Friday Five!

You can get 'all-year' tyres now that are really good for many conditions.

Well, woke up to heavy snow.  Chicken coop was covered in it, very sad and confused chickens as to why they couldn't see out.

 Funny, all the country back roads were heavy in snow,but all driveable.  Came into town to go to work and it was just pure ice.  We were sliding down the hill in our Land Rover. When it's ice, a 4x4 doesn't do anything.   A lorry had jackknifed earlier too on the A9, so that made more chaos.   Still, made it to work all fine.   

I wonder if I will ever get a 'snow day' in Scotland?   I do long sometimes for a good n'easter when you can't leave the house for days.  So you bunker down all cozy, with your bread, milk, and beer and watch the snow fall. 

1. Dentist this morning
2. I must be one of the luckiest people around! Found out yesterday that my useless boss is moving on to another team, so even if I don't get the job I applied for,  I'm still RID OF HER!!!
3.  I finally joined the century and bought a George Foreman grill...totally in love with it !
4.  No plans for the weekend,  although if the weather's right I might go on the Greyhound Trust walk on Sunday and walk a homeless hound 
5.  Woke up with a brilliant earworm- 'Windfall' by the Icicle Works. When I get down to my car, I'm going to BLAST it, play air guitar and sing that mo-fo at the top of my lungs!!

Happy Friday!!!

Fantastic news Albatross!  Will that hold the moving job plans a bit?

1.  The work problems have rubbed off on me now.  It's grand.  Sigh.

2.  I leave for Florida one week from today!!!!!!!!!!

3.  One of my closest friends knew I had a tough week at work and we went for cocktails last night and she brought me daffodils.    My first daffys of the year.

4.  Big weekend planned, after the cancelled one a few weeks ago.  Sunday we see Chita Rivera (theatre nerds will be excited by this), but then we are meeting friends in the evening to play the Escape Room we had to cancel last month due to one member of the group being unwell.

5.  I wish my cat could come with us to Florida.

1. Today is an anniversary of sorts for the husband and I. 3 years since we met in person and officially started dating. Ah, memories.
2. Cat hates me because we took him to the vet last night. He’s been eating less and grooming himself excessively and yanking his hair out. Plus his nails needed trimming. She said nothing major seemed to be an issue but he has put on a kilogram since September. Kitty exercise classes it is! He is huffy with me even though husband was there too. Oh well
3. I am exhausted. Now tired but exhausted. My eyes are trying to close as I type this. I’ve been sleeping but I still feel so wiped when I get up. Also dealing with a cold and back pain doesn’t help I’m sure. Hope it’s not the flu trying to get me!
4. Fertility clinic appointment was a joke. I did get a scan though so that’s something. Referred back to gp. I just want to get pregnant.
5. My w2s are finally on the way to me from last job (US) so I can do taxes and hopefully get something back.

Now I may go nap.

Great news Albatross!

KF - How you're not already in holiday mode, I do not know! You're a stronger person than I! hahah can I sneak into your suitcase? I need some sunshine...

Kristie - Happy anniversary

My Friday 5:

1. STILL waiting on my ILR notification. Hit the 3-5 working day start of my escalation with HO yesterday. Didn't hear yesterday, probably won't hear today, might hear Monday from them... I phoned the local MP who advised I could send an email with my info and they would forward onto the HO and that "the good news is, they'll HAVE to respond. The bad news is, they have 20 working days to respond.". It'll be 2 weeks tomorrow since my appointment after I've paid Super Priority and still no word (I don't anticipate to get an email today either). My plan is to email the local MP if I don't get word by Monday afternoon as that'll be when HO have hit the point that they told me they'd reply to me AND I'll be phoning the line AGAIN.

2. Still ill....I feel better than I did at the beginning of the week in some ways but still crap in others. I just want to be able to breathe normally again...

3. Going into London this weekend. Family want to go on the London Eye so I'm going for my 5th (or maybe 6th LOL) time on the London Eye..I'm less than thrilled by it now but hoping I can convince Rik to either go in early or stay in a bit later so we can go to Camden Market afterwards for food...I'm determined to get pasta from the Cheese wheel LOL.

4. Work is still a killer. They just seem to pile more and more on with no sense of relief in sight....Already past the point of being tired of it.

5. Genuinely don't have a 5 so will just restate that it's my usual pizza friday for dinner so there's that to look forward to.

That's awesome that the useless boss is leaving for another team, Albatross!  Still, good luck in your aplication.  Having choices gives you power. 

KF, looking forward to your trip to Florida.  I'm really looking forward to it!

