Yet more financial faux pas and many other disasterous decisions

moo2moo

Was planning to go out for dinner on Saturday to celebrate being child free along with our wedding anniversary. Our "local" has reopened so since its walking distance across a couple of fields it would be perfect would it not be for the huge vegetarian selection, all two of them one of which is poncy sounding but translates as green beans in tomato sauce and the other a pancake and vegetables. Appetising. Not. Coupled with a steak for OH that would set us back £60 without drinks or starters or desserts. For a walk in off the street middle of nowhere country pub. Tis truly insane. Plan B involves take out chinese or a pub considerably further away where we'll get a three course meal for a third of that. Don't need to decide anything until Saturday.

OH has been invoted to a friends for a boys weekend in a couple of weeks time which co-incides nicely with a friend of mine coming to stay. Yet another reason to get the house under control. Not entirely sure when I'll get the time though. I'm working somewhere every day for the next ten days. Will be shattered at the end of it but hopefully I'll rack up something approaching 90 hours which is about half what I need to do over the summer. The plus side to working so many hours is there will be v. little time to do anything else so hopefully v. little spending which is just as well because project Landie is costing a ridiculous amount at the moment.

moo2moo

HAve just been to let the chooks out and discovered the first of the chicks has hatched. Its v. fluffy and yellow. Now have to make sure the kitten doesn't have it for breakfast.

mooomin

moo2moo wrote: »

HAve just been to let the chooks out and discovered the first of the chicks has hatched. Its v. fluffy and yellow. Now have to make sure the kitten doesn't have it for breakfast.

Any chance if some pictures before it becomes breakfast?

TallGirl

Just to add I can completely understand your trouser dilemma I was 6.2 at 14 and I hated clothes shopping with my mum. My saviour was that I started sewing classes and now I get everything from long tall Sally. They are expensive but often on eBay you can get some cheap bargains. Also to add I did use to wear boys clothes as a kid not nice.

moo2moo

You'll have to be patient for a couple of days FF, mummy hen is still sitting on them and is likely to do for another couple of days until they've all hatched. After that all I'll see is random heads poking out for a few days which is just as well really as I've yet to tell OH or the DDs. Don't think they'll be quite as keen to go to grannys if they think they're missing out on chicks.

TallGirl - I used to get my school uniform from LTS back in the days when everything was made of nylon and they catered for the more mature woman. Wish they did a kids range. As it is the trousers we ordered from M&S arrived in store today. They don't fit. They're considerably wider round the middle but exactly the same leg length. Was not amused.

Spent 30 minutes following the directions on a website to the school uniform supply shop only to find they'd moved a year ago. Bah. Eventually tracked them down and parted with £50 for jumpers and PE kit. Went to the Welsh shop for a dictionary. Still have tons of other stuff to get but am rapidly running out of time.

Detoured home via the co-op at super whoopsie time. Got 6 400g blocks of extra mature cheese for 89p each. 6 pints of milk for 30p and a pizza, several steak and kidney pies and a pack of sausage rolls for £2. Wish every shop was like that. Discovered OH has a £7 off a £50 Mr T voucher to be used by Sunday.

Sold another chunk of landie on e-bay. Have another heap of parts to list. OH has spent the entire day fiddling about with things which won't be fitted for months. Obviously it was tiring work which is why hes spent the evening vegged on the sofa whilst I ran round washing up, ironing, sweping, tidying and doing the washing hokey cokey. Granny is due in 18 hours, have things planned all day tomorrow and I have to sleep at some point. Mild panic is taking hold.

chevalier

moo2moo wrote: »

You'll have to be patient for a couple of days FF, mummy hen is still sitting on them and is likely to do for another couple of days until they've all hatched. They sound very cute already. How many did you get.

As it is the trousers we ordered from M&S arrived in store today. They don't fit. They're considerably wider round the middle but exactly the same leg length. Was not amused. Is it worth getting a pair that are the right length and then getting them professionally altered?

Spent 30 minutes following the directions on a website to the school uniform supply shop only to find they'd moved a year ago. Bah. Eventually tracked them down and parted with £50 for jumpers and PE kit. Went to the Welsh shop for a dictionary. Still have tons of other stuff to get but am rapidly running out of time. Can OH not do some of this running around....

Nice catch on the woopsied food. That is one thing I miss about the UK, you don't get very good food bargains here. I guess that means their stock control is better boo hiss!

Sold another chunk of landie on e-bay. Yeah Have another heap of parts to list. Booo OH has spent the entire day fiddling about with things which won't be fitted for months. Typical lol

Obviously it was tiring work which is why hes spent the evening vegged on the sofa whilst I ran round washing up, ironing, sweping, tidying and doing the washing hokey cokey. Granny is due in 18 hours, have things planned all day tomorrow and I have to sleep at some point. Mild panic is taking hold.

