Katie Butcher

I’ve just finished a week of playing in the orchestra for ‘West Riding Operas’ show this year, ‘Marriage of Figaro’ by Mozart.

It’s the 8th opera I’ve now played for and I would say it’s probably been my favourite. It’s very tricky in places, but being Mozart it’s all pleasant and easy to listen to. I even dragged Nigel along today and, (shock!) he said he quite enjoyed it!.

I think even if you’re not a fan of operatic music, it can still be an enjoyable experience to go and see a live opera. It’s not only the music, but the lighting, the costumes etc. and they all add up to be (hopefully) an interesting experience.

It’s nice to hear some positive news about Bradford. The city has been awarded the title ‘City of Film’ by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bradford/8096433.stm

Hmm… I’d be interested to know how many of the 65% of people who can apparently make spaghetti bolognese ‘from scratch’ without using a recipe, think that using a jar of Dolmio is ‘from scratch’.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8007081.stm

Bored at home having to take a day off following a minor operation at Eccleshill Treatment Centre last week, I thought I would post a review of my experience. I was very impressed with my treatment, but unfortunately that particular treatment centre has been subject to criticism in the past couple of years after a gentleman died following a routine operation. I thought I would write a positive review about my experience, since it often seems that people are quick to vocalise negative experiences but not positive. Also, nobody seemed to have reviewed that centre yet.

So I’ve managed to get out of the habit of blogging, and once you do that, it’s hard to get back into again, especially now I’ve left a 4 month gap recording what’s been going on in my life. So here is a very brief summary.

Christmas was pretty much ruined after my parents’ house got burgled 3 days into our 2 weeks stay with them. Thankfully, they didn’t get my brand new, carefully selected, Sumsung NC10 that I had treated myself to not a week earlier, but unfortunately they did get Nigel’s Dell XPS laptop, and my mum’s laptop amongst a number of other valuable items.

The most major thing to happen is that Nigel and I have set a date to get married – 19th September 2009. We basically came up with a joint New Year’s Resolution that 2009 would be the year we would get married, and we’ve actually followed through with it. Those who know us well are aware that we’ve been talking about getting married for years, but attempts at any organisation have been fairly half-hearted; particularly once we started looking into things and realising how much there is to organise and how much all things ‘weddingy’ cost. So to give us a push along we got in touch with a wedding planner, and from then things really started moving. So although sorting out things for the wedding has taken up quite a lot of our spare time since New Year, most of the ‘big things’ are now organised (I won’t bore with the details). I do think hiring a wedding planner was possibly the best thing we could have done to save time, our sanity, as well as, believe it or not, money.

So with weddings occupying much time, I’ve not been reading, nor have I watched much on the TV, and we’ve not really eaten out at all, hence I’ve not had much to say. Nigel is now about to commence ‘Project Garden’, for which I will try and add pictures. On Sunday I shall be starting orchestra rehearsals for West Riding Opera’s annual production in Leeds next month, which is always a lot of hard work. But I shall try and make the effort to squeeze in some blogging.

We’ve just spent a wonderful weekend away in London which I arranged to celebrate Nigel’s upcoming birthday. I booked a package deal through Holiday Extras, which meant I paid one price for the travel, accommodation, a West End show and pre-theatre meal, and also a trip on the London Eye.

We caught the train from Bradford to Leeds at 11am on Friday and then at Leeds we boarded the National Express East Coast train that was to go to London Kings Cross. I had purchased 1st class tickets so we had a very pleasant and relaxing journey and enjoyed the complimentary refreshments. We arrived in London just after 2pm and then hopped on the underground and went 2 stops on the Piccadilly line to Holborn. Our hotel, the Grange Holborn was a 5 minute walk from the tube station.

The Grange Holborn was supposedly a 5* rated hotel, but, although it was nice and we had no complaints, we didn’t think it was 5*. Our room and bathroom wasn’t huge, but the bed was large and comfy. There were 2 large windows, but they looked out over the back of the hotel so there was not much of a view (although on balance I think I’d prefer to forgo a view in favour of a peaceful night without London traffic noise).

At 5pm, after showering and dressing up, we left the hotel to head to the Criterion (one of Marco Pierre White’s restaurants) where we were to have our pre-theatre meal. The reservation was not until 6pm, but we didn’t know how long it would take to get there so had to allow plenty of time, especially since it was rush hour. It was only 3 stops to Piccadilly and we reached the restaurant in about 20 minutes. We hung around Piccadilly Circus for a few minutes and then decided that even though we were early we might as well go in. The restaurant decor was stunning, particularly the gold mosaic ceiling. The service was very professional and the food was fantastic. We were able to choose from 3 starters and 3 mains that made up the pre-theatre menu. We both selected crispy duck salad for starter, then Nigel had steak and chips (although it was called something much posher on the menu) and I had salmon with tenderstem broccoli and hollandaise sauce. It was the nicest and most perfectly cooked piece of salmon I’ve ever eaten. Nigel enjoyed his steak too. I’d definitely say that it was one of the nicest restaurants we’ve ever eaten at.

In the end it turned out that by arriving early we timed things perfectly as it meant that we could relax and enjoy our meal and not have to rush to be ready to leave to leave to go to the theatre. ‘Her Majesty’s Theatre’ where ‘Phantom of the Opera’ is on was a short walk away. I couldn’t believe it when it turned out that our seats were on the front row! It was an fantastic show and we had the best seats be able to see everything. We had a such a great time.

After the show we headed back to the hotel, got changed and then had a wander around Covent Garden and watched a very talented busker.

On Saturday we got up reasonably early and after breakfast headed over to Oxford Street to have a quick look around. About 11am we made our way to the London Eye as our flight was booked for noon. It was very busy so I was glad to have purchased ‘Champagne Flight’ tickets which also included a ‘fast-track’ check-in. It meant we didn’t have to queue for ages and only had to wait around for a short while to be escorted onto the London Eye. We were so lucky to have a virtually cloudless winter day so the visibility was excellent. It was certainly something very different and a very enjoyable half-hour ride.

We had a walk along the river for a bit afterwards and then dashed over to the Science Museum, but it was getting late and my feet were killing me by the time we got there so we didn’t see much of it – we’ll have to revisit that another time I think.

We ate near at an Italian restaurant near the hotel on Saturday evening, but it was destined to be disappointing after our wonderful experience the previous night so I won’t talk about it.

Our train journey back on Sunday was uneventful and fortunately we made it back to Bradford at the very reasonable time of 3pm. I would definitely like to do a trip like that to London again some time.

After receiving a letter a few weeks ago asking me to consider giving blood, I decided I couldn’t think of a reason why not to sign-up with the National Blood Service. I filled out the enclosed form and added Nigel’s name too. A couple of weeks later we received our donor numbers and details of local sessions in the post, and we decided we’d go down to the Blood Centre in Bradford city centre yesterday evening after work.

It was quite quiet at the blood centre, but the receptionist seemed pleased that we’d already been registered as donors as it meant we didn’t have to spend time getting our details onto the system. We were given a ‘Welcome Folder’ to read and a donor health check form to fill in. Afterwards, a nurse took us individually to smaller rooms where she went through our forms and asked us if we had any questions.

You need to have your haemoglobin levels checked before you give blood, to make sure that you’re not (or won’t become) anaemic. To do this, the nurse pricks your middle finger and takes a drop of blood and drops it into a test tube containing copper sulphate. It didn’t hurt. The nurse did this and then told me I was fine to donate blood.

A friendly ‘donor carer’ showed me to a bed and chatted to me and asked me to make myself comfortable whilst she set up all the equipment and labelled the tubes and bags. A thick strap (like when they check your blood pressure) was put around my arm and inflated. This makes your veins easier to find. The nurse commented that I had good veins for giving blood (I think they must have been easy to find). I decided it would be best to look away while the needle was inserted and the flow started. You don’t really feel much, a slight sting and then that’s it. First the nurse filled up some tubes with samples for testing, then finally she attached a bag for the donation. She told me the flow was good so should only take about 6 minutes.

