and there (and not telling me... so I only see it by checking each morning). So I will have to go back into Stealth Mode and sign up for the overtime right before my shifts again so that he doesn't have time to see it's there before I start. Annoying. If he doesn't want to offer any overtime he shouldn't make the shifts available 💁

On the flipside I will be forced into taking a day's holiday on Monday for the Queen's funeral. Not really fair that we have to take it but hey. It's a day to relax.

I've been a little bit wobbly with the weight loss this week, skipped the gym a few times after tiring days at work where I'd already reached my 10k steps, and had a few extra snacks. Unsurprisingly the weight has barely moved, even though I still stayed at about 1000 calories. Sigh. I knew it would get harder but it's still annoying. I am at 85 now and have 5 more to reach the first goal.

The passport office has just told me that it has not yet sent my application for assessment and the wait time is a further 8-10 weeks from now 😞 I suppose it gives me more time to save up.

Dilemma did not even bother to reply to the email about the long list of maintenance issues. But she has sent out the survey report and asked if we wanted to apply to the tribunal... Jesus, woman, it's only what we instructed you to do six months ago!

Since It's Raining Today

I decided to tackle fixing That Oil Heater. As far as I can tell, the thing was only actually glued together in the first place. So, well, I gathered my trusty Super Glue and poured it on liberally. (Yes, I got some on my hand. Yes, I googled to see whether super glue is heat-resistant, and it is, at the temperatures this tiny heater will reach.) I am testing it today just to see that it behaves, but so far, so good. I am hoping not to use my larger heater until it gets really cold.

Owner #2a sent me the alleged "accounts" that Dilemma gave him and holy cow, we seem to be paying a student accountant just to make a complicated spreadsheet which makes zero sense. I do not have high hopes for her completion date later this month. These accounts (and also the tribunal ruling that we're waiting on, in order to redistribute the share each flat should have to pay), they're delaying us in giving her the boot. 😑 Which, in turn, delays me in trying to refinance onto a mortgage.

At this point I assume it's going to be so far away that I'm coming to pin my hopes on a lower-rate personal loan instead, which would make my repayments £300 per month (instead of £400). It's still a far cry from the £150/month mortgage I'd been hoping for, but hey. I then tried to do some Future Mathematics™ and got annoyed.

A bit sad about the Queen. Monarchist I am not, but I think she was a remarkable woman, and she did dedicate her entire working life (and then some) to what she did.

Antsy.

Even though I'm antsy and impatient, the weight loss is right on target and is all I can reasonably expect. I have now lost 5kg in three weeks. And I should be over the moon about that, but I'm just wishing it was faster. 😁 On the plus side I am half-way to my first goal of 11kg down, at which point my BMI crosses back into "overweight" rather than "obese".

I did the maths again on my living expenses, and including all my repayments, I now need to work 34 hours per week to break even. This is a fair bit above my contracted hours, so I can't rely on this always happening. Fortunately, £150 of the debt repayments are "optional", as in, if I can't manage them in the long run I can roll them back into my loan and make life more comfortable (even if becoming debt-free takes longer).

I have now waited eight weeks for my passport 😑 with no word at all, which is highly annoying, on the chance that something was wrong with the application. If they send it back I don't want another ten week wait! Or longer... since there is no guarantee it'll even magically appear in two weeks' time to begin with.

Neighbour #8 has called and grilled Dilemma on the progress so far and apparently got no answers, as he's now emailed all directors asking her to give us updates on the entire list. Included is the missing electrical cupboard door which blew off six months ago in a storm, and the fact that there's been two missing smoke alarms for more than a year, facts that Dilemma has known about since March. No sign of the accounts either, which she "started" in March too. Jeopardy Music goes here.

Eating: a diet shake for dinner, while pretending it's a burger with fries.

35 Pounds Lighter

But unfortunately it was my wallet and not my weight. I returned trainers which don't fit me (and paid £5 extra for a different pair). Then of course I needed to "just have a look" in Rival Bargain Shop, Sister Supermarket-Bargain Shop, LIDL, oh and Another Rival Bargain Shop.

Most of my spending was food but I did pick up two balls of wool so I've now had to buy a crochet hook off eBay (in my defence it's for a workmate about to have a baby, I'm making a blanket).

The kicker was that when you're carrying shopping bags, the fitness tracker doesn't even measure your steps because your wrist is still! 😭 But since it took me two hours of traipsing about, I'm calling it my 10k steps for the day.

Weight is just sitting still, which is highly annoying, even though I'm watching what I eat carefully, and doing tons of walking 😑

New DilEmma

Our resident halfwit has outshone herself, booking and arranging the surveyor but not giving a shit whether tenants knew he was coming. She just fired out a single email as notice. And of course, some didn't know, being old/vulnerable/non-internet. When asked about it, Dilemma just said they should all have received an email from her office telling them to be home.

I've let Mr Nice Surveyor in to three flats and made sure another two are ok for his visit, but Jeebus, we pay HER to manage the block, and I shouldn't have to do it. When I called Owner2A to let him know his flat was done, he expressed annoyance that Dilemma constantly asks HIM to organise things. Sigh.

Now at 4kg down and feeling good. I'm in the habit of drinking those weird diet shakes instead of lunch when I'm at work, and thankfully, I now have a good routine as far as timing my meals, so I don't get shaky. I've noticed that although those shakes don't make me feel full in any way, they do keep me going for another four hours of work + an hour at the gym. So that's quite a good thing.

I spent a good part of work on the shop floor yesterday, then walked 80min at the gym, so 18,000 steps yesterday! I'm certainly feeling it today as my legs are really tired, even had to raise them half-way through the night. Down another kg though so this will all pay off. My resting heart rate is down to 60bpm which is great. I feel good and the numbers show it.