Cooking for one (Mark Three)

Novice_investor101

I think PN has probably hit it on the head, caronc - it's probably salts coming through the wall.
It is the party wall, so solid brick. The paint does seems to get powdery, then begins to flake.
I get the same around the bottom of the window on the kitchen outside wall, & have to be careful not to leave anything fabric against that wall as otherwise rain penetrates through the bricks & stays there. It's an odd old house in the way it "breathes". There's no problems with water as long as the external walls are kept clear/have a good air flow.

On the plus side, the lounge is so much warmer now huge draught has been sorted. I've even been able to turn the boiler temp down to 70c from 75c so it's more efficient. Can't believe it took me 5 years to figure that out...

Tea was 2 Matzos - one with Philly & one with seriously strong. I'm not that hungry.

caronc

Sounds like something you'll need to live with - the joys of old houses are many but they have their "quirks";).
Well done on sorting out the draught, I'm on the countdown to getting the stove installed and hopefully my CH won't need to be on as much/as high during cold spells. So looking forward to sitting in front of it

Brambling

Evening all
I braved the rain to go look at the boots I've been tempted with for weeks whilst they had 20% off and once I put them on I realised I didn't like them after all, saved money as nothing else caught my eye my sister brought a pair after spending 10 minutes deciding on which pair . We had a good wander around town and I helped her spend her money for a change :rotfl: The sofa I've been looking at in a shop window is now marked for sale as exdisplay and they've taken quite a bit off, so I've been sitting in the shop window trying it for size, currently I'm thinking about it, i wasn't in the mood for spending that much money today :cool: and they wouldn't take my old one away, unfortunately I don't think a charity will want it either, just another thing to think about, as even if the council will take it I think I would need to get it outside which wouldn't be easy and impossible on my own. For some reason I'm definitely in a dithering mood today if someone else buys it it in the meantime it wasn't meant to be and I'll probably kick myself as the colour matches the curtains I brought :think:

Lunch was a late panini in town, because we didn't eat until after 2.30pm I didn't fancy the liver I brought for dinner tonight so that will probably go in the freezer now as I have plans for ragu tomorrow I have just eaten a couple of crackers with some cheese and an apple

candygirl

BRAMBLING maybe advertise your sofa on Freecycle, or a local selling site. People take them n save you the hassle

moneyistooshorttomention

Brambling - re the sofa and, if it's in reasonable condition, then someone will probably want it. You could try putting it up as "free to a good home" on a local Facebook page.

I belong to several of the local Facebook groups in the vicinity and they are very variable, but there is one of them that often has either requests for "something or other" that anyone has or offers something. I've offered things several times on there - and someone has wanted them and they've now gone. I'm tossing-up about whether anyone would want a sofa of mine that I'm currently in the process of replacing - if only because there's been a lot of very bad flooding recently in various areas round here. Just think = the amount of rain Wales has normally and add some extra and :eek: to some bits...

******

Novice Investor - I admit I couldn't be doing with "quirks of old houses". I've been reading about various quirks they tend to have on another sub-forum on here and admit I found I just wasn't up to dealing with "quirks" on a Victorian house even (never mind anything older than that). I guess it's what you've been used to - and I've never been used to any "adapting to accommodate" to older houses as I grew up - as my parents moved to a brand new house when I was in primary school and then moved to another brand new house. So I guess I'd never seen any "adapting to an older house" going on and I've come to regard it as "faff I won't do" myself and it didn't do my last (Victorian) house any favours that I wasn't adapting to it in any way. I've learnt that 1930's houses are probably about the oldest I can buy personally - as I think that should be the "oldest" that wouldn't get mucked-up by my not adapting to them and instead expecting them to "just work normally" with my living in them in the standard way.

Up early (in my 1970s) house because I switched a light switch and all the lights blew. Cue for thinking "At least I've had a lot of modernising of the electrics going on here - albeit not the total complete rewire I wish the surveyor and electrician had told me I needed (so how was I supposed to know as a layperson?)". So switch flicked on my new circuit breaker board and meanwhile I've had to learn a bit about "living in back of beyond". So at least I had sidelights to plug in and a couple of torches to reach for to see what I'm doing. After that panic-stricken "shot of adrenaline" that's me up and about for the day already then....:cool: I'll change the several light bulbs that have gone on me later...

PasturesNew

Brambling wrote: »

they wouldn't take my old one away, unfortunately I don't think a charity will want it either, just another thing to think about, as even if the council will take it I think I would need to get it outside which wouldn't be easy and impossible on my own.

I had one to get rid of, luckily for me it was in the living room, beside the patio doors....

To get it taken away would cost about £30.

I bought a £5 saw, dragged it out into the garden on a day when I knew it'd not be raining at all that day .... and slowly set about cutting/ripping the covers off, then sawing through the frame. Stop/start, idle/lazy, it still took me under 1 hour to actually get it down to three small piles of: material, metal bits, pile of wood - that then went into the car and to the tip just as regular tip stuff (no charges).

It didn't actually make that much mess, that sawing..... as the wood bits aren't that big. It would be possible, with a bit of sheeting and a vacuum, to do it inside/in any room... it's just daunting as you fear "what if .... it all goes wrong ... and I wish I'd never started".

Underneath, the frames can be quite flimsy looking, just quite thin pieces of balsa/baton wood. Not solid/hardwood, well affixed, at all.

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Brambling - re the sofa and, if it's in reasonable condition, then someone will probably want it. You could try putting it up as "free to a good home" on a local Facebook page.

It can be hard to get takers. Most people struggle with the two essentials: Two strong people to carry it, a van/trailer it will fit in.

I paid £40 to get my current £40 sofa from 1 mile up the road to here! I'd "bought" it before I looked at prices of man/van .... won't do that again.

PasturesNew

I kind of had a plan ... keema mince I thought.

I bought 1Kg of mince (half price sticker) the other week and had frozen it into four 250g bags....

Took two out, put on the side.... then 2 minutes later I was back in there returning one bag to the freezer. I'll end up cooking that one bag as I've got it out, as keema mince... but I do regret it as I'm not sure I fancy that now.

What I really need is a good sized Pyrex glass bowl, a large one that fits in the microwave. I've no large bowls to cook larger quantities of meat in there ... which is why I popped one bag back in the freezer as Plan A had been to do a keema mince in the SC, but then I changed my mind and will nuke it ... so can only do a smaller portion.

I need to get into a Wilko at some point, or similar... get to see the sizes/prices for myself.

Novice_investor101

Agree with PN about the sofa (if you can't get any takers to collect it) saw it up & take it to the tip. I once helped a friend who moved into a room in a shared house where the previous lodger had left a really old, solid wood armchair. It was impossible to get out & down the stairs (Lord knows how they got it up there). It took all of 10 mins with my jigsaw & a hammer to break it down to manageable bits. We had a bonfire with the wood and the fabric went in the bin.

Already had a fried egg on toast & black coffee for brekkie. Weighed myself 1st thing - put 2Lbs on since last weigh in 2 wks ago....

Plan for today:
Go to T for some bits like toilet rolls & bread for work. I took £100 cash out to pay for 2 months food shop. I've still got about £40 left (I did spend an unplanned £7 in Farmfoods yesterday tho).
Add two more coats of diluted paint to the "patch".
Watch another episode of Planet Earth on Iplayer, which I started last night as there was nowt worth watching on Freesat.

Plan for next week:
Walk to work & back everyday
Take a healthy pack up
Try to eat properly meals & stop with the junk.... I've enough food to last at least 4 weeks of evening meals - I just need the impetus to eat it.

flubberyzing

Morning all!

VERY quite in my block of flats last night... After the chaos of the night before, it was a bit disconcerting. "Luckily", I heard upstairs' toilet flushing, while I was also in the bathroom, at 10pm. So someone's alive up there!

Nothing much planned for here today... I'll walk up to the shop and the garden centre in an hour. Friend has requested a lap tray for Christmas, and I'm certain I've seen them in the garden centre. I also want to drop off a few more books onto their charity bookshelf... They run an honesty box for Marie Curie. If you take a book, leave a quid in the tub. Handy when I'm trying to reduce my own shelves a bit!

I'll also pop into Waitrose for a bit of fruit for the week.

PasturesNew

Plans all then went to pot a bit.

Suddenly remembered L1dl's cheese offer on this weekend - and I am out of cheese/needed more.... so I got down there for 10am. Shelves empty. *sighs*.

Trundling round though, I did manage to pick up two packs of 12-meatballs (gluten free, but who gives a !!!!!!, it's all about price). Through the till at £1.60/pack. If I'd known I was going to get those I'd have not got the mince out; I'd have done curried meatballs or chilli meatballs, or just "meatballs in whatever I've got in the cupboard sauce".

Picked up a tin of corned beef.... just to have in the cupboard "in case".

Also grabbed a pack of two part-baked baguettes (been meaning to/kept forgetting for weeks). Small pack of peshwari naan breads (will go with the keema). Looked for bhajis, but the shelf contained just two packs of samosas, so that was no good).

Grabbed a bag of fruit pastilles and I was ready for the tills as I was "bored" as there was no cheese and it was all overwhelming with clutter and people by then.

Tablecloth... suckered into buying a wipe clean, thin flannel backed, Xmas tablecloth. £3.99, so not a bad price. Not the ideal colour/pattern I'd have chosen, but it was cheap and it was there.... so I seized the day. I mentally fix an annual budget of £5-10 for "new Xmas fripperies", so it looks like this year it'll come in closer to £10 as that's £4 of the budget gone!