And now we go again...

Blackcats

My dad gave me his very nice Bose CD player a couple of weeks ago.  Since my mum died he doesn't like listening to music anymore as it makes him sad.  I do understand but it's a shame because their house was always filled with music, whistling and singing.  So at his request I've moved the pile of CDs upstairs and taken the CD player home.  

You are making great progress on settling in and getting your new home set up to suit you.

EssexHebridean

Oh Blackcats that really is sad for him isn't it - hopefully he'll get back to a place where he feels he can listen again in the future or that's a huge pleasure taken from his life. Music is such an emotional thing though.  Completely agree about being able to reuse things where possible too Foxgloves - Dad's stereo isn't by any stretch a posh one, but it will do perfectly well for what we want in the front room allowing that we will probably not be regular music listeners in there. Joedenise absolutely worth mentioning about the diffuser - I suspect that snippet of info might well benefit someone with a more modern induction hob! 

It's been another nice combination of productive and relaxing over the weekend. I had considered heading to Duxford for the airshow but decided against in part because the weather didn't look that wonderful, but also because right now I'm enjoying just spending time at home and settling in, pottering, making new routines and really appreciating our new home. Got the general whizz round the house with Jaws/a duster and a binbag done on friday morning, plus a bit more deep cleaning in a couple of areas - again I'm gradually working through that as well. Slightly adjusted some furniture positions in the front room to see if it made the room look a little better laid out - and yes, I think we've both agreed that it does. My friend from the top floor at the flats came over in the afternoon to see the house and have a natter which was lovely!  
Saturday was shopping in the morning - farmers market then T's. Hopefully we're almost now at the end of needing to re-stock the various things that we ran down ahead of moving as  it was another painfully expensive week! £17 of the T's spend was a frying pan - a quite large one which claims to be induction friendly. Well it might be perfectly friendly, but my induction hob doesn't like it as it's just too big, makes the ring it's placed on cycle in and out and as a result it refuses to heat properly. That will be getting returned for a refund, and I'll have to give some serious thought to what size of frying pan I do actually want to buy I think. Once we got back MrEH headed out to rugby - I walked as far as the club with him and then carried on for a loop round via Al's as there were a couple of odds and ends I wanted from there too, plus it gave me a bit of a leg stretch. The afternoon was a lovely relaxing one - some TV, some reading, quite a lot of crocheting of granny squares for the blanket I'm planning for the front room, and a nice soak in the bath. 

Yesterday morning we got the shed sorted - just three boxes left untouched in there now but we know what is in them all and need to decide whether the contents are mostly going into the loft, or what. Then most excitingly in the afternoon we headed to Mum's to collect my bureau - it's SO nice to see it in place now - even if it does look a sorry old thing currently as it definitely needs a lot of restoration work, I'm planning to get that done though! Mum's filled the three drawers with various bits of family stuff that she has decided it's time came to me - so I have an absolute stack of photos and various paperwork etc to go through, plus some of Dad's coin collection. Treasured finds so far from just a single drawer have been the full itinerary of a business trip Dad made in 1976 to South America including the original letter inviting him and a copy of the reply from his Managing Director accepting the offer on his behalf, and also even older than that, original copies of newspapers reporting the moon landing, and the 1935 Coronation! How amazing, and all things I had no idea that we had. Very special indeed. 

Big MSE win over the weekend was the two loads of washing I ran through back to back yesterday - MrEH's rugby kit first thing, as soon as that was finished I got it straight out on the line and ran through the bedding from our bed which I'd stripped once we were both up. Managed to get that out with a couple of hours to go ahead of the forecast rain, kept a VERY close eye on the weather app, and almost everything was dry when I brought it in again literally as it started spitting with rain. Just a couple of hours on the airer upstairs sorted out the final bits and it was all folded and put away by teatime last night which I was delighted with. 

Spendiness:
- That shopping bill, which in between T's, Al's and the FM came to £140 - OUCH! The £17 back for the failed frying pan will help - and there should also be a small refund heading through from an overcharge in T's as well - frankly at that level I'll take ALL the small wins! Money is in the food account ready to be transferred over.
- Ordered the bits we want from the Swedish store - two bookcases, two additional spares for one of them, plus two new shelves for each of the wardrobes in the dressing room to increase the storage options there as we'd rather have them as cupboards than wardrobes. with the delivery it came to a fraction over £200 but that's good value for what we'd ordered. That lot will be delivered on Friday ready for building at the weekend.

