Making Good Use

VW Camper Vans

When I was a child I thought there couldn't be anything more cosy than spending the night in a VW Camper Van.  This was in the late 1960s when those camper vans were all the rage.   Someone who lived across the road from my parents' had one and it had one of those stripey roof-extension things - I thought it was the most amazing looking vehicle ever (although I was also rather taken with those cars that were sort of Tudor-looking with wooden bits in the bodywork.  Not sure what those were called, anyone know?)  Anyway, I'm still very fond of VW Campers even now and would really love to own one.  Sadly, I don't think my finances or driving skills would ever stretch that far and these days I'm not too sure how comfy they'd be to bed down in for the night either - not with my dodgy hip!!

 
Still, I was pleased to find these three VW Camper egg cups in the charity shop 20p box this morning.  The lady behind the counter asked me what they were for as they'd had no idea what they were.  Which probably explains why they were stuffed into the 20p box.  I'm hoping they'll do OK on ebay in the run-up to Easter, though if I had a bit more space I'd be tempted to keep them.

 
Continuing the vintage-camper-van-type of theme, I also found this rather spiffy crochet granny blanket in the junk shop last week.  It was only £2.00 and is a good large size.  I love the colours its been made in and again I wouldn't mind keeping it (especially as it's now had a good wash and dry in the fresh air) but I simply don't have the space.  It'll be another one for ebay.

 

Low-Fat Living - One Month In

Apart from the blip caused by eating boiling bacon the other week, the low-fat diet is going really really well and my gall bladder is pretty damn good.  Having totally given up chocolate of any description, I thought I would be having serious withdrawal symptoms by now but nothing - apart from a sudden craving when a Twix advert was on telly the other evening.  There are still a few unopened packets of chocolate-covered raisins and some white chocolate buttons in the kitchen but I have no interest in them whatsoever.  Not that I'm doing without sweet stuff at all - oh no, I'm happily wolfing down marshmallows,  jelly babies, liquorice allsorts, parma violet sweets, crystallised fruits and dried fruits.  Anything I fancy really as long as it has very little saturated fat.

Lunchtimes usually consist of home-made soup followed by plain cottage cheese, marmite and a bagel (I never knew bagels were low in fat until recently) or sandwiches made from things like salmon and cucumber, extra light Philadelphia and cranberry jelly, hard boiled egg and salad cream, or Quorn slices with mustard.  Anything really as long as it doesn't contain much saturated fat and as long as there is no butter on the bread.

Evening meals have been a bit hit or miss lately as I'm still experimenting with what is tasty as well as low-fat.  A stir fry with some Quorn chicken-style pieces added was a great success and the chicken curry I made last week with low-fat plain yogurt and korma curry paste tasted divine - trouble was the yogurt had separated over the heat so it didn't look so nice.  Next time I try it I'll add the yogurt at the very last minute.  I also enjoyed a marinated tofu and noodles recipe I found in a low-fat cookbook but my low-fat lasagne (veggie base layer with plain cottage cheese on top and a home-made tomato sauce on top of that) was only very so-so.  A good old-fashioned beef stew seems to suit me well and I'm going to try a beef stroganoff this week made with very low fat creme fraiche. 

Puddings for me now mainly consist of either low-fat organic yogurt (as long as there is no aspartame in it) or fresh fruit - often a banana - or stewed fruit.  I've found that the vanilla low-fat yogurt makes a great topping on stewed fruit - just as nice as custard.

Bearing in mind that I used to eat industrial quantities of cheese, butter and cream on a daily basis I am astounded that I've not had major cravings over the past few weeks, but not a one.  I know I have a lot more energy than I used to have, a lot less wind than I used to (apparently a sure sign of a grumbling gall bladder) and I think possibly, just possibly, I may actually have lost a bit of weight too - bonus!

Low-Fat Living - One Month In

Apart from the blip caused by eating boiling bacon the other week, the low-fat diet is going really really well and my gall bladder is pretty damn good.  Having totally given up chocolate of any description, I thought I would be having serious withdrawal symptoms by now but nothing - apart from a sudden craving when a Twix advert was on telly the other evening.  There are still a few unopened packets of chocolate-covered raisins and some white chocolate buttons in the kitchen but I have no interest in them whatsoever.  Not that I'm doing without sweet stuff at all - oh no, I'm happily wolfing down marshmallows,  jelly babies, liquorice allsorts, parma violet sweets, crystallised fruits and dried fruits.  Anything I fancy really as long as it has very little saturated fat.

Lunchtimes usually consist of home-made soup followed by plain cottage cheese, marmite and a bagel (I never knew bagels were low in fat until recently) or sandwiches made from things like salmon and cucumber, extra light Philadelphia and cranberry jelly, hard boiled egg and salad cream, or Quorn slices with mustard.  Anything really as long as it doesn't contain much saturated fat and as long as there is no butter on the bread.

