bargains?

today matthew and i 'saved' £76. one of our favourite glass shops Jo Downes had a 70% off sale, and for once there was no 'up to' in tiny weeny letters on the sign. even better this reduction was on everything (except mirrors but it did say that in reasonably large letters, they were 20% off), so we bought a soap and moisturiser holder (see picture) for the Moulton Brown products that we bought in Bath, another sale 'bargain', and some other bits and pieces that either we will use or that will be finding their way as various Christmas and Birthday presents over the coming months. in all we purchased 8 items for less than the full price cost of the soap holder - not bad.

this almost beats the amazing £300 that we saved at the Swindon outlet centre back in May, there we had to spend £150 to save the £300. actually mathematically it probably does beat that shopping trip, it's just that the numbers are more impressive on the Swindon trip.

but the question is - how much of this sale stuff is actually a bargain. do you really need it? will you use it? all questions to be considered. in Marks and Spencers amongst the debris of their women's sale clothes one woman did comment that what seemed like a bargain in the shop wasn't always a bargain by the time it got home.

if you notice the time of this post - yes it really is stupid o'clock - i can't sleep, and having done so well on my 'bargains' earlier in the day, i feel it is now time to surf the net looking for more - but don't tell matthew!

another surgery update

the latest innovation in our surgery is a self service check-in, if there is a queue at the reception desk, you can go to a screen and enter your date of birth. it then recognises you, confirms your appointment, tells you that you have checked in and to wait until you are called.


in some ways this is a bonus as it saves hanging around in the queue behind someone with a tedious query on their prescription, but is it the start of a slippery slope? how long until there are no reception staff? and if you follow that train of thought, how long until the doctor is a screen - though to a point nhs direct is already doing that.

absence

i see this phrase a lot on blogs...
'sorry for not posting recently, i will try and do better', or a variation and it looks as if i am now posting it myself!

excuses:-
2 weeks away on holiday - rather expensive but very nice
new job is taking a bit of time to get my head around
i'm tired
i can't always think of something amusing to say!

so i have a few posts up my sleeve and will add them on when time permits. in the meantime i hope you haven't missed me too much!

the drugs don't work

i'm getting very tired at the moment. i suppose you could say that the drugs aren't working - yet. although i've started on a new immunosuppressant it takes two to three months to fully work, which makes sense as that was how long it took for me to get really ill when i came off the last lot of immunosuppressants in december. also, in an attempt to build up tolerance, i started on a lower dose and increased it the other week.
combined with the drug taking, i am also rather busy. both at work and socially. last weekend was the royal cornwall show which matthew was heavily involved in and i went along for the friday afternoon and saturday. all great fun but also very tiring. the last two weeks i have also had some evening commtitments for work, which do make a very long day. although i take the time back, it isn't always immediate.
this tiredness has also led to a slight increase in the pleuritic pain that i am still experiencing and i struggle with hills and long flights of stairs. as was highlighted at a meeting on monday night where i parked at the bottom of the valley and had to walk up a flight of stairs to the house near the top. i arrived very breathless, much to the shock of the host! fortunately it didn't take too long to recover.
so all in all i am tired.
fortunately i'm off on holiday!! at long last, it seemed like ages ago that we booked the time off, but it is nearly upon us. we will be spending the first week in bath, and have booked some time at the new bath spa - i am so looking forward to it. only two days to go...

house for sale

this attractive property in ongar, essex is for sale. a bargain at £185, 950. for further details here

the good life

matthew and i have been undertaking some gardening recently. we are not quite tom and barbara in the good life, but we now have some veg growing. in the past i have been known to grow a few veggies in pots and when epping forest district council gave us all wheelie bins i took the opportunity to convert my old dustbin into a potato bin. however the last two summers have both involved moving house, so there was no veg growing.

back in april i sowed some seeds - tomato, beans and carrots. we also planted some potatoes in the bin, i did protest that it was a bit early, but my friendly live-in farmer told me that they were already planting them in the fields! my friendly live-in farmer then refused to let the seeds germinate in the house as the compost was manure based and would therefore smell, so they had to make do with the garage. the carrots were the first to sprout, eventually followed by the tomatoes. the beans however refused point blank to show any sign of growth. then disaster overtook the carrot seedlings as they proceeded to die off one by one.


last week i visited my local country store, aka cornwall farmers, bought some bean plants and grow bags and then had an evening of potting up. we had also in the meantime acquire a pepper and a chilli plant.


so now we have two pots of beans, seven tomato plants (half cherry toms and half normal toms), a chilli plant, a pepper plant, a dustbin of potatoes and 1 carrot. yep. 1 carrot! maybe i should plant some more seedlings, but i am not sure that they would fare much better next time around. the strawberry plants that i already had have survived the winter and are already flowering and setting strawberries, so for a garden that has no flowerbed we are doing quite well. we are experimenting with a new watering system seen at a friends house, using wine bottles - will let you know how that goes, but since installing them it has done nothing but rain!


i am reasonably confident that we will be eating some of this in the next couple of months and if you live in cornwall you may even get to taste some yourself! the next hurdle the plants will have to survive is our two week holiday starting next weekend... i will of course keep you updated.

England Car Flags

why?!?