A productive couple of hours

I've been contacted by the publisher about the not being able to read the DRC because of some techie issues and they've sorted it now, so I'm gonna start reading and reviewing it again tomorrow with hopefully a more than single star opinion this time.

I've also used the second product test and got a before and after photo to upload to the end of test survey.

As if that wasn't enough, I'm now officially booked in for the Air Source Heat Pump service next week, but I think I've already said about that.

Do I deserve a J2O for achieving so much this afternoon??

Weekly virus scan...

...has just finished and my likkle laptop is still free of nasties, which is reassuring, so I've started the backups for the last week and I'm hoping that it'll be finished before I go and make Steve's lunch for him.

I've had my first caffeine drink of the week, and in the 20 minutes it took to drink it, I've already been for 4 wee's!

I'm expecting a couple of deliveries today - one from Amazon and the other is something confidential that I'm not allowed to talk about yet, which is fair enough and totally understandable.

Have I already said about starting the backups?  Just in case I haven't, they are underway now and I'm hoping that they will be finished before I go out and make Steve's lunch for him 'cos the washing up fairies still haven't visited yet, so it'll be another day of totally liquids again.

At this rate, I'll have met my minimum liquid intake when I take my lunchtime pill 'cos I had 1½ litres of water for breakfast, then the coffee and the squash to take my pills with as soon as I came down.

I'm up-to-date with my survey invitations and I've logged in to my credit score account and because I've done that at least once a week, it's increased by 3 points which is what I was hoping for - it's going in the right direction now, thankfully... it's only taken 6 years lol

My bladder is telling me that it's time for my 6th wee of the morning because of the caffeine and not having anything solid in my belly since I had my breakfast on Monday - so about 50 hours without eating anything at all so far but my carer has had 7 meals and about 9 hot drinks in the same amount of time.

That's reassuring then

Just made a drinking chocolate for me an' 'im, put it into the FitBit app and I've only gotta consume another 285 calories to take me up to the day's entire calorie intake, so the instant soup for lunch and the soya yoghurt for pud should pretty much get me into the green, then a couple more drinking chocolates this afternoon will hopefully see me significantly into the red, calorie-wise, which'll hopefully mean that I've put on more weight when I weigh myself on Monday, then it's just a case of keep piling on the kilo's until NaNo starts and I'll be living on just soup and J2O's until I've completed it.  It's only for 10 days, but ideally a week if I can manage to write 7,200 words a day, like last year.  I'm gonna push myself but not to breaking point - as long as I get 5,000 words written a day then I've earnt the reward and any other words are just a bonus.

This'll be my 12th or 13th year and I've won all of them except my first one, so I know what to expect and what works for me now.  Steve usually shuts up after a couple of days too, but I'm gonna be wearing my headphones permanently (except for bathroom breaks, obviously) and refuse to do answer the phone or door or whatever else until I've finished. It's only 20 days a year, so I don't reckon it's too much to ask not to be disturbed just for those 20 days, right?

My monthly virus scan is at 30% so I reckon it'll be finished at around the 2-3pm kinda mark, then it'll be a couple of hours for the backups, I'll download my email for the first time today, make Steve's tea for him, take my pills and head to bed for the night.  

 

As I think I predicted yesterday, I didn't get an early night after all, same as usual, but it won't stop me from hoping that it'll happen.

Steve actually turned the heating on a tiny bit so it must be cold today 'cos that doesn't usually happen until well after NaNo!

I've just snaffled one of Steve's boring biscuits and put it into my FitBit app so I've only got 224 calories left to eat to take me into the green today, so it should be pretty easy to turn the graph pretty significantly red, even though it's a virus scan and back-up day today.  Tomorrow is gonna be a low calorie day 'cos I've gotta make Steve's lunch so I dunno if I'll be able to stay upright for long enough to make my own too.

There was no news on any of my three sites this morning and I've already sorted out the forumy stuff, so I can spend the day on Facebook and doing surveys today, in amongst caring for my carer.

Gotta remember to go and do the watering at some point today... might check on the wetness of the compost before I fill the jug up with water today though!  😆

Did a couple of...

...fairly interesting surveys this afternoon and opened up my NaNo21 novel which is exactly 50,000 words, so my to-do list for tomorrow is to attempt to do the news as soon as I come down, hopefully have breakfast then spend the rest of the day on editing my NaNo novel.  It'll hopefully be doable, but I'll be listening to my body closer than normal tomorrow and I'll be stopping and going to bed as soon as it tells me to.  Plan for the rest of the day is to keep doing surveys as soon as they come in and heading to bed pretty much as soon as I've taken my evening pills tonight so that I can give my body a chance to catch up on the 2 hours it was short of today.  I'm not gonna push myself at all and my body will get what it tells me it needs otherwise I'll end up seriously regretting it.

That's the...

