Secret £7 Food Challenge. Challenge Within a Challenge.

Yesterday I blogged about a weekend of decadence... and here's a photo of the stash of bought and blagged books and things from Brighton and World Fantasy Convention. Unfortunately all the red velvet cupcakes are in my belly already...

...which reminds me, there was a sweet moment at the launch of Colder, Greyer Stones, when Tannith Lee asked me what my "Cake Pigeon" tee-shirt was about, and I explained it was a Sarah Millican joke. It involved me doing some cooing.

Anyway... the cupcakes are gone. Life has returned to post-convention mundanity. I have paid for a cinema treat at the end of the month, and am building savings up by making cutbacks. We've gone a bit off-plan and need to get back on track with big, scary bills of the present and future. But I want to make sure OH doesn't feel deprived. He's got to have an operation and take time off work. He has plenty of books to get through while he is recuperating, at least.

So, when I say I am taking on Stacey at Mortgage Free Journey's £7 food challenge, my challenge will not be including OH. He can wander off the plan with impunity. However, I will be budgeting his meals into the plan and hoping it's satisfactory for him. I'll be using up some of the things from our chest freezer to make the budget stretch. Bear in mind, we have lots of tins and things in, but hardly any fresh stuff left at all!

Anyway, I'm 2 days in, so here's what I've managed so far.

Day 1: Breakfast: me, wheat biscuits, maple syrup, milk - already bought. Him - nothing, he rarely eats breakfast.
Lunch: both of us, egg and salad cream sandwiches, Satsuma/plum. already bought.
Treats: me, someone brought in leftover Halloween chocolate.  OH made himself a fried egg sandwich in the afternoon.
Dinner: Smoked Salmon spaghetti. This was made with smoked salmon trimmings from the freezer, a small onion, clove of garlic, half a small tin of sweetcorn and some Elmlea single we had to use up, slightly thickened with cornflour, seasoned with nutmeg and parsley, and served with spaghetti.Yum!
Shopping: cucumber 40p and fish paste 25p

I didn't buy any bread. Made my own, nur!

I made this. Mmm. Arg.

 Day 2:

Breakfast: porridge and maple syrup. I make my porridge with water and just add a splash of milk at the end.

Lunch: fish paste and cucumber sandwiches - with homemade bread!

Treats: a handful of chilli crisps and more sweets left over from someone's party

Dinner: Pork steaks marinaded in maple syrup, lemon juice, garlic and rosemary, grilled. Served with potato and swede mash, with a bit of nutmeg, gravy made from stock/cornflour and veg juices, steamed carrots and leeks (I steam the veg above the potatoes - saves energy as well as retaining the flavour better). Sorry, the brown nature of my kitchen gives everything a sheen of the 70s. It was very tasty. However, OH wanted pudding so I made pancakes, served with homemade blackberry jam.

Shopping: Poor pickings in my local Asda. I only bought onions, 29p. Off to Aldi tomorrow.

 

 

Total spend this week: 94p.

Anyone else tempted to join in?

 

World Fantasy Convention and Brighton - Part Two

I hope you enjoyed part one of Things that Should Have Stayed in Brighton. I'm sad that some of the books we bought and had signed ended up staying in Brighton... there's a very, very slight chance that they will turn up and the hotel's Lost Property will call today... but, of course, with so many free books lying around the most likely scenario is that they were collected up and donated to raise funds for a cancer charity. At least I can console myself that they were lost in a good cause.

 

And so, we begin part deux. Readers of the previous blog may recall there was mention of booze and people and we finished on Sunday night, sometime around 4ish. Actually, I think I'd sobered up by then... my conversations with Lavie Tidhar, Neil Williamson, Jetse de Vries and Simon Bestwick happened at some point; Ian Sales, Liam Proven and David Tallerman were giggling at me like schoolboys; Hal Duncan was singing "Born Free"  and talking about Dunoon to me... I can't remember when I arm-wrestled Ruth Booth...

