And now we go again...

EssexHebridean

Hey all - thank you so much for stopping by, it's always lovely to get here and find there have been visitors! 

Weekend was - well, wet! I changed plans for Friday in the end. Having exchanged messages with someone helpful on Thursday evening it began to look highly unlikely that the Reds were going to make it to Headcorn, and although they weren't the main reason I had booked it, if the weather wasn't going to work for them, then it was also likely to affect the rest of the show as well. Although the ticket was bought, I would still have had to pay for the Dartford Crossing, the diesel and some food. And THEN my pal who runs/ is engineer for the Strikemaster display team said that they were going to be based at my local airfield again over the weekend and the decision was made. I'd not seen her since her husband and the team's founder/head pilot died earlier in the year, so it was great to have a proper catch up and see her and one of their current pilots, Ian,  who I also know as well. They didn't end up displaying on the Friday so we sat and drank tea and waited for them to be formally stood down, and had a good old natter! They even insisted on buying the tea! As it turned out Headcorn  was thoroughly unpleasant by all accounts - wet and drizzly and murky - the Reds did indeed cancel, as did almost everything else, so I am viewing that as a very sensible decision!

Saturday was also largely wet - although as it was New Bookcase Day, that didn't matter too much! We cancelled the planned tip visit in the end - as the stuff was going to be sopping wet and even with a tarpaulin we didn't really want to put it into MrEH's car. Collecting the bookcases went smoothly enough once MrEH showed me the email from the Swedish Store and I pointed out that the reason we couldn't see anyone who looked like they might have a van full of Swedish stuff was because the collection point was the other T's car park on the other side of town...honestly, we've lived in the area for over 20 years, you'd think he'd know which store was which?! 

The bookcases fit beautifully in the corner of the spare room - they're touching corner to corner, and are fixed in place with a bracket attached to the top which means that we didn't even have to attach them to the walls, which was handy - they are solid as a rock just connected together like that, so all good. We've now got all our maps and guidebooks back in from the office too - indeed one shelf is specifically spaced just for maps which is rather cool! We bought some extra shelves to ensure that we would have enough to lay things out exactly as we wanted to, and ended up using all three, so glad past us decided those were worth spending for! A very happy and contented few hours was spent moving books around, shifting some shelves in the small downstairs bookcase too - our rather beautiful but massive vintage atlas of the UK now fits there - it was a charity shop find years ago but we've never had a bookshelf it would actually fit on before so it's been carefully wrapped in plastic ever since. Best of all, we have heaps of space for future new book purchases too! To celebrate we promptly bought a load more maps from the LT Museum Friends stall at the Museum Depot when we visited on Sunday - some lovely old ones including a fabulous old 1" Exeter one, one covering our local area, several covering MrEH's Hometown area, and a big bundle of a variety of OS Map which was new to us. 

MSE Stuff:
- We reckon the bookcase spend will come from this month's surplus, which is useful.
- got an excellent combination of deals/discount code for my makeup which needed replacing. So yes, I did spend £40, but for that I got the makeup, plus the blusher that I have been dying to try, and also a pair of brushes as well, which will replace my ancient powder and blusher brushes, so a win. All from personal spends, of course.
- Didn't have anything specific planned for lunch on Saturday - debated wandering round to Al's to get something, then raided the freezer and remembered we had flatbreads. the fridge yielded a chunk of chorizo, and we had eggs, so omelette stuffed flatbreads it was, and nothing additional spent!
- Grocery spend for the week was just under £40, although that included a couple of personal care bits in Al's, and some bits in Lil's that will feed us for more than one meal.
- MrEH bought lunch (personal spends) for our trip to the LT Museum Depot on Sunday. Tickets for that had already been paid for - and were bought on a concessionary rate thanks to our Museum Friends membership. My only spending was £3 on a magnet of a favourite poster of mine from the shop. 
- MrEH's Oyster will cover him for travel this week without topping up. Hopefully his car will do likewise.
- My car was topped up on Friday and that will now take me through the next few weeks. 
- The garden is still feeding us odds and ends - although we are desperately in need of a bit more sunshine to hurry things along a touch!
- all the rain filled the water butt so at least we have some free watering for the garden lined up if summer ever turns up again! 
- free entertainment was gained by making a start on a new to us jigsaw, and we also picked up a bunch more jigsaws from a pal on Friday morning. 3 x 500 piece ones stashed ready for holiday next year, plus a 1000 piece one. 

I'm waiting for my pal to confirm to me how much is payable for my share of our Airtattoo accommodation - we're all hoping the weather perks up before that mind you!  the money for that is sitting waiting in my airshow account, so all god there, and the house share arrangement will mean less of a spend than normal on that, too. 

Blackcats

Bookcases sound fab.  You can enjoy arranging, standing back and admiring and re-arranging your books and maps.  

I used the Swedish shop Kallax units for the HQ re-jig and I'm amazed how much stuff they can absorb.  I had a nice time this afternoon re-arranging a couple of the cupboards and storage boxes.  

You can ask me where my stash of A4 dividers is or where the sparkly gift bows are or where my will is and I will instantly be able to find them 🥳

jwil

Happy new bookcases!  I'm going to have to move mine if we get the electrics done, so I shall get to play with all my books while I'm packing them out of the way, then will be able to rearrange them again when I unpack them again  

EssexHebridean

Ahh BC that level of organisation comes with such a feeling of comfort too doesn't it - it's actively nice knowing that things have their place, and that you will be able to go to them without hesitation when needed!

jwil I hope you enjoy book sorting as much as we did then - honestly, I can't walk past the spare room without popping my head round the door to admire how it looks! 

