Cooking for one (Mark Three)

moneyistooshorttomention

caronc wrote: »

MTSTM - how intriguing re the bottle are you going to get the contents analysed? In my last house we dug out a hedge there was all sorts under in it including rather sadly the skeleton of a cat and remains of a blanket around it. It must have been a much loved pet:(.

Errrm...pass on that. More like in the bin quick and wash my hands....

I wasn't going to investigate any further in case...bearing in mind what previous owner of my house also thought of my nfh next door (ie same as I do I've been told:rotfl:) and being in an area where I walked into a friends house near here for the first time - and promptly told her what all the odd signs the house came with meant...I was going to decide "discretion was the better part of valour".

To date - the only thing of note (apart from previous bricks/concrete blocks/etc) that have been dug up in my garden was a workman dug up an old metal implement, which ended up getting incorporated into a sculpture one of the "creative types" that often get attracted to this area was making.

I keep hoping for hidden treasure #sighs....but I don't think there's much chance of that somehows:rotfl:

Only thing I might ever encounter now is I've just remembered I buried some crystals somewhere in the garden myself (sorta hedging my bets LOL) - and I've forgotten where.....

caronc

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Only thing I might ever encounter now is I've just remembered I buried some crystals somewhere in the garden myself (sorta hedging my bets LOL) - and I've forgotten where.....

:rotfl::rotfl:something for future folk to dig up and ponder on .....:rotfl::rotfl:

[Deleted User]

my abel vegbox is coming today and I ordered some lamb, not a big amount as it is expensive but I will be turning it into casserole today, bulked with beans and spelt pearls and done in the pressure cooker. I estimate 5 meals, so 4 to freeze

A friend of mine dug up a very old cauldron, shades of hubble bubble, made a very nice plant container

PasturesNew

For some reason I decided I wanted sausage rolls.... so set off for the shops.

Back a bit later with a loaf of bread, new bottle of ketchup, pack of 6 sausage rolls, bar of chocolate, 1.5Kg chips, tin of butter beans and a pack of digestive biscuits. I think that's a good £3.79 well spent on all the non-essentials and belly-wobbling food groups.

I looked at the Offer Cubed Beef - only two packs in the whole shop - and they looked a bit fatty so I left it. While £2.20 for some beef appears good value ... and it's nice .... there are plenty of other ways of spending less or the same to produce meals.... e.g. for just £2 a pie can be purchased!

I had two sausage rolls and a bit of chocolate.

A bit later I had beans and cheese on toast and a bit of chocolate.

A bit later I had a bit more chocolate.

Had a bad night, woke up groggy .... I'm sure it's the chocolate that does it!

Now I've got a loaf in there'll be lots of toast and sandwiches for some days to come .... and sausage rolls.

caronc

Chocolate and cheese PN - not a good combination for a peaceful sleep!

Good morning everyone,
It's gloomy and chilly here this morning though dry, I suspect weather wise it's going to be one of days days that just kind of "hangs there".

Once I get myself organised I'm going to get the veg chopped and a pan of ratatouille on the go, that way if nothing else gets done the main part of dinner tonight is sorted.

I've soup, cooked chicken and apple crumble needing used up so lunch will be either soup/sarnie, sarnie/crumble and I'll freeze the spare portion.

spirit

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've only had 4 holidays as an adult.

~1978 a fortnight in Devon with a bf. We rented a flat the first week and kept an eye out for small ads in windows and booked the 2nd week 20 miles away while we were on our first week.

1987 with a bf, we drove to Cornwall and looked for small ads in local shops and rented an annexe on a bungalow for £85 for the week.

~1993 my sibling had booked a holiday flat in Cornwall and at the last minute I jumped in the car and went too ....

~1995 my sibling and I booked a 1 bed tiny flatlet in Cornwall (I got the sofa bed), cost me about £100 for half rent/fuel.

I've never had the spare cash to go ...and nobody to go with. So I didn't bother.

Devon and Cornwall are lovely xx

spirit

wort wrote: »

Spirit- shame it's not June! I've been looking and the price is shocking once you add the single supp.
I've looked at solo holidays as well as the usual, but at the moment not sure if I should stretch finances. My sister has said she'd come on hol with me, but that would mean her leaving her oh at home!!! I was always the one to book hols and never found it cheaper to book separately. Tbh I'm a scared of things going wrong, sister mentioned one of the w@wcher hol, that goes to Venice then the lakes but I'm afraid to miss connections or not have enough money. We always went all inc. So it was paid in advance and the glutenfree food was sorted.

