Embracing the new family dynamics and looking forward to the future with optimism

Charlies_Mum_2

Belated happy birthday to you. 

pollyanna_26

That was very kind of the family in the van next to yours to pass on their unused food. So many people dump perfectly usable food. I haven't visited the beaches along this coast in the last few years but I've seen the images and heard from the litter pickers who volunteer to deal with the mess.

It's just over 20 miles of protected coastline, alcohol, drugs , bbqs , fires etc are banned but it's been mayhem. Disposable BBQS left hot and smouldering on the sands and in the woods. Broken bottles, cans, dirty nappies and needles related to drugs along with lots of food waste.

The National Trost land where the red squirrels live has been set on fire a number of times due to camp fires. It's been a lot worse since Covid when everyone wanted to be outdoors even during lockdowns. All emergency services have been run ragged when they were needed elsewhere. Officers were being attacked until they brought the Police Horses in- you don't mess with them. Some appalling parenting as the coastguard and lifeguards tried to rescue tiny children drifting out to sea on inflatables whose parents hadn't noticed.

We seem to have seen the best and worse of humanity in the last couple of years.

Re teaching skills rather than producing the finished object that will ease the pressure for you and it is better to teach a skill . It's like  the proverb  " If you give a man a fish you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish , you feed him for a lifetime"

When my sewing friend and I set up a group similar to yours to produce effective PPE there were a lot of volunteers but many  had never threaded a sewing needle let alone a machine needle.

The urgent need to replace the unfit for purpose PPE supplied to the NHS meant we could give some admin roles contacting the retired football managers and retired and also active players who were keen to put their money to good use. We had to point others to mainly online info on sewing most of the local groups were holding virtual meetings by then.

I still make thermal bags from time to time.

The local womans refuge is in a huge victorian house now owned by the council.. It's either 2 small or one larger room per family.

KItchen is in the basement quite a trek down the stairs especially with children.

The thermal bags were an ideal solution so I asked the local council if they would be allowed and they arranged for any children to be supervised while the parent was in the kitchen preparing a stew or something else and once the initial heating was done it could carry on cooking upstairs.

I still have lots of fabric some smaller amounts to make those bags.The polystyrene beads seem like the Magic Porridge Pot so I haven't needed to buy any for years.

I've always been glad of a real old style upbrnging. Cooking from scratch, knitting ,make do and mend  and watching my dad mend our shoes. Mum was a lovely knitter but had a hatred of sewing so as the eldest  I'd be sewing on the buttons when she'd finished a cardigan.

Favoutite auntie taught me to sew, decorate from platering through prepping , papering and painting through to plastering walls. Dad and both grandads taught me about growing in their gardens and allotments from a very early age.

I'd discovered the first Wimpy bar in this region long before I got married and liked their burgers. Mum used to make rissoles with leftovers from the Sunday joint but when the children were younger a treat was to take them to the very good Wimpy here for burgers and milk shakes;

MCDs appeared a few years later but we only went there a few times. The burgers weren't as good as Wimpy and the smell of fat from the air vents used to turn my stomach.

It took years for the older two to realise all the fish fingers, fish cakes , burgers and the turkey dinosaurs the two youngest were keen on when dinosours were on school lunch boxes , pencil cases and clothes were from the freezer but homemade and from the freezer here.

Burgers were from good lean mince and thanks to my beloved Chef. Still in use years later I could mince onions and recreate the Wimpy burger.

By  the time the two much younger children went to senior school "Cookery" was a bought sponge flan case, tin of Mandarin Oranges and Orange flavoured Quick Gel.

Yongest was home educated from the beginning of her 2nd year but over the years I taught all four to cook from scratch. Handy when two of them went to Uni  and one rented a house round the corner from where she started her career in chilcare with lots of studying and paperwork involved to reach her future goal.

Much older dd lived in some lovely rented properties paid for by her company in both the UK and Europe. The nicest was up by the Forestry commision in Scotland. Partly built over a river it was so lovely I still miss it.

Over the years she'd collected furniture in Ireland, Scotland , Cambridge and this area. Some was in storage from time to time.

Shortly before moving there the blacksmith here had made her a Princess and The Pea bed.

 She'd seen one similar in a So To Bed ad. Hers cost a lot less but in pieces was a struggle for removal men to take up and down stairs.

She'd viewed the Scottish house but mentioned although it was a big , bright house it looked a bit grubby. The owner a former Highland Man had built it himself years earlier eventually renting it out to good well known companies who guaranteed rent and good tenants.

