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May we enjoy...

Think it, Plan it, Do it
amh4
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May we enjoy...

#50554

Postby amh4 » May 2nd, 2017, 10:19 am

Good morning YTST ers - I hope it's ok, but I am jumping in with a title for the May thread.

May has such a wonderful reputation, with the mayday festivals and maypoles, country dancing and country fairs, merry lads and lasses - you get the drift. In our mythic history May has the fortune to be the time when the Lady of the Earth meets with the Lord of the Sky and they re-enact their meetings throughout all time, falling in love with each other yet again, thus ensuring that the crops will grow another year, and all creatures can live in the warmth of their love. Now this is the edited version, and I could write the uncensored one which is much more fruity (!), but you get my picture, I trust.

And what does this mean for us on this board, I hear you ask....and the answer is that whatever our journey, whether it is at the moment easy or hard, it is without doubt made less difficult when we can see all around us evidence of the love of the Earth and the Sky for us and each other. The days are usually sunnier and warm with longer evenings to encourage us to walk outside and watch the birds nesting and the sun setting. With any luck we can start wearing summer clothes, with fewer layers against the cold. And work, whatever it is, and wherever it is, seems less onerous during these summer months. If we are really fortunate, we may find we have a new energy for picking up our own tasks, and making them to our own vision of how we want our own worlds to be.

Anne-Marie

And perhaps I am becoming a little ott in my picture, but just think of the cow parsley frothing all over our contryside and joining with the wondrous bluebells and the exquisite greens of the new leaves unfurling on the trees, and I think perhaps I am not ott enough!!

So...come with me, and let us enjoy this May and turn to our life's work with renewed energy

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Re: May we enjoy...

#50802

Postby Brava21 » May 3rd, 2017, 9:16 am

What a lovely intro, Anne Marie. Not OTT at all, no. At the weekend I had a lovely walk through the woods down to the beach and marvelled at the carpets of bluebells and the beautiful sprays of cow parsley. It is such an uplifting time of the year and I think my favourite time. Apart from the unfurling/blossoming of new life everywhere you look, I also like the fact that at this time of the year, you have the promise of a whole summer in front of you...even if it doesn't, in the end, turn out to be as great, weather wise, as hoped :)

I am pleased to report that I am feeling a bit better, especially after my very positive chat with the consultant neurologist late last month. He tells me that I will need more CT scans, but in the meantime the bleed on my brain is showing encouraging signs of reabsorbing of its own accord, and that at this stage has doubts I will need any surgical intervention. I am massively relieved! Because of not feeling very well I have made few plans but there are some things to look forward to in May. This weekend we are off to Tenby, one of our favourite places. Mr B is doing this event:

[url][/url] http://carten100.com/carten100-2017/[url][/url]

...so in other words I will be dropping him off at the start of the event in Cardiff and finding him at the finish many hours later. Rather him than me. He tells me his new Garmin has some sort of option to 'track' his progress if I download something or other to my ipad, but I don't really rate my chances of success with this, knowing how technophobic I am :)

Later in the month I will be spending a few days in London, somewhere I haven't been for years. My brother, who lives in the US, is over for a conference organised by the company he works for and he is taking a few days holiday after it and we are going to spend some time together.

Other than that, I need to organise shopping around for, choosing, and arranging to have installed the new front door I have been promising myself. And that will do for now :)

Good luck to others with their goals, and hugs again to you all for your support and kind comments through my health 'crisis'

Brava x

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Re: May we enjoy...

#50806

Postby amh4 » May 3rd, 2017, 9:23 am

Brava,
I am so glad that the news is good - long may it continue
xx

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Re: May we enjoy...

#51127

Postby splosh » May 4th, 2017, 8:21 am

Thank you for starting us off so positively Anne-Marie, and great to hear that things are looking up for you health-wise, Brava.

I'm feeling a bit at sixes and sevens on the organisational front, having left my Thinking Book at a client's over the weekend. He's putting it in the post to me, but in the meantime I'm running just on my note-book of short-term to-do lists without any of my bigger-picture plans to hand.

But I thought I should make at least a token effort to get a grip on May as I'm going to be away for much of it so am feeling the need to get organised!