A lovely bright day, off to work now, have a good day all.:T

All went well with the cat sitting person yesterday (couldn't have gone without sorting that first)


so I spent hours on t'interweb last night searching. I agree Wort, holidays marketed to solos are not cheap at all. I found an interesting link called 101 holidays for singles. That led me to a tour operator - Indulgent Escapes I think. I was doing a webchat with them when the connection dropped out. Meanwhile I g00gled a hotel she said was fully booked. Nah-ah it wasn't, not with Jet2 anyway.


So I'm going to Funchal in Madeira. somewhere I've not yet been. Lots to do there, walking, gardens etc. the hotel has the usual pools, spa, hamman etc. so that's me booked!

Farway

caronc wrote: »

After a bit of a think I've more or less decided to get a cleaner. Not very :money: and will involve a bit of budget tweaking but I'm struggling to keep on top of the heavier chores. I used a local company for a deep clean before so I'm going to see if they can do a regular slot for me. I won't need it every week so once or twice a month should be enough to cover the bits I can't do.

Good idea, you won't regret it. I opted for cleaner when I came out of hospital, I was never great on cleaning anyway, and it was a good reason to stop doing it forever. Mine is once a fortnight, two ladies, for an hour. I assume one does upstairs and other does down. I assume because I chose a morning for when I'm out volunteering, which seems a more productive use of my time than cleaning the shower and shoving a Dyson round

Nice bright but cold morning. But staying in to try and sort out a "lost" ancestor, last seen in Oldham around 1900, unusual surname so should be fairly easy

Breakfast was pot of tea, followed by HM yoghurt & honey
Lunch most likely bread and do summat with cheese, on toast maybe?

Dinner change of plan. It was going to be baked spud with salad. But the spuds have sprouted:( Now likely to be bangers & mash, bangers out defrosting as I type

Could venture into the garden for a mini spot of gardening, the daffs & crocus are out now so spring has sprung here

caronc

spirit wrote: »

All went well with the cat sitting person yesterday (couldn't have gone without sorting that first)


so I spent hours on t'interweb last night searching. I agree Wort, holidays marketed to solos are not cheap at all. I found an interesting link called 101 holidays for singles. That led me to a tour operator - Indulgent Escapes I think. I was doing a webchat with them when the connection dropped out. Meanwhile I g00gled a hotel she said was fully booked. Nah-ah it wasn't, not with Jet2 anyway.


So I'm going to Funchal in Madeira. somewhere I've not yet been. Lots to do there, walking, gardens etc. the hotel has the usual pools, spa, hamman etc. so that's me booked!

Sounds lovely

Farway wrote: »

Good idea, you won't regret it. I opted for cleaner when I came out of hospital, I was never great on cleaning anyway, and it was a good reason to stop doing it forever. Mine is once a fortnight, two ladies, for an hour. I assume one does upstairs and other does down. I assume because I chose a morning for when I'm out volunteering, which seems a more productive use of my time than cleaning the shower and shoving a Dyson round

That sounds very much what I'm looking for:)

PasturesNew

1

Farway wrote: »

But staying in to try and sort out a "lost" ancestor, last seen in Oldham around 1900, unusual surname so should be fairly easy

Ooh I love those. I've got caught up in somebody else's random tree that should be easy as pie ....

It started with a lad killed in WW1 in the village where my G-grandparents, grandparents and mum lived... and it said he'd been killed and gave his mum/dad's name. And his dad was a "Rev". So you'd think that'd be easy to trace! His mother even lead the fight to get the funds raised for the village war memorial and opened it on the day .... no mention of this "dad" though, so I started to try to find him.

Wife's family - easily found - father had been Mayor of the town; Mayor's sister had gone to Australia with her husband and had a town named after her and all their family books/photos etc were online ....

Inundated with everything except "the dead boy's Rev father".

Closest I've come so far is a guess from the Allumni book that "he's the right bloke" .... which gives his father's name (also a Rev) and his place of baptism. Easy you'd think.... found the baptism, but his parents don't appear to exist outside of that; might have found him on a farm with a widowed grandmother in a later Census, but even tracing her would involve days/weeks of work to prove/disprove that the lad with her was the same chap who became a Rev and had a son who died.

All very bizarre as you'd assume a Rev had a church and a flock ... but this one seems to wander around a lot, with his wife never relocating with him. She appears to have stayed in the village Manor House, sending the boy off to be educated at boarding school, while she tended to elderly relatives and siblings who all appeared to turn up at her house to die Loads of relatives, and her, all buried across the road in the cemetery .... but not the husband. I suspect he died in 1944 just 15 miles away (odd that.... as everybody else went to the Manor House to die).... the mother of the dead soldier died in 1968. Their "famous doll house" ended up at The Tate .... and the 17th century house was demolished 10 years later (probably for council housing).

I hope you find your man. Unusual names are great aren't they