Ever heard a tale about how bad things come in threes? Well this is one of those.
The only thing I had on my mind, when I left work on Thursday, was whether I should buy a 16GB iPhone4 or hold out for another month so that I could afford to buy the 32GB version. My inner geek says "get the one with bigger storage", but I am about £40 short. I drove home scheming: the arguments in my head running along the lines of "if I take £40 from this account, I could get the phone now and pay it back next month" or "why don't I just charge it and finish paying it off next month?". (I quickly shushed the latter argument.) Another part of my brain was arguing: "Why not settle for the 16GB? Do I really need 32GB of storage?". It lost.
Holding of purchasing for another month was still winning later on my way to a pub quiz, when I turned the car around outside the pub. Then I heard it. A metallic crunching noise, followed by "clatter, clatter". I quickly parked the car up. I first thought I'd damaged the steering (I'd had it on full lock); no, that felt fine. Wheels, then? They were still turning. I decided it had to be a wheel bearing. First thing wrong.
I went to the quiz, knowing that I could drive home with a broken wheel bearing, even if it wasn't safe to drive on the motorway to work. We won. And promptly donated our winnings to charity. (You have to if you're known to be a friend of the quiz master.)
Afterwards, S offered to shadow my drive home, in case something happened on the way. Turned out, he didn't need to. The Toy rolled about 2 feet before something seized up and he stopped. So I phoned the RAC, switched off the engine, switched on the hazard lights and settled down to a long-ish wait. When he arrived, the RAC mechanic determined it wasn't a wheel bearing. It was the clutch. The self-same clutch I'd had replaced 6 weeks ago.
(Incidentally, the most bizarre thing happened while I was waiting. A car pulled up beside me to ask directions. Given that the only way to identify that my car was possibly occupied were its flashing hazards, I was a bit surprised to say the least. Still don't know why they didn't walk into the pub and ask them. It was fully lit.)
Watching as the mechanic hitched the Toy up to tow home, I noticed a long scratch on the passenger side. Some bastard had keyed the Toy while I was in the pub. Second thing wrong.
Got home well after midnight. DH greeted me with a hot drink. Then noticed a puddle of water on the oak floor in the hall. Underneath the radiator. A radiator that had suspicious looking rust marks down one edge. It was obviously leaking from a seal near the valve you'd use to bleed it of air. We could see the water drops forming. I switched the radiator's thermostat to "off" and positioned a tupperware container under the drips. Third thing wrong.
Definitely not a good evening.
In the morning, the RAC towed me to the garage, while DH followed and then drove me into work. All I know is that the Toy will take several days to fix, so I've arranged a hire car for my trip to Site next week. And we'll get the plumber in to fix the radiator next week. It's still dripping a little, but not enough to get close to filling the Tupperware box.
- Pam
Saturday, 5 March 2011
Saturday, 26 February 2011
Frugal Friday (on Saturday): Think when you spend the money
Have you been following the news about the Christchurch Earthquake in New Zealand? Have you donated? The Red Cross are running various donation sites - I used the British one to ensure they could claim tax relief on my donation and thus increase its value by 20%.
I was thinking about the earthquake on my drive home from Site yesterday, wondering what I could do from 15,000 miles away. Australians tend to think of New Zealand as our little brother; they were part of the federation talks in the 1890's until New South Wales pissed them off. You didn't need a passport to travel between the two countries until the 1970's, when the Australian government imposed that requirement. And about a third of all Kiwis live in Australia.
Anyway, I was wondering what I could do. As a knitter, my first instinct said "Knit something to donate", but I'm so far away that donating knitted goods is impractical. So I settled on donating cash.
Then I saw this, on the back of a toilet door in the motorway services at South Mimms:
And it made my blood boil. So much so, that I took a photo.
I have nothing against Red Nose Day, the biennial fundraising event run by Comic Relief. I'm sure they're grateful for the free publicity. However, what made me angry is the implication that they'll get the £1.50 or £4 if I buy those products from the services shop. They'll be lucky if they get 10 or 20 pence. How many people fall for this? Sure, if you were going to buy an overly expensive box of Maltesers from the shop anyway, then buying the packet that ensures a donation to charity might be a nice gesture. But were you going to buy two before you saw the promotion? And at a price where you could get four or five packets from the supermarket?
Surely it's better to donate money directly to the charity involved and cut out the middle man? In the case of the Maltesers, if I really wanted a snack, I could have bought something healthy from the Waitrose next door and donated my change to Red Nose Day and still given more than they'd receive from the promotion.
This happens at Christmas, too, with all of those "charity Christmas cards", when the charity named is lucky to get a couple of pennies from an expensive packet of cards.
We all have limited funds. If you want to donate money to charity, give it to them directly. That way, they'll get the most benefit.
- Pam
I was thinking about the earthquake on my drive home from Site yesterday, wondering what I could do from 15,000 miles away. Australians tend to think of New Zealand as our little brother; they were part of the federation talks in the 1890's until New South Wales pissed them off. You didn't need a passport to travel between the two countries until the 1970's, when the Australian government imposed that requirement. And about a third of all Kiwis live in Australia.
