It isn`t tough for us. We are OS and we COPE

mardatha

Maybe the plan is to make us nip into cafes etc for a quiet pee and then we will decide to spend some money while we're in there, and the town will be a bit more prosperous

GreyQueen

Lavandula wrote: »

I'm surprised the government/councils etc aren't doing more to encourage people to be more self sufficient in these hard times. In WWII, the government issued leaflets, radio programmes etc about 'make do and mend', 'growing your own', 'saving energy', etc etc....Why not do the same now?? How about supplying free seeds to households?

I suppose the government want us to keep spending to prop up the economy, but this is only a short term fix. People need to change their whole attitude to money, if we are to sustain the economy and our well-being for future generations. Cut consumerism and encourage people to live more simply. I reckon stress levels would be reduced and people would be healthier and happier...!

In terms of the recession, perhaps the closing of some shops is not such a bad thing!, for example, do we really need 3 shops on the high street selling tacky overpriced greetings cards. I went into town this morning and was very depressed at the sight of all the tacky Valentines stuff for sale (all cheap, nasty, impersonal, and made in China)...

I'll shut up now..:(

I'm with Lavandula on this one. Seems to me that there is almost a will to make people helpless and dependant, rather than to encourage robustness and self-sufficiency whenever possible. We are a modern urban society and there's not enough land for us to go back to, even if a surprising amount of people have the Smallholder Fantasy. When I think back to my childhood in 1970s, we actually got taught some useful stuff like cooking actual food instead of Food Technology, how to wire a plug and some basic sewing. I think the idea was that even if your parents were inadequate, the schooling could mitigate their shortcomings to a degree. I'm gobsmacked at how utterly useless at the most basic DIY or dommy sci type tasks a lot of people are.

The cynic in me wonders if this trend is deliberately fostered so we'll have to discard things and buy new ones and will be pathetic and malleable to the authorities.

Not that we do malleable up on this thread.......chuckle.

Sigh, I would like a lovely clucky flock of hens and a sturdy Welsh cob and cart. It is my inner Anglo Saxon Peasant stirring. Show me a cute animal and I start thinking...market weight, there's good eating on that.

FatVonD

GreyQueen wrote: »

Show me a cute aninal and I start thinking...market weight, there's good eating on that.

Lol! My son's father had previously been a fisherman and his eyes were like saucers when we visited the London Aquarium as he calculated how much he'd get at market for them all!

alec_eiffel

GreyQueen wrote: »

I'm with Lavandula on this one. Seems to me that there is almost a will to make people helpless and dependant, rather than to encourage robustness and self-sufficiency whenever possible. We are a modern urban society and there's not enough land for us to go back to, even if a surprising amount of people have the Smallholder Fantasy. When I think back to my childhood in 1970s, we actually got taught some useful stuff like cooking actual food instead of Food Technology, how to wire a plug and some basic sewing. I think the idea was that even if your parents were inadequate, the schooling could mitigate their shortcomings top a degree. I'm gobsmacked at how utterly useless at the most basic DIY or dommy sci type tasks a lot of people are.

The cynic in me wonders if this trend is deliberately fostered so we'll have to discard things and buy new ones and will be pathetic and malleable to the authorities.

Not that we do malleable up on this thread.......chuckle.

Sigh, I would like a lovely clucky flock of hens and a sturdy Welsh cob and cart. It is my inner Anglo Saxon Peasant stirring. Show me a cute aninal and I start thinking...market weight, there's good eating on that.

I don't think there's anything cynical about the belief that things are designed to become obsolete and disposable!

maryb

The government's damned if they do and damned if they don't. Do you remember the hoo-ha a few years ago when some minister made the perfectly sensible suggestion that wearing extra clothes was a good idea if heating costs were too high? The tabloids made the entirely predictable self righteous noises about how the vulnerable were being abandoned.

Just a couple of months ago one council was giving out cheap snow shovels so that neighbourhoods could help themselves. Affronted Daily Mail duly bridles right on cue.

I personally think it's a wicked betrayal not to teach basic cooking in schools. I'm not saying everyone should learn it (the curriculum is too rigid as it is) but for those groups doing 'food technology' they would be much better off doing proper domestic science instead of being taught how to choose BETWEEN ready meals

Rant over

FatVonD

maryb wrote: »

I personally think it's a wicked betrayal not to teach basic cooking in schools. I'm not saying everyone should learn it (the curriculum is too rigid as it is) but for those groups doing 'food technology' they would be much better off doing proper domestic science instead of being taught how to choose BETWEEN ready meals

My son's cookery class teaches them useful stuff but they only do it for about half a term each year. He chooses his options for next year soon so maybe it will be a subject in its own right then. I hope so, he loves cooking though a little less Jamie Oliver would do wonders for his vocabulary :eek:

sammy_kaye18

Hello! I am alive ~ just.......possibly.........sleep deprived I think is the correct terminology though!
I am about just having one of those months I think!

*Washing machine blew up
*Abby had her surgery today and isn't recovering as expected
*Mums been diagnosed with depression and hasnt been eating
*Best friend struggling with things
*Another friend has just attempted suicide and been released from
hospital so am at her beckon call at the minute
*Another friend has been paralyzed in hospital due to prolapsed discs in
her back so been looking after her two kids and dog.

NIGHTMARE!

But I am about - my poor blog has suffered too, my posts have been non existent on any boards at all. Have been arguing with Owen and to top it off money has been tight because of the bloody washing machine!

