Tact is not always my strong point

But I have just sent an email to explain why my DGD is refusing to go to her dance class.

Here is the email I sent.

Dear XXX

I thought I'd let you know that we have finally discovered why Eileen is refusing to come along to dance class. It seems that much as she loves her lessons she is upset as no-one wants to be her partner.

I realise that Eileen is a bit of an urchin but she is a kind and thoughtful child and has found this hurtful.

I do understand how children behave, especially girls as I have two daughters, I would just like you to be aware of the reason behind Eileen's reluctance to attend further dance lessons.

Regards Hester

Here is what I wanted to send.

How dare you let those little bitches be so unkind to Eileen!
Let me at them and I'll have their guts for garters!

See I can be tactful when necessary, hubby didn't believe me, he wanted to read the emails before I sent it!

2 more books to give away

Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book and Gu Chocolate cook book.

First come, first served, if no one wants them they are off to the charity shop.

Dogs, dogs and more dogs

Well behaved dogs are welcome at the Crick boat show.
Unfortunately some dog owners are like some parents, their dog/child is perfect, it's everyone else's that is the problem.

There were dogs of all shapes and sizes from Chihuahua's to Irish Wolf Hounds, there were lots of Labradors and Bichons, Griffons, Airedales , Shepherds and best of all a Weimaraner, hubby's personal favourite.

All were very friendly and I think I managed to stroke most of them.

Crick Boat Show, a bondage lovers dream!

Chains

Rope and whips.

Well Mr Whippy!

Pictures from Crick

These are lock side cottages near Whilton Marina.

The rest of the pics were taken at Crick Boat Show

Giveaway 2

Three more books if anyone wants them?

Book giveaway

A few more books if anyone wants them, otherwise they are off to the charity shop.

Tatie Girls (A story about my childhood)

I wonder what happened to the other Tatie girls.

We met at infants school, it was a stupid, cruel name given to us by someone’s older sister. There were 5 of us, one was a boy and only 2 of us actually went tatie picking.

Tatie pickers were the lowest of the low in village hierarchy, it was hard backbreaking work, usually done even in the 50’s by the village poor and gangs of itinerant workers.

We were all outcasts, ignored by the other kids, bullied when on our own but not when we were in a group. There was me, Jeanie, Kevin, Angela Green and Ana.

All of us avoided or bullied for different reasons, me because I was dirty and unkempt, my mother had a career, was snob, and no intention of doing boring things like cooking and cleaning. She was unpopular with the other mothers, she never tried to hide her contempt for them.

Jeanie was epileptic, she was avoided as some people thought it might be catching.

Kevin was also dirty and unkempt, he was like a wild animal jumping on desks, peeing on the nature table, kicking out at teachers, his mother was ‘no better than she ought to be’.

Angela’s real name was Angelina Verdi, she was clean but all her clothes were worn and dated. Her dad had been an Italian POW, put to work in the fields, he’d married a local girl and the school anglicised her surname.

Ana, there were rumours that her dad had served time in prison for unnamed crimes. Later conversations with my mother revealed that Ana’s father was a German Jew who fled to England and was interned during the war.

Angela and I were the only two who went tatie picking, she with her mother and father and older brothers, there were 14 mouths to feed in their family, an unusually big family by 50’s standards, though when my father was a boy there were many families of that size around.

I went tatie picking with my granny, my mother hated me going to the tatie fields but as she and my father were both out at work granny provided child care, so when granny went tatie picking, so did I.

We left the area when I was eight years old, we followed my mother’s peripatetic wanderings from one end of the country to the other, I changed schools every couple of years. But my years as one of the Tatie girls stood me in good stead.

I was never going to fit in with the in crowd, I was and still am short and fat, I never had the right clothes or listened to the right music. To be honest I didn’t really know what ‘the right clothes or right music’ were.

Within a few weeks of starting at a new school I would have mastered the local accent and worked out who the other outcasts were and made friends with some of them.

Writers circle

I went to a meeting of the writers circle yesterday evening, every time I go I take something with me to read. Every time they ask who is going to read I shake my head.
Yesterday hubby threatened to stop me going if I didn't read this week, so I did.
I read a short story I had written, it needed a title, so I called it Globophobia.

Image courtesy of freeimagelive.com.

