Still busy here!

Morning All,

When I was working I had this strange idea that retirement would be an easier option but it's still all go here! This is my first day in the house for nearly a week!

Last Wednesday, saw me out Christmas shopping with my Mom then to the hairdressers.

On Thursday I went back to the Midlands to a little card shop and wool shop that I've used for a number of years - the card shop to get family Christmas cards and the wool shop for patterns - my eldest grand daughter is coming 9 years old and the majority of my patterns finish at 7 or 8years old so I've been looking for some new ones for her - she's into all these baggy boyfriend cardigans at the moment. Then I went onto see my Son and his family.

Its going to be difficult to get back to the Midlands for a while as some idiot has decided to shut the M54 every night between now and Xmas and then reduce it down to one lane during the day. They did this with only small sections of the motorway in one direction in the summer which was causing me to spend 2 1/2 hours travelling to and from work each day, this time though they are really going for it and doing both sides of the motorway. The Motorway was always busy on the run up to Christmas so this will cause absolute havoc - thank goodness that I'm not having to travel it any longer.

I went back to the Midlands on Friday too - I met up with an old friend from work and we had a lovely meal and spent the afternoon reminiscing about how we used to let properties and collect rents before the introduction of computers - we were much quicker and organised at doing it in those days compared to now and more importantly we knew our customers and who was wanting to move where.....the good old days!

On Saturday we went in the opposite direction and went to meet my Mom and Dad for my birthday lunch - we use a golf club just outside Welshpool called The Lakeside - it a beautiful place and the meals are exceptional and reasonably priced too. Strangely enough there were more road works on that end of the M54.............I'm sure someone sits in an office somewhere and says right it's the turn of the M? for the next 6 months and that's it - everyone who travels that part of the world get to suffer then.

 

 (Lake Side Golf Centre taken earlier in the year)

 

                                                          (The view from the restaurant)

 

I spent yesterday catching up on the food shopping and going to see my Daughter and Grand Daughters.

Today is ironing and baking and knitting I've only got 2 sleeves left to do on a Christmas jumper for my Grandson and then I'm going to have a go at doing some crocheting from a new book that my Daughter-in law got me for my Birthday - it's been about 25 years since I last tried to follow a crocheting pattern - so something to get my teeth into and have a go at - but I daren't have a go until I've finished these 2 sleeves or else the jumper won't be finished to wrap ready for Christmas.

Tomorrow is a sewing day - I have a pelmet to alter for my daughter so have allocated tomorrow for that.

Like I said - I thought retirement was going to be a case of slowing down - I got that wrong didn't I?

Have a good week

Byee

Winnie

Afternoon All,

We've actually seen a little bit of sun here today which makes a change after all the rain we've had recently - the washings out  in the fresh air, but I doubt that it will dry it completely. But if it gets it half dry then its a bonus - I hate wet washing hanging around the house - we don't have a tumble dryer because we don't have anywhere to put one and who can afford the electric to run one? So we'll wait until later, put an extra log on the log burner and leave the clothes on a clothes horse in front of it when we go to bed. Nine times out of ten it's dry in the morning.

Once upon a time I had a dolly maid - you know those clothes rails that are on a pulley system, and they go up and down - you put the clothes on it and then pull it back up - I suppose that it works on the assumption that heat rises, it did always get the washing dry - mind that was back in the days when I had an aga and the heat from that helped - one day I'll tell you the saga of the aga - it's a long story.

I've finally got round to making my Christmas cakes today and the house is smelling very Christmassy, so that's another thing to tick off my list. Plus it's our 8th wedding anniversary today and my birthday tomorrow. Out shopping with my Mom tomorrow and then to the hairdressers.

Finally I'll leave you with a picture of our new dog Winnie, she's got Cocker, Yorkie and Jack Russell, in her -  she's a proper scruffy looking  dog, a little madam and into just about everything but really loving and such a laugh - we certainly wouldn't be without her now and love her to bits and to us, she's beautiful.

She never keeps still so these are the best photo's I have of her at the moment - normally all I manage to snap is her tail end! These were taken down in Cornwall a few weeks ago. My handbag got in the way slightly (It was a Cath Kidston bag so can be excused!)

Have a good day everyone

Byee. xxx

Just a little catch up

Afternoon All,


I hope everyone is ok out there - Its been a little busy here but the de cluttering is all finished and done for now thank goodness, at least for a little while anyway.

