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

girlatplay

EssexHebridean said:

...

I did notice that MrEH had used up the last of a tub of soft cheese from the fridge over the weekend - I didn't ask whether it was OK as it's been in there weeks and was only still there because I'd not got round to throwing it away...oh well,, he's not dead yet so it must have been OK! 

...

I kind of splutter-snorted at this.  I'm glad I wasn't in public.

How annoying about the tap.  These things don't usually break themselves in that manner.

foxgloves

The Red Arrows have been flying over our village this afternoon. Rehearsing I think, as there has been a Hurricane out on exercise too. Mr F identified that......I must confess that despite growing up in an RAF family, I can only identify the Red Arrows....everything else is just 'a plane'. We are close to the Lincs borders so we do see them occasionally.
F x

Cheery_Daff

Oh how annoying about the tap! Quite clearly it was something they did 😠 Fingers crossed for an easy fix.

Fingers also crossed for a foldy bike service - my Brompton needs a new gear hub and I've yet to find anywhere local that will do it 🙄 Need a concerted effort of ringing round I think. They're unusual, but they are still just a bike! 

beanielou

Boo to the tap.
Hope it is resolved.

savingholmes

Nice that you can put your inheritance towards a hobby that you love. A nice way of honouring her.

Enjoy the shows as always - sure you will. 

milann

How lovely that your aunt left you something. Enjoy the new camera when you get it. Hope you’ve had the tap sorted by now. 
Have a great weekend. 

lucielle

Love the cream cheese comments, that's the sort of thing I'd do!  Hope the tap gets mended quickly and easily.
L

EssexHebridean

That tap did get mended quickly and I have no idea how "easily" or otherwise as I purposely didn't ask - very much viewing how difficult it was as "not my problem"   As predicted he had to cut the back panel out of the cupboard under the sink - I said this would be the case and he was insistent that there would be no need...apparently I do know some stuff about my own kitchen though, who'd have thought it?!  Anyway - it's done, I don't like it quite as much as the original but "it'll do" and I have no intention of offering him any money for the fitting or it - and he hasn't asked, which is probably a good thing. Mum and I have both now agreed that we'll be happy to use him in the future for small supervised jobs, but will be less keep to leave him (or more relevantly, his oppo he works with) working when we are out. 

The cream cheese by the way it turned out WAS off - and didn't get eaten. Apparently it was blue and furry when MrEH looked (no surprise there!) and so he threw it away and opened the next one - which now means some of that will probably have to be discarded before we go away - hey ho, that's the way things go. Some of it has been used with sandwiches for lunch today anyway. 

Right - now very much on a wind-down towards heading off to the Hebrides thank goodness! Oddments of shopping over the weekend came to rather more than I'd ideally planned but also included odds and ends of stuff to take away - we don't take much in the way of foodstuffs as it's important to buy when there to help with supporting the local economy (as those in rural tourist reliant areas will know the "pet peeve" of a lot of the locals is those that turn up for a trip, unload their M&S bags from the car and are then never seen near a local shop!) but we do have bits and pieces for the journey, and some stuff that either we have that needs using up (this time most of our individually wrapped tea-bag stash is going!) or that we're conscious it won't be worth buying a full jar/pack of for our fortnight, or indeed that we simply can't get there. MrEH takes ground coffee from his preferred roasters as the stuff the supermarkets there stock he's not a fan of. 

The credit card money shuffle should now have been done to date I think - 
- Grocery spending for the month has ended up at £112.xx but then I didn't subtract anything holiday related from there - guessing the odd £12 or so spend would be covered there.
- the £75 for the windscreen excess has been transferred from the car account
- The money for the tap has been taken from the joint account surplus - there was thankfully just enough left in there to do it without raiding the EF. 
- £30 for diesel that went on the CC because I got to the payment window before realising I'd only got my phone on me, not my purse - transferred from the joint account. I'll double check later/tonight that it's all square as we really want to start our trip with a zero balance on there - it will make it easier to transfer the money for holiday costs as needed. Next thing to go on the card now will be diesel for the journey which MrEH will put in tomorrow morning - I'll need to remind him to not put that on the joint account card, too! 

MrEH should be paid tomorrow which is helpful. There is £30 remaining in the joint account some of which I will probably transfer to EDF as a manual payment as they didn't take this month's DD after I'd applied to change the date from next month. I had a feeling that would be the case though. Also on the subject of energy providers, Util5h1tty Warehouse are, as predicted, giving us hassle with the refund on close of account - they're refunding £39.57 which is the outstanding credit on the budget plan once the final bill is taken into account, and they have also randomly made another refund of £65.xx which we assume related to the manual payment that sparked the original complaint/ombudsman referral etc...however, as that manual payment was £70.70 it is anyone's guess why they've refunded £5 short. I've questioned them on this by email, and subsequently had a reply claiming that our final bill was an estimated one (it wasn't) because our readings were "out of range" (they weren't, and had they been, the new supplier would have taken issue with them) and that we need to send them a photo of our current meter readings... Now, let me guess what happens to our final bill if I send them the meter readings for a full month after the switch! I've gone back and said they are talking nonsense, that the readings were fine - and indeed were accepted by them, and that they simply need to pay us the remaining amount we are owed, and have also told them to escalate that to yet another formal complaint - and it's all gone a bit quiet now. We'll see. Oh, in addition the "your account" area of the app is also trying to tell me that we owe THEM £39.57 - so presumably their system's can't tell the difference between a credit balance at close of account and an amount owed. Sigh. I am beyond glad that we escaped from them when we did as goodness only knows what a complete pigs breakfast they will make of people's accounts when the £400 energy rebate starts hitting in a couple of months! 

Other than that - everything under control, I think. There is a whole heap of accommodation bookings I need to make for various upcoming trips - Grantham, Norwich, Birmingham - and I'll need to work out where the money for all those will be shuffled from, but that can be a task for while we're away I think. 

lucielle

Well done with the on going battle of the utility company.  Very jealous of your Hebridean trip, we won't be heading north until November at the earliest.
L 

savingholmes

Enjoy your trip.

Glad tap sorted.

Annoying about the energy refund - but a cautionary tale for the rest of us...