Revenge is sweet

My beloved gets bored when he's not working and when he has nothing to keep him occupied. When he's bored he starts looking for something to reorganize, usually me!
Yesterday was a case in point, after breakfast I started to load the dishwasher, with, amongst other items, 2 small milk pans. He immediately started to lecture me about how, when we move, we will not have a dishwasher and therefore I need to consider this when I prepare meal.
I nodded vaguely but made no comment.
Yesterday we went to hospital to get the ends changed on his hearing aids, we stopped at a pub and had lunch, 2 meals for £7.49 and we bought  a new torch.
Every so often throughout the day my beloved would return to the subject of the 2 saucepans. I continued to ignore his complaints.
So this morning I prepared breakfast but this time I only used one saucepan.
I don't think my beloved was too impressed to be given porridge on toast with a rasher of bacon instead of scrambled egg, but I was having porridge as I always do. I couldn't think of only using one saucepan.

Lyssa and Witch Hazel

Lyssa thank you for your email.
Witch Hazel, thank you, as we are hoping to move soon and will be downsizing I shall not be replacing Henry any time soon, but it was very kind of you to think of me.

Oh I do miss Henry

I loved him so much, he always had a smile on his face and he worked hard without complaint.
He was very experienced and happy upstairs and down, the only place he didn't want to do it was on the stairs themselves.
So I was cruel, I was unfaithful, but I wanted to have my cake and eat it. A couple of years ago at Christmas I asked my L&M for a small powerful handheld vacuum to use on the stairs, I wanted this as well as Henry.

Never one to do anything by halves he bought me a GTECH Air RAM cordless vacuum along with the small handheld version.
I'm sure the GTECH is a great piece of kit if you are bald and never have children in the house, for me it is useless, I have to strip it down every couple of weeks to unravel the hair caught in the rollers. It doesn't pick up the bits of paper left after the children have finished cutting and sticking so I have to sweep the floor with a brush and dustpan. As for the small handheld vacuum, it isn't powerful enough to clean the stairs.
So my poor Henry went to a new home and I deeply regret my unkindness to him.

We finally went shopping

Oh shame on me, after all my insulting comments about people who rush to the shops to visit the sales we succumbed, we went shopping.

We went to the DIY shop to buy a pushfit plumbing connector.

Today we are shopping again, I'm going to the bakers to buy some fresh rolls as DS & his GF are coming for lunch.

You did what!

At least 3 of my work colleagues will have been on the pavement outside Next from silly o'clock waiting for them to open at 6am.

In the same queue will be the woman who's husband had to pay her bills last month as she spent £350 on Black Friday.

As she explained to me yesterday when I saw her, she needs to go to the Next sale to save money as she spent too much on Black Friday and again at Christmas!

One finished, one fresh on my hook today

 Fresh on my hook today a V stitch cushion cover.

Wavy stitch cushion cover just needs stitching up.

Leftovers

The turkey has been sliced and packed into meal sized portions with 4 pigs in blankets included in each pack, the stuffing balls were frozen yesterday apart from 2 to go with todays meal.

The ham has also been sliced and packed in to 6 slice packs, each pack will make ham, egg and chips plus sandwiches.

The scraps of turkey and ham were snipped into small pieces and mixed with a small amount of butter to make a sandwich filling.

The last few raw sausages have been skinned and the meat mixed with pepper, mixed herbs and garlic, the pastry is resting, I will make sausage rolls later.

Some of the vegetables have been prepped and frozen, the rest will be eaten this week.

All done and dusted

Well that's it for another year, the turkey meat has been stripped from crown. The carcase has been boiled with the veg peelings, the resultant stock has been strained and will be frozen when it is cold.

The turkey and gammon have been sliced, portioned and packed up ready for the freezer. The leftovers from todays meal will make another meal tomorrow.

We visited both DD's briefly, DGS 18 was with his birth dad, so we pushed a card with £20 in under his bedroom door.

The DGS's 13 & 11 both loved their drones, both went outside immediately to fly them.

DGD 12 was very pleased with her stuffed owl kit and her dreamcatcher kit, it seems she's wanted a dream catcher for a long time as her birth mother has some.
I may try to get her a bigger one for her birthday.

DGD 9, hugged us repeatedly when she was given a plush Chloe (a fat purple cat from the Secret Life of Pets film) we also gave her a friendship bracelet kit.

