This is the End

The Last Post as i sign off for xmas 

Someone Robin Hooded Iceland overnight yesterday and im sure there will be more of these incidents this week, society seems to be going downhill at a rapid rate . Ive seen folks shoplifting much more this year  . We have heat and light still , but im still ignoring the whole event where possible , plenty of food in the cupboards the only extra is a cheese pack . Though im storing daughter and sons turkeys things . Sons freezer packed up and daughters is rammed full . Sons baby is due to be started off the day after Boxing Day , the hospital is only booking slots for the days they have enough midwifes for so you have them when they tell you these days .

In the world of Grinch ive had 2 xmas cards this year , one i have no idea who its from . A friend bought me a cheese advent calendar much appreciated but now i feel guilty because i cant afford to buy her a gift . every spare penny is having to be saved for fuel to get son to his girlfriends for the baby , theres no public transport available and they are more than skint despite working . im hoping to get them electric for xmas .

Mother Dearest is fading slowly shes over the flu but has yet another infection , you still take a week to get any news but things have been relaxed so that you dont have to book appointments to visit and they are allowed to ring you if they are well enough . Somebody put in an official complaint it would seem , nothing to do with me but i think my daughter may have had something to do with it .

So enjoy your xmas whatever you may have planned , i will be warm and well fed at daughters subject to grandson giving us his raging cold  

Jingle Bells

 well its very xmasy outside heaps of ice and freezing fog so im debating making plum loaf in the microwave , ive got some ancient eggs and last years dried fruit , nothing that a bit of tea and a splash wont rehydrate , always a good experiment . its surprising but im still drying washing outside when the fog lifts , just have to remember to turn it , mainly because it doesnt dry in a house with a mould problem . couldnt afford to own a tumble drier anyway . On that subject its a kindness if your neighbours have kids and you can afford it to offer to dry school uniform in your tumble if you see it hanging in the fog .

As far as we are aware mother is still alive in Jurassic Park , nobody answers the phone which i can understand as they all have flu, mother included , so theres no visitors allowed . My cousin says they are training attendants for the ward in the event of strike action , if mothers feeling perky im sure she will love administering bed baths to everyone in memory of her nursing days 

im my usual xmas Grinch im afraid ive done dozens of the thousands of xmas competitions on offer , mainly gardening and craft stuff , theres never clothes of a decent size and im afraid beauty products long passed me by . i did find one for DMS so you never know ? So far ive won a Guinness Christmas jumper , i usually win 3 things so im waiting patiently . 

Tis The Season

 Well it feels like the season of misery and depression , Mr BH had his on the phone PIP reassessment the other day the girl was nice enough but he was sobbing he really doesnt like to even think about his prognosis let alone chat about it , i was allowed to sit with him and to explain that because we had to fill the forms in during the Covid Lockdown we were unable to get consultant letters they required and he is now awaiting being assigned to new consultants because everyone dealing with him has gone home to their own countries . Why is he not seeing his GP each month ? because nobody has seen any of our GPs for months , they give him an appointment then cancel it the next day because the surgery has no GPs ...AARRRGGGGHHH. Why had i sent a copy of his medical records in ? because i couldnt get the letters . Why has he not been by the consultant about his heart problem diagnosed 18 months ago ? we are still waiting . Has he seen any consultants ? nope he just gets telephone consultants about his iron problem with a bloke based in Mumbai whos very good . Is he still having blood transfusions regularly ? No because there is no blood so hes having infusions till they get some blood not helped by him having a rare blood group .  An hour on the phone now we await the verdict which can take weeks ,hes so depressed he suggested we end it all if it has to go to another tribunal .

 Hes down in the depths and instead of weetabix wars we have crumpet wars , i got a small batch of yellow label Asda stuff to try because daughter shops there so she could pick things up for me . The crumpets are foul and hes not eating them he says they are a bit stodgy but excellent value for money so i will eat them . There grotty frozen sausage rolls were good but i dont think they have any meat content , a bottle of Cola was so bad ive used it to clean the toilet , we will keep wading through the offerings , but im getting comments about why am i not shopping for xmas ? because theres no money due to the electric being so expensive aaarrrggghhh

Mummy Update

 Mummy Update time its sort of eating everyones life at the moment , shes now in a ward she cant escape from . I had a call from a very junior daughter last week who with much errr and ahhing asked if we were ok with my mother going on to DNR which with things as they are and at 88 doesnt seem unreasonable. A consultant had lunch with her and she now has a diagnosis of dementia worsened by asymptomatic Covid , this at least means they run care decisions past us . The endless urine nfections are taking their toll and her heart is failing but shes still running round the ward creating havoc .  So daughter and other half decided to go visit at the weekend and visit the bungalow to clear up some stuff .  Piles of post etc to be processed , fridge to be emptied , set the heating low all the chores for a long term empty property . A couple of neighbours collared them and said theres been a lot of burglaries locally so they have fetched home all her jewellery for safe keeping and all important paperwork etc . At least in a little street of pensioners bungalows they are all keeping an eye on the place .  The huge freezer is packed full so a neighbour is going to ask round and see if a charity will take it . Daughter has suggested Olio. 

 On visiting her they had problems , it seems you must book an appointment to visit the ward she is on now , daughter told them tough shed driven 3 hours she would be seeing her , nobody has mentioned it and it says nothing on the website . Plus nobody ever answers the phone . she said the ward is grim its full of confused elderly bed blockers with just two nurses , it has no windows they can see out of  , which for mother being functionally blind isnt to bad but she says all the lights are on 24/7 , shes her usual vile chirpy self  most of the time , but then she drifts a bit , once again shes taken against another patient so i can see this being fun . They also noticed that the meals are just dumped then collected with the staffing level this isnt surprising, but it does seem cruel if people just need a little help and encouragement . So it seems that they now accept it isnt a good idea to send her home with carers and she will likely be going into residential care subject to the six month minimum waiting list . who knows its all a bit wait and see at the moment , im sure they may ring us eventually 

Onwards and Upwards

Well as we head towards xmas tied to vain hope that all will be well , im still here , not here much because im busy with various projects of a crafty nature , plus everything is so depressing online . I missed 3 days to read a good book and somehow accumulated 300 emails all about Black Friday and i cant say i was tempted to open a single one, i get so much email just because i do a lot of competitions , i sit and freeze in here while tea cooks im waiting for my dumplings to swell is the only reason i would be in here its 5 degrees which with a wooly hat and thermals is pretty tolerable . Then its the time of year that mould wars get serious, never ending moping of condensation if we gave up breathing there wouldnt be so much says the surveyor but it forms on every surface you dont wipe down . sons bedroom is the worst he gets a three inch strip along the outside wall his bedroom stinks of bleach and vinegar . All you can do is keep on moping and store everything in airtight tubs and containers i sometimes think it looks a bit like a warehouse with all the plastic crates . 

On the mummy front i have waited a week for them to contact me about this huge meeting over mommy dearest, not a thing have i heard and nobodies answering the phone or messages . My cousin toddled to the hospital , struggled to find her bacause she had moved yet again , which if someone is confused why would you move her to another ward every few days? I gather she had to apologise to the staff on the last ward , not sure how they managed that , ive never had an apology in 50 years . I think they are assuming she has angry dementia not that she is bleedin horrible and talks to everyone like that . Unless your one of her chosen ones

Wibble Wibble

 im really living in the land of the batty at the moment , himself is sat on the sofa talking and snoring  , hes had to heavily medicate having done something interesting while disabled fishing . I would imagine hes fallen as he wouldnt even get in the shower last night or this morning ...ho hum its going to be a long weekend . Planned to go to the jumble today but unless i can get a sitter i would think it will be another whole week staring at the walls .

Got a phonecall from a rehabilitation nurse about Mommy Dearest , and once again had to explain that she cant come home to me as i have other commitments , why can nobody read her bleedin notes ?  She did in fact attack the woman in the next bed and has been moved to another ward . They cant get her to interact she just tells them all to fuck off they have a meeting about her next week to decide whether she needs to be in secure accommodation rather than rehabilitation and they want us to apply for power of attorney so that she cant make her own care decisions again . Ive been trying to look up the cost , her neighbor sent me a picture of the mountains of bills that she has accumulated in 7 weeks , the neighbor is also owed money for her shopping her gardener and window cleaner etc , im just hoping i can get some of the cost of living payment off himself before he goes on another spending spree . i just dont have a penny to my name at the moment £69 doesnt go far ...AAARRRGGGHJHHH

Update

 It took 5 days to track mother down to the right hospital and ward and the verdict is that shes been sent dolally by a water infection. Cousin managed to break in to the hospital yesterday and see her . He was there with my 90 year old uncle who had fallen out of bed split his head open and sat 3 days with a tea towel on his head and not said a word , his carers hadnt noticed and i presume thought the teatowel was a fashion statement ? Anyway mother is hallucinating but they say its the drugs , she has also taken against one of the women on her ward and told my cousin that she plans to kill her . I did ask my cousin if he had informed the staff but he thought she was joking , im not so sure, But the plan apparently is that shes going to the rehabilitation hospital once theres a place , because theres nothing medically wrong with her . Dear old Uncle Roy chimed in with ...thats where they send you to die if your a nuisance.

