Frump to Fab 2018 - Fabulous Dahhhhlings

sugarbaby125

chanie wrote: »

Thanks for the tip, sugar. I feel for all the staff who will be loosing their jobs.

So do I Chanie, Tesco is having to lose 5,000 employees!!!!! :eek: Unfortunately Tesco Direct has always been a loss leader and in the current economic climate Tesco has had to finally concede defeat.

Not only are there tens of thousands of people losing their jobs in the UK, but now there are less and less jobs for the unemployed and those who are made redundant to pursue.

My eldest daughter who is disabled has lost her job. Her contract has not been renewed. She worked for a charity that dealt with the welfare rights of disabled people. Her immediate boss and other members of the team, have either been made redundant or not had their contracts renewed.

maman

So pleased to hear that you're one of the lucky ones chanie. I wondered how you could leave for a new job and keep the redundancy payment but I'm really pleased they've found a way.:D


We've been away for the weekend and just got back. Back visiting my home city, by the seaside, in the sunshine: what's not to like!:cool:


I've got quite a few fabbing appointments coming up through the week. I need to check my diary later and make sure I've got my head round them. I know it starts with a dental appointment tomorrow. Just a routine check up but it's good to know that all is well before I go away.:)

chanie

maman I am very lucky in that I have had good employers over the years with good opportunities and training. My Mum always told me that there was no such thing as a job for life, so i have made lots of efforts over the years to keep my skills up to date and to keep an eye on the job market, even when I havent actively been looking for work.
I work in HR, so I know what I am entitled to, in terms of redundancy and I negotiated my exit accordingly!

Sugar sorry about your daughters job. I hope she finds something soon.

maman

That's interesting chanie. In my most recent job I've worked with people going through redundancies and settlements. The rules in my public sector field are that there has to be a month and a day gap before they can take on any vaguely similar work or they lose the redundancy payment. Good on you for sorting it!:T

chanie

Maman the month break is something different.

What I have done, is given counter notice to my redundancy. Once the company have confirmed the redundancy is going ahead, you can ask to go early and if accepted, you get to leave early and keep your redundancy pay. Timing is really important with these things and luckily, it has worked in my favour.

lessonlearned

Good morning lovely ladies.....how are we all. Hope you had a FAB weekend.

Chanie....congratulations on negotiating an exit on your terms. That's great news. Onwards and upwards.

SUgarbaby......I'm sorry to hear that your daughter has lost her job, it's not looking good out there, Tesco's, House of Fraser, Mothercare. I think it's fair to say that the world of retail is constantly evolving and changing. Maybe the "big boys"have had their day. Whilst they are losing a lot of their trade to the internet, perhaps there's a chance for The small businesses to sneak back in again.

One of my eldest sons friends works for our city council and it is his job to "sell" our city and try and encourage new businesses to set up shop here. .

He found an empty venue, basically little better than a very large storage unit and persuaded the city council to let him try a monthly farmers type food weekend, mainly food to eat on the premises rather than to buy. It was all a bit ramshackle and makeshift, they even had to hire portable toilets because there were no on site facilities.

However, it has been a roaring success and the council has now given it a full licence and permanent status. My enterprising young friend has been growing it month by month, adding new entertainments such as mini golf, table tennis and table football. The money raised from the extra activities will fund permanent toilets.

The point to this story is all of these food units are very much one man bands, the sort of people who travel round the festivals as pop up cafes or mini restaurants. I think they are so popular because they offer something different, lots of different cuisines, rather than the same old chain restaurants and cafes.

I genuinely think the public are sick of the big chains, with every city centre being a carbon copy of every other city centre. I think people crave more variety in both their shopping experience and dining experiences. I think there is definitely room for the smaller niche businesses once again.

