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

milann

Sounds as if you had a fantastic time despite the heat. 

Ice if any sort must be a food group this week 👍

girlatplay

I just skimmed the energy board and saw your Utilsh1tty saga in full.  Oh dear.  Oh dear.

savingholmes

On the choc bar - obv most important part of post - perhaps he froze it before hand...

EssexHebridean

Yep - still bewildered about the choccy bar - no idea how he achieved it other than by having some sort of god-like power to keep things cool! 

yes indeed to the Util5h1tty Warehouse saga - what an absolute joke they've turned out to be. My suspicion is that for those who have multiple services with hem and act as their "salespeople" they have a whole different customer service set-up - perhaps one which actually has the first clue what it's doing. 

We had pasta salad for tea last night and it was lush! Cooked the penne which thankfully didn't take long - then threw in the tub of roasted tomato and peppers, a good grind of black pepper, some basil leaves and a block of the pesto I made the other week, then once it had cooled right down, added a tin of tuna each. Quick, easy and low effort - that one is going into the list for future use. As it's cooled down a fair bit today (still hot here, but not the stifling heat it was yesterday) I'm going with mushroom and chorizo risotto tonight. 

MrEH's car has been MoT'd and serviced today - all good except brakes and pads needing doing so that will be an additional £150 for those. Needs must, and it's all budgeted for so that's fine. Meanwhile I got my breakdown cover renewal and was a little surprised it had increased by a big old chunk - so I emailed Ax@ to complain - turned out they had never processed the change of cars in 2019 so I have been driving around with no breakdown cover for the past three years, essentially! I've also of course been overpaying a bit - as the previous car was substantially older. Not terrifically impressed - although in fairness they were swift to resolve it and are investigating - I am hopeful I should be able to extract in the region of £40 overpayments from them, all the more so as the revised renewal letter helpfully tells me what I should have paid last year... In fact I am actually under no illusion that had I needed to call them they would probably have sorted the issue out there and then, but I still should have been paying £30-something a year not £50 something a year. I've also suggested that perhaps in future showing registration numbers on their paperwork might be helpful as I've looked back over my records and there is literally no way I could have know that they had not done what they said they would! 

Still  haven't got grocery spends together - relatively minimal though - I'm rather impressed with himself, truth be told! 

Cheery_Daff

Ooh naughty breakdown people! As you say, they likely would have sorted it if you'd actually broken down, but I do hope you get your refund!

redofromstart

Giggling at the stealth cold biscuit bar, my OH insists on carrying all of the chill bags etc hidden in 'normal' rucksack.

Our current 'lunch' obsession is basil pesto/tinned lentils/fridge bottom veg which is cheap and cheerful whilst being distressingly healthy.  

savingholmes

Glad you sorted the breakdown cover. What a faff tho.

Pasta sounds tasty.

EssexHebridean

Hey Cheery - I will indeed be pursuing the refund - an email has gone to them this morning to start the process - we'll see what they have to say! 

Redo I love the thought of your OK proudly producing chilled items as if by magic apparently from a regular rucksack - and am now all the more convinced that was what the chap the other day had done!  And that lunch sounds fantastic - and also makes my filled roll and fruit for my lunch seem a little dull! 

SH it IS a faff - and one that right now I could have done without needing to give time and energy to. hey Ho - hopefully they'll realise that I have a pretty watertight case and will just repay me what I have overpaid. At the moment there would still be time for me to cancel the policy renewal - although I don't want to - so that might help a bit. 

Apologies to all those whose diaries I'm not keeping up with at the moment by the way - I seem to have ALLLLLL the balls in the air at once and am just concentrating on keeping those I have going rather than adding any more! In between beer order stuff, routine stuff, work stuff and trying to work through the photos from the weekend it feels like everything is going on flat out at the moment - but I think I am just about keeping ahead of it all. 

Grocery wise I'm going to do an approximate - seems like £15 at the farmers market and £20 in T's at the weekend - so that's an unexpectedly cheap start to the month. Aiming for nothing too horrific this week either but it will be higher - will probably get a chicken to roast for Sunday, and we need quite a re-stock on veg. Storecupboard stuff can probably tick over until we're back after the beer festival or even until the first proper shop in September.  I need another look at the freezer to work out exactly what we have that can be planned in for meals for next week too. Also realised that I *have* taken my eye off the ball as right now there is nothing planned for tea tonight. Hmmm. Some wracking of brains needed there then. Last night's risotto got a big dollop of red pesto alongside the onion, mushrooms and chorizo and MrEh practically licked the bowl out before declaring it most tasty. I'll remember that trick, too!  Tonight though....probably couscous and halloumi and whatever other stuff is lurking, if I'm honest. Must also see if the final two eggs in the box are OK - if they are then I'll make a batch of muffins of some description as we've left ourselves with nothing for puddings as MrEH didn't realise we needed yogurts when he shopped. 

Gr33n 3nergy have confirmed our switch is going through and should complete next Tuesday - genuinely the fastest one I've ever done (annoying in some ways as it extends the time we'll be paying slightly higher rates) and I can only assume that util5h1tty Warehouse really are desperate to get rid of us now! I have just worked out that we will only be at home for 40 of those more expensive days though, and after that hopefully the increase in the price cap should mean we're actually making at least some saving. 

I'm back in MrEH's car today as unexpectedly Neil managed to get the service, MoT and Brakes done yesterday and popped it back to us last night - good man! Handy too as mine is now very low on diesel - it's done ok really as it got back from Lincoln, to and from Gloucestershire and a bit of running around while I was there plus to and from London yesterday so I'll take that. I'm reluctant to put too much fuel in it right now as it feels as though prices are dropping - not before time. I'll probably go somewhere local tomorrow and stick £20 in so it's not left standing for ages with an essentially empty tank. Do need to remind MrEH to pay Neil's bill - the poor car account will be looking a bit depleted soon enough with both lots of breakdown cover renewing, plus both insurance policies. MrEH's tax too but that doesn't cost anything.

savingholmes

Don't worry about diaries. It sounds very busy in your world - especially in the run up to your beer festival.

girlatplay

Oh Gloucestershire.  My grandparents lived there.  I loved going there as a child, every summer.