22 Foxhole East

f0xh0les · 15 December 2016 at 2:51PM

I bought a photo mug from Trupr1nt via the weekly email for £3.50, not sure the image quality will be any good as it is a pen and ink drawing I took a photo of, but worst case scenario I can tart it up a little with a sharpie. Plus 58p cashback via Quidco.

Took smart tv back to 4rgos because it was ghosting when people were talking, driving me nuts. So, £169 refunded back on the credit card. TV from bedroom brought down to living room. They let me keep the £10 gift card as it was their faulty item.

Nearly finished all the shopping, I think, waiting on a few parcels to be delivered that I hope appear today or tomorrow before the kids get off school.

MIL was on the phone yesterday (see, I spoke too soon!) it is apparently my fault her gifts have not arrived yet, what with me running the postal service and all.

I have told the kids they have to write thank you letters to anyone on DH's side who send them a present or a gift of money as when people get older, they like that kind of thing. A phone call is not enough for them any more. They have rejected that as acceptable. We all know where we stand.

Just have to get a few boxes of chocs for teachers and teaching assistants at the primary school, for the kids to bring in to school tomorrow (last day!)

DH is out at a works do tonight, well, it starts at 2pm, how long it goes on for is anyone's guess!

Tonight is the last night of after school clubs until 2017, so only 3 different pick up times today. They get a lot out of the clubs so I am happy for them to do it, just wish they would all choose to do them on the same day, but that would probably be too easy.

Seriously considering switching banks again to M&S so far I have been with Abbey National, Goldfish, Natwest, HSBC, Co-op, Smile, First Direct and now Halifax, so I suppose that qualifies me as an account Tart. I quite like the idea of getting M&S vouchers as a reward, as it kind of ticks a lot of boxes for presents for ageing relatives. Will have to have a closer look into it.

MOT and Service due on Saturday - keep your fingers crossed for me. Time to do my annual hoover of the 'skip on wheels' and clear out the millions of coats and wellies that live in the boot but are always needed.

Keep well and warm, and see you later.

Bobarella · 15 December 2016 at 8:15PM

Foxy - how weird about the thank you note thing. Does the person send £10 for each child? If so that's loads for someone who barely knows you anyway!

f0xh0les · 15 December 2016 at 9:13PM

Bobarella wrote: »

Foxy - how weird about the thank you note thing. Does the person send £10 for each child? If so that's loads for someone who barely knows you anyway!

When the kids were much smaller and had no idea who was on the end of the phone, and could not write, I used to send a thank-you note from them. When they were older, they rang and said thank you, but the conversations are horribly stilted as they maybe see these people once a decade, and the kids can't remember whose sister, or whose Uncle's wife someone is. There is an element of competition between the grandmother and great aunts which has become more apparent since they have become grandparents which I find distasteful. The level of criticism of the working mums (DHs cousins, or their wives) got quite nasty (but never to their faces I bet) but then again, as a SAHM they probably did the same about me, they just ADORE talking about people. I don't know how close people usually are to their spouse's cousins, but tbh I have little in common with DH's. I didn't go to their weddings as DH wasn't going (huge black mark against me, apparently I should- have made him go), and have never heard the end of it. So this is the latest thing they have chosen to obsess about. The lack of 'thank-you' notes.

And yes, it is £10 per child from someone three of them have been in the same room as for approx one hour of their lives, and smallest is going to be 7 next week. They could pass on the street and not know one another, it is very generous of them, but I think it is more about sisterly / sister-in-lawly one upmanship than anything else. It is very strange behaviour. But they say you get stranger as you get older, so that's something to look forward to eh?:rotfl:

I shall just have to make sure the thank-you notes are written and in the post box by Stephen's Day and take the wind out of their sails. Although they will no doubt start criticising their handwriting:mad: I am sure they know someone else's children who have neater handwriting than mine. :beer: There's a lot to be said for marrying an orphan.

f0xh0les · 15 December 2016 at 9:38PM

Found a nice Edwardian linen press in the other Antiques warehouse up the road (Welford Road opposite The Donkey) it splits in two, the bottom half is three enormous deep drawers, and the top is about 4 feet of cupboard. We should be able to get it up the stairs.... will send DH to look at it, it is a bit battered in places, but it would be fab. You could hide an awful lot of tat in that monster.

Just wrapped up presents for the teachers and teaching assistants at primary school. Coffee creams from Iceland. £1 a box and they are rather yummy.

