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

EssexHebridean

Cheers Scott - I'll take a look!

Well here we are at the start of another week, and a nice bright, cheerful, blue-sky start it is too, down here at least!

The weekend was a lovely balance of doing lots and doing nothing at all. I went for a swim on Friday morning for the first time in about a year and a half and was pleasantly surprised to find the off-peak price at the pool I use is still only £4.45. At the time I can go on a Friday that gives me half an hour actually in the water which is exactly what I want (the session after is an "older adults" one which I don't qualify for yet, I was gratified to be told!) Got home and popped to Al's for their nice 0% fat greek yogurt - by far the nicest fat free one I've found, and nicer than a good many regular ones.

Friday afternoon saw a mini celebration as FINALLY I have a semi functioning kitchen again - the cooker is on the gas, and the washing machine and sink are indeed plumbed in, so we're extremely chuffed with that and have done a LOT of loads of washing since! At the moment everything is running on extension leads as the electrics can't get sorted until next week but frankly, that's a small price to pay! :T the worktops are now fully installed and look absolutely stunning - we're really impressed.

Saturday was an "odds and ends" day - shopping to be done, a trip to the RSPB reserve in the afternoon and then MrEH had his rugby club presentation night in the evening - I was invited but was happy to decline! Instead I had a chinese takeaway, several large gins, and binge watched all three episodes of "Three Girls" from the iPlayer.

Yesterday was rather more active as we headed into London to walk the next stretch of the Thames Path - it was a glorious day for it too. Went for breakfast first which it's safe to say MrEH in particular definitely needed - He'd been looking a little green around the gills on the tube ride in! :rotfl: Started at Tower Bridge and got right round to the Dome which, on the map, doesn't look that far but with the associated bits of wandering as well ended up at over 13 miles - my feet and legs are not thanking me this morning! :rotfl: Thankfully there was a lovely City Farm part way with a nice cafe for the all-important purchase of tea and cake - and at a bargainous price too! :T Thoroughly enjoyable day and it's safe to say we both slept like logs last night!

Not much planned for this week really aside chivvying the kitchen on ready for hopefully being completed next week once the sparky has returned from his holiday and house moving antics. Food is mostly planned though - I have one day I still need to get food for as ThaT supermarkeT didn't have the stir fry ingredients with a long enough date on them. I'll try to the store near work instead, the day ahead of when they're needed. Tonight will be one of my new favourite meals though - wholewheat couscous salad with parsley, chickpeas, pomegranate seeds and cashew nuts - it's featuring once a week currently as it's SO tasty! (And I must remember to get my act together and photograph it too as it also looks very attractive!)

EssexHebridean

It would be wrong to start today without giving a nod to the awful news we woke to this morning from Manchester I think. Truly shocking - 22 families whose life changed forever in an instant, and 59 others who will carry the impact with them in physical form. All because "someone" thinks that their cause is higher, and more worthy than other people's rights to live their life without interruption. As a Londoner, we've had our fair share of dealing with this sort of thing - and I can understand all to well the feeling of numbed shock that is blanketing Manchester this morning.

I suggested on Greying's diary that perhaps today would be a good one for us ALL to follow her lead and post three things for which we are grateful - so here are mine:
- that I, and my nearest and dearest, are safe, and whole, and mostly well and healthy.
- friends - if our families are the bricks of our lives, then friends are surely the mortar that holds everything together
- that I have enough. Food, water, a roof over my head, money to live on.

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We have tiles in our kitchen - and my goodness it's really starting to look lovely now - we can start to see how it will be when finished - and it really is fabulous! It makes a world of a difference having at least some use of it now too - the washing mountain is gradually decreasing thank goodness - and having worktop space to prep stuff is a massive bonus. The kettle will have to live in the spare room for a while longer yet as it's too tricky to use that via an extension lead. Hopefully by this time next week there will be headway on the electrics though.

The need for finding easy to prep and low space required meals has thrown up some useful stuff though - funny how sometimes a bit of minor adversity like that can lead to interesting discoveries! Dinner last night was the couscous salad I mentioned that I've done once or twice now - a single bowl to mix all the ingredients, and the only prep space required is room to chop a few ingredients: wholewheat couscous, a drained can of chickpeas, a punnet of pomegranate seeds, a little chopped fresh parsley, fresh tomatoes and this time some leftover cucumber from last week. Lightly crushed cashew nuts to top it off - delicious! I actually remembered to take a photo this time too so might even blog that one in due course!