Unfortunately, about half-way through filling the donation bag I did start feeling light-headed. I think I could have persevered through and completed my donation, but the nurse stopped my donation straight away when I admitted that I did feel slightly dizzy. I was really disappointed I hadn’t managed a complete donation, but the nurses were very nice and said it wasn’t at all uncommon, particularly for first-timers. To give blood you have to weigh at least 50kg / 7 st 12 and yesterday morning our bathroom scales told me I weighed 50.1kg, so I’m actually only just heavy enough to be eligible to donate anyway. They take the same amount of blood whatever size you are, so they have a minimum weight requirement as small people are more likely to feel faint due to losing relatively more of their blood volume than larger people.

Whether it was my body not liking losing blood, psychological (it’s not unknown for me to feel faint) or a combination of both I’m not sure. Fortunately Nigel completed his donation successfully, which was good, and he will be able to go back again in 16 weeks to donate again. The nurse said my samples would be tested but that they would not use my partial donation. She suggested I go back and try again in a few weeks now I knew what to expect, making sure I ate and drank plenty beforehand. I do think I will go back after Christmas (maybe I’ll put some weight on over the festive season) and try again.

Afterwards, we both were told to have a drink and biscuit and rest for a few minutes. I was advised that it probably wouldn’t be wise for me to have any alcohol that evening.

There was nothing at all bad about the experience (except my disappointment of not completing a donation), but I would definitely encourage others to take an hour out and visit a local donor session when they can. There’s lots more information to be found on the National Blood Service website.

I highly recommend www.carbuyingguide.org.uk to anyone who’s planning on buying a car. We travelled a long way yesterday to buy a car and found that guide absolutely invaluable.

Nigel had seen a car that was exactly what he wanted but unfortunately it was £1000 over our budget and 170 miles away in Hitchin. After doing a fair bit of research we decided that it was probably worth the risk of the trip in that if we handled things correctly we would be able to get the dealer to sell us that car for a price within our budget. We were reasonably sure before we got to the dealership that we would buy the car if we could get the deal but equally, accepted we would cut our losses and definitely not buy the car if we couldn’t.

So we made the trip. We spent a long time at the dealership; we took the car for a long test drive, listened to the sales patter, stood around drinking coffee and pontificating (like you do), and after about two hours we finally managed to get the conversation around to money. We got the salesman down a little bit on the screen price but he said there was absolutely no way he could sell the car for as low a price as we were asking. We said ‘okay, well thanks very much, we’ll have to keep looking then’ and after being there a good few hours we walked out in a disappointed mannner and got in our car ready to leave. After reading the car buying guide we were fairly certain that wouldn’t be the end of it, so our plan was to go find a pub down the road and sit and wait for a phone call. However, we didn’t actually make it that far as just as when we were about to drive off, low and behold, the sales guy came running out and says ‘come back in as, actually, he might be able to do something’. So in the end, we did get the car within our budget with the proviso we settle the invoice before this month ends, which was fine for us.

Whether or not we could have got more discount if we’d have pushed harder or played things a bit differently I guess we’ll never know. Unfortunately we don’t buy cars as often as these salesmen sell them, and the guy that dealt with us was very experienced. So it was a pretty exhausting day; a long drive, high pressure sales, and large amounts of money, but I think the outcome was fairly good all round since Nigel got the car he wanted, I was happy as we didn’t go over budget, and the salesman sold a car and obviously made some money in doing so.

The moral of the story is had we started off looking at a car that was already within our budget we never have pushed so hard for a discount and therefore, in theory, not got as good a car for our money. It was only because of reading the car buying guide that we knew we could consider pushing it that far.

So next weekend we can go collect our handsome Audi A4 2.0 TDI (140 PS) S-line Avant. It’s just a bit of a shame that it’s quite a long way to go again.

