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Having something to look forward to

The ancient Christians (in fact most religions) understood the benefits of Having something to look forward to. Be it heaven or the next public holiday or feast, they understood the need to celebrate life.

These days we call it Wellness, but that feeling that things are OK and can only get better is powerful, hope is everything.  Indeed, some forms of torture are based on breaking someones hope.

Hope can be intangible, as simple as one small step to make things better, to ease an area of suffering.  In medicine, it was given a name in drug trials: the placibo effect.

Of course, for many, where there is no life-impacting condition, contentment is seen as good enough.

But hope is a fire, a light in the dark.  Hope is a driver, an end goal, a life-raft to cling to amongst the dreary everyday…

That’s very philosophical!

I guess so…

What’s brought it about?

We’re on holiday, skiing in France and it’s the first time we’ve done this trip by train. Not the easiest journey but as 90% of 800 odd miles was powered by electricity, a relatively green one.

It was not plain sailing: our first train, and indeed the whole track, was closed due to a tree falling down. But we made use of an alternative route and as it was our time, we got to recover.

The international stations were amazing, pianos were available and talented passengers regaled us with music – some from memory.

Lyon station had a room with many wheelchairs, walking frames, and walking sticks to help those with mobility issues. On top of that, every staircase was mirrored with a ramp and lift. As we had wheeled cases, it made our lives so much easier. We live in a county town – the equivalent in Suffolk of Lyon, but the facilities in the SNCF stations meant the transfer times were not unentertaining.

Right at this moment, I am watching it snow. In fact, it’s a bit of a white out from our chalet’s window. We’re choosing not to ski today, having got a 5 days skiing out of a 6 day ski pass.

I’m cosy, sipping a fruit tea, trying to get my wayward glucose ranges back under control. And resting my achy breaky knee.

I had hoped it would be better by now. It hasn’t turned out that way, but I am skiing and the fresh snow tomorrow (once pisted) will be incredible.

Hope springs eternal…

The real cost of cutting your carbon footprint?

Yesterday, on our second train of the day, the TGV from Lyon to Lille, there was a proud poster which I could read while queuing for the loo: using this train is by far the best way to travel to reduce the impact on the environment.

Indeed, https://www.sncf-voyageurs.com states that France’s electric trains cost 3g of CO2 per km compared to 260g
of CO2 per km a flight would have cost us.

Which was why we let the train take the strain. Here’s what the cost was.

Going there.

We live in Ipswich – one of the best things about that from an ecological point of view is that the trains to London are all electric. So our first leg, Ipswich to London was planned on being electric down the East Anglian line from Norwich to Ipswich – a distance of 103km. First bill is 309g of
CO2. Plus the 3 miles the taxi took to Ipswich station = 141g.

Only it wasn’t. To be fair, I was gladdened by the taxi showing up and being electric – we should have been doing the whole journey as minimally impactful as possible. But we were scuppered at Ipswich, finding that all the trains had been cancelled due to a train taking out the powerlines and the power coupling on the train trying to pass underneath at the same time – thankfully no-one was hurt…

The advice was to travel to Cambridge then down to St Pancras – actually, great for us, as we were staying there over night. Thanks to delay, repay, more than cost effective. Only, those trains are not electrified: instead of 3g
of CO2 per km, we’re now costing 106g per km and travelling much further than 103km: 71km from Cambridge to Ipswich and then the distance from Cambridge to St Pancras, another 76km – so that CO2 cost is 15,582g (71+76 = 147km * 106) or 15.6kg!

Now a night in a hotel, and we can set off for the next 3 trains across France.

All electric to Lyon.

The Eurostar is electric to Lille, as was the TGV from Lille to Lyon. Going we had some long transfer times, but as we were taking it easy, that wasn’t an issue.

So, distance to Lille from St Pancras was 245km, so 735g Lille to Lyon is 556km, so that’s another 1,668g or 1.7kg of CO2.

We then swap to a diesel train to do the last leg, again a diesel train: so 106g per km doing 132km, so the charge is 13,992g or 14kg in terms of CO2.

So that ( 13,992 + 1,668 + 735 + 15,582 + 141)g from home to the alps. Not including the transfer bus (16km for 108g per km, so 1,728g), again diesel, from the station to our chalet, a grand total of 33,846g or 34kg of CO2. For a holiday.

But this was better than us taking the car across the channel to the same location and significantly better than taking the plane, which would have been 260g per km, at 760km that would have been a whopping 197,600g or nearly 200kg. Driving down would have been around 100kg.

