(image from hypermiler.com)
I feel like I have hardly been at home all day today! One of the downsides of living this rural kind of life is that most places are some distance away........the hospital, the piano lesson, the slimming club.....and we have done them all today!
I had to go to the doctor's surgery this morning to pick up the FH's prescriptions [2 miles] so I combined that with a quick call-in at the school, which is on the way.
At lunchtime, I then went to grab the YFG out of school and take her to the hospital for her last physio session [round trip of about 60 miles] so I called in at the supermarket for the cheese I forgot yesterday.
We hit home again at about 4.15pm, so I had time to chuck a stew in the oven for the FH, and then it was soon time to jump back in the car and head to the piano lesson [another 16 mile round trip] and whilst she was tinkling the ivories I nipped in at the library and picked up a stack of books.
Home again for an hour, during which I took the opportunity to catch up on a phone call that I hadn't returned yesterday from a friend, and then it was off to Slimming World with the EFG [that's 18 miles around the fields and over the border into Norfolk].
Finally, we are home and dry about 8.15pm and time to catch up with everyone all together!
I can't imagine living where we do without transport of our own, and we are really lucky to have cars to take us where we need to go. We don't waste fuel unnecessarily, though, and always try to combine trips where we can - although today is hardly a good example. I would never have taken one trip to the shop for cheese and then another to the library for books separately, and have learned to wait until I am heading out for several things to make trips worthwhile.
This month's big expense is going to be heating oil - another reality of living in the middle of nowhere is no town gas, so these houses were built with oil central heating. The mild winter we have just had has meant that the tank of oil we bought last September has lasted longer than usual - we would normally have refilled the tank about March, so we have stretched it out a bit more this year.
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2 comments:
You're doing well combining trips. It's now been 18 months since I had a car, despite no public transport here and the nearest anything being nearly 4 miles away, but I have the benefit of family all up and away, so only me to think of here. I think it could drive folks nutty if they weren't used to the lifestyle but I wouldn't swap it for anything else. :) Keep up the good work.
It is very frustrating that the North Sea Gas comes in at Bacton on the Norfolk coast- but so much of East Anglia does not have a gas supply. We need to refill the tank soon too!
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