So after a few weeks of shopping at Aldi, I would definitely say I’m a convert. Every week I get to Aldi just after 8:30am (when it it opens) and get as much off my shopping list as I can – that’s usually most of the basics – toilet roll, bottled water, onions, apples, clementine oranges, crisps and so on. It’s always been pretty quiet at that time so I whizz round and am usually loading the car up within about 20-25 minutes. Then it’s off up to Morrisons to get the rest of my list. I actually find the Morrisons shop the worst part of my shopping outing. Morrisons is always so busy even shortly after 9am. What really mystifies me (and winds me up) is that at least 50% of the customers in Morrisons on Saturday morning are senior citizens with at least half of whom seem to have mobility difficulties. Without wishing to be unkind, when I find myself unable to move and squashed against the potatoes due to being surrounded by mobility scooters and people with sticks I have to really fight the urge to ask one of them ‘just why are you here?’ Surely most of these people could go to Morrisons any day of the week, so why do they insist of going on a Saturday? If I could pick any day to go shopping, the day I would definitely *not* choose is a Saturday (or Sunday). I simply wouldn’t go to Morrisons at all on a weekend if I didn’t have to. The reason why I go early is that it’s about the only time of the day that I can (just about) tolerate it. I would much rather go on a weekday morning, but when you work full time that just isn’t possible.

A few weeks ago I tried Tesco, which is only across the road from Aldi. Although it was quieter that Morrisons, the Bradford Tesco it too big, and I hate the layout. I ended up forgetting things (including milk!) because I wasn’t used to where things were. I’m sure I’d get used to it if I went more often, but I’m also more inclined to shop at Morrisons out of principle (even though I think it’s more expensive) as it’s a Bradford company.

My Aldi recommendations are:

• Most of their fruit and veg, notably mushrooms, sweet potatoes, onions, tomatoes, clementines (although they’re out of season now so it’s mineolas instead). A few weeks ago they had strawberries which I think tasted better than Tesco’s Finest strawberries but were half the price. Grapes are 69p for 1/2 a kilo at the mo and they’re delicious
• I also recommend their cheese (particularly mature cheddar and white Cheshire), Scottish smoked salmon, smoked streaky bacon, premium gammon steaks, German ham
• Also their Italian Stoned Baked Romagna frozen pizza and tubs of steam fresh frozen veg (they’re 69p and as good as Birdseye steam fresh veg)
• Premium French lager

I spent all of last week on a ‘Introductory Bookkeeping and Basic Accounting’ course at Kaplan Financial’s training centre in Leeds. I quite enjoyed it, but it felt strange being back in a college type learning environment after 5 years. It was just like being back at school, especially since I was one of the oldest people on the course – most of the attendees appeared to be school leavers who were commencing finance apprenticeships. It was a good course and I learnt a lot, but my main criticism was that there were too many on it – the first two days there were over 40 people. I thinks that’s too much for one tutor, especially when there are exercises to do as the trainer can’t really get round everyone. It’s a bit more difficult to ask questions or request help when there are 39 other people in the room. However, a lot of people were only attending the first 2 days, so from Wednesday the numbers shrunk down to about 25 which was better.

So… now I know all about double-entry bookkeeping, extracting trial balances and profit-and-loss accounts, VAT, amongst many other exciting things. And I now also know what loads of financey words mean that, to be honest, I’d heard about but couldn’t have clearly defined before – things like ‘fixed assets’, ‘liabilities’, and ‘nominal ledgers’.

We had a different tutor almost every day. They all seemed very nice. The lady on Thursday was lovely but had the oddest Yorkshire accent (I think she was from Hull) and pronounced ‘o’ like ‘ur’ (so nur rather than no, murst rather than most). On Thursday morning I spent about the first 5-10 minutes wondering why she kept talking about turtles. I couldn’t understand why it’d got to Thursday and this was the first time I’d heard about turtles in a financial situation – ‘Gather together your turtles?’ What on earth does that mean? It was only when she wrote on the board that I realised the ‘turtles’ were actually ‘totals’.