What about the big cost: time? What did it cost you in terms of time?

So, including transfer times, we travelled from 5:30am Saturday morning to 19:30 local time – so 11hours.

And you did it all in one go coming back?

Yes, we did, but that is a different tale!


Granny stoppers

A granny stoppers is a device used on a public path that is intended to discourage “grannies” or the less physically able to progress with a route. It is widely used in the UK as a means of excluding people from what other people have deemed “unsuitable paths for them”.

They can be narrow stiles, which do not let wheelchair users ascend a path, or steps, or anything that makes this as awkward as possible. And they have been widely used over the past 50 years on our footpaths and national parks.

Thing is, it’s not just grannies who get discouraged – it’s people nearly in wheelchairs or prosthetics, people with pushchairs… Get outside is often cited as a brilliant means to lift your spirit, allow you to escape the everyday grind of living with a disability. Then such routes are built on purpose to be inaccessible.

There are campaigners doing their bit to change this – it is not about putting in concrete paving, but just removing the purpose built barriers – let people decide what is accessible to them.

Sounds good, I think. So what?

Well, all of life needs to be that. Having had antibiotics a few weeks ago, I finally decided I wasn’t kicking out a small bit of thrush it encouraged to grow and on my way to getting my insulin, asked for a treatment combo I know will kick it into touch.

The pharmacist refused to sell it to me – you need a referral to the doctor, it’s the law.

No, it’s not. You have made a decision that because I’m on insulin, I cannot possibly be controlling my diabetes and need permission from a pressed GP service – and possibly you think my GP is going to tell me what to do with my insulin doses.

Angry does not cover how humilitating this experience was for me. On one hand, my endocrinologist is telling me I’m not diabetic and a pharmacist is telling me I cannot have medication that a non-diabtic could by in similar circumstances.

Thing is, I know my value to that pharmacy – I can buy the canestern somewhere else. If I get such treatment again, my contribution to the profit line of that pharmacy will go with me.

So baby, it’s cold outside…

On paper, January looks like the end of winter, the days are getting longer, work is in full swing, all should be good.

The problem is, in the UK at least, the December pay check comes a week early and, for many, the next pay check is the last working day of the month… January’s will come on the 31st, which is a Friday. That means for many there are 42 days the money from December has to last.

Council tax – our land tax – is taken in January, but not in February or March, if you pay monthly. When we were paying the mortgage, we would put the “missed payments” off against the mortgage on those months as it was money we don’t use.

Gas and Electricity or Electricity usage is higher as the days are short and the nights are long and cold. I’m writing this while the peak of today has been -0.3°C (today’s max so far), the minimum has been -3.8°C. What’s amazing is that at -0.3°C, the heat pump doesn’t need to put the electric heater on during the day thanks to some solar heating benefits!

One of the surprising things we’ve seen with the heat pump is the formation of ice infront of the compressor fan. The heat exchanger rips the heat out of the air and exhausts cold air, freezing any moisture in front of that path…

A patch of Ice formed from the Heat Exchanger, pictured, seen to the left of the patch of ice on the driveway.
Ice formed from the Heat Exchanger.

If you sit and consider what’s happening, it’s obvious why this is the case, I just wasn’t expecting it to be so dramatic.

OK, so January is a tough month, money is low, so, just grin and bear it!

There are some great deals out there. We have been enjoying heavy discounts to lighten the mood on things like eating out and make the most of what we have left so far.

In the old days, when cash was king, I’d withdraw the money I was going to spend a month into my wallet and when it was running low, economise. These days, I do the same electronically – spending money in the joint account and savings taken early. If we need to dip into them, we can, but it is a clear decision maker – beware of dipping into overdrafts which can be costly.

Of course, the direct debit for the power means we should be fine for the duration of the month, the excess we pay in the summer is being drawn against – by the time we get to renewal, the balance should be a tenner or so positive and a low payment the next couple of months despite the higher costs. Even with the heat pump, the typical cost a day is between £5 and £13 excluding standing charge, compared to -£15 and -£10 when we’re feeding in during April.

Dry January is a big saver: alcohol is taxed quite heavily, so cutting out this expense is really beneficial to the bottom line.

We’re gently dieting, living off the weight put on over Christmas. It is a strategy that has worked for millenia.

The heating is not set at 21°C 24/7 but varies between 16°C and 19°C. Making use of temperature appreciation and warm clothes, just adding an overcoat to go out is really beneficial. A walk before tea means the house feels warm, as it is compared to outside.

