Train journey photo stitch

On my journey to work I made these......xx

The eBay auction on the dress also ended yesterday, reaching £70 thanks to a friend bidding up the price. Once eBay takes their 10% and paypal their £3 I have £60 for myself. Considering I paid £40 for the dress I'm fairly happy with making a profit of £20, plus I have more space in my old bedroom to hide the junk everyone else seems to dump there.

 I can't open a new ISA until the 6th April, so I'll pay the money into my disposable Barclays account and keep any extra funds for a few months in the Santander until I can transfer it into the ISA.

I have also spoken to our landlord and he thinks its a case of just re-signing the current flat contract for the next year, which is good news. So I downloaded the electoral roll form, which is filled out and on Saturday I'll drop it into the town hall.

Finally there was also a company call yesterday, and the company had a great start to the new year so hopefully things will hold out. It's nearly the weekend too, any nice plans? 

Mission accomplished

Today I managed to buy my season ticket for the year as I refuse to line TFL's pockets any more than I have to. I am a little concerned as to why my loan hasn't come through from work though, but my manager said it was easier to do it another way to the way I was told it would happen where the money is put in your account in one go so maybe that has happened instead and it isn't because I haven't passed my probation period.- eek! fingers crossed. 

Mid-week update

Happy hump-day readers! How are we all feeling mid-week? Looking forward to the weekend?

Anyways, this week I have been frugally feeding myself with lots of fresh vegetable soup. On Saturday I made four servings of carrot soup and poured it into jars I had recycled (I found these are the best way to transport soup- no leaks! and are free too!) and I popped them in the fridge ready to grab bleary eyed before rushing to the train station.

I read somewhere that cookery is not a precise science, but a creative art and this is the advice that I subscribe to. While  my BF scrumptiously cooks according to the recipe down to the last grain I guesstimate, throwing in approximate amounts of ingredients and hoping for the best. So here's my improvised fresh carrot soup recipe;

Ingredients 

• Three quarters of a bag of smart price carrots, priced a reasonable 76p from Asda 
• Some garlic
• Half a red onion found lurking in the fridge
• One sweet potato 
• Some flaked almonds (gives a nice crunchy texture) 
• One roasted red pepper in vinegar from a jar 
• Some chilli flakes (optional)
• One low salt vegetable stock cube 

Method 

1. Chop up all ingredients and place into a slowcooker/large saucepan 
2. Pour in an approximate amount of hot vegetable stock
3. Leave to cook 
4. Once the ingredients have gone soft use a hand blender to blitz into soup
5. Add some more hot water if needed 
6. Pour into clean, recycled jars and leave to cool before placing into the fridge 

I spotted some reduced crusty onion french bread rolls in the Co-Op on Sunday evening (they reduce all baked goods towards the end of the day) four for 25p which made a meal of my pre-prepared soup. I've eaten two already this week, and the other two are in the freezer to defrost. 

The price of travel 

Tomorrow is also the date on which I will need to buy a new monthly train ticket, this week I've been walking from the West End to either Waterloo or Charing Cross train stations because it seems the tube is becoming increasingly packed (Christmas shoppers already?!). I'm debating whether to go for the all out travel card option priced £180.00 or a cheaper over-rail only. I'm thinking that there's some x-mas drinks coming up, and we're going away this weekend and our coach goes from Victoria that the travel card will probably be the best choice- at least I won't have to worry about topping up. Are there any other commuters out there? What are your thoughts? 

The commute

I've now been working at a huge recruitment advertising agency in the search department for just over two weeks, and for the first time in my life I've learnt what it's like to be a commuter.You know, one of those people who seem to have tunnel vision frantically rushing to make it to the office before the clock strikes 9am. However, in the very short time I've been making the (expensive!) trip from the Surrey suburbs into London's West End I seem to have morphed into one.

Now from my observations I am still somewhat of a commuter novice, I can't read a book/free newspaper and walk like a zombie from one train to another, nor can I juggle a cup of coffee my coat and rail card without getting in a jumble. But I can shove people slightly out of my way and race to the nearest train seat without looking anyone in the nearby vicinity in the eye- with the exceptions of course of old people and pregnant women (luckily neither seem to have crossed my path just yet!). However, what I haven't got used to is the lack of personal space and the sheer amount of weird people that swarm among us normal folk on a daily basis.

For example, I had the pleasure to sit next to Darth Vader's long lost brother one bright, crisp morning last week. For 35 minutes he breathed heavily in my ear all the way into London due to his blocked nose. Or for example the man who refused to brush his teeth for the last few days and insisted on talking on his mobile all the way home, and coincidently he had to get off at my stop didn't he. Then not forgetting the two German boys who had obviously had better things to do for the last week than take a shower who decided to waft their stink all around the carriage even after I'd opened the window to let some freezing air in. And not forgetting when they got off the train they intoned in English 'Please take all your bombs off the train'.....well until next time folks happy commuting x