 

At more sober times during the con, I kept saying "hello" to Liz Williams en route to places, and was often walking behind the fabulous coat of Emma Newman. I chatted a fair bit to Jonathon Oliver, especially at the Solaris desk, when he was there with Guy Adams.

 

But I cannot capture anywhere near all the good times that were had and all the lovely people I spoke to... I had a great time. My only downside was that with all the stairs my knee started hurting, so I decided to avoid joining Parkrun in Preston Park on Saturday. Next week I go unfit and unprepared into my 10km. Can't be helped.

 

Is it any surprise then that on Sunday, not having any tickets for the Banquet and subsequent World Fantasy Awards, and being a little, erm, tired, we didn't go back to the con hotel? Instead we wandered around the famous Lanes and down the seafront.

 

And the London-Brighton Vintage car rally was on. There were some beautiful cars:







 



 

It's clearly a rich man's hobby, though... every person interviewed when they finished their run sounded like a BBC/Pathé news broadcaster.

 



 

 

 

And could this be my favourite shop in Brighton? Choccywoccydoodah sells chocolate - expensive, arty chocolate. I liked the chocolate mugs - mugs made out of chocolate - with a silver spoon melted to the side. The impressive window display was full of skulls, cobwebs and giant displays of phantasmagoria. No, I didn't buy any... OH only had eyes for cycle shops, and other people's cycles.

 

Going to a convention like WFC is, admittedly, a bit of a jolly, but few of us would go to so many if there were nothing to be gained but an opportunity to meet friends and have a good time (I have a house, and a kettle, and nice  pubs nearby, thanks). It's an investment of time and resources to get your face known within the industry. Because it's an outlay, you need to carefully consider whether a convention is worth going to, and consider your budget even more carefully. And spending will happen - so belts must be tightened before and after... see my next blog about that grim reality. As with every investment, there is a risk that the return will not be as good as you hoped. But if that's the case, at least you still get a nice break from it. And see your friends, too!

 

Here are my financial yays and woahs for a con like WFC:

 

Books

 

Most of the books we picked up were free. Some of those are gorgeous publications, too. Books are treasures that I love to read... and give. We also supported the industry by buying some books we really wanted, and saved money by buying direct. Shame we lost some books, though. 

 

Booze

 

The bar in the hotel was expensive, but most of what we drank was free, given away at signings and launch parties. Trouble is, when the free stuff runs out, so do your financial inhibitions! We also took along some decent red wine acquired for 50p, but didn't get round to cracking that open. Ah well, it'll last.

 

Food

 

If I were a novelist, perhaps I'd have an agent whisk me off for an expenses-paid meal somewhere nice, but I'm not... yet. We got by on bargain express lunches, sandwiches, free cake and bar snacks from the parties and launches, and food we'd brought with us, and just got ripped off that once hunting for breakfast. I wish we'd stuck to Wetherspoons. I know it's not terribly exciting, but it's decent fodder, tea and beer at a reasonable price.

 

Freebies

 

Bags, wallets, promotional shot glasses... and I'm unlikely to run out of pens for a while!

 

Another time, I will try to stock up on soft drinks at the supermarket (time/organization) and will be a bit more insistent on going to Spoons. Probably go to more panels too, but then I think everyone says that...



 

 



World Fantasy Convention and Brighton - Part One

This is the tale of how OH and I travelled to Brighton and went to a World Fantasy Convention, spent rather a lot of money (but not as much as we could have) and had an excellent time.

What is a World Fantasy Convention? In summary: a huge professional convention attended by hundreds of writers, artists, booksellers, publishers, editors, bloggers and enthusiastic readers from all over the world. There is a great emphasis on appreciation of fantasy, so all the honoured guests, the networkers and the fans can get down to the grass roots of why we all do what we do. It's an enormous celebration of genre, a weekend-long party and/or business catch-up. Famous faces are gawped at, red wine is quaffed with abandon, promises are made - and broken - to not buy books, bad, blurry photos are taken, new bookmarks and giveaways grabbed off tables, reasonable bedtimes are missed (and often breakfast) and business cards swapped.