Work
1. 2 coaching gigs
2. Attend Convention
3. Finish and deliver arrangement
4. Get blog organised to cover all the times I'm away from home
5. Start next stage of planning for July event (to be continued in June)

Play
1. Go on holiday!
2. See friend for coffee

Home/health/family etc
1. Plant out hollyhock and tomato seedlings before holiday
2. See brother
3. Do semi-annual financial review
4. Build planters for hollyhocks (may bump to June)

I've actually only got 9 days at home during the rest of the month to do this. Some things I can do on the move (I'll be writing blog posts on the train home from coaching gigs for instance), but there's also all the stuff like pre- and post-holiday laundry to fit in. So it is important to resist the temptation to add much more.

I'll also not be doing much by way of checking in mid-month, so I'll leave some all-purpose vibes here for anyone who can use them, and look forward to catching up later in May.

splosh

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Re: May we enjoy...

#51852

Postby amh4 » May 7th, 2017, 3:11 pm

It is now the 7th May, and I have still not worked on my list for the month. So eyes down, look in:

Family:
1.Well the purchaser for the house did disappear having found that the extra 3% stamp duty was just too much for his budget. However, we have a new buyer, and I am much more lackasdaisical about the whole thing now, partly because whilst I am out of the country, and spending my time in the sun, it seems somehow less important. In any event, having sold some shares to cover, I have decided that if this couple do not come good, then I will do a mini refurb, and then put the house back on the market, possibly with a new agent. I have no problems with the present agent finding potential purchasers, but they seem less able to bring the deal to completion. Has anyone else any experience of this? It does not appear to be the value, as the surveyors are passing the house, but the purchasers just seem to slip away as if they had been wil-o-the-wisps. Perhaps I have just been unlucky, and this will be third time lucky.

2 On the other hand, my daughter has now moved out, and I do feel more relaxed because of that. This has been a long time coming, and was not easy on our relationship. I am hoping that once she has settled into her new house, she and I can start rebuilding.

3. My youngest daughter's wedding is now less than two weeks' away. She and her beloved are quite frazzled with all the arrangements (I had forgotten quite how arduous the whole process of organising a wedding is, and am glad to be merely an observer to be honest) My outfit is ready and I feel able to dance merrily through the day, having been very down earlier in the year. I have come to terms with the marriage being blessed in a place where I spent my most miserable years, and am happy that my daughter is so happy.

4. The last week of the month I shall be childsitting the just married daughter's daughter, as she flies off on honeymoon. This will be hard work, but great fun. We have decided that when she (GD) finishes school, we shall travel to see her various cousins in the county, and have tea and games with them!

Work
1. I have managed to keep up with most of the paperwork whilst out here, but there are a few things that have to be finalised once I return to the UK on the 14th. The Company Returns have to be lodged by the 20th, and I must start on the audit. The first is merely a couple of hours, and the second is donkey work - I shall start the bank recs whilst my GD is at school, and I have hours to myself. Good start

Finances
1. Well I guess much of this will be involved in the completing or otherwise of the house alluded to above. If it falls once more, then I shall be spending more, but if not, I will be making plans on re-investment and gifting. It is a question of sitting and waiting to see.

Leisure
1. We shall be leaving our apartment here until next November, so I need to ensure it is cleaned and closed down safely ready for then. One or more of my children my choose to come out here over the summer months (too hot for me) and it will then be ready for them, and they will close it down again. It feels sad to be doing so, and yet I love the west of England in the summer, and know this is the sadness of change - the sound of the ocean for the sound of birdsong and golden fields - a fair exchange I feel.
2. I have read a number of books whilst here, and hope that I will keep this up, as it always indicates my state of being, and it is only my mind that gets caught up in a whirl, it really does not have to be so.
3. My garden will be waiting to be planted up and out. Hanging baskets to be planted up, new containers for the front of the house and ensuring that the seeds planted out in the veggie plot have taken, or planting more. Perhaps do that in any case.

So much to do, and yet I can enjoy it all as long as I can surf along the waves of my everyday life without too many falls along the way.

May we enjoy......

Anne-Marie

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Re: May we enjoy...

#51996

Postby Tortoise1000 » May 8th, 2017, 11:18 am

I am so glad to read your good news, Brava. I hope the rest of the problem disappears in no time.

Joining in late this month. Thank you for starting us off, Anne-Marie. You are right, this is a wonderful month. Did you hear the dawn chorus programme on Radio 4 on Sunday morning? From midnight they sat in the Somerset levels, talking occasionally, a poem here and there, listening to the night bird sounds and to birdsong from all over the world and then to the English dawn chorus building to a crescendo around them. It was delightful.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08pdfyw

I am feeling very happy at present. I am going to enjoy some leisure in this lovely season and set modest goals.

