Friday Five!

It's been a while, but here's my Friday Five:

1. Don’t think I’ve mentioned it recently, but in January I finally went on my 40th birthday trip to New Zealand and Australia (my birthday was last May, but I wanted to go to the Australian Open tennis which is in January). It was a trip 10 years in the making, and it was awesome - probably the best holiday I’ve been on in my life - and it means I have now been to all 7 continents .

2. After several months of applying for different internal promotions, I was finally successful last month and will be starting a new job in September  . The new position is based just northwest of London, so I’m finally going to be leaving Lincolnshire (something I’ve been wanting to do for years) and moving back down south.

3. The reason I won’t be starting until September is because I’m going back to the Falklands in a few weeks for a 4-month tour… but that does mean I only have 6 shifts left at my current job before I go, then it’ll be straight to the new job when I get back to the UK in September

4. Before the Falklands though, I have a trip to Italy in 2 weeks, plus a weekend away with friends, and I’m also going to see Hamilton (for the 4th time) when it comes to Bristol at the end of this month.

5. With all of the above, and the fact that my GP has increased the dosage of my antidepressant, I’m feeling happy and positive about life really for the first time in about 2.5 years 

Sounds like things are going quite well for you, KSAND.  Congrats on the new job!  I hope it goes well and you settle in quickly.

My 5 -

1) I've been cooped up in the house again due to a nor'Easter. More rain and wind than snow, but enough that I've basically hunkered down until it's over. Which, if the sun peeping in my window this afternoon is not a trap to get me to step out so it can rain on me again, seems to be the case.  I have cabin fever so bad it's not even funny. I have cleaned the kitchen. I did a nuke-out of the refrig and freezer. I have baked bread and scones. I have vacuumed the whole house. I did all the laundry. I've tidied up my usually messy closet.  I ~really~  want to be able to take a walk outside without coming home with pneumonia from the cold and damp and wind!

2) I got the fence redone in the garden last weekend, which was good. I was somewhat surprised to see where the voles had been tunneling under it rather than just squeezing through the openings in the chicken-wire.  Still, now that I know what they're doing, it was possible to bury it deep enough that they'll really have to work to get in there - hopefully they'll just give up and head to a neighbor's plot instead.      Now it's just a matter of it stopping raining/snowing/freezing long enough for me to go mark out the new beds so that when the soil drys out enough I can fork them over. (I'm redoing the plan from last year's.)  I planted quite a few tomato seeds and am somewhat surprised at how few have come up. (Under the grow lights in the kitchen.) I've replanted the peppers that also didn't come up and moved their tray to a heating mat. It's not unreasonably cool where the plants/seed pots are, so I'm not sure what's going on this year. I have time, though. Last frost date is May 15. Needless to say, I've drafted up and thrown away several versions  of what I'm going to plant and where it'll go this last week.

3) We had an earthquake today. A 10-20 second roller. Thought I was losing my mind for a second - was on the couch when everything started lurching. (We're on the 2nd floor of a wood-framed building, and it is anything but rigid!) Plant lights were swinging pretty good, the fish tank was sloshing, and all the pictures on my walls were rattling and promptly went out-of-plumb. Thankfully none of the jars in the pantry fell off the shelves. They say it was a 4.8 down in NJ.  ~THAT~ was not something I was expecting, here!

4) Still doing battle with Royal Bank of Scotland. Over 36 pence. Another letter sent. Another complaint form filed. A "get status of previous complaint" form filed. Oy. 

5) I broke down, finally, and bought myself a microwave oven. Had pretty much stopped eating proper meals as it has been too much of a faff to cook a full meal just for myself. So now I can cook a larger meal and portion it out, and just pop it in the microwave for supper. Popcorn is a lot easier, too! Can now make popcorn on Monday and watch all the tourists who come up to see the eclipse when they find out there's not going to be enough gas at the local gas station(s) to get them home again. [My bad.]

