In search of the good life.: December 2011

Thursday was the first day I realised that I am now a part time worker. A pleasant feeling you would think? Not for me. Boredom set in almost immediately! I should probably explain that I am not a relaxed, chilled out kind of person (despite my husbands best efforts to encourage these traits in me)
For this reason I have filled my spare hours since going part time with numerous activities from preparing for the 10k a friend talked me into running on New Year's Day to redecorating the house that I am unsuccessfully trying to find tenants for back in my home town. My Nan having recently been put in a home has also been graced with a few visits from her newly available Granddaughter (definitely a perk of part time work)
So on Thursday my beloved puppy (yes he's eight but still a puppy to me) got an extra walk, having been for a run the past two days I couldn't raise the motivation to it a third day in a row, the large basket of ironing is ironed and put away, all email accounts (I have several) are checked and dealt with appropriately. My mystery shopping site has been checked at least a dozen times for new assignments to keep me busy and fed. I would also have cooked and cleaned if my lovely hubby hadn't beaten me to it.
Even though I knew Friday would be a busy day with work and collection of the boy (my stepson) from a town 60 miles away this did not enable me to enjoy the quiet of Thursday's sparse itinerary. This is something I am going to have to work on if I am to enjoy my 'good life' should I find it.
Friday? Much busier! The plan to swap cars with a friend to accommodate the boys visit (my car is a two seat convertible) was scuppered by some silly bint driving into the back of me! Straight road, on coming traffic so we were waiting to turn, had our lights on and indicator and yet she doesn't apply the breaks until she's close enough for me to hear her tyres scrape along the tarmac and slam solidly into the back of my poor little Tiglet (She's a Tigra) We were unceremoniously shunted about two metres past our turning. So exchange of details and we're on our way again, me shaking like a leaf, hubby practical as ever states I'm in shock and need chocolate, who am I to disagree?
We did swap the car in the end, but only until the courtesy car came through from the insurance which was not a simple task, I must have spent hours on hold over the next few days, the accident was clearly not my fault so why am I the one dealing with all the crap? Obviously being Christmas time didn't help, garages didn't seem keen to collect Tiglet and hire car companies not too keen to drop an alternative car off, isn't the country meant to be at risk of dropping back into recession? Shouldn't these people be scrabbling for the trade?
Anyway the boy is safely retrieved from his mothers and is ours for the week.
My mystery shopping provided free cookies on Saturday much to the delight of the boy and I was quite pleased with being paid £4 to eat said free cookies! Try http://www.retaileyes.co.uk/ if the joys of being a mystery shopper are of interest.
The boy is relatively easy to amuse, very much like his father in terms of liking being outdoors and doing anything practical. He also loves the puppy, and the puppy loves him so they entertain each other quite well.
I have to say though that having a child around, even a really well behaved child like the boy, is knackering! I don't understand why, if he was naughty or troublesome then I'd expect to feel drained by the end of the week, but he genuinely is a lovely boy, he wasn't at all fazed by our trip to Meadowhall where he met my friends, two boys (yes they're in their 20's but trust me still boys) and my best friend who's an old lady like me. He didn't seem remotely embarrassed when his father (the hubby) was escorted from a sports shop because he asked for a discount and the girl behind the counter clearly had serious PMT as well as being on a power trip. We all politely left while she screamed and shouted about getting security and having hubby removed from Meadowhall entirely! I swear he is not a confrontational person, he teaches conflict management and the rest of our group and the multitude of staff she had managed to call up on her radio, were left completely bewildered as to what look he could possibly have given this girl to set her off. He is well spoken, on the posh side if anything and doesn't tend to swear, especially if the boy is around. I couldn't help asking her at the exit if she didn't think she was over reacting a little bit, apparently not.
Needlessly to say we were not removed from Meadowhall, four days before Christmas, actually all the screaming and shouting did had not manage to rouse any security whatsoever, it made us all wonder whether we should have robbed the place (if only we weren't the good people we are) instead hubby has written a letter of complaint, response still to be received.
After the dramatics of that day and very little money spent (impressive, think the drama got to me!) I thought a nice relaxing day out somewhere with a little more festive spirit than Meadowhall seems to have this year. So we trundled off to Burton Agnes in our hire car (its square and ugly, but its got five seats) they had decorated the place fantastically and hidden little snowmen in every room which the boy took great delight in searching out for his chocolaty reward. The place is fantastic and I've picked the perfect decoration for my hall ceiling.
The woodland walk was equally as entertaining for the boy as he searched out various animal sculptures. Now I'm not going to say it was a cheap outing, £20 quid for the three of us, although it would only have been £21 if we had another child (not a good enough reason to have one) but in my search for the good life it was an entertaining day where we all interacted, got some fresh air and exercise and even a little bit of culture and to be honest when I know the money goes towards the upkeep of such a fantastic building I don't feel like I'm being ripped off. And the boys lunch box from the Cafe only cost £3.50 and would have fed all three of us, well hubby ate half as well as his own lunch.
The boy was delivered home after I hope a fun filled week including a special Christmas day just for him on the Wednesday and a little bit more decorating at my tenant less house on the way.
We dropped in on my Nan on the way home and took her an orchid and some more shortbread, she's fading away and shortbread and chocolate seem to be the only things she's tempted by. The Orchid I hope survives until my next visit, she loves plants, but my parents and the home seem to discourage independence and doing anything for yourself so although in the past I know that little Orchid would have been treated with tender loving care, now I'm not so sure.
After a busy week it was nice to have the house to ourselves, both lodgers having gone home for Christmas, and just slob out on the sofa, cook gorgeous food for the two of us and open our pressies. There was a budget which I pretty much stuck to (Santa had to stump up for a couple of things), but I suspect my gorgeous new handbag sent hubby over the limit.

The peace was shattered briefly when walking the puppy in the local woods he was attacked by someone else's dog. My dog is very submissive, did nothing to provoke the attack (for once he wasn't even trying to sniff the other dogs bum) but for some reason the other dogs owner decided to start waving a crutch (clearly not being used for its intended purpose) in my husbands face while verbally abusing us. Okay so I admit I threw a few choice words in his direction too after he had hit his dog hard enough for it to release its grasp of the puppy's neck. Episode over you would think, after all its still theoretically Christmas time, there are families and children in the vicinity, but no he stomps off in the opposite direction still shouting and then decides to charge back after us still waving that damn crutch about. A few more people got involved saying they'd call the police (I'm not sure who they thought was at fault) and a nice man and his son basically telling the guy to leave us alone. We kept walking, but it put us both on edge, and caused a sleepless night thinking about what on earth is wrong with people and what have me and hubby done to provoke such aggressive responses. I'm beginning to think hubby is giving off some kind of pheromone that provokes female sales assistants and random dog owners to attack.

For that reason we took to the hills today (Derbyshire Dales to be exact) in the hope that we'd be pretty much on our own and couldn't provoke any kind of attack. Although not on our own everyone seemed to be friendly and calm and other than the fuel costs the expedition did not hinder my money saving mission in that it didn't cost a penny but kept us entertained all day.

So after one and a half Christmasses, I haven't used my credit card, I did dip into my overdraft temporarily and we have enough food in thr house to feed us well into the New Year.