2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

PipneyJane

PollyWollyDoodle said:

Of course, when I said teacups you all immediately pictured these, didn’t you. Possibly in blue rather than green. These are still in use in a village hall somewhere, I am sure.

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I'm pretty sure there's some in the church hall, where my choir rehearse.  We normally use the white ones (straight sided, 1980's edition, more mug-sized).

- Pip

PipneyJane

keepcalmandcraft said:

Pip, there is also a fruit cake in the WI cupboard in the hall, in a tin behind the raffle prizes, help yourself if you need that too! 

Thanks.  I may raid it later.

- Pip (IRL I'm having a consolatory hot chocolate at the moment.  A friend who works for the department said that she felt the same way after her job interview.)

TwibbleDee

Allergies are exhausting.  Anti-histamines are even more exhausting.  I think I've slept 10-12 hours the last 2 nights, and I still want a nap.  

I'm looking at books on how to mend and fit clothes properly.  Any suggestions? (Or good websites)

CapricornLass

Sorry to hear that you are feeling a bit down re your Civil Service interview.   Their interviews can be a bit nerve-racking as its not always easy to try and work out what the interviewer is trying to ask you!

I worked for the MOD for 15 years, and took part in interview panels.  So, if you get called to another interview with the Civil Service again, what they will be doing is looking for various - I'll call them traits for want of a better word - in the applicant, and should be looking for evidence of it, i.e., the basis is if you showed say leadership in one scenario in the past, then its likely you will show that characteristic again in a future, different scenario.  The number and names of the 'traits keep altering and almost certainly have changed since I left in 2015, but basically they will be looking for things like evidence of leadership, team working, dealing with customers and suppliers, providing value for money, striving to achieve results, promoting change, communicating and influencing, exploiting knowledge, and taking a wider perspective (of the service in question).  Depending on what you have told them, they will measure that against the type of behaviour they would expect the grade to display for each particular trait they are looking for.  The good news is that they aren't expected to look for evidence for every trait in each job, and that your CV will already have been compared for evidence of the traits that they require for the job.  You must have given enough evidence in that to be called to interview.

I hope that it is good news for you at the end of this.  I'm afraid that the Civil Service's processes can be quite long-winded, and although the interviewer  may have already decided that he would like to offer the job to you, it will have to be agreed by HR, who, if they are like the MOD HR, were notorious for taking A Very Long Time.  (In my case, eight months!  But that was in 1999, so they had speeded up a bit since.)

Fingers crossed for you!

joedenise

Have to say @PipneyJane that not all Departments are as bad as MOD!  I worked for Environment/Transport mid 80s.  Applied in August, interviewed September and was offered a job in October to start early December (had a choice of 2nd or 9th!).  Worked there for 12 years and then moved to the Treasurer Solicitor's Department for another 12 years before retiring back in 2012.

I had also applied for a job with MOD and didn't hear anything from them until the following March (7 months after applying!) offering me an interview which I obviously declined as already in post!

Hope you hear sooner rather than later.

Laura_Elsewhere

@PipneyJane - I shall keep my ginfers frimly scrosed for you! 

My Intended is coping brilliantly with everything - I'm a bit exhausted and wiped out, but he's managing wonderfully. Today he was dressed and we got him right downstairs and outside for a hundred yards very slow walk down and back up the street! 

@TwibbleDee - one bit of useful advice is to look at clothes that really do fit you, and see if you can work out what it is that is different in them. Another useful thing is to see if you have any old beloved clothes that fit really well but are worn out, and then undo the seams and look at the shapes and dimensions of the pieces. You can also use the pieces as a pattern to cut out new pieces and make a new item (remember to add a bit all round for the 'seam allowance', and to look at the direction of the fabric for each piece). 
If you want a practical book that is really useful and in keeping with life here in Little Mending on the Borrow, there is a book published a few years ago that is reprints of all the British government's 'Make Do & Mend' leaflets that were sent out during the war. It's quite fun, but also really useful.
You want the one with an introduction by Jill Norman - the title has been used a few times, but hers is the good one. The imperial War Museum did one but it's only the pamphlet, not the whole lot like Jill Norman's one.
There are copies for less than five quid, but of course postage to the States may add a bit - this top one is £3.70 and it says postage to the States would be another £6.80, so not too bad actually. 
https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?isbn=9781843172659&cm_sp=mbc-_-ISBN-_-all

TwibbleDee

Laura_Elsewhere said:

@PipneyJane - I shall keep my ginfers frimly scrosed for you! 