DGD 5 said 'I know what this is because you promised me a Donald Duck' so she was pleased.

The three toddlers were totally disinterested in their presents, they just wanted cuddles.

We came home, ate our Christmas meal and then I sat and watched some Miss Marple that I had recorded. My L&M watched tree porn, nothing to do with sex just YouTube videos of lumberjacks risking life and limb chopping down trees. 

We spent £150 in total on gifts for eight adults and nine grandchildren, some were 2nd hand, some bought with money off vouchers and some were regifted items we had received. The family are aware and happy with this.

Oh lucky me

 A set of soft handle crochet hooks.

 His & Hers sweatshirts, even though I did have to stand on a stool to get the logo's lined up.

 My Secret Santa gift.

Hand and nail care.

Christmas traditions

I quite like family Christmas traditions, not that I ever had any, but I like the idea.
Both my DD's now have a tradition of one present being opened before bedtime Christmas eve and that present is new pyjamas, that way the children all look lovely the following morning when opening their presents. This year I bought all the pyjamas

I was speaking to a neighbour yesterday who is less than happy about some of his wife's family tradition. Particularly the one that means the whole family catch the 6:30am bus on Christmas eve, into town so they are outside M&S when they open. They then rush into the food hall to buy the veg for Christmas dinner and then come home on the 8:30 bus. This despite the wife working in a local supermarket!

Personally I'd rather have a lie in and a bacon sarnie!

He said there other family tradition seems to be that on Boxing day, they throw away 70% of the food they bought, including the M&S veg as  'Christmas is over now the food will have gone bad'.

I told him what I do with my leftovers and how everything is planned, some stuff is frozen and that nothing is wasted. I was tempted to ask him for the stuff they were throwing away, but I restrained my self.

A Jesus ornament

My 5yo DGD Eileen suddenly asked me yesterday if I had a Jesus ornament.

Well as a pagan the answer would be no, but I did ask her why she wanted one.

She explained that Christmas was actually about Jesus not presents so she needed a Jesus ornament.

I've had some interesting discussions with the grandchildren when the topic of religion comes up.

I explain that people have lots of different beliefs and that everyone is entitled to believe what they wish.

As Eileen is only 5 I told her that whilst I didn't have a Jesus ornament, I had received a card with a nativity picture on it and that she could have that.

One happy and satisfied little girl went home clutching her Jesus picture.

More phone calls, dirty tricks and lying barstewards

I've been making extra every time I cook our evening meal, I find it the easiest way to provide a packup for the following day.

DD Lizzies car is dead, it cannot be resurrected this time. Her FIL, who is in his 80's and I are taking her to her evening job for the foreseeable future. He is doing the lions share, he is doing two weeks and then I'll do a week.

She could catch a bus but she cannot leave until her DH gets home and by then the bus cannot get her there on time. She does catch the bus home.

This week she is working 9 - 3 at one job and 5 - 10 at her other job, this is why I've been doing the child care. Usually the children come to me but today I went to their house, I took a food parcel with me as it is the day before payday. I went through my freezer, fridge and cupboard, I found a tin of hot dogs, and a tin of tuna, a frozen pizza and some sausages, a pack of cheese and a bottle of squash. With what they have they can make a few meals until they can shop again, either her FIL or I will take her on Saturday.

I had another phone call from the bank, talk about dirty tricks and lying barstewards. The woman on the phone said she noticed that I have my credit card set up so the minimum payment is made by direct debit, this is true. She then told me that  as the credit card is with themselves the direct debit can only come from an account with their bank and that I cannot pay the credit card from my new account with another bank.

Sounds like a load of cobblers to me but I played along for a while, eventually I suggested she checked the outstanding balance on my credit card.  It's zero, zilch, de nada. She was a bit stumped then, I await tomorrow's phone calls with bated breath.

And finally the last phone call of the day, it was from my FIL, my L&M's stepdad, the one who phoned my L&M to tell him that he had organised a memorial event for MIL, but that my L&M wasn't invited!

He phoned to thank us for the Christmas card we sent but explained that he hadn't been able to send us on as he has a problem with his leg, he is going into hospital tomorrow for surgery.

I was polite and civil, I wished him good luck with the surgery and told him to take care of himself. I didn't offer to visit or help in any way. I told my L&M about the phone call, we will wait and see.

Sodding phone calls

I have been inundated with phone calls and text messages today, harassed and harangued from all directions.