 Im sure im living in some weird dystopian nightmare between mommy dearest and other half and his weirdness he generously gave me a $5 note for the groceries and told me to treat myself with the change. Oh and the staff nurse who asked me if i was having psychiatric treatment ..AAARRRGGHH   

Doom nd Gloom

Well thats it mother managed half a day at home then refused to let her carers in and at that point it went nuclear on her, shes in a hospital somewhere , still trying to find out whats going on . Neighbour says shes to confused to deal with anything and she should never have been sent home in that state . 

Meanwhile in the real world what the hell is going on , i managed to get him to let me go into Sleaford  yesterday , to pop into the food pantry because i had the cash to pay my £6 for a bag full , hes currently refusing to pay anything because hes saving up for bits for his latest scooter project and i only got to go in because he was dropping bits off for shot blasting .AARRRGGGHHHH  the food pantry is a bit weird at times you get an odd selection still lots of fruit and veg , theres lots of cereals and pasta but i have a good selection stockpiled so i leave those for who needs them more, then theres mountains of weird stuff yesterday they had a lard mountain , tons of end of day posh bread buns that just screamed pizza bread to me so i got a big bag because everybody was looking at them and putting them back , so sourdough pizza bread is todays project some to eat and a bag to pop in the freezer . there was a girl with a baby looking baffled so i explained that a tube of tomato puree will do dozens and you can use any mangy cheese you have even plastic slices and the kids wont care its just pizza bread to them. I do feel for those who dont know how to get by and who have never had to live poor before . I think i got adopted as i then had to explain that you can run stuff like the little jars of fish paste through pasta and it just tastes of tomato and once again kids love it . 

I ventured into Iceland because theres been some good stuff in the sale freezer lately but they have done away with it for the festive season , but stuff got weird there was a Chinese lady who runs one of the takeways buying 2 trolleys of eggs , all the eggs in the shop in fact , i suppose she plans to freeze them so they dont run out ? who knows but the little lad on the till was struggling with the concept and trying to ask if she really needed so many and she started shouting in Chinese and it turned into a circus , in fact it was my entertainment for the day . She got all her eggs though ...lol 

Normalacy

 So heres me veered away from mummy tales , she has informed the rest of the family she no longer has a daughter bless her . She has also offered to give the neighbor who kept her alive during covid her bungalow if she will care for her full time . To the best of my knowledge shes still locked up in the hospital refusing to pay for carers ..lol 

Meanwhile lets talk about real world problems , the cost of living etc etc etc . Has anyone else noted the shocking drop in quality of what you normally buy?  the shrinkage , the lack of variety and the half a supermarket full of xmas stock and bugger all else? Grandson is here for the week and even he noted there was not a lot in Tesco unless you were xmas shopping and the prices for toys etc were shocking, bits of plastic for £30 in a pretty box pretty much sums it up . Im fortunate that i dont need to buy for small children , our family is dwindling to a standstill though we expect a new grandchild in the new year , im trying to save up to get a load of supermarket vouchers for that arrival so they can decide what they actually need they have loads of baby stuff and a small mountain of nappies etc . Im very reassured that when you go shopping even the posh folk are exclaiming ..sod that....when they pick stuff up , £3.80 for a small pack of almonds , i think not , Bakewells off the menu now along with a lot of other stuff , himself  never noticed id filled out a huge cake with grated apple and pear the other day not a single complaint thats unlike him , hes a real food whiner most of the time . hes got one on him today because i bought Clover spread because it was a Clubcard offer . Ask me and i will buy some decent stuff he says , just accept that i cant feed us on F++k all these days and stop buying emdless scooter crap of the internet , everyday theres parcels and not cheap parcels at that arriving .

BUUUT on a plus note  we have a full oil tank, they fitted a new one just before covid and we saved to buy 500 litres they came to deliver and managed to get only 300litres in, the sensor is faulty it would seem .  Ive tried to get him to order padlocks for the twin layer lids because oil theft out here is about the only crime we get , ive had to nag and nag and when they turned up they didnt fit AAARRGGGHHHH now all i hear is can we have the heating on im cold  as he sits with no shirt and shorts on . So nothings changed now my mother has orphaned me , himself is still as thoughtless and confused as ever , we bimble along and im sure we shall be fine . Jumble sale tomorrow just to cheer me up , ive got a new search list at the moment , mainly stuff ive broken ...lol

Mummy 5

 well where to begin , after all the fuss mummy dearest has been declared fit to come home , the problem is that she is refusing all the carers she has been offered , shes still being rude to all and sundry , sent the social worker home with a flea in his ear and her problem?  She refuses to pay for them despite getting attendance allowance and having more money than a Tory PPI contract holder . Theres nothing i can do she refuses to speak to me at all . The hospital is desperate to get rid of the abusive old biddy and its her stubbornness keeping her there .  Himself has been not to well so im run off my feet , his urgent blood transfusion were cancelled because hes a rare blood group and there is no blood, they then decided to give him some other  infusion  that they normally give to pregnant women and hes reacted badly stumbled yesterday because hes so drowsy and now can barely move or walk . AAARRRGGGHHH  hes got to go for another next week which should be fun getting him there . So lifes fun , all i have is the enjoyment  of being stuck in and watching the Tory Party implode while polishing Barbies for this years xmas donation.

mummy 4

 now my mother and i have always had a difficult relationship . At the moment im plagued with bad dreams and flashbacks to the point of struggling to function at all . None of this is helped by the fact that the hospital she is in is virtually impossible to contact , they hardly answer the phone and when they do its just to hang up . weve had one phone call all the time shes been in their , today daughter managed to make contact only to be told that they have had to section her because she assaulted a member of staff last night and had been extremely verbally abuse to them she had had to be restrained and tranquilized . They thought she may have had a small stroke or something else so she earned a CT and an MRI they can find nothing wrong with her so are scheduling her for release . Shes Covid clear now so they want rid of her . Not sure what the hell is going to happen , but i know this i cant care for her in any shape or form .

mummy 3

 well finally the hospital has made contact after 6 days . A junior doctor with very poor english rang me last night , sadly things had got somewhat out of hand to the point that my daughter threatened legal action to the patient liason team , suddenly we get a phone call they explained she is now in an isolation room in the Covid ward as she has tested positive , shes not ill just a little vocal i gather . They claim they rang and gave us an update , not sure who they think they rang but it was none of the family. They now admit that she has an infection as well as Covid so they are filling her with antibiotics all discharge plans have been put on hold . The doctor said she could ring us if she chooses too but being blind i can see a problem with that theory , plus the doctor said it says nothing about her being blind in her notes ...aaarrggghhhh so thats todays update of you couldnt make it up . Life other than this saga continues as usual boring depressing and poor ...lol 

mummy 2

 Well its all proceeding on well, social services have come out of the woodwork and are leaping into action ....desperate to get rid of her i think thats code for.  Shes still refusing to speak to any of us , but we expected this . we seem to have stirred up a whole kettle of worms over the other so called care company . The lady who came and recommended them wasnt a social worker all though she did do assessment visits for them , it seems she has been recommending this mother and daughter pair of carers to lots of people shes seen and they are not contracted to social services ,  the fact that they dont appear to do any daily paperwork to give anyone a clue what they are actually doing is a bit of a giveaway . But the social worker says they have done nothing illegal . This is a private matter because mother pays for her care and not them . AARRRGGGHHH  It was up to my blind mother to check the paperwork to see they had insurance etc . So thats another thing i get the blame for . Daughter had put a rocket up their backside about the suggestion that she move in with me so i can care for her and other half  because we are paying bedroom tax so must have a spare room , i think it was the suggestion that we are to far from an off license and we dont get on at all ended that idea. i do think that if id lived in the same area she would have been dumped on our doorstep !!!  I told the social worker that we would be happy for her to go home if they sorted her cataract out while she was stuck in the hospital so that she would have far more vision and a better quality of life and would need less care . not sure if that sunk in , but we all keep saying this to them . the latest daft problem is they have moved her to another ward that doesnt answer the phone at all they just hang up if you manage to get through so we have heard not a thing for 3 days 

