So close, we can smell mortgage freedom!

Cheery_Daff

Urgh, sorry to hear about the car, what an absolute menace! Hope it gets sorted out quickly for you x

themadvix

QueenJess said:

Ugh... sorry to hear about the car, that's so annoying.  At least you have the recordings.

I love kohl rabi - got 1 in the fridge right now.  They are so versitile.. salads, stir fries, stews... basically anything goes!  I do love them in salads and stir fries for the crunch though

I'm a recent convert to kohl rabi  - but the crunch is really good - we enjoyed the slaw we made. And I have Czech friend who will definitely take any spares off my hands.

themadvix

Greying_Pilgrim said:

themadvix said:

...... Gratitudes:

* Had a lovely day out on Wednesday with the old dears (Trefoil Guild) .......

Oi!  I was minded to join the Trefoil Guild - I had no idea they existed until someone mentioned it to me.  Sounds like if you land on a good group, they have an uproariously, spiffing amount of fun!  Possibly more than the young folk 😉 I must admit, the people who told me about it, were well into their (extremely active) retirement years, and possibly would be ineligible to be summonsed to jury service, but still.......🤣

I no longer have my 1970's (and it was a hand-me-down then) brown cotton, Brownie tunic, but I do still have my yellow cotton collar (modern neckers are way cooler) and trefoil brooch 🤓

Greying X

Greying, they are definitely not all 'old dears' - but in this particular group (and especially for this particular outing), I am probably half the age of most of them (39 vs many in their 80s/90s; my ex-Brownie leader friend and a couple of others are the 60-something exception). They are generally good fun though! 

The brown dresses were things of legend - I think they saw many generations of girls - hand-me-down was the way back then and rightly so! Glad to hear you still have your promise badge! 

I'd definitely recommend giving Trefoil a try - they're always keen to welcome new members and there's a lovely variety of groups. The one I'm a member of is just enough for me - about once a month (and realistically, I manage far less than that), but others meet more often, do more exciting things.

themadvix

greenbee said:

Sorry to hear about the car. These things always seem to happen when you have something nice/new/special. But at least no one was hurt. 

I hope you enjoyed Houghton and got a chance to look at the Gormleys. The concert was fabulous - it was a fundraiser for https://www.yorketrust.org/ in the Picture Gallery, so we saw the Gormleys in the garden before and during the interval, as well as the ones in the park on the way in. I hear the walled garden is looking fabulous at the moment (as is the one at Holkham. I think my mum has been to see them so many times with visiting friends (and to Sandringham) that her RHS membership is well and truly paid. Sadly I haven’t got round to using mine. I need to be more proactive next year!

Glad you enjoyed the concert! Yes, we spotted many of the Gormleys and enjoying hunting him - I'm pretty sure they are loosely modelled on him (couldn't speak to all of the anatomy, but I have met the man in question once!). The walled garden was gorgeous and there were signs (and scissors) encouraging you to help yourself to sweet peas, which was lovely. 

Cheery_Daff

I've never heard of the Trefoil Guild! Had a brief look at it seems there was a group near me but can't see any evidence of activity in the last 6 years or so. I was a brownie back in the day, also with a brown dress 😂 I don't have any of the paraphernalia leftover sadly. I did love the idea of doing tasks to get badges. I keep seeing those fb adverts for the manual of activities where you can work towards specific badges (and then pay for them, of course) and I'm always ever so tempted! 😂 Maybe when I've finished the DIY (although maybe if there was a DIY badge that would give me encouragement! 😂😂)

themadvix

Afternoon all,

So many visitors! Thanks for the sympathy re the car.... It is what it is and very disappointing, but now we're in the hands of the insurance company/police.

Had a lovely weekend, although I felt bizarrely ropey on Friday night and yesterday evening - I don't know whether it was the heat or a bug, but my temperature regulation was not good and I was also *very* tired. Seem to be fine now though.