Anyway, I was wondering what I could do. As a knitter, my first instinct said "Knit something to donate", but I'm so far away that donating knitted goods is impractical. So I settled on donating cash.
Then I saw this, on the back of a toilet door in the motorway services at South Mimms:
And it made my blood boil. So much so, that I took a photo.
I have nothing against Red Nose Day, the biennial fundraising event run by Comic Relief. I'm sure they're grateful for the free publicity. However, what made me angry is the implication that they'll get the £1.50 or £4 if I buy those products from the services shop. They'll be lucky if they get 10 or 20 pence. How many people fall for this? Sure, if you were going to buy an overly expensive box of Maltesers from the shop anyway, then buying the packet that ensures a donation to charity might be a nice gesture. But were you going to buy two before you saw the promotion? And at a price where you could get four or five packets from the supermarket?
Surely it's better to donate money directly to the charity involved and cut out the middle man? In the case of the Maltesers, if I really wanted a snack, I could have bought something healthy from the Waitrose next door and donated my change to Red Nose Day and still given more than they'd receive from the promotion.
This happens at Christmas, too, with all of those "charity Christmas cards", when the charity named is lucky to get a couple of pennies from an expensive packet of cards.
We all have limited funds. If you want to donate money to charity, give it to them directly. That way, they'll get the most benefit.
- Pam
Friday, 18 February 2011
Frugal Friday : How I Saved The Week
I had a "well D'uh!" moment this afternoon. After I collected my new glasses (see below), I popped into the bank to deposit a cheque and ended up having a chat with one of their advisors. In the middle of her trying to sell me one of their "new, improved" cheque accounts complete with shiny fees, we both had an epiphany.
Her rationale for "upgrading" my account to a shiny new one was that it because it has a much lower rate of overdraft interest, even with the fees it'd be cheaper. They're currently charging nearly 20% p.a. on overdrafts for accounts like mine. Plus they've imposed a monthly fixed fee of £5 for each month in which the account goes into overdraft. And even with last year's good effort, I'm still overdrawn for much of the month. If I didn't want to do that, she suggested, what about taking on a bank loan and transferring my overdraft to that? Or utilise a 0% credit card offer? "I've got a 0% credit card offer. I used it to pay for the freehold to my flat," says I.
"And why haven't you transfered your overdraft to that?" she demanded.
At which point, I stared at her. And the penny dropped.
Hard.
I could do that. And I could continue paying down that debt and pay it off faster because I wouldn't be clobbered by interest and charges each month. The effective interest rate is about 4% p.a. instead of 20% p.a., so why haven't I done it before? (4% because that's the rate of the balance transfer fee. I'm simplifying, of course.) The 0% rate runs out in November - that should be enough time to clear the overdraft, while continuing to pay down the balance already on there for the freehold.
There are risks. The biggest being that I could drift back into overdraft, ending up worse off than where I started: heavily overdrawn but this time carrying a similar balance on a credit card. Can I trust myself not to do that? A year ago, I don't know, but now I think so. I've paid a lot of debt off in the last year. I track my spending. I've put money into savings. I've recovered from the drain on my finances of having an empty flat (better, the tenant has just signed a new 12-month lease with a rent increase of £25/month). And my salary's gone up (I've had two raises).
When I got home, I logged into the credit card website and made the transfer. It does make sense.
- Pam
PS: About the title, one of the podcasts I listen to is the Knitcents podcast. Roue, the host, does a segment called "How I Saved The Week" where she lists her latest efforts to save money. I've stolen it from her.
Her rationale for "upgrading" my account to a shiny new one was that it because it has a much lower rate of overdraft interest, even with the fees it'd be cheaper. They're currently charging nearly 20% p.a. on overdrafts for accounts like mine. Plus they've imposed a monthly fixed fee of £5 for each month in which the account goes into overdraft. And even with last year's good effort, I'm still overdrawn for much of the month. If I didn't want to do that, she suggested, what about taking on a bank loan and transferring my overdraft to that? Or utilise a 0% credit card offer? "I've got a 0% credit card offer. I used it to pay for the freehold to my flat," says I.
"And why haven't you transfered your overdraft to that?" she demanded.
At which point, I stared at her. And the penny dropped.
Hard.
I could do that. And I could continue paying down that debt and pay it off faster because I wouldn't be clobbered by interest and charges each month. The effective interest rate is about 4% p.a. instead of 20% p.a., so why haven't I done it before? (4% because that's the rate of the balance transfer fee. I'm simplifying, of course.) The 0% rate runs out in November - that should be enough time to clear the overdraft, while continuing to pay down the balance already on there for the freehold.