It's been a while, but here's my Friday Five:

1. Don’t think I’ve mentioned it recently, but in January I finally went on my 40th birthday trip to New Zealand and Australia (my birthday was last May, but I wanted to go to the Australian Open tennis which is in January). It was a trip 10 years in the making, and it was awesome - probably the best holiday I’ve been on in my life - and it means I have now been to all 7 continents .

2. After several months of applying for different internal promotions, I was finally successful last month and will be starting a new job in September  . The new position is based just northwest of London, so I’m finally going to be leaving Lincolnshire (something I’ve been wanting to do for years) and moving back down south.

3. The reason I won’t be starting until September is because I’m going back to the Falklands in a few weeks for a 4-month tour… but that does mean I only have 6 shifts left at my current job before I go, then it’ll be straight to the new job when I get back to the UK in September

4. Before the Falklands though, I have a trip to Italy in 2 weeks, plus a weekend away with friends, and I’m also going to see Hamilton (for the 4th time) when it comes to Bristol at the end of this month.

5. With all of the above, and the fact that my GP has increased the dosage of my antidepressant, I’m feeling happy and positive about life really for the first time in about 2.5 years 

Glad you’re feeling better ksand.  Good luck with it all. 

It's been a while, but here's my Friday Five:

1. Don’t think I’ve mentioned it recently, but in January I finally went on my 40th birthday trip to New Zealand and Australia (my birthday was last May, but I wanted to go to the Australian Open tennis which is in January). It was a trip 10 years in the making, and it was awesome - probably the best holiday I’ve been on in my life - and it means I have now been to all 7 continents .

2. After several months of applying for different internal promotions, I was finally successful last month and will be starting a new job in September  . The new position is based just northwest of London, so I’m finally going to be leaving Lincolnshire (something I’ve been wanting to do for years) and moving back down south.

3. The reason I won’t be starting until September is because I’m going back to the Falklands in a few weeks for a 4-month tour… but that does mean I only have 6 shifts left at my current job before I go, then it’ll be straight to the new job when I get back to the UK in September

4. Before the Falklands though, I have a trip to Italy in 2 weeks, plus a weekend away with friends, and I’m also going to see Hamilton (for the 4th time) when it comes to Bristol at the end of this month.

5. With all of the above, and the fact that my GP has increased the dosage of my antidepressant, I’m feeling happy and positive about life really for the first time in about 2.5 years 

Outstanding!


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ksand24, what a great Friday 5!

Happy Friday folks!

1.) First weekend in like 10 weeks that I have free.  Gardening beckons if the weather holds up.

2.) Chicken souvlaki for dinner 

3.) Have a Scottish Heavy beer to bottle up this weekend 

4.) Work is a big ole bag of poop.  Not sure if it will get better and not sure what to do.

5.) We hit 16.5C in the garden today. Nae bad for the Scottish Highlands in April! 

Sounds like Scotland is lovely this week! Sorry to hear work is a crock. I have had so many jobs like that - and I don't miss any of them. 

1) It might as well be Scotland here. It's been overcast and raining all week. I have spent a lot of time looking out the window at it raining.
2) I did spend all morning yesterday scrubbing the bird poop (fizzy drinking water dissolves it right off) off my balcony, then hit the surfaces with a disinfectant, took the winter covers off the furniture, and set the all-weather rugs out so it's now usable space. Once it stops raining. The birds were very ... prolific... over the winter. That was rather amazing.
3) I did venture out, earlier in the week (Tuesday?), and walked up to the Chinese restaurant. Brought home a quart of wonton soup and a package of garlic beef w/rice. Have had that for supper every day this week and it's now gone, so I'm going to have to actually cook something today! Maybe fish-and-chips.
4) I'm supposed to take a soil sample from the garden to have it tested tomorrow. It has to be dry. It has been raining all week. I guess if there's a break in the weather in the morning I'll go get some, then bring it home and put it in the food dehydrator for a bit.... or just pass on getting to have a free soil analysis this year.
5) I am scheduled to pick up my raspberry bushes at ag extension on Friday. They are for both the berries (they are summer-bearing) and to help with a bit of erosion in the garden. Were a steal at 5 bushes for $10!

