Cheap Property Inventory

Business, Home & Garden, Real Estate

Renting Property in the UK

If you are renting out property in the UK then there are quite a number of things that you need to do and rules that you need to comply with before you can rent out your house or your buy to let property.

Although you do not actually have to have a property inventory carried out, it is a good idea to do so to protect not only yourself but also the tenant.

If you have a letting agent managing your property then they will likely either have a company that will carry out the property inventory for you or be able to do it themselves. However, this can be quite expensive and can cost in the region of around £100 or more to carry out a property inventory when the tenant moves in.

If you are looking to maximise your profit then it is possible to carry out your owncheap property inventory.

Why Do You Need A Property Inventory?

Under the current rules you must place the tenants deposit in a registered deposit scheme. Under the rules of this scheme, if you want to claim back any money from the tenant after they have vacated the property, for example if they have caused any damage or removed any of your property, then you must have proof of why you want to claim the money from them.

The best way to do this is to have a fully completed property inventory that is signed off by both the landlord and the tenant when the tenant moves in.

Not only should the property inventory include any property, fixtures and fittings etc that are left in the property, it should also include a condition report stating (preferably with pictures) the condition of the property in the event of any dispute about damage.

Cheap Property Inventory

So, if you want to save some money then you can do the property inventory yourself. However, it is good to go through a standard format to make sure that you cover everything that you need to and make the property inventory thorough and one that will stand up to any queries that may arise when the tenant vacates.

So you can find a cheap property inventory at shops like WH Smith. They have them available for around £20 together with other forms for landlords. Or you can find them for less than £10 on Amazon. There are currently a couple on offer so check out this cheap property inventory for starters. It includes templates for the property inventory plus guidance notes for the correct way of completing that and the statement of condition of the property.

Making Lemon Curd In A Microwave

Food & Drink

Making Lemon Curd

Lemon curd has many uses and is very tasty when spread on bread or hot crumpets with butter but I wanted to make it to go in my Delicious Lemon Pudding recipe. It can also be used for many other dessert recipes and it is a really easy thing to make – particularly if you make it in a microwave. Added to that things always taste so much better when they are home made.

Lemon curd is also a great thing to make if you have a lemon tree and you are looking for things to make with lemons! Make it for friends and family or for sale at craft fairs or even at yard sales or car boot sales as a bit of extra income.

I think the main danger in making lemon curd in a microwave is that the curd would all go lumpy as I wouldn’t be able to stir it as I was heating it but it ended up coming out even better than when I usually make lemon curd on the hob!

Ingredients for Lemon Curd

So lemon curd is really very easy to make and does not take a lot of lemons as you might think. In fact you may already have all the ingredients at home anyway.

I just wanted to make enough for a small version of my lemon pudding so I used the following ingredients, but you can always double up if you want to make more lemon curd:

  • 2 eggs
  • 2 lemons
  • 6oz caster sugar
  • 4oz butter

 

Making lemon curd in the microwave is quick and easy and gives a smooth mixture.
Making lemon curd in the microwave is quick and easy and gives a smooth mixture.

Lemon Curd – Method

Firstly clean off the lemons so you don’t have a waxy surface on them, scrub the outsides if you need to. Then grate the lemon rinds into a bowl taking care not to get too much pith as this is quite bitter. Add to this the juice of both of the lemons.

Crack the 2 eggs into a separate bowl to ensure you don’t get any shell into the mixture. Give them a brief whisk with a fork and add them to the lemon rind and juice.

Add the rest of the ingredients into the bowl, cutting the butter into pieces.

Mix all the ingredients together as well as you can and then put them in the microwave on full power for a minute. This should melt the butter and allow you to blend the lemon curd mixture a bit better. Put the mixture back into the microwave for 1 minute intervals, stirring after each minute. After 2 minutes reduce the intervals to 30 seconds and stir each time.

The actual length of time will depend on how much mixture you have and the power of your microwave, but it should not take long after this for the mixture to start thickening up. As soon as you see some thickening at the bottom of the bowl, take the mixture out and stir it thoroughly. The rest of the mixture should thicken up at this point. Once you have stirred it all in, put it back in for 20 seconds to ensure it is all thickened up and then stir again and leave to cool.

Often when making lemon curd in the traditional manner it will curdle and you will get lumpy bits of egg in it but by cooking it in short bursts in the microwave you do not get the lumps, just a smooth and yummy lemon curd.