Plans for the week:
- I want to work on two small habits - firstly just 10 minutes per day of some sort of resistance or full cardio exercise. I've done this before as a good way of getting back "on the wagon" with exercise - the idea with the cardio stuff is just to get myself out of the door - once I'm out, I'll usually do more. I'm not absolutely sure how my knee and back will cope with any running at the moment either - so just ten minutes is a good way of testing that out and getting my legs and lungs used to that level of work again.  the resistance can be in one session or broken down into smaller chunks - for example a few sets of squats or lunges while waiting for the kettle to boil. Calf raises while standing at the photocopier... 
The second thing is to get back into the habit of when a meal is cooked and is clearly more than we really need for one sitting, to immediately portion off a single portion from it to freeze for a meal for the future. It's a simple way of batch cooking, and an easy way of ensuring that there are always meals in if one or the other of us is eating alone and wants something quick and easy. It's a simple thing, but better on all levels than what we're tending to do now which is to just serve up the larger portions! 
Also intending to get a load of washing through this evening as the forecast suggests that it will line dry tomorrow - fingers crossed! 

Makingabobor2

sounds like a productive weekend and some good plans for the week. I agree about saving the extra food for another day. I often put it in the fridge though, rather than the freezer and then DH moans as we end up having the same dinner 2 days running....lol.  Got to get back into some batch baking now, with the weather changing. Want to do lots of cottage pies etc to freeze. 

PennysIntoPounds

That's annoying about the pan, but at least you'll be pleased to have £17 back. Bit of a long shot but maybe worth putting a Wanted post on Olio in case someone nearby is getting rid of any?

What colour shelving did you go for in the end?

milann

There’s some lovely finds in the bureau for you. Something to cherish.
Youve done well organising your new place. I bet it feels very homely.

beanielou

Some lovely things to cherish.

foxgloves

I do agree about dishing up the spare portion at the same time as serving dinner. We are both complete converts to single portions of something tasty going in the freezer. Mr F often likes something hot on his longer shifts, & we often plan in a jacket potato night where we both have a spud, but then choose whatever topping each of us fancy. Leaving the extra food in the pan was just encouraging Mr F to load up with 2nd helpings.
F

LadyWithAPlan

All action here I see - I still dont have a mortgage (FTB being v cautious)  but can understand your excitement  on the focus to slay a large dragon of debt again

lucielle

That’s a good idea on the portions. I tend to put them in the fridge and then the dog gets it. 

Bureau finds sound great. 

L

EssexHebridean

PennysIntoPounds said:

That's annoying about the pan, but at least you'll be pleased to have £17 back. Bit of a long shot but maybe worth putting a Wanted post on Olio in case someone nearby is getting rid of any?

What colour shelving did you go for in the end?

I have to confess to being a bit of a cookware snob - shameful but true. My old stuff that no longer works is old style Anolon professional - must be somewhere over 20 years old now as I'm sure we bought it not long before we bought the flat, and the three frying pans, although they no longer look particularly pretty, still work brilliantly - or rather, they do on a hob that's not induction! I've been handling pans everywhere we've been to see if I could find anything that met my standards (LOL!) but that was the first one I'd found that I picked up and thought "Yes, that might be OK". It is a Tefal branded one so you'd expect it to be OK. I have just noticed that one of the brands I'd consider replacing with ae on TCB so I may hold off for Black Friday type offers and then go through there... I did manage to find one small sized one shortly after we moved in that I'm getting on OK with - the larger ones from that brand (I think it was 5alter) felt a bit flimsy though. 

We discussed all the shelving options the other night and both agreed that the third bedroom/dressing room was the perfect place for the bigger shelves, so we've gone with the white as that will work with what else is in there. it's going to look like a depot for the Swedish shop by the time we're done as we discovered on Friday that both wardrobes and the chest of drawers that were left for us by our sellers are all also from there as well! The more we looked at options for the spare room, the more we couldn't really see how it would work, and the dressing room is a perfect spot to house a lot of books - we've currently got three small bookcases in there anyway, and we think one of them will stay in there once the new ones are built and in place. 

MrEH reminded me quite what a bargain the bookcases that are in that room currently were. As far as we can think we paid £10 each for them from the big DIY place with the orange buckets not long after we moved in to our original rented flat in London. They are flat pack ones, and were literally made up of screwed together planks of pine so very basic, but they are sturdy as you like, and have cheerfully moved house with us twice now. We've got 5 or maybe even 6 of them in total I think - one of which got cut down to two-thirds size when we needed a small one to fit in the kitchen at that original flat - that one also has odd shelf spacing as we wanted one shelf to take something very specific - long since forgotten! One lived outside on the balcony for years, and a couple more recently spent quite a while in the garage - two of them are still in the shed now serving as useful storage shelves! We certainly won't be getting rid of those any time soon!