Friday, July 04, 2008
Food budget
Kat: A while ago I kept a record of what we spent on food and drink for just over a month, mainly because I really had no idea. We didn't change our eating habits but we did go to Amsterdam, so that skewed the figures. Our holiday food and drink for a week cost £267 - the same as basics for the other 24 days!I separated the costs of eating out. Apart from the holiday we ate at one restaurant, one pub and one café in 3.5 weeks. In a normal week this is what we average:
| Basics per week | £78 |
| Eating out per week | £35 |
| Milk | £2.58 (3% of basics) |
| Pasties | £7.50 (10% of basics) |
| Drinks at the pub | £6.78 (9% of basics) |
Recently I've read about people switching to budget supermarkets to save money. In our case we could save more money by not eating out, whether it's at a restaurant, grabbing a pasty in town or drinks while we're out and about. That doesn't sound much fun, but planning ahead instead of getting caught out hungry or thirsty would let us have more treats like our anniversary meal at Trewithen Restaurant last week. (Nice website! I wonder who designed that...)
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Lost in Film
Kat: Possibly the most exciting thing to happen in Lostwithiel since we moved here (apart from us moving here) was Monday night's test screening of Lost in Film. Mat and I helped organise the event along with a handful of other people. We showed No Country For Old Men to a full house. One hundred tickets had sold out weeks before and everyone was buzzing with excitement about the possibility of having our own film club.The film ruffled a few feathers as the older folk aren't used to seeing such challenging and violent movies, but our plan is to show a variety of films in future which should please a wide audience. My initial impression of the film was shellshock, but after chewing it over for a couple of days it's grown on me and I can now see why it swept the boards at the Oscars. Big Lebowski and O Brother, Where Art Thou? are great fun but No Country For Old Men is epic and awesome.
Next step for Lost in Film - plan our first season of films for Autumn!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Raconteurs
Kat: Last night was the start of our summer of gigs and our first Eden Session. It's a great venue - you can wander around the Biomes, eat and drink at the cafes and restaurants and then watch an intimate gig (up to 6000 people) in beautiful surroundings. Headline act were the Raconteurs and supporting were Vampire Weekend, both fresh and relatively mud-free from Glastonbury. Both bands were absolutely brilliant. Organisation at Eden is top notch so there were no queues, and the gig finished promptly because neighbours often complain about the noise. In the words of Spinal Tap's Marty DiBergi's "I remember being knocked out by their exuberance, their raw power - and their punctuality."
Monday, June 16, 2008
Reunion party
Mat: On Saturday we hosted a reunion party for our friends from Amersham at a lovely country pub in Chenies. About forty people came, some of whom hadn't seen each other in five years or more.The star of the show was little Rowan Miller, Ben & Vickie's ten-week-old son, who made the trip from New Zealand with the casual jet-setting attitude that his parents have about long-haul flights. The prize for unexpected attendee went to Nico, who is back in Blighty to use the NHS to fix his knee from a running injury - healthcare in the US is too expensive.
A wonderful time was had by all, and we're looking forward to the next one!
Saturday, May 31, 2008
The 'Dam
Kat: Our Kiwi friends Mark and Claire have left Melbourne for Amsterdam, and we spent last week with them exploring the city. I haven't been there since I was 16 and Mat's last visit was on his stag night, so both of us had hazy memories of the place.It's amazing that such a tiny city (750,000 people) can be so varied. Of course there are smoky coffeeshops which don't sell coffee and the Red Light district, but there are also the grand old houses along Herensgracht and Princesgracht canals, the trendy and upmarket Jordan, the bohemian and ethnically diverse De Pijp and Oosterdock with its stark modern buildings.
We visited the high-brow (Van Gogh museum, Rijksmuseum) and low-brow (Cannabis college, Sex museum) tourist attractions. The weather was warm but showery, so much time was spent in cafes sampling local beer, pancakes and poffertjes (mini pancake balls covered in icing sugar) as well as international food. Much as we love Cornwall, it's great to be in a multicultural city.One day we took a trip in a small open-topped boat which is funded by donations. Our captain Diego told us that there are 2500 houseboats on the canals, a housing solution after WWII but now their number is strictly limited. Their waste goes directly into the canal water but the canals are flushed daily so the water doesn't smell. 50 bodies a year are pulled from the waters, mostly drunk men taking a pee (they're found with unzipped trousers) who trip over the metal mooring bar at the canal's edge and don't last long in the icy winter water.
The Red Light district is a defining feature of Amsterdam, but the authorities are trying to clean up the city by closing brothels and converting them to designer fashion shops. Cannabis is even more closely associated, but a smoking ban in pubs and restaurant is due to start on 1st July. It's hard to imagine Amsterdam without these and it'll be interesting to visit Mark and Claire in future to see how the city changes.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
We can, canoe?
It was an idyllic weekend - hot and sunny, larking about on the river. We've explored down as far as St Winnow, but at low tide it's a wide mud flat down there, which almost claimed my shoes when I tried to stand on it!
We need to learn a bit more about kayaking before we embark on multi-day trips around the coast, but we're really excited about the possibilities...
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Obby Oss
Kat: May Day, and the first day of summer is heralded by the Obby Oss festival in Padstow. We decided to chance the showers and crowds to see this very popular and very Cornish celebration. Apparently it started at midnight (we weren't around for that part) and then carries on for the rest of the day with singing, drinking, music, drinking, dancing and even more drinks.
There are two Obby Osses: the red original Old Obby Oss and the new-fangled Blue Ribbon or Peace Obby Oss. The blue Obby Oss was originally started as a Temperance alternative to the beer swilling red Obby Oss gang, but I don't know if there's any less drinking now for either group now. If you're hoping to have a child then it's good luck to get caught under the skirt of the Obby Oss.
