You can only spend it once

 

I have had my Hospital appt. and my nose has been signed off as non-malignant.  Phew.  Keep using the Factor 50 though.  Then it was post a letter time - one to my penpal in Holland.  I last wrote at Christmas and the price has gone up another £1 since then - £3.20 now.  I wrote on a card with a couple of pages extra, but that's the cheapest I could have sent it anyway.  We may have to email each other in future, though we don't correspond that often.

Then down the street to the Health Food Shop and I got a bag of Dove's Farm Organic Wholemeal Rye bread flour as I fancy making the Maslin Bread that Sue (My Quiet Life in Suffolk) mentioned on her blog about the Flour Mill.  Tasty and high fibre.  Cheaper there (£2.29) than at Tesco (£2.40).  

I stuck to my short shopping list as I did a big shop last week and most of the fish etc is still in the freezer waiting for me to be home/have an appetite again. I shall do a Salmon Kedgeree with one of the pieces of wild salmon I bought then.  I remembered Oat Cakes - which Keith loved - so got some Nairn's, one Cheese and one Superseeded.  High fibre.   I got Strawberries to eat at breakfast, and will try some Kefir yoghurt (Aldi) a little at a time to get my gut used to it.  Since my hospital stay, I have cut right back on sugar, virtually no Alcohol either (1 1/2 glasses over two nights) and no Diet Coke.  I have no sugar urges now so I am hoping that the high-strength antibiotics I was on in hospital have killed the bad gut bacteria.  I did buy minced beef (diddy tray of 5% fat) and will make that into a Cottage Pie, using half and half mash with spuds and sweet potatoes.  I can freeze that in portions then.

L. Whale was on the sofa before I left and I thought I would have a tiny trim of that bad nail again - snipped it and the whole big "rogue" nail fell off.  It had split on one side, and that had been digging into his paw too.  Underneath was a perfectly normal short new nail.  I am glad about that. They are due worming/flea treatment so I can spend what it would have cost for his nail appt. on that instead.

This afternoon I have to collect my new spectacle frames after breaking the old ones (arm came off - because I pull them off right-handed).  I will have the old lenses put in the new frames.  £36.  From the weekend money again.

I resisted the temptation of any magazines, treats etc, although I did allow a packet of Wheat Crunchies into my basket for the occasional nibble.  Although I earned some money at the weekend, that will pay for much of my middle week in NZ, and as my header said, you can only spend it once and I need to spend it wisely.  Oh, ahem, non-edible treats - I had a special 1/2 price offer on two of the Audible books by S J Parris (£3.99 each), and did take those as I had enjoyed the others so much.  I did try Borrowbox but it didn't have the old authors I wanted to listen too.  I listened to Voyager to and from Llandod - I intend to get all the Outlander books to listen to.  I think I am going to spend £4.99 on renting The Salt Path on Prime, since I was prepared to spend nearly double that seeing it in the cinema.  So that's £12 from my takings going on entertainment.

Yesterday, whilst resting up, I finally got to see all of A Passage to India (saw bits of it one Christmas, but think I was probably cooking the meal whilst it was on.)  I thought the ending a little weak/contrived, but it was enjoyable all the same.  India is so colourful - I'd love to go there - but too hot for me, and I would get upset about animals in poor condition, and beggars who have been deliberately maimed to attract more sympathy and money that way . . .  What a career choice . . . that or starve.

This morning, l made soup for my lunches this week, using home grown tomatoes, then onion, leek, grated sweet potato (I'm not mad on it in chunks), carrots, lots of cabbage, tomato puree and a sprinkling of Garam Masala stirred in before re-heating.  I pureed it and it is lovely and tasty. When you consider a single tin of boughten soup is about £2 these days, this cost a fraction of that to make - and enough for the week too.  Enjoyed with a slice of the Norfolk loaf from the Bakery in town, but back to baking my own again now.  I will say, it is a struggle to have to give up anything strongly curried, apart from now and again.  I don't really enjoy granola with the Greek yoghurt, which is so thick, even when I have lots of fruit with it. (I don't like milk so don't have that with cereal).  I have always had beef mince as a staple, in all sorts of ways - chicken or turkey mince don't have the same oomph.  I like all rices, so not bothered by changing from white L-G, and have usually had wholemeal/granary bread.  I occasionally have a sliced loaf when T & R are here, but it's usually the granary sort.  A small white crusty cob is twice the size of a wholemeal loaf, and I did enjoy white crusty cobs . . .  Ah well.  I need to keep my gut healthy.

Right, this won't do.  Down the road to the Opticians now. . . Back, and better off than I thought I would be as the new frames didn't fit the old lenses, so she had to take an arm off the new ones to repair the old frames, and that cost only £15 and not the £36 for the entire frame (I can't afford fancy-pants frames, so have to go for the budget end of the market).