Financial faux pas and other disasterous decisions

moo2moo

Was funny anyway but then I do have a rather warped sense of humour.

moo2moo

Its 6:30am. I've bought my bingo cards, won 20p on the scratchcards and written two diabolically dull DooYoos taking me to 150. Only 50 more to go. I'll be throwing a party when I reach 200. Vaguely tempted to see if theres anyone I know in the bingo chat rooms but I realise how pathetically sad tat sounds and will go enjoy the peace and solitude that is a houseful of slumbering people by burying my head in my current very mediocre novel in the hopes of finishing it soon so I can review it and then commence my assault on the rather exciting books I intend liberating from tonights fayre. Must remember to have a very stern chat with the DDs about mummys first no being final. Even OH has it down to a fine art. All visits to shops are now precipitated with the statement "Before you ask the answer is no and will remain that way. Understood." to which we get a chorus of yes Daddys. It makes life far easier and it means that when we do treat them to something no matter how small they're genuinely excited about it. I do have a friend who thinks this is incredibly mean but can see the perks of not being whinged at for things constantly.

rupe34

I'm dying to know if you really did put up a 'no stilettos' sign - and did it work?!

Also - now that you have reminded me about advent calendars - I had better do something about getting some...

moo2moo

Nope, didn't get as far as the stilettoes. Mind you didn't put as many chairs out as planned either. Some enterprising parent thought they'd be helpful and allowed other parents into the building at 8:40am. I attempted to get into the hall with additional chairs but having managed it with four discovered the selfish gits were in too much of a hurry to get good seats that I couldn't get out again so initiated plan B and had a leisurely cuppa in the staff room instead. Bah humbug. Meant 80 of them had to stand up whereas they would have had seats had they not been so impatient.

Survived the school fair. Just. Abandoned the building at 9pm having done a first clean. Persuaded the PTA that coloured ahirspray indoors was not the best idea they'd come up with. As it turns out this would have been less damaging than the chocolate fountain. There are trails of chocolate in the carpets and the posh squishy guest seating and best of all some !!!!!! stuck drawing pins into the new furniture which the kitchen fitters haven't finished installing yet. Will also need to reapint two very long corridors thanks to the imbecile who decided double sided sticky tape was preferable to bluetac and slapped up lots of signs and banners removing large chunks of paint as they took them down. Still I keep telling myself it could be worse. So much worse. The carpets will eventually come clean with the carpet cleaner I bought after this happened last year and the corridors were due for painting in another year anyway.

Meanwhile the DDs had a fabulous evening. The teaching staff were bored and so we began a game of giant Buckaroo with my unsuspecting eldest as the donkey. She was clearly amazed at the generosity of the teachers who were buying her various objects as gifts to see just how creative one small child can be. She arrived with a handbag and £3. She left with a rucksack to which a further four handbags were adorned. Said rucksack was crammed to the eyeballs with tat and then things were stuck in various pockets and onto the straps. Then we added an enormous inflatable baloon, two more carrier bags of tat, a giant umbrella and two enormous dolls complete with high chairs and an equally huge teddy bear. Then we got enterprising and added bags of sweets and candy floss. Amazingly she made it to the car filling the boot and overflowing onto the back seat.Apparently its the best school fair ever ever ever in the whole wide world. DD2 was just happy to know that DD1 was willing to carry all her tat too allowing her to use both hands to shop. Boy did she shop.

School have a reusable tombolla where any milk bottle top with a zero on the end wins a prize. As we discovered a small child with excellent number recognition and most importantly very small hands can select three tops all of which win prizes so DD2 spent the evening being dispatched by teachers to visit the tombolla with their cash and as a reward being allowed to keep anything that wasn't alcohol or chocolates. Armed with that as an incentive she returned home with a bin bag full of goodies which lucky old granny will be getting for Christmas. Its child exploitation but I like it.

Unfortunately I'll be spending the morning dealing with the aftermath and disposing of the surplus to anywhere that will take it. Means I get a last minute rummage though and theres a fair bit left that can be used in classrooms.

moo2moo

So plans for today:

• remind OH what I look like
• persuade him to harass his boss again for his Christmas work schedule so that I can figure out what I'm doing and more importantly if I need to book childcare for Januarys teacher training day
• bank the cheque which arrived in the post yesterday from my gramps as an early x-mas gift
• consider sorting out anything E-bayable aquired yesterday as its a free listings weekend
• housework. Despite having done tons this week the house is a tip again. *sigh* it really is never ending

DooYoo and scratchcards. Edited to add £10 withdrawn from the scratchcards whoohoo.

mooomin

Thank you kindly for my Christmas parcel

I especially love the Miffy stickers :j

moo2moo

You're most welcome.

Helen105

Thanks for the reminder about ebay. I took photos weeks ago & then never did anything more about them.

moo2moo

Ugh. Its Saturday already. Have been awake since 5am again. Still it means I've bought bingo tickets already. I won another fiver yesterday. Unfortunately it looks like thats going towards the DDs horsey hack which will be setting me back £30 for an hour and I have to go with them too to make sure DD2 stays focused on what shes doing instead of watching the birds and the trees and wot not. Hopefully the flood levels have dropped a bit and I won't get quite as wet as I did last time but I'm not holding my breath.

Yesterday was an extremely long day. Finished clearing up from the fair long enough to grab lunch and head back to work. Still have tons of stuff to dispose of but I've made a fair old start. Have aquired a couple more books taking my school fayre aquisitions to 38 much to the OHs ammusement. Think thats about what I donated in the first place so the book shelves are just as chocca despite my ruthless clear out.

Spent what little time I did have gutting DD2s pit and rearanging the furniture so that she can't use her bookshelves as a stepping stone to the ceiling to attach paper aeroplanes with shoelaces and bluetac. Have prmoised I'll do it from a ladder instead if its so important. Have visions of her being crushed by the enormous 6 foot high book case if not. Still at least thats one room tidied. Just hope she can manage to keep it that way for a bit.

Made it back to school to be confronted by a alist of demands. MOst of them involved playing with power tools but in and amongst I have a greenhouse base to build and a greenhouse to attach it to once I've finished ,moving several tons of bark chip out of the way but by far the most ridiculous request involved a door. A very heavy fire door which when open obscures the drummers view of the stage. Now you'd have though the the solutions were both many fold and simple. Either close the door or move the drummer. Instead I removed 12 screws and wreslted a rather unwieldly fire door into a cupboard. Barking. Plans for Wednesday will involve reattaching it.

So plans for today:

• Take a few dozen horses for a very long walk whilst attempting to keep my feet dry
• Housework and unsurprisingly yet more housework
• Persuade DD1 to do the ironing. She likes ironing. Even on top negotiating form shes happy with 2p an item although I do get away with a penny once in a while. Shes saving up for a DS and shes rather close to having the funds together so OH and I are attempting to make the last little bit as awkward as possbile to make sure shes not quite there before Christmas.
• DooYoos. Didn't do any yesterday. Really really couldn't be arsed and them OH arrived home with flea spray. Once my brain is awake enough that'll make a fab review although it'll be entirely irrelevant as far as the fleas are concerned.
• and finally baking, lots and lots of baking. I'm covered in bruises and my clothes are sloppy again meaning I need to eat a lot more and cakes are clearly the way to go. The stickier the better so syrup laden sticky cereal buns are at the top of my list along with flapjacks and hob nobs. Mmmmm.

Helen105

I'm impressed with the casual way you mention building a greenhouse base. Will this involve concrete and bits of wood and string and spirit levels & the like?