For a frugal wench with a decidedly unfrugal hubby, temptations and pitfalls abound. Take the dealer's room for example... As soon as you arrive and register, you get to pick up a dozen free books. That doesn't stop you getting all big-eyed when you see more of the things to buy. Waterstones won't stock a twentieth of these! And they are cheaper, too... bargain books! Bargain lovely things... but oh, so very many of them...

And sometimes swords, the like of which a Tolkien elf might wield. 

OH can't afford any of these. Sad face.



I was very pleased at managing to find cheaper hotel accommodation very near the convention hotel. On recommendation, I tried the Premier Inn - actually from a friend who got confused and was staying in the Travelodge. In fact, most of our friends were staying in the Travelodge... (no, I don't think they told us a different hotel on purpose). But the hotel room we had was spacious, comfy and quiet. And Lenny was no trouble.

I also used my Network Rail card and Train Genius to get a bargain train price. We had to take a specific train from Northampton (which was unfortunately very crowded), change twice (seats - hooray!) and could reverse the journey back on Sunday at any time before 18.25. Total 3 nights' accommodation and transport for the pair of us: £277.00.

Having been to a World Horror Convention before, we knew there were bound to be a lot of things to cart home, so I took our shopping trolley. This turned out to be very useful indeed. I also prepared for the journey by making giant spicy veggie pasties - just the thing for replacing energy lost through lugging -  and the Bite card for cheaper drinks.

Warning: lots of linked names now occur as I name-drop like crazy!

Greeting us at registration was the lovely Pixie Puddin'  handing out badges. We also saw our friends Andrew Reid, and Dave Lally, already run off their feet as red-coated volunteers. Some of the volunteering people were barely a blur, we hardly saw them. Some appeared to us only in the form of an avatar, sending a tweet every now and then. Every time we bumped into Andrew and Alasdair, though, they seemed remarkably cheerful, even though bits of Andrew were dropping off (toenail - ouchie).

It being early in the con, we gravitated towards the most expensive bar of the hotel, fools that we were. Here I was elbow-twisted by OH into acquiring a golden ticket to stop my Go Sober campaign a day early. Paul Cornell couldn't believe my defeatism! I accepted a delicious lemon drizzle cup cake from Kari Sperring, and said hello to the lovely Chaz Brenchley, who I haven't seen for ages, and who's now based in LA with his wife, K L Williams - who I also met. Then there was Sue Boulton and daughter, Kathy, and Del and Kim Lakin-Smith, Ian Whates and Helen Sansum, Neil and Gemma Beynon, Nick and Ellie, Gareth L. Powell, Ruth Booth Adam Osbourne and loads of other peeps.

It was all so very exciting, OH had to have a little lie down, so he didn't accompany me to go to the David Gemmel Awards. These awards were founded in honour of the legendary David Gemmel by the just as legendary, I think, Debs Miller - or Miller Lau. Debs passed away earlier this year, and tribute was made to her in the awards ceremony.

Ian Whates announces the book launch for Legends

After the ceremony, we attended a very lavish reception with lots of wine and nibbles on offer. I went to get a copy of the book, having completely forgotten I had one for helping out with it - brilliant!

And so, the wine flowed (free and freely). Quite tipsy, I used up all my bravery in chatting to artist Jim Burns. He was great fun to talk to. as were Ann Lyle and James Barclay...

Friday: might have missed a bit. Breakfast was a speedy Subway as we failed to make a reading. So the first panel-type-thing of the day was Gillian Redfearn's Guest of Honour interview with Joe Hill.  At noon. Gillian was witty, Joe was funny - it was really very good.