Saturday we enjoyed Houghton Hall, then headed to Brancaster for a paddle before going to Beers of Europe to buy a few bottles and try out their taproom (EH if you're reading, it's worth a visit if you've not been). Bought a pastry each and a salad bowl in WR en route and picnicked at Houghton, so main expense was pizza at the taproom and a drink there - pizzas were amazing and large (dinner tonight will be the leftovers) - proper handmade (i.e. wonky) bases and plenty of topping.

Yesterday we visited our friends and they fed us leftovers from a party until we were stuffed, so no further need for food! 

Met my local 'cat/Olio' friends for breakfast this morning which was nice - a great way to socialise without it taking over the whole day or spending a fortune. We'll definitely be doing that again. Leftover bulgur wheat salad for lunch - am slowly emptying the fridge, which seems to be full of leftovers.

Have completed and returned the platform job and now have a piece of work from main client. Hoping to clear that this afternoon/tomorrow morning, to allow time for Cambridge reports tomorrow.

MS things:
* First day of solar panel diary thing
* Eating leftovers - here and at friends'
* S&S and FOTG submissions
* TV survey

Gratitudes:
* Lovely day out on Saturday - the weather this week made up for last week! 
* Lovely to see friends and their girls yesterday - haven't seen the little one for at least 6 months (older one stays up to say hello if we go round for dinner)
* Breakfast this morning - so good to get together for a proper catch up and perfectly acceptable to say 'I need to get on now' (conversations may have continued on Whatsapp)

Have a good afternoon/evening all!

greenbee

themadvix said:

greenbee said:

Sorry to hear about the car. These things always seem to happen when you have something nice/new/special. But at least no one was hurt. 

I hope you enjoyed Houghton and got a chance to look at the Gormleys. The concert was fabulous - it was a fundraiser for https://www.yorketrust.org/ in the Picture Gallery, so we saw the Gormleys in the garden before and during the interval, as well as the ones in the park on the way in. I hear the walled garden is looking fabulous at the moment (as is the one at Holkham. I think my mum has been to see them so many times with visiting friends (and to Sandringham) that her RHS membership is well and truly paid. Sadly I haven’t got round to using mine. I need to be more proactive next year!

Glad you enjoyed the concert! Yes, we spotted many of the Gormleys and enjoying hunting him - I'm pretty sure they are loosely modelled on him (couldn't speak to all of the anatomy, but I have met the man in question once!). The walled garden was gorgeous and there were signs (and scissors) encouraging you to help yourself to sweet peas, which was lovely. 

Apparently they are cast from his body. His wife supervised, and he had to breathe through a straw while in the cast. He uses his own body (and presumably the original mould for each new installation he does of human bodies), as he can't/won't ask anyone else to go through this process. 

themadvix

Afternoon all,

Thanks Greenbee, that's interesting to know.

Bit of a mixed day here today. Have finished off work for main client, requested POs for various bits of complete work (yes, the logic isn;t there, but standard in the industry...) and finally got to some Cambridge report work! Which on two reports is more or less now a case of waiting on others/waiting for that boss to get back from holiday, but not a lot done on the third, although actually that's because I really need a meeting with someone first and they've not got back to me.

Lunchtime I went out to return the 3 mobile broadband router we had tried to see if it would be an acceptable alternative to fibre. It was not. Don't believe the '30 day back guarantee' suggestion either - it was of course like getting blood out of a stone, with a non-UK-based call centre, non-UK-based live chat people and people saying 'it's OK because it's within your 14-day cooling off period' and such like. And then of cours,e I thought I'd try the local (5 min walk) PO - but as per usual, it wasn't open. It is in a Morrisons Daily and is now *never* open (the post office website says the counter is available 7am to 10pm Monday to Saturday - it is hardly ever open after 1pm, if even then). It's not the staff's fault - because there are never enough of them. But it is absolutely beyond a joke.  So I had to walk to the PO that is 17 mins walk from home, but 20 from this PO. It restored my faith in humanity though (after a man at the first PO got shirty with me - don't ask, it wasn't the staff member) - they are lovely, competent and just nice human beings down there. I need to remember that the PO nearest me *doesn't exist* and not go there any more. On the broadband I think Mr MV needs to try negotiating a discount with the current provider (Now). Otherwise we'll switch to Plusnet - only a 50p saving, but at least good customer service.