...washing up done and my order out for delivery (currently due between 3.15pm and 7.15pm so there's no rush to get lunch sorted and out of the way rapidly), and I quickly ran out of motivation to do the news this morning, so I'm gonna crack on with my surveys instead for half an hour or so, then make a start on lunch at about 12 o'clock noon mid-day then let the baking trays fester for a few hours and do the final part of the product trial, potentially with a follow-up tomorrow, like there was this morning.

I've now cared for my carer for a smidgen over 4 hours this morning so it's likely to be double what he's done to care for both of us by the time I've made and dished up our lunches, yet apparently I'm not the carer and do nothing to support him <shrug>

No surveys either, 'cos...

...they all wanted to know my postcode in the first question, which just ain't gonna happen, so there are no surveys either so far today... dunno what I'm gonna do with myself now! lol

No news again today, so...

...I didn't need to worry about causing issues with the backups and it means that I can do surveys until they've finished and I need to log in to this appointment.

The backups are already at over 90% so there's a potential for them to finish hopefully within the next hour or so which would give me plenty of time to lig about online before the appointment.

Today is gonna be a good day for me I reckon.

Lunchtime pill...

...crunched up and swallowed, FitBit charging up, belly starting to complain of hunger (we're going with the late lunch after all) again.  I'm absolutely cream-crackered so I'm attempting surveys to keep my mind off everything until my FitBit has finished charging up... which it has done now, so I've put it back around my ankle then I'll go for a wee and wait for this person from Olio.

BBL.

All up-to-date with...

...my emails and forums and survey invites now (completely forgot to publish my lunch photo before I started though lol) so I've just gotta take my last pills of the day at 7pm then I can have an early night... bet I don't though, 'cos I was still caring for my carer until gone 8.30pm last night and I'm predicting it'll be the same tonight too, just like the vast majority of nights.

Just to try and get in with my carer's final part of caring before I head to bed, he's getting his tea now, rather than at 8pm whether he likes it or not lol

Steve's got his lunch now and...

...I'm not gonna have anything in case my delivery turns up mid-mouthful, so I'm gonna pour myself another glass of pop and hope for the best.  If my delivery comes at the latest time (3.15pm) then it's too close to bedtime for me to eat without throwing up, so I'll have a Graze punnet and peanuts and hope for the best.

Just had the reminder for my lunchtime pill pop up, so I'm gonna check to see if my delivery is on the map yet then take it if it isn't.  I'm about to jinx things, but I've taken all my pills at the right time so far this week, which is good going by me 'cos I usually forget at least one lol

OK, it's not on the map so I'm gonna take my lunchtime pill now then maybe do a survey or something while I'm waiting.

I'm lost now lol

So far this morning, since 3.11am, I've achieved (in memory order rather than time order):

• Run the daily virus scan
• Made two sets of breakfast
• Made 4 hot drinks
• Taken my morning pills
• Updated the grocery shop for the next 3 weeks
• Sorted the forum out
• Cared for my carer for 5 hours
• Posted my breakfast photo
• Asked Steve to get more hot chocolate powder and soya milk from his mum
• Attempted a few surveys

 

My current to-do list for the rest of the day is:

• keep on top of my email
• keep on top of Facebook
• keep on top of the survey invitations
• hope I don't get ill from having seriously out-of-date soya milk for breakfast
• prepare for tomorrow morning's eye test - my first time since 2019 and I was told I needed them every year - woops!
• wait for the Freegle lady to turn up at some point this morning
• do some more editing of my writing
  

I've already significantly reduced the step count (and therefore burnt calories) today than I have for well over a week and I've adjusted my FitBit app to maintain my weight instead of lose it now, so that's gonna take a bit of getting used to again now.  I can, apparently, put on up to 3kg and still be within the weight range for my height, but I wanna keep it at around this weight, if I can, so that I can still have pig-outs without having to lose the weight again.  I'm not going to do any more exercising this week and possibly next week, but I'll do maybe half an hour twice a day after that because it genuinely did help me to feel better about myself and my body, I just wanna get used to the new calorie count that I'm allowed now.

I still won't be eating for lunch unless my carer cooks, but I'm gonna try not to stop eating breakfast any more... just hope that the out-of-date soya milk that I had this morning doesn't make me ill lol

Gonna go and get a bottle of pop for myself now 'cos I haven't had any fizzy drinks for a couple of weeks and I've got 6x2 litre bottles to get through before Tuesday lol

Very nearly...

...6½ hours of care for my carer, but I've caught up with everything now, so I'm gonna spend this afternoon doing surveys.

That's the news done, so now...

I can spend the rest of the time doing surveys until my monthly virus scan has finished.

Just taken...

