A new royal start

QueenJess

Thanks @TallGirl I'm already starting to think what I would need to do and what contacts I already have.

Work is so depressing as they all hate me, which is a horrible thing to work in for any length of time.  Cheered myself up massively by taking a long lunch and am having an amazing meal for lunch - hm hummus (extra in the fridge and freezer) on hm bread with lettuce, cucumber, red pepper, grated carrot, radishes and microgreens (from window sill).  As I emptied the jar of chickpeas, I used the water to make a ton of meringues so we can all have Eton Mess for dessert later with the ton of fruit in the fridge!

Dinner later will be pesto pasta (hm pesto from carrot tops I made yesterday) with broad beans and courgettes.  Kids will have the leftover tomato pasta from earlier in the week.  This is the way to live... wedging fresh fruit and veg into everything is happiness!  I also have some browning bananas that didn't like the heat earlier in the week, so will throw together some banana bread for the kids later.  Fridge is still groaning with all the fruit and veg in it, so plenty more of this to come

daisy_1571

remember notice is only enforceable from the employer side.  As an employee they realky have little to no power over you at all so although they might prefer a particular notice period there's little they would do if someone resigned with immediate effect or with a date sooner than a contract of employment stated.  Most companies are very unlikely to waste money pursuing an employee through courts for that.

Anyhoo, you've resigned so that's just info for future jobs.  Use your holiday time and there's nothing to stop you self certifying some sick absence too since it is so uncomfortable and horrible 

Daisy xxx

QueenJess

daisy_1571 said:

remember notice is only enforceable from the employer side.  As an employee they realky have little to no power over you at all so although they might prefer a particular notice period there's little they would do if someone resigned with immediate effect or with a date sooner than a contract of employment stated.  Most companies are very unlikely to waste money pursuing an employee through courts for that.

Anyhoo, you've resigned so that's just info for future jobs.  Use your holiday time and there's nothing to stop you self certifying some sick absence too since it is so uncomfortable and horrible 

Daisy xxx

I try to always leave on good terms no matter what as I am meant to be a professional and you really never know when it might come back to bite you in this business.  You do find the same people and I'd rather be the bigger person.

Just looks like there will be a lot of cooking going on in the next two weeks to get through this!

Oh - apparently my credit card points were going to expire, so I spent them all on M&S vouchers.  Hoping that will help buy DS's trousers for the next school year and whatever tops he might need.  I have to use them for DS's trousers as all the others seem to be enormous and these ones you can pull in really tight for him.  

I told my old work I was going freelance and they are already interested in booking me   I already have 3 people that say they will refer work my way and I am going to get in touch with someone else next week.  I'm reasonably relaxed about it as I've built up a big emergency fund over the years and the worst case scenario is I just find another job.  Will just see how it works out.

Taking a break over the weekend and then will start doing a few more bits next week, including setting up a new email address for work

edinburgher

Have a good weekend 

CCW007

So pleased to hear you have handed in your notice and the way people are behaving just confirms it's the right thing to do.  Enjoy your summer with the kids. 

I love hearing about how you use everything and don't waste things like the carrot tops and aquafaba! 

QueenJess

CCW007 said:

So pleased to hear you have handed in your notice and the way people are behaving just confirms it's the right thing to do.  Enjoy your summer with the kids. 

I love hearing about how you use everything and don't waste things like the carrot tops and aquafaba! 

Thanks, it's nice to hear someone enjoys my rambling   I do hate waste, but usually find everything goes to pot when I'm ill as I'm the cook.  DH would otherwise eat the same 3 things on rotation and is exceptionally good at ignoring any fresh veg in the fridge and just going to the freezer.  He's getting slightly better, but I've been ill the last few days (fun cold, sore throat virus thing from the kids), so the odd thing sadly had to be composted.

My fridge is utterly rammed full, so operation use everything up will be ongoing for at least the next week.  Today I used a whole tub of raspberries to make raspberry ice cream and also used all the carrot tops to make more pesto.  I've been using ground almonds to make the pesto since I had them in the baking cupboard and is much cheaper than pine nuts.  I have frozen some with the aim that I can have lovely free pesto over the winter, but I'm almost eating it as fast as I'm making it at the moment!

Used up some salad items by making myself a feta salad for lunch (with spring onions, lettuce, cucumber, microgreens, radish, carrot, red pepper, olive oil and balsamic vinegar). The kids are having leftover hm pizza for tonight (hopefully that'll be another box gone from the fridge) with carrot sticks.  Dessert is yogurt with hm meringues (and fruit if they want it).  I did successfully switch the kids to greek yogurt, but finally found some raspberry and strawberry puree in the fridge section that doesn't have any junk added to it and they like to stir it in to flavour the yogurt which they prefer.

I have the biggest pile of broad beans ever.. I mean it is half the veg drawer on its own!  Typical really as I ordered myself a zero waste bag from Riverford as a treat, but there were two lots of broad beans in there and I already had them in my box!  So unsurprisingly dinner will contain broad beans... will add pasta, hm pesto and broccoli.  Also got an extra box of blueberries in the zero waste bag, so I feel some sort of cake making coming... may make something tomorrow so we have cake for the weekend.

