I'm feeling rather better.
The loss of appetite was really weird – knowing that, in three days, I'd only had three bowls of fruit+yogurt+museli (my basic breakfast) to eat and I still wasn't hungry. It's coming back a bit now.
Yesterday, I needed to get some photos printed for L+L16+JA to take to Nottingham. Unless there are lots of them and they're not urgent, our usual favourite place to do that is at Jessops in Bromley. The price is reasonable and there are plenty of charity shops etc to browse while waiting.
Wait for builder to arrive. He finally does, hands me a bucket and goes off, talking into his mobile without saying a word to me. Er?? OK, leave a note with an instruction not to do something he's been thinking of doing without asking us first.
Get to Bromley (about 15 mins on the train). Walk up the hill to Jessops. Stick USB stick into one of their terminals. Won't read it. Argh! Try another terminal. Reads it, phew. Spend about 15 minutes tweaking photos. Get paperwork to pay. At this point, they decide to tell me that they can't do them today. Grrr. Snappy Snaps could do them, but it took another 15 minutes tweaking etc. Collect, back on train.
So that left collecting JA from school, taking her to an opticians appointment, then to St Pancras to meet. That was achieved. Now to go home, I'm very tired.
It was only as I was arriving that I went, ah, L left the car near Balham, didn't she? Given I already had a travelcard, it was 'free' today, but not tomorrow. So after a rest, and seeing what the builder had done (deliver some more things, like the shower tray) I got on the train to Balham (about 20 mins).
One side-effect of being ill for the past week is that there hasn't been a big shop done. As I was getting the sat nav out, I was reminded of this by seeing the voucher we'd got last time: £9 off a £90 spend. Which expired in an hour (11.59pm).
Fortunately, there's a 24 hour Sainsbury's not far from home, and I got there with about 20 minutes to spare. OK, I cannot (and don't want to) do a large enough grocery shop in that time. If there are things I want in the household section, I'll do it, otherwise just accept it's not going to happen.
As it happened, they did have something for £79.99 we've been talking about getting. And L wants a different cheap replacement for her old mobile, and there's one for £14.99. Worst case: we don't like them, return them for a refund and we're up a petrol voucher (5p off per litre for spending £50) plus some 'make you feel guilty about your kids' schools' vouchers. Go for it.
Get to the checkout. The big item is actually £49.99. On one level that's very good, but it does mean I can do another £25.02 of shopping for £16.02. So, can I find something for £25 in about five minutes? This proves more difficult than you might think! If you drink, it's easy – just get some whisky or similar. I almost went for several months' supply of good olive oil before finding something else we do want for £24.99. Grab some apples (along with bags of carrots, potatoes and something else, just 30p at the moment).
Just make it 🙂
Yes, I know some of the psychology of that was screwy 🙂
But the £25 item does turn out to be a big improvement over what it replaces. The £50 item looks pretty good too. I haven't tried the apples yet…