Not mentioning the T word at all

GreyQueen

Good afternoon, all, have decided to take a few minutes net-surfing whilst soaking the worst of the water off my locks. People admire my long thick hair but the downside is that once it is wet, it takes forever to dry again. Still, it's quite ecomonical in the winter as I am able to forgo a scarf......

Went to a bootsale first thing this morning and nipped into Big Mr T on the way back to stock up on home-baking supplies and jams on the 3 for 2 deal.

Anyroad, there was my old Mum down on bended knee, cooing with pleasure at finding mincemeat in the 2 lb jars when this besom swoops her arm down from above and makes off with the last one from under Mum's hand! We were killing ourselves laughing at these desperate days.

Ah yes, it calls to mind the Trifle Sponge Offensive of '98 or the Great Sprout Famine of Xmas Eve 2009.....happy days, in their way, as we fought them in the aisles and at the checkouts for the last example of whatever seasonal fare hadn't been ordered in sufficient quantities that year. I am buffing the spikes on my elbows to be good and ready for this year's campaign.

I can still remember, back before he was an idling pensioner, when Dad accompanied me to a Sainsbugs the day before a Bank Holiday Weekend. As a working-man, he'd rarely set foot in a supermarket in his life and this incident was effectively a baptism of fire. He stood to one side of the main thoroughfare, wide-eyed with terror, as maddened women with trollies heaving with groceries 2 feet above the plimsoll line yowled and jostled. The shops were due to be closed for a whole 48 hours, if memory serves, and this had triggered a feeding frenzy.

:eek: Dad; "They're mad! Absolutely mad!" :eek:

It was brutal, people, brutal, but we did what we'd come to do and escaped with our lives. He still talks about it, sometimes.

We are having a lovely day of flawless sunshine and blue skies and the autumn colours are looking very vivid, so I've enjoyed nipping about outside and Mum has let me re-organise her tinned goods cupboard as a special treat.

Being a bit peculiar, I have always enjoyed sorting cupboards, and this one (part of a 1930s sideboard) is particularly rewarding as it is so deep that you need a head-torch to see into its vasty deeps. I found a can of pears 4 years past its BBE date! It isn't a personal best, for Mum, but we were quite pleased, nonetheless.:o

Well, I think that's enough drivel for one thread; I shall go a drivel on another one.

Hope everyone is having a great Sunday and a share of the Yellow Ball.

ceridwen

mardatha wrote: »

I just cant get into this thread at all I so miss the old Tough thread and kittie and everybody who posted there

Ditto.....make that two then who do.:(

jackel

I miss the old Workhouse threads too. They gave me hope of survival and a feeling that we were all in it together - ah well !

Edinburghlass_2

mardatha wrote: »

I just cant get into this thread at all I so miss the old Tough thread and kittie and everybody who posted there

ceridwen wrote: »

Ditto.....make that two then who do.:(

Please ladies if you can't get into this thread then there are plenty of other threads across the whole of MSE but by saying this its really quite rude to the posters who are enjoying and posting on this thread.

Quite apart from the aggro this causes your BG's.

SDG31000

Hello Everyone

I've got got back from having lunch and shopping in town with DS2 and I think I need a lie down. I spent way more than I was expecting and now have to rethink my Christmas shopping. Thankfully most of it is now done, but all non-essential spending will have to stop for a while. We went to Urban Pie for lunch, and while the pies were ok, I almost fell through the floor when they told me it was £17 for two x pie, mash, veg, gravy and a drink. I had promised DS2 a treat as a reward for a fantastic report and that is what he chose.
I did get some great sweets in M&S for my DS and DBIL. They are old fashioned sweets given a model twist. So the laces are mango flavoured, the fruit pastiles don't taste of fruit and they have fizzy bacon stripes (Actually strawberry flavoured). Those added to Bertha, Button Moon and Trap Door series 1 and 2 DVDs should be a good present. The DVDs were £9.96 for all three from Amazon if anyone is interested.
I also got the meal deal and will give the wine to my neighbour for Christmas. So dinner cost £3.51.
DH and DS1 are out at a concert tonight, so DS2 and I are going eat well

I just wanted to say that I do know how lucky I am compared to many on here and am grateful for it.

Take care xxxx

rising_from_the_ashes

GreyQueen wrote: »

And, I went to the farmers' market and actually bought something. 20 kg of stone-ground wholemeal bread flour. Done in a windmill where there has been a mill of one sort or another for 1,000 years!

Out of curiosity, how did the price compare to the sm?

I've never thought about bulk buying flour before ..... wondering if the "bulk" made up for the difference in quality (which will obviously be far superior!).

GreyQueen

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Out of curiosity, how did the price compare to the sm?

I've never thought about bulk buying flour before ..... wondering if the "bulk" made up for the difference in quality (which will obviously be far superior!).

You could choose to buy from the millers (at the farmer's market) in 1 kg, 2 kg, 5 kg or 20 kg quantities.

The price-per-kilo dropped off as the amount of kilos went up until you got to 20 kg where it was 20 quid (i.e. a quid a kilo).

****Blasted keyboard at the folks' doesn't have a pound sign.****

At the supermarket, I was seeing wholemeal bread flour at 1.39 a kilo up to 1.78 a kilo so it worked out very well.

Wholemeal is substantially dearer that white bread flour but is much healthier, of course.

I was pretty darned pleased, TBH. The windmill is run by volunteers as a tourist attraction, although it is a working mill, too. There has been a mill on this particular site since the Domesday Book was compiled, at least, although it would have been a water mill originally as windmills are relatively recent tech in the UK.

OK, gotta go, a meal is waiting (and then a load of washing up:p) HTH.

VJsmum

In (sort of) the words of Gloria Gaynor

"I have survived" :T

DS now possesses jeans, shirts, socks, coat, hoodie, football boots and tennis raquet and pyjamas. You would have thought i was torturing him at times. Shopping with DD is totally different - conversations with DD (15) go thus

DD "Can i have this?"
Me "no"
a while later
DD Can i have this?"
Me "no" etc

with DS (12)

Me "Do you want this?"
DS "No"

:rotfl:

Anyways he's togged up for a while, i am a little poorer - but in all honesty he doesn't cost us a lot, even the coat was only £25 as BHS had 20% off today. Last year's coat was £8 :cool:

I have Christmas cake 1 in oven and am about to tackle the tip that is currently my kitchen. I am guessing the fairies will not be in to do it. Feeling a bit achey and headachey - hope i'm not about to come down with something. I need GQ's nurse to bring me tea.

mmmsnow

GreyQueen wrote: »

The price-per-kilo dropped off as the amount of kilos went up until you got to 20 kg where it was 20 quid (i.e. a quid a kilo).

Wow, that is good! Although I'm not sure if I could store a 20kg bag of flour in my kitchen

I went a bit mad in Tesc0 a week or two ago (when I saw it was 3 for 2 on baking supplies) - I cleared the shelf of white bread flour and got the last 3 wholemeal bags. The white worked out at around 45p for 1.5kg and the wholemeal was 79p

So, hopefully, I won't be needing any flour for a while.

thriftmonster

We did quite well on the granary flour - it's been silly prices recently - but was 69p a kilo before the 3 for2. Dh has taken over breadmaking and prefers granary to wholemeal or white for working with. Recently he's being "mastering" pastry which means he makes pastry 3 times a day for Sat and Sunday until he feels he got it right. We ate a lot of bread a few weeks ago - I think we're about to have a pastry fest!!