As The Workhouse Approaches....How To Do Everything To Avoid It, the Old Style Way

ceridwen

Rather than telling her where to put her job - then why not tell her that you've got a "few more calls on your time" than you had thought when you agreed and am not sure whether its worth your while to continue to do the job for the £x per hour - but you would be prepared to reconsider and stay on doing the job for £y per hour (which - incidentally - just happens to match the money the previous person was paid;):)).

If she agrees to put the money up to the same as they had ("they" - not "he" - as I am wondering whether she might be paying you less because you are a woman.....) - then keep doing it.

If she won't - then stop doing it (assuming you can afford to do that okay that is...).

I dont see anything wrong with someone going off and doing whatever else they want - whilst paying someone else to do a job for them that they dont wish to do themselves - as long as they are paying them a fair wage for doing so. If shes paying you less than him - then that isnt fair. However - I'd certainly be quite happy to "sit on my backside" and pay someone else that fair wage to do anything I dont want to do. I told a friend of mine that if I ever came up on the Lottery - I'd instantly offer her daughter-in-law (who has done various cleaning jobs for a living) twice the going rate to come along and do my housework for me if she was interested...:rotfl::rotfl: (which would leave me free to sit reading...which I much prefer....).

greenbee

oldtractor wrote: »

Thats the problem,we need the money but I'll be b******d if I'm going to sweat whilst lady muck sit sipping tea, when the man she used to get to garden was paid a lot more for the same work, which I didnt know until today. I'm going to tell her to stuff it .

It's obviously got too much for you, but don't burn your bridges. Obviously there were some communication issues in that you thought you'd be working with her and she thought she was paying you to do some of the garden independently.

She obviously admires your garden if she is prepared to pay you to work in hers but remember the old gardener may have been more qualified or more professionally experienced.

How about you work out how many hours you are prepared to work and tell her that you can only work that number of hours and suggest what you can do in those hours. If you don't want to do the heavy work maybe you can suggest someone who could, without risking them taking over the stuff you enjoy.

Remember that at the moment it's good to have a lot of options - and if you keep the relationship happy you might get some nicer gardening work elsewhere - just make sure you are clear what you do and don't do...

smileyt_2

Oldtractor, why don't you tell her that you don't want to do it anymore because you thought it would by you and her doing the garden together but as it isn't you don't see the point? That way you can end it with good grace, because if you tell her to stuff it, she is still your neighbour and you would then have to live with an argument.

Charis

EstherH wrote: »

Hipeechiq: I'm really please about your hubbies bonus and the greenhouse. You deserve it.

Re cloned meat and supermarkets: I know I am a bit cynical, (well maybe a lot cynical), but if it is difficult for the cloning to be detected and meat wouldn't have to be labeled as cloned, couldn't the supermarkets make a big fuss and say never will we sell it, and then sell it to us on the quiet and how would we know? And it wouldn't be illegal either. Seems to me that they get a lot of publicity out of making statements that they won't sell cloned meat. Some time down the line they could sneak it in by the back door.

I was thinking along those lines. At the moment each animal has to have a kind of passport, I have been told, a document showing where it came from and where it's been. If forty animals have the same DNA any of them could have been anywhere - how could you prove which was which? If you went up to the herd and called for Buttercup, you might incite a stampede :eek:

Frugalista

hex2 wrote: »

OH hates pastry and bread, I need stuff for his packed lunches. crustless [STRIKE]quiche[/STRIKE] flan will be perfect.

What about Impossible Quiche?

My sister, who lives in New Zealand, gave me the recipe. I didn't cook it for ages as it just looked so uninspiring and I don't particularly like quiche - then another of my sisters served it for lunch - OMG! It was so delicious :j.

It is now a regular on our menu as it is so good for using up all those odds and sods in the fridge and can be served hot or cold. An added bonus is that it can make four eggs magically stretch to serve 4 greedy adults a good sized portion each .

Try it - you won't be disappointed :cool::D:D

Impossible Quiche
1½ cups grated cheese
½ cup SR flour
1 onion, finely chopped
1½ cups milk
4 eggs
Salt & pepper
Optional extras:- 3 rashers bacon (chopped); mushrooms; spinach; garlic; parsley.

Mix together all the ingredients - but DO NOT BEAT.
Pour into a greased dish (I use my Pyrex casserole)
Bake at Gas 4, 180° C until set and a knife comes out clean - approx 45 mins to 1 hour - depends on depth of dish.

GreyQueen

I'm online in the evening, how weird...am over the parents' and playing on their broadband whilst they watch something or other on the TV. It's 9.20 pm and something just started up outside where the heavy overcast has made it nearly dark...their neighbour is using an electric hedge trimmmer.......suburbia is very strange......