Whose relative is this? His or yours? If his then suggest that the house will stay in this state and he can take the flak for it. Then go off and do the work you HAVE to do. Would this have any effect? It must be hard having to make such an effort for visitors....You could also suggest that you will have to declutter for the visit and that if he doesn't help, then he may find some of his [STRIKE]treasures[/STRIKE] /crap not there when he next looks.....

chev

moo2moo

Now have a small fluffy black chick to keep the yellow one company. Mummy hen is still sitting on four more eggs.

Considered getting trousers that were long enough and thenaltering them but am scuppered because they all have ironed in creases down the centre of the leg. To alter them would mean that this would move and look v. strange. Plus they have to be tailored not stretchy which makes things harder still. Even went as far as trying laydees trousers but she needs a size 2 or at worst a 4 which simply don't exist. Have 27 days left to return a pair which vaguely fit in case something better comes along. Hope she doesn't grow any taller without widening out in the meantime.

Mmmm leaving OH to do the running around. Theres a thought. Thats why DD2 has a pair of hiking boots in a size 4 despite having size 2 feet. If I left him to it I'd end up back at the shop exchanging everything only to be told that ain't your card number on the receipt the computer says naw. Tis far easier simply to do these things myself in the first place.

The visiting rellie is my stepmother, les of the evil, more of the obsessive compulsive. She'd make Flylady look like a slovenly ho. Its far easier to have done all the housework befre she gets here than it is for her to walk through the door and wash up before wiping down the worksurfaces and mopping the floor before sh'll have a cuppa. Whilst shes drinking it you can see shes itching to wipe / polish / clean something. She doesn't mean to offend when she does it but its not half irritating. Its much easier to have shown willing in the first place. Especially knowing that she'll send the DDs home with everything that they've worn washed and ironed right down to the PJs they were wearing hours before they set off home. OH would be truly oblivious to the state of the place as demonstrated by him sitting on his bum watching me last night whilst patronisingly asking if theres anything I want doing and then igoring me anyway. Did refrain from hitting him over the head with a frying pan but the thought was rather tempting.

Its not so much hard doing it for visitors as it focuses me and makes sure I actually get everything done all at once. Would be so much easier if OH wasn't creating mess as fast as I was eradicating it. Fortunately hes back at work today so I'm in with a chance.

Plans for today involve throwing together a batch of pink grapefruit jam before the grapefruits turn mouldy thus decluttering a section of worktop. Whilst I'm in the kitchen with that I'll wipe down all the cupboards and generally tidy. Have a dining table covered in laundry to put away so I can do that between stirs. Then I need to reload and invoice jars ready for todays country market. Also need to make sure the DDs pack wash bags, coats and wellies then throw together a picnic and collect two friends on my way to the fun day. Could also do with giving both bathrooms a quick once over and loading the slow cooker with a gammon joint for dinner. All in the next 4 hours. Need to wake up first though.

moo2moo

Have a tidy kitchen, 13 jars of cooling marmalade and a slowcooker full of tonights dinner. All thats left is to burble away in a corner before chucking together a picnic, grabbing a shower and hoping that the parents leave late which should give me time to clean the loos and shine the sinks when we get back.

Poste still hasn't brought Hovel in the Hills despite it being posted last weekend. Humph.

beanielou

Where oh where do you get all your energy?
I wish that I had 1/4 of it.

moo2moo

Feeling meh this morning. Up again half a dozen times with the geriatric old dear. OH got up every other time but then had a fag whilst waiting for her which meant the smoke drifted in through the open window and I kept waking up thinking the house was on fire. Frustratingly she doesn't want to go outside that frequently during the day and will happily snooze for 8 hours at a stretch. I'm yo-yoing from convincing myself that her kidenys are failing and the end is nigh to thinking shes just avoiding the heat by becoming nocturnal. Either way I need far more undisturbed sleep than I'm getting.

DDs departed last night. The house is most peaceful although I'm missing the many rnadom cuddles already. Have loads of stuff to do whilst they're out from underfoot but very little time to do it in. Need to have gutted boththeir bedrooms by Wednesday ready for the arrival of a friend for five days. Made a start by doing loads of washing yesterday but only getting two loads dry before it rained so the house is strewn with wet laundry again.

Had a fab afternoon yesterday. The DDs spent a couple of hours in the playground and the rest of the time holding and stroking an array of owls, pigs, rabbits and guinea pigs at the country park. I sold a rahter pathetic three jars of jam and arrived home to find yesterdays maramalade hadn't set stiffly enough. Will need to reboil that at some point. Meanwhile the ladies of the country market have signed up for a weekly stall at the local indoor market for the next three months. Will have to figure out a way of avoiding being roped into manning that. There aren't enough hours in the day.

Need to do a cupboard inventory and then utilise OHs Mr T voucher over the weekend. We're running low on dog food so that the first tenner taken care of. Pretty sure I can spend the remaining £40 without two much effort since the storecupoard is looking rather barren. May well do a virtual shop on MySupermarket before I go in the hopes of sticking to those items which are cheaper than Mr As. Might also stop me being tempted to purchase random interesting things for the heck of it.