KoD, for a year and a half, my number 1 was the fact that my husband was coming home from his commute to Salisbury.  So if all you have for your number 5 is pizza Friday, you carry on!  Also, it goes without saying that your number 1 is absolute crap.  :/

Happy first-meeting anniversary, Kristie... get some rest and stay healthy!

My five....

1.  I have finally booked a time/date for Round 1 of the Mensa UK backgammon tournament.  On Monday afternoon, I will drive down to Swansea to meet my first round opponent for a match to 11 points.  My husband is beside himself... he's seen me play and knows I'm capable, but he also knows that I get sloppy and take stupid risks.  His frustration level is high.  "Cash prizes" are on the line!  Plus, I can tell when he's proud of me, and I want to make him proud.

2.  I finally booked an appointment at the respiratory medicine group at the hospital, and the very next day I got a letter from my GP with a pre-booked appointment at their "respiratory medicine" clinic... I phoned the GP to say thanks, but no thanks, to their "let's have a look at your inhalers, yup you're all set", and ended up with that appointment AND a GP appointment... on top of the one at the hospital.  Unnecessary! (Sorry, Tami... not trying to rub it in.)

3.  Did shopping yesterday.  Aldi was nearly empty.  Thursday afternoon, around 3pm.  That's my new favourite shopping time.  Except the shelves were rather empty, too. No egg custard tarts for us.  But I did get some nice looking fillet steaks.

4.  Oh, but I did buy something called "veggie jerky", which had a very convincing texture, but the flavour was far too sweet (it was lacking umami, but I do think that could have been fixed easily with a bit more salt in the recipe... we fixed it by putting sriracha on it). My husband and I are not vegetarians (full omnivores, really), but I'm increasingly concerned about my carbon footprint.  And my husband has stronger veggie leanings than I have.  Anyway, we are trying new things in the name of science.  I preferred the veggie jerky to the beetroot burgers we had after.

5.  My husband was off on Wednesday, which was nice (especially after his three day weekend last week), but days off in the middle of the week mean he has to work a half day on Saturday... so that means our Friday is broken.  Is it the weekend?  I don't know.   Do we do cheese platter tonight, or do we wait 'til tomorrow?  If Aldi had had the egg custard tarts, they would've solved this conundrum.   *sigh*

Albatross, great news on the boss! 
Not long until Florida KFDancer!  Does your daughter's school have any issues with her being taken out?
Kristie, sorry the fertility clinic was a joke.  You'll so learn you need to be super persistent sometimes with the NHS.
Kissofdeath, hopefully your ILR stuff comes through soon!
JFKimberly, sounds like MENSA folks are smart enough to play backgammon on a Monday afternoon, instead of working!

1.) Been a bit of a topsy turvy week in terms of my extracurricular activities as things have changed days and flopped around. So I'm confused that it's actually Friday.   

2.) One of the bands I have been playing in has switched from playing Salsa and Latin music to playing Disco and Soul, and its really fun!!

3.) My sister has applied to a job local to me in Scotland. It would be amazing if she got it. Her husband is a dual US/UK citizen (by descent) so she while she would have the usual spousal visa troubles, she wouldn't need to worry about sponsorship  He's currently a technology/computing teacher, but has a background in IT and wants to go back into IT, so he's got a few options for finding work too. 

4.) I'm volunteering to speak to S1/S2 aged girls tomorrow as part of the 'UN International Day of Women and Girls In Science'. The whole day sounds great to me, actually, speakers on robotics, nursing-clinical science, and mechanical engineering.

5.) Friend is having a house warming party tomorrow night, which should be fun. And messy. 

Oh, man... I would be really excited if my sister was looking to move near me!  It'd be amazing to have her around after all these years.  But I'll probably have to settle for visits.  She has no ties to the UK (other than me), so no way to settle here.  Good luck to your sister and BIL, Pb!

We've mostly been doing a lot of bluesy stuff (because that's where guitar starts, it seems), but we put on a disco backing track and tried to play along with it the other day... it was a whole different creature! We could not fit in with it!  It was laughable.  (And we did laugh, because even when we're playing badly, it's fun.)

Still, I'm looking forward to a couple of years from now, when the guitar has become an extension of me, and I don't have to think so much about what I want to do... I can just get an idea and express it, because I know my instrument so well.  But that's still a few years away.  I've only been playing for three-and-a-bit months. I need a few decades, really.

It's such an active Friday Five this week!

Sorry job troubles abound but it's good news you'll be losing the terrible boss Albatross. I hope the replacement is much better!

