@brownie889 Thank 6ft so much brownie and lovely to hear from you again 👍. Hope you are still doing well too.
Take care.
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Ooops! Typo error 🙈. The above was meant to say “thank you so much” brownie! 🤣.
🩷🍎.
Day 209.
Woke up nice and early, given the clocks went back!👌. Going to make the most of my day (the weekends are precious now I am back working full-time).
I am gradually getting into the swing of my new job, after completing my sixth week 🙂.
A lovely thing happened just before I left work on Friday. Someone from our Quality Assurance team approached me. I panicked at first and my first thought was, “oh no, what have I done wrong”!! Quite the opposite as it seems. I made my first call to a rather disgruntled customer (this is one aspect of my job). He was not happy and was quoting his M.P. Quite a few people do this I have noticed when they are not happy/querying passport related issues. All of whom, have normally not followed the correct procedure/sent all of the required documents in! Makes me laugh 🤣.
Back to Q.A. Apparently, my call was monitored and I was told that yes, the person was extremely grumpy and nasty but that I had dealt with him in a calm and professional manner and because of this, they had put me forward to receive a £25.00 gift voucher 😆. I was also told that they would be informing my manager 👌. Moral of the story - never doubt your own abilities! 😊. Also, I considered this person relatively easy to deal with, given my last job working as a Probation Officer!🤣🤣🤣.
Another lovely and surprising thing also happened. For those of you who have read my diary and know the recent problems I have had with a large infection in my gum/tooth/teeth, that has caused a lot of pain/discomfort. I was back at the dentist last Monday to see the implantologist. Long story short - it will cost me 6k for 3 well made quality implants!🙈.
Due to my poor credit score, I cannot have a payment plan (even though I can now afford to pay the monthly payments)!!🤬. This is a real bug bear of mine with credit scoring. Everything is just so black and white!👎. I was going to ask my brother if he could lend me the money and pay him back monthly but was not feeling at all comfortable about this and especially 6k!! Plus the fact, he has already helped me out financially and is a great brother so did not want to take advantage of this.
Back to my second surprise. The job I recently have left allowed me to take my private pension aged 55 when I was helping to look after my mum who at the time, had dementia and Alzheimer’s. This meant that I needed to go down to part-time but could not afford to drop my monthy income so this was a godsend👌. I rejoined the pension scheme 3 years ago. I thought to myself, “this will be buttons” and just assumed I would get a tiny monthly amount added to my current private pension when I retire.
I recently received a letter from the pension fund to say my pension is on hold and what do I want to do with it.😲. So……. Cutting a long story short, from something I thought would be worth zilch, it transpires that one of my options is that I can take a lump sum if I choose of £5,750.00 and a small monthly pension allowance, added to my current private pension for the rest of my life 👏👏.
I am a believer in “everything happens for a reason”. I say my prayers every night and I personally believe that God has been looking down on me, seeing that I am doing my utmost best financially and “looked after me” 🙏. What a relief this is 🥲. I have no need to think about the financial side of all my dentistry work coming up, nor do I have to consider where I am going to get the funds from 👌. I can now sort this independently which is how I like to sort most things. Yes, I would have loved to use this money for decorating my lovely apartment/upgrading a few things but I mostly sit in it on my own and anyone who does come to visit always says I have got it beautiful. Just me being a bit of a perfectionist I suppose 😊.
All still going well g.f wise. I did have a quick flash thought however, thinking, “when I get this money, I could potentially double/triple this”. I very quickly reminded myself of the following:
I could also lose it all!!
have no money for my upcoming dentistry work
have to explain this to my sister 🙈
undo all my hard work
line the pockets of the rich gambling establishments 👎
be filled with anxiety and guilt.
Enough said! As I said, the above was thought of in an instant but I was quickly able to remind myself of the downfall/total devastation if I did. Plus I have my blocks in place anyway 👌.
I am now going to do what I wouldn’t be able to do if I remained on the “gambling train”. I am off to Tesco to buy my champagne for Christmas. It’s down in price, plus there is an extra 25% off 6 bottles or more!👌. Result 👍.
Have a lovely Sunday folks and enjoy your day before it starts going dark early. For those of you here on your new journey and finding it all difficult, just remember, things will most definitely get better, day at a time, if you just find the strength/blocks to help you remain g.f. 🙏
Take care all.
”April fools - no more the fool”!
Pink Lady 🩷🍎.
Strong pink lady :D. Inspiration for those of us still in the early days. Us baby ex gamblers, taking our first unsteady steps in to the world of the normal, non gambling obsessed human. Keep up the awesome work xx
Absolutely loved reading this. I could sense you had some doubts about your abilities in your new role so to receive this feedback must be such a boost. I felt exactly the same when I started a new role. You go from being the expert to the newbie and it’s very daunting. Great to hear you are now smashing it though.
I think it’s a healthy part of recovery to consider gambling now and again, especially when there is an inject of money. As long as you keep this in check, especially nearer the time you will receive this. We miss you in the chat rooms, come say hi. Sharing these thoughts and your determination to not yield to them would be so beneficial.
Love the fact you can buy champagne. To see the way you are managing money now is an inspiration. I too can buy things when I want. It’s the best feeling!
Great to hear from you again.
Stay strong 💪
@p6z38njbqm Thank you so much my friend Fish 🐟💙. I am going to try and join the chat tomorrow evening for trick or “Treat Thursday”!🤣.