I've had four phone calls from my old bank, they have suddenly realised that my salary is no longer going into my account. I did tell them I wanted to close the account but it seems I can only close the account on the 32nd day of a month with an X in it!
So I cancelled all the SO's and DD's and left £10 in the account for two weeks, just in case.

I've had two phone calls and three text messages from Sky, asking me to come back to them.

I've also had two text messages from the local surgery reminding me that my L&M has an appointment tomorrow.

This evening I had a PPI call and finally, last but not least a call from an Indian call centre to tell me that my phone and broadband service would be cut off within the next few days. When I enquired why I was informed that it was because my computer was infected with a virus that was contacting other computers and causing problems for my neighbours.

I love these calls, in a quavering voice, I asked the young lady to repeat herself three times and then told her that I didn't own a computer. She then carefully explained that it must be my laptop that was causing the problem, again, in a quavering voice, I asked her to repeat her explanation three times. I then told her that I didn't have a laptop either. I won't repeat what she called me, I assume it is an Indian endearment that means endearing old lady!

Oh bugger

I tried, I really did. I had to go to the local hospital today to collect new batteries for my hearing aids.

I had a few quid on me and I thought I might treat myself to lunch whilst I was in town....

It takes two buses to get to the hospital and unfortunately as I was walking from one bus stop to the other the local fabric shop accosted me, just leapt out in front of me, stopped me getting on the bus and insisted I popped in.

I was very restrained, I only spent £8, I bought a small amount of black fleece to make a teddy for DGD Norah, we made one a few months ago and it fell out of my car and got lost. I also bought a few cotton remnants as DGD Suzy has  a doll that is naked and needs some clothes.

As I stepped out of the fabric shop the wool shop next door started to sob, upset that I had visited the fabric shop but was not visiting it's lovely woolly interior. Well it would be rude to just walk on by wouldn't it!

A ball of orange yarn, the one colour missing from my cushion covers, two balls of fluffy eyelash wool as DGD Eileen want's me to knit her a guinea pig and one ball of variegated that was going to sulk if I left in on the shelf!

What the F***

The stupidity of some people amazes me, on Sunday I walked round to the post box to post off the three cards I've sent this year.
Some muppet parked his car, got his child, aged about 3 out of the car and left him stood in the middle of the road whilst he went back to the other side of the car to get his own coat from the back seat!
There were cars driving along the road to which Dad seemed totally oblivious!

Cooking today

I cleared the fridge out this morning, I threw away a small piece of onion but that was all.

There were six sausages and two rashers of bacon in there but we didn't want a full cooked breakfast so I used them up and made nine sausage rolls and six pigs in blankets.

Just a few bits to go in my L&M's lunchbox next week, I also made six cheese pinwheels with the rest of the pastry and some of the grated cheese from the freezer.

Bring out your dead

I got up this morning to find a deceased fish floating in the tank, at least it wasn't yesterday when the granddaughters were here.
It has been flushed down the toilet with a brief 'Thank you and goodbye'.

Busy day

After I dropped the DGD's home I set to and sorted out upstairs, the bathroom took ages but is extra clean as a large bottle of shower gel split and spilt all over the place, it took a lot of clearing up.

The toys are back in the toy box, the floors dusted and mopped, surfaces wiped over and my L&M's clothes hung up in the wardrobe. The washing machine has been on most of the day and the washing hung under cover in the garden.

A brief interruption by a work colleague, to tell me that he is having money problems, his wife spent £350 on black Friday deals. She then couldn't pay her share of the bills, so he had to pay all of them, they now have no money for Christmas and lots of people for Christmas lunch.

I told them about the latest Co-op food deal, stuffed turkey breast, roast potatoes, parsnips, Yorkshire puds, sprouts and extra large Viennetta all for £10. Not the M&S food his wife wants, but a good deal all the same.

We are visiting friends for a meal this evening, so I've had a Nana nap, we'll take a bottle of wine with us as I was given one at work yesterday.

I'll clean the downstairs tomorrow morning and then spend the afternoon wrapping presents

I've just seen another colleague boasting on FB that she has spent £400 on Paw Patrol toys for her 2 year old grandson. Her son, daughter in law & grandchild live in a one bed flat, gawd knows where they will find to keep all those toys.

Big Girls Knickers On

DD2, the one who is nutty as a squirrels fart and works two jobs, has just heard she is to be made redundant from her night job in the new year, not just her, there are 142 people between the day and night shift and they are all losing their jobs in January.