I should be going to the allotment. But after a very brief visit on Sunday to discover the one borlotti that had survived to reach 50 cm high had been munched, I'm not feeling very positive about it. I will go - there might even be a courgette to pick, but I was so excited about growing lots of beans... it's just so dispiriting. My RHS update said that it was the last chance to sow French beans, so I have stuck some blue lake and borlottis in pots - I can only try, right?

Unfortunately one of our Makita drill/lawnmower batteries died last night. It had served us well - Mr MV's drill (which they came with) is quite old and it's been doing lawnmower duty for several years too, which given it's not the recommended size (shouldn't have affected longevity, was just not as large as they recommend) was impressive. Slightly concerned that we may be coming to that point where various things hit the 10+ years old mark...

Have also booked our Tunnel crossing for our holiday (another live chat conversation) and submitted feedback about some changes to parking around here (very sensible double yellows on the corners of turnings, because apparently people need reminding round here that it's dangerous to park like that). Have requested they also repaint the 'keep clear' that should prevent people from blocking our driveway - it's invisible now, but was there when we moved in. With the changes to parking further along the road, I think this will be more necessary than ever - drive access is always an issue in any case.

MS things:
* Leftover pizza and rhubarb crumble were consumed last night (a hardship!) and there is now room to move in the fridge
* Small R'ford order done - was hoping not to need one by this point of summer but 🤷‍♀️
* Mr MV is at some work social eating beige food, so has said he won't need dinner
* TV survey done
* S&S submitted
* Solar diary done
* Blueberries from the garden on my porridge

Gratitudes:
* Blueberries - this is the best they've ever been for various reasons (mainly neglect when we're away at a key time!)
* Feeling I've got a bit caught up on work - it's been ages!
* Good service at the further PO

Have a good evening all, I'd better go and see some veg (and top up the beer traps).

greenbee

You should have dropped in when you were up at the weekend ... I have a backlog of courgettes to deal with!

themadvix

Afternoon all,

Thanks Greenbee! I did actually pick a good-sized one - the first this year! - this morning (didn't make it down there last night). It did the usual courgetty thing of being less than half the size on Sunday and suddenly turning into a whopper. Hopefully now we're off the mark, we'll have a reasonable supply. Not as many as normal though as it's only one plant 🙄 Also picked some broad beans, so I think some sort of courgette and broad bean risotto is in order for dinner.

Have really struggled with energy today - not sure why. B&W cat was particularly noisy in the night, so neither of us got a good night's sleep... but it does feel like more than that. I do wonder if I've had Covid and not had the usual symptoms, but am feeling the fatigue effects... 🤷‍♀️ I have managed 3 meetings, a few other bits of Cambridge work and two small platform jobs, plus visiting the allotment, making some crank's country biscuits and doing a load of washing. Am hoping I feel more energetic tomorrow though.

MS things:
* £4 TCB transferred to savings
* Clicks and HW done
* Entered a bunch of comps last night
* Garden/allotment produce: blueberries for breakfast, courgette, broad beans
* Planted a couple of cabbages (and possibly a calabrese - but it could just be a weed seed! 😆)
* Solar diary entry
* £1 YL survey
* YG surveys x2

Gratitudes:
* Made MV and I sit outside and play cards last night - the weather has been so bad that we've not got into a habit of sitting in the garden in the evenings, which is such a waste! We had fun and the game continues tonight (if I'm awake!).
* Cambridge boss/friend and I have made plans for a lunch and walk in August
* Lots of flowers on my cucumber

Have a good evening all!