Take care and hopefully catch up soon.
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Hi Pink lady your doing amazing implants are very expensive fortunately im getting a filling done to save wisdom tooth i paid for a professional teeth whitening job after years of neglect and my teeth look 100 times better my bottom teeth were stained surprised how much confidence it give u keep up the gamble free life is so much better
@tazman Thank you Taz and lovely to hear from you again 👍.
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Day 216.
Since returning to full-time work, the days and weeks are just absolutely flying by!! I am actually enjoying being back in an office five days per week though and mixing with lovely people in my department 👍. Naturally, this allows me less time to do other things and Monday morning comes around sooooo quickly! Luckily for me, I am an extremely organised person so this helps 🙂.
Off to Tesco in a bit with my sister. My “Christmas goody cupboard” is filling up nicely. I wouldn’t mind, there will only be me and my son for Xmas eve/Xmas day at mine this year but it still feels nice to have in all the extras. They won’t go to waste that’s for sure, with my son around!😆.
I am contemplating having all my girlfriends around on the Saturday before Christmas Day, for “fizz and nibbles”, given that my Christmas will be fairly quiet but all nice however. My son is also going off on his travels, from mine on 27th December and not coming up until 24th December so maybe I should go for it 😋🍾🥂🎄.
I have just noticed from my smart metre, the increase in our energy costs from October onwards 🤬🤬. The money they must be raking in fills me with anger 😡. Well in that case, they are not getting another penny more from me. I will just reduce/tweak my daily consumption. I am always roasting hot anyway! Every cloud 🙃. At least working five days per week again in the office is beneficial in this case 👍.
I keep meaning to get onto the live chat but having been glued to a computer screen all day, not sure whether my aging eyes can take more of the same in the evening!🤓. I will try though.
Stay safe and happy everyone and keep doing your best to better your days 🙏.
”April fools - no more the fool”!
Pink Lady 🩷🍎.
Day 220.
The weeks are just racing by and I am enjoying going into work five days per week 👍. It feels like having another lovely family as my department are all so nice.
My car is due for an MOT and service tomorrow. I bought it new outright four and a half years ago but it has only done thirteen thousand miles during that time. Plus, I am hardly ever in it these days, other than to pop around the corner to visit my sister or the odd shopping trip. Hoping it won’t need anything doing other than a repair on one of my tyres. The big thing however is that I have not stressed about the cost of it at all 👌. I have not been constantly checking my bank account wondering if I have the funds either!
Saturday, I am “out, out” with all the girls 😆🥂🍾. It’s been a good while since we have done this but it will be great catching up with everyone and always guaranteed a good laugh that’s for sure 🤣. Again, I have not had to worry about spare money to fund this. It is coming out of one of my little “pots of money” I have been adding to each week - small amounts that you can forget about/not notice but can quickly add up before you know it 👍.
I really did intend to catch up on the live chat this evening for “Treat Thursday”. Unfortunately, I dozed off on the settee 🙈. Will defo get back on there soon though.
Take care all and keep going 💪.
”April fools - no more the fool”!
Pink Lady 🩷🍎.
Day 224.
Today, my pension lump sum landed in my account! This did give cause for some immediate gambling thoughts. However, that is indeed all they were. Just under 6k and not to be sniffed at. It does crucify me though to think that’s how much it’s going to cost me for 3 implants that I need to have - all due to an ongoing infection in my gum, which if left unattended, could go into my bone!😭😭. Thank goodness I have the money to start planning for these in the New Year 👍. As the saying goes though, “health is wealth”!
Have been on annual leave today. Given I was “out, out” with the girls on Saturday and had a lovely time, I thought it best to have an extra day off and a shorter week this week 👍. I picked a good day weather wise 😎. Such a lovely bright day. I went to Tesco and left my car to have a full valet. Could not believe it cost me £30 for my little Vauxhall Adam!!😲. At least I had the money for it though.
Finally made it to the chat room this evening. I only knew a few people on there as it has been so long since I last visited it 🤨.
I end this post, knowing that my lump sum is sitting safely in my savings account and watching to see how much interest it earns before the process starts for my dental implants 🙈.
Looking forward to going into work tomorrow, knowing it will be a shorter week 👍.
Take care all and like me, stay safe and keep your money safe from any gambling harm.
”April fools - no more the fool”!
Pink Lady 🩷🍎.
Hi Pink Lady and thanks for popping onto my diary. Always very much appreciated : )
Good luck with the dentistry, I hope it goes smoothly. It certainly wouldn't if you hadn't made this progress. Pretty sure the car wouldn't be getting a good old scrub either. I am noticing that I can buy normal things instead of cheap skating everything now and it is a sane, functioning feeling. It feels good.
I'm a number of days behind you and you and Weirdfish were the first diaries that I read so thanks for inspiring me and (I'm sure) others here too. It's seeing your success that makes it tangible for others.
Congratulations so far and enjoy that Christmas Champers you bought : )
Jay
@zbgykpo0l3 Thank you so much Jay 😊. From experience, I found it really good, reading other people’s diaries, especially those who were progressing well. It’s very comforting to know that you are getting the same from reading diaries like mine.
Keep going, remain strong and positive and rest assured, your weeks and months will most definitely get better and better 🙏.
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