Milann’s mutterings through retirement

milann

That is so true Sun Addict……and I do like a Christmas card.
The man is here today putting an electric charger in for the car. True to form it’s thrown a problem up. Something to do with water bonding 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️ might as well be a foreign language when Dh tried to explain it to me. Anyway we need an electrician out and can’t use the charger until it’s been given the go ahead. Dh isn’t a happy chappy 🥴
The man who is here could have done it but said they charge extortionate prices and a local sparky would be much cheaper. Just waiting for one to come round. 

joedenise

I've just bought a book of 8 2nd class stamps at a cost £6.80 so 85p for 2nd class - it's a rip off but needs must - I can't send deliver cards to Scotland and London so a stamp works out cheaper!  Like everyone else I'm only sending a few, most will be hand delivered!

RelievedSheff

I posted a parcel to Scotland yesterday. Nothing big and only weighed 5kg. £10.39!!

milann

Yes JD it is certainly cheaper than hand delivered. Would it have been cheaper to send by a different courier RS…..but it’s the ease of just nipping to the post office. I believe they collect now, although I’ve never tried it.
We had an electrician come and do what needed doing. £180 for half an hours work…..but it means we can get the guy back to finish installing the car charging stuff tomorrow. 

I’ve made some chutney this afternoon. I wasn’t going to bother this year but when I visited my brother a couple of weeks ago he asked if I was making it and said how much he likes it…..so I’ll take him a couple of jars next week. It is rather nice even though I say it myself 😁 It’s a Hairy Biker recipe with a little adjustment 👍 I can never stick to a recipe 😂😂

redofromstart

ooh, please share the chutney recipe.

milann

Here goes Redo…..
Makes approx 3 jars…i doubled the recipe and made 8 small jars. 
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
2 red onions
2 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons drained and chopped fresh or stem ginger in syrup
200g dried no soak apricots 
150 g dried figs
100 g raisins
150 g Demerara sugar 
150g white wine vinegar
1/4 nutmeg grated
1 stick cinnamon
salt pepper.

Heat oil and fry onions and garlic for 10 minutes over low heat. Add sugar and ginger and cook a further 5 minutes.
Chop apricots, figs Add everything to the pan and simmer approx 30 minutes. Stirring occasionally to stop burning
Put into sterilised jars 
The chutney needs using within a month.

Thanks to The Hairy Bikers from The 12 Days of Christmas cookbook for the recipe. I find I always need extra liquid. I now cut everything quite small as in previous years I expected it to fall when cooking….it didn’t. I use extra ginger and use the liquid form the jar and extra vinegar….I used apple cider rather than white wine vinegar as I had that in. I was short on apricots so made the weight up with dates and extra stem ginger in syrup. It recommends keeping a month in the fridge…..but I’ve only just finished using last years and it was fine and I’m still here to tell the tale 🥴👍
I use soft brown sugar left from making the Christmas cake rather than buying Demerara. Think that’s about it Redo.
I nipped to Morrisons earlier to buy apricots and figs. I’ve been spending £20 for 4 weeks to qualify for extra points. It doesn’t make me spend any more but spread my spends over 4 weeks. I bought my fruit for cakes on week 1, then a general shop, marzipan last week and icing this week…..I used to just buy it all together 😂😂😂 Anyway I’d done a quick tally in my head and it was circa £20….i asked the lady on the till not to total up if I was under £20 as I knew I was close, and I’d buy some sweets to take it over….it was absolutely dead on £20….couldn't have done that again 😂😂😂

redofromstart

Thank you - I can see that working very well.  The only thing I haven't got is the figs but will pick some up when I am out.  

They wanted me to spend something daft like £100  per week for £40 of points. Not a chance. 

milann

I only tend to spend small amounts in Morrisons…..it’s less than 5 minutes walk away. I tend to use either Asd@ or Ald! and just nip round there when i forget things. Hence my £20 a week for the extra points. They did put the total up to £30 for one of the promotions so I didn’t bother…it’s back at £20 again, sooooo…I will work it to my advantage when it’s such a low spend but not a chance if they put it up again. The shop has gone really run down though since it was taken over a couple years ago. The freezers always seem to be leaking water and so many of the fridge doors are covered in hardboard and don’t even get me going on the amount of rubbish around the shop. Not my favourite place to shop anymore, yet I remember being so excited when they built the shop. 

Dh has gone out for the evening so I’ll be having an early night 😁

milann

I didn’t go to SW last week or this week. I haven’t missed it and I’ve not even been thinking about it…….even though I’d paid for a 12 week plan. I think I’ve got a week left on it but I’ve decided to call it a day. I said I’d give it a year to get to target when I re joined in January. Well it hasn’t happened. I am trying to watch what I’m eating by having home cooked meals and cutting the UPF foods as much as I can. I’m not beating myself up about wasting so much cash on SW. I know it works because I’ve done it and lost weight with them….i might return one day but I’ve definitely decided to call time on it. I will try and keep myself active and eat healthily. But after years and years of trying hard I’m just going to take the pressure off myself. I’ve put my gym membership on hold until mid January as I’d hurt my arm doing aqua….i might just finish the few weeks left and go to the pool at the corner of my road. I’ll be able to get a leisure key pass which will enable me to go to the pool at my corner and the big pool in town. That’ll be £30 a month…..I’m currently spending over £20 on SW and £10 a month on the ‘extra’ package at the gym which includes use of towels. That’s not even including the £400 annual fee for my old gym. It won’t be as luxurious but I’m willing to give it a go and I can walk to the corner of the road even without my car 👍 
Think I’ve just convinced myself that’s the way forw😁👍

redofromstart

That makes sense to me if you are not gaining any value out of it. Isn't there a SW thread on old style too? 

I rejoined but I am finding a lot harder than I did 15 years ago. I've just done 24 painful minutes on the cross trainer to see if moving more helps.