I have just had a new oven installed. The old one was definitely on its last legs. We saw one in our local hardware shop. It’s a Samsung pyrolytic oven. Brilliant. It was €200 Euros off the full price, so at €499 plus a fitting and removal charge of about €37 a bargain. It also has a rotisserie mechanism. We bought a very expensive but beautiful organic chicken for €25 to christen it last night.
The electrician was was so helpful. The old oven it turns out had not been wired up well. We bought the house with the oven of course. There is a lesson. Get things like that checked when buying a house. We were lucky not to have an electrical fire or something. Anyway at no extra charge the electrician put in all new cabling for it, then put the proper connector to the cable. Got a few tsks about how dangerous the old wiring to the oven was!
Well that’s an excellent Valentines present from my Husband. It was definitely worth snapping up while at that price. It has a lot more functions than the Neff Pyrolitic. It has a divider tray as well so if you just want to use half the oven it saves energy. Having cooked the chicken with the rotisserie last night, the oven is getting its first clean on the Pyrolitic function, which incidentally is heating the kitchen up a bit. Wonderfully messy way to cook, but it was an amazing result.
I have no problem shelling out the electricity to clean the oven off either. Having a gleaming clean oven is a joy. Not having to scrub off the residue from a Well splattered oven after a rotisserie just exceptional. It costs £35 back in Jersey to get the oven professionally cleaned, and then it’s still not cleaned behind the grill element at the top. It’s not that I am exceptionally fussy, just that normally if you roast then use the grill for something else there are clouds of smoke coming off the top of the oven.
What a difference buying the organic Chicken. Wonderful meaty texture and beautiful taste. You could tell this bird had been flapping about and getting plenty of exercise. The bones were like ivory, proper cartilage between them, and even meat on its wingtips. Definitely not a ‘mushy’ bird. We have decided to order one for Easter. Also we want to try a duck on this rotisserie gadget! The joy of making an absolute mess of the oven and not having to spend hours cleaning it rates like a jackpot on a lottery to me! Wonderful present from my Husband.
Anyway I have been thinking about losing Free movement of People if the Brits mess this up for us Channel Islanders. I can’t imagine having to organise a visa for every trip we make to France.
Can anyone in the UK realise the implications of needing Visas to travel around Europe? If you wanted to drive down to Spain or Italy you would need Visas for every country you go through.
My Husband took me to Russia as a very special present in November for our Anniversary, We have wanted to go for 20 years since I began painting Icons.
We had to go over to London from Jersey to go to the Russian Visa Office. This meant we had to stay over, as we couldn’t expect to do it in a day. We did meet up with Family though but this is not the point.
We knew we would have to pay for the Visa, the trip to London and all that was entailed with getting Visas. However this cost a lot of money. The Russian Visa Office was a great experience, they were very helpful and slightly cheeky as we had to spend ages filling in the new criteria. Short of inside leg measurement, you are tagged and numbered very well. You also need biometric fingerprinting for Russia. Going through border control into Russia is an experience as well. OK for the one time we were going, but a nightmare if you had to do it on a regular basis.
I just don’t think people have thought through what losing Free movement of people in Europe will really mean to them. To be honest, until I know for certain just what the mad Brexit bunch are going to land us Channel Islanders with regarding Free Movement, it is not a good idea to think about investing thousands in doing up our French House.
I am assuming the Benidorm brigade voted Brexit. I don’t think they thought that one through very well! Losing Free movement will be a disaster.