Neil and I then grabbed a Thai lunch and came back for the Terry Pratchett interview, which we watched in the company of Farah Mendlesohn. It was great to see Terry receive such tremendous support and to hear about his latest creative projects. It was also heartbreaking... PCA is such a cruel disease.

After Terry Pratchett's interview, it was very difficult to leave as there were so many people there to watch him. So, we waited things out and chatted with fellow Northampton Science Fiction Writers Group member, Mark West, and his friend Sue Moorcroft, who we thanked profusely for recommending the hotel for our honeymoon in Malta. We then went along to see Danie Ware at her book launch for Ecko Burning, and also picked up some books by Francis Knight, as they had a bit of a deal on together - and they had Pimms and chocolate cake which was jolly nice, and we chatted to Peter Hamilton and Charles Rudkin.

Ian Whates and Tannith Lee

I've been a fan of Tannith Lee's work for years - though she has written so many books, I've a lot to catch up with. It was lovely seeing her interviewed by my friend Ian as she was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

I then lost OH for hours as he went to the mass signing to get two books signed by Michael Marshall Smith (for whom I once narrated a short story for Pseudopod), and my copy of The Doll's House signed by Neil Gaiman. However, he didn't have anything for Joe Hill to sign, so asked for some in-jokes from his GoH interview to be daubed on his body. Neil Gaiman then couldn't help but add a little dalek...

Ruth looked after OH at the signing.

It then went crazy, as OH got written on by a lot of people including Paul Cornell, Ellen Kushner, Frances Hardinge and everyone we were drinking with in Bar 106.

Vinnie Chong tried not to look...

Dominic Harman - possibly being indecently proposed to...

Photo snaffled off WFC C/o them

Meantime, I was downstairs in bar 106 consoling myself at the Tor UK party with several red velvet cupcakes. He was gone ages - sniffle. But he did it for me! Pity then, that we seem to have lost the books somewhere. Sad face.We had fun later though and met lots of new peeps and I had squiffy conversations with James Worrad, Damien G Walter, James A. Moore, A J Dalton, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Simon Gilmartin  and Sammy Smith.

On Saturday, a valiant attempt was made to find a proper full English breakfast in Brighton. You'd think this was possible? If only we'd gone to Wetherspoons! But we tried to find a nice caf' or something and ended up in faux-rustic place with benches and dried chillies and chalkboards everywhere. Baked beans were an extra pound!  Normal beans!!! Nothing fancy. Also, the staff seemed a bit put out to have us there, and when it turned out service wasn't included, we decided it was. I think I left 35p change.

We went to a panel when we got back - about the sorts of things editors don't want to see, moderated by bossman Lee Harris, then picked a party to go to. We picked Amazon's... they had beer on offer and people to answer questions about self-publishing. And that's about all I'll say on that...

We managed to find a jolly decent pub for a jolly decent tea, then I did a quick change ready for my poetry performance that night. It was brilliant to have Sue, Kathy, Neil and Gemma come in to watch me, and I was in some really god poetical company. Joe Haldeman was there!!! and Roz Kaveney, Amanda Hemingway, Andrew Hook, Sophia Wessex, Cardinal Cox, Roy Gray...

...and the night continued merrily and ended with a good idea. And more will be said, but for now, part one is done.

Part two here.



World Fantasy Convention 2013 - Are We Nearly There Yet?

Only a few days to go until World Fantasy Convention in Brighton - I'm looking forward to it immensely.

OH and I have had stern words with ourselves about not buying any books. Okay... maybe just one...

The convention budget is set and we have prepared in advance by making sure our transport and accommodation is covered. The convention have issued stern warnings concerning seemly attire, imbibing of excess quantities of booze and lost passes. I'm afraid there's nothing in the kitty to cover any 'replacement fee' so I'd better not lose mine, or I'll need to spend the whole time in the bar instead - which would be more expensive, and liable to lead to the imbibing of excess quantities of booze. I've said that as it is Brighton, and they sound a bit like grumpy teachers telling the kids off, maybe they should have a 'forgotten pass - go to panels in the nuddy' rule.

