L's Journal

Where are you and where are you going?
BookLoverL
Posts: 294
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 4:17 pm
Location: England

Re: L's Journal

Post by BookLoverL »

When I get chance to go there for longer at once, I'm definitely planning to sit there and write some nature-inspired poetry. And maybe grab some binoculars to look for more wildlife, for sure.

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Chris
Posts: 773
Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2010 2:44 pm

Re: L's Journal

Post by Chris »

BookLoverL wrote:
Fri Jun 18, 2021 10:27 am
According to the signs there they are deliberately using the space to help conserve rare and decreasing species too. It's such a great space honestly, I can't believe it's been 10 minutes walk away from my new location the whole time and I didn't even realise.
Makes me wonder what exists 10 minutes in the other direction....

BookLoverL
Posts: 294
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 4:17 pm
Location: England

Re: L's Journal

Post by BookLoverL »

(removed this line)

In other news, I just got back from visiting my dad for Father's Day, and I now have 16 fire bricks and 3 halves for use in potentially constructing a brick barbecue oven in my yard! I still need to research how to do that and also sell my mum on the idea, and I'll probably need a few more materials, but it's a great start and if I can create an enclosed outdoor oven that'll be a lot better for cooking with than if I let mum get some cheap crappy barbecue from a shop.
Last edited by BookLoverL on Wed Jan 12, 2022 11:51 am, edited 1 time in total.

BookLoverL
Posts: 294
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 4:17 pm
Location: England

Re: L's Journal

Post by BookLoverL »

YEAHHHHHHH I AM NOW OFFICIALLY UNEMPLOYED! :D
Finally reached the end of the notice period for my job and can enjoy sweet sweet freedom for just a little while.

Going to give myself a week or two of proper holiday and then start looking for something else that fits better, i.e., stays on the days it's supposed to be on and doesn't expand to suck up all the extra time. If I can get something that's 2 days a week and pays at least £10000, that'll give me both a nice amount of time for what I want to do and a possible savings margin of a few thousand each year. So that'll be a lot better.

On housing, my mum is has received her half of the money from my childhood home and has made arrangements with our current landlord to buy the house we're living in right now. She's going to put me on the contract too, so a) I won't have to pay any rent, only bills and possibly a portion of future maintenance, so that's dropped my projected yearly expenses down by a fair amount, and b) if something happens to her I'll keep the house. I really like this house and the general location so it's a good thing for sure, and now that she's away from my dad and therefore not constantly stressed, I'm happy to keep living with my mum in the long run.

BookLoverL
Posts: 294
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 4:17 pm
Location: England

Re: L's Journal

Post by BookLoverL »

Haven't posted much on here lately for some reason, got distracted I think. Anyway, I'm still unemployed and looking for a job because I didn't start looking very fast and ended up only applying for a few jobs. But I have another interview lined up soon for a part time admin position, so we'll see how that goes.

In other news, as of sometime in September my mum and I officially own the house, so no more rent to pay. There are quite a number of things mum thinks need doing to the house on the interior design front that I wouldn't necessarily bother with, but as long as she's willing to pay for them with her money and not mine, that's fine by me.

Historically I really haven't done much DIY type things at all, but now that we own the place and my dad isn't here to do all those types of things, I'm trying to dabble in the basics. Mum got some IKEA wardrobes for some reason (she buys things significantly more often than I do) and I managed to successfully assemble those, and I also successfully drilled our door frame today to attach a doorbell that she also bought, despite previously not remembering how to swap the drill bits out. We were able to borrow a drill from a neighbour, so we didn't have to buy a drill. I realise this is extremely basic level of DIY skills, but I'm gradually learning, at least. The next project is to figure out how to hang my mirror on the wall instead of leaving it sat where it is on the floor - my dad tells me that since our walls are apparently plasterboard I'll need a special fixing to distribute the weight.

In other good news, I finally seem to have set up a good system to manage my high level of distractibility enough to get chores done reliably. An online friend recommended me an app that you can input your chores into and then it'll list them for you daily/weekly/monthly/on certain days of the week/etc., so rather than getting up and forgetting what chores I needed to do, I can get up, look at the list, and then see easily what needs doing. Combining this with having finally moved my computer back into my bedroom instead of having it on the kitchen table, so that I'm not putting it on right at breakfast, means that I've now set up a routine of:
get up
read part of a library book while eating breakfast - I usually get nonfiction books so this gets my brain working early in the day
do the chores on the chore list for the day immediately, BEFORE turning the computer on, or only turning it on when I get to any computer-based chores
when I do finally get to putting my computer on this means my brain is already in a curious-learning-things or a productive-useful-things mode, so I'm less likely to end up getting distracted by some sort of fun but empty nonsense for six hours

Overall, this means that a) I'm getting all my regular chores done within 2 hours of getting up, and b) I've done a lot more satisfying things since I started doing this than I had in a while. So definitely the new system is helping.

