Day 885

Day 885...

I think this will be a relatively short post today as I am writing it fairly late on in the day.

This morning our first job was to nip out to Asda to collect our grocery shop order. Once upon a time Asda was my go to supermarket of choice but lately I have become more and more frustrated with its lack of choice, lack of availability, poor substitutions and general price increases. I think going forward I will use them for big bulky items but keep the majority of my shopping to my local Lidl instead.

There was a little more shopping to be done today but that was online as I needed to place an order with the butchers that I use. So much easier to order great quality products, in bulk and for delivery on a day of my choosing.

After our lunch/brunch Simon and I decided to take a trip into Derby for a wander around and to pick up a few things. This involved stops at Paperchase, Damaged Society, Lakeland and of course Primark; quite an eclectic mix of shops today! We then took some time to enjoy a coffee at Caffe Nero before heading home.

Today has also been all about the 3D printer. Simon has been tinkering with it to get the best possible prints out of it and he has managed to get a few more pieces printed. It is now busy printing a larger section of the model Simon is creating and will be busy printing for the next 9 hours!

Simon has also managed to get some painting completed on some extra parts for his R2D2 as well as some digital painting for his latest art creation. My creative juices were a little more simpler and directed at my current jigsaw!

And with that I will see you all tomorrow.
xx 

Day 869, 870 & 871

Day 869...Friday

This morning started with an increase to my cold shower so I am now at two minutes and forty five seconds! Still got a little way to go to match Simon's four minutes but not doing too bad.

My phone weather app was telling me there was a 74% chance of rain but the skies were blue so we went out on our early morning walk armed with the umbrella just in case...did we need it? Nope!Anyways we did our usual 1.9 miles in another quick 36 minutes and stayed dry all the way round.

My morning was spent catching up on a few odd jobs and having a bit of a clean through before stopping to have a little jigsaw time. Ordinarily I would leave my jigsaw until the afternoon but as it sits in front of some french doors and is in direct sunlight during the mid to late afternoon it can get a tad hot. So today I thought I'd take advantage of the shade and get a few pieces moved around before lunch.

I tried numerous times throughout the day to sit outside and soak up some vitamin D but failed as it decided to rain each time I poked my head out the door, despite my wonderful weather app telling me there was zero percent chance of rain! Mmm something tells me I ought not to pay much attention to this app!

One of the tasks that I have set myself is to go through all the bits and pieces at my mum and dads house and figure out what to do with it all. Myself and my brother have gone through everything and taken anything that meant something to us or could be useful and our kids have done the same. But now we are left with a lot of items that are simply too good to throw away and need to go where they will be appreciated. So this afternoon I made a start...a little start! To be honest I've been putting it off because it feels like such a monumental task and I haven't had the willpower to simply just start but I need to man up and get on with it.

So this afternoon I started with something small; some jewellery. I wanted to go through all the bits that we have and figure out what we actually have and what to do with it. I've decided to keep my mum's engagement and eternity rings although I'm not sure if I'll ever wear them. The engagement ring is quite thin and has some stones missing so would need some restoration work doing to it before it could be worn but I have always loved this ring and am just happy to be able to have it. The other pieces that we have could possibly have belonged to my grandparents as I don't remember seeing them at all but I simply don't know. I think I will be taking them to a local jeweller to get them appraised and see where we go from there.

One item that I'd brought home from my dads house was a christening gown that appeared to be in too good a condition to have been mine but as my brother was christened in hospital not long after he'd been born (he was in an incubator for a few weeks and things were a bit touch and go!) it made sense that it would be mine. So I did a little investigation by looking through some old photo albums, and sure enough found photographs of my christening in early 1968! And I am pretty sure that yes the christening gown we have found is mine! It has a label that is definitely from that time but it's condition is amazing, in fact it looks like new.

The day was rounded out with our third weights workout of the week and today I was focused on arms and shoulders. Really happy with how my workouts are going at the moment as having found some new moves online it seems to have reinvigorated my attitude towards exercise. 

Day 870...Saturday

This morning was a change to our routine as after we'd had a coffee we headed into Derby. It was really nice to actually dress a bit smarter for a change (tend to be a shorts and t-shirt kind of girl) and I was more than a little happy that the denim dress I chose to wear felt like it fitted me much better than it did this time last year so I must be doing something right.

Once in Derby I wanted to pop into Next to see if they had some shorts I've been after; I bought a pair online a few weeks back and decided that a second pair was needed. However they are no longer in stock online and when we visited Nottingham on Monday their store didn't have any and today Derby was no better! Wish I'd ordered a second pair straight away now!

