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

lucielle

You sound extremely organised. Lots of exciting trips coming up. 

L

EssexHebridean

Haha - GAP that's brilliant! 

Morning all - I have to confess that organised is currently the last thing I feel, but I must be to a degree at least - there's just a LOT of balls in the air all at once! we plan to do the same thing on Saturday as worked so well last week - splitting the day into 1 hour chunks and then slotting what needs doing into that framework.

In the office until 2 today then heading home to grab my stuff and drive to Claire's - pub dinner with pals tonight, hopefully some aviation photography stuff tomorrow, then home tomorrow evening. Very glad to have a job where flexibility is possible as I've been able to do this by just making up the couple of hours I'll be short in my working day over the next couple of weeks - I'll just shorten lunchbreaks until it's cleared off. It definitely beats having to take a full or half day of holiday for a short time like that!

MrEH is organised to have an omelette and salad this evening, and I've already got out to defrost in the fridge both the curry and the dhal for tomorrow night's tea - the flatbreads can come out just before I need them as they just reheat in the toaster anyway from frozen. I need to have a proper think about what I can factor in from the freezer for weekend food as well. I did take the chance for a proper dig through the bottom drawer last night - mostly sliced meats for lunches and frozen veg in there - plus a random ready meal that will do me for a lunch one day when MrEH can have something different. 

My car is going to need fuel either today or tomorrow I think - and MrEH's too, so that will be a pricey couple of days - I doubt we'll get any change from £150 for filling the two. Sigh. If I get the time I'll head to the T's at Lincoln to do mine as it's looking like being slightly cheaper than filling it down here would be - but I may end up just swinging round via our nearest one instead before heading off later.  

girlatplay

Do you make your own flatbreads?

You've just reminded me that I need to clear out the freezer.  Oh dear.

savingholmes

Please share your photos again. They are always ace.

@girlatplay - just buy one of those zip up insulated bags (or sets of them) and use them for frozen goodies. I know there are all sorts of rules like you are supposed to let your fridge freezer stand so long etc after moving it before switching it back on- I've never obeyed any of those rules and always been okay.

girlatplay

That's a great idea @savingholmes thank you.  We're not taking the fridge freezer, the buyer bought it from us.  I just need to clear it then clean it.

milann

Being able to tweak your hours to get time off is great. It’s surprising her quickly it mounts up 👍

Seasidegal58

I hope you enjoyed your Lincoln trip EH. 

You mentioned your booking at the 'Hobbit Hole' campsite in the Hebrides. Was this featured in one of those 'Escape to the Country' type programmes a while back?  It seems to ring a bell or I might be dreaming......😃

foxgloves

Cheapest supermarket petrol up here is usually Mr A, @EH (just noticed you're either in, or have been to Lincoln). 
F x

EssexHebridean

Hi All - Phew - isn't it HOT?! 

GAP - you need to pick Foxgloves brain about the flatbreads - I nicked her recipe and jolly good it is too! Waves at SH & Milann - I did take some photos last Friday but haven't had a chance to get to do anything with them yet! And yes to being able to bank hours - it definitely works brilliantly! SSG - I'm not aware of the site we stay on being features anywhere like that but it would be exciting if they had! The site is called Moorcroft - the three glamping pods they have are branded as "Hobbit Homes" though and they are brilliant!  Foxgloves - I was indeed up there last week - tea at the Dambusters Inn at Scampton with pals on Thursday night, then some photographing of little red jets on Friday. Filled the car with the posh diesel-juice at Shell in the end as according to PetrolPrices everywhere was much of a muchness on price so thought it was worth a gamble that I might get a few extra MPG from the posher stuff! 

Life is stupidly busy - still up to our eyes in beer festival stuff, although it IS getting there slowly I think. We are issuing our order numbers this week so then there will be a flurry of last minute panics off the back of those - sigh!  Certainly feeling slightly calmer about things than I was this time last week, anyway! 

We ended our June Grocery budget month 9p under budget - doesn't get closer than that! Into July now and so far nothing spent at all as last weekend's shop was the final one on the June budget. Veg box is cancelled for this week as it didn't look good enough to make it worth the spend - I suspect the next few will also get skipped now as well with our time off at the beer festival coming up. MrEH will be in charge of the shopping this weekend so I will be writing him a list...he'll be heading to the farmer's market on Saturday as well. I'm gradually seeing space in the freezer which is an advance - the challenge now is not to fill it back up again too fast, at least before I've had a chance to work out what with! 

I guess the biggest news here is that we have jumped to a fixed rate for our electricity and switched supplier away from the truly dreadful Utility Warehouse. We'd come to the conclusion that not only did they not actually want to change their account management to ensure that money goes where it is meant to, but they are literally set up in a way that means they can't - unsurprisingly I guess if every time someone makes a manual payment to them it just disappears into a black hole! I made the switch to Green last night - it will in theory cost us more over the next few months but we get another couple of weeks with UW while the switch happens, and then we're away for a while, then back for a few weeks and then away again - a good chunk of the period between the switch happening should be when we're using almost no power anyway so it's a good time to go. On some fairly conservative workings out (without knowing exactly where things will go when the cap changes) the day rate electric comes in cheaper than the rate is likely to be in October by quite a long way, the night rate is a fraction less - we hope that actually the savings there might be a little more than I've worked it out on though,. the SC will likely be a few pence more, but that makes little difference in the grand scheme of things. Gas I am leaving where it is for now - we use so little any increase in rate means very little to us - it's the standing charge that makes up the bulk of our bill.  So we are now (or will be when the switch goes through) on a fixed rate until September 2023 - which is some reassurance anyway, although I can see I will need to continue to stash a little extra away here and there when I can against the fix ending. I plan to set up the account with a variable Direct Debit on it too so it simply means we pay what we use on a monthly basis - far easier to manage. 

This weekend I'm off to Fairford for the Airtattoo of course - absolutely one of my favourite shows of the year although I confess I'm wary of how hot it seems likely to be! I'm really looking forward to catching up with lots of people I've not seen in ages though, the flying displays planned look good, there is an AMAZING flypast that I'm most excited about that isn't quite official yet I don't believe, and several others which should be good that ARE official. Also now got a friend joining me for the day on Friday which will be a good laugh. It will be a spendy few days, I'm well aware of - and comfortable - with that not least as we've not had a show there since 2019! I'm not going to be carrying food in with me in great quantities though so it will be what it will be - a bacon butty for breakfast and whatever I fancy for lunch. I don't buy a programme or merchandise though so suspect I do it a lot cheaper than many! 

greent

Fairford's my local   Temperatures are meant to be crazy thi sweekend, though - 32 ish on Sunday, from memory? Lots of liquids and sunscreen necessary! The company my DH worked for have 1 support and some static aircraft there this weekend