Health

Keep walking, attending SW and cooking beautiful meals. Weight has been the same for 4 weeks now. Don’t get discouraged, stick at it.

Investing

Can’t think what to put here, although I know I should. I shall leave the heading to reproach me.

House project

Contact Building Control for sign-off.

The wood burning stove is being fitted this month. Clear the garage for a store of wood for fuel. This also counts as de-cluttering. Order wood.

De-clutter

Clear my email inbox. This is one of my de-cluttering targets for the year, and a frog. Words fail me to describe how clunky and ungovernable the Talktalk email system is. I must get on top of this, it bugs me every day. It is 21 pages today; I shall reduce it by one page per day.

Keep pottering on with other binning and tidying on days when I have spare time.

Support TJ

Tough month for TJ: the ongoing Army appeal and his Finals, both at once. Provide secretarial services, advice and money as required for the appeal. Continue to maintain his money spreadsheet and have brief weekly meetings. Help with catering if required. Otherwise keep out of the way and don’t expect him to be reasonable. When he phones, try not to pick up the stress. Listen and avoid giving unsolicited advice. If the talk turns to catastrophic scenarios, be super kind and reassuring. I have written this down to indoctrinate myself. It’s the best I can think of to help us both get through :-)

How did the job application go, FS101?

T

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Re: May we enjoy...

#52386

Postby futuresaver101 » May 9th, 2017, 10:27 pm

Hi all,

Sorry for the late check-in, this month is running away from me.

Ah, the job. It was mithering me somewhat and in the end my husband sat me down and said "I don't think you should go for it, you don't want it". He was right, it was a poisoned chalice, and a couple of people have said to me (off the record) that it was the right decision

It was an odd end of month really, I had a little cry or two (see job comment) and then gave myself a bit of a talking to, life's not that bad. All the re-org etc. makes me feel uncertain.

Noting all of that, I think I'm going to give myself an easy month, just stay on top of my office (and CPD) and keep going on the sport and making sure I get enough sleep.

Everything else can wait until June :)

FS101

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Re: May we enjoy...

#52442

Postby Tortoise1000 » May 10th, 2017, 9:19 am

Good plan. Sport and sleep make for happiness. Sounds like you made the right decision about the job, FS101. Any news on the Fellowship?

I am making progress on the email inbox. I'm down to 14 pages . It seems to duplicate a lot of my emails, for some reason, thats what one of the problems is. If I don't deal with them all each day a backlog of duplicates builds up and on top of all the others it is hard to deal with. I aim now to tackle them first thing each morning, after I have read the paper.

I have watched another episode of Obsessive Compusive Cleaners, that's inspiring. Compared with what some people have to deal with , my clutter is nothing. But it does show people wrestling with the same kind of dilemmas, trying to chuck things that have some potential use. I found a sweeping brush in the garage yesterday, a handy one from Wilkos cut at an angle to get in the corners. However I had forgotten I had it, it was in store during the building work, and I bought a new one from Tesco when the Amtico went down. Grr!. It was a puzzle to know what to do. Throw out this old well designed one, or the one I am using that is newer? My parents did not have this problem, they bought everything once and kept it for ever. The blue sweeping brush I remember from my childhood was still in the house when I cleared it. I feel ashamed of my profligacy, wasting time and money and the Earths resources buying two sweeping brushes. Buying excess stuff is quite distressing.

Get a grip Tortoise, you had forgotten you had this brush. I investigated it and found the head unscrewed, so I compromised by putting the head in the car with the other things to go to the tip, and keeping the handle in case it comes in useful. I have an application in mind. I will get round to culling the tub of potentially useful long things in due course. What a palaver. However a carful went to the tip yesterday, mainly an internal door. That might come in useful if I ever wanted to replace the glass door on this room with a solid one and they didn't make matching ones any more. But it wont fit in the loft, so it's gone.

I'm posting this partly to avoid this morning's de-clutter, which is to load a pile of old fencing in the car and taking it for recycling. No qualms about doing that. It is a lovely sunny morning so I shall get out and do it now .

T

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Re: May we enjoy...

#53501

Postby Brava21 » May 15th, 2017, 11:24 am

Hi all

A mid month update...

the weekend in Tenby was most successful. Mr B had a wonderful time on his bike ride. He did it 2 years ago and he had not been well and had not done enough training, and overall I think he had a bit of an ordeal with it. This year, everything went really well and he arrived triumphant in Tenby no less than 2 hours 20 minutes earlier than he was expecting. Sadly this did mean that I missed him at the finish, and I'd have liked to see that. I was still unpacking our stuff in the hotel room when there was a knock on the door...and there he was. Tenby being heaving at that point, he had a shower and we repaired to the hotel bar for some reviving beers (I am not sure what my excuse was meant to be; it did get a bit hot in the car on the way, does that count? :) ) The rest of the weekend was lovely with splendid sunny weather. We had nice long walks and were able to sit outside to eat. All in all, very relaxing.

On the home front, I have managed to paint all of the radiators and do the pressure washing outside. Plus, the first person is coming tomorrow evening to quote for our new front door. Pleased with all that!

On the health front, I feel about the same and am frustrated that I have not heard about a date for my next scan. This is odd, as I have had a copy of a letter from the consultant to my GP reporting on the outcome of the last appointment, so I am beginning to wonder if something has been forgotten or gone astray. Next week it will be a month since I saw the consultant so I will ring and enquire politely of progress.

All I have to do for the rest of the month is survive a few days in London with my brother. I can assure you this is not as easy and straightforward as it sounds :)

One of the things I have done to make the trip nicer is to have been very indulgent and purchased first class train tickets for the journey. Sad as it sounds at my age I have actually never been in a first class train carriage, so I am quite intrigued as to what I shall find.

Best to all...

Brava x

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Re: May we enjoy...

#54917

Postby futuresaver101 » May 19th, 2017, 12:00 pm

Hi all,

I have news.

I am now (a very happy) Fellow of my professional institution.

Just found out.

Thanks to all you patient YTST-ers who gently encouraged me to CEng (a 10 year frog)

My Fellowship was super speedy in comparison, it was May 2015 when I first had the (crazy) idea, with redundancy looming over me.

A grinning FS101 :D

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Re: May we enjoy...

#55285

Postby Tortoise1000 » May 21st, 2017, 10:11 pm

Yay! Well done, FS101! You have worked so hard over the years. Well deserved.

The recs system is here so I can rec your post properly :-)

T

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Re: May we enjoy...

#56451

Postby futuresaver101 » May 28th, 2017, 1:17 pm

Hi all,

Sorry for the delay in updating you all, and we are looking at the end of the month now ! I don't know why, perhaps it's all the uncertainty at work, but I haven't been at 100%. Perhaps a bit stressed, had to take a day off work this week :(

Anyway, I'm going to follow Dory's mantra "keep on swimming" (that is a great movie) and put myself to work. One of my mentors is now encouraging me to get my second Fellowship application (this one should not take a year or so!) and the other wants me to update my 5 year plan.

One part of me wants to hide in my burrow (from the work monsters :( ), the other bit of me knows that that's not the best way to deal with stress. So I'm going to get out there and set myself some Bank Holiday weekend goals.

1) Prepare the CV for Fellowship application
2) Update my LinkedIn profile
3) Update my 5 year plan

When I have a plan I feel like I'm more in charge of things.

Off to sit in the garden with a pen and paper...

A thoughtful FS101

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Re: May we enjoy...

#57161

Postby splosh » June 1st, 2017, 5:13 pm

Hi everyone,

Bit surprised to find it's June already, but then I was away for much of May, and somehow the time doesn't seem to count if you're not at home, does it?

Anyway, it was lovely to come back to FS101's fellowship news, that's brilliant.

Just wondering what I thought I was going to get done this month...

Work
1. 2 coaching gigs
Done
2. Attend Convention Also done. It was a good event.
3. Finish and deliver arrangement Did this early in the month and spent the next three weeks fielding minor queries about it This worried me at first, but after a while I diagnosed a needy client rather than a duff bit of work from me.
4. Get blog organised to cover all the times I'm away from home Done
5. Start next stage of planning for July event (to be continued in June) Got started on this yesterday, but discovered I won't have some key info until next week, so have stalled for now.

Play
1. Go on holiday!
This was lovely. I have never been on holiday in May before, it gives quite a different feel to the rhythm of the year.
2. See friend for coffee Yes, this was right back at the start of May. Feels a long time ago now!

