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

GreyQueen

Oh my gosh, just as I was limbering up to confront the turks turbans (thanks for the recipe, MrsVP!) when I have a call from Mum to mention, among other things, that Nan has sent me one of her giant pumpkins via them. They're coming up on Thurs (I have the day off), so I will have squash coming out of my ears.

Better leave the turbans in situ as the pumpkin will require a major amount of processing. And my mini-freezer is already brimful of dwarf french beans from the lottie. Does anyone have enough freezer space at this time of year?!?

Rosanna, my podiatrist isn't making me custom orthotics but making adaptions onto a standard pair which are a close fit. We may have to have a bit of to-and-fro to get them exactly right. My foot probs are pretty common (forefoot equinus+functional hallux limitus+abductory twist) so they have things which correct these on the shelf. I'm definately going to check out Hotter Shoes when I'm settled into my orthotics; thanks for the tip. Just thanking my lucky stars that I haven't suffered as badly as some of us.

Speaking of tips, I decided that I really must get the gaff in hand and have done some tidying up. Will do some more during the course of the day as well as get some stuff down the road to Oxfam. I have pals coming for supper so will need to make room for them to sit plus a chappie from the Council is coming early next week to do a stock condition survey on the flat. I quipped which rooms does he want to look into when I made the appt, thinking that I could hide the clutter, but he wants to look at them all.......:rotfl:I wonder how I will be able to explain the sack of tatties in the bedroom.....

Well, Autumn Cleaning is going on apace (the washer is doing the hard work) and I am running a load a little later as don't want to risk disturbing Nice Lad next door in case he's having a Sunday lie in. He's no trouble to me and I like to reciprocate.

Speaking of MPs' salaries, I was listening to a Radio 4 documentary about this one evening recently and the self-justification of some of the interviewees was staggering. They should have more money in some areas of the country because the cost of living is higher in some areas? Doh. So they'll be voting that the unemployed, the sick and the pensioners get uprated in those areas, too?

I'm feeling so sorry for the people who're job-hunting at the moment as it's soul-destroying at the best of times and at the moment it's particularly grim. I came into the job market with 5 mil unemployed as a youngster and you couldn't get the time of day from an employer. So I went and got more education and graduated into another major recession. Worked out this is Recession 4 of my working life and I'm only late forties. You spend your whole life waiting for the other shoe to drop and not trusting that you will have a job from one month's end to another. Makes a body very wary about spending.

A small anecdote which may raise a smile. Last time I was made redundant and was jobhunting, I applied for a post as a clerk to a parish council. Everything was done via email and the lazy s0ds couldn't even be bothered to acknowledge receipt of my application, never mind let me know the outcome. When I chased down the non-response, I got an email back saying sorry, they'd given the job to someone internally.

Well, thanks a bundle for letting me know, thought I, and went on about my business. A few weeks later, I had an apologetic email from them saying this person hadn't worked out and would I like the job? Tempting to be rude, but it was very pleasant indeed to tell them truthfully that I had accepted another job in the interim. And I politely wished them every success in finding a suitable person whilst mentally going yer barstewards, serves ya right!!!!!! I am a very evolved soul sometimes.....not!

Anyway, soon will have to get up and at it properly. Hope everyone has a good day. When you see me next week I shall probably be coloured orange due to Acute Pumpkin Poisoning.

ceridwen

Yegawds and little fishes....

...and one does have to wonder sometimes whether t'powers that be search Forums like this for ideas they can "use and abuse":

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jobcentres-to-send-poor-and-hungry-to-charity-food-banks-2356578.html

So - its okay now is it for the DWP to "subsidise" the fact that benefit levels are inadequate for some by "using and abusing" charities to make up the shortfall?:mad:

Hopes they wont be planning on food stamps any time soon...and I must admit my first thought as to the fact that some of us dont eat the type of food food banks supply and would have no use for much of it - would be "How much fresh fruit and veg could I barter a can of meat for?".

mardatha

:mad::mad::mad:I am absolutely shocked by this, totally unbelievable!!!!!!!! My god if this lot are not voted out ASAP then you will all be referred to as "the deserving poor" and if you lose your job then, joking aside, it WILL be back to the workhouse! This has to be stopped - we are going backwards and we are letting it happen! I hope this doesn't happen up here, my god I'd end up in jail for breach of the peace cos the job centre would end up WEARING the damn food.
Our forebears fought so hard to get this sort of thing stopped and now look what's happening, and the people are standing by and letting them get away with it!!!
I am so mad I canny speak. (Nearly )

jobbingmusician

Just read the last few posts on here (I pop on to make sure there isn't a row going on! :rotfl:) and saw the problem with SC knob.

