Nice people thread part 8 - worth the wait

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

It's so much cooler now but my feet are still the size of two hot water bottles.

Beginning to panic what I will force them into to wear to hospital tomorrow.

I've always found (fake) Crocs to be super-generous on size.

Spirit_2

PasturesNew wrote: »

I love the idea of BBQ food, but I've rarely encountered any BBQ parties. burger

Although I have been thinking of creating a BBQ-4-1 solution out of some bits and bobs....

We had a BBQ for dinner. Lamb kebabs, chicken kebabs and sausages. Accompanied by mixed salad and potato salad.

It is fairly regular sunday dinner on good summer days and sometimes for midweek. Not much mess..do not need the stove on.

Pastures my DD bought a small ' bbq she used for camping. It was fine and not too much hassle to care for. If it had been she would not have used it.

fc123

silvercar wrote: »

If you don't want the hassle/ responsibility of young 'uns, you need to rent it as a self contained unit and don't let on that you are nearby and available for 3am rescue operations.



Remove all expensive/ fragile/precious stuff. Smart, chic, sturdy, functional, minimlist is the way to go.

We furnished the flat abroad with renters in mind. So smart sofa, but a darker colour than I would have chosen for our own use. Mattresses that are comfy but not overpriced. Thick mattress protectors! Leather dining chairs so they can be wiped clean.

OH said exactly the same thing.

I just am getting excited about the interior as we haven't had a period house for 17 years (I love old) and always had to consider children, pets, everyday living needs etc. It's like a whole different design ethos when you can do exactly what you want and it doesn't have to be for everyday wear.

The forms came though for the empty homes scheme and we have decided not to do it.
Back to Plan A.....save and wait as we can't face being beholden to anyone elses rules and regs.
ETA, and it's nice not owing anything so we will keep it that way.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Well if it makes you feel better, I almost became a landlord, property developer, and shopkeeper all in one this week.

Which I rather suspect is a fate worse than death, let alone having to deal with mystery stains on the furniture.

Fortunately, I was outbid for the building.

oooh what are you looking at?

PasturesNew wrote: »

I stayed in all day; no point going out, nowhere to go that didn't involve "making up somewhere to go, then wondering what to do once I got there, then coming home again soonish as I'd want a drink, something to eat or the loo". Billy no mates .... sitting without two halfpennies to rub together on a beach .... not 'fun'. So I didn't even think about doing it.

aww........that's sad to read.
Any joy with house hunting?

I have done all the research for MIL's benefits and I am sure you would qualify for some support.

I was just reading about everyones events and if NP's all lived near each other it would be a social whirlwind.

I hit the Lido today on my own......lovely 50m pool and new H+S rules mean it's not that busy as they only let in 250 people at a time. I fast tracked the queue too as I have an annual membership.

lostinrates

Spirit wrote: »

We had a BBQ for dinner. Lamb kebabs, chicken kebabs and sausages. Accompanied by mixed salad and potato salad.
.

That's the main issue with them. Once lit DH wants to cook everything under the sun.....running around the kitchen and the garden saying ' what would this be like grilled, what would this be like grilled' where as I have an objection to greed cooking because we lit the wretched thing. We should only cook as much as we would eat or can reasonably eat as left overs IMO.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

fc123 wrote: »

oooh what are you looking at?

A whole building came on the market at a good price, Georgian period, a high street location, retail unit on ground floor, 4 stories of disused and now derelict space above (originally a townhouse, then office, then storage).

We were looking to buy the whole thing, convert back to residential for let, and take on the retail unit ourselves as a side project for Mrs McT.

However outbid, so looking around for something else now.

Bit of a shame as projects of that scope don't come up very often at all, however also relieved as I suspect it would have been a nightmare for the next year or two.

PasturesNew

Spirit wrote: »

We had a BBQ for dinner. Lamb kebabs, chicken kebabs and sausages. Accompanied by mixed salad and potato salad.

It is fairly regular sunday dinner on good summer days and sometimes for midweek. Not much mess..do not need the stove on.

Pastures my DD bought a small ' bbq she used for camping. It was fine and not too much hassle to care for. If it had been she would not have used it.

For one, a BBQ would be 2 sausages, 2 spoons of spud salad and a spoon of other salad..... except to eat that would mean the eyes being bigger than the belly and I'd end up having 2-4 sausages, couple of burgers, huge bowl of spud salad and some side salad... and bread rolls.... and [a] I'd have over-catered I'd end up forcing it all down [c] I'd become the size of a planet

Camping, with a stove, when you're young ... is fun so you'd do it; especially as others might have been present, so it was a right old jolly time. When you're older and it's "just you" you just think "Meh" and don't bother

PasturesNew

fc123 wrote: »

Any joy with house hunting?

Nothing that's made me want to speak to an EA at all

fc123 wrote: »

I have done all the research for MIL's benefits and I am sure you would qualify for some support.

I probably would, but I'd feel like a fraud.

fc123 wrote: »

I hit the Lido today on my own......lovely 50m pool and new H+S rules mean it's not that busy as they only let in 250 people at a time. I fast tracked the queue too as I have an annual membership.

