Coffee and chocolate

Lemon_Tree

i hope they get clear at your mum's place soon, she must be missing you as well.

i think my problem with finding a church is that i didn't attend too much whilst i was a kid and a teenager, i didn't really start attending properly till about 15 years ago, so i feel inferior to all the others as i'm sure they would have been there every day of their lives. Last time i attended regularly it was when Mr LT and i were getting married, i attended my parents village church for a year or so before then so i was on the parish register (which seems really heartless i know) but it was a church where different denominations held services each week so it was a bit confusing. Round here in the villages where there's not enough parishoners they share churches on a rota basis if that makes sense. When we move we'll be going to a bigger town so fingers crossed we will find somewhere that makes us feel comfortable.

BlushingRose

Churches can be very cliquey too, I find.

Erme

Yeah I find that too Rose...

Bleach/peroxide - referring to Mike Rimmer @UCB...it's on his twitter profile LOL

I made soup last night in the KC and the fast slicer/shredder came and it works fine . I had two packets of parsnips whoopsied to 75p on Monday to use up...No point in wasting them

E

miggy

Lemon_Tree wrote: »

i didn't really start attending properly till about 15 years ago, so i feel inferior to all the others as i'm sure they would have been there every day of their lives

Just my opinion, but this comes from having lead a small study group for ages: people often don't know as much as you'd think and one of the most useful people to have in a group is the one who speaks up and says 'I don't understand' or 'I don't agree' or something along the lines of 'I'm not holy enough to experience that'. They are the ones who open up discussions, and very often they are speaking for the silent people too. If I thought you were within reach I'd ask you along not only for your own sake but because you'd be useful.

Also churches vary hugely.

BlushingRose wrote: »

Churches can be very cliquey too, I find.

Oh they can! And do they know it? I doubt it! Though you can get the same with workplaces. Everyone feels 'This is such a nice friendly place' and they don't see that they feel that because they're having cosy chats with friends which exclude others.

(*Jumps off soapbox looking sheepish*).

The other side of that is the one that someone's already mentioned, where you get jumped on as you come in the door and before you know it you've signed up to help in the creche, serve coffee after the service, organise the flower rota and do a sponsored swim, and there's a part of you that's never managed to get out the words 'I'm just in the area for half and hour and I wondered if I could borrow your loo?'

miggy

Erme wrote: »

I made soup last night in the KC and the fast slicer/shredder came and it works fine . I had two packets of parsnips whoopsied to 75p on Monday to use up...No point in wasting them

E

I had h/m spicy parsnip soup to take to work last and though I say it myself it was gorgeous!

Lemon_Tree

bless you miggy i wish we lived closer as well, i love being useful though in social groups i can be the one who sits and hides in the background (which is hard for a heffylump)

Erme

miggy wrote: »

I had h/m spicy parsnip soup to take to work last and though I say it myself it was gorgeous!

I had mine cold yesterday for lunch. Tasted pants with a cheese and onion sandwich...

Now go figure this one..Mr S local - 2 onions (red) = 90p - Mr C (corner shop/convieniance) a bag of white - 75p?

How does Mr S justify 45p for an onion :mad:

E

miggy

Lemon_Tree wrote: »

bless you miggy i wish we lived closer as well, i love being useful though in social groups i can be the one who sits and hides in the background (which is hard for a heffylump)

That's a shame hun... you're anyone's equal and I'm sure you have something to contribute. Ah well, the invitation stands.

Erme wrote: »

How does Mr S justify 45p for an onion :mad:

E

No idea - was it gold-plated? Have you tried the purple potatoes they sell?

And a quick update from me: one more night of work and day of sleep then a day of work then I have a day off. I have been thoroughly spoilt with taking annual leave recently and I'm not used to this work lark!

Mum is visitable again - lurgy now gone from the environs - and is cheerful so that's good. DH had his bike stolen - not a big deal financially and probably for the best as he says it was getting unsafe, but not nice and now we have to find him another, probably off Ebay. He cycles to keep fit (and, I suspect, to give him some 'space' away from home and work!) and when it's light enough he cycles to work, so he needs another really.

Working last night gave me the privilege of sharing the 1 year commemoration of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in real time. There wasn't much I could do of course and none of them knew I was 'there', but I'm still glad had the chance to pay my respects a bit.

At home I have made a bit of progress: I chucked out a couple of old handbags which I'd held onto because they were useful. However they were too battered to use so they have gone - after a thorough check for stray money of course! I also spent a couple of hours gardening though it will take a lot more to get it nice.

miggy

I've been giving some thought to what cut backs we'd need to make if DH's job goes. Being me I'm tempted to focus on food but at the moment we're struggling with the budget that worked a few months ago so it will take real work to cut back there. I'm not even sure why it's harder than it was.

We use the car far too much for short journeys and with DH's bike gone that will be tempting to continue. I am trying to be organised and walk to work but aside from this it's short trips to town for shopping - not MS except that evening trips can mean snagging bargains when things get marked down.

My work has a scheme where we can prepay for some shops which I haven't used as it messes up our budget but I need to bite the bullet. I think it's 5% off at Mr A and Mr S which is worth having.

I can keep up my weekly supermarket trawl which at the moment is ensuring we have access to Mr S's cheap pasta and Mr A's whoopsies -well worth doing.

It's only just occured to me that fish is massively more expensive per kg than meat - why have I never seen that before? (Possibly because it's bought pre-packed not per kg). I much prefer fish to meat though - but I'm investigating further. That came about because I noticed that massive whole salmons are on sale price at the moment which means if I could afford one (£18 -£19), fillet it and freeze the steaks then that would be bargainaceous.

Not much we can do about Council Tax or water rates (with five of us in a three bed house I think we would pay more on a meter). We have already given up Skye and don't really miss it. At the moment mortgage payments are set to overpay so of course that would have to stop - and we are going to fix the rate again before they hike that up as well.

DD would need to pay her own gym bill: something we've always done for her because it was cheaper than paying for her gymnastics classes (they came free with the total package). I know she could afford it herself if she had to: she just paid £20 to get her nails done and bought her b/f some shoes so there must be money somewhere! I think as long as we could afford it that DS2 should still get some pocket money and DD should at least till she's finished at school, even though she has a job. Taking it off her would feel like penalising her for working - though I know she'd understand and has already taken a cut because of her work.

I can grab extra hours at work and have been wondering vaguely whether to apply for a part-time post that's likely to come up (in addition to my existing hours) - or see if my contracted hours can be extended. I couldn't take on all the hours of the P/T post though because that would take me over F/T hours and they don't allow that.

That's as far as I've got so far - and I still have to find that card reader... botheration.

miggy

... and I could grow veg. I've never been much good at that, though.

I've just found an old Boots token which I think is still in date - yay! And an Amazon one which isn't - boo. I wonder if it's possible to reactivate it?

Actually I'm with DS2 on this - nice though it is that people send us vouchers, I wish they were vouchers I'd use! Some of them are... some of them are just a waste and that's sad.