22 Foxhole East

f0xh0les

This is your reminder to go and get a smear test, if you have had the invite, just do it please. 

If you are over 49 you only get invited every 5 years now due to improved testing methods, so 5 minutes every 5 years, you can do it!  

If you are not over 49, it is every 3 years. 5 minutes every 3 years might save your life.   Just putting it out there.  In case anyone is putting it off.  

Had a conversation with the nurse about the person doing the tests for the last two times I went,  they have asked me if I really wanted one that day, cos they didn't really like doing them.

She was horrified, she said she would much rather be doing smear tests than ear syringing ... but then everyone has their 'thing' about the job that is their least favorite thing, and they didn't go into nursing for the glamour. 

f0xh0les

Think I am just about over the stress of the last job.  

I only dreamt about someone going into labour and my having to deliver a baby in a side room at an event last night.  So nothing too traumatic. 

Only 4 more days until my next ceremony, but this one is #2 company, and a single day event, and then I have nothing at all planned work-wise until the end of March.  Unless company #1 sack me for daring to be right, and therefore make the new manager look bad -- they never bothered to find out any information about opening times and decided to just "hope" they were right (they weren't - surprise!).  I get that they are friends with the lady who books us all,  that is fine, but that is no reason to promote someone,  and frankly it is cruel to throw someone in at the deep end like that.  Does not justify them shouting at me when they asked me to do something impossible, and definitely does not justify not apologising for shouting at me when I told them exactly WHY I could not do what they were asking me to do without a time machine.   

So, in my last 3 jobs with company #1,  there was one horrific mess- up by a friend of the lady who books us all,  then the next job the same close friend of the lady who books us turned up a day late, and on this last job, I get shouted at because a friend of the lady who books us all does not understand how the ceremony process works. That is without the trials and tribulations of turning up to events and finding out the hotel rooms were booked for the wrong day, or not at all, or the payment bounced.  

Many of the old guard (all in their mid to late 70s) have given in their notice after this year.  

Strangely, they think it is not as much fun as it used to be.   

Good job I am only in it for the money.  One day it will all appear in my book, The Diaries of a Gentleman's Dresser.

KajiKita

Maybe you should drop job 1 …?

KK

f0xh0les

Not until I have enough work with Jobs 2 and 3.  I get about £4k from Job 1, but I don't have to work there.  

At least I know I got the job without having to commit perjury (miaow).  

A lovely man I volunteer with has given me his sourdough starter discard (terrible word),  so I have just been into the kitchen, fed my 'Hermann', and put him into his new home ( D0we Eggberts jar with a folded bit of kitchen roll on top secured by an elastic band that came free with a bunch of scallions.  How old school is that! Another free elastic band goes round the outside at the level that the mix sits at, and then you can tell if it has doubled in size. 

Spoilt myself in T0sc0s last week, bought one of those solar powered waving cats that entice good fortune to flow your way. It makes me smile every time I see it frantically beckoning riches toward me.  Chill out, cat-friend.  He is very focused for £3.50.

Drove DS4 to school today. He keeps being late, only by one or two minutes, but they are on a crackdown, and the weather this morning was rotten.  After dropping DS4 at school  I went into T0sc0  to restock my flour supplies.  Rye, Bread, SR and Plain,  all came home with me, and it meant the traffic had calmed a little by the time I was on my way home.  DS3 made it out to his placement on time. 

Today I will be cleaning the house, getting ready for work on Thursday (6am start! 4.45am alarm set), and making a vegetable stew.

beanielou

I like the sound of that waving cat.
currently have a snoozing one on my lap!

KajiKita

Love the idea of putting a 2nd rubber band around the jar at the level the starter starts at - very clever! 😀

KK

f0xh0les

Still tinkering with the timings for Hermann, did one loaf in the oven for 40 minutes, tiny bit doughy at the very centre slices of the loaf, but was cooked enough to still be good toasted, and did one loaf in the air fryer for 32 minutes, very doughy in the centre, 2/3rds of the loaf was edible, the taste and texture is brilliant.

I had less than a tennis ball sized blob left over after I filled my 2 tins with dough, so I mixed in a tablespoon of walnuts and made a mini walnut loaf. They all loved it. Typical.