mummy

 So im the lowest of the low at the moment , Mummy dearest decided to not open the curtains Saturday morning and the neighbour who keeps an eye on her , thought this is it , went across with her spare key and found the doors locked with the key on the inside . after hammering and screaming through the letterbox she heard a little im coming and my mother answered the door in her nightie . But the point is she was very confused and out of it so she rang me while mother was getting dressed , it transpires her carers havent been for days though i rang Thursday and she hung up on me because she said her carers had arrived ?  There was no fresh food in the house and being blind she had been eating green mouldy bread buns , the carers do her shopping for her.  when the neighbour checked she hadnt had any pills since Tuesday , i asked the neighbour to ring for an ambulance but she insisted i ring 111 which i did and then had to explain im over 100 miles away , this meant they couldnt access anything because we are living in a different region , so this turned into a right circus . but finally they got a nice little indian lady to ring my mother it was  decided after this conversation to request an ambulance  so the neighbour stayed with her she was still very confused and looked like death so im told theyd got her sat in front of the telly with a pile of blankets because mother had turned off the heating and was freezing , fed her  pills and given her tea laced with sugar as instructed it took 6 hours for the ambulance to get their it got to the top of the road then had to leave again once . but they checked her and she needed to go in because her heartbeat was allover . Then they sort of  kidnapped her , she sat in an ambulance till she got a bed Monday morning and we couldnt find anything out before other than she was in ambulance triage.  Then the fun begins they rang yesterday and because she hadnt had a fall they wanted to send her home !! Not a chance , nobody not even the hospital has been able to get in touch with the care company involved , i cant leave himself and her neighbour cant be there all the time , so no they will have to involve Social Services . I then at 9 oclock last night get an irate staff nurse on the phone trying to shame me into picking her up because they need the bed , shes mobile and wandering round BUT if shes not taking her medication or able to shop and eat unsupervised and wont put the heating on because shes listening to GB news all day telling her shes poor , its not safe for her to be home alone .  They even said that if they put her in a taxi they cant stop her leaving , she hasnt  got any house keys so she cant get in i pointed out, i was getting very annoyed by that stage .  i did point out to the nurse , that maybe she had a loving kind mother but sadly the little old lady sat in that bed is a bleedin manipulative monster , but she could be stuck here for weeks was the reply .  GOOD so now Social Services can sort this bleedin mess out and put a proper care plan in place . This is a conspiracy by myself the neighbour and other family members to make the evil old bag pay for her care and not treat everyone like unpaid servants in her aim to have a gold plated coffin . So im now officially a granny dumper ...The END not that in my wildest imagination it will be  

Busy

 Out here in the real world ive been busy thats why ive been up since 4am prepping veg for the freezer , not because im that busy but because i got up to let out a howling aged cat then i thought i will just have a cuppa then i thought id just catch up on blog reading , then i spotted the two on the turn peppers , last night i popped on stew from all the fridge gravel , himself asked what meat it was and i informed him its his favourite mystery meat, actually its a bag of frozen stock from a pork joint that we had back in the spring and my collection of chop bones ive being saving , but what he doesnt know wont hurt him and the bones will come out before serving.  did another food shop at the community pantry im aiming for once a fortnight and this weeks yield was better than the last . tesco reject celery , it was a bit muddy but guess what you can wash it!!! lots of peppers, two cabbages, huge heads of garlic ,various ugly veg that i have no problem with. plus free cooking apples if you needed them .  the lady on the till did ask why i take tinned potatoes instead of fresh , i explained i was still getting them from the garden that the tinned ones are excellent in stew once the fresh veg dries up in winter, if i fill the slow cooker right up it lasts 3 days , dumplings the first night , garlic toast the second and just bread on the third . I did laugh when Useful son said his pregnant girlfriend has no idea how to cook ,bless him he is quite a useful cook so thats another reason they might make a go of it in these hard times . I think its just the fact she comes from a very large family and managed to avoid learning  lol . Also i think ive found another good thing about the community pantry it was worth joining just for the cheeses, this week it was wensleydale with rhubarb others were picking it up and looking in horror , i was licking the packet , half for dinner on salad and half in the freezer , last week it was mozzarellas. freezer cheese is great for cooking.  So the poverty diet plan is in full swing to enable us to afford lights on this winter , its cheap its healthy and theres lots of it  

Queenie

 So the Elizabethan era is over , i may as well admit im not a royalist but what a spectacular life she has lived , from a future of living in a farmhouse as a small child with her sister and lots of dogs and horses . To ending up the heir to the throne by default , due to her Uncles abdication on rather salacious grounds for the times. Then we chucked a war at her and she served her country rather well spanner in hand like so many girls of the times , met a dashing naval officer shed had her eye on since she was a kid and lived happy ever after , thy spent endless years on tour to the backends of nowhere visiting the rapidly deflating Empire , Philip making her smile all the way , acid wit being his well known specialty . 4 kids later still on tour back in the days when people queued  for hours to see them , they were influencers before they were even invented .  

Lets talk about the kids ..err Charlie our once and future king , not much good at marriage , too used to getting his own way , climate hypocrite , how many trees does he have to plant to carbon offset his jetting round to eco conferences? Andrew cant say nothing good so saying nothing . Edward dragged out of some backwater closet to do the job they had lined up for Harry and Anne absolutely distraught by her mums death being dragged around the country as a public grief martyr.

Its the whole public spectacle of it that i object to , im sure the queen would have been more than happy to be interred with Phillip driven there on the landrover he loved surrounded by her loving family allowing  them to privately grieve.

Please dont get me on the subject of how we have all watched her wither away since Philip went, thats the cruelist part of all . 
Or maybe thats the fact they dragged her of her deathbed filled her up with drugs and got her to shake hands with Liz Truss in the name of duty .

Good At It

My first visit  to the Community Grocery in Sleaford , i managed to scrounge a lift with my daughter who insisted in having a look with  me . Its bright cheerful and the staff are great. They explained the system where you get 5 tinned items, 5 veg items  then apologized because Friday is the busiest day so stocks were low and a freezer item and a chiller item with two treats as extras was rather good value , i ended up with  A pack of walls microwave sausages that will be thrown into sausage sandwiches , they also had great big packets of Richmond sausages and 4 pint cartons of milk frozen .i got  a pack of feta cheese , huge tin of potatoes , tin of minced beef in gravy jar of lemon curd   6 pack of chipsticks  plus a huge pack of digestives  , my treats were two sachets of posh cat food for old cat . The veg front was really good ,  bag of carrots for stew , 3 sweet potatoes , giant cabbage , bag of onions and a pack of chestnut mushrooms .  So for the 6 pound charge i think i did well . i could have done better with different choices but we have no need of huge bags of cooking apples and pears at the moment or potatoes you could even get 5 pot noodles if you dont cook or are living in a tent up the rec ground . My daughter was horrified lol ...how the more well off live .  we live within our means , we have no possibility of our income going up so every little saving helps at the moment. I noticed most of the customers were my age and older says a lot about the value of pensions i think.

While in Sleaford i wandered into iceland not much i could afford but i was searching for Easy wash powder and they actually had some . Daughter however was laden up having found they had a sale freezer which had the summer barbecue packs in for 2.79  half priced so she got a couple one had to go in my freezer because theres no room at her house . i do think my daughter shops well but the problem is shes shopping cheaply through choice not because shes forced to shop that way .  

Its all a bit catch 22 on the shopping front , shopping online is costly most of it doesnt show up , but im struggling to carry stuff . Theres things that are having to drop off the shopping list because they are so unaffordable whether himself likes it or not .  he was looking at my sweet potato mountain the other day with bafflement , they are cheap at the moment so im stocking up, they are practicaly immortal and will keep for ages , the potato harvest is miserable so its a good healthy substitute . All i have in the garden at the moment is potatoes kale leeks and mountains of beetroot  if the weather holds i will have broad beans and bush beans  yet again , spring onions and lettuces and the tomatoes are late but thriving   

Potter On

 Oh be joyful Useful Son has found another flat near his job , but he has one day to move into the new one and it has a terrible access yet again and electric heating . just like his old one but he will have the luxury of double glazing and floors that are flat and solid , no holes in the roof  etc etc . On the heating front hes not bothered he works two jobs and the heating in his old flat never worked  anyway . All he uses his flat for is to sleep and shower.  So thats this weekends chore with thankfully loads of help from daughter and family , get him moved AARRGGHHHH . We have to take his hamster because hes not allowed pets so we have got off lightly till the cats get it . 

Just to make life fun ive had a tiny shingles flare , only a tiddly patch on a rib that feels as though ive had a good kicking and the usual ache allover self pity . No covid connection this time as far as i know. only 11 years till i can have the jab .

In the real world i have signed up to the nearest Community Pantry its 5 pounds for the year and 6 pounds for a load of groceries , because of the distance its not viable for the twice a week i can use it, but once a month should be of help for veg & bread etc    https://www.lincolnshireworld.com/business/consumer/community-grocery-store-opens-in-sleaford-3764438

 im looking at any possible savings i can make at the moment , we are playing oil chicken at the moment trying to save enough to get oil for the winter at a price we can afford so its watch the daily rates for drops . on the food front we are pretty well stocked and we do have the advantages of access to the Moy Park factory shop for none organic dirt cheap chicken plus the good old tin factory 

https://www.facebook.com/people/Derek-Meeds-Foods/100057522426568/

24 tins of Branston beans delabelled with 2024 date 4.80 at the little portakabin in the middle of  nowhere , they also have a good selection of catering sized stuffs and they do deliver locally .

Women

 I was talking to my mother the other day and she went off on a whole rant about the past about her never wanting children etc etc . Then she got on about a bit of history id never really thought about, the arrival of the pill just after i was born in the 60s . My mother being a married nurse went to her GP to ask about it and was told she must attend with her husband to discuss this and that he would have to sign to give his permission and that it would be very unlikely that he would agree because she had only given him a daughter. She achieved him going and signing by simply refusing him sex until he agreed.