She was staying here after leaving Dublin where most of her belongings were in a shipping container waiting for her to move.to Scotland . Clothes and other things were here. She had two very tall wide wardrobes made by the Craftsman in a nearby village and while there we discovered he was selling original chapel chairs. He'd painted a few white so we bought one each. I ordered a new made to measure desk as I'd offered her my beloved Hamlet desk suitable for desk or dressing table.

I suggested we visit the big house after her mentioning grubby. Grubby was an understatement. The kitchen was huge wiith lots of storage and big french windows. Every surface floor to ceiling was covered in what looked and smelt like very old chip fat. The tops of the cupboards were thick with it

The owner looked after the big lawns so a chat with him and her company led to a big reduction in rent. That didn't benefit her but she had fallen for the house and spent some happy years there.

There was a tiny Coop in the nearby village but cleaning materials were sparse. We had to go all the way to Glasgow for what was needed it was very hard work and the weather hot.

She was on an extended leave so after a while went to stay with her BF in Yorkshire. The Princess and The Pea bed was delivered there but the furniture was lined up along the window wall downstairs here.

Near removal day a container lorry arrived her with all her many possessions. Thankfully they unloaded the lot indoors in boxes and crates.

There was barely any light in the room or space to move  in the main living area. I became addicted to the Scent of a lovely candles, tea lights and room spray she had packed in boxes and managed to track it down after a while.

She came home followed by the removal men from Glasgow and I was very relieved.

We followed behind them and all was well until everything was unpacked . She was about to cook a meal using the double oven Neff cooker she'd bought and had been in storage.

She couldn't get it to work then I realised it was gas. I asked if she realised a lot of properties in Scotland didn't have gas especially in rural areas.

Too late to return to JL , she had a small basic microwave but we set of to Glasgow again for a large Microwave combi. I'd had them over the years so it was a quick lesson in the various ways to cook in it.

She kept the cooker unused until she finally bought her forever home in a village but with a gas supply.

I hope many not so used to tougher times in the past can manage. Lots od online blogs out there and the OS and other parts of MSE.  I mutter the summer of 76 in very hot weather or When the lights went out.

I've been rereading the paperback version of that book first published in 2010. It explains what happened to Britain in the 70s. If anything it looks like tough times ahead for those already struggling. I've donated loads of books to our local animal rescue , hospice, air ambulance , lifebooats and other local charities but have kept some on different subjects including the ones by Rhonda Hetzel in Australa but also a few like the blow by blow account of the troubles in the 70s.

Having lived through those years I learned how to prep but it wasn't easy when many lost work or infastructure wasn't maintained

many live more complicated lives with more tech and gadgets now. It would have been difficult back then to provide on line schooling but that was needed because of Covid.

There were periods during the days in the 70s when candles torches or the ight from an open fire would be needed during the no electricity times, Luckily back then my first husband had those things plus a gas cooker. However prices were rising so fast I'd cook on the fire soetimes a my mum did when we had a big iron range in childhood with a bread oven at the side and the means to cook a casserole. Toast was better from a toasting fork.

Can't remember when you're due home but safe journey SS. All those queues for Airports and Ports defied belief .Small children in that heat for hours isn't good. Neither is the amount of food heading either here or abroad at a standstill.

pollyx

Savvy_sewing

Thanks for the memories. I remember the troubles in the 70’s.
your post reminds me I really need to take Dgd back to basics in the kitchen etc. 
I have been unwell the last two days. I have had the hot/cold flushes, crawling skin,aching small of my back. 

We are still at the caravan park. Until Wednesday. 

Savvy_sewing

Turns out we have Covid. That’s why I have been so ill. When I could muster the energy to pack up the car we came home early and did a covid test. So all plans cancelled. 

pollyanna_26

Savvy_sewing said:

Turns out we have Covid. That’s why I have been so ill. When I could muster the energy to pack up the car we came home early and did a covid test. So all plans cancelled. 

I tried to reply to you the other day. Was wondering if you were still on the HRT and that was why you felt so rotten.

Such a shame to have to cut the holiday short but at least you weren't far from home. making your way back through airports would have been a nightmare.

It's hot again here though not as hot as recwntly. Laptop has been hit and miss over the last few days but seems to have pulled itself together.

How is DGD and the boys? Hopefully they aren't feeling as rough as you. No idea about DGD staying occupied but Lego for the boys could work. It used to work well here unless I wandered round in bare feet a habit since childhood. Had to learn not to do that. A strange thing about Lego is however much you rehome it .years later you find yourself with a brick iunderfoot.

