Not mentioning the T word at all

Hobsons_Choice

Pleased to hear about your dad Kaz. As I said, my son had it and they did "internal" surgery and removed it. Like all these things, it seems to be OK if caught early enough.
That's a load off your mind......now you can concentrate on all the other millions of worries we have over Xmas ;)

bonnie_bumpkins

Kaz I'm glad the news re your Dad is more positive and you won't need to rush away. ((((HUGS)))) though it must still be a worry but, as my old Dad says, "keep your pecker up!!"
Best wishes to shegar too, hope all went well yesterday x

scottishminnie

Gosh - I've been off this thread for a few days and things are all over the place.

Shegar - I really hope yesterday went ok.

Kaz- glad the news about your dad is better than first thought.

Sorry I can't do more than sending my thoughts your way ladies:)

Spendless - that's great news. It's terrible that your husband had to go through what he did in the first place but it's nice that you've had something positive from it.


Well I have great news - we have a generator, fully functional and wired to the house so if the electricity goes off we can plug it in and flick the switch and hey presto we have power again. It doesn't do it automatically but that's ok, I'm just thrilled we have a backup now.
We managed to pick up an ex hire one so it's much bigger than we could otherwise have afforded and will run the whole house if neccessary. It was still an expense I'd rather not have had but that's life.

I did have another slightly unexpected and fairly huge expense this week - my boiler finally gave up the ghost - it had rusted through so there was no option but to bite the bullet and buy a new one.

It was installed on Monday and came with a very flash wireless thermostat thing which controls the temperature. The installer is confident it will save us both fuel and electricity as the new pump is more effective so fingers crossed.
The good news was that the company who installed it don't invoice for a few weeks after to make sure the customer is completely satisfied so at least the bill won't hit us until January.

Actually I have a bit of a confession to make - I'm off to Florida on Monday for a few weeks. Part of the reason I'm an avid old styler is to pay for a winter break (and hopefully a summer break too). I know it's an extravagance but it's worth the sacrifices and things we don't do to make it possible. Both of us work ridiculously long hours and are so looking forward to getting away - even if it does mean I will be taking my Christmas tree down on Christmas night!

Being on this forum often makes me appreciate more what I have, there seem to be so many people who, through no fault of their own, have an uphill struggle on a daily basis. One of my grandmother's sayings was "it's an ill divided world" - that seems to become more relevant every day:(

I'm fairly well organised for Christmas although I realised last night that I haven't marzipanned the 2 cakes I've made. I was taught they had to have the marzipan at least 3 days before the royal icing and then 2 days for the icing to set. I'll put the marzipan on tonight and ice them on Friday and will just have to hope it's ok!

My mother is hosting Christmas dinner so I offered to make Cranberry and Orange relish and brandy butter. I made them both at the weekend and handed them over on Sunday night. I got a sheepish voicemail this morning asking if she could have some more brandy butter as she used it all last night with mince pies for some unexpected guests - oh and did I have any more cranberries as she had used half of the relish on cold ham. I suppose it's a compliment that they were obviously tasty however that's another 2 jobs back on my list! I should also make some fudge and the microwave tablet before the weekend as little gifts for a few people.

I need to hit the shops at lunchtime to buy some tights - I've decided to wear a dress on Christmas day and would like some opaque purple tights. It's maybe not the most sensible idea as my mother has 2 boisterous terriers who seem attracted to my legs - I'll have to find indestructible tights - that may be a challenge in the lunchtime madness -wish me luck!

sorry - just realised how much I've been wittering given the size of the post

Spendless

Kaz2904 wrote: »

Spendless, wow! That's quite a sum of money. It's a very good idea that you are taking the time to consider what's the best use of your funds. Do you have any redemption penalties on your current mortgage? Martin has a tool somewhere which enables you to work out the best course of action for your money. There's also a tool to tell you how much you would need to earn in interest in order to beat your current mortgage rate.

Anyhoo, probably not making much sense so will meander off aimlessly.