Times moved on and i went to the GP with glandular fever as a teen and came out with the contraceptive pill because i had a tiny love bite aka hickey , i wasnt doing anything sexual but our GP wanted the world on the pill before you did .

These days its order your abortion pills online , much like ordering flea treatment for a dog . So where do we go next ?    

Sanity

 
Thankyou all who commented on the last post thats what i like to see a worldwide response of our thoughts on the food situation .  Just been reading on another forum how so many are suffering mentally , i will admit that ive cried in a few carparks of late just on the subject of idiotic trivialities that normally wouldnt bother me at all but winter is coming and i get like thaat every year just a little earlier than usual this time , but for most its just been a shitty year fuelled by our idiot media . We wont all starve but things could be a little interesting so dont forget to fund your local foodbank if you possibly can , scurvy and rickets are on the rise nationally something for the government to be proud of im sure , the wee starvelings will fit up the chimneys easier im sure Rees Mogg will find it uplifting as his vast brood continues to grow.  I saw some gurning idiot politician moaning that the birth rate is dropping like a stone , really? would you want to be starting a family in these circumstances , Next we will have some non racist member of the government moaning that all the kids that are being born are called Mohammed, Lifes just predictably crap for most , with nothing offering hope on the horizon . The scariest thing ive seen is Iceland offering credit to buy food a few other retailers are doing the same . Oddly i had a really strange You Gov poll asking if i would want the government to offer cost of living loans , no thanks that could turn into a nightmare with them haunting you into the grave , though i suspect it will be portrayed as just for a couple of years while the world gets over Covid . 

On a really pigged off note i had a visit from Anglian Water Revenue Protection team today to see why we are using so little water , they wanted to inspect the meters to see if we have tampered with them as we caant possibly be using so little . They fitted new ones 3 weeks ago which i thought was strange when they had only been in a year , i had to explain that we use little water because i know we cant afford to use it . its strip wash and a weekly shower here and i have the best eco water usage washer i could get to cope with himselfs mess .we havent washed the cars this year and grey water is used for the garden so no we dont use a lot of water , im sorry if living within my means is such a problem ..AAARRGGHHH im spitting nails over this 

What If

 Shopping is becoming more of a chore than usual even with my giant munchkin to carry stuff  lol. He eats us out of house and home when hes here , hes at the constantly growing hungry all the time phase of teenage life . So how do you cope with the hunger monster ? cheap cereals hes eaten endless bowls of cheap rice crispies , hes disgusted that they arent posh ones and i dont care . He trebles our milk consumption problematic because it never comes on the home delivery and he wont be here when i have to restock , ive noticed i had to buy sugar  hes the only one who uses it . Popcorn ive been cleared out , note to self must order kernels as this is a great fill the kids up food . We had a whole argument over pop or soda  , no he cant have the branded stuff i just cant afford it .  You get a whole case of :Lidl coke for the price  of a single bottle of Pepsi .

Now the great what if is how we get through the winter especially if your on a fixed income . ive seen all the stunningly naïve advice on line , shop cheaper brands , what if your already shopping basic brands anyway .  Yes theres affordable food but the quality of some of it is appalling . Weird food fact , whats happened to Primula cheese in a tube? my little luxury for a whole pound , you cant get it out of the tube its so thick and it doesnt melt on your toast anymore , theres also bugger all but air in the tube these days , Crossed off the shopping list forever im afraid . Trying to find cheap cheese to cook with  is proving impossible the big supermarket blocks have no taste at all when cooked , i had a whole cheese drawer in the freezer all yellow sticker weird stuff but its dwindling away and theres nothing to replace it within my price range . Forced veganism , all the yellow sticker stuff i come across these days are vegan offerings , so long as it comes in burger form himself doesnt object so long as it comes with a couple of strips of bacon he doesnt even notice . when you read the labelling it can be a tad scary sugared and salted to death sums most processed vegan food up . i did read the other day that there is only 2% vegans in the population so why is their so much vegan food in the supermarkets ?  nobody appears to be buying it, vegetarians are ever growing mainly because people realise they dont need meat as part of their budget. Crops are rubbish everywhere this year and a couple of days rain is a huge help but a lot of stuff is beyond help im going to try and get some potatoes up now a fork will go into the ground but i would think they are tiny , still on an onion hunt im afraid so i may chuck some onion seed in while i remember.

The next question is what are you noticing on the food front ?

    

Waiting

 So thats all the curtains shut for the day , woke up to fog again this morning , yet more plums picked for the freezer the top of the tree has a swarm of bluetits pecking away , who knew that was a thing or is it just the weather conditions? i was however forced to quality check a few of the plums for breakfast and the one great think about the weather very few wasps this year . I have bought a single item for 1.32 at auction this week a nice singer hand machine , i need to pick up . And the carboot yesterday yielded a giant spider plant and a planter to put it in . This was incorporated with a skip run for fuel economy . There are frequent local complaints that you have to queue for hours for the skip but if your there 10 minutes before opening its straight in and out . I even called in at the chicken factory on the way home 18 plain chicken drumsticks for one pound  that was tea for everyone and a pile in the fridge , plus a couple of the stuffed breast roll things in a foil tray at 2 quid a time , nearly witnessed a fight as a woman who obviously has a cafe and already had a trolley full proceeded to jump on a cage of southern fried breasts they had just fetched in , she wanted all of them theye were full boxes at 2.50 each maybe 50 boxes in the cage 100s of chicken portions . Several customers had a right go at her for her greed ...Ho hum not something i would want but i could see their point . 

You can see that people are becoming more and more worried on the food front , the empty supermarkets are getting more obvious , its not that there is no food just that theres not much choice of food at the moment and winter may well bring its own problems , im hoping the promise of thunderstorms will play out then i can chip some potatoes out of the ground not that they are very big due to the drought but better then nothing , still planting bits and bobs you never know if you will get a second crop but always worth a try 

Zombie

 Ive got that record in my head at the moment ...Zombie Zombie Zombeeeeee not a clue where it has popped from just the vagaries of changed medication , being able to go out is so weird theres nowhere to go and no fuel to afford it but hey i could go out...lol 

Im baffled that i managed to spend 103 quid in Heron yesterday , admittedly ive bought lots of freezer filler crap for himself and i did have the munchkin in tow to carry stuff , but i still need yet more shopping to top up my bulk stuff once the weather breaks. Im hoping hes still here for my next onslaught on the shopping front , if we are gaining another adult i need to upgrade my food storage levels . i did get some giant oranges from Heron and after peeling two found they are rotten in the middle so once again another complaint to lodge .  They do at the moment have some good offers on , huge bags of vegan sausage rolls curry pies and now peppered steak  pies for a whole 2 quid a bag, excellent for piling a plate with garden veg and chucking a pie on later in the year they are all vegan but nobody spotted this fact when i did a trial selection the other night and im not going to tell them .  Things i need to look out for at the moment. nets of both red and cooking onions something i dont grow because they take up space and are usually dirt cheap , this year however they are scarce and very small due to the drought .  Must also hunt for cheap camping stove gas cylinders , always handy if the electric is off . 

 im in the dog house with the neighbors yet again for trimming hedges at 7am couldnt care less they were staggering about singing pissed last night at gone midnight . We even had a miracle yesterday the council turned up to replace the porch door ,they have been waiting since may for a door delivery so we have had a 3 inch gap with the mice running in and out all this time . Not that the cats have minded its been like Deliveroo for them , ive popped a load of traps down to try and resolve the problem before winter .

Todays project is to Dylon a load of bits of white wool i found among my mountain of craft stuff , not sure how it will turn out but i will give it a go just for giggles. Himself will spend the day moaning about how hot he is , how ill he feels with the heat etc etc etc . I do love him but there are times ...lol

Mildly Ranting

 So heres one for thought once the heat dries up do you chuck all the half bags of flour and yeast etc and replace for the winter . Its not something i carry huge doomesday prepper stocks of i dont vacuum seal it or keep it in the freezer in plastic . So in my case the answer is yes because even though i dont take a blind bit of notice of use by dates it can go sour with the heat weve been having.

