Coffee and chocolate

SouthernBellE*

:hello: Hi Miggy!

Sorry I've not popped in sooner, also been decluttering! Going very slowly and I'm at that stage where I'm surrounded by more mess because of all the piles of stuff pulled out that needs sifting through! :eek: I kind of stall when I get to photos, cards I've kept and DS's school days keepsakes.:rotfl:

How did you get on with your Mum? No bones broken I hope? Glad she seems 'with it'. Trying not to picture a funky pensioner with i-pod plugged into her ears listening to rap music while texting all her gal pals!

Re..Guttering, I'm waiting for the next Betterware catalogue to be delivered, I know I've seen gutter patches that I thought would be worth a try to get mine through the winter. Provided I can pursuade someone to climb a ladder to use the patches, I'll let you know if they work.

Yaaay on the cheque from your Mum!

Re..leccy bill. My D/D for gas kept being reduced & I was also worried about getting hit with an unexpected high bill. They were being reduced because the original dd was set too high and I was over £300 in credit, had been quite a bit more but they never sent a refund until I queried it and requested one. The original amount was set by asking how many rooms in the house had radiators and if I cooked with gas. I wonder how many people they catch like that, I'd imagine it makes them a good profit in interest. Hope they've answered your query but if you're in credit, make sure they send it back!

You made me laugh about dreaming of fillings but then being too tired the next morning, I do the same thing, can't switch off from things I intend to do the next day which keeps me awake most of the night.....where I then sleep half of the day!

Anyway, hope you've finally managed to have a lie in. It is very tiring switching shifts from day and night & I notice some of your posts have been really late. Hope you're not overdoing things?

Take care & talk again soon.

SB
X

miggy

Hi SB, good to hear from you, and I'm sorry I've been so long in replying. I'm a naturally late-night person and have been working strange, rather than excessive hours and between the two I can be online very late.
Mum's doing a bit better of late, thanks. Love the image of her texting gal pals etc! DH went to see recently as he had to be in that area and could combine visits. From what he said things are acceptable. I also sent a huge lot of sandwiches which he's put in her freezer, so she can get a meal easily if she's not feeling well! They were popular.
Any luck with your guttering? Ours isn't perfect as a small leak remains, but it's a big improvement on what it was. No more leaks into the dining room! (So far ).
I have been doing various bits of cooking, and received my order from BBFL - great apart from them sending me a freebie of those little milk cartons you get in cafes! They are UHT which none of us drinks given half a choice, so I shall have to be creative and make lots of bread ouddings!
I'm away for a few days from tomorrow - a weekend with friends from church which we do every year. Usually we eat, walk and play silly games. This year, depending on the weather, we may not walk. I am sure we'll have a fab time as ever though!

miggy

A quick update: the weekend was great but mum is back in hospital. I managed to visit and she seems okay in herself.
Snow forecast tonight or tomorrow! And I'm at work all day... work for a few days to come, in fact.
And that's about it for now.:)

MatyMoo

Poor you, poor Mum

And then flippin snow to contend with too, Grrrrrr

Sending hugs as that is all I can do to help!

SouthernBellE*

miggy wrote: »

A quick update: the weekend was great but mum is back in hospital. I managed to visit and she seems okay in herself.
Snow forecast tonight or tomorrow! And I'm at work all day... work for a few days to come, in fact.
And that's about it for now.:)

Hi miggy!

I'm glad you had a good time with your friends! Hope you got a chance to relax as well as share lots of laughs with them.

I was sorry to hear that your Mum is back in hospital. I know your neck of the woods was hit hard with the snow so in some ways, I hope you at least you have the reassurance of knowing Mum was somewhere safe and warm and being looked after. I'm sure you'd have had a lot more anxieties over her if she were at home, i.e, did she have enough in and were the home help able to reach her etc.

I hope she's improving but also hope that you're not to badly affected by the weather. I know us southeners are a bit soft anyway, me especially so I don't envy the conditions some of you are dealing with.

Stay safe when you're out and about hun, glad you've plenty of supplies in & hope the worse is over with for you.

