With the Band

Sorry I haven't posted for ages but I have been following you all.

Last Saturday night I achieve a bit of an ambition of working with a band, well in the very board sense.

My favourite band asked for volunteers to hand out leaflets at their gigs in return for free entry.  I dragged the OH along and for 1 hour of very easy work we were on the guest list (I did love saying that to the box office).  The gig was amazing.  I have seen them live lots before but not acoustic.  We were sat with other guests, but did have room to get up and dance!

Here is a couple of songs, the second one "Julie" brought a tear to my eye as I relate so much a couple of lines of the song.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIHEYcq1LHY

What Have I Been Up To..

Well the big news is we paid off half our mortgage – yippee.  With that done we have 7 years and 8 months left, however our aim is to have it paid off by the time I’m 45 which is 5 years and 8 months away so fingers crossed. 

Other news is we’ve booked a week in Spain in October.   We have rented a villa about 1 hours’ drive from Malaga – guess who’s driving – yep me!!  I don’t know Spain at all only being to Benidorm and Tenerife but my OH know the area well as his parents had a home there when he was young so I’m looking forward to seeing all the place’s he has told me about. 

We should have been getting ready to go to the festival this weekend but got an email last night saying due to weather conditions it has been cancelled.  It’s a shame as I don’t think we will get to see the same line-up again but understandable.  Unfortunately my OH had to use 3 days holiday which it’s too late to change so we ummed and ahhed about going away somewhere but as the weather is bad and to be honest we have so much to do in the house we are staying put.

I’ve had a few days off this week sick, I woke up on Wednesday with an awful headache and feeling sick but went to work however was brought home by my supervisor by 10am, just made it to the bathroom in time (sorry if you’re eating).  I’ve struggled to keep even water down but feeling better today.  I don’t know if it was a bug or a migraine but hope it doesn’t come back.

Money Update

Our savings are going well.  I’ve updated the tracker bars on here and have changed the amount we are wanting to have in each account.

For our emergency fund, I would like to have £3k in it.  Our boiler is very old and I know that if that goes that will be a big chunk of the money gone.  Also with the threat of redundancy I’d like to have something to fall back on if needed.  I’ve only been in my present job, on a permanently contract, for about 4 years so would only get 1 months’ salary.

The holiday fund has also increased.  We hope to go to Spain later this year and maybe have a weekend away somewhere.  Also we thinking about a “big” holiday next year so I’m starting to save towards that too.

We decided to use some of our savings to pay a large part of the mortgage.  This will reduce the amount we owe by half.  Any money we have left at the end of the month is being divide between savings towards home improvements and overpaying the mortgage.  We are hoping to have paid the mortgage off within another 6 years – fingers crossed.

A Day Off

Today I had a day off from work.  The plan was to go to a spa but that fell through so instead we had a day at home.  As I’ve said before we never get a day off together apart from holidays so we wanted to make the most of it.  I got lots of washing dried on the line and my OH cut the lawns while I dismantled one of the wardrobes in our bedroom.  It wasn’t too bad a job but we discovered that there had been some mould on the wall behind where it had been.  I think it had maybe been there as before we brought the house it had been empty for nearly a year.  I wiped it down but it needs to be cleaned properly before we decorate.  We put in Mum’s tallboy wardrobe (we’ve always called it that but it’s basically a small wardrobe with a couple of drawers at the bottom).  I had hoped to be able to fit all OH t-shirts in it but it’s not wide enough so I’ve stacked our towels and bed linen in the wardrobe bit.  I then put Mum’s single wardrobe.  It is a nice, art deco wooden one.  Eventually we will buy a white double wardrobe and this one will go into the spare room.

After all our hard work we went into town to see the Olympic Torch.  It was a great atmosphere and we got to see it.  I would have be able to show you a picture of it but a) I can’t find the cable to put photo’s on the pc and b) my OH excitedly nudge me to say “can you see it” and I got a great photo of my arm!

All in all a very productive day with a bit of fun too – I don’t how I find time to work!

Stretching a Curry

The other night I made chicken curry, cheated with a cheap jar of sauce but added onion, peppers, mushrooms, spinach, just things that needed eating up.  There was one portion left over which I was going to freeze but yesterday I added a bit of left over tomato juice, mango chutney, raita with a tin of chickpea and the rest of the spinach along with gravy granules, curry powder and water.  Now I have four portions to freeze for a few more pence.

I called in at the little “express” supermarket in our village just at the right time and got pizza for 93p, 2 packs of 5 chicken drum sticks for 37p each, a lettuce for 25p and 3 fish pies from their no additives range which should have been 3 for £5 but cost me £1.41.  I have frozen the chicken and 1 fish pie, my colleague and I had the pizza with lettuce and coleslaw (reduced from another store) for lunch.  Tonight we had fish pie and veg for our dinner. 

I'm going back to menu planning as it really works well for us, so the plan for this week is:

Menu Plan

Mon: Fish pie and veg

Tues: Jacket potato, tuna burgers and salad

Wed: Faggots, mash potato and veg (OH), spicy pork and rice – me

Thur: Faggots, mash potatoes and veg (OH only) I’m hitting the town!

Fri: Something fishy – got a few pieces in the freezer

The Magatha – Another Levellers fan J  I have seen them a few times before, even going on my own last year to small local gig they did, I just love them, especially live.  Thank you for following me xx

The Results are In

This week was the appointment with my consultant at the hospital to get the results of the x-ray and the scan  Both came back clearish, nothing much to worry about but my blood count is still up.  She explained that they might never find out what is wrong – very reassuring lol but gave me some iron tablets and an appointment in 2 months.  The good news that the other blood tests (liver, kidney, bone marrow etc) came back clear so at least I feel like I’ve had a bit of an MOT.

Mum, Mrs Thrifty, Thank you for your best wishes, they meant a lot.

Dannie –Luckily they managed to get me in earlier so I didn’t have too long without food J.  It’s not Leeds Festival, although seeing the Cure would be amazing.  It’s called Mfest at Harewood House.  The bands we really want to see are Levellers (me), Human League (OH), Texas – both of us, plus a few more.  Hopefully they won’t all be on at the same time!

CompostWoman - I have met Compost John a few years ago at a Ceilidh dance and won a jar of his dried fruit in the raffle :)

Happy Birthday

Today it was my Mum’s 82^nd birthday.  A mile stone, especially after last year.

I went to see her with a bunch of flowers and box of her favourite dark chocolates.  We chatted for a while then she adamantly said she wanted to go out to Helmsely.  She hasn’t been out since moving to the home and to be honest I’d been a bit worried about taking her but we had a great afternoon.  The home lent me a wheelchair, and off we went.  Luckily it didn’t rain so we just had a wander round the town then went for a cup of tea.

I had strict instructions to get her back to the home by 4.30pm as they had organised a birthday tea.  I really didn’t expect it but they had made her a cake, with candles and strawberries and everyone sang Happy Birthday.  It was fantastic and really brought a tear to my eye seeing how happy Mum is there and how lovely they are with all the residents.