North, Big … GREEN ARMY! I had no idea we had you too Big
I am genuinely gutted that my late dad isn’t around to see his team this season. I’d never hear the end of it, mind 😂. DMum is keeping up on team developments on his behalf, she never cared a jot while he was alive but I think she finds it comforting to follow them now ❤️
My Dad once told me he was at a home game against Exter and the Plymouth fans were shouting ‘you dirty northern B*’ , which for some reason made me laugh like a drain. I hope it was true.
I need to remember some French but that level is way beyond me!
North I am so glad your DH will get to the games! Sorry things are stressful, it’s awful confronting the reality of parents aging and needing help /care. Not just a practical stress but sadness too.
My head is all over the place, I feel as though I am standing on the edge of a cliff with this building work! One of the two builders in the running came round today and said he can bring the costs down a bit (quite a bit to save on the glazing, for instance), every little helps. He needs a week or so to come back to me with a revised cost but would want to start asap, as he has a gap between now and October. He can start with the loft conversion, from outside, while we live in the house, but basically he need us out from June to Sept/oct to destroy the ground floor. This is tricky as I visited a few estate /lettings agents yesterday and they confirmed what I already know from Rightmove : that there is almost nothing on the rental market round here and then loads of people chasing anything that come up, and we have no hope with wanting max 6m stay.
so I’ve taken the plunge. We stay here till end May, we go on hols during half term (will book an air bnb somewhere fun for the kids), then I’ve booked an air bnb flat near us for 8 weeks, for the summer half term. Very expensive to do that on the outskirts of London but it was literally the only ‘affordable’ thing I could find. It’s not big enough for DM to stay too, which she usually does 2 nights a week, so we’re going to have to figure that out… also kids will need to share a room, which they never have, and there’s no bath (thy don’t like showers)… and it cost over £7k, but we have to live somewhere. During august we’re in France for 2 weeks and the rest of the time we’ll stay with PILs (they have offered but it’s only possible in the school hols and they’re not local). No idea what we’ll do in September but if necessary we’ll have to move back home to the building site. Sigh.
On other spends, I’m getting DH to convert our recent zoo visit into membership for the year. We will need to get our much more at weekends than we usually do, when it’s a mess / we’re in a smaller space. Think that’s about £115 extra. Cheap online shop this week, under £100, because we’re desperately trying to use stuff up. My kitchen is still rammed with ingredients though!