My Debt-Free Plan...HOOS and the Case of the Incredible Exploding Oven!! :-o

Head-Out-Of-Sand

Thanks for the dancing MMLS!

Ohmygodohmygodohmygod I got the BEST vintage buy EVER this afternoon!! Went for mystery shop lunch, then went to an antiques shop and a vintage clothing shop. I got three gorgeous paintings to hang up in the hallway, £9 for all three (they're the exact right shades for my house and are really beautiful ).

Then in the vintage shop my mate picked up this long black dress in my size, and made me try it on. It's gorgeous, really classy, the only dress I've ever tried on and not needed a bra (and I mean not needed it, WOW!) and it looked great on...now, i have a history of low self-esteem and body-image issues, and I thought I looked damn hot in it!!! He he. BF was equally impressed and has been informed he needs to think of somewhere suitably posh to take me out in it!

My mate looked at it and said if I didn't buy it she was going to punch me. Fair enough. SO went to find out how much it would cost, and it was £12!! TWELVE POUNDS!! For a gorgeous, hollywood-glamour, floor length knock-em-dead dress! I'm so very very happy!!

Who says you can't find great stuff at bargain prices!!

On a slightly sadder note, I'm worried about a young cat we saw near the antiques centre. It only looked about 3 months old and was wondering about by itself, looked like it was scavenging for food. It didn't look particularly underfed but seemed very young to be wondering around by itself. I watched it for a bit and it was quite wary of us (a good thing I think!) but when we came out half an hour later it was still in the same place and was eating some chips that someone had dropped. I was a bit concerned for it as I thought it was unusual for such a young cat to be out fending for itself, and eating chips and looking for food as though it was starving.

I tried to ring cats protection and RSPCA but couldn't get through to either. I'm going to pop back there in the morning and if it's still there I'll try ringing again. I don't want to pick it up and take it to vets myself in case it is someone's pet. Am very worried for it though

There is always the potential that I have in fact finally turned into crazy cat lady and just want to steal people's cats now...

essexgal

Wow HOOS - sounds like you've had a good day.:j Make sure you get bf to take some photos of you in the dress so when you're feeling a bit 'low' you can remind yourself that you are 'hot'....:rotfl:

Not sure what to do about the cat - perhaps ask at the antiques centre too in case they know if it belongs to anyone....? Don't go kittynapping just yet though- BadgerLady won't be impressed....:D Although it does sound like it might be a feral cat it might equally belong to someone and just have 'escaped' for the day.

essexgal

Head-Out-Of-Sand

Hi Essexgal - I managed to avoid any insane kitty-napping behaviour!! Went back today to check and it wasn't there, so just hope it was someone's kitten that had ventured a bit too far.

Have had to put up yet another "reminder" of how to behave like a reasonable adult...yesterday the annoying one was left in the house after both me and nice lodger had gone out. Nice lodger went out first, and I made a point of checking the doors & windows before I went out (starting to develop a mild form of OCD over security, but perfectly understandable in the circumstances!) and came back to an empty house with the back door locked, but the bathroom window at the back of the house (which is a big window, at least 60cms) WIDE OPEN!!!

I don't know what else to say to him to make him realise what he's doing!!!! It's so frustrating, especially thinking that if it wasn't for work uncertainty I'd have given him his notice on Friday!! Urgh!

Well, just have to keep in mind that provided return to work goes smoothly, I'll be able to hand him the notice at the end of May. If I haven't been burgled and/or murdered before that point. Grrr.

I have had a lovely day today though, been for a long hill walk with my mate & had a great time, even trying to eat salad at the top of a very windy hill!! (Salad i made at home from my fabulously cheap Aldi veg, hurrah!) Am now going to give my hell-hole of a bedroom a proper tidy (as opposed to a shove things into a pile and throw a blanket over it tidy!) then cook myself a nice tea and chill out in my jammies!!! Bliss.

