OS Singlies - We Do It Our Way!

groatie_queen

Hi everyone, and especially grousescot - glad you're in the right place for the time being, and I'm sure your parents are enjoying having you to look after... I know how thrilled I would be if my offspring were near enough for me to assist when they needed me.

Anyone else got boxes of old family photos? I spent an hour or so in the photography section of the nearest large Boots this afternoon, and got initiated into the use of their self-service photo printing service (I'm so behind the digital times...). Ancient photos looked quite good once I'd scanned them in and cropped them. Albums were half price, which delighted my frugal little heart.

So my brother's 60th birthday present is taking shape - a photographic memoir. His ex-wife has refused to let him have photos of their children when they were young, but I inherited my parents' copies, so they got scanned in and printed off, with many others from every stage in N's life to date. All for £17 including the album, such a small spend for something that will be priceless to him.

I think my daughters might appreciate their own versions, and will make a combined album for my ex also, in time for Christmas this year.

Tomorrow is food shop and slow cooker day, and just in time, as I used the last of my stash of home frozen meals yesterday. I've defrosted a chicken, so it will be rubberised into several meals plus soup.

mum2one

Hope everyone ok, good news, Dad had his op and his shoulder and his home and safe, the difference in the private hospital v nhs is unbelievable (not that we paid the private hosp helping out NHS), as the nurse we were talking to she said its literally in the private sector they are given the time to talk to a patient, xx

Horace

Please may I join, I am a single divorcee with no kids or pets. My parents are still alive and they are amazing (although my mum annoys me sometimes), my ex hubby did not give me a fair share of the house when we divorced and I was renting to my parents used their savings to buy the house that I now live in. They have redecorated it - the kitchen is the only room that has a different wall colour as the rest of the house is painted in Natural Calico (mum has it in her house and I like it), the kitchen is painted in vanilla which has a touch of yellow in it. I have a visual impairment so my mum got someone in to sort out the garden path because it was old and dangerous - now it has a gentle slope and is stable.

Must admit I quite like living on my own and pleasing myself but there are times when I do feel lonely (there I said it and I don't normally admit that), the thought of going out and meeting someone fills me with dread - I seem to pick wrong 'uns and to be honest I can't cope with the endless mind games. I fill my time with voluntary work, visiting parents and looking after my house and large garden.

I am skinter than a skint thing but as long as I pay my bills then I seem to manage although it would be nice to go out for a coffee with friends occasionally but that has to wait until I have spare cash which isn't that often. I have no savings now and only have dole money to live on - still applying for jobs and looking for work but no success so far (such is life).

I have been quite poorly as I had a chest infection on Boxing Day which has only just cleared up, as a result my house and kitchen are not as tidy as they could be. I managed to drive to the nicer Aldi today and stocked up - I now have meat in the freezer, yoghurts in the fridge, tinned stuff and cereals in the pantry.

moneyistooshorttomention

Hi Horace,

Welcome. You're in the right place here.

calicocat

Yo folks.....hope everyone ok and hi to anyone new.

I have been AWOL for a while due to vile work situations and just couldn't fit anything else in my head. I will have pages and pages i've missed no doubt and probably never catch up properly. I shall make LB give me a rundown of what's going on when I get time to hit the real world instead of work.

I'm on hols next week so will try and catch up a bit then.

wilsooon

Hello Horace, welcome to the party! :hello:

I have to say, as a long-time lurker of many boards, that I really do feel quite at home here, thanks to all you lovely people. Although everyone's situation is unique, there is that underlying knowledge that living as a singlie heightens all aspects of life, good and not so good, and that someone somewhere will have gone thru the same things.

So happy Sunday to you all, and I'm off to have another cuppa, feel free to join me!!
:coffee:

Wilson

JustKeepSwimming_2

grousescot wrote: »

Thanks for everyone's best wishes: GroatieQueen, Mum2one, Justkeepswimming, ha how do you all keep track of who's mentioned you so as not to appear unfriendly?!

I've just had a quiet half term holiday & had two more days off work looking after DS so I've had far more time than usual to keep up (& I've neglected the housework ). I'll be back to my usual flying by the seat of my pants life from tomorrow....So I'll apologise now for being rude & ignoring people :rotfl:

It is perhaps surprising that an otherwise fit and well 30-something ends up requiring the care of his 60-something parents even in the short term. I am conscious of but try not to think too much about the fact that they will be needing my assistance more in perhaps a decade or so.

I'm not used to being ill or infirm (for which I am very glad) so I don't know how I'd cope with this if I had no one near to call on. That Utopian helpline described upthread sounds ideal for me.
Last thing I want when I have a pipe burst or whatever is to have to frantically work my way down the "plumber" section of the yellow pages and hope whoever turns up doesn't fleece me. (There's an emergency contact the property management company has but the one time I called on them, they were no help at all.)

You'll cope because you have to :rotfl: Its amazing what you can sort out when there really is no one else to help out. But I find imagining the worst case scenario & planning for it helps (which is why I have a huge pantry & loo roll stash). So glad your on the mend though - sounds like you've been through the mill a bit so have some :bdaycake:- it doesn't need to be your birthday!

groatie_queen wrote: »

Anyone else got boxes of old family photos? I spent an hour or so in the photography section of the nearest large Boots this afternoon, and got initiated into the use of their self-service photo printing service (I'm so behind the digital times...). Ancient photos looked quite good once I'd scanned them in and cropped them. Albums were half price, which delighted my frugal little heart.