There are risks. The biggest being that I could drift back into overdraft, ending up worse off than where I started: heavily overdrawn but this time carrying a similar balance on a credit card. Can I trust myself not to do that? A year ago, I don't know, but now I think so. I've paid a lot of debt off in the last year. I track my spending. I've put money into savings. I've recovered from the drain on my finances of having an empty flat (better, the tenant has just signed a new 12-month lease with a rent increase of £25/month). And my salary's gone up (I've had two raises).
When I got home, I logged into the credit card website and made the transfer. It does make sense.
- Pam
PS: About the title, one of the podcasts I listen to is the Knitcents podcast. Roue, the host, does a segment called "How I Saved The Week" where she lists her latest efforts to save money. I've stolen it from her.
Got my voice back
Hello, did you miss me? It feels like forever since I last wrote. Where do I start? I've written a thousand blogs in my head but now they've all vanished. (Typical.)
OK, let's start with the computer. I took it to a local tech place, where they found a damaged sector and nothing else. There were no viruses, no bugs, no identifiable cause for Windows going SNAFU. I got it back last weekend - they did a complete rebuild and reinstalled Vista together with all the drivers. £69 very well spent. There is only one remaining problem: my bluetooth mouse won't work. I haven't tested yet whether the problem is the mouse or the computer. If the latter, then it's a physical problem and not the driver - I've managed to test the driver. Any suggestions?
In other news, I have new glasses - my first pair of verifocals*. Collected them this afternoon. They look pretty similar to my existing glasses, so no great change there. First impressions of verifocals: the reading "corner" by the nose is fine, easy to adjust to; it's the change of focus out by the arms that is weird. I wasn't expecting that. It's like looking into a mirror in a hall-of-mirrors and using the reflection to see with. It only happens if I turn my eyes instead of my head to look at something at a range of 3 feet or so away. Monday night's rehearsal is going to be a big test - can I read my music and watch the conductor without feeling sea-sick?
- Pam
* This feels like a further step in the transformation into my mother. Not only do I look like her and suffer her infertility problems, I've developed her eyes too. Short sight and long sight in the same eyeball. < sigh >
OK, let's start with the computer. I took it to a local tech place, where they found a damaged sector and nothing else. There were no viruses, no bugs, no identifiable cause for Windows going SNAFU. I got it back last weekend - they did a complete rebuild and reinstalled Vista together with all the drivers. £69 very well spent. There is only one remaining problem: my bluetooth mouse won't work. I haven't tested yet whether the problem is the mouse or the computer. If the latter, then it's a physical problem and not the driver - I've managed to test the driver. Any suggestions?
In other news, I have new glasses - my first pair of verifocals*. Collected them this afternoon. They look pretty similar to my existing glasses, so no great change there. First impressions of verifocals: the reading "corner" by the nose is fine, easy to adjust to; it's the change of focus out by the arms that is weird. I wasn't expecting that. It's like looking into a mirror in a hall-of-mirrors and using the reflection to see with. It only happens if I turn my eyes instead of my head to look at something at a range of 3 feet or so away. Monday night's rehearsal is going to be a big test - can I read my music and watch the conductor without feeling sea-sick?
- Pam
* This feels like a further step in the transformation into my mother. Not only do I look like her and suffer her infertility problems, I've developed her eyes too. Short sight and long sight in the same eyeball. < sigh >
Friday, 4 February 2011
Ramblings
DH is at work so I've nicked borrowed his computer to do a quick update. I've been at Site most of the week, got home an hour ago and will be back there on Tuesday. (Sunday night = Superbowl night. With the match finishing around 3.30am, I've taken Monday off.) The laptop situation is really, really annoying me. I'm not on it all night, everynight when I'm away, but I resent having that choice taken away from me. And I miss the ability to witter away write down my thoughts as I want, when I want.
I had plans for this year. It's amazing how those plans are dependent on having a computer. I wanted to work out to an exercise DVD in the mornings when I'm at Site. My choir will be singing in Nancy, France, in June and I wanted to learn some French beyond Ici est le facture pour le BlahBlah project (after four years dealing with the staff of a French client, my grasp of their language is still embarrassingly bad). I wanted to blog more often. I wanted to practice my singing using the rehearsal midi-files my choir provides.
Had a conversation yesterday with one of our tech guys at work. My original plan was to drop the laptop off at the clinic at PC World but he suggested finding a local place instead, saying PC World's customer service had a bad reputation. There's a place in Uxbridge I may try. It needs Vista reinstalled and, probably, all the drivers. Fingers crossed, I can drop it off tomorrow and get it back, fixed, on Monday afternoon.
On the way home tonight, I dropped into Costco and was very tempted by one of the netbooks. I didn't buy it but it remains an option. I could spend the Sanity Fund (currently £375 and all earmarked for an iPhone). We'll see what tomorrow brings, I guess.
- Pam (feeling like a moaning minny)
I had plans for this year. It's amazing how those plans are dependent on having a computer. I wanted to work out to an exercise DVD in the mornings when I'm at Site. My choir will be singing in Nancy, France, in June and I wanted to learn some French beyond Ici est le facture pour le BlahBlah project (after four years dealing with the staff of a French client, my grasp of their language is still embarrassingly bad). I wanted to blog more often. I wanted to practice my singing using the rehearsal midi-files my choir provides.
