April: Things of the Month

A few of my favourite Personal Finance bloggers quite frequently do a roundup type post detailing what things have taken their interest of late. I figured that I am an interesting guy and have my fingers in a few different pies so why not try the same… That said, this feature may spectacularly fail in a few weeks, never to be repeated again. 😀

 

Things I Did

April started with a nice long weekend for Easter break. I went along to the Ideal Home Show and bought a new gadget to play with -A Hose Attachment. How freaking exciting right? The salesman was pretty good at demonstrating this bad boy and we haven’t got around to buying one since we moved in to our new house. After fitting it, I forgot to turn off the hose at the mains; next morning i heard hissing water coming from outside when I went into the kitchen: Turns out the nozzle is so good at what it does, the pressure of the water burst the hose itself. Nightmare!

Mountain Biking – Mrs Scot and I hit up the new Mountain Bike trails that the Crown Estate have created just south of Windsor. Was a LOT of fun! 😀 While it is still too cold to wakeboard, the excitement level on this one comes a close second…

Traveling – Unfortunately two of April’s weekends were wasted due to travel to the US.. not to worry – I managed to ramp up on the below..

 

Things I Read

I am not a big fan of reading actual books (digital or physical). That said, I surprised myself this month and managed to read a whole book!! This is partly because I had about 40 hours worth of flying time with my travel to Latvia, Russia and the US over the last few weeks. The book that got my attention?

 

This may be old news for a lot of you, but I am definitely behind the times in the reading community. Life of Pi was incredible.. such a good book and so thought provoking… The ending most definitely annoyed me and I couldn’t get it out of my head for a whole week.

Websites / Articles / Blogs – This is not intended to be a link-up or a popularity contest. My new approach to blogging is one of integrity. If I didn’t mention your blog here, don’t be offended – either I didn’t like what you wrote this month, or I didn’t get the time to read it!

• Cubicle Throwdown – Rika is fast becoming one of my favourite travel bloggers. She has a fiesty attitude and doesn’t take any cr** from anyone. Very entertaining and always enjoy her outlook on life as an expat Dive Instructor in the Carribean – How being an expat has changed me
• Save Spend Splurge – Mochimac is an incredible writer and her posts always engage me. I especially liked her post on how to determine the value of a stock.
• Reach Financial Independence – Another female writer that is incredibly talented. RFI always has an entertaining post or a unique way to make money (think breeding cattle, coconut farms, becoming a real-estate mogul)..
• LifeHacker – The geek in me always enjoys Lifehacker. Post of the month – Food Storage 101 – Where and How Long to keep your favourite foods.
• The Russian Billionaire who plans to become Immortal
• How colleges are funneling aid to the rich
• How the human brain sees a 100mph fast ball – fascinating read!
• The 10 most insane movie ending twists – 🙂

 

What I Watched

I watch far too many TV shows.

Big Bang Theory, NCIS (LA and original), The Mentalist, Castle, Person of Interest, Revenge, Elementary, Two and a Half Men, Hawaii-Five-O, Hannibal, Modern Family, Breaking Bad, Suits, Beauty and the Beast, White Collar, Homeland…

I probably missed a few. I would stress that I don’t watch any adverts/commercials and only watch for about an hour in the evening after work. Sometimes we enjoy a lazy day and will cram in half a season.

This month my favourite (new show) is…

Hannibal

Oh such a graphic and dark story – this show is fast becoming a favourite! Even the adverts are creepy!

 

What I Cooked

It is BBQ season baby! I can proudly say that I have already managed to fire the (charcoal) BBQ up 5 times this year. Considering it is May and the UK has been cold recently, that is a good effort! Combine this with watching Masterchef I quite fancy myself as a culinary expert these days.

A big thing in our household is cooking a whole chicken on the BBQ. The process takes about 2.5 hours in total (you need to give the charcoal at least 30 minutes to get going) and produces the most delicious meat! Paired with my new Weber Cook Book, I used the leftover from our initial feast to make a Garam Masala Spiced Chicken Spread: a combination of greek yoghurt, mayo, garam masala, lemon juice and feta cheese produces the most delicious accompaniment to Pita bread and salad. I have only tried three recipes out the book so far, all of which have been incredible.

What did you do?