22 Foxhole East

f0xh0les

It's a bit nippy tonight! Going down to 2 degrees. I had a lovely 2 minutes scraping ice off the windscreen this morning. Ds2 has found his new favourite toy - the ice scraper. One job delegated!

Supper was ys home bake baguettes with l/o tomato and red pepper soup, followed by pesto and roast veg gnocchi. Nobody complained.

All the kids have 100% attendance at school, but 2 have been late in to registration twice- either am or pm - I can drop them at the school gates on time, but I can't get them into their classrooms without gossiping to their mates once they are in the building. So I am taking that as a success.

DH's car is in for service/mot tomorrow, then car tax straight afterwards, so spendy month on his car too.

I am at the foodbank in the afternoon for a couple of hours. There is no laundry left to be done!
House is moderately tidy, the candles are lit, the heating is on, and dh has just wandered in (after 7pm!!) from his after meeting trip to the pub to gossip and gripe with the other academics. He says he cannot afford to go on strike for the 8 days, as even after the union emergency payment he would be nearly £600 down in December. It hits a single earning household harder, and there a quite a large amount of women single parents in the dept. So he is considering striking on his teaching days but working from home on the others. Not ideal, he was on the picket line every day for the last strike, but this time it is a two pronged strike, one on pensions and one on pay, so they could get an agreement on pay, but still have to be on strike until a pension agreement was reached. All very short notice and a rotten time of year to be stood around a brazier for 8 hours.The union was taken over by the uber-militant left after the last strike.Hence the all out 8 straight days of strike, unlike last time where is was a phased strike. There is not even enough time for proper talks to conclude before the date the strike begins. So it is on. End of.
I spent a lovely hour this afternoon watching Utoob videos of how to replace floorboards and how to add underfloor insulation to a suspended floor, and now I am all excited again and in the mood to fix a bit more stuff. Feeling confident I can do this.

All in all, a good day.

crazy_cat_lady

Oooh, ballot? I know absolutely nothing of it at all f0xh0les (I mean a ballot for strike action - not a ballot for a general election). I will not wade in on the politics debate other than to say I feel nothing other than despair over our country's current political situation and I don't think a GE is going to fix anything. And that the media have an awful lot to answer for.
What will you do with him at home for 8 days f0xh0les?

f0xh0les

OMG Tom Watson is standing down as an MP as well.

f0xh0les

It has been a jolly long time since the teachers went on strike! Was just wondering if you had any insider information CCL.

What would I do with dh at home for 6 days ? (he would be on the picket line for the other 2) ooh, the possibilities are endless! It would not have anything to do with wallpapering though - we tried that once - never ever again. I would have to spend a lot of time outside the house as I distract him all the time by being much more fun than sitting alone working. I am the house morale officer!

kerri_gt

f0xh0les wrote: »

What would I do with dh at home for 6 days ? (he would be on the picket line for the other 2) ooh, the possibilities are endless! It would not have anything to do with wallpapering though - we tried that once - never ever again. I would have to spend a lot of time outside the house as I distract him all the time by being much more fun than sitting alone working. I am the house morale officer! [/B][/COLOR]

Write your own 'Carry On...' film from the sounds of it to supplement missed income, lots of smutty jokes and innuendos ahoy ... though prob wouldn't even get a rating these days being branded entirely un-pc (rolls eyes)

apple_muncher

Have you sorted out your car key yet...?

f0xh0les

apple_muncher wrote: »

Have you sorted out your car key yet...?

Erm, actually no. It is on the list though. promise, just let me get dh's MOT done first.:o

f0xh0les

kerri_gt wrote: »

Write your own 'Carry On...' film from the sounds of it to supplement missed income

Does ...not ... bear thinking about!

I will pass on your lovely suggestion.

f0xh0les

Well, 6.30 saw me stood at the front of the house, in my dressing gown, in the pouring rain, taking a photo of the gas meter reading (it was dark, nobody saw me), so all the utilities are updated, and although a little higher than last month, not noticeably OMG HOW MUCH????? higher. Considering I actually have the heating on now I can't complain if it costs me something more. After all, they have over £300 of my money I have to use up on being warm.

Poor dh is knackered. A full day of meetings yesterday, racked and stacked, then he had a last minute cover session due to illness, and then an after meeting pub meet gossip session, and then home. The gnocchi was much appreciated, as was the 4-0 win on the football.

Today he has a 3hr teaching wodge and then more meetings after. He is exhausted, and still does not know when his December payroll date is.

Money-wise I am not too bad right now, but it is still week 1 of November. Child Benefit comes in on Monday, which will be renamed - 'removing the key from the ignition fund part one of two' . Today I have no desire to do anything at all. Volunteering this afternoon will have to be enough.

f0xh0les

DH's big blue skip of a car has passed his MOT and + the service only cost £145, but it has a long list of not dangerous, but really should be looked at, 'issues'. Fabulous comments like - the starter motor appears lazy - .... eh? do we now have to give it a pep talk and lots of compliments for it to buck up its' ideas? Anyway, could have been awful, but was not. DH is going to Utoob a few 'how to' car jobs so he can do them himself.

Tonight it is going down to -2 on top of a lot of flooding in the county. So I am not planning on driving very far.

Spent £10 on throat sweets, fishy friends, and branded age 12 suitable lemon drinks (£3.50!!) but necessary as all own brands are now 16+

I also bought the next 2 weeks+ worth of branded pasties for DS1 & 2's lunchboxes (£20) but they do eat them, so I know they are having something for lunch.

So all on track for being able to afford stupid-car-key-removal-operation.

I have cashed in all my amaz0n giftcard winnings from stamps surveys and daily tv surveys (£16), and put all my points into competitions to win even more. I have £1.20 left to 'earn' before my next free £50 from UGuv, so that should be before the end of the month. Pr0lific is being exceptionally slow right now. Not bought anything in ages so no cashback coming in either. It is amazing how a £400+ car bill can focus the mind on what extra money may or may not be coming in.

Local independent cinema is 10 years old this month and lots of films are £2 each so I have bought tickets to 2 films and I am going to enjoy every child free second of it, next weekend, whilst pretending to be a grown up.


Need to buy a crate of milk whilst out on the school run this afternoon - DS1 is going from school to his 'party', hopefully he will get bored/hungry and pop up at a decent hour, or else he will end up at McDs at midnight like some of them did last week (apparently). Oh well, he has to grow up sometime.

I wonder if we are entering The Drinking Years.