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

bugslet

Good Food show, think I'd be coming back with about half the hall:D

EssexHebridean

bugslet wrote: »

Good Food show, think I'd be coming back with about half the hall:D

*coughs* I have NO idea what you mean. we quite deliberately go on the Sunday. Good bargains to be had, it being the last day, and all. It turns into a kind of giant clearance sale by the end! :rotfl:

MistyMountainTop

I need to get our slow cooker out, the day seems to go much smoother when I no longer need to think about dinner

I didn't get any invites to the Orchard thing, probably because I didn't do any of tweeting etc. for the last one. I should've put in the effort but it completely slipped my mind until after it was too late...

The Good Food show sounds great. Is it this weekend?

loveis

I always try to go to things on the last day for the bargains and freebies. A whole bag of cookies and cakes at the foodies festival in the summer

Have fun!

EssexHebridean

Can't argue with bargainous Cake Loveis!

Yes Misty - this weekend. We make a trip of it - we'll head up saturday, out for beers with a pal on Saturday night, then the show on Sunday. Curry sunday night (it's Birmingham, you have to have a curry!) and then home, possibly via somewhere to do some christmas shopping, on Monday. Means I get a 4 day weekend - :T - always good!

I've made use of my lunchtime walk the last couple of days to suss out some prices locally. Yesterday I had a good old wander around the Turkish supermarket - remembered how fabulous their bread selection is (think authentic pittas, lebanese bread, and Turkish Pide - somehow managed to leave without buying any, goodness knows how! Also checked out their range of beans, pulses and spices - extensive, to say the least. I could lose hours in that place, honestly! Did note 2kg bags of dried chickpeas at £2.99 which seems to be a good price. Today's stroll took in our local (to work) branch of Iceland - just not somewhere I ever shop, as a rule, largely because we don't have one conveniently placed in the town. Some quite impressive prices though - their frozen fish looked decent, and for an easy treaty weekend tea I'd happily buy the Pizza Express pizzas at 2 for £5. Anyway the "popping along for a look" has ensured that my step count has gone over 5k every day this week - yes I KNOW it's meant to be twice that but that's none so easy to achieve when you spend 8 hours a day in an office! So for now I'll stick with trying to make sure I hit the half-measure daily, and do more where I can.

Car tax got bought today so that's that for another year. Only £30 - came from the money our friends paid us back for the rugby tickets as of course the car account was cleaned out by my MoT test and service.

While I'm not going to be actively looking to buy tomorrow I will be keeping an eye on the photography gear shops to make sure nobody has any extra special offers out there on the camera I'm intending to buy at some stage. I know what price I can get it for by buying direct from Hong Kong, but if I can avoid the grey import thing I'd rather do so.

NO plans for tomorrow at all, which is very unusual! :T

Greying_Pilgrim

EssexHebridean wrote: »

I've made use of my lunchtime walk the last couple of days to suss out some prices locally. Yesterday I had a good old wander around the Turkish supermarket - remembered how fabulous their bread selection is (think authentic pittas, lebanese bread, and Turkish Pide - somehow managed to leave without buying any, goodness knows how! Also checked out their range of beans, pulses and spices - extensive, to say the least. I could lose hours in that place, honestly! Did note 2kg bags of dried chickpeas at £2.99 which seems to be a good price.

That's what I pay hun, so I think that is *about* the cheapest. I get Natc0 brand for that - easternenders is a bit more expensive - but I find n/co good enough. the brown chickpeas were cheaper, but last time I went, they were the same as conventional chickpeas, so even less incentive to buy them - if that is at all possible!:rotfl:

I am envious of your Turkish supermarket - we've nowt like that here - and it would assist my love affair with middle eastern cuisine so much! There is only so much crossover with Asian supermarket stocks.

Happy Friday hun!

Greying X

fru-girl

EssexHebridean wrote: »

the camera I'm intending to buy at some stage.

May I ask what camera? I'm planning to start a camera fund and want to buy a 2nd hand camera next year, but I've no idea what to get, need to do some research.

It needs to be a manual dslr, the one I have now is fujufilm x10 which isn't a dslr. I'll kickstart the fund with selling this one on ebay

Happy Friday!

