On the way to Germany

But only a quick trip for meetings on Monday and Tuesday, so alas no time for the Christmas markets. :-(

The frugal Christmas decorations - part 1

While living in Europe, I never saw a huge point of doing a lot of decorating for the holidays because I'm always in the US for most of the period. Therefore, I went very minimal with just a string of lights in Germany.

Similar to yesterday's topic of a secondhand Christmas, rather than buying one more 'made in China' thing which would clutter up a landfill someday, I decided to buy my holiday decorations from the charity shops here in my corner of Essex.

OK, so there are five of them so I have plenty of choices, and plus, the profits are going to the charity rather than some big non-local corporation.

Behold, my first purchase:

Yes, that's an actual Weihnachtspyramide (Christmas pyramid) from Germany. It was in a German box, no wonder no one here in the UK bought it, it probably looks like the oddest thing if you haven't seen one before. For a mere 3.95 GBP it was mine, complete with the candles (looking a little worse for the wear, but with a price tag in DM!).

The garland was also a recent purchase there. For 2.50 GBP I picked up a gigantic catch-all back of various garlands and strings of tinsel in all sorts of colors and sizes.

I wasn't sure what the cat would thing about the pyramid, or the tinsel for that matter, so it's safely resting on top of the bookshelf being ignored. :-)

The frugal holidays - homemade and secondhand

The thing I like least about the holidays is all of the stress that goes along with them. Of course, it's always nice to come back to the US for two weeks and enjoy time off and the traditions of my childhood...

I've been informed from home that due to economic conditions, Christmas is being scaled back and gift giving should be minimal. Something similar happened last year as well. Having spent my student years doing retail stints, I've been forever since turned off of mass produced gifts which sprout like mushrooms in all the aisles of the mall and Target. In the past few years I've attempted to make an effort in what I buy or make to make it meaningful rather than costly. On the receiving side, I've made a request in the past few years for nothing much as I have limited ability to carry it all back, but instead to receive gifts like 'pick Heather up at the airport rather than jetlagged having to take the train home'.

So how did it work last year?

It was quite a mixed bag in the end.

-A few people couldn't deal with the change and at the last minute bought last-minute gifts.

-My self-professed shopaholic aunt had been on a decluttering spree so she went 'shopping' in her stash of treasures. She had a different goal of 'spend no money and get rid of excess stuff' so that was acceptable.

-Some re-gifting was being done, of gifts received from work or the like. This was deemed acceptable as the giver wasn't spending any money.

-I shop throughout the year so this edict came too late for me. As I tend to buy secondhand or homemade items, I skirted in under the wire of acceptability.

Overall, I was very pleased with the experiment. Anticipating something similar this year I followed a similar tactic. As I'm starting to set things aside as I begin to pack for the trip home in December, I'll make a few postings in the coming days about what one can buy homemade or secondhand in Europe for the curious frugal out there.

The *somewhat* frugal beach holiday in Portugal

A few months back, new friend Ian and I went to Portugal. Portugal has been an elusive one for me for a few years. Back in 2003 when I first arrived in Europe, there were a lot of cheap flights and travel, but over the years it seemed to dry up. Portugal was never a cheap flight from my corner of Germany though, so I was pleased to finally go.

The flight and transport:
Living (relatively) near Stansted means that we're somewhat limited in our flight selection. Love them or hate them, Ryanair runs the show over there, so you're hard pressed to find a cheaper flight option, unless it's a country specific one like AirBerlin to Germany.
-I had a few requirements--I wanted to go to the beach.
-Ian had a few requirements--he didn't want to go on (another) 6 AM Ryanair flight, he wanted a more civilized time.

We were somewhat lucky in that we were both flexible on when we could go. We held off until September (the beginning of school sessions), and prices dropped.

I found three cheap Ryanair flights--2 in Spain, 1 in Portugal. We ended up with Stansted to Faro for 83 GBP each, which included all their silly taxes and baggage fees, and a civilized flight take-off time of 09.25.

We skipped parking at the airport because the airport bus is easy to take and parking is expensive. Ten GBP gets you a roundtrip ticket on the nice, direct bus and it leaves you 2 minutes walk from the check-in desks.

