Daily project Round 5

[FrostyFogg]

Just starting a new one. All welcome!

Enjoying book club comments. 😃 Sounds like they bring out interesting personality traits.. 😂
Summer, I'm picturing actress Maggie what's her name?, now! 😂
🐸, glad you got mammogram done. I'm overdue (quite!), but can't be done until I'm no longer bf'ing.
Petal, so glad you are taking a breather. ☺️ Daughter's trip sounds epic! I loved Asia (Japan, Philippines, S Korea). Wish I had made it to Viet Nam and Cambodia.
Peridot, there's always tomorrow. ☺️

About to head out to Costco for a new phone. Am very tired as little sleep last night and not up to trying to understanding plans and options, but I have to stop procrastinating. Camera froze last night and sending pics is starting to drag. I'm paying for extra storage, but seems phone itself is at capacity. It won't load recent update, either. It's almost 3 yrs old, so past it's prime. (How'd we all get sucked into getting new phones every 2 years? Why do we allow corporations to sell up poor quality for high prices? But, that's for another thread...)

Have wiped out vegetable drawer in fridge (yesterday), Put laundry away and washed/hung another (including runners!) last night. Today I wiped inside/outside of microwave, a part of counter that is easily neglected and the front of a cupboard door. And made a banana bread (early, before taking Havoc to school).

Morning! Or bedtime for some of us of course 👋

I hope you get a good night's sleep @Mumtobabyhavoc . I know when it's bedtime when the book I'm reading becomes incomprehensible. Ditto the sudoku. I am much more magnificent of a morning! I agree about the phones ( i keep having to replace mine on the insurance so it never gets any cheaper)

DH is back and we went for a lovely seaside walk in the evening, then slept like logs. He's still snoring but I bounced awake at 5.15.

Have you gone yet @SpiritOfEdna ? And how has your week evolved @SingleThreadJoiner ( hoping you are feeling better, ready for a wild weekend with your LO)

I'm curious what books your various book clubs go for, if any of you are willing to share? My latest one with back of the book questions was The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo. I really enjoyed it! That's all I ever want to say about a book, really. So I'd just drink all the wine!

It's raining again!!

🐸🐸I'm sitting in the dark in the living room scrolling and just finished a snack of berries and banana bread. 😂😂

Oh! I did manage to vacuum while making dinner earlier this evening and I've just finished my little exercise routine and added one new exercise. Heading off to bed. Hope everyone is having a good start to the weekend. ☺️

Morning all.

I agree about disposable phones!

Hope you get some decent sleep @Mumtobabyhavoc and very glad that @petalpower 's DD is having such a great trip!

My bookclub lady does look a little like Maggie Smith! Certainly in her Dowager Countess incarnation. We tend to have a bit of a thing about biographies - so we read one about Robert Maxwell (spoiler- not a nice guy); Putin (ditto); and one I really enjoyed by Anne De Courcy about the American Heiresses who married into the English aristocracy thus saving estates and livening up the blood. Our current one is about George Orwell and I am finding it dry.

For my own reading I prefer lighter stuff because I like to just switch off and be entertained. I really loved the Richard Osman books and they have become a regular comfort read.

Tipping down here also @Frostandfrogs . Today DH is taking the DCs swimming and I am doing all the ironing. I am slightly more motivated than I have been, although the first task is to clear up cat sick.

Hope everyone has a great day!

morning from a damp-ish Cornwall 🤣 It’s not too bad - the birthday boy got his surprise visit (he is pretending that he twigged 🤭) and the GNephew was delighted - job done. No jobs for today besides walking the dog and a dinner somewhere nice tonight x

@Frostandfrogs - I loved the Evelyn Hugo book too. We've just had The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer, it was ok, I did at least read it! H is for Hawk has gone down in book club legend as the worst book we ever read. We had a Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling) Strike one a few years ago and I really enjoyed that. Also a Sandi Toksvig one that was actually aimed at young adults.
We used to have wine, but sadly now it's tea and coffee, plus new annoying woman. She is newly retired as @Mumtobabyhavoc guessed and she used to live abroad but is trying to set her stall as a village matriach, I was accosted with "well, I never see you around the village", well no, I work full time and I'm a mum taxi, I don't have time to hang around in cafes during the day!
Today I've been pandering to DS on his return from camp. Pairs of socks taken 5, pairs of socks returned unworn 4 etc. He had a cracking time so it's brilliant.
Hope everyone else is well, I'm on a 3 day weekend, such bliss - Monday off with the children in school, I'm planning a garden centre jaunt with a gift voucher.

Morning! Thank you all for sharing the book club tales! I recently read The Satsuma Complex, and enjoyed it once I started reading it in Bob Mortimer's voice! I love him with Paul Whitehouse in their fishing programmes ( repeats are our go-to when we are weary on Sunday nights!) I watched the Strike series ( loved it) and have downloaded two of the books but not yet read them. I hope you have a lovely day off today @RunningKatie ! And glad DS had a great time. Dry flannel to go with the unworn socks? 😂

Your biographies do sound a bit...stretching...@SummerLobelia My mum is into the Richard Osman books currently. I haven't read any yet.

