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

EssexHebridean

Oh thank you all for the vote of confidence in the crochet hooks - I wanted more of a variation in size and once I’d ascertained that buying the set would be less expensive than buying the individual hooks, and that he cheerful coloured ones were no more expensive than boring grey, the decision was made! 

SH I’ve done a couple of 5k events round the Olympic Park but that’s about the only times I’d been back. I kept coming across places I remembered from when we went for the Paralympics though and thinking “oh that’s where Hays and I sat and watched the wheelchair tennis on the screen!” And “that was the bridge with the light-show underneath” - SO good to remember all the stuff! 😁

Right - our morning is off to a decent start
- Steve the Handyman has been, made suggestions, gently corrected the order we wanted to do some of the stuff, and will be quoting. He can also make time to do the prep work ahead of the plastering really soon so that’s great - we can probably have our first sizeable bit of progress this month, or early next.  
- I’ve sorted through recipe books - found a reasonable number to go (definitely more than 5), found a coupe of books that shouldn’t really be in that cupboard, created some additional space for gin bottles (hurrah!) and half filled another charity shop bag. 

- porridge has been made (apple and cinnamon, with a blob of almond butter on the top) consumed and declared tasty. 

- rolls are out for lunch, as is the squash and parsnip soup for lunch tomorrow, and the lamb for Sunday.
- I’ve also had a re-jig of the freezer, changed a tub of coconut chunks from a round tub (why on earth would I have done that?!) to a rectangular one for easier storage, and rearranged some stuff to make it more intuitive to find. 

- banks checked, a bit of 1st of the month shuffling done, and a reminder given to MrEH that he has money owing to the card to transfer and a regular saver shuffle of his own to sort out. 

- Washing brought in from outside - with a sleepy bumblebee passenger as it turned out, he’s now been returned to outside. 

The Gym is being put off until tomorrow because my legs were SO tired cycling back to the car last night I think they need a gentler day today. I will get the new bike out for a spin and see how it is. 

List progress…

- Steve-the-Handyman coming to review/quote (9am ish)
- Gym
- Ride on new-to-me bike to check all OK
- Check through financials - review budget for fuel/diesel/MrEH travel
- Donation to St Clare - £30 in memory of Auntie D, £30 for bike
- Donation to Red Cross re Ukraine
- Proper clean of kitchen
- clean kitchen and bathroom floors
- decide on what's for friday tea, might be a takeaway night?
- 15 minute general tidy
- Get garage sorted so my Car will fit back in
- Sort out what seeds we want to buy for this year 
- 15 minute tidy of spare room/MrEH's office
- sort through recipe books again - find 5 to go to charity shop?
- Charity shop run with stuff to go (try not to come back with anything extra!)
- Do final jigsaw that is to go back to our friend as we'll be seeing her next weekend? 

- clean and grease foldy bike

Right now the wind is howling and that biting cold edge to it is still very much present. With that in mind I think I’ll see if a I can get a couple more “indoors” jobs ticked off. Stay warm and cosy everyone! 

starnac

Squash and parsnip soup sounds lovely. 

Cheery_Daff

Love that you have made more room for gin - excellent work there 😂😂

I experimented with the Ziffit app the other day, as I was thinking of having a bit of a book clearout. Sadly I don't think it's going to be worth it in our case - I just went round the shelves randomly zapping bar codes for all sorts, and so many of ours came up saying 'we are not accepting this item at this time'- mostly either heavy or unusual stuff which is reasonable I suppose. There were a couple of things at £1.40, but mostly around 10-40p. Interestingly a book I bought new last month for £12 I was offered 54p for 😂 Clearly think they can't sell it on! 

Definitely charity shop for us when I do our book clearout- most of them came from charity shops anyway so it's only fair!

EssexHebridean

Starnac the soup is lovely - and so easy too. It has curry spices in it and tastes lush! 

Cheery I decided Music Magpie wasn’t for me for the same reason - everything I tried out on them they were only paying pennies for and in the end I decided to save the hassle of all the boxing up and posting and view the stuff I was getting shot of as a charitable donation instead! Sometimes in this house the biggest progress is agreeing that things like books or DVDs CAN go - and once that’s happened it’s best to exit them as fast as possible before “someone” changes his mind! 😂

Both bikes are now cleaned and greased - and as the sun is out again I’m thinking I might venture out on the big one sooner rather than later. It IS still flipping cold and rather windy, but I do fancy some activity. 

I’ve done a 15 minute general tidying round, folded and put away the clean washing, taken out the rubbish and some recycling, and best of all had a surprising dinner decision. I handed it over to MrEH that we could either have a random assortment of vaguely “fry-up” type bits from the freezer, or we could order a takeaway. I’d assumed he’d be onto the takeaway idea like a rat up a drainpipe, but no, he informs me that the fry-up variation sounds delicious and so we’ll have that. As the takeaway originally under discussion was a treaty Indian, that’s a hefty saving made right there!  I’ve now been back for another freezer dive and extracted a pack of tattie scones, 4 already cooked sausages, the end pieces of two black puddings, and some white / fruit pudding so we’ll be well fed tonight. I now actually have space in the freezer - miracles will never cease! 

Also,on the subject of using things up I saw off the last of my bottle of Micellar Water cleaner last night. Handily I have two more in my stash as they were gifted to me at Christmas so I’ll pull one of those out ready for use.

Cheery_Daff

Excellent tea decision there! Good on Mr EH! 😁 And I agree with getting things out as fast as possible 😂😂

EssexHebridean

It was indeed very tasty too Cheery - he made a good call! 

