22 Foxhole East

Baileys_Babe

I haven't had a baked apple for years. I always preferred them made with cooking apples. I wonder if our cooking apples are ready for picking yet? I'll go and investigate.

kerri_gt

Baileys_Babe said:

I haven't had a baked apple for years. I always preferred them made with cooking apples. I wonder if our cooking apples are ready for picking yet? I'll go and investigate.

I would guess they may be. There's a lady up the road from me who is busy supplying me with lots of lovely windfalls (she leave them in a box outside her house for free as has loads)

teapot2

I'm now inspired to use up 2 very sour green 'eating' apples by baking them.  They came in my online shop and are not a variety I'd buy in person.  I've been grating them onto my morning porridge but even thats too much faff lol

f0xh0les

Yay!  baked apples will be sexy again! I do hope you like them, otherwise I will feel a dreadful responsibility for ruining your breakfast. 

3 of the kids are back to school tomorrow.  Everything is sorted - well as much as I can possibly be prepared, I am prepared.    We are having an evening on the sofa with Paddington II and David Attenborough, and then yelling every  15 minutes for them to stop talking and go to bed.   Just like every other night for the last decade.

kerri_gt

Went out for dinner today, lots of families out,  think the parents were celebrating the kids return to school and their hopeful return of sanity   
Best of luck herding them to their educational locations tomorrow. 
No apples out today from the lady with the apples, hope she's still putting them out.
Saw a bit of Paddington 2 as well, have seen both films and although not a Paddington fan usually both me and OH loved the films, can't wait for #3. 

f0xh0les

H0ly Carp!  Dropped DS4 in a safe place to walk down the  side road to his school - parents are not supposed to go onto school property above yr 4 - he made it 3 cars away  before he was called out to and he stopped for a chat with one of the dads.  He was still chatting as I drove away to drop DS2 at another school. The kids were in groups of about 15 milling around and looking at each others phones and not knowing where to go. No social distancing.  Carnage.  Dumped DS1 out of the car and realised DS2's entire year has to walk past the entrance DS1 has to use - hence the 10 minute time difference.  Sadly nobody knew where they needed to go.   Saying use the entrance with the black metal gates does not help when the whole building is surrounded by a  black metal fence with multiple gates in it. 

So now I feel sick, like I have thrown my kids into the 2020 equivalent of a 1970s measles party.  There is nothing I can do. They are going to have to go back sometime. 

It makes me laugh when a whole  country goes on a quarantine list if they get more than 20 cases per 100,000 when Leicester is nearly 3 x that rate and has been since March. 

ElmoR

The next couple of weeks are going to be interesting f0xh0les. The children are all mixing...the university campuses (campi?) are filling up and young people mixing...it's a national measles party or freshers flu with bells on...

ElmoR xx

f0xh0les

Ok, I have finally done the numbers and the budgets: 

Mortgage is down to  £90,500 today, we paid £127.04 in interest in August =  just under £4.10 a day.

I am going to be under £90K next month!!  Was it only 18 months ago that it was just over £100k? I am nowhere near where I wanted to be at this time, but I now have a £16k EF.  So really, if I got kicked in the head by a horse and decided to do something wild,  I could pay off my 10% allowed max o/p this year and have enough left over for max 10% o/p next  year too......But I haven't, so I can't. and I won't..... it would take me down to the low £60K's. by mid April 2021.  So tempting though. 

But I must  put these bad thoughts behind me, and concentrate on bathrooms, roofs, and builders.  Those are the September jobs.

kerri_gt

how did they get on being back at school today F0xh0les?
I'd love a mortgage of that amount, we live in a South Eastern Shire...i shall say no more. OH put a stop to me making any mortgage overpayments when this all started, £ in the bank idea should the worst happen, which makes sense but still would be nice to chio away at it as we were doing before.
Ventured out for a few food essentials this evening (mainly bread and wine) and totally forgot cat food so going to have to get that tomorrow,  although mog would happily munch on the roast chicken i cook for her as a treat for the day. Perhaps I'll jusy give her that and put off the shop for another day.

f0xh0les

School was total carnage - it was like a sheepdog trial. No social distancing at all, and the teachers are saying everything is 'allowed within government guidelines'- so they are combining the smaller A level maths classes (8 students) for the upper year with the lower year (20 kids) so nearly everyone has to share a 2 person table instead of there being one child per table.  But the teacher only has to teach the lesson once, so their face to face kid time is lessened.  It is all by the 'rule book' now, not about the learning or the results.  A tick box exercise.  I see a tutor in my future.