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

Tea&Kittens

I'll have to have a look out for the beetroot, I love it!

EssexHebridean

redofromstart wrote: »

Excellent idea, and one I might steal as everybody else is having yucky sausages and yucky mash.

Matalan are useful, I especially like their extra long vest tops for layering. Have lots of those.

They weren't that useful the other night as they'd sold out of all those tops in sizes larger than a 12 - and my chesticles say a definite "no way Jose" to following the rest of me into a generally size 12 sorta shape...so! :rotfl: Did pop into the larger store I was near yesterday to check too - same applied to the top but did get a lovely burgundy cord skirt and a highly useful pack of thick tights.

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

Hi EH I am seriously impressed with your moneysaving skills and think I can learn a lot from you.

I've never been to the Hebrides but know they are beautiful. Which particular island takes your fancy? I love the mainland of Scotland but would love to do an islands tour .

The Hebrides are indeed stunning - we spend most of the time we can get up there on Uist - mainly North, occasionally south, and sometimes Benbecula - all three very different but handily linked by causeway. next trip we'll be staying on Benbecula again as it suits us well for winter visits. I also love the mainland though - there are a lot of bits of it I'd like to see more of!

Tea&Kittens wrote: »

*considers making squash soup* It does sound rather tasty!

Doesn't it just! I'm waiting for a POTW or S6 with butternut squash now...! :rotfl:

EssexHebridean

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

There's discussion of next week's mrAl Super 6 (from the 28th) on the F&G thread. Looks like there might be a possibility of a bunch of fresh beetroot for 35p...... seems very, very cheap, but I'm not doubting the authenticity of the poster. I know when I bought their vac pack beetroot on offer earlier this year, it was british, don't know the origin of the 'fresh'. Details HERE.

Greying X

Ooh nice one if it happens - we'll see I guess! Consider fingers crossed here though - I thought 90p for the bunch on Sheringham market the other week was a winner! :T

Generally quiet start to the week. weekend was spendy-ish - Mozzas on Friday ended up at £43 but £9 of that was a new fitted sheet and about another £8 was ingredients for what turned into a scrummy curry dinner for Friday night. There are enough of both curries for another time as well - and there are two further double portions of daal in the freezer as well. Win! Saturday was restrained in comparison - £3 on the market on crisps (they work out below our 10p "target price" per pack that way) and £5 on plants to cheer up our neglected pots. Yesterday was my dreaded clothes shopping day - emerged reeling and £87 lighter (yes, I know!) but did manage to get a new smart winter jacket, the skirt I mentioned above, 3 pairs of tights, 2 vest tops for next year (too bargainous to leave alone!) a pair of jeans from clearance (£5 and my favourite - now discontinued - style), a casual top, a thin fleece and 10 pairs of (much needed) knickers. That's a few items ticket off my list at least.

Food for the week is planned starting with Thai fish stew tonight. Need to rejig tomorrow on as I've remembered that MrEH is now rugby training on Tuesdays and thursdays not Mondays and thursdays. Sigh. Oh well - at least my planned meals were adaptable to this!

HairyHandofDartmoor

I know that Benbecula has some fabulous and deserted beaches.

Clothes are expensive but sometimes it has to be done if we don't want to look like scarecrows .

EssexHebridean

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

I know that Benbecula has some fabulous and deserted beaches.

Clothes are expensive but sometimes it has to be done if we don't want to look like scarecrows .

Well Scarecrow fashion does quite appeal to me but others tend to give me funny looks so...

The Hebrides as a whole has some incredible beaches - effectively the whole Western Side of South Uist is beach, Benbecula as you say has some gorgeous ones, and we have a fair few favourites on North Uist too. Probably the most famous is Luskentyre on Harris though which is just incredible. It's been voted right up there in several "worlds best beaches" type polls.

