Plastered

 Well, we're plastered!  It's looking good.  As I sit here typing this hubby is at my door vaccuming some of the dust.  He's been going round smoothing off the bits that stuck where they weren't supposed to be and I've just watched him lol.  I feel I've hit a bit of a brick wall today.  I think we were so busy preparing for this and today is the first day I've really stopped and it's hit me and I feel exhausted!  I think hubby must run on Duracell batteries - clearly my batteries are cheap and nasty ones!

While the plasterer was here we were 'trapped' outside the dining room which is effectively the middle of the house.  We call it the dining room but its the main room in the house - almost like a dining kitchen would be as the kitchen is off the dining room and the living room is off the dining room but we use the dining room most of the time, its where everyone congregates so it was awkward not having it in use.  Fortunately we can get out via the conservatory across the patio and into the kitchen so thank goodness it was dry or that would not have been fun!  Although there was plenty I could do I decided to clear out some stuff from our bedroom cupboards.  We have a box in there that has all sorts of memorabilia in it from when we first met - which is 50 years ago this July! to the present day.  I decided it was time to part with some of it.  I spent a lovely afternoon rereading letters, looking at old concert tickets and reading old birthday/valentine cards etc.  Then I shredded them all and threw them out.  I decided if it's in a box in a cupboard that hasn't seen the light of day for years we don't need it!  I also sorted out an old jewellery box which has stuff in it that was given to me by my grandparents etc so I decided what I wanted to keep and wrote a note to place in the box to explain where the items had come from and why I'd kept them as it occured to me the children would have no idea about most of it after we're gone!  I don't want them to have to go through a ton of stuff that I kept for sentimental reasons so I'm getting rid of some of it and only hanging onto stuff that really matters.  It could take a while!

I'm clearly in a sorting mood.  Now I'm onto sorting paperwork and changing our bank account and getting car breakdown cover organised.  When I say changing our bank account, I've been looking at our account lately and feeling we're not getting our moneys worth from it.  We paid a fee every month to get annual travel insurance and car breakdown cover however when I added it all up and then looked at individual costs of each, we're cheaper not having the account.  Then as though to confirm it, today I spent hours trying to contact the bank to get to the travel insurance people.  When I eventually found out how to reach them (no easy task) the lady on the phone was very cheeky and I basically told her where to put her travel insurance!!  That confirmed for me we were changing our account!  I thought we might have to go into the bank to do it but nope, I went online this afternoon and it took me about three minutes to change to a basic account and we get to keep our bank cards etc as is which was my main worry about changing.  To be honest I was all set to change to a new bank completely but for the moment I'll stay where we are but on a basic account with no fees, just in case it gets complicated!  I've also shredded millions of bits of paper and was also grateful for my squirrel tendencies!  When my elderly aunt died about 7 or 8 years ago and we were clearing her house I took her paper shredder as no-one else wanted it.  We already had one but I put hers in the attic and basically forgot about it - until today!  Our shredder was on it's last legs and it was taking an age to shred all the papers as I'd to keep stopping to fix it then I remembered about my aunts machine and hoped I hadn't got rid of it in a previous tidy out!  Woohoo, there it was and the difference was amazing.  In no time at all I had all the paper shredded and in the bin.  I knew keeping stuff 'just in case' was a good idea!

Now we're onto searching for travel insurance which is complicated by hubby's medical history, to be honest his history isn't so much the problem as a current issue which he is about to get a scan for.  He has a hernia and has now waited 8 months just to get a scan to find out the extent of it.  Of course we'd totally forgotten about this until all the quotes asked if we were awaiting any tests, then sods law an appointment came in for him for 3 weeks before we're due to go which means he's not likely to get the results before we go which means the insurance people will not be happy bunnies!  I'm tempted to 'forget' about the hernia and get a quote based on the known stuff, what do you think?  I'm not going to stress about it, one way or another we'll get some cover and as our flights are covered by Covid insurance I think I can afford to hold off for now.  I've told hubby to turn on his best flirting, smoozing self and hopefully get someone who will perhaps give him a heads up on the result at the scan - can but try!!