Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Blackcats - I never really liked the Vesta stuff if I'm honest, although we did think it was quite trendy at the time. I had forgotten the sawdust appeal of chicklets - if they are the product I am now remembering, I am wondering what they actually were! In fact, I think us children of the 70s were probably the first truly guinea-pig generation for highly processed factory food. I bet we ate tons of what were little more than abbatoir floor-sweepings fashioned into more commercially acceptable shapes. It doesn't bear thinking about, really. 
F 

foxgloves

Tescodealqueen - I wasn't a fussy eater as a child, but my sister was. I remember a day when she was in the infants, her school dinner included a pile of coleslaw. Coleslaw was about a hundred steps too far for my sister so she left it on her plate. The dinner lady on duty that day (who happened to be the strictest one) told her to eat it. She said "But Mrs *******, I'm always sick if I eat coleslaw". She was made to eat it then & there..........so she did & promptly threw up...........all over Mrs *******!! 
I do think lots of children probably didn't like skin on things like custard & rice pudding, but later are fine with it. My Mum never changed her views on stuff she ate in childhood. I think as it was wartime, plus they didn't have much money, she was brought up with a 'waste not, want not' approach. She certainly wasted heaps of food in later life. All the stuff I'd freeze & eat at a later date, or make into something else, all of that would simply go in the bin or be put out in the garden for the birds. They used to hang around in droves for their free Waitr*se diet! Also, Mum would never buy anything yellow-stickered. Again, I think she'd grown up in a household where household economies were a necessity & she had no truck with this as soon as she was running a home herself.
F

foxgloves

Still waiting for my parcel, which isn't even with the courier yet, let alone out for delivery. To be fair, it isn't late, it's just that it is the yarn I ordered to knit my friend's Christmas present & I love casting on a new project - I think all us crafters are the same.
Hello Saturday Savers - It's a grey old day today & it's feeling quite a bit chillier than in the week. Mr F has had to work this morning, so I don't have access to the car & my bicycle is in the shed with a flat tyre. I must ask him to pump it up for me, so I've got a set of wheels in the week. Of course I am perfectly capable of doing this myself, but I do find it is one of the manual tasks which most hurts my arthritic thumb joint, so he always does it for me. While we had the builders here, the conservatory was used as their tool & timber store, so I wasn't able to wheel my bike through. Now though, I feel I'd like to be getting back out & about on it. It's cycle track from our village, almost all the way to town - a little more trafficky on the way back, but still a nice ride & great exercise. 
I've been pottering around continuing with putting things away, including leftover beans I picked yesterday, which I've prepped & frozen. I've done a bit of admin & dealt with today's post. I've also unpacked the presents bag to see where I am with Christmas gifts. We don't have too many people to buy for these days - each other, my sister's family, S-i-L & family, a very elderly distant relative who lives alone & appreciates hearing from us & our two best friends. We also have 7 winter birthdays - most of which are close family - i.e all our nephews, so I always sort these out at the same time. I've used a double page in my current notebook to jot down what I've currently got for each person. As expected, some are a lot more advanced than others - for instance B-i-L's gifts are almost done, I just intend to add some edible treats, & others, including two of our nephews so far have zilch. Not concerned about this, it's early days & I find planning what to buy always results in more carefully chosen gifts than rushing around the shops. All our nephews are of an age where they appreciate money for their main present, so that will also make things easier - I just need to remember to take this from my Christmas Savings Pot. Cards were a bit of a surprise. I was sure we'd got lots of cards left from last year, but there were only 9, so as we ALWAYS send cards - ecards, while often pretty & clever, just don't do it for me - I've dug out our Christmas card list & made a note of how many we'll need to buy. Always lots of nice ones in charity shops so plenty of choice.
I woke up early this morning so sat up in bed & finished reading my library book. Next one from my library basket chosen & look forward to beginning it later. I think I will also aim to knit a bit more of Mr F's birthday socks before he gets back from work. Still no word on whether we will be Tier 3. Local city is very coviddy indeed & will defo be Tier 3, also some of the surrounding council areas, but we are a little further out, so are thinking we will remain Tier 2. However, the delay & the fact that we have had quite a lot of cases here, makes me wonder if the powers-that-be will opt to include more areas at the last minute. Ah well, we'll just have to wait till the official announcement. If we are Tier 3, I must put in place getting a holiday refund.
Well, I shall love you & leave you, as my Dad used to say. I'm going to make some lunch, watch another episode of 'Roadkill' & set about turning the heel on this sock.
Stay cosy, the wind's getting up here.
F x

HairyHandofDartmoor

I hope you remain in Tier 2 Foxgloves. I feel very lucky to still be in Tier 1 in Devon but hope visitors over half term don't bring higher levels of the virus here. All the conspiracy theorists do make me want to despair when all the scientific knowledge about the virus is available to anyone with an internet connection, but people believe what they want to believe and twist the facts to suit their own theories. People are educated at school and the scientific information is freely available for those who want to know about it, but people make emotional rather than rational decisions it seems to me. I suppose they also get their news from dodgy sources. I tend to trust the BBC be fairly diligent at presenting the true picture and trying to be as impartial as it's possible to be, but I dread to think where some people get their so called facts from 😳.

