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

rtandon27

*Waves* - hello EH - soooooo good to 'see you' - leaving a plate of oreos on the side to entice the ladies round for a cuppa & biccie!

EssexHebridean

Haha - hello both! I do have  a habit of doing this from time to time....wandering off from here as though on some sort of walkabout, leaving diaries trailing in my wake. It's happened before, it will likely happen again, although hopefully NOT this time as a result of me spending less time in front of a PC because I'm furloughed as a result of a pandemic! 

So - the last 18 months or so in a nutshell. Pandemic hit, and lockdown 1 kicked in. Initially I transferred to WFH but that doesn't really work for me - so much of my usual job requires access to files, and also involves answering the phones, and the stuff I could do from home  wasn't taking enough of my time up so as of mid April I was furloughed. They were SO apologetic about it but to be honest at that stage it was almost a relief as I was strongly feeling that it was unfair on them paying me for the comparatively small amount of work I was actually managing to do. At a similar sort of time MrEH got put onto a 3 day week however - and THAT was when I was REALLY glad about my MSE experience as suddenly having a drop in income of that sort of level was a bit "eek!". First job was of course the usual "how much do we REALLY need" balanced off against the savings on commuting etc, and then a bit of reorganisation of what money went where savings-wise, but we still managed to save something at least. 

He went back onto normal working at the end of the summer if I remember rightly, but I stayed fully furloughed until last month when the "work from home if you can" ruling was properly lifted - my bosses both can do their jobs from home, and it's impractical under our professional conduct rules for me to be here all the time alone. I'm now 50% furloughed while we ease back into things, and coming back to the office after all that time (and more particularly that wretched commute) definitely is taking some adjustment!

We were tremendously lucky that all the trips/travel etc we had planned for last year were either roll-overable or completely refunded - this included train travel and things like travelodge bookings too. The Lundy trip that was the first thing we had to cancel is re-booked for next year, and our Hebrides trip was able to be slotted in for later on last year (in fact, this time last year we were just getting ready to come back I think!) The luckiest one was our Hebrides Christmas visit - we were due to go the day after Boris announced the changes in rules for what was going to happen over Christmas, at which point he also announced that our area would be moving to tier 4. In fact as a result of a poor weather forecast for the day of our ferry we actually left home a full 24 hours earlier than planned, to give us the option to get an earlier boat, meaning that we weren't even at home by the time the announcement was made, and in fact the only rule we broke was travelling back into England on our return - sadly nobody stopped us and sent us back though!    Thanks to rolled over holiday time from last year we've also managed to cram in a bit of extra travelling this year too- as well as our usual 2 weeks on an island, we've also spent a week in Cornwall, and will be returning there for another break in a few weeks time. Both of us have also been able to roll holiday time on into next year to cover that Lundy trip also.

There has been some spending - earlier in the year we finally treated ourselves to the ice cream maker we've been discussing for years - using saved commute money (and also, old habits kicking in, a 20% off voucher from lakeland!). our parking location for work days has also had to change thanks to yet more area becoming resident parking zones, so I am now the owner of a cute little foldy bike in order to allow for the rather longer distance between car > office. Finally (as far as I can think anyway) MrEH's elderly Citroen C3 is no more, replaced recently with a quite shockingly smart Peugeot 2008 a year newer than my Clio. The Citroen was always going to have to go ahead of next month when the new rules around ULEZ in London kick in, and when talking through the options we decided that it was time for something bigger, so the Peugeot got the nod. So far, so good, she's done a trip down to Devon to visit the family and we're impressed. The money had been saved up and was budgeted for, so all good there. 

So now it's about learning to reintroduce the "normality" again - catching up with friends, and starting to get out and about more. Some things from the last few months will likely stick - we've started getting a veg box from Oddbox which we LOVE, and it's definitely making us eat more plant based meals. Going forwards it looks like for the beer festival online meetings will continue for a while - and even once face to face starts again I think we'll continue doing some virtual ones as well. We've also already agreed that we do want to make sure we factor in some quieter weekend times when things are busy. 

EssexHebridean

OK - so more "short term" stuff. Just had a lovely weekend away at Bournemouth airshow which involved lots of catching up with various folk, some of whom I'd not seen for literally 2 years, and also a night out on Thursday with one of my besties which was great fun. He also helped me to save a chunk on a purchase that I had been planning - I finally gave up on my just over a year old Fitbit charge 3 a few months ago. it had never worked properly, they replaced it and the new one STILL wouldn't work properly, so eventually I decided enough was enough and to just give up on it, call the money I'd spent on it lost, and switch temporarily to my old Garmin running-specific watch until I decided what to replace with. I'd mostly decided to stick with Garmin, and mentioned this to my pal, at which point he said that the work discount scheme he's part  of offers discounts on their products... well, my oh my, it certainly does - my new VivoActive 4S is now ordered, and for £179 rather than the ticket price of £239! Winner! Planned purchase, will add value to my life (and my sleep - as the current Forerunner I'm wearing is bigger and chunkier and frankly uncomfortable!) and I have the money saved ready when the CC bill comes due. 