Had a conversation yesterday with one of our tech guys at work. My original plan was to drop the laptop off at the clinic at PC World but he suggested finding a local place instead, saying PC World's customer service had a bad reputation. There's a place in Uxbridge I may try. It needs Vista reinstalled and, probably, all the drivers. Fingers crossed, I can drop it off tomorrow and get it back, fixed, on Monday afternoon.
On the way home tonight, I dropped into Costco and was very tempted by one of the netbooks. I didn't buy it but it remains an option. I could spend the Sanity Fund (currently £375 and all earmarked for an iPhone). We'll see what tomorrow brings, I guess.
- Pam (feeling like a moaning minny)
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Apologies for the radio silence but...
Meine Laptop ist kaput. Or at least, very, very sick. Sunday, it struggled to get to the log-in screen and had to "repair" itself. When it does load, there are so many "Driver xxx has stopped working" messages that it takes 15 minutes to get the desktop up and running.
I don't even know what half of those things do. Why should software that comes preloaded fail? It's only two years old, for heaven's sake - why should it be having these problems?
I'm taking it to the clinic at PC World on Saturday and they can rebuild it. In the meantime, I probably won't be blogging much.
- Pam (suspect the cure will be "Windows 7" and an expensive bill)
I don't even know what half of those things do. Why should software that comes preloaded fail? It's only two years old, for heaven's sake - why should it be having these problems?
I'm taking it to the clinic at PC World on Saturday and they can rebuild it. In the meantime, I probably won't be blogging much.
- Pam (suspect the cure will be "Windows 7" and an expensive bill)
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
Involuntary Silence
At one point this month, it seemed that everything I touched broke. The Toy kept revving strangely every time I changed gear. My mobile phone had a temper tantrum. The files I needed to use at work? Crashed.
And the laptop, my computer, refused to load my profile. Instead, I kept getting this weird message, "The User Profile profile service failed to logon" and then it would return to the log-in screen. This happened the day we were going away for New Year.
It took some frantic internet searching to find out what had gone wrong: Vista has a bug where it renames your profile as a backup and then tries to create a new copy. Except that the new copy has nothing in it to load. There is a solution: you have to change it all back. If it happens to you, here is the discussion board that helped me - you need to read the entire thread though. And it does work.
I've spent the last week cleaning up the laptop: deleting old podcasts, running a backup, creating a restore point, running a registry cleaner. Things aren't perfect when I login the laptop takes ages to load and I get dozens of "xxxx Service Failed. Windows is checking for a fix" messages. Even the service that checks for fixes failed! I'm at a bit of a loss about what to do next.
Anyway, while it wasn't working, I started to compose a New Year post. It seems a bit to late now to give it a post on its own so here it is:
It's incomplete, but I hope you get the idea.
Oh, and the problem with the Toy? Needed a new clutch.
- Pam
And the laptop, my computer, refused to load my profile. Instead, I kept getting this weird message, "The User Profile profile service failed to logon" and then it would return to the log-in screen. This happened the day we were going away for New Year.
It took some frantic internet searching to find out what had gone wrong: Vista has a bug where it renames your profile as a backup and then tries to create a new copy. Except that the new copy has nothing in it to load. There is a solution: you have to change it all back. If it happens to you, here is the discussion board that helped me - you need to read the entire thread though. And it does work.
I've spent the last week cleaning up the laptop: deleting old podcasts, running a backup, creating a restore point, running a registry cleaner. Things aren't perfect when I login the laptop takes ages to load and I get dozens of "xxxx Service Failed. Windows is checking for a fix" messages. Even the service that checks for fixes failed! I'm at a bit of a loss about what to do next.
Anyway, while it wasn't working, I started to compose a New Year post. It seems a bit to late now to give it a post on its own so here it is:
Getting my head around 2011
Happy New Year! Did you do anything special to celebrate? We went to friends. How was your Christmas? Have you made any resolutions? How did last year's go? I promise to have a Sit-Rep up on last year by the end of Sunday.
Over the last two weeks, I've eaten too much, drunk too much, cooked, knitted, watched 50+ episodes of CSI, broke the laptop, visited the Imperial War Museum, gone to the football, attended 3 Christmas meals, attempted to fix the laptop, played with the Best Dog In the World, gave blood, shopped a little, caught up with friends, de-stressed, snuggled with DH, etc, etc. I am so glad I booked the week off before Christmas and that my employer closes between Christmas and New Year. I was knackered and tired and (probably) had another dose of shingles.
The period between Christmas and New Year has always been a special time for me; a time for reflection and day-dreams and making plans for the future. This year it seems like everyone is getting on that band-wagon: everywhere I look, I'm getting the same message "New Year; New You". (It even appeared in the subject line of emails from two yarn stores. What on earth is that about?) So far, I only have one New Year's Resolution: to get fit.
It's incomplete, but I hope you get the idea.
Oh, and the problem with the Toy? Needed a new clutch.
- Pam
Saturday, 25 December 2010
Christmas
I didn't mean to be silent for so long. The job is hell as usual. Nothing personal, just too much work and not enough me. As well as the usual shutdown between Christmas and New Year, I took the week off before Christmas and have spent the time winding down.
Saturday morning, I sat drinking coffee, watching the snow fall and listening to the cricket live from the WACA in Perth, Western Australia: England versus Australia. In my head, I could see a hot summer's day bathed in that glorious golden Australian light. What a contrast. Britain has been caught out again by winter. You'd think they'd learn. It snowed for three hours causing chaos as usual: the second runway at Heathrow was closed for days; Eurostar trains were cancelled; roads closed. We've had snow on the ground ever since, with the odd flurry to top it up.
We did "Polish" Christmas last night: roast goose with chestnut stuffing, roast potatoes, roast onion, honey glazed parsnips, broccoli, and orange sauce; then the presents and then Christmas Pudding. It was just the two of us this year and that was perfect. Guess what DH gave me for Christmas? The complete series of The Good Life . I didn't even know it had been re-released! I feel thoroughly spoilt.
The goose was an interesting cooking challenge since it was too long for the baking dish, even diagonally.
It ended up getting roasted with its feet in the air, wrapped in foil and propped up on the side of the oven. (Note to self: next time 30 minutes a kilo at 170C, draining of fat every half hour.) Although DH had picked up a turkey on a visit to the butcher earlier in the month, I really wanted a goose*. The butcher said he could get one but it'd "cost an arm and a leg". We collected him on Tuesday and I hate to break it to our kosher butcher, but at £46, his goose was cheaper than the non-kosher one I bought two years ago for Christmas at Peter's (£70-odd, IIRC). The turkey is in the freezer for later in the year.
Today, we're off to friends to have another Christmas. I'll leave you with one other lasting memory: my husband insisting he wasn't cold, clearing snow from the cloches in the veggie patch.
Eat your heart out, Crocodile Dundee. You aren't as hard as DH. :o)
Merry Christmas everyone.
- Pam
* This is the first year since we moved into the house that the stove has been wired in and I could use its electric ovens. Except for last year when I did a duck in the microwave-convection oven, every other year I'd prep the turkey but it'd get roasted in my MIL's oven before being brought back here for dinner. I wanted to celebrate having a proper working stove by cooking something I haven't been able to cook, so enter the goose.
Saturday morning, I sat drinking coffee, watching the snow fall and listening to the cricket live from the WACA in Perth, Western Australia: England versus Australia. In my head, I could see a hot summer's day bathed in that glorious golden Australian light. What a contrast. Britain has been caught out again by winter. You'd think they'd learn. It snowed for three hours causing chaos as usual: the second runway at Heathrow was closed for days; Eurostar trains were cancelled; roads closed. We've had snow on the ground ever since, with the odd flurry to top it up.
We did "Polish" Christmas last night: roast goose with chestnut stuffing, roast potatoes, roast onion, honey glazed parsnips, broccoli, and orange sauce; then the presents and then Christmas Pudding. It was just the two of us this year and that was perfect. Guess what DH gave me for Christmas? The complete series of The Good Life . I didn't even know it had been re-released! I feel thoroughly spoilt.
The goose was an interesting cooking challenge since it was too long for the baking dish, even diagonally.
It ended up getting roasted with its feet in the air, wrapped in foil and propped up on the side of the oven. (Note to self: next time 30 minutes a kilo at 170C, draining of fat every half hour.) Although DH had picked up a turkey on a visit to the butcher earlier in the month, I really wanted a goose*. The butcher said he could get one but it'd "cost an arm and a leg". We collected him on Tuesday and I hate to break it to our kosher butcher, but at £46, his goose was cheaper than the non-kosher one I bought two years ago for Christmas at Peter's (£70-odd, IIRC). The turkey is in the freezer for later in the year.
Today, we're off to friends to have another Christmas. I'll leave you with one other lasting memory: my husband insisting he wasn't cold, clearing snow from the cloches in the veggie patch.
Eat your heart out, Crocodile Dundee. You aren't as hard as DH. :o)
Merry Christmas everyone.
- Pam
* This is the first year since we moved into the house that the stove has been wired in and I could use its electric ovens. Except for last year when I did a duck in the microwave-convection oven, every other year I'd prep the turkey but it'd get roasted in my MIL's oven before being brought back here for dinner. I wanted to celebrate having a proper working stove by cooking something I haven't been able to cook, so enter the goose.
Sunday, 5 December 2010
Football rant
Could someone in the Chelsea hierachy please explain to me: what is the point of Salomon Kalou? You play him as a foward but, lets face it, he can't score goals. In four years, he's scored what? 34 goals? Even your prize defender, John Terry, has a better goal scoring record than that.
