The Return

 We Survived!!! now we need a week to get over it . It hammered it down the first hour of the journey but the sun shone all weekend , daughters posh new scooter kept breaking down all the way there and back its currently sat waiting to be collected by the shop she got it from , we had to come home get the bike trailer and go out and recover it fortunately only about 10 miles away from us. When youve got a couple of 100 years scooter fixing experience traveling with you and they announce they cant nurse it any further it was truly dead.

Himself had a great time , endlessly repeating himself and just talking man bollocks with the mates hes had forever . I just sat there nursing cups of tea and nodding my head , grandson and his girlfriend were pure entertainment , 17 young and in love . I did ask him how they got together . He said she was his mate at school and always put him in his place then told him he was her boyfriend now...lol

I do think his mates were shocked at how much help he needs with just daft things , the disabled facilities are excellent at Mersea Island  with just a couple of little gripes , some pillock locked the door at night , dropped the latch and didnt leave it on Radar key , revenge was getting them out of bed at 3am to unlock it . Then we found the showers dont have sloping floors, 3 inches of cold water standing , nothing that crocs dont cure . Himself didnt have a lot of feeling in his legs so hes now hugging the sofa zonked out of his head on industrial pain relief as the feeling comes back . hed also made himself some tie rap stirrups to keep his feet in position while riding and because its a trike he  just sits there, scary but effective.

His best friend did say that hes amazed that i just do whatever is needed and dont bat an eyelid ..lol. He also said that if he was disabled  his wife would run for the hills. 

So we made it there and back in one piece !!! Now im gradually getting stuff sorted ive all week to unpack and put stuff away . I was up all last night as he cried with the pain , im trying not to think about what could have happened , he had a great time and thats all that matters  

Bon Voyage

Tomorrow we are off on a pilgrimage to Essex , to a huge scooter rally , 10 of us . Oh be joyful , himself is riding because hes started riding for the first time in 3 years having had a good summer health wise , daughter is riding, grandson blew his scooter up over the Bank Holiday , we are taking the van and a car and enough food and drink to feed the 5000,  a couple of his mates are riding in theory . I dont have to drive , daughters mate and brother in law have the honours i just have to cook for the 5000 and put the kettle on a million times . We are taking a folding z bed so himself doesnt have to get down to floor level . Himself is driving me mad with packing charts and stupid questions and his head will likely explode because our lot are like herding cats . Just had the are you packed lecture , its a weekend not a soddin 2 week break ive half a carrier bag for me and two bags of stuff he needs, anybody forgets anything theyre all grownups and responsible for themselves.

Wish me luck , i may take to my bed when i get back ..lol 

Puzzled

 Its probably me , but whats this weird bragging online about To Good To Go Bags? Do the algorithms think this is something i need to see 10 times a day? Is it the replacement for rate my plate? It seems to consist of middle class folks saying how wonderful their haul is , well possibly if your buying the sort of stuff you get in these bags , but i just think their mostly a rip off , the foul over spicy sandwiches that nobody buys , slimy fruit and veg and weird tubs of spicy god knows what that theyre grinning manically at receiving. Plus they dont seem very cheap , there was a woman the other day bragging she had got £21 worth for £7.99 , i wouldnt give that for it . 

 Then theres Olio,I have  a friend whos an organiser for this , it does seem a bit more sensible. But there seems to be mountains of posh bread and lots of wilting veg  but theres uses for that , my friend seems to be out at all hours collecting a car full , then she puts it on her drive for collection as she says the veg goes into the compost bin and the bread ends it days in her chickens if its not taken .

Garden update the wind threshed the plums the other day , the apples are mostly on the ground and tiny , ive a solitary cucumber and thats about it apart from a tree dripping in cooking  pears..lol natures a funny old thing      

Free

 I think ive developed a bit of a bad name at the car boot ..lol  Im well known for just giving stuff to people when theyre dithering about stuff , so yesterday me and the daughter did a get rid of the crap car boot , by 10.00 am i was totally bored so i started the grand giveaway , id made a good few quid so i was happy with that , its like circling vultures , first they ran off with the free tub ..lol it was on her stall in 10 minutes , a lot went to the next stallholders daughter , whos just bought a house so lots of pots and household stuff , then i got a lecture off some old bloke about encouraging the foreigners and yes they did take a few bits> Then theres the 'You Should Be Selling  That  Online brigade'.  I DONT CARE , it is not going to landfill , it saves people money and its nothing i need or want . Tomorrow its a couple of bags to various charity shops that actually accept donations.  Did i buy anything ? A couple of West German Planters that were hiding under a table not 10 feet away , were they a need?  like hell , but everybody should have beautiful things in their life and it doesnt have to be expensive . 

