The Garden Fence - help and support in tough times

[Deleted User]

I used to make a pasta salad for the girls packed lunches when they were at school

Cooked chunky pasta like penne or fusilli
cubes of cheese
tinned red kidey beans
tinned sweetcorn
chopped fresh tomato
chopped fresh cucumber
whole tiny seedless grapes
chopped spring onions
sultanas
salted peanuts
chopped celery
chopped apple

all mixed together in a bowl and then a french dressing made with balsamic vinegar stirred through. You can use all or any of the ingredients plus whatever else you fancy chucking in cold chicken, ham, sausage all go in well too.

3 tablespoons oil (olive, sunflower, walnut etc)
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon wholegrain mustard
good grinding of pepper

all shaken together in a lidded jam jar.

Keeps well in the fridge and travels very well in a tupperware type container.

GreyQueen

Fuddle, don't know if this'd be of interest, but a pal of mine who is notoriously Bad at Mornings, used to batch-make his sarnies for the work-week on a Sunday, freeze them, and take out each day's supply just before he left for work. They'd be thawed by lunchtime.

Happy news, the final stage of work on the new tank upstairs took place at 3.40 pm (installation started at 08.20 am) so we should be good now.

mardatha

Been about 4C for a good few days fuddle, but remember I'm high up.

nursemaggie

Brilliant GQ I hope everything dries out soon. Do you get any compensation?

elona

Mardatha

Hope you feel better soon.


Fuddle

Don't forget things like cooked potato can be used in a Spanish omelette, or as quick chips etc or topped with cheese, bolognese sauce etc.

Softstuff

If we ever manage to sell our house and downsize I would love you as a decorator :T

elona

Anyone freezing sandwiches - don't do what DH used to do.

I used to get frozen bread and make up a sandwich at six in the morning for his lunch before I dashed off to catch the train for work and he used to keep complaining the bread was cold - eventually I thought to ask him when he was eating his pack up!!! The answer was eight o' clock in the morning!!! :eek:

camelot1001

Mardatha, hope you feel better soon.

Fuddle, I am by Loch Lomond, very cold at night at the moment but getting to a whopping 9/10 degrees some days! Remember to bring your wellies as it's usually wet round here!
I make a fritata (sp) with spinach on a Sunday night and have it cold for lunches with salad, it keeps pretty well and is tasty too. Cooked chicken is my other staple with salad, doesn't take long to make up.

DD now has her case in SA and is presently in Sun City, looks fantastic from the photos she has sent, elephants, giraffe, rhinos all out in the wild, slightly envious? Yes I am!

When I was at the tip the other week I got a little table that will be ideal as a bedside table so have taken it apart, started varnishing the top and am chalk painting the legs and frame white which should look good in my new bedroom. So pleased as it was free!

The snow this morning didn't last long and didn't settle, it's just cold, wet and windy, don't think the forecast is much good for the weekend either, still, we did have a nice day on Saturday.

GreyQueen

nursemaggie wrote: »

Brilliant GQ I hope everything dries out soon. Do you get any compensation?

Nah, nor would I expect any. Haven't had any losses bar inconvenience and the costs of 6 additonal laundry loads (2 of which Mum volunteered to do for me). Just one of those things. If I had to, I could claim on my home contents insurance. Council fittings causing damage doesn't automatically trigger compensation, you're expected to have HCI for that, which I have via a group tenant policy for just over a fiver a month.

I shall paint the inside of the airing cupboard to make good the appearance once every thing is bone dry (am thinking 1 week +) but I have the emulsion already.

In a way, it's been productive to have to have everything out of the cupboard. Not because it was untidy or neglected, but it has brought everything out into the cold light of day, and this has caused some things to be rehomed via the chazzer.

I have just hauled one of my two mattress protectors out of the wash and discovered that it has given up the ghost and 'bobbled' everywhere. I shall have a jolly time picking the bits off the rest of the items when they're dry. It's much the older of the two (is about 15 years old) I have, M&S seconds off a market trader who sells such things in our region. It doesn't owe me anything and for years, I managed perfectly well with only one, just had to be well-organised when I changed the bed.

Less clutter! It's all good.

greenbee

Softstuff wrote: »

Thanks all for the comments, they're reassuring. Knitwitch, now it's renovated I'm thinking the same! Things that made us move were nearly $8000 a year on body corp fees, not being able to control our own outside maintenance, wanting a garage, wanting a pet and wanting a veggie garden. It didn't look like that 3 months ago either, I lived for 8 years with the most awful bathroom and 6 years with only 1 working hob!

Living there you get all your gardening done, all your exterior maintenance, 4 pools, 3 spas, a tennis court, a sauna and an onsite restaurant with a head chef from a 4* hotel. Which is nice, but if you're handy like I am, you can do all of that for less than $8000 a year. Without blowing my own trumpet, renovation I can do and do well. It has one bedroom which was fine for us, but it'll be nice to have a study in the new house for the hubby who works from home.

I'll show you the new house when it's done (some time from now!), at the moment it's not very impressive at all what with the folding table and chairs and the mattress on the floor :rotfl:

Looks lovely softstuff. I have a colleague who lives somewhere similar (and near you... Could even be the same complex). It makes sense for him, as our work involves being away around 50% of the time March-Nov. I regularly envy his low-maintenance living arrangements - when I get home to no food or even milk for coffee, he's eating in the restaurant and going for a swim...

Softstuff

GreyQueen wrote: »

Happy news, the final stage of work on the new tank upstairs took place at 3.40 pm (installation started at 08.20 am) so we should be good now.

:j yay! That's a happy dance, not a rain dance

elona wrote: »

Softstuff
If we ever manage to sell our house and downsize I would love you as a decorator :T

Aww thanks Elona. Honestly beginning to wonder if I should retrain, or if I'm too bloody old and knackered for the physical labour.

Greenbee, there's a lot of fly-in/fly-out workers in complexes around here and elsewhere on the coast, just because it makes for such convenience. And if you know you'll be away for a set amount of time, you can pop your few personal belongings in lock up and holiday let your home, damn near paying for it. An ideal situation for singles really.

Received a text at 5.15am, followed by a phone call a bit later to say the washing machine will be here today. Breath is not held, but am cautiously optimistic. Will be nice to have one after being without a couple of months.