DH is off at his works do. So I have the downstairs to myself tonight. #1 is in his room watching his laptop, #2 is in his room watching YouTubers having NERF gun battles. So it is Earl Grey and Deep Space 9 for me. I bought a few bits for christmas stockings today, but I have really reigned back this year, and instead I gave a donation to the Syrian refugees. I would rather give to Medicins sans Frontiers or IRF this year. I am sure people can buy their own bath bombs. If that is seen as selfish so be it. The news is so horribly distressing. I wish I could just turn over and watch some soap or other, but I can't. It is happening and it is just wrong to sit in comfort and pretend it isn't, or that it could not happen closer to home. So, on that cheery note, I bid you all a good night, and I hope you are all safe and warm tonight.

f0xh0les · 17 December 2016 at 8:55AM

Something lit a rocket under me last night! Maybe it is being released from the yoke of the school run routine, maybe it is just the festive cheer, but I have finally .....bought....some.....wallpaper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DH went past the Linen press, likes it, says it will work, so will go and have a barter today and see what I can do. After I take my Nissan Skip for its MOT and service this morning. Fingers crossed please everyone.

Got up, and before having even a cup of coffee, I moved a storage unit to a different part of the back living room, and stacked a load of boxes and storage containers on it, so the floor was mostly visible. Then cleared my boot out onto it, so it is once again full of shopping bags and about a million coats. I think I need a coat rack. But where to put it!

It is so odd, I have been looking and looking at things for ages, and suddenly it is as if the fog has cleared and I can actually get on with it. I wonder if this is what motivation feels like. You hear so many tales of terrible builders and houses ruined, it is terrifying to actually have people round to even quote, and then when you get stupid quotes it makes you even less inclined to have them in the house.

But wallpaper I can do myself, so I might as well get on with it.

f0xh0les · 17 December 2016 at 4:09PM

Just bought the Linen Press (armoire!) ticket price £170 without delivery, I got it for £150 to be delivered tomorrow. Goodbye brown cardboard boxes, goodbye
horrid white metal clothes rail, goodbye horrid metal shelving unit, goodbye 100million bits of DH tat!
Hello bedroom floor!!! Ridiculous what you get excited about isn't it? Even the prospect of being able to hoover the bedroom floor is exciting today.

Ordered a new drawstring heavy duty curtain track for the living room to be picked up tomorrow. Finally get some hassle free jiggle free curtain opening.

Car still at service & MOT

Feeling very happy, but hope I get my skip on wheels back soon.

And looking forward to getting Aldi veg tomorrow for 19p - spuds, parsnips, carrots, sprouts, broccoli, and bizarrely lettuce, all 19p - fill your boots!

Bobarella · 18 December 2016 at 12:29AM

f0xh0les wrote: »

Found a nice Edwardian linen press in the other Antiques warehouse up the road (Welford Road opposite The Donkey) it splits in two, the bottom half is three enormous deep drawers, and the top is about 4 feet of cupboard. We should be able to get it up the stairs.... will send DH to look at it, it is a bit battered in places, but it would be fab. You could hide an awful lot of tat in that monster.

Just wrapped up presents for the teachers and teaching assistants at primary school. Coffee creams from Iceland. £1 a box and they are rather yummy.

DH is off at his works do. So I have the downstairs to myself tonight. #1 is in his room watching his laptop, #2 is in his room watching YouTubers having NERF gun battles. So it is Earl Grey and Deep Space 9 for me. I bought a few bits for christmas stockings today, but I have really reigned back this year, and instead I gave a donation to the Syrian refugees. I would rather give to Medicins sans Frontiers or IRF this year. I am sure people can buy their own bath bombs. If that is seen as selfish so be it. The news is so horribly distressing. I wish I could just turn over and watch some soap or other, but I can't. It is happening and it is just wrong to sit in comfort and pretend it isn't, or that it could not happen closer to home. So, on that cheery note, I bid you all a good night, and I hope you are all safe and warm tonight.

Totally agree. Got home from a wonderful day put on by friends to more media coverage and felt so sick that anyone should be in that position. Have already made a red cross donation but plan to do more this week. The whole birth lottery thing is very sobering.

