The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

UncannyScot

Morning GP
Have a lovely day and enjoy your wee break away
:A

rtandon27

Have a lovely time GP!

Verbatim

Enjoy your time away together. Hope the sun shines on you!

in_need_of_direction

Is it worth checking the voucher type sites for local deals relating to your destination?

beanielou

Making memories are worth more than anything money can buy.

WannabeFree

beanielou wrote: »

Making memories are worth more than anything money can buy.

Definitely!

Have a lovely time x

EssexHebridean

Hope it was a lovely weekend Greying!

WannabeFree

Hope you had a lovely time away x

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Ay ay ay! Is time running away, or what?

Thank you for all your good wishes for our weekend jaunt. We enjoyed ourselves, and were back on Monday - it's just been full on since, and this is the first time that I've had to post. We weren't terribly lucky with the weather, it did stop us exploring a market town (which actually had a market going on) on the first day, as there was little point in getting soaked (in cold, cold rain), when we're all only just starting to recover from these pesky colds. Had it been just DH and me, we would have braved the weather, but having a small brings a different perspective to matters.

We stayed in a cheap and cheerful prem-e-air inn, which was fine for what we had to pay Food wise, we pretty much got by on what I'd taken with us/bought sandwiches and pasta pot each. It certainly cost way less than sit down meals would have cost us, anyway. And we didn't go hungry, lack variety nor fail to get our fruit and fibre intake :j I think the biggest revelation - and I know that you're all going to laugh at me, roll your eyes and exclaim, Greying how could you not know that! - call yourself a mser! (:p) was that 'cup a soups' work well in a thermos flask, enabling them to be made up in the morning and used as a warming lunch. I can't believe I have never done it before! I've taken soup on a picnic before, but always HM. But the sachets that I got from HB worked so well on day 2, that I bought some more from mrAl and used them on day 3. Souper!

We enjoyed our trip, made memories together and I got lots of nice piccies Including one taken by a NT volunteer of us as a family - which even in this day and age of 'selfies' is a rarity, as I am a personage of very short armage

We got to see snow - luckily from a distance - drove through a quick hailstorm and plenty of rain. But for the most part it was either cloudy or sunny (but cold), so wrapped up, with warm food and restorative hot chocolate (also 'instant'), we faired well.

I splashed out a £1 for a HG butternut squash from a roadside stall. That was worth it, but alot of the produce we saw was dearer than mrAl's and mrL's and was of much poorer quality, so I did not purchase it. Our 25kg sacks of dirty wiljas at home looked positively barginacious, in comparison with those on our travels (maris piper) that were upwards of £10 a bag :eek: I also dropped lucky with some winter wear for BG - I'd missed the promotion in mrL and only managed to get the last one in BG's size here in Greying Town. Luckily, on popping in to a mrL on our 'hols' i dropped on any number of the same item in BG's size, so bought a couple more

All in all, I'm happy with my spends. It wasn't a super cheap break - the fuel costs alone matched the accomodation, but it was somewhere I have wanted to visit for a long time, and if we never go back, I've got my memories of a super time.

My newly-found depository for FB donations is proving to be unreliable. The box was nowhere in sight today, so I think I will have to go back to the drawing board with that one. It doesn't affect the donation (tinned meat etc) that we will be making over the festive period, as that is for a different FB and the collection is a firm commitment, so the items will reach their intended destination.

I know that I have busted the food budget for November, and even with 'paying' myself back for the C'mas FB spends, I've still gone over. But not by alot (not yet totted up) so it's been an 'ok' month for spending. And I think slightly unusual, so it shouldn't be repeated. From December, I will be setting up a C'mas budget to save for 2018. I'm not sure we will ever be the types to go overboard with our Cmas spending, as we don't and won't do alot of things that other people do, so we've no need to spend - and having BG is not going to change our stance on those particular expenditures that we choose not to make. But there will be somethings that we want to spend on and whilst presents will never be numerous, they are bound to add up to an expense that we formerly didn't have. So I best get saving pronto!

Right, I'm a bit worn out, so I'm going to finish up.

I remain grateful that we had and took the opportunity to have a little jaunt 'away'.

I am grateful for meeting up with one of my super (newish) chums yesterday, getting listened to, treated to lunch and made to LOL - alot

I am grateful for the kind comments expressed to us - predominantly about BG - over the past couple of days, so nice of people to care enough to say something.

Ta for popping in - y'all know I appreciate you to the moon & back

Greying X

beanielou

Glad you had a lovely time & made lovely memories.
Priceless.