She has just been offered 4 days extra work a her weekend job for next week. Her husband can't do childcare as he is also at work. I had my week off planned but hey ho, big girls knickers on, I can cram the jobs into this weekend and do the child care for her.

I don't have to, but I bought my kids up to work hard so it's the least I can do.

Give me strength

Hardly have I recovered from my beloved's incursions into Windows 10 when I an beset with yet more problems, this time work ones.

On the first few days of every term every child in years 7, 8 & 9 at school is given their objectives for the forthcoming term, this means every child is given between 12 and 20 sheets of paper in assorted colours.

Someone, that will be me, has to print all these sheets. Unfortunately the information to go on the sheets is never available in time and so on the last two days of term I have to print around 12,000 of said sheets.

Today I had to start the print run, to make people aware that the machines would be busy I sent an all staff email. The email told ALL STAFF that my machines would not be available after 8:30 today and that they would need to use the machines that are situated elsewhere in the building.

By 9am three people had come in to use the copiers, they explained that they had read my email, but didn't think it applied to them, two more people came in because they hadn't read their emails and yet two more because what they wanted was important.

Kill me now

A few weeks ago my beloved bought himself a Go-pro type camera, he's wanted one for a while so he could attach it to the car so he can critique my driving when he isn't in the car with me.

He has been told that if he fits it to the car I will remove it and shove it where the sun don't shine!

Once he got the camera he discovered that it won't work with his very old pc, it will however work with my newer laptop.

Unfortunately I don't use a mouse with my laptop I use a touch pad, which my L&M can't get to grips with.

My SIL had a spare laptop that he has passed on to my L&M, it has Windows 10 which is what works with the camera.

This evening has been spent trying to explain to my L&M about Windows 10, he doesn't like it but will have to master it if he want's to play with his camera.

He cannot access any of his emails as he cannot remember the passwords.

Eventually he was ready to set up the camera software on to the lap top, only he cannot remember his user name or his passwords.

All of the above is, of course, my fault, so as I said, kill me now!

Too many beeps

At 6:30 am I was parked in the car park nearest to the local sorting office.

The sorting office's usual opening hours are 8 - 2, most inconvenient for me as I work 7:30 -2, but as it is nearly Christmas they have altered their opening hours to 6:30 -1:30.

I had a card through the door telling me there were three parcels awaiting collection from the sorting office, hence my early arrival in the car park.

I walked to the sorting office, collected my parcels and returned to my car, there were only two other cars in the car park and both were parked some distance from me.

I started the engine, threw the car into reverse and shot out of my parking space, beep beep beep, I slammed on the brakes as I thought it was my reversing alarm warning me of something behind me.

Then I realised, it was my hearing aid, beeping to warn me that the battery was failing!

Christmas memory

John at Going Gently asked for Christmas Memories and I have added a couple there, but here is another one.

Every year my kid's school put on Christmas plays, the Nativity in the Infants school and something Christmassy in the Juniors and most kids got to take part. The lead parts always went to the Chair of the PTA's two daughters, a pair of poisonous and spiteful little cows, both of them.

Every year we parents were sent a list of the items we needed to provide for our child's part in the play, and woe betide if the costume wasn't up to snuff. We parents were told off by the PTA chairperson and our kids were belittled by her daughters.

One year we had a new family join the school during the winter term, they had two children a boy of eight and a five year old daughter. Dad was a quiet unassuming sort of chap, mummy was rather strange, sort of Alpha mummy on speed!

Well Alpha mummy took umbrage at her children not getting starring roles and kicked off big time, eventually, tired of being harangued by Alpha mummy the Head agreed to the five year old being given the part of Mary in the infant Nativity play. The ensuing row rumbled on for years between the mothers, well into secondary school.

Alpha mummy was not able to obtain the starring roll for her son, either the Junior school Head was made of sterner stuff or, more likely, she was more afraid of the PTA chairperson. The son was given the role of a non-speaking rocking chair. Don't ask! The son had obviously assumed he was destined for acting greatness. I would never have believed it was possible to overact the part of a rocking chair, but it was, and he did.

He rocked repeatedly, he creaked loudly and then he rocked some more. The audience was transfixed, no-one could hear the carefully learned lines of the other players. No-one could concentrate on anything apart from when this miniature Marlon Brando would next rock or creak. People started to snigger, I was sat next to Alpha mummy, this was not how she had envisaged stardom for her son. She glared, she hissed, she flapped her hands. All to no avail, her son creaked and rocked throughout the entire duration of the thirty minute play.

