Friday Five!

Awww, everyone is all over the world having fun!  PB, I think I'd prefer NOT having dinner with my boss every night.     Though shame you can't use this time to get him/her on your side a bit more.

Have fun in Bruges XoD.  We went there between Christmas and New Years.  Great city, RUDE people.  Hopefully they are friendlier this time of year.   

It's Friday!!!  Full sun and in the 20's here!

1.  Went to Ascot yesterday.  Had been a few years since I had been.  Wore the same thing I wore 3 years ago.  Though I did upgrade my hat by gluing some crystals to it.  LOL!  I left with more money in my purse than I had going in, so was a good day for me and the ponies!  Was a "last hurrah" with a friend who has become very dear to me.  I "met" her 4 years ago on Facebook when she and another girl on our local FB group said they were American.  I then sent them a PM saying, "This is really weird, but I'm also American.... umm, do you guys want to come over for Thanksgiving?"  And they said yes!  One moved on to another assignment a couple of years ago, but we've remained good friends.  Sadly, the other moves back in a couple of weeks.  Boooo...   But we are sending her off on a high note!

2.  Went to the 4-year-old's school on Tuesday night.  I can't believe she starts school in September. 

3.  Said school is having their summer fete tomorrow.  We are going to go so kiddo can get a feel of the school.

4.  My feet and legs HURT from walking around in heels all day yesterday.  Like I'm wearing trainers today hurt.  I feel like I spent the day at a boot camp!

5.  Starvation diet still going well.  Yesterday, while everyone ate pizza and Mac & Cheese around me, I ate healthy stuff.  I did drink like a fish though.     Down 6 pounds based on Monday's "official" weigh in.  I hope it's another loss this week (week 2 which according to the Biggest Loser is the hardest week for your body to drop weight). 

1.  finishing up at work today for 2 weeks annual leave... WOOHOOO!!
2.  Plans so far include hairdresser, doctor, dentist and practising corn tortillas with my tortilla press... I ordered 2 bottles of Herdez avocado & chilli sauce yesterday and I intend to make a mountain of taquitos!
3.  Some guy brought in 2 huge boxes of Greggs doughnuts this morning... thank goodness I am a Greggs-hater! 
4.  Filled a bunch of ice lolly moulds with Broadoak Perry last night, so will try one when I get home.
5.  My friend gets home from California today, hopefully with some Hidden Valley Ranch powder for me!

Awww, everyone is all over the world having fun!  PB, I think I'd prefer NOT having dinner with my boss every night.     Though shame you can't use this time to get him/her on your side a bit more.

Have fun in Bruges XoD.  We went there between Christmas and New Years.  Great city, RUDE people.  Hopefully they are friendlier this time of year.   

It's Friday!!!  Full sun and in the 20's here!

1.  Went to Ascot yesterday.  Had been a few years since I had been.  Wore the same thing I wore 3 years ago.  Though I did upgrade my hat by gluing some crystals to it.  LOL!  I left with more money in my purse than I had going in, so was a good day for me and the ponies!  Was a "last hurrah" with a friend who has become very dear to me.  I "met" her 4 years ago on Facebook when she and another girl on our local FB group said they were American.  I then sent them a PM saying, "This is really weird, but I'm also American.... umm, do you guys want to come over for Thanksgiving?"  And they said yes!  One moved on to another assignment a couple of years ago, but we've remained good friends.  Sadly, the other moves back in a couple of weeks.  Boooo...   But we are sending her off on a high note!

So gutted she’s leaving!

The people here have been fine so far! (Fingers crosses I didn’t just jinx that lol)


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(Fingers crosses I didn’t just jinx that lol)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

BWAHAHAHA!  You'll have to report back!

Wow, KF, you called it... everybody is scattered all over the globe.  Loved your Ascot photos!  XoD's, too!  I'm convinced that Ascot is something I will do at least once, just to get the full British experience.

PB, did you get a free holiday in China?  I mean, I know you didn't want to go and you miss your comfy home life, but the boss is leaving you be... I could make the most of that if I had to. 

Albatross, I look forward to your tortilla adventures report.  I hope your taquitos are amazing!

My five:
1. Like KF, I too have full sun and high temps.  Rumours around here are that we can expect 10 days of this (it started yesterday, and I'm a bit sunburned already... yay!).