I may decide to put out the free table over the bank holiday depending on the weather , spread the love of crap folks !!!!

Bargain Hunting

 Toddled off to the little posh jumble on my own , only managed one sack full for the grand total of £6 ,  managed to sort 3 bits for myself all new with tags , a good quality new leather satchel that im sure one of them will flog on vinted and a couple of t shirts for sarcastic son that he didnt like the feel of , so more car boot stock from the pile that didnt fit ..lol 

Sunday it was carboot visiting with the whole tribe in tow , good job really because himself is quite useful as a glorified shopping trolley , a couple of brand new curver bins , a new pair of Clarks ankle boots , shrink wrapped socks for the winter , some posh make ..lol, even a craft kit to do on the camping trip, the dearest item was £2 . 

Then i had to do my auction pick up , there was a pair of Dunelm curtains that i have lusted after for a while so i got that lot , came with other curtains and a giant damask table cloth and once again you may as well buy a £1 lot because youve got to pick up anyway..lol well i keep telling myself that !  I did okay with the 4 boxes that came as the £1 lot , theyre always badly photographed which is why nobody wants them , pair of unused Edinburgh crystals champagne flutes , plus a marked crystal fruit bowl and another posh vase from a Turkish company, loads of little dip bowls , a box of studio pottery , all manner of strange items , even a huge set of windchimes , stack of boiling bowls , mason cash pie dishes all it said on this lot was household goods . Dont laugh the Dunelm tartan curtains were immaculate but huge , Patio door sized in fact....guess who doesnt have a patio door ? 

Wild Life

 If your a wildlife noticer  like me , id like to point out that seed trays or cat litter sized trays filled with just a couple of inches of water will help all manner of wildlife in the drought . I have a bowl of pebbles with water so that the bees and other little things can stop for a drink as well.

I have hedgehog problems  , Mr BH woke up in the night to find he had a bed companion , our big male hedgehog Dave hes hard to miss having albino patches  , there was much squealing and shouting from himself , but he was rescued and put outside , not himself though i was tempted . Then last night i was woken up at 4am by rustling noises from downstairs , assumed it was our timid cat come in through the window . Errr no it was a baby hedgehog gorging himself in our huge sack of cat stars , just sat in the sack looking very pleased with himself , when theyre tiny they are scared of nothing , it took 3 goes to get him out as he kept running back between my feet. They must be sneaking in at dusk when the doors are still open because of the heat , guess im going to have to look under the furniture with a torch at bedtime crafty buggers arent they . Some one did ask why we have so many of the prickly buggers , its because we have hedges and trees and bushes for cover , all the new builds have fencing and concrete bases so nothing can just wander in and out .

I also have a lot of bird variety's in the garden and ive noticed this year they are taking all the immature berries from the bushes like the elderberries , cottoneaster  and fuschias it really doesnt bode well for the winter if they have already eaten everything so im stocking up on bird food as well 

Sold

Well i managed  two days of carbooting and now im a helpless cripple..lol.. im getting there, but last night was hellish,  i couldnt even turn over in bed without sound effects getting up fpr the loo was interesting to say the least . It took me about 10 goes up and down the garden path to unspasm this morning with a rickety elderly cat helping  . Why this happens is baffling , the girls turned up for both and they did all the lumping and humping and were really useful . We had a  right giggle yesterday , we had the same girl from the one on Saturday next to us on the Sunday , sold a mountain of books from the book mountain at 50p , lots of bad pictures various crap from under the stairs . Loads of plants, i did a big tray of 50p houseplants , then sold garden plants on the Sunday  , gave me a giggle that the same woman bought tons of houseplants , pretends shes not trade then puts them in pretty pots and flogs them for tons of money in her antique booth , she did it last year . I dont mind they cost me virtually nothing , the plants do all the work ..lol  Best laugh is i always have a free box , this week we had 3 boxes one of damaged china , one of books and one of odd crap , one bloke took a bag of 90s map books he was going to use for crafting , various other folks took bits and bobs , but i came back from the loo and the girls were falling about laughing , two pensioners ran off with all the free stuff including the boxes !!!  Bit odd i had to find a new free box..lol.

