make do and mend for tougher times

smileyt_2

Morning all! A bit cooler here today so I should be able to get on the allotment. Wish me luck as I'll be using the strimmer for the first time and I am terrified ..... Greyqueen you will be glad to know I'll probably end up strimming a few slugs as well .... but hopefully no human bodyparts (mine!). I shall be counting my toes in and out again .... :rotfl:

Fuddle, have you tried a Marks and Sparks outlet for bras, or their online thing? Keep an eye out on Martin's weekly e-mail - the last bras I bought were from the online outlet using a code from the email. Hope you manage to fix your 'scaffolding'! xx

Mrs_Chip

Morning All - again!

Yesterday was the most lovely day here. We were able to go out on our kayaks in the morning. The sea was very calm and we went right round the coast and explored sea caves and landed on a tiny beach. Next time we go out I will pack a wet bag and we can play at being shipwrecked, light a fire and everything :rotfl:

I cannot believe (well I can) that a council can 'lose' payments. Many years ago I worked in the Accountants office of a major govt department. We had to reconcile the daily takings for the whole department - all VAT and duties paid in around the country. We worked with huge ledger books and calculating machines - the books had to balance down to the last penny! I remember many times having to work late if the books did not balance - usually because a figure was transposed, but however small, they had to balance. We has a suspense account too, where payments were put that could not be assigned to their proper account for some reason. Our boss could look down a column of numbers and spot a possible transposition, based on how much we were out. I bet there are very few who could do that now. I would expect cash offices to be run on similar lines today (to avoid fraud) but I bet they aren't so strict any more.

There is no way I would pay again - absolutely not. After making so many other mistakes, they are on very shaky ground as it is obvious there processes do not work properly.

Mar - hope the weather is a bit better today? We have lots of cloud, really hoping it burns off later, but that's not on the forecast. Really glad we are not in the SE, 90oF is not nice!

Cheapskate

fuddle wrote: »

ETA: HFW homemade yoghurt in case any one fancies it.

Thanks for this fuddle, remember watching the actual programme and wanting to do it right then! Got 2 small tubs of plain yogurt in the fridge, so might do this today.

mardatha wrote: »

Forgot to say - anybody affected or at risk re the DWP incapacity changes, should maybe watch this -

Dispatches. 8pm, Channel 4
“Using undercover filming, reporter Jackie Long investigates the shocking processes used to assess whether sickness and disability benefit claimants should be declared fit for work.”

Disabled or faking it? 8.30pm, BBC2
“Panorama investigates the government's plans to end the so-called 'sick note culture' and their attempts to get millions of people off disability benefits and into work. In Britain's modern welfare state, millions are being paid to private companies to assess sick and disabled claimants but is the system working? Or are new tests wrongly victimising those who deserve support the most?”

mar - are these on tv currently or on iplayer/4OD now? Would like to watch as while not relevant to me, they would definitely be for folk in my family, thanks for mentioning them.

A xo

Cheapskate

True to the title of the thread, a few weeks ago I got my old winter boots heeled and soled - cost £18.95, which was £3 more than last year, but SO much cheaper than new boots! They're on their last legs, but I should get one more winter out of them (already 8 years old so not done too badly), then buy some new ones in the sales. During the hols I will do some other mending jobs - buttons re-attaching on various items, naming (or re-naming) school clothes/equipment, re-attach leading to front room window, etc. - and a couple of DIY jobs, starting with buying and fitting part of the flush mechanism to the loo today (had to use bucket of water to flush since last night!).

Looks like we're having a massive bramble crop this year, so plenty of puds/jam etc for Vit C boosts during the winter!

A xo

Mrs_Chip

OH - everyone ignore my post about yoghurt - just realised I was talking out of my btm regarding blood heat for the milk!!!! I blame the early hour and too much sun yesterday!

Milk for yoghurt needs to be brought to just on the boil then cooled to between 40c -45C to add the starter yoghurt. So just a bit more than blood heat - a dipped in finger should feel just warm. It is ages since I have made yoghurt, so was working from poor memory!

SDG31000

Morning all

Fuddle that sounds like a fab day . Things I did with my monsters included cornflour gloop. Just mix it with water and food colouring on a big tray and let them play with it, squeeze it, let it run through their fingers. Best done outside while wearing old clothes. Also bubble pictures, water fights, making a fort using chairs and sheets or the washing line with a big sheet over it, sports day with homemade medals and the silliest races we could think of, cinema days where the kitchen was the refreshment stall (I got to stay in the kitchen eating popcorn while they watched a Disney film for the 100th time) and when they were a bit bigger we had let's learn about a different country days. We would paint flags, learn some words and make food from the country. Hope that helps

sliltwalker You clever thing DH is banned from slilt walking as he tried it and ended up with both wrists broken. He fell forwards and took the force of the fall through his arms. He then woke up a few hours later in agony and spend the next few weeks wearing splints.

