Drowning, not waving :-(

chevalier

hope all of the appts sort out your issues, or at least let you know what the problem is
chev

hellnearth

Thanks, Chev. Well, I had £25 in my Amazon account from survey rewards, so I managed to order a black hoodie for school for DS and a cartridge for my printer and had only £1.45 to pay :j
Didn't do my Balivanich shop in the end as a friend called to ask for a lift to the Lochmaddy ferry today so I'll call in on the way back. With petrol at £1.47 a litre here now, I try to combine trips as much as I can. Am doing store cupboard meals as much as I can at the moment, so it will just be for essentials and to investigate their prices.

hellnearth

Gaelic lesson this morning which was fun. Can still only converse very haltingly, but can understand more on TV etc and have lots of lovely neighbours who are only to happy to practise it with me.
Sold a pack of Guernsey wool to a friend who is going to knit an Eriskay gansey for her husband. Good, cos I need to get some more stock in ready for our monthly markets which will start up again in April - EH, you'll have to come when you're up here
Phone call from AccuRead when I came home saying that they have booked me a meter reading appointment in Barra tomorrow. Luckily the ferry is not booked up. They seem to think getting on the very is like getting on a bus, but being based in Newcastle, I suppose that's not really surprising. Hope the weather is like today - utterly calm, sunny and gorgeous
Then another phone call from Tagsa Uibhist. They were advertising for Domestic Assistants a few weeks ago and I applied, but got a letter saying they had nothing in this area. But I have an appointment at 3pm tomorrow to discuss a possible job that's come up :T So will have to bomb down to Balivanich when I get off the ferry.

EssexHebridean

Woo Hoo to possible jobs, and also to unexpected trips across to Barra.....I'm quite jealous you know!! Just had a look at the Castlebay Hotel webcam and it does indeed look like a lovely day so fingers crossed that stays for tomorrow too.

Not so jealous of your fuel prices, although not surprised either. That puts diesel at about £1.50 p/litre I guess, Yes, just looked at Am Paipear which means that we will definitely be filling up to the very brim at Fort William and then topping up at Uig too. Even down here now we combine journeys as much as we can - OH and I mostly car share on the days I go to London for work unfortunately I finish at 5 and he doesn't get back to roughly where I am until 6.30 so it's a bit of a long cold wait! I always laugh when I explain to someone from down here how, up with you, just "popping out for a pint of milk" isn't a viable option! :rotfl: Annoyingly I think we'l miss the monthly market - are they still the last saturday of the month? If so we will be on our way home.

Fingers crossed for your job thing to go well tomorrow!

*edit* Meant to say - we used to do our main shop of the holiday at McLellans at Ballivanich, but have swapped to using the co-ops the last few years as we've been amazed at how they have improved. However, for a really nice shop to use, with no big-chain commercial ties, and an excellent range of produce, much of which you can't find elsewhere, the Bayhead Shop up on N.Uist is fantastic - so if you're up that way.....

hellnearth

Yes, I like the Bayhead shop and always call in when I'm metering reading 'down north'! And, Popped into the new Coop in Barra yesterday and was well impressed. Like a proper little supermarket and loads of great discounts. The one at Creagorry has really gone downhill. Pricey and very little variety A friend was telling me that this is because it's been downgraded to corner shop status. Why when it's the main food outlet on the island???? Think I'm going to look into the Tesco and Asda deliveries.
All the best with your business plans, EH. It's exciting and rewarding doing something like that for yourself.
Well, typically the weather wasn't that great yesterday so the Barra ferry was a wee bit bumpy. Long way to go for just one meter reading, but hey they're paying so that will be a bit of mileage money for me next week.
Have got the job as Domestic Assistant :j It's a new string to Tagsa Uibhist's bow, so I only have one client at the moment and it might only be a couple of hours work a week, but it's a start. I go to meet her ( apparaently she's a bit 'difficult'!! ) on Tuesday.
Thought I'd sleep in this morning as I was up at 6am yesterday, but slept like a log and got up about 8am.
Have done my online banking and checked my emails etc, plus put a washing on. My to do list for today:
* change sheets on the beds
* sort out kitchen - bomb site after DS left to his own devices yesterday
* list items on ebay and on website
* do some tidying in the garden ( it's cold but sunny again today ) Plan what to plant this year. I'm not naturally green fingered and know nothing about gardening, but I am going to make a huge effort this year. I would love to grow some veg and my BIL built me three raised beds when he and my sis were staying with me a couple of years ago
* make a choccie cake
Have a good day, folks.

EssexHebridean

Good news on the job - well done you! Thanks for the tip off about Creagorry too - bit of a shame that, it's always tended to be the place we go to for our "main" shopping while we're up but we might try an alternative plan this time. Sollas perhaps - we were massively impressed with how well stocked that was last year, and their reductions are amazing!

How did you do with your list?

hellnearth

Yep, the Sollas Coop is impressive - better that the Creagorry one too!
I got through everything on my list, bar the ebay listings Must work out how to do the cross out thingy on the list text. Must run - got my Gaelic lesson

EssexHebridean

To cross through text type [STRIKE ] (without the space!)at the start of the line or word you want to cross through, and then [/STRIKE] at the end. Alternatively, if you want to edit a list you have already posted, go to edit, then "go advanced" and then you can just use the right hand icon on the row above the box your text is in - like an s with a line through it.

Should look like this:

[STRIKE ]I've done everything on my list![/STRIKE ] (without the gaps) and will appear like this:

[STRIKE]I've done everything on my list![/STRIKE]

I, on the other hand, have NOT done everything on MY list, so am off to continue!


ps - MrEH pointed out earlier on - this time in two months we will be on North Uist! :j

hellnearth

Thank you - will have a go at that with my next list Woo-hoo, two months will probably fly by. I can't believe we're over half way through Feb already!

hellnearth

Two days into the dreaded March!! Car insurance, MOT and tax month. And I'm sure I'm gonna need some work on the car for it to pass - it's taken such a hammering on the roads and tracks :mad:
Renewal letter from Direct Line putting my premium up by £100. Have written to them to cancel as I can get Insurance and free breakdown cover with the AA through Top Cashback for less than half of what Direct Line want.
I've been putting my spare purse change into an NSI account to help with the car stuff so have about £80 in the account which I will go and withdraw this week.
Must look at New Vista again as I get quite a few surverys from them. EH, do you get 70p cashback if you do your surveys via the TC website? That would be really good.
Had my hospital appointment on Thursday. Nothing conclusive yet, tho the doc was googling 'Crohn's Disease' while I was waiting on the bed for him to have a look at my grumbling tum!!
Waiting now for a hospital appointment in Stornoway for either a CT scan or a barium swallow test. Ah well, at least things are heading in the right direction and I'll get a wee trip to Tesco's etc :T