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

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mardatha

EEEEK! kittie moneysaver - aka The Grim Reaper. The Voice of Doom. But ta anyway! :D:D
I might need to run out and get more tea in..

Rosanna79

Asda has taken over Netto in my town too but in a particularly inaccessible location for anyone working in town so not sure how their business is doing. Never used it for that reason....

M&S left the town centre and a lot of people are up in arms about their wish to return to a retail park on the edge of town as among other things it will be particularly inaccessible to those who only use public transport. It wants to take over an existing garden centre site which has a number of good facilities under its roof including a very affordable restaurant and craft suppliers. Worst of all the football club is next door so in addition to appalling traffic planning the whole area will probably be in gridlock. Having had enough of this when living in London we will avoid the area like the plague.

When M&S left Barking some years ago the local council told them that if they left they'd never be allowed back... they provided a good few jobs and shopping to the area - their withdrawal added to the rundown nature of the town centre...

We've been keeping busy in the garden and the kitchen this weekend. The carrots we were'curing' to put in clamps are rather too small we've decided so I've spent inordinate amounts of time scrubbing, topping and tailing and open freezing batches- At least we won't be wasting anything but have learned a valuable lesson for next year.

The house and garden are too quiet without Jennicat and although Henry Hoover keeps visiting to finish off what's left of her food stocks he's a big boy with a little voice!! We've washed and cleaned all our cat stuff and put it into storage as it's far too soon to make any decisions. OH said today that if we get another cat he's wants another brother and sister so they're not lonely as he felt Jennicat became after Jasper died. Jenny would not tolerate another cat, hated Henry Hoover's guts, spitting at him almost until the end.. He was terrified of her so kept his distance....

Have recorded Songs of Praise as it sounded like it would be good and we usually manage to miss it. Couldn't face the Harvest Festival service today as I keep breaking down and hate public emotional displays.. go into 'nurse' mode when faced with stuff like that and do my grieving privately...so went for a 2.75 mile walk with the mp3 on a few rousing tracks which helps keep me to the dietitian's plan- definitely losing weight this month but reading everyone's delicious recipes is a bit tough as a result! However when it's lose the last 1/4 of the weight and probably not need a knee replacement it's a no brainer for me.

Heard on the tv news this morning about the appalling food waste that's going on with so many people in this country going hungry without the food banks . Seems to be some sort of idiotic bureacracy these days about food waste being given away at the end of business, Years ago OH worked for a while at a west London M&S - at the end of business the workers were offered first refusal on food to be thrown out and could buy it very cheaply before the balance being given to a local convent for the poor of the area. Trouble was OH never seemed to bring much of any food value home and would make a beeline for the cakes !! It was, however possible for sensible workers to get tea at bargain prices I think.

Thay was the late 1970s and now we're overwhelmed it seems with immoral business people refusing to redistribute these resources to the needy..

Did anyone see Sunday Live programme today regarding the super rich paying Tax? I recorded it & it was interesting to hear the various points of view....

shegar

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

I am living on that measly £67 a week and have been for some time. Savings all gone and now nothing to fall back on whatsoever. And it is a choice of heat or eat during the winter. I chose to eat the last two. I'm dreading the next one but there's no alternative. Still, I don't have any debts (yet) so it could be much, much worse.

Thats a disgrace to expect anyone to live on £67 per wk........and run a home.:eek:.....its bad enough if anyone live with their mum and dont have anything to pay for.............I expect youve tried every MS you can imagine.........im really glad you dont have debts on top of everything else, I always say when youve got debts it brings you down to despair level, ive been there and never ever in my life will I have something that I know I cant pay for outright again , I go without...........its nice to have a computer cos it keeps everyone in touch with other people in the same boat,MSE certaintly helps out so much, id be lost without it............

