Tragedy and good things

Thank you for comments.  The 'accident' on the motorway appears not to have been a traffic accident, rumour is that it was somebody (a pedestrian) jumping in front of a lorry.  How horrible.  I thought it odd that there were no mangled vehicles when we were finally allowed to drive past 3 hours later, just the 2 lanes and hard shoulder all coned off and little numbered markers placed everywhere, with lots of police milling around.  There was a lorry on the hard shoulder, with the driver sitting on the barrier looking shell shocked - as he would even 3 hours later if someone had indeed thrown themselves in front of his lorry.  Poor man.  My husband had a middle aged man throw himself in front of the bus husband was driving many years ago...fortunately, he managed to stop in time.  He jumped off the bus, dragged the man out of the road and gave him a tongue lashing for putting a busload of passengers at risk.  The man was apparently startled enough to apologise and walk away...Husband still remembers it vividly 40 years later.

Sleep no better, still up in the (very) early hours, I'm sure it will sort itself out soon.  

All my books have now been sorted, with another 2 boxfuls parcelled up to go to Zapper - Ziffit didn't want them!  I have left just a dozen or so I really want to keep, plus another few that even Zapper didn't want that will go to the charity shop.  3 bags of clothes will also be going to the charity shop today.  I'll start on kitchen equipment and crockery next, we have loads collected over the years that we no longer use.  Decluttering is very freeing and strangely addictive!

I continue to lose weight, 1 stone 3 lbs so far.  I now have a 'thigh gap'!  Not had that for years, always had fat inner thighs rubbing together before.  Oh, and whilst sorting clothes, I found 2 pairs of Next jeans, brand new with tags still attached...I'd bought them I think a couple of years ago, they didn't fit, rather than taking them back I obviously kept them thinking oh I'll slim into them.  Ha, they got thrown into the spare room wardrobe and forgotten about.  Well, now they do fit!  So I have 2 lovely new pairs of jeans that I haven't had to buy (ok, so I did buy them originally!).

Raining today, and rain forecast pretty much every day for at least the next week.  Autumn is well and truly here....And it's October tomorrow, hasn't this year positively galloped by, and it's not as if we've even done anything, life has pretty much been on hold for all of us.

One of those nights

Thanks for your comments, the car's all fixed now, and wasn't eye wateringly expensive either.  Well, I say all fixed...the engine stuff is, there's an engineer coming today to change the passenger airbag, the safety recall thing I think I mentioned.

We went to Devon yesterday morning to meet up with someone, our planned thing from last week that had to be postponed when the car broke down.  All good, except that on the way home traffic came to a standstill just after we'd got on the motorway, we were stuck there for 3 hours, a fatality around 300 yards in front of us.  4 fire engines, 4 ambulances, the air ambulance and a dozen or more police vehicles in attendance...not sure what happened but it was clearly extremely serious.  I'm so glad we weren't involved, but very sad for those that were.  I'm so not cut out for travelling nowadays, I was shattered and really achey by the time we got home - and I don't even drive!

It's stupid o'clock again and I can't sleep, been up for an hour.  I'm having a run of nights where I wake up around 2 or 3 am and am unable to get back to sleep.  I've learnt not to stress about it, it will sort itself out eventually.  I just get up and go downstairs, make myself a hot drink and curl up on the sofa with my tablet, Betty usually comes and snuggles up beside me, she hasn't today though, she's snoring in her bed.  Think yesterday wore her out too, even though she slept in the car virtually the whole time.

I don't have anything important to do today, fortunately, as I'll be fit for nothing come the afternoon.  I'm going to sort through the rest of my books and see if Ziffit or Zapper will take them.  Husband brought in the last of the tomatoes and a huge boxful of apples over the weekend, so I've got those to deal with too.  Quite a lot of the apples are bruised or pecked or wasp nibbled, so obviously won't store, I'll have to process and freeze them for puds or breakfasts, or apple sauce.  I'll roast the tomatoes and freeze in boxes, ready to make soup or pasta sauces through the winter.  The big freezer in the utility room will be full then, there's only just enough room in it now.

The decluttering continues

The car was supposed to be done yesterday but owing to a cock up by the person concerned, it didn't get done, husband quickly made arrangements for it to be done 9 am today somewhere else.  Minor panic when the bloody thing wouldn't start again this morning for him to drive to the garage, but he eventually got it going.  They reckon it's an easy job and should be done in no time...fingers crossed, as I have lots to do in town this afternoon.

Still decluttering, and it's a very liberating feeling.  Have sold my collection of ginger jars, an ergonomic back kneeler stool that just made my back ache 😂, and a tool set of husband's....all for cheap prices, but making a fortune isn't the object, getting rid of stuff we don't use or need is.

