Countdown to Christmas 2024: And So We Begin (Thread 1)

[NoWordForFluffy]

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It's a leap year next year, so an extra day to wait!

I've ordered 120 baubles today, as WeRChristmas sent me a 50% code for today only. Annoyingly I could get our new tree way cheaper today! 😭

I'm exhausted now I've finally had time to sit and relax. Tomorrow is a chill day.

Lovely cake @lucysmam

I used to make the DC cakes ( Mermaid , dolly in a pink dress cake , , Badly-Done-Hedgehog Cake , and the best one was a Hallowe'en Coffin/Vampire cake )

Managed to get two loads of laundry out , it was cold and bright and very windy . Not enough to completely dry them but good going .

I had a wander round TKMaxx , they are stocking Chinese New Year , Pancake Day and Easter . DD has lovely mugs, bowl, plate from there ( with Easter Rabbit pattern) there were nice ones this year but I have no room for more crockery !

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Nice jolly number
I'm watching one of those Traffic Cop programmes while my brain explodes at such wa*kery behaviour (I know it's edited )

70, there's a fascinating crash investigation one on BBC2. You might like that one.

The standard traffic cop ones are mind blowing for the idiocy demonstrated!

Wreck we almost didn't get tickets. First go it froze, second it only showed us stupidly expensive tickets & booted us the last time we clicked look again (or whatever it was) to look for cheaper ones, third time (we were trying for the 3 Anfield dates) we'd almost given up & it showed us these for £109 each which were below my budget (I'd saved £150 each max). Such a frustrating way of buying tickets though, having Ticketmaster allocate random ones & having seconds to decide yes or no 🙄.

I sold something else on Vinted yesterday, only £1, but it all helps. I'm just about to load something on in it's place & will do a few more things tomorrow.

70 Crash detectives in BBC is interesting. It's all local to me too and some of the stupidity you see on it is mind boggling.

lucysmam I'm jealous too. I got a code for tickets but the only ones available were out of my budget £250+

I'm just getting ready to pop out. TMI but period has arrived and for the first time in my life, I'm not prepared. DH has offered to go instead but last time he was sent on this errand I had a panicked phone call about "which colour packet I need and how many 'tears' did I require" 😂

Crash detectives in BBC is interesting. It's all local to me too and some of the stupidity you see on it is mind boggling.

Yes, that's the one. It's really interesting. A bit different from tailing people in dodgy motors!

Sometimes, it's just easier to go to the shop yourself, isn't it, Meeces?! DH is quite good at tampon-buying though, thankfully. I do have period pants as well, which would tide me over for long enough if I ran out.

I'm signed up to Twickets alerts for TS at Anfield. So I may still go!

I haven't had to ask DH to get me any feminie hygiene products but when I was very pregnant with DD , (like round her due date pregnant ) I was in the kitchen cooking pasta and my waters broke !
Not wanting to panic, I called upstair to DH "Oh can you get me some clean trousers , pants and a pad" ?

He came downstairs with a pant liner......... I;m standing with a puddle at my foot .
(Oh we laugh about it now but because I was so calm he thought I'd done a sneeze-pee)

Ha, 70, when my waters went we were in bed, having just woken up. I said 'Either my waters have just gone or I've wet myself!' Also very calmly. Luckily, we had bed wetting pads on the bed, so the mattress wasn't destroyed!

DD and I are going to see a Freddie Mercury /Queen tribute band in Feb

It is a sad reflection on my life that I'm so ancient , the bands I want to see ( Queen and ABBA) are tributes or holograms

I will say for DH, he's generally good at the pad and tampon buying errand however, what I need has changed and can be a bit random so while he'd happily go, doing it myself is just easier.
Plus I'm annoyed with myself for being unprepared (I had enough in the house for today but thats it and it's so unlike me, I always have a stash).

When dsis waters went with her first, she asked her partner to bring her some clean knickers as her waters had gone and he was apparently surprised because he thought that happened 'inside, not that anything came out!'

I think I'm on alerts for Cardiff TS tickets but I'm not holding my breath for them.