On the arriving end, I had pre-booked a reputable transport company [Algarve-365 Airport Transfers (transfers@algarve-365.com)] to take us to and from the Airport to our hotel in Albufiera. They are staffed by UK folks living in Portugal, so our driver was a great source of info on the local area. We didn't want to deal with the hassle of renting a car, or a never-ending shuttle bus run to multiple hotels. So we paid 60 Euros for the roundtrip transport. With two or more people, it's a great way to go.

The Hotel

Now that Easyjet and Ryanair have come to Faro, the surrounding beaches are overrun with Brits. In addition, the market is mainly filled with the gigantic, all-inclusive hotels. We were looking for something a little smaller and quieter.

We ended up choosing the Albufeira area due to its reputation for nice beaches. I searched far and wide for a hotel. I searched through the Spanish sites in addition to see what I could find.

We went with Residencial Mar a Vista, a smaller hotel of five floors located at the top of one of the winding hills. The area is very hilly. It was only 150 metres away from Peneco beach, but it was pure treading uphill at the end of the day. We liked the exercise, so it was great. Five nights came in at 173 Euros total (excluded breakfast) and we didn't see a single Brit there. It was a smaller, cozy hotel set a distance from the loud discos and such. The steep walk ensured that it attracted more of a Portuguese crowd, or some other healthy Europeans.

There was an option to get breakfast for an additional 5 EUR per day, we tried it one day. The difficulty on this point is that I am not a breakfast person, only coffee, so I'm always peeved at the thought of overpaying for coffee only. Ian isn't a huge breakfast person, so we tended to pick him up a sandwich on the way.

If you did happen to be going to this hotel--the site where breakfast is located is beautiful, if you can get the two outside tables overlooking the ocean, but the sun glare off of it is immense. It's nothing fancy for breakfast--bread rolls, cheese, salami, and a choice of cereals.

A much better option--which we did--was to stop at the neighborhood supermarket on our way down the hill. It had all the basic provisions like bottled water, cookies, etc. at a fraction of the cost of the beach stores.

The Food:
When in Rome...the dish of the region was chicken piri piri, which Ian enjoyed multiple times. At many places it was advertised for 5 Euros for the plate which offered a choice of fries or some or some other potatoes:

For the vegetarians in the party (heheh), options were a little more limited. However, virtually every place offered salads and omelets. I'm not a huge fan of omelets, but they did mushroom ones pretty well:

A lot of places did lunchtime specials. The vacationing Portuguese (and us) were smart enough to get out of the sun from 1130-14.00. The sun was really strong still in September and temps were high 20's. The Brits stayed on the beach and fried to a pink crisp.

The result was that most restaurants offered great lunchtime offers to get people in. Often our best meal of the day would be lunch.

Along the way I noticed that everyone was using those floaty things not for paddling around in the water, but for sleeping on the beach:

And there were plenty of places selling them, plus umbrellas, hats, sunblock, etc. all at exorbitant beach prices:

One day, the clouds came overhead ominously and it began to spit rain. There was an exodus from the beach as everyone headed back to their hotels. On the way, beachgoers who were obviously on their way out that night or tomorrow morning started depositing their floating things, umbrellas, etc. next to the trash bins on the beach.

Ian was fully embarassed by me picking up two rafts which looked like new, as well as an umbrella. He wasn't so embarassed however, not to use the raft the next day for his ancient back, once i rinsed it off in the ocean. Talk about a consumer society...the items looked new, like they would bought in the past day or two. So we got a good couple of days out of the two rafts and umbrella, and then donated them on our way out to the charity shop for pets who were selling all sorts of that stuff and who gladly accepted them.

Heather's thought for the future-->check the local charity shops in advance for beach things and general souvenir stuff, if there is one relatively close to our location. Portugal is known for cork, so had I wanted to pick up any of those little gifts for anyone like cork coasters or Portugal spoons or plates, the charity shop was oozing with that stuff, for a fraction of the cost of the main shops.

One thing we did enjoy...coffee in Portugal reminds me of coffee in Spain--it's strong and it's cheap. We ferreted out a place near the beach, but off of the beaten path, which seems to be frequented by locals. I sent Ian in, but the woman only spoke Portuguese (score!). I went in and spoke Spanish with her (I was a little hesitant to do this, my Spanish colleagues have given me quite an education about the historical role of Spain in Portugal's history), however, it seemed better than English in this case.

