OS Singlies - We Do It Our Way!

grassgirl

great post Hun!

I must say I've used newspapers before, looked quite good with them all done the same, nice bows too, just remember to remove the creepy stories - Lush times used to be good for this but they've turned it to a mini book so not so much good this that now

We are pooling pennies this year for a bike, it's great knowing we wont be tripping over £2 or £5 random presents that get played with for a few seconds

LOVE the food list idea too, will be using that one!

Lavender is lush, have some in my garden, might take a few clippings and home them in a vase, cosy smell mmmm

My lad is nearly ten and still loves his marble run he got when he was about 3! Now and again we get him another set or when he's done really well, it's massive but like you say, they play with it do it makes it worth buying

mum2one

Not to bad here, dd been up and down, took her late ngt shopping last ngt she got a few bits for Xmas, bless her heart she is so gd, as I normally use mobility scooter for town, they don't do late ngt shopping, so she had the shopping trolley, she didn't complain 1 bit.

Horace - totally agree re the cards, I've wrote the families as well, where before some people would get a card off mum and dad, me and dd, unless there very special they get 1 card off the lot of us. One set of mums relatives they live 4 in a street, so popped them all in 1 packet with a please could u pass on. Thou if you'd seen me with the ruler measuring the cards to make sure they didn't need a large stamp.

As for Xmas tips-
Good wise - I think right what do I need, go by each section of the food -
pantry - only real extras - more stuffing, gravy granules, dried milk, custard,
fridge - milk, salad items, pork pie, posh cheese
freezer - bacon and sausage for pigs in blankets, dessert for Boxing Day, New Years day

Xmas extras - Christmas pudding, and what I need - try to spread out over couple months shopping

Crackers, paper, cards - always aim to get them in jan sales

Presents - dds "father" does sweet all for her never has since day one, what we do is if dd wants / needs something - a big item- we've gone halves on it, things like laptop, bike and accessories, wii and games. Some of the other relatives give her money which she has put up for when she wants things.

Xmas presents - look at buying in sales, making little hampers, gift sets, try to plan things throughout the year.

Xxx

Horace

I went to a meeting tonight of a Friends group (for a local wood) and they had a donations box so I put some money in it (for the drink and cake I had at the meeting and because I haven't bought them any cards). I was given a lovely card made from a photograph that we had taken on the night of the light festival after we won.

Had a lift home from the meeting - rain lashing down (lift from one of the rangers in a council vehicle). I dumped my stuff indoors and then headed out again to the local pizza shop, got an 8" pizza cheese & tomato with extra onion and spicy beef (toppings at no extra charge) for £2.99 (it was delicious).

I like to spread Christmas out over the year by buying bits here and there. This year I must buy some cards in the sales because I am nearly out of cards (not bought any for the past 3 years). I make myself a box which I fill with little presents to myself. I have a lovely red linen napkin (a sample from my wedding planning days) I put that in the box and when I need cheering up at dinner I use it (it get washed and ironed and put away again until next year). I used points to get some handcream and I treated myself to a box of coffee chocolates. I might put a DVD in the box that I haven't watched yet so that I can have a treat. All kinds of things go in the box so that I can have a little treat every day.

Foodwise I get a few bits - this year I have a £5 voucher to use in Tatco and I will exchange it for some meat (the joint has to be worth a fiver so the meat will be free). If I can find a sprout top at the greengrocer I will get one because the sprouts keep for longer on it and I get a cabbage on the top too (the sprout leaves).

I managed to get some vintage glass decorations from Freegle which get used on the tree every year. Mum has bought me some tinsel and apparently some ornaments. I sometimes buy ornaments in charity shops and usually try and buy something new for the tree each year (this year I haven't but I shall be recycling the orange origami dahlia that I made for the light festival and tying that to the top of the tree).

Everything is done on a shoestring. Might treat myself to some MnS food though seeing as I get a discount.:D

BookWorm

Evening all

It's been an up and down week for me. Work is still ridiculously busy and I've been trying to get things sorted for that C thing approaching. I've also had some sad news about the health status of a relative and that has taken me a few days to get my head round.

Feeling weary tonight but partly that is due to the fact we had works party this week. I wasn't really up for going but went anyway and actually ended up quite enjoying the evening.

Looking forward to my favourite part of the week... the weekend

Horace

Evening folks

Sorry to hear about the health of your relative BW - it is horrid when that happens.

Feeling rather grumpy - I turned up for work as normal and when I managed to squint at the roster, I discovered that I should have been in work on Wednesday (other were told they had to be in, I wasn't and they know that I find it hard to read the roster as it is typed in the smallest font imaginable).:mad: I hadn't been given my log in for the computer so I went to get it today (I am sure it is wrong because I still can't log in:mad:) and I received a ticking off for not working my shift and I also got a ticking off for swiping in one minute earlier than I should have - I cannot see the numbers on the digital clock on the swipe machine. I now have to work a full 8 hour shift tomorrow without a break to make up for not working on Wednesday so I will be working from 10-6pm.

