Busy weekend

I have tried to photograph the cats but they either ran away or headbutt my phone so I gave up.

Saturday morning I went to get two new tyres for my car, ouch, £211, ouch ouch.

Whilst they were being fitted I walked to Ds's house to feed the cats then walked back to collect my car. I then filled the car with petrol and stopped at the bakers to buy some soft rolls for lunch.

I returned home and cleaned the boat then we went shopping to restock the fridge and freezer. I spend twice as much when CHS comes with me but he always pays the bill so it doesn't matter.

At 5 I returned to Ds's to feed the cats for the final time. From there I went to dd2's and babysat, I refereed the children for a couple of hours until they went to bed I was there until midnight. While I was there dd1 phoned to ask if I could babysit for her at lunch time today.

Despite not getting to bed until 1ish  I was up before 7, we wanted to watch the Malaysian Grand Prix.

At 10:30 I set off for dd1's where I wrangled children until 2:30. I returned home and cooked Sunday lunch but with lamb steaks instead of a joint.  Dd1's OH had made a delicious chocolate cake (he is a chef) he gave me a couple of slices to bring home, we had it for pudding.

I'm now sitting in front on my stove and I'll go to bed early tonight.

Hobby

So this week I am practising the art of cat herding.
It is not for the faint of heart!

My son and his gf have gone on holiday for a week and asked me if I would feed their cats for them.

They have three, a blue point Korat called Ellie, a huge and very nervous ginger tom called Koshka and the newest member a Bengal called Polly. They are all rescue cats, all very friendly without a scrap of malice between them.

The only problem is that the newest family member, the Bengal is terribly greedy, probably because she has been hungry in the past.

The first morning I went round Polly was waiting at the door for me despite it being just after 6am.

I put three bowls of food down on the kitchen floor but by the time the other two cats had made it into the kitchen Polly had cleared all three bowls of food.

I have now worked out a system where I feed Polly first, then let her out in the garden and then put food down for the other two cats.

Once they leave their food all bets are off and Polly clears the other bowls.

There is a large bowl of dry food available but Polly seems disinterested in this.

Once they have all eaten they all come for cuddles, apart from Koshka, he stands on the stairs with his back to me mewing pitifully until I go to him and stroke him.

A low spend week ahead.

Thanks for all the reassurance and suggestions, I'm sure it will be fine, I'm just getting panicky as retirement draws near.

I won't be getting a lie in though in the mornings as I will still be taking CHS to work.

I've checked the freezer and made a meal plan for next week. We have roast chicken tomorrow then in no particular order spaghetti Bolognese, chicken curry, pork steak, sausage and mash and then steak and chips on Friday. I have all this in the fridge and freezer so I don't need much shopping. I shall make double portions of the spaghetti, curry and sausage and mash and they will do for our lunches, we will have cheese sarnies a couple of times as I have bread and cheese in too.

I need to make some sausage rolls and chocolate brownies for our Macmillan fund raiser at work so I'll need to buy some ingredients for those.

Once it gets really cold and we have the stove on all the time I'm planning on using the top to cook my morning porridge over night and cooking some one pot meals on it to save on gas. I already keep the kettle on it so it shortens the boil time for our morning cuppa.

What am I going to do?

This time next month I'll be a lady of leisure.
I'm really not sure how I will fill my days.
I have a few hours paid work each week, but only a few.
I shall not be able to afford to be a lady wot lunches.
I'm not a fan of TV and even if I was the signal is sporadic, sometimes BBC 2 is the only watchable channel.
I've arranged to have Dgd 3 on a Thursday morning for a couple of hours and once a fortnight I shall go to the laundrette to wash the bedding and big towels. 
I change the bedding weekly but it will take 2 weeks worth to fill a machine.
I will still wash and dry clothing on the boat.
So what else will I do, I will have to wait and see what turns up.

More spending

The new shower has finally been fitted in the house, much to my tenants joy. £320 for shower and fitting.
£80 to have the boiler serviced.

We have received our new bus passes, they last until 2021 so that is a small saving.

Spending money

Despite stocking up last week when we finally got a working fridgefreezer, I still spent nearly £40 today on food for next week, much more than I should for just the two of us, but less than I've been spending whilst shopping every other day.

I bought a small piece of lamb for Sunday lunch, I shall turn the leftovers into a casserole.

I also bought some 2 chicken pieces, 2  burgers, 4 potatoes, broccoli, and cabbage, I have mushrooms and onions left from last week. I forgot to buy carrots but I'll get them on Monday. We ate the burgers today in soft rolls.

The plan is to make some portions of lamb casserole and chicken curry for CHS to take to work next week. He's working until 10pm each night so he'd prefer to eat at work.

I will make a vegetarian curry for my lunches next week and use up some of the tins from the cupboard.

More downs than ups

It's been a week of ups and downs.

Work is busy, I knew it would be, some people are really worried about me leaving, they are not sure how they will cope.

We have the usual intake of new students and staff, one brand new year 7 managed to get sanctioned on his very first day! It doesn't bode well for the rest of his time at school.

Some of the new staff are nice, one even commented on how nice and calm it was in my department as his previous experiences had left him expecting chaos and bad temper. Some are less so, especially the trainees who think the term 'support staff' means servant.

CHS was told on Thursday that he was expected to extend his shift today, he refused, we have plans.

We are expected to change our plans at the drop of a hat even though those higher up the food chain have known about this for almost 3 weeks.

We are both annoyed at the lack of notice, a colleague suggested it was just an oversight that more notice was not given.

I replied that once, maybe twice could be seen as an oversight, but that as no reasonable notice is ever provided, it is an insult. The support staff are not seen as being valuable enough to have their plans and arrangements taken into consideration.