The Big Adventure

Habibiboo

Goldiegirl wrote: »

I'll be doing a large spaghetti bolognese today, enough for four meals. I'm trying a different approach with batch cooking. I had started by putting aside a whole morning to do Spag Bol, chilli and cottage pie, but found it to be a bit much, especially the washing up. So now I'm going to do one dish at a time, but in mega proportions. I'll do a mega chilli next week.

:wave:

Yup, I can relate to this. Goldie, my modus cookerandi for batch cooking when the family was much bigger and younger was mega batch of a dish at a time, so much easier all round, seems to take less time as well as produce less washing up!

Hope work is OK tomorrow. X

Goldiegirl

Working_and_Scheming wrote: »

I sat today and read through your entire diary and found it really interesting. I have already retired, 10 years now, but still found a lot in your postings are similar to my own life. We also have other pensions than the OAP and find we manage very well including cruises every other year. We also use P&O and sail from Southampton as I hate flying and OH medical condition makes it a bad idea anyway. The years in between we have coach holidays and between the 2 we have enjoyed lots of new experiences. I also worked part time for the last 18 months before I retired thanks to a very generous present of a lot of money from my BIL that allowed me to still draw full time money during this time. The best present I ever had was the free 20 hours per week for 18 months. I have always said that money can only be spent once and although obvious it took me a long time to come to terms with that. Now I am very careful with my cash so I can afford to do the things I want to do. I am really glad your health has improved and I hope it continues to do so. I look forward to reading more posts from you.

Thank you so much for dropping in - it's a big encouragement to hear from people who have already retired, and are living the lifestyle that I aspire to. Coach holidays are something we are considering , probably to the northern parts of the UK and /or Wales, places we've not had an opportunity to see before.

Habibiboo wrote: »

:wave:

Yup, I can relate to this. Goldie, my modus cookerandi for batch cooking when the family was much bigger and younger was mega batch of a dish at a time, so much easier all round, seems to take less time as well as produce less washing up!

Hope work is OK tomorrow. X

Work was fine today, if it was like that all the time, it'd wouldn't be such a struggle:rotfl:


Although, something occurred today that made me feel glad I'm not going to be around much longer.


They've brought in a new rule, that only one person in the team can be off at any given time. Due to the size of our team, it means that it will be difficult to fit everybody's holiday in to the year.


Anyway, today someone booked holiday for summer 2016, so they all started panicking, and booked their summer holidays for two years time! July and August 2016 is now fully booked up. Madness!


Only one bit of financial news. It's the summer party tomorrow, so I get a free lunch. We don't get many perks, so this is something we look forward to each year. I will be having fish and chips and a large ice cream. The weather will be good too. We only get an hour to go to the party, as we have work that has to be completed by a certain time, , but other teams stay outside all afternoon. But we watch from the windows, so we're not too left out.

Habibiboo

Goldiegirl wrote: »

They've brought in a new rule, that only one person in the team can be off at any given time. Due to the size of our team, it means that it will be difficult to fit everybody's holiday in to the year.

Anyway, today someone booked holiday for summer 2016, so they all started panicking, and booked their summer holidays for two years time! July and August 2016 is now fully booked up. Madness!

My sister's workplace is like that ... It's crazy mad for her trying to get time off in the school holidays. Good that you won't have all that to worry about ... your time will be your own by then! :j


Only one bit of financial news. It's the summer party tomorrow, so I get a free lunch. We don't get many perks, so this is something we look forward to each year. I will be having fish and chips and a large ice cream. The weather will be good too. We only get an hour to go to the party, as we have work that has to be completed by a certain time, , but other teams stay outside all afternoon. But we watch from the windows, so we're not too left out.

This sounds like you'll all have your noses pressed to the glass like Victorian waifs :rotfl:/QUOTE]

:wave:

Enjoy your free lunch Goldie ... hope the sun shines whilst you're out there!

Arkers

Yep annual leave entitlement is a maybe not a "yes," If you want time off at peak time you have to book a year in advance, and working shifts this makes it tricky. This is what happens in our world. Also Bank holidays are "if you're due to work then you will work, (this includes Xmas), we will let you know if you can have the day off".


Whilst I appreciate the arguments for and against it does cause frustration and bad feeling. I have known people go into work on a day off to book leave for the following year. Who cares if you get "double bubble" for working a public holiday - I for one would rather have a day off. After all the tax man does not get a slice of this.


Annual leave is a forgotten bonus ill protected and increasingly forgotten about when it comes to employment rights. (not including the public holidays nine days I believe; unless you are lucky enough to live in Scotland) of todays working environment.


I know this is a money saving forum, but quite honestly it time off is in my opinion of paramount importance.


I know how the people in your office feel, and to maintain the stats quo they probably have little option but to (play) utilise the system.


Goldie - bet you can't wait to go, you have worked hard so I am counting down with you:T. I am glad your health improves, maybe it was down to having such a nice holiday!