Hope it's stopped raining @SpiritOfEdna and you continue to have a great time 😊 I love that doggo came too!

👋 everyone else!

A bit of 'admin' is in my future for this morning. First a walk though, to get my head back on straight after a busy weekend. And this afternoon I am taking mum out, assuming she's still up for it as she also had a busy weekend. Hoping DH can come too as she's getting more difficult to assist in and out of the car now. She has more grit and determination than anyone I know, but not a great deal of bend 😔

Have a happy Monday one and all ☕

Hi everyone!

Staying out of the book club chat because I've sort of gradually stopped doing mine 😳

The 'set a timer' thing really doesn't work for me. I just set a timer for 30 minutes to clear the kitchen. During that time I:

Tried to fix DS's new bakugan which is annoying him because it doesn't close properly

Contributed a few replies to a Mumsnet thread

Tried to find a new audiobook to listen to while clearing the kitchen.

And oops, there goes 30 minutes of my day. What is wrong with me??!!?

Garden centre trip today was disappointing, the cheese scone was bland and I couldn't find anything I wanted to spend my voucher on, that was for me not anyone else.
Home via the supermarket, charity shop container was locked so I've got a bag in DH's car that's going to drive around for a few days.
I've then booked theatre tickets, sorted bank statements and receipts, 2 loads of washing and started cleaning down kitchen cupboards.
Now I'm sitting on a tennis court in the sunshine!
Nothing wrong with you at all @Aria999 - that sounds exactly like me, I call it my scatter gunning technique, I start so many jobs as I go around the house.

Afternoon all.

@Aria999 I am the same with jobs. I have a laptop computer [it says hi, by the way] and i have to cart it around the house with me while playing netflix documentaries in order to get motivated.

Seriously- if I spent half the time doing house stuff as I do MNetting the house would have had several extensions and a new paint job by now.

@RunningKatie I tend to put full bags into the car then drive around with them for days and weeks. Yesterday I dragged the cookbooks out again and decided against charity shopping them, (A Raymond Blanc, A Yottam Ottolenghy; An old Delia Smith Christmas I have 2 copies anyway). When I dragged them back in DH asked what that was all in aid of. I explained I thought the cookbooks might like a change of scene.

Hope everyone is well. I did nothing of use today. Worked half a day, got a parking ticket which cancels out the money earned after tax and went to lunch with a friend for her birthday., That bit was a good bit though.

to everyone.

I explained I thought the cookbooks might like a change of scene.

🤣🤣🤣 @SummerLobelia

Very interested in all the book club chat - we’ve got one in our village but I’ve not been invited to join and actually I’m a bit picky about what I read and am not sure I’d like to have to read a particular book just because of discussing it at a book club. Maybe I’m just a bit awkward!
I thought that was hilarious about the cookbooks having a change of scene @SummerLobelia ! What a pain about the garden centre @RunningKatie . Sod’s law that you can’t find something when you’ve got a voucher to spend. I hope you managed to get your mum out today @Frostandfrogs . It was beautifully sunny today here, finally! Enjoy your trip to Cornwall @SpiritOfEdna , one of my very favourite places. Forgot to reply to you @Mumtobabyhavoc that DD has just left Vietnam (her favourite place on the trip so far) and is now in Cambodia.
(I’m going to post this before I hit the wrong button and it all disappears …)

I’ve had a productive but a bit of a sad day. I’ve finalised all the photos for the tribute and order of service at auntie’s funeral and also went to the chapel of rest. I’m glad I went but it was hard going.
In more cheery news I did a quick 10 minute sweep through the house a while ago as there wasn’t much I wanted to watch on tv. Managed to grab a handful of things for the charity shop pile and a bag of things to bin.

Hello everyone! Stopping by again, just to say thank you for all the kind words and supportive thoughts - hugely appreciated 💜I am slowly conquering the mountain of things to do at work, and dealt with most of the emergencies.

Wednesday morning early I am heading to Spain for a 4-day conference - on my own, without child and husband - and I CANNOT wait!! I am hopeful I shall be in better spirits when I return!

@Aria999 nothing at all wrong with you 💐 Just for ref 10-15 min blocks work better for me as i am a bit of a butterfly jumping from one thing to the next. If you use a timer you can say to DS you'll fix the toy when the timer goes off ( might help?) But you are definitely in good company here!
👋 @SingleThreadJoiner how exciting about your trip to Spain!

You make me grin @SummerLobelia! I learnt to cook from my mum's old Delia cookbooks. Well those and Peckish But Poor, which was absolutely brilliant. Now i rely on BBC Good Food online for new recipes but in general have mastered decent home cooking. Nearly 60 years in mind!

I feel the same about book clubs @petalpower though I would possibly go along if a friend started one. I'm in the anonymity of a small town, so there are none of the 'village events' that I might feel expected to go to (or feel excluded from!) Had enough of that at school ( boarding) Consider yourself hugged after your sad day yesterday 💐 I did get mum out and DH did come too, and we had a lovely time. Not sure which of us was the most knackered afterwards though!