Spoilt! There aren't many 50m pools in the country.

silvercar

We had a BBQ tonight.

OH was in charge of the cooking, he decided to cook only some of the meat I had prepared, so I have an excessive amount of raw meat left over to freeze raw and an excessive amount of cooked chicken wings.

I got distracted whilst cooking by the tennis and the phone. Making lemon pavlova and by mistake added the lemon curd to the cream before beating it. So lemon pavlova turned into Eton mess. Guests none the wiser.

michaels

PasturesNew wrote: »

My nearest is 2 miles. Nearest superstore is just under 7 miles. I look at mysupermarket for the main thing I'm after to see if Mr S or Mr T is cheaper for that item..... and that decides which direction I go in as both are two miles in opposite directions and both have a Lidl within half a mile. So I go out to one supermarket, then Lidl. Job done. Then I get in the car and drive home, thinking what better things I coud have bought

Of course with price ,match/brand match and judicious use of two 'next customer' dividers at checkout you can of course benefit from the specials at both Mr S and Mr T whilst only visiting one store or the other. (saying that I went to both today, Mr T had given me a 12 quid of 80 till spit last week expiring today but there are some things that I just can not stand the Mr T version of).

zagubov wrote: »

I'm doing my annual visit north soon and need some advice.
This might be more relevant to GDB or any of the east of England NPs who've visited Andy-Murray-land. Has anyone any experience of travelling up the east coast to Edinburgh? I'm thinking of the A1; any tips, supermarkets for cheap petrol, or is it just a rubbish route?

I've always reckoned the west coast's the only way (M40/M6) as seeing as how Bristol's east of Edinburgh, but my info may be out of date

The M1's cursed AFAIK. There's always roadworks, pileups and/or carnage blocking the route .

It will mean I can wave at GDB, CK, viva, sc, Nikkster, brallaqueen and masomnia instead of my usual doozer, jb, lj, chewie, wheezy (how's he doing?) kabayiri, bugslet, allthesss's route.

You can wave to use from either route I only tend to drive the bottom bit of the A1m say as far as Peterborough and a after not too far it stops being like an 'M' and starts having 50 zones and an excessive number of roundabouts although they have been removing them over the years.

PasturesNew wrote: »

I love the idea of BBQ food, but I've rarely encountered any BBQ parties. Probably been to 4 BBQs in my life. It's not the sort of thing I'd do for me - buy a BBQ, set it up, learn how to use it, use it, pack it away, store it, keep it clean .... to be used 2x a year tops for one burger

Although I have been thinking of creating a BBQ-4-1 solution out of some bits and bobs....

You do know about disposable BBQs don't you?

There were a few other things I wanted to quote - couldn't believe Mr Spirit had been doing so much outside this afternoon - it was about 30 degrees here and so humid we just hid inside and had a cooling foray to a half empty Sainsburies at 4PM (I reckon Sains/waitrose people are more likely to watch tennis than their tesco/Asda counterparts). I did get a few chores done but the list of things to do 'URGENT' doesn't seem to bee getting anu shorter - there is a 9th birthday for DD1 on Tuesday and her party at ours on Sunday. Still by the looks of the PC time (my watch strap has broken again, Casio have gone to the dogs of late) no more chores will be done tonight.

Betfair used to be brilliant but they have changed their T&C to make them greedy and moved offshore to make it impossible to resolve any disputes in mall claims/contacting a UK regulator (and avoid tax of course) plus their security seems less than other organisations. They charge a premium price to try to ensure they are the ones receiving all the benefits from their high levels of liquidity. Other competitors such as pinnacle have a better overall proposition imho. MsK is the expert in this area.

Which reminds me - you need to start the movie pretty late at this time of year with outside projection, years ago we used to use a projector to watch TV until the bulb went and I found out how much (500 quid) a replacement one was.

And finally...our mortgage seems to have been approved with a drive-by valuation within about a week of submitting the docs which isn't ideal as I am hoping to stall on the purchase while the planning happens so was hoping the mortgage company would take their time - time to book a full structural survey for 3 or 4 weeks time methinks...

bugslet

zagubov wrote: »

I'm doing my annual visit north soon and need some advice.
This might be more relevant to GDB or any of the east of England NPs who've visited Andy-Murray-land. Has anyone any experience of travelling up the east coast to Edinburgh? I'm thinking of the A1; any tips, supermarkets for cheap petrol, or is it just a rubbish route?

I've always reckoned the west coast's the only way (M40/M6) as seeing as how Bristol's east of Edinburgh, but my info may be out of date

The M1's cursed AFAIK. There's always roadworks, pileups and/or carnage blocking the route .

It will mean I can wave at GDB, CK, viva, sc, Nikkster, brallaqueen and masomnia instead of my usual doozer, jb, lj, chewie, wheezy (how's he doing?) kabayiri, bugslet, allthesss's route.

The A1 run from Newcastle is very scenic, if you want to take your time and look at pretty hills. If you want to get there in the same day, from Herts neck of the woods, either go M6 via A14 or if you want to run up the east cost, A1 to Scotch corner and take the A66.

The A1 from Newcastle is just slooow and full of speed cameras.