Spring has sprung...let's Countdown to Christmas 2024 (Thread 2)

[NoWordForFluffy]

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For the forgetful of thinking AKA me tomorrow, repeating the countdown!

Lovely morning here today but definitely autumnal, I love it :)

Ended up in ENT clinic yesterday as my sore throat was refusing to play ball. They found a fish bone lodged in my throat so am feeling so much better this morning. Was so impressed with the speed I was seen at the hospital. Not so impressed with the GP who left me for three days in pain saying it was viral despite me telling them I had swallowed a fish bone.

We are hosting the village’s coffee morning today and then I think we are off to get DS’ school jumpers and shoes ready for next week. So excited to start prepping for Christmas as soon as school is back.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

When I first got downstairs, at about 8, and went outside, I said to DH that there was an autumnal chill to the air. It's burned off now though and I'm sitting in the sunshine in the garden post-dog walk. 🦮

I'm glad your throat is better after finding the culprit, Hoping. Hurrah for ENT. Not so much the GP.

I bought some chilli plants in Aldi this week. I don't know how well they'll do outside, but 2 of the 3 were already in flower / with fruit, so fingers crossed they do ok. I'll move them to the south-facing balcony after this warm week, maybe.

I got some brilliant Christmas decorations from Sass & Belle yesterday. Including a Thor T-Rex for DS! 🤣 DD got a set of 3 potatoes (don't ask!).

Morning .
I've ordered a couple of lightweight jumpers , they had them IRL in the shop but I didn't impulse buy , I came home and sensibly thought about it , then ordered them.
M&S 5 Days of Beauty today was haircare so ordered some for DD Dec 1st Box - she knows about it , she'll be collecting it

Schools go back soon so the quiet roads are no more for a few weeks - till their next lot of holidays .

Hoping fishbone - ouch ! that must've been painful , and not a barrel of laughs to remove it !

@TheWoollybacksWife and @NoCheesesForUsMeeces, do I recall one / both of you getting a mini wooden greenhouse? I really want one for next year, but some of the ones I've found have awful reviews!

I'm definitely up for a Christmas meet up in Bruges. I was meant to go there on a Christmas cruise and it was cancelled 2 Decembers in a row because of Covid.

We are home and am grateful to the me that decided we needed to clean the house before we went. Clean sheets on the bed and an empty washing basket has made it much nicer to come home.

Have done a garden check this morning. Flowers are doing well. Sunflower has bloomed and looks happy.
Tomatoes - plants have gone a bit nuts but there's still only about 10 tomatoes on them and none are even slightly yellow never mind red 🙄

Stressful morning here trying to get Oasis tickets 🙄🙄 I don't even like them, I'm just helping as DH and his friends are all trying. No success yet though.

Biddy Your DD sounds like she's going to have a great time. I'm impressed she's happy to travel and study for from home (I was a wimp and didn't go far).

Oh ow hoping. Glad you're feeling better!

Fluffy I've never heard of Sass & Belle but will check them out.
Am also intrigued by the 3 potatoes 😂

70 DH goes back to school on Monday and I can't wait. I find it so hard to WFH when he's here - not helped by the fact he gets bored and keeps finding house projects to do.

I went into the TM Oasis queue for a laugh a while ago. I was 222k in the queue! 😬🤣

Their system has caused a log jam apparently. People can't pay! #standardticketmaster

I have this one from Homebase 2 years ago. It's doing a pretty good job - but there is a part on the sides (the triangle at the top) that is made from plywood and that has started to crumble due to the weather. I've patched it up and it's all painted now to add another layer of protection.
I'd recommend (but only if you don't pay full price - this one is supposed to be £90. Currently on clearance at £65 but mine was superficially damaged at the back and I got it for £35!

They closed both of our local Homebase stores, annoyingly, so I'd have to pay the online price. But £65 isn't bad!

DH is quite handy (qualified joiner) for running repairs!

Oh that's handy. My dad is a general builder who can fix anything and I used to go to work with him for pocket money so I'm not too bad at basics.