Kalou just isn't up to the job you're giving him. Do you know his nickname on the terraces? Forest. As in "Forest Gump". He'll run forever, but he can't tackle and he can't score. Why did you get rid of decent players, like Joe Cole and keep Kalou?
Sigh.
And you wonder why we're struggling.
- Pam
Kalou just isn't up to the job you're giving him. Do you know his nickname on the terraces? Forest. As in "Forest Gump". He'll run forever, but he can't tackle and he can't score. Why did you get rid of decent players, like Joe Cole and keep Kalou?
Sigh.
And you wonder why we're struggling.
- Pam
Saturday, 4 December 2010
Frugal Friday on Saturday - introducing Herdy
This is Herdy. Herdy, is a sheepy-bank.
Every evening, Herdy gets fed with 1p, 2p, 5p and £2 coins. DH and I have been collecting them since 1999. We have larger containers for them than Herdy but they were put into storage when we started the building work in March so Herdy came into play. Today, we emptied a very full Herdy.
It took quite a bit of shaking.
And the £2 coins kept getting in the way.
Eventually, Herdy was empty.
As you can see from the picture with DH's hand, Herdy is not huge. Even so, he contained:
£94 x £2 coins
£3.50 x 5p coins
£2.28 x 1p and 2p coins
A grand total of £99.78p, which has now been added to these:
When full, we'll bag them, tag them and take them to the bank. The coppers jar holds about £22 when full. The 5p jar has never been emptied, was last counted at 3/4 full and held around £90 then. (Oh, and it weighed in at 20lb today.) The Maltesers money box holds £600 and is known as the "running away fund" (it goes towards holidays).
Because we fill these in tiny increments, this is money we don't miss. We do have one rule we (almost always) apply - if you get one of these coins, don't spend it; take it home to feed Herdy. When we started the collection, I was inspired by a story told by the Australian finance guru, Noel Whittaker, about a client of his, a single mum living on benefits who saved enough for a deposit on a home for her family. She did it by applying one rule: never spend a $5 bill.* When the £2 coin came out, I decided to do the same with that. It's a good rule - we've saved well over £2,000 of holiday money that way.
- Pam
* When my sister was a mortgage broker, she had a client in almost identical circumstances who did something similar. In her client's case, she'd realised that every time she went shopping and decided to buy a "little treat" for herself, it cost about $5. One day, she had a lightbulb moment and realised that if she saved all those $5 treats, she could save enough for a down payment on a home. And so she did.
Saturday, 27 November 2010
OK, phone, you win
The phone charger broke this morning. Don't think you get away with it that easily though - I still have the in-car charger AND I ordered a replacement from Amazon.
Just because I'd like an iPhone doesn't mean I'm ready to give up on you just yet. If you're going to die on me, you'll have to suicide another way. After 8 years, I've reached the "engineering state" of wanting to find out how much longer you'll last. Thanks to Lance, owner of your cousin phone, I know your model has longevity and that there are plenty of spare parts available.
You aren't getting away with it that easily.
- Pam
Just because I'd like an iPhone doesn't mean I'm ready to give up on you just yet. If you're going to die on me, you'll have to suicide another way. After 8 years, I've reached the "engineering state" of wanting to find out how much longer you'll last. Thanks to Lance, owner of your cousin phone, I know your model has longevity and that there are plenty of spare parts available.
You aren't getting away with it that easily.
- Pam
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
An open letter
To my mobile phone,
You gave me quite a scare last week, when you wouldn't charge. I know you and the phone charger have been together a long time and, no doubt, in such a long relationship, you've put up with quite a lot but did you have to chose Monday to have a spat? After more than eight years of happy cohabiting , you chose Monday to sulk and refuse to charge. Why? At first I thought it was me, talking about my lust for an iPhone which triggered your sulking (you know it's only window shopping and I wouldn't desert you, don't you?). Then I realised it was the phone charger. What did the phone charger do to upset you?
I'm glad to see that you kissed and make-up on Tuesday.
- Pam
You gave me quite a scare last week, when you wouldn't charge. I know you and the phone charger have been together a long time and, no doubt, in such a long relationship, you've put up with quite a lot but did you have to chose Monday to have a spat? After more than eight years of happy cohabiting , you chose Monday to sulk and refuse to charge. Why? At first I thought it was me, talking about my lust for an iPhone which triggered your sulking (you know it's only window shopping and I wouldn't desert you, don't you?). Then I realised it was the phone charger. What did the phone charger do to upset you?
I'm glad to see that you kissed and make-up on Tuesday.
- Pam
Saturday, 6 November 2010
To the woman who taught me horticulture in year 9
I wish I could remember your name.
Our weekly 1 hour sessions seemed a bit like a waste of time - we suspected that we were really cheap labour for the school (remember all the times you had us digging in the kindergarten garden? I do. That soil was root-bound and rock yard). You really didn't inspire us to become gardeners. However, you did teach me some useful things: how to graft roses; how to grow plants from seed, prick them out and pot them on; how to prune.
