EH - Essex > Hebrides...the next step of the adventure?

EssexHebridean

Morning all! Bright, blue skies and sunny here and not as cold as yesterday so wins all round there - hoping others have something similar!

Just checked through emails and surveys this morning - the electrician wants to start on Monday so we're debating whether we can be ready in time. Frankly I'm also well aware that some of the hesitation is "eek - more disruption!" related but I'm dreading that anyway so probably just need to seize the day and go for it - sooner he starts, sooner it's done. He's also now given us a price to supply and fit our new storage heater which seems pretty reasonable so we'll be having that done at the same time, and he'll be sorting one of the jobs to get the kitchen snagging done too. My gut feeling is we need to take a deep breath and say yes.

I'm 16 points away from cash-out on Power Of Opinions so bet I don't see anything from THEM for a while now. Need to make sure I pounce on anything that comes in as annoyingly I had a few that came in over the weekend and have now gone dead. Need to do one YouGov one and also check OnePoll....oh and log in to Prolific and see if anything moves on there today.

Chased my beeswax wraps yesterday as it was a couple of weeks since I'd ordered and they say they dispatch in 3 - 4 days so I was a bit worried that they had been sent and gone astray - turns out there was a delay on one of the fabrics which is now sorted and they dispatched my order yesterday and are throwing an extra wrap in to thank me for being patient - excellent customer service there! :T

Trying to think what else needs doing this week - need to consult my week-list in my bullet-ish journal that I added loads of stuff too when I was musing on stuff on the train on Sunday!

Ooh yes - the running show! It was a good day out - my ticket was free, not sure I'd pay to go as there wasn't *that* much there for a runner of my level but as it only cost me for my travel it was a pretty decent day. managed to buy the trail running shoes I wanted - in fact exactly the ones I wanted - for a lot less than I would have paid elsewhere and got a free water bottle and t-shirt thrown in with those, also got the long sleeved running top I've been after, and touchscreen-compatible running gloves too which I've been wanting - bit more expensive than the others I saw but the touch-panels on the fingers and thumbs are extremely good, they're machine washable and fully breathable too. A few others odds and ends purchased too. I used some of what was left from my Christmas bonus money for the bits I bought too so all well within budget. :T

WannabeFree

Sounds like a good day EH well done on finding what you wanted at right prices too.

I saw the beeswax wraps on your blog - I'm sure it was yours They look good!

It's snowing here! No bright blue skies.

Have a lovely day & thank you for all your help yesterday

x

EssexHebridean

Yep think I did blog about them! Looking forward to them arriving now! :T You're very welcome WF - not sure I did too much though but glad it was helpful! :kisses3:

MrEH reckons we should go for the electrical work earlier-than-planned start date - he may have forgotten that we don't currently have the light fittings we need though..... :rotfl: Oh well I'll go back to Lee-the-Sparky (regular readers may recall this is in the same vein as Dave-The-Builder & Geoff-The-Plasterer!) and hopefully we can get somewhere to find the light fittings on Monday evening, worst case. :eek:

beanielou

Great news on all the running stuff

starnac

Sounds like it was well worth going to the running show. I just couldn't fit it in. Which trainers did you get?

I love my beeswax wraps. So handy. Hope yours come quickly. Great to see some good customer service too

EssexHebridean

Thanks Beanie!

Starnac It was a good day - if I go again I'd probably book a slightly earlier train home as I'd pretty much seen it all inside a couple of hours, then another to go back to places I'd seen stuff I wanted and then I was killing time! I got the Saucony Peregrine 8's - tried a pair on last year and loved them but just couldn't justify the fortune they wanted for them then. £60 at the show was doable though! Might have to sneak out for a short bimble round the forest first thing Friday morning to give them a try-out! :T

Beeswax wraps were there when I got home last night and my lunch today is wrapped in one of them! Impressed so far! Also impressed with myself for getting out for 2.5miles running last night in the dark and freezing cold, spitty rain (which turned to snow not half an hour after I got back - brrr!) - I'd spent all day trying to come up with good excuses not to go but failed utterly so made myself get out there - lovely run in the end, that goes to show! :rotfl:

Need to think about jobs that need doing in relation to the electrical works:
- Clearing of assorted areas, hallway, kitchen, spare room
- Look online at possible light fittings
- Friday AM go and get the handle for the meter cupboard door.

