Lucky Girl
17 June 2008
One of my old friends (sorry for the old) from nurse training days is now back home in Cork, Ireland, so we maintain contact mostly by email. In her latest email she tells me her daughter has been fortunate enough to win a competition with the prize being 4 days in Vienna. Of course it’s not just any old trip to Vienna, it’s a trip to walk out with one of the Euro 2008 semi final teams! Lucky, lucky girl! I hope she enjoys it; I’m sure she will. We shall be cheering her on in the absence of any of the home teams actually playing! Good Luck!
Meanwhile, her mum, my friend, is still in the nursing field, whereas I have given up. She has just been brave enough to set up her own company, along with a friend, supplying home care in Ireland. It is surprisingly called East Cork Home Care! The company takes off soon with the paperwork in place and it’s down to them to recruit nurses and care staff and find some new clients. It’s a big move and a brave one considering she has a job to contend with at the moment too! Again, good luck. I’m positive this will do well for them.
It looks like the summer break may not be a good time to set sail from Holyhead to pay a visit. I may find myself roped in to do a bit of home care! Doesn’t stop me looking for places to stay though!
Bargains too good to miss…
13 June 2008
Our kitchen taps are just plain old bog standard taps and are not just a tad ugly, but are a real nuisance and not very practical. The cold tap can’t be switched on when the hot has run for too long. I imagine the heat causes it to expand and so we have to wait until it’s cooled or use almighty force to shift it! The taps are impossible to switch on with messy hands; you know when you’ve been making pastry and you need to wash your hands and the only way is to turn the tap with your pastry covered hand. I had seen a new merchant, Tap Centre and had seen some taps there that I liked. Luckily I didn’t buy them because today I’ve seen a new discount code for 5% off everything, so I have had to order them! I’ve ordered these taps, which are just what we need and there’s free delivery too (make sure you choose the free delivery option at the checkout)!
My next bargain that I saw today was from Marks and Spencer. They are offering 3 for 2 on school wear. With two boys I tend to hand down shirts and trousers as much as I can, but the once-white shirts are now looking a little grey and some even have various coloured paints on them thanks to the art lessons. I’ve been looking at getting some new shirts, so with this offer on it seems like a good time to buy!
Plants at great prices
12 June 2008
If like me you enjoy your garden, but are a bit of a novice then buying plants can get quite costly. Last year I finally got a round to putting plants in our garden. You can see before and after pictures to see how hard I worked! Unfortunately I have suffered, or more correctly the plants have suffered, from boys and a dog, so I have spent a fair bit on plants that ultimately did not survive.
Recently I have bought plants from Gardening Direct and Blooming Direct, which have been excellent value for 
money. Today I received these hosta and having planted some last year I know will survive the dog and the boys as well as providing some luscious green leaves in the borders. Last week I took delivery of these chocolate cosmos on the recommendation of the Gardening Direct site. They are said to have a chocolatey fragrance hence the name! Mine have been planted, but as yet have not got to the flowering stage so I can’t comment on how strong the fragrance is. I have to confess that seeing them out there unprotected I am not so confident that they will measure up to being battered by a football, but I can but hope.
I was a little wary of ordering plants on line and I have considered it in the past, but the plants arrive well packaged and in excellent condition. The hostas are tiny in comparison to the potted hosta I bought previously from garden centres, but if like me you enjoy watching your garden grow and develop then they are ideal. I can spend many an hour marvelling at the various plants as they start to grow in the spring and their flowers appear. Anyway, as I have said some of my planting has been killed due to my lack of gardening knowledge and the plants from the on line sites are much less expensive. Even if you’re a more experienced gardener I’d say that it’s still well worth giving them a go.
Finally to update the progress and success of my other plants; the laurels (Prunus laurocerasus ‘Rotundifolia’) pictured here last year are now twice the size and have taken many many hits from footballs and are surviving beautifully. The pyracanthea is growing slowly and the various clematis have flowered or are about to flower and are proving to be quite sturdy. Sadly the conifers didn’t withstand the dog and had to be replaced with some skimmia, which seem not to be affected by the dog urine. Despite being battered by some rain whilst we were away the Ceanothus is also doing well and looks beautiful with its mass of blue flowers. All in all I’m seeing the garden beginning to take shape after just one year. The pictures I have remind me just how much it has come on and is a pleasure to be in now.
We have a new Barbecue!
11 June 2008
Finally after saying last year that we needed a new barbecue we finally bought a new one yesterday. Taking recommendations from other gas bbq owners we opted for one ourselves having previously had charcoal ones. We bought on like this form B & Q and on Monday I set about putting it together! Jim was busy working (or so he said) and left me pretty much to it apart from giving me his precious screw driver and pliers to borrow.
Putting it together took me a good 3 hours with a few minor mistakes ie screwing things the wrong way round thanks to difficult to interpret instructions! The physical aspect of putting it together was easy. I needed help to put the top on, but otherwise could manage. It was the pictures and usual ambiguous instructions that had me scratching my head from time to time, but nothing too taxing that a bit of good luck or trial and error couldn’t sort out.
I did ask Jim to check the connecting of the switches as I feared that a wire in the wrong place may be disastrous, but I needn’t have worried; the instructions were clear on that bit and I’d got it right! Once everything was OK’d and the gas connected I had to try it out. It was meant to be an early fathers day present for Jim and an accompaniment to one of his birthday presents; a barbecue set like this one, but of course it was me who had to have a go first! Lighting the grill is simple. No waiting for charcoal to set alight and waiting for it burn. It was a quick 5 minute wait before we were ready to go. The food cooked as it did on the old charcoal barbie and tasted just as good. The heating rack at the back kept everything warm until we were ready to eat. I don’t know why we didn’t get on last year!
To help protect our barbecue we bought a barbecue cover.
Bank Charges and a Happy Ending
11 March 2008
A couple of weeks ago I made a very silly mistake of not transferring funds between bank accounts. This resulted in me having a red face because the cheque to our plumber ‘bounced’ and I had the privilege of having t tell him, but also I was whacked with a charge of £25.
I had simply forgotten to transfer the funds until the night before when in bed. I logged on first thing the following morning to find the cheque had been presented and I was massively overdrawn on that account. I immediately transferred the money, but later in the day the cheque was back in the account unpaid. I have never had this happen before and was horrified. The plumber who thankfully knows us well was OK about the situation and told me not to worry. Read more