I also finally cancelled my Zoom subscription, only 3 whole months after I finished using it for work. Honestly this is just more evidence why I should avoid getting subscriptions ever, because I always forget to cancel them and end up overpaying. But in the future if I want to host any videoconferencing I'll just use Jitsi.

BookLoverL
Posts: 294
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 4:17 pm
Location: England

Re: L's Journal

Post by BookLoverL »

I accepted a job offer today!

It's for a part time admin job, working Mon-Fri mornings only, which I think will be a nice schedule for getting me in a good routine, meaning I can take advantage of nice weather in the afternoon, and not being too many hours at once, etc. Salarywise it's somewhere between £8900 and £9000 a year, I forgot the exact number, which should be plenty to cover my expenses.

It's with an organisation that requires a DBS check to work there (formerly known as criminal record check), so I don't actually start the job for about 6 weeks while they process my paperwork relating to that.

Overall I'm happy with the hours and the expected responsibilities. Also, it's a longer walk or reasonable bus ride from my house, so I can definitely sell my car, which I was hanging on to until I knew what type of job I'd have. After I've done that I should easily be able to keep my yearly expenses under £5500, definitely under £6000.

Looking forward to the figure in my bank account going slowly up again instead of slowly down.
Last edited by BookLoverL on Wed Jan 12, 2022 11:51 am, edited 1 time in total.

BookLoverL
Posts: 294
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 4:17 pm
Location: England

Re: L's Journal

Post by BookLoverL »

I calculated my annual figures more properly instead of pulling guesstimates for electricity and gas from UK averages.

All bills are shown as 50% since they're being split with Mum. This is also the projection for after I sell my car.

Home insurance (50%) £145.31
Council tax (50%) £1,041.02
Gas (50%) £367.53
Electricity (50%) £287.20
Water (50%) £137.52
Mobile phone £72.00
Internet & landline (50%) £150.00
Gardening hobby £30.00
Grocery shopping (50%) £1,040.00
Takeaways £40.00
Extra snacks £48.00
Clothes (estimate) £50.00
Haircuts £60.00
Toiletries (estimate) £60.00
Glasses (average per year) £50.00
Dentist (estimate) £100.00
Prescription meds £56.10
Charitable donations £30.00
Bus travel (estimate) £180.00
Train travel (estimate) £600.00
Cinema £15.00
Books (maximum) £240.00
Other hobbies (estimate) £60.00
Restaurants £30.00
Birthdays & Christmas £60.00
Holidays (estimate) £150.00

This totals about £5,100. In addition there is about £300 worth of annual subscription to old blog website hosting for my past blog attempts that are now in the graveyard that I keep forgetting to cancel, so if I don't sort my brain out enough to cancel that then it'll be the slightly higher spend. Subscriptions are honestly my nemesis and for some reason I keep getting executive dysfunction about cancelling them.

The estimate figures are all towards the more generous end, so in reality those categories will likely be smaller. There are several other categories that may also be smaller. Some hobby spending may be bigger depending on what I decide to do, and balance that out a little.

AxelHeyst
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Re: L's Journal

Post by AxelHeyst »

It took me a full year to seek and destroy all my nagging subscriptions to random things, I feel you on that. (actually now that you bring it up I think I have one remaining that I have to shuffle a bunch of files around for….) Congrats on the new job! Sounds like a nice way to have structure, income, and a lot of autonomy. I dig the updates.

BookLoverL
Posts: 294
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 4:17 pm
Location: England

Re: L's Journal

Post by BookLoverL »

Thanks! I definitely think it's going to accomplish several things I want in my life.

I've decided my next project is fixing the box full of broken clothes I have that's been hanging around for ages. I already made a start today by sewing a replacement button on some trousers and fixing the end of the waist drawstring that had gotten ragged, and next I'm stitching up the seam on the back pocket of some jeans. Both items are things I loved to wear before they broke, so having them fixed will mean I can put them right back in the rotation.

I'm starting with the things that seem easier and working up to the more tricky ones. There's a few things like "needs extensive patch on rear" and "zipper extremely broken" too. And there's a shirt that needs an elbow patch, but I'm not sure stylistically what sort of elbow patch I prefer yet.

I found out my mum actually has a bunch of offcuts of fabric already at least, that her cousin gave her. So I won't have to try and find any fabric for the patches.

BookLoverL
Posts: 294
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 4:17 pm
Location: England

Re: L's Journal

Post by BookLoverL »

I finally got round to testing out my bike today, have confirmed that the brakes and gears and stuff work fine. I got it second hand back in July or August or so from one of my mum's cousins for £50, because my previous bike was broken in about 4 different ways at once. We still managed to give away the old one to someone who was gonna try and repair it, but it was beyond my ability.

