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

GreyQueen

Good morning and I hope the night wasn't too hot for a comfortable lie-in.

Gawd, I'm grinning to be typing that on Oct 2nd......it's amazingly hot, isn't it. I'm very relieved I wasn't making long car trips yesterday- just up to the lottie.

grandma247, I kinda have a mental note that the Police have to be informed of a car accident if anyone is hurt? If it's just vehicular damage I don't think so; not sure about other parts of UK as I live in England. Anyway, I think it would be a good idea to be checked over, belt and braces, so to speak. Hope you are on the mend.

Ceridwen, Scruffy Centre is my MSE-nickname for a run-down shopping centre just up the road from my neighbourhood, the one away from the real city centre, the one which the tourists don't see. It's affectionate; I love it down there as it's full of cheap stores, charity shops, the Magic Greengrocer and most of the the most ethnically-diverse part of Provincial City, which can be a bit boringly-whitebread at times. I live in dread of the economy picking up and Scruffy Centre being re-developed into something upmarket. It's talked about from time-to-time but with the economy the way it is now, things are stalled on drawing boards.

It's a strange and discomforting thought that the miserable economy, which is causing so much hardship for so many, may offer a temporary reprieve for some things which are of value to others, whether it is undeveloped greenfields or a grotty concrete monstrosity of a shopping centre which nevertheless forms a vibrant retail hub in my community.:(

Anyway, I'd like to share a wee tale with the forum; the day GQ and the Frog made a cross-species rapport.

Yesterday afternoon, about 2 pm, it was about 29 degrees on the lottie and me and the folks were coming to the end of our reserves after 4 hours' graft. Mum and I had the deckchairs out and around the shady side of the shed when we noticed a darling little frog advancing on us in leaps and bounds. Which is unusual as they normally bound away from humans. Anyway, this little cutie came right up and lurked among the tubbyware plastic boxes on the ground at our feet and stayed there even when we packed them up to leave. I felt so sorry for it, all alone on the bone-dry soil, that I dipped a jug from the water butt and poured it gently onto the soil near the frog.

The water went up and around, before soaking away, and the frog didn't move a muscle. So I repeated twice more, and the third jugful rose midway up the frog (which still didn't move) before soaking away. Then it did this kind of bellying-wriggle down on the now-wet soil. I swear I could hear it sigh in bliss.:rotfl:

So, I have decided I must make a couple of emergency pondlets today out of Fray Bentos pie tins which I have up there, sink them into the soil with a few stones in for easy access should non-amphibians get into them, and keep them stocked up with soft water from the butts. Eventually, I intend to have a very modest pond on the lottie but that is assigned to a piece of ground currently dubbed The Rough and is a long-term plan. Judging by the wee froggie yesterday, they need some TLC right now.

I was working on the strawberry bed yesterday and found a handful of ripe berries.......nomnomnom.

Errmm, my RSPCA calendar says this is October and has a nice autumnal piccie of a hedgehogs in dead leaves but I'm wondering if I've suffered a timeslip and this is actually June......? Hangabout, it's nearly dark by 7 pm, gotta be autumn......pants.

Hope everyone has a nice day and that oppportunities for basking are widespread.......

GreyQueen

ifonlyitwaseasier wrote: »

non food poker - GQ i see your 71 rolls of tp and raise you as we have 130 rolls......

Gonna have to fold on the t.p. I remembered belatedly that I stashed 20 rolls in the lottie shed last week on way home from L!dl as couldn't carry them, but 91 is still well under 130.

However, I'll bid 254 bars of soap.........I'm holding Knight's Castile and Imperial Leather, but I'll accept any variety......:p:D

mardatha

Got this from a New Zealand lady on another forum-
*******
Denmark has become the first country in the world to impose a fat tax, sending shoppers stampeding to the supermarkets to stock up.
The new tax is intended to reduce people's intake of fatty foods.
It adds the equivalent of around $4 per kilo of saturated fats in a product.
The tax is being levied on every product which has fat in it - from butter and milk to pizzas, oils, meats and pre-cooked foods.
******
Will the govt jump on this as an excuse for another tax??

smileyt_2

GreyQueen wrote: »

Gonna have to fold on the t.p. I remembered belatedly that I stashed 20 rolls in the lottie shed last week on way home from L!dl as couldn't carry them, but 91 is still well under 130.

However, I'll bid 254 bars of soap.........I'm holding Knight's Castile and Imperial Leather, but I'll accept any variety......:p:D

You're not serious about the soap, are you, GQ? Good heavens, girl, you've got enough there to last you about ten years! :rotfl:I think you should forget about the soap now and concentrate on stocking up on something else! Mind you, I'm one to talk about stocking up, because:

Loo roll .... I have .... 215 rolls.

Do I win the non-food poker loo roll award?:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

mardatha

How many teabags have you all got? I might join in the poker..but only if I think I'll win:D

HariboJunkie

Morning all :hello:

Another flying visit as we're off out for the day. Wish you were here too Pink.

I quite agree re the daily Mail JIL. I refuse to read it and don't click on any links provided on here if they relate to it _pale_. The last time I looked at it, it was full of stories of z list celebs who the Mail either criticises for being too fat or too thin. A thouroughly misogynistic and borderline bigoted paper imo. I stick to the BBC website for news and the daily Telegraph if I ever buy a paper.

