Tag: shopping

out? again?

the downstairs network hub has been playing up – this is a pain, as there are two webcams, a Tivo, and an iMac hanging off it, and playing music (which is stored up here) was becoming a bit hit and miss. So off to Maplins this morning to buy a new 100Mbit 8 port switch (for £39.99, which is entirely ridiculous), and a few new ethernet cables.

then decided to nip up to the Mall, as I wanted some ribbon to decorate the festive cake, and John Lewis was the only place I could think off. Their ribbon selection was rubbish, so I shall have a rethink on cake decor.

however, I managed to buy a new handbag*, a long sleeved white t-shirt, four new shirts for perlmonger, a lime green woollen scarf which I think we will end up fighting over, and a couple of books – Robert Fisk’s The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East, and Kitty Kelley’s Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty, which should keep me in books over the festering season. Like my to-read pile wasn’t quite huge enough already.

I’ve almost finished John Pilger’s book on investigative journalism, which I must write up – it’s well worth reading.

Pete has finished putting up the twinkly lights on the dutch airer in the kitchen, so I’m off to bake a belated festive cake and have a glass of wine, before dealing with some rather fine tiger prawns that need cooking. Thai, I think.

have a nice evening, all.

*a Mebo one – 2nd from right on that page, but in a very dark brown. Lovely. I *do* like handbags.

phew

well, that’s the main food shop done – Sainsburys was remarkably unhorrible, and there wasn’t even a queue at the checkout.

all I have to do now, shops wise, is pick up the goose on Friday, and do a veg shop then. Oh, and pick up the wine from the off-licence. The freezers are stacked to the gunwhales, and I’m about to go and do some baking in a moment, while perlmonger puts the lights up.

and we now, officially, have three weeks off from customer-facing work, although I bet they’ve all forgotten that we’re on holiday.

I’m beginning to feel quite festive, in an odd sort of fashion …

skiving

next door had glazing people round today, replacing all their windows. We lasted till 12.15, and then went out for the afternoon – the noise was just too much.

did a round trip to Sainsburys (for petrol diesel, as we had a coupon, then to St Marks for veg’n’stuff, then down to Costco in Avonmouth for kabanos, chicken, and a load of other stuff that we didn’t really need … three books, the new Kate Bush CD, different cheeses, 2 dozen sausages, 4 duck breasts, and something ridiculous which I will photograph and blog later. Also got a bowl of white hyacinths for the living room table, and a really nice winter hanging basket for outside the front door, with ivies and pansies and stuff. Must. Remember. To. Water. It.

in other news, we pulled the rarely used Powerbook off the shelf last night to find that somecat had widdled on its power supply [sigh]. Have ordered new one from eBay, and must hope that the machine itself is not buggered – that’d be an interesting insurance claim, would it not?

and in some horrible gravitational accident, my absolutely favourite mug fell off its hook last night and broke – I’m quite upset about that. It was exactly the right size, shape and weight, and was entirely perfect in its design, bearing a line drawing of a cat, and the word “tea” in large letters. Ho hum. We swung round by the Kitchen Shop on our way home – because I *think* that’s where I got it, but of course they didn’t have any.

so I purchased a replacement with elephants on it [fx: does well known elephant impression], and of course, it being the Kitchen Shop, we had a wander round, and bought a corkscrew. Next door have a very impressive Screwpull machine, which perlmonger eyed up with some envy (I think it’s a bloke thing). However, when we priced said artefact in John Lewis it was *£87*, FFS – for a corkscrew?! But the Kitchen Shop, ghod bless them, had a version which seems equally good at £22. Anyone fancy a glass of wine?

now I must go and make meat loaf, and divide meat up for the freezer, and Other Stuff.

and tomorrow we must Do Some Work.

blimey

I quite like Orvis for odd bits of clothes. We went over to the Bath store a couple of weeks ago when kalunina was here, as there were a couple of things in their catalogue that I liked the look of.

they had a “fill this in to win a gift certificate” thing going, so I did.

and I’ve won a £500 gift voucher! I think that’s the first competition I’ve ever won *in my life*!

shopping

yesterday perlmonger, kalunina and self went to Bath. We decided to use the train, so obviously there were engineering werks, and we were transported by coach; so instead of the journey taking 12 minutes, it took 35-40. Still, it saved the hassle of trying to park, and so was worth it.

after half an hour, we split up – there’s only so much mother and daughter poor perlmonger can take when it involves credit cards. We had a good mooch around, and when we met up again, we were carrying bags from Russell & Bromley, Monsoon, Jones the Bootmaker, Marks and Spencer, and Next.

clearly I fancy a change of image, as I bought skirts(!) and fitted tops (!!) – all very odd. As an example, I bore home this skirt from Monsoon – it’s not at all the sort of thing I’d normally wear.

it has to go back, though – it’s the wrong size. It’s *TOO BIG*. Which is pretty amazing, because this time last year I couldn’t get into a Monsoon 18, and now it hangs off me. Well chuffed.

bookish goodness

popped into Waterstones yesterday to pick up the new Terry Pratchett, and emerged somewhat poorer … those three for two offers are very tempting.

my reading heap grows ever higher …

also picked up The Catnip Kit – the little darlings go crazy for the stuff, so I thought I’d have a bash at growing our own.
Continue reading “bookish goodness”

out and about

busy, busy – hurtling round Bristol and its environs:

  • first to Bedminster, to take three boxes of books, some PC games, and a binbag of clothes to the CPL charity shop; a worthy cause, and a visit long overdue. There may just be a chance the server box room may surface again soon
  • thence to Aldi; I love Aldi. We actually managed to spend £44, on diverse things like dishwasher tablets, jars of roast peppers, tinned fish, red wine, bikkits, pasta, etc. If you’re careful what you buy, they are terrific value.
  • next, into town, to visit Colsonall box office. Tip of the hat to flickgc, who gave me the heads up about the always fabulous Richard Thompson’s upcoming tour. We have seats in the middle of the second row of the stalls. W00t, and indeed rar!
  • from there, we travelled up to Gloucester Road, where I purchased 2 kg of belly pork in the organic butcher (you don’t seem to get this in stupormarkets, and I want it for cassoulet, and the rest can go it the freezer). We also did the greengrocery run up there, consumed an organic lamb burger with cheese from the barbecue outside the aforementioned butcher (always good), bought some of the gorgeous stem ginger in chocolate from the Scoopaway shop, and Pete got some squit mushroom paté innatube. Also got a new bin for the bathroom (hello dear – did you get the things we needed?).
  • then down to the farm shop at Chelvey to buy a sack of onions and a sack of red shallots, plus a hunk of Montgomery cheese for perlmonger, some scones, some Green and Black’s almond choccy [drool]

just sitting down now with a Nice Cup of Tea, before perlmonger wall mounts the 18″ flattie, to give Iggy back his desk space, and stop him thwipping everything off my desk in a temper, then doing battle with the Tivo / Freeview.

I shall be cooking stir fried duck with mushrooms tonight, and making a vat of spiced red cabbage to go with tomorrow’s meat loaf. I like weekends.