Very impressed at MrEH who knuckled down and fitted the insulating foam strips and the door-brush to the larder door last night - that should minimise the cold air getting out of there into the kitchen, with luck! :T Our main heating is still off but it's definitely turning more Autumnal now - we've still been able to throw windows open a fair bit but have also started running the dehumidifier at least a few days of the week just to stop too much moisture building up. The heated towel rail in the bathroom is switched back on for a couple of hours in the morning to take the chill off in there and it's lovely to step out of the shower into a snuggly warm towel!

Dinner last night was a thai-style fish stew - bit of a favourite with us and I tend to keep frozen fish and seafood in the freezer to enable it. Tonight is also fishy - tuna salad, we've got HM coleslaw again so it will get served up with a big dollop of that. half tempted to do a small jacket tattie each with it as well - will have a think about that. Rest of the week looks like pasta bolognese one day, and roast veggies with leftover slow roast pork the other. Friday is going to be an effort to use up some of the freezer stuff and may well end up being a fry-up.

Nothing on Prolific so far this week.
OnePoll is dishing out odds and ends. I'm at £29.50 there now.
STILL at 46 points on Populus. :mad:
Another small YouGov one done yesterday
And one from the Secret Survey people which I've now had credit notification on. :T Going to leave that sitting for the time being I think and see if any more drop through.
Power of Opinions - odds and ends - 421 points

MUST contact the man about the new windows in the next few days - see when he can pop round to re-quote based on a slight change in what we want done. Depending on the quote we may be able to just get everything done in one go before the really cold weather kicks in - it will make a massive difference to the place if we can. hoping he can come round one evening as MrEH ideally needs to be there as well. I'll message him at lunchtime I think. No - better than that, I just remembered I have his email address so I've just emailed. :T

HairyHandofDartmoor

It's still pretty warm here thank goodness, which is good as I hate putting the heating on! The foam strips should make quite a difference to the draughts.

EssexHebridean

Yes, warm enough here too for the most part Hairy - I'm almost looking forward to the cold crisp Autumn weather arriving now mind! (No pleasing some people, I know!)

Brian the window man is coming round this evening to take a look and give us a price - so fingers crossed we'll be able to get cracking on that in the next few weeks - very exciting! :T That is definitely the next job on the list for "stuff to be done" on the flat - and it's the last really major job, too.

OnePoll seems to be getting its act together - I've had 2 30p surveys on there this morning.
Prolific meanwhile needs to pull its socks up.
Got a £2 Populus one showing but yet AGAIN it needs sound enabled so I can't do that until I'm at home. :mad:

Checked out the "local to work" cheap gym the other night - I can use it on a "pay as you train" basis for £7 a time so I'm going to give that a go starting tonight I think. Quite small, and it's a community sports centre so a nice friendly atmosphere too which appealed to me. It's been a fair few years since I've used the gym so tonight will mostly be about refamiliarising myself with everything I think. Hoping that at least through the winter I can add in a gym visit once a week to a run and a swim on other days and that might work quite well for keeping up with my fitness.

My after work walk last night took in the Turkish Supermarket as we needed more of their lovely flatbreads - also spotted a pack of three fabulously fluffy looking naan breads in there for £1.49 so grabbed that as well - they look like good ones, and as we have the balance of last Friday's curry dishes in the freezer, I thought they'd be a worthwhile stash!

Food tonight will use a chunk of the roast pork from Sunday and also assorted veg that needs using - the older potatoes, the last onions, the remainder of the cauliflower, a carrot or two, and some more of the beetroot, to make a roast vegetable medley. I'll stir the remaining spinach into it at the last minute and it can have the remaining coriander as well. If there's more than is needed for tonight's meal then I'll have the balance reheated for my lunch on Friday. :T As said previously on here i DO like a use-up meal! :T

Scott_Weiland_2

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Yes, warm enough here too for the most part Hairy - I'm almost looking forward to the cold crisp Autumn weather arriving now mind! (No pleasing some people, I know!)

