Make do, Mend and Minimise in 2015

misstara

Viv great to hear you had a fab time in London. Looking forward to some of your yummy recipes. Hope work for your DB picks up soon, I'm in Aberdeen so I know how not great it is at the moment, I have a lot of friends who work in the oil and gas sector and they seem to be more and more stressed every time I see them

Grey Queen pretty much don't understand a word of what you posted (I'm not very technical), however, sounds like a great bit of make doing

I'm continuing to minimise my wardrobe, finally just about finished. I've picked up a few new (to me) bits from charity shops and hope to get some more so I'll soon have a lovely new wardrobe of clothes that actually fit me

Had a make do tea tonight - bits and pieces that I found in the freezer when me and OH organised it the other day. There's now lots of space in the freezer so I plan to do some batch cooking soon.

GreyQueen

The Microsarft website now thinks my computer is actually a 'point of sale' machine (i.e. computerised till or ATM) rather than a computer, so it's getting the updates provided to users of the stripped-down version of the XP software which tens of millions of these machines are still running.

It's a brilliant wheeze, isn't it?

Very MSE keeping an elderly but perfectly usable computer in service and out of the waste stream.

It's quite made my day, I love it when the little people get one over on one of the biggest corporations in the world.:rotfl:

meritaten

GreyQueen wrote: »

Oh but a devious bit of make-do has been done chez moi this evening.

My computer is a very old one running XP, an operating system which hasn't been supported by Microsarft for some time. Because they want you to buy a new operating system. Which I can't run on this pooter because the chip cannae take it, Jim.

My Computer Wizard knows a sneaky trick. XP was installed in a lot of things which aren't actually computers, such as ATM machines and tills etc. It was a stripped down version which is being given support by Miscrosarft until 2019 whereas XP support proper stopped 08/04/14.

Only, if you know what you're doing, you can go into the registry and change one digit and magically your computer becomes a till and starts downloading the updates it hasn't been getting for the past 19 months - 36 of them as it happens.

I'm PMSL at this. And using a till, apparently.......:rotfl:

I like the old XP operating system - and strongly suspected it was the system (or similar) used at AGROS, when I temped for them a few years back. I needed hardly any training at the till.....................lol.
well done you! a few years back my computer died, so I HAD to get this one - which was running Windows 8 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! eeek - I set it up and sat there waiting for it to boot up, and got the desktop - very pretty! and it told me to swipe the screen.....um, I swiped and swiped and swiped - and then it occurred to me 'silly cow! you DONT have a touch screen monitor'! and I had to phone son to find out how to proceed!
I HATED win8 - it is so obvious it was developed for 'smart' devices! and not a reliable system at all.
updated (free) to Windows 10, and the few 'teething problems' now seem to have been sorted out! I much prefer it!

Lynplatinum

Hiya all

Candy girl here is simple curry recipe - works for sweet potato too!
1) saute one onion until golden and transparent in 1 table spoon of oil
2)add a finely chopped garlic clove
3) add one level desert spoon of Patak's tikka masala paste - stir well
4) add one teaspoon garam masala; one teaspoon cinnamon; one teaspoon turmeric. Stir really quickly so that spices cook but don't burn
5) add about a pound or 500 g of parsnips/sweet potato chopped into 2cm or 1/2 inch dice. Add water to cover. Add a desert spoon mango chutney. Add handful of sultanas if liked. Add salt and pepper to taste.

6)Brew on a gentle bubble for about 15 mins
7) add 1/3rd of a coconut block or 1/2 can of coconut milk. Stir until re bubbling.

FEEDS about 2 if hungry or three if dainty/ladylike!! :rotfl:

The addition of coconut SHOULD thicken it but if it doesnt add some flour and stir.

NB coconut block is better if you live alone because it will keep and you only need about 1/3 of a block per meal for 2-3 people.

Viv - great to see you around again - glad you ve been having a good time
GQ - well done to your little chap - beating the big corps!

Re eating at Morrisions tonight - no jacket potatoes going so I had sausage and mash. Plenty of it fairly bland in taste - but a little cold. The girls on the till were so nice I couldnt complain to them. The price for what it was £4.90 was okish but I have had better value elsewhere. Its unlikely I will go back TBH.

Re me telly - so I checked: the settings from the menu; the connections to the back of the TV; looked outside at the ariel (thinking 'oh heck it is the ariel its gonna cost a fortune!) but that looked fine; so did the ultimate cure for all things electronic - switched it off, left it for half an hour - came back - switched it back on - and it WORKED :j yea !!!!:D:D No idea why it had a duck fit or even what was wrong - but it works now :cool:

(Does that count as Mending??)

Still not been shopping NSD for food but entered into my entertainment budget £1.65 for a beer this evening. Forced my friend Jim to accept a lift home - he has done something to his back and struggled in on the bus! Silly old sausage - I love him to bits but he is so independent! Wont ask anyone for help!! I told him off and said there was a line between independence and foolishness and with me - he has done so many kindnesses (especially when I broke my leg last year!) it has gone beyond counting - so he can always ask me for help. Bless him. Its hard to help without making him feel beholden.
Nite all

candygirl

Thanks LP, will make that tomorrow xxx:D

candygirl

Thanks LP, will make that tomorrow xxx:D

[Deleted User]

Great to see Viv posting again, was worried she had vanished off to a Caribbean island.
Lyn I have a humongous sweet potato that I was given as my friend was going away for the week and its really a whopper so a bit too big for just jacket ting so I think I will drag out a few odds and ends and make a sweet potato curry with it.Should get at least two meals from it as it is the size of a galia melon !!!.
Am about to take myself off to get a few bits of food shopping so that creaking sound is my food purse being prised open :):)
See you all later no doubt
JackieO xxx

silvasava

:TT Brilliant GQ - I'm totally with you there. When my old poorer was having problems I installed new memory cards myself - I was really chuffed as it was an old one from work when they upgraded. It finally died and I had to buy a new one that's got Windows 7 - but I refused to buy the office software & downloaded free Open Ofice instead. I begrudge msoft any more of my pennies.
Vhalla - glad you've had a great time in London - good to see you back, we missed you :pp hope things pick up for DB very soon.
Some more of Aunties clothes been shifted to friends & CS - beginning to see the light now!
Going to see The Lady in the Van tonight with DS1 and a crowd from the club - its not to DH taste so he'll have the remote to himself lol!
Have a good day all x

[Deleted User]

I saw The Lady with the van on Monday and thought it very very good.I hope she gets an Oscar for it, Frances de La Tour was very good as well

carolbee

I'm going to see that this afternoon JackieO, in your favourite place, Westgate on Sea


busy here making do with odd meals to eat the freezer down, not got to the strange combos quite yet though.


couple of bits of sewing to do for the mending


and minimizing my spending my using up double up vouchers in Tosco to get some new clothes for our holiday, I feel such a sense of victory when I don't spend actual cash to line the pockets of the likes of these. I know I spent the money to get the points, but its allied to our power account, so I feel like its free