Well the forecast suggested that we were meant to have a day of dry sunny weather today - and indeed it was very lovely as I walked from the car earlier. Now though it has clouded over and looks like yet another rain shower is threatening. Sigh!  I did get a bit of a potter in the garden last night when I got home and before the next cloudburst - more bindweed removed - it just keeps coming and I swear it is getting sneakier - one piece had tucked in right under a gooseberry bush and was twining its way round the spiky stem... we will keep removing it in the hope that eventually it will give up!

MSE Stuff:
- Knuckled down to some 1P surveys yesterday so I'm all caught up with those now - still some 400 points off cash out though.
- YG survey done this morning - and we won't even TALK about how far off cash-out I am there, although I am at least over the half way mark now.
- Banks checked and all good
- I have the £40 for my makeup purchases to clear off the CC, and also the bookcase money - I may well shuffle those later on I think as there is little benefit in not doing so now, and a nice zero balance would be good!
- Nothing much to happen on the financial front now until the little flurry of DDs around mid month - that's fine, quiet is good!
- Last night's planned couscous tea made use of eggs and sweet potatoes as planned - although there was more SP than I thought so there is still one left. 
- This evening is going to be fish finger flatbreads with salad I think - quick and easy to do separately (MrEH is not home until later than normal, so we are in separate cars too) and a nice midweek meal.  I must remember to get prawns out to defrost for tomorrow evening's pasta too. 

I have a fair number of odds and ends to do ahead of leaving for Fairford next Tuesday evening - and I'll be heading off straight from London for that too so will need to make sure everything is packed and in the car ready. Priority over the next few evenings is getting photo stuff sorted and the laptop cleared back - then I will just take a single external drive with me and then will be able to clear cards back while I'm away if needed. No plans at all for this weekend though, which will be lovely - and much needed before a VERY hectic and sociable 6 days! 

Cheery_Daff

Glad you had a bit of sunshine! We've had torrential downpours again, both yesterday and today. I was very glad I'd taken a thick bean & lentil soup to work for lunch as it was the very thing given the weather! 😂

savingholmes

That fabled golden orb keeps playing hide and seek. 

Sounds like a good call on last weekend's activities. Glad the bookcases worked out as well or better than expected. Hope the next air show is more positive.

foxgloves

Bindweed horrendous here this year, @EssexHebridean. It's a combination of neighbour removing hedge & replacing with fencing, which has given the 'boundary' bindweed a lot more light & removed the competition for nutrients. Then of course, a very wet Spring ensured every little bit of bindweed root was rejuvenated into heartier than usual growth. If the rain stops, I shall hopefully be removing a bit more of the stuff today.
F

Watty1

Another bindweed remover here!  Removed a wheelbarrow load yesterday.  It is probably taking root in the muck heap as I type

EssexHebridean

Ahh I suspect our clearing back of the beds most affected by the bindweed may well have helped it on its way too - so we probably do have only ourselves to blame...! :LOL: Creeping cinquefoil is also being a pest, popping up through the campanula on a constant basis. One that Campanula is done with flowering then I'm intending to give it a fairly thorough haircut and that should help on a number of accounts - making some of those weeds more quickly visible, and also meaning that the slugs and snails have less hiding places! 

Cheery how ludicrous that we are considering it to be soup weather in July, eh? I'm with you though - we had soup one day last week and it absolutely hit the spot! Well we have sun today - so far at least, and at a tentative glance the weather forecast for next week is definitely looking improved, so fingers crossed!

Final work day of the week for me of course - we will be marking this with a pub visit this evening as has become usual, although this will be the last one for this month due to the big airshow trip and me having taken the following Thursday off because right now I am NOT working on my birthday - I can only imagine what a hellish day I might get treated to! 

Plans for the weekend:
- I must acquire a new backpack for work use as the zip on my current one is failing and is only a whisker away from not being closeable! (Or perhaps, openable!)
- A thorough whizz through the house dusting and general cleaning.
- Remaining back windows need a clean
- Must sort out more photo stuff, and also get memory cards cleared down/batteries charged and laptop cleared back/backups done too. 
- Must dig out my new 64gig card from the drawer upstairs, and get that formatted and ready for use.
- Get cards sorted into desirable order of use - I will want the largest and fastest ones for show days, with smaller ones for arrivals and departures. 
- Check for firmware updates for my camera and lens
- Get clothes sorted and packed! (And hope my usual suitcase can be made to work for nearly a week away!
- General garden stuff - including getting the new (to us) big pot sorted out, and some more successional sowing done. 

MSE Stuff:
- Banks checked and all good/as expected
- Money transferred from my budget account to the CC for the makeup purchase
- Food still under control - pesto prawns and pasta tonight (might today's sunshine present us with a courgette of a size worth taking to add to this?) and I think I will get the lamb shoulder steaks out to do a curry for tomorrow (which might provide an additional portion for MrEH for next week, too. If so, then I may also make some daal to go with. Weekend needs some thought, and a shopping list. 
- last night's budget friendly tea was indeed the fish finger flatbreads plus a heap of salad including some more lettuce from the garden. I used up the last of the jar of tartare sauce, and MrEH used a couple of sachets that were in the fridge. 

beanielou

Look at Popsy’s backpacks. Some of them are just fab.