Kittenkirst · 18 December 2016 at 9:51AM

Totally agree, seems so unjust that we are all faffing about Christmas, when not that far away the atrocities are being carried out.
My Donation has been made but it feels so small in the scheme of things...

f0xh0les · 18 December 2016 at 11:32AM

In the scheme of things a meal, a blanket, a tent, or basic medical supplies are not expensive, and you are amazing for giving anything at all. It may seem a small amount to you, but it is a huge thing for them.

f0xh0les · 21 December 2016 at 11:05PM

Well, DH's clothes are hung up or folded in his new (Edwardian) linen press which shall from now on be referred to as 'the wardrobe', Narnia could well be hiding behind it. During this process (unsurprisingly not done by himself:mad:) I discovered a large expanse of floor, covered by a carpet. I am properly delighted and he was really pleased when he came home from work and it was mostly done and there was again a bedroom floor, where once there was just his enormous pile of tat. :T

Car passed MOT, service came up with one red and two amber issues, so I was told to wait til Feb and book it in. Not sure why they did not ring me and ask if they should do it while the service was going on, unless they were totally swamped, which is a possibility. So it is going to cost about £350 in 8 weeks time, new brake discs and pads, new battery, new aux belt, 2 new tyres. Annoying, but it will be safe, and driving about with 4 kids everyday, it's all about safe. Last year it cost £99 and it is money I have in the budget so it is not a problem:money:.

Watched The Rise of the Guardians yesterday with the 2 smallest, they loved it - we saw it in the cinema a couple of years ago. Feeling a bit fa-la-la-la-la!

We are now the proud parents of two Roborovski hamsters! They are the size of a cotton reel and not hand tame yet but we have only had them 2 days and they are gorgeous. #4 wanted one for his birthday on Friday, but when we went to pick them up #3 fell in love with them too, and so we ended up taking two, one as the birthday present, one as the Xmas present. So they are now happily living in the Streetlife gifted 3 storey luxury detached villa in the living room. They sleep all day long and seem to run around rearranging their house all night long, as their nest can move quite an astounding distance considering they have to get it up and down all those climbing tubes! Funny little men they are. DH is smitten already. It took about 30 seconds when he saw how small and gorgeous they are. Told ya!:rotfl: He is very happy to have pets in the house again.

Also, the £3.50 Trupr1nt mug came! The photo quality is absolutely fine, it is a picture I took a photo of from one of the Moomin books, after trying to find a print to buy, there is not one single one, so I took a photo of the picture in the book, and now DH has a mug with the Muskrat philosopher lying in a hammock reading a book entitled 'The Uselessness of Everything'. And there is not another like it in the whole wide world.

I need to work out a menu plan for the next week or so, and stock up on 19p veg and stick it in a brown paper sack in the pantry. No point not stocking up when it is at that price. 19p for 2kg of spuds, 19p for 1kg of carrots. Crazy prices. Just what to have with it.

Tomorrow I need to clean my house, which is more difficult than it sounds with 4 kids lying around the place, they can mess it up faster than I can tidying, that's for sure. Sadly their idea of helping involves wrestling each other.

DH is claiming to be coming down with a cold. He is still going in to work, but says it is a ghost-town. Still, he has nearly finished marking one set of papers and only has his own set left to do. He thinks tomorrow will be his last day at work, which is good as it is DS4s birthday on Friday. On a happier note he was paid on Monday instead of the last day of the month, so this is going to be a long month til next payday.

DS's have no desire to go anywhere or do anything except chill, which I am finding annoying. We went out for a lovely walk in the local country park, and they all got covered in every sticky seedpod that could attach itself to them. It was hilarious. They all ran about and were daft, up until I said we needed to go home and have a cup of tea, so then DS2 manufactured an argument with DS1 which was ridiculous and pointless. It seems to coincide with him remembering the Xbox exists and that he might be able to get on it again if we go home, and then he turns into The Great I-AM and starts insulting his brothers. Odd child. He knows this kind of behaviour will get him banned rather than allowed on the xbox but he doesn't seem to be able to control himself. Still, he is only 12 and isn't finished yet, plenty of brain development still to go on, but he has one filthy vocabulary. The language on the school playground must be vile.

Had a Christmas card delivered to me in a plastic covering from the Post Office as it had obviously been opened by hand. Luckily there was nothing in it but the card, but still, how low must you be to want to rob cash from a card at Christmas?

Carpenter just emailed me and is booked in to do the doors on 19th-20th Jan. So all the light switches will be on the right side of the doors again! Hooray!:j:j

And the wallpaper has arrived too!

Night All!

22 Foxhole East

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