SB
X

miggy

I'm enjoying the snow! We have about 6 inches, though out of town it's a lot more. It's lovely fluffy stuff: feels like walking on soft dry sand, and the air is so still that every twig is heaped high with white.
Everyone is spending as much time as possible indoors so a planned Christmas shopping trip didn't happen, then a planned visit to mum didn't either, but she's doing okay although likely to stay in for some time as they're concerned she isn't taking enough care of herself. As you say, while she's in, I know she's being looked after.
I have managed odd bits of Christmas shopping but haven't spent much (yet). Grocery bills haven't been too bad either, as I have a huge mound of stuff to get through from the bargainiferous BBFL orders. The UHT milk has turned out to be timely as we were running low on milk yesterday and I used some of it. It's actually not so bad.
I did my usual supermarket mark-downs reccy on the way home from work tonight. Savings as follows:
2 pieces salmon £1.20
4 packs sandwiches £5.01
pizza £2.30
small crate of clementines £2.35
pancakes 89p

I did spend £1 on sandwiches for tea but I've had cheap soup a few times recently so it's nice to have a change.

My fares to visit mum the other week were just over £50, but between that and work I've missed 3 piano lessons, saving £30.

Money isn't doing too well recently and I will have to make at least one more visit to mum in the next few weeks so I will have to do some careful planning for Christmas.

SouthernBellE*

Crickey, we're actually on line at the same time!

Haven't started any christmas shopping yet! Was hoping to make a start this weekend but OH phoned today to say he wouldn't be coming home while the weather is bad!

Have to do some major thinking and reshuffling of funds too as OH has been waiting for a tax rebate...for 13 months!!!! Finally spoke to his accountant who has been promising 'within days' for the last two months but now can't gaurentee it will be here before Christmas!

Hope things work out for you hun!

X
PS....Mike has put a date on his thread!!!

miggy

Oops, I didn't see you till now SB - sorry!
13 months is a long time to wait... I hope they get their act together.
I saw Mike's date - yay! I shall be there, and if they put me down for a shift, well, they'd better not! Mind you, I saw his earlier TV appearance while at work and quite by accident.
I've just checked the cold weather payments links (under 'Latest MSE news' on the right) and our postcode qualifies but we aren't in receipt of qualifying benefits so it won't make any difference to us. I can hardly beleive that this time last month we had superb autumn colours and could go out without a coat!
Today not a NSD but popped into Boots and got a couple of small pressies for people, then Wilkos for cleaning stuffs and Mr T for some food - okay spent a bit much there: lamb mince and roasties for DS, but they have fridge jars of Heinz beans on 1/2 price so the rest of us had beans and pizza (cheap yesterday) followed by store cupboard spiced bread pudding: a really nice and low-spend meal.

SouthernBellE*

No Worries miggy, I'm rarely around the same time as anyone these days!

Didn't realise date wasn't 'official' so sorry for that. Whenever it does get shown, really hope we all get online at the same time, anyone who can't, we'll reschedule for a re-run and 2nd on-line party, no-one will be left behind again honey & not a party without everybody there that wants to be!

Sorry to hear you also had a stumble, seems as though everyone managed to go down with a lot more grace and elegance than me! lol. Glad you weren't hurt!

X

miggy

Guess who stayed in all day today?... but still managed to spend! DD is off to the Clothes Show Live and I suggested she should give something towards petrol so DH and I are some £15 worse off. Never mind, she will enjoy it.
Other than that, a NSD.
Yesterday I got some shopping but not much - and work was called off as the heating broke.
Yesterday was also DS2's birthday party - half a dozen teenage lads listening to music and playing 'blocky' in the dark, in the snow, so there was a bit of clearing up this morning despite the party-giver's marathon efforts before his friends came round.
I also (daringly) put some washing in the machine. It worked but I've had to turn the spin speed down, so things will take longer to dry. It's very clearly on its last legs: the repair man told me so when he last came to see it! When the noise it's making gets worse - and it's now horrendous! - it means the machine is worn out. Thankfully it's keeping going and we are due one that a relative is giving away and which has had much less use. The only difficulty is getting it. It's a fair distance away and what with the weather and other circumstances... well, at least the one we have keeps going!
Other than that I've spent most of the afternoon baking. Flapjacks, mince pies and cheese scones, followed by a big pan of soup. I've used up some bits and pieces that needed using, though I also found that someone had put a couple of part-used jars of cooking sauce in the cupboards, so they have grown fur and had to be thrown out.
And it's thawing, really thawing, after about 10 days of snow. There are long icicles hanging from the gutter and a sound like rain. We still have one of the rabbits and the guina pig indoors, but the outdoors rabbit's ears are much warmer tonight than they were yesterday so that's quite a good indicator things have warmed up! (He is very well wrapped, by the way, we just haven't room for him indoors).
And now, in an effort to do something towards Christmas, I'm going to look up the recipe-in-a-jar for Cranberry hootycreeks - nom nom nom.