I find Christmas quite stressful these days. Ma and I had already decided we wouldn't go to Bro's on Christmas Day. So when SiL tested positive for Covid late om 23rd, I'd already catered for cooking for the two of us. Pa's place are following the guidelines on visitors, so as one of his named people, I saw him on Christmas Eve after I dropped ( Read more... )

 I'm NIW until the new year. Walking home at 5.30, I got a call from my previous boss about my last audit report he's trying to get finalised. It's 6 weeks since I ladt looked at it, and there's not much I can do about it now, so it is what it is.

Since gettjng home, I've put the Christmas Eve stew in the slow cooker, hung up the laundry, changed ( Read more... )

Apart from a couple of weddings and assorted births, today is the anniversary of the purchase of my first house in 1991. We can gloss over the events of the next couple of weeks, as they have a different set of memories associated with them.

It was a small house, with one door and three windows and a very damp cellar,  but it was mine. And after 2 ( Read more... )

 I went up to Sheffield last weekend and saw Pa for the first time in over a month. He's now moved permanently into a care home, so we are allowed to visit him in his room. All visitors must take a LFT before they are allowed to see residents.  I was glad to see how well he's settling in and the staff seem quite fond of him!

Bro has invited me & Ma ( Read more... )

My new car finally arrived. I went to pick it up on Tuesday. The old one, at 6 years 3 months, had done 45,044 miles when I handed it over. The new one had done 13. Considering the £200 a year difference in VED, I'm a bit miffed they wanted to get it into November's sales figures, but they gave me a free boot liner, so not too bad. At least having ( Read more... )

 Four years, eleven months and a few days ago, I started work at the council. Today was my last day in the Audit team. I start in Finance on Monday.

My boss was in the office yesterday, but he's having a couple of days off, so that was our last day together. I will miss working with him, as we get on well together, and I know he doesn't have the ( Read more... )

 One of the things about not having a TV licence is that you are no longer allowed to watch things on iPlayer. As I currently have a licende (it's actually very hard to cancel after 1 quarter unless you call them the day after the first payment goes through) I'm seeing what's available. Compared to other streaming services, the player itself is ( Read more... )

I finally got the official offer letter for my new job at the end of August, so I could put in my resignation and arrange a start date. I leave Audit on 31 October and start in Finance on 1 November.  If I actually manage to finish any of the 3 audits I'm doing at the moment, I think I will deserve a medal.

I graded for my purple sash on Sunday. ( Read more... )

 It's been a long couple of weeks since the European Championship final. I spent the night at Dad's "sleeping" on 2 arm chairs pushed togethervand waiting for an out of hours GP, who turned up at 3am. Dad was diagnosed with a UTI and I left the next morning to find someone has managed to knock a temporary road sign through the bqck window of my car ( Read more... )

 I'm NIW this week. The idea was to get down to the allotment and start the work I should have done 3 months ago. But as the last 3 months have been mostly wet when I was available, the work hasn't happened. And as I'm currently knitting baby outfits, it hasn't happened this week either.

I had to go for a blood test thismorning. I had it in my ( Read more... )