2.  The dice have turned in the 2018 Backgammon Championship, and I'm clawing my way back from the pit of despair.  My husband is getting increasingly frustrated with the frequency that I roll doubles just when I need it most, stealing what should have been his win from him.

3.  One time last year, I shook my dice and said, "Come on, double-sixes... it's your time to shine!" as I threw them onto the board.  They landed on double-sixes.  My husband still hasn't forgiven me or my dice.

4. We were moaning about our poor internets speed again last week and considering getting a wifi antenna thing to do mobile broadband and I suggested we could look into a government scheme to offset the cost of the equipment... and in the process of looking for that, we learned that we can get fiber to the premises (!!!).  They're supposed to be running the fiber to our house this week, and an engineer will be around on July 2nd to install our equipment and get that going for us.  Oh my gawd, you guys... 300Mbps down, and some ridiculous speed up!  When my husband learned we could get FTTP, he went nuts and chose the fastest speed package they offer.  We're at 4.6Mbps down and 0.6Mbps up at the moment, and that's what we can get on the best of days.  I really don't think we would've felt disappointed on 50Mbps down after what we've been living with, but whatever... we're getting 300!

5. I canceled my Delivery Saver on Wednesday.  Tesco wanted to know why I was canceling, so I told them.  Then I got email from Tesco saying they were processing the refund for the missing item, and they were issuing a £5 "gesture card" to make it up to me.  But it took almost a week for them to get there.  Over a packet of sausages.  I'm out.  (It helps that I have a car, now, so I can 'afford' to say I'm out.)

I guess the sad thing about people on work visas is they often eventually return home I'll miss her even though we just met! At least she is most definitely helping us set up our home here with the downsizing.

1. It's a music "friend"s 40th this weekend and he's decided to do a private event for all the people who have supported him or his music, waffled with through the years on message boards etc. It'll be a lot of fun, and we have a hotel nearby so I can leave and sleep whenever needed (I can't do an all nighter anymore!)

2. Since that's in Milton Keynes we are also going to the computer museum at Bletchley Park.

3. Excited to be getting a grill next weekend. I've missed having one!

4. One more week of my old job. They are railroading through a massive process and system change so my last 2 weeks have been devoted to that rather than transferring knowledge, which seems to match pretty much how things have gone since I started!

5. We realised last night my kitty is about 5 years old now. Her newest "thing" is right after we turn out the light, running downstairs to grab a toy, running back up and dropping it at our feet and squeaking. Thankfully she stops if we hide it, and curls up in her spot at the foot of the bed. We got lucky with her since she's agreeable most of the time and not too wild at night!

Wow, I'm very jealous of your upcoming internet speeds JF!!!

Margo, my boy is 17.5 and every night he brings all the toys he can find and drops them all over me.  Makes me feel very very loved!!!   

Aww, Margo, your kitty sounds so sweet!  Yours, too, KF!  I love when cats are all, "I brought this for you..." (even if it is something that I would've preferred to let live in the wild).  It's just so awesome that they want to bring gifts to their people.

Wow, I'm very jealous of your upcoming internet speeds JF!!!

I almost feel like I'm talking about a pregnancy in the first trimester, or something.  The nice woman on the phone said it's coming, but my husband and I are excited but bordering on skeptical, after being told no for years... But she was BT (I phoned her!), and she said engineers would be out next week to get the fiber to our house, and the following Monday one would come out to get it activated.... we're cautiously optimistic.  Eeeeeee!  I hope I hope I hope.

My husband has already picked out the new powerful router we're going to use... I think it's the Asus AC5300.  Our entire property is going to be covered.  Ultrafast Workshop, here I come!

Aww, Margo, your kitty sounds so sweet!  Yours, too, KF!  I love when cats are all, "I brought this for you..." (even if it is something that I would've preferred to let live in the wild).  It's just so awesome that they want to bring gifts to their people.

I almost feel like I'm talking about a pregnancy in the first trimester, or something.  The nice woman on the phone said it's coming, but my husband and I are excited but bordering on skeptical, after being told no for years... But she was BT (I phoned her!), and she said engineers would be out next week to get the fiber to our house, and the following Monday one would come out to get it activated.... we're cautiously optimistic.  Eeeeeee!  I hope I hope I hope.