Grey Queen.... HOW much soap????? :eek::rotfl:

westcoastscot

Raining here again - it rains, then it rains harder, then it rains floods,............then back to rain. Youngest missed two days of fishing with gales last week, and expects to be off on tuesday at least next week. I'm still waiting for the ground to dry enough to plant winter veggies - going to cover beds with cloches today to help dry it enough - wish I'd thought to do it a month ago!!

I'm reading a Lillian Beckwith book, a Breath of Autumn - found it in the library and its one I haven't read - a lovely read from a time gone by

Mar for pizza base I use wrights Rosemary Foccacia mix - a bag makes two and its really tasty. Nice and chewy too as we don't have cheese on ours.

WCS

ceridwen

mardatha wrote: »

Got this from a New Zealand lady on another forum-
*******
Denmark has become the first country in the world to impose a fat tax, sending shoppers stampeding to the supermarkets to stock up.
The new tax is intended to reduce people's intake of fatty foods.
It adds the equivalent of around $4 per kilo of saturated fats in a product.
The tax is being levied on every product which has fat in it - from butter and milk to pizzas, oils, meats and pre-cooked foods.
******
Will the govt jump on this as an excuse for another tax??

I do hope not Mardatha - the little "mutterings" I seem to recall from somewheres or other recently were to the effect of them maybe putting on an "unhealthy tax" on food. That, to me, registered as "no effect chez ceridwen then" - as I would assume it to be on things like junk food and sugar. I would hope to goodness they wouldnt even think of putting it on butter/milk/oil - as those are perfectly healthy foods and, if they tried to put a tax on them, then it wouldnt be a tax on "unhealthy food" - it would be a tax on eating per se and thats "not on".

So - if we got a tax on any of our food that we know to be healthy (ie that dairy products/oil) then we will know very well its not designed to help our health - it would be just designed to get more tax out of us.

GreyQueen

smileyt wrote: »

You're not serious about the soap, are you, GQ? Good heavens, girl, you've got enough there to last you about ten years! :rotfl:I think you should forget about the soap now and concentrate on stocking up on something else! Mind you, I'm one to talk about stocking up, because:

Loo roll .... I have .... 215 rolls.

Do I win the non-food poker loo roll award?:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I think you're winning on loo roll thus far although a lady who goes by Nelski down in the Moneysavers Arms was holding a lot of t.p. earlier in the year (Costco shopper I think she said she was) so she may be able to top that. She sometimes pops into OS so if you're reading this, gal, what's your bid?:rotfl:

Non-Food Poker evolved out of a bit of nonsense between me and Softstuff over tinned tomatoes which she dubbed Food Poker.

Mardatha, I can only muster circa 1000 teabags cos I gave 2 big bags to Mum as I've decided they've changed the blend of Sainsbug's Red Label and I don't like it so much anymore.

Smileyt, you can fit 252 bars of soap into the smaller of the Tesco bags with the ladybirds on (42 x 6 packs) and I have done this and stashed it on top of the chest-of-drawers so that if the river floods into my flat it may not reach that high and cause a major sudding incident.*

* NB a "sudding" incident is akin to a "s0dding" incident but much frothier.

Anyway, you can all infer that I am a clean-livin' gal (and quite bonkers........)

Darn it, wish I'd stocked up on more tinned chickpeas at 20p a pop at A$DA back in late July. Last week they were 38p each or 3 for £1 (same ruddy brand, too, arrrgghhh!) It really galls me to reload the tinned food cupboard with a re-supply which cost double what is already in there.....

ETA. Oooppps, I knew I shouldn't have come clean about the soap supply (sorry!) cos you'll all think I'm weird. Just don't tell my RW friends, OK?!

Softstuff

JIL wrote: »

One thing that does stand out to me however: is why is it OK for a discussion around where to emigrate to and then denounce immigration into our country (UKIPs policy). It just strikes me as being double standards.

I think the primary difference is what's expected of you in countries it's possible to emigrate to, and what you'd receive once there - I'm not sure that people are denouncing open border policy, but rather economic tourism.

For example, having moved to Australia, I was only entitled to medicare once I had been accepted on a permanent residency visa, prior to that I would have had to pay for my own medical treatment. I wasn't entitled to work when I first arrived, and had to prove I had not only sufficient funds myself, but a sponsor who could also support me. And even though now I am a permanent resident, because I haven't applied and been accepted as a citizen I wouldn't be entitled to any benefits, student assistance or any other government handout. In order to be here I had to jump through rather a number of hoops, and that was even after marrying a citizen. If you wanted to come here otherwise you either have to be qualified in a field where they're short of employees, have a large amount of money to invest in a business employing locals or basically pledge a large amount of money to the government to hold in trust on the basis that should you require medical treatment or other funds, they'd have fund there for it.

I'm also familiar with the UK immigration policy (from what seems like another life now), and by comparison it's cheaper to move to England, there are more reasons for you to be able to be there and once you are there you're more immediately entitled to the same treatment as permanent citizens.

I make no judgement here about what is right or wrong in this, just to my mind what the differences are (in fact, it always seems to me rather funny how strict Australia is given many settlers here originally were convicts and that the very people restricting immigration are often immigrants).

On a lighter and more moneysaving note, I bought 2 shirts today for $4 each.

And I think we need to hold an intervention for GreyQueen. She's about to feature on Hoarders.