Split Hermann this morning , one part fed and back into the fridge, the rest of him into a dough, he is doing his thing on the dining room table, one more quick mix and I will shape him and stick him into the fridge overnight and bake him in the morning. Will try for 50 minutes in the oven, (25 minutes, turn him upside down, 25 minutes). I have added pumpkin seeds and other assorted 'bread mix' seeds to the shopping list. I found 2 whole unopened packets of sesame seeds in the pantry while hoicking about the various types of flour I have accumulated since the last time I was running down the supplies. I am going to try a half white bread flour / half chapatti flour mix tomorrow. Should be interesting. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I do not have a single job booked for February. I think I might just have February off. I looked at my tax form this morning, if I work 2 more days for company 2 before April, they will have to rejig my tax code again. If I work 5 days more for company 1 before April they will have to rejig my tax code again…. I foresee a tax code change before April … again, keep your fingers crossed for me.

And so January ends. I have worked 9 1/2 days this month, and earned £1.400. I have earned quite a lot in July, August, September and November, and now January, so I am building up my contacts, my hours, and my earnings. I know it is all relative, and it won't be a lot for some people, but it is a lot for me and is making a huge difference to my household finances. I am still trying to figure out when the workers get booked for these jobs, because everything with me is booked last minute.

Took DH out to a charity shop to look at suitcases for his trip….. he came home with an EBOSSER, which is an embosser/die cutting machine for £15 (retails at £120, sells second hand for £75). The hard case suitcase (£1) was rejected, as it was one inch smaller than he was looking for…. one stupid inch…. he will be going to the Maxx of TK tomorrow no doubt. He was paid yesterday, so it is burning a hole in his pocket. He is still boycotting Amaz0n so he has probably saved himself £100s since Summer.

Bez0s is in the Ep-stein Fi-les, he got an STD from one of those girls, and gave it to his wife, so he spiked her food with antibiotics so she wouldn't find out…. What is the matter with these billionaire entitled men?

Why can't they fund libraries, and hospitals, and education bursaries, and nurseries, and build parks like those old fashioned billionaire entitled men of yore? Instead of just abusing people with no power or autonomy? Tw0nkers.

Oh, did my expenses this morning. Rather in my bank account than their's.

f0xh0les

Today's sourdough was perfection. It was also eaten with soup for lunch. All of it. Gone. Baking time 50 minutes.

Made a curry while it was doing its thing in the oven, so that is supper sorted for tonight as well.

The birthday cake is baked, and cooling in the kitchen, the tray of flapjacks were baked at the same time cos the oven was on anyway. There are 4 bars of chocolate missing, so there will be no choc topping layer. Their loss. I had to sub 3/4 of the sugar for dark brown sugar, and all of the golden syrup for the syrup from a jar of preserved ginger. There have been people helping themselves to the pantry contents again. If I don't know it has been used, I don't t know I need to buy more.

Shopping list rejigged for tomorrow to include sugar and golden syrup and milk.

DS3s birthday gifts wrapped, and the bits I got 'from his brothers' have also been wrapped.

Laundry laundered - now need to buy more laundry powder (boo!)

Sourdough discard is reanimating on the window sill, it will get fed again at 8pm, and should be ready to use tomorrow lunchtime. This bread making thing may become a bit addictive. I am sure I will slow down soon when I know how many a week I am supposed to be baking. It is encouraging me to make more soup though, and 'something-on-toast' meals.

f0xh0les

Well that all seemed to go well. All duty phone calls made, and cake eaten. Presents opened, happy dance was achieved. He is utterly bemused and has plans to go to the pub with his little friends on Friday for his first legal pint. It might get messy, but that is how you learn innit?

Food shop done, just under £100 but there was washing powder, 8 boxes of tissues, 5kg veg oil, and coffee grounds in amongst that, so not terrible, and some items will be used over many weeks.

2 kinds of sourdough mix are in covered bowls doing their thing in the very cold laundry room - it is nearly as cold as the fridge, and there is much more room in there than in the fridge! - I will bake them in the morning.

So there. I have successfully kept 3 men alive until they are 18. Yay me!

KajiKita

Congratulations to DS3 and to you for getting three men to adulthood 😊👏

It amuses me that he is bemused … 😂

KK