Annoying that you'd have to pay postage but I'm sure there are others that are similar price.

Oasis tickets (and ticket master) is making for an annoying morning so I've just wandered off

Found this Fluffy - Debenhams - £66 with free delivery if that helps? <enabler>

I did see that one, but it has one awful review. Which is when I then asked the question on here to get a recommendation!

Honestly, TM are a shambles. One job. One. Can't manage it.

Fluffy I have to admit, I rarely read reviews for stuff like this and just jump in and give it a go. Not an approach appreciated by DH some but it works more often than it doesn't 😬

DH managed to get Oasis tickets so he's been happy all day (while cleaning windows and doing the lawn).

I've been doing washing, pruning and feeding plants and generally pitching around while thinking about Christmas

Going to pair some socks, enjoy our Chinese then get back to my cross stitch. For a small card it's taking me a while as I have no focus at the minute!

1st September! Going to go blackberry picking today to celebrate :)

Errrrrmmm we've had 118 twice so we need a re count - xmas clock says 114 but I don't know if that's the countdown@NoWordForFluffy uses ?

So September 1st

Well done getting tickets MeecesDH there's been loads of Oasis threads on MN about the TM site and what an ordeal it is

115

Morning!

Congratulations to your DH Meeces on the Oasis tickets, it turned into a bit of a bunfight didn't it. My DH managed to get some as well phew.

Glad you got rid of the fishbone Hoping, sounds painful.

I'll keep my eyes peeled for mini wooden greenhouses Fluffy.

Lovely day here but I went to a party last night and now I'm feeling very tired and can't be bothered to do anything but got a massive pile of ironing to do before back to work tomorrow.🙄

Happy rest of weekend all.

Morning!

Bloody countdown is a pain! 🤣🤣 It's all resolved by Magnolia now though, as it's 115 sleeps.

Ooh, out out, Magnolia? Nice!

My friend spent all day in the TM queue, and by the time they got to the front it had gone to 'dynamic' pricing. Which is all sorts of wrong!

I've had a vaguely productive day (whilst also creating more work!).

I tidied the paintwork in the hall, only to find that DH hadn't stuck the tape down well enough, so now I'll need to tidy the tidying! 😩 It doesn't need taping though (I painted the woodwork today to neaten the emulsion line, so I'll now paint over the satinwood to neaten that!). The tape also pulled small amounts of paint off. Touching up won't take too long though.

I do need to wipe the dog's tail as he managed to get paint on it though! 🙄🤣

I have also weeded the front garden and directed DH where to put our pictures up, as they'd been hanging round for ages. First in the garage, then in the lounge. Still a handful to go, but it's looking way more homely in here now.

We had haircuts this morning, so the kids are nice and neat for the return to school!

I also bought more paint to tidy DS' room. All the bedroom paints need some tidying, as they were done at speed, on my own. DH will take the rads off for me so I can paint behind them now. Plus I'll touch some up as well. I want to try to get stuff sorted before Christmas!

You've put me to shame Fluffy, after my out out night I pretty much stayed on the sofa all day 🛋.

I'll definitely have a long list of chores next weekend now.

114 (I think)

I was very unproductive yesterday but I did read almost an entire book so that was nice.

Today is collecting DS’ school jumpers and taking him to a birthday party. Need to gather up all his school stuff and double check I have everything.

Started looking at Christmas hampers yesterday, lots of family members who have everything they need but seem to enjoy a hamper of food goodies. Last year I was v disorganised and wasn’t much choice left so going to be on it this year.

Also saw a chocolate truffle advent calendar I quite fancy and a jigsaw one. Think I will order my Filofax Christmas planner insert today.

Morning. Back to work for me and DH after our holiday/the 6 week summer break.

Fluffy 'dynamic pricing' on Ticketmaster should be banned. While DH was trying to get Oasis tickets, a message came up from Ticketmaster saying the only tickets left were VIP seats or 'in demand' standing tickets for £350 😮
I don't understand why the artist/venue can't set prices for the seats and ticket master have to sell them at that price. They'd still make a fortune because they'd charge the artist for the service plus everyone would pay booking fees. It's awful.