Im really hoping we dont have to do any more this month , but with the big camping trip looming I need the cash , everything seems to be going on vehicle repairs at the moment 

Baffling

 Here we are again my first bit of peace this week , everything family wise is still up in the air im, just wandering the universe being sympathetic and trying not to take sides or upset anyone ?  I am however not very good at this ..lol

 Himself has gone to disabled fishing and ive got a carboot weekend im planning on doing 2 just to shift the stuff in the dining room, ive bought nothing, but the pile seems never ending. Lots of household linens this week , yet more books and a pile of pictures ive dug my way to . Its going to be disgustingly cheap and i will give a lot away . Ive also a ton of house and garden plants that i need to shift , theyve come on really well only being watered with the washing up water.

Im reading loads and trying to avoid the news in any form , its just endless lies and bad news , what is the world coming to?   

Come Too

 im still here , not exactly doing much every thing seems to be up in the air . I have to do my turn at going fishing with himself , his disability vehicle being broken yet again !!!! he wants my car and it will stink of horrible bait for weeks a bit like bad chemical vapes im afraid  . Attended good old Methringham  car boot , came back laden with two big bags of Lakeland jam jar lids unused and a whole £1.50 , a single gory murder i dont think ive read , birdseed , potatoes and a small Parian Ware Fairy Lamp that i didnt need  for a whole £1 . It was a nice cool walk round in fact it was blowing a cold howling gale but hey ho .

In a fit of insanity , i decided to rake out the entire under the stairs and gained a whole mountain of crap that can also be car booted , arguing with himself about moterbike boots that he hasnt worn for twenty years , why would you keep them? he baffles me , they dont even fit him . Did how ever, find most of the camping gear that hasnt been used in years.  Yep it would seem that we are camping in September , physically this is a really bad idea , but since when has anybody listened to me..lol  Eldest son is having his stag night at a scooter rally in Essex what could possibly go wrong ?

Complicated

Lifes kind of complex at the moment , family matters are eating my thoughts and time . Dont panic nobody's  murdered Anne Widecombe she may have been a strange old bird but just why? no its just the upsets of life that you cant change and you cant help , even my aged cat is fading before my eyes  the heat having done for her I think and it seems we have another week of Scorchio to look forward to , Even endless tuna and cat milk isnt helping much , shes still catting but in a wobbly frail kind of way , a decision will have to be made soon i think .

The veg garden has pretty much died off but we look to have a very good apple harvest , so we may eat an awful lot over winter , im so glad ive already dried and frozen lots of stuff for the winter and im up to winter food storage levels in general . I will be giving the boot sales a miss till its much cooler and ive not got to bother with the auctions if i dont have the time . Catching up with my reading , lots of bad crime fiction and a few much older crime novels i found in an auction lot ages ago and just forgot about .  

So enjoy your summer in any way you see fit , its rarely this glorious , we will be back to the grey soul destroying time of year soon enough and dont forget you can achieve an awful lot at 4am when the sun comes up , but it dont half upset your neighbours!!!

Car Boot Challenge

 My daughter was away for the weekend and i finally got my car fixed!!  it has been parked at the garage awaiting treatment it was all packed with stuff from the auction and the mechanic took some books as a gift...lol.. rather than unpack it I decided to do a car boot half a mile from home , its a new one so it wasnt busy , didnt sell a lot but i managed and i wasnt very gimpy.  In my infinite wisdom i decided that because the car was full i would just top it up with a few bits and bobs and do the big car boot on the Sunday , it went quite well i managed to shift all but a couple of the big over the mantle pictures that my entire boot was full of , a few went to trade and by 10 i marked the last of them down to £1 each  and they were gone in no time , the girl on the next stall was horrified ...lol. I did explain that i wanted just one and had bought the entire boot full for £3.40  so i was well into profit , i think her head nearly exploded when i marked all the boxes of china glass and bits and bobs free at 10.30 . They have all been to various car boots 3 times with my daughter and i just didnt want them .  She snaffled up a couple of boxes full that she said shed sell on vinted , good luck to her , im not bothered i need to make space , i want my dining room back before winter !!!  The only down side was i got home fell asleep drinking my cup of tea , went for a shower and fell asleep again and then slept a whole 10 hours  and still feel knackered...lol..I also ache from head to toe and have a busy hospital and doctor visit week . I think i picked the best weekend weather wise possible,  cloudy and breezy perfect weather now its building up to another patch of Scorchio but i can leisurely unpack the last bags of books and now i can get out a bit because i have the car and my car boot money for fuel money 

