Financial faux pas and other disasterous decisions

moo2moo

"Shopaholic ties the knot" is in my stash although I doubt its anything like "The Diary of a recovering shopaholic" being fictional chick lit and by an entirely different author. I'll shut up now.

Intergalactic_Floozie

30 BOOKS SINCE THE START OF THE XMAS HOLIDAYS!!!!!!

Ye Gads - I'm smug at the fact I've read three in 17 days.

I too have a large pile of unread books and although I have stopped buying them now I still persist in ordering them from the library meaning my own books go unread, so it's my own little challenge to see how many I can get read this year. I love reading but have had real readers block. I think it's through losing my car. I used to get to DS1's school 20 minutes before they finished so would sit and read for 20 minutes every day, so I have lost that (I'm on the bus less than ten minutes), and I've also started spending too much time on the computer and also am doing more cleaning / decluttering, which adds up to less reading time.....

Thanksfully I don't have any highbrow literature waiting to be read though, it's all thrillers and chick-lit!

PS - wasn't trying to tempt you with it you daft thing, was trying to get you to write your own!!!! Honest I'm not joking. If she could get that book published, you should have publishers battering down your door (if they can get up the driveway that is for chickens / children / half finished landrovers and ice.

moo2moo

Aaaahhh but I'm so easily tempted and knowing that I've been slapped onto a tarriff with Talk Talk thanks to a company takeover where if I do nowt I pay exactly the same as clicking the please sticth me up for 18 months, I'll have the £20 Amazon voucher thank you very smugly. Well its easy to see how easily I do get distracted.

Don't be fooled into thinking the 30 books were all 600 page adult novels, I have to admit to Georges Marvellous Medicine, The Witches, Dustbin baby and several other short childrens books with big type and the most fantabulous story lines ever. At times they are infinately more entertaining than the books for grown ups. Especially Yuck. Which having read it I really can't believe I gave DD2 for x-mas. Its truly revolting but fab at the same time. Book of the week is Danny The Champion of the World which the OH has never read so I'm reading that one out loud to everyone at bedtime.

lucielle

Hi Moo please can I have you carrot cake recipe?
Ta
L

DedicatedDFW

Hi moo. You seem to be doing really well on your challenge this month. I've avoided the hairdressers since some time last year when i got a free cut - its now looking a little wild and i was very tempted by some intensive hair care stuff that i saw was discounted but as it would've been more than a fiver still i restrained myself. Wish I'd got it though as after shower and regular condition i dried my hair looked in the mirror and was very worzel gummidge *yikes*

I wanted to ask how easy / hard it is to care for chickens and if eggs need anything special doing with them? (other than scrambling etc :rotfl:)

makeup

moo2moo wrote: »

Can't think what possessed me to purchase Fluabert or Tolstoy or even Dostoyevsky (which will be spelt wrong) and theres only so much Jane Austen I can take.

At the risk of sounding really pretentious I have to admit to liking Russian literature of the likes of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Solzhenitzyn.

I've read Crime & Punishment and The Idiot. C&P is more readable and is really good and very interesting.

I loved Anna Karenina, I thought it was a really good read. Although it is long, it is very absorbing and although not as easy as the 'Shopaholic' series, definitely worth getting your teeth into and once you start very hard to put down.

My Dad has a big library of Penguin Classics although when I was teenager I was constantly fed up with the lack of books at home to read.....my faves at the time being the Sweet Valley High series which were about two twin teenagers at school in America :eek:

I now borrow them every so often, I must get out War & Peace which I'm hoping is as good as AK.

I've read Mme Bovary but she really annoyed me - I think that book hasn't dated well, I think you need to understand the social conditions of the time for it to make sense (place of women etc).

moo2moo

lucielle wrote: »

Hi Moo please can I have you carrot cake recipe?
Ta
L

I use Delia Smiths version (swapping almonds for walnuts) which is online here:
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuisine/mediterranean/greek/saturday-carrot-cake.html

moo2moo

DedicatedDFW wrote: »

Hi moo. You seem to be doing really well on your challenge this month. I've avoided the hairdressers since some time last year when i got a free cut - its now looking a little wild and i was very tempted by some intensive hair care stuff that i saw was discounted but as it would've been more than a fiver still i restrained myself. Wish I'd got it though as after shower and regular condition i dried my hair looked in the mirror and was very worzel gummidge *yikes*

I wanted to ask how easy / hard it is to care for chickens and if eggs need anything special doing with them? (other than scrambling etc :rotfl:)

Mmm the hair is now more James May than Worzel Gumage. I had my annual shearing 3 months early as there was no way I could survive until April ended up having almost 9 inches hacked off with much muttering from the hairdresser about how some people just aren't meant to have long hair. I know that but long hair is mucho cheaper than the £15 every 6 weeks required by short hair.