Don't have a good five for this Friday. Picked up my berry bushes, the food dehydrator worked on the soil sample (pH 7.0 on the nose),  spent a lot of time digging and fiddling around in the garden all week when it wasn't raining. Otherwise stoking on naproxen and trying to move very slowly so as to not aggravate anything I'd already annoyed doing all the bending and shoveling.  When I picked up my berry bushes from the ag extension they gave me a bag of about two dozen Floristan White Blazing Star flower bulbs at no charge. They are perennial and the bees should love them, so that was a nice surprise!   

Hope you folks have a good weekend.

It seems to be Friday again. I don't know where the days went....

1) Daughter is coming home in a couple of months. The finances just don't work for her out there - it's too expensive to live in California on what they are paying her, and the landlord just gave notice that she wants the flat back (it's a granny flat, and granny is moving into it). So in a few months I'll be doing another epic cross-country drive. Only this time slower, and we'll be stopping to play tourist more often. We're going to try to get to Mesa Verde, Roswell (it's on the way), Carlsbad Caverns, Cahokia Mounds, the George Washington Carver Museum, and Gettysburg in on this trip, if we can, at least. Not driving more than six hours a day this time (fingers are crossed on that). Except the one day we are going to do a dash to get all the way across Oklahoma. That'll take a good 9 hours, but the road is good all the way. I just wish it wasn't in the dead of summer. We'll have to get up really early and travel before dawn as much as we can, to beat the heat.

2) My Peonies have finally come up. It froze overnight the last several nights, but I had put bin bags over them and they seem fine. It appears that we are about done with the freezing weather now. (Tempting fate, I know.) The potatoes are planted, the onions and garlic are doing fine, and I need to plant the leeks soon.

3) Some genius has decided to re-release movies from the 90s and 00s in the theatres. I have a ticket to see "The Mummy" (Brendan Frazier) tomorrow and one to see the extended version of "The Fellowship of the Ring" in June.  Not sure I'll go to the other two LOTR movies (on subsequent evenings), but I think the Fellowship is the best of the three anyway.  So Saturday afternoon at the movies again, even if I have to wear a good mask.  I have really missed the movies. The tickets are selling very well. I have the movies on DVD, but they are really made for a big screen experience.  Actually, I can probably quote all the lines in "The Fellowship" as they're saying them, I've seen it so many times.

4) The solitary bees have hatched from our solitary bee house out on our balcony, and are happily doing what solitary bees do. It looks very much like they are planning for more bees. Apparently they don't go more than 300 yards from where they've hatched, so I guess I'll go get some flower plants at the nursery for them.

5) It's beautiful outside. Maybe 60F (15.5C) with blue skies. All the trees are blooming (cue the Loratadine), and some of the flowers are just starting to come up. It's so nice to have been able to take the plastic sheeting off the windows for the year and open up the house a bit to get the stale air out.


Hope all is well on your side of the pond.

It's been pretty cold here Nan! I'm sorry things aren't working out for your daughter, I hope she's able to find an opportunity closer to you in NY.

I haven't done one of these in quite a while, but here goes:

1. This year has been a lot of waiting and feeling like life is on hold due to external factors. Finally got my migraines managed after 8 months of barely functioning (thank you brand new drugs) but now my feet hurt too much to drive. Have to find my way to Oxford next week for tests to hopefully get some answers on that.

2. Once we move, at least I'll be able to get a driving assessment for hand controls and we can add those to the current car. The waiting list locally is over 5 months, costs hundreds, and is still 45 minutes away. In the new city my GP can refer for it with a much shorter waitlist.