My story for this weeks Light & Shade Challenge

Well what an idiot I'd made of myself, screaming and crying like that, half the workforce now think I've lost my marbles, the other half will think the same when word gets out.
I'm sat at my desk, still snivelling and hiccoughing, trying to decide what to do, what to say. I'm 40 today, not a toddler on the first day at nursery.
Though for the moment it doesn't matter as I cannot leave my office, or even my desk for now.
Eventually I make a decision, I phone the one person who knows about my problem, not that she understands, she thinks I'm mad but at least she knows and I don't have to explain myself.
With a trembling hand I lift the telephone receiver & dial her number, she picks up eventually, her voice blurred with sleep. 
'Sis, sis, it's me, I'm sorry to disturb you, but I need you help, I'm so scared.'
When she stops laughing she replies 'OK, OK, calm down I'm on my way, I'll think of something, stay put.'
Thinking bitterly that I have no choice but to stay put, I hang up.
True to her word, she arrives about half an hour later, to me it seems like hours.
Within minutes of her arrival she is talking to the staff & their puzzled looks turn to looks of sympathy, no one is laughing, so she obviously hasn't told them the truth.
She enters my room & puts her arm around me 'I told them an elderly relative died suddenly and that you shouldn't have come to work today'
'Thank you'
'Come on, stand up, close your eyes, I'll tell you when we are past them'
We go to a coffee shop just round the corner from work.
'They will clear your office up for you, they will all be gone when you go back tomorrow'
'Thank you' I say again.
She passes me a business card.
'What's this?' I ask
The name of a good therapist!
'I don't need a therapist! There is nothing wrong with me!' I snarl
'Oh right, so every time someone decorates your office with balloons for your birthday or Christmas. I'm gonna have to come over and invent a dead relative, just so you don't have to admit you have a balloon phobia' she replied.
'Well it's your bloody fault, you hid balloons in my bed and they scared me half to death'.
My sister screamed her reply 'We were 6 for Gods sake, get over it!'

Ebay

I put some of my books on Ebay, I've made about £5 for 3 books, better than nothing!

On my hook today

On my hook today, V stitch using the Cupcake palette designed by Attic24, purchased from Wool Warehouse.

More sorting done

Leaving the house this on Monday:-

One large bag of bedding.
Carrier bag of shoes.
More books (sold on ebay)
Christmas decorations going to DD's

Genius

When I got to work on Friday my room was full of staff wanting to use a machine but both of my big machines were jammed.
I started to unjam one, my grandson who is 11 offered to have a look at the other one.
We got both the machines working within a few moments.
I told him how clever I thought he was.
He said 'All I did was follow the instructions on the screen'
I replied 'I know, that's what's so clever, no-one else thought to look at the screen!'

Yawn

It's 1 in the morning, why am I awake? It can only mean one thing, the grandchildren are staying and one of them can't sleep. Thank heavens for Peppa Pig!

Another one finished

Another blanket finished, this one is being donated as a raffle prize.

Rinse and repeat

Full day at work.
2 loads of washing done.
Friends garden watered.
Tomorrow I have four of the grandchildren staying overnight, it is DD Lizzies birthday, she is going out with her husband.
My L&M is going to start tidying up the garden, I' pottering on with the decluttering, half term is coming up so I will have a big push then to get the house ready to go on the market.

CSA, an explanation

My ex husband had 2 obsessions, sex and money. He insisted on total control over any money coming into the household. This included the Family Allowance, he therefore kept the Family Allowance book that used to be issued. He was insistent that the money was only spent on things he approved of and not frittered away on clothes or other items for the children.
I left him 2 weeks after our youngest son, John, joined the Army at 16, at the time Family Allowance could be claimed after 16 for children in further education. My ex had applied for the benefit to be extended claiming the our youngest son had gone to college.
John was discharged from the Army after 6 weeks on medical grounds, something to do with his knees.
John then moved in with me.
The ex used the Family Allowance book to 'prove' John was still living with him and applied to the CSA for child support.
He still believes I owe him £3000 from this time.
This eats away at him, money that should be in his possession and isn't.