The new one isn't my ideal colour, but I don't really care about that. Gonna try and learn some more about bike maintenance to keep it working nicely for longer maybe. Now that I've tested it in the local park, I'll try to arrange a day to test out the route for cycling to my dad's - Google Maps estimates it'll take me a little over an hour and I can stay off busy roads the whole way. I think that's gonna be the best way to visit him once I sell my car.
Last edited by BookLoverL on Wed Jan 12, 2022 11:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

shaz
Posts: 420
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2021 7:05 pm
Location: Colorado, US

Re: L's Journal

Post by shaz »

Hi L. Congratulations on all of the upgrades. Re: the blog subscription, can you cancel it now while you are thinking about it? Do you need to wait until the end of the period?

BookLoverL
Posts: 294
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 4:17 pm
Location: England

Re: L's Journal

Post by BookLoverL »

I can theoretically cancel it any time, but:

I keep thinking of it at random times when it's inconvenient.
I have to find what I did with the login details or figure out how to cancel it without them.
I have some executive function issues relating to my disability (suspect I may also have ADHD or something in addition to Tourette's).
I keep running into executive function issues when I think about trying to find the login details.

BookLoverL
Posts: 294
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 4:17 pm
Location: England

Re: L's Journal

Post by BookLoverL »

Deleted this post
Last edited by BookLoverL on Wed Jan 12, 2022 11:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

BookLoverL
Posts: 294
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 4:17 pm
Location: England

Re: L's Journal

Post by BookLoverL »

Cycled to my dad's today to test it out in advance of my plan to sell my car. I was a bit slow due to being presently out of practice with my bike and also I hadn't taken that route before, but it's definitely feasible as a method of visiting him.

BookLoverL
Posts: 294
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 4:17 pm
Location: England

Re: L's Journal

Post by BookLoverL »

I discovered one of the items in my sewing repairs box is a fleece that is 100% functional except that the slider part of the zip is broken (not in a way that is repairable by paperclip). Quick google reveals that you can buy size 5 vislon zip sliders for a few quid online, so I'm thinking I'll have a look on ebay or amazon tomorrow, which is much cheaper than buying a whole new fleece, especially since the rest of it is functional and there aren't even any holes. I like this particular fleece because it has zip pockets, unlike the other fleece that I'm currently wearing which has non-fastening pockets only.

The issue I think is that somehow, the front cover of the zip slider has come off along with the pull tab, leaving a little lever showing. The zip can be pulled up easily, but can only be pulled down by manually depressing the lever, which is annoying and slow due to it being small. There is no longer an attachment point for anything like a paperclip. I think with a functioning zip this lever is automatically depressed somehow. I can't think of a way to repair it except to replace the slider, anyway...

basuragomi
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Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2019 3:13 pm

Re: L's Journal

Post by basuragomi »

A flat split ring might have enough width to it to trip the lever while still being able to fit into the pull.

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Ego
Posts: 6359
Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2011 12:42 am

Re: L's Journal

Post by Ego »

I just used JB Weld for the exact same problem on an old tent zipper. I still had the crown (tab holder) that had pulled off so I just epoxied it back to the flat slider body.

Image

BookLoverL
Posts: 294
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 4:17 pm
Location: England

Re: L's Journal

Post by BookLoverL »

I don't have the crown any more unfortunately, so welding it back on won't be an option. I *do* have a bunch of chainmail rings hanging around from when I was into larping back at uni for some reason, so maybe one of those might be similar to flat split ring. I'll try that before I go into buying a new zipper, thanks.

BookLoverL
Posts: 294
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 4:17 pm
Location: England

Re: L's Journal

Post by BookLoverL »

Must admit that due to lack of experience I'm a bit unclear where I'm supposed to be attaching the hypothetical split ring to. (Though I have found out that mum apparently had some jewellery pliers and a few different jewellery-related metal bits and pieces all along, in addition to me having the chainmail.) Attached a picture here for clarity, if I've remembered how images work on here:

https://imgur.com/a/f85yBMT

basuragomi
Posts: 419
Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2019 3:13 pm

Re: L's Journal

Post by basuragomi »

I thought you still had the tab holder, not having it definitely makes a repair harder.

My first thought is to try and support something off of the stud, it looks like a nice chunk of metal designed to retain the tab holder.

If you can fit a wire through that rivet hole and if that stud really has a notch in it, maybe that can support a stiff wire to hold a new pull?

e.g.:
Image

Building something up around the stud with epoxy would probably work too but is very fiddly due to avoiding the lever. You could also just rip out the lever which might disable the locking entirely.

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