3. House buying here is ridiculously slow and so nerve wracking! I hate it and can't wait for it to be done. Then we'll have 2 months overlap to do the redecorating and bits of needed maintenance & pack up here.

4. I learned how to change my wheelchair tires this week. T-handle hex wrenches are essential for that, and I didn't even know they existed before last week.

5. We rented the new Dune and it was awesome to have a movie date night at home.

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Hi 'nuther.   Glad you are going to get to drive again. There is a feeling of freedom one has when they can just go when/where they want and not have to wait on public travel. Also good on you for learning to change the tire. That will come in handy, no doubt! Hope you get into your house soon. Yeah, while we were there I was watching the house-buying process and it (along with the mortgage stuff) seemed like watching grass grow or paint drying on a wall! 

Glad you enjoyed the Dune. I haven't decided if I'm going to watch it or not - I remember the old one not being too entertaining.  The Mummy was fabulous on the big screen - with a really good sound system. I've seen it so many times I know it almost by heart (it was one of the Daughter's favorites, back in the day), but this time I was paying a lot more attention to the audio effects - all the hidden whispering, trigger words just barely audible, etc.  Very good sound design on that movie!  There were maybe 20 people in the theatre for the showing I went to (picked that one on purpose for the lack of audience), including a granny with a handful of early teens who had never seen the movie.  (They REALLY were enjoying it. That was fun to watch, too.)  A lady two seats over and one row down towards the screen had the biggest tub of popcorn I've ever seen. She must have like sold a kidney on the black market to afford that!  They are doing The Wizard of Oz (Judy Garland) in a few weeks and I'm going to do the same thing - but this time pick a weekday showing in early afternoon. There won't be nearly as many people in there as there would be for an evening show.  Some movies you just have to see on the big screen to get the true effect. (Like Ben Hur. The chariot race isn't the same without being 65mm in Panavision!).

Things will work out for the Daughter. I could co-sign on an apartment for her, but that would lock her (and me) into a year's lease.  Her contract is up at the end of August, and although they are talking about her being there "next year" she'd be in the same situation - barely getting by, no money to put into savings, no car (not great in Southern California), etc. And if they did decide to lay her off, unemployment wouldn't even cover half the rent, so.... Best she comes home and finds something locally for a while, to save up cash for a car and to have the necessary buffer in the bank.  They are supposedly desperate for people to work for the State, so we'll see how badly they want employees. It could also be that her current employer lets her go back to working remotely, as she did for the first three months of her current contract, from up here. That worked out well.  We'll see. My granny used to say that things eventually always work out for the best.

Happy Friday!

1.) Been a week

2.) 23C and sunny this weekend. Whoop! 

3.) Packing up a few beers for competition 

4.) Got a new waffle maker. Exciting! 

5.) Gonna make some Mexican food tonight 

It has, indeed, been a week.

1) Rain again. Good for the garden in some ways (the seeds should love it). Bad for the garden in others (spots I need to transplant things into are too soggy to work). When I went out to bury the rest of the chickenwire fencing around one space on Monday I found the ditch I'd dug for it was full of about 8 inches of water. I just filled the soil back in and the drainage resumed through the drainage channels as before. So that tells me there's a lot of water moving down that slope at a foot-and-a-half below the surface!

2) Booked my flight to go get the daughter later this summer at a good rate. For once I don't have to be at the airport at 4:30 in the morning! Spent a lot of time booking hotels for the trip back and managed to use one of the chain's websites to get 30% off the cost of the SUV I am renting to get her home. Saves us a ton of money, that! Got places booked for half the trip (all the way from the West Coast to Texas) and am flying blind now. Don't know much about east of the Mississippi, as in where to stay and where to avoid. Probably will use Motel 6. They are clean, cheap, and you can cancel the reservation up to 6pm on the day of arrival at no penalty, in case we get delayed or take a detour. I don't mind rubbing shoulders with the working class (who frequent that chain), and they'll allow the Guinea Pig in the room at no charge. We only need to sleep there - arriving early evenings, leaving early mornings.