In my ill state, I forgot the egg situation and forgot to cancel the order from Riverford.  We now have 4.5 boxes of eggs!  So lots of baking and meals with eggs in coming up!  I suspect the cake will use up 3 eggs.  We do use lots of eggs though, so I'm sure we will power through

Making good progress on weaning the kids off cereal for breakfast.  I don't mind them having it, but not everyday and they were eating it in the evenings as well (DH not being very imaginative....).  I also buy expensive ones without lots of junk added, but they are really expensive and also quite sugary.  I did pop to the bakery, so they have croissants for tomorrow's breakfast (almond one for DS as I still need to shoehorn as many almonds into his diet as I can for the next year) and they can also have the rest of the watermelon.

Look - a whole post about food!  I do spend an inordinate amount of my days planning and prepping food...  What can I say?  I like to eat well and I find it rewarding   Oh - and our eating pattern now is completely veggie during the week (apart from the odd use of tinned fish for lunch) and meat for dinners at the weekend.  No idea how I've managed to do that since DH always considered a meal to not be complete without meat.  When I'm out at gymnastics, DH even makes himself pesto pasta with veg and no meat in sight!  Clearly I am slowly making progress!  I'm completely unbothered about meat.  I don't want to never have it, but don't want to eat it most the time (also unbothered about milk, but you'll never be able to part me from greek yogurt and cheese!).  Weekends are a compromise for DH really - this weekend is looking like spag bol (in freezer already) and I have some chicken breasts as a treat.  Might make those with hm chips (too many potatoes!), spice for the grownups and a pile of veg from the fridge.  Right.. definitely need to stop talking about food now as I'm making myself hungry!

Mrs_Money_Penny

Love hearing about all your baking and reduce waste. Pouring with rain today here in Wiltshire maybe making soup soon. x

themadvix

I think, for a non-vegetarian household, only having meat two days a week is excellent. As the saying goes, it needs us all to do eco-living imperfectly, rather than a few people doing it perfectly! We are very much the same as you (more so, probably given I only eat fish, not meat), but am now trying to get a few vegan meals in each week - just because the carbon impact of the dairy is so high. I will never be vegan (too much ultra-processed junk required to make it work and I too love eggs and cheese), but I think if we can have 2-3 evening meals a week that are vegan, that's a good start (along with the organic options for dairy wherever possible). I have finally cracked how to make tofu tasty and we've got a couple of really yummy tofu-based recipes now (peanut butter is often the answer!). I'd love to get it plastic-free, but it's not affordable (Biona sell it in a glass jar, but it's 2-3 times the price and I'm not convinced about the carbon footprint of a glass jar with a block of tofu in). Maybe one day I'll grow enough edamame to have a go at making it!

Food is something you have a lot of control over and it impacts budget, health and environment, so I think your food focus is spot on - for these diaries and for life!

QueenJess

Totally agree @themadvix. It’s nice to find like minded people on here. I tend to think everything I do is totally normal, but get reminders every now and again that it isn’t. For example, at swimming my every week DS has a shower and I hand him the bar of soap whilst everyone around me has a plastic bottle. I’m obviously very much out of the loop as I am genuinely confused by it as I thought everyone moved on from plastic years ago, but clearly that was just me… this is what happens when all your friends move abroad as I don’t really know anyone here anymore!
Also love tofu, although DH does not. I get one from Riverford every week and make a massive stir fry with it that DH actually likes, so that is a big win!

Did what was meant to be a small food shop today, but spent loads as I bought salmon, organic olive oil and a big bag of nuts for DH. Just those came to so much 😬, but eating well does mean a lot to me, so looking at other things to cut down since I won’t be earning in a couple of weeks. DS is still going to gymnastics, so no saving there, but remembered I am still paying £6 a month for a land line that is a bit pointless. Will consult with DH and hopefully get that cancelled. It’ll all help!

Trying to be very relaxed about the fact I won’t be earning, but it feels very much counterintuitive to start using up savings rather than putting money into them. Very much looking forward to having the summer off though and rather conveniently, my last day at work is DS’s last day at school. Can’t come soon enough as work is driving me crazy. Doing my best to not interact with anyone as I prefer not to join the insanity and quietly get on with the work. 8 more working days to go….

Today I had broad beans and pesto pasta for lunch (more than halfway through the massive pile of broad beans now, although more coming tomorrow!). Dinner is hm pizza - cheese and tomato for DS (with carrot sticks), adults will have mozzarella, sundried tomatoes, herbs, basil leaves and red pepper with a side salad. Dessert is hm raspberry ice cream with hm shortbread. DS also had a banana milkshake earlier (made with almond milk to keep up his almond intake per doctor recommendations, hm vanilla ice cream and banana) which he loved and a hm crumpet from the freezer (they are nice, but took me ages to make!).

themadvix

I know exactly what you mean about 'the rest of the world' not getting it. I think we definitely live in a little eco-bubble in this house - ethics guide most of our purchasing decisions and we are frequently amazed that others aren't guided by them (seemingly sometimes at all). I am entirely understanding of the fact that we are in a financial position (largely through our own hard work) to make some choices that would be unaffordable to others - but money isn't always a factor (and it can be quite the opposite - e.g. bought drinks in plastic bottles vs reusable bottle from home). Hey ho - it *is* nice to find like-minded company here! 😁

Food sounds lovely as ever. I must have a go at crumpets, but I already know they're going to end up a mess (and stuck to my spun iron frying pan!).