I spent last Saturday driving back to work to go and put all the thank you cards through the letter box - I'm a big believer that once you've gone then you've gone - I shall keep in touch with my good friends from work but I don't believe in going back into the work place once you've left - it's never the same so best to just leave on a good note and be done.

After I did that I went to our favourite butchers over there - I've been going to this butchers for more years then I'd like to say and I've never had a poor cut of meat off them yet. I picked up 12 chicken breast portions - they cost me  £10.00 then I had £10.00's worth of best mince and then a large joint of beef that was £25.00 and a butterfly of turkey breast that was £15.00 so I spent £60.00 in total.

I put the beef in to cook slowly over Saturday night and then when that came out of the oven on Sunday morning the turkey went in  - we brought a slicing machine a few years ago so all the meat was sliced up and then went into the freezer - out of the beef and turkey we got 20 meals for the 3 of us here so can't moan at that plus it is decent meat from a butcher that I can trust.

I spent Sunday afternoon on the computer Argos had a 3 for 2 offer on until Tuesday on all the toys so I sorted everything out on Sunday afternoon and reserved it and then we went and fetched the grandchildren's Christmas presents from us on Monday afternoon - I saved quite a bit of money by doing it this way - it is all about looking out for the special offers isn't it?

Did anyone else watch Children in Need last night - it makes you feel so lucky doesn't it to have healthy happy children and grand children - you just feel for some of the people on there last night and then it makes me say thank you that we don't tread in their shoes. 

I'm still frantically knitting to finish the 2 jumpers off ready for Christmas presents  and I do really want to get back into reading but as of yet haven't had much chance. I'm off to a new hairdressers this week for a cut and blow dry - my hair has fallen out in handfuls on the one side of my head and it's gone really thin  - I'm not sure whether it was down to the last hairdresser and the colour that he used or the stress of making my decision to leave work, either way I thought I'd try some where new - I fancy a change but what they'll be able to do with it I don't know.....we'll see. Then Friday I'm off to meet one of my friends from work for lunch and to catch up - we've been friends for nearly 25 years so there's always lots to talk about.

Just before I go - I found a blog recently where the lady very kindly puts photo's on each day of a place in this country that we love to visit and reading this blog has been such a pleasure each day - she not only takes pictures of the sea and the views but of the fields and the wild life and has promoted businesses in the area and you can tell from the photographs that she is really good at photography, but someone has complained that she has taken pictures of their property - she never takes photos close up to the properties, they're always at a distance  and it obviously upset the lady - aren't some people pompous and un-appreciative of other peoples efforts. Such a shame - I do hope that she continues because she does such  beautiful blog posts.

Oh well I'm off now - Have fun everyone

Byee xx

Spick and Span..........

Afternoon All

This morning's de-cluttering exercise has been the kitchen cupboards. When I first got married nearly 40 years ago, my Nan told me you always keep a roof over your head, a fire in the grate and food in the cupboard - everything else comes after those 3 things. I have always kept a well stocked, kitchen cupboard and freezer - but with most things the minute you take your eye of the ball and stop watching what's going in and what's being used or not used, it gets all out of hand so today I've tidied and done a list of what's needed and I must admit I have had to throw a few things away that were out of date but not much at all.

I would just love a pantry - to be able to keep all my baking and cooking ingredients in one tiny little room with lots of shelves would be my idea of heaven (doesn't take a lot does to please me does it?!) I've only lived in one house that had a pantry - I was 20 and just married and didn't appreciate what I had then - so when I had a spell at baking about 18 months ago, my hubby put some shelves up for me in the little passageway and that acts as my 'pantry' - I've prettied the shelves up with half folded doilies and all my baking ingredients are in kilner jars on the shelves, plus the 2 bottom shelves store all the small kitchen appliances which only come out every so often.

Well on Monday, I went through the 'stores' and as most of the baking ingredients were out of date - I did have a big clear out and then popped to Aldi and Morrisons and re-stocked.

I'm nearly there with this de-cluttering exercise only another 2 areas to do and I'm done - I did a course on Hoarders and their hoarding habits and why they do it back in the spring and it was so interesting - I was relieved to see that even though I like a little bit of clutter that I was in the 'normal' range - to me having a possessions around me gives me a little bit of happiness and contentment as the majority of things I have - have a memory of some kind attached to them. I had years of not having anything special when I first married the 'prat' of a first husband  so I do cherish what I have around me now.