We then went in search of coffee before heading off for a wander around the city centre. It is so sad to see so many shops empty but thankfully the one shop we did want to pop into was still open; Warhammer! Purely for Simon as he needed some model paints for finishing off a couple of prop making endeavours he has on the go at the moment. On our way back to the car we had the obligatory stop by Primark but unfortunately there was nothing that caught my eye.

On the way home we stopped by a DIY store to purchase a piece of furniture panel that we could make into shelves for the cupboards we have built upstairs in our new study/craft room. We had taken measurements before we had left home this morning so knew that the piece of panel whilst big enough to make the shelves that we needed would be too big to fit in the car. So we had come armed with a tape measure, a couple of saws and our calculations of where we needed to cut it! So using a couple of large trolleys as a bench we were able to take a 2.39 metre piece and cut it in half so that it fit perfectly in the car and knowing that each half would make two shelves of differing sizes!

After a spot of lunch we then spent the afternoon spent cutting the wood panel to the correct size for the four shelves that we needed. Although the units we'd bought were Ikea they didn't sell extra shelves hence why we were having to make our own. When we'd looked at the panel online we knew that it wouldn't be quite as deep as the shelves we already had but it was the best sizing that we'd been able to find. But when Simon started to measure up we found out that the piece we'd picked up was actually deeper than the one we'd seen online and in fact deeper than the existing shelves! So although this did involve extra cutting for Simon it did mean that by the time we'd finished we had four new shelves that matched perfectly to the existing ones - win!

The last job was to iron on the white trim to cover up the bare wood edges and while the edges were 'setting' we nipped out to Lidl for some salad stuff. Back home and all the edges were set and just needed a quick tidy up by Simon. 

The one thing we hadn't picked up when we bought the wood panel were shelf pegs but that was probably a good thing because when we went to order some online we realised that the holes we have were slightly smaller than the standard. But by the power of Amazon we were able to order enough pegs to be delivered tomorrow.

Day 871...Sunday

Today we had a gentle start to the day and with a coffee inside us we headed out for a not quite so early morning walk. We had a lovely 3.5 mile walk in gorgeous weather in one hour and 7 minutes, although this did involve some blackberry picking along the way! 

Our first job of the day was to swap over some light fittings. We had a couple of wall lights that we had bought when we moved into our first house and that had come with us when we moved here a lot of years ago. Suffice to say these lights were showing their age by rocking an eighties vibe pretty well! After taking them down Simon need to fill a few holes before we could put up the new fixtures, so while the filler harden we had some lunch. It was then a simple job of putting up the new brackets and installing the new much simpler sconces.

By mid-afternoon the shelf pegs had arrived so we were able to see if all our hard work from yesterday paid off and thankfully we were able to install all four shelves with relative ease. We now have three cupboards with extra shelf space which is great as Simon is now able to store all his art materials in a much better way to keep all the paper and card flat and clean.

Simon has also been able to spend a little time cleaning up some model parts as well as airbrushing his latest R2D2 3D printed pieces. He was even able to get a little more paint applied to the interior of R2's doors as he puts those final finishing touches in place.

I've been able to catch up with writing this blog and then at 6pm I was able to hook up via Zoom for one of our  Disney Dream Girls Sunday Disney Quizzes! And I think I won which means that I'm going to have to write the next set of questions although our next quiz won't now be until the end of September!

And with that I think I will stop typing and see you all tomorrow.
xx

Day 793

Day 793...

After a steady start to our Saturday morning we gathered ourselves together as Ethan had a house viewing booked.

He is thinking of getting his own place and had seen a newly listed house in the right sort of area at the top end of his budget and had booked in a viewing for today. Unfortunately this was not going to be the house for him! 

The estate agent greeted us with 'there's some work that needs to be done, it's a 'doer-upper''...mmm...and that doesn't even allow for the general cleanliness of the house as it completely stunk to high heaven of cats! It would need a new bathroom, new kitchen, new flooring, completely redecorating through out and a mega deep, deep clean. Oh well at least house that we look at from now on can only get better...right?!

After a quick detour via Lidl we arrived home in much need of a coffee. While Simon did a little digital art work I enjoyed my coffee sat in the sunshine. 

Our plans for the remainder of the day centered around my good friend Michelle visiting ahead of an evening out in Derby to see another La De Da Cabaret show. So while Simon got all energetic and nipped out for a quick run I took things much slower and did my make-up ready for the evening followed by a little online shopping. I was in need of some make-up bits and pieces as well as some new trainers for walking. I'd found a pair online and figured it was easier to order from the comfort of my own home as opposed to visit a store in person and hope that they had my size. So by the end of this week I should have some new walking shoes to try out.