For the last couple of weeks we havnt been able to make a online order with Morrisons due to over half of what we needed being out of stock . Tescos it was then , not a bad effort all but one item turned up , the oranges are all squashed  but i didnt notice at the time otherwise i would have sent them back . there delivery was also a bit cheaper only by  couple of quid but every little helps . We are going to become increasingly reliant on home delivery but we can only afford to order once a month theres no access to fresh fruit and veg if we dont travel , theres a bit of garden fruit and veg till the winter , but that means we will be reliant on cheap frozen veg , fruit wise theres not much i can get i cant have seeds at all . Himself is so bloody picky sometimes its unreal .  nearly all the delivery services dont cover our postcodes and to be honest we couldnt afford to use them anyway . Sometimes i get banana cravings ...lol im becoming more dietary restricted over time but the latest pills seem to be a huge improvement so im cautiously trying stuff ive not eaten for years . Cant wait to see what this winter brings food wise i suspect it may be interesting   

Life and Stuff Like That

Im currently bored out of my brain , we have barely had a single visitor this summer , im sure fuel costs have much to do with this . We dont go anywhere unless its medically related then i have to try and cram whatever else needs to be done into the same days. Ive even started the autumn tree pruning being as the heat has pretty much killed everything off the only thing going mad is the beetroot and a few bush beans i found going spare in an aged packet , the tomatoes look as if they will all come ready at once , ive plums dropping off the tree that i cant climb up...lol , the apples are tiny this year but theres loads , gardens its just strange from year to year .  I wish  we could tap into the gutterings but theyre cast iron so no chance . Just sowed a load of broad beans into pots depending on the weather it will either be a late crop in october or loads in the spring who knows . Im sure with all the climate change predictions we should have a mild winter but you just know that the weather predictions are always wrong and it could well be an arctic winter in which case people will die in their own homes . There seems to be very little light on the horizon not a thing to look forward to . Ho Hum im leaning more towards murdering himself and going to prison where my warmth and food wont be something for constant worry  

Brain Fried

 Its just me im sure . Useful son , whos been in his flat a few years has a new landlord whos informed him he needs to get out because he can get 500 quid a month with a new tenant for a his dilapidated flat with one bedroom in a listed building with no fire exit ...AAARRGGHH ...he goes back to work in a week and usually works for the old landlord to clear any arrears but his old landlord sold the building because it needs so much work to bring it up to code . Its a total clusterfuck the councils telling him the landlord cant do this as hes a sitting tenant and will be making himself intentionally homeless if he leaves  . But the blokes saying hes changing the locks and can take his stuff or end up with nothing hes already intimerdated the other tenant out of the next door flat .  He needs legal advice badly but he just thinks he can move here at a push and the council would agree because we have a spare bedroom the size of a broom closet , the trouble is his job is 15 miles away and he doesnt drive which would mean we have to take him to work and back twice a day or should i say i would be expected to . Living out in the middle of nowhere this would be interesting in bad weather . Just to make matters even more fun hes just found out his girlfriend is pregnant . Not a clue what to do about any of this and nobodies interested in my opinion about any of it anyway . I just want to pack a bag and run 

Mornin

 Well im still getting over the wild partying for my birthday LOL . I was officially 59 the other day and i was amazed i got 3 cards !! much appreciated , i may add . My daughter turned up and we ventured to Boston for a look round the vast array of charity shops . we had parked himself by crutch power on the war memorial steps so he could watch the world go by under the huge trees with a large drink and then abandoned him to his fate , he was quite chuffed he kept getting little old ladies come to chat with him . I managed to find a top, a couple of obscure books that are local history related and interesting to me and a half dozen dolly knitting patterns from the 50s . Which is more than ive found in months on my travels . Then in the afternoon it was a trip to the Kinema in the woods to watch Elvis , daughter was horrified it was in the tiny cinema and it was only half full with us wrinklies , shes no Elvis fan either, but it was a really good film and she enjoyed it as well . So a really good birthday and in bed for 10 . 

But it also made me decide that the Kinema with its air con is the best place to be in a heatwave and can anyone answer the question why do my hands drip sweat when nowhere else does once it gets to 40 degrees ?

Victor

 Now ive been a tad Victor Meldrew of late , mainly thanks to my useless GPs , calling them useless is being polite , but of late all i ever get is locums on the phone , other half gets the usual doctor on the phone im sure they are operating a two tier system , those who they have nearly killed or who have reported them get a fairly reasonable level . The rest of us go from locum to locum . having gone for blood tests the other day only to find that i was only there for diabetes and liver when i was supposedly due for loads more , gets the call from the receptionist the doctor needs to speak to me urgently . so urgently i must message her on ask GP . Great fine go online and its closed for the day, 2 days later i ask about my test results no reply for another 2 day finally get a phone call . Which starts with the bleedin locum

You are not taking your medication these figures are through the roof 

Oh yes i am theyre no bleedin use if theyre passing through in under two hours

you are not taking them please dont lie

i have malabsorption issues that worsen in hot weather of course they are not working read my notes 

there are no notes

Exactly !!!

well you need to increase your exercise levels immensely 

excuse me last time we spoke you told me i musnt go outside  due to the other medication , you remember the ones that say no sunlight that you prescribed!! So would you like me to just run up and down stairs in this heat ?

i will prescribe something else get your bloods done in 3 months and she hung up 

Other half pointed out i was getting a bit irate and as you may have guessed  im still going outside , dread to think what tablets shes left for me, probably tranquilizers 

Tourism

Now the main source of income other than farming here is milking tourists so this weekend has been the 1940s weekend in the next big village , glorious weather for it , spitfires dog fighting overhead  the Lancaster backwards and forwards umpteen times and thousands of extra tourists . Due to the road closures we can only travel in one direction , so its stay home and ignore it weekend . Friday they were setting up and we had to trail an armoured vehicle to the doctors which was little odd only to find vintage cars filling the carpark , they were only turning round to try and find the campsite they were staying on but still very strange. Theres a huge amount of work put into this by all and sundry , which is fair enough . Not something that appeals to me , to many crowds so i would imagine in the next couple of weeks we will be the Covid capital of the area , so now the heats here its up for 5 to get all the jobs done then cabbage all afternoon till it cools down then back out watering everything . i save waste water as i cant afford to up my consumption due to lack of funds , im trying to persuade himself to let me tap into the washer outlet so i can water all the veg at the back of the house and i have thought of putting a large plastic bowl under the shower as well but nobody wants to cooperate ...ho hum i will keep nagging 

Crystal Ball

 So I get my crystal ball out dust it off and look at predictions for later in the year ....

Come October the artist formally known as PM is still taking the piss , hes now claiming he cant leave because CarrieAntoinette is heavily pregnant and you cant move a pregnant woman , someone has pointed out that hes using the law for the traveller community that he was planning to abolish, this may also be the longest pregnancy in the history of mankind. Nadine Dorres has volunteered to be a surrogate , getting the cobwebs off her uterus at her age should be fun . 

Meanwhile Larry The Cat has delayed the party he had planned to celebrate the pissy rat Dylan the dog leaving and has decided to sling his name in the hat for leader . Priti Patel is still in the Home Office she wanted to be leader but they all hate her so its better to leave her making millions of plebs take a plane trip to Rwanda . Gove is off to the Priory and hes taking holy orders because making it to bishop is the only way he will get into The Lords  

On another thought 
Putin is still alive and planning to invade us to prop up Boris because hes his number 1 fan . just kidding honest 

Mummy Wars

 Oh Dear my mother seems to have declared war on The System , she tells me that Social Services are trying to get in touch with me , to insist that i must get Power of Attorney so they can access her bank accounts to make her pay for Care . They have told her she must pay 226 a month for an hours carer visit per week to take her shopping and shes told them bollocks . Her home doctor visit that they arranged didnt go well they didnt get the result they wanted . The doctor told her shes declining physically which is quite normal for her age and shes perfectly fine mentally just functionally blind at the moment . I think they rather hoped they could cart her off into care rapidly to stop her being a problem child .  The Blind Society have been out to see her and given her a white stick and loads of bright stickers to put on her cooker and microwave they also recommend over 400 pounds of adaptions she needs to pay for i gather it ended badly ...lol 

She has informed me that shes well aware it will all end badly , that most of the remains of the family will blame me, But she intends to go out marvelously drunk as a skunk in her own home as the off licence still does home delivery  and bollocks to the lot of them...Ive told her to be careful she doesnt have a fall pissed as they will scoop her up and thats it into drooly towers she will be sent never to escape .  I really do think that Social Services havent a clue what they are dealing with  

Highlights

 Excellent Jumble Sale yesterday , got a whole summer wardrobe a bag full of books and two pizza bowls  for the grand total of 3.50  , so that brightened my mood , daughter and grandson turned up and despite her grumping she ended up with a bagful as well . I think i was the only mask wearer there , despite Covid slaughtering the village where i live thanks to the maskless Jubilee celebrations...lol , just common sense to me when your elbow deep in a scrum over used clothing . Got it all home and found that two of the tops were still tagged and unworn, out of a bagful only one item didnt fit so went in the charity bag and one other needs a stitch to a seam split ,

Just to annoy himself i toddled off to the car boot this morning nice and early only to find just before i reached it a car upside down blocking the road the local hobby firemen had just arrived and a solitary community hobby bobby scratching his head , the folks were standing in the road shaken and having a fag , cant think why anybody local would have an accident there unless they nearly scored a deer or somebody on the wrong side of the road and had to take avoidance tactics , bit odd really but it did mean i had to an extra 16 miles round just to get where i needed to be , comment from himself because i took so long ...well thats you grounded for the week for wasting fuel , you should have come straight home...ha ha ...he will be sorry for that one .  All i got from the car boot was a box of plants just because i always need more plants.  Strange thought of the week , will we ever be able to afford meat of the size to need the huge gorgeous meat plates you see at every car boot ?  

the truth is Out Their ...somewhere

 Well todays scare the buggers.com  are throwing Polio in the sewers of London . along with new scarier covid and monkeypox . How do you know what to believe ? theres so little truth out there  thats its drowning in a sea of rubbish . Every where you look its the wonders of the Royals , lying scum from our government , back to the 70s . Cant we just have a nice mainly normal summer ? where you get a bit crispy , say never again and do the same next year ? 