...a Nurofen for my wisdom-tooth ache and my last two pills of the day, so hopefully they will all kick in soon and I can head to bed for an early night.  TBH I'm incredibly proud of myself for taking the Nurofen without crunching it up 'cos it was about ⅓ bigger than my biggest pill that I take every day and I sometimes struggle with those, but this one went down surprisingly easily which Steve reckons is 'cos of the coating on it.  I've done it once, so I know I can do it now and it's already starting to kick in, so I reckon I'll invest in another packet if I need to in future.  I've got another 15 left in the box, so hopefully that'll keep me going but like with the ginger and the TENS machine, they are gonna be a must-have for me from now on

Blimey that was a long paragraph lol

 

Current running total of care for each other looks like this:

My carer's care of me so far this week:  1 hour, 51 minutes
My care of my carer so far this week:  68 hours, 13 minute

Gonna do a few more surveys then head to bed I reckon, so I'll say goodnight to you all now and I'll see you back here bright and early in the morning.

What an afternoon!

I've spent this afternoon taking surveys and mostly being rejected from them, but that's OK and to be expected - keeps me out of trouble while I'm working my way through all the invites though!

Got about half an hour before I take my last pills of the day, then I'll start closing down all the programmes and doing the admin on the caring spreadsheet just before I shut down for the night.

Also spent an hour or so editing 2 weeks worth of grocery shops, so I'll put the new totals below, but they are likely to change before they're delivered, but it should be roughly these totals:

Tuesday 7th:

My stuff:  £7.72
Steve's stuff:  £11.97
Joint stuff:  £28.39

Tuesday 14th:

My stuff:  £5.52
Steve's stuff:  £13.67
Joint stuff:  £21.10

So, right now, those numbers are the way it should be, with the stuff we can both have being the most expensive... let's see if I can find Tuesday's order totals for you all while I'm yabbering on about it:

Tuesday 30th:

My stuff:  £5.74
Steve's stuff:  £10.64
Joint stuff:  £30.36

So I'm very impressed by those totals!

My screen has just darkened, so that means it's pill time now then bed time for me very soon, so I'll shut up now 😉

Just in case I don't post again before I head to bed, I'll say nite nite to you all now and I'll see you bright and early in the morning.

Just finished and been rewarded for...

...my first fully completed survey of the day lol  Out of about 50 that I've clicked on the invites for, this is the only one that I haven't been screened out of today lol

Been doing surveys all afternoon...

...while my carer was asleep.  

 

My belly is really rumbling now so might go and make myself a hot chocolate when my FitBit has finished charging up.

That's the news done, so time for...

...a day full of surveys until Steve's delivery comes that he's assuming I'll answer the door to and I've gotta re-dress the back of his thigh at some point today 'cos I spotted that the dressing was quite bloody as he was washing at the kitchen sink again.

I'm 4 minutes away from caring for my carer for 3 hours already this morning and he's just come in here, so I'll see if he's got a delivery slot for his delivery then I bet he'll fall asleep again within seconds of telling me what it is, just like he has done all morning so far.

I was wrong... he's asleep now before he's told me what it is, so I'll go and add the time to my spreadsheet.

Mornin' all

I've been awake and down here since 1.18am after exactly 3 hours of sleep (no typo's) 'cos of this dratted cold and I've been caring for my carer ever since.

 

I've spent the last two hours supporting a friend too, so I reckon it'll be a 15 hour day of caring for my carer and I doubt my carer will cook today, just like he never does on a Monday and I'll have to make his breakfast for him, possibly at the expense of my own again, but he doesn't seem to care about that, as long as he eats and sleeps whenever he wants to then that's all that matters apparently.

The daily virus scan has finished and my laptop is still free of viruses and malware, thankfully and I was paid just before I woke up so I've been able to move a little bit of cash over into my savings 'cos all the monthly bills have been paid now, so I've assigned the shopping budget until my next pay day long as we don't go over budget with Steve's food at the expense of my own.  

 

It's the start of NaNo in exactly 2 weeks so he'll have the total budget to himself and I reckon he'll be reluctant to give any of the budget back to joint stuff and there won't even be a fiver left for my drinks for the rest of the year, so I'll be living on pretty much literally water until at least part-way through January, same as every year in the past.  I've got enough instant soup to see me through the first 16 days of NaNo (assuming Steve doesn't have any instant soup of course), but that's it then, nothing left for me at all.

I'm gonna take my morning pills now, while my carer is snoring his head off.  BBIAB.

➰➰➰

OK, that's me dosed up until lunchtime now, and I've remembered to add the squash I used to take them with to my FitBit app, so I'm ready to rock and roll for the rest of the day now.

I've already read and replied to all my emails and I've currently got 9 survey invitations waiting for me, so I'll do those while my carer is asleep - I'll prolly be rejected for most of them though 😏

That's the tomatoes watered again and...

...I've decided against doing any surveys until after our groceries have been and gone and we/I have put them all away and I've (hopefully) had my lunch, so you've all gotta put up with me yabbering on until that happens 😜