Hope there is someting easy to eat for you all. I've bee lucky to have avoided the virus but if there had been school age children here it would have been different.

Hope you have some cold drinks and something to bring down your temperature and sort aches and pains.

pollyx

Savvy_sewing

pollyanna_26 said:

Savvy_sewing said:

Turns out we have Covid. That’s why I have been so ill. When I could muster the energy to pack up the car we came home early and did a covid test. So all plans cancelled. 

I tried to reply to you the other day. Was wondering if you were still on the HRT and that was why you felt so rotten.

Such a shame to have to cut the holiday short but at least you weren't far from home. making your way back through airports would have been a nightmare.

It's hot again here though not as hot as recwntly. Laptop has been hit and miss over the last few days but seems to have pulled itself together.

How is DGD and the boys? Hopefully they aren't feeling as rough as you. No idea about DGD staying occupied but Lego for the boys could work. It used to work well here unless I wandered round in bare feet a habit since childhood. Had to learn not to do that. A strange thing about Lego is however much you rehome it .years later you find yourself with a brick iunderfoot.

Hope there is someting easy to eat for you all. I've bee lucky to have avoided the virus but if there had been school age children here it would have been different.

Hope you have some cold drinks and something to bring down your temperature and sort aches and pains.

pollyx

Lots of water ( and cups of tea). Paracetamol every 5 hours. Moved into the cough, sore throat and sneezing etc now. Dgd is positive too, but not as bad as me. Hopefully she won’t be either. 

pollyanna_26

I hope you all managed to sleep last night. I'm not really keen on drinking water but have been forcing it down especially during the heatwave. I prefer my Yorkshire Tea  , and excuse that as it's mainly water.

A lot cooler and damp here today so can feel the joints complaining, Everything flares with hot and humid or cold and damp.

When I was trying to keep working I was taking over the counter meds daily.and started to get stomach pains. Turned out I had stomach ulcers so benned by the Dr from Ibuprofen.

He has been prescribing Voltarol Emulgel for us both. It does help with some of the pain. Youngest has oral and liquid morphine while I have only 3 days at a time Co=codamol. That usually helps when the pain stops me functioning but I try as much as possible not to take it often,

I couldn't function on all the meds youngest has.

I can trace back the increased pain and sleep problems to the start of the pandemic. Not going out as much , doing a lot of walking as I used to has had an effect on mobility and fitness as well as mood.

It was needed as I spent decades keeping youngest in the world . She is still ECV we just didn't imagine all the variants would come along.

Neither she, her boyfriend or I have caught the virus but some sort of normal would be good. They both had flu the last 2 winters and suspected it was Covid but al the tests were clear and showed flu. He often walked in to the village for shopping so probably picked it up there.

He rarely does that now pretty well everything is online orders. Couriers here are hopeless including Amazon who are controlled by a strange woman running a team and also covering Hermes and others. Parcels wouldn't arrive though she'd swear they were delivered.

Neighbours would be having similar arguments with her so we complained to Amazon and othersc and voted with our feet.

I've had any Amazon orders sent to dds. They have very good couriers.

I haven't shoppred in town since 29th Oct last year when dd had tests at the surgery then we did a small shop in the Coop on the same site as our Drs. Went to her pharmacy in town then M&S . Pharmacy have delivered her meds free for quite a while and I only shop in the Coop here. It's felt safe throughout. Staff are still masked and the perspex shields at the checkouts.

Only issue is they've been having problems with some of the deliveroo drivers and although they have an Amazon counter they don't do click and collect for the goods in store which would be my best option.

My milkman has as always left the glass bottles of milk outside lockdowns or not along with the Christmas card from himslef and his family each Christmas. I often read on the threads of people nipping out for milk and buying all sorts while in the shop they didn't need and not in their budget and I think you need a milkman.

Is Twin1 and family ok? I keep meaning to ask. Also your mum has your brother managed to get over to see her? It's so odd here without a houseful not something I ever imagined.

Take it easy until you feel ok. Hopefully dgd will have a milder version and the boys remain clear.

pollyx

Savvy_sewing

my mother is fine, but doesn’t do much these days. 

My brother is waiting for a hip replacement which will be done soon. They have to have a vascular surgeon on hand as he has a framework of pins from an accident he had 30 years ago. The first visit to the specialist was about 6 weeks ago, and he has had X-rays, MRI scans, and been told they are amazed he is still trying to walk at all. Luckily they will be operating as soon as the two surgeons can work together. He should be done before September. I hate to think how long he would have to wait here in the uk. 