Lee-The-Sparky will be with us first thing Monday and is ordering the items we need for the job today - eek! Desperately trying to convince myself that we just have to crack on and get it done - scary though!

Other stuff. Another random £10 earned yesterday which is handy and will join the one from last week in my tin. This doesn't happen often but it's useful when it does.
MrEH's car service, MoT Test and belt-change came to £220 which has now been bank transferred to the mechanic. He's going to quote on mine on a "pick list" basis for the bits and bobs that need done on her so we can choose what to get done when. She'll need her service and some diagnostics done in the next couple of weeks though. If she needs new injectors that will probably mostly clear out the car savings account - thankfully there is a great big surplus in there at the moment.
MrEH's has two tyres near limits - we'll need to pencil those in for early next month.
Mine also has 2 tyres nearing limits but they can probably wait another month, we'll just need them done ahead of going away.

I have a sketchy meal plan ready for next week mostly relying on cupboards, freezer, fridge & larder. Need to translate that to a shopping list so that's ready too I think.

Silver_Queen

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Also impressed with myself for getting out for 2.5miles running last night in the dark and freezing cold, spitty rain (which turned to snow not half an hour after I got back - brrr!) - I'd spent all day trying to come up with good excuses not to go but failed utterly so made myself get out there - lovely run in the end, that goes to show! :rotfl:
.

In the meanwhile, it was snowing by the time I got home last night so I made the executive decision to stay home in my jammies and eat chicken pie instead of going on my pre-planned run :rotfl:

EssexHebridean

Silver_Queen wrote: »

In the meanwhile, it was snowing by the time I got home last night so I made the executive decision to stay home in my jammies and eat chicken pie instead of going on my pre-planned run :rotfl:

:rotfl: Trust me SQ had it already started with the snowy nonsense when I went out for mine I'd have run alright - straight back inside again! :rotfl:

HairyHandofDartmoor

That sounds like a good day at the show with purchases of things you already needed at good prices.

Well done for going for your run in cold rain :T.

EssexHebridean

Thanks HH!

My meal plan is derailed - for some reason I missed the fact there were two days for pasta on there when I shopped, which means I've not got enough veggies to do my planned spag bol. I do however have oddments in the larder and fridge that could do with using, so I'm on a mission to work out what to do with:
2 eggs
3 rashers of streaky bacon
a few mushrooms
potatoes
a single tomato
Needs to feed two of us, and so far I can only think that it looks like ingredients for the worlds smallest fry-up! :rotfl: Tempted to do the tatties as wedges, then use the rest with a tin of tomatoes cooked down a bit to do a sort of quick cheaty shakshuka... I've got the last of a bag of frozen peppers in the freezer too which would work with that. Honestly, it's like Ready Steady Cook round here sometimes, only an episode where there was a hole in the shopping bag on the way to the studio and half the ingredients leaked out... :rotfl:

Today will not be a NSD as I want to go to the gym tonight so £7 there. I'll talk to them about monthly membership while I'm in there I think - if I can just pay it in a lump sum for a single month then I might do that bearing in mind how cold and nasty the weather is turning. Even if I only went once a week for the next month I'd still break even on it, and if I fancied going a second time in any week I could do.

MrEH surprised me by ordering the flooring samples for the hallway so he brought those home with him last night (bless him, he's so romantic! :rotfl:) - we can now take a look at those and decide what we think. Another job for tomorrow morning is to stick the likely candidates on the floor somewhere so we can see how they will look.