My neighbours have obviously decided to just sit in the front gardens and get hammered every evening , the clank of the bottles going in the recycling sounds worse than a pub , then they get up in the morning as crabby as their arses swearing and shouting at the kids as they drive them to school . I still cant figure out why no one in this village will walk their kids to school its a mile and a half away I miss doing it , instead of going to the gym just walk a bit more. 

My neighbour keeps dropping big hints about cutting her huge front hedge , sadly its not happening shes only a year older than me and has just retired , pay the lads or get a gardener , or maybe just get the exercise and do it herself she has a toyboy whats the problem with him doing it?

Right im afraid im turning into Victor Meldrew , im off out now its cooler to cut my hedge , doubtless to the neighbours taking the piss out of me as they sit with a scooner of wine ...i may be in a better mood another day ...lol

 

Mumsickles

 Hottest day so far so i thought id better check on Mummy Dearest , she was in fine form . like most lizard people she loves the heat . After shed finished her main rant and was drawing breath i managed to get a word in edgeways . It would seem cause for concern has been raised by a neighbor with Social Services and she ended up with a visit from the Social Workers , she did make them sit in the garden in the glaring heat while she cuddled her air conditioner in the conservatory bless her . She has refused to tell them where we live and our phone numbers , she doesnt want to see us at all . She is perfectly lucid just somewhat blind at the moment . which if she will just pay can be quickly resolved in one eye , so i wasted my breath and told her not to be so stupid . It would also seem that a complaint has been put in about her useless GPs and for the first time in 3 years a doctor is going to do a home visit  on Monday .  Social services i think crapped themselves they have been notified about her so many times and done jack diddly squat about anything . She says that they didnt like it when she told them that physically shes fine its just her eyesight is the problem . Plus last week she got lost on her trip to the hospital because she couldnt see the numbers on the buses it takes 5 changes to get to the hospital and sometimes she can get ambulance transport and sometimes not , She ended up in the wrong town and a very nice gentleman in a turban chucked her back on the right bus . She also told them she wasnt paying for a daily carer to come in because she can do her own cooking and cleaning just fine . Then she tell me she managed to lock herself in the garage the other day because she hadnt put the door up far enough and had to sit there till her neighbour came home and she could shout him . Just for fun i explained about managed decline , so the GP will hate me when he visits . So long as her drinks cabinet is full she'll survive  pickled and shrinking into herself as most of the females in our family do . Taking no notice of anyone and doing as she pleases is her motto at the moment and frankly i dont blame her at 89 

Onwards and ?

 So i got up early and cut our huge very long front hedge this morning i was finished by half past 8 ive just abandoned the clippings till someone takes pity and clears them up or more likely i do them at dusk . gooseberries to pick shortly they are laden this year , may have to freeze them we dont eat much jam now .

ive left an awful lot of bids at the auction this month , tiny bids i will be amazed if i win anything and buggered if i won them all , but the charity shop would benefit. im positively full of beans this morning not sure how long it will last so have to make the most of it ..lol

For those who question why i stay with my other half i believe you commit to better or worse and in sickness and health . you dont just walk away , you get on with it . theres no help for himself other than his transfusions hes 3 months overdue now and hes a nightmare , nasty snide and snappy , not sleeping then overestimating what he can manage . ive got the challenge of trying to sort out whats going on later , with our ever helpful GPs.     https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0017x2b/panorama-undercover-britains-biggest-gp-chain our gps doesnt belong to this company but another one equally as bad !!

so thats the coffee break over with ive gooseberries to pick bushes to prune and a mountain of mending for the afternoon with some really bad TV during the heat of the day . The Horror channel has a lot of Hammer and bad 70s films on and im loving them .

Oh My

Well that was an eventful weekend ,  managed to get the tent up with the help of his mate and having arrived and took a ton of painkillers because i just happened to have a major flare up and was barely able to move . Nothing went right i managed to scald myself knocking the kettle over and his mate was horrified i couldnt even feel it , the total lack of any concern for me by my dearly beloved shocked him even more . Other half admittedly was a horrible colour and surrounded by his back slapping mates at least he wasnt daft enough to drink on top of his pills , hed ridden on this new to him 3 wheeled monster all of 5 miles and hed struggled . i eventually managed to get the gate staff to understand that i needed vehicular access 24 7 in case of emergency   so we ended up in a quiet corner near the main gate . it was sunny but blowing a gale just to make matters fun . It managed to blow his scooter over and he realized there was no chance he could have shifted it on his own , good job his cronies are a strong bunch .  At 2am his mate was squealing in his tent , weve known him years,  he has PTSD from being in the military a lot of years ago and from time to time things set him off , i think it was a combination of the wind through the tents and the crow scarers in the fields behind . Once he was settled with a cuppa himself decided he didnt feel well and needed to go home so at first light im driving him home having abandoned everything at the campsite watching all the deer in peoples gardens eating the bedding plants ..lol ..he slept a few hours and by 7am announced he wanted to go back . So i went back with him so i could cook breakfast , hes enthroned holding court with all the folks he knows and im trying to get some sleep . fat chance........he announces he wants to go home after dinner because they have a Paul Weller tribute act on that night and he bloody detests it . So he sits and holds court while i have to pack everything up AAARRGGHHH nobody offered to help with that did they . ive been asleep for 24 hours since i got back apart from the inevitable nursey duties and im fit to drop and its only Monday !!! 

Back to Reality

 So thats the weekend shenanigans over with its been easy to avoid just dont turn on the TV and have guests who were as interested as us in the party. so domestic slavery has occupied my time .

 So what has this weekend taught me ? we need a house with more than one loo and id nearly faint when they all decided to give me a break and order Chinese and i saw the price , my first thought was had we bought a fortnights groceries . The kids cleaned the house sheds out for me and did a couple of garden jobs so im well pleased . The comments about why i dont have a dishwasher its like the dark ages baffle me , theres usually only two of us why would i need a dishwasher ? The other winge is why do i only buy cheap pop and why is there no alcohol . Off on safari to the Coop you can go if you require that. im afraid our budget doesnt run to it . Im sure adult children struggle to understand how skint their parents are , well the ones who have done well in life do anyway. Yesterday i ,managed to get useful son signed up to his local community grocery hes been left with 22 pounds universal credit this month and they havent paid his housing costs either its all a mistake apparently by Universal Credit and will be resolved in his next months payment , fat lot of good that is this month . Hes back to work in the next month now the parties finished so we will help him till then .

 Then MR Bah Humbugs mate turned up and told us we are going on a scooter rally next weekend all paid for by his mates , cos they miss him , i was struggling to plaster a smile on as this could be a bit of a nightmare physically for both us , but hey ho what the hell im sure he will enjoy it , hes already said hes going in the car so he can be nuked off his head with class As all weekend . i will merely be nurse and the only sober member at the party so doubtless i will have to a casualty run for him or one of his mates , theyre all getting to that age where they think they are geriatric teenagers and things go very wrong.

Just been shouted at for the mountain of bedding waiting to be washed , well its bleedin monsoon season and it can wait till the weathers better its not stuff we need ....bleedin men!!! 

Shop Till You Drop

 Ive had a really odd shopping week , popped to Asda because someone pointed out they were doing Smart Price corned beef , its proper old school corned beef it contains fat and is texturally just right for sandwiches , unlike the grossly overpriced sliced mush you get in packets which is supposedly healthier. The problem is like all the cheap Asda stuff its well hidden and they dont always have it , bottom shelf slid right to the back there was just a single box , it was after 8 at night so hardly any staff about so i climbed down and slid my arm in to grab a few tins , to do this i had to lay on my side on the floor because i was having some if it killed me . Trouble was once i stretched my arm out to get them i was stuck, muscle spasm at the best of times, now all i can do at this point is lay there till it releases, i was there a good 5 minutes as the odd person wandered past just looking at me funny . But thats the thing about ASDA now matter how strange the things you see its best to pretend you have seen nothing and i got up eventually.

Morrisons to take BIL for his eye test , park other half in the cafe , go to get a few bits all heavy big stuff that we havent bought for 3 months , get to the tills and theres only 4 humans and the queues down the shop as no one with an ounce of sense uses their never working  scanner tills . But we were ordered to use the self service , so i got piling it all on the belt as the woman before me had to summon the little dweeb 10 times because it wouldnt scan stuff , the woman across from me was arguing with the little dweeb because the till was charging her more than the prices and offers she had bought she eventually stormed off and left her shopping . It gets to my stuff and the little dweeb shuts the till im on and tells me i will have to move to another till then bogs off , after loading it up and carting it to the queues' down the store  i eventually get served by now its taken 40 minutes !!!  

So then its Farm Foods for all the stuff himself loves , i get the same crap every 3 months and my this weeks bill has risen from 56.00 to 71.00 bleedin hell,  himself goes off his head when i give him the receipt as if its my fault and this was without a few bits they didnt have in . i purposely didnt get any Weetabix !!!
 