Now, I wish you'd taught us more of the useful stuff and used us less as a workforce. Soil improvement would have been useful. Composting would have been useful. Pest control would have been useful. We learned none of those things.
Why didn't you teach us about growing vegetables and maintaining a vegetable plot?
- Pam (OK, I'll concede your attempts at getting us to dig did help this morning when I turned over the plot)
Our weekly 1 hour sessions seemed a bit like a waste of time - we suspected that we were really cheap labour for the school (remember all the times you had us digging in the kindergarten garden? I do. That soil was root-bound and rock yard). You really didn't inspire us to become gardeners. However, you did teach me some useful things: how to graft roses; how to grow plants from seed, prick them out and pot them on; how to prune.
Now, I wish you'd taught us more of the useful stuff and used us less as a workforce. Soil improvement would have been useful. Composting would have been useful. Pest control would have been useful. We learned none of those things.
Why didn't you teach us about growing vegetables and maintaining a vegetable plot?
- Pam (OK, I'll concede your attempts at getting us to dig did help this morning when I turned over the plot)
Friday, 5 November 2010
Sit Rep Sept/Oct 2010
I didn't write a SitRep for September mainly because October slipped by so fast that it was the middle of the month before I knew it. August's report is here.
SOCKS My September socks were a pair of "use-em-ups" in some leftover self-patterning Harry Potter/Opal yarn. The colourway was Slitherin, chosen for the blues (I didn't notice the name until days later). As usual the feet were made in Lisa Souza's Sock! in Ecru.
For October's socks, I chose the Hibiscus for Hope pattern I received in 2008 after sponsoring the designer after the Yarn Harlot brought it to my attention (http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2008/08/08/regatta_day.html). I'm using the darker shade of green Jitterbug I purchased last year at the Knit & Stitch Show.
Unfortunately, I still haven't finished the first sock - I'm half way up the leg having re-done the heel twice (I don't like the way the short row heel looks - too many holes at the end of the rows - but, from the pictures in the above post, it looks as if the Yarn Harlot got the same results I did).
It's a lovely pattern, not difficult, but you do have to keep track of where you are. (Thank heaven for highlighter tape!) It would have been too difficult to follow at Sunday's NFL game (yes, I was at Wembley), so I started some top-down simple socks in a self-patterning yarn about 15 minutes before we left the house ...........
For the record, except for the opening 4 rows,this is how much you can knit during an NFL game and the pre-match entertainment (20 minutes). I've already started the heel flap.
STASH The second weekend in September was iKnit London Weekend, where I did two classes: Lopapeysa with Ragga from Knitting Iceland and Knitting Sideways with Woolly Wormhead (check out her amazing hats). Lopapeysa are the classic Icelandic sweaters, knitted in Lopi, with the plain body and decorative bands around the wrists, waist and neck. We played with Lopi and Lopi-Lite and I now I have a tiny sweater with which to decorate my Christmas tree. Luckily for the stash, Ragga didn't have any Lopi to sell at her booth or I would have been sorely tempted - it was lovely to handle AND I have the perfect pattern in mind to make with it. I did buy two more skeins of the Artesano Aran to ensure I now have a sweater's worth; it wasn't in either of the dye lots I already have so I will alternate it with the others. My remaining stash-cash went on several varieties of roving and a spindle since I've decided to learn to spin.
<--cough-->Artesano Aran <--cough-->
October brought the Knit & Stitch Show at Alexandra Palace, which totally blew away the stash diet. I claim that I was taken prisoner by those horrible, nasty people at Black Sheep Yarns and not allowed out until I purchased a sweater's worth of Sublime Organic Merino DK (13 balls) in grey and a pattern, Sublime's "Willow" sweater.
(I'm only kidding: Black Sheep are the UK's equivalent to Webs and very nice people. Every year, they bring container loads of close-outs with them, at massively discounted prices. Sometimes their stall resembles a rugby scrum as women dive bodily into the yarn pile in order to find the yarn they want/need.)
I also failed to resist the Colinette stall: no mill ends this year but they did have 150g skeins of Jitterbug for the price of the more usual 100g ones. Three skeins wormed their way into the stash. So did 3 balls of self-patterning sock yarn at other stalls, including the one I'm knitting above. (For the record, I purchased 4 but gave a ball of Opal - plus 2.5mm dpns and a pattern - to my friend's mum in an attempt to corrupt her into a sock knitter.) My final purchase was a skein of Madeleine Tosh cashmere - yum!
In other knitting news: I finished the Brown Cabled Cardigan last weekend, with only a couple of metres of the Heathland Hebridean to spare, so that's two more skeins finished. I've also finished the first skein of the Artesano Aran (I'm making Mr Greenjeans from Knitty) and half the second. Photos to follow when I've got someone to take me modelling the garments.
I have completely lost track of how many skeins that adds up to, but I must be nearing 30 for the year.