I dragged all the plastic boxes containing spare bed linen out from under the beds and went through them all...I knew there was a fair bit, but it was even more than I thought.  7 spare duvet/pillowcase sets that I'd acquired over the years, several fitted sheets and a load of spare assorted pillowcases have now been bagged up to take to the new big cancer charity shop that's opened in town.  I've kept 3 spare sets.

Sorted a boxful of books to Ziffit, £22 worth.  The scanner rejected a lot, but I've now found another book buying app, Zapper, that's similar to Ziffit.  Out of curiosity I scanned a couple of books that Ziffit didn't want - Zapper accepted them, so today I'll scan all the rest.  The only thing is, Ziffit will collect if over a certain weight...Zapper won't, you have to take them to a collection point yourself.  No real trouble, there's plenty of them about.

I've decided most of my yarn can go as well....I only ever crochet in the winter, and it's mostly blankets - I don't do fiddly small stuff anymore (no patience and eyesight not good enough now) and hate sewing in ends.  Fortunately, I've broken my past habit of buying yarn just because I liked the look of it, despite having enough to open a small yarn shop anyway (sound familiar, crafting ladies?!).  I'll bag it up (it will be several bags!) and offer it on Facebook Marketplace and our local village page first, if no-one wants it, it can go to a charity shop.

I've got empty shelves, cupboards and boxes appearing everywhere, it's magic!

Not as bad as we thought...

Thank you for comments.  The new starter motor is being fitted today, and the cost is reasonable, so much better than we expected.  I do tend to think the worst when things happen, but then it's a pleasant surprise when they turn out to be not as bad as first thought.  Better than the other way round, I guess!

Having seen lots of empty shelves on my brief run round the supermarket the other day, and the queueing measures they're reinstating, clearly expecting hordes of people to start panic buying again, I thought I'd have a look at doing an online shop for delivery.  I expected slots to be booked up for the next couple of weeks but, to my surprise, they weren't at all, there were even a few slots for next day delivery.  Although I did notice the delivery cost had gone up.  So I might do a couple of online orders to cover the next month or so.  

Has anyone got a Food Warehouse near them?  They're basically Iceland frozen food shops on a much bigger (supermarket size) scale, but also do fruit & veg, chilled and store cupboard food, as well as some homewares.  They do frozen foods in bigger package sizes at a very good price....eg, 2kg bags of frozen sweet potato fries for £3 (they're generally around £2.50 for a 500g bag in the supermarkets), and big bags of fishcakes also £3.00.  I do like to buy British where possible, meat especially....a lot of their meat isn't British though (sorry but I'm not buying chicken from China!) so have to read labels and be selective.  Another bonus is that they have wide aisles and the shop, on the few occasions we've been in, is rarely busy.

They also do dog beds for £5!  and seeing as Betty likes to chew hers sometimes, I don't mind buying one there regularly.  She used to rip her bed apart a lot when she was younger, but doesn't do it nearly so often now.  And buying a £5 bed even once a month means I don't have to keep trying to stuff it in my washing machine.

A new big Aldi opens in the town next week....we do have an Aldi already, but it's small, tired, decidedly scruffy and limited with stock.  So that'll be good, I don't like sticking to just one supermarket, I like a choice as you can get different stuff in different places.

Funny old weather again, sunny one minute, chucking it down with rain the next.  It's definitely autumnal now though, got a lot colder.  And it's so blooming dark in the mornings when I get up, and seems to take hours before it gets light (well, it would I suppose, seeing as I'm up between 04.00 and 05.00 most mornings).  And dark earlier too, of course....I'm putting the lights on around 7 pm, even earlier yesterday as it was so gloomy.

I've been trying out a few watercolour backgrounds for cards, not really got the hang of it yet but will keep trying, it's quite fun trying things out anyway.  Husband's not done any more on his new wood carving hobby, he's been a bit preoccupied with other things, like the car and clearing stuff out of his garage, and digging up finished veg plants.  He's got the tools now though, so the hobby will be there for him during the winter.

Best laid plans....

So much for feeling so good...

Yesterday morning Betty went to the groomers, we'd intended to go shopping whilst she was there, but had to wait in for someone who'd made arrangements to come round and collect a tool set that husband had decluttered out of his garage.  Well, he didn't turn up and no contact from him so we waited in for nothing (some people are just so bloody rude!).  So we collected Betty and rather than take her home then come out again for shopping, we decided to go straight into town, husband would stay in the car with dog whilst I whizzed into the shop, I only needed a few fridge and freezer bits.  Thought it would save fuel and time, having had a wasted morning.

However, when I came out and got back in the car, it wouldn't start, dashboard lights all came on (so the battery was ok) but engine dead as a dodo.  So we had to call the RAC, who said they were extremely busy and it would take 3-4 hours to get to us.  And this on a day when it was very hot and sunny...car read 29.5 degrees.  And we had the dog, and I had 2 bags of chilled and frozen shopping....

