It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

rosieben

Almo, I read on a news pages somewhere that the government is planning a huge desalination plant for Victoria but the cost is prohibitive, sorry, cant remember the numbers. It seems unavoidable though because the alternative would seem to be to leave the area to become desert; my dd and her family are in Sydney, so they're between the fires and the floods and terrible stories coming from both areas. I cant even begin to imagine what its like to see your whole town burning

mardatha

I used to read the "bony" books, a long time ago. These are by Arthur Upfield, who went to Oz in around 1910, and worked on the sheep stations in the outback all his life. He rode the dingo fence and mustered sheep and did the whole cowboy bit. Anyway his books are very descriptive of the country and the weather, the birds, etc. He talks often of farms built beside lakes, which then dried up for 30 years and then came back, and of great bushfires when all the animals ran together to escape but the only thing to survive were the eagles who could soar high enough to escape the heat. He talks of rivers that used to run and dried up, of lakes appearing where they never had before, and about the birds that always appeared out of nowhere to live on them. fascinating books. But it shows that these things happen in australia.

mummysaver

Yategirl - great news about your oh's job, must be a weight off your shoulders.

Almo - I think you're certainly right that many places could become unviable habitats for humans in the future, but I suspect that this is cyclical. Hopefully plans will have been made and currently uninhabitable places will become usable. I don't think anyone would misinterpret what you've said, please don't worry! This thread has covered so many things, and so many of the posters hold differing views, but not once have I seen it turn nasty here!

Hawthorn - for school uniforms I write on each item in black marker pen, no longer do I write on the labels neatly or sew labels in, these tend to get removed by lightfingered larrys! For coats and jumpers, as well as writing on the inside neck I also write up the inside of the sleeve - a tip from my mum who had a huge dispute with a woman over a coat belonging to my brother, the woman had actually cut the lining at the neck where his name was, but my mum trumped her when she insisted that the sleeves be turned inside out. Caused quite a stir at the school gates - well the 70s weren't terribly exciting lol! Mind you even doing this doesn't guarantee things won't get lost or be "borrowed", dd1 lost her brand new jumper in year 5 and dd2 found it in lost property just after dd1 started in year 9 at a new school, it had most definitely been worn for those intervening years, but the name was still written clearly! We've had countless pairs of rugby/hockey/footie boots vanish just for the season as well! At least with so many kids they always fit the next in line the following season!

All this talk of rising prices in Lidls made me think, if Tesco were cutting their prices to compete with Aldi and Lidl, did they know something we didn't? The market value range was supposed to be in direct competition, but as we all know was in reality often more expensive, but now it seems that it is comparible or cheaper! I know that tom puree was still only 29p in Lidl/Aldi (can't remember which I was in when I grabbed it last week), but it was 45p in Mr T's - my kids now don't turn a hair when I appear home with a couple of bags of shopping but it just contains several of just a couple of different items!

Hawthorn

Aldi for the tomato puree Mummysaver - it may have come down in Lidl, but the last time I was in, I seem to recall it was around the 40p mark? I was in Aldi a few days ago, and it was 29p.

We have had sports shoes go missing too, quite often. We don't seem to have a problem with the boys school (upper) but it's the primary school kids.
My son once had to come home in (no kidding) shorts, t-shirt, and sandshoes. He'd been doing sports at the after school club, and all of his stuff had gone missing. Thankfully, the coat and shoes turned up....another child had taken them by mistake, but the other stuff never did. It was the middle of winter too. I'm glad we only live five minutes away.

DdraigGoch

OOoooh, you've got me started now! I worked out that, on average, during my son's first two years at High School we were providing some lightfingered larry with one NEW school coat every 8 weeks, a new and complete pencil case every 5 weeks, a new shirt every 2.5 weeks, a new pair of trousers every 6 weeks, a new shoe [single] every 4 weeks, a new tie every 9 weeks, a new jumper every 8 weeks, an ENTIRE new sports kit every term and that's not counting all the new text books we provided .... yes, I'm still mad about it and he's 20 now!!! You have my sympathies, all those to whom this is happening, but I would say that getting sociable with the school secretary helps no end as she's normally the one responsible for lost property. Just a thought.

Hawthorn

You know, I remember way back when my first child started school. I spent a FORTUNE on his school kit.....including a beautiful new winter coat. It was one of those that you took the inner out of, for warmer weather like you get in the early autumn? He looked wonderful.
The coat lasted about a week before some scoundrel nicked it, never to be seen again.
I think I lost my taste for designer clothing, right there LOL. And the worst thing? I got it out of the catalogue, and was still paying for it long after it had gone.
Funnily enough, I think that's around when I got rid of the catalogues too!

mummysaver

DdraigGoch wrote: »

OOoooh, you've got me started now! I worked out that, on average, during my son's first two years at High School we were providing some lightfingered larry with one NEW school coat every 8 weeks, a new and complete pencil case every 5 weeks, a new shirt every 2.5 weeks, a new pair of trousers every 6 weeks, a new shoe [single] every 4 weeks, a new tie every 9 weeks, a new jumper every 8 weeks, an ENTIRE new sports kit every term and that's not counting all the new text books we provided .... yes, I'm still mad about it and he's 20 now!!! You have my sympathies, all those to whom this is happening, but I would say that getting sociable with the school secretary helps no end as she's normally the one responsible for lost property. Just a thought.

My ds has a cunning plan for keeping his sports kit safe now! They have lockers with padlocks, but these tend to get removed a lot - think it's more to prove that it can be done than for nefarious purposes, but then it means that anyone with the inclination can just grab what's in there! Anyway ds leaves his locker open but shoves his kit to the back and a manky decayed packed lunch at the front - nobody has yet been brave enough to get past the green goo :eek: :rotfl:

And no, I don't know where he got the old sarnies from, hope they weren't some I made and yes, they do smell terrible when you open his locker - dd1 "proudly" showed me ds's deterrent when I was collecting her from netball the other week! :rolleyes: :rotfl:

If things get any tougher than I shall be providing all my kids with something manky to stick on the top of their games kits/school bags/pencil cases!

Charis

Almo wrote: »

I hope I've explained myself properly - there's another thread on here at the moment where the interpretation of the written word is causing some problems, so I hope no one misinterprets anything I've said in the last few days

There are usually a few smart alecs on the other threads who can be quite rude at times. Most of us on the OS threads are just here to learn and share, we don't set out to offend anyone. It's exciting to visit other threads now and again and get sniped at but much more sociable on here. When it was snowing last week and I couldn't go out my virtual world was more real than my real one :rotfl:

DdraigGoch

:eek: You mean there's actually somewhere else, out there ..... other than you lot???? :eek:


:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

jinnywren

:mad: Just noticed this week in N.Ireland Lidl has increased its Rivercote breadmixes to £1.29 from 99p. Really peeved with them. Seem to have stopped doing the Langut one. Is this the same all over U.K.?