How to Make an Easy Stir Fry

Food & Drink

stir-fly-ingredientsStir Fry Ingredients

Stir frys are quick and easy dishes to make and there really is a wide range of ingredients that you can add to make your own version of this traditional Eastern dish. A stir fry does not have to taste particularly Chinese and does not have to be hot and spicy but can be as plain or as exciting as you want it to be.

You can make a stir fry really healthy if you do not use too much oil to cook in – you could use the spray on oil that just coats the pan to reduce the amount of cooking fat.

Although stir frys are usually made in a wok, you can just cook them in a normal frying pan without any problems.

To make your stir fry you first need to select your ingredients and then you need to cut all of the ingredients into similar sized pieces. If you make the pieces relatively small then they will cook quite quickly and keep in all their goodness and crunchiness.

So, here is a selection of ingredients that you can use in a stir fry. You have probably used or tried most of these before but hopefully I will give you a few ideas about other things you can add in:

Meat/Fish
You don’t actually have to have meat or fish in your stir fry but whatever you choose, cut it into small pieces so that it cooks quickly. As an alternative to meat you can use any kind of fish – often you can get slight scrappy pieces of fish for a cheap price which does not matter as you are going to cut it up anyway.

If you do use fish then don’t add the fish until almost the last few minutes as you don’t want to overcook it and end up with pieces of flaky fish. You can also use prawns but again, if they are precooked then you will literally just want to heat them through at the end.

Vegetables
You can really use most vegetables for stir frys – although you should stick to ones that can be eaten more raw (i.e. don’t use things like potatoes!). Favourites of mine are:

  • carrots (cut into very small thin strips)
  • courgette
  • broccoli
  • mushrooms
  • baby corn
  • green beans
  • onions/leeks
  • peppers

However, you can also try some other ingredients such as celery, cucumber or even beetroot, In fact you can try pretty much anything you like!

In addition to the meat and veg there are a number of other things that you can add for extra flavour and also extra texture:

  • cashew nuts
  • sesame seeds
  • pumpkin seeds
  • sultanas or raisins
  • water chestnuts
  • bamboo shoots

If you want to you can also add another element to the stir fry in terms of noodles or bean shoots and other varieties. This can bulk up the stir fry and add extra texture.

Flavourings

So there are a few things that you can use to add flavour to your stir fry – my stock items are chopped ginger and garlic (you can also use powdered versions of either of those) and of course salt and pepper, but you can add anything of your choice and maybe some chillies if you like it hot.

stir-fryCooking a Stir Fry

Firstly, you need to cut up all of your ingredients as stated above, into small but similar sized pieces. If you are a novice in terms of cooking and want something simple to cook then this really is it – just make sure you cut it small and you can just cook it quickly.

As mentioned, you don’t need a wok to cook a stir fry although it does help, you can just use a frying pan. Firstly heat up the oil in the pan – you can also choose pretty much any oil you like – peanut oil is good as it gets very hot, sesame oil adds extra flavour but you can also use olive oil or any kind of vegetable oil. Add about 2-3 tablespoons of oil to the pan and make sure the oil is pretty hot before you start adding any of the ingredients.

Once the oil has heated up you can add the ingredients. My method is the all-in-one method that is quick and simple. Throw everything in including your flavouring ingredients (apart from fish or prawns if you are using those) and keep stirring for about 5-10 minutes until they are all coated in the oil and cooked. If you are using fish then add this in about a minute before the end and make sure it all gets cooked by continuing to stir.

Right at the end you can add some liquid to give the stir fry a bit of a sauce – personally I add a dash of soy sauce and sometimes a dash of sherry. You could also try other ingredients like fish sauce or anything you may have in the cupboard! Stir through for another minute before serving.

Mahut v Isner – The Longest Tennis Match In History – Wimbledon 2010

Sports

The Longest Tennis Match In History – How It Started

wimbledonSo on Tuesday 22nd June 2010 at Wimbledon in England, began the longest tennis match in history. Nicolas Mahut of France was pitted against John Isner of the USA in round two of the championships. The first 4 sets were played out on the first day with the scores being 4-6 6-3 7-6 6-7. Isner was really expected to win as he was seeded 13th with Mahut being a qualifier to the event ranked at 148 in the world. But as they got into the 5th set all of the records started to fall. The record for the longest ever tennis match in a Grand Slam (or any other tennis event come to that), in terms of both time spent on the court and number of games completed was broken. Another tennis record that was broken was the record for the highest number of aces hit in a game by one player (well, both of the players surpassed the original record of 78 held by Ivo Karlovic.)

