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

RelievedSheff

Sorry to hear about the house. 

I'm sure something else will come up for you.

Sarahwithlove

That's good news about the £100 just a shame it took threatening them with ombudsman to get a response. 

lucielle

Sorry about the house but you never know what’s round the corner. L

beanielou

lucielle said:

Sorry about the house but you never know what’s round the corner. L

Just this.

EssexHebridean

Thanks all - there is still a chance that the current buyers for "the house" might hit an issue with mortgage or whatever although I confess it seems unlikely from what we've been told - we think they sound like cash buyers, sadly for us. We'll see - we won't be rushing into anything else to give that one time to go through at least the first bit of the process, anyway. There is somewhere that we're considering setting up a viewing for. It's nowhere near as "us" as the other one, but realistically we have to face that there's unlikely to be anywhere coming up any time soon that would be, so there will have to be a degree of "settling" we think. Balancing that is the tricky bit! This place is OK - zero kerb appeal right now, but that could be added, looking at others in the road. A decent amount of space inside and probably some wiggle room on price, and possibly scope to extend at the rear - again, from the look of what others have done. And a nice blank canvas garden which Mr EH would enjoy playing with. 

@Sarahwithlove That was  my thinking on the £100 too - I literally said in my chaser email that as the 8 weeks had now passed with no response at all I was continuing to the Ombudsman - albeit I'd not actually made my mind up whether I'd be bothering or not. Handily now I don't need to! 

It's office Christmas lunch day - albeit with just me and Mr Boss due to the other one getting a positive Covid test last night - thankfully she's not been in the office for weeks so no contamination risk! We'll still go out and have a good natter anyway! I've just got oddments of tidying up type stuff to get done today so not too taxing here on any count!

Just the one job done on the flat last night but a good one - hurrah to having curtains back up in our bedroom! Felt FAR cosier in there last night and this morning, and it was a proper MSE win too as the curtain rail we've used - I might have mentioned - was left in the communal hallway of our block with a "free - please take" note attached. It's not the poshest - a plain black metal rail with black plastic finials and rings - but nobody's going to be looking that hard, it looks a LOT better than the old one, and it's actually solidly fixed to the wall, which is always a bonus! We're intending to do some more caulking tonight - should be faster with both of us available to work on it too hopefully. I do need to come up with a "corner forming gadget" of some description for round the windows though as fingers aren't quite cutting it for a good finish. I'm thinking maybe a cut down piece of trunking might work though... 

Banks checked and OK - no interest on Mark-us yet but then again I'm not expecting much this time! I'm wondering what the changes in the PB prize fund are likely to mean for us allowing that it seems there will now be less £25 prizes and more higher ones - but we've never won more than £25 anyway. Hmmm. 

I must start putting together a to-do list for the next two days too - I've got all manner of cooking and shopping stuff to get sorted, and absolutely must NOT forget to collect the flipping turkey tomorrow! MrEH and I were debating a run to Mozzas when he finishes work tomorrow but I might do a pre-emptive T's run during the day and see how that leaves us fixed. Need to make pastry for sausage rolls and mince pies - I was debating whether just to buy both this year but they are a bit of a family tradition for me to make now and we do enjoy them. It's also a way of ensuring we get "nice" mince pies that MrEH can eat as he can't have port or red wine. I usually use cheapy bought mincemeat with extra nice fruit thrown in plus a good slug of calvados or rum. (I have a hunch we finished the very old bottle of calvados last year so it might be down to the rum this time round!) There's a fair bit to do, but with both of us working on it on Saturday it shouldn't prove too much, hopefully. 

We're at Mum's for Christmas day, and debating going to the rugby club on Boxing day - there's a match that he might play in (they do roll-on/roll-off so essentially any team players who turn up will get a run-out) and there will be plentiful good company and beers so it might be fun. Other than that our plans all involve more work on the flat, plus probably doing a day out up to London at some stage as there is some tube related stuff we want to do and it might be a good chance while it's fairly quiet! 

