Swagger Inn 177 - The weather is turning colder, the nights are drawing in, we need a few HBFs to help us through the winter <looks around wistfully>

[ApricotCrush]

More domestic witterings...

Afternoon. Miserable, wet and cold here too.

I've realised I haven't got enough wool to finish the jumper I'm knitting and I can't get any more as I was using up my stash from donkey's years ago. That's stopped me in my tracks. It might have to be three-quarter length sleeves. Argh!

Hope everyone's had a reasonble day.

Evening wenches.

Oh that’s a pain Apricot. Three quarter sleeves it is, or a stripe.

Rain for most of the day and cold. Back to super busy at work and I’m knackered. Going to do a bit of knitting and then have an early night.

Eek! apricot - can you unravel the sleeves and do sleeves in a contrasting colour? Or do some clever graduation from original to new colour?

Today has mostly felt cold. And tiring. I should go to bed.

How's the roadworks going LetUs? Hopefully not causing too much mayhem.

Morning wenches.

Daaaaarrrk still.

No roadworks at present Helen, at least not to and from work. My route still used as a diversion but that’s there until spring which is just vague enough to be annoying 😁

Suppose I should be getting on with the day.

Have great days wenches.

Morning all. The cloud is higher this morning, but it's wet and miserable. I shall splosh my way out to MorningExercise... then do taxi duties and then I have a 'Google Call' for work - new and exciting technology ahoy . I'm sure it will all be fine and self explanatory when I click the link, I've just never used Google Call before. Open the book now - will I try to blur the background and turn myself into a cat? Will I try to share my screen and accidentally hang up on everyone? (I've done the latter in Teams (who puts 'share' button next to 'leave' FFS?!), but not the former, which I think was a lockdown Zoom error by a solicitor)

Have a good day all.

Afternoon. Very miserable and gloomy. I did Sainsbury’s this morning and went to post a letter up the road this afternoon and the snowdrops and crocuses are coming out at the end of the road which is lovely to see. Oh and we have temporary traffic lights on the main road now which aren’t so lovely.

Re the jumper, I have stripes on the front and back but was going to have plain sleeves, so I’ll knit both sleeves as far as the wool will go and then see where I am. Why do I do these things?

Hope Helen coped with the new technology without turning herself into a cat and LetUs got to work without any holdups.

Evening wenches.

You’re so clever with the making up your own patterns and then just changing as the need arises Apricot. I’d be swearing and shoving the jumper into a bag. The flowers sound beautiful <ignores roadworks>

There was a small event at work for staff this morning where there was food. So that was very nice for a change.

It’s bad enough having Paste (I think) next to Send for emails. Do we need to stock up on the cat treats Helen?

Evening all. Can confirm that I managed to blur my background without turning myself into a cat, or hanging up on everyone. I fooled them into thinking I'm competent
It has been cold and damp. But on the plus side I have cakes in the oven, so DS and I won't have entirely boring packed lunches tomorrow.

Morning wenches.

Mmm cake for breakfast Helen, thanks. Although actually after what I ate yesterday, perhaps not, We all know you’re good at many things Helen, so not turning yourself into a cat or disconnecting yourself can be added to the list <nto>

Not quite as dark this morning which is jolly good news. Short day for me so hurrah.

Have super days wenches.

Morning. Still cloudy, but I don't think they're quite so low, Hurrah!

Wooooooooooooooork... (Year end approaches, freelancing is bonkers, that is all!)

<pours drinks all round - even if only >

Afternoon - ah the terror of new online meeting software!

Very grey here too, I suppose we can't complain as it is winter. we are now getting 2 hours more daylight, doesn't feel like it though!

Afternoon. Grey and dismal here too. No, it doesn’t seem like two hours more daylight Fancy. I still need the light on for my shower at 7-ish before I go back to bed with breakfast, iPad and cat. I think it’s the end of the month before it gets light then.

I haven’t done a lot today.

Evening wenches.

I like that it’s noticeably lighter when I leave work at 5.

The Northern Lights are supposed to be visible again tonight. Hopefully I’ll see them as last time I think I was the only person who looked for them that didn’t actually see them.

<looks out at cloudy sky> Yeah, Northern Lights The days are def. longer though - I can easily feed the chickens at 7:30, and it's not dark when I leave work (assuming I don't stay late, swearing at spreadsheets and my own mistakes).

Work was mostly me trying to reconcile spreadsheets. #SNAFU.

Morning wenches.

Didn’t see any Lights last night. Had a look when I got up for what now seems to be regular nighttime bathroom visits but nothing.

Can’t quite get going today. A day of nothing much would be nice. Perhaps I’ll look when I can take a day’s leave.

Have lovely days wenches.

Morning. Mmmm.... leave. I should book some. StupidOfficeJob made a stupid corporate decision whereby everyone's leave year runs from the start of April, so everyone who works in finance has 'Schrodinger's leave' that they simultaneously must take and must not take at holiday year end, which coincides with financial year end This decision was made a year after I had mine switched to start in September, when it would have been easy to take un-used leave. FFS and all that.

Let's book a spa day together LetUs

Afternoon. Still grey and gloomy.

I looked for the Northern Lghts LetUs, nothing visible here. I've never seen them

That's a bit stupid about your leave Helen.

Hope everyone's had a good day.

Evening wenches.

That surprises me not one bit about the leave Helen. As a coincidence, NC and I were discussing our perfect spa days. Mine involved a day of knitting, crochet, reading, jigsaws, and a bit of tv. In peace. 😁

<sits with Apricot on the Never Seen The Northern Lights bench> good company to be in 😊

Evening all. The news says that there's a solar storm on Valentines day, so the north of England might see lights.

Work has been more productive than it felt today, judging by the amount of spreadsheet work that got done. I shall do a few more lines before bed...

Morning wenches.

Well done on the productivity Helen. And thanks for the lights information.

Is rather light outside which is a very welcome change. Onwards with the day.

Have lovely days wenches.

Morning all. Cloudy and cold again #BrokenRecord

DS has gone off to college and then a date with his GF, so hopefully they'll have lots of fun, and I'll get a summons at some point to pick them up. Whoop. Othe than that - spreadsheets!

Afternoon

That's crap about annual leave helen, we have the same leave year end, so I have several days holiday coming up - including 2 next week - yay!

No chance of seeing the Northern Lights here yesterday as we hadn't seen a clear sky for days. We do have blue sky now, so who knows tonight?

It's been a fairly dull week so far apart from the exciting news that DS is looking to buy his first flat. The excitement will pick up as I have a mini-meet this weekend - I wonder how much time Chonk & Floof will spend hiding?

Afternoon. Cloudy and cold here so not much chance of seeing the Lights.

Exciting about the flat Fancy, it's lovely seeing them set up their first home. Enjoy the mini-meet.

Have a good evening all.

Evening wenches.

Full on day at work, constant emails, phone calls, people dropping in with work, other people dropping in who clearly have feck all to do and think we’ve time for a long chat. But it’s Friday evening now, I’ve collected DS2 from SportingActivity, and now have a drink.

That’s exciting news about DS Fancy! Enjoy the mini-meet, hope Chonk and Floof are sociable (for cats 😁)

Evening. Internet is being shite here and I'm tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiired. <whinge>

It's clouded over here as well. Exciting news re. FancyDS. Work was quite entertaining for the part where we started using Copilot to produce images and fake logos for our own entertainment.

DH is currently talking physics and maths equations at me and DS is babbling about Star Wars. I should go to bed, have driving to do tomorrow because fecking trains aren't running.