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

Popperwell

If anyone thinks food banks etc...are new, this touched me regarding !!!!!! York the original Darrin in the series. Sad but inspiring...we're talking almost twenty years ago.

http://youtu.be/oCfgLHMEpy4

FairyPrincessk there can't be much wrong with anyone if they can like such simple uncomplicated tv shows. I have a massive collection of radio shows from the States and the UK when radio was the TV of the mind and wonderful writers, performers were heard and not seen. I have so many I will never hear all that I own.

Many can be hear on the internet. So sad that they are all but forgotten about and many were thrown away/neglected.

Nostalgia...listening to Radio 2 and the music of Sammy Chan, wish I was there but I can listen...

peony40

Popping in quickly while hubby gets tea. I couldn't face cooking sausages and so hubby said he'd do tea!

Before I forget, Nymphadora, I too had to give up work just over 2 years ago due to fibro. Looking back I must have had it since I was 18 which is 30 years now, but my old doctor kept saying it was all in my head. Looking back at my cv I have a pattern of working for a while and then having to have a career break to recover until just over 2 years ago when I couldn't cope even with working part time as a receptionist. Have you found that you can cope more now you are not working? It took me over a year to feel more 'like me' and being a patient with a new doctor who understands fibro.

Ooh, bewitched! I used to love that show.

Lovely to see your post Jackie, how is your daughter doing? I hope that she is not in such severe pain now.

Need to go as tea is ready.

MrsCD

mardatha wrote: »

Where I grew up the Tally Man was somebody who sold stuff on the never-never and came round to collect the money on a Fri night. Sometimes also called the Tick Man !

When I was growing up, the Provi-lady came on Friday night as well - probably to catch the wages before they were spent on food, or in some cases beer! It was a way of paying for clothes for children if you couldn't afford to pay up front.

My grandma and nanna used to scrub their front steps to within an inch of their lives, but I don't remember a donkey stone. They had a strip of white paint along the edge and it had to be gleaming.

Thanks for the new thread fuddle.

Pooky

Welcome to all the new posters! Lovely to see so many people posting.

Cake - I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets sticks....bless em. Love the sound of Jeeves, he sounds like one of mine.

Never heard of donkey stones....my Nan used to "do" her brass (letterbox and knocker) and door step every week...woe betide anyone that stood on the wet step and dirtied it! I must admit I do like to keep my front door clean and presentable and it gets a good wipe down every week.

I have a very poorly fluffy kitten, she been allowed home from the vets tonight but I'm very concerned about her. I've got her shut in the conservatory to keep her contained and safe, I don't want her getting out and not making it home. Fingers crossed the antibiotics and painkillers help over night.

Parental visit tomorrow, they're bringing presents! All home made I'd like to add, it's a special birthday for me next week so the celebrations start early. I've roasted a chicken and made a big bowl of couscous salad to feed everyone (this couscous mountain has got to go).

Going to make some bread rolls to go with lunch too and would like a "tiger" bread style finish....is it just a brush with sesame oil or something else I need to do???

Popperwell

Pookey,Everywhere I look I have no idea how the "Tiger" effect is created but this may come close?

I hope it helps(I may try it myself):D

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/7049/tiger-bread.aspx

It seems too easy...

GreyQueen

The random seredipity of shared stuff. I have enjoyed watching donkeystoning done on YooTooob.

I came across the term in a novel set in the NW and had to ask a pal from that area what it was. Just goes to show how many micro-cultures there are in one over-arching culture.

Round here, the tradition was to paint your lowest front step (some village houses where my family are from have two steps down to the street) with a thich reddish paint. This was in turn rubbed with Cardinal brand red polish, which was also used to bring up unglazed terracotta tiles which some homes had indoors in the kitchen or scullery. This brought the colour up to a lovely glossy red. I have used it myself.

Could that be deemed a cardinal sin? Sorry.

The higher step, if there were two of them, would be whitened with a lump of chalk.

Lovely to hear about reminiscences of old style homemaking.

My Nan (she was 90 earlier this month) told me that in the olden days they used to whitewash or distemper the kitchens every year. It was part of the annual cleaning. It wasn't enough for things to be cleaned, they had to be conspiciously clean, so people knew you'd done it and were respectable.

I was reading something Kim (of Kim & Aggie fame) said about her young days, where the women used to do the front step, then you'd chuck the bucket of water across the pavement into the road, to keep down the dust, and the idea was that everyone did it and the watersplashed joined up. I think this was Portsmouth, but it was a while since I read it.

People were very proud, even people with hardly anything to their name. Stuff kept for best, even a front parlour of best furniture and best china etc, for visitors. And it being off-limits to family so as to preserve the precious contents.

We're much more casual now but, in some ways, I think we've lost something. Certainly a few people let their homes get into biohazard conditions which caused a lot of grief.

My pet peeve is nets or regular curtains which are too long so that they're all bunched up on the windowsill rather than hanging down straight. It isn't that much work to shorten nets, you can do it in under half an hour by hand.

Oh, if shortening curtains, always look to do it from the top, it's so much easier to take off extra length at that end than to fiddle around with the hems. Mum taught me that, and I've passed it to a few others, to their great satisfaction.

Was it Mrs Chip who recommended that Astonish product? I'm going to see if I can get some tomorrow as have been getting annoyed with the brown speckles on the inside of the glass oven door. The only way I knew until today to get them off involves a lot of elbow grease.

Tell ya, if I ever have a cooker which isn't secondhand, I shall try to get one without a glass door, they are a PITA.

Hokay, will have a cuppa then get those dishes washed, I would certainly not get a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for my kitchen as it stands atm. Possibly one of their special GH Dings around the Ear, for lackadaisical housekeeping.

But all my windows are clean, so are my nets and I damp-wipe the city dust off the door and windowframes every few days, shocking how it builds up in an urban environment.

Popperwell

I remember the Provident and before that Pearl Insurance. I have no idea if either still exist, I suppose a quick search will confirm either way.

tattycath

Popperwell wrote: »

I remember the Provident and before that Pearl Insurance. I have no idea if either still exist, I suppose a quick search will confirm either way.

My mum used to get pearl insurance. I think the guy who collected it was called Mr krickmer? Many many moons ago I feel old now. Lol

Mrs_Chip

GreyQueen wrote: »

Was it Mrs Chip who recommended that Astonish product? I'm going to see if I can get some tomorrow as have been getting annoyed with the brown speckles on the inside of the glass oven door. The only way I knew until today to get them off involves a lot of elbow grease.
.

I think it was Lyn, GQ, but I have used it many times. I dampen a pan scrub (scrubby side) and dab it into the pot then rub away at the marks - with luck they will come off easily.

My favourite cleaning product was Ajax or Vim powder - the smell takes me back to childhood, it was used to clean everything! A very abrasive powder, it did seem to get stuff clean with ease,

I also find it handy to keep in a bottle of value cream cleaner - it's really good for getting burnt on marks off of stainless steel pans, and would do the glass doors - basically anything with a bit of abrasive is good!

Northern_Lassy

I have a northern Victorian terrace and was given a donkey stone as an (ironic) house warming gift by my late Nana! She probably knew I would never use it, please may I join in?? x