Kristie, don't give up on the fertility. With the NHS you just sometimes have to be a squeaky wheel, and it depends on your trust. You have choices, and ways to complain if needed. Keep trying

1. We aren't going to my uncle's memorial in Boston. No one could help with somewhere to stay because none of my family will temporarily give up smelly products for us to stay where they are. Without a low cost place to stay we can't swing it.

2. Finally found a competent tax advisor we can afford. Thank goodness. Even the HRMC people I spoke to couldnt help me so I understand why they're expensive but being a low income person I couldn't spend more than I earned on tax help!

3. I am struggling this week. I have allergy patch testing next week, all week, so that means I can't use my antihistamines for 8 days (starting today). But I also have a cold that keeps coming and going. It caused severe vertigo earlier in the week and that's thankfully passed. Olba's oil is my friend!

4. I think I may need to give up on trying to be a volunteer temporarily. I don't do well without structure/guidance, and trying to do things with no resources that'll need to be re-engineered just doesn't make sense to me. I suggested that a social media policy would be helpful after they retweeted some questionable things, and somehow that made me in charge of PR which I have zero experience and zero interest in. That, plus being asked to submit personal award nominations they wrote for themselves about things I hadn't worked with them on, made me really uncomfortable with the group. I need to find well organised groups that have specific needs I can help with.  *sigh*

5. I am in search of a good gluten free cut out cookie recipe. I tried one yesterday and while the cookies are super tasty, the dough was way too sticky to use cookie cutters. It may have been the difference in shortening available here, trex is way softer than the palm shortening I used in the US.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

Margo - I might've missed another post where you said who you were volunteering with but who are these people???  Also, have you tried checking out Airbnb? There are some private accomodations on there for cheaper. What are the dates that you were planning on being there? And where was the memorial service? I can try to help you find a good/easy location if you want.

Margo - I might've missed another post where you said who you were volunteering with but who are these people???  Also, have you tried checking out Airbnb? There are some private accomodations on there for cheaper. What are the dates that you were planning on being there? And where was the memorial service? I can try to help you find a good/easy location if you want.

It's in Gloucester, there was nothing affordable that would've kept us from needing to also rent a car. It's clear my family will guilt me for not being present, but make no effort to actually let me be somewhere without being sick, so I give up.

I found some folks running a group that supports people with my genetic condition about an hour away, trying to do more than the national charity does. It's good in principle, but it's quickly become very overwhelming to me and since I'm doing this remotely its hard for me to communicate that to them. The leader does a ton in addition to it, and is seemingly more focused on awards than the admin that goes with getting an organisation off the ground with a good foundation. I offered to build their website and they said oh yes, we need that, and then decided they need funding and to pay someone to do it and reassigned me to stuff I know nothing about and have no interest in, but I need references so I have been trying to be helpful.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

I am guessing they're caring about the awards, because that can draw more funding out from the woodwork
But not helpful if they're trying to give you work that isn't in your skillset and isn't something you want to do

It's in Gloucester, there was nothing affordable that would've kept us from needing to also rent a car. It's clear my family will guilt me for not being present, but make no effort to actually let me be somewhere without being sick, so I give up.

I found some folks running a group that supports people with my genetic condition about an hour away, trying to do more than the national charity does. It's good in principle, but it's quickly become very overwhelming to me and since I'm doing this remotely its hard for me to communicate that to them. The leader does a ton in addition to it, and is seemingly more focused on awards than the admin that goes with getting an organisation off the ground with a good foundation. I offered to build their website and they said oh yes, we need that, and then decided they need funding and to pay someone to do it and reassigned me to stuff I know nothing about and have no interest in, but I need references so I have been trying to be helpful.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

Ahhhh right Yeah that is in an area where everything will be pricey too (hotels and Airbnbs) and - as you said - would require rental cars I'm sorry that you have to deal with the stress of that.

That sounds like a bag of sh*t...I would just say to them "I would love to help but my strengths realllly are in the website design and not PR." Doesn't sound like they are being the most organised with their thinking if they aren't looking to utilise you for your strengths!

My Friday five...

Recovering from surgery is going well, hopefully back to work by Wednesday....

The day after surgery, came down with a rather nasty cold. So feeling run down just from getting up and showering! I hate being sick!!

Received a really nice get well card from my wife’s coworkers! What an unexpected surprise.

My wife has been off work all week to take care of me, and she’s so sick that I should be looking after her.....I think I blame her for my cold lol

Finally, about finished with my silly US tax paperwork. Guess what?! I don’t owe them and they don’t owe me....paperwork for the sake of paperwork.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

You'll be a good pirate Rick! Glad the surgery went okay!