chrisandsteve | Member Posts

Swings and roundabouts this week - progress at home but work was meh.

#ORJENISE100 no specific prompts completed but I have generally beenchucking/recycling stuff.

HOME: cleaned the kitchen again and put a few items away to leave clear space for the ex when he's on cat feeding duties this coming weekend. Finally got all the clutter off the stairs. Sanded and painted gate at the front of the house (2 coats)! Varnished the back door - finally! Another quick pass at hall/landing to make sure recycling all packed and ready for Wednesday. Started on my bedroom.

HEALTH: pretty good!

LIFE ADMIN: nope.

DIGITAL DECLUTTER: down to 11,500 emails and archived 100 images off phone.

GARDENING/ALLOTMENTING: front garden pots complete including extras. Now on to window boxes and pots by kitchen/living room windows and houseplants. Oh and bulbs/winter planting for allotment.

COOKING/EATING: mostly eating down contents of fridge before weekend away - so balti veg curry, haked potatoes and grazing on random bits!

READING/LISTENING: nope.

WATCHING: Started new show Pluribus.

CREATING/LEARNING: crochet teacher is still prepping/competing at a cake comp in Rome.

CATS: all good.

VOLUNTEERING: AGM for allotment society was Sunday afternoon and all went well.

SOCIALISING: nope other than AGM.

WORK: nearly threw my toys out of the pram so had a mental health half day on Friday.

It's really the annual Horbling weekend this coming weekend (after last week's SNAFU) so there'll be a bit more frantic clearing up over the next 2 days!

ruric

Having found I'm not away this weekend but next weekend I decided to make use of a free afternoon to be productive.

The refuse guys emptied my bin this morning (which they're not obliged to do as I'd not put it on the pavement) but they kindly flipped the lid and grabbed the two bags in there. Which meant my tip run was a little lighter than anticipate. But I removed 3 bags of rubbish and recycling and then popped into the garden centre on the way home. I'd bought more bulbs than I have pots so came up with a plan to have a couple more small window boxes at the base of the rose in the front garden. I may also have bought a few more mini houseplants and viola's while I was there and compost.

By the time I got home I had just about enough light left to finish planting the remaining large window box and the new ones. So the tiny front garden is now planted.

I still have the 2 window boxes and 5 pots on the porch roof, 1 hanging basket and the 3 living room window boxes to plant. That's a task for Friday afternoon/evening and possibly Saturday afternoon. Tomorrow night I'll plan what bulbs go where and what need to go down to the allotment.

The weather looks set to be warm and sunny on Saturday and Sunday so I need to sand and paint the front gate (one coat Saturday and one Sunday) and get two coats of varnish on the back door before the weather turns. I forsee early mornings this weekend. And there's now the allotment AGM Sunday afternoon so I need to get a wiggle on with jobs around home and garden.

To finish the front garden I need to weed the path, sort out the area around the bins and put some membrane and chippings around the base of the climbing rose to stop whatever is digging there from digging.

ruric

As many of you know I've been going away with a bunch of friends for an annual long weekend since 2005. We originally met through Buffy/Angel fandom and if you't told us that first year we'd still be going 20 years later we'd certainly not have believed you.

We settled on the weekend of or after Bonfire Night as being the most convenient for everyone. We still go to the same place - a fab 17thC farmhouse in Horbling, Lincs that can sleep up to about 12-16 people. The owner charges us "mates rates" as a regular booking who leaves the place tidy and strip all the beds before we go. When we are up there we confirm our booking for the next 2 years so we can get dates in our diaries.

You can see where this is heading can't you?

Since 2024 I've had the dates in my dairy for 2025 as 6th-10th Nov and for 2026 as 5th-9th November.

As usual I leave everything to the last minute so I've been scrambling around trying to get work and home stuff sorted so I can leave early on Thursday. Texted my mate last night to say I'd be on the road between 7-8am Thursday so should be with her by 9-10am only to get a confused face icon back and a "Horbling is next weekend" message.

Yes I had somehow anaged tonout the wrong dates in my diary, and overlooked the group Whatsapp message confirming the date change late last year and the recent WhatsApp about food cutoff ordering being 12 November!

So yesterday evening I moved my leave back a weekend, reorganised my day job work, replanned personal tasks around clearing up the flat and gardening, let my allotment society know I xan attend the AGM on Sunday and confirmed the ex is free for cat feeding duties next weekend.

For the first time in years I'll be approaching this getaway in planned rather than chaotic fashion.

Today I've taken an extended lunchbreak to finish potting up some of my winter windowboxes and plants and I'll be able to get the rest done on Saturday.

ruric

Another relatively quiet week.

#ORJENISE100 no specific prompts last week.

HOME: maintained - had an Oddbox deli ery so deep cleaned the fridge, fruit and veg bowls. Haven't started on the bedroom - yet!

HEALTH: finally back to normal.

LIFE ADMIN: nothing done last week.

DIGITAL DECLUTTER: went on a bit of a deleting spree on my main email account and broke the 12k barrier - now down to 11,888 emails. Things are slowing down because I've run out of the easy to delete stuff and am now entering the 15-20 years of history. Keeping up with archiving things off the tablet to Dropbox. Stalled on sorting 900+ images on my phone.

GARDENING/ALLOTMENTING: bought plants/bulbs to finish winter planting of front garden and pots and finished planting the last of the front garden pots. Hoping to get the porch roof ones done before I go away.

COOKING/EATING: had a couple of takeaways on busy days but back to cooking. And the Oddbox delivery led to a meal plan for the next 2 weeks (though I'm away Thursday to Monday). Made a bit pot of balti veg curry and ate a lot of fruit!

READING/LISTENING: nope.

WATCHING: still enjoying Murder Before Evensong.

CREATING/LEARNING: no crocheting this week or classes as teacher is prepping/competing at a cake comp in Rome.

CATS: all good.

VOLUNTEERING: nope.

SOCIALISING: monthly catch up call with friends which I tuned into from the car as I was stuck in an epic traffic jam from Twickenham to Kingston on Thursday night.

WORK: almost caught up. Fingers crossed for a quiet November.

It's the annual Horbling weekend this coming weekend so I am scrambling around to do a bit of sorting and tidying before I go.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30

Chris and Steve

Member Posts

Week 45 - cleaning things!

Today's productivity

Lolz whoops!

Week 44 - getting back to it

Profile

November 2025

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags