And now we go again...

badmemory · 11 July 2024 at 9:57AM

It sounds like I should be grateful to have no bindweed. When next door removed their hedge I had a fir that was only supposed to grow to 5ft & was just about that height after several years. The year following the hedge removal the fir grew to over 12ft which can be a house insurance problem so had to go.

Blackcats · 14 July 2024 at 6:50PM

Fishfinger flatbread has just been added to this week's meal plan. Not sure MrBC will add lots of salad to his but we live in hope.

savingholmes · 14 July 2024 at 9:32PM

Eek to the bindweed - the nerve of interrupting the lovely flowering campanula too... I'd be annoyed at that as I adore campanulas.

EssexHebridean · 24 July 2024 at 9:55AM

Morning all! I am back from 6 days of airshow madness - all excellent fun as ever, the house share with 4 pals went well, we had a proper giggle and are already planning to do it all again next year! Highlight for me was being lucky enough to be invited to sit in on the Red Arrows display debrief on the Sunday - completely unexpected and absolutely fascinating listening to them pick the display apart, and criticising even the tiniest aspects where they feel they could have improved things! Lovely to see people and have the chance for a chat, too! Anyway I now have absolutely HEAPS of photos to go through - I was working through them for much of the day yesterday but I have barely scratched the surface!

MSE Stuff:
- Airshow spendiness wasn't as high as it might have been partly as the food options in our enclosure weren't great, so we just opted to take food in most days which worked well. I don't think I bought food in the show at all this year, in fact. We ate in the local pub a couple of times in the evening, I treated my pal who kindly did the driving too and from the show each day to his dinner and a pint on the last night, and he and I had a kebab one evening too, but other than that all food came from the local Mozzas!
- Because my pal drove, my car just sat there so my only diesel use was to/from Swindon. Still got a decent length of time before I will need to fill up again.
- I had yesterday off as well so one day when a car would have otherwise come into London was also saved.
- Both of our car insurance renewals have landed. MrEH's isn't much higher than last year but mine has gone up a good chunk thanks to the muppet in the van who rolled into me last year - needless to say he is still disputing things so it's not settled yet, and so has to be considered with me at fault. I have had a look at a couple of comparisons though and can knock best part of £200 off the quoted renewal by changing providers, so I have already cancelled the autorenew and will sort out the new policy tonight ready for the middle of next month.
- next week's task is home insurance - I'm hopeful I can make a saving there compared to last year as well, but I don't want to get the quote yet as we are still a little bit off the optimum 21 day period for cheapest quotes...
- MrEH sorted the shopping but didn't make a meal plan - so this week's food is a bit hit and miss. We had couscous with veg and halloumi on Monday, last night I managed to knock together a stir fry, and this evening I've got salmon defrosting ready for creamy salmon pesto pasta. Tomorrow is currently undecided, and Friday will be some form of takeaway in honour of my birthday (tomorrow).
- I took advantage of Pr1me Day plus a discount off any "fashion" order to order myself a new pair of trainers (5ketcher5 memory foam ones) which fit really nicely and so those are a bit of a win. MrEH also bought the DVD player we had agreed we were getting for the living room, so we can now watch films in there as well as in the front room which is handy. I understand that he also got a decent Pr1me Day discount on my birthday present too!
- I have also ordered a new set of rechargeable batteries for my airband scanner as it was chomping through standard ones at RIAT and I had to borrow a set of rechargeables which definitely lasted better. The set I have bought are colour coded so I will be able to make sure they stay in their sets which should improve their lifespan too. A set of 10 for £18 so not too bad, and will come from my airshow account.
- water bill has arrived and our DD is dropping by another £2 a month - we suspect it might go back up again next time as they will then have a full year's worth of use for us and if we ever get a proper summer we'll use more on garden watering than we have so far. For now though I will take the win!

Plans:
- I've got tomorrow off as I said - I don't much like working on my birthday and particularly now I suspect it might all get a bit grim, so as I had the spare time, I am making use of it.
- My planned gentle weekend has all gone to pot a bit - I am at Duxford on Friday for one of their "Flying days" - meeting some pals there too and it should be a fun day.
- We're off on Saturday for a 2 day meeting in relation to our voluntary role which will also mean an overnight stay. There will be beers and food out on the Saturday evening, but we'll want to get ourselves something sorted for lunch both days I think, we'll probably take something with us for Saturday but have to buy on Sunday. The meeting is planned to finish at around 2pm on the sunday so we shouldn't be too late home.
- Lord knows when I am going to get shopping sorted!

Picked two small courgettes and our first cucumber last night. Tommies are setting well but lots more staking and supporting is needed, oh, and some sun to encourage them to actually start going red! the second lot of pak choi has mostly been eaten - MrEH said that the slugs have been positively rampant! He also needs to sort out getting the seed from the first lot which bolted and then I may get some more sewn into the other bed as there will be space then. The chilli (Hungarian Black) has masses of beautiful flowers but doesn't appear to be setting to fruit as yet which is annoying. Bindweed and creeping cinquefoil are still doing their thing - I pulled out another couple of handfuls yesterday...!