The OS Doorstep - a helpful and supportive thread in these tough times

monnagran

Ivyleaf: You are a wonder! Fancy you remembering our carpetted shed.
Yes , I miss any sort of storage space. This is going to be a delightful house but it is much smaller than our last one and we are definitely trying to get a quart into a pint pot. I have changed my bedroom into what was going to be the spare room because it is slightly larger and am now trying to get 2 rooms into my small study. Whereas before I had an absolutely huge room (18ft x 23Ft approx) that had 2 enormous floor-to-ceiling cupboards, I am now trying to get all my hobbies' stuff - fabric stash, wool stash, sewing machine, embroidery machine (never used, but hope springs eternal) my desk, computer, printer and associated gubbins, 100s of books, keyboard and music stuff, unfinished (or unstarted) projects, and bits of flotsam and jetsam into a small room, and it just aint working.
Never mind.
No, the last minister didn't use the manse as she had her own house. For some years it has been let out. At various times it was a house of mutiple occupancy,4 bedsits, 2 flats and more recently to a young man who fancied that he was expert at DIY. But the church have been marvellous to do what they have in the time available and slowly things are getting sorted. This morning I had my hob fitted, weyhey!
I have also discovered that as well as the excellent blackberries the garden (sic) has revealed a small apple tree, bearing little pockmarked red apples, and a pear tree. Things are looking up.

Oh! How I feel for all you parents tackling the school uniform problem. As if life wasn't hard enough already. I think that it has always been the same, especially for the older age groups.
In the dark ages when I was at Grammar School we used to have prefects standing at the gates checking us all as we left school. Woe betide any girl who had made her hat into a 'pork pie' or was wearing her panama on the back of her head. I guess all teenagers will try to customise uniform, perhaps that is why schools are so draconian.

Back to dragging boxes about.

nursemaggie

Well Monna I have caught up and it is a long way to Christmas though I have nearly finished my first present a lacy scarf for my DIL.

Your room sounds like my office. It is a tiny front room we could not get a sofa in the removal men tried for half an hour. They also could not get my wardrobe upstairs so it is in here with all the linen and towels in it as no airing cupboard. We have some still unpacked boxes the grandkids toy boxes and a few other things that will not go anywhere else. We have no storage at all.

It is so crowded in here when I push my chair back to get up from the computer I knock the clothes rack over. Every spare space of floor has my stash on it. Yes I have one already I have kitted 2 jumpers a cardigan and a waistcoat while reading this thread.

Monna I think you should write a book with it. There are lots of laughs and a lot of tears in there and best of all lots of triumphs.

savingqueen

Hello everyone,

Back from our holiday adventures today. Has lots of lovely times out and about all over, a couple of silly long walks organised by DH but the rest of trips more balanced as organised by me Cottage was bearable for the week but 2 weeks would have pushed our patience too far. The price was very cheap and we had no official booking or contract just a sort of word of mouth booking so awkward to demand alternatives. So many little things not working properly or just not there, some quite basic and the worst of it our bed sagged like a hammock. However it was good for bonding and as ever we managed fine. DH has a way of adapting that makes me laugh - only teeny tiny tea cups, no mansized mugs so he drank his morning coffee out of a pryrex jug. Weird eg. no oven dishes whatsoever (pan fried HM lasagne the first meal there!) but several candlesticks and a meat carving platter. Sooo looking forward to a comfortable night's sleep tonight.

I have read all the back posts but am so tired I can't respond properly so will probably re-read them all again tomorrow! One of the lovely things about coming home is catching up with you wonderful folk, been wondering about you all on the journey home.

burtha

hi all,
better day today have forgot all about the horrid uniform , worked behind the bar last night four and a half hour shift, pay rubbish but nice people were in so it was good , if a late night as not back home till 12 45 ish, then stayed up till 3...
so late start this morning was in bed till 8 then pottered about till lunchtime , did some shopping as had voucher from mr t for £4 off at £30 spend so topped up on some basics, was very naughty but can blame a child as they were selling of there 200gm dark choc for 44p and packs of there own make choc caramel/peanut bars 5 in pack for 33p so bought a few for sneaky treats .
came back and played in the garden with dd, don't know if I have said but we have about 2 weeks ago put a small wildlife pond in the garden so today was the first time dd has shown any excitement about it , we had been having a clear out beforehand and had found some very small troll type things about the size of a thumb nail, so dd hid them around pond under large rocks so they were hidden in cave's ,we put lots of glass and gold stones around and within the gravel and finished off with me making a fairy door from some slate ,polished a nail to make the handle and finished off with a sign made from lolly stick hanging from handle " knock quietly,fairys sleeping". door now leads into stone wall, great fun,..so tomorrow she wants to get some solar lights for the fairys and build a bridge , this could go on and on lol
so after our first football match in the morning I can guess what I am going to do .... long live the madness

mardatha

Can't sleep. Wee cat got a very bad cold and sneezed all day, didn't eat or drink at all. Going to try a syringe of water every 2 hours all day and if no better then phone the vet in the morning.
Remembering now how I loved being night shift, the world is so much more peaceful during the night..

