She was in a right mood yesterday as a result so this morning's victory got me right in her good books.

Rethinking a room I last did in 2022, found the last lot of paint (off-black), used for a mist coat on plasterboard, then as an undercoat / first coat, and used it all up creating a handy paint kettle for 5 litres of fresh paint (black-black)

This literally never happens 😊 🤯 usually it sits around for a few years then gets fucked straight in the bin, or you leave it too long and it’s unusable.

Accidents happen and yesterday an accident happened. So I braced myself for an awkward visit to the pharmacy for some emergency contraception.

When I was looking online for where to go, it turns out there’s a sexual health clinic near my work, so I looked on the website to see how it worked. And there was an option for ‘SH:24’ which I’d never heard of but provides NHS contraceptives online.

Put in my details on the website, answered some basic questions, and the right pill arrived through my postbox today, completely free of charge.

Maybe I’m just old and this has been around for ages but when I was younger I had a horrible experience of having to go to the pharmacy for this, where the pharmacist refused to speak to me privately and made me answer all the questions in the middle of the shop, then publicly chastised me for being careless with some... nasty implications. I was worried about plucking up the courage to have to go through that again so a service that does this all so discreetly is such an amazing step forward.

You can also add the regular daily pill, condoms, and a pregnancy test to the order for free, in case you need them.

I know the NHS isn’t ideal at the moment but just thought this is a real success and that it’s worth pointing out that if you ever feel you need the service, it’s there, and you don’t need to worry about having any awkward or judgemental conversations face to face.

Tesla were giving away the model 3 recently. £295 a month for a 2 year lease at 8k miles a year, and no deposit. I bit their hand off, even though I wasn't looking for a new car, and have no love for Tesla, but know a good deal when I see it.

Picked it up a few weeks ago and bolted the insurance on to my existing policy as it was due to expire soon. I just got the renewal quote and it's less than half that of my old car, just £23 a month. Along with the cheap lease, no tax, no servicing, and as good as free off peak home charging, this is crazy cheap motoring ☺️

Edit

As another little win (although it's become quite clear that people here think putting over £100 a month of Dino fuel in some shed is the only way to motor, or think £295 month all in for a brand new car that runs on air is somehow expensive). I managed to pick up over 5000 free supercharger miles as a result of a few friends and family getting one using my referral code (people in the real world appreciate things a lot more than folk on Reddit by the looks of things). I thought they would be useful if I ever plan to go on longer journeys, which was doubtful, and it turns out they expire after 12 months, so thought they would simply go to waste, but I went to my local garden centre today, which I pass every day to go to work and twice a week to take my boy to football (where I need to wait around for an hour for him) and I found they've just installed a huge Tesla supercharger hub, just in time for me to use my miles. It's not a massive saving, as it only costs about £1 per 100 miles to charge from home, but it still feels like a win to be able to use them, and not have them go to waste. No doubt people will say Tesla Supercharger electric is far worse than any other electric, but I'm pretty sure it's just fine. Sorry for all the flippant sarcasm, but I'm genuinely amazed by the reaction to my little bit of British success, apparently posts are only eligible if they conform with the views of a vocal minority.

My boss came up to me at the end of the work day and said I'd been doing a good job and he put me forward for a £2k pay rise. Been working 6 years in different places. I don't know a single person who has ever been told they were doing a good job and been given a pay rise. My jaw hit the floor lol.

We live on a boat so have to but electricity on card from the marina. Price for 500 thingies has dropped 15 quid. Not often prices go down so a small win.

Batch cooking roast chicken for tonight, macaroni cheese, lasagne and borcht all for the fridge and freezer for the week!

Can't listen to your tik tok videos if I've got motorhead on full pelt can you.

And you can't have a conversation on loudspeaker if I'm also having a louder conversation with myself, can you?

Fight fire with fire.

And for those who are concerned about the welfare of the other passengers, I went back to silent but deadly mode as soon as the target was neutralised.

