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

Byatt

Pre-payment meter, things I learned:

1) if you run out of credit after a certain time (evening times) it still continues to run until around 10pm next morning.

2) if you run out, you can get about £5's of emergency credit by putting the key in again, it will be deducted the next time you put a loaded key in. The meter bleeps when it's due to run out. Took me a while to work out where the bleeping bleep was coming from though, :rotfl:

It does concentrate the mind but took me a while to adjust.

Byatt

Gailey, I love parcels wrapped in brown paper...rafia or string is lovely too.

Hope you are eating!

shegar

FUDDLE......Glad youve all got to your new home okay, oh dear what an upheaval is moving :eek:, too much to do when youve only just arrived, but take your time and it will all fall into place.......

KIDCAT........Definitely get a cleaner 2 hours per week so help you so much , if she gets 3 rooms done it will help free a bit of time for you.........Perhaps you could put a postcard in the local shop , @ £8.50 per hour, get references, be such a help.............I feel sometimes that I need couple hours here and there , like this morning it seemed to take me ages , to clean out the fire, go out and get the wood , coal , kindling in then clean the fire out, then hoover the hearth and wash it etc.............

Then the washing up , washing etc . wow I cant ever seem to get round...............

VJS MUM......Nice to see you back posting........

NUTTYP.....I shouldav cooked a roast today but im so tired , which means weve made do again without me having to cook much ........

My dam gum or tooth is playing up badly , I woke up grumpy this morning , what with the tooth/gum and sinus probs my poor old face is still swelled , im so sick of being ill...............Social services told me they have put a social worker on our case , thats a pi@@ing joke , I phoned to speak to her friday and was told she is not my social worker :mad::mad: , so I said who is and can I speak to her and she said well she only works mon, tues and wednesday.......:eek::mad: , im so sick of the way things are going with this dam government , whatever is going to happen with everything..?......I do feel very sorry for the tragic problems in the philipines , BUT for !!!!!! this country has given them £50 million...:eek::eek:, we cant look after our own first , good ole dave cam what a good man he is NOT.....:mad:.................People here in uk are having to rely on food banks, going without heating, losing their homes , I could go on ..............

I m gonna get hubby to bed now , and get clothes etc ready for the morning , catch you all later....Sheila

Pooky

Evening all

Kidkat - just an idea but is it worth speaking to your eldest daughter and explain you're looking to hire a cleaner to do set jobs each week, ask if she'd be willing to do them for the money? Whilst I appreciate she shouldn't need paying to help out, if she has a specific list of jobs and a wage at the end of it then she's more likely to do it your way.

Shegar - you're really going through it at the moment aren't you, hope your gum/sinus issues start to ease off soon.

VJs - nice to see you

Everyone here is snotty and full of cold, aside from me with upset tummy and the start of a kidney infection....healthy bunch! Did manage to go pick up some freecycIe bits earlier, a collection of unopened smellies, fab! Lots of lovely bits and bobs that DDs have raided to make pamper sets for their female friends. I'm now crocheting a couple of hot water bottle covers to add to the sets (half sized HWB in the 99 pennies shop - wool donated by my mother) Smashing!

kidcat

Shegar - have you had a proper carers assessment yet? If not contact your local carers centre, they are supposed to arrange it. If you have still contact them and find out what the heck they are playing at.

Pooky - DD is already supposed to help out rather than pay keep, she isnt currently and is snowed this weekend with Uni work, I think I would end up paying her and then still not getting the work done when she had deadlines

Fuddle - it sounds as though you are all doing well and have everything under control, girls will soon be settled into school and you will be making new connections at a good time of year. People always seem more welcoming and friendly at Christmas, listen out on the play yard, its possible the mums may have Christmas lunch/night out plans, that would help you get to know people and settle in.

Byatt - thank you, it does help to think of it as helping someone else giving them a job

Gailey - google has a similar maps route thingy that will do walking routes as well, I use it fairly often when I go out of town for something

mcculloch29

Byatt wrote: »

OMG, did you have those nylon, psychedelic sofa/chair covers?:eek: Our cat scratched them to bits, just by climbing on them. This was in 76/77.

Oh God yes, we did in our first quarter. Blue and purple mostly. The second one had covers in that hard, bright shade of emerald green. The carpet was orange and the walls were pale blue, I think the curtains were that weird mustard yellow colour.
Nobody ever believes me on that one but I know you would.:D

On the plus side I still use the tablecloth, rolling pin and grater that weren't on the inventory of that quarter. We had so little of our own. The tablecloth is around 50 years old, the grater is 51, it's date stamped.

I've also still got three saucepans I bought when the MOD sold off all the non-furniture contents of quarters.

Kidcat, I pay my cleaner directly as she is someone I knew previously. She gets £7.50 an hour also for 2 hours a week. I work from home, not full time but I couldn't give a flying proverbial what people think. I appreciate having a clean and tidy home more.
My previous cleaner had a key, but I'm at home when this one is around.

kidcat

Thanks McCulloch - I wish I knew someone who was looking for a cleaning job - although maybe I wouldnt want them seeing how awful the house gets

Quick heads up - Mr T has christmas lights half price tomorrow and large chooks on bogof, thinking of buying for chooks, cooking two and freezing the meat and jointing the other two, takes up less freezer space

Byatt

mcculloch29 wrote: »

Oh God yes, we did in our first quarter. Blue and purple mostly. The second one had covers in that hard, bright shade of emerald green. The carpet was orange and the walls were pale blue, I think the curtains were that weird mustard yellow colour.
Nobody ever believes me on that one but I know you would.:D

On the plus side I still use the tablecloth, rolling pin and grater that weren't on the inventory of that quarter. We had so little of our own. The tablecloth is around 50 years old, the grater is 51, it's date stamped.

I've also still got three saucepans I bought when the MOD sold off all the non-furniture contents of quarters.

Kidcat, I pay my cleaner directly as she is someone I knew previously. She gets £7.50 an hour also for 2 hours a week. I work from home, not full time but I couldn't give a flying proverbial what people think. I appreciate having a clean and tidy home more.
My previous cleaner had a key, but I'm at home when this one is around.

When we walked into our quarters we were like :eek::rotfl:, unbelievable covers. Oh god, I'd forgotten about the curtains, nothing matched! All I came away with were tea spoons, as they were so impressed with how clean and tidy it was when we left, they didn't deduct from ex's pay! :T Happy days...:rotfl:

edit, Kidcat, having someone you don't know or become too friendly with is something I would prefer. My DD became friends with her first cleaner and the boundary lines got very blurred. I find it difficult enough with my job as people start to see me as a friend and then I struggle with the professional side.

Pooky, sorry everyone is so poorly, including yourself, hope you can nip the kidney infection in the bud.

kidcat

Thanks Byatt

Pooky - hope you are feeling better soon - my GP recommended the barley water drinks last time I had a kidney infection, seemed to help as well.

fuddle

Nutty the first thing I did was call british gas. I knew it was them who supplied it as they checked for me when I closed my north east account. All reset and in my name. Not sure I like the the higher rates but I guess the standing charge is included in that as well as the well known higher rate. We have economy 7 though so that is a relief for the night storage.

well worth knowing that Byatt thank you. We were on 99p E when we moved in so I guess that was into the emergency £5.
I do like the control and always being aware of what we're using. The girls were watching an episode of Horrid Henry before. His family were saving electricity, Henry was demented - girls laughing at the coincidence. Just as long as they know the score