OVERDRAFT September was a bad month. The holiday, coupled with the typical "I'm on holiday... To hell with it!", meant that my overdraft repayment efforts went backwards by £86.25. However, I did well in October (£212.55) and made up that ground and then some for a net repayment over the two months of £126.30. That brings my total repayment for the year to £1,222.60.
GARDEN I harvested all the tomatoes in a mad attempt to get to them before they were overcome by blight. It only took a few minutes to realise that some were already overcome and were rotting inside their skins (the blight seems to liquefy them from the inside out). The ripe ones were made into two tubs of tomato sauce and then frozen. The green ones went into boxes with a couple of apples in an attempt to ripen them. Some did ripen and have been used, others developed a dry white mould and have been binned.
Bought garlic, shallots and broad beans to plant out this weekend.
- Pam (I think this post is long enough now)
Saturday, 16 October 2010
Be careful what you wish for (or the reason I haven't been blogging)
For at least a year, my Boss has been wondering what to do with me when my project finishes. Since we're over a year behind schedule, there have been numerous plans made and abandoned. However, the end is in sight (we are deep into commissioning and have officially handed over control of the plant to the owners). His more recent plan was to give me a financial reporting/internal audit role, expanding a reporting role that already exists into something more major. The current incumbent ("M") was a contractor who we'd keep until Christmas.
At the start of September, Boss calls me into a meeting room and says "Be careful what you wish for. M has resigned. Unless we can persuade him to stay a little long, he's leaving on Thursday". [Gulp!] My work on the project hadn't diminished but I could take over the basic weekly and monthly reports and, in the meantime, Boss would shoulder anything major. The budgets for next financial year had already been completed and the next big thing on the horizon wasn't until mid-November when, hopefully, the project would have wound down a bit.
Two weeks go by. I get a handover. Although the reports have to be run on a timetable, they won't severely impact the "day job". M extends his stay to cover for me when I'm in Normandy.
The Tuesday before I go on holiday, I go into the office and get as far as making my first coffee for the day when Boss calls me into another meeting room. "Sorry, but we have to switch to Plan B. "S" has resigned. I need you to take over Buildings Group!". Initially, that meant billing and financial maintenance of two large framework projects; eventually, it'll mean managing three staff and creating a management accounting role to support the operations director. Since S is staff, this time I'd have a month's handover. The original new job would be downgraded and parcelled out, probably to disappear.
I sat there for a minute doing some rapid thinking. If the truth be told, while the other job had a great job title (Finance and Reporting Manager) and would have been a good career move, I'd doubted its longevity. I'd given it a 50:50 chance of being axed in the next round of budget cuts. And I hadn't asked for more money because I knew there wouldn't be any.
"OK, the answer's "yes". Can I have a car allowance, please?"
So now I have two jobs - both of them full time - and 40 official hours a week in which to do them. And part of a third that won't disappear for at least a couple more weeks (or until Boss hires his new hybrid Project Accountant/Reporting Assistant). To say that I'm brain dead by 6pm each night is an understatement. I'm hoping that is just due to the stress of not being in charge of my own time for three weeks, while I was getting my second handover. We shall see.
Learning curves. I have them.
- Pam
At the start of September, Boss calls me into a meeting room and says "Be careful what you wish for. M has resigned. Unless we can persuade him to stay a little long, he's leaving on Thursday". [Gulp!] My work on the project hadn't diminished but I could take over the basic weekly and monthly reports and, in the meantime, Boss would shoulder anything major. The budgets for next financial year had already been completed and the next big thing on the horizon wasn't until mid-November when, hopefully, the project would have wound down a bit.
Two weeks go by. I get a handover. Although the reports have to be run on a timetable, they won't severely impact the "day job". M extends his stay to cover for me when I'm in Normandy.
The Tuesday before I go on holiday, I go into the office and get as far as making my first coffee for the day when Boss calls me into another meeting room. "Sorry, but we have to switch to Plan B. "S" has resigned. I need you to take over Buildings Group!". Initially, that meant billing and financial maintenance of two large framework projects; eventually, it'll mean managing three staff and creating a management accounting role to support the operations director. Since S is staff, this time I'd have a month's handover. The original new job would be downgraded and parcelled out, probably to disappear.
I sat there for a minute doing some rapid thinking. If the truth be told, while the other job had a great job title (Finance and Reporting Manager) and would have been a good career move, I'd doubted its longevity. I'd given it a 50:50 chance of being axed in the next round of budget cuts. And I hadn't asked for more money because I knew there wouldn't be any.
"OK, the answer's "yes". Can I have a car allowance, please?"
So now I have two jobs - both of them full time - and 40 official hours a week in which to do them. And part of a third that won't disappear for at least a couple more weeks (or until Boss hires his new hybrid Project Accountant/Reporting Assistant). To say that I'm brain dead by 6pm each night is an understatement. I'm hoping that is just due to the stress of not being in charge of my own time for three weeks, while I was getting my second handover. We shall see.
Learning curves. I have them.
- Pam
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