It was the best school play I've ever watched!

He's behind you.

I spent an entertaining afternoon watching a local AMDRAM pantomime, 'Dr Who Saves Christmas' 5yo DGD loved it, 8yo DGD was the funniest part of the show and she was in the audience not on stage.

Cynical? Much? She had me in fits. It was like watching the show with a stroppy teen.

I always told my children that Santa fills the stocking and all other gifts are bought by someone, this helps by limiting children's expectations.

I know people who have got into a lot of debt trying to provide everything their child asked Santa for.

My daughters have told their children the same thing, so when the pantomime villain 'The Destroyer' announced that he would kidnap Father Christmas so children would not Christmas presents this year Norah was singularly unimpressed.

Whilst all the children in the audience were booing the Destroyer enthusiastically, Norah sat there calmly explaining that kidnapping Santa merely meant there would be no stockings, the presents would still arrive!

It' beginning to look a lot like Christmas

No it's not my house, it's a neighbour's, my grandchildren love to see the lights.
Tomorrow I'm taking 2 of my DGD's to watch a pantomime, it should be fun.

Viewings

This weekend we are starting to view properties, I'm nosy, I will enjoy it.

We won't waste anyone's time, we will only look at the sort of places we can afford.

Maybe we will find what we want, maybe we won't, time will tell.

Another literary gem from the solicitors

On Monday I received an emailed copy of my completion documents.

They were incorrect!

Today I received this.

Good Morning,

Please find attached amended completion documents.

The broker fee of £XXX was not included on your initial paper work.

Please note the funds come in after 4pm yesterday so will be in your account by close of business today.

KR

Mary

And she spelt my address incorrectly, I now live near the River Themes, what theme I'm not sure!

Family tradition

My daughters have started a family tradition.
When my children were young I struggled with very little money, one thing they rarely had was pyjamas, they usually slept in tee shirt and pants. I struggled to keep them clothed and pyjamas were an unaffordable luxury.

My mother in law would buy nightwear for her other grandchildren but not for mine, we'd had the temerity to move away and she always swore to starve us into returning. She blamed me for the move but actually it was her son who knew it was the only way to promotion. It didn't work, we never did move back but it made life even more difficult, we weren't hard up, my husband was just extremely tight fisted.

Anyway, I digress, because I couldn't afford pyjamas for the children we have reams of photo's of Christmas morning with the children opening their presents whilst dressed like tramps.

Having seen the photos and understood the significance, my daughters have started a tradition where every child receives a gift that they open Christmas eve. They get new pyjamas and a pack of chocolate coins.

This year Lizzie's car has broken down and this has cost £300, so she now can't afford the new nightwear, fortunately I received some Tesco vouchers, I managed to buy four pairs of pyjamas for £2.50 after using the vouchers.

What a weekend

We had DGS12 to stay on Friday night and I took him home on Saturday morning.

As DD2's car is in for repair I picked him and his sisters up again and bought them back to our house about 4:30 as DD & SIL were going to a Christmas do.

We made some paper chains and did some colouring in for a while and then I made an assortment of sandwiches and other nibbly bits for tea.

Then we started putting them to bed in relays, I took them up one at a time to get them washed and their teeth cleaned, my L&M stayed downstairs and played hangman and battleship with the others.

Suzy went to bed at 6:30, Eileen at 7, Norah at 7:30. By 8 all was quiet, they had their stories read, they each had a hot water bottle and their chosen cuddly toy.

DGS is allowed to stay up later as he is 12 now  and anyway he had to sleep on the sofa as I don't have enough beds for everyone.

I went to bed around 10ish and DGS settled down to sleep.

At around 10:30 Eileen came in to ask if I would sleep in her bed with her, she doesn't sleep as well as the others so I got into bed with her.

At 11:15 I woke up because she was crying, she wasn't properly awake but was very upset. Turns out she has earache, poor little scrap.

We got dressed and drove to her house to get some Calpol, when we got back I dosed her up and we went back to bed, she had trouble getting back to sleep but managed to drop of eventually.


The children were all up by 8am and I provided an assortment of breakfasts, cereal, toast, scrambled eggs and bacon sandwiches.

