Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

westcoastscot wrote: »

Have done some hard thinking and have decided when my temporary extra hours are finished in july 2014 I'm going to stick with my core hours (17.5) and not take on any extra pieces of work. I miss being home all the time and am convinced that my long held belief is true - the money received for the extra hours does not compensate for the money lost in lack of time for cooking/sewing/gardening etc, nor the loss to my soul of knitting and reading time. I had thought to try and save to retire earlier than my projected 68, but would rather have my life (as i've always lived) than hope I live to 68, and my health does not deteriorate further.

Anyway off to make a birthday cake for youngest, and then get back to my knitting

Edited to add: interesting conversation about routes etc, we're in the fortunate position that there is only one road in/out, so when it is blocked for any reason we have the perfect excuse to stay home!

WCS

I think it's very prudent about the hours. People will start to do things differently if you aren't going to be "allowed" to retire until your late sixties. Folks with sense will think what's the good of working like stink to put away money for a retirement which will be brief and possibly limited by ill-health. Companies whose business model relies of the relatively-affluent and reasonably able-bodied pensioners gadding about will have to look to their laurels as well.

Nan is now en route home with the folks, kid bruv is diggging out a couple of books which he has sold then it's wrap & run to the post office and get some milk from the Land of Ice. I will go out too as need to stretch my legs.

Errmm, I would just like to establish that the uncle-whose-great-grandad-came-from-across-the-region is a relative by marriage only, not a blood relation.

I'm not inbred, tho; Mum's a cockney sparrer by birth but was exported to the countryside as a youngster. She and Dad met at 19 and 20 at the local hop. Turns out Mum's foster family are distant blood rellies of Dad's family. Country life........

Tell ya, yer can't throw a brick anywhere in the villages on the county line without hitting someone I share DNA with. I wouldn't advise attempting it, as we run to tall and sturdy types.

ETA Thanks, MaryB. They wanted £24.50 for a 3-pack of the Basics knicks last week. Want on, thought I. I may have a few at 20% off.

ALIBOBSY

Not been on the thread for a few days as so busy with crimbo.

Missed mar's birthday, hope you had a good one hun.
Also hope ev1 had good christmasses. Sounds like we all got away pretty lightly with the weather compared to some poor souls.

Its howling here again and we have had a couple of greenhouse panels blow out, but nothing we can't cope with, can't imagine days without power or flooded out of your home over Christmas.

I did my last supermarket shop on the 22nd-I had a £5 off £40 voucher, then just the last few bits from the farm shops on the 23rd. We then shut the doors to stay home lol. Nice feeling to close up shop for a few days :cool:.

We made agreements not to buy gifts for the adults this year, but my mum couldn't resist and still bought Oh and I one pressie each.

My sister also agreed to no pressies but gave OH and I an envelope with a load of Morrisons vouchers in it. I tried to tell her off, but as she said her and soon to be BIL both earn well, and have no kids-and won't be having any they can afford it, she wanted to give us something to help all of us in the new year and thought as January is often a tight month for people that vouchers to help with shopping would be useful.

Had a lovely evening playing charades etc yesterday at mums, haven't laughed so much in ages. Mum got out her sad "black lace" albums :eek:.

Have a good new year ev1.

Ali x

Butterfly_Brain

I hope that everyone had a lovely Christmas and got everything that they asked Santa for.

Got lots of lovely pressies including a shtf solar/wind up radio.
DH, DS and DD's BF all got a voucher for a 45 minute Archery taster session. And if they like it I will book them on the beginners course for their Birthday presents. DH is keen to make his own bow and arrows, but he has to complete the course and become a member of the club first. No use me doing it because I have two carpal tunnel ops next year and they are not sure about the problem with my neck, plus a cataract so I must leave it to the menfolk . Our next door neighbour has been doing archery for over a year and he loves it.

Butterfly_Brain

For those of you with kindles there are free kindle survival books
here :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Survival-Guide-Beginners-Vitaly-Pedchenko-ebook/dp/B00ALUMW96/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1388161075&sr=1-3&keywords=survival

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Food-Inflation-Gardening-Makes-Sense-ebook/dp/B008J6HBX6/ref=sr_1_17?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1388161398&sr=1-17&keywords=survival

jk0

thriftwizard wrote: »

Still pondering that Christmas Eve journey to fetch DS1; I know we were very lucky & had nothing to worry about, though people within a few hundred yards were flooded and the 'leccy was down elsewhere in our little town. But there was something very surreal about the journey; advance a few hundred yards, find road closed due to floods/power lines down/accident/whatever, find a way round, advance another couple of miles, road closed again, find way through strange town centre & out the other side, road closed again, etc. etc. I don't think a Satnav would have helped (judging by the number of people swearing at their dashboards) and I actually have a reasonably good sense of direction, so generally knew whether I was pointing the right way or not, as well as a road atlas that lives in the car, but I'm very glad I didn't try to do it in the dark. I'm left with a real sense of how quickly things can flip from normal into something strange and quite disorientating. And also of how very helpless so many people seem to be when faced with things not proceeding as normal.

I have to say I was staggered when I heard my cousins mention they ferried their children to/from university. I had to find my own way to & from boarding school by train & bus from the age of 11. My trunk was packed up several days earlier & sent by carrier.