Sarahwithlove

Personally I'd rather they did more £25 and less higher ones and increase my chances. 

badmemory

If you go to a supermarket I hope you manage to get out quicker than I did earlier today.  Shopping was easy enough even going through the checkout was only delayed a few minutes, but the car park!!!!  It took an hour, so about twice the time it took to actually shop.  And how do people stop & start like that for a whole hour & whenever they are stationary keep their foot on the brake. 

EssexHebridean

Completely agree on preferring more lower value prizes Sarah! 

BM I was FAR more fortunate than that I’m delighted to say. Left work shortly after 3.30pm as pretty much as soon as we got back in from lunch Mr Boss told me to go - he’s a good egg! Got to T’s just before 4.30 and straight into a parking space at the far side of the car park, whizzed round the store and was through the checkout and back home before 6pm - I’ll take that! 

Flat job last night was more caulking on the joins of the thermal paper - it’s getting there but it’s a slow task! 

Got up this morning to torrential rain so decided that our usual walk didn’t appeal - a brainwave struck though so we checked collection time for the turkey and sure enough they were open from 8am so we hopped in the car and went to get that sorted before MrEH was due to start work - that’s a real win as it was going to take a chunk out of my day otherwise. Looks like a lovely bird too - plus they gave us extra giblets as other people had been refusing them (Mr EH “What?! How do they make their gravy?!” Then, after a pause, a sniffy “ohhh - Bisto I suppose!” 😂 ) so we have a pack of those at Mums for gravy and the other is in the fridge here ready for making stock with the carcass. 

I’ve also given the front room a thorough tidy, got some washing put away, made the bread sauce - the infused milk smelled amazing! Rung the council to chase the bin collection (today, apparently, but not yet, so personally I’ll be surprised!), taken all the rubbish out to add to the pile around the bin sheds in case they DO collect today, taken the recycling out, done a load of washing up and I’m about to make the pastry for mince pies so that can chill in the fridge ready for use later on. Poo - realised my tin is in the garage though so I’ll have to go and find that later. 

We still didn’t get a post delivery yesterday and so far as I know neither did Mum - I’m furious with Royal Mail over this nonsense - Mum’s first Christmas on her own and she has basically no Christmas cards other than the hand delivered ones from neighbours. Never mind all the people round the town who’ve been waiting for presents, hospital appointment letters, bank cards etc to turn up. Last time we saw post was the 7th. 🙄 It’s just not a service any more  - at least not here - and personally I’ll do everything I possibly can to avoid using RM at all in the future. 

Right then - pastry time - then after lunch I’ll make the Pigs in Blankets I think. 

I probably need a list of all the things that need doing during the rest of today and tomorrow… 

Makingabobor2

I think the younger generation have no idea how to make real gravy
Agree about RM, they are on strike again today and apparently there will be a parcel delivery only, no letters.  I use couriers now for sending parcels. 
I'm going to make cakes and shortbread later with any luck. Hope your pastry goes well. 

EssexHebridean

Two lots of pastry made (I cheat and use the food processor - it makes far better pastry than I do, and MrEH’s mum’s recipe is always a winner!) and safely in the fridge. Pigs in blankets not yet done as I decided to prioritise present wrapping. I’ve also rescued the mince pie tray from the garage, and run “Jaws” round the front room - I’ll whizz round the rest once MrEH confirms he’s finished with work - hopefully any second! 

We have some patchwork or zero waste wrapping this year - I’ve pulled all the “not quite big enough” scraps out of the drawer and combined them to wrap a few presents. Looks slightly mad but blow throwing it away! 

Off out shortly for the final few bits of presenty stuff - probably one or two more bits for my Mum and definitely one thing, plus what else I see that appeals, for MrEH too. He’s apparently got “some bits” to buy too - which I suspect means “most of his shopping”! 😆

Fry-up for tea tonight - partly to make freezer space, although we think we are going to turn freezer two on at least for a week or so - we’ll see how it looks as we go on. It can get put on via a smart plug to do its initial chill on the off peak rate though.