No that's really helpful and something I wasn't aware of. We do have a penalty on the mortgage having taken out a 7 year fixed rate 5.49% a few months before interest rates plummeted - and to start off with we were 'winning' the BofE rate. :eek: We have just over 2 years to go and when we looked into changing last year, the saving wasn't really worth the risk of rates shooting up. That's when things will get better when we are at the end of our fixed rate - so we never benefit- around feb 2014. :rotfl:

My mum has been told my nan is sufferring from dementia. I found out last night, spent a lot of time crying and just staring into space. I feel like I've lost her but she's not died. Going to see if I can call on her later today.

scottishminnie

SDG31000 wrote: »

Tomorrow is Knit and Natter

is it wrong that I've always called it b*tch and stitch???

CCP

Spendless - I'm so sorry to hear the news about your nan. I really hope the doctors can do something to help her now she's been diagnosed.

Shegar - I hope things are OK with you.


I've now finally started to feel Christmassy, rather late in the day: I couldn't seem to get into the mood until I'd submitted my OU essay, but it went off last night and I spent the rest of the evening wrapping Christmas prezzies while drinking mulled wine, so I feel all festive now. :xmassmile I've still got three presents which haven't been delivered, so I'm desperately hoping they turn up within the next couple of days. (Yes, I've left things a bit late this year. )

It's the work Christmas do at lunchtime, so I've got a nice short day at work today - I suppose that means I should really be doing something other than posting on the forum now, but what the heck - it's Christmas! :snow_laug

kidcat

Scottishminnie - I have been known to marzipan and ice the cake straight after- not ideal but still tastes ok.

Fruball

Shegar - Hope you are ok hun. Thinking of you xx

SDG31000

scottishminnie wrote: »

is it wrong that I've always called it b*tch and stitch???

It is held in the local library scottishminnie and I don't think they wanted the posters to have the word b*tch on them. I have to say that I really enjoy going to it. It's good creating something that lasts, even if it is only scarves and hand warmers at the moment and the ladies are very helpful. I generally sit there in awe at their knitting/crochet skills or am laughing my head off and then trying to work out where in the pattern I am.

Yesterday I made microwave tablet and then cleaned the microwave after it flowed out of the bowl. Then I made a double batch of sea salt caramel fudge and didn't realise my sugar thermometer is broken until the stupid thing wouldn't register past the jam setting point. So now I have to wrap each piece of fudge in greaaseproof paper as it didn't set properly :mad: I can't reboil it as you sprinkle sea salt over the surface and I think it would taste wrong with the sea salt melted into it.
Today my friend Caroline and her two year old son came over to visit so I now have beetroot chutney and summer fruit jelly she has made. She gave me a lift to the chemist and I have to admit to being naughty and going and buying a bag of chips and eating them out of the paper while walking home. It was bliss and much better than wearing thermals.
Tomorrow the monsters finish school and then DH finishes work on Friday. I have declared that I'm not doing anything on Friday, no baking, no present sorting, no laundry....nothing expect lying on the sofa watching films and eating chocolate.
I had better go and put marzipan on the cakes I baked the other day. Take care everyone xxxx

scottishminnie

kidcat wrote: »

Scottishminnie - I have been known to marzipan and ice the cake straight after- not ideal but still tastes ok.

SDG31000 wrote: »

It is held in the local library scottishminnie and I don't think they wanted the posters to have the word b*tch on them. I have to say that I really enjoy going to it. It's good creating something that lasts, even if it is only scarves and hand warmers at the moment and the ladies are very helpful. I generally sit there in awe at their knitting/crochet skills or am laughing my head off and then trying to work out where in the pattern I am.

Yesterday I made microwave tablet and then cleaned the microwave after it flowed out of the bowl. Then I made a double batch of sea salt caramel fudge and didn't realise my sugar thermometer is broken until the stupid thing wouldn't register past the jam setting point. So now I have to wrap each piece of fudge in greaaseproof paper as it didn't set properly :mad: I can't reboil it as you sprinkle sea salt over the surface and I think it would taste wrong with the sea salt melted into it.

I'm less worried about the Christmas cakes now - sometimes I think I over-complicate things:o

The knit and natter sounds a little more constructive than my alternative!

I've lost count of the times I've had to clean the microwave after making this new tablet recipe (already) - one day last week it overflowed so much I was to be found with the microwave platter thing tipped over the bowl of tablet, scraping the puddle into the bowl. Then once it had cooled a bit I'm ashamed to say I licked the remainder off. It's amazing how much a little bowl of evaporated milk, sugar and butter can expand to!