My Intended is coping brilliantly with everything - I'm a bit exhausted and wiped out, but he's managing wonderfully. Today he was dressed and we got him right downstairs and outside for a hundred yards very slow walk down and back up the street! 

@TwibbleDee - one bit of useful advice is to look at clothes that really do fit you, and see if you can work out what it is that is different in them. Another useful thing is to see if you have any old beloved clothes that fit really well but are worn out, and then undo the seams and look at the shapes and dimensions of the pieces. You can also use the pieces as a pattern to cut out new pieces and make a new item (remember to add a bit all round for the 'seam allowance', and to look at the direction of the fabric for each piece). 
If you want a practical book that is really useful and in keeping with life here in Little Mending on the Borrow, there is a book published a few years ago that is reprints of all the British government's 'Make Do & Mend' leaflets that were sent out during the war. It's quite fun, but also really useful.
You want the one with an introduction by Jill Norman - the title has been used a few times, but hers is the good one. The imperial War Museum did one but it's only the pamphlet, not the whole lot like Jill Norman's one.
There are copies for less than five quid, but of course postage to the States may add a bit - this top one is £3.70 and it says postage to the States would be another £6.80, so not too bad actually. 
https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?isbn=9781843172659&cm_sp=mbc-_-ISBN-_-all

@PipneyJane Good luck!  
@Laura_Elsewhere I found a used copy on Amazon with the shipping for about $12.  I nearly had a heart attack when they all said they wouldn’t deliver until September...then I remembered how close we are to September!  In the meantime, I have Mapp & Lucia and Fashion on the Ration to read...along with my regular reading.

We’re working on eating lower carb, and I decided to put my flavored fizzy water into a wine goblet and eat at the table instead of at the couch - we’re bad about that when the kids aren’t home.  Lime mint elderflower is a very interesting flavor.

skogar

Hi Laura,

Sorry for the very late response due to no internet access. Great to hear your intended is back and improving.  

Sock is a bit longer now - I've done the heel decrease and the picking up of stitches, (I did get a bit further than that but have pulled it back as it wasn't quite tidy enough.

Can't remember who was talking about the long tailed cast on but its very easy - proof is that even I can manage it. My mum does the knitted cast on which is a complete mystery to me.

Laura_Elsewhere

Coo-er, look what made it out of the car-park for the first time in, er, well, um, 2 years? Maybe more like 3 years...

And I cycled quite a bit of the mile to, and then the mile from, Sainsbury's. And my legs haven't fallen off. Yet.

Best have a bath, just to be on the safe side Baths are well-known to help keep legs from falling off...

PipneyJane

Thanks Ladies for your words of support.  I found the whole process exhausting yesterday.  @CapricornLass, these those characteristics are called "success factors".  (I had to delve through 5 layers of documents on the civil service website to find the definitive definitions used for each.)

This morning, I've applied for two roles and am currently debating applying for a third, which would be perfect if it wasn't in Portsmouth.  Google says it's 67 miles and would take between 1hr 10 minutes and 1hr 40 to drive but I've travelled down there for work before and am trying to remember how bad the commute actually was.  The only thing I remember distinctly was junction 10 of the M25, because it was a horrible queue.  (I did two weeks to-and-fro back in 2018. I think I left home at 7am and got into the office before 8.30am.)  

@Laura_Elsewhere - great news about your Intended.   Also, you've given me bike envy. 

- Pip