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

silvasava

taurusgb wrote: »

Off to pick some raspberries from the garden for pudding, I'm now picking almost a colander full per day this past week or so :T - any one know when you should prune summer fruiting raspberries and how hard?

Taurus - The canes you are currently picking from will die back towards the end of the season. When they're 'past their sell by date' & have gone brown & scruffy you cut each cane back to the ground. Be careful though 'cos you should have new green canes for next year either already through or just starting & they are a bit fragile so you dont want to break any off. Summer fruiting raspberries crop on the previous years canes - but only once. Hope I've described it OK for you to understand:)

WMF - yup - the sun brings out my cold sores too - best prevention is factor 15 lip salve in your pocket. But I use neat T Tree as soon as I feel one about to 'blossom' seems to dry it up pretty quick (managed to get some bottles in A**a last year for 9p each!)

Virtual hugs to scottishminne & larumbelle - sounds like you've both been dealing with the village idiots, obviously common sense is an extra.

Off now for my 'medicine' a glass of Sangria & Castle on TV - oh the glamorous life I lead:rotfl:

lizzyb1812

Scottishminnie - that's scandalous. The railway companies are obviously teaching their staff muppetry instead of customer service. Hope you work out a satisfactory outcome and that this doesn't cause you probs with getting to work.

Silvasava - thanks for the tip re the raspberries, I now know exactly which stems to cut and which not.

Got to the hospital for my blood test only to find the carpark charge had gone up to £2-60 :eek:. Luckily a very kind lady was just about to leave the carpark and gave me her ticket with plenty enough time on it for me to get sorted. I offered to pay but she wouldn't hear of it - thank you very much nice lady.

Went to Sainsbugs with my current mantra "Use it up" playing in my head and bought just a pack of cooking bacon for £1.

HM beefburgers and a couscous thing I made up as I went along for dinner tonight. I'm going to start costing some of my recipes to see which are real budget ones. Definitely spending a lot less these days but would be nice to see which are really star cheapie meals.

Gardening tomorrow if fine and then off to get the dog her booster. Poor thing is seriously anxious about people and other dogs, to the extent that the vet has prescribed diazepam to give her before her appointment so she can have a proper physical examination this year as it was all the vet could do to give her the booster last year and heart, etc didn't get checked at all.

modern_millie_2

Larumbelle - sounds like you've got them on the run. go girl!

Minnie - can't believe you are being spoken to like this. Your MP sounds like a good idea - or the press.

HJ, I love Marguerite Patten. Always use her guidance for jam, never failed. Spurred on by you and others I am cooking with my DD atm , not before time as she is now 17! We made feta and spinach pie yesterday which was really nice, Spanish omelette and salad the night before. Good thing too, or she could be going to uni next year existing on a d iet of supernoodles and fried egg sarnies!

Charis

scottishminnie wrote: »

I was halfway through the tale when he stopped me and asked exactly what was in the bag - " tupperware dish, paperback book and knife and fork" I replied at which point he said "if I were you I'd stop this conversation now. You've broken the law by carrying an offensive weapon on a train and I can have you charged. Choice is yours".

That's blatant sexism. He'd never have tried that on with Billy Connolly! He would probably have ended up being given a Glasgow kiss.

scottishminnie

JIL wrote: »

so in first class when they serve food just what do you eat it with?

[QUOTE=modern millie;45060270
Minnie - can't believe you are being spoken to like this. Your MP sounds like a good idea - or the press.

QUOTE]

Charis wrote: »

That's blatant sexism. He'd never have tried that on with Billy Connolly! He would probably have ended up being given a Glasgow kiss.

Minnie I would definitely think about going to the local press. The Daily Record would have a field day with that.

Whilst I'd be glad to see them look like idiots in the papers I have a bit of a snobbery "thing" about certain papers, the Daily Record being one of them. I can picture the article now - there would be a photo with me clutching a knife and fork which wouldn't be flattering, they would of course print my age (that's a complete no no, in my mind I'm 36 I don't want to think about the 5 years after that) and I'd never live it down at work. I work for one of the major financial institutions and they are a bit sniffy about staff courting attention.

I'm certainly going to write a letter to Scotrail and the station operators and I may well copy my mp - see what comes of that.