Head-Out-Of-Sand

Well, I'm back in work!

All a bit rushed and a bit of a mess, but at least I'm getting paid. There's so obviously nothing planned for me to do. I've got a pile of mail that hasn't been touched for 6 months to work through, and considering I can't write, type or use a mouse with my right hand I'm not the fastest of workers right now.

Nice to see people at work though. The people I work with are great, it's just the place and the way it's managed that's the problem.

BUT must stay positive. I'm really enjoying the counselling course and I've had a response from the Samaritans asking me to come along for an information day, so must focus on the future!!

Am on a phased return so going back part time for the first month (using the leave I carried over from last year to do it so I don't lose any pay) so I'm off tomorrow, hurrah! Celebrating surviving my first week (even if it was only 2 days...) with a bottle of pear cider

chevalier

HI there HOOS sorry to have not been around. I do keep on dipping in and out of your diary don't I. Oops. Really sorry that you still haven't got rid ot the to$$er lodger. I was really hoping that you could have kicked him into touch by now.

Well done for returning to work. All be it not in the best of circumstances. Ref the HSE reports, can you not chase them up yourself? Ie ask why there hasn't been an investigation? Just wondering.

I really hope that you can start making a plan for moving forward now. You certainly seem like this is what you are doing with the counsilling etc.

good luck and I hope you win £1000 on the lottery so you can give stupid bloke his marching orders.... lol
chev

Head-Out-Of-Sand

Thank Chev - I fully intend to go through with the booting out at the end of this month. The only reason I didn't last month was because of the uncertainty with work, and now I'm back that reason's gone.

Which is good, because if I have to listen to him smooching noisily with his girlfriend when I'm in the same room again there's going to be violence. I mean, seriously?!?! Even me storming out of the room in disgust didn't appear to have any effect! I do not need to be confronted with PDAs in my own living room!!!! Yeeeeuch. Very disrespectful.

I intend to make a complaint to the HSE as apparently the RIDDOR thing is not guaranteed to trigger an investigation. You can do it anonymously, and it needs to be done. There are more people with RSI problems since I've been off. I just don't know how they're getting away with doing this to people. It's safe to say I'm completely disgusted with the way they're prepared to gamble with the health of their staff, and purely because they can't be bothered to do anything about it!!! It's an absolute disgrace.

Well, my dad's coming round later on this morning and my house is all stinky, so I'm going to have to sign off now and get cleaning, eek!

Head-Out-Of-Sand

Two days back in work and my arm pain is worse already feeling really down. Fed up of being in pain. Fed up of not being able to use my right arm. Just generally fed up.

I have to be back in work as I can't afford to be off, but I just feel so abandoned & let down, management aren't interested in giving me altered duties to do, and what they've given me to do (i.e. sorting through 6 months worth of mail that's not been checked or looked at since I've been off) has been enough to cause me worsened pain after only two days. I just don't know what else I can possibly do that uses only my left hand.

I'm trying not to get bitter and twisted about it, but the injustice of the whole thing is really getting to me today. B******S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

gettingbetter

hi hoos

hun i had deep heat patches
would they work for you
cant think of any thing else to say

kas xx

Head-Out-Of-Sand

Hiya Kas,

I've tried patches, anti-inflammatory gel (I can't take NSAIDs orally as they make me really ill), prescription painkillers, the problem's still there and nothing really helps it that much. I'm having physio but I'm probably going to have to get a steroid injection into the tendon now. Eeew.

Worse things can happen to people, it's just so frustrating and I really did do the absolute bare minimum at work and that's hurt my arm. There just really isn't anything else I could do there, my manager still can't give me any idea of what I'm going to be doing other than sorting through post, which now I apparently can't handle either. What a mess.

jayss

Sorry the return to work hasnt gone well.

Can you stick your sore arm in a sling or something to make sure you dont use it at all whilst working?

Dont spend too much time worry about what they will or wont ask you to do. They have to sort something out.