We then made a lovely mess making and icing some biscuits, I took the children home at midday as my son in law had lunch ready for them.

Step one

It's 2:30 and I can't sleep, I had hoped to sleep better once the mortgage was sorted but it appears not.

Still, step one has been accomplished the old mortgage has been paid off with the new one. This reduces our mortgage repayments from almost £800  a month down to £250 a month. This gives us a little bit of wriggle room whilst we plan our next step.

All the Christmas presents have been ordered, those that have arrived have been hidden. One of the dgs's has a birthday before Christmas. His present has also been bought.

We have our 12 yo dgs here tonight, Saturday we have 4 dgc's staying from about 5ish overnight until lunchtime Sunday, I'm not expecting to get much sleep! I have meals and entertainment planned, it's not as posh as it sounds. There is enough in the cupboards and freezer to cater for everybody's tastes and as for entertainment, I've spent the last week collecting paper offcuts from the guillotine and I have some glue sticks, we will be making paperchains ready for Christmas. We will make some biscuits too and ice them, very messy but great fun.

A friend recently lost his mother, a blessed relief I feel as she spent the last few years confused, aggressive and confined to bed, dementia is a bastard of a disease.
My friend who was diagnosed with lung cancer seems to have come through surgery and is on the mend.

And now I will go and make a cuppa, then maybe I can sleep.

My Day

5:30 Get up, boil kettle, empty dishwasher, make 2 cups of tea, one each for my L&M and I, take his tea up to him.

6:00 Get washed & dressed, back downstairs, feed fish, make packed lunch, make 2^nd cups of tea, make bacon sandwich and toast.

6:15 Drive to work, scream abuse at driver who nearly takes me out at the roundabout, despite it being my right of way. Start pc, and start machines running with first jobs, go to staff room to make coffee. No milk, curse bursar who economises by never buying enough. 

7:00 Fill machines, drink black coffee, check emails, set next ten jobs running.

7:30 Help staff with copier and print jobs for morning lessons. Calm down staff member who has planned for the wrong lesson.

8:30 Set more print jobs running.

9:30 Training course in the main hall on the new performance management software, otherwise known as ‘another way to ensure we don’t get a pay rise’.

10:30 Return to room to find 2 machines jammed and 4 staff having hysterics, squabbling over the one remaining working machine. Sort out machines and staff, set next ten print jobs running.

11:30 Two staff members start rowing, one storms out I’m left with the one in tears, pass him the tissues I keep in my office for just this sort of thing. Not sure why staff leader thought my room was the place to tell NQT that they need to try harder!

12:00-12:30 Lunch break, read Christmas Carol on my Kindle as other staff have had to make up the time they missed whilst on the training course, I should probably also work through my break but I don't.

1:00 Set more jobs running, laminate signs and posters, fill machines, help staff print jobs for the afternoon lessons, compared commiserate with staff member who is feeling unwell, 
fill shelves, tidy room.

2:00 Leave work, drive home, hang washing to dry, wash another load, prep evening meal, make beds in spare room ready for the weekend.

3:00 Collect my L&M from work. Make a pot of tea and share with him.

4:00 Take my L&M to catch bus, fill car with fuel, buy loaf.

4:30 Order last Christmas presents, fall asleep.

5:10 Wake up, cook meal, eat mine, plate up one for my L&M.

6:10 Clear up, wash up, fold dry washing and put away, sweep stairs.

7:30 Check email, read blogs, write blog, read Kindle.

9:30 Set off to collect my L&M

10:00 Sit with my L&M while he eats his meal, clear up.

10:30 Go to bed

Rinse and repeat.

Reality Shows

I don't watch them, I don't watch the ones about wannabe celebrities such as the Kardashians, and I don't watch the ones that purport to be competitions, The Apprentice etc. I don't even watch the DIY or gardening ones.
I don't for one minute believe they are real, they are mainly staged and scripted and then cut to get the finish required.
A few years ago I worked with someone who's spouse was involved with a well known show where houses were refurbished in a very short time.
These refurbishments were actually filmed over a week, none of the work was actually achieved in the time claimed.

And he needs therapy, why?

My L&M got a bollocking on Monday from his line manager, for not replacing the battery in a piece of equipment.
He explained that the equipment in question didn't take batteries it ran off the mains and the mains to the equipment had been turned off due to flooding.
His line manager refused to believe him so he had to take the cover off and prove there was no battery.

