2019 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

CAFCGirl

I feel like I'm on 'Autumn Watch ' counting down the days till cooler temps and rainy days prevail. I'm not designed for for these temps and I also suffer from sunlight allergy so I'm on UV watch all the time too LOL

Couple more days and we'll be back to lower 20's which is still high to me but better than pushing past 30

I too had to abandon work on the blanket from the heat but sent my friend\customer update photos and she's seeming very happy with progress so that's a win.

Called into charity shop Saturday and picked up a denim baggy smock shirt \blouse type affair. Really liked it for being unusual but I admit now I'm unsure on how to wear it ... Silly me!

PipneyJane

Afternoon All

As a child of the (semi) desert, may I say that I’m not completely enjoying this heat, either. As far as I’m concerned, it’s too humid. In summer, the general level of British humidity adds about 5C to the ambient temperature that you feel, so while the thermometer on my phone currently says 31C it feels about 36C.

I’m not knitting either. In hot weather in Oz, I’d either crochet or do cross stitch, because my fingers would be too swollen to knit. However, I’m not knitting for a different reason: I have RSI. After a week of doing “Control C” followed by “Control V” like a demented jazz pianist, my left bicep is killing me and I can no longer ignore it.

God knows what I’ll do at work tomorrow. I can’t do copy/paste with the right mouse button - the software doesn’t work that way. Meanwhile, since I’m left handed, I can’t sew, I can’t knit and I can’t crochet.

- Pip (grumpy)

CAFCGirl

Oh Pipney that sounds horrid!
You poor thing. I hope the rest helps, and quickly.

PipneyJane

CAFCGirl wrote: »

Oh Pipney that sounds horrid!
You poor thing. I hope the rest helps, and quickly.

Thanks CAFCGirl. I'm coping for now but I am looking forward to going on leave on the 11th (to spend time with my brother-in-law while he's over from Oz).

- Pip

thriftwizard

Oh PipneyJane, how frustrating! Hope the swelling goes down soon. It's cooled down now down here. I do love the heat but am working flat out towards an event in mid-September now, so I can't get out as much as I'd like.

You'd all be proud of me - I shall be demonstrating/talking about how best to dissect and re-use old shirts! I'm hoping to find one big enough to make a pair of boxers from next time I'm at the recycler's warehouse...

PipneyJane

thriftwizard wrote: »

Oh PipneyJane, how frustrating! Hope the swelling goes down soon.

Things have eased a little, partially (I think) because I've finally acquired a desk with monitors! After nearly a year back in this job, my team have stopped hot-desking at a meeting room table and have been assigned a rank of desks. All this happened yesterday afternoon. (Mine is the one by the window - I got in first.)

It's cooled down now down here. I do love the heat but am working flat out towards an event in mid-September now, so I can't get out as much as I'd like.

You'd all be proud of me - I shall be demonstrating/talking about how best to dissect and re-use old shirts! I'm hoping to find one big enough to make a pair of boxers from next time I'm at the recycler's warehouse...

Ooohhhh!!!! Fingers crossed. You are the official Evangelist.

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

PipneyJane wrote: »

Things have eased a little, partially (I think) because I've finally acquired a desk with monitors! After nearly a year back in this job, my team have stopped hot-desking at a meeting room table and have been assigned a rank of desks. All this happened yesterday afternoon. (Mine is the one by the window - I got in first.)

- Pip

You know there's a legal obligation for your employer to provide facilities that do not cause or exacerbate disabling conditions, yes? Like a basic ruddy desk, and chair, adjustable to your height...

(I speak as one who lost c.75% of the use of *both* arms for a couple of years, whilst trying to finish a PhD thesis...)

Glad it's easing - but try to talk to HR about a desk assessment, because you only get the one spine and musculo-skeletal system, and it's not good if it disintegrates on you...

Laura_Elsewhere

I'm getting towards the start of September, and my hoped-for clearing-out of cupboards is on the horizon! This weekend, we're defrosting the freezer, so mostly I've been dealing with kitchen-y stuff of late, but next week I plan to start tackling the clothing clutter!

I'm also systematically going through my knitting wool, actively seeking yarn I can knit into useful socks. As my friend gave me her unused Merrell boots, my feet are so delighted, but all my shoe-socks are very low and the Merrells are ankle-boots, so I need to knit longer-cuffed socks which are a bit more robust than usual. I've done a pair in the last week or so with two balls of DK washable pure-wool I'd bought solely because Hobbycraft emailed me a fiver voucher to use by a set date and so I went and bought stuff I had no desire for or need for, solely in order to use it up... finally, years later, they are a pair of stranded-colourwork socks, ie thicker than usual (the other colour carried behind the colour in use, meaning it's double-thickness, lovely and cushioned!). So I am now looking for other yarns to do the same kind of thing with...

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere wrote: »

You know there's a legal obligation for your employer to provide facilities that do not cause or exacerbate disabling conditions, yes? Like a basic ruddy desk, and chair, adjustable to your height...

(I speak as one who lost c.75% of the use of *both* arms for a couple of years, whilst trying to finish a PhD thesis...)

Glad it's easing - but try to talk to HR about a desk assessment, because you only get the one spine and musculo-skeletal system, and it's not good if it disintegrates on you...

Yes, I do. Once I get my screens sorted next week - they're giving me better ones - I will complete a display screen assessment if I can find it (or nag HR until they give me the paperwork).

Sadly I work for Hypocrisy PLC who routinely espouse one thing while treating many of their staff - and most of the contractors - completely badly. Three years ago, I was made redundant from a company where "Safety is a Value at ..[ex-employer].." AND it was. Display screen assessments every time you moved desk; travel safe plans of action (TSPA) signed off by your boss, every time you travelled for work; checking in regularly with your travel buddy, to whom you gave a copy of your TSPA; annual driver training or you couldn't drive on company business... All those were standard and drummed into you. Everyone did them, regardless of whether they were the CEO, staff, a contractor or the cleaner who had to clean two sets of porta-cabins a mile apart. It didn't matter if something - say train travel - was more expensive, if it was the safest option.

Here? They literally don't care. I have colleagues driving hundreds of miles between offices and nobody knows where they are or how they're getting to their meeting. It's not in the culture. I did raise it at a "stand down for safety" last year, but everything is reactive not proactive.

- Pip (rant over, I promise)

PipneyJane

Just had an IM from IT. The monitors will be moved on Monday at 2.30pm. (I'm working from home today. He needs me there to position them.)

Whilst working from home today, I've listened to multiple podcasts, including several knitting ones. The best/worst comment I've heard today was one received by the Knitmore Girls: "I didn't know you could wash wool"!!!!!

Errr..... What did the listener think happened to sheep in the rain?

Another podcast was the Fit & Fearless girls' interview with Mr Motivator. He had some very valid points about posture and simple exercises that will make a big difference to people's balance, etc. I will attempt to implement them until they become a habit. For posture, every time you walk into a room, just imagine you're squeezing an orange between your shoulder blades. For core muscles: squeeze your butt cheeks together when you get into the lift at work, hold or the first floor, then the squeeze tighter as you approach the second, relax and walk out of the lift.

- Pip (totally off topic)