3) Spent hours yesterday looking for my pet snail, Gary. Pretty much dismantled the aquarium. Found him on the underside of the lid, sleeping tucked up into his shell, eventually.    I had the lid off for some time as I was changing his water and cleaning the tank, which is what started the "where's Gary?!" panic. [Sigh]

4) I am off to a plant sale. They have some that I've been coveting, and will stop at the Mexican grocery store on the way home. They have a little cafe in there, so that may be lunch/supper tonight.

5) There's supposed to be a very good chance of an aurora show tonight here. I hope it's not cloudy, and that you folks have a shot at seeing it too. They are saying it could be visible as far south here as northern Alabama. Several X class solar flares in a row. Not quite a Carrington event, but very strong.

It has, indeed, been a week.



5) There's supposed to be a very good chance of an aurora show tonight here. I hope it's not cloudy, and that you folks have a shot at seeing it too. They are saying it could be visible as far south here as northern Alabama. Several X class solar flares in a row. Not quite a Carrington event, but very strong.

Did you manage to catch them? I've had weather induced migraines continue even on my new meds, and somehow that solar storm also set off one of the worst of the last 6 months so I couldn't even open my eyes without being dizzy. I told my husband to go out and look, but he ignored me, and then regretted it. We tried on Saturday night but it was over by then. Once we are in N Wales there should be a few more opportunities to see them and less light pollution, but he agreed a trip to Finland or Iceland is needed.

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I did.  We had some high clouds, but they turned a brilliant and then a muddy green in the north, and directly overhead I had pinks and magentas. It was really cool. Didn't see the "dancing ribbon" effect, but it was a once-in-a-lifetime anyway. I had always wanted to see them and was so bummed out in Scotland as whenever they were due it promptly clouded up and rained buckets.    Apparently they were seeing the first round of auroras as far south as California, Nevada, and Florida!

Sorry to hear about your migraines. Those are the worst kind of headaches. People who have never had a migraine don't usually understand how disabling they can be They run in my family (my dad's side, and lucky me). There's nothing to do but curl up in a ball in a dark, quiet room - which hopefully is on the cool side - and wait it out. When you're not hurling your toenails up into the loo, of course.   I had them for years. Now I just have the aura. Ever since the Kiddo was born, it's just the aura. Sometimes it impacts just my vision, sometimes my speech centers (I had a co-worker who thought I was having a stroke, once), sometimes my balance.  But all are way better than that pain used to be.

I did.  We had some high clouds, but they turned a brilliant and then a muddy green in the north, and directly overhead I had pinks and magentas. It was really cool. Didn't see the "dancing ribbon" effect, but it was a once-in-a-lifetime anyway. I had always wanted to see them and was so bummed out in Scotland as whenever they were due it promptly clouded up and rained buckets.    Apparently they were seeing the first round of auroras as far south as California, Nevada, and Florida!

Sorry to hear about your migraines. Those are the worst kind of headaches. People who have never had a migraine don't usually understand how disabling they can be They run in my family (my dad's side, and lucky me). There's nothing to do but curl up in a ball in a dark, quiet room - which hopefully is on the cool side - and wait it out. When you're not hurling your toenails up into the loo, of course.   I had them for years. Now I just have the aura. Ever since the Kiddo was born, it's just the aura. Sometimes it impacts just my vision, sometimes my speech centers (I had a co-worker who thought I was having a stroke, once), sometimes my balance.  But all are way better than that pain used to be.

Thankfully new meds have stopped the aura. I had it near constantly for about 8 months, with the pain at least 4x a week while waiting to see neurology because I'd already failed all the meds my GP could prescribe. I couldn't drive and could barely leave the house, it was awful.

Very glad you caught them. I remember seeing the dancing ribbons as a kid, it was unexpected and awesome.

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