Good luck smileyt

kidcat I caught the end of a programme yesterday on BBC3. It was about Ashley McKenzie who is a judo champion and who suffers from severe ADHD. Not the same as the problems your family face, but I thought of your older son and that it might be helpful. The bit I watched had some swearing in it, but you can watch it first on Iplayer and see if it might be useful x

DH came home without being fed last night and having skipped lunch yet again, so my pulled pork leftovers are severely diminished. I have tried in vain to get him to take food to work with him, but it just doesn't work so I've given up trying.
This afternoon I'm going to see The Dark Knight Rises with a friend and DS2. She has an Orange sim so I've said I will pay for the two tickets needed. She gets in free and I don't have to spend £6 on bus fares. I'm not sure what DS1 is planning to do today. It probably involves a video game of some sort.
I suppose I should get dressed and attempt to do something useful. Take care xxx

Sunshine4

Morning everyone, We have a strange yellow ball in the sky after three days of rain. So bed stripped and washing on the line just a couple more loads and they will all be on the line.

Fuddle, Have a lovely day with your girls and thank you for the yoghurt link never made it that before so will do it this afternoon.

Also going to mend a few things OH as a lovely pure wool jacket he loves and the elbows are starting to go. I have a small piece of soft leather a friend gave me and I am going to cut two pieces out and sew them on.Hes all delighted as its his favourite.

Then I am going to made some napkins have some lovely pieces of material thats to small to make anything out of, so I should get about eight altogether out of the four pieces I have.

Have my MrS delivery this afternoon so I have to stay in.

GreyQueen

mardatha wrote: »

So now I know I'm the most stupid boring person on the planet

:rotfl:LMAO, if you think you can solicit pity like that, Mar, you've got another think coming. I find your posts and humour both intelligent and interesting.

smileyt wrote: »

Morning all! A bit cooler here today so I should be able to get on the allotment. Wish me luck as I'll be using the strimmer for the first time and I am terrified ..... Greyqueen you will be glad to know I'll probably end up strimming a few slugs as well .... but hopefully no human bodyparts (mine!). I shall be counting my toes in and out again .... :rotfl:

Good luck with the strimmer, hun, hope you'll be wearing boots and protective glasses or a face shield and prob ear defenders, too. Safety first, unless you're a slug, in which case all I can say is....... mwah ha ha!

Fuddle, good luck with the bra mend, it's a perfectly do-able one by handsewing. Washing machine mechanics tell us that one of the commonest causes for disabling washers is escaped bra-wires which get out through the holes in the drum. Some bra-experts recommend handwashing bras to keep them in good condition longer. And I guess most of us would have heard that elastane (Lycra) doesn't react well to fabric conditioners and it shouldn't be used on them?

PIC, forgot to say yesterday but thanks for the slug-pic-mugshots. Wouldn't like to eyeball that particular piece of crockery first thing in the morning. Or last thing at night. Please don't let Fuddle see it as she doesn't need any assistance to have wacky dreams. Last time I was running a temp I woke screaming because the walls of my bedroom had turned red and furry and were devouring me. I think homo sap's sleeping brain must have a very narrow range of ideal operating temperatures and once you get above it, weird stuff happens.

Levered myself out of bed a bit later than usual with my back stiff as a board from potato-lifting. Yesterday and today are annual leave days, the first I've had this year which have co-incided with decent weather so I shall make the most of it. It's already hot so I'm planning to pootle and run errands and go to the lottie this afternoonn.

PIC well done on the Ronseal saga but you start to lose the will to live with these things, don't you? As it is now dry, I'll be treating my lottie shed today with my bootsaled Cuprinol. It's the second lot of Autumn Gold bought for £2 because the original purchaser didn't like the colour once it was open and the store didn't take it back (they were under no obligation to). So my shed could loosely be described as yellowish. I really fancied a green woodtreatment but this deal was too cheap to ignore. When I've worked my way thru all the yellowish stuff, I'll treat myself to some green.

These water-based wood preservatives are pretty rubbish, compared with the ole banned creosote. Shed really needs doing more than once a year but you have to wait for the warm dry weather. I normally treat it about Sept, but some of it has been needing to be re-done for a few months now but it never blinking stopped raining for more than an hour or two at a time.

Stiltwalker, done some similar stuff to you, not a brill juggler but can just about ride a unicycle and have earned a crust as an itinerant kids' entertainer and run craft workshops for the under 12s. I still wince at what me and my colleagues and a passel of kids with several gallons of swamp-green paint did to an arts centre one summer holiday...................:eek: Once the little darlings had been collected by their parents, we looked at each other and looked at the mess (how the HELL they got the paint up the walls to about 8 feet is beyond me) and spent the next two hours swabbing and scrubbing. We just couldn't have left that lot for the regular cleaner............:rotfl:and the basins in the toilets............arrrggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

Ergghhhh, think I'll have another pint of tea before facing the day. I am, technically, on holiday, after all.

Have a good one, GQ x

fuddle

The over the shoulder boulder holder is suitably fixed but for how long? I didn't know about washing machines and fabric conditioners. Showing my ignorance again

Thanks Mrs C will look up the crinkle test later on and thank you every body for the activity suggestions.

We're ust about to leave for he park... in the drizzle

grandma247

fuddle I have had a brass thermometer for well over twenty years. It was about £8 and it was a very good investment. It actually has markings on it for jam and various toffees etc. I only use it so I know when I should start watching for the set. Jams are made from natural ingredients and they don't all behave in the same way so you need your eyes more than a thermometer.,
@mazon have a T@l@ one for £1.89 which will probably do the job fine.