elantan's diary

elantan

well well well...goes to show you how much things can change when your awake....just thought i'd check up my visa bill etc..i'm with egg...i understood it to be a cash back card...turns out it's only a cash back card if you spend through them....not liking that...so i went to martins card page and found the cash back card ( it's one of the debts we finally have under control)so i've just applied for american express platinum card...so i'll be keeping my fingers crossed i get it and if so i'll be using it from now on...

elantan

well ive not been on this for ages thinking i dont have much to add then something happens and i forget to add what's not important....been working loads of overtime due to long term sickness at work...have a new bet to place with totesport(will do this this week deff) my debts are finally coming down will need to do an updated soa soon...got a letter from lawyer so finally things are getting sorted with that ...i'm hoping that when i get my money it will clear the last of my debts off.... and so to my moan for the day...was in my cookery class the other night...now this class costs us £8 each to book and £1.50 a night when we turn up so for hubby and i it's £19 a week...(paid the £8 last july through visa)...now we have been learning some interesting things and this week it was our turn to learn black bean sauce and cantonese sauce (both of which i love) the teacher was arsing about for most of the night ...finally he cooked the chicken and beef (the same way we always cook it and have been shown for weeks) then he pulls out a jar of blackbean sauce and a sachet of cantonese sauce ...i paid £19 to watch a guy show me how to add a jar of sauce to food...i feel cheated..can you blame me

Gemmzie

Who runs the course? Surely that's grounds for complaint as they haven't taught you how to make the sauce

elantan

i know gemz you'd think that when you go to a course to teach you chinese cooking they would actually teach you....open a jar ....it beggars belief...there is a level 2 to this course...maybe they get taught how to use chop sticks lol...dont think i'll be doing it though

elantan

can you tell i have too much time on my hands today.lol..ok it goes something like this ...we bought the house we currently live in nearly 6 years ago...at that time we took out insurance (as you should) but we also took out critical illness cover for my hubby this cost us £37.99 a month ...now i forgot all about this for years ..but as i have a couple of days off work and really want to get out of the doing overtime just to pay bills cycle i decided to scrutinize every ddm that comes out the bank ...the only one that looks like it might be worth cutting is the critical illness cover now at £37.99 a month this would be quite a good saving ( i have no doubt however that we probably wouldnt put it towards debt) but it does give us that piece of mind for when my hubby aint well ...he has a very hard physical job and to be totally truthfull although he is 39 (big 40 this year) he has the body if a 50 year old due to work .....what do i do ? anybody got any advice?

Snaggles

Could you find a cheaper policy? What does it actually cover you for?

(still aghast at the black bean sauce story.....and I was going to ask you for the recipe too!)

elantan

hey snaggles to be honest i'm not even sure it's a critical illness so i'm assuming cancer stroke etc.....dont know if i can get it cheaper either because of his type of job...hey i can give you the recipe no probs lol...it does however take alot of time to learn how to open a jar...somepeople even have degrees on the subject...but i did learn how to boil rice properly (never thought it would be so hard lol)

Snaggles

Is it a policy that pays out a monthly amount? Or one that pays out a lump sum to pay off a mortgage for example? I would dig out the paperwork and see exactly what it covers you for - if you don't need it, get rid of it and set up a standing order for the same amount towards your most expensive debt. But if it's the sort of cover you think you MIGHT need, shop around and see if you can get the same cover cheaper elsewhere.

Hmmm, the jar thing sounds tricky to me....it might be a bit too much of a stretch for my cookery skills!

Is there a proper way to boil rice then? I just bung it in a pan of boiling water for about 8 minutes!! I feel like I've missed out on a valuable life skill!

elantan

oh snaggles you have missed out on such a valuable life skill with boiling rice ..now your life will never be the same...are you ready for this .....put the rice in a pan...wash rice under warm water keep repeating this till water clear..then wash under cold water..drain water off then add fresh water so that your middle finger touches the top of the rice and the water comes to the first bend in the finger....put pan on cooker...boil rice till water evaporates and bubbles appear on rice(do not stir)....then put a lid on pot transfer pot to another ring (keep this on very low) for 10 mins then transfer pot to stand for a further 5 mins ...then stir and there you have it perfect rice...now i know your gonna sleep so much better tonight now that your life is complete..rofl ....

Snaggles

elantan wrote:

oh snaggles you have missed out on such a valuable life skill with boiling rice ..now your life will never be the same...are you ready for this .....put the rice in a pan...wash rice under warm water keep repeating this till water clear..then wash under cold water..drain water off then add fresh water so that your middle finger touches the top of the rice and the water comes to the first bend in the finger....put pan on cooker...boil rice till water evaporates and bubbles appear on rice(do not stir)....then put a lid on pot transfer pot to another ring (keep this on very low) for 10 mins then transfer pot to stand for a further 5 mins ...then stir and there you have it perfect rice...now i know your gonna sleep so much better tonight now that your life is complete..rofl ....

Oh.....my.....god!

Please tell me it will taste amazing and will change my life.....if I have to put this much effort in, it NEEDS to be worth it!

I wont tell you about the time I cooked boil-in-the-bag rice in my kettle when I was a student then hahahaha!!!