ivyleaf

Oh Mar, poor puddy, and poor you having to be up at that time of the morning! i hope she'll get on better today

SQ Good to have you back What a shame you had a bit of a funny holiday cottage! We always take mugs with us, but of course that wouldn't have done anything to improve the saggy bed. It's lovely to come back to all your own things, isn't it!

burtha The pond sounds great fun You won't be able ot drag your DD away from it, I bet!

Monnagran - Glad things are slowly coming together - not easy when you've been in a much bigger place for so long though. I'd suggest seeing if there's anything you could get rid of, but I know you did that before you left the IOW!

Thanks for the comments re the mirena coil. I really appreciate your input, but I'm almost 61 and still not "finished" iyswim, and it's often very heavy and painful (sorry if TMI) so they are going to do a procedure which has a good chance of stopping the actual bleeding altogether :j

paidinchickens

Good Morning everyone, bit nippy here but at least it's bright and sunny.

Not much going on here, I'm a little more mobile and managed to get to the allotment to find all the plums and blackberries are ripe, the green beans and tomatoes need picking, I forgot to put my leeks in............I was going to pop down and not do any bendy/stretchy silly moves that would put me back in bed.

I wish I didn't go and look as the weeds are four feet tall

Apart from that the dog ran in with a dead mouse and dropped it in the middle of the front room floor. Hubby can't handle anything with bones and I couldn't bend that far down so he spent twenty minutes acting like a girl.

Obviously I could only sit and laugh with my camera in hand :rotfl::rotfl:

Off plum picking

PiC x

Floss

Pooky wrote: »

...
Floss - that cake in your avatar looks so yummy - did you make it?

I did, it was my nieces 4th birthday cake last year and was enormous!


I bake as a part-time hobby, currently working on designs for a wedding cake next month.

monnagran

SQ: Your holiday may not have been too comfortable but it will make a marvellous story in the future. Nice to come home though.

Mar: The night watches may be peaceful but it would be better if you weren't having to look after a poorly pet. Poor you and poor puss: I hope the baby is better today.

Nursemaggie: Write a book? Are you mad? Writing the church magazine every month was more than enough stress.
Know what you mean about no space. I take something out of a box and stare about me helplessly. There is nowhere to put it DOWN never mind AWAY. So I put it back in the box. Must get sorted soon though. The Rev starts work officially next Monday and we have visitors coming to stay on the Thursday after that. EEEEEEEEK!

PIC: Had to laugh at the mouse story. I had a similar experience. Cat brought in dead mouse and played with it by throwing it up in the air and pouncing on it again when it landed. I cowered in my armchair and begged my Ex to do something. He sat in his armchair reading his newspaper and telling me not to be so silly and to stop fussing. At which the mouse flew through the air, landed on his forehead and slid down between his eye and his glasses. Cue middle-aged man screaming like a banshee and dancing a fandango round the room trying to dislodge the said mouse. Apparently it didn't occur to him to take off his specs.

Me? I just told him not to be silly and to stop making so much fuss.

Now, someone out there might be able to help. This house has a lot of Victorian tiling on the floors. Mostly in the hall and passageway, kitchen and downstairs loo. I had a house like this back in the '60s and used to use Dual on the tiles, which brought them up clean and shiny. These tiles have been horribly neglected and I am scrubbing and steam cleaning them. They are gradually improving in cleanliness, but no shine. I know Dual is no longer made (who makes these daft decisions?) but is there anything on the market that does the same thing? While I'm at it, is there anyone out there who remembers Dual?

Must now go and sort out re-cycling. It was so easy on the Island, they recycled almost everything and you just bunged it all into a wheelie bin. Here you have to sort it all out and there is a lot that they don't seem to accept. It takes ages to decide what to put where and a lot of things just get put into black bags and presumably go to landfill.

x

mardatha

I often think of Dual and wonder what people use now Monnagran. I had a flat with dark brown ceramic-tyle floor tiles and it made a great job of them.
Wee baby managed 3 Dreamies yaaaay!