I need more hours in the day

So far today, apart from a full day's work I have:-
Taken clean uniform to DGS.
Changed DGD's nappy and got her dressed.
Taken DGS to school.
Then after work I delivered a car boot full of stuff to a charity fundraiser.
Dropped 3 parcels at the post office.
Cooked a roast dinner.
Done 2 loads of washing and hung them on the line.
Done a 5 mile round trip to a friends house and spent an hour watering his garden.
Listed books on Ebay.
Spent time on the phone to the CSA as it used to be called, my ex has resurrected the case against me, our youngest son is nearly 30!

Sodding technology 2

I was online yesterday evening, listing items for sale on gumtree and facebook when all of a sudden I lost my internet connection.
I waited a few minutes and then tried again, still nothing.
I checked my settings, I called through to my L&M who was in the same room as the router and asked him to press the reset button on it, he did so.
Still nothing, I checked and rechecked everything I could think of, still nothing.
I turned my laptop off and watched TV for a while and did some crochet for an hour or so.
Eventually I turned my laptop back on, still nothing, by now my beloved had gone to bed.
I looked at the router, no lights, nothing!
My beloved had been having problems with the printer, so he's turned the power of on the wall.
He turned both sockets off on the wall!
One of them was powering the router!
So although he'd pressed the reset button on the router when I'd asked him to, he hadn't noticed that there were no lights on it as HE'D TURNED THE BLOODY THING OFF ON THE WALL!!!

Sodding technology 1

I'm not a technophobe, despite my advanced age, I used to run an IT business, so I do know my way around a bit.

Firstly my DGD who stayed over on Friday night decided to go home early on Saturday as it was her school fair and she was dancing in it.
I drove her home but there was no-one there, I knew DD was at work so I sent SIL a text to see where he was.
I carried on driving around, I went to the bakers and then drove towards a friends house to water his plants.
I have a hands free phone system in my car and after a few minutes it burbled in to life, 'You have a message from Carl my son in law, do you want to read it or ignore it?'
'Ignore it' I said clearly, I would read it when I got to my friends house.
'You have a message from Carl, do you want to read it or ignore it?' it repeated.
'Ignore it' I repeated.
A mechanical voice decided to read the message anyway and said 'I'm in Asda, is there a problem?'
It then asked 'Do you want to reply or have you finished'?
'Finished' I announced.
'Do you want to reply or have you finished'?
'Finished' I announced.
'Do you want to reply or have you finished'?
'Finished' I houted, by this time DGD is in fits of laughter and so was I
The mechanical voice continued 'Text 'finished' to Carl, send text or delete?'
'Delete, delete, delete' I shouted.
'Message sent' the mechanical voice said, sounding very smug.
I pulled on the my friends drive, phoned Carl and asked him to collect DGD when he'd finished shopping!

More books available, crafts, cooking and gardening.

Books

The books have all been posted off and some have already arrived, I will list some more tomorrow.

That's not the way to do it

I mentioned that I'd had a pay cut, not just me, other staff as well. We were talking today about what we will be doing to compensate for the shortfall. One workmate announced that she will take out a loan to cover the shortfall in her wages.
I asked how she expected to pay back the loan as she had less money coming in, she suddenly looked worried, but then said I'll worry about that later, for now I need enough to pay my bills!

Jewllery sold

I sold some jewellery that I found whilst decluttering, another £184 in the pot.

Well bugger me sideways

Another Dr's appointment today, this time to discuss the results of my last set of tests!

Well it seems I am no longer diabetic, my readings haven't changed, they have never been high enough for me to even be prediabetic.

I have been having this argument for best part of a year so far.

Unfortunately the Dr feels he cannot 'un-diagnose' me.

I have another appointment next week and the week after and the week after.

I will continue to visit until the Dr changes his mind and does 'un-diagnose' me.

He then changed tack and started to explain my 'exceptionally high' cholesterol.

It's 6, it should be 5 or under, 6 is not exceptionally high and so I refused the offer of statins.

What a waste of time and resources!

More books and bits and bobs

All these are off to the charity shop unless someone wants them.

Two rag wreaths

Hand made Friendship wall hanging.

Books

Here are some of the books I'm getting rid off, way too many to list, but if you see a book you would like I'm happy to pop it in the post to you.

If you click on a pic, it should enlarge it enough for you to read the title.