Thinking laterally, you might consider replacing the whole lid in one of the following ways..

- ask in your local charity shop. There are a finite number of sizes of lids!
- a real OS friend of mine turned themselves a whole new SC lid out of wood!

GreyQueen

:eek::mad::eek: We've got a Trussell Trust Foodbank in Provincial City, so I expect that the barstewards will be sending the poor and hungry from the JobCentre down there, too.

I'm livid, too, Mardatha; remember what Nye Bevan said:



Speech at Blackpool, 24 May 1945.

• That is why no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party that inflicted those bitter experiences on me. So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin. They condemned millions of first-class people to semi-starvation. Now the Tories are pouring out money in propaganda of all sorts and are hoping by this organised sustained mass suggestion to eradicate from our minds all memory of what we went through. But, I warn you young men and women, do not listen to what they are saying now. Do not listen to the seductions of Lord Woolton. He is a very good salesman. If you are selling shoddy stuff you have to be a good salesman. But I warn you they have not changed, or if they have they are slightly worse than they were.

:mad: Lower than vermin; sums up this crowd to a tee. Shame there's no one in politics of his caliber today.

ETA, jobbingmusician, it's the wrong phase of the moon for us to be having a row on the thread. He he, come back at the full moon......;)

Becky_2

I have made breakfast muffins this morning, I made these a few weeks ago but changed the recipe this morning and it tastes so much better. I haven't baked anything for at least 10 years but I am enjoying baking again and the best thing I didn't buy any special ingredients just used what I had at home already.

Sorry to hear that some of you have had pay cuts recently. I agree, it only ever seems to affect those on lower pay already and this is so unfair.

Have a nice Sunday

mardatha

Well I dare say Tories have their good points. But I'm bu**ered if I can find them!! And yes, is a huge pity politics has nobody great & good enough today to face this lot. But... given a few years of this, I have no doubt somebody younger will appear- someone will stand up and fight back. But what ground will we have lost by then?!
People today don't know how it was - maybe we all need to go and read AJ Cronin to remind ourselves why Nye Bevan said what he did . Go and find one of his books and read it - I dare you! He wrote the truth as he had seen it first hand as a doctor.
And the charities & churches had better stand up right now and say NO- this is not why we are doing this!! :mad: God its right back to the parish poor laws next. I bet you anything you like they are- or have been- discussing food stamps :mad:
I am so mad I had to go and defrost a chelsea bun!

ginnyknit

Maybe the Surestart centres could start educating young Mums how to live better for less - Oh but of course they are shutting them down soon!
Its disgusting, people are being forced onto poverty, I know 'needs must' but could you walk into a food bank and ask for food? Especially when you know its your tax that you are getting back in benefits that isnt feeding your family. I have had some seriously hard times - as have many on here - but I for one will now be doing something to help others to save them going through the upset of not having food. I think I will write to my local free paper and see if I can write a short column for them every week on Moneysaving in the kitchen - I did write for 'The Pennypincher many years ago.

Mardatha woodchips help in the chicken run and provide a dry layer for a while till the chooks mix them in. Not much help but the best I can come up with.

paidinchickens

There was a time when the local churches would check on the less fortunate and help out but that does not seem to happen any more (not where we live)

ceridwen

Well - I have mixed feelings - as I watched all sortsa benefits being handed out in some directions by the last lot and was relieved that would come to an end come the last change of Government.

...and I did think that the countryside would be better protected - but I see the National Trust is having to fight off attacks on it by housebuilders (:cool:and the £3 million paid in whatever-direction-it-was to be allowed "free rein" at our remaining countryside). My response to that was "Huh....if they're gonna take a bribe to flog off more of our precious countryside for development - you'd a thunk they would have "charged more" to "get bought". £3 million - peanuts to them...:mad:.

What I dont understand is why the attempts to bring the top rate of tax down from 50% (forgawdsake - the top rate of tax has been a sight more than that before now....and they're complaining about that:cool::mad:).

Re "rows on the thread" - I did read someone in another thread recently reckoning rows break out at New Moon time and did a quick checksee on the moon phase over last coupla days and right now its at:

"Waning gibbous - 69% of Full Moon".

Hmmm...:think: - perhaps we can discount owt to do with moon phases then?:cool: