(no subject)

[ewt]

So. Cat-sitting. Do people usually get paid for this, in this country? I have no idea.

I'm wondering whether it's worth asking Jed Phoenix to make me a one of these but ankle-length, or whether I should just press on with sewing stuff and make my own damned kilt. A lined kilt is quite a lot of work. I wouldn't want a zip-out back panel, but that just means even more pleating. Hmm. Is a plain black cotton drill kilt such a horrible thing to want? And another one in black wool for winter. Kilts trump jeans on just about every level.

Home repossessions are up. Is it possible to buy repossessed homes very cheaply in the UK, or do they just get sold by the bank for the full market price?

Yesterday teaching went well. Then off to the Pembury for lovely food; I didn't end up playing any games.

My hip started to hurt in a new place at about 21.45, I eventually moved to the comfy sofa, not sure if it was any help. Probably should have taken painkillers when it started; did take some before bed. This morning my hip seems okay but my lower back is quite unhappy. I'm looking forward to seeing the osteopath later today, as it is likely I'll feel better afterward.

I've noticed I have a tendency to sleep with my wrists bent forward and my fingers and thumb clenched into a sort of beak. This is not actually very comfortable.

With the hip pain not being quite so constantly at the top of my list of ouch, I'm noticing a lot more ankle, shoulder, neck, elbow and wrist pain. It isn't anywhere near as debilitating as the hip and lower back stuff though. Using a pencil grip helps a lot with the right elbow problems.

I need to remember that some of the reason that I'm often so exhausted is because chronic pain is tiring. To counter this I should a) take painkillers a little more readily and b) schedule naps and stick to them. That and the other stuff, doing exercises and so on to eventually rehabilitate my body to the point where it doesn't hurt all the time.

I remain pissed off at my GP, who has been telling me to do things like go running (not great for hypermobility sufferers, certainly when unfit, although I do hope to do some light running when I've got enough strength to do it without hurting myself), ignore the pain I get, and so on. This would not be so bad if she'd actually bothered examining me but she hasn't. Bah.

Yesterday I made some not-wonderful food choices early on in the day and then ended up craving protein and eating more. Not a disaster, and supplementing with the protein foods was definitely the right thing to do, but it would have been more efficient to go with the protein right away and eat less food. I spent a lot of time uncomfortably full.

Plans for today: gentle walking, horn mouthpiece buzzing, lunch, nap, dealing with various things that don't require physical exertion (scheduling, planning, paperwork), dinner, Ki-Aikido. I don't know if I'll practise or not, but I really need to have a chat with Sensei about the hypermobility stuff.

Comments

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

I don't know about 'normally'. My mother always bought a small gift for our neighbours when they cat-sat.

http://www.repossessedhousesforsale.co.uk/

[fjm.livejournal.com]

I leave food money, usually five pounds a day, plus travel expenses, unless this is one of those "you need three wekes in London, I'm happy to have you as a guest, but would you mind feeding the cat while we aren't there" kind of situation.

The only time I ever used professional cat sitters it was a disaster: they were supposed to come twice a day and were told firmly only to put down a small amount of food each day. On the last day when I came home there was a huge amount of stale cat food in the bowl, clearly there from the morning, and cat sick everywhere.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

Sweet! I tend to have a Zone 1-3 season ticket as a matter of course, because I need it to get to and from teaching.

Professional petsitters usually = bad news. I've never used them (indeed, in my adult life I have had no pets of my own :/) but I just get a bad feeling. I think there's a tendency to over-book and not leave enough time for each pet.

[devvie.livejournal.com]

I use to cat sit and also watered the plants and got paid for it...but the people were from Germany. So I'm not sure if it was just a German thing. I've done it for a few other people and didn't get paid. Dog sitters do get paid though.

[nslm.livejournal.com]

Home repossessions are up. Is it possible to buy repossessed homes very cheaply in the UK, or do they just get sold by the bank for the full market price?

They're generally being sold by the people to whom the money is owed for as much as they would nominally be worth.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a bit less in my experience in that they're often sold at auction to cash buyers, so you can get them for less than you would via an estate agent, but only if you have the cash up front. I've only seen one repo property flagged as such and for sale to the general public. It was cheap (115k for a 3-bed in Lambeth) but it was in scum central, and a bad way.

[weatherpixie.livejournal.com]

That's not strictly true, you can buy at auction without having the cash up front[1], but you have to a) get it all arranged with the building soc before hand and be prepared to lose your survey money when the house goes to a higher bidder[2].

There is a guide here:
http://www.auction.co.uk/pdf/AllsopBuyersGuide.pdf

In my experience, its hard to find houses coming up at auction without buying one of the 'we will give you all the auction listing' subscription services.

You might make a saving, but you may lose your initial survey, at the moment, I think that its fairly easy to sell houses, so quite often there is a pre auction offer on a property and it never makes it to auction, the ones that do get auctioned tend to be problem properties that are difficult to sell.

[1] My parents bought their house at auction, tho didn't agree it with the mortgage co first, apparently my dad got his bid accepted and then went round the corner to the building society to get the money agreed, this is not the advised course of action!

[2] This can happen with normal house buying anyway if the sale falls through for whatever reason or you decided you don't like the result of the survey.

[poggle.livejournal.com]

Was going to say what beingjdc said. :)

[gnimmel.livejournal.com]

Cat-sitting: we've had our cat sat by friends, once in our house (arrangement was a small payment plus use of our food/drink/etc.) and once when the cat stayed elsewhere (arrangement was that they were thinking of getting a cat but weren't sure if their house was big enough, so we figured it was a good test - no payment, but we supplied all the cat food etc.) I'm not sure what's 'normal' - we didn't ever get around to asking professional pet-sitters.

[pplfichi.livejournal.com]

Cat sitting: in my experience a gift or something nice for doing it, plus any expenses incurred. I've not heard anything good about professional pet feeders, quite the opposite, in fact.