Social services

I never did receive a reply from SS,  but they have at least stop hassling me for a while.

One of the things the social worker queried was me having a key to DD's house, she seemed to find that really strange. Actually I have a key to 3 out of my 4 children's houses and they have a key to mine.

We all live within easy walking/driving distance of each other and the key situation means that it's very easy if we are needed to feed pets, check post, take in a parcel etc. Or if someone locks themselves out!

My other son lives in Ealing, much too far away, but if he was nearer he would probably also give/have keys.

The social worker kept returning to this subject repeatedly as if it were some strange perversion. We did explain that we only used the keys if asked or in an emergency but she still found it strange.

What do you think, is it strange?

Kids, dogs and books

I have DGD5 here, she is Lizzie's daughter, she was tired when I collected her from school, so we had tea and she was in bed and asleep before 7, no doubt she'll be up by 5am tomorrow.
Helen has just dropped her dogs off with me, she is having a birthday party for the twins tomorrow and will have 10 two year olds there along with her own pair.
Both the dogs are good with children, but some children might be frightened by them so they have come to me until tomorrow evening.
One of the dogs, the Lurcher has settled and is almost asleep, the other one, the Staffy, is still fretting, so he is now sat on my knee, all 9 stone of him.
Hubby has also gone to bed, he is taking strong painkillers and they are making him feel ill.
I'm sat watching a program about Elton John, I saw him live quite a few times at the Colston Hall in Bristol in the early '70's.
After one concert, I went to work the next day and someone said 'You do know he's gay?'
I replied 'I'm going to watch him sing, I'm not watching him have sex so what difference does it make!'
This afternoon I started packing books, boxes and boxes of books, they won't sell so they are off to the charity shop, I'll probably divide them between the three local shops as there are so many of them.

It's amazing what you find

I'm still de-cluttering, I have taken 2 bags and 2 boxes of stuff to the charity shop and started sorting more.
I've started another box of stuff to donate, I found 25 small white china jugs, they were used as table decorations at a wedding reception.
I also found a pack of signed 'glamour' photos of Katie Price! I know they aren't hubby's, I know his type and she isn't it.
I looked through them and there is a photo of my son in amongst them, so I assume they are his.
Do I embarrass him by returning them to him or do I discretely dispose of them?

It never rains but it pours

I was rudely awakened at 4am this morning by my beloved L&M screaming and wailing.
As this racket was accompanied by a very energetic war dance being performed at the end of the bed.
I surmised correctly that my beloved was suffering from cramp in his leg.
He soon got back into bed and started to snore gently, I, meanwhile was wide awake, so I came downstairs to browse online for a while.
I returned to bed eventually to find the my L&M had woken again in pain, this time in his thumb, more of that shortly.
In attempt to reach the painkillers that he needed my L&M had managed to tip my glass of water, a full pint glass no less all over my side of the bed, soaking both mattress and duvet.
I decided against getting back into bed!
After I'd gone to work, my beloved took himself off to the walk in clinic, they sent him to A&E.
It seems he managed to break a bone in his thumb during his war dance.

Play nicely children

It is always difficult online, you cannot see people's expression and posts and comments can be misconstrued.

Margaret has contacted me privately and sent me some invaluable advice with regards to my move, I think the fact that we email means that other readers are only seeing half of our conversations.

Margaret, eyelash wool is wool that looks like a long string of eyelashes, it knits up to a very fluffy texture, eyelash scarves were very popular a few years ago and knitted a couple of hundred over the years. I sold them to pay for Christmas when times were hard. If you google it you will see photo's of it.

As for the wine coolers, well I can understand the confusion since I don't drink wine.

I can't remember how much I've posted on my blog about my divorce and the reasons behind it.

My ex husband became addicted to Internet porn
As I aged I was unable to see well enough to continue to do the fine soldering work needed in our business.
My ex then decided that the only way I could make up for this was to go swinging (wife swapping) with him.
He'd spent a year trying to break into the scene with no success. I was not enthusiastic but when he started being unkind to our children including accidentally on purpose breaking our oldest son's nose I reluctantly agreed.
Unfortunately it was not a success for him but we did attend a couple of parties. This gave me the idea of running our own parties, it gave him a larger pool of people to meet and meant I became too busy hosting to have sex with anybody.
Because of the parties we had about a dozen wine coolers, when I walked out of my marriage (the week after my youngest child left home) I left with a few clothes and nothing else.
Not long after he remarried my ex sent me all the wine coolers via one of our children, I've gradually been throwing/giving them away ever since.