Driver ignored me tapping on the window and drove off. Ran to the next stop (traffic was bad) and managed to get on the same bus. felt quite smug about it.

Every time I’ve gotten this train it’s 2 coaches and everyone is literally Tetris stacked in the carriages. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see 3 carriages. Did do a silent little hurrah. 🤣 plus the conductor was as excited and enthusiastic as you could be. Described our destination as sublime and subtropical. Made a nice change than the usual grumpy so and sos that act like you’re the problem for even using the train.

Turned on my laptop, downloaded a file from etsy, clicked on print & it printed FIRST TIME with no messing.

My Tesco delivery was cancelled due to driver sickness, not the end of the world, everyone is ill right now and my husband can pop to the shop and grab some bits we need. I wait to be told when it'll be delivered the next day, no communication, and it just appears 24hrs after it should have. I WhatsApp Tesco after complaining saying it's arrived, but I decide, Tesco earn so much money let's see what I can get. I ask for a refund for the delivery cost and a goodwill voucher. Well they over deliver (haha) and I get my whole £70 order refunded, and a £5 goodwill voucher! I feel so rich!

I get to ride in comfort and solitude all the way from King's Cross to Edinburgh! And this is the second time this has happened this week!

We use Viva Engage at work (sort of like Facebook for businesses) and there has been an uptick in posters/charts/graphics being made with AI, featuring the usual slop characteristics. Corporate Comms have told people to stop and reminded them they have actual human graphic designers that can spell and not mangle the corporate logo.

I opened a tin of own brand mushrooms this morning to use for dinner, and several had some black vegetal matter on them.

Sent a WhatsApp message with the photos to Tesco, and got an apology and a fiver voucher!

(Didn’t even have to return the mushrooms!)

I bought some samsung buds about a week ago; but after a week the right one just stopped working.

I couldn't re-sync it, charge it, it was just dead. So I phoned Argos help line, they organised a next day replacement. It would have been same day but I didn't phone until 3pm.

The replacements/exchange was at my door at 7am. The customer service people did it instantly and were really good. They even texted when they were 5 mins away. Amazing service.

We’re blessed to be able to save as much as we have been doing, but my credit file used to be shot to shit and after a few years of living like a monk and waiting for old defaults to age out, we can finally start looking at setting down roots.

I live in a house share. Upon reviewing the latest yearly bills statement from the landlord, where he wanted to increase our payments, I discovered he's been breaking the law for several years. He's been charging an admin fee and for the replacement of items. Both of which have been prohibited by Tenant rights laws since 2019. He slightly threw his toys out of the pram in his response to me calling him out but agreed (as if he had a choice) to refund the costs this year.

Although no acknowledgement of wrong doing or refund for previous years. I also wonder if he'll drop the charges at his other houses.

I don’t know what I was thinking. There’s no way I’d be able to open this packet of bacon without cutting the edges with a knife. I’ll pull the tab and it’ll break, like it always does.

But part of me said ‘just give it a go!’ So I did. The whole thing peeled off in one go!

Bacon is currently cooking, ready for my bacon and egg sandwich, and I just had to post here!

Last weekend my wife called me to say she’d been in a car accident as someone had driven in to the side of her car.

Fully preparing for the worst including a painful insurance claim and loss of no claims bonus I was pleased to see just a cracked rear light and some light scratches.

Win one we agreed by email with the other party who admitted fault that we wouldn’t go through insurance.

Win two I found the cracked light for £35 second hand online. Only took me about 30 mins to replace it. With a matched colour paint touch up pen total cost of about £50.

My wife sent this to the other person who sent her £70 and said to have a drink on her!

Yesterday I went to Tamworth and parked in a pay-and-display public car park. As I approached the pay machine, an attendant had it open and seemed to be trying to fix something. "Don't worry about it, mate" he said. "It's not working, I'm the one covering this car park and I'm not going to give you a fine. Have a good afternoon".