½ûÂþÌìÌÃ

Lots of previous stuff on the S1 see previous posts by Penny and myself. Talk to the people at Newcastle very helpful, you can add yourself to your husbands S1 if you are not yet receiving a UK pension yourself and are his dependant. In fact for me they sent a new form with all this information typed in.To avoid confusion you do need to talk to the people at Newcastle.

Walnuts long gone at this time of year...but then I have no idea what it is either!, could add you to Marche Gardener Penny on FB.

Finding fault with Silvio is pretty easy!.....he is an embarrassment to most ½ûÂþÌìÌÃs, especially the younger ones and his behaviour is totally inappropriate. However as Al says, who will take over?.

You did well with your trees!...we will be lucky to get a few boxes full from ours this year and we have 75!. Yield seems very localised, so this year we will be joining with friends to get a few litres each. In another previous bad year the presses were willing to take small amounts so you could always ask. The less automated, traditional cold presses are the ones to try. A rough guide, and this is dependant on the type of olive and when you pick, we usually pick 2nd week in Nov, is 7kilos of olives = 1litre of oil. Best yield for us was 120 litres which cost about 80e.

Just dug our last bill out from Enel for August and September, when we were home all the time and the apartment was fully booked, 84.40 e. So it is possible to run on 3.3kw...and try to be green at the same time. We have gas condensing boilers no dish-washer, and no pool, but cannot say that we feel deprived or  frugal, just needed some thought at the begining. We do use a micro-wave and an electric toaster, its just a different mindset to get into.

Thats interesting Fillide, didnt know that. We manage on the 3.3 kw supply for our 3 bed house and our apartment. We dont have many electric guzzling appliances, and have gas ovens and hobs, hob kettles, and no dishwasher. It is possible on a small scale to achieve this. I guess you could say that we use more gas but in the summer that is of no account. The winter is different and gas is a huge expense to factor in, even with a stufa in the house.

Fantastic information Sabrina, really helpful. Re the refund due on the account, ours was returned to us via a nil bill for electricity over a period of a few months.

I stand corrected Esme sweet of you to point out my mistake...getting mixed up with Misha my black and white cat, Fresian cow looking call him Mukka, but thats Ok my ½ûÂþÌìÌà neighbours totally understand.The pot was from Coal... thats a local ½ûÂþÌìÌà supermarket.

For coffee Robert uses the Gaggia, but I have found a stainless steel Mocha pot which does the job just as well, for my favourite coffee, and avoids the aluminium ones...one less health hazard. Sorry Gala the saucepans are German,Meyer and not actually doing that well. Will take note. For frying pans for us and the apartment Lidl italia have an English import which is actually very good for our budget.

basta!