I draw the curtains when it’s dark, providing an extra layer of insulation. Meals cooked in an oven are cooked with roast vegetables – making the most of the heat.

It sounds odd, but going to bed earlier means we don’t light unnecessarily. During the summer, we stay awake much longer, barely lighting the house for more than 2 hours – we don’t carry this to excess in the winter but a bed time of 21:30 to 22:00 means rest away from the telly and phone, using paper or e-paper which is easier on the eyes. Critically, only 6 hours of lighting big rooms and hallways. (I do appreciate lighting is a relatively cheap use of electrical units, LED bulbs being much more efficient but 0W is a saving over 3W for example – staying awake until midnight can mean 4 or 5 lights on at 3W for 8 hours, and that’s excluding the TV!).

Sustainably living within our means.

It’s been three months since my husband was made redundant. We were lucky, having already paid off our mortgage, he’s been able to use the money from the redundancy to just live and not pay off any debts.

We had no car loans, and no loss of a car package with his role. We have savings put asside to run our vehicles. Moving to the heat pump and disconnecting the gas meant that redundancy payment is not being asked to do much.

Life is cheap. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a shock or that we didn’t take that deep breadth and question everything. Do we need that? Does that make our lives significantly better or safer?

We still shop in the supermarket we used to. We had already moved to making much of our food from scratch – this is so much cheaper than buying ready meals. We do not throw much away at all. We buy food that’s in season.

We walk into town as much as possible, rather than take a vehicle. It gets exercise in as well as saving money on fuel or electricity, tyres, and parking. It’s often quicker too. I’ve been reusing carrier bags since 1992 when our local Sainsbury’s gave you a penny off your shop for every bag you reused.

We’re saving money each month at the moment, to the point where we can take a holiday and get coffee in town when we go in, or a restaurant meal once a month.

And my beloved it’s searching for a new job. It is tough out there, for anyone else out there doing the same thing, good luck for your search.

Water usage or how to make use of your water bill.

My rental properties were all on rated water bills: this is where a guess is made on water usage based on the number of people living in a property. So, this was a little frustrating at the time, but when I bought a house, this was one of the things I really wanted and got each time.

One of my good friends thought this was insane: why would anyone want that?

I live in the UK, but my grandfather had been based in the middle east for some of his working life and he was keen to instill that water wasn’t a right but a priviledge. I am careful about my usage and fixing any leaks or drips as soon as possible. I havested water for outdoor use, showered to keep clean, and made use of short and eco programmes to save power and water.

To be honest, a water meter seemed like a good way of being rewarded for this behaviour. I have never thought about it more than that. A one bed flat in Bath was rated at £240 a year. My five bed house outside of Ipswich with two adults and a baby was water metered at £180 a year. No brainer!

Until just recently, I never gave it a second thought. 60% of the houses in the UK now have a water meter and that includes all the new builds. On average, people with water meters use less than 82% of the water than those in rated buildings, over the total time in a property. As the population in the UK is growing, water demands and meeting them is not going to be a “someone else will solve this” type of problem.

Conceptually, water demand figures are given in litres, while your water bill is in m3. So, let’s have a look at our family’s usage:

DateReading
(m3)
Read?Billed Amount (£)
11/11/2022623Yes
29/01/2023651No
53.86
10/05/2023687Yes73.13
30/07/2023715No61.53
10/11/2023753Yes
82.87
28/01/2024781No61.35
09/05/2024821Yes89.63
11/08/2024856No82.85
21/11/2024883Yes66.90

OKKKKK…

I’m trying to work out “our usage”. Now, using the actual reading fro the 11th November 2022 until the 10th November 2023, we used 130m3 which is 130,000 litres. The time period is 364 days, so 130,000/364 litres/day or 357 litres a day. At the time, there were three of us in the house, so 357/3 = 119 litres a day per person.

We were not “being careful” at this time. We were having 3 – 6 baths a week, between the three of us, for example, daily showers often on the same days as the baths… But the UK is trying to reduce the usage per person from the average of 146 litres per day per person to 120 litres.

Oh, well, you’re OK then! Especially on a wet little island.

Well, let’s look at basic usage around the house. There’s always room for improvement!

TaskWhat’s using water?Quantity (l)
Flushing toiletHalf flush3
Flushing toilet Full flush6
Bath (p shaped)75% full179
Washing up75% full 68
Using dishwasherEco wash14
Washing machine
Cotton wash70
Washing machine
Eco cotton wash50
Washing machine
Quick wash36
Shower5 minute wash40
Washing a vehicleCar – mix of bucket and hose100
Washing a vehicleMotorbike – mix of bucket and hose20

There are options, if we want to reduce our water usage…

Choosing devices with half-loads makes a big difference – I miss our half-load washing machine and dishwasher!