I was talking to my Mom yesterday and telling her that my hubby had fixed a wardrobe for me - that wardrobe belonged to my Nan who's been gone nearly 20 years now - it's in our bedroom still in use every day along with her ottoman and chest of drawers, they're all still looking good, so why would I need to get rid of them - they're still in use and special to me.

The team that I used to work with used to remove fly tipping they would go to the same places again and again to remove furniture that had been dumped and half the time there was nothing wrong with it - I'm afraid that I don't get this throw away society - it seemed that some residents changed their 3 piece suite every time they changed their hair style!

Oh well - I'll take my leave and return to writing my thank you cards - I left work with so many gifts and although my hubby says that I write a chapter in each card - I just cant write thank you and nothing else when I worked with these people for years and years, so it's taking me some time to do them all

Speak again soon

Byeee

So where just does it all come from?

Afternoon All,

So, where just does it all come from?..............what you may ask and the answer is...........dust!

Over the last few days I have undertaken the start of a de-cluttering exercise around the house - for ages I've been thinking - well it might come in handy for when I retire..........and 'stuff' has been kept for 'just in case' purposes -  well I'm here now, retirement has dawned and its time to get sorted!

Plus I've realised that life isn't going to be about watching every penny it's going to be about making the pennies count and work hard

So yesterday it was time to clear the bookshelves and get rid of a load of books - I have my kindle so if I want to read anything I can get it on that  - I've kept the special books - you know the ones that get fetched out and re read every few years. But how does dust get to the back off the books on a book case?!

(It must have been all those times that I've dusted the front of the bookcase but never had the time to take the books off and dust at the back..... oops - paying for it now!)

You know, I've just realised that I have over 80 books on the kindle so plenty to read there which should keep me going for a while.

The other thing that I have been doing for a long long time is stock piling wool and I have a number of UFO's ( unfinished objects) to complete so I also sorted all the wool yesterday -  both all the spare wool and the wool needed to finish the crochet blankets ( why I have 3 ripple blankets all on the go at the same time is something of a mystery!) and now have 2 bookcases full of wool - my daughter always says that it's like walking into a wool shop when she walks into our conservatory because the wool is all lined up on one set of the bookshelves, in there. in order of colour just how you see it in the wool shops.

Perhaps I missed my vocation in life and should have had a wool shop instead of working in housing.

Anyway, the hospice shop will profit from my books but I'm still left pondering where does all the dust come from??

Have a good day

Speak soon

Byee

Is there anybody out there?............

Afternoon All,

Its been a while since I last posted hasn't it?

Life sort of got in the way for a long while - I found it hard to have the time to write posts with work and commuting - I have managed to read a lot of your blog's and have stayed in touch with a number of blogger's.

So what's changed to make me be writing this post now.................I have retired from work!!

I am now a retiree from the rat race - I finally got off that tread mill and now have time to stand and stare, breathe in the fresh air and enjoy my family and the simple pleasures in life - you can tell from my sheer delight that this only happened a week ago.

I realised around March that as far as work was concerned I was 'old school' - I believe that in public service you're there to give a good service to all customers - at work all that seemed to matter was how many awards we won that week.

The plan had been to wait until I was 60 and then retire but I had my pension figures for me to retire this year at 59 and the difference just wasn't worth going up and down the motorway for and spending my time doing a job that I was no longer enjoying - so I made my decision in September and finished a week ago.

It means that we are on a tight income for the next 7 years until I get my state pension but it'll just be a case of managing and getting on with it! At least I wont have to do that commute which had been getting worse and worse recently - I had been working 8 hours and then commuting 2 1/2 hours on top, so just felt completely shattered all the time.

So what's been happening in my little world since I last posted...........we have a beautiful new granddaughter I. a sister for E. there is just 15 months between them so its  a handful now but they will grow up together. My Hubby has retired and is enjoying being at home. We have a new puppy Winnie - she's a Corkie - half Cocker and half Yorkie with a little bit of Jack Russell thrown in too - soooo naughty but so lovely. We've been down to Cornwall twice this year and had brilliant holidays and weather on both occasions. My daughter has secured a really prestigious position in her field and I am very proud of her and her achievements - I think that is all the big news. Oh and we have a new allotment to work on. Pictures of all to follow - when I can remember how to upload and find my way round the blog!

So now I'll be able to post more often and record how I spending my well earned retirement!!

Speak again soon

Byeee xxx