To cut a long story short, I rang round some friends and eventually found someone who could come and collect me, Betty and the shopping and bring us home, leaving poor husband there.  I'd nipped back into the shop and bought him several bottles of water and a chocolate bar to keep him going, Betty drank nearly a full bottle, poor thing, she doesn't do well in the heat, just like me. The shopping was mostly defrosted by the time I got home, luckily it was mostly veg, and poor Betty was all hot and bothered (as was I).  Husband finally arrived home 5 hours after ringing the RAC (a friend had arrived at the supermarket and kept him company whilst he was waiting, fortunately, else he'd have been a lot more stressed than he was).

The starter motor is knackered, so another expense.  Bloody cars, they're just money pits.  And the most annoying thing is that today (I'm writing this in the early hours, being unable to sleep), we were supposed to be having a day out in Devon, having made arrangements to meet someone, obviously that's off now.  We could possibly reschedule for next week....that's assuming we're not all back in lockdown, seeing as the covid crisis is getting worse, the news is all doom and gloom.

The supermarket clearly think another lockdown is coming and it's going to be busier with people stocking up again (it was) - they've got the barriers for the queuing system back up at the entrance and at the checkouts.  And the shop looked like a plague of locusts had been through it, the shelves are back to being half empty.  Sigh.

I'm up because my mind is churning again (too much to think about) and my hip is agony.  The pain is definitely getting worse, looks like I'm going to have to go back to the GP. I've had to resort to taking codeine as paracetamol is doing nothing, unfortunately I can't take anti inflammatories, they disagree with me.  Will try going back to bed to see if I can go back to sleep, but am not hopeful.

Feeling lively!

Thanks for the comments - several of you said how liberating/freeing and good for the soul decluttering is - oh yes it certainly is!  I feel galvanised into action, steaming through rooms, cupboards and boxes, haven't felt this lively in months.

Yesterday husband sorted more stuff out of the garage (there's now almost room to fit a small car in there, shame ours is a big one 😂).  I filled a dustbin bag with old clothes, and another with old shoes and slippers....why on earth didn't we chuck out old slippers at the time we bought new ones? 😜 Betty 'helped' me with the shoe sorting - she kept grabbing one at a time and running off with it, a lovely exciting game as far as she was concerned.  She does make me laugh, every day.  She's intrigued with all the sorting out, by my side all the time, watching, sticking her nose in boxes etc, sniffing everything.

We did another tip run, after having to queue for an hour the day before, it was fine yesterday, straight in with no queueing.  There's no restriction or appointment system at our tip...there was some restriction on car numbers to begin with but they've done away with that now, all back to normal.  The only current restriction is that the staff won't help with unloading your car, for social distancing purposes I guess.

It's gratifying to see empty spaces appearing - the wardrobe in the spare bedroom is now almost empty, one double cupboard in the utility room completely empty.  Today I'm going to tackle the plastic boxes under the beds....spare bedding under our bed, boxes of books and yarn under the spare room beds.

Dc, you commented that joy shines out from my posts at the moment...yes I do feel fantastic right now and there are several reasons for that, some of which I can't mention, sorry.  Suffice it to say that, Covid stuff aside, life is looking good at the moment, long may it last.

Decluttering

 Thank you for the lovely comments, I am actually starting to see a difference when I look in the mirror, the fat stomach is getting smaller.  At present though it's beginning to sort of empty out, leaving wrinkly saggy skin....pretty disgusting really.  Hopefully, that might improve in time...although my skin's not youthful and elastic anymore so it might not!  Still, nobody has to see it (except husband, poor bloke 😂) and it's got to be better than fat!

We've finally begun doing a major declutter - like most people, having lived here for several years we've accumulated a lot of stuff, a lot of which doesn't even get used anymore.  I've been wanting to do it for ages (years even) but husband wasn't really on-board with it before.  Now he is though, as his garage is so full of junk he could barely get in it and could never find anything.  Yesterday he filled the trailer with an old sofa and fridge, plus more assorted junk, and we did a tip run, the first of many I expect.  I sorted out my wardrobes (one in the spare room) and drawers, accumulating a huge pile of unwanted clothes on the bed.  I'm washing them all then will bag them up and sell them as job lots on our local FB marketplace page.  The same with bed linen - I reckon I have about 8 or 10 sets....how many do we need for goodness sake?!  Only 2 really, one on the bed and one spare.

I have lots of surplus kitchenware cluttering up the cupboards, so that can go too, along with ornaments and collectable china.  Years ago I used to collect Chinese ginger jars and pottery, none of it worth much, just bits I picked up for pennies at boot sales simply because I liked them.  Well, ever since we've lived here (8 years), it's all been wrapped up in newspaper in a cupboard in the utility room, so it's not like I'm going to miss it.  Besides, I don't fancy dusting it all if I did have it out on display 😂.  So very busy for the next week or so, but we'll have a lovely uncluttered house (and garage and shed) at the end of it.  The trick will be not filling it up again....