Thank god we paid the mortgage off

ladybird1106

Cherryfudge I would definitely go back to the area. Lots of accessible places for the youngest.
The eldest has gone back to uni city after raiding my fridge and cupboards. Feel as if I hardly saw them. They were very tired in between visiting relatives etc, so had to go and lie down due to migraines. Hey ho.
Spoke to a friend this morning and offered to help declutter and organise their mother in laws property. Then my half sibling asked if I would help them do the same at their house when they are in between jobs in September. Perhaps I should set myself up in business 🤣.
Best get back to it

Love🐞

ladybird1106

my word it’s warm again. Currently at the plot taking out the old broad bean stalks. Leeks are getting clattered by caterpillars 🤬. Having to take nearly 8 rows out to try and salvage something from them. They were visibly fine before we went away. I have 3 rows of recently planted baby leeks so hopefully they will survive. Going to have to invest in some environmental mesh for next yr. I will also look at altering planting times to avoid when the pests are about. Going to sow green manure in its place.

FRUGAL WINS FOR YESTERDAY.
• watered future meals.
• dw and car (used or charged) when cheap electric tariff was.
• snack- feta cheesecake made with homegrown courgettes, spring onions, mint and potatoes.
• applied for nhs funding for the youngest dental etc via this site https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/check-if-youre-eligible-help

• started the ball rolling to see if the youngest can claim universal credit.

love 🐞

ladybird1106

So decide to do more investigation work on Motability scheme. Not an option car wise as the youngest doesn’t have a year left as they have to reapply for PIP. Drives me nuts. Their various disabilities are permanent and the bits affected are not going to suddenly work. It’s a horrendous experience (PIP), having to constantly talk about what they can’t do and all the support they need. No wonder the youngest sits with headphones on or leaves the room. They hate it and often feels very depressed afterwards. Sorry for the rant but unless you’ve been through the process you can’t comprehend the detrimental effect it can have on a person’s psyche. Sorry again. So we will try and limp the car on till next year. If this isn’t possible I’ll deal with it then. I just don’t have head space for it now.

Mr🐞informed me that they’ve been told that there will be major restructuring at work possibly before April 2028 and definitely after that period in an effort to save money. Redundancies will definitely be on the cards and those not targeted will have an increased workload. Can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before. Need to get him in the union. I knew this was a possibility but having it confirmed has made me feel really down. Just when you feel your getting on an even keel this happens. The washing machine has decided to stick the boot in as well. Making a lot of grinding noises and not spinning. Very soggy washing went on the line yesterday. So far retrieved a bead and parts of a £10. Will try running it a couple of times and see if it spits out anything else. 🤞I can solve it. We’ve had our monies worth out of it and it’s been a real work horse.
On a more positive note we had a lovely day out. Went to see a new art installation Then went to the cathedral to show the youngest where their great grandad had worked repairing and making various pews etc for the church. Then onto the chippy (mum paid).
Last night helped a friend with packing up their mil home. They are finding it really hard throwing away her work on the family tree as nobody wants it. A whole room dedicated to it. I was gifted a lovely shell soap dish for helping. Lots of sealed packets of soap for the women’s refuge.

Love 🐞

Cherryfudge

The whole PIP experience is ridiculous - why they don't have a two-tier element with certain things not needing to be reassessed, I don't know. I've seen the adverts with ex-servicemen with prosthetic limbs who are still having to be reassessed.

It's horrible having a restructure hanging over you (just put in the re-application for one of my jobs, but at least in my case it's not my main job). Do get him in the Union, I've found them very supportive and knowledgeable over a job I ended up leaving.

It's sad to be packing up someone's home, but good that you have found found better uses for things like the soap and they aren't just being binned. If the MiL was a member of an online family history group (the sort that has subscriptions) it may be that the information is saved digitally, as they create a web of information and other people may use her research. If not, well, the information must still exist in some form, apart perhaps from anything anecdotal.

You will probably already have checked the filter on the WM, but that brought ours to a halt and was surprisingly easy to solve. Since then, cotton makeup removal pads have gone in a net bag!

The day out sounds so nice, and just what you need to help counterbalance all the other stuff.

KajiKita

Huge sympathies on the PiP process - it seems to be a universal experience of the process 😕

Also agree with getting Mr LB into a union - I am with Un1te and they have been fantastic when I have had my various employment struggles over the years. Is there a recognised union where Mr LB works? Sometimes being part of a collective adds weight to discussions with 'De Management', other times you can get a bit lost in a crowd, so there are advantages and disadvantages to being with a recognised one.

Huge sympathies on the WM issues. Depending on how much of the £10 note you can retrieve you might be able to reclaim it via this:
Damaged and contaminated banknotes | Bank of England

Glad you had a good day out 😊

For the family history, the Mormons might be interested?
Meetinghouse Locator

KK

daisy_1571

thats just mad thinking when the link between pip and motability is looked at in tandem rather than when it was probably introduced in isolation. It would save so much staff time and client energy if there was more joined up thinking,. Sometimes it must make you despair of any sort of common sense

beanielou

I so hear you on the PIP assessment. So demoralising and depressing.

VintageHistorian

Everytime benefits reform is mentioned I think about how much money could be saved by just accepting that some people will have certain disabilities all their life and setting things up for those people to reduce the stress on them and their carers and save the government money on going through the same process, ticking the same boxes, and then going "Oh yes I see there's no improvement, we'll approve you for another X number of years". As with @Cherryfudge's example, no one's going to magically regrow a missing limb 🙄

badmemory

Yet my DS has just had his PIP approval extended for 4.5 years. There seems to be no logic to it.

ladybird1106

Thanks cherryfudge, KK, beanielou,daisy_1571. Vintage historian and bad memory for your comments good to know it’s not just us that struggles with our current system. Anyway I’ll park it there. The youngest is ill, so didn’t go to vol job. They’ve been in bed all day, feeling poorly.
Arranged for the wm to be fixed, but after a call from the engineer they told me it was going to cost almost £300 to mend, they advised me due to its age to look at getting a new one. Asked me not to tell their boss if they rang to check why I had cancelled . I’ll just say I changed my mind. Anyway that’s my 3 things that went wrong.1) car 2) miss giddychops and 3) wm.
I was looking at real world modelling of the cost of living crisis tax cut to electric for us and it currently equates to £4.08 a month. £24.48 for the 6 months. 🤣. However I’ll not say no.
Not a lot accomplished today other than eating comfort food to make me feel better, so money spent.
love 🐞