EH - Essex > Hebrides...the next step of the adventure?

Smolly wrote: »

This is making my mouth water EH! Even your meal tonight of sausage and mushroom pasta sounds delicious. I'm guessing you don't use a bought sauce for it?

A whole meal plan for the week - wish I could be that organised! I've only just written my Christmas cards - doubt they'll get there on time as I still haven't ventured to the post box although I did manage to buy stamps. Oh well it beats last year when I didn't send any at all!:rotfl:

xx

I've done barely any cards this year - my closest friends, plus Mum and dad - that's about it! Fired the friends ones off in the post today including 2 lots with an added packet of dog treats wrapped up inside - Mex the Jack Russell and Lola the Sprocker will be happy! MrEH's family will get none at all I suspect as I've not reminded him about them. Oh well. :rotfl:

The pasta sauce was yummy - I'm afraid it wasn't terribly sophisticated though - literally some finely chopped onion and finely chopped mushroom sweated off, some slightly chunkier mushrooms added with the last handful of frozen peas out of the bag then about half a pot of cream thrown in and boiled a bit to reduce. I added a dollop of frozen pesto too, and of course the sliced up cold sausages. I have to admit I'm not sure I've ever used a bought pasta sauce - I wouldn't know what sort to buy, even, and I'm guessing that like ready meals I'd find them all terribly salty.

MistyMountainTop wrote: »

I'd no idea about the prefab mortgage thing. I'm glad to have found out though, because I have been looking at houses that are described as having 'non-standard construction'. It's good to know that if I fell in love with one, I might have problems with the finance.

Your early Xmas sounded lovely! So will you not see them again until after Christmas?

There are all sorts of building that mortgage companies can be funny about - the prefabs are a bit more of an issue than some things as they're technically still deemed to be "temporary buildings" - in spite of having been there 70 years! The one that's regularly an issue round here are those flats that are built with a long walkway with everyone's doors facing onto it - it's called "Deck access" and some mortgage co's get really twitchy about them as they're seen as less secure and more at risk from fire etc.

Nope, won't see Mum & Dad until after christmas now I shouldn't think. It will feel a bit odd not seeing them over christmas I must say!

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Can't believe I didn't know about your prefab enthusiasm :rotfl: Will see if I can dig out a few photos while I'm at my mum's over Christmas...

That would be really interesting - thanks lovely! x

Had our office Christmas lunch today - with only three of us a "Christmas do" isn;t really practical, so we trundle down the road to the very nice pub and have a long lunch and a drink, and very pleasant it is too! However, the chips came up served in a sort of mini galvanised bucket...which got us on to the subject of the "wewantplates" website - which in turn meant rather a lot of hilarity ensued when we got back to the office! (If you've not seen it, you really should - utter brilliance!)

CC money shuffle is done, aside from what MrEH owes it, and the money for my camera, which I'm still *hoping* will go through on the balance transfer in time. Otherwise, I have the option of cancelling the "clear in full" DD and getting walloped with one months interest on it, OR seeing how I can juggle things back and forth over next months as well, which to be honest might be my favoured option. Hmmm. Requires thought. In any event the books just about balance, albeit it was squeaky tight - however squeaky tight is fine! we earned £72.30 cashback over the year as well, which isn't bad at all - that amount has been transferred over to the holiday savings account where it belongs.

Yay - the balance transfer money has landed in the CC account! :T I've added the 0% card to my signature - there will be another increase in it once I have added on the money for the phone too - but once Christmas is over I can start the process of paying that down.

Getting a decent little trickle of surveys now
- Opinion Outpost are annoying as half the time you spend 10 minutes answering loads of questions then suddenly they decide you "don't qualify" - the cynic in me is questioning whether they are worth continuing with.
- Power of Opinions seem fairly reliable and nice quick surveys, albeit for a small return, but when they're only 2 - 5 minutes that matters less.
- OnePoll are slow at the moment but there's still odds and ends from them. I'd hoped to hit £30 this side of christmas but I suspect I'm going to miss that by a tiny amount
- Populous Live sent me two through the other day which paid £3 each - I believe there is a £50 cashout with them.
- PC I've had one survey since they reactivated me, and a household questions one. £3 payable on there.

Christmas bonus from work has also arrived - £250 which is a nice treat. Initially it will get paid into the savings account but I'm pretty set on using £200 of it to pay for a flight over London in that Dragon Rapide next spring. :j VERY exciting having something like that in mind, and it's such a fab aircraft!

LOTS to do tonight - all the packing, plus final sorting out of things like the shopping list for when we get over there, although I'm actually thinking more along the lines of printing out the basics and then using waiting time at the airport to write the list out in full with whatever else we need to add to it. Also got to give the kitchen and bathroom a quick swish, check there is nothing in the fridge that could do with freezing or otherwise dealing with, and sort out all the other random bits and pieces that you have to do before you go away for a week!