I've been interested in the debate about veggie/vegan/ cloned meat. At various times in my life I've been a vegetarian and, for about a year, a vegan. What I found out, in my own life, was that I didn't thrive on a vegetarian diet and was positively poorly as a vegan. Think this may have been because of a "lady problem" which left me with persisitant iron-deficiency anaemia. I'm an omnivore who eats very little meat but what I do have, I feel the better for.

Amusingly, if I had a penny for every friend/ acquaintance/ colleague who's said in surprise; "But I thought you were a vegetarian!" then I'd be...oohh... comfortably off. :rotfl:Must just have this veggie vibe going.

I admire my vegetarian friends for their commitment to their values and none of them have mentioned in my hearing that phrase about not eating anything with a smile which, if said with a simper, provokes a few murderous thoughts. One thing I have noticed is that a fair few vegetarians seem to struggle with their weight, the ones who substitute cheese for meat in a lot of their meals.

It's interested me for a long time that, prior to the advent of farming, homo sapiens were robustly-built and commonly 6 feet plus tall, and with farming, people became stunted and diseased with a very few generations. Better nutrition in the last few decades has seem some modern westerners get close to the stature of the cro magnons of Old Europe, but things are going backwards in many parts of Britain, particularly the poorest parts.

There's also the disease burden of proximity to other species which we keep for food, such as TB crossing from cows to humans and the real threat of bird flu or similar.

The potential of cloned meat is something to be considered...I might contemplate venturing back into vegetarianism, particualrly when I come out the far side of the change and don't feel the need to eat dead cows at certain times of the month.

Keep on posting about it, this is something to consider carefully.

PS. I saw a Waitrose from the coach this afternoon and wanted to jump out and forage the shelves, you've got me hooked now.

Hope everyone has a good night's rest and a lovely long weekend.

maryb

Impossible quiche must be a favourite recipe down under because I noticed the other day Rhonda has got a recipe for it on her Down To Earth blog - except she uses cream with the milk. There's a piccie there to show what it looks like when it's done

http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/

scroll down to Tuesday May 24

ChocClare

My daughter is a vegetarian, and we have always supported her in this. We don't eat a lot of red meat, but I wouldn't want to give up meat completely. Luckily, DD respects our views just as we do hers so it's not something we have arguments about. We usually have at least a couple of veggie meals all together as a family each week. It's sometimes a pain to do a veggie version of whatever we're having as I'm having to cook two meals, but there you are.

The only downside is her skin, which has clearly suffered - she had lovely skin before. She takes a zinc supplement but - like all teenagers - she has to REMEMBER to take it! Other than that she seems very healthy.

On the other hand, DH used to do exhibitions, and he had crews working through the night to set up and take down shows - this would be cameras, lights, staging blah di blah. It was HARD work - and everyone was always exhausted afterwards - but in ten years of doing this, he said it was ALWAYS the vegetarians who faded first, as they just didn't seem to have the stamina of the carnivores. I'm not saying this is ALWAYS the case, just that it was his experience with this very strenuous work.

r.a.i.n.b.o.w

hex2 wrote: »

rainbow, thankyou - perfect idea. OH hates pastry and bread, I need stuff for his packed lunches. crustless [STRIKE]quiche[/STRIKE] flan will be perfect. Gave some eggs to DS2s teacher this morning but still have 22 to use plus todays. Trying so hard not to waste stuff but just dont have enough time for all that I want to do.

No problem It's one of my most favourite low-carb recipes - I usually saute some onion, pepper (yellow or orange), broccoli florets (cut into tiny pieces) and spinach to add to the quiche/flan mix. Or anything that's in the fridge that's looking a bit tired...

Also, you can bake it in an oven dish for a big flan to cut to portions, or line muffin tins (or the larger fairy cake/bun tins) with muffin/cake cases and divide the mix between them. One "muffin" is usually one portion, and is a more interesting way to serve them for packed lunches/breakfasts on the go, etc.

And - as I said earlier - easy to freeze, easy to defrost, easy to reheat/nuke, and so versatile with regards to which meal to have it for, and which veg to put in it.

I love it with baked beans (not IN the quiche! On the side! )

(plus - if you wanted - you could add tiny bits of meat, such as ham or chicken, to add variety/flavour. You wouldn't need a lot, just one slice of ham or the last shreds from that rubber chicken - just cut to teeny pieces and add to the egg/cheese mix with the veggies.)

scuzz

Whoever was saying about washing smalls before throwing them out, I heard on the radio last night that you can put your cotton panties and socks on the compost heap. He was a gardening expert. He did also suggest another waste product, but I won't go down that road - might be a wee bit embrassing:eek::rotfl:

Following this thread with great interest as I am now living alone on my lowest salary for years and really struggling to make ends meet. Have managed to reduce costs this week by inviting myself to dinner at Mum's three times (and pocketing the leftovers;)) Where would be we without our Mum?