What are you all up to
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Best of luck Helen, but good news about chemo.
Bakers, I know how your walls feel having had a first haircut in over 10 weeks this morning!
Glad you are making progress.Really interesting historical area around Tewkesbury Brue. Lovely photos. We enjoyed it when we spent some time at Malvern last year. Was it really only last year? Who stole the time?
Not much else going on apart from exercise, rest, sleep, repeat, at the moment.
Have physios, doctors and Renal appointments next week so won't get bored.
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The problem is, where can one swap to next?
We have been using Lidl for about 15 years, and Aldi for about 10 years, also used them when touring Europe, so I think we are a bit stuck with the rising prices now.
20 years back, when I was still working, we shopped quite a lot in M&S and Morrisons, even Waitrose occasionally, but Waitrose and M&S are now for the (very) occasional treat when they send us special offer/money off vouchers, and that is becoming very rare these days.
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Our little cat eventually emerged from under the chest of drawers when the fireworks had finished and then had lots of fuss and treats. She is sitting on OH's knee at the moment. There are a few fireworks tonight but it is very much quieter. I would think that the weather has put people off as there has been a lot of rain today.
Helen such good news that you don't have to have chemo. I do hope all goes well with your radiotherapy and that the journey isn't too arduous. Hopefully you will soon be able to get away in the caravan soon.
Bakers2 Gosh your house looks so much better now without all that foliage. It must be a great relief to get it all taken down.
I have been shopping in Aldi and occasionally Lidl for about 10 or 15 years now. I was obviously ahead of the curve
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Glad your young kitten is getting his cuddles etc MillieH, must be as scary as Hell hearing those Bangs n crackles with no rhyme nor reason
.Bakers2, just expanded your piccies and the 'workers' tool bag actually resembles a cat with an orange mask on { well it does to me !! } ~~ and Brian does NOT mean a covid19 mask either
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HelenandTrevor I hope the radiotherapy goes well and the traffic gods assist you in your journeys to and fro. I always think the journey on top of treatment always seems like adding insult to injury. But what can't cured etc, just ensure that you and yours take good care of you.
ABM I have to agree on the cat 😂.
Aiming to use my bus pass for the 1st time. Going into the city - just hope I've got the time for catching it right 🤞after all the changes and cutbacks, there are several sites, not at a bus stop 😬, offering timetables but they don't all agree, not easy to decide on the official stagecoach one, should there be such a thing! I'll go for the earlier time and wait, hopefully in the dry and its not too cold.
So, by our household, early start, breakfasting and a dog walk before I venture forth......
Enjoy your day folks
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Good luck with your bus travel B2, I've spent many a happy hour working out bus times at home and away. I love the companies who provide electronic names and times at the bus stops and also display stops on the bus. Maybe your journey will be with one of the better providers?! 🚍
Waiting for gas service this morning, food delivery this afternoon and craft group in between....
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B2
I usually use https://bustimes.org/ at least to get a general view of services. Having said that you are better off probably going to the operators web page for the most up to date information. If you have an Android smart phone you can use the map app to search for buses and they will give more or less real time info. If I know the operator, like Stagecoach, I have downloaded their app and again real time information. I am sure the same can be achieved with an iPhone but I am unfamiliar with them.
David
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We do use Lidl and Aldi occasionally. I’m pleased with the prices for fresh food and some meat but I haven’t found much that I really like to use more often. Not keen on their ham or cheese, or tins of stuff that I recognise but can’t pronounce!! To be honest, and we are not in anyway wealthy, but we don’t find M&S or Waitrose that expensive. Recently Waitrose’s ‘Lurpak’ spreadable equivalent was £2.90 and Lidl’s just a few pence less. We do often buy Waitrose Essentials range and it’s good, M&S Remarksable range is also good. Each of these shops has ranges that are regularly discounted, so we buy accordingly. They, and Sainsbury’s are are our go to shops still (I really dislike ASDA and Tesco), yes prices have increased a lot and so has our shopping cost but we can still manage.
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When OH was in hospital I was shown an app (by the much younger generation) for a smart phone that was for our bus services and it gave all the service and how they were running at that time even if there were cancellation or rescheduling
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Where Aldi/Lidl score well is on basics. We use a lot of Soya milk and its 59p in Aldi/Lidl and upto £1.50 elswhere.
Likewise, Sanex shower cream is over £2.00 and similar stuff in Aldi/Lidl 89p.
The big score for me though is less temptation for impulse buying of things we don't need, or which just makes us fat
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TimboC I totally agree about less temptation to buy things that we don't really need. I find most of the toiletries in Aldi very good and if there is anything they don't have I go to Wilkos - my other 'go to' shop. Usually much cheaper than Boots.
We had a busy week last week as not only did we pick up our little cat from the foster parent that the rescue centre had arranged our son and grand-daughter came over to stay from N. Ireland (their half term). We had a lovely day in London (the first time I have been since before the pandemic) and visited the V&A as our grand-daughter wanted to visit a fashion exhibition and son wanted to re-visit the Middle Eastern section where he spend many happy hours when doing his Masters. I love the V&A. I used to meet my cousin there for a day out. We then walked down to Harrods and what a disappointment. It has a different owner now and looks like any other department store. It seems to have lost that 'specialness' I wanted the Christmas shop and they didn't appear to have one anymore. A bit of a worry about getting them back to Stansted on Saturday with the rail strike as I was on Tour Duty at the Cathedral but eldest son who lives locally said he would take them thank goodness. They had a similar problem when arriving at Luton (long story don't ask!) as their flight was delayed and the shuttle buses to Stevenage had stopped so we had to drive down and pick them up. The moral of the story at the moment is don't rely on public transport! I hope your bus journey in Peterborough went well Bakers2
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OH is in charge of the shopping here, so I have asked her opinion.
She tells me she enjoys shopping in M&S and Waitrose, and more often than I had realised, but is selective in what she buys there.
At Waitrose she often buys from the Essentials range, and the 2 or 3 for whatever offers on meat and chicken, though they are more expensive than previously, and checks out other offers. She uses the weekly choose your own offers.
The ones she rarely gets these days are the get £X off a £Z spend, and when she does, the required spend is way above her usual spend, so it does not get used.At M&S she too finds the Remarksable range good, we had a huge cauliflower the other week that was only 85p and did 4 meals. Big bags of potatoes are good too and, apparently, a few pence cheaper than Aldi. Otherwise, she buys the meal deals occasionally and the 3 for £8 or £12 offers, which used to be £7 and £10. She also buys "yellow sticker" items to go in the freezer.
When our nearby Lidl opened about 20 years back, there was a lot of unusual German food in it, but in the last 15 years they seem to have adapted what they stock to offer more sourced/prepared in UK, or Scotland, food, and even branded goods.
Aldi is similar now in this respect.
The German style hot dogs, hams and salamis at both are very good, also the speciality Scottish range, and we do buy their cheeses, and sometimes bacon and fresh meat and chicken. Also milk, butter and margarine, yogurt, cream etc, jams, cereals, biscuits, orange juice, eggs and tinned soup. The spreadable butter in Lidl here was £2.39 this week. Aldi tinned tomato soup is very good.
"Keeping time" on fruit and veg can be quite variable apparently, so she chooses with care. I am only sent for things which I cannot get wrong!!
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I don't think we have Savers around here, we do have Home Bargains though, only been in it a couple of times.
We have a relatively new small retail park on the former Homebase site, with Aldi and Home Bargains one side and Waitrose on the other side. OH says former are always pretty busy, Waitrose rarely busy, at the times when she shops, though the cafe there is popular.
At the other end of the "village", as the locals call it, we have a mid size M&S food store and a mid size Tesco. Both have car parks, but the M&S one is not so big, so often difficult to find a space.
On the way to DD's house, depending on which way we go, we have a huge Asda and a huge Morrisons, and also another M&S and an Aldi in a small retail park nearby. There will also next year be a new Lidl where Mothercare used to be.
Going the other way we pass a newish Aldi, and another retail park with Sainsburys, B&Q, the Range, and several other shops and eating places, plus a new large Lidl not too far away, so we have plenty of choice should we want it.
When we first moved here 34 years ago there was only the (then much smaller) Asda store, so certainly changed times.
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What's interesting is that supermarket fuels can be more expensive than local garages so this is a relatively new development. I tend to use shops that some say are expensive like Waitrose (mostly because they are the nearest and I can use a delivery service.) I really don't want to spend time in shops hunting out the cheapest deals on products that might not be in stock. I used to do a weekly big shop in Asda when our family was young, didn't really like doing it or like the quality much so I'm happy to purchase different things now and I enjoy them.
We have a fairly local co-op as a standby and OH has the app for their weekly food discounts, my Saturday i costs less at the co-op!
edit Mind you it's costing a lot more to make my usual Christmas cakes this year!
Oh yes...also our huge £5 farm bought bag of local potatoes will last us till next year...
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Millie, I'm fond of the V&A too, I did a week behind the scenes there when I was a student (education department) it was such a memorable experience, so much knowledge around. Travel isn't much fun at the moment, hope the family got back safely!
As we haven't got a single department store left locally I'm beginning to forget what they are like, I can well imagine that Harrods isn't the same!
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We do a weekly shop - Booths at Kirkby Lonsdale. I know it's not the cheapest place to shop, but the staff are friendly (and I often loose OH as he stops to talk to them) and fresh produce very good. We have our own beef and milk (of course) and a freezer full of stuff (apples apples and more apples). I know prices have gone up but I accept that. Wherever possible we buy UK grown/produced etc. Exceptions being bananas!
