julicorn's journey

julicorn

Karmacat said:

Good luck with the allotment!  Its definitely the only way grow much fruit and veg of your own if you want to live in Central Brighton.  Anywhere in Brighton, really!  Glad you're doing so well with it all.

Thanks so much, Karmacat! I hope everything is well with you too  

Hettyhound

I’m on a waiting list for an allotment; 2 years and still waiting.  I was told the list was 4-5 years long 🙁  we live in suburban York but there are only 24 plots, I can see them from our back bedroom window.  It’s basically a wait until someone gives it up but in this current climate it’s highly unlikely.  I do manage a bit in our back garden and so far we’ve had strawberries , broad beans and the courgettes have started 😁

julicorn

Thanks for checking in, @Hettyhound! Fingers crossed you'll get your allotment earlier than 4-5 years  

Brighton has quite a lot of sites and they hugely differ in size (and size of waiting list). We've applied for one that has a bit over 200 plots, and online it said there were 28 people on the waiting list, although there's probably a fair few more now because they haven't updated the list since the start of lockdown. The next person up has been waiting since September 2018, I believe. Either way, it's the best ratio around here - there are some sites that have like 20 plots and 19 people on the waiting list! 

I actually exchanged emails with one of the people running the site earlier, and he said to not get my hopes up too much, but he thinks 'we shouldn't have to wait years', because they've got a fair few empty plots at the moment, but again Covid means no plots are being allocated right now. We'll have to wait and see, but here's some hope  

julicorn

On that note, we actually walked over to the site earlier to try and have a sneaky peak through the fence! That ended up being an around 2.5 hour round trip because our bus tickets are still frozen while we are working from home, and we ended up walking up and down 4 hills on our way there. I keep forgetting how hilly Brighton is! Note to self, walking to the allotment is not the best idea once we do get a plot. 

I actually read on the council website that roughly half of people in Brighton live under 10 minutes walk away from an allotment, and only 2% over 30 minutes walk away, so I'm wondering how on earth we ended up living in allotment wasteland (the nearest one is 40 minutes walk, but not in a convenient direction).

Ah well, it was a fun day out anyway, and we saw parts of town we haven't seen in months, and got to enjoy the lovely weather. It was cheap too, because we got some free Cafe Nero coffees (Iced Mocha frappes or whatever they call them) on route through my work's health insurance. Although I have to admit we picked up some donuts on the way back - strawberry & coconut, speculoos, Veggo (hazelnut chocolate) and chocolate crumble - what's not to love?

South_coast

It's nice to see familiar things from a different angle too, I walked round my BF's village yesterday and saw loads of things I'd never noticed before because I was on foot. I used to get stuck in a traffic jam there every day before they built a bypass, so really thought I knew every detail from sitting staring out of the car window - but apparently not!

julicorn

South_coast said:

It's nice to see familiar things from a different angle too, I walked round my BF's village yesterday and saw loads of things I'd never noticed before because I was on foot. I used to get stuck in a traffic jam there every day before they built a bypass, so really thought I knew every detail from sitting staring out of the car window - but apparently not!

That's so true! So much of my experience of Brighton (outside of the centre, anyway) has been dictated by the bus routes, to the point that I sometimes not even know that two areas are really close to each other (because getting from one to the other is really inconvenient, unless you're on foot). Yesterday, we ended up walking down this really weird windy little road down a hill, crossed some roundabout I've never seen before, and suddenly we were in a part of town where I used to live but barely recognised, because I'd never approached it from that direction before! It was a bit of a surreal experience to be honest  

Karmacat

Brighton's great to walk around, even with the hills, because of the number of paths and the windiness in general When I lived in Brighton, halfway up Elm Grove, I was allocated an allotment that was past the racecourse, it took me ages  to walk there, and I passed other allotment sites on the way - I couldn't deal with it, had to give it up in the end.  I hope there's positive news for you soon.

julicorn

Oh yeah, that is quite a hike! You don't want to be completely knackered before you even get to your allotment, I suppose! 
The one we applied to is just off Lewes Road, bit of a walk up the hill, but should be doable. I'll report back when I have to log some heavy stuff from B&Q up that hill on a hot summer day

julicorn

Just a little update to say that we got paid on Friday, so our overpayment savings pot now stands at around £4,000 (adjusted mortgage balance: £126,500-ish, which means we've paid off over £75k so far - another milestone hit). Got our first premium bonds draw coming up at the start of August too, oddly exciting (I haven't been playing the lottery in years, and clearly miss it ). 

We've now finally given up on the LA holiday plan and re-allocated the money instead. Will have to see what we can get from BA, the flight is only in September so no real policy update on that yet afaik. Instead, we're going to stay with my parents on a German island for a week (which has resulted in some interesting geography lessons among my colleagues, who all seemed to think Germany was land-locked ). We've also split our LA savings pot in half, putting half towards an allotment sinking fund (should cover set-up even if we go all out and get a nice shed & greenhouse in the first year), and the other half towards a Center Parcs holiday for Mr julicorn's birthday in February. We still want to visit LA eventually, but will hold off making big plans for a while. 

I hope you're all having a lovely weekend!  

South_coast

*slinks off to look up German islands on Google maps* - I did at least know it had a coastline though!

Your balance is looking amazing. Not long until you've halved that original mortgage!