Day out

I recently won 2 tickets to a craft fair at Stoner Park. (must enter more competitions)
So on Sunday we picked up eldest daughter and head off.The weather wasn't good Sunday morning but the weathermen promised an improvement.

I like this Craft fair you get a wide range of stalls selling items in all price ranges.Lots of free samples and a great chef who is great to watch and you get to try what hes cooked.
I watched 2 of his shows, Venison served with beetroot tartan served on sweet potato mash ,drizzled with a honey and balsamic dressing.DIVINE and it looked so easy.
Also savoury muffins and a parsley and sunflower seed pesto.Cant wait for him to email me the recipe sheet.We also tried peanut butter cookies with m&m.s and girdled pineapple with chili,balsamic vinegar and desiccated coconut who would have thought to put these items together (well i wouldn't)

We spent the rest of the afternoon sat on the grass listening to the live music with the added bonus of seeing the Vulcan bomber fly over,not a planned event we must of been on its flight path.

I only purchased a couple of items,some rapeseed oil and a dish for grating ,,ginger,garlic etc. A simple device but it actually works ,a lot easy than trying to get the bits out of my grater.

Milestones Museum, Basingstoke

DD(youngest)is on holiday in Zante so its just the 2 of us at home.
Yesterday OH and I decided because it was wet to go to a Victorian Museum in a nearby town.
Milestones is in a huge building and houses replica buildings.It was a thoroughly enjoyable few hours.

One of the pictures below shows a floor cleaner which i use in a customers house to polish her floors,she told me it was 55 years old and hers is still going strong.

we visited the sweet shop and got a weeks ration of sweets.about 2 oz i think.

If you are ever in this part of Hampshire i would highly recommend a visit.

Early start

Today we were up at 2 am  to drive our daughter and her friend to Luton Airport,They have jetted off to Zante for a week of fun and sun.Normally Gatwick is our chosen airport but they didn't have a choice.Travelling wise its the same distance took an hour and 10 mins going,1hr coming home.

Very tired now.

I have set up her phone so she can contact me when she wants and it uses her normal phone allowance.I had a text when she landed and a phone call once they had reached the hotel room.
Apparently it was horrendous,dirty,damp,no balcony,no window and virtually no light in the bathroom.
Now i know budget is budget but budget shouldn't be dirty.The pool had a layer of scum on it so couldn't be used.The rep apologised as soon as they were shown to room.
Me being me told them to talk to rep again at there end,i would see what i could do at my end.
1 phone call made and within an hour they had been moved to another hotel which although basic is a vast improvement and they are 2 happier girls.

Today i had a wine delivery...... 6 bottles for £4.99.and offer that i took advantage of on O2 priority moments.£40 off a box of wine,a box of wine which happened to be on offer for you guessed it £40( it has since gone up by £9) so postage was £4.99.

Today sees the arrival of at least 80000 people to my town,which i completely forgot about until i was caught in the traffic.Tesco was impossible to get in but I'm not complaining the festival brings alot of money to the town and doesn't cause too much trouble.

The picture above is outside of Tesco a dj playing in a car.

Qmee

If anybody wants to join Qmee to either earn money for themselves or for charity,
email me and i can forward you an invite to join.( you can only join by invitation)

my email address is
l.m.hart@btinternet.com

thats a lower case L at the start.

x

story time

Once upon a time there was little girl who always worked hard at school and always did well.
She took GCSE'S early and passed them and managed to achieve 16 GCSE'S only one of which was a grade C all the rest were A'S & B's.
Even though she has worked hard she has always lacked confidence,always thinks she is going to fail.
A levels for this young lady were difficult she was off school for months when she broke her ankle and didn't get much support from school resulting in missing a practical exam which couldn't be rescheduled until next school year.So the thought of picking up her exams results sent her into a blind panic as she was convinced she had failed.This conviction that she had failed made her change her mind on her future.University was ruled out and apprenticeships were applied for.Her cv is very impressive along with awards at work.She was called for an interview and said she couldn't  decide how she had come across.Well guess what she got it a years apprenticeship with an NVQ (2 a levels) at the end of it.