Evening meals have been a bit hit or miss lately as I'm still experimenting with what is tasty as well as low-fat.  A stir fry with some Quorn chicken-style pieces added was a great success and the chicken curry I made last week with low-fat plain yogurt and korma curry paste tasted divine - trouble was the yogurt had separated over the heat so it didn't look so nice.  Next time I try it I'll add the yogurt at the very last minute.  I also enjoyed a marinated tofu and noodles recipe I found in a low-fat cookbook but my low-fat lasagne (veggie base layer with plain cottage cheese on top and a home-made tomato sauce on top of that) was only very so-so.  A good old-fashioned beef stew seems to suit me well and I'm going to try a beef stroganoff this week made with very low fat creme fraiche. 

Puddings for me now mainly consist of either low-fat organic yogurt (as long as there is no aspartame in it) or fresh fruit - often a banana - or stewed fruit.  I've found that the vanilla low-fat yogurt makes a great topping on stewed fruit - just as nice as custard.

Bearing in mind that I used to eat industrial quantities of cheese, butter and cream on a daily basis I am astounded that I've not had major cravings over the past few weeks, but not a one.  I know I have a lot more energy than I used to have, a lot less wind than I used to (apparently a sure sign of a grumbling gall bladder) and I think possibly, just possibly, I may actually have lost a bit of weight too - bonus!

Lovely Linens

 
I called into the excellent new junk shop again yesterday morning and came away with four nice vintage Irish linen tea towels.  Much as I really like all the designs, I have more tea towels than I know what to do with - one of which I know for a fact I bought in Habitat almost 30 years ago, and it's still going strong (which either says a lot about how well it was made or, more likely, how infrequently I use it to dry my dishes), so all of them have been listed on ebay.

 
I've had some reasonable successes with re-selling vintage linen tea towels and, round here at least, they are not that difficult to find.

 
I don't think any of these have actually been used for drying dishes, more likely they were pinned up and displayed in a kitchen or kept folded up in a drawer.

 
This one depicting the original Severn Bridge is lovely and reminds me of being taken by my Dad to see the Queen when she opened the bridge in 1966.  I vividly remember being told off by a policeman for standing where I wasn't allowed to (I was desperate not to miss seeing the Queen and saw a gap in the crowd and so headed for it - big mistake!)  I also remember moaning and whinging when Dad decided he wanted to walk across the bridge over to Wales.   Not sure how far we got as my little six-year-old legs really couldn't cope.  It was a memorable occasion though and one I'm very pleased I was a teeny tiny part of.

Des. Res.

 
We had no idea this bird's nest had been constructed in the forsythia until all the leaves came off in the autumn.  It has been totally exposed to all the harsh winter weather we've had, and has been tossed and buffeted by some very strong winds.  And yet here it still is in (almost) Spring-time, looking pretty solid.  I wonder if anyone will move in soon.

Second-hand Rose

I rarely think twice about it, but my wardrobe contains an awful lot of second-hand clothing and accessories.  I did wonder, as I was thoroughly enjoying myself in both the jacuzzi and swimming pool last week, how many other guests were sporting a swimming cossie that cost £2.00 in a charity shop (and a bloomin' nice fit it is too as it seems to suck my tummy in quite nicely - plus I'd taken a spare cossie with me that was second-hand from somewhere or other but I've no idea from where now.)  

Dinner was a very casual affair (the only rule being that you should be wearing something other than the Champneys white towelling robe) which suited both P and I very nicely as neither of us do 'smart' terribly well.  Most evenings I was wearing a charity shop top teamed with either black trousers (a recent and necessary Evans purchase) or a pair of jeans (bought in a charity shop in Chipping Sodbury last time Mum and I went to a Vintage and Handmade Fair.)  I seem to have amassed quite a reasonable collection of smart casual (with the emphasis on casual) tops over the past year or so including this purple batwing jumper and this beaded Ann Harvey top - and all of them were from charity shops or car boot sales.  I certainly felt nicely enough dressed, and on a considerably lower expenditure than if I'd bought those items new.

My beloved boot sale Radley handbag came with me and proved extremely useful (it doesn't get that many outings, sadly) but has unfortunately now got a broken pull-tag on one of the zips.  I was probably a bit forceful when using it but I was tres upset to have damaged the bag.  Oddly enough, I have another Radley bag (a much smaller over-the-body-type one that was a gift some years ago) and I don't use that often either but the lining is already beginning to pull apart.  Perhaps it's me being a bit rough with my usage, but I do wonder exactly how well Radley bags are finished as they are not cheap items to buy (unless you get them at a boot sale, of course!)

 

Latest Second-Hand Bargains

I was so relaxed and languid whilst staying at Champneys (which was, of course, the whole point of going there) that I couldn't even be bothered to visit Aylesbury - about 15 minutes drive away.  This was despite that fact that P was quite happy to drive me there and, much more importantly, despite the fact that the Association of Charity Shops  (a very useful website) said that Aylesbury had ELEVEN charity shops.  I would never have believed that I'd have turned down the chance of a mega browse for second-hand treasures, but I did.  We did, however, stagger as far as Tring to check out the bargains.  There were only three charity shops there but I managed to find a huge piece of silky paisley fabric for £1.50 and two Ruth Rendell audiobooks for 75p each -  I really must be getting old as I love listening to audiobooks these days.

