It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

elizabunny

rosieben wrote: »

The only malt extract I ever saw was in big jars labelled 'Cod Liver Oil and Malt' or Virol, and my mum used to force feed us a BIG spoonfull each every friday night, eugh! one of my sisters used to queue up for a second spoonful _pale_ so I suppose I would put malt extract under the label 'vaguely medicinal' :rotfl:

....ooooh I remember a ritual similar to this as well rosieben. Once a week without fail, same day each week, out would come the jars YUK! ...and then if we had coughs or colds, mum would sew little blocks of camphor inside a piece of soft material and pin them to our vests -lovely:eek: .

Thank you so much for the microwave recipes they will be so useful -no more sauna's in the kitchen and I think your new thread sounds a great idea :T

Have a nice day everyone!

mummysaver

Rosieben - thanks for the recipes, I shall give them a go, me and ds love Christmas pud and would happily eat it at any time of the year! A microwave recipe thread sounds great, I do the same sort of thing as the rest of you in mine, a quick sponge pud is about as complicated as it gets really!

I always think of malt extract as a milky drink like horlicks!!

D&DD - can you post your meringue recipe please, I lost mine months ago and haven't found a good one since! My mum used to make choux buns in the microwave as well, not sure how, but they worked!

Fab news for all those in credit on their utilities, go get your money back, think Martin has done a template letter, as apparently they can insist you wait till the end of the year before refunding - I assume this is they end of their tax year rather than December!

cw18

D&DD wrote: »

..we have a charge on all our properties on the estate as Wimpey did a 'deal' with Transco to run the pipes from the pavement to our houses and it costs us £6.99 a month :mad:

I have to pay an IGT charge as well -- our house is Rivermead, but they come under the Wimpey family.

We weren't told when we bought the house that the pipes didn't "belong" to BG, and we'd been here for 2 years or so before the supplier slapped on an extra charge - cue phones calls to several places to find out what on earth it was

Seems our provider (Scottish Power) had been building all these charges into the general tariffs, so customers who weren't liable for it were helping to pay for it. But they then decided this wasn't fair (presumably meant they weren't competitive for a lot of people), so we now have to pay just under 11.5p/day (£41.88.year, £3.49 month) for the "priviledge" of having the pipework maintained by some other company :mad:



I had a knock on the door a couple of days ago, and on answering it the chap asked to speak to "the boss" -- which irked me as they always assume there's a "man of the house" who will be responsible for the bills, but DH always left these things to me and wouldn't have been able to tell anyone who we were with even it he'd win millions for answering correctly

Threw the chap when I answered "you've got me" -- but I'm not sure how he'd have reacted if I'd pointed him to the local crematorium (where DH's ashes are currently being held since the service on 27th Nov) which I was tempted to do!!!

As he went to pull out his Identification and blurb I stopped him. Told him that from the logo on his jacket I could tell him not to bother wasting his time, 'cos we're already with them !! (Why don't power companies give these chaps a list of houses they already serve -- especially as this would have shown the account to be in the name of "Mrs").

He then asked which tarriff I was on, and when I replied "dual fuel, online, no standing charge and fixed until September 2009" he looked very sheepish as he admitted he couldn't offer anything cheaper.

But he did say that the gas prices are about to start dropping ( :T ) and they're about to introduce what they'll call a "fix and fall" tarriff, which I guess will basically be a capped one. Suggested it might be worth me watching out for that and re-doing my sums once it's launched

D&DD

:rotfl: "You've got me" lol Love that one CW


Here you go mummysaver..beware this makes literally tons!!!

Ingredients
1 large egg, white only
255g/9oz icing sugar, sifted
double cream, for serving



Method
1. Mix the egg white and icing sugar in a medium bowl until it forms a fudge-like dough.
2. Divide the mixture into nine and roll each portion into a ball.
3. Place three balls at a time on to a piece of non-stick (greaseproof) paper on a microwave-proof plate.
4.Microwave on high for one minute 50 seconds.
5. Remove and set aside to set.
6. Once the meringues have hardened, remove and repeat step 3 twice more.
7. Serve piled up and drizzled with cream.

mummysaver

Cheryl - oh I'd have loved to see the man's face if you'd sent him off to see some ashes! Good job you didn't have them at home and suddenly produce a pot! The capped tarriff sounds good, shame that we have LPG here, we have a gas tank under our front lawn and the prices are horrendous! Still on the the bright side, I don't have to pay a monthly charge for pipes lol!

Our boiler was mended again yesterday, new fan fitted, and it's working brilliantly now, only thing is whilst everyone else loves the warmth, and I did for a bit, I'm now way too hot! Heating is on 10 degrees at the mo, but it's still very warm to me, perhaps having no heating hardened me! Turned it off in the bedroom, I like it colder when I'm sleeping, thank goodness we have thermostats on the radiators! Still it's nice to have the option of being warm, and handy whilst the kids are still poorly, though dd1 has insisted on going into school today, I've told her that she'd better not call me to pick her up if she feels ill, I wanted her to stay home! Anyway, we pay for our gas when the tank is filled, so I've told them all that when it's gone it's gone - I feel like an advert - won't be having it filled again until the summer!

D&DD - how did your son's presentation go? Did you need hankies?

Edit:

Thanks for the recipe D&DD, guess what we'll be having for pud today! Must get some cream out of the freezer to defrost!

D&DD

Pleased you got your boiler fixed mummysaver sounds lovely where you live I'd love to be in a village somewhere I enjoyed hearing about the carol singing.
DS1 came home a very happy boy..3 lovely certificates for I.T,Psychology and Business Studies.Best performance/effort in all 3 Need to see if Woolies have any frames left!
He also got some HMV vouchers so he's well chuffed.

DS3 came home with a huge bag of goodies too and he made me some peppermint creams and gingerbread men :T (apparently he was [STRIKE]bossing[/STRIKE] helping the other 3 boys in his class because "I made these with Mummy" that's my boy

mummysaver

Well done to your ds1 d, what a fantastic effort, perhaps he could have a word with my lot! dd2 is convinced that it is enough that she goes to school, it is a running battle with her to ensure that she puts in the work, this year I have the best bribe ever, her best friend's family have invited her to Spain with them, have told her that if her reports aren't brilliant this year then she won't be going - and yes I am the mother who would stop her if they aren't good!

Bless ds3, I love peppermint creams, might have to add those to my list of sweets to make now!

We are very lucky to live in our village, I really do love it here and appreciate it. We have some fantastic neighbours, and even the people that wouldn't generally mix all rub along together. There is a fantastic community spirit, we do everything from travelling suppers, easter egg hunts, Christmas meal's, ladies nights, children's parties, barbeques, to our carols. We even have school rotas, club rotas and on a sunday a paper rota! It was a little daunting when we moved here, after living in cities for so long it seemed strange that everyone spoke and had time for you and was happy to help without expecting anything in return, but I grew up in a village, so it was sort of like coming home. The only downside is that everyone knows everything about each other, still that can be great for finding out what your kids have been doing!

D&DD

Right I'm just booking the removals firm :rotfl:
What an idyllic place to bring up kids mummysaver good for you I think it must be a shock to the system to move from a city to somewhere like that.

Where I live in some ways its very similar to a village. We are on a large estate in greater london/surrey but its like a little world of its own and the community spirit is just like that of a village in some ways,in others its not so good..

Yategirl

include me in the removals Dee!! am not so keen about where we live.... and would love to move!! Well done to your Ds's by the way!!

Cheryl - I hate it when companies do that about "the head of house"... am having big probs with the national trust about this.... :mad: but I always remember the story my DM told me... bear in mind that this is the early 70's.. Some sort of house to house was going on collecting info for the council.. official knocked on the door.. DM answered and the official (a man :rolleyes: ) said "can I speak to the head of the house?" DM said "yes that is me" "oh, no I need to speak to your husband" to which DM replied, "he is isn't here at the moment but that doesn't matter I am head of the house" The official didn't like this and said he would come back later on when DF would be home... fast forward to the evening... knock at the door.. DF answered and the official said " hello sir, are you the head of the house?" to which DF replied.. "oh, you need my wife, I'll just get her" and the *poor* official had to deal with DM!!!!!!! :rotfl:

cw18

well it appears that officials aren't any more "clued up" these days than they were back then :rotfl: