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

savingholmes

Well done on all that decluttering. I need to have another go this evening. Great win on the Sky thing.

beanielou

Well done on the decluttering

rtandon27

Hooray for random rebates! 😆

EssexHebridean

Hooray indeed - it was an excellent surprise! 

I also spotted yesterday that the Delay/Repay from the delayed Birmingham return train the other week has now refunded back to the card - only £9.50 but as that was the full value of the ticket I'm perfectly happy with that. This means that I effectively got return travel London > Birmingham > London for the grand sum of £7 - bargain! 

MrEH has now done his transfer for his share of the CC spending last month so I can get the shuffle done for that at lunchtime. Also should probably get to the cashpoint so I have some money as my purse currently has the grand total of £2 in it - I'm meeting a pal for pizza tonight and while we'll pay for the meal on cards it's possible that we'll carry on somewhere and have a drink afterwards and I could ideally do with money for that. 

Think I've sorted that I can work on Friday and credit the day against a Thursday in March so I should be able to sort a trip to Scampton then hopefully. Also want to try to get to Coningsby at some point to see a Typhoon practice and hopefully catch the BBMF boys up flying as well although that might work for a random single day at some stage. 

beanielou

Enjoy your pizza.

EssexHebridean

Thanks Beanie - it was lovely! 

We used a code for Pizza Express (well of course we did!) for 3 courses £15.95 - mozzarella & Tomato salad, followed by the carbonara Romana pizza for me (I prefer the thinner base so always pay the extra) then baked cheesecake - absolutely delicious! Actually paid cash in the end - with drinks and the tip we split it out at £22 each which was excellent value for a nice meal and a couple of hours of good chat too. :-)  

No decluttering progress last night because we were out - we've talked about getting stuck into some more this evening though so hopefully that will come off. Dinner is planned to be one of my favourites tonight and will also be quite quick to prepare - lamb & apricot couscous with half the leftovers from Sunday's half-shoulder. It also gets chickpeas and some veg thrown in with it and the lamb is shredded and fried off so the edges get a little crispy - it's incredibly easy and tastes superb. (And means that a £9-ish half shoulder of good quality lamb stretches to at least 3 meals!) 

CC money shuffle was done at lunchtime yesterday as planned - I just need to log in to the online banking today to check it all looks OK. 

Oh and another job ticked off - my car is booked for its MoT Test & service at the start of next month. 

savingholmes

Got to love a bargain. 

savingholmes

You okay? EH

EssexHebridean

Oops - sorry for any alarm, and thanks for popping in SH - I'm absolutely fine! Just been distracted by other things and completely forgot about my poor dusty diary! 

So - what news? Car passed its MoT Test with just a single advisory. I did need a puncture repair the weekend before though as picked up a screw, thankfully straight through the tread and far enough in for a straight repair rather than replacement. Mr EH's car also needed a bulb on the same day so we turned up at the garage in convoy! Anyway all done and sorted, and my car also serviced to the required level so all good for this year's planned trips! 

On the subject of planned trips, it all feels a bit uncertain at the moment. We have a beer festival  meeting in Grantham on Saturday which I've not booked travel for yet - feels sensible to leave it just in case we end up having a change of venue although I'm fairly sure we won't. If nothing seems to have changed by Wednesday I'll probably get the trains booked then. We also have a trip to York at the start of next month - again beer related. That currently seems far more likely to be cancelled as it's for our AGM & conference, but a lot will depend on government advice. Our Chief Exec has said that at the moment we're still going ahead but that all new information is being taken on board as it emerges. On that one we have non-cancellable accommodation and also travel booked. Assuming that pubs are still open our group of 8 sharing the accommodation have agreed that we'll head up regardless we think. Looking to further afield we have a week on Lundy planned, and then our Hebrides trip - desperately hoping that both of those can continue unaffected.  POn a personal level I'm worried for my parents - Dad turned 80 at the weekend and has a degenerative lung condition, Mum is a few years younger and in reasonable health but clearly they are both still high risk. On the other hand I agree with them that going into full lockdown indoors will have a far more definite negative impact on their wellbeing - both mental and physical, so it's all about being sensible within reasonable limits, I think. 

Decluttering has been continuing - More stuff went to the charity shop on Saturday morning, and I did a major clear up/dust/de-cobweb in the front room on Saturday afternoon. On the downside the shock of being cleaned killed our table lamp from the front room coffee table - however one of the things I retrieved from under it (don't ask!) was the old one that it replaced, still perfectly good and now back in use after also receiving a clean (seemingly it's made of sterner stuff than the newer one was!) Still absolutely loving the feeling of clearer spaces and more open-ness - I need to retain the memory of this so that if things start getting cluttered again I catch it early.  Saturday's CS visit did net a couple of tops - a stripey one for an upcoming pirate-themed fancy dress thing, and a rather nice green thin jumper (MandS Per Una dontchya know!) which will do nicely for work in the spring - total spend £5.50. 

Other spends this month include finally turning into adults and getting ourselves a plaque with our door number (£9.99 from Amazon, begging the question of why the heck it took us so long to get round to it!) and putting that up, and also getting a new doorbell. We've been without both for several years. Small wins. 

Generally - uncertainty and lingering feel of anxiety around the C-19 thing aside - all beetling along fairly smoothly here currently. 

savingholmes

Glad all is well. Hope you manage to do the trips you want to without undue risk. 
Decluttering sounds like it is going well. I think it could become the national pastime soon