I was talking to my young friend recently about our lovely Victorian indoor market which alas has seen better days. It's a beautiful listed building but people don't bother with it now because Half the stalls are standing idle. I said to my young friend, you know the city council should work with the university and maybe let some of the space to showcase what they are doing......artists, engineers, ceramics, textiles, restaurants, cafes etc. - a sort of mini great exhibition" like Prince Albert arranged. He just grinned and said "I'm on it"

Some of our young people are just bursting with ideas and enthusiasm, I just wish our city fathers (and those of other cities) would listen to our young people sometimes and give them a say in building cities for the future.

The big boys have had their day, it's time to move over and give small businesses a chance, time to rejuvenate our cities. The problem is the councils have got greedy with business rents and rates. They would rather see shops empty than reduce the rents and take a punt on new businesses.

lessonlearned

A Year to Change My Life - progress update.

Well my challenge began on 12th May. So I thought it was time fir a review.

Well the biggie is that I have made strides in (hopefully) putting the wheels in motion to move House. Keeping fingers gets crossed. Assuming all goes well then that will be a major life change.

On a smaller scale, I have lost 3 lbs in weight and have started making progress with controlling my fibromyalgia and arthritis pain. I'm feeling a lot better.

I have also managed to scale back my screen time and now rarely watch live tv. I tend to just download the odd film or series that interests me. I shall save those for the dark winter nights.....

I have also cleared out my inbox and unsubscribed from various newsletter, websites etc. They are such time wasters!!!

I have started listening to music more and when my knee permits have been dancing (like no one is watching:rotfl:) ......much more fun than slogging it out in a gym......

I have cancellled my gym membership so will be saving myself some money. (I will be turning one of the rooms in my new house into a mini gym but more of that later).

I have been monitoring my spending more carefully. The food budget needs work but my impulse spending on clothes, books etc has been almost zero. Just a couple of money management/business books.

I have been more sociable, learning to say "yes" to invitations, getting out and about more, even if it has meant pushing myself.

BTW last night I went to see the film "Book Club". Another one which got lukewarm reviews but Which I loved. Very funny. Maybe a bit saucy for some tastes but I really enjoyed it and had a good laugh.

Right better get cracking.DS2 is coming round later. I'm going to visit the bungalow this afternoon for a second viewing and Nosy Parker has elected to come with me. :rotfl:

humptydumptybits

Well I thought I'd well and truly jinxed myself with talk of dentists and implants. I've had raging toothache for a few days, just got back from the dentist and nothing wrong! I had a bad crop of what I thought was ulcers a week or so back and he thinks I had shingles in my mouth. I'd have happily let him pull teeth this morning but he insisted nothing is wrong. Anyone have any good ideas about which pain relief tablets work with shingles?

maman

Glad you didn't need any dental treatment humpty. Sorry can't help with the shingles pain relief ideas but LL might know.


My dental appointment was uneventful although she does want to do some work on 'cleaning gums'. Apparently it's something a bit more of a deep clean than I can manage at home with brushing. I've made an appointment for next month.


I enjoyed reading your progress on your life changing year LL. :T on the 3lbs weightloss. You could link that with your plans for cutting back on your grocery budget. We have a bit of a mantra in SW 'Fail to plan, plan to fail' which is basically that without menu planning (and shopping list to go with it) then you're far more likely to eat and buy the wrong things. It's not that different to much of the mse advice on the OS boards. Now that you've just got yourself to feed then you can only buy healthy food needed for meals and a limited number of healthy snacks.


I know what you're saying about shopping centres. I'd love to think that independents were able to be successful where the bigger chains aren't but I think that mostly happens where people have money to spend. MY DD1 was in Fulham last week and she said that they had loads of independents and scarily expensive CSs but she could tell from seeing the yummy mummies that there was plenty of money around. I saw the contrast when I was in Devon/Cornwall last month. Plenty of independents in St Ives but Bideford (not a trendy tourist area) was really struggling with lots of empty shops.


It's bright and warmish here today. I had a very short walk to the Post Office but that's my exercise for today.:o

humptydumptybits

I imagine shingles in the mouth is going to be a very effective diet for me, eating is hell.