Scrabbling

Dim autumn afternoon that feels like evening on account of being well on the way to darkness - indeed dark now that I have been interrupted by a phonecall from Hamid at the Jobcentre, who is chasing up my non-appearing self-employment credits money. He says he's on the case, but it will be paid from whenever it finally starts (next week??) and run for 16 weeks, rather than being backdated to two weeks ago when I actually signed up for it. The long and the short of it is I'm £150 down as of this week on what I'd expected to have in the bank. I know that L will lend it to me, but I am beginning to grow weary of this scrabbling for money all the time. The builders have finished the roof and the gutter, and we await the bill. Time for L to put her hand in her pocket again as my pockets are alarmingly shallow and have nothing in them of the sort likely to cover the roof works. Sigh.

Meanwhile it has grown cold here, with thick fog this morning. When it finally burned off we had lovely sunshine for a few hours, and the same sort of thing is forecast for tomorrow. I like it better than the wind and the rain, but it certainly feels wintry. The amaryllis which has opened two of its astonishing four flowers (on one stem!) is a cheering sight, and I will let you see it when in full glory! I feel a bit like I'm writing a letter home to my parents or something. It is interesting what happens when you pledge to post every day for a month.

L is in the loft again, and just handed me down a lovely flat stone, a bike cover, another sheet of clear plastic and a bag of tupperware boxes! This is all in aid of loft insulation, which L gets free now she is 60. The company are coming a week tomorrow to lay eleven inches of insulation, and we have to clear the loft as far as possible. We are therefore getting rid of all the old crap left by the previous owner, and sorting out our own stuff, so as to take up the minimum of space, because where the stuff sits can't be insulated...

I have a job application in, and the closing date was yesterday, the interview date next Monday. So, it's the old waiting game again. That and the absence of money from the self-employment credits scheme are making me edgy, and the tail end of my cold is tedious, and I slept badly last night, so all in all my mood is flat today. But now I shall go and put potatoes in the oven, and somehow baked potatoes are always comforting. And tonight's my Feldenkrais class - ditto.