May 2014 was very busy. A much busier month than usual, and quite expensive as well. Bleugh. My car went in for its 40,000 mile service.... 'The big one'. Ahem. It's quite something to be quoted £395 before anything extra, (as on my 14 hour per week contract I usually bring home just under £500 each month). It would have been more, if they hadn't had me arguing with them on the phone that I could go to Halfords to replace the wipers myself, and save the £30 they wanted to charge! In the end they backed down and changed them for free. However, the fan resistor needed changing, as I only had a speed selection of zero, or gale force four(!) and that would have added £100 - I told him I could go to £450, but any higher and I'd have to call my husband! I don't know why, but that did it, and it ended up costing £450 with the fan resistor and wipers included. The lesson from this? Kick ass as/when needed!
Luckily I'd been doing quite a few hours extra, and I've claimed 17.5hrs overtime in the last claim period, and the month before that had clocked up 27 hours to claim as well. Which is all well and good, but sometimes doing all this extra time I don't know if I'm coming or going. Granted, the extra hours mean extra money, hooray! But, the extra hours mean less time to be doing other things - chores, gardening etc. which is still waiting if I don't keep on top of it.
So, in order to save me money, I finished building my greenhouse! Yippee. Let's see, the greenhouse cost £21.12. Bargain. Then I spent £35 on perspex to replace the windows in the playhouse, about £10 on bits for the guttering, and £18 on paint to decorate the playhouse before erecting the greenhouse.... extras total so far... £63. Ho hum. Cleaning the greenhouse frame cost 2 scourers and 1 pair of gloves, say, £5. Time spent, let's say 3 weekends or so. And then once it was erected, and the glass was washed, pane by pane, I discovered that 4 pieces were missing, and had already ditched the broken ones from the door, so 6 and a half replacement panes of glass cost ..... £41.70! More than the greenhouse itself. Still it was worth it, even at a grand total cost of .... £109.70. Hope that's right, I've done all the maths in my head. Ta-dah!
So we come to the end of the month, a second bank holiday, and half-term for the children. So here's the thing. When working part-time, it's a job to have enough leave. In as much as because you don't accrue the hours of leave (you'd like) you have to be cautious in how much leave to take. We're planning to go away in July, and as we'd had time off over Easter, I didn't book time off for half-term. Which means having to pay for Tom to go to holiday clubs/child care. Bleugh (again).
We did manage a couple of days out - on Bank Holiday Monday we went, along with every man and his dog, to Avebury National Trust. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/avebury/ The standing stones of the neolithic monument/stone circle were excavated and re-erected in the 1920s and there's a good museum, and Manor House to visit as well. I'd recommend it, but not on a bank holiday...
On Thursday we ventured over to Chedworth Roman Villa with the National Trust again.... http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/chedworth-roman-villa/
Tom's topic at school for the next term is The Romans... so it seemed a good idea to get him in the mood, and a good time was had by all. The site is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, and the facilities had been updated in 2012, so it's worth a visit. What's also good is that it's extremely remote - a good 3-4 miles down single track farm roads to find it, so you think you're lost, and therefore, it's a quiet place as I think some people may lose heart and leave before they arrive, so to speak, which in comparison with Avebury made Chedbury a haven of peace. The weather stayed fair, the company was good, and the children played nicely.... Ave!
My favourite part of visiting Chedworth, apart from the amazing mosaics, was the very interesting and incredibly well informed 'Roman Sue'. She's a wool expert, and, we found out this time, a champion sheep shearer as well, who talks about and demonstrates how the Romans would have made cloth and clothes with wool, the techniques involved in weaving, 1-needle knitting(!) and yarn dying. I love meeting people like this - crafts people with a real passion for their art, and more importantly, a passion for sharing and passing on the secrets to the younger generation (myself included!). She's not always there, so do check the website if you're thinking of going - to avoid disappointment!
It's late again, and there's always too much to do, but I'll stop here. June, for the moment is looking a bit quieter than May was, so hopefully I can keep more on top of the blog. Night for now. Kat. :)
Luckily I'd been doing quite a few hours extra, and I've claimed 17.5hrs overtime in the last claim period, and the month before that had clocked up 27 hours to claim as well. Which is all well and good, but sometimes doing all this extra time I don't know if I'm coming or going. Granted, the extra hours mean extra money, hooray! But, the extra hours mean less time to be doing other things - chores, gardening etc. which is still waiting if I don't keep on top of it.
So, in order to save me money, I finished building my greenhouse! Yippee. Let's see, the greenhouse cost £21.12. Bargain. Then I spent £35 on perspex to replace the windows in the playhouse, about £10 on bits for the guttering, and £18 on paint to decorate the playhouse before erecting the greenhouse.... extras total so far... £63. Ho hum. Cleaning the greenhouse frame cost 2 scourers and 1 pair of gloves, say, £5. Time spent, let's say 3 weekends or so. And then once it was erected, and the glass was washed, pane by pane, I discovered that 4 pieces were missing, and had already ditched the broken ones from the door, so 6 and a half replacement panes of glass cost ..... £41.70! More than the greenhouse itself. Still it was worth it, even at a grand total cost of .... £109.70. Hope that's right, I've done all the maths in my head. Ta-dah!
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| All my own work! |
We did manage a couple of days out - on Bank Holiday Monday we went, along with every man and his dog, to Avebury National Trust. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/avebury/ The standing stones of the neolithic monument/stone circle were excavated and re-erected in the 1920s and there's a good museum, and Manor House to visit as well. I'd recommend it, but not on a bank holiday...
On Thursday we ventured over to Chedworth Roman Villa with the National Trust again.... http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/chedworth-roman-villa/
Tom's topic at school for the next term is The Romans... so it seemed a good idea to get him in the mood, and a good time was had by all. The site is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, and the facilities had been updated in 2012, so it's worth a visit. What's also good is that it's extremely remote - a good 3-4 miles down single track farm roads to find it, so you think you're lost, and therefore, it's a quiet place as I think some people may lose heart and leave before they arrive, so to speak, which in comparison with Avebury made Chedbury a haven of peace. The weather stayed fair, the company was good, and the children played nicely.... Ave!
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| Et tu Brutus? |
It's late again, and there's always too much to do, but I'll stop here. June, for the moment is looking a bit quieter than May was, so hopefully I can keep more on top of the blog. Night for now. Kat. :)
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