It was getting tough in 2006 and the workhouse still threatens us in 2011

toottifrootti

wont be around for a week from tomorrow so you had better all behave and be busy!!!!

love and hugs to all
toots xx

THIRZAH

I had some Tesco carrier bags in a caddy in the utility room.They had been there a while as they are just a bit too small for the swing bin.

M son-in-law came bag from fishing with five trout and wanted bags to wrap the innards so I pulled out the bags only to find that they had turned to confetti too.

mardatha

It's just an excuse to make us pay for them.

nobodyspecial

Yep, same for me. Went up to the attic to retrieve some stored goods, bags turned to dust. Picked up what looked like a handle and it disintegrated before my eyes, clouds of dust everywhere. Surely that means they've biodegraded??

Just out of idle curiosity, those of you determined not to accept a plastic bag in the supermarket, are you the same when it comes to other purchases from other shops? I ask because M&S drive me nuts with their plan A thing, where you have to buy any plastic bag in the food hall, but buy a £2 pair of socks and they'll give you a huge thick plastic bag!! Incidentally I always have at least two of the M&S fold away bags on me for food purchases

Draagonfly

I've been a busy little bee since getting in from work this evening...DH brought home from work a huge bag of plums (yummy & super sweet) yesterday & a huge bag of runner beans (can't stand the things personally but hey-ho) this evening. So I've been beavering away slicing beans & stoning/stewing plums.

All done now...but I wish I didn't have to work full time so I had a chance to do these things in a more leisurly manner!

scottishminnie

mardatha wrote: »

It's just an excuse to make us pay for them.

couldn't agree more. I'm afraid I don't believe that they pass all the money to planet saving activities/causes. I don't think I've shopped in M&S since they introduced the charge as I think 5p per bag is just taking the mickey. If they were in the least bothered about things they would make the effort to cut down on food packaging not charging for carriers. The one that makes by blood boil most is bananas in plastic bags - does nothing more than make them sweat and smell. I refuse to put any of my fruit or veg in bags, there is simply no need but nobody in the supermarkets is interested in that - can't rip the customers off there.

Anyway, time to get off my soapbox, it's not doing my blood pressure any good:)


I plan on another attack at the scones tomorrow - will it be 3rd time lucky????

I also need to clean my oven and have large quantities of out of date bicarb of soda so off to read back through the thread and see what I need to do with it. Back tomorrow with an update.

ChocClare

Thank you for worrying about me! I am damp but fine

Where I work is a former country house and the basement (former kitchens/servants quarters) which houses our laundry and hairdressing salon among other things flooded completely this morning. We had to call the fire brigade. Our local fire brigade is a scant half a mile away in the same road, but when the crew finally turned up it wasn't our local guys, but a crew from Cranbourne, MILES away. They had been inundated (excuse pun) with callouts all morning. They took so long to get to us that our men had actually managed to pump out the water in the basement themselves - I think the poor firemen were actually quite relieved! They had just come from a basement flat where the girl who lived there called to say she was trapped - she had sash windows and they were flooded THREE QUARTERS OF THE WAY UP TO THE TOP OF THE WINDOW :eek:
Luckily, the wood had swelled with the water and formed a seal, and only a trickle of water was getting under the door. However, obviously she just couldn't get out, as opening the door would have let all the water in. The firemen had to talk to her on the phone while pumping out the area steps down to her front door. I would have been screaming with terror if it had been me...

However, I HARDLY NOTICED the rain because...

my boy passed his A levels and has got into his first-choice university :T:T:T:T:T:T

Thank the Lord is all I can say - I think I was 9 million times more stressed about it than he was. Now we just have to go through GCSE results next week for DD, then GSCE next year, then AS, then A levels, then DS's degree :eek::eek::eek:

Honestly, if I'd had a packet of fags in the car this morning I'd have smoked the whole lot while I was waiting to find out his results - and I gave up smoking ten years ago :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Igamogam

Hobsons_Choice wrote: »

I had the same sort of thing maryb. Used Mr T's carriers to wrap some stuff before storing in the garage, and they turned to "ash" as well. So ... they say these aren't biodegradable?

SAme thing has happened to me so I put a couple in the compost heap and they are as complete as ever even after 6 months. They turn to ash/confetti due to degrading by light I am led to beleive


Why can't the supermarkets use paper sacks, like they do in the USA (and get folk to pack them and load them into your boot.....yeah, right).

Safew*ys years ago use to have paper sacks but no body carried them to the car for me! :rotfl:

suzid

Jamanda oh how you had me laughing, so much so that I had to read your post to DH who was wondering what was up with me. Amazing how the entire house seems to be upside down when you tackle a room. Room of doom ment DS in spare bedroom, his old bed filling the garage on the way to the tip, backlog of washing on airers (dried outside on line) and basket of ironing in the lounge with bedding on soffa. Brushes and roller in kitchen. Various items on their way up or down from the roof in the hall. Poorly DH camping out in office. What a shambles! Hope you thoroughly enjoy the end result, sounds like you've earned it.

Many thanks wilding_arms for your recommendations. I saw some wine making equipment in a local hardware shore but didn't have a clue what the things were so will have to look up the book you mentioned. Some winter research I think.

I reuse all the empty 15kg bags of dog food as large peddle bin liners. They are in three layers. The first paper, the second brown paper, classed as cardboard and the third is plastic coated brown paper. I remove the outer two layers and recycle and the third I use as the bin liner. Not quite big enough to fully fit round rim but it works for us. I buy them online and they always arrive in white plastic sacks. These are great for storing all sorts in and I used them under the hall doors last year when I painted them. Amazing how useful things that are normally thrown away can be.

Forgot to mention that we had our first runner beans this week. They tasted so good and I've enjoyed watching the bees on them through the kitchen window. The big pots have worked very well so I think I'll do the same next year but start earlier.

I hope none of you are waterlogged, summer seems to be some mythical event which used to happen in bygone years. Hoping for a better September, can't wait to see the back of awful August.

CC many congrats to your DS. It's such a relief when they get their first choice.

And congrats to yours too Charis (I have to keep editing as the posts come in faster than I type!)

DS is my fifth, the third to go to Uni but still feels like the first each time. DS1 had full grants, DD got a bursery but DS4 will have nothing but loans. So glad he's going this year as although the Welsh Assembly help the students, you still worry how much longer this will be the case.

Charis

ChocClare wrote: »

my boy passed his A levels and has got into his first-choice university :T:T:T:T:T:T

Thank the Lord is all I can say - I think I was 9 million times more stressed about it than he was. Now we just have to go through GCSE results next week for DD, then GSCE next year, then AS, then A levels, then DS's degree :eek::eek::eek:

Congratulations to ChocClare's DS. :T

Same tension here, ChocClare, and DS got into his first choice too. The last of my four children, but the first to go to University. What a relief! It's a four year degree, so the fees alone would have been £36K if he'd had to wait till next year and the accommodation is an extra £5K a year, without day to day living costs.

I couldn't go through all that tension again. There are still a couple of hundred thousand students who may not get a place this year according to BBC stats.