House hunting

Ok, I wasn't going to announce our house hunting here until we've actually found something, but I have a thing about service and that is really what I want to discuss.

So yes! For about the past two or three weeks we've been looking at properties. It's amazing how quickly you can get sucked into it. You think you'll just start out slow, looking here and there, nothing too serious. But contact one or two agents and they're all after you to sell you something. And I find it hard to say no. What if that one property I didn't feel like viewing was THE one. So we have a pretty high stack of brochures already lying on the table!

But back to service. I've had some shockingly bad service from certain agencies who I will mention in a later post. But I wanted to start off positively with the very first agent who showed us the very first house. That house by the way is still on the market with a stunning kitchen and modern bathrooms including an en suite.... sigh...

Oh yes, about service. The agent who showed us this house is from the estate agency Carsons. After seeing that first house we told him we can't possibly buy the first house we viewed and need to look at more before making a decision. He has called once to show us another house and after that left us in peace to view more properties. I've been meaning to contact him just to say we're still here when he called me just now to check how our search is going.

I explained that Andre has ruled that house out because of the internet speed in that area. At the moment we are getting 50Mb. In South Africa we got something like 384kbps or 512kbps. I don't know much about these things but I know that's not even 1Mb. Half a Mb if you're lucky! But hey, we had internet over there and were even able to upgrade from dial up to DSL.

So the agent from Carsons said he's going to do some research and call me right back.

Only a few minutes later he called back to say he has contacted Virgin (our current super fast cable internet, tv and phone provider) and they're not planning on installing cable in that area probably ever. He then also phoned his dad who actually lives just a couple of houses down the road from this house with the pretty kitchen and bathrooms. His dad is getting 8Mb internet speed.

I'm now waiting to hear what Andre thinks about this. But I just think that this is such excellent service. Sure he wants to sell the house, but he actually did some extra effort to get us some more information about things that are important for us (I mean for Andre...)

It's the little things that makes a huge difference. We would very much like to buy a house through someone who has put in some extra effort to understand us and what we need.

Oh, you're curious to see the house? Just look at this kitchen. Open plan with huge sliding doors going outside. It has those glass panels that fold all the way open.

And an island! I so want an island in my kitchen! And that shower style mixer tap is a bonus too!

Did you see the his and hers built in ovens? That's for when I want roasted butternut which Andre doesn't like. Then he can make his chicken schnitzels and chips in his own oven.

Oooh and look look! A wine cooler! We don't drink much white wine, but I could keep some sparkling wine cool in that fridge.

Other pros for this house:
- It's only 10 min to Andre's work
- It has heli hovering space in the garden and heli flying space in the park right behind the house
- And it has a kitchen, bathroom, en suite that I love.
- Open plan living into the garden which we both love.

Cons:
- Slower internet (doubt I will notice a difference though)
- No Virgin cable tv which means no TiVo box (saves us money. So does slower internet.)
- Quite a small garden so no veggie patch. :(
- Not rural, which we would have liked.
- No pantry for storing food. We've gotten very used to a walk in pantry.

Anyway, I really wanted to give Carsons, and specifically Alun from the Earley branch who is helping us in our search, a thumbs up for their great service. I didn't mean to go on about the house so much. I guess I really like it. What do you think?

I've always wanted my own tulips

The tulips came to surprise us. They opened while I was away for the weekend in Germany. All red and one purple one with more pointy petals. They're so pretty and bright in our garden.

We've also now got many of these little grape hyacinths and some other new flowers that have appeared in the last week. I'll have to take my camera outside again!

These are all bulbs that were in the garden, hence the surprise :)

Photos all taken by André.

Weekend in Germany

Last week Tuesday I skyped my mom and asked what they're doing on the weekend. She said they didn't have plans so I asked if I could come over for a visit and I did. It was nice to have a little trip away from home. It felt like a mini holiday! And it was my first time leaving my husband alone at home. I've never gone away without him since we've been married. I think he enjoyed some time playing his computer game for hours, watching the tv programs I never want to watch with him and going for a bike ride. I like to think he also missed me.

My mom and I had a great time talking until our heads were spinning! Here are some photos from last weekend.