I was able to get my strong expresso and Ian's frilly Latte at a lower price than any of the cafes where the menu was in English:

Could we have done it cheaper?

Well sure. We could have done couchsurfing to save the hotel costs (Ian not so fond of that idea and had already vetoed camping). Or we could have stayed at a closer beach to Faro (Heather not fond of that idea since we were there for five nights, maybe if it was only a weekend.) Or we could have gone with a self-cathering flat and done lunch at home. We had asked the shuttle driver how business had been, she said the numbers have been down, and those that were coming were saving pennies. She noticed a big increase to trips to self-catering flats in the past year over previous years to full-service hotels. In addition, she mentioned that people who own properties there and usually rent them out were coming to use them for personal use--a cheap holiday for the owner while the place was unrented.

Would I do Portugal again?

Yes, definitely. The little we saw of it I liked. However, seeing the dry landscape in September, I'd be careful to avoid the summer months. In addition, my work colleague went during August and told me how the beaches were packed, so September was really the way to go, even though the sun was setting behind the mountains as of 18.30 each day.

UK theoretical driving test - done!

I've been a bit MIA this past week. All of my free time was spent working on a big law assignment for Wednesday, I had a lot of after hours work calls with the US office, and the rest of the time was spent studying for the UK theoretical driving test.

I had two UK 'how to get your driving license' books from the library, a printout of the UK Highway code from the the government motoring site, and most importantly, The Official Theory Test for Car Drivers from the UK Driving Standards Agency, the government group who licenses drivers. My version was from the library so it wasn't the latest and greatest version, as well it had plenty of pencil marks of previous borrowers, however, I knew I didn't need this book long term so it was good enough for my purposes. This book is all questions from the test bank, actual questions, almost 400 pages of them.

I had booked the next available appointment at the closest testing site. The testing centers for this theoretical computer test are outsourced centers, so a little different from the US version where they are goverment agencies. My corner of Essex is large so we have one in town, a mere eight minutes walk from my house.

I remember when I turned in my Pennsylvania licence for a California one. I was in San Mateo and the Driver's License office was gigantic. You entered a took a number for the main desk. The main desk looked at your forms and ID and insurance papers or whatever, and then instructed you to take various numbers from machines next to them. The number slips were different colors, and it corresponded to different areas. For my part I needed to convert my PA license to a CA one, to do so I had to take the theoretical test. Then I had to change over my car registration as well once that was passed. The changeover included showing the car insurance paperwork, title, etc. to someone at a desk, as well as the car receiving a once over to insure that it was worthy for CA roads. I had three or four little slips of paper and was there a good two hours or so, but everything was done in that one visit, although I did have a little waiting at each 'station'.

So I showed up 15 minutes early for my 10 AM appointment as the appointment letter suggested. Only in the UK--when you walk it, there is a sign 'please take a seat.' There is no number taking machine. There are already five people there, how would they know who is next? When the man sitting at the desk said next, they all looked at each other, eventually coming to consensus as to whose turn it was after 15 seconds or so. Can you imagine this scenario in Germany? ;-)

After reviewing the Provisional license and the accompanying paper form which travels with it, I was sent to his colleague for a second review. Both of them crossed me off their lists once proof was appropriate. The second colleague was also a little older, both of them looked as if this was a part-time retirement job. She goes through the rules--don't stand up until you are done, please use the anti-germ hand gel here, if you have any issues please raise your hand, etc etc--'and most importantly...good luck!'

I took my seat at my assigned computer and followed along the introductory tutorial. The temperatures were rather chilly, I felt like an egg in the icebox. There are two parts to this theoretical test: Part 1 is 50 multiple choice questions in 50 minutes; part two is 14 'hazard scenarios' where the camera is positioned like you're in the driver's seat in the car going down the road, and you're supposed to mouse click when you see hazards developing.

The first part is nicer than any driving test I've taken in the US, or maybe it's because my US driving tests were 10 years ago (CA) or ahem, *cough*, more than 15 years ago (PA). This multiple choice test was completely touch screen, no mouse needed, and it had such fancy things like 'flagging a question' to return to it later or the option to review all questions at the end, etc.

