Edinburgher's balancing act

InaPickle

Hi Ed,

Yup, it is chilly, and had been round these parts for a few days.

Get thee to a doctor quick smart. Hope you feel better soon: if you were a girl I would tell you to get a pregnancy test kit, but you would have a bump by now!

Brussels is boring. Next time, go to Brugges!

Well done on all the saving - you really have seemed to have got the bug (no pun intended! )

Swinstie73

Ah hope you are feeling better now edinburgher!

edinburgher

Turns out that my local doctors' surgery is somewhat useless - it's going to take a fortnight before they can even register me! Now, I don't mean before they get all my papers transferred from my old doctors', literally just to type my name and non-existent medical history onto their practice computer :mad:

Now I know there are far more compelling cases for medical treatment than myself, but it's irritating all the same to go to a seldom used service and to have to wait an undue length of time for treatment. Realistically, I may be looking at 3 weeks before I see someone.

So, it's self-medication with vitamins, zinc, decongestants and paracetamol when required.

I realise that if I was in an accident an NHS hospital would give me swift and probably very good treatment - but what's the use of free/taxpayer funded universal healthcare if it doesn't serve the needs of said taxpayers?

edinburgher

Back from the shops, where everything that could go wrong was going wrong :rotfl: The coinstar machine was broken/full, which I didn't realise until I'd already tipped £40 worth of change into its gob, the cash machine at the supermarket was also broken (the first place I went when I couldn't get rid of my shrapnel) and to top it off, I got covered in mud from some recent snow and hail!

Regardless, I got what I'm looking for and I'm now all set for Valentines' day. We're having our main meal on the Saturday, as it's a fairly time-consuming beef stew with Belgian beer, tomatoes, mushrooms and home-cured bacon (cured by me ).

We'll no doubt have something less faffy on the Sunday, as we're off into London to see the adorable 'Ponyo'. I bought some nice little bits and bobs for the day itself, as I'll be making an appetiser of pan-fried scallops, shallots, parsley and lemon juice to serve with cold prosecco (not quite in the champagne budget place yet...) Also got a huge pack of tealights for a very reasonable £3 and will replace them all before the GF gets home (I think we're up to using c. 20 at a time in the living room!)

Transferred myself £20 out of my gift budget for the food as I realised that I had borne the expense of presents/card etc. out of my own pocket. After all, there's no point in budgeting if you don't use the budget for what it's there for, right?

Right - off home for toast and tea.

doodledo_2

Morning Ed, been ages since we caught up. Hope you are feeling better now? Hows you and the GF?

InaPickle

edinburgher wrote: »

Back from the shops, where everything that could go wrong was going wrong :rotfl: The coinstar machine was broken/full, which I didn't realise until I'd already tipped £40 worth of change into its gob, the cash machine at the supermarket was also broken (the first place I went when I couldn't get rid of my shrapnel) and to top it off, I got covered in mud from some recent snow and hail!

Coinstar! :eek: I know it's quick, but they charge quite a lot for their services. The MSE Ed in my head sits at home counting his pennies himself and not giving it to a machine.

edinburgher

Morning Ed, been ages since we caught up. Hope you are feeling better now? Hows you and the GF?

Still feeling fairly poorly, but certainly better than I was a week ago. We're good, had a very enjoyable Valentine's weekend.

I know it's quick, but they charge quite a lot for their services

I know, I know. I really should check and see if my bank takes coins, but some of them don't these days!

jo1972

edinburgher wrote: »

beef stew with Belgian beer, tomatoes, mushrooms and home-cured bacon (cured by me ).

pan-fried scallops, shallots, parsley and lemon juice to serve with cold prosecco

Good god that sounds amazing!! :drool:

Hope you get better soon, are you tired? I reckon you need your bloods done, you might be anemic (sp?) xx

edinburgher

Good god that sounds amazing!!

Thanks Jo - we can't resist the food !!!!!! over on this diary

I'd love to start a cottage industry making home made delicacies or a deluxe catering service one day - nothing too large, but enough to bump up my earnings.

I am still fairly tired, but if I'm honest, I'm feeling brighter than I was. My tiredness/dizzy spells seems to go in cycles and another one comes along roughly every six weeks. I will be calling the surgery tomorrow to check and see whether or not they've registered me and will request some tests to make sure that there aren't any underlying problems.

edinburgher

I ended up having quite a productive Friday.

After Pickle's jibes I took myself along to my local Natwest to get coin bags, only to discover that I wouldn't actually need them as they have a free Natwest version of the Coinstar machine, with the money going straight into my bank account! The helpful woman in branch told me that it would only take 1,000 or so coins at a pop, but that shouldn't be an issue for me as I tend to cash in my change every £40 or so. My Natwest account isn't my main account, but it won't hurt to pay my change into it and have an 'emergency' Visa Debit card with some money on it.

I also managed to pick up two fantastic 'Kilner' type jars for £1 each in Poundland, one of which I managed to fill with sage (why did I have a 2kg bag of sage again?) and the other one will be filled with a mix of the beans that I use for making chilli.

Also used a Coinstar machine (for the last time ever, it was before I went to the bank) and managed to get another £25, which I paid straight into my savings before I got carried away.

Other than that, it was a fairly uneventful day bar a trip to Barnado's to drop off some decent quality but unwanted formal shirts (I love wearing jeans to my new job!)

Today was spent cooking a sausage plait, chatting to the GF and clearing out paperwork for the last 2 years! We now have all of our work contracts/payslips/pension paperwork organised in chronological order and filed away. Boring, but necessary. One side affect of paying off debts and being more fiscally responsible is the fact that you realise how much carp you've accumulated over the years - details of savings accounts long dead, useless bonds, that sort of thing...

We've started discussing holidays for September - Florida is being mooted!