Did vaguely consider sticking the hair clippers across my head but then saw sense. The many craters and scars on my head from multiple skull fractures and even more missing chunks would make that look rather ridiculous and would leave me very self concious if it showed more scar tissue than normal. This isn't to say I'm a mass of scars, I'm very fortunate that the ones on show everyday on my face are restricted to my cheek and jaw line but I know they're there even if no one else notices.

Don't get me started on chickens. I become obsessive. They're ace. Easier to keep than rabbits and guinea pigs and far more entertaining. It cost me £30 to build my first house which rapidly became 4 and a chick brooder. The eggs taste fab and are no differrent to supermarket eggs in their usage and storage although I like having lots of different shell clours including some chocolate brown ones and even blue and green ones. They're rather pretty. Theres a thread somewhere on here about setting up chooks which is worth a read.

moo2moo

makeup wrote: »

At the risk of sounding really pretentious I have to admit to liking Russian literature of the likes of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Solzhenitzyn.

I've read Crime & Punishment and The Idiot. C&P is more readable and is really good and very interesting.

I loved Anna Karenina, I thought it was a really good read. Although it is long, it is very absorbing and although not as easy as the 'Shopaholic' series, definitely worth getting your teeth into and once you start very hard to put down.

My Dad has a big library of Penguin Classics although when I was teenager I was constantly fed up with the lack of books at home to read.....my faves at the time being the Sweet Valley High series which were about two twin teenagers at school in America :eek:

I now borrow them every so often, I must get out War & Peace which I'm hoping is as good as AK.

I've read Mme Bovary but she really annoyed me - I think that book hasn't dated well, I think you need to understand the social conditions of the time for it to make sense (place of women etc).

Aaah but I purchased these completely forgetting about the offspring. The level of concentration required to read these books is rather more than that available to me at the mo. I pick up a book and the DDs do something quiet. When children are quiet they are at their most dangerous and whilst I can happily abandon Terry Pratchet mid sentence without forgetting what was going on Jane Austen takes a bit more commitment. I will eventually read them but probably not until the DDs have left home and the Oh takes up golf. hes developped a really annoying habit of reading random words over my sholder to pee me off enough to abandon the book and rejoin the human race only to slap Ice Road Truckers on the telly box. Have taken to going to bed at 8:30 to read for an hour in peace although the DDs pop in and out like Jack in the boxes for half of that time. Most frustrating. Much as I love them dearly there are times I'd like to hide away in a soundproof room and lock the door from the inside.

I can fully understand why my mother only read Mills and Boon whilst we were small preferring Voltaire and novels in their original language when we weren't around.

moo2moo

And so today starts the work of a super manic week at work. No doubt I will not be popular when I dismantle the staff room only to be told by the builders that they won't be demolishing the wall in there for another couple of days. Theres a meeting at 10am today to find out exactly whats going on but I'll find out what I need to know on a need to know basis shortly after I actually needed to know and way after I could have done something about whatever it was.

Yesterday deviated considerably from plan with 4 hours at a go-kart track watching Oh tinker with his friends go-kart. V. smelly and v. repetative. Still he enjoyed it. Got home in time to fedd the DDs and stick them into bed. Tried to do too many things at once which almost resulted in a chimney fire when the chimney flue exceeded 700 degrees celcius thanks to me forgetting to shut the bottom door restricting the air intake to the fire. Abandoned all plans and had two glasses of vino. Annoyingly that means I only had chance to list 2 items on flea-bay. Still thats 2 items less in the house assuming they sell. Means I definately need to get my bum in gear for the next free day though.

Washed the DDs beds and everything in the laundry basket. Now have amountain of ironing to get through today.

Plans for today:

• lots and lots of ironing
• dispose of the box from the new tv
• dispose of the old tv and anything else that can go to the tip
• commence operation tidy up cos grannys coming to stay
• work out what the heck I'm wearing to this wedding
• dig out a suitable card for wedding