Making chicken feed of my mortgage

Matt_The_Chippy

muddywhitechicken wrote: »

I'm off to California in June...

Monday - fly out
Tuesday - free day
Wednesday & Thursday - all-day meetings
Thursday evening - fly home
Friday afternoon - arrive home

:eek::eek::eek:

I'm staying in a fancy hotel in Berkeley and, although tempted by the spa , I think I should spend the Tuesday sight-seeing in San Francisco. Does anyone have any must-visits or avoid-at-all-costs please?!

Thanks,
MWCx

San Francisco is a great city. Very interesting place with a lot of history. Might be a cliche but I found Alcatraz very good to visit. When I've watched the Sean Connery film The Rock, I've shouted at the telly- seen that bit, know where that is etc! The quayside area is good but a little geared towards tourists. You have to drive down the crookedest(?) street in the world, really fun. Have a great time!

funscott

quayside sea food is rubbish. Americans cant cook seafood.

the "daily grill" is a nice place to eat on geary street.

buy a red tourist bus pass. you can jump on and off all day and it goes around the city so easy to get about. I think it also takes you over the golden gate bridge. cant remember the name of the Chinese the tour guide was "promoting" but we did go there and it was very good. you need a ticket to stand in line to get a seat.

muddywhitechicken

Thanks for the info Matt & funscott

More seeds have sprouted :j (I love this time of year!) and another delivery of plug plants arrived from ebay - rudbeckia this time

I received my P60 today. In 2012/2013 I earned 3.3X what I earned in 1999/2000 (the year I started on this career path). Wowzer :T

Smoked mackeral, new potato, spinach/rocket/watercress salad - very tasty :drool:

7 eggs today

muddywhitechicken

Mr MWC loves the new financial year - he is back on 45p/mile travel expenses - he's doing his expenses now with a big grin on his face :rotfl:

muddywhitechicken

I haven't shared an egg photo for a while, so...



Top row, L to R: Miss H, Miss D, Miss Q, Miss M
Bottom row, L to R: Miss LRH, Miss B, Miss Gladys, Miss Beryl

:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T

muddywhitechicken

I have sold 5 boxes of eggs today @ £1.50/box and have pre-orders for 4 more :T

Today's delivery of plants was from J Parkers: a purple fountain grass that was a llittle disappointing for the price but healthy enough, 6 free trailing fuschia jumbo plugs that I will give to my dad, and the bishop dahlia collection (I only actually want the bright-coloured ones so if anyone would like a Bishop of Dover tuber (dark leaf, white flower) and/or a Bishop of Leicester tuber (dark leaf, pale pink flower) then PM me)

Orecchiette cooked in chicken stock with feta, peas and dill for dinner

muddywhitechicken

The lovely Sainsburys customer service department is sending me a £10 gift card following my feedback yesterday :T

jimmybrid

muddywhitechicken wrote: »

I'm off to California in June...

Monday - fly out
Tuesday - free day
Wednesday & Thursday - all-day meetings
Thursday evening - fly home
Friday afternoon - arrive home

:eek::eek::eek:

I'm staying in a fancy hotel in Berkeley and, although tempted by the spa , I think I should spend the Tuesday sight-seeing in San Francisco. Does anyone have any must-visits or avoid-at-all-costs please?!

Thanks,
MWCx

Tempted to say that you shouldn't plan too much in for the Tuesday....jet lag can be a killer on that trip. Mrs JB and I did SF in 2005 and wish we'd had an extra day and night there to make up for most of a day lost to sleep.
Don't know if your company would allow you to do it, but when a colleague and I travelled to Colorado on business we came to an agreement with our employers........we would stay two extra nights which would mean our stay included a saturday night. This usually reduces flight costs by about 50%, thus saving the company a load of cash, and the payback was the company agreeing to foot our accomodation bill and (reasonable) expenses for the extra nights.
Might be worth an ask?

Things to see/do.....if you have time, Alcatraz, hire a bike and take a ride across the Golden Gate bridge down to Sausalito, grab a bite to eat then hop on the ferry back across the bay to SF. Back in SF we had a nice meal in a restaurant called Butterfly, on Pier 33.

Enjoy your trip.

muddywhitechicken

Thanks JB

I've been allowed to extend a trip to the east coast before but my boss has turned into a grumpy so-and-so and was really quite horrible to a colleague when he asked to do so at the end of last year... I'm just pleased that he didn't make me fly out on the Tuesday!

Anyway the tickets are booked and as I'm flying business class my body might be in the wrong time zone but I shouldn't be too exhausted

I'm very impressed with Sainsbury's customer service - my £10 gift card arrived today :T

muddywhitechicken

muddywhitechicken wrote: »

Finally planted some seeds this morning Fingers crossed it's better late than never...

Most of the seeds were bought in a spending spree Winter 2011/2012!

Runner bean - White Lady - no growth yet
Tomato - Sungold - seedlings :jand Maskotka - no growth yet
Courgette - Sunstripe - seedlings :j
Kale - Nero di Toscana - seedlings :j
Aubergine - mixed (Asian & European) - no growth yet
Swiss chard - Bright Lights - seedlings :j

Cosmos - Brightness Mixed - seedlings :j
Lychnis - Vesuvius - no growth yet
Antirrhinum - Black Prince and Madame Butterfly Mixed - no growth yet
Zinnia - Early Wonder Mixed - seedlings :j
Cornflower - Tall Double Blue - seedlings :j
Millet - Purple Majesty - no growth yet
Coleus - Black Dragon - no growth yet
Dahlia - Fireworks - seedlings :j
Tithonia rotundiflora 'Torch' (Mexican sunflower) - seedlings :j
Ricinus impala (castor oil plant) - no growth yet
Leonitis leonurus (Lion's Ear) - seedlings :j

Just need to sow lettuce and radish seeds now - seedlings :j

I :heart2: spring In addition to the seeds I planted last Saturday, I also have seedlings for 7/8 varieties of basil and the sorrel I sowed on Sunday :j