....to be continued....as we were out late I never got to finish this post and publish it so I guess this will be done today (Sunday!).

See you later.
xx

 

Day 784

Day 784...

Well I think this is the first time I've stopped today and I'm writing while waiting for Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to start.

We are visiting a local cinema in Derby called The Quad and for the first time are in their screen called 'The Box'. Probably one of the smallest screening rooms I've been in and it's kitted out with comfy chairs and sofas!!! 

But my day has been spent in work catching up with my deputy manager who has returned after a few days away. We've also been getting ourselves ready for our AGM which is tomorrow evening. So a busy day at work.

Once home I had a work email to send and to chase a couple of my own things while enjoying a coffee. Then it was time for our butchers delivery; 4kg steak mince, 2 kg chicken, 4.5kg bacon, 10 pork steaks, sirloin steaks, burgers and 100 sausages! Which then all needed splitting into portions to be frozen.

With that all sorted it was then time to cook dinner; a quick and easy keto chicken parmesan and while that was cooking we bought our cinema tickets online. Which then gave me enough time to eat dinner, get changed and head out the door.

A great film with plenty of action and probably more questions than answers but an enjoyable and quick couple of hours.

See you tomorrow.
xx

 

Day 780

Day 780...

The weekend has arrived and we started with a prompt getting up as Simon had a barbers appointment just after 9am.

Once Simon had returned home we gathered ourselves together and headed off into Derby for a little shopping trip. I wanted to see if I could pick up a few birthday pressies (May is a busy month!) and it was also chance to get Ethan out for some clothes shopping.

Primark proved successful for me as I came away with two new Disney t-shirts, a Mickey Mouse themed cushion and some earrings. 

We stopped for a coffee mid-shop to keep us going although Ethan ended the trip empty handed. He's not too excited by shopping for clothes and is quite tricky to buy for. I'd hoped to be able to point him in the right direction but it was not to be today.

I did get asked twice today while we were out and about if I was a Disney fan; I think the themed trainers, jacket, t-shirt, earrings and handbag may have been a bit of a give-away. I was even able to hand out a business card for the Disney Dream Girls podcast!

Back home and it was an afternoon of sorting stuff out along with sitting in the sunshine with a coffee. I'd got solicitors paperwork to go through and needed to get together some more bits and pieces to take into their office next week. Not very exciting but necessary.

And so there ends this Saturday, see you tomorrow.
xx

Day 727

Day 727...

So we are now back into our usual routine of Monday's being our non-working day of the week and as I have four full days in work ahead of me we made the most of the day.

We headed off towards Derby with the intention of grabbing a coffee after making use of the jet wash at the garage next door to the Starbucks to get the car looking clean once more. We had to wait a little while for the jet wash to become free and while waiting I got a text to say that the shoes we'd ordered yesterday were ready to be collected...about an hour earlier than we'd expected. Well done, Next!

So with a clean car we took a short trip to pick up the shoes followed by driving into Derby for the aforementioned coffee and a trip to the cinema. We have a lovely cinema called The Quad which is an independent cinema and also a charity that supports various art and cultural exhibits. We enjoyed a coffee in their cafe before settling down to watch The Batman.

The great thing was that we almost had the cinema to ourselves; I think there were just three other people in the audience. We only had to sit through a couple of trailers for other films and thankfully no adverts before the movie; I always hate having to endure fifteen minutes of adverts before even getting to the trailers never mind the movie. And as The Batman was almost three hours long we appreciated the lack of pre-show 'stuff'.

Simon has always been a Batman fan and while I've seen a few of the movies over the years this was not something I'd considered a 'must-see' but having heard a few very positive reviews we decided to give it a go. And boy were we happy that we did; such a great film. Very dark and broody with great performances, some brilliant action sequences and lots of call outs to the source material.  And the three hours seemed to whizz by.

We took a quick detour on the way home to check out a sofa bed that we had found online as that needs to be a purchase for our upstairs room as we convert it into more of a study/craft room. Back home and Simon jumped on the exercise bike for a little zone two training while I sorted some more jigsaw pieces.

Monday done, see you tomorrow.
xx

Day 506

Day 506...

We had another relaxed start to the day and with the weather forecast being a little mixed we decided to stay close to home and head into Derby.

We had a quick stop by the post office on the way as the prop piece Simon had re-cast yesterday was successful and needed sending on its way. We arrived in Derby to very grey skies and a couple of short sharp rain showers, but armed with our umbrellas we soldiered on.

