Moving on

Cherryfudge

Thank you everyone! The journey went fine yesterday: DH collected his new medication on the way but is feeling well so hasn’t needed it. We drove through rain and low cloud: not something I’ve seen in months! And now, while England is apparently either having a heatwave or about to have one, it’s just pleasant sunny weather here.

We arrived late tea time and we don’t appear to have forgotten anything this time around. Despite the house where we’re staying being closed up and having thick stone walls, it’s all comfortable without the heating on. The garden’s got very overgrown but we’re leaving that for them: my sister says it will be good experience for her daughter (moving back soon) to ‘open up’ a house. That says a lot about their lives: I did try to explain to her that she and I are perhaps in the minority in that we’ve ‘opened up’ empty places a few times, though I think it’s common enough for people with second homes (they live most of the year abroad due to work, and we’ve both had the clearing of our parents’ house to attend to).

We popped down to the local supermarket yesterday evening for a few bits of cleaning stuff: there had been mice in the kitchen! All cleaned up now. It was funny because there was an empty pasta packet on a nearly-empty shelf with a neat hole and absolutely no pasta. Another bag had just been started - but how odd that they’d cleared out the C0op but barely touched T.sco.

Expenditure:
Parking £2
Fuel £33.67
Housekeeping: £16.61

Cherryfudge

I woke up quite early today but that gave me an opportunity to give the kitchen a further clean. It was a quiet morning but eventually we wandered into town to check out our usual
places. The larger charity shop obligingly had a couple of tops I liked and some nice books for the grandchildren, but the tiny charity shop was a bit busy and nothing caught my eye apart from some recipe books, which I didn’t get as they didn’t shout my name loudly enough.

There is a little deli which has bargainaceous fruit and veg: I was tempted but we stuck to what we felt was reasonable. The antique shops were superb: the sort of treasure caverns you used to get in England but which are hard to find now. I bought a couple of antique china cups, possibly mid-nineteenth century and only £2 each. No, I don’t know where I’m going to put them but they are lovely.

The hardware shop, which is usually another treasure trove, was playing loud music so we didn’t really look round. There wasn’t anything we actually needed so it wasn’t worth enduring the noise.

Talking of noise - I heard bagpipes! Now to make sense of this I need to explain that there’s a lot of difference between the acoustics of a densely packed shop with speakers overhead and the sound of live music in the open air. There was a pipe band and a ‘ride out’: lots of horses, beautifully turned out and clearly very proud of themselves, being ridden through the town. There was crowd watching but it all dispersed afterwards.

We got fish and chips for lunch then I fell asleep for a couple of hours. I guess that compensates for the early start. Afterwards we had a walk in the local countryside with great views and plenty of sheep. There were so many wild flowers along the path: Rosa rugosa and briar roses, purple and yellow vetches, buttercups, creeping toadflax, honeysuckle and others I didn’t know. 

My sister told me to help myself from the abundance of alpine strawberries in the garden so I will do that when the pollen levels drop!

We needed bread and milk so called into the supermarket again after tea. I found a small watermelon marked down to 86p and a tiny butternut squash with an obscure label that looked as if it said 15p - but it wouldn’t scan so the cashier said ‘I’ll give you that’ and added it to our paid items!

Expenditure: 
Clothing £5.20
Gifts £2
Hobbies £2
Phone data £8.50?
Housekeeping: £21.49 (fish, chips and mushies came to £12).

Cherryfudge

Another early waking, and couldn’t get back to sleep, despite car journeys. It will be good to be back in my own bed, though we’ve had a nice time here. 

It’s been expensive today, mostly due to city parking. We drove to Edinburgh and the car park DH had researched turned out to be full, and was also a multi-storey reached down a miniscule little lane that looked like the back alley for some old buildings. We actually had to back out as there wasn’t any turning space in front of the locked entrance! We found another (much more accessible) car park easily enough but it’s so expensive. Anyway we decided to park there and found our way to Princes Street.

We had a picnic in the park - beautiful sun - and went to the gallery shop for a card and paper for  our niece’s present. DH found a present for his uncle at the same time, then we spent some time looking at paintings.

I usually enjoy art but I was quite tired so after a while we went for coffee and spent over an hour trying to remember all the family’s birthdays. DH is very good at this so I now have notes back to the 1890s, not that the first two generations are around any more. I’m pleased that I now have nearly everyone in my diary!

We still had some time to fill so we walked up to the castle and I looked in a tourist shop where I was delighted to find (tourist tat) personalised bottle openers for our sons, son in law and my brother in law. Only one of them has the sort of name you would expect to find, so this was a nice surprise and will go towards Christmas stockings. There was even one with DH’s name on, but he declined.

We considered eating out but neither of us was really keen so we drove back to the house and made a tuna pasta. This evening we’ve had a local walk and I’ve picked lots of alpine strawberries from the garden with my sister’s permission. She’s also let me take some runners from the plants, so I’m hoping to grow my own.

I then had a text from my sister to say their daughter has been dropped off at the airport. It’s a big day: I think I found her flight just leaving and she will be in the air 8 hours before changing planes in Europe. It’s a journey they make annually but this is the first time she’s done it alone. I hope we can spend some time with her this summer.

Expenditure:
Gifts £19.96 + calendar, card and paper which I will have to look up.
Housekeeping ?
Parking £18.40
Phone data £12 (😬 - that’s £20+ over this weekend).