The Longest Tennis Match – Isner v Mahut – Day 2

As they went into day 2 of the match the scores got more and more bizarre as neither player could break the other one’s serve. There were a few break points in the match on day 2 and even a match point or two for Isner but the match just went on and on for 7 hours on that day alone. Both players looked tired but Mahut actually looked pretty fresh compared with the struggling Isner who looked like he could barely put one foot in front of the other. However, he hang on by holding his serve really well and slamming down aces and Mahut just couldn’t break him.

As the light started to fade on day 2 at around 9pm and with the scores at 59 all in the fifth set, it was Mahut who suggested that they should call it a day and come back on the Thursday. Even though he looked completely exhausted, Isner did not seem keen on this idea and seemed to want to play on but in the end as they both could not agree, the match was suspended amidst boos from the crowd which soon changed to cheers and a standing ovation for the two players. At this point the match had lasted for almost exactly 10 hours.

Isner v Mahut – Day 3

So they came back out onto court 18 at Wimbledon at 3.30pm, with the scores standing at 59-59 games in the final set. They two players battled on for around another hour when finally Isner broke Mahut’s serve and the match ended withIsner winning 70 games to 68. Finally the longest game in tennis history had come to an end. It was almost a shame that there had to be a loser at this point as both players had battled continuously but there could only be one outcome and that was – somebody had to lose.

So with all the records smashed and 11 hours and 5 minutes of tennis played, there was a presentation made to both the players and the umpire at the end of the game by Anne Jones and Tim Henman, two of England’s most successful tennis players. The players then stood for photos by the scoreboard until Mahut decided that enough was enough and went back to the dressing room.

Whether this kind of epic tennis match will ever happen again is questionable – it by far beat any of the existing records and if it is ever broken, it will be a long time coming. Both players will deservedly go down in the record books.

John Isner winning Wimbledon - source http://www.johnisner.com
John Isner winning Wimbledon – source http://www.johnisner.com

Player Biographies

John Isner

Born: 26 April 1985
Nationality: American
Height: 6ft 9in
Weight: 245 lbs
Seeded: 13th at Wimbledon

Nicolas Mahut

Born: 21 January 1982
Nationality: French
Height: 6ft 3in
Weight:176 lbs
Seeded: Unseeded at Wimbledon (ranked 148 in world)

How to Blow an Egg

Children, Fun Stuff, Recreation

Blowing eggs is a traditional thing to do at Easter to create painted eggs to use for gifts or just as decoration. It is a fun activity to do with your kids at Easter time so if you are looking for directions as to how to blow an egg then you have come to the right place!

How to blow an eggYou don’t need much in order to blow an egg but you might just need a steady pair of hands. Things you need when blowing an egg are essentially:

  • A pin or needle
  • A cocktail stick
  • A fresh egg!

It is best that the egg has been out of the fridge for a bit before you blow it but it is still fine to blow an egg that has come straight out of the fridge, it is just that the egg itself will be a little less viscous and hence it will make it a bit easier to get the contents out.

How to Blow an Egg

So, to blow an egg, the first thing you need to do is to put 2 holes into the egg. The holes can be anywhere in the egg but it is easier to blow it if the holes are at the bottom and the top of the egg. However, if you find flaws in the egg that may be easier to put a hole in then by all means use those.

One of the holes can be pretty small – you do not need a big hole to blow through. However, the other hole needs to be slightly larger so that the contents of the egg can come out. Start making the holes with a pin or needle as this will be the easiest way to make a small hole in the shell without breaking it.

DSCF2454The slightly harder part is to enlarge one of the holes without cracking the egg so be very careful when doing this (with the pin).

Once one of the holes is large enough to get a cocktail stick into, put the stick in and push it in and out so that it breaks the yolk. If you mush the egg up inside a bit then it makes it easier for the contents of the egg to come out.

When you have done this, you can start blowing out the contents of the egg. Put your lips to the smaller hole and blow until the egg starts coming out of the larger hole – if the egg does not start to come out then try and break it up a bit more with the cocktail stick.

Blow out the contents of the egg
Blow out the contents of the egg

Once you have blown out all of the contents of the egg put some water in the egg and swish it about to clean out the inside. Do this a couple of times to make sure that the egg is clean inside. When you have done this put the egg in the microwave for around 10-20 seconds to dry it out.

If everything you have used to blow the egg has been clean then you can always use the egg itself to make scrambled eggs or anything you want to – you don’t have to throw it away!

Once the egg is clean and dry you can proceed to paint it. Many types of paint are suitable for this including craft paint and acrylic paint – you can also use glass paint in small tubes to make lines on the painted egg.