Way too much information

 

I'm going to write in dribs and drabs this week (if you wonder why days and tenses are odd). 

I've had a very expensive morning. First thing I had an idea for husbands Christmas present (yup I'm already buying to spread the cost). Over the weekend I had the idea of a weekend in Glastonbury to go up to the tour and take a look around when it was empty - rather than the chaos of the festival.

I costed that up and decided that it was way over my budget right now. This morning the idea of getting tickets to comedy at the Dome came to me. I took a look and in early 2026 (yup a year and a half away!), there were tickets to Rob Beckett. What's more he'd opened a new night and there was availability. 

I went in to purchase 2 tickets, got great seats, the payment didn't go through. I tried again and the payment didn't go through. So I went to my PC and turned that on - because I'm old and rubbish on mobile phones. I went through the process again and once more the payment didn't go through.

I went into my banking app to see if there was a problem with my card or if I'd hit an overdraft limit, only to find that my bank account was very much in arrears and all three payments had gone through!!! I'm hoping that at some point today these will clear off, otherwise I have 6 tickets to a show. Though I think if I get them put back in the pot they will sell, Rob Beckett is popular.

Then on top of that when I took the dog for a walk this morning I decided to go to a local park that's a 5 minute drive away. As I drove the engine light on my car came up and I could feel the engine pulling. So now I'm going to have to book my car into the garage. The only problem is my car is a real jalopy. The paint is peeling, there's a crack in the windscreen (fixed) and basically it is only fit for the tip. 

I've been keeping it going for 4 reasons, one it still goes, 2 I don't care about anybody who wants to judge me in my heap of a car, 3 It will be great for when son starts to learn to drive, because it doesn't matter if he scrapes it and 4 I simply can't afford a new car. I see it as a badge of honour. My son's education that husband and I have decided to invest in costs more than a new car. Education is critical for the rest of our life and so it's a good investment to be made. So yup, you can get yourself a new flash car every 3 years, but all you have is a lump of junk that is depreciating every day.

Aaaaanyway, I'm going to have to book the car into garage, the problem is - if it's an expensive problem I'm going to have to make a call about whether it's worth fixing. I already costed up getting the car resprayed because paint is peeling - that would have cost £1.5K, which is more than the car is worth.

All of this is happening, just as Christmas is coming and on top of that in January the school fees are going up.

I have faith that things will work out. Somehow something always comes up to dig me out of big holes. So keep your fingers crossed.

Oh my goodness it's been raining, not just slight rain - huge amounts of rain, there's been loads of flooding, but fortunately not where I am, though our guttering at the back has broken and so all water meets in the middle, rather than going down the pipes on either side. This then pours down over the patio. I've had to create a barrier - which is essentially two garden chairs side by side with tarp tied around them. The purpose of this is to try to keep the water away from the house. The wall is wet and it's not having a chance to dry before the next batch of rain.

I know if we leave it it will end up being a very expensive job, rather than just having guttering fixed. Though if they insist on putting up scaffolding to fix gutter that's going to be massively expensive anyway. Doubtless more information about this in a later blog (I KNOW - you'll hardly be able to sleep until you hear the outcome). This week's photo is my very miserable and wet looking back patio. Drowned.

Mornings are getting darker, I almost left dog walk until lunchtime today. But looking at the rain it will be even worse at lunch time so I decided to put my shoulders back and go out. I got all dressed up first. Rain Hat, Rain Coat and I even dug out some waterproof trousers I suddenly remembered I had. When we got to the park it was still dark, which was a little disconcerting. But I put my big girl pants on and relied on the fact that nasty attacking men wouldn't be bothered to be in the park when it was so rainy.

I had to be careful when I threw ball for dog to keep it reasonably close. Dog is matt black and ball was invisible once it was about 10 feet from me. Got walk done and what a miserable experience it was. I came straight back home and into my online shopping basket I added glow in the dark dog balls, a sad lamp. All I need to find and remember to plug in now is dog's light up collar and I'm all sorted for the winter - oh and obviously after other expenses this week (still not resolved) I also need pay day to come. Having pay day on a Monday is a cruel and unkind eventuality.

Here we are a few days later. I've made some important investments (salary hit bank account a few days early - yay). The first being some glow in the dark dog balls. We used these this morning and it made a big difference in the early morning gloom. Even with those balls I suspect there are only a couple more weeks where I can take dog out. Though the clocks change at the end of October so that may buy me a few extra walks.

The second investment was one of those SAD lamps. That give you fake daylight to help you get through the winter. I've got it on at the moment, let's see if it does the trick. 

Yesterday mum and dad came over and I did a huge curry. We are literally going to be living on curry for at least a week (worst things could happen). However, it keeps repeating on me today which is not the nicest thing. But something even worse happened.

You know when you are the mother of a baby terrible things happen, like they wee and poo on you - or they are sick in your mouth (the sick in the mouth thing didn't actually happen to me, but did to a friend). Aaaanyway, son woke up not feeling well this morning. I messaged his school and the minibus that picks him up and got on with my morning.

TOO MUCH INFORMATION WARNING:

Suddenly I needed a curry poo. I rushed to the loo and half way through the doorbell suddenly rang. Husband was still asleep, son was locked in his room with headphones on and the dog was going mental. I realised that it must be the minibus driver, who hadn't picked up the message. The only answer was to wipe up midway and rush to the door.

Attempting this was a terrible mistake, let's just say the poo wasn't at all solid. In trying to sort it out I managed to smear poo all over the sleeve of the top I was wearing. The doorbell rang again and I had to pull up my pants and trousers, aware that I was not even close to clean. Keeping my poo covered sleeve behind my back I opened the door and explained the situation to the driver (who was very nice about it).

Closing the door I then went and finished off what I had started and then had to go and do a complete change of clothes. Put the clothes I'd been wearing in the washing machine and then sit down and take stock of what had just happened.

Immediately a flurry of ghastly situations that happened when I was mother to a newborn came flooding back to me. Things that I'd clearly blocked from my memory. Let's hope that this mornings events get filed in the dark recesses of my brain, never to be recalled.

Though I just typed it into my blog. So that's reinforced the memory and if I ever read this back it will keep reminding me. Maybe blogging about it wasn't such a great idea. I have a hunch you'll agree.