Ho Hum

 Its that time of the morning where i get a cuppa and enjoy the silence , just off to get grandson up , well give him a shout and see if he surfaces ...lol ..then potter off to the local car boot , need some veg and hes good for carrying , plus will need extra veg because ive just found out that useful son has been stuffed by Universal Credit and has been left with 12 quid to survive the month hes hoping more work comes in once the jubilee is over with . But hes coming to stay for the week over the Jubilee so im now going to have to perform full on miracles with a budget of zilch and spend the next fortnight as full time domestic servant to them all . Im trying to think what garden slavery i can set them on with ...lol 

When is a party not a party? when its a Boris party !  then once youve declared how sorry you are you promptly change all the rules so you cant get in this bother again . Can no one rid us of this troublesome beast ? . Then you promptly bribe everyone with an energy payment to shut up and vote Tory for your snap election while that tin of spam Keir Starmer is still doing his when is a party not a party performance , pretending that Boris doesnt own the Police in this country is farcical he always gets the results he wants. .

DWP

 well i knew yesterday would be fun so i had planned the morning for a trip to the GPs  about the anemia letter and to pick up prescriptions just to really cheer me up I got the witch at the window she has a new extra large name badge now , maybe so we can all report her easier?  or specially for the pensioners shes so helpful for . Anyway for a change himselfs prescription was wrong , so they were thrown at me with much mumbling , then the usual argument about him having to fetch his own class A painkillers , told her to turn round and wave at him , he was on a non walking day and as i was registered carer i am allowed to collect them . Then i got a whole lecture about people who think theyre entitled as the other staff looked on bewildered , it went quite well really. 

Went home had my dinner and settled down for the DWP  only twice through the endless automatic authentication process it only cut me off once for a change , then only 20 minutes of bad hold music and i even got my favourite Eeyore DWP employee , i think we must have been assigned to him. Anyway he recognizes me by now , and he said he could guess what the problem was , my carers was being stopped because himself had been cured by computer yet again , correct .  They have now had his renewal for a year and they admit they havent even looked at it yet and theyre not looking at any because theres been some sort of legal spat between ATOS and the government . Eeyore admits they are being told nothing and have just been told to press the extend button , ring him again in 3 months when they decide to cut my carers off again . I did once i got off the phone try to look up the Atos dispute , couldnt make a lot of sense of it , must have been written by Boris . Anyway i think it boils down to Atos not being paid because they are shite and its all going to the supreme court next week . See my political insight is great isnt it ?

The Oracle

 So ive got my crystal ball out and polished it and what do i see errrrrrrr. Monkeypox the next big thing?  So this is supposedly very hard to catch without skin to skin contact ? Now for those of us who are old enough to remember the Maggie times when HIV was subject to its whole its just for poufs gay plague on prime time tv ive noticed some rather nasty press articles about this being just for gays , diabolical crap blaming people for sexual practices that are dangerous , its like a rerun of the 80s . 

Sometimes i think the Tories wont be happy till we are back in their glory days Victorian England , shove the poor kids up a chimney and the return of the doss house , theyve already got the online workhouse Universal Credit , moaning that nobody wants to work in the fields or do jobs that wont pay the rent. Affordable childcare is a bit of a myth , you get most of the cost back eventually but that eventually can be weeks or months away , so how do you live till then ? Oh i forgot thats what foodbanks are for . We have a demoralized NHS  slogging away every day , visited them milles away the other day and the lovely bloke said that all the local services had been made redundant , they have no consultant to supervise because hed gone and set up his own private practice ...ho hum devotion doesnt pay your bills does it . We got a letter from the doctors stating all the conditions they are not treating anymore , sadly anemia was on the letter it had been highlighted , obviously other half is expected to become a vampire to get his 5 pint top up in future , he doesnt have go get a packet of iron tablets anemia , he has a rare genetic condition that means he cant absorb iron so he needs transfusions regularly    ...i will argue this one out tomorrow. Then theres the DWP i will waste hours of my life tomorrow trying to find out why they are cancelling my carers yet again they have now had his renewal documents for a year and have done nothing ...Himself has commented its time i murdered him , got a nice warm cell, tons of books and decent food 

Brain Washed and Rinsed

I decided to read the online Daily Mail to see  what bees my mother would have in her bonnet . It never gets any better. Still the Boris comic im afraid . But i had a thought , his dear old dad is set to become a French citizen does this mean we could have Boris deported there?  Then we have the hilarious comic antics of Depp and Heard best comedy in a courtroom for years . Pair of drunken drug addicts playing he said she said, not an ounce of class , she cant act and hes living on past glories they really deserved each other , though the turd in the bed was a tad extreme that and keeping the money she said she was giving to charity .  He thought he was marrying the beautiful starlet , instead he got  a bullying harpy with expensive tastes and a whole host of parasitic family members and cling ons , at which point he just descended into a drink and drug stupor. But destroying his career with her abuse claims is bitter and twisted they were equally as bad as each other and it does point out that society thinks the man is always guilty and the women survivor some kind of heroine. Meanwhile in the UK we get the Wagatha trial which should never have been given court time , lets litigate we are rich should have been the name for this one . What a pair of daft tarts mrs Rooney and Vardy are , the whole thing is like the plot of a highschool movie , defamation my arse a pair of twelve year olds would have settled this better . Mind you nobody would have wanted to steal the others fella or bitch slapped and pulled out a few hair extensions, Im still wondering quite how the size of Peter Andres winky got dragged into this? 

Currently a neighbor is kindly going round and reading the paper to mother as she is now considered blind , partly due to her own stubbornness , one eye has had it due to macular degeneration but the other has a cataract that needs to be removed , the eye consultant refuses to treat it because of her age 89 . the latest excuse is that she has nobody to care for her full time . She could quite easily afford to go private and it would be done within two weeks , she could have a few days as an inpatient and be looked after , then home able to see but she wont hear of it , shes paid into the NHS all her life is the refrain . I keep telling her to be careful they dont just ram her into a pissy high seat chair in a nursing home , the council have been informed and theyre always looking to fill beds up with paying customers. Stubbornness is going to be her downfall , shes all there mentally , and for her age amazingly independent and mobile .      

Swings nd Roundabouts

 Well ive not a lot to say , im still sleeping well over 12 hours a day and getting lots of snide remarks from himself , so yes Covid has given me sleeping sickness as a souvenir im sure it will straighten itself out eventually . Mr Bah Humbugs cronies are all popping round for their check hes still alive visits , though they seem a bit put out that we dont want to go to endless festivals and motown nights , its a bit hard really to explain that we dont drink due to funds and we dont go out due to the cost of fuel . Himself has started fishing for the season so theres bugger all funds extra for anything . We just hit a crap vehicle expenses phase as you do , so 3 months income has gone on them , we are trying to future proof for the move to Universal Credit . The cupboards may be bare but im working on that bit by bit . We just dont want to have to take any government loans towards surviving the Universal Credit uptake . We need to be at least 6 weeks ahead with the rent and council tax at the point they change us over , the way things are going price wise I dont think this is achievable, but hey ho i can try . Im sure everything will go tits up once we go to Universal Credit being as all funds will be paid to him at that point and things wont get paid if he sees something rusty he likes the look of . Ive just got to insist that they pay the rent and council tax direct thats the thing that does concern me . I find it ridiculous that hes classed as head of the household so receives everything and you just cease to exist your his minion  , you receive nothing and if your lucky your partner may give you a few crumbs from the table , its all very back to the dark ages . But isnt that the Tory way 

Grim Reaper

So i get a bit of luck and next Covid enters the building , Mr BH decides hes dying we were just glad he lost his voice , i was just glad he didnt cough much . Anyway by Tuesday he has a hissy fit and decides that i need to call 111 because he cant breathe , soft lad was having a panic attack his colour was good and his chest sounded fine and his blood pressure was good , he merely coughed and his cracked ribs that never get better scared him . Now im very fatalistic , hes got dozens of choices of stuff to kill him , a sore throat and a wee cough arent going to do it . But what never crossed his mind was that he had passed it on to me and i promptly slept for 3 days and woke up with every one of my regular shingles sites burning like somebody had tipped acid on them they all turned bright red and angry but have since gone,  all very weird. So what happens when your carer takes to her bed ?  Chaos  , they ran out of pots, there were no ready meals left in the freezer, no washing done . I arose from my crypt ready to kill them . I got a bin bag and shovelled all the pots into it and informed them they could keep a mug and a plate . told them to catch up with the washing and to eat something that resembled food and went back to sleep . woke up this morning feeling reasonable the clean pots have been fished from the bin , son had done his washing but left everybody elses for which he got a rollicking and theyd defrosted a pack of mince . then himself says im sorry but you need to look at the bedroom aaaaarrrrggghhhh  i opened the door to a murder scene himself had one of his epic nose bleeds in his sleep, we have good quality waterproof bedding so that was salvageable but hed ruined a couple of pillows and had sprayed the wall somehow they had tried to clean up but used hot water so its now needs decorating and the carpet needs replacing which i dont have the funds for , i just shut the door and left it im past caring , i was sleeping in the other room so as not to spread it , now son has it ...lifes bleedin great. 

