No Mortgage For Me

Apparently there are no lenders prepared for both my circumstances and also a studio flat. Oh well, same old, same old, I'll have to try again once the debt has reduced a bit. On the plus side I did manage to give away my dressing table, which has freed up a bit of space for the chest of drawers and small table I that I have recently acquired. Next up I will try to offload my sofa, but that can wait until after my trip.

Money is actually really stressful right now and it's been a long time since it has played on my mind like this. I have just paid out another huge amount for the trip to Australia and it took some work to make it happen. I have already delayed paying my maintenance on the flat (and I give no fucks about making them wait) and have had to move money around the place to free up space in the right places. On top of missing three days of work, the timing is just awful. I think (hope) I will be ok for bills for the next two weeks, but I hadn't wanted to be a tightarse during this trip and I'm going to have to. 😔 Achievement unlocked: I only put £15 of fuel into my car instead of filling it up. I have never done this before, ever.

Summarily disgusted at the new mega-charity shop which opened up next to work because it had TWO whole pairs of trousers in a size 16, neither of which was any use to me, and no jeans at all. Very crap indeed.

Tomorrow I have sooo much to do before leaving and I am not looking forward to fitting it all in! 

The Penny Drops

I am 99% sure I've had Covid again. The coughing is gravelly (but mostly faded away now). I realised after posting my last message in here that food wasn't awful, it was... flavourless. And I'm getting out of breath just walking (although I am nowhere near as tired as the first time I had it).

I am sort of getting my taste and smell back now but pretty much all I've eaten for a week is whichever carbs looked edible. At work yesterday I decided on a chili pot noodle, which was a silly idea because the only detectable flavour was "mouth on fire" but at least I ate it. I am now making myself a fakeaway chicken burger because it might smell nice? We will see.

Swagbucks has given me the credit "as a courtesy" which leaves me slightly miffed but at least I will get the payment. My doctor has finally deigned to call me (whoa) and in even more surprising news was quite pleasant and has some FREE medication which was unexpected - but I'll take it. Especially since having needed three days off work, my finances have taken a great big slap in the face.

I am currently speaking with a mortgage broker to try to refinance my debts. I have always assumed I can't get one, but he didn't seem to see any reason why not. If he's able to find me a lender who'll take me on (most will not lend on studio flats) then it will be an incredible relief, and cut my repayments in half.

Fingers crossed.

The Timing is Awful

...for my latest challenge, that is, because I have come down with the flu. Today I drove an hour for an unrelated routine medical appointment, but apart from that I have spent the entire day sleeping and it's now 4am. So far today I have eaten one "cheesy bacon flatbread" breakfast thing from McDonalds because it was on offer for £1.19. It was awful, but I had felt like I should probably eat something before my appointment. Since I haven't otherwise eaten for the whole day, I just forced down a peperami stick for a bit of protein and really did not enjoy it in the least.

I'm now eating an apple because it felt like something I could eat.

Some Surprises

I was over the moon to find something free that I really needed on Facebook last week. The lady said she was on holidays for the week and would keep it for me to help me out. I went over to collect it today and she says: It's only the attachments, I've sold the main item.

She clearly thought that was what I had wanted so I smiled hugely, said it was perfect, and left with my useless bin bag full of attachments for the product I don't have 😂 Why am I like this?

On the plus side, my lovely neighbour knocked on my door to hand me a gold bunny for Easter. I opened it just now to find it's hazelnut. 😍 What a fantastic yummy treat!

Addendum

I realised I hadn't updated about my fight with the NHS, so here it is. I did manage to get into the Women's Health Unit and was seen by a really lovely lady. And things seem to be ok. She prescribed one of my medications, and I found a pharmacist who will do the others for me providing I pay privately (£££) but at least I will now have what I need. This is a real relief. In the meantime I've filled my bosses in and they have been wonderful, changing my duties and my work hours to suit. I am blessed.

I am still angry at my idiot uncooperative GP though and the WHU lady suggested I make a formal complaint in writing to the practice manager. We'll see if I find the energy.

The Swagbucks game did not credit so I've appealed and now have my breath held for my missing 4000 points. Fingers crossed.

Slip-up Or Two

So I've mentioned health challenges of late and one of them is I'm not always feeling great. This week has been a bit of a struggle for me and I haven't always eaten properly, and when I have, it's been bread-heavy. Yesterday I felt like rubbish all day and finally felt slightly human at home-time... and I bought myself a cheeseburger on the way home. What can I say, I just needed to eat something I'd be able to stomach!

Anyway, here are some of the other meals from the past few days. First... a typical lunch salad for me on work days. As I'm quite lazy, the mushrooms are just torn up and thrown in, and the carrot is whole. The beetroot was a sliced jar (from Food Club a while back) and I just diced it inside the jar by throwing a sharp knife about in the liquid. Today it features lettuce and cucumber from a supermarket, but I often use pickles or sweet corn or beans instead, which I can get from Food Club.

This is a chicken tikka curry thrown in a bowl. I had the tin lurking from a previous Food Club visit, and since it's open three days a week and I can do a mini-shop there as often as I like, we're going to pretend I picked these items up in my second shop. The bread needed to be eaten. It was edible curry like this, but far too much food and I was absolutely stuffed.

There also happened to be a day I was unexpectedly held up at work and hadn't brought lunch with me, so I bought myself a reduced chicken sandwich for my lunch, and didn't need to bother with protein at dinner. Behold, again from the imaginary second Food Club visit, here is chicken soup with bread. It was really, really delicious. Usually with soup I cook some plain pasta in the microwave and throw it into the soup, but this time there was the bread, so I didn't.

The promised hot dogs. Using baguette as it's what I had. You can't see clearly but there are three hot dogs in this construction. It didn't really work and had to be reassembled as two separate breads-with-dogs-on but it tasted amazing. I bought the shredded cheese from work as Food Club doesn't sell it.

Not pictured: yesterday's lunch, which was frozen veg thrown into a cous cous packet mix. I ate it all, and regretted it all afternoon. Hence the forbidden cheeseburger. I also did try the chocolate gingerbread and it's underwhelming, but edible. I don't think I'll be buying any more of it, even if the other packets sit there in Food Club looking sad for another six months!

Remaining in my stash: all the potatoes, three "meal tins" to go with them, another Irish Stew cheat tin, tinned fruit, custard, crisps, biscuits, pasta, pasta mixes, cereal, and lots of odds and ends. While I do have frozen protein, I will try to stick to Food Club staples this week for dinners, since I'm doing this as a challenge. I've also got tinned veg, pasta sauce and kidney beans, so maybe I'll make something of those if I find some energy!