On Tuesday my L&M was setting out tables and chairs for an exam, he was called away to move a puddle in the car park (it was raining very hard). He said he's do it as soon as he'd finished setting up the exam. He was told to do it immediately as it was a health and safety issue. So he got piddling wet through sweeping away a puddle that was reforming as quick as he could sweep it away and the exam was late being set up.

On Thursday my L&M went to his 2nd group therapy, the hogger left soon after the session started as he was told he had to let others speak.

My L&M used the examples above to explain what caused his work related stress.
The group were asked for suggestions to help my L&M.
The first suggestion was to go to his line managers manager.
My L&M has done this but has been told that he must follow his line managers instructions.
The 2nd suggestion was to go to someone higher up.
My L&M has done this and been told that the decision has been made, he can live with it or leave.
The 3rd suggestion was that my L&M approach HR to see if there is any help there.
MY L&M replied, 'I would but we only have one staff member dealing with HR & she is off sick with stress!!!!!

Saving money

No more Sky TV, so that is one saving. The Grand Prix finished last weekend, I cancelled it immediately afterwards.

I'm shopping around for Christmas gifts for the grandchildren, I'm looking to spend about £10 - £15 per child. One grandchild has a birthday between now and Christmas, I've ordered a set of walkie talkies for him £12.99.

I found an offer on Amazon for an interactive Freddy Teddy, £7.99 as long as I ordered other items to the value of £40. The walkie talkies, a carry case for my L&M and a couple of books on my kindle soon came to that.

Other gifts so far, I've bought or that I am regifting, a 2nd hand Donald Duck, a friendship bracelet kit, a bottle of Polish vodka, a box of Lindt Christmas chocolates.

Lazy Sunday

Lazy day today, DGD had a bad night, she has a very bad cough, I ended up sleeping in with her from 3am. That way every time she coughed I was able to pass her a glass of water and pull the covers up over her to warm her up and then the coughing abated.

She was still up and about just after 6, she had dippy eggs for breakfast and I took her home about 11ish and fed DS's cats on the way home.

I've managed to get two loads of washing washed and dried over the radiators today, so my L&M have all our work clothes ready for next week.

We had visitors pop in for a chat at 1:30, when they left we watched the Grand Prix that we had recorded.

Sky will be cancelled tomorrow now the GP has finished.

No real cooking for me next week, my L&M's shifts means he won't want an evening meal, I will make do with jacket potatoes or egg on toast.

Back to work tomorrow and back to trying to persuade the solicitors to do the job they are charging me an arm and a leg not to do!

Saturday

My L&M and I went out last night to a quiz night, it was well organised and well run though my enjoyment was somewhat marred by a misogynistic twat who joined my team.

The quiz didn't finish until 11 so we had a late night and then an early start this morning as my L&M had to work this morning.

I dropped my L&M at work then went to DD2's to give her a lift to work, as her husband coaches DGS's football team on Saturday mornings I bring 2 year old Suzy back to my house so she isn't stuck on a cold pitch all morning.

This morning DGD Norah, eight, had a nasty cough so I offered to have her at my house too, she also missed her turn at staying over night in Friday as we were out.

Not wanting to be left out, dgd Eileen, five, looked at me appealingly, so I offered to take all three of them.

'It will be fine' I said, 'I won't go out at all we will do some needle felting and make some biscuits'.

As I set of for home with all three dgd's in the car I suddenly remembered that I needed to buy some bread, to make my L&M some sandwiches for his lunch. So all three girls went into the bakers with me with me and were allowed choose a treat, they decided on malt loaf that would be sliced and toasted when we got home.

Then I remembered I needed to go to the sorting office  in the next village to pick up two parcels. There is no parking near the sorting office, so I had to park in a nearby car park and persuade all three girls to walk crocodile style along narrow pavements. Norah walked nicely, Eileen twerked all the way there and back, Suzy was most put out that she had to hold my hand and wasn't allowed to run.

Once the parcels were collected we set off for home, then I remembered that I was feeding DS's cats today and tomorrow. So we stopped at DS's house, the cats were nowhere to be seen, but they were probably scared off by the racket the three girls made singing a Christmas song, I'm not convinced they were even all singing the same song!

We eventually made it home and I made my L&M some sandwiches, then it was all three girls back into coats and shoes and back in the car to deliver grandpa's lunch. All went well until we went to leave and Suzy realised the grandpa wasn't coming home yet. She roared and cried all the way home. Fortunately the promise of toasted malt loaf distracted her eventually.

