Finding the chase and cutting to it

When my husband was made redundant in 2008, my wage was less than a third of what it is now and we had a mortgage. We had no gym membership, we had a relatively expensive house to run compared to our wages. But we adjusted and 9 weeks later, he had a job offer with […]

The temperature dropped this week in the UK, as the wind was coming directly down from the Artic. Today, it was 20°C, but on Thursday at the same time, the temperature outside was 13°C, with over night dropped to 4°C. That meant we got to see the heat pump properly in action. It worked really […]

If you have been following my blog for a while, you’ll be familiar with my love of automation. It is not necessarily a passion my immediate family shares, but working with them, we have a situation we can all see the benefit of and all have equal control. (If you are in such a position, […]

This week has been the first with the fully operational butcher’s block and much cooking has been done. From a tasty carrot and corriander soup, enjoyed on Tuesday evening after work and for lunch on Wednesday, to chocolate cookies. It has fulfilled its promise. Indeed, it’s almost too easy to cook from scratch. Since we […]

Frustrating. Given the layout of my kitchen, I have bought a butcher’s block to allow me to have my food mixer out all the time and have all the attachments at hand. I have stayed my hand a little since buying it 8 weeks ago. Why struggle, when nivana is close at hand. But when […]

Delayed gratification is all well and good, but it hard when you’ve waited 8 weeks for a butcher’s block to turn up and then have to oil it before use to avoid staining. It will be tomorrow morning at the earliest. Thank goodness it’s a 3 day weekend (note to self – do not work […]

Having got a decent bonus and no mortgage to shift, we have been buying furniture. We are living the good life! It’s also been BBQ season, with trips to see friends and have little company ourselves. Of course, when it is going so well, a little rain must fall and after 16 years with his […]

The reaction to our heat pump has been interesting. Many questions have been about how much more it is costing us? It’s not, actually, we’re saving about £3 a day on heating our water compared to the gas boiled at today’s prices. It’s summer, and for the past eight days, for 7kWh of energy we’ve […]

And I am not talking about slaying a Scottish King to seize the throne! We have had our heat pump going for three days! So, everyone should be thanking us for the more than clement weather we’ve been having. Little note to the manufacturer: in normal operation, it is perfectly reasonable to prevent the heating […]

We spotted our house in January 2013 on an estate agents web site. My husband was away, so I took our son over to have a look – he was anti-moving, but I was shattered with the commute and where we were based – anything we did needed the car or motorbike or a long […]