Today will not be a NSD as I need to pop to ThaT supermarkeT over the road from work later for stir fry ingredients for tomorrow. I *could* leave it to tomorrow but my experience is that they are not always well stocked for such things so I will be safer to give myself a two day "bite of the cherry" so to speak. Yesterday however WAS a NSD so yay me.

MrEH has been nudged about his transfer for the CC money - once that has landed I can do the final transfers for that and it's all wrapped up for the month. On the basis that a NSD is blown for today anyway I must message the builder later about transferring him some money, too.

All ticking over. I've had surveys from YouGov and Power of Opinions already this morning, but annoyingly a screen out for a £4 one from Populus.

MistyMountainTop

It must be so exciting to see it all starting to come together. Do you have photos of the ongoing transformation anywhere?

EssexHebridean

I'm not putting any more pics up until it's actually done now I don't think Misty - although I have been taking them as we've gone along - think it will be a blog post once it's all up and running properly! It is great to feel that we're finally seeing some real progress though - just need the electrics in place now (hopefully next week) and then it will pretty much just be finishing touches!

Need to start putting together a snagging list I think as we notice stuff that needs sorting. I've started gradually cleaning the dust off things like the window frames as, as far as I know, the worst of the seriously dusty stuff should now be done. :T

Today will be a spendy day as I've got a haircut booked at lunchtime - desperately needed as it's driving me barmy at the moment. It's been a niggly week for spendiness - realised yesterday that I was on the last tube of toothpaste so popped to Poundland to get that and some hair conditioner yesterday lunchtime. Happy I got both for a good price though and I ALWAYS make sure I get the biggest tube of toothpaste they have for my £1! :rotfl: MrEH's car is also in for it's brakes to be done today - we were talking about them needing done on Sunday, but agreed that as it needed discs as well we might as well wait until they started squeaking - hey ho, yesterday morning they did so we got it booked straight in! £165 for that so not actually too bad - and the money is in the car account ready. :T

Planning a camping trip to Norfolk for the bank holiday weekend which will also hopefully include seeing my bestie & his Mrs - might try and squeeze in a nice meal somewhere as it's our wedding anniversary on Saturday - we don't generally do anything in particular to mark it but do often try to factor in a nice meal either out or at home. Again though there is money factored in to cover that. In spite of the holiday being in there it's been a relatively low spend month on a personal level so we'll take the basic costs of the camping pitch and other food straight from our personal spends budgets. Fingers crossed for the weather staying lovely!

EssexHebridean

Camping at the weekend ended up in North Suffolk rather than Norfolk - we literally couldn't find a site in North Norfolk that wasn't full, but in the end it worked out well as we found a fabulous new site at Laxfield which suited up brilliantly - a "farm" type site where they just say "pitch wherever you like" - so we ended up in a lovely little glade with an oak tree in the middle. Very lovely and we'll definitely be going back!

Saturday once we'd pitched we headed to the nearby RSPB reserve as we both felt that tea & cake was needed and they have a brilliant cafe. Wandered round the reserve then headed back to Laxfield for a beer and a meal at a lovely pub which we last visited as part of a present from my parents - we think, from memory, for our first wedding anniversary, so it was nice to go back so many years later! Sunday we ambled up to Norfolk stopping numerous times as we got distracted by things. Nice walk and ice cream at Winterton, and ambled back down again in time to meet my bestie, his Mrs and his parents (plus their adorable dogs) for an evening walk and a drink at Southwold - really nice! Monday was really just packing up the tent (dry thank goodness in spite of the appalling weather overnight!) and driving back, although we did come via Aldeburgh for fish & chips and more ice cream! Thoroughly enjoyable weekend anyway, and well within budget. :T

Three day week for me at work, and quite busy so limited opportunity for surveys etc. I do have another £7-odd in my Prolific account though so will probably cash that out shortly and pay to the card. Need to get back into the habit of opening OnePoll up first thing and picking stuff up as it appears I think. I think I've got a YouGov and a Populus survey to do as well so will try to squeeze those in later. I'd like to aim to get an additional £20 off the 0% card in the course of June so need to get cracked on with it.