The effort being worth the squeeze.

I make around 180 decisions a day to keep healthy. Even using my “hybrid-loop”, I cannot leave it to just keep things ticking over because they tend to run me high and that causes me physical pain, or over corrects when I dip low mid-afternoon..

Quality of life is a key aspect most people don’t have to question: if I do x, the consquences are y – pschylogically that may cause issues, but very few decisions cause physical pain.

My condition does not forgive that easily, more so now than when I was younger – my body has figured the way to get what it needs, and that’s by shouting very loud. It shouts loudest at the edges of normal range, muting as things get further out.

Run higher than it hurts, then?

No, thanks, that leads to other issues! Including long term pain from neuropathy. So, I would rather have a little pain to avoid that. More than 80% of the time, my body is is normal range, actually most of the time it’s above 90%.

At 51, life is not pain-free, but compared to many diabetics my age, my duration, I am in amazing shape, sitting by a warm fire in a beautiful house I own – I earnt the money that paid for this sanctuary. I have no debts.

Christmas lights are glittering, baubles and tinsel are reflecting against a window. The sun has nearly set on another day. I am watching junk TV – a bit of a stomach bug has caused diarrehea, nausea, anorexia, and dizziness, means I am laying a little low. A bit annoying when I’m back at work on Monday from my lovely Christmas break, but that’s life.

Most things heal, you adapt while that’s happening. As I get older, some things won’t be that easy and patience will need to be developed. Not always the easiest thing to do.

I’m taking it easy today but that doesn’t mean lying down. Just gentle activities and I’m looking forward to cooking tea tonight. Something simple, light and tasty. Not too much mess to clean up. It’s my turn to cook the Sunday roast tomorrow and I am looking forward to spending some time with my beloved on a skiing holiday in the near future – every time I think of that it makes me smile, although it’s always a little scary. I am nervous about injuring myself.

Going off topic, again! Is the juice worth the squeeze, please?

Yeah, it really is. The day to day is hard, but having a small bug actually makes me realise just how healthy I am, day to day, so to speak…

A luxury Christmas costs less if you do it yourself.

December is one of “those months”. I am aware of families who take months to recover from the increased costs incurred, but actually, much of the fun a delivered for very little.

Presents.

A small something to unwrap is lovely, but when you get to be an adult, it’s just stuff. Lending a hand in the kitchen for the feast is worth any number of fancy presents!

A beautifully packaged chocolate or cake, especially if made by the gifter really is worth much more…

Children don’t need many gifts – even the stocking can be kept simple for little ones, tasty fruit, gift wrapped traditional sweets are thoughtful but not expensive. Saving a few pounds a month for a single larger gift is really appreciated. Children just love the family getting together and playing games.

Commercialisation of Christmas has made it a multimillion pound gift-fest. The important thing is being together and having a good time, gifts cannot give you that.

Food.

For the past six months, I had been buying odd things ready for the Christmas feast. Frozen veg, materials for the stuffing, wine, potatoes, gravy, for example, can all be got before the big day.

Our food bill over December was larger by £30 – which is £6 a month put away.

I cook most things from scratch. Vegetables are all plain and frozen by us. This can save a good £30 on the meal.

The majority of the vegetables are served plain. The turkey is served with sauces and stuffings, so nothing else needs to be done that way. I cheated this year and roasted most of the side dishes, only the leeks, a few sprouts (for bubble and squeak) and peas were boiled, so we had water for the gravy at the end of the cooking process.

For four people, you only need two baby cauliflower – it’s a side dish not the main course. Two of the people had that baked with cheese sauce. Cool, but again, residual heat from the turkey not a separate oven.

The big cost for us was the turkey. Shop around. A well cooked turkey, with time to rest, can come in at significantly cheaper.

I do not buy any meals for the next week. It’s left over city. The turkey died. I am not about to put anything to waste if I can help it! The previous post shows what can be achieved.

OK, OK, so what did it cost you?

I am going to exclude the things we already had or were gifted – our guests brought the wine, for example. £160 in total or £40 a head. The turkey itself was £72 of that. We had turkey (4.95kg) cooked in bacon, pigs in blankets, chestnut and sausage meat stuffing, peas, leaks, cauliflower (half as cauliflower cheese), sprouts roasted with bacon and chestnuts, roast potatoes, broccoli, carrots, cougettes, bread sauce, some plain boiled sprouts, cranberry sauce, redcurrent with ruby port sauce, and gravy.