I currently have a fridge positively STUFFED with veggies - I batch cooked over roasted ratatouille yesterday while a leg of lamb was roasting, and also started the cooking of an aubergine and green bean curry for tonight which will mean a swifter dinner when we get home. The rest of the lamb will do a meal later this week and the remainder will get "chunked" and go into the freezer. Also need to  meal plan for use for the rest of the stuff now as don't want to see it go to waste. Our own runner beans and courgettes are both still threatening further production, too... 

In other planned spending is new glasses for me - my current ones are perfect for distance but I literally can't see up close in them any more so I can see varifocals in my future, sadly. Just literally waiting to get to the stage where I feel more comfortable going into an opticians without a face covering as no way can I wear one in that environment, particularly not at this time of year! Money is hopefully set aside though. 

In terms of other plans - we are away this weekend coming (beer festival in Chesterfield with some pals) then I have a further trip down to Devon to help the parents in law with their house move. The Cornish trip is also on the horizon, and there is an overnight in St Albans meeting up with yet another group of chums...it's definitely all ramping up again! 

We've also had a discussion here as a result of various folk chatting about premium bonds with a view to putting at least some of our monthly surplus into those. It won't be a big investment to start with, but certainly we feel we'll be precious little worse off with the way interest rates are looking right now! 

EssexHebridean

rtandon27 said:

*Waves* - hello EH - soooooo good to 'see you' - leaving a plate of oreos on the side to entice the ladies round for a cuppa & biccie!

Ooh helloooooo! Missed you there! Hope all is good with you! 

Cheery_Daff

Welcome back! 😊 Good to see you've not lost your MSE ways!

beanielou

Good to see you.

savingholmes

Just caught up on your posts. Sounds like a rollercoaster of a year but you made it which is the important thing. Good to see you back

EssexHebridean

Haha @Cheery_Daff - you know it! @beanielou You too! Thanks for popping by! @savingholmes Has been for all of us hasn't it - and yep, definitely the important bit! 

New Garmin arrived yesterday and so far I'm delighted with it, not least because as I hoped it IS more comfortable to wear and particularly sleep in than the chunkier Forerunner. I'll be keeping that one for the time being as a "just in case spare" - I'd sooner that than have to switch back to one of the FitBits if I have any problems with the Vivoactive. Actually now slightly tempted to follow through the warranty process with the FitBit, get them to replace it again with a brand new pebble, and then sell that on as "replacement, never worn" to recoup at least some of the costs. I can't do that with either of the previous two as I have posted liberally online about how rubbish they were, so a risk of that coming back on me when someone else finds out the issues! 

Need to focus my mind back onto the small stuff I think, as I've been a bit "adrift" since getting back into the office part of the time. I reckon a good starting point is the food/cooking/shopping side of things - I've tended to let meal planning etc slip rather as being at home it's been easier to take longer with prepping  meals and also far easier to just pop to the supermarket when I encounter something we need. As from now though that  needs to stop - getting home close to 7pm and then realising that dinner takes an hour to prep & cook isn't the best!  So...
- a proper audit of the fridge/freezer first, then meal plan, and then remembering to actually add things to my shopping list on my phone ready for a shop at some stage probably over the weekend. Happy to do one "big supermarket" and one Al's/Lil's visit per week, not happy to be in and out of shops more than that as my time becomes more valuable again. 
- We currently have a fridge absolutely CRAMMED with veg box and home grown stuff too so tomorrow needs to include a chunk of time maximising value and minimising waste from that lot.

Remembering Cheery's old plan of timetabling her days here, and will channel that for tomorrow I think, probably not structured to times but just as a list of stuff that needs doing.
First thing - walk with MrEH
Breakfast
Half hour tidying/sorting things out at home
Gym in the morning allows for a better use of the afternoon
Lunch
An hour food prep from the fridge
An hour of photo processing?
Yoga
Swimming in the evening - already booked at the lido, and will likely be my last chance for a lovely outdoor swim this year.

Let's see how that lot shapes up!  Might also have to get to Halfords at some stage to collect a replacement foldy bike - mine has been condemned sadly, they've been extremely good though and I'm hoping the new one is better!  Today I'm in the office so not much scope to do much - this evening will be the usual sorting out of washing etc, I MUST get a load of towels through! 

Have a good day all! 🌞

beanielou

Enjoy the lido 

Cheery_Daff

Gosh, yes, I remember Cheery's old plan of timetabling days too 🙄🙄😂😂 Must get back to that, although there doesn't seem much point right now when everything is all over the place anyway. Not even sure when the last time I ate any veg was - we've had veggie burgers cooked on the outside fire 3 nights in a row now as the weather has been so nice 😂😂 very jolly, but probably not a sustainable strategy 😂