Cherryfudge

Safely back home, and isn't it hot! Scotland was a very pleasant temperature, the sort where a sleeveless top is perfect and you don't have to think about whether you are warm or cold. Then we had the air con on in the car while we travelled home, and got out into several degrees warmer. At first that was lovely but now it's too hot to go to bed. I have the windows open so there's a lovely whisp of cool air coming in.

Anyway, that's jumping ahead of myself. Last night I slept really well so I was on much better form today. DH's condition is playing up so he's started the new medication and says he felt better within hours. We had a walk into town in the morning to say goodbye to our favourite places: we further explored the wonderful deli and came out with not only really decently priced fruit and veg, but things like goji berries and a pesto herb mix.

The tiny charity shop was open and not so busy as on Saturday. I found a couple of tops I liked and some sheepskin gloves which should be wonderful in cold weather.

I'll have to add prices later as receipts are shoved in the back of my notebook and that bag hasn't been unpacked yet. I do remember that the gloves were only £1. I also spent a whole 50p on a replacement glasses case as the hinge has gone on the old one. Then I was good and threw the old one out!

We both looked in our preferred antique places again but didn't get anything. The hardware shop had turned down their radio so I went there for a replacement CO detector, then on to the supermarket. I remembered my phone this time so I used the app to get £1 off grocery shopping (C00p) and we made tuna sandwiches for lunch.

Apart from that it was all cleaning, packing and wrapping my niece's present. We had to ring my sister as locking the windows was beyond our joint capability, but that means we also know my niece has arrived safely in the UK and is with her grandparents. I've promised her she can visit us while she's around.

So it's been a nice break: the fridge is full of lovely fruit and veg and there's a lot of laundry to do either tomorrow or the day after. Dinner tonight was fishcakes from the freezer and Scottish raspberries for dessert. I've saved some seeds in the hope of growing my own. Later, I went out to L!dl to get my freebie fruit (blueberries) which runs out tomorrow. I also bought quite a lot of tins as the emergency cupboard needs them It's occurred to me to plan for very hot weather as well as cold weather, accident and illness.

Watty1

Good point about planning for hot weather. Never considered that.

Glad you had a lovely break.

Cherryfudge

Today has been about looking after the children. DH wasn't feeling 100% this morning so I took the early shift and he joined us at lunchtime. I didn't take them to the toddler group as I don't think the older one really enjoys it, though if it had been just the little one I'd have made more of an effort. I think we all enjoyed our day, though. I brought in a couple of second hand children's books and both of them turned out to be winners, so I'm very happy with those. In the afternoon we took the children to the swings, which seemed to wear them out, then both parents were delayed at work so I ended up starting to make tea for them.

DH has looked up his latest medication and it may take a couple of weeks to take full effect but he says he think he's feeling some improvement already.

We went to Sa1ns for some fish for dinner but it seems that when I successfully attached my N8ctar card to Arg8s, I also detached it from Sa1ns, so no bonuses till I've sorted that one out.

Finally, I remembered to check the temporary Pr1me membership and it had rolled over so I've cancelled and should soon get the £8.99 refund.

Expenditure:
Housekeeping £7.12

Cherryfudge

Here we are on Wednesday and I realised I didn't do a weekly plan last Sunday. Better late than never, here it is and it looks fairly simple:

Sunday - away
Monday - return home
Tuesday - childcare
Wednesday - admin for Sunday group. Evening group
Thursday - work
Friday - church cleaning, work
Saturday - nothing planned.

It's rained overnight here and is supposed to continue through the day but I've just done the laundry so I hope not! I'd also like to pot up some plants that are outgrowing their space and continue battling the ground elder.

Cherryfudge

Doing next term's rota took nearly all morning as there are offshoot tasks to do beforehand. Meanwhile it rained rather a lot: the water butt is full again and I've topped up next door's as well.

After lunch the rain stopped and I hung out the washing but the 2.30 slump hit and I decided it was no use trying to push through so I took myself to bed. I woke up at ten to five, very woozy and not having bought the ingredients for tea. We'd opted for chicken and chorizo pasta so I had to but chicken and sweetcorn - I've not bought chicken for a while and it's so expensive! Mind you, I try not to buy 'franken-chicken' so that limits my cheaper options. When I got home, DH had arrived but I was still far more sleepy than I can account for, so he cooked and it was very nice.

I was just about awake enough for my evening group and came round as the evening wore on, but I think I'm ready to sleep again now.

Expenditure:
Housekeeping £5.63

Cherryfudge

I've taken the morning off from toddler group but I still need to go down at some point to drop off documents for my DBS. I've no idea what to provide for proof of address: everything I can think of is either old or online. 

I'm working this evening and have a list of things I want to get done:

• refill birdfeeder
• hoover
• clean bathroom
• get sausage meat out of the freezer
• ironing
• put yesterday's laundry away
• do the handwashing laundry 
• tidy the hall
• plant up various things that need planting up or potting on
• Send photos to my sister
• Reattach N*ctar and S*ins accounts

I'm sure there will be more but I need to start somewhere so I'll feed the birds and they can eat while I get on with other things.

rtandon27

@Cherryfudge - In the past, I've downloaded an electronic copy of my tax bill & showed it on my phone screen & that was accepted as proof of address - might also work for you?

ETA - you may be able to bluetooth it to a printer if the PO has one - Ive done that in the past as well when our own printer was on the fritz!