Every few months we go to Cranstons at Penrith and bulk buy bacon, ham, sausages etc.
And for cheap and cheerful (or not as sometimes is the case) I get occassional deliveries from Asda (soft drinks, big bags of crisps etc).
Wine and Gin? Bought online. Flour from https://www.shipton-mill.com/ . And toilet rolls from https://uk.whogivesacrap.org/
I feed between 3 and 5 people most days and I'm very adept at stretching dishes to reappear as something else the next day.
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Not boring at all Goldie. You are very lucky to be close to a Booths, we like these. I only feed the two of us, but I like experimenting with food, and creating dishes we like. We have been fascinated by the Inspector Montalbano series, and OH is wanting to recreate some of the dishes from the series as much as he can. We love Italian food.
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Well thats my bus pass christened.
Found the timetable in our latest village magazine. Timings were the same as the webpage I chose. Bus certainly kept up speed.
Long time since I've mooched an unknown town/city, and several years since I've shopped in Peterborough, I'm not a shopper by choice, I was very disappointed in shops - so many spaces, cunningly disguised 😉. Not much to inspire in the way of items for sale, well to my taste! If someone had given me as little as £100 or an open wallet and said I had to spend it all on things that we'd use/wear I'd be very hard pressed.
Caught the bus back, and am in enjoying a cuppa.
A grey old November day, showery, but I didn't get caught, uninspiring generally.
Next time I'm going to take the bus to Huntingdon which looked nice on our last visit - pre covid 🙂
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sorry you were disappointed with Peterborough town centre Bakers2 most of us are as well. Once John Lewis pulled out the centre just died as a lot of other shops followed suit and it is now dead. The only shops I go to now are Joules, M&S and sometimes Boots. I tend to go to Stamford now. It is such a shame as Peterborough used to be such a lovely place to shop.
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Bit of a different day we use Parsley box meals in the campervan now , as it makes that I can just bung them in the microwave and they are just enough for us
As we have had to change our bookings to take in a Hospital appointment (a cancellation) it means I need more meals as we are now staying at FM for a few more days (don't ask it's complicated)
Site manager has agreed for them to be delivered here will arrive Wed or Thurs by DHL driver to ring with arr time
Ps good job no deposit paid for next site
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Millehull yes sadly Peterborough much like so many town centres. I think Chelmsford, whilst not fabulous by any means, retained more shops well until late March this year 😉, is because it lacks out of town shopping centres. Whereas here I Google say Wilko and find its based in a shopping centre, quite big one but lots of empty shops.
Nearest to us Serpentine Green has a MASSIVE Tesco, you can get your 10,000 steps in there whilst gathering your shopping, I don't - I have them deliver as it isn't laid out like others 😀, and lots of other shops including M&S, Holland & Barrett, empty spaces being filled very soon apparently, so no need to go to the city. Aldi is on the way there 😉
Next time I'll head to Huntington, we had an hour or 2 there soon after we moved. We wandered around Stamford when our son first moved up this way 7 ir so years ago. Needs to be checked out again.
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We don't have a Waitrose or Sainsbury, just Asda, Tesco, Morrison, Lidl and Aldi.
We tend to use all of them at different times, Aldi is our regular weekly shop.
If prices are going up at home you should see them over here in Spain. Meat is expensive, fish even more so. Fruit and veg also cost more than in the same shops as in the UK. I find there's less variety here to in general. More variety in fish though. I think France has a better choice, prices not much different to Spain now.
Shops don't seem to suffering empty shelves here, is that still the case in the UK.
We've moved away from the coast, now up in the hills at Setenil de Las Bodegas. Still hot during the day but tonight as soon as the sun went down it has got very chilly.
Off to see the Andalusian horses at Jerez on Thursday 😊 looking forward to that.
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Earlier this year there was a Dutch couple next to us at FM they had been to the games. and had some relations from OZ staying at the hotel at the end of ham lane. one thing that really surprised both couples was how much cheaper food was in our shops compared to their countries
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Interesting reading about shopping habits, we have all the supermarkets except Asda.
Apparently shoppers are now checking prices/offers online and using several shops which is okay if they are close together otherwise savings are eaten up in extra fuel costs.
I have used Aldi for years, will use Sainsbury's for any items Aldi don't sell as its only a short walk away. Will occasionally walk into town as I do like Wilko and Savers. Our Lidl is fairly new and I have to admit I like having a look down their middle isles for bargains. 🤣
Glad you enjoyed the V&A Millie, and spending time with your NI family.
Bakers2 our town has also gone downhill over the years, lots of empty shops especially in the shopping precinct, they all moved to the out of town retail park near the motorway. We do have a new multi screen cinema, bowling alley and restaurant area which opened this year next to the canal.
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