As I started, I recognized many questions from the book, so most were quick. Plus, I was freezing cold, so not dillydallying on the answers. I went through the 50 questions in 7 minutes. Granted, I was on autopilot on a number of them as they were from the book and some of them are just common sense if you are already a driver.

Sidenote: in the waiting area, I was the oldest applicant by a good 15 years or so. The two young ladies near me were chatting--both had failed this test previously and both have been actually driving on the UK roads since August. Boy did I feel old...and maybe wise with experience, not sure.

I then proceeded to part two of the theoretical test, the hazards. I didn't prepare for this bit at all, but probably should have in retrospect. It takes you through these driving scenarios (which make me a little carsick). The camera is bouncing along, just like you're in a car. In the introduction, it gives you an overview of how it works. You're driving along and it circles the hazards for you. There is a pedestrian on the sidewalk...as she approaches the sidestreet to cross it, there is a motorcycle in front of you nearing the sidestreet. It circles the woman as a traffic hazard as the motorcycle might want to turn left and there will be a pedestrian crossing. (In my corner of Essex, that wouldn't be called a 'hazard' but rather a 'nuisance' and the driver would honk the horn at the pedestrian for slowing him down--but I digress.) It gives you the warning not to overclick or willynilly click, or that scenario will be given 0 points. There is the instruction that there is one hazard per clip, with one clip having two, and that you should click as soon as you notice the hazard, and then subsequently click each time the scenario changes.

Off we go on scenario one. I was giving each clip about four clicks in my quest to not invalidate my scenario. A car is signalling to put into the lane (click). The car pulls into the lane in front of me (click), and on and on we go. A child is playing with a ball on a sidewalk (click), a bird flies through the air in front of the car (no click?).

As I muddle along, I get really bored of this game around scenario five. Click, click, click. One scenario has sheep wandering into the road, it looks like you're driving deep in the Wales countryside or maybe up North in Scotland. I have no idea where the closest sheep field would be to my corner of Essex, but I guarantee it's at least two hours away.

I finish with the scenarios, stepping out into the hallway looking forward to putting on my coat and scarf. The woman checks my id once more and sends me to my locker to retrieve my coat etc. with instructions to then report to the first colleague for the results. He hands me two papers folded up and says, 'I'm not allowed to tell you the results.' As no one was there, I unfolded the sheets to look. He helpfully suggests--It's usually the first sentence.

The pass rate on this test seems higher to me than the US equivalent tests. On part 1, one must get at least 43 of 50 multiple choice questions correct; I had 47. On part 2, one must get 44 of 75 points (5 points is the maximum per scenario, there are 14 of them and one has two), I had 44 dead on, so one less click and I would have been sunk. In retrospect, I didn't click enough for their stringent requirements. For example, there is a puddle on the other side of the road and no cars coming on that side. To me that is not a hazard, but I think on this test it was. Then a car comes toward the puddle--that should have been another click--then the car swerves into my lane to avoid the puddle--ok, so I clicked there. And then another car does the exact same. Who swerves into another lane with a car coming to avoid a puddle??

But anyway, a pass is a pass, so it's on to the second part next, the Practical driving part of the exam. In theory, I could drive as a learner with this Theoretical Pass for up to two years, but my 'non-learner' status under the 'one year as a foreign driver' expires in Feb so you can be sure I'll be working toward that date. :-)

Frugal side potatoes

I've had a busy week this week. I knew going into it that it would be busy, so I created a few big meals and spent the rest of the time combining them in leftover fashion. In addition, it was chilly this week in the UK so I made meals that could go into the oven for heating.

I started with the rooftop garden potatoes. I boiled them for 15 minutes and then put them into the roasting pan. I added a bit of onion and garlic (also from the garden). I added half of a leek from the market and a little oil (cost negligible). Full cost of the leek was .75 pence, so we're up to around .37 pence cost here:

Next I topped it with the remaining breadcrumb/parmesan cheese mixture from the Breaded mushrooms. As I calculated that cost into the mushroom recipe, I considered this one to be a free addition:

It went into the oven for 25 min at 175 C. Then I added a few chopped up tomatos for moisture and because they were reaching the end of their shelf life:

The final outcome was a side of potatoes with at least 5 meals this week:

Total cost per serving? Around 7 pence.

What ended up with it? One day I had leftover pasta bake for a carbfest, another day was a green salad, another day was assorted leftovers, and on and on...the above photo was the salad day, other day's portions were smaller.

Technology

is like everything else, it's neither good nor bad in and of itself, but it's all in how you use it. More so, it's how the people who set it up create the user experience...

Example: bad technology
Southern Water Company sent me an SMS yesterday on my company J provided work mobile--'please contact this number to pay your water bill immediately, it's past due. If you do not contact us further action will be taken.'

Here in my corner of Essex, I'm serviced by Essex and Suffolk Water. Further, that water bill is paid through the property management company who covers the flat and then bills us all back every six months.

Out of curiousity I looked up where this company is located--they deliver water to people across Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. The person who had this phone before me (not at company J), skipped out on some bills it appears. For some weeks I had collection agents calling me a few months back, but once I informed them that it is a corporate registered work phone since February and here is the registered work address, they would usually back off as these bills were coming from before then.

Not wanting to get further bothered by Southern Water Company, I called them to point them in another direction.

Southern Water Co voice: What's your account number?
H: I don't have one...(explains situation)
SWC: OK, let me try to search on the mobile number.....nope, not here. Any chance you have a name or an address?
H: No...I don't know this person, I just received the mobile number later.
SWC: There's nothing we can do.
H: So you're smart enough to send me the SMS messages, but you can't figure out the person linked to that number?
SWC: Not on this system, without an account number or a full name or an address, no, sorry about that.
H: Well, it's not your fault, you didn't design it.
SWC: I would recommend, when you get more of them, just to ignore them.
H: Will this account then go to a collection agency?
SWC: If not paid, yes.
H: ....(eyes heavenward)
SWC: But if you explain, then they'll stop calling. Sorry I can't provide more help.
H: ... Well. you did your best.
SWC: I know I didn't help you so much today, but would you mind to go to a customer service survey to rate my support?

Example: good technology
I went to donate blood here in the UK. I had donated blood over six years ago, when I lived here last. I no longer have the card, nor do I remember the address registered as I do remember giving a work colleague's home address rather than worry about them sending sensitive mail to a corporate flat.

I show up and mention that the last time was over five years ago (as a non-UK resident, on top of it!), so that I probably need to register once again? The woman taps onto the laptop my name and date of birth and manages to find my record.

NHS Woman: Was your home address... (screws up face in concentration)
H: in Wales.
NHS: Yes, and you last donated in (J work city near Birmingham)?
H: Yes, that's me!
NHS: (dryly) I'll assume I should change your home address and donation address to this corner of Essex?
H: Oh yes. When I called the central help line, they mentioned that I would need to register again as a new UK donor, as it was more than five years ago?
NHS woman: They tend to say that, but your name and date of birth is distinct, so possible to find you.
H: And they don't remove the records after they are dormant for a while?
NHS: Only if you ask.

I was pleasantly surprised by that one, that they made this system easy enough to use that this woman was able to locate my six year old record in under a minute, nevermind the huge geographical disparity of where I am now to where I was before. Well done, NHS.

Breaded mushrooms

I recently bought this book at Oxfam for 8.99 GBP. It was rather heavy to carry home, but it's absolutely superb. Every single page has a recipe and 4 photos: the final product and 3 steps leading up to it. I love photos in my cooking, mainly because I have no idea what I'm doing most of the time. ;-)

If you'd like to try some vegetarian recipes which are slightly above basic skills, I'd highly recommend it. I also like that it includes the nutritional info with each recipe, so that you can see what you're getting into.

Below, I tried out 'Mushroom Bites with Aioli' (page 161 in my edition):



On the left are the mushrooms which were dipped in two egg whites and then dipped in a breadcrumb and parmesan cheese before going into the oven for around 15 minutes. On the right is the Aioli. I took some heavy liberties with this one. The recipe suggested 2 egg yolks, garlic cloves, olive oil, and salt/pepper. However, it also suggested a variation to try instead fresh herbs and sour cream instead of the egg yolks. I combined a bit from both ideas and it all came out right in the end.

I know you can get packaged frozen version of breaded mushrooms, but these were so much better than the ones I had like that in Germany or here in the pubs. There is no oil involved in the mushrooms of this recipe so they come out much lighter and it was simple to make. (Excluding the self-inflicted injury Ian suffered while trying to grate the frozen bread into breadcrumbs.)