And a christmas pudding, brandy butter (home made), whipped cream.

You’re living in cloud cuckoo land, that’s a fortune!

Agreed, it’s a huge amount of money.

But if I’d bought the stuffings and precooked vegetables, pre-made sauces, it would have been another £30-40 on top and with less opportunities for left-overs. If I’d shopped around for the turkey, ones the same size could have been got for significantly less (Aldi does one the same size for £16) (which would bring my total down to £104 or £26 per head). To be fair, I could have spent more on the turkey…

Even before the big day, we made a difference. The honey roasted ham was less than a fiver (the same price as a chicken), and we fed 9 meals out of it – a “prepped” honey roast ham from Waitrose is £12.50 and for significantly less meat. Our ham was cooked with locally sourced honey, £0.80 a jar of Suffolk Honey bought four years ago.

That’s not counting the communial spirit, either. We all helped on Christmas day and when cooking the ham; everyone, under the age of 70, cooking one thing.

Which meant we were all in the kitchen, so the rest of the house didn’t need much heating.

Not everything went smoothly – the cauliflower cheese was a reach and a little undercooked. Which was a shame because I could have done just two caulis and it would have been perfection.

So, there’s always an ancedote given for free! Same time, same place, next year…

The six days of Christmas

Last year, I saw an interesting take on the 12 days of Christmas being overhauled against the inevitable left-overs following the feasting period.  The is my version of that excellent piece of work.

Really, that’s where you’re going with this, excellent?

Not excellent, obviously. But it is my version… and we’re not aiming for 12 days of left-overs, just the six.

Half a turkey is better than half a...
Half a turkey is better than half a…

The assumption is you have half the turkey left (around 2.5kg) , and a ham roasted the weekend before Christmas – my family used to have the ham Christmas Eve’s evening, but this gives you some wiggle room in eating many big meals in the space of two days… We’re not feeding guests, but obviously, having more people over gets through the remainder of the food much faster.

You’ll have vegetable dishes and stuffings left too. Here’s our response to not getting bored.

Day 1 (aka Boxing Day or St Stephen’s):

Meal 1 – bubble and squeak.

Bubble and squeak
Bubble and squeak

Today served with fried patties made from the stuffings. Delicious with the added bonus that if you don’t mash the left-overs, there is very little washing up! Remember to remove the broccoli – it really dominates the stir fry and you are looking for sprout heaven.

Meal 2 – Remainder of the stuffings.

Eaten cold, delicious, though being bread based, seriously high in carbohydrate. Sorry, no photo available.

and

Meal 2 – Last bit of cauliflower cheese.

3 minutes in the microwave gives one of you a treat.

The aim is to let your stretched stomach return to its normal size. No picture available.

Day 2:

Meal 1 – Home made ham sandwich.

Easy living – an electric slicer means the bread is the same thickness as the ham, butter on one slice of bread, french mustard on the other, one of my favourite meals in the whole world.

A home made ham and bread sandwich.
A home made ham and bread sandwich.

The ham was originally cooked the weekend before Christmas, placed whole in a glass container with a sealable lid and stowed at 0°C stops anything going green or dull. We’ll finish off the remainder of this meat later today.

Meal 2 – Home made vol au vents.

“Vol au vents” means “flying in the wind” in its original French? Puff pastry and a rich sauce with a flavour added with the meat. My mum did these on the day after boxing day. For vegetarians, a few left over vegetables can be used instead with a little garlic and/or onion.

Ham and Turkey vol au vents.
Ham and Turkey vol au vents.

A bit more effort but the microwave is your friend for making the roux. Make a simple roux, then toss in cold turkey and ham, chopped into strips or diced. When using the ham, bear in mind you won’t need to salt the roux, but lashings of black or white pepper really makes this pop.

Make your life significantly easier with premade puff pastry, or store bought blocks or rolls. Happy for you to make the puff from scratch, just start the task just after lunch to be ready for tea at 18:00. The full recipe here: Vol au vents.

Day 3:

Meal 1 – turkey arrabiata.

White meat can be put into a Pasta Arrabiata. Spicy and a bit of a break with the traditional northen european fair. Sorry, no pictures.

Meal 2 – tucchino ad astra.