Brian the window man is coming round this evening to take a look and give us a price - so fingers crossed we'll be able to get cracking on that in the next few weeks - very exciting! :T That is definitely the next job on the list for "stuff to be done" on the flat - and it's the last really major job, too.

OnePoll seems to be getting its act together - I've had 2 30p surveys on there this morning.
Prolific meanwhile needs to pull its socks up.
Got a £2 Populus one showing but yet AGAIN it needs sound enabled so I can't do that until I'm at home. :mad:

Checked out the "local to work" cheap gym the other night - I can use it on a "pay as you train" basis for £7 a time so I'm going to give that a go starting tonight I think. Quite small, and it's a community sports centre so a nice friendly atmosphere too which appealed to me. It's been a fair few years since I've used the gym so tonight will mostly be about refamiliarising myself with everything I think. Hoping that at least through the winter I can add in a gym visit once a week to a run and a swim on other days and that might work quite well for keeping up with my fitness.

My after work walk last night took in the Turkish Supermarket as we needed more of their lovely flatbreads - also spotted a pack of three fabulously fluffy looking naan breads in there for £1.49 so grabbed that as well - they look like good ones, and as we have the balance of last Friday's curry dishes in the freezer, I thought they'd be a worthwhile stash!

Food tonight will use a chunk of the roast pork from Sunday and also assorted veg that needs using - the older potatoes, the last onions, the remainder of the cauliflower, a carrot or two, and some more of the beetroot, to make a roast vegetable medley. I'll stir the remaining spinach into it at the last minute and it can have the remaining coriander as well. If there's more than is needed for tonight's meal then I'll have the balance reheated for my lunch on Friday. :T As said previously on here i DO like a use-up meal! :T

Re PA i here you i am getting nothing again, its a pain i have 5.80 that i can drop i am going to wait till thursday i think.

One poll i love as a survey site i just wish the payout level was 20 not 40.

The food sounds lovely delivery to Newcastle please

HairyHandofDartmoor

Yum I love a good curry and your leftovers meal sounds good too .

EssexHebridean

Hi Scott & Hairy - thanks for popping by! Dinner was lovely - the leftovers of the pork got a bit crispy round the edges and it all tasted amazing - I did forget the Spinach & coriander though - Doh! - so those will get added to the bolognese tonight and my lunch tomorrow. All good.

Greying I see that the 35p beetroot is a goer - fab news! Might see if I can research some beetroot-specific recipes for next week I think! :T

Window man appeared, did preliminary measurements, and will be getting prices back to us so I'll be sitting down ready for that one to land - it's not going to be cheap as it involves another 2 doors to be fitted but on the other hand it will put us right where we want to be in terms of staying on track with getting the work done. He said last night that SO many of our issues with damp are down to the structure of the existing windows and the fact that they've got blown units etc. He's also going to retro-fit a trickle vent in the bathroom window and re-do the seal round it (the builder did that one and it came without the vent - we didn't realise it was needed) as well.

Got £1 on Prolific this morning and annoyingly just missed out on another 50p one, but that does at least look like it might be picking up a bit - fingers crossed! £7.20 payable and £2.55 pending on there.
Nothing on OnePoll yet today.
Small one on Power of Opinions
Keep getting notifications about Valued Opinions but I find theirs SO time consuming I'm ignoring them at the moment.

Payday today too which is ace - I'll get the routine shuffling done and sorted I think so I know it's done. Need to work out whether to count this weekend as this month or next though - might count it as next and shuffle the remaining money in my account across to my airshow account I think. :T In the New Year I'm going to start setting aside a small amount every month for clothing spends I think - there's not a lot of point in me doing it at the moment as I'm in the middle of replacing almost everything!

The gym was good - very relaxed atmosphere and not too many "muscle men" types about aside from one hilarious weedy looking bloke who made sure that EVERYTHING he did was in front of the mirror and spent more time admiring himself than working out I think! I did a decent mix of cardio and weights and will spend some time tomorrow deciding on a programme that will work for me to start with I think so I have a structure to work to, and also so I can gauge progress. :T