I've set myself a challenge.

As we are planning to downsize I have set myself a challenge of getting rid of at least 100 items a week until we are ready to sell.

I will list what I get rid of each week.

This is what has left the house so far this week.

1 Radio cassette player sold £1
1 Mini oven sold £10
55 piece Denby dinner service sold £70
12 balls of eyelash wool
5 lengths of fabric
5 Vases
8 mugs
3 wine coolers
2 candle holders
1 Oil diffuser
2 bottles of wine to be used as raffle prize
2 bars of soap to be used as raffle prize
2 bottles of shower gel to be used as raffle prize
14 kitchen utensils
6 marked pint glasses

First boxful ready to go to the charity shop

Listed for sale so far

Radio cassette player
Cork pin board
1 small tv
1 large tv
Aircon unit
Slow cooker with recipe book
Garden table and chairs
Corner desk
3 wooden shelf units
2 bookcases
5 Vases
Wok
Cake/baking tins
Wall unit shelves and cupboard
Wall unit shelves
Wall unit shelves and drawers
Mirror with dark frame
Mirror with light frame
Dark wood bookshelf
Light wood bookshelf
Curtain fabric
2 wicker whatnots, one with drawers one without.
Office chair
2 heavy cream cotton blankets
2 Bedside chests
Mini oven

Why?

I've just taken my lodger for her morning constitutional, just a quick round the block as she had a long walk yesterday and has been out in the garden a few times already.

Whilst out I passed a neighbour, he was being dragged along the road by his very large German Shepherd called Butch.

Why do some men think it makes them look tough being dragged along by a dog?

I think a well trained dog makes a man look more manly, not that we can talk because the lodger in not at all well trained, but:-
A) She's only small.
B) She's trained in Polish & we don't speak it.
C) She's not our dog.

Butch is OK with people but he will jump up a lot, I like dogs and I know he is friendly but he is big enough to make me stagger.

Butch does not like other dogs and went loopy at the site of my lodger, he nearly pulled his owner over.

The lodger jumped straight up into my arms for protection.

A lovely day for gongoozeling

Strictly speaking a gongoozler is someone who likes to watch canal life without getting involved.

Whereas we were actually watching boats on the Thames, three of the boats that went through were canal boats, two narrow boats and a widebeam.

It's lovely down by the lock, lots of people and dogs, lots to look at, even a café if you fancy a coffee or a snack.

The dog and I shared an ice cream.

My oldest son, on the other hand was truly gongoozling, he was at the Canalway Cavalcade at Little Venice.

Thank you

Thank you all for your comments, advice and suggestions.
Galant, great advice and info, thank you.
Trishwish I have listed the first 10 things to sell on various sites.
Kathy thanks for the info re the energy rating.
SweetBBE, unfortunately we aren't eligible as we can afford something, though probably not the property we'd like.
An interesting suggestion Anon, unfortunately most of these jobs require the husband to drive and mine can't.
After DGD had been collected by SIL, my L&M and I took the dog for a long walk, it was a lovely sunny day, we walked to the lock and watched the boats going through.
Once home I cooked lunch then got the last load of washing in.
The house is a mess, but I'll vacuum and steam through tomorrow after the dog has been collected.

Joyce Grenfell

I spent yesterday evening sounding like a Joyce Grenfell monologue.

I was looking after DGD 18months as DD is away on a hen  night and SIL wanted to go to a family party.

DGD is fine with dogs as she has one at home, I wasn't sure how my lodger would react to DGD as she isn't used to toddlers and DGD is fairly noisy and tends to rampage around the house.

Eventually they bonded over a bowl of sgetti hoops and toast, DGD decided she didn't want the toast, so dropped it on the floor where it was gratefully received by the dog, oh well it saved a mess on the floor.

DGD was up at 5:20, her normal getting up time, she had her breakfast, shreddies,  so did the dog, dry food and the rest of last nights salmon! DGD is now back in bed.

I have one load of washing on the line and another in the machine, I think I'm up to date then.