Me on Monday

This week I am

Channeling my inner Dane

I listened to Helen Russell being interviewed on a podcast about her time living in Denmark and how different their way of life, their attitudes and work/life balance is over there.  It sounded interesting so I downloaded her book, and then had* to buy a Danish pastry to eat while reading it. 

* OK, it isn't compulsory but it did help immerse myself into the Danish way of life. 

Bemused by the fact that Coco can spot a squirrel from the end of the lane, yet when sniffing around the base of a tree in the park, failed to notice this about 1m above her head.

Somewhat frustrated by my car insurance renewal.  It came through for £20 more than it was last year.  As always, I decided to do a bit of research to see if it was still competitive.  The first company I tried was only £5 cheaper and so I thought I would just stay with the original one.  About an hour later I decided to try one of the price comparison websites.  Whoah!  Quite a difference.  Of course, once you do all the add ons and excesses the quote goes up and some of the companies I had never heard of.  But the first one that I knew to be reputable was £52 cheaper.  That's quite a hefty percentage!  So I saved the quote and then rang my existing company to cancel the renewal.  At which point they said they couldn't reduce it that much but could offer a price of £48 less than that in the renewal letter.  What?  So I have stayed with them because when someone did drive into my car 4 years ago they were really good about the claim against his insurance, hire cars etc and will renew at the lower price but it leaves me with the question.  If they could quote me that low a price when I queried it, why didn't they just offer that price in the renewal letter? If I had just left it to automatically renew, they would have charged me £48 more. 

Slowing down on my crochet.  I seem to have developed 'trigger thumb' (diagnosis via Dr Google) In the morning my left thumb locks at the first joint near my thumb nail and is very painful to try and straighten.  The only thing I can think of which may have caused it is crocheting so I am not doing so much in the evenings at the moment.  I made a kind of splint for it to wear overnight (elastic strapping over the top of a nail file!) and today it wasn't quite so painful to straighten so I have ordered a thumb support from Ebay and see if that helps.    

Looking for a new series to watch.  We just finished watching Mare of Easttown with Kate Winslet in the main role.  I was so pleased to hear that when they suggested cutting out a little 'belly bulge' she refused and she also asked that they not airbrush any facial lines in the promotional pictures. She apparently said 'I know how many lines I have by the side of my eye, please put them back'. Good for you Kate!  It was a good series and certainly had a twist at the end.  She played her character brilliantly and it was good to see her in a very different role to what I've seen her in before.

So that's how I am feeling at the start of this new week, how about you?