A new 'tougher' thread... and so it continues

katieowl_2

We're not far from the Ceredigion coastal path (one reason we chose this house to do B&B)

If I was a walker...I'd be really happy to find a hot pasty on offer. Food and hand warming in one convenient package!

Kate

Mrs_Chip

Thanks Rach, by cakes I did mead the less squishable type, having done a bit of coast path walking (but only short stretches) I know that anything edible needs to be a bit robust or it ends up looking like an elephant has sat on it!

My thoughts so far are:

Flapjacks, energy bars, welsh cakes, bara brith, stuff like that;
Sausage rolls, small pasties, scotch eggs, small pies;
Filled rolls, wraps;
Fresh fruit

I'm not sure about teas and coffee - they will not get very far before they get cold, what do people think?

And I could hold a small stock of 'essentials' - things people forget and then need for the trip - any ideas? I though about things like blister plasters, lipsalve, travel size sun block (wishful thinking !)?

katieowl_2

Mrs_Chip wrote: »

Thanks Rach, by cakes I did mead the less squishable type, having done a bit of coast path walking (but only short stretches) I know that anything edible needs to be a bit robust or it ends up looking like an elephant has sat on it!

My thoughts so far are:

Flapjacks, energy bars, welsh cakes, bara brith, stuff like that;
Sausage rolls, small pasties, scotch eggs, small pies;
Filled rolls, wraps;
Fresh fruit

I'm not sure about teas and coffee - they will not get very far before they get cold, what do people think?

And I could hold a small stock of 'essentials' - things people forget and then need for the trip - any ideas? I though about things like blister plasters, lipsalve, travel size sun block (wishful thinking !)?

We get a lot of walkers in the cafe (St. Dogs) asking for tea/coffee to take away. They keep a stock of polystyrene cups. You should look at stocking something like 9 Bars - they are GF and Dairy free -really yummy too - without investing heavily - you could buy them in multipacks in Tesco and still sell them for a small profit.
Bootlaces might be really useful.

I can think of some other stuff - camera batteries and cards, and OS maps, but those might be an expensive investment.

Get a stock of local fliers too....taxi's and B&B's (especially that nice one down at Mwnt )

Kate

Mrs_Chip

:rotfl:Kate, will do - I'll let you know when we are up and running!
I won't have a lot of space - but I could:-

Cottage next door we bought first, it's smaller than here, and has no central heating and was very cheap. When we bought here we just shifted in and left next door empty until we had the money needed to improve it for renting of selling. So now we are self-employed I am having the tiny kitchen and the dining room converted to a decent kitchen for catering and using one of the bedrooms as general storage. If OH would let me convert into one I would, as much of our stuff is there because of space issues here. But he is being stubborn!

The cottage has a tiny lobby and a door to the right into the new kitchen, but it is right on the road, so need somewhere for people to come into to get served. My plan was to put a stable door on kitchen with a tiny counter on the bottom door.

To the left of the lobby is the living room, currently a tip with all the stuff from the dining room in it. My plan was, once cleared, to use this for a village coffee morning once a week as there is nothing down here and a lot of eldery people who can't easily get up to town.

But I could also make it into the waiting are for the shop, and have some portable racks with stuff like batteries on. Whatever I do I need to ensure I am not overstepping the rules on change of use, so might have to rethink some some plans.

We are not sure how the van business is going to go, so having a fallback would be a good thing, but we will have to be careful not to stretch ourselves in too many directions!

Bobbykins

Hi all, been MIA for almost a week - yet agian! I read every couple of days and keep promising myself I will post every time I read but the trouble is youse lot can talk the hind leg off a donkey and by the time I've caught up reading I don't have time to post! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:.

Sorry to hear of peoples problems with hospital appointments, :eek: at Ginnyknits poor OH and his fall, and Kidcats wet Sky box.. Lots of interesting stuff about butter making - might have to give that a try.

Life has been continuing in it's frugal way here. We are, like many others, trying to live out of the freezer as much as possible this month. My DD and the DGS's have been to stay for a few days again and they are vegetarians so that always helps keep our food bill down.

It's a good job too as we have an unexpected plumber's bill to deal with. We are having a (long planned) new door fitted to the downstairs loo but the joiner has pointed out that one of the problems with the old one was that every time you opened it, it was hitting the water pipes and this has weakened the hinges. So, we are having to have the pipes re-routed. The plumber is "doing his thing" as I type this - thankfully he is a friend so it is being done at "mates rates" and I will give him a home made cake to take home as well.

We are gradually having all the internal doors replaced, only with cheap ones but the old ones are all really tatty and damaged mostly beyond repair - I think the family that lived here before must have had very boisterous kids! Unfortunatley, although OH is happy to have a go at mending most things, he openly admits that hanging doors is not his forte so we have to pay someone to do it for us (sigh).

Gailey - been thinking about your curtain pole problem. In one of the houses we lived in we had a similar problem with plasterboard walls and a heavy curtain pole. I'm not sure I can explain this very well but OH eventually fitted a piece of wood direct to the wall and fixed the pole to that, rather than trying to fit the pole to the plasterboard. It was just a flat piece of wood, I think it might even have been a piece of skirting board, which he fixed up with a few strong screws and LOTS of that No More Nails stuff. That gave a really secure base and once he fixed the pole to the wood, we had no more problems. We just painted the wood in white gloss and it looked as if it was meant to be there! Hope this helps.

Right, I really must go and make the plumber a second cup of coffee, can't be seen to be neglecting him, his missus will have my guts for garters!

Hope everyone has a good day.

On past performance, I expect I will post again in about another week but in the meantime I will be reading regualarly, thinking of you all, mentally hugging those who need it and laughing like a drain at some of your antics!

Take care.
Bobby

kidcat

Gailey- Our new curtain poles are all on batonning rather than straight onto the wall, Dad put the wood up first and then the pole, it definitely makes it stronger even my DS (who can destroy anything) has not managed to pull ours down. In previous house he did same thing as our curtains were 10ft long velvet and weighed a tonne and they never had any bother.
I ditched Quidco a while back and swapped to topcashback - no fees and quicker payment that you can choose when you want to be paid.

Mrs Chip - I recommend first aid supplies, whenever we go anywhere you can guarantee one of the kids does something I havent brought the right first aid bits for.

Smiley - vets fees are a real issue, and I believe have risen as pet insurance becomes more popular, vets see that insurance companies will pay loads, and so they charge more. A friend was telling me that her vet has two tiers of charges, non insured and insured. At least he is recognising that not everyone can afford to insure.

Margaret - congratulations on hubby job.

Am full of cold today, started last night and feel yuck today, chest is hurting too, which could mean that my pleurisy has resurfaced which will be a real pain.

GQ- Theres never a dull moment eh!!

Have DD5 friend coming after school is have made the obligatory trip to Mr A to buy chicken nuggets, as she only eats proper food!!!

smileyt_2

Vet has refunded the charge for Tess's needle jobby (the proper word is aspirate apparently) and apologised and said it was a mistake. However I would be nearly £30 poorer if I hadn't queried it as I doubt they go through their own bills looking for mistakes! Byatt, what happened to your poor dog is terrible. You must have been heart broken . I would have reported her to the Royal College of Vet Surgeons to see if they could look into it.

LOL at the kitten flushing the loo whlst you were sitting on it, LB!

Mrs Chip - sanitary towels and wet wipes? Also I second the gluten free and dairy free options as I have problems with dairy and wheat and it is almost impossible to find something snacky when out. What about little packets of oatcakes (although they contain gluten, but not wheat)?

Also you'll probably find people asking to use your loo, so maybe you could charge 10p for charity and have a charity box for a local charity?

Ooooh, maybe we could all move in with you and run a proper OS shop ...... packing my bags as I type!

Greyqueen, my street used to be like your Towers, but it has calmed down a lot since the drug dealers moved on. I just got used to sleeping through everything (including a nine-car police chase down my street in summer when I had my bedroom window open, and the police battering down the door of a house across the street in the middle of the night - all reported to me by neighbours who were incredulous that I had slept through). Now I need hearing aids, once I take them out at night it would take at least a very large explosion to wake me!!

I'd best get on and do some housework. It won't do itself, sadly.

prepareathome

VJsmum wrote: »

Was watching "call the midwife" last night, and the conditions they were living in were appalling - and not that long ago either. I am not sure if it was a memoir or pure fiction but one couple had 25 children!!!!:eek: I thought 2 could be hard work! Ah well, it helped get the ironing done.

Its all true, I have the original book- they didn't tell you how Conchita saved her son. They tried really hard to force her to send him to hospital but she refused and made a sling out of pure silk and for 7 weeks kept him in that next to her body under her clothes. Nothing more than a nappy on him and he thrived - she did feed him as they showed you, from her expressed milk. I will dig the book out and tell you the name of the author, its around somewhere, not read it for a few years, so will be buried in one of the many bookcases in this house. Book is an autobiography by the midwife with names changed but that is all.

prepareathome

kidcat wrote: »

Am full of cold today, started last night and feel yuck today, chest is hurting too, which could mean that my pleurisy has resurfaced which will be a real pain.

If you keep getting pleurisy get your gall bladder checked if you still have it. About 15 years ago I had pleurisy basically continuously for over 12 months, nothing would clear it, doctors had me down as a bad chest patient, then suddenly got bad pain over gall bladder area on a Friday, rolled around in agony over the weekend, saw Dr Monday, scan Tuesday, Specialist Thursday who showed me gallbladder was full of stones and had to come out asap. Following Monday went in and had it out on the Tuesday - they gave me 29 stones which I still have somewhere, black pebbles. Two days afterwards it was weird I felt as if life was travelling back round my body and from that day onwards no pleurisy and so far not even a chest infection. Gall bladder was so stretched it was leaning on liver and damaging it ( but never so bad that I looked yellow) and so body not being cleansed properly and so the pleurisy. I only got the pain as one of the stones had moved out into the bile duct, if it hadn't I might have continued to get pleurisy for years and doctors would never have suspected gall bladder.

A girl in my ward at the time had only pain in her left foot, referred pain, took them 3 years to find out it was her gall bladder causing it.

So might just be worth asking doctor when you see them.

Bobbykins

kidcat wrote: »

Gailey- Our new curtain poles are all on batonning rather than straight onto the wall, Dad put the wood up first and then the pole, it definitely makes it stronger even my DS (who can destroy anything) has not managed to pull ours down. In previous house he did same thing as our curtains were 10ft long velvet and weighed a tonne and they never had any bother.

Ah, thanks Kidcat - batonning - that was the word my OH used for what I was trying to describe to Gailey. Can confirm it worked a treat.