Stepping down from soapbox....xxx

mouche

So glad to hear your health has improved Goldie. I can't post much anymore but I am keeping up with your diary. I wonder - will you be having another BBQ lunch tomorrow?

WhiteSnowdrop

The summer fair sounds lovely! It's a little unfair that your team can only go for an hour, make sure you enjoy all of that ice cream to compensate.

Goldiegirl

Habibiboo wrote: »

This sounds like you'll all have your noses pressed to the glass like Victorian waifs :rotfl:

:rotfl: It does sound a bit 'poor little match girl' doesn't it!

WhiteSnowdrop wrote: »

The summer fair sounds lovely! It's a little unfair that your team can only go for an hour, make sure you enjoy all of that ice cream to compensate.

Well, I'm still completely stuffed from all the fish and chips and ice cream, so I certainly made the most of it.


Actually, we don't mind going out just for a short time. It means we enjoy the music coming in through the windows, can avoid the boring bits like the awards, and get a grandstand view for our version of Britain's Got Talent!

Goldiegirl

Arkers wrote: »

Yep annual leave entitlement is a maybe not a "yes," If you want time off at peak time you have to book a year in advance, and working shifts this makes it tricky. This is what happens in our world. Also Bank holidays are "if you're due to work then you will work, (this includes Xmas), we will let you know if you can have the day off".


Whilst I appreciate the arguments for and against it does cause frustration and bad feeling. I have known people go into work on a day off to book leave for the following year. Who cares if you get "double bubble" for working a public holiday - I for one would rather have a day off. After all the tax man does not get a slice of this.


Annual leave is a forgotten bonus ill protected and increasingly forgotten about when it comes to employment rights. (not including the public holidays nine days I believe; unless you are lucky enough to live in Scotland) of todays working environment.


I know this is a money saving forum, but quite honestly it time off is in my opinion of paramount importance.


I know how the people in your office feel, and to maintain the stats quo they probably have little option but to (play) utilise the system.


Goldie - bet you can't wait to go, you have worked hard so I am counting down with you:T. I am glad your health improves, maybe it was down to having such a nice holiday!


Stepping down from soapbox....xxx

I agree with every word you say.


At my previous employers, holiday was a complete mine-field, and people used to get very stressed about it.


I think the problem at my current employers was that they often allowed too many people off at one time, and on occasion there weren't enough people left to cover all the jobs. So they've brought in a system, but maybe the system is a bit too draconian.


There's going to be a big meeting about it, on a day I'm not in the office, but I've said that's fine, as I haven't got anything to say about it.




I think my recent holiday was a help with the old tinnitus and vertigo. I'm convinced that a persons state of mind helps. I was so busy with all the new things going on, I barely heard any tinnitus, and I forgot about worrying if I was going to have vertigo.


I've got my audiology appointment next Friday, which has come round quickly, so I will see what happens next

Goldiegirl

mouche wrote: »

So glad to hear your health has improved Goldie. I can't post much anymore but I am keeping up with your diary. I wonder - will you be having another BBQ lunch tomorrow?

I thought I hadn't seen much of you recently - hope everything is ok with you.


Well, tomorrow we're going to Canterbury, so no BBQ for lunch. We're seeing a show, and will have lunch out. Storms are forecast, so I'm hoping they'll miss us when we are out and about.




I've just realised, I got my pension paid into my account today and Mr Goldie has been paid too.


Our payday is 20th, which is Sunday, so we've got the money early.


This means a new budgeting month has started. As we've been away, the figures will be fine for last month, but next month will be a long month, so it'll be interesting to see what happens


Have a relaxing Friday evening everyone

Goldiegirl

This is very early for me on a Sunday morning. Mr Goldie has gone out to take photos of a building site(to do with work, not fun!). The site is on a main road, so it's easier early on a Sunday.

It's too warm and too sunny to stay asleep to I'm propped up in bed with my iPad.

On Friday evening we had a massive storm. It was quite weird, on one side of the sky was a beautiful sunset, yet on the other side of the sky, you could see waves of menacing clouds rolling in. The wind got up, and and was gusting around. There was lightening thunder and heavy rain. But the time it was bedtime it had subsided, but we did have more thunder and lightening in the night.

We had a very nice time in Canterbury yesterday. We only had one rain shower shortly after we arrived, so we had coffee, and apart from that in was hot and sunny.

We used our free trial Gourmet Society card yesterday, in the ' red French cafe', one of the few places that accepts the card on a Saturday. We saved £10.73, so that was very acceptable.

We saw West Side Story. I'd seen the film on TV, but I had forgotten how many songs in the show that I knew very well. A good afternoon's entertainment.

Today, will get washing out on the line ASAP. It should dry very quickly, so I'll get most of the ironing done too.

I've sold 7 things on eBay, and a couple more should sell this evening, so I'll get the packing done.

Have a lovely Sunday.