I dare say this would have been pricier than them ferrying me by car. However, my parents were (correctly in my view) unwilling to drive such a long journey in unpredictable weather.

westcoastscot

GQ yes I was shocked a few short years ago when I re-joined the workforce "proper" after living a self-employed crofting lifestyle, to find I was not to retire at 60 as I thought, but 68!- It almost doubled my years to work from 10 to 18 - have have 13 left. I'm lucky I have such a tiny-but-full life that I can easily live on 17.5 hours so that's what I shall do. I had pondered having an extension built at some point, or a loft conversion or something, but have decided I would rather have the time instead.

maryb

I also used to send my trunk as passenger luggage in advance when I was at Durham in the early 70s. Everyone came by train and the colleges used to lay on coaches to pick us up from the station at the beginning of term and also take us to the station at the end of term.

Not sure if you can still send trunks by rail in advance?

The problem is that a lot of halls/colleges make them clear their rooms completely at the end of term so they can be used for conferences but at the same time don't provide any storage for the packed up possessions. So they have to be schlepped home and back again. DD1 was only about 60 miles away but if DD2 goes to her first choice (and she has had the offer so chances are she will provided she gets her grades) then we are looking at a 600 mile round trip six times a year:eek::eek::eek: unless she can store her stuff over the holidays, at least at Christmas and Easter for the years she is living in

jk0

maryb wrote: »

I also used to send my trunk as passenger luggage in advance when I was at Durham in the early 70s. Everyone came by train and the colleges used to lay on coaches to pick us up from the station at the beginning of term and also take us to the station at the end of term.

Not sure if you can still send trunks by rail in advance?

The problem is that a lot of halls/colleges make them clear their rooms completely at the end of term so they can be used for conferences but at the same time don't provide any storage for the packed up possessions. So they have to be schlepped home and back again. DD1 was only about 60 miles away but if DD2 goes to her first choice (and she has had the offer so chances are she will provided she gets her grades) then we are looking at a 600 mile round trip six times a year:eek::eek::eek: unless she can store her stuff over the holidays, at least at Christmas and Easter for the years she is living in

PLA ended around 1980 as far as I recall. Why not send the trunk by overnight carrier? This one popped up when I googled 'send trunk within UK'

http://www.carrymyluggage.com/student-luggage-delivery/

GreyQueen

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

I hope that everyone had a lovely Christmas and got everything that they asked Santa for.

Got lots of lovely pressies including a shtf solar/wind up radio.
DH, DS and DD's BF all got a voucher for a 45 minute Archery taster session. And if they like it I will book them on the beginners course for their Birthday presents. DH is keen to make his own bow and arrows, but he has to complete the course and become a member of the club first. No use me doing it because I have two carpal tunnel ops next year and they are not sure about the problem with my neck, plus a cataract so I must leave it to the menfolk . Our next door neighbour has been doing archery for over a year and he loves it.

:T Oh good on ya, BB, I bet they'll love it. I'm mad keen on my archery and can't wait til the club is open again in Jan.

I was wondering if there would be a bow-making course somewhere accessible to me that I could do instead of a "summer holiday" so will look into that next year. I like the thought of being able to wander into the woods and construct a bow-and-arrows.

There's something about the simple things in life which are incredibly soothing and empowering. On my bushcraft course a couple of years ago, I enjoyed standing in the woods with a knife in one pocket, a folding saw in the other, and feeling competant to turn trees into shelters, pot hangers, cook fires, spoons and all that jazz. Not to mention turning nettles into string and soft rushes into rushlights and mattressess.

Walked into town with the kid bruv (he towers over me) and he posted his parcels and I shopped £land. Gardening alert; the onion sets are in. Setton (white onions) and Red Baron. I got one bag of each.

I've been growing £land onion sets for years and they're reliable preformers but pls be aware that they won't have them in stock for long, so I purchased mine although I won't be sowing them for about 2 months at least. They keep fine in the cool of the lottie shed and hadn't even started to sprout by the time I was ready to plant them in March.

Hokay, time to check out the wilder edges of finance at Zer0 Hedge. Word is, the biggest financial disaster since The Great Depression is probably incoming mid-Jan. Be sure to book tickets to watch and don't leave too much folding stuff in the bank accounts. Just in case anyone gets creative about Cyprussing.

They'll have beggar-all luck seizing my money, as I spent it all on slow horses, cheap teabags and tins of tommies.:rotfl:

thriftwizard

DS1 has finished uni & is working a "day job" in the town he studied in, whilst working (hard) in his field in the evening waiting for a proper opening to come up. But sadly the day job only just covers his rent - it's a wickedly expensive commuter town, and the house is shared with two other lads in the same sort of position - with a little left over for Council Tax & bills and a complete pittance to eat on. And the evening work is hardly paying anything, but does mean he'll be in the right place IF the right time should occur. He just had two days off for Christmas and the trains were cancelled anyway; he had to be back at both grindstones on Boxing Day. Poor lad was utterly shattered; he's been getting about 4 hours sleep a night, almost never goes out, his shoes have fallen apart & he only has one pair of jeans left. So £90 for the train was out of the question, even if they'd been running. But he's soldiering on and is resolutely independent, apart from lifts.