'supporting each other through really tough times'

sevenup01

Happy birthday Shegar - i hope you have a lovely day.
I just looked out of my living room window and it looks beautiful outside (if rather damp!) the trees are full of golden leaves that have been slowly dropping over the lst few days and the square in front of the house is coated with them. I suspect when i go out to drop my books shortly with my little one that we will indulge in some leaf kicking!
My yearly gas safety inspection was yesterday and all is well which is a relief. Over the last few years many people i know had problems with their boilers and it took weeks for the housing association to get the required new parts.
I had a very pleasant shock over the weekend. I was having a rummage in my bedroom checking what gifts i had bought and who for. It turns out i am very nearly finished! I have six left to buy for my children and they are small things that wont cost much, plus six gifts for friends, again only small things. I can get them all this week and then start wrapping! This is unheard of for me. It usually is the middle of december before i finish and start wrapping. I have also booked a santa visit for my younger two children and for my youngest daughters half brother and sister. The half siblings had never been to see santa until last year:eek: and their mum wont take them and dad was too busy working so my middle children gave up their tickets last year as they were so shocked/horrified.

grandma247

A friend was told by her doctor to stop using toilet roll for her nose when she had a bad sinus infection. Apparently toilet roll is made differently than tissues because they have different purposes. It has a fluffy surface and the fluff gets up your nose and increases the problems.

kidcat

Fuddle - If you buy extendable curtain poles (Ikea sell them really cheap) then when/if you move again they will fit whichever size window you need. Alot of the rails were here when we moved in but we brought loads of poles from our last few houses, it was something we didnt need to worry about as they all extend to fit.

Shegar - Happy Birthday, I hope you manage to have some time just to relax and enjoy today

[Deleted User]

Happy Birthday SHEILA, wishing you sunshine in your life and better things by far in the coming year, Cheers Lyn xxx.

How is Rosie dog these days?

[Deleted User]

FUDDLE - Things to be pleased about :-)

It isn't raining today!
I am off to DD1 for a concert over the weekend.
I have the company and support of my OS friends each and every day.
I have a good store cupboard in place for who knows what?
We have our health.
We have reached a point of contentment in life where we are happy to be who we are and have good friends and a good if quiet life, we are lucky people.
We have DOCKY, a constant source of amusement and a good friend too!!!

Cheers Lyn xxx.

stiltwalker

Happy Birthday Sheila!!!! Have a good day.

Thank you all for your lovely words about our photos.

Eletricity was turned off yesterday from 2.30 to 6.30 for repairs - typically we were the last part of he village to get turned back on - so frustrating to be able to see everyone else's lights from our windows but still to be stuck with candles. DD got a bit overwrought as she couldn't watch any of her cebebbies when she got back from nursery and DS just thought that he was supposed to go to sleep as it was fairly low ligting even with all the candles so he was having a right good whinge too plus DD kept trying to hug and kiss him as he was whinging but that was just making it worse so all good fun and games! Upside is that at least we have a gas hob! I have often said I've made mac and cheese so often I could do it with my eyes closed - well proved last night that I could do it by the light from 5 tealights which I couldn't seem to put anywhere that would illuminate the contents of the pan so had to listen for the 'putter' the sauce makes just before it boils and goes wrong. The children eating in semi darkness was however a rather less successful adventure and DD had to go to nursery with manky hair that she's got her dinner in as I couldn't bath her last night as the boiler needs electricity to work and by the time it was back on it was too late. I did brush her hair out but it's never quite right without a proper wash is it?

So that'll be bath night tonight for us then. Wonder if DD will go looking for the button again? At Center Parcs we had a posh whirlpool bath and DD loved the bubbles, well our bath at home was originally one but it so old the motor can't be replaced and so hasn't ever worked for us or any of the last few tenants (it's been that long) but it still has the fittings and DD tried to make it work last bath night - clever wotsit she must have clocked that it had similar fittings and wanted to see if it did the same wonderful things! Sadly not.

Hugs to all who need (or want) one. X

Aria`s_Tail

Happy Birthday Shegar. :beer:
Fuddle, when we moved in here in Jan (yep, 200mile move and snow ) there were no curtain poles (lots of very skanky nets though). Brought the 2 adjustable ones from our old house but managed some temp hangings with cup hooks and net wires and string. Not long term solution but ok for a few weeks.

I'm sat in the house waiting for delivery of a tumble dryer. Not for us unfortunatly but for my brother. As he works through the day we decided to get it delivered here then I can put it in my car and deliver it to him at his leisure. That is any night when he isn't watching darts, playing darts, out for a curry...... :mad: Looks like we will be falling over it in the hall for a few days. The things we do for brothers hey.
Sorry, seem to have done nothing but moan the last few days. Will get off my arris soon and get the slow cooker out for chicken broth made from 2 chicken thighs defrosting in the fridge.

PipneyJane

Good morning everyone (although it might be afternoon by the time I post this). I'm reading last night's digest. I'll try to reply to as many people as possible BUT if I miss you out, I'm very sorry. Big hugs to you all.