But I am me and you all know what Im like!

Washing machine replaced thanks to coop electrical store, so discount and a friend lending me £60 towards it so landed to have that back. Would have cost £240 but I had it for £160 and it would of cost £220+ to mend the old one!

Sister has literally been out of surgery for about 1.5hours and not responding as they think she should so shes in the best place at the minute and has our cousin and gentlemen 'friend' with her.

My mum - I cant do anything but listen and try not to stress her out too much and help where I can so have treated her to a pick n mix of her favorite things and have been making sure to feed her when I see her even if its a cup of tea and a sticky finger bun! plus sending a few of my BOGOF/ discount stuff home with her

Best friend and other suicidal friend - if they ring I have to answer it - whether its 3pm or 3am as the suicidal one tried to overdose by crushing sleeping pills into her tea although just how I'm meant to help I dont know but I cant not. Other one cant get past her dad passing away and the fact that I'm settled with kids and our other best friend got married so she feels left behind.

Friend with prolapsed discs is almost reliant on me at the minute - shes been released from hospital and her mum helps her with basic care - dressing/bathing etc - but Ive had to look after pup, her mum lets the dog out but refuses to touch him etc, I have to go shopping with her, school runs/ medicines etc. Phone calls and money collecting on her behalf from post office etc. Plus her son took a turn in school the other day, was stood in line, suddenly went pale and his lips turned blue but he has quite severe asthma and she ran to the school as quick as she could, although hes fine but now sh has been suffering fro the last few days.

Plus the normal day to day stuff, with my two kids, owen and dog, school runs, footy practice, football matches etc. Sammy Kaye is almost dead on her feet and in need of a full nights sleep since holly has been teething!

On top of all that Ive just taken on the 'better reading' challenge in Benjies school which is 2 hours a week to learn how to help kids improve their reading but after the first 10 weeks learning phrase you go on to do more work and training and it eventually gets you a level 3 NVQ so can only help really - just waiting for the CRB check to finish but its only 2 hours a week.

Right off to make sausage casserole with mashed tatties, then off up the hill to feed her mob. Wish she lived closer its about 3hrs total between getting there, sorting everything, and coming home and its a bloody steep hill she lives on top of!

I will be updating my blog though today

Lavandula -- I did see an advert yesterday from 'WHICH?' which was a grow your own vegetable booklet so maybe they are startign to get that idea.

FatVonD - love the name - I love Jamie too and think a good cookery class would benefit all kids. Hope your son enjoys it. Plus I love Jamie and cant wait for his new series - dream school i think ti is - and his food revolution is now in LA filming - cant wait!

right best be off all - got to get everyone fed!

Austin_Allegro

The cynic in me wonders if this trend is deliberately fostered so we'll have to discard things and buy new ones and will be pathetic and malleable to the authorities.

I don't think there's a darkened room somewhere with a bunch of educationalists plotting, saying 'let's dumb down education to such an extent that everyone will be pathetic and malleable to the authorities' (though I wouldn't be amazed if it were true) but I think our current feebleness is part of a vicious circle - we don't have many jobs left that require a range of practical manual skills, so in order to fill that gap both the private and the public sector (like the last Labour government and anything connected with the EU) have tended to promote administrative work.

This creates an army of people (from high flying lawyers down to piddling council 'five a day' co-ordinators) who have a vested interested in promoting the idea that we all need them to survive instead of relying on our own resources!

Austin_Allegro

mardatha wrote: »

Does anybody think there will be a surge in sales of motorbikes now that petrol is so dear ? In the 50s and 60s everybody had one, because there was less money about and people couldnt afford cars. Maybe those days are coming back ?

Unlikely I think. In the 50s/60s cars were expensive because they were still largely aimed at the well off. Since the 1970s mass car ownership has been the norm, with attendant lower prices, so motorbike ownership largely became a hobby rather than cheap practical transport. Small fuel-economic cars are much more widely available too.

My own feeling (having gone through CBT but deciding in the end against a motorbike) is that motorcycles have all the disadvantages of a car (running costs, tax, parking, environmental considerations, ) and none of the advantages of a car like protection from the elements and other road users, luggage carrying etc.

If I ever get on a motorbike again though, it will be in India - they still have the 1950s British Royal Enfield motorbikes there, no helmet laws and nice weather - bliss!

ChocClare

Nice to see you back, Sammy, though you sound as if you have the cares of the world on your shoulders at the moment! :grouphug::grouphug: to you! Make sure you include yourself in that long list of people you're looking after...

Maryb, the Daily Fascist is a reactionary paper which exists only to be indignant about everything. Useful for lighting fires in winter but little else!

My son's food tech taught them how to design a pizza. They're very nice pizzas and he still makes them for us every so often. So a useful skill.

It might have been more useful had he learnt how to peel a potato or chop a few carrots but there you are.

GreyQueen and Austin, the cynic in me wonders if the underclass which was created in the Thatcher years and predicted by some eminent American sociologist (can't remember who, but remember reading about it in the Times in the late eighties) are purposely being kept helpless and fed rubbish so that when the powers that be release the superbug which will wipe out the surplus population they get rid of the least productive and most troublesome bits of it first ;)

Okay, okay, only joking. Hopefully those of us on here have had enough support from each other and have enough nous to be able to deal with whatever life throws at us with nothing more than a teaspoon and a piece of string, as the good Doctor says :rotfl: