A new 'tougher' thread... and so it continues

stiltwalker

Been out for the last big event of our village's Jubilee marathon - a free breakfast! The kids were a bit indignant at being dragged out of their pits at only 8.15 (sometimes I think they are teenagers already! but mostly it's because they work so hard to do the ordinary stuff due to mobility disabilities/delays) but soon cheered up when they realised food was involved!! lol Going back for the coin presentation later as they were running late due to so many turning out for breakfast, rather unsurprisingly really about half the village seemed to have turned out! OH was a bit disgruntled to have to go to work rather than to have breakfast but he does have bacon butties at work for his breakfast far more often than he lets on so I'm not going to feel too sorry for him!

Fuddle - you are having a time of it aren't you? Don't let her get to you, I'm another who likes to make the house and garden nice despite 'only' renting but dammit it's my home and I want it to be nice! I'm lucky that both my parents are supportive but MIL has her moments - she keeps mentioning buying and has even talked about giving us something towards a deposit but as I have gently tried to point out I don't work and OH works at Mr T's and it's more a case of salary multiples not adding up than anything else. We also live in one of the most expensive areas outside of the SE and London so I'd much rather rent and live in our lovely house in my chosen lovely area than have to live somewhere no nearly so nice in a smaller house just so we can maybe own it one day in the distant future when the mortgage has been paid off!

GreyQueen

:mad: Wanna read something outrageous? Try this for size:


http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/04/jubilee-pageant-unemployed

smileyt_2

GreyQueen wrote: »

:mad: Wanna read something outrageous? Try this for size:


http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/04/jubilee-pageant-unemployed

Absolutely bl**dy disgusting. I can't think of anything else to say. :mad::(

prepareathome

GreyQueen wrote: »

ETA, got into the linkie, PAH. Well impressed. I can see 5 FB pies in the corner of one shot. You're slacking there; I've got 28 under the bed on the trollies and one cooked one in the freezer which I'll probably defrost at some point this week. The FB pie is (for the non-vegetarian on robust digestion) the true emergency food. Cheap! Longlasting! Stackable! Edible! Errmmm borderline-edible...............

I know, I know, I hang my head in shame with such few pies - did get up to 20 once but hubby loves them - he has a whole pie with a tin of beans or spaghetti over it as his evening meal as often as I let him, he loves pies but his chloresterol doesn't.

I am hoping today to go through everything I have and list it - I had done this in past but got slack as would make it easier than me searching to see if we had such and such. Other day thought oh no, no tomato puree left, had a quick look on shelves non to be seen, so hubby picked up 4 on his way home only for me to find 7 tins on bottom shelves the next day, not that it matters.

Fuddle just buy a few extra tins every week or whenever you go shopping. At first the shelves will never seem to fill up but you will be surprised how quickly they actually do.

You might have noticed the No Egg, its an egg substitute and very, very handy to keep in as you really can use it in place of eggs for nearly everything. One thing I am totally out of is long life milk as last had to be used by end of April and not been able to replace it yet, and I need to check just how much dried milk I have, not much I know that. Yep definitely need to do some serious stock taking.

hugs, love and healing to allxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

meme30

GreyQueen wrote: »

:mad: Wanna read something outrageous? Try this for size:


http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/04/jubilee-pageant-unemployed

That's appalling!:mad:

BitterAndTwisted

GreyQueen wrote: »

:mad: Wanna read something outrageous? Try this for size:


http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/04/jubilee-pageant-unemployed

Is it outrageous that I'm not completely outraged by this story? To be honest, I'm ambivalent. It's unfortunate that people arrived in the city with only a couple of hours until they needed to get ready for work and most unfortunate that it was bucketing down with rain but that work was alleged to be voluntary, part of their assessment for their NVQ with the possibility of getting decently-paid work at the Olympics.

Yes, one could argue that it was exploitation on the part of the employers but those people might be getting the chance of paid work in the future. I'm unemployed and would have done it willingly whether it was paid or there was a job at the end of it or not. I think it's what our grandparents might have called "character-forming". There's no end of complaints on this forum and elsewhere that dole-scroungers should be doing something in return for their benefits and these people were doing just that.

LilySue

Thank you all for the very warm welcome

kidcat wrote: »

Thanks Lilysue and no he is stuck with her for the whole of juniors so another three years - I cant face that so have no idea how he must feel.

Oh ugh, no you don't want his whole junior experience to be a misery, one year of a bad teacher I think is tough but doable, three's too much.

fuddle wrote: »

I should be used to mum's opinions by now. I've calmed down now, eating a fried egg sarnie for breakfast.

There's 3 tins of peaches, 2 jars of curry sauce and dried milk in my store It's what is left from last winters hoarding. I will definitely make a lst of what is in there. Do you make a note of what you use to replace?

This is who I used on youtube to learn how to crochet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NelL5hJ1mfQ&list=PL59FA9DF4C757945B&feature=plcp it's tjw 'crochet geek' many beginner videos on that channel. That link is the very first stitch you would need to learn. A standard (and the easiest I find) crochet hook to begin with is 4mm with DK (double knit) wool.

Crochet is my passion and the best thing is it's silent so DH can watch his docu's while I sit there crocheting (although I am not normally so silent ) I can't knit though! I just can't. I want to learn and have posted on the knitters thread about where to begin so when I am able to get the relevant needles and yarn I give it another bash.

Fuddle I so feel for you about the renting. I'm the impoverished branch of a wealthy family. My sister won't even come to visit anymore as my house is too small for her kids and she thinks the city we live in is grim. We have finally at the grand age of 101 combined bought half our house off the Housing Association, but we struggle with upkeep, and although we've been married thirty years I'd still say our decorating style is newly weds ( as in hand me downs from everyone plus charity shops/sales)

My dear Mum is a feisty, critical but very funny eighty-two year old. I wish that all energy I've expended over the years trying to please her could be measured in kilocalories, I'd be a size eight instead of a size eighteen!

And I'm so pleased you're going into teaching, my son has had some amazingly good as well as not so good teachers and we definitely need more of the good ones :T

GreyQueen wrote: »

Morning all, and welcome LilySue (you're excused teamaking duties as I forgot to ask it on your first posting day). Betcha relieved, huh?:) Don't be silly, I witter on about my lottie all the time and peeps can read it or skip it, as the mood takes them. I love reading about the little stuff in everyone's everyday life, personally.

fuddle I totally get where you're coming from about being looked down on by some because you're a tenant not a owner-occupier. I rent a council flat in a notorious block and you can see people looking at you askance if you arrange to have something delivered.....feeling like saying; OK, sunshine, I just paid cash and no one is going to mug or murder you because you drove a delivery van into the Towers. Heck, some of my neighbours even have jobs, cars and broadband connections.

This downer that people have on renting is a particularly British thing. In continental Europe, even affluent professional people rent their homes and no one looks at them as if they're weird. I've read some interesting statistics about the direct correlation between home-ownership and poverty; the more owned homes in a country, the poorer the country is as a whole. Portugal is one of the poorest European nations and has about the highest number of owner-occupiers, too.

OK rant over.:o

Today is gloriously sunny and I laid in my pit until the heinous hour of 8 am (and am still in jammies!) as am milking this extra bank holiday for all it's worth. Will potter around as have the washer chuntering thru the bedlinen and then tackle the kitchen. Being tiny, it degenerates into a pit at the drop of a teacloth. But I can't use the sink while the washer is running as the water fights in the outflow pipe but I might just about manage to fill the tea-kettle and have another brew up.

:coffee: Tea's up, sun's shining, not going into the salt mine until tomorrow, what could be finer? Have a good 'un ladies.

PS smileyt, I'd pay good money to see you giving your hulking lodger a dressing-down but your weeds will have to go unmolested by moi. I still have the top fifth of the lottie in a total state called The Rough/ The Wildflower Meadow, depending on who's asking. I shall have to wade in there to behead the docks before they flower, even if I can't excavate their roots just yet.

PPS That linkie to the storecupboard pix won't open for me, my pooter's been stuck on it for 10 + mins. So I may have storecupbard envy, but I can't tell until I've seen it. Will try again later.

Tea quote of the day (an intermittant series when I remember)...

When the news reporter said "Shopkeepers are opening their doors bringing out blankets and cups of tea" I just smiled. It's like yes. That's Britain for you. Tea solves everything. You're a bit cold? Tea. Your boyfriend has just left you? Tea. You've just been told you've got cancer? Tea. Coordinated terrorist attack on the transport network bringing the city to a grinding halt? Tea dammit! And if it's really serious, they may bring out the coffee. The Americans have their alert raised to red, we break out the coffee. That's for situations more serious than this of course. Like another England penalty shoot-out. ~Jslayeruk, as posted on Metaquotes Livejournal, in response to the July 2005 London subway bombings

Well, I like it. :rotfl:

ETA, got into the linkie, PAH. Well impressed. I can see 5 FB pies in the corner of one shot. You're slacking there; I've got 28 under the bed on the trollies and one cooked one in the freezer which I'll probably defrost at some point this week. The FB pie is (for the non-vegetarian on robust digestion) the true emergency food. Cheap! Longlasting! Stackable! Edible! Errmmm borderline-edible...............

Hi GreyQueen, probably best for you all that I'm excused tea making duties for now...it's my dh who makes the tea here, his brew is consistently superior to mine, I seem to be a moody tea maker!

Loved your tea making quote, we do think tea solves everything. I remember being put in recovery following an endoscopy a couple of years ago ( it's the tube you swallow so they can investigate the mysteries of your upper digestive tract) and what did the nurse bring me, but a big cup of tea, and yes even with a tender throat, I swallowed it gratefully and as a British person benefitted from it's healing powers :rotfl:

And now I bet you all regret encouraging me to ramble....off to actually do things!

BitterAndTwisted

Fuddle: My Ma was a lovely woman but very opinionated and not backwards in coming forwards. If we ever had a frank exchange of views or she got all judgmental on me I just acknowledged her opinion and told her I didn't necessarily agree with her and that I didn't want to discuss it any more. And then refused to pay attention to it any more.

Talking of "newly-wed" chic: I'm here in my little Council flat, the one I've rented for thirty years and barely anything is newly-bought. I have things I like and that's that. I know one of my sisters pities me for being a pauper now but I don't care because I'm happy here in my rough, tough North London ghetto. She's secretly very discontented and doesn't realise that she's the one who might be deserving of pity. I might tell her one day when she really annoys me by being more smug and patronising than usual. It's just as well that my other sister is a saint

Pooky

Your store cupboards have inspired me ladies.

I have a very small cupboard under my stairs as we have a down stairs loo under the tallest part of the stairs. Whilst the cupboard surfaced for my winter stock last year/ beginning of this it was cramped and everything had to come out to get to anything.

We moved here last September and I cannot afford to get the kitchen redone for a few years yet (and technically there's nothing wrong with it, it just doesn't suit me and the way I work in a kitchen. It was installed for one old lady living alone, but there's me, two teenage DDs and DH with mobility issues living here now). I have one small food cupboard which just about holds a few weeks worth of stuff but not in the quantity I want. I've therefore taking the executive decision to get some shelves fitted in a cubby hole/boiler area that would make a great pantry. I shall source some wood, I've got brackets and will talk my lovely Dad into drilling some holes for me.

Circumstances are such that we are likely to loose around £400/£500 per month in the next couple of months and then maybe more when they change to the UC and PIP in the next year or so. We've already taken a £450 per month hit as of March which was easier to handle as this was an amount we used for mortgage OPs....still a huge blow but we're thankful theres still enough coming in for now. As such I want to get a good stock of essentials behind me. I've started by making a list of everything in the bathroom/toiletry line that we have and what we need for a years supply. I shall stock up over the next few weeks and keep a list so that as one item gets used it can be replaced.

I'll do the same with items such as binbags/tin foil/cling film etc before stocking up on my tinned and dried goods.

I'm going to go surce some of those plastic drawers too, they look handy! :T

Quite tragic that I'm this excited about stock piling.

GreyQueen

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Is it outrageous that I'm not completely outraged by this story? To be honest, I'm ambivalent. It's unfortunate that people arrived in the city with only a couple of hours until they needed to get ready for work and most unfortunate that it was bucketing down with rain but that work was alleged to be voluntary, part of their assessment for their NVQ with the possibility of getting decently-paid work at the Olympics.

Yes, one could argue that it was exploitation on the part of the employers but those people might be getting the chance of paid work in the future. I'm unemployed and would have done it willingly whether it was paid or there was a job at the end of it or not. I think it's what our grandparents might have called "character-forming". There's no end of complaints on this forum and elsewhere that dole-scroungers should be doing something in return for their benefits and these people were doing just that.

I've done some hard and rough things in my life to earn a buck, B & T , but I think driving people halfway across the country, expecting them to doss on cold concrete under a bridge, start a 14 hour workday at 05.30 am and then dump them on a rainsodden campsite for another night is downright abusive. It might form a character but I doubt it would be a worthwhile one. I guess those people will have such fond memories of the Jubilee, as will their families and friends - not.:(