Needs Must, Splashing the Air Con Cash

 With global warming showing it's teeth in the hot spell this week, we felt we had made a wise decision in agreeing a few weeks ago to splash the savings cash on a mobile air con unit.  After careful consideration, and not quite having the right place to install a fixed one, we had chosen this one from B & Q...

It looks a bit ungainly perched on a stool but it does the job of keeping one room cool and inviting.  It appears to be costing around 25p  per hour to run and it will need to be on for quite a long time in the extreme heat.  We'll just have to suck up the cost as it will probably only be used for a few weeks in the summer.  The unit is heavy to lift but is on wheels so, once on the ground, can be moved easily and put in the corner of the big bedroom until the next time it's needed.  There is also a fan function when air con isn't needed.  The water container inside will need to be emptied about every 3 days.  Hopefully, not too messily!  We have ordinary fans for both bedrooms, neither of which make much difference at the moment. Extreme heat makes both of us feel ill.  I think Sue from My Quiet Life In Suffolk has it nailed with her use of ice packs and cold flannels!

How are you keeping cool?

In the early hours of this morning there was a little rain and distant thunder, and the forecast is for cooling temperatures over the next week.  Thank goodness, because we've had enough sun already 

 thank you very much 😊 

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Thanks for popping in.  Do stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

Challenge Shopping, Menus and HEAT!

 We had run out of a few things by Monday so we had to make the effort to go into town to run a few errands and do a top-up shop.  

Gray's shopping was simple; a loaf 75p and some salmon fillets at £4.50.   He used his £5.00 Nectar points plus 25p cash on the actual 'shopping' and paid for the coffee himself as a treat......

My shopping was a bit more of what was needed plus a treat of some ice cream as the weather is so unbearably hot at the moment.  I bought the usual staples of eggs, milk, cheese, two ready meals (for the microwave), some cooked chicken slices for sandwiches, and two pizza bases which I will add toppings to myself.  The apple pie is a lazy purchase but at £2.15 and no oven needed, it will make easy desserts with a drizzle of cream or scoop of ice cream.  Two bananas, two baking size potatoes, and a yellow pepper , plus a TV guide......

The total was £29.96 so I used my  £10.00 Nectar points plus £19.96 from the remainder of the food budget........

As you can see below, we still have a bit of cash left for a weekend top-up if needed.  With it being so hot we aren't that hungry so the salad stuff left in the fridge is being used up nicely.

Menu so far:

Monday: Beef stew from freezer (fish fingers for me)

Tuesday: Tinned salmon & mixed salad

Wednesday:  Ready meals (cod in parsley sauce, mash, peas)

Thursday: Home topped pizza with more salad from allotment & fridge

Friday: Salmon fillet with new potatoes and veg

 Saturday: Baked potatoes with cheese and (yet more!) salad

Gray: £5.00  nil

Ange: £12.33  £2.33

Cash: £2.65  £2.40

Left in Budget: £35.00 £15.04

Not an exciting post but it's all I can come up with at the moment 😋My brain is too hot to think straight !

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I hope you are all well and coping with the UK heat.

Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

Testing Myself.... and a Bit of a Challenge...

 When we were at the library last week, Gray decided to go on the computer and try the online Theory Driving Test to see if he was still in touch with current signage etc   He was shocked to fail the test.  The available points are 50 and a score of 43 or more is a pass.  He scored 34 😟and so failed the test.  I decided to have a go too.  I scored 43 so actually passed the test but hardly with flying colours 😏 I passed my driving test when I was 18.

We need to gen-up I think.

Has anyone else tried the test recently?

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Because  I haven't felt 100% lately, I've taken my eye off the food budget again.  I was quite shocked to discover that we have spent £200 of the monthly £235 budget already this month and we have a week still to go 😨

I think we need to utilise the Nectar points as well as the 'change jar' and try to last the rest of the month on that.  I know that Gray has £5 in points and I have £10 in useable points ( £12.33 in total) and once I have spent my £10, I might actually accrue the 17 points required to make up another £2.50 if you see what I mean?

So for now:

Gray: £5.00

Ange: £12.33

Cash: £2.65

Left in Budget: £35.00

Let's see how well we can eat for what we have left for the month.

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Thanks for popping in.  Do stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

The Weather...and Edible Things....

 What changeable weather we are having at the moment.  We have been alternating between rain, wind and sunshine and no two days have been the same.  Today (Saturday) was forecast to be a 'heatwave' but it's a lovely, dry, comfortable day after a few hours of light rain during the night.  It's warm rather than hot which suits me fine.  This morning was the coffee morning get-together at the allotment at noon.  We met a lot of new plot holders, mostly young people ie 40 or younger! as the older members are slowly having to give up when the work involved becomes too much.  It's a bit of a struggle for us sometimes; my back is still tender, my knee gives way on a regular basis and Gray seems to be getting stiffer in the joints by the day.  Hey-ho we'll carry on as long as possible 😁

We picked more broad beans (which are coming to an end now), the first few sugar snap peas, some spring onions, delicious Elsanta strawberries, and some Sweetpeas for the table outside (there are too many insects in them for the house 😱).....

Although they are Autumn fruiting plants, I spotted our very first raspberries.  They were delicious! Too good to leave for the birds! 

I also had a little furtle around in the tub of potatoes and pulled out enough for tea tonight.  The tub will be emptied of the little Rocket potatoes next week, but we also have a second tub which we will leave for a while longer to get a bit bigger before we harvest them.

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I've still been feeling a little 'off' ' over the last couple of weeks, hence no blog posts...my apologies....as my back is delicate and my tongue still stinging each day, despite all my efforts to eat 'safe' food and avoid spice, alcohol, coffee etc   I'm due more blood tests at the end of the month to see if my cholesterol is down and vitamin levels are up.  Let's see how many hoops I have to jump through to get the tests done.  Gray has had a troublesome cough for months and requested an X-ray when the Advanced Nurse Practitioner suggested:

a) Thyroid problems (test says no)

b) hayfever / asthma (no)

c) didn't know what else it could be!

Gray asked for a GP and was told that the ANP was 'very good' and could do anything a GP can do 😦  With respect.....then why is she not a GP?

The x-ray was performed over 2 weeks ago and still no results.....

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The good news is that I have been able to sit and craft for short periods of time and we dropped another batch of cards off at the shop last Thursday.  The total this year is now 266 which makes me bang on target for 500 by the end of the year.  When I took them in there was just ONE left in the basket which makes me very, very happy to continue 😊

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It's Father's Day tomorrow and our Daughter has invited us to a BBQ at lunchtime.  I'm really looking forward to it.  And the forecast is for warm, dry weather.  Yippee! No cooking!  If our Grandson and his girlfriend are there we will play cards too...Chase The Ace...always great fun!

If you are in the UK are you celebrating Father's Day? 

Thanks for popping in.  Stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

Gobbledegook...what the....???

 

In the middle of May I moved our energy fix, which was coming to an end, to a new fixed tariff, still with the same company, British Gas.  Since then things have been... shall we say.... less than a smooth transition 😡 The App refuses to update on anything other than the increased Direct Debit and I've had no statement since 19th April.  Last Thursday I rang the customer care line, explained the situation and the lady checked it out.  She was unable to tell why I hadn't had a statement as one had been produced, as usual on 19th May.  A week later this is the reply I received today.......

Dear Angela,

Thank you for your patience.

I have been advised that the reason your bill is not currently available is due to a missing flow (the process of transferring physical energy between different technical or natural systems). This has occurred since you applied for your new tariff, PeakSave Super Sunday Jun27 v3.

Please don’t worry, as I have raised this with our internal team to investigate and resolve. As soon as I receive an update or once this has been fixed, I will let you know.

Thank you again for your understanding.

Kind regards,
Aimee
British Gas 

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Does anyone actually understand this?  Am I being thick? Or is this just British Gas blinding me with science? Does this simply mean my smart meter no longer works?

For goodness sake.......🙈

HELP!

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Thanks for popping in.  Do stay safe and well wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗

First Fruit Harvest !

 Well...in all honesty it's hardly a harvest, just 6 strawberries from the garden 😁

which were delicious shared with a scoop of vanilla ice cream 😋

At the allotment we have 2 gooseberry bushes which were groaning with fruit last week, so Gray went to pick them yesterday.  This is the sum total of the 'harvest'.....

Yep....8....the flipping birds beat us to it again.  And, to add insult to injury, the 8 that we do have are not even ripe.  It's a good job we are not overly keen on gooseberries!

In the greenhouse, the tomato plants, cucumber and pepper plants are doing well, we are still picking lettuce leaves too.

I'm hoping for some broad beans from the allotment very soon as they are beginning to fatten out now and we will soon need the bed for sweetcorn.  I'll keep you in the loop!

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Today, Tuesday, we are giving the library a miss.  My books are still not in, and we have £2 Silvers cinema tickets to see Elvis in concert.  Our £2 ticket includes a coffee and biscuit, and we'll take sandwiches with us. My back is a little easier today so I'm looking forward to it 😊

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That's all for today.  Take care of yourselves,

Angie 💗

It's Too Darn Hot! Purple is the Colour....

 It's been so blooming hot over the last few days that we haven't felt like going out at all. Any temperature over about 23 C melts us 🫠 and, at times, it's been 28 C in the house despite having closed the windows and blinds,  and putting the fan on 😱

Sleeping has been problematic too with the heat lingering well into the night.  As we have a bungalow we can't leave windows open at night so, as soon as it's light, I throw the bedroom window wide open to let in the cool morning air.  Bliss !

Last night I was still awake at midnight and saw the flash of lightning but heard no thunder.  It gradually came closer, noisier and then the few drops of rain turned into a torrent.  I opened the window and let the cool air in whilst I stood watching the storm.  It was so refreshing and it's certainly refreshed the garden as well as us!

The weather is set to cool down next week and give us a little respite, thank goodness.

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I love ❤️ poppies so last year at the allotment I sprinkled the seeds from a couple of self sown poppies along the side of the shed.  When we went to water on Tuesday we saw these.....

They are absolutely massive and are a beautiful colour, I think.  And there are lots of them!!

Bloom where you are sown, I say 😉

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Each Tuesday we are still visiting the library in the morning before the heat builds up and researching the family tree.....

There's nothing exciting found so far but I do enjoy the change of scene, a comfy chair and a

 drink whilst Gray carries on at the computer........

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That's all for now folks.  My back is playing up again and I can't sit comfortably (nor walk for that matter 😕) until the pain eases off.  It came on suddenly yesterday (no idea what I had done to deserve it) and the pain was another reason I couldn't sleep last night.

Hey, ho....such is life...time for more painkillers.

Thanks for popping in and stay safe wherever you happen to be,

Angie 💗