Bascially, a pollo ad astra but with pre-cooked turkey. Dark meat works well to give a twist. Baically do everything, accept skip the chicken in the oven for 15 minutes!

Tucchino ad astra cooking in oven.
Tucchino ad astra cooking in oven.

Day 4:

Meal 1 – turkey and broccoli stir fry.

Last bit of the turkey, dark meat works well here, and any ham, tossed with the broccoli you didn’t put into the bubble and squeak. I do this fried with onions, peppers, left over baby sweet corn, then add cooked basmati into the frying pan before serving. Sorry, no pictures.

Meal 2 – left over dough balls.

From yesterday’s pizza dough, served with home made garlic butter,

Day 5:

Meal 1 – a cheeky sandwich.

We had family over for lunch, so we did a home made french onion soup. A lovely break. For the evening, my beloved was working, so had a canteen meal (not turkey or ham).

Having baked a wholemeal loaf during the afternoon, a cranberry and white turkey meat sandwich served as my repast. The end is definitely in sight – I have carefully saved a lovely chuck of white meat… Sorry no pictures.

Day 6:

The final meal.

Even with modern fridges, the turkey is on its last legs, so to speak. Using the last of both types of meat, a meat pie is made with chicken stock. A few bones are left but I have to say, I did sling them as they did not look great.

Home made turkey pie.
Home made turkey pie.

For next year, I am going to take the bones and make stock in the microwave on Christmas day. It will make a lovely addition to the meat pie (though it might need to be frozen).

Looking forward to doing this all again next year. Happy 2025!

The power of Christmas

If, like us, you are putting off having food for as long as possible today, due to overeating yesterday: I don’t blame you.

But as I sit quietly with my family, I wondered how much energy did we use yesterday, catering for a large number of people and being in each other’s company all day? Not our calories or political energy but the draw on the national power grid…

It was a cold Christmas in the East of England. But almost all businesses and offices are closed. People come together, running their houses cooler, while spending time with the people cooking the feast. Yes, cooking a turkey or other roasts (even nut ones) takes power, but instead of people sitting in their houses individually cooking small meals on their ovens, they come together and a modern, insulated oven is amazing once up to temperature. We only used the hob for a couple of things.

We had family stay over, so water consumption was up, rooms that are normally not used for sleeping are drummed into use. Washing machines will be cycled for the extra laundry… But on the day, we mostly sat in the same rooms – a person in a room raises the temperature of a room by 1°C, so again, once a room is up to temperature, maintaining a cozy room is much easier.

The main dinner itself was mostly done in the warm oven. We roasted almost everything, reusing the warmth. I even did the plates on the microwave while I baked some cauliflower cheese. Cooking the roux for the cauliflower in the hob took seconds and very little power.

MWe are not alone in this, demand for power is typically 30% less than a typical day, though most of that power is used between 10:30 and 15:30 in the afternoon – a normal working day, the peak usage is between 16:00 and 20:00. In 2018, peak demand was 36.6MW at 13:30!

Of course, over the intervening six years, many things have changed. Electric and gas ovens coming off production lines thanks to the Energy Related Products legislation (aka ErP). This states the energy use per product and ovens are a major consumer in the kitchen. Ours has an energy efficiency rating A and B for the different ovens, mostly because the top oven doesn’t have a fan, so only gains a B rating…

Feeding the hoard, I used all three ovens – the Neff’s top and bottom and our Panasonic’s combination microwave. I did not preheat unnecessarily.

I also got things out of the fridge early. Vegetables in particular cook quicker if you are only raising the temperature from 19°C rather than 0°C – 4°C. Having accidentally bought a huge amount of sprouts, defrosting the sprouts to stop them going off meant that they only needed 5 minutes or so blanching to be really tasty.

Of course, we cooked too much food. When you have that many options, halve the quantities so everyone can have something but there isn’t took much left over.

In fact, we had the Christmas Pudding for tea at 18:00, which was cooked in the microwave (steam for an hour over boiling water or 90 seconds in the microwave, and stand for a minute before serving?).

So, how much did you use?

Oh, sorry, 36.6kWh, with only 0.8kWh of that coming from solar and the battery. At £0.24 per kWh, that’s Our average for that of kind of weather day is 45kWh, Sunday lunch cooking, etc.

Mostly due to people being in the same rooms.

We have four meals off the remainder of the turkey, only one for the stuffing and veggies (bubble and squeak for the veggies and we fry up the chestnut and sausage meat stuffing to go with it).

We keep prezzies to a minimum, so not much angst about waste.

Hope you have a green and happy new year.