bookmark_borderWe can haz electricitics?*

We can!!

Lessons learned, if you know someone in the ‘trade’, ask them for a recommendation. Not only have the guys done a bang up job, clearing up after themselves in the process, they were HALF the price we got quoted for a job that would’ve taken twice as long?

When we told Danny, our newest bestest electrician friend, about the other quote he was gobsmacked both at the price and the length of time quoted.

If you are in the South Lanarkshire area, I’d recommend you steer clear of “First Call Electrical Services” and Mark Rodger.

And if you need an electrician I’ll happily pass on the number of our newest bestest electrician friend.

So, step one in getting the kitchen finished is complete. Just waiting on the delivery of a new worktop and then rescheduling the fitters. Another week perhaps??

Anyway, to celebrate saving a fair wodge of cash on the job, we’re off out for dinner with our friends Ian and Susan. Ian is our “friend in the trade” (and his Mum comments here on occasion, Hi Moyra!) so this is a big THANK YOU for helping us de-stress a little and hopefully lowering my blood pressure… ohh I’ve not told you that news have I… 176/116 is bad, apparently so I’m being healthy now. It sucks. More on that, later (but not tomorrow as we are car boot sale-ing and have to be up at 4am to get a pitch!!! Mental!).

Must dash, we’re going out in an hou… ummm.. 40 minutes!!

* In case anyone is wondering (surely by now EVERYONE has heard of them?) the wording of the title is a tribute to Lolcats.

bookmark_borderSpurring myself on

Between the World Cup, Wimbledon and my re-found interest in Football Manager (the game), not to mention to site designs and the ever present gardening requirements, I find myself going through phases of intense effort then flip-flopping into complete and utter apathy. It’s most odd.

One minute I’m completing long overdue tasks, the next I’m slumped in front of the telly and wondering why I don’t spend more of my time relaxing. I get bored pretty easily though, so I guess that’s part of it.

Now whilst this means I’m getting a lot of stuff done, it also means that I get slightly impatient about things. Take, for example, the jogging club I mentioned on Monday. Turns out it’s part of the Jog Scotland scheme, and the next round of classes start on the 12th of July.

That’s two weeks away. Two weeks. I’m hoping I still have the desire to go and do it by then.

In saying that, from looking on their website, and particularly after talking to Bonny who runs the North Lanarkshire club I’ll be joining (not sure why my council in South Lanarkshire doesn’t have a club yet, but I’d imagine it would use Strathclyde Park as the venue anyway, so it makes no difference to me), I figure that I’ll probably slot into the second level of Beginner classes. The first level is “for the real couch potatoes, the main aim is to get them, after several weeks, to a point they can jog for ten minutes”. I’m pretty sure I can do that already, but I won’t make presumptions until I get there.

I’m going to hold off purchasing new trainers as it sounds like the opening weeks won’t be too intense, although I do get a 10% voucher off New Balance trainers when I join the scheme so that’ll help (current budgets are solely focussed on home improvements – a leaky front door – and general things like… eating.. and so on).

Of course what I should be doing is using the two weeks to lose a little more weight, and get some walking/jogging in beforehand. Give myself a good starting point. In other words I should be looking for the positives.

Problem is that this weekend we’re out for a curry and beer with some friends on Friday night, and then a BBQ on Saturday, more beer and food, and then a day trip to Haggerston on Sunday which will no doubt feature a chippy somewhere – I mean you can’t have a day out without stopping off at a chippy, it’s the law!

Oh well, the diet can start on Monday.

bookmark_borderBig Blue Bin

So we arrived home last night to find a large blue ‘wheelie’ bin in our driveway. We now have two wheelie bins, one black, one blue and not a bruise between them..

All this means that South Lanarkshire council has finally decided to go ahead with it’s recycling plans. About time.

We were spoiled when we lived in Aylesbury as the local council there were pretty hot on recycling; distributing two ‘shopping basket’ style containers to every home allowing you to sort your cans and plastics easily, and providing a separate external bin for each type (plus one for general waste).

Things seemed to have progressed though, as our Big Blue Bin takes cardboard, newspapers, magazines, plastics, cans and tins. We even got a nice little calendar showing how the pickup schedule will be altered (black one week, blue the next).

Admittedly it’ll take us a while to get back into the habit of recycling this amount. Previously we did paper/cardboard and glass but the plastics (the worst of all) I’m ashamed to say got ‘binned’ as there was no local repository for them.

Of course this means that our little galley style kitchen needs to make room for another tub somewhere as temporary storage for Big Blue Bin items. Or we could move.

Although having listened to the prices some people are paying at the moment for houses that’s not really an option. We deliberately bought ‘smaller’ and decided on only twice my salary for the mortgage. I’ve recently heard of someone getting an extra 45% over the valuation price for a house. Now I’m not sure how that works but I’ll be damned if I’m going to get myself into that position.

Of course I’m lucky. I’m not that bothered where I live as long as it’s quiet and Louise is with me. I understand people wanting to live in the city though, and sometimes yearn for the hustle and bustle and ‘involvement’ that it seems to offer. But after a crap day at work, it’s really good to come home to a quiet cul-de-sac, lock the door and shut out the world.