I hope your parcel arrives soon, it make you very fidgety waiting around for one I find.

Pixiehouse55

Helloooo everyone. Ive sat here with 10 minutes spare and I'm giggling Mrs F... when I was about 6 I remember at school always refusing mash potato., one day the dinner lady said I had to eat the mash,,... I told her I would be sick. So yes 2 mouthfuls and I was sick over her. I stood there crying and said " you wouldn't listen to me would you?" And walked off........ puddings I remember were Jelly instant whip. Rice pudding. Semolina and yukky tapioca!!     Well our man John has done really well but this morning brought back his meds!! They have to be crushed and added to water. When I queried this with the nurse she said it was fine.....I'm going to check with his GP on Monday. I have a nasty headache today and feeling tearful...don't know why. Maybe ifs the time of the year and missing my mum.  Cheese and potatoe pie tonight with sausages and baked beans. John is having chicken soup (put it through the sieve so no bits of chicken)  he will probably have ice cream as well (not together lol,)
Happy Saturday evening to you all........I might have a bit of chocolate tonight for a treat. Keep safe everyone. Here down in Somerset we are on tier 1 

ladyholly

Dont bank on remaining on tier 1 pixiehouse the numbers are rising and we may well get lumped in with a certain large city which is close by. I think they said on local news last night the south west is the highest rise in the country percentage wise. Keeping fingers crossed and masks handy.

Sorry to hear John is having trouble with his meds. Might be worth asking if there is a liquid alternative.

Kantankrus_Mare

All this talk of school dinner nightmares reminds me of my own. Think I was about 9 and the dinner lady smothered my salad in salad cream which I had stated I didnt like. Although I wasnt physically sick I have never touched the stuff to this day. YUCK!! Can you imagine kids being forced to eat anything these days? Parents would be up in arms!! LOL

Onebrokelady

foxgloves said:

They certainly have, OBL. I think the pandemic has been very badly handled by the Government & they do need to take responsibility for some poor decisions i. e £12 billion for a Track & Trace system which is regarded as having only a marginal effect on stemming the tide of virus cases, also ignoring the findings of Operation Cygnus in 2016, but why do these conspiracy theorists think ANY government would fabricate a situation with such devastating effects on the national economy?
It was ever thus at times of plague. During the Black Death in the 1340s, people thought it was due to all sorts of things.... including foreigners poisoning the wells & dragons breathing it over in their fiery breath. But these days, you'd hope people might have a smidge more scienrific knowledge. I heard a university student say on TV news recently "It's just a cold, isn't it?"
Unbelievable!!
F x

I know and it makes me so angry, I have unfollowed anything on social media that might mention the virus now and filled my feed with uplifting things so I don't have to listen to the  idiots 

Onebrokelady

All this talk of the food we used to eat has brought back memories, I loved the Vesta curries and the prawn one was my favourite, I loved crispy pancakes and chicklets,Fray Bentos pies anyone 😍😍 Both my dds would eat anything I put in front of them until they went to school when they became very fussy,one night after pulling my hair out over their lack of appreciation for my limited cooking skills I threatened them both with a plate full of peas for the next nights tea ( they wouldn't eat the peas with that nights meal) they refused so the next night they got a plate full of peas each for their tea and sat there until they ate the lot, they stopped moaning after that and funnily they both like peas now, I also used make a fish pie which consisted of tuna mixed with a tin of condensed soup and either peas or sweet corn and topped with mashed potatoes, they hated it and if they were being naughty I would threaten to cook it for their tea 😀 they still talk about it now 😀😀

foxgloves

Enjoyed reading all your comments. Hope all you Teir 1 folk can stay in Teir 1 for as long as possible. Agree there are some ridiculously naive views on social media re Covid.
Yes, the school dinner/1970s food thing chimes with so many of us. I expect there will be some big academic study at some point now us children of the 70s are getting older..... as to whether we are healthier than our parents' generation. It would be fascinating if it could be possible to look at bones/teeth, etc, as with tree rings to see if there is any discernible change when the factory food era really kicks in.
F x