Am home, washing on, DH is just finishing loading the dishwasher and we're going for a walk. It's grey and freezing here but the fresh air will do me the world of good 🥶

70 I don't consider myself old particularly but when I mentioned to a younger colleague that I had seen Greenday after being a fan for 20 odd years, she made a comment about being surprised that the band were 'that old' that they were around when I was a teenager
Same colleague also asked "who" when I said I was going to see Rick Astley and has no idea who Blur are. Made me feel like a Nana 😂

We're in from The Range, and getting dd's piercing. The woman who did it was lovely & I think we'll use her in future. I might also have got my own nose pierced while there...🙈

Didn't manage to get the bin I wanted, so been scrolling ebay - none the right size and same colour there either 🤷‍♀️

Last load of washing's just washing now - dd1 has...something yellow...on her coat 🙄 hopefully it comes out ffs.

Bought reduced chocolate coins and a couple of random 25p sweets for advent calendars - all dated until 25 so will be ok for Christmas. & everyone got a random present, except me! I didn't think about that til we got in 🙄

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Asda had some of the Cadbury coins Money Boxes reduced (don't know how much they were reduced by though) My DC quite like the Cadbury coins last year .

I did some garden tidy up , cutting back some branches that I kept catching myself on and emptying tubs that were full of dead leaves .

I;m planning what to put in two big tubs at the bottom of the garden, I've tried 3 clematis , only one looks like it's hanging on,
Passionflower just bloody dies .

I'll get the seeds planted up and go from there .

<looks out window> my garden is a tip & is currently home to a knackered desk and wardrobe 🙄 I actually wanted the legs of the desk but not sure they'll be salvegable now.

Our garden is very boggy. I keep researching plants to put in which will be OK in those conditions and also maybe take some of the bogginess out. I have been down many wormholes!

I might pop to Dobbies today to browse a bit and also see if there are the final Christmas reductions mentioned on the bargains thread. It's only a 5 minute walk if I go through the woods.

We had a boggy area in the garden, neighbours said it was flooded before we moved in. I put 5 trees, saplings, in the middle of the squishy patch and that’s made a huge difference. They are silver birch.

We have a bank on the other side with rosemary at the base. We’ve decided to plant more rosemary up to the stop because weeding it is difficult.

We had a soak away drain put in our garden a couple of years back , new lawn, paved area at the bottom . Still get some flood water ( we were told it wouldn't completely eridicate the problem) but it drains quickly , the lawn takes loads .

Most of the fences round us have concrete bases so they create mini dams .

On my way back from (yet another) ikea trip - 3rd part of couch and mattress were priorities, and I got a few more bits as it's being delivered later (2 missing shelves for wardrobe, and desk for sewing, and step for short-squat me to reach cupboards). I spent yesterday building the base of the bed - but still have 1 slatted bit and the headboard to build (headboard may wait!). Slowly getting organised...

Going home next weekend, dd in the middle of mock exams. And she passed her driving test on Friday (so I suspect I won't have a car anymore...).

We grew a hanging willow and a silver birch in a boggy part of the back garden which is thriving - ground is still damp but not as bad and the house at the back made a massive patio which runs off onto that area so it should be so much worse!

a massive patio which runs off onto that area so it should be so much worse

I find not having too many dead bodies under the patio slabs helps a lot biddy

One or two , they absorb water well and as they decompose you get a natural 'give' in the substrate which water will run to .

Any more than five , they tend to upset the foundations .

Top Tip there

70 I will bear that tip in mind. Should I wonder why you know that......

Well Fluffy told me , obvs

It's why she moved , the old patio was looking a tad dislodged .......

Ah should have known my sister had something to do with it 70 😂

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Morning!

Wet here. Very grim. At least it wasn't as bad when I walked the dog.

I'm feeling much-maligned re patio creation. 🤔😩🤣

It was really misty here this morning.

I have the dentist shortly 😭 hate it so much.

Fingers crossed for the dentist Wreck.

@WreckTangled I hope your dentist appt was more successful than my shitshow of an appt 🙄 She didn't even bloody look!