 
Yesterday, I had a mooch round the new Sue Ryder shop that has opened in Wickford but, as I suspected, their prices are a little too high for my purse.  The other two charity shops - which are much more reasonably priced - yielded two rather funky floral pillowcases for 50p (destined to be made into tote bags) and an unused Aquascutum pure wool scarf for £1.00.  I was delighted to find the scarf as they sell really well on ebay but this one has had a bit of a mauling from moths and there are six little moth holes in it.  Ah well, I'll try it on ebay anyway. 

Totally, Utterly, Out of This World Fab-u-lous

We had the most a-may-zing, fabulously-wonderful time at Champneys.  The food was five-star dining but all of it was low-fat, low-salt, totally delicious and beautifully presented - my gall bladder didn't grumble once.  I'm now approaching my fat-free lifestyle with a lot more zeal and zest and have already been closely studying various cook books to try and pep up our daily diet a bit more.  We went prepared with some snacks for P, should he find the portions too small for his appetite, but he didn't feel the need to plunder the bag of 'goodies' at all. 

The facilities were first-rate and we both really enjoyed the outdoor jacuzzi - so deliciously extravagant to be able to sit in a hot tub outdoors in England in February and to watch dusk creeping over the wonderful parkland that Champneys is set in.  The swimming pool was gorgeous too and although that was indoors it had a large glass section to the roof so that you could see the trees whilst swimming on your back.

 
This was the view from our room looking towards the main part of the spa, which is in an old Rothschild mansion.

 
And this was the view looking in the other direction towards the many acres of parkland that surround it.  It must be even more stunning in spring and summer when the leaves are on the trees but we found it breathtakingly gorgeous even in late winter.

We tried meditation, did a bit of Tai Chi again, and had a go at salsa dancing which just confirmed to me that a) I do have two left feet and b) no wonder people struggle on 'Strictly Come Dancing.'  Salsa was a lot harder, and more strenuous, than it looks!

I had a couple of massages - something I've wanted to try for years - which were as relaxing as I'd always imagined they would be, the best pedicure ever (well, again, I'd never had a pedicure before but this one was fantastic and involved a paraffin wax treatment for my hideously cracked heels - which worked a treat,) and a session of reflexology.  I'd had reflexology once before and remembered it as being quite a revelation as well as totally relaxing, this time I was even more surprised that the therapist picked up on my gall bladder problem, without me having mentioned it, just by manipulating my feet - quite amazing!

We both enjoyed ourselves so much that we didn't want to come home.  We're hoping if we can find a good deal on the price again that we can head back to Tring as soon as bloomin' possible.  Seriously, it was heaven on earth.

Off to be Pampered and Cosseted

One way or another, it's not been the best of times these past six months or so but as much of it has not been my story, I've not said anything about it on the blog.  Hopefully, when it all gets resolved, I'll be able to say more.  Anyway, P and I have been talking about having a holiday for ages but somehow life and stuff has got in the way.  Last week, we decided that we would take ourselves off to Champneys at Tring and have a few days being pampered, cosseted and totally relaxed.   We got a good deal on a five-day four-night break and are off tomorrow until Sunday. 

I am so looking forward to being totally indolent and lazy and having a few nice massages, beauty treatments and swimming in their lovely pool.  We thought a spa would be a good idea because they can also cater for a low-fat diet - an absolute essential for me at the moment.  I stupidly ate some boiling bacon on Saturday evening and have been suffering nasty twinges in my gall bladder ever since.   And I so smugly thought I'd got topsides of that little problem - seems not - b*ggerations!!

Junk Shop

As I had to pop into the bank this morning, and as the new junk shop is most conveniently located just behind said bank, I thought I'd call in and have a good look round.  My first stop, as always, was their excellent selection of second-hand books.  I only came away with three today - two hardbacks and a paperback for £1.00.  One has been listed on Amazon, one on Greenmetropolis and one looks like it could be quite useful as a reference book for us.

 
I also had a rummage through their pile of old bedding and linens.  It was all a bit precariously stacked - plus it was mostly on a very low shelf which is awkward with my hip at the moment - so I couldn't poke about as much as I would have liked.  However, out of the corner of my eye, folded up very neatly on another shelf, I found two vintage half-aprons. 

 
 
The colours are very vibrant on this one

 
 
And sweetly pastel on the other (the fabric of this one reminds me of a nightie my Mum made me when I was little.)  They were 50p each and will be destined for ebay once the light improves enough for me to get a decent photo.  (I tried really hard to get a 'full-length' photo of both aprons but had to admit defeat with the leaden skies and gloomy grey wet weather we've got here today.  Roll on Spring!!)

The new junk shop is fast becoming my favourite bargain-hunting spot - they've got tons more stuff than the charity shops plus their prices are much better too.  If anyone is Wickford way and fancies checking out the junk shop for themselves, they're located just behind Nat West bank near the Market Place.

Just wanted to add: I've come across a couple of new-to-me charity shop bargain-hunting blogs recently which are really good - Faith, Hope and Charity Shopping and The Vintage Knitter.