Week 2: Laundering

(Jan 8 – Jan 14)

After doing a bit of financial tidying up at the weekend, I’ve decided to continue with the theme this week. I have a few credit cards that have been paid off, which I duly arranged to cancel. I’ve also pledged to avoid any unnecessary spending until … sometime … maybe March, I dunno …

Monday

Cancelled my first credit card. Which involved picking up the phone, dialling, and actually talking to someone. Not sure if I’m more proud about the phone thing than I am about cancelling the card.
Also, as this was the first day back at work for most of my colleagues I took cakes in. Which almost no one ate. Because it turns out everyone’s on a post-Christmas diet. Except me.
My month of non-spending got off to a really bad start when I impulse bought a bluetooth receiver for the car. In my defense, it’s a real fiddle having to plug the cable into my phone whenever I want to listen to music.

Tuesday

The UK folks took the Kinderbesten for a day out to Caversham, which they loved by all accounts. I then joined rest of the family for dinner after work.
The rest of my evening’s entertainment was the final few episodes of Dirk Gently, which I’m very sorry is not getting renewed. Max Landis sleazery aside, Dirk Gently had a particular brand of absurd, surreal humour that I love and doesn’t show up too often. Dirk Gently may be the first time that a US show has managed to take a British property and not dismally fail at it. Hopefully this void will be filled with something new before long.

Wednesday

My turn to take the kids for their swimming, which provided a more energetic start than usual to the working day.

Thursday

Cancelled my second credit card, the effort associated with which seemed to exhaust me for the rest of the day. Didn’t help that the website crashed yet again. At least I had most excellent dinner at a friend’s house to end the day on 🙂

Friday

After a week of average coffee at the work canteen (our usual place is closed for the holidays) we decided to venture out to the Little Olive Leaf cafe for coffee. Wise choice, it turned out: the coffee was excellent.
For the evening, my usual Fridate companion wasn’t able to make it so the Elderbeast and I enjoyed a double bill of the latest episode of The Good Place, followed by a thematically appropriate screening of The Truman Show–which the Elderbeast really enjoyed, and is a film that seems to be consistently better than I ever remember it.

Saturday

Very hot day today, which meant a very lazy day. We loafed around the house watching films, then joined the UK folks for an early dinner at Clancy’s Fish Pub.

Sunday

I have decided that I’m missing having mince pies for breakfast every day. Probably a good thing, really…

Things I didn’t buy this week:

Here’s a list of things that I managed to resist purchasing this week: a total not-spend of $150!

• Pack of USB-C charging cables $20
• Bottle of Kahlua $30
• Judge Dredd Humble Bundle $15
• The Witcher 3 PS4 $25
• (more) New curtains for the bedroom (as the first pair have proved a huge success) $60

Watched

Read

Recap: This section is meant to track what I read this year: books, ideally. But the truth is I’m not reading anything of significance at the moment. I’m a terribly undisciplined reader, and am currently having a particularly lethargic slump. My main read this week has been a blog written by someone who’s reading all the Target Doctor Who novelisations in release order, and is writing surprisingly detailed and compelling reviews about them.

Eaten