SDG - Budgens used to sell cans of pumpkin puree (are they still going?). However, I agree with Softstuff. You'll get the same texture if you cut your pumpkin/squash in half, scoop out the seeds, and bake it for an hour or so at 180C, until soft. I usually use butternut squash ("butternut pumpkin" to us Aussies). Note, cut larger pumpkins into chunks - they'll cook faster.

FUDDLE - Congratulations on the new house. Fingers and toes crossed for you re your daughters' new school. No, it's not weird that you're wearing your gran's ring. If anything, that makes it sweeter. (For the record, my DH wears my grandfather's wedding ring.)

TAWNY - I reckon the person who left that comment was just !!!!!! stirring ('scuse my Klatchian). Did they name the person you're supposed to have bullied? For the record, my blog is public but I vet all comments and don't allow anonymous ones. Also, I am very careful about what I post - I rarely post about work, I don't post about really personal stuff (I'm aware that at least one family member reads my blog), and I try not to post anything that would directly identify me. I moderate every comment before it is visible (at one point, I got a lot of spam comments. They stopped when I moved to comment moderation). I have encountered some very interesting people through blogging and made the odd friend.

VJSMUM - Hope you're feeling better and that the "itis" wears of rapidly. Not growing up in the UK, I always through Bamber Gascoigne was a woman(!) until the Beeb profiled him a few years ago. Magnusson has an excuse - he's Icelandic and they all have names like that.

PiC - Fingers crossed about the cat.

KITTY - Your post reminded me of something that happened a long time ago. Back when I was nursing at the Kids' hospital, there was a little boy bought in who appeared subdued, lost his balance, slurred his words, giggled inappropriately, etc. His GP couldn't pin down a diagnosis. After much investigation, it turned out he was drunk(!) because his gut flora had been over-riden by candida albicans (thrush) and it was fermenting alcohol from everything he ate.

2TONSILS - Sorry to hear about your DH's blood nose. I hope they find a cause quickly.

POSSESSION - Glad your DH's first day went well despite HR's best efforts. After nearly 30 years in the workforce, I've come to the conclusion that in every HR department there is one person who does the majority of the work, two people who faddle around creating meaningless policies and one person whose job is to obstruct anything that might help the business actually work.

BECCATJE - Am I right in remembering your husband has a meeting today about his redundancy? It'll hurt his feelings like hell but I hope they offer him a big payout. (I reckon the knock to my ego from my redundancy hurt more than my long-ago divorce.) I have no idea what the rules are for redundancy in the Netherlands but I hope they're better than here. What field is your husband in?

GALLEY - After weeks of looking, we found a lot of sloes about two weeks back. I think they were very late this year thanks to the weather. I use the sloe gin recipe from www.sloe.biz, decanting the fruit after 4 months and then making sloe gin truffles from a recipe I found on that site. Have given up trying to find crab apples (that's what we were looking for when we found the sloes). The only ones I've seen have been beside the on-slip to the M4 and stoppig there would be suicide.

Can I offer some good news for a change? Back in the summer I had a play on the MSE Remortgage calculator, after one of Martin's newsletters mentioned it. We were locked into a 10 year fixed rate mortgage, taken out in 2008, back when everyone expected mortgage rates to keep going higher (I think the standard variable rate mortgage back then was rapidly approaching 8%). Inspired by what I saw on the calculator, we went to see our mortgage broker and, two months later, have just received a decent remortgage offer! Five years, fixed at 3.49%. (The old mortgage was fixed at 6.39%.) Our repayments will go down by a quarter. Yay!!! For the first time in what feels like forever, DH and I'll be able to put a decent amount of money to savings each month. The plan is to use that money to pay off large chunks of the mortgage balance, once we've got a decent cushion. (And we'll need a cushion. DH has had a tough three years work-wise. He's currently contracting, but it's not highly paid.)

[ channelling Joyce Grenville ]

Chins up everyone. Remember, life is about enjoying the journey.
- Pam


ETA: Happy Birthday Shegar!

fuddle

A long day for you Byatt. Hang in there, your pooch will be back with you before you know it.

I just found out that Aldi is 1.6 miles from where I'm going to live. Boadicea and I are going to be inseparable when I move

Off I hunt for nearest doc's, dentists, and Post Office... and then back cleaning and clearing.

Edit: Doc's: 1.8mile
dentisits 0.3 miles
Post office 1.2 miles

not bad

shegar

Byatt wrote: »

PJ, interesting post about your blog, and useful info for when I do get around to blogging! Totally agree about the moderating, it is a sensible thing to do.

Shegar, Happy 55th Birthday!! :dance:I love the name Shegar, it reminds me of a roaring Tiger mum...in a nice way. :bdaycake::bdaycake:

Well my beloved pooch is having an operation today. It was a hard decision , to remove the cancerous lump on her mouth which has grown and could bleed out (can't spell haemorr...) She's 12 so of course it's risky, but my DD is convinced she will be alright. I hope so, just hanging about waiting now, till I can call at 2pm.

Roaring tiger mum, thats me........My name being Sheila, so I took the first 3 letters and hubby being Gary I took the first 3 letters to get , shegar........simple as that and easy to remember.....:D.

Mind you I have been call SHERGAR , I think that was that poor horse that got nicked quite a few year back.........
!!. Sheila