On to the weather well its been sweltering again today at 28.6 degrees.:eek:..I actually went in the sea yesterday with my grandson and billy the yorkie:eek:that was his first ever dip in the big ocean and he loved it, lewis kept his lead on him, cos little boys dont think dogs can swim...!! lewei was worried that billy would drown...........We went to beach just to walk the dogs, but when we stopped to sit on the beach for a few mins we decided to dip our feet and we ended up in the sea fully clothed, well how can you plan for a swim in the north sea in October, dogs were dead beat the rest part of yesterday, well so was I :eek::eek:.....Well its very MS cos it doesnt cost a penny, its fun,and I live 1 mile from the beach...............................

I hope your all ok and enjoying the hot weather, at least it keeps the heating off, which is a great saver to us all..........:D

Hobsons_Choice

shelley_crow wrote: »

Me too, :wave:

There was a fire at one of the shops in town today. I was coming out of Aldi with the kids when it happened. Billowing great cloud of acrid black smoke. It turns out it started in a furniture shop and spread over 2 more shops. There's not a lot of shops left in my town and now there are 3 less. This is bad, both in terms of jobs losses and less places to shop. There's no confirmation whether anyone was hurt yet, lets hope not.

I'm recovering from an early morning car boot, I do love a good boot fair.

You're in the same town as me then! We could see the smoke from our window and wondered what was happening!
And now we're to have a new Asda, as well as having all the other big supermarkets, in this relatively small town! They get their planning permission by promising to build access roads, improve areas etc..which, to me, just smells of bribery! This so-called Price War is made on the back of squeezing all their suppliers, they have so much clout..you can be sure the supermarkets aren't going to be losing money and, as I've said before, it's all swings and roundabouts anyway.
Rant over, I think they've finished re-padding my cell so they're coming to take me back.

veggieblob

mardatha wrote: »

Can anybody tell me how/if I can rescue a soggy crumble thats gone cold and horrible? (No microwave) without the RV seeing it !!

I'm really sorry, I have searched a lot honest, but what does RV stand for please?

NualaBuala

GQ - and how many tins of toms do you have? Loved your little frog story and how sweet to make a pondlet for him.

mardatha wrote: »

Kittie - that will hit Red Doe. and maybe Haribo not me. I'm in the Southern Uplands. But it wont be long in creeping down..
rachb - swap you some mash for some of your bangers? Then we can both eat
I just ripped out an ENTIRE SOCK inna temper cos I lost a few stitches on the toe when grafting. :mad::mad::mad:
Can anybody tell me how/if I can rescue a soggy crumble thats gone cold and horrible? (No microwave) without the RV seeing it !!

I'm reassured to hear that - I think half the reason I'm such a slow knitter is cos I can't fix mistakes - I end up ripping it back and starting over. But I bet it doesn't take you over a year to knit a pair of socks (it did me and am not quite finished yet!)
No idea about the crumble - I would probably just bung it in the oven or to heat up and maybe it would crisp it a little. Could cover it with foil if you think it would burn before getting warm. No actually, I'd probably just eat it as is. Mmmm, I'd love some crumble!

FTM - awwww, get well soon pet. Hope you are minding yourself properly or better still, someone else is waiting on you hand and foot. x Sorry to hear about your grandson - hope he will be ok. Oh - and congrats to your DD!

Just made a massive batch of spicy chickpea, sweet potato and kale soup - it will last a month by the looks of it but no good trying to trade it for some of Mardatha's mashed potato so will fill the freezer instead.

NualaBuala

veggieblob wrote: »

I'm really sorry, I have searched a lot honest, but what does RV stand for please?

You could search forever and still not find it! RV = Ratty Virgo aka Mardatha's beloved OH!

rachbc

oh dear - food poker or not I think I have a food shopping addiction/ problem - just tidied my stock in the cellar and wonder how many jars of pnb one person really needs. It wouldn't be a problem if I was deliberate stockpiling but this is just cos I can't resist a bargain/ forget what I have in!

scottishminnie

NualaBuala wrote: »

You could search forever and still not find it! RV = Ratty Virgo aka Mardatha's beloved OH!

I'm glad you cleared that up - I've always had my own thoughts about what the RV stood for! None of them fit for public discussion though:o