RosaBernicia

PE pizzas can also be flung in the freezer for emergency fakeaway

EssexHebridean

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

That's what I pay hun, so I think that is *about* the cheapest. I get Natc0 brand for that - easternenders is a bit more expensive - but I find n/co good enough. the brown chickpeas were cheaper, but last time I went, they were the same as conventional chickpeas, so even less incentive to buy them - if that is at all possible!:rotfl:

I am envious of your Turkish supermarket - we've nowt like that here - and it would assist my love affair with middle eastern cuisine so much! There is only so much crossover with Asian supermarket stocks.

Happy Friday hun!

Greying X

Thank you lovely! Yes, I'm guessing although I can't remember for sure that the ones I saw were N-co - I know a lot of what they do in there is.

We're massively lucky to have places like that nearby, I know. It does make sourcing interesting ingredients so much easier. For those spices and similar that aren't so easy I tend to rely on Fox's Spices who we see at the Good Food Show each year - they were the only place we were able to find the white poppy seeds for the Korma. They carry this massive range of stuff - if you can't find what you;re looking for you ask one of their guys who thinks for about 5 seconds, then unerringly takes you straight to it! :rotfl:

fru-girl wrote: »

May I ask what camera? I'm planning to start a camera fund and want to buy a 2nd hand camera next year, but I've no idea what to get, need to do some research.

It needs to be a manual dslr, the one I have now is fujufilm x10 which isn't a dslr. I'll kickstart the fund with selling this one on ebay

Happy Friday!

Ah, well, this handily brings me on to my "Forgive me MSE'ers, for I have sinned" confession! Canon 80D, which replaces my existing second body which was the trusty 40D I've had for about 7 years. My main camera is a 7DMk2 which I LOVE - best camera I've ever owned - the 40D had that mantle until the Mk2 came along - which goes to say a lot about how awful the 7DMk1 I had in between times was (DO NOT buy a 7DMk1!)

I've been keeping my eye on prices on the 80D since it came out, pretty much, and my RAF photog friend was also keeping an ear to the ground as sometimes they can get good deals on stuff through Canon, but until now the cheapest I'd seen by a long way was £775 bought from Hong Kong - which I didn't *really* want to do. This afternoon it popped up at £899 from Wex Photographic - with a code for £80 off, bringing it down to £819.00 at checkout. I'll also be able to claim another £80 cashback from Canon on their winter cashback offer - so £739...plus there was cashback for going through Topcashback (Well Doh, of COURSE I went through TCB! :money:) and that's tracked already - £28...so all being well the price I should end up having paid is £711. :T (Oh, there's 0.5% cashback on the credit card too, now I come to think of it, so that should be another £4 saved.) Very happy bunny indeed - OKit;s still a big lump of money, BUT - I've saved for it, my cameras get used a LOT so I do get value from them, and I've bought it at the best price I possibly good. The master has taught me well!

Aside from that (Yes, I know you can't REALLY spend that amount and then say "aside from that...") I've not spent anything else today at all. It's also been a no-car day - I decided with being away from tomorrow to Monday there was no need to shop today. After making that decision, I remembered I'd not planned anything for dinner... Freezer surfing to the rescue - we're having thai fish curry - which ticks the "healthy, but doesn't taste it" box, along with the "using up another blob of the thai curry paste" box. Also as I can shove whatever veg I have into it it'll deal with the last leek, the remaining sugarsnaps, and the last of the mushrooms. :T Actually one of our favourite meals, this.

Fru-Girl if you need any input on the camera question feel free to ask - if I can help I will!

Plan for tomorrow is to head off from here probably late morning. We've got our usual travelodge booked just outside Birmingham, and can check in there from 3, and we're meeting a pal in town some time after 5. From then it will be beer, along with some food at some stage. Need to remember to pick up the Food Show tickets for Sunday, and remember that we need cash for bus fares for both days. I also need to transfer the money across from the Food Show savings account, now I come to think about it. Easier done here than relying on hotel wifi.

MistyMountainTop

I hope you have a fantastic time - I'll be looking forward to a report when you return!