Hoping how many hampers will you do?
I do one for my dad every year after accidentally starting the tradition when I had no money. He starts checking I'm not switching to a present for him usually some time in November so I'm pretty sure he like it.
What do you put in yours? I tend to go for beer, nuts, cheese, crackers & chutney, coffee, biscuits etc then random things like a mug, mini whiskey, socks.

I was not particularly productive yesterday. Had a lie in, went to my mums for lunch (was productive there though as she had apparently stored up some tech problems for me to fix), cleaned the kitchen and prepped lunches for today when I got home and that was about it.

Bloody spider season is full on in this house <shudder> There's a monster of a spider in the utility room somewhere. I spotted it after I'd been in there 5 mins but by the time I reacted it had ran so fast we couldn't find it despite DH bravely moving things and searching.
We've had at least 1 giant every day since we've got back (2 yesterday) 😩

Oh bloody hell, Meeces. 🕷️ season is bad other than also heralding Strictly starting! We let cellar spiders live in the house, and haven't seen a big monster since doing that. However, we've not had a spider season in this house yet, and we live opposite fields, so let's see what happens! 😬😩🤞

This is my last working day before DD starts high school. <gulp> She has a casual starter day in PE kit tomorrow, then starts proper on Weds. I'm having to take my lunch break later to go and fetch her as due to her autism / likely ADHD, she has no sense of danger, which means she's a bloody liability with road crossing. So unless / until she finds a sensible friend walking the same way, I'll be taking and fetching her!

Weather is miserable today, but meant to improve around lunchtime. Washing will be waiting to go out!

Not the best dog walk today though: attack by a bramble slicing the back of my right ankle up a fair bit, plus contact with something my finger wasn't happy with, so I've a swollen red / itchy patch on my ring finger, left hand! I've thoroughly washed the former and have Sudocrem on the latter (plus took an extra antihistamine).

The first September we were in this house was after the hot summer and spider season was crazy. Last year and so far this year far fewer which I guess is down to the wetter, cooler summers.

Absolutely tipping it down here and set to stay that way all day so washing will go on the heated airer.

Just ordered my Christmas planner :)

Your walk sounds very dangerous @NoWordForFluffy!

I don’t actually make the hampers myself @NoCheesesForUsMeeces as they are all for family scattered round the UK so postage costs would be horrific. I get companies to deliver them straight there. Your hampers sound amazing though!

Fluffy it's so weird, we don't get many cellar spiders here but when we do, I leave them alone.
Current house has some green space around it but we're essentially in an estate and nearest field and woodland is a few hundred meters away but each year we get a fair few giant spiders.
Old house was an Edwardian house with high ceilings and back garden backed onto woodland and an old railway line and we saw very few spiders there 🤷‍♀️

Hope your DD has a good start to high school!

Fair enough hoping. Where do you order from? I like to nose at the expensive hampers, steal the ideas then buy the stuff myself

I've made a very rough present ideas list whilst sat in a boring meeting this morning so that's it, I've officially started my Christmas planning

Well my parents have left today, after 8 nights here. We had a nice time, difficult at times, but mostly lovely. Lots of time on the beach in the sunshine, it’s felt very summery rather than autumny.

Now to prepare for back to school, DC3 starts preschool this week too. They’re our youngest so it feels very final, and they’ve barely been away from me for nearly 4 years, so this will be very new. Trying to look for the positives - I’ll be completing all the Christmas wrapping whilst they’re at school/preschool. This will be the year I’m finally organised!

@NoWordForFluffy thiss* one is similar to the one DH has but I can't remember where we bought it originally. Ours is showing its age a bit now but has lasted well for about 5 years - there are a couple of small holes in the Perspex on the top windows, possibly hailstone damage.

I've bought a book for DS over the weekend so that's everyone started.

Good luck to your DD for starting HS this week. This is my last year with a child at school as a student. Damn I'm old!