Apologies

Good evening, friends - sorry I am not saying a lot today - I feel quite shattered!  An early night is on the cards and I hope to feel more lively in the morning.........

Voucher alert

I have checked the Aldi Facebook page and it has just been posted about an hour ago that there will be a £5 off a £45 spend voucher in the Daily Mirror & Record this week on Thursday.

They seem to be varying the amount we have to spend - I am sure last month's was off £40 but it has been off £45 a lot of the time.  

I don't think I will be taking up the offer this month, as we are pretty well stocked up, and I have a Tesco delivery coming in the morning.  When they offer you £15 off a £60 shop [which amounts to a 25% discount, surely] I don't mind spending £1 to have it delivered.  The diesel to go to the store would cost me more than that!

I do hope that the Aldi voucher info is of use to some people - I'll be looking out for it next month, I'm sure.

Brain ache

Yesterday I had to admit defeat and go to bed at 9.30pm which is quite early for me!  I had been on the phone for the requisite three hours, and hadn't had a bad day with the work on the first day - I made a few bookings, spoke to some people, got a lot of numbers not answered, and only had a couple of stroppy folk.......it was a relief to get to the end of the day, though.

This morning we are up early as the YFG is going on a school trip and has to be in school at 8am to catch the bus.  They are off to some science labs to see some Physics "stuff" and she is quite interested in science so I hope she has a good day.

That supermarket is in the headlines again today - half its market value wiped off the share price yesterday!  Quite a shock, really but this is the shape of things to come, I am afraid.

I'm off now, but shall endeavour to pop back later and read your blogs.  Hope you have a good day x

This week in the kitchen

I've been hard at work rummaging in the freezers and the fridge to see what needs using up.  I still have to work harder at not wasting food and getting to grips with only buying what the two of us will reasonably expect to eat.  The chickens have had to help me out with too-far-gone fruit this week, and some sweetcorn.  I will get there.  On the electricity front, I have successfully had our Direct Debit reduced from £70.50 a month to £50 a month, which is the lowest they say they can go on the tariff.  I shall monitor that and see how close it is to the usage, and then it may be time to switch tariff if that really is the case.  We have used as many as 18 units of electricity a day in the past, but this week just gone, our average was 10 units each day - which I think is pretty good going!

The menu for this week ahead looks like this:

Monday - Chicken/bacon/veg and sweet potato casserole [yes, we had this last week, but we both loved it and I still have two more sweet potatoes to use up, so we thought we'd enjoy it again!  We had it two nights in a row last week because we liked it so much, we didn't want to freeze the leftovers...]

Tuesday - Gym night for me so the YFG is going to do Baked potatoes again - we'll probably vary the fillings a bit, depending on what we can find in the fridge and what we fancy!  Tuna, perhaps?

Wednesday - A stir fry

Thursday - Busy day with piano lesson right before supper and I have to work for an hour as well, so the YFG will have lasagne from the freezer and I'll do something with a couple of sausages when I have finished work.

Friday - I'm going to cook some sticky chicken drumsticks during the day and chill them, then serve them cold with a quick stir fry when we get home from gymnastics.

Saturday - the YFG's favourite weekend supper - fish and chips and peas - all from the freezer.  I might get the river cobbler I didn't have last night.

Sunday - my birthday so my favourite - roast chicken.  Means we'll have several chicken dinners ahead to use it all up.

Peace, perfect peace

(image from internationaldayofpeace.org)

Today is International Day of Peace, commemorated each year, and recognised by the United Nations.

A day to pray for peace around the world.

A day to remember those who live in unsettled and violent times.

A day to be thankful for the peace we enjoy at home.

Amen.

[There is a website at http://internationaldayofpeace.org/ where you can check what events are going on near you.]

Patience and dedication

I think that those are two qualities I am going to be in need of with this new job so I shall begin tomorrow, after church, researching the brands of cars I have been assigned to look after - Mercedes and Skoda.

Apart from all of that, life continues apace, as usual!  This afternoon I have had a church ladies' group here for a couple of hours of chatting and hatching plans, which has been interesting and fun.  I have also done an online supermarket order from that place I am not that fond of, but when they send you an invitation to get £15 off when you spend £60, it seems churlish not to take advantage - the cat is now well stocked up for the next month or two, for example, and we have enough squash on order to float a small boat, but best to order stuff which has a long shelf life when you are planning ahead.

The EFG rang the house phone and found it engaged whilst I was talking to my dad, so she had a chat with the YFG on her mobile whilst I was busy, then I had to pay for the shopping, and put the tea on for the YFG and her friend, so I have just tried to ring her back and she isn't answering at the moment.  Hopefully I can catch her later - my dad reported that she rang him last night and had a wee blether about life.  I gather from this end of the conversation with the YFG that there might have been some demonstrations in Aberdeen today or last night about the result of the referendum - she did share last night that English students had been advised to keep a low profile last night. I hope that the emotions which have no doubt been stirred up soon settle down.

And then it went POP!

My brain, that is!

(image from reviveactive.com)

I have endured three hours of training on the phone and internet, and that included some role play - which was painful!  My brain hasn't been under this kind of pressure for ages - and it shows!!  I am trying to make myself a giant flowchart to stick on the wall near my desk for quick reference whilst I am on the phone making calls, so that I don't forget anything vital.  You may have to excuse me for a day or two whilst I get my head around all of this next week - I think the learning curve is going to be so steep I may need crampons!