Ding! Ding! All change, please... (now replaced with new diary on MFW)

foxgloves

Lol at the rice story. i have managed to get foraged leaves past Mr F in salads. He can be very odd about these things despite me having lots of books on the subject & have been foraging since I was about 12. For instance, he loves rocket & will eat any amount of it I can grow - the spicier the better - but when I put nasturtium leaves (which have a similar spicy taste) in a salad, he wouldn't try one & picked them all out! I keep quiet about it now & he's certainly eaten mixed salads containing bittercress & dandelion leaves.
F

savingholmes

I never knew you could eat dandelion leaves

jwil

Good luck with the house viewings!

foxgloves

@savingholmes - You definitely can! The advice is generally to pop a flowerpot over the top of a suitable looking clump to blanch them for a few days to reduce bitterness. I think they are eaten in France more than they are over here. The roots used to be dried & ground for use as a coffee substitute. I've never done this myself, though did once buy a jar of dandelion coffee to try from a health shop. I didn't like it at all, but can confirm that it certainly lived up to the dandelion's traditional reputation as a diuretic!
Sorry to hijack your diary to woffle on about dandelions, @EH. I'm sure you will forgive me!
F x

EssexHebridean

You are absolutely forgiven Foxgloves - loving the various food disguising/foraging chat! And jwil - thank you, I noticed you sneaking in among it all!  I frequently get carrots into things by grating them - in fairness to MrEH he is fairly aware that happens but as his gripe with them has always been that if he can taste them it’s a problem, and once they’re grated you can’t taste them, that’s all all good! 

Apologies for a degree of radio silence this last few days - work exploded into wild busyness for a few days and required all my 9-5 (or yesterday 9-6) attention, plus my lunch break on Wednesday too…early next week will be broadly similar I think. I’m going in an hour early on Monday and after that will have banked effectively a half-day worth of overtime so need to consider whether to use that the day we go on holiday (I’d simply planned to leave early that day, which may be more practical) or to save it for use later in the year.

We are into the “interest season” section of the month here - one of our fixed term pots had its paid yesterday, my little 6 month personal one matures next week (I need to consider what to do with that) and then over the next 10 days various other things pay their interest too - it all adds a bit of interest! 😁  At some stage ai need to log in to Sant-and-Er online and do some housekeeping as there are several accounts there now we no longer need which I’ll request closure on. Mr EH fed his Oyster yesterday so that will see him through another couple of weeks, and both cars are currently full of fuel. 

In other MSE type stuff, I checked the CC account a couple of days ago and spotted a random amount from T’s last weekend - I knew what the amount that appeared on the till screen when I tapped the card was - £38.xx but this amount was £50.xx - checked the receipt last night and sure enough that shows the original total, then the discounts applied (CC prices and some vouchers/coupons) then the total to pay at the £34.xx amount …and then also shows the higher amount which was charged to the card, so it looks like I was charged roughly £12 more than I should have been! I’ve raised it with them and will be making sure I get it back. At the same time I spotted that last week’s veg box - which should have had a 20% discount applied - has also been charged at full price. Allowing that we only ordered  this one because of being offered the discount (I think I mentioned it here, in fact?) I’m not impressed. We’re now fully cancelled the subscription and I have also given feedback letting them know about the error - so I’m hopeful that they will be refunding the difference to the card. It slightly feels as though everyone is out to get us right now - but does underline why you should check receipts/statements! 

About to head out to the gym, and most of the rest of today will be sorting out the place ahead of tomorrow’s viewing and also thinking through the various things we want to check on the three houses that we are hopefully viewing tomorrow! This will be the second viewing on OCO, and first viewings on The One With The Massive Garden and Rose’s House, as they shall be known! Need to take a tape measure with us to OCO at least, and I need to measure some bits here through the day to note to see where they would work in the various places. The Estate Agent issue has been sorted with cheeky original agents agreeing that no, they aren’t entitled to any commission on the buyer we have an offer from, so our current agents will now earn their full amount on that which we’re pleased about.

Right - gym time! Feel free to chat amongst yourselves, you know where the kettle is and there are plenty of tea bags… 😁

foxgloves

@EH - That is a classic example of why we need to check receipts. On a more minor scale than the example you cite, we have had quite a few instances of grocery items being flagged up as "3 for £5" or similar, but the offer not going through at the till. As these have often involved Mr F's beer allowance, he always checks such offers on the till receipt before leaving the shop now.
F

themadvix

*Pops kettle on, rummages for biscuits*

Thanks for the tip about blanching the dandelions FG, that's useful to know. I believe the whole of the dandelion plant is edible - there was an article on it from one of my favourite ethical bloggers the other day. I quite fancy having a go at dandelion tea too.

That is very annoying about the overcharging that's been happening EH - definitely worth pursuing. And you've reminded me that I need to hassle Eon again - I'm so fed up with it tbh, but I want my money back!

Fingers crossed for your viewings at the weekend!

lucielle

Hope the viewings go well and you find something to float your boat!
L

savingholmes

Overcharging on veg box is irritating. You do seem unlikely on things like that - or unusually diligent in finding them.

Hopefully now the EA kerfuffle is sorted things can progress for you. Exciting times.

beanielou

Boo to the overcharging.