Finally we got round to needle felting, colouring and biscuit making, we made chocolate chip cookies, the easiest to make with a two year old helping!

I can't deal with stupid.

I've made a decision, to save my sanity I'm no longer dealing with stupid, I refuse to be patient any more, from now on stupid will be treated as stupid deserves.

On Monday a colleague sent me an email, she wanted a release card printed, these are credit card sized when printed. She is supposed to email me a copy of the wording required. She typed it all on one line as she has trouble finding the return key, there were also 4 spelling mistakes. Usually I would retype this before printing, but she earns 2 or 3 times my salary so why should I, I also printed it in the size required. It was so small it was unreadable!

Twice in the last 6 weeks I have reversed out of my parking space at work and nearly hit a car parked on the yellow hatching. People are told not to park on the hatching as it is there to enable some of us to get out of our spaces. In line with my new policy of not being patient with stupid I asked the car driver if she knew what the hatching was for or if she thought it was a new form of Christmas decoration.

Black Friday

A colleague was almost having a breakdown at lunchtime, panicking about whether she would get into town in time to get any Black Friday bargains.

I asked what, in particular, she needed to buy.

'Nothing' she replied 'But I have to get there I might miss out otherwise'.

She's adamant she will save hundreds of ££££ if she can get there early enough.

My suggestion that she go home and save even more was not appreciated!

Cutting back for Christmas

I'm sorting out my cupboards and freezer ready for Christmas, I did a supermarket shop yesterday, it must be the smallest ever.

Black pepper

Teabags

Mushrooms

Coffee

Butter

I also shopped at the butchers, I bought:-

Chicken thighs

Breast of lamb

One pork chop

Two pieces of steak

Minced beef

I have fish, grated cheese and a casserole in the freezer and one Co-op £5 deal, the deal consisted of a chicken and leek pie, potato croquets, peas, swede and carrot mash and a tub of ice cream. In the fridge there are potatoes and other vegetables.

Because of my L&M's shift pattern and a couple of nights out, this should through until Christmas.

The end of the civilized world!

No, not the election of Donald Trump, an email I received today from a solicitor's office.

Thank you for your email.

I confirm everything that has been requested by Bloggs & Co has now been sent to them for review.

We was not aware this information had gone directly to the lender but will chase this up with them.

I will of course let you know when a completion date has been set.

KR

Mary

Well this begs the question 'Why were they not aware as they sent the documents themselves?'

Also what is the level of education of someone working in a solicitors office who writes 'We was not aware'

Ye gods is syntax and grammar dead!

Birthday gift from my L&M

Ten more years, ten more songs

1970 Band of Gold,  Freda Payne.
1971 Maggie-May, Rod Stewart.
1972 Schools Out, Alice Cooper.
1973 You're so Vain, Carly Simon.
1974 Waterloo, ABBA.
1975 Make Me Smile, Steve Harley.
1976 Don't go Breaking my Heart, Elton John & Kiki Dee.
1977 I Don't Want to Talk About it, Rod Stewart.
1978 Wuthering Heights, Kate Bush.
1979 Hit me with your Rhythm Stick, Ian Drury

Baking Day

Not all my baking is pictured here but I've made:-

2 dozen mince pies.

2 dozen cheese pinwheels.

48 mocha squares.

48 chocolate squares.

2 tea loves.

A Victoria sponge.

A chocolate cake.

6 sausage rolls.

A tray of flapjack.

2 tea loaves.

Ten songs ten years

After Sue's post entitled Tracks of my years I decided to post this.

Teen Angel by Mark Dinning 1959
A cheerful little song about a teenage girl killed by a train.

Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini  by Brian Hyland 1960, I was in Margate when this song was popular.

Are you Sure by The Allisons 1961 a Eurovision winner, my first single.

Telstar by the tornados 1962.

Sweets for my Sweet by The Searchers 1963, dancing at the Wimbledon Palais.

Baby I Need Your Loving by The Four Tops 1964 I love Motown.

I got you babe Sonny & Cher 1965, nuff said.

All or Nothing by The Small Faces 1966.

Let the heartbreak begin by Long John Baldry 1967.

Ledgend of Xanadu by Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick and Titch 1968 this song probably triggered my love of whips!

Where do you go to my lovely Peter Sarsted 1969 this song needs to be listened to with a glass of merlot.