So my brother's 60th birthday present is taking shape - a photographic memoir. His ex-wife has refused to let him have photos of their children when they were young, but I inherited my parents' copies, so they got scanned in and printed off, with many others from every stage in N's life to date. All for £17 including the album, such a small spend for something that will be priceless to him.

What a lovely idea. I've always meant to get my photos into albums, but never got round to it - maybe I'll put it on my list of things to do :rotfl:

calicocat wrote: »

Yo folks.....hope everyone ok and hi to anyone new.

I have been AWOL for a while due to vile work situations and just couldn't fit anything else in my head. I will have pages and pages i've missed no doubt and probably never catch up properly. I shall make LB give me a rundown of what's going on when I get time to hit the real world instead of work.

I'm on hols next week so will try and catch up a bit then.

Hope all is improving at work - it has a way of invading every moment when you have a difficult time at work & I find it hard to stop going over things (& over, & over).

Kacie - there's never very much left here after pay day either. I hope you get to splurge a little of it on yourself.

Metherer - good luck with the exam.

Mum2one - good news about your Dad but sad to think that NHS nurses don't have the time to talk to patients. Although I have NHS nurse friends who agree with this

:hello: & welcome to Horace

Right, off to waken teenager & sort out homework & Y9 GCSE choices. Wish me luck....

LavenderBees

calicocat wrote: »

I shall make LB give me a rundown of what's going on when I get time to hit the real world instead of work.

Eh? What? Hurriedly goes back to read the thread properly...:rotfl:

Ok, so -

LIR is worried about her RP's health...really sorry to hear that

Grousescot is recovering from an eye op - good to hear that :T

JKS son had a fainting fit...hope all ok now? Must have been frightening!

groatiequeen has made lovely thoughtful pressie for brother...:T

Emmmmmm.....help me! Errrrrmmmmmmmm.....

...a bit of chatter and a bit this and that....phew! Calicocat will never notice I haven't got a clue what's going on...:rotfl:

Today, in my wee world, I have been mostly p'ing off the joiner by asking him to break down his bill as it's £500 more :eek: than the estimate :eek:, seems I'm the first customer in 50 years to ask him this...yeah, right , and I've cleared 3 wheelbarrow loads of weeds and leaves from my tiny front garden.

Now I'm in my PJs (yay!), and have a bag of m!nstrels keeping me company while I source some hen run stuff on't internet.

Hope you're all having a lovely restful afternoon

LB xx

calicocat

Well thank god that's over.......the last week and a half has been working in full-on riots every flipping night. My neck is killing, two fingers are not great and still have the tail end of a black eye.

And this stupid government want to shut more wards....the ones they are left with will be horrific at this rate....anyhow....rant over.

Oh, and in the middle of horrid work my electrics have been doing odd things. A bulb went out in a light fitting. Replaced bulb...then for some reason light now won't switch off????....i am assuming the switch has just come disconnected somehow.

SO.....have been taking fuse out of downstairs lights bit of fuse box when out so light isn't on 24/7.....and then alarm box in porch has been semi-screaming ever since.....apparently alarm isn't even connected, and owner didn't give me code...so can't switch it off....or the ruddy noise. Have been sleeping with ear plugs and a blindfold on for the sun.....(first thing i'm doing later this week is getting thick curtains as blindfold has worked a treat so it's deffo the daylight that stops me sleeping).

Thought about smashing up alarm panel....but resisted the urge so far....plus a more sensible solution would be to take out all the bulbs in the light fitting really.

Driving home from work this morning happened to pass an electricians van in the street........screeched to a halt.....waited until he got out of van...rugby tackled him to the floor verbally, and made him promise to sort these two things out in the next coupla days. no clue if he's any good....so here is hoping.......if he even phones me and not too scared of me.....lol. I made a few noises about needing lots of work done in the hope to get his interest, so if he comes and manages to sort a switch without drama or dilemma then he will get more work to be fair...and will mean I have an electrician sorted.

He seemed to think the whole thing was funny....he clearly hasn't worked night shift.....lol.


The estimate for dining room cupboard doors was 1.5K...!! so ruddy wardrobes I can see being 4K..if not more.....may rethink this whole plan....or at least put it on the back-burner for now. it doesn't matter as i'm in no major rush really.


Hope RP's health is better LIR.

Hope you are feeling well Grousecot.

Hope JKS's son has had no further problems.


(thanks LB)

Hope the house is coming along ok MTSTM.



Oh...a good thing over the last week or so is that I have stopped smoking....if you count using an e-cig as not smoking anymore, which it isn't I guess as it's just another form of nicotine replacement .....if I keep this up will save lots more pennies, or have more to spend on other stuff.


Right....off to sleep (with a blindfold on)....will hopefully get a chance to read up a bit later over the next few days, hope everyone else is doing good.






Oh....and Asbo half ate...half trashed the spinach and rocket seedlings, so will be starting that again from scratch.....little rugger.

Byatt

Lovely to have you back, Calico, but also many hugs for what seems to be an awful time.

Your electrician attack made me laugh...:rotfl:

1.5k for cupboard doors sounds ridiculous!:eek:

edit, naughty Asbo!