Home/health/family etc
1. Plant out hollyhock and tomato seedlings before holiday
Done.
2. See brother Done. Also saw MrSplosh's brother, which was a pleasant surprise at short notice.
3. Do semi-annual financial review Done, and started the follow-up actions. Some more to be done in June.
4. Build planters for hollyhocks (may bump to June) Don't know if I'll get this done this year. The hollyhock seedlings aren't doing brilliantly so there isn't great pressure to get them planted out. And the neighbour whose circular saw I was going to borrow, after months of frustration at the slowness of the process of moving, got their completion date through very suddenly and disappeared while I was away at the convention. (I'll miss her more than I'll miss her circular saw, but still it's an inconvenience. We still have her heat gun though :-)

I suppose I ought to get my brain around June now, but I'm not quite feeling ready for it!

splosh

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Re: May we enjoy...

#58318

Postby Tortoise1000 » June 7th, 2017, 9:52 am

May report:

Health

Keep walking, attending SW and cooking beautiful meals. Weight has been the same for 4 weeks now. Don’t get discouraged, stick at it. Yes, keeping on cheerfully. Lost a couple of pounds.

Investing

Can’t think what to put here, although I know I should. I shall leave the heading to reproach me. Actually, now I have a tidy desk, see below, I have been able to give more constructive thought to this. Procrastinating currently by writing this post. Just realised it’s the election tomorrow. Boring campaigning has gone on for so long its a surpise to realise it is coming to an end. I wonder what effect that will have on markets? The election seems to have made everyone very inwardly focussed on domestic matters for the last few weeks, rather than Brexit. I suppose that will loom larger again once its over and the pound will go down again. It would go down if there wasn’t a clear Conservative majority, too. It will go down anyway, over time, it always does. Avoid pounds, is the message :-)

House project

Contact Building Control for sign-off. No, as usual. I want to have the garage/store room clear first.

The wood burning stove is being fitted this month.

Stove is fitted. Had some qualms about it , its very high tech, doesn’t fit with my furniture at all. I shall be obliged to go furniture shopping at some point . An alien thing. I don’t think my parents ever bought furniture after they set up home in the early 1950s. I don’t really know how to do it. As Thoreau pointed out, you don’t actually need to, so much exists already. He was writing in the 19th century, there is even more about now.

Clear the garage for a store of wood for fuel. This also counts as de-cluttering. Order wood.

The garage/store room suffers from being the final receptacle of stuff uncluttered from other places, so it’s hard to finish the declutter until those are done. More stuff keeps arriving . But progress is being made.

De-clutter

Clear my email inbox. This is one of my de-cluttering targets for the year, and a frog. Words fail me to describe how clunky and ungovernable the Talktalk email system is. I must get on top of this, it bugs me every day. It is 21 pages today; I shall reduce it by one page per day. Yes! Down to one page.

Keep pottering on with other binning and tidying on days when I have spare time. Yes. The garage as above, plus notably:

- The study. Pretty well sorted. Two significant things done. Firstly, gathered up every papery item from all over the house (files, books, boxes of photos etc), thinned out a certain amount and arranged the remainder all on the shelves. All in one place. It feels good. There are things that need further thinning out, boxes of photos particularly, but they are all easily to hand now and ready to tackle. Secondly, unplugged every piece of equipment , disentangled them all, worked out the ideal spot for each thing and plugged them all back on neatly positioned surge-protected extension cables. A lot of furniture shifting and rearranging and dusting involved in the process. The result is splendid. A place for everything, and everything in its place. My spacious desktop (the inherited oak dining table of my childhood home) is almost totally clear. What a great feeling!

- Clothing. It is SW’s annual collection for Macmillan this month, when we all donate the clothes we have shrunk out of. I winnowed out a bagful. Then the ones that are too small I sorted through, some of them aren’t any more, the rest are boxed neatly in the hall cupboard. Encouraging to think that as I declutter surplus pounds I shall get rid of those boxes too.


Support TJ


Tough month for TJ: the ongoing Army appeal and his Finals, both at once. Provide secretarial services, advice and money as required for the appeal. Continue to maintain his money spreadsheet and have brief weekly meetings. Help with catering if required. Otherwise keep out of the way and don’t expect him to be reasonable. When he phones, try not to pick up the stress. Listen and avoid giving unsolicited advice. If the talk turns to catastrophic scenarios, be super kind and reassuring.


Did all that, and the exams are over. Thank goodness! Assuming no retakes. While he has been doing them I have got the key documents in place for the Army appeal. That is the next job.

T


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