I don't have any panels, but will be performing some spoken word on Saturday.

I'm looking forward to seeing lots of friends, and some of my favourite writers are going, too. Joanne Harris, Terry Pratchett, Tannith Lee, and loads of others.

I'm working tonight and have been hearing the whizz-bang of rockets going off nearby - it's that time of year. time for pumpkin and spice... samosas and jalebis!

There was a Diwali celebration in the market square on Saturday, and I took my nephew along.

Lots of people watching the dancing

Nephew likes the dancing... even though it's not Strictly.

Karom boards to play with

Happy Diwali!

In Frugal news this week:

• I've eaten a lot of 30p chocolate. It's been stressful.
• ...this despite a lot of homemade cake on offer at work as well!
• Nephew thinks going to town on the bus is an adventure and a treat!
• Picked up some bargain Christmas presents.
• A bit slow on the news front, really... ah well, bound to be more exciting next week.

Currently reading: Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter's The Long Earth. Sourced from the library - enjoying very much so far.

Can You be Sociable and Frugal?

I imagine a lot of people must take a look at my blog and wonder how the heck I can call mine a "frugal" lifestyle... I am jetting off to all sorts of places, going to things, doing sport, seeing friends... surely frugality is about paring your lifestyle  down to the basics?

A busy social life in the usual sense can be problematic. The truth is, if you have a financial goal or need to save money for any reason, or if you have no money spare at all, sometimes you really do have to say "no" to things you would rather say "yes" to. You just can't do everything.

A case in point, this weekend, there is something happening that I would love to go to and because I can't afford to get there, I feel like I am letting people down. I know OH feels the same.

 

But we can console ourselves that we have done lots of things lately, been as sociable as we could be, and are saving up for an important event at the end of the month - World Fantasycon - where we shall be very sociable indeed. (Hey, SFT - Joanne Harris is going to be there - squee!)

And of course we can still be a bit sociable before then! I am going volunteering at Parkrun again tomorrow, and will enjoy doing lots of cycling and visiting family over the weekend - and that won't cost anything.

Later in the month, I will be attending a talk about the Facial Reconstruction of King Richard III as well... again, for free! I am absolutely fascinated by 'The Cousins' War' and the story of how his body was found - so that should be very interesting indeed. There will also be an exhibition following that at Northampton Museum.

I will probably also be going to the Shakespeare exhibition at Abington before it finishes, and the Susan Macwilliam installation at NN gallery. If anyone wants to join me, let me know!

I am currently doing the Go Sober campaign, which will make attending the odd birthday celebration very cheap (sponsor me, someone, please!)  - and it's high time I had people round for tea and cake (I'll get baking...).

But whatever we do decide to do with our free time,  all our bills are taken care of for the month already. All our train tickets and hotel rooms are paid for in advance. Birthday gifts are covered... and I'm very into my homemade cards, of course. We've done a 'stockpile' order this month to take advantage of a bumper load of vouchers and free delivery options (and due to an inadvertent error by Sainsbury's, I now have even more money-off vouchers to compensate - yay!), so apart from a few fresh things we should cope pretty well.

What the advance shopping has also bought us plenty of is time... and with my extra time this weekend, I fully intend to do some de-cluttering, handicrafts, and a bit of gardening and getting out in the fresh air! I also have a book report to write, and I have time to do this, too.

So, although I'm sad about not being able to do something that would have been really nice, life is good. It really is.


UPDATE: Most people know this already, but OH completed his first triathlon in a very respectable 1 hour, 13 minutes.

I am immensely proud of him!

He didn't want a load of the many photos I took to be uploaded for the world to see without a thorough vetting, but I don't think he'd mind just this one, which happens to show him overtaking another competitor on the second lap of the cycling stage.