Today she did go for her results or rather i did.They were opened as i drove and then the tears came....
She had passed them.Geography and Phycology .I had every faith in her as i knew she had worked hard. If school hadn't of cancelled her last practical and said she had to do it during the next school year and just let her do it  we would be looking at 3 passes but we wont dwell on that.

So moral and end of this story is believe in yourself like i believe in you.

Jade you have made me and always have made me very proud.

xx

My Supermarket

I'm sure the majority of you here in the UK have at one time compared your shopping on My Supermarket.
If so did you know you can get cashback on a variety of items you buy,..

You can also download an app onto your smart phone,this is called my super list and is very easy to use.
Not only can you compare your shopping you can see what items are currently offering cashback.
for example at the moment you can buy Flora cuisine 500ml in Tesco.MSL is giving you 50% cashback on this item.
you purchase the item,upload your receipt and they state within 30 days( i normally find it goes in a lot quicker) they give you the discount into your paypal account,so your Flora would have cost 50p.
Other items currently listed are
Flora light 1kg  £2 in Tesco 50% cashback
Youngs chip shop fish in Bubbly batter 4 per back,this is showing on Ocado as £1.50 £2 in Asda
with 50% cashback ,so a bargain.
coke zero 2l bottle 100% cashback so free.....

There are many more items offering cashback,You have a monthly limit i think its £35.
Have a look and start saving
My supermarket

If you sign up use this code
GV-VLCTMIDTWD

you will get £10 off your first order and i also get £10

Great News

My blog is mainly an online diary where i can plot the ups and downs of my life,with the added bonus of interacting with loads of really nice people (that's you)

Well today i have had some terrific  news.My son has proposed to his partner and she has said yes.


They want the wedding to be next year ( so i better get my a*se into gear and loose some weight)

The Geek within

I have been reading lots on forums about the International space station being visible at different times this week in the night sky.So i looked up to see what time it would be visible where i live and yesterday it was

Wed Aug 7, 10:13 PM

6 min

51°

10 above SW

11 above E

So DD and i stood out the front to look for it and dead on 10.13 we spotted it,It appears to the naked eye to move fairly quickly.

so some facts

its roughly orbiting 205 miles above us.6 people are on it including 1 woman.it is the size and width of a football pitch

Tonight we can see it again and also the HTV4 as well as the ISS .So guess who will be stood outside again.I took a photo you can see what looks like a star.

Thu Aug 8, 9:26 PM

6 min

37°

10 above SW

10 above E Ispot the space station

I'm sure my Chickens would pull up a chair and eat with us if they had a chance,We were making the most of the dry weather on Saturday evening and eating in the garden,my in laws were eating with us and the chickens were hovering around their feet just in case they dropped something.

Yesterday much to my husbands disgust we cut,split and stacked the wood i have been collecting.We have now run out of space in our wood store and need to construct or better still OH bring home a storage unit from work(the kind of thing slabs and tiles are delivered on)

Tonight whilst the oven was on i decided to make date and oat recipe recently published on Frugal Queen's blog.Didn't have the stated amount of dates but used what i had and it looks like its worked ok,Its cooling as i type.

I really need to start emptying the contents of my freezer and cupboards as they are bursting,so I'm joining in on Austerity August and I'm going to endeavour to use up and sort out my cupboards.

Foodbanks

Like many of you in blogland i have been reading many articles on foodbanks and food poverty.
So after reading A girl called Jack's blog i decided to do my bit .
Frugal Queen posted on her blog a list of Asda stores that were participating in collecting for The Trussell Trust.Not one of them were near me.I searched to see where my nearest Trussell Trust foodbank was and even though one of them is due to open near me i got no response from the mobile number given for contact.
So i contacted Asda headoffice and asked why i couldn't donate at my local..
The lovely lady explained that it was down to the trust not having the facilities to service every area so the stores were chosen to be near a distribution point,understandable really....BUT i have been reliably informed that all Asda's are acting as a collection point for donations and then the food will be given to a local foodbank.So i popped along yesterday and purchased some items from me and from one of my customers who had wanted to do her bit after i told her what i was doing.(so 2 lots of items in picture)Customer services had been informed so it was nice and easy to pass my donation over.
Today I'm going to take along a few bits Ive sorted out from my cupboards.