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

the_cake

Kittens help heal many a broken heart ... or puppies, or foals .... xx

stiltwalker

Poor DD Pooky - send her a Miss Stilty hug - Miss Stilty hugs are the best and make even the bleakest days seem better! (and of course those gorgeous kitties will help, I'm more of a dog person than a cat person, but who could help but go ahh at those lovely tiny fluffy furballs).


Had a fab, if slightly spendy (ok I took DD with me - more than SLIGHTLY spendy! lol), day at the knitting and stitching show at Harrogate today with my mum. We decided to really make a day of it and my mum treated us to lunch at Jamie's Italian - serious nom nom - I could just have eaten the freshly baked bread and olives we had as nibbles and I would have been happy! Amazing service too - they looked after us beautifully, were utterly delightful with DD, absolutely no patronising assumption that she would want the (award winning and delicious sounding) kids menu, rather the assurance that there were lots of things on the main menu that she could have a smaller portion of. They spoke to her and waited patiently while she found her words on her talker - pretty special for an AAC user as so often others do not have the patience to wait and just rush on with the next bit, they hear silence and rush to fill it rather than waiting to hear what the AAC user has to say. The meals were amazing too - DD picked the fresh crab spaghettini, I had porcini mushroom tagliatelle and my mum had the sausage papadelle.


Lots of crafty yumminess to do creative things with Miss Stilty over the next few weeks and some great ideas from lots of creative people. Miss Stilty did her usual charm offensive and came home with a fair few freebies as well! Gosh but that child can charm the birds out of the trees!


Over the next week I will be trying to organise funding for DD's next set of wheels - she tried out a sporty active user chair at Kidz up North last Thursday and was truly amazing - just need to work out where the couple of grand required is coming from! Got a couple of grant forms, just need supporting docs from her professionals. Also got 2 big meetings and an ultra sound scan (for myself for a change - got unexplained silly all over the place monthlies combined with hot flushes but way to young for the change as no family history of it happening early), plus a week of OU to catch up on - so if I'm absent, I will be reading, just no time to reply. Sending hugs, virtual cake/tea/G&T/Pinot grigio, whichever required to all my lovely virtual tough friends - H x

Possession

Sorry about the boyfriend troubles Ms Pooky.

It's been a bit of a day here, kiddies taken out by ILs (luckily) to the German Market in Birmingham where they apparently wanted to buy Selfridges and had ginormous frankfurters and marzipan crepes. DH has been trying to do his tax return (trying because he can't find half the stuff he needs) and I have been trying to break into the freelance writing market, which seems to entail lots of dodgy men from remote parts of the world wanting to skype me and asking me to rewrite articles on penis extensions. I kid you not.

kidcat

stiltwalker - good luck with the application

pooky how is DD doing?

possession - no one could ever accuse you of living a boring life at least

SDG - glad you are feeling a little better, our tree sounds much like yours, nothing co-ordinated, but huge memories

Well we are all packed for DD8 tomorrow, and DS10 has a day off, I rather rashly promised him we would go to the splash pool place and enjoy water slides etc in total peace - errr its closed?? It never occurred that they would not be open, so I now need an alternative plan, having worked out collecting the car tomorrow is not an option

nursemaggie

I would stay away from writing articles on the internet Possession it is all about selling dogy things on the internet and pyramid selling.

You could do surveys but I should warn you it pays very little apart from a couple of sites. You would get a lot more than I do because being a lot younger you are in the market for a lot more than me. I belong 50 sites if you want to PM me. I can give you me my list. I will leave out the ones I do not recommend.

Hope DD gets over losing her boyfriend soon Pooky. The kittens are gorgeous.

Softstuff

Possession wrote: »

DH has been trying to do his tax return (trying because he can't find half the stuff he needs) and I have been trying to break into the freelance writing market, which seems to entail lots of dodgy men from remote parts of the world wanting to skype me and asking me to rewrite articles on penis extensions. I kid you not.

So, if we need to know anything about penis extensions, it's you we should ask now?

Kittens solve anything Pooky. So do puppies. And chickens. The baby animals with highest cute rating in my mind are baby wombats. Saw some for real at the zoo, still haven't recovered my former stiffness, they made me too gooey.

I like survey sites too NurseMaggie, but agree they're very hit and miss. I do 3 here - 2 of them keep me in free Dominos Pizza (at least 1 free a fortnight), another one I'm waiting for reward to come through after only a couple of months to get me a new Christmas tree.

mrsdwhite

Pooky - your poor DD, what awful timing with Christmas around the corner, hope she hadn't bought his present yet! Yay for Kittens though, I'm jealous! Though grumpy old boy cat probably wouldn't want another youngen around.

SDG - Can't believe you were uninvited to Christmas just a few days before! How awful! I think it's a good idea to make up your own mind about what you'll be doing and telling others of your plans.

What a miserable weekend weather wise, I don't mind winter/autumn, but can't stand the short and dark days. I really suffer the lack of natural daylight. I've got some Vitamin D tablets coming with my As*a order tomorrow, might get DH taking them as well.
DH was supposed to be working 9-F today, but it was quiet so sneaked away for a break with us, we had a treat of a Toby Carvery :-) Which turns out might have been fateful as the manager (we know him) was chatting and has 2 deputy's one of which he can't get on with as they clash personality wise. He is looking to find him another business and is chatting with him tmrw. He said he'll let us know if he might be suitable to come to us.That would be great, even if short term! Keeping everything crossed!
Off to finish making dinner, night all

Possession

I do lots of surveys at the moment nursemaggie but I need to bring in more money than that. Once I have some feedback I'll be able to attract a more discerning clientele I hope! Softstuff I'm afraid I'm none the wiser about penis extensions as I rejected that piece of work. If you'd like to know more though there's plenty out there willing to help!

Softstuff

Possession wrote: »

Softstuff I'm afraid I'm none the wiser about penis extensions as I rejected that piece of work. If you'd like to know more though there's plenty out there willing to help!

Hehe, contrary to what the spam emailers seem to think, I'm not interested in extensions, enlargements or prolongments. Nor am I looking for "hot ladies" or planning to bet online.

philphil1

Softstuff wrote: »

I hope it works Phil, the yoghurt is supposed to be in at the very beginning though, as I understand it, it helps the meat go nice and buttery. It separates a bit in the pan on the stove too, but sort of comes together as it reduces at the end.

And the smell gets my husbands mouth watering now we've had it a few times.

Well after a weekend in A&E with food poisoning i thought i'd better report back.

Only joking, it worked out ok.
I don't really think I did it justice, but we enjoyed it anyway!

Meat was cooked beautifully (always is in slow cooker), onions and chickpeas really soaked up the flavours. Sauce was a bit yogurty tasting, and took ages to get it to reduce down! Lessons learned for next time though.

Noticed this the other day
http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/17202/slow-cooker-butter-chicken.aspx?o_is=Hub_TopRecipe_1
might try this next, has some amazing reviews, and is meant for the slow cooker!