My husband has already picked out the new powerful router we're going to use... I think it's the Asus AC5300.  Our entire property is going to be covered.  Ultrafast Workshop, here I come!

Fast Internet is worthy of the excitement. I literally checked providers before we picked our house I have my fingers crossed everything goes smoothly with the install!

Fast Internet is worthy of the excitement. I literally checked providers before we picked our house I have my fingers crossed everything goes smoothly with the install!

Thanks, Margo!  Every time we try to stream a show and we get the spinning circle of interruption now, we get excited about all over again about the hope of ultrafast.  I really really hope this works out.

Nobody has murdered anybody else yet so I consider that a great success! Hahah we took them to Stratford-Upon-Avon (which was lovely) and Brighton....and now Brussels! Lol






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Now that's a beer! 

Now that's a beer! 

That was a medium! I could’ve gotten a large!


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4. We were moaning about our poor internets speed again last week and considering getting a wifi antenna thing to do mobile broadband and I suggested we could look into a government scheme to offset the cost of the equipment... and in the process of looking for that, we learned that we can get fiber to the premises (!!!).  They're supposed to be running the fiber to our house this week, and an engineer will be around on July 2nd to install our equipment and get that going for us.  Oh my gawd, you guys... 300Mbps down, and some ridiculous speed up!  When my husband learned we could get FTTP, he went nuts and chose the fastest speed package they offer.  We're at 4.6Mbps down and 0.6Mbps up at the moment, and that's what we can get on the best of days.  I really don't think we would've felt disappointed on 50Mbps down after what we've been living with, but whatever... we're getting 300!

That's just fantastic news!  Your patience has been rewarded! 

That was a medium! I could’ve gotten a large!


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Next time! 

Friday again? I keep losing weeks here...

1) Ok, bank fiasco with Ireland. Have just gotten back from walking to RBS who were not at all helpful last time with trying to get an account set up with Ulsterbank. This time they were very helpful, stamped what needed stamping, and are sending the application via their internal mail for me. Color me much happier.    On the down side, I was just looking through the photocopies of the application I have here and realized I forgot to list my student loans and their sixty-seven euro payment per month. (OOOPSO!)  Hope that doesn't shoot the application down.  Am considering contacting them when I receive any sort of indication they have the application to update it. (Not wanting to commit "fraud" or anything.)

2) Daughter was so excited all week - she had an interview for the perfect part-time job on Wednesday. They called her back on Thursday and she met the owners. The job would have started on Monday. Today she got the call that they picked someone else who had more "receptionist" experience.

3) Switched energy providers to Our Power for a very good value in terms of cost. Customer service is ~horrible~. And now my smart meter display shows me electric, but not gas, so I have to move everything out of the meter closet and get on my hands and knees to read the meter. Which is ok, once a month, but I can't reach anyone at Our Power to ask if that's what's supposed to be happening or not, and if they are able to read my smart meter at all.  Emails are unanswered from a month ago. They have no online presence, for any realistic intent. But they did have that good rate that helps support people in "energy poverty" here in Scotland so they will not go without in the winters and all, so I'm hoping we can stay with them. I can put up with a lot, but they had better not screw up that first bill or I'm outa-there.

4) They UK government took my money and sent me the paperwork to get my driver's license. So I have to go get a photo made again and get someone to vouch for me on the form. And send my newly-arrived Irish passport back to the UK government again. So it'll be gone for another month, at least. At least I don't need it right away for the Daughter's citizenship application. Which we have to start over because Ireland changed the forms on 1 June and won't take the forms we'd completed but were waiting for the Irish bank draft for - including the trips to the JP to witness it, having people sign as character witnesses (some living in the USA), having documents certified, photos taken and witnessed. Etc. Everything has to start over, because the form has changed and all the documents have to be stamped within 30 days of the application. Nothing I can do about that....

5) My California Income Tax check that I mailed to BofA 15 days ago does not show up in the US Postal Mail tracking system. Last track is on 12 June being handed over by Royal Mail, on Royal Mail's website. (Uh oh.)  If nothing is online in two weeks I'll have to contact CAFTB for a re-issue, I think. Which will take months and months. I did insure it with Royal Mail, but I don't know how they handle lost checks for insurance purposes.

BUT it's Friday. And on Monday there will be Hammer horror films on the tv, and I'll order in a pizza and watch 'em!