From here on things will start to get expensive as the airshow season starts again - got Torbay this weekend but we combine that with a visit to MrEH's folks so that works nicely. I also have an account I save money into during the quiet winter months so things like hotels, tickets and travel will mostly come from there. Need to get a ticket for another show that's coming up soon, and sort out where else I'm going over the next few weeks, too.

MistyMountainTop

your camping trip sounds lovely! I drove by Scampton again on the weekend and thought of you

Looking forward to the after pics of your kitchen - do you have a date when it is all supposed to be finished?

EssexHebridean

Not a set date as such but very much hoping not that much longer Misty! It's been complicated and dragged out still further by the fact that the builder has been ill since last week - he's insistent that he'll be OK to get back on it today and in fairness I know he's really anxious to get it done now, to, so fingers crossed!

Few small surveys with OnePoll done this morning, but have opted out of the currently available Prolific one as at £2.50 for 30 minutes it's not good value for me. Judging by the slow rate of take-up on it I'm not the only one, either! :rotfl:

Airshow ticket bought last night for a show in a couple of weeks - £26.50 including booking fee so not too bad. Hotel is already booked for that one too. :T

MistyMountainTop

I hope your builder recovers soon!

I got a payment from prolific and was dismayed to see they took out .46p for using paypal. It probably said somewhere and I wasn't paying attention.

You do get out and about - it's inspiring me to do more enjoyable things!

EssexHebridean

They've just had to introduce fees for PayPal Misty - I think before they were getting stung but not passing them on.

Thoroughly enjoyable weekend in Devon seeing MrEH's Family and for me doing my first airshow of the season too. VERY lucky with the weather although I did have top spend an hour in a cafe yesterday morning avoiding an absolutely torrential downpour! All good though and the sky was lovely for the flying displays later! :T Few pics already on twitter, more (lots more!) to follow!

Spendiness was within limits - took out £30 last week to add to what was in my purse and have come back with a bit left. Few odds and ends on the cashback card - dinner on Friday night but that was just me and just Wetherpoons so not a fortune. £6 between Aldi & the Post office on Friday, and £4.30 on a train ticket to get me to Newton Abbott where MrEH was picking me up last night. All under control.

Must sort shopping list and meal plan for this week so i can shop tonight. Job for lunchtime I think! Got falafels and houmous left over from Lunch on Friday that will sort me for tonight though - MrEH has a lunch out so will just have some soup or something when he gets home.

EssexHebridean

Afternoon all! Soggy as you like down here - it started raining last night and I don't think it's stopped since! Ugh! Windy too, so that ensured that in spite of having an umbrella I got drenched on the way to the office from the car!

Shopping done yesterday evening - £23.85 in ThaT supermarkeT then a walk to Al's when I got home and a further £1.10 on food in there. (And £3.99 on a pack of 4 gas canisters for our camping stove - that's as cheap as we can get them so grabbed it while they had them!)

Lat night's dinner was leftovers for me as planned - falafel, houmous and flatbread with tomato and cucumber salad. I've got bits for a stir fry tonight which I'll probably do with prawns from the freezer. There will be a salad another night and I'll do something with couscous for another as well - T's are doing their packs of free range chicken thighs and drumsticks for £4 again so I grabbed one of those and will roast them off tonight and that will do nicely for the rest of the week then. :T We're back on track with lunches too as I bought rolls and fruit so no more needing to buy lunches. Can't wait to get my bread machine back up and running, mind!

Checked OnePoll this morning and so far 25p from there. A cheeky 30p from prolific on the quickest survey ever too, plus £1.20 for a 6 minute one which is pretty good going - although I was amused to see the £2.50 for 30 minutes one from last week is STILL kicking about - not just me that thought that was poor value, then! Also done a 50 point YouGov and a 35 point Power of Opinions so not a bad day so far. I'm waiting to get Prolific over £10 and then I'll cash out.

Nothing spendy planned now until the weekend when I've got another Airshow - up at RAF Cosford this time so a hotel overnight on Saturday is booked (£66 for a "Mercure" hotel with gym & pool - that will do me!). I'll take food with me to eat on Sunday as airshow prices for food and drink are horrific - I'm not paying £7 for a mediocre burger thanks! The car should have enough fuel to get me up there and back I think but I'll check on Friday whether it needs a little top up.