I did some different things today - serving meals, handing out samples of a coffee plus the same old stuff clearing tables and sorting out the dishwasher.

Not sure I am cut out to be in this job and somehow don't think that I will get through my probation, I do my best but often feel that it is not good enough.

Signed on today and handed them a copy of the complaint letter I had sent to the work programme people, it is being sent to the district manager of the jobcentre. Also got set up on the system for part time work - I next need to go in on 29 December to show them my payslip (I will need to print it out).

Saved my aunt some money too - I bought her two packs of salmon fishcakes that were on offer (2 for £3) but with my staff discount I only paid £2.40 for them.

moneyistooshorttomention

Would have thought that would count as rather "discriminatory" to type the roster in too small a print for people to read easily??

Goodness knows, I'm now in a part of Britain where its considered "off" not to put things in Welsh as well, to extent where I have occasionally seen a notice that was in English only with a bit of graffiti on it saying "Where's the Welsh?" in Welsh. You can guess what I've never seen on Welsh-only notices though....:cool:, so I do remove that graffiti when I can to keep things impartial (ie no graffiti on either language).

One disturbed night's sleep later...as I shot out of bed at the speed of light to check on rain I could hear coming through the roof at a rate of knots. Only to find that a YouTube video of rain falling that I had on my computer (in the next room) had started playing again somehow, ie after it must have finished. Had it on as "white noise" to mask an irritating very low-level whiney noise that has started up recently 24/7. Am currently hoping a gas service guy is going to pop in shortly to check out my central heating to see if that is the culprit. Also got some experimenting to do with switching electric stuff on and off in my house to track it down...

mum2one

Horace - that's illegal to be expected to work a 8hr day and no breaks, I would def speak to someone about that.

As for the rota, I mean this in the nicest of ways. There aware that you have difficulties with certain aspects so surely they should make an effort to make things can be read, if u don't normally work in the week then they have told u.

Don't give up, it sounds daft but sounds like your doing brilliantly there, they wouldn't have you doing extra duties if they didn't think so,

Xx

LavenderBees

It may be illegal to work longer than 5 hrs without a break but when people are busy, it happens. I started work at 6.15am on Thurs, was so busy, I realised around 1.45pm, I hadn't had my brekkie let alone lunch. It happens.

Having said that, I'm not on my feet working a physical job, and I think a break is important. Just sometimes doesn't happen. Now and again won't harm. But it's less than ideal.

I think a gentle chat with your supervisor about making things easier to read is needed. How hard is it to change font size??

I was so exhausted by my working week (even though most of it has been me working from my kitchen table), that I was feeling quite poorly by last night, and in bed asleep about 8pm. Feeling more human today, despite being disturbed by LMMM's cute sneezes - she has another cold, but not full blown like the last one, more cute sneezy kitten sniffles. But one full in the face about 1am, had me wide awake :rotfl:. After that, she snuggled down under the duvet with me all night. Yes, she needs her Mam when she's poorly

Spoken with the vet this morning, as I'm concerned it's unusual for a vaccinated kitten/cat to seem to be so prone to colds/flu. We will try to boost her immunity by bringing her booster forward 6 mths to early January. But she's doing ok at the mo...this one hasn't slowed her down too much...she can still wrestle with Young-Boy-Cat (though she retired early, hissing at him when he thought she still wanted to play :rotfl: Clearly, she didn't want to play for THA long! Poor YBC...completely misread her signals :eek:)

Today is bloomin bitterly cold...we've had all kinds thrown at us this week including snow, gale force winds, sheet ice. ....so the fire is lit, and I'm thinking about catching up on housework. Just thinking at the mo...:rotfl:

Quiet weekend hunkering down is needed for me, I think.

Whatever you are doing, enjoy!

LB xx

LavenderBees

Today's big task has been to try to find a solution to keeping the chooks' water from freezing during the day (we're bound to have days when the temp never gets above freezing), and I think I've found the solution - a microwavable disc, which is supposed to be for puppies to snuggle up to when they leave their mum. It is supposed to keep heated for up to 10 hrs, so I'm thinking if I put a water dish on it, even if it keeps the water temp above freezing for half that time, it will do a job for them. Not cheap at nearly £15, so I've just ordered one to try it. Hopefully, it will work, and I'll get another couple.

Wish me luck as it's one of the things that worries me, trying to keep my chooks happy and healthy in the winter. Not so bad when I work from home, but I can't do that all the time.

Roll on Spring! :rotfl:

Hope you've all had a good day. Time for PJs, a drink and a relax in front of Strictly....what a life, eh?

:rotfl:

LB xx

BookWorm

Evening all

I'm feeling really as I've finished my present wrapping. Took me 3 hours all in all but now it's done :T

LB - I used to use plastic balls in water buckets when I had horses (they move and stop the ice from freeszing or can be pressed down to let water through the gap) but not sure that would work for chickens

Would it be possible to insulate the containers as well? Perhaps with bubble wrap or similar?

BW