Shopping in Munich

Getting fresh bread rolls from the bakery for breakfast

Easter sweet breads at the bakery

Mom's neighbours!

At Westpark, Munich

Japanese garden at Westpark, Munich

Thai Garden at Westpark, Munich

Ice cream break!

A walk around the lake in Eching

Sunday lunch: more ice cream!!

And on my way home again... View of London and the Thames

Some photos by me and some by Jürgen.

A Disappointing Loaf...

I made soup tonight. Not something that gets a "YES!!!" from my husband when he hears what's for dinner, but he does enjoy it once he realises there won't be anything else. I made creamy black bean soup tonight from my Indian cookbook. It was ok. I realised I would need to have something extra to fill up my husbands stomach with! Too late to bake a bread, I drove to the store, the nicer, posher one, to go buy a bread to have with our soup. I was hoping for a nicer posher bread from this store.

I got this round one which looked kind of home made if you know what I mean. As home made as it can get in a shop. It looked good. But we were rather disappointed. It was really just a plain wholemeal bread in a different (deceiving) shape...

I recommended we freeze the left over half to have another time. Andre recommended we feed it to the birds.

We already have a bread in the making in the bread machine which will be ready at 5.45am tomorrow morning.

And we know it will be good.

More shopping at CSN Stores

The friendly people from CSN stores here in the UK have contacted me again and I am excited to do another review on one of their products. I have shopped with them before. They sell everything from wine racks to bedroom furniture and more. I love the cookware section and that will probably be where I'll be shopping again! 

Perhaps some colourful mixing bowls.

I really need a brush and tongs for the kitchen. I've been meaning to buy this for so long. Trying to egg brush pies with a teaspoon and your finger does not work too well!

Do you think my husband would mind the pink?

I've had my eye on these silicone cooking spoons for a while now...

And this is just gorgeous.

Excuse me while I continue browsing! I'll be back soon to show you my shopping...


Sorry... seems like the photos aren't showing anymore..

Homemade yoghurt

I'm still making my own yoghurt at home. I actually prefer my own yoghurt now to store bought plain yoghurt. I add some vanilla essence to it which makes it taste really good. 

Anyway, as I said before in this yoghurt recipe, you need to keep it warm for 10-12 hours. Up to now it has been quite cold so I just made sure I'd be home on yoghurt making day when I would have the heating on most of the time. The yoghurt then sits on the windowsill above the radiator and stays nice and warm. But now that it's getting summer I really don't need the heating on in the house during the day anymore. So I had to make a plan to keep my yoghurt nice and cosy...

I have one of those heat packs which you heat in the microwave, meant for sore muscles. So my yoghurt container is covered with the heat pack and then wrapped snugly in the blanket. I've been carrying it around the house all morning following the sunny spots. Then when I went out to do some gardening, the yoghurt came out with me and is still sitting out in the warm sun on the bench outside! 

I'll test it tomorrow morning, but my plan should work!

A meaty weekend

We're not used to eating much meat anymore. We've gone through weeks where we realised we've only had meat once that week and it was chicken. We do still love a good steak. Which is what we had this weekend.

Steak & Pepper Sauce

Andre finished his, but felt a bit ill the next day. I only managed about a third of my piece pictures here. We used to be bigger meat eaters than this!

Andre always cooks the steak. But I am very particular about how I like my steak. I want it med-rare. I know how long it needs to go each side and how long I want it to rest so I have Andre running around the kitchen trying to get everything done before the timer I've set goes off! He also made the most delicious pepper sauce with it. I don't usually like pepper sauce and would never ever order it in a restaurant. But this one was fantastic. It didn't have any peppercorns in it, only ground black pepper. It's the peppercorns I don't like.

Then after steak night we had burger night. We made the patties ourselves and topped it with the left over pepper sauce. I'm also not one who would ever really crave a burger, but this was the best burger I've ever had! I suppose also because I could decide on the size of patty I wanted so I wasn't overly stuffed like I would usually feel after having a burger.

Burger & Pepper Sauce

We're having a few vegetarian dinners this week to recover and give our bodies a rest after all that meat!


The recipe for the burger and the pepper sauce is over here on my other blog.