I hate writing complaint letters, it's happening too often and I'm beginning to feel like I'm turning into Victor Meldrew


Anyway to more important matters - Larumbelle - glad the ball is back in your court. Your employers have obviously realised they've been visited by the f**k up fairy and they are desparate to wriggle out of the canyon they've dug. The dictaphone sounds like an idea but if you have a camera phone I would at least take some photos of the desk. The good thing is it's quite discreet if you do it with a phone. Do keep us posted.

Lizzyb - if I'm leaving a carpark/metered area I always give my ticket to someone else (provided it's not a pay as you leave of course:)) - it just makes me feel like I've scored a small victory against the greedy companies/councils who own them and it usually surprises the person on the receiving end.

HariboJunkie - what a nice thought by your folks. I haven't had gooseberry jam in years. I haven't gathered brambles for 20 odd years either but think I will this year to make some jam/jelly.

Hope everyone else had a good day - tomorrow can only be better.

I think I will make a lunchtime visit to Crockets the ironmongers for a rummage - I love that place although the Remnant Kings Curtain Warehouse on Clyde Street was having a closing down sale as they are moving. Would be a bit of a hike but I'm curious to see what fabrics are left. I'll phone to check they haven't closed first though - it's not really a scenic stroll down that area:)
I'd been thinking I'd like to get either really nice fabric or wall paper and stretch it over a canvas to put in one of my spare rooms. Well, that's the plan anyway....

smileyt_2

Just popping on quickly to say Larumbelle, give 'em hell!

Also Scottishminnie, if I had been you I would have been arrested for flooring that 'manager', all 4ft 8 of me, I would have been so mad! You must write a letter of complaint to whoever the head honcho is, don't mess around with the monkeys, it's the organ grinder you need to write to! We could organise a national campaign to get everyone to go on trains with lunchboxes and knives and forks to see if we all get arrested!

Softstuff I hope your boob is better! My mum did that many years ago. I'm afraid she got no sympathy as my sister and I were rolling around laughing (how cruel were we??).

Who was asking about the 'Keep Calm' avatars? Here you go:

http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/default.aspx#createposter

You can create your own poster, it's fab! All I did was to right click on mine, and save it as a jpeg (otherwise MSE won't upload it when you try to make it your avatar). Have fun!

(Can I suggest that others change the background colour or we'll get awful confused as to who's who when we do the 'quick glance at the avatar to see who's posting' thing?)

No money-saving today, although I did order chicken food, dog food and do an asda shop all for free delivery through special offers. So I've saved myself about £16 in delivery fees.

lizzyb1812

Scottishminnie - I've been passing on carpark tickets at this particular hospital for ages so it was nice to get one back. And it helped me with my plan to not pay for parking this year - getting lots of good exercise and finding all sorts of out of the way parking spots :T

Foraging - loads of green blackberries on the bushes in my usual haunts this year so hoping for a good haul to go with the apples off my tree.

Met a lady walking her dogs on our usual route today and she expressed her sympathy over the fact that my dog had obviously rolled in poo and would need a bath. Luckily for me labrador fur acts like teflon when wet - I make sure she gets in for a swim before we go home and, hey presto, poo free, happy dog :rotfl::rotfl: and poo free happy me :rotfl::rotfl:

ifonlyitwaseasier

smileyt wrote: »

Just popping on quickly to say Larumbelle, give 'em hell!

Also Scottishminnie, if I had been you I would have been arrested for flooring that 'manager', all 4ft 8 of me, I would have been so mad! You must write a letter of complaint to whoever the head honcho is, don't mess around with the monkeys, it's the organ grinder you need to write to! We could organise a national campaign to get everyone to go on trains with lunchboxes and knives and forks to see if we all get arrested!

Softstuff I hope your boob is better! My mum did that many years ago. I'm afraid she got no sympathy as my sister and I were rolling around laughing (how cruel were we??).

Who was asking about the 'Keep Calm' avatars? Here you go:

http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/default.aspx#createposter

You can create your own poster, it's fab! All I did was to right click on mine, and save it as a jpeg (otherwise MSE won't upload it when you try to make it your avatar). Have fun!

(Can I suggest that others change the background colour or we'll get awful confused as to who's who when we do the 'quick glance at the avatar to see who's posting' thing?)

No money-saving today, although I did order chicken food, dog food and do an asda shop all for free delivery through special offers. So I've saved myself about £16 in delivery fees.

ohhh yay!!! avatar fun here we come

mardatha

Whooohoo !

ifonlyitwaseasier

that is perfect Mar