Preparedness for when

mardatha

Smokeless eggs burn hot and long, no smoke but slight fumes.

GreyQueen

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Anyone ever heard of cubital tunnel syndrome? Evidently the consultant thinks that I have it in both arms in addition to carpal tunnel in both hands, it has taken over 5 years to get a correct diagnosis :mad: Just waiting for an appointment for an emg test then I have to go back and see the consultant on 10th June.

On a lighter note..........I blew coffee out of my nose on this;)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B000KKNQBK/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Omigosh, I nearly choked on a late night round of toast here. Gentleman's log cabin........now that is a euphemism and a half and I fear it may not easily escape memory. Could someone please pass the Acme Mind Bleach?!

I've always been a fully-paid up member of the Awkward Squad and have tried to avoid doing proper grown up jobs. I don't mind working and working hard but I'm very protective of my inner life and don't want to carry the weight of an important job on my shoulders. I handle stress badly as a side effect of a rare illness and really don't want to make myself very ill, which could easily happen.

When I'm working, I want to be working flat out. Then I want to clock off and step out the door and not think about work at all until I walk back in for my next shift. My job delivers that.

A manager once remarked that I had a good work/life balance. I guess some people might regard me as a chronic underachiever but that's their opinion and they're entitled to it. I'm leaving the road clear for all the amibitious people to get on with it.

Who was it who remarked that the trouble with winning the rat race is that you're still only a rat when you've won?

I have a friend who works at a top accountancy firm. They tell me that all the partners and most of the managers are alcoholics with their personal relationships in tatters and their children off the rails.

I hear similar reports from pals inside the legal profession and in academic life here. Some of them have been paid hush money to leave and never talk about why. And don't even get me started on what the school-teaching friends have to say....!

Several friends will probably be lying in bed sleepless part of tonight because their jobs are on the line due to factors utterly beyond their control. They have a lot of stress and they only earn 30-40% more than me, and much of that will be lost to tax and NI so it's not even as if they have much more to spend than I do, when all's said and done.

My stance is something along this line; if you have to keep gritting your teeth and keep telling yourself that something's 'worth it', then the price is too high and has been paid too often.

wondercollie

Saw somebody mention fat quarters and fabric. I'm just starting to quilt/piecework things. I've salvaged a lot of cotton and cotton blends from blouses and shirts and make my own jellyroll strips and fat quarters. If anybody wanted to swap a few pieces send me a pm.

Butterfly_Brain

I think us preppers should all pool our resources and buy an island, declare independence making sure that we have our own sustainable forest and real seeds to grow food with a communal farm for milk and meat, have wood burning agas, a water turbine for electrickery (catweazle), no tv licence have our own like minded farmer butcher, doctor, nurse, plumber, electrician, engineer etc, you know useful peoples..........No banksters or politicians allowed and shut the world out!
wadja think girlies and gentlemensies?

VJsmum

I work in academia and there are some colleagues who are extremely stressed. I have been there at times, but a couple of years ago found myself in a "FIFO" (fit in or f off) situation, or rather stay and shut up, or clear off.

So I stayed and shutted up - but it was something of an epiphany moment for me. i had been ambitious and soooo frustrated at how my department was run. Now? I love it! I simply stopped worrying about it and stopped trying to fight a battle I couldn't win. I am not ambitious at all now, don't want to get higher up the rankings. Yes, I do take work home, yes i sometimes work weekends and evenings. But sometimes I am paid when I'm not there and not working - over easter I did very little and didn't take leave as I was owed time. WE are trusted to manage our time. They probably get more back than we are paid for, but it is a reasonably well paid job and i can't think of any other that would be so flexible - particularly around school hours. I have hardly missed a sports day, important assembly, etc.

Oh and my career seems to have gone from strength to strength in terms of opportunities rather than power I have to admit, though, that the only way I achieve the "shut up" part is to not go to meetings!

GreyQueen

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

I think us preppers should all pool our resources and buy an island, declare independence making sure that we have our own sustainable forest and real seeds to grow food with a communal farm for milk and meat, have wood burning agas, a water turbine for electrickery (catweazle), no tv licence have our own like minded farmer butcher, doctor, nurse, plumber, electrician, engineer etc, you know useful peoples..........No banksters or politicians allowed and shut the world out!
wadja think girlies and gentlemensies?

:T I like it.

I vote we buy the Isle of Man. It's a reasonable size, nice climate and quite handy with a few fortifications which could probably be reactivated to hold off the hordes.

They have excellent ice-cream and the intermittant presence of a lot of motorcycles (Mar will be happy) plus I've been there before and really liked in. Apart from the bog on Snaefell which I fell into, but that's a whole 'nother ancedote.:rotfl:

The parents just happen to be going there on hols next month so I will have them scout out likely sites.

VJsMum, I like your attitude. It's funny how when you stop taking so stuff seriously, you can often progress. It amuses me to collect the latest fashion in office-speak and to be sure to deploy it in the rare meetings I get to attend, to make it seem that I'm earnest and playing attention. I award myself points for how many times I either hear or can deploy the latest jargon.

thriftwizard

'Nother one here who doesn't use slap & has reasonably good skin for the anno domini - tempting to wonder if there is a causal relationship there, but my mother's skin is good too. Mind you, she couldn't afford makeup for most of her life either! And there's no point shopping for expensive clothes, as I'm a very odd shape; most of my wardrobe is stuff that other people have rejected, but I do make some of my clothes too. Next step is to learn pattern-cutting so I can actually design & make clothes that both fit & suit me; my only worry is that no-one will recognise me after many years of secondhand glory! However I'll still use chance-come-by fabric rather than buying new, so I expect I'll still look a bit wild & woolly, but by choice rather than by accident.

I had no option but to leave the ratrace once I'd managed to produce the twins when I already had two small children; we could afford a nanny OR a house big enough to keep one in! And I've only worked PT since, though I maintain that I've also worked hard at learning to be OS. Now I'm self-employed & run my own small business, which I love, do a bit of writing for cash & wouldn't change places with any of my high-earning, high-spending, stressed-out rellies for the world. You can't buy yourself more time...

lovefullshelves

Butterfly Brain - can I be the farmer on the island? I've been practising for 30 odd years! Jersey would be warmer! And I've never been there! I get a nosebleed if I go up the hill into the next village

Cornucopia

Hmmm... buying an island. :cool:

I prefer something a bit warmer....

http://www.privateislandsonline.com/islands/piaabuu-islands

I wonder whether you get to have your own Government, or if you are still bound by the rules of the country the island belongs to. (Think I probably already know the answer to that).

Butterfly_Brain

Ooh yes lovefullshelves you would be most welcome :T
So we have a farmer, a forager,plus motivator for positive mental attitude and bus driver (GQ don't ja know), not bad so far