Dgd doesn’t appear to have as much of an issue with the Covid as I am. The boys are playing upstairs and I will except it will be a little trashed but at least they are currently not killing each other which is a bonus.
The dog is feeling sorry for himself with his cone of shame, and his docked tail. It looks strange how the rest of the tail looks having been shaved for his operation yesterday.
My Muscle Food delivery has arrived and I have managed to get it in the freezer. I have a few hours before the Ocado delivery comes. Used the coupon That Feed your Family for £20 a week had, along with the deals I chose we have saved £40 on their usual prices. 

pollyanna_26

Savvy_sewing said:

my mother is fine, but doesn’t do much these days. 

My brother is waiting for a hip replacement which will be done soon. They have to have a vascular surgeon on hand as he has a framework of pins from an accident he had 30 years ago. The first visit to the specialist was about 6 weeks ago, and he has had X-rays, MRI scans, and been told they are amazed he is still trying to walk at all. Luckily they will be operating as soon as the two surgeons can work together. He should be done before September. I hate to think how long he would have to wait here in the uk. 

Dgd doesn’t appear to have as much of an issue with the Covid as I am. The boys are playing upstairs and I will except it will be a little trashed but at least they are currently not killing each other which is a bonus.
The dog is feeling sorry for himself with his cone of shame, and his docked tail. It looks strange how the rest of the tail looks having been shaved for his operation yesterday.
My Muscle Food delivery has arrived and I have managed to get it in the freezer. I have a few hours before the Ocado delivery comes. Used the coupon That Feed your Family for £20 a week had, along with the deals I chose we have saved £40 on their usual prices. 

I h ope all goes well for your brother. It sounds as though he's living in the best place. Both hospitals in our local Health trust  hit the no room for any patients stage last month. They have some Omicron patients but only a few needing ventilators.  The waiting lists for ops etc are huge.

The one near here has been losing staff over the last couple of years. All staff have been lovely but when it reaches the point of needing foodbanks as well as your pay and putting up with verbal abuse from some patients it's time to vote with your feet.

I don't believe all the self praise from BJ and his cronies. Nero fiddling while Rome burns comes to mind there.

The two candidates for PM are on another planet to normal people.

Ic would like to see a Coalition Govt in power capable enough to understand the real world and not make rules they break. I found BJ dressing up as a working man pretending to be a working man offensive. He had a job to do but too busy looking for publicity to do it or pass it to someone who could.

it's good to hear the boys are playing together. Easier to tidy up than tear them apart. Both kittens dd and her boyfriend rescued found themselves wearing the cones of shame when a little older.They'd begun to venture in to the gardens once they weren't afraid of losing their home.

After their jabs, flea treatment and Stimps dameged teeth helped by the vet the time came to ensure Mags wouldn't have kittens or Stimps father any.

Mags was the first for surgery and she was fighting her tiny cone night and day. When Stimps had his turn his was a much bigger cone but he managed to lose it a few times so the final cone meaqnt house arrest until his stitches were removed.

He reminds me a lot of our much missed Oliver a cat who would not keep a collar on although it had his name and address. Sometimes hanging washing out I'd spot one or more in the trees and shrubs. They all had big jingle bells to warn the birds so I'd often hear a bell ringing on a windy day. Very Peter Pan and Tinkerbell.

I hadn't heard of Feed your family for £20 a week though I have different books from over the years with similar names including the ones by Bernadine Lawrence which were healthy proper food. I used to make her bargain bread a lot.

I think it may have been the austerity in the 70s that resulted in all the frugal cooking, make do and mend , grow your own books.

they kept us fed without debt in tough times.

I remember not long before you stopped posting reguarly you were thinking of joining the 1p a day chlllenge . Was it worth doing it or perhaps a bigger amount.

When £2 coins came out I vowed to save them rather than spend.That meant no sneaky bars of chocolate , impulse buys etc but after a few years I did a huge shop in Ikea, furniture , throws , kitchenware , bedding and all sorts and still had money for other needs.

Everything has been debit cards in shops over the last few years. Lighter to carry than change but I still ask for cashback at times in the Coop for taxi fares.

Ocado used to deliver in this area but no longer do Marks groceries and haven't seen them for a long time.

Coop have had to cope with price rises lately but still cheaper than most supermarkets. They have a big range of products and special offers. According to seasons most of their fruit and veg  are from farms a couple of miles up the road. No excess food miles or in long queues at ports.

My mum always shopped at the Coop and I never dreamed I'd be doing the same thing years later.

pollyx

 

24ta

Hope all is well with you