Frugal Frump to Fab-u-lous Dharrrrrrrling Winter Solstice to Spring Equinox

podperson

Morning all,

Maman - Happy Birthday - hope you have a lovely day, hun :bdaycake:_party__party_:beer: (I may get slightly carried away with smilies lol)

floss - I'm going to have to find some I think, saw loads around last year but don't remember seeing them much this year.

Lizzie - that's lovely that your tutor wants to do that, it must be really good Good luck with DWP x

Yet more drama from the choir woman - is really getting ridiculous now! She's asked for copies of some of the footage, but she didn't want it posting because she doesn't trust the post (even though we said we could send it recorded) so OH said he'd drop it off at one of the choir sessions last night. Anyway a friend dropped in we haven't seen in ages and with that and the thick snow he messaged her to say that sorry couldn't make it down but could either post it recorded or could give her direct on Sunday as we're meant to be filming a charity concert that they're performing in (not their concert there's 10 acts altogether and has been arranged direct with the organisers not her).
She then started stressing about how that was too far away and she would pick up tomorrow morning, OH said sorry we won't be in then - which apparently makes him unprofessional and making no effort to accommodate her, along with a load of personal digs.
OH had had enough by then and told her that quite frankly she has no right to any of the footage, he was giving it her to try and keep things civil, but if this was how she was going to be then really there wasn't much point in that was there. Cue complete psycho rant where 'how dare he withhold her footage from her' and she was going to contact his uni and her lawyers first thing in the morning, she's also going to contact the organisers of the charity concert and tell them that her and the choir 'refuse' to be filmed by us - and thanks for setting out to make things as nasty as possible :eek: I think the woman's lost the plot!!
We're just really sick of it now, every time we think she's done then she goes off on another rant.

Anyways, didn't get much done last night so hopefully can catch up on editing tonight. Still cold and snowy here, turning icy as well, so was skidding to work this morning :rotfl:Keeping up with the healthish eating but need to do more exercise I think.
Hope everyone's having a good day x

maman

Thanks for good wishes.:)

I'm having a great day so far. Stayed over with friends last night, lovely dinner and up to a champagne breakfast this morning.

I did get fabbed up last night but it had to be with multiple layers as it was so cold here. Same this morning although it is beautifully sunny.

Family coming over later so more champagne ready in fridge! Have had some good fabbing gifts too: gift voucher for manicure and some Clarins stuff.

That choir person sounds as if she's really lost the plot pod. Obviously, OH doesn't want any trouble with the university but she's proving almost impossible to deal with rationally. Hope you get it sorted soon.

Bitsy_Beans

Quickly popping in to say Happy Birthday to Maman hope you had a lovely day xx

Done my back in :mad: better be more mobile tomorrow as I am supposed to be going out for lunch with friends to celebrate my birthday on Thursday :mad: no other fabbing at the moment, will find out end of the week if we've sold the house. Damn I hate waiting.....

Pod choir lady sounds like she's having some sort of breakdown :eek: hope she doesn't give you too much trouble x

Lizzie lovely news about your poem and good luck with the DWP x

Sorry if I've missed anything, hugs all round xxx

maman

Bitsy_Beans wrote: »

Quickly popping in to say Happy Birthday to Maman hope you had a lovely day xx

I am supposed to be going out for lunch with friends to celebrate my birthday on Thursday

Thanks Bitsy and all the best for yours on Thursday too!:) Hope your back feels more comfortable very soon.

lessonlearned

Good morning ladies

Wa-hay the sun is back.....and that horrible icy wind has finally droppped.


Pod - sorry about your choir lady. She does sound a bit strange - perhaps best if you just kept your distance.

Bitsy - ouch for the back - hope it gets better soon. Fingers crossed for your house sale.

Well I'm trying hard to keep up with the physio exercises and trying to remember my posture.!!!!! Still in quite a bit of pain at the moment. It's "only" stress I know but the physio has said that my muscles are in rather a state. So plenty of tlc and r&r at the moment.

So today - a nice gentle stroll round TK Max and M&S, maybe a sneaky cup of coffee somewhere nice.....

Lizzie - meant to say :T:T:T on the poem.

Have a great day.

podperson

maman - glad you had a nice day, with plenty of champagne

Bitsy - fingers crossed for the house x

Thanks for the comments on the choir woman guys (nice to know am not being unreasonable!) am just so sick of it now. She really just seems to have lost it. Last night's ranting email was about how she'd heard that we'd been 'slating' her to people (which we haven't, tempting though it may be!) and if she hears anything again she's going to get the lawyers on us for defamation :eek: Really just wanting her to go away now. It's not good for OH either as he suffers from anxiety anyway so this is really not helping. He sent an email to her partner who's also the assistant director last night trying to put his side across and calm things down a bit, but tbh I doubt it will do any good. If it was up to me would have simply blocked her phone/email/fb etc by now but he always wants to try and 'sort things out' - I think it's a lost cause here!!

Anyway, had a very lazy night last night - bad me! Still trying to stick to the healthy eating. Am supposed to be going to a meetup tonight with the same lasses I met last week and possibly a few more, feeling a bit tired tbh but will try and still go. Got an email for another job interview, the place is quite far out though and in a slightly dodgy area so not sure on that. It would be so much easier if when companies advertised jobs they put up where they were based and what they are paying - it's amazing to me how many don't and then you don't know if you're wasting both your time and theirs by applying when it may not be suitable anyway! Sorry, mini rant over :rotfl:

podperson

Morning all,

Quiet on here - hope you're all just busy fabbing
Dragged myself to the meetup last night and really enjoyed it when I got there. Reminded me that I don't get to do 'girl talk' much :rotfl: There was a new lass there this week - she's Australian but her sister lives here and is very ill at the moment so she's left everything over there - house, good job, partner etc - to come here and look after her sister's kids until she gets well again. It kind of puts my problems in perspective Anyway it was a good night, though haven't dared update MFP with all the 'alcohol' calories from it yet!

Been a bit lax on the fabbing but apart from the alcohol have been quite good with the eating so hopefully the scales will be a little nicer to me this week. Must pop to Asda tonight and get some nail polish remover I think - nails are driving me mad and keep forgetting to get some!
Hope everyone is having a good day x

lizzie157

wow very quiet on here. Sorry I missed sayng Happy birthday maman but hope you had a good day.
Not much to report really keeping up with the fabbing though my nails need doing too PP
Trying to get on top off the house fabbing to manage my time a bit better.
The business plannng has taken a backseat due to OU work so really need to step up with that. I do keep worrying that with the state of things round here it may not work out. There's been loads of job losses round here over the last month or so, big companies shutting down which doesn't bode well as dog walking/sitting and decorating are things you cut back on if you haven't much money. Still I have to give it a go.
H had another ESA medical this week too so although I'm hoping not we could have the appeal thing to go through again. The man doing the medical was certainly trying to trip us up.:mad:

Have a good day all:)

lessonlearned

lizzie157 wrote: »

The business plannng has taken a backseat due to OU work so really need to step up with that. I do keep worrying that with the state of things round here it may not work out. There's been loads of job losses round here over the last month or so, big companies shutting down which doesn't bode well as dog walking/sitting and decorating are things you cut back on if you haven't much money. Still I have to give it a go.

Just a thought Lizzie. It might be worth trying the OAP/Disabled people market. My dad is a lifelong diyer but he cannot even manage to slap on a bit of emulsion paint these days. (He is 86!!!!) I bet there are loads like him around - heck I'm nearly at that stage myself:rotfl::rotfl:

What I'm saying is that with an ageing population then targetting the golden oldies might prove fruitful. The "grey pound" is where the money is these days.

Perhaps you could put flyers through the doors of bungalows, cards in the window of local shops, chemists, library etc. Does you area have one of those local magazines. They are very cheap to advertise in and a lot of people do like to use local tradespeople.

I know several builders, joiners etc who advertise in these little local magazines and they do get a lot of business from them.

Another good place to advertise is the boards on your local B&Q or Homebase stores.

Can you add a bit of lawn-mowing to your repertoire - loads of older people need help with gardening.

I know a couple of handy man types who do gardening in the summer and decorating and simple diy in the winter.

I'm still reading your benefit posts. I do sympathise with your current predicament. I think a lot of people are going to really struggle with what lies ahead.

The sooner you can break free from the DWP's shackles the better.

Now that I am now a fully fledged retiree I am free of them and oh boy does it feel good. I'm not rich by any means but what is mine is mine and I've no fears that it can be taken away from me.

Well - I have spent the last couple of days trawling through Rightmove and talking to estate agents. I have drawn up a short-list of properties and have a couple of viewings on Sunday.

I think I'm now pretty well more or less focussed on where I want to live.

I have decided that this time I want to be a "City Slicker". I've done the country bumpkin, the seaside bolt hole and for the last 25 years or so it was the family friendly suburbs.

So, before I'm too old to make the most of a full on city pad - I've decided to have a final fling in a bustling city environment.

So - after some thought I have decided my search will be for a Swanky Apartment in an uber fashionable location.

I want it to be glamourous, sophisticated and oh so fab-u-lous dahhhlings......

If I do start pining for green fields then I can pop the wellies in the car. I have the Peak District, the lovely Derbyshire Dales, Sherwood Forest and Charnwood Forest on my doorstep for when I feel the need to go all "rustic". :D

Don't forget ladies - it's Fab Friday. TBH I'm not setting foot outside the door today - it's chucking down.!!!

PS Lizzie - been thinking about you. You could leave a few flyers with your local charity shops - especially Age Concern if you have one.

WelshWoofer

The plans sound fab LL - get you and your urban retirement!
Hope it all pans out for you.

Well, its the weekend and for once I'm not kn*ckered! Had a good end to the week - feel like the kids really learned things today, its a nice feeling when you see them having that lightbulb moment.
Managed to walk the dog between the showers too so not too bad an end to the week.
Looking forward to the rugby showdown tomorrow - got lots of jobs to do first though - the usual weekend stuff, shopping' cleaning, library etc so I'd better get on with it in the morning.

Having a quiet evening with a nice bath and a few fabbing jobs like nails, defuzzing and face scrub. Going to have a chinese for tea too - been fairly good all week so its treat time!