Right - today’s list progress:

- Steve-the-Handyman coming to review/quote (9am ish)
- Gym
- Ride on new-to-me bike to check all OK
- Check through financials - review budget for fuel/diesel/MrEH travel
- Donation to St Clare - £30 in memory of Auntie D, £30 for bike
- Donation to Red Cross re Ukraine
- Proper clean of kitchen
- clean kitchen and bathroom floors
- decide on what's for friday tea, might be a takeaway right?
- 15 minute general tidy
- Get garage sorted so my Car will fit back in
- Sort out what seeds we want to buy for this year 
- 15 minute tidy of spare room/MrEH's office
- sort through recipe books again - find 5 to go to charity shop?
- Charity shop run with stuff to go (try not to come back with anything extra!)
- Do final jigsaw that is to go back to our friend as we'll be seeing her next weekend? 

- clean and grease foldy bike

That doesn’t look like I’ve done much, annoyingly! The garage is now immaculately tidy and we’ve got rid of a fair bit of stuff that we’d originally shoved into it because we thought it might come in handy. If it hasn’t yet, we’ve discussed the value of keeping the item and a fair amount have been ditched. One set of racking has been dismantled and stored away in case it’s needed again, and the storage unit, cupboard and second shelving unit have been shifted about to make better use of the space. The car is back in, drives in easier than it did, and has masses of spare space as well which is great. Even remembered to pump up the front wheel of the foldy bike before ai loaded it back into MrEH’s car, too.

I also made flapjacks this afternoon - tweaking the recipe to make use of half a jar of mincemeat left over from Christmas. I was a bit wary that it might not work so well - firstly because the moisture level was quite different to the usual, and second because I only realised after I’d started prepping the ingredients that I only had a couple of ounces of plain flour left in the bag, so had to make up more than half the volume with SR. It was fine though - they’re really tasty and the mincemeat gives a lovely flavour! 

We’re now cosied up in the front room - curtains pulled, candles lit, watching some more episodes of the London Transport Museum’s Hidden London Hangouts. I’ll do another few rows of my crochet this evening hopefully - I wonder if I can get to the end of my current ball of wool?

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, we've got about a quarter of a jar of mincemeat sat in the cupboard- wonder what I can add it to??

boxofpaws

EssexHebridean said:

- I’ve also had a re-jig of the freezer, changed a tub of coconut chunks from a round tub (why on earth would I have done that?!) to a rectangular one for easier storage

This made me grin. We have talked at length in my family about the need to be able to tessellate storage containers.

Mr P cannot be persuaded to part with any CDs so hats off to you there.

When you tidied the garage, did you have to keep going back In to admire your work? Or is that just me? 

girlatplay

boxofpaws said:

EssexHebridean said:

- I’ve also had a re-jig of the freezer, changed a tub of coconut chunks from a round tub (why on earth would I have done that?!) to a rectangular one for easier storage

...

When you tidied the garage, did you have to keep going back In to admire your work? Or is that just me? 

😆 this is me when I cut the grass and when I hang the washing out.  I don't understand the need to keep looking but I can't help it.

EssexHebridean

That made me chuckle Paws - and for full disclosure I have to confess that when I opened it this morning to extract the bike I did indeed spend several minutes just quietly appreciating the beautifully rearranged storage and all the space we’d created! 😊 Actually relieved that you and GAP would have done the same! 

Cheery I can definitely vouch for mincemeat being ace in flapjack type things. Our recipe uses 6oz of fat usually - I reduced that to 5 this time allowing for the mincemeat, and reduced the usual 3oz sugar to 2.5. I also let the mincemeat replace the usual 2tbsp syrup - as a result they’re not quite as  sweet as normal - I probably overestimated the sweetness of the mincemeat but I was wary of too much liquid. If I did the same thing again I’d probably actually increase the sugar by half an oz. Allowing I won’t do it again until next Christmas at the earliest though I’m guessing I’ll have forgotten that by then… 

I’ve had a rather nice morning. MrEH had a barbers appointment just after 9 so had an alarm set for earlier than usual weekend timing but that was fine - it meant I had a nice start to the day just lazing around, doing Wordle (4 attempts today, not too bad for what I think is a tricky-ish word), drinking tea and eating toast, browsing about on here etc. Once up and dressed I sorted the washing to outside then got myself ready to head to the gym. MrEH has had a haircut and popped into Lidl for bread flour. He also took the three bags to the charity shop so that saves me a job AND ensures I won’t find anything too good to not buy while I’m there!  I’ve now given the new bike a bit of an outing - it needs a bit of adjustment to the gear system so may have to go to bike hospital at some stage I think - it’s perfectly rideable as it is but it IS a bit rattly at times - some adjustment and hopefully a service will make all the difference. 

The gym went well too - interestingly enough the different machines at the one near work, while feeling as though I’m doing less, do seem to be helping with progress as I got two PB’s this morning and increased the numbers of reps on several other things too. Quite chuffed with that - hoping that particularly with the leg press it may not be too long before I can increase again but I’ll be doing some solid work where I am first. All good anyway, and another drop to my “per visit” cost - I’ll amend my signature in a minute! 

Just waiting for MrEH to get home so we can have lunch, then plans for this afternoon include shopping, doing some stuff outside, and probably a bit of tidying inside too. Also need to spend some time doing some work for our volunteer role later I think, but after tea will probably suit that. 

Happy Saturday all - hope it’s restful, productive or whatever else you might need it to be!