All this time ive managed to keep Covid out of the house and my BIL donated it, he was fine but his son and missus had it AAARRRGGGHHH

Just Why

 im sure there is some weird mental reason that when himself really pigs me off I decide to bid on a load of auctions , this week i left a load of tiny bids on a tender auction , you dont go to them, all you have is a truly awful picture to go by and if your bid placed online is the highest you win . I won just one auction lot and the only reason i bid was the fact i thought i saw wool in a clear plastic bin and it said material as well ,You can never have to much of either in my book , the picture really did look like a pile of boxes . Now i went to pick this up Saturday with much moaning from himself  and there was twice as much as shown . But on getting it all home errr well , theres wool promptly stolen by my daughter .  The material turned out to be a huge box of clothes never opened all in their bags and with an invoice still in , all tiny sizes but again a lot stolen by daughter , a box of various craft tools , a box of unopened hair scrunchies and ornaments , enough garment bags unused to fill a wardrobe, unopened gifts , a huge stack of hats from mother of the bride to cricket umpire , two brand new with invoice craft bags , one stolen by daughter a big vanity case, Belgium lace doileys new in packs, Belgium lace curtains a pair of american  leather boots brand new in box again stolen by daughter the price was over a hundred pounds !!. Brand new shoes in boxes. lots of cross stitch stuff  that will go into the bag of doom we pass round in a winter among us skint crafters , and  theres a box of greetings cards and notelets that i have no use whatsover for....lol   Theres was also a little set of wooden drawers still price tagged at 29.99  that were rather nice , they got even better when i found that the reason they felt so heavy was that who ever did the clearance hadnt checked them and the bottom drawer was crammed with jewelry, pretty ghastly home shopping jewelry, but some of it is gold so has scrap value if nothing else . So for a grand total of 8 quid  with commission i will gain a chunk of cash towards the winter oil fund !!  Mr BHs comment... and i cant even have bloody Weetabix . I didnt tell him about the gold    

Spring Sprung

 Busy busy busy , but im having to tackle stuff in short bursts then lay about like a Victorian damsel on a chaise unable to move ...lol  not to big a problem so long as a good book is to hand and im able to hold said book and my concentration is something like due to lack of sleep . Mr BH has developed more annoying habits just when im at a bit of a low point AARRRGGGHHH  latest sticking point is he cant grasp that when it comes to groceries prices are rocketing and our budget isnt able to go up . We had a whole argument about Weetabix the other day he only noticed ive been feeding him own brand for months because for some reason they are now a different shape than his usual . trying to explain that his actual Weetabix are 5.65 a box and we just cant afford them has got me nowhere . He hasnt noticed that im feeding him quite a lot of utter crap these days, its strange that we have now started weetabix wars . But im sorry you cant have a steak diet on a workhouse budget . He decided he was going to help me shop better and decided to supervise my online morrisons order . He spotted a pound  offer on Birds Eye stuff so ordered 3 dippers 3 burgers 3 god knows what , i then pointed out that due to shrinkage theyre were only 10 dippers per box which means that he would eat them on one plate , and that we would struggle to find a bun small enough to put the burgers in . Then he got on to fruit and i struggled to get him to understand that paying a couple of pounds for the 3 apples he liked cant happen when for 2.25 you can get a big bag of generic eaters  , same with the fruit pots he loves we cant afford them anymore . Sausages were his next target , he wont eat the cheapest sausage theyre not worth buying , but he decided he wanted the posh ones once again i had to point out that there are only 6 in the pack these days and that as he eats at least 4 to himself what does everybody else do ?  he is hideously greedy at the best of times , which is the main reason hes the size he is . I do try to fill his plate with plenty of veg but this time of year the garden isnt up and producing yet , so pickings are a bit lean . Im trying to cut down on cooking to save electricity so last night id tea and a large quiche in the oven , got up this morning and half tonights tea quiche has gone , hed already been on a moan because it was a meat free quiche due to him snaffling the sausage id saved to make it with , what he didnt know was id made it with half a bag of out of date salad , a dried up half an onion a couple of very sad mushrooms scrapings from his christmas chutney  and mouldy cheese ends hope he enjoyed it!!!

Rwanda anyone?

 Latest spiffing idea from the Tories we will ship our asylum seekers and boat people to Rwanda after all the genocide was back in 1994 its an up and coming country and it has nearly as many human rights violations as say China.  So the plan is to build immigration centers there and conveniently forget the poor sods we send there? theres not many lefty lawyers out there and it may be hard to speak to clients on zoom. Legal challenges are already bring fielded but being illegal wont stop our current government . Patel fancied using any off shore island she could get her claws on then found their were an awful lot of millionaires on the Isle of Wight plus it wasnt surrounded by sharks . How long before these evil shits decide to start building care facilities and old folks homes out there? You know its coming . plus the usual suspects will be making a few bob out of the idea . Plus theres the added bonus of killing a bigger proportion of the elderly and disabled , current favorites are any variety of hepatitus tb and malaria  with added yellow fever dengue fever HIV and diarrhea 

High nd Low

 So I finally got my British Gas voucher on the 7th so that it was worth less than half its cover value , it took a few days to get it onto the meter because the only post office that grasps how to do this is a few miles away . I am touching my forelock with gratefulness and cant grasp how they have gotten away with doing this .  Just to emphasize my role as scrounging benefit claimant , i asked the local council what is the procedure for the 150 pound council tax refund for those of us who receive council tax benefit already , total none response to that question just an apology that their IT system is currently unable to deal with the matter . Being a scrounger is a full time job, that and admin for other half's endless appointments and reschedules , nothing happens easily these days and trying to co ordinate tests to appointments is fun not helped by the fact that if they get himself on the phone he doesnt make an awful lot of sense and will start shouting if he gets confused. 

Heavy gardening season is upon us and im making the most of having the munchkin for as many days as possible but he keeps being stolen by grandad for welding school , grinding school , replace the brakes on the van school ...lol hes quite accomplished at 13 in the world of rusty blokes , grandad sits on a plastic garden chair and rains abuse down on all the boys heads but they learn, munchkin was whinging to uncle who informed him be glad he can only shout these days he used to chase us with a yard brush  . His mother has said she hasnt seen him on line hardly , its because we are working him to death , hes sleeping well for a change . Baffles me that people cant see that boys and girls  need to be doing something other than hanging about on street corners or hiding behind a screen . Donate your teenagers to a neighbor who needs a hand with garden chores or any chores . it forces them to socialize. Being able to occupy yourself seems to be a dying trait . Its all exams are your only reason for living these days   Theres that age in all teenagers where they get into mischief out of boredom.  Then i managed to scrounge a couple of divan bases to strip and make garden cages of , ongoing job theyre stripped and awaiting painting with wood treatment i already have the mesh to cover them. Today is going to be huge bonfire shortly . I have a load of next doors rotten garden furniture going on the pyre and then the potatoes will go in the cleared ground s , ive saved some very green baking spuds for one row . something i seem to spend money on . Then this year i will try my favourite failure carrots , im hoping the cages will stop the carrot root fly we get plagued with . Busy times   

British Gas A Gripe

 So lets raise this matter . I have never had any problems with British Gas we inherited a prepayment meter when we moved in . They did refuse to remove it because we were a council property , they removed the previous occupiers debts and it was just pay as you go all that was 15 years ago in the days when we had a village post office with staff who had no idea what to do with the magic wand to put credit on it and we were the only poor people in this village . When the village shop closed a couple of years ago we had to accept a smart meter to continue to get pre pay . When MR BH became rather spectacularly disabled in a blink of an eye back in 2017 they were very helpful at getting him on the at risk register . We were advised to apply for the Warm Front grant and it has been fine till this year . We usually receive it in March its 140 quid  , in a bid for the disabled to die overwinter so cutting the numbers . This March nothing , despite applying  back in August 2021 and receiving an email confirming we would get this at the time . in the last couple of weeks ive tried to ring them umpteen times and after a 30 minute wait got through to India to be told i had already received it back in February and they couldnt look into it till after the 1st of April . The other day i noticed bragging adverts all over the media about how theyre giving 2 million to the fund so more people can claim so ive haunted them on facebook and twitter asking them whats going on . Then i realised that those on prepayment meters havent received it hundreds of us and they promptly shut down the comments as fast as they were written . cant get through on the phone at all. but early this morning i tried a new one of their adverts on , this is the reply

British Gas

Hi Kay, thanks for sending your details over. I can see the payment was made onto your account in March so the voucher will have been issued in the last sweep last week so you should get it soon. The voucher code hasn't updated on your account yet to confirm but this is due to be done next week if you want to check back after Wednesday. Thanks, Charlotte

Enter

You sent

so when i credit it to my meter it will be worth half the value due to the rise in rates?

Enter

Sun 10:37

British Gas

I appreciate it may feel that way, but I assure you it is not intentional that the payments have been sent out just before the price rise