As we know Derby pretty well so we decided to head off in a different direction to normal to see if it led us on undiscovered paths. As it was we found ourselves at the new Museum of Making which we had said we would pay a visit to but we weren't completely sure of where it was. Suffice to say it was a lot closer to the main centre than I thought it was.

The museum is in an old silk mill and was a lovely space to wander around and was free to enter. And while the museum were asking for guests to wear masks and to 'check-in' to the track and trace program we politely declined. It was sad to note that only a handful of guests were brave enough to wander around without a mask although plenty were happy to sit in the main entrance hallway without masks to enjoy refreshments from the cafe...just doesn't make sense to me...what is the difference between sitting down eating to standing up looking at exhibits? We're all in the same air space!

But anyway we really enjoyed our look around the museum, celebrating the 'making' ethos of Derby;

In the main hallway they have suspended a Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine which is not only very impressive but also gave me and Simon some Star Wars pod racing vibes!

There was lots of fascinating insight into the industries that have been an integral part of Derby from railways to engines to clothing and even video games as we found a small display linking to the two Derby based video game companies that Simon has worked for; Core Design and Eurocom!

Being studious!

As we then walked around the city we found a few of the ram sculptures that form part of the city's 'ram trail'...

And in between finding sculptures we enjoyed a coffee and a little unplanned shopping. Our intention wasn't to shop but Simon suggested having a look in one of my favourite shops 'Damaged Society' as we haven't visited in a long while...and purchases were made...

Hell Bunny trousers

Fearless Illustration skirt

So I think a few hours were well spent today!

And to round out the day Molly and her fella arrived home...a bit of long drive home for them but home nonetheless.

See you tomorrow.

xx

Waiting Around

Day 432...

Monday started with the usual grocery shop collection from our local Asda. While there I was also able to pick up some donations for pre-school, and there was so much stuff that we drove straight to pre-school to drop it all off.

After we had got home and put all the shopping away I had my dad to take to the doctors and Simon had a helmet to cast as he had received an order over the last few days.

So I picked up my dad and took him to his doctors. I parked up outside to wait for him as I was not allowed to go in with him because of the covid restrictions still in place. Unfortunately, I had left my phone at home and so I had absolutely nothing to occupy my time and unfortunately I had rather a long wait. But to be fair it would appear that my dad was seen on time, or thereabouts, but spent the majority of the time waiting for his prescription to be made up.

My dad has developed a rather bad case of eczema and has been given pills and potions galore and an appointment for a couple of weeks time to see how he is getting on. My dad did mention to his doctor that he wondered if it could be a reaction to his second covid vaccine...apparently the doctor neither denied or confirmed whether that could be the case...makes you wonder though!

But by the time I got my dad dropped off at his house and me back home two hours had gone by, of which an hour and a half was spent just sat waiting in my car. With nothing to do all I could do was watch the world around me. It was really quite sad to watch people queuing for the pharmacy; only one person is allowed in at a time which meant a lot of people (quite elderly people) were stood outside in the cold and the rain waiting their turn. What a state of affairs we find ourselves in!

With a quick lunch eaten we were back out the door to take Molly into Derby for her driving theory test. So we dropped her off and went in search of a coffee while we waited for the call to pick her up. About an hour after dropping her off we got the message 'Done'...to which I responded 'and?' and the response came back 'Passed!'. Woohoo! She did really well with 49 out of 50 for the questions and 60 out of 75 for the hazard perception section so she was very pleased with those scores. She messaged her driving instructor who told her to get online and get a practical test date booked.

So once home we powered up the laptop and attempted to get a practical test booked. The system feels a little backward as it asks for the date you would like before letting you choose the test centre, so suffice to say there was lots of time spent going backwards and forwards trying to find a date at the right place. Her instructor had told her that the next available test dates weren't until November but when we logged on the only date we could find free was tomorrow with nothing for the rest of the year! But as we went back and forth we could see dates randomly becoming available, which we could only assume was due to dates getting cancelled. A date in August popped up but no sooner than I had clicked on it it was gone. But scrolling through we saw a date in October so we jumped on it and thankfully this time we were able to secure the date and time...four months and counting.

This then resulted in a large chunk of time web searching looking for the best, and cheapest, car insurance out there for Molly, so that we can take her out in my car while she's learning to drive. We may have a solution but there is still some more researching to do!

Molly then had her kickboxing lesson followed by a strength and conditioning class which meant relying on Mum & Dad's taxi service...roll on her passing her driving test!! 

Take care.
xx