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

savingholmes

Hope you manage to have a positive day regardless. It's still very windy here too.

Scottiedog_3

Unlikely that Boris would worry about anything apart from Peppa Pig...

milann

Pity your friend couldn’t travel. Not worth taking the risk though. Have a good day anyway.

beanielou

Good call I think.

EssexHebridean

Well the Food Show was quite good, but far quieter than usual and a lot less stalls. Unfortunately this included quite a number of those we buy from regularly which is a shame, they were definitely missed and we’ll be doing some ordering online from a couple, most likely. Still got some nice bits though - a fair bit of cheese, some nice crisps, 5 packs of Heck Chicken sausages (the only ones of theirs we particularly like) for £10 which was a good bargain, some jars of our favourite Tracklements Sticky Fig Relish and best of all my favourite peanut butter company were there doing 2 of their big 1kg “paint tins” of PB for £10 which makes me very happy! One of our favourite producers from the Hebrides was there too so we’ve topped up supplies of their oatcakes and crackers a bit, mainly the variants we struggle to get in the shops up there. There were a few other odds and ends too, but overall we spent a lot less money than we usually do, and we will probably give a bit of thought to whether we’ll give it a miss next year. There was a decent goody bag given out this year though - including a full size box of PG Tips decaf teabags, a full size bottle of Zoflora, and some nice other little odds and ends too. 

We’re now just being lazy back at the hotel, and will go and grab an Indian takeaway later on. We were considering going for a bit of a walk but as it’s now snowing pretty hard and freezing cold (my watch tells me it’s 0°C outside right now!) we decided we couldn’t be bothered with that! We’ve both got reading material, and there’s plenty of tea bags (even without using the free PG Tips ones!) so we’ll stay cosy here. 

We had a good night last night in spite of our friend needing to cancel - found some really nice pubs and some lovely beer too. Definitely some places we’ll look to go back to on future visits. 

savingholmes

Glad you've had a good time regardless. Sounds like a good call on having a night at the hotel though. It's perishingly cold. 

beanielou

OOoh I love Zaflora 

EssexHebridean

It’s been SO cold all day too SH - we did stop and walk on the way home though, at a lovely RSPB reserve we’ve visited before, it was a beautiful day for it! 

Beanie would you believe I’ve never used it? One of my besties loves the stuff though so I’ll pass her the second bottle I think. I’m looking forward to trying it out myself! 

Talking of cold, I’m slightly regretting turning the heating down on the basis of “well we won’t be here, will we” as it was under 16°C in the centre of the flat when we walked in earlier. 🥶 It is slowly warming up, but it’s taking it’s time about it!  I’ve got the hallway heater advanced so it is chucking the heat out earlier than planned, but that does mean it will probably run out at some stage mid evening. I think the front room fire is going to go on shortly. 

We very sensibly stopped on the way home to get our food shopping
- £21 spent but 
£4.78 was christmas related stuff
£4.37 was storecupboard bits.
It was a good decision to do Aldi this week as there is much less to draw us into temptation there. We did forget onions but MrEH will pop in one morning as he’s passing and grab a bag. Meals are all planned and I do need the onions - I used the last couple at the end of last week. 

Plans for this week - we both have a three day working week as MrEH has another day’s holiday on Friday - we’re off to one of our favourite beer festivals. I will be aiming to get the the gym tomorrow on the way home from work - I’d considered going earlier on but then decided I couldn’t be bothered to go out in the cold again so tomorrow it is! I’m not sure I’m looking forward to cycling tomorrow, either, allowing for the temperatures, although at least we have no snow here. 

savingholmes

Stay safe in the cold weather. It's so changeable ATM isn't it... 

EssexHebridean

It really is SH - as a complete contrast it was 7 degrees when I left home this morning, and is into double figures now! 

Back to normal routine today after the weekend - and typically the traffic decided to remind me of it this morning by being DIRE. Didn't help that I was out a few minutes late mind you, although I'm not convinced it made a huge amount of difference. Managed to get to the office only 5 minutes late anyway so could be worse. 

Time for an update then:
Prolific: £0 paid/£5.94 pending
OnePoll: 900 points
NSD's: 18/18 - today will not be one as I've already spent something! 
Overnight Electric: £1.90 but we expected that as the heaters are turned back up to normal levels. WM also ran, and the hot water of course.

Remembered this morning that we needed to order the replacement "Tide table wheel" that we use a lot in the Hebrides - Just under £12 including postage and it's supporting a lovely sole trader who we've bought from for years now.  It's only an every second year purchase too as the wheel does two years.

In further spending news I also made use of a black friday deal over the weekend to buy some more of the Hygge band headband/multi-use snoods. Their 5 for £15 deal was pretty decent even allowing for the fairly hefty postage cost, and the fact that I paid an extra £3 for one of them to be one of the "Winter" ones as I thought that might be a godsend in the Hebrides. (possibly not just in winter, either!) There are cheaper ones available, and as face coverings I like my Lucy Locket ones, but the Hygge ones work best as headbands particularly when running. The cost will come from my clothing account in any case. 

Also noticed this morning that my Flickr account has renewed so that is a £55 spend gone on the CC. I'd prefer to not have to pay it, but one way or the other I do need the photo storage, and Flickr makes it really easy to be able to just get at my stuff wherever I am, so on balance it's a price worth paying. I've got *just* enough left in my bank account this month that I'll transfer the money to the card to clear it off once my pay lands which will hopefully be later today or tomorrow. 

Banking has been checked, MrEH has been paid, and I've just transferred the remaining surplus from November to the Marcus account. Also got my "Welcome to EDF" email this morning so have set up my account there, and assume that their Direct debit will appear in due course to replace the UP one that has now disappeared. Quite pleased that we finally seem to be reaching a conclusion on that process.