Amazing accomplishments yesterday @RunningKatie and sitting on a tennis court in the sunshine sounds lovely.

Yesterday I did the flylady weekly home blah, and as ever I wished I had found flylady when the children were small! DS is coming next month (lives abroad) and has promised to take some of his clobber back with him this time. He's definitely put down roots in his city ( luckily a gorgeous place to visit and just a short flight away) I'll be delighted to have a bit more room to move in the loft as it's a bit packed up there at the moment!

I have managed to spend two hours doing puzzles and being on MN today. I could also have decorated the whole place and built a new extension in the hours I have spent on my phone over the last five years.

So I'm turning it off now! Have a great day everybody xxx

Ed because I failed to proofread once again

Morning all.

Love that you took your cookbooks out for a drive @SummerLobelia!

@Aria999 - I can be a bit like that too. I tend to tell myself I will do 15 minutes and then if I do longer it’s a bonus. And if I scatter gun a bit it’s ok as things are still getting done.

@RunningKatie - a shame about the garden centre. I have to be really strict with myself not to buy things at our local one but it’s one of those big chains that sells more tat (as DH calls it) than plants. So it’s easy to be tempted by things.

@Frostandfrogs - I hear you about the complete time waster that is my phone/ipad. Years of time wasted.

@SingleThreadJoiner - enjoy your time away!

@petalpower - hugs. Such a hard time.

Yesterday I did some gardening. And while DH was cooking and I was trying to resist drinking wine I tidied a pile of magazines and things from under a side table. They were covered in dust. I’ve now got a pile of magazines that I should flick through or junk. Mostly Waitrose Food magazines. Recycling goes today so I might just junk them.

Also in the pile was two folders of medical stuff for DS and I so I will sort through those and add in various things that are hanging around that belong in them.

I also booked flights to Australia and New Zealand for February next year. My annual trip.

Today -

• dishwasher/kitchen etc
• laundry
• book a GP appointment for me (done)
• garden centre to buy a replacement plant for one of my pots
• general tidy of cluttered kitchen, dining table and coffee table
• Deadhead and spray roses and cut back black spot bits

And I should go for a walk.

Have a great day all.

Morning, back to a busy day at work () but working through the mountain of emails found my team had made the shortlist for a proposed GenAI project - not sure how we are going to fit the extra work in 😄Have taken the hire car back this morning and unpacked a mountain of washing and sand. Sibling enjoyed his birthday surprise (as did his grandson) so all good, the weather was amazing - no rain! - and visited some lovely beaches which do allow dogs. I do need a break (!) to get over all the driving I had to do and need a diet after all the fancy dinners.
Today:

• unpack all clothes, hang up stuff not worn
• shove everything else in the washing machine
• look at my bank account and see what the damage is!
• get through the working day with lots of caffeine

I am going to have a little read back now, have a good day all, SoE

It probably is years of life wasted @Peridot1 😱
Great accomplishments btw!

Welcome back @SpiritOfEdna and glad you had a lovely time!

I've been pottering and I have also talked to all my babies and my mum.

Have any of you done that thing where you move homeless things from place to place, and think it's normal. And then one day realise that if you just create space by rehoming excess stuff, then the piles of stuff will either leave the house or have a place to live 🤦‍♀️ So that's been some of my day (and yes I know I have previously said I'm all decluttered here, but apparently not 😆)

Hugs @petalpower

Sounds wonderful @SingleThreadJoiner !

Cheese scones are a bit variable aren't they @RunningKatie , they need more cheese than people think!

Today; chap has just been to look at the broken mirror door in the bathroom and said they will need to take it to the workshop to replace the mirror. Later I have someone coming to install a shower screen and hopefully fix a cracked kitchen cupboard door.

House is a mess and gradually starting to need more cleaning after my epic blitz in late May. Robots are deployed but there's a lot more to do. And I need to look for work 😟

Summer and Katie, I have almost 4 boxes of clothes packed up and the boxes haven't moved in a week. They're quite comfortable in the horror bedroom.
This is a week of appointments. Now that school and activities have ended I've packed in a lot this week and next. Need to be out the door by about 12:30. (It's 11:40 now).
Next soccer does start this coming weekend, though, so want to get things out of the way and then June is done and gone. 🤷‍♀️

Enjoy Spain @SingleThreadJoiner !

Feeling tired after yesterdays non-stop activities, today I've wfh and it's been nice weather so had a load of washing out.
I need to work out if a waterproof is fixable, not quite sure what happened but it came back from the residential slightly pulled apart at a shoulder seam.
I'm going to watch Sewing Bee for inspiration soon, but they'll probably be making another highly impractical outfit!
I've tried to get rid of some cobwebs today, feel it's a bit too early to describe them as a halloween decoration.

Enjoy your trip @SingleThreadJoiner - any trip minus husband and kids sounds absolute bliss to me right now!
Just off to do battle with faces and sun cream before school.

Ah, the sun screen battle @RunningKatie , I hate it!

Fortunately I finally persuaded DS to have a buzz cut, so the battle of the hair brush is on hold for a while.

(DD just does everything like a sweetheart).