The whole town is decked out with spring flowers, bunting and tree boughs, and the rival Obby Osses plus their supporters parade around the streets dancing, cavorting and singing a repetitive and hypnotic folk song. It felt a bit like the Wicker Man but with less nudity and violence - the only time it got a bit hairy was when Mat's pasty was stolen from his hand by a seagull.
Next year we'll have to wear white and the Obby Oss colours of whoever we decide to support...
Saturday, April 19, 2008
My daily blog
Last month I did a photoshoot for a friend's band, and last weekend Kat and I went up to London for a photoshoot for another friend's company. This one involved wandering around Oxford Circus at 6am with a camera, looking dodgy. Luckily we managed to avoid any police attention!
Some of the strangest pictures seem to be the most popular on Flickr, which calculates an interestingness score based on how many people look at the photo, comment on it or mark it as a favourite. Of my project 365 pics, Wool and Ducky are my 2nd and 3rd most popular pictures overall - I quite like them, but I wouldn't rate them that highly...
It's going to be hard to produce 365 different photos (I've already got three featuring rubber ducks, and two flowers-with-water-drops) so expect to see more themes like colours of the rainbow from a week ago. My latest plan is to do a series based on the poem Monday's Child, and I'm looking for volunteers - if you're interested in being a day let me know which day of the week you were born. I'm especially looking for someone born on a Wednesday who's full of woe, and someone born on a Sunday who's gay.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Pub quiz and piglets
Kat: We've been attending the Globe pub quiz regularly since we moved to Lostwithiel 10 months ago and it's compulsory for visitors staying with us on Sunday night, whatever their general knowledge is like. For that reason there's been an increasing amount of up-country interest in the quiz so I've built a dedicated pub quiz page. You can view the latest quiz and record your score, or try previous quizzes. No cheating now! If you're signed up to automatic blog and gallery notifications, you can choose to be notified when the new quiz is available in your preferences.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Wasted energy
Kat: Following an Energy event held by Transition Lostwithiel earlier this month, we treated ourselves to a household energy meter to measure how much our appliances are using. You're right, it's nothing to do with the environment - it's just an excuse for another gadget. You can see the workshop run by Matt Trevaskis that inspired us to get the gadgets, and read his calculations for how much energy is wasted by an average home.Our appliances don't match his exactly. Our telly and microwave are a lot less powerful and they use proportionally less energy on standby - although it's still a lot of energy (and money) considering the amount of time they're not in use. The most notable (assuming we left them on standby all the time which we don't, and 13p per kWh) are:
| Appliance | Watts on standby | Watts in use | Time in use per day | Annual cost of standby | Annual cost of use |
| TV | 7w | 43w | 1hr | £7.64 | £2.04 |
| Stereo | 4w | 10w | 6hrs | £3.42 | £2.85 |
| Speakers | 3w | 4w | 30mins | £3.35 | £0.09 |
| Microwave | 4w | 1500w | 3mins | £4.55 | £3.56 |
We thought our biggest energy use would be computers, but they're peanuts compared to one standard lamp which is more mood than illuminating - it uses a massive 95w because we haven't got round to finding a low energy bulb to fit it.
Interestingly, our 800w microwave gobbles up nearly twice that - what's it doing with the rest? The meter also gave us conclusive proof that some "energy saving" ideas are a waste of time: a TFT screen uses exactly the same energy as normal when the screen is on "energy saving" black mode or using Blackle compared to regular Google.
As part of our energy saving strategy we've bought a battery powered magnetic clock to stick on the fridge so we can turn the microwave off (we only used it for the clock), and remote plugs so we can switch everything off at the socket at the touch of a button. Hooray, more gadgets!
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Got a new motor
We hadn't quite anticipated how big the car we'd end up with would be! Being entirely ignorant about cars, we enlisted my dad in a search for a second-hand car and he found us this palatial Peugot 406 estate. Through further stealth-favours he engineered it to be within our budget and went over it with a fine tooth comb to check for problems - what a star! Thanks pa :) It's great because:
- it's really spacious and comfy - even the driver's chair has arm rests
- it's got two fold away seats in the boot which makes it a 7-seater
- there's enough room in the back for us both to sleep - car-camping!
- it's much bigger than the Corsa but about as efficient to run
- it has LOADS of gadgets - auto everything (including windscreen wipers that turn on when they sense water), retro 2002 satnav, a computer that works out your mpg and best of all, cruise control
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Want to buy a flat?
In the photos you can see the spangly new bathroom and recently repainted living room, which we didn't know the tenants had redecorated. Apparently they've done a good job - shame they won't get the chance to enjoy it! Luckily they're being very understanding about the sale and have kept the place in good nick.
It's a bit sad to see the old place up for sale, but it's also exciting to set the wheels in motion towards getting our own place in Lostwithiel. The housing market has slowed down a bit recently but Brighton is always ahead of the rest of the country, and Halls reckon it should only take about 6 weeks to get an offer.
With the boot on the other foot, we've been having problems of our own as tenants. The boiler started dripping at the start of January so a chap came to fix that, then it started dripping in a new place so another chap came to fix what the last chap did wrong. Then it started making ominous clanking and groaning noises, so a third chap came and pronounced it kaput. What with plumbers talking to managing agents talking to landlords talking to us, we've been without hot water and heating for the last 5 days - just as the weather has turned particularly frosty. The landlords brought round some electric heaters yesterday so we're a bit more cosy now, but I'm looking forward to a bath.