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

EssexHebridean

I've just realised - I'm not paying for the car service until tomorrow, when I pick it up. \which means I screwed a NSD for £1.45 in Lidl. That'll be the £1.45 in Lidl that I could have spent tomorrow, when I pick the car up, then, no?!

beanielou

Late as usual but happy shiny new diary.
Hope that you feel better soon.

EssexHebridean

Aww thanks Beanie!

Bad news on the car - when they came to take things apart this morning they discovered a seized brake caliper, which wouldn't have been a massive issue had the parts people not have delivered the replacement part to the wrong place! :mad: So as things stand, car is still at the garage, and I'm going to have to work out how i can get it back on Monday after work, I think. Pah. Thankfully I wasn't intending to use it on Monday anyway - it's still a bit annoying though. I've agreed to drop the service back until next weekend too as they ran out of time - in exchange for what Lisa promises me will be a good discount.

Popped to the market this morning - we're lucky to have a weekly market at a local airfield, and while a lot of what it sells is tat, it has some handy stalls selling short-dated food (we generally buy crisps there are they are way cheaper than the supermarket) and also a Wyke Farms Cheese stall - meaning we can normally buy 3 lumps of their fab cheese for £5. Today 6-packs of the Walkers "sandwich flavours" were 2 for £1, and 14-packs of Hula Hoops were £1.50. They also had 500g boxes of crunchy nut cornflakes at 2 for £1 as well which was an amazing bargain, and MrEH loves them! :T Sainsbugs covered the "normal" shopping as I had a 5 x points voucher to use - so £15 spent there too, and I am now trying out the ability to log in to the Tesco account online and transfer money, as I've tried to transfer that £15 back to the joint account. Fingers crossed it works!

I've cooked up a big pot of mixed beans which I had soaked overnight, and those have been done merguez style again. That worked well as I fancied something simple but tasty for lunch - so a Greying-style Buddha Bowl with brown rice, a couple of spoonfuls of the beans, and some roasted butternut squash and mushrooms. The sauce was my ever-present tahini and lemon, and I added some crunch to the top with some smoked seeds. The rest of the beans need portioning and freezing, and I still need to do something about that smokey ragu sauce I was planning, as well. That's going to be a job for this afternoon, I think.

Smolly

You've just made me very hungry EH! Sounds delicious - you're going to have to start doing photos I think!!

Pooh about the car - mine has been in the garage again too today but thankfully I was able to drive it out and home again.

Hope you are well and enjoying the weekend xx

EssexHebridean

I nearly did photograph lunch Smolly - I'm rubbish at food photos though - things have to move at 400mph for me to get a decent pic of them! :rotfl:

On the subject of ClubCard points (as we were elsewhere) when you get your CC vouchers through this time have a good look in the booklet they come in- mine had three additional vouchers there, 1 double points one and 2 for 100 extra points. :T

I'm hoping the fact that my cold lurgy has now come out into stuffed up/running nose I might finally start feeling better. Had a bath earlier on thinking it might make me feel better but all it did was to put my temperature up again.

Greying_Pilgrim

EssexHebridean wrote: »

I nearly did photograph lunch Smolly - I'm rubbish at food photos though - things have to move at 400mph for me to get a decent pic of them! :rotfl:

Which is precisely why I stick to food - much more compliant and generally stays where you leave it..... unless you're taking pics of yer tea on a trawler, at sea......... :rotfl:

Well done on the BB for lunch EH - indeed it sounded delish

Greying X

EssexHebridean

Well a good day but in my current state of lurgy-ness it's left me feeling rather shattered, so this is NOT going to be a long post!

Headed into London - down to South East London in fact - to hunt down an estate of World War 2 pre-fab homes - and a fascinating trip it was too! I tweeted a couple of pics... (Assuming the link in there works) The estate (formerly 187 prefabs) is gradually being demolished to make way for new housing to be built - but it's rather sad as the majority of those living there just don't want to leave. We got talking to a chap who'd been living there with his wife for 27 years - they brought up their two kids there and it's going to be SUCH a wrench for them to leave, it's a shame. Having wandered around at some length today i can entirely understand their reluctance, too, it's got a lovely community feel to it, and some of the time and effort people have invested into those prefabs is amazing. I think there will be a blog post on it in the next few days, anyway. So today has been spendy but budgeted - travel comes from the £10 a month we stick on our Oyster cards as standard. Parking for the car at the tube station was £1.50. Pub lunch (absolutely gorgeous!) comes from our "joint fun" budget, and beers were from spends.

Now - bed I think. I can't keep my eyes open! Night all - see you at the start of a new week!

Azzzaa

Nice to see another MSE user from Essex

EssexHebridean

Azzzaa wrote: »

Nice to see another MSE user from Essex

There used to be a few I think - and a decent number of fellow East Anglians as a whole, but I'm not so sure these days!

Well I did indeed head to bed right after posting that last night, and must have dropped off to sleep not long after 10pm I think. Might try to do that a bit more often, although it didn't make a huge amount of odds to me struggling to get going this morning, sadly!

Madam is having a "determined to be a pain" day - she arrived in a filthy mood and is still there - the latest thing is that following my objection the other week to her chemical laden automatic spray "Air freshener" thing (You know, the sort of thing that fires it's overpowering spray off into a room at regular intervals, usually feels like about 30 second intervals to me!) she's now decided it "smells" in the office (we have a minor issue with damp downstairs, but I've never known it to smell up here as a result of that) so we have the street door WIDE open. If my phone weather app is to be believed it's 8 degrees outside - and the central heating thermostat tells me it's rapidly dropping in here now, too. :mad: Thankfully I'm tucked away to the back of the office, so it's not THAT bad - she must be freezing though as she's right in line with the door... As she's only doing it to make a point I'm determined to say nothing...

Dinner tonight will be Beef stew - probably with flatbreads again I think although I DO now have SR flour so it might yet be dumplings!

Had it not been for the car stuff "hanging over" today would have been a NSD - now it undoubtedly won't, which is irritating but can't be helped. I need to get a small "something" as a birthday present for Great Auntie D so I may well dive in the direction of ThaT SupermarkeT after work while waiting for MrEH and see what I can .

Aaaaand as if by magic, the garage called. Thanks to the brake caliper, and in spite of the discount on the service, total to pay came in at just under £514.00 :eek: On the plus side I no longer have to take it back on Saturday for the service, as that's been done this morning. On the downside though, I was now WANTING to take it back on Saturday for the service as that would help spread the cost. Oh well, such is life. But ouch.

bugslet

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Headed into London - down to South East London in fact - to hunt down an estate of World War 2 pre-fab homes - and a fascinating trip it was too! I tweeted a couple of pics... (Assuming the link in there works) The estate (formerly 187 prefabs) is gradually being demolished to make way for new housing to be built - but it's rather sad as the majority of those living there just don't want to leave. We got talking to a chap who'd been living there with his wife for 27 years - they brought up their two kids there and it's going to be SUCH a wrench for them to leave, it's a shame. Having wandered around at some length today i can entirely understand their reluctance, too, it's got a lovely community feel to it, and some of the time and effort people have invested into those prefabs is amazing. I think there will be a blog post on it in the next few days, anyway. So today has been spendy but budgeted - travel comes from the £10 a month we stick on our Oyster cards as standard. Parking for the car at the tube station was £1.50. Pub lunch (absolutely gorgeous!) comes from our "joint fun" budget, and beers were from spends.

!

There are some prefabs just up the road from me in a nice part of Runcorn ( yes there are nice parts!)

http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/eaw023484

Lowest blue dot on the far right.

I 'think' this is one of them.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-61188755.html