Hazelnutty's New Start

themadvix

Sounds like you had an excellent day yesterday!

 Enjoy Scotland - I’m so jealous! 😊

Karmacat

Have a lovely time up in Scotland

Hazelnutty

A lovely wander into the city this morning. Stopped by at a wonderful bakery and OH treated us to pastries for breakfast, a second round for later and the most amazing looking sourdour. A bit further in and a truly terrible coffee at a supposedly Italian cafe. It was so bad we abandoned it and went to Caffe Nero, so that cost me the princely sum of £11.20 for both rounds But it was lovely to sit in the park with pastries and coffee and watch the world go by.

Picked up a book for DD for our trip (and a little something for me) - £17.98 but good to support a local bookshop. I paid for them on my personal CC, which I don't use that often (I put household costs on the J0hn Lewis for the vouchers) but I'm budgeting £50 for guilt-free, no need to justify purchases  in next month's pay round so I'll just clear it then. Caught the bus home (with masks on), our first trip on public transport since 'Rona came to stay. It was fine - only 3 other people on our deck, all in masks and lots of signs about spacing out where you sit. We both felt after yesterday's trip to Old Town than we prefer New City in all kinds of ways, including the general being more considerate and wearing masks thing. So, although the move was super stressful, we're happy to settle here.

Interesting convo re: transport plans was had too. I had planned to switch my Polo for an electric car next year, once finances had recovered. OH popped up today with 'how about doing your motorbike test?' She knows I have always fancied getting a bike   So now seriously thinking about getting an electric motorbike or scooter next year - if all goes well, I might just sell the car and see if we can manage without, possibly picking up an electric mini-van type thing in a year or two's time for camping/outdoor trips etc. All very exciting and fun to do some research on.

themadvix

Ooh, exciting stuff about e-motorbike! Enjoy the research!

Karmacat

Sadly, I think e-scooters, although they're now legal to use if you rent them, are still illegal on the roads if you own it yourself.  I think its mad, but there you are.  https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/30/rented-e-scooters-will-be-legal-from-saturday-says-uk-government.  Don't know about motorbikes - could be really useful.

themadvix

I think Hazelnutty means a eletric scooter - like a motorbike, rather than an e-scooter like a push scooter, IYSWIM Karma - it's a semantic nightmare!

Hazelnutty

yes, sorry, I meant like a vespa-type motorbike. As I'm new to it, I thought I'd better start at the less powerful and easier to handle end of the market, although I suspect I'll get the bug and want to upgrade!

Decided yesterday to close an old account that I stuck around £7k in for DD when i closed the excellent Family Saver account at Norwich & Peterborough (it was something like a 8% bonus at the end of the year but then they merged with Yorkshire and it became a conventional i.e. low interest savings account). The balance has been languishing in a former best-buy account with Sainsbogs, now down to 0.6%, so thought I'd just take a punt on Premium Bonds now it's a 'losings' account. Just waiting for the balance then I'll buy some, probably half in her name and half in mine.

Feeling proud of myself for sorting out the tyre pressure and screen wash early doors this morning without looking like an idiot. Still got a long list of to-dos, but at least cat-checking has been sorted. Popping the son of our only local friend £20 to check on/play with the mogs while we're away and take the bins out

Karmacat

Oh!  Oops!  Thanks for that

Good to hear other stuff is getting ticked off your list

Hazelnutty

Made it to Mum's place, no hugs but a lovely cuppa! 

Bit of a shock in my inbox though as I got the costings through for the renovation - £13k over the budget I'd set Cue frantic text to builder, just hope he comes back to us soon. We just can't find that kind of extra money. 

OH and I will do a lovely long walk tomorrow if the weather's passable, which I'm really looking forward to. There's nothing like hills and forests for me to make me feel 100% better. Life is so much simpler for those hours with everything you need in a backpack (although admittedly getting home for a cuppa and a shower is also bliss!)

the_cross_rabbit

wow 13k is a massive additional amount to find hope he gets back to you and you can look at bits of the build you can possibly do without or find a cheaper alternative.
CRx