Lets Talk

 Yesterday i was up at 5am half asleep and on my first cuppa , twiddling through facebook to see what was going on in the kids lives . Up pops a post by Elon Muskrat,  odd but i get the strangest things because i read politics and opinion of many genres , better to know your enemies etc etc .  Back to the Muskrat post , it was to link to a movie it said , so I thought why not , it took me to Twatter a forum i gave up on months ago because it became a Neo Pillock love fest . Anyway Citizen Patriot is the title , I wont share a link as it probably on Starmers little list by now , so i watched it for a good half an hour and it started to dawn on me it was basically an advert for a modern remake of a Death Wish movie with advanced slasher techniques provided by many different variants of migrants. The "hero" was going round administering vigilantly justice because the authorities were doing nothing , by now i was on my second cuppa and awake so closed it down . Now people may say that i didnt watch it all so shouldnt judge im sure he saw the errors of his ways by the end and went of to start welcoming boats on the beaches. Im just appalled that a trillionaire should feel the need to publicise this tripe , what the hell is happening to the world , money is corrupting every second of our lives but the everyday people have less and less . Please feel free to discuss 

Get up this morning and my feeds are full of white middle aged blokes ranting about patriotism, my not interested finger is working overtime, bless you have to admire the algorithms of Facebook , could Muskrat not be charged with incitement somewhere in the world ?   

Jumblies

 Yesterday i was summoned to do an emergency Car Boot , daughter has become involved with a local cat charity, they had a Jumble Sale that they barely advertised so they had mountains of bedding and clothing left, my daughter decided to car boot it all at giveaway prices, so once again we were lurking in a windy field watching the Kite hovering over us , not sure if he fancied a 90s glitter top or making his bed in a pile of towels , we started at 3 for a £1  and devolved to 5 for a £1  then sold a load of £5 a dustbin bag to a clothes reseller whos always there . It was surprising in some ways we mainly sold to pensioners and youngsters hunting vintage the sort who get excited over C&A labels and beige?  I am sadly lacking in knowledge in all things clothing so they may have been getting stunning bargains who knows or cares . What i know is that we have helped the pussies , they havent had to pay for all that waste to be took away and there is a market out their for truly weird clothing..lol.  I came home with 2 bin bags of bedding for the dog rescue and was very good and just kept a giant hoodie and a pile of nets to use in the garden to keep the caterpillers at bay.

Meanwhile i have a happy week of cleaning and washing auction buys that were also very cheap , seems like a good idea in the heat ...lol

Wanders In

 Grandson has been staying , so im running around like a headless chicken ..lol they are driving me mad , im still hobbling round like creepy death and they have decided theyre putting him yet another scooter together ready for him going back to work . Being helpful they packed the car up for the car boot and i was obliged to toddle off despite being  a member of the zombie club , daughter had to come over and help ...lol I have reached the level of take it away for £1 i dont want to see it again , more crap out of the dining room , i can see the floor in places!! Then she chimed up with you do realise theres at least a couple of van loads at Grandmas that are coming to yours...ffs will my mother never stop haunting me , theres still all the furniture as well AAARRRGGGHHHH ..We dont have the money to pay a clearance firm or a charity as most of them now charge as well 

Well

 Sorry im not around much at the moment but life got suddenly got complicated and busy , grandson ended up having his shoulder reconstructed , its all a bit tie wraps and bionics but hes coming along nicely now . Daughters unwell more from the stress than anything  and ive hatched my third batch of shingles this year which i just dont have time for . Did an auction collection today i bought a single lot of planters went to pick it up and ended up with allsorts of other stuff mainly art , weird modern stuff thats very expensive to buy , one goes for about £170 online but at the car boot i would struggle to get £5 .lol, such is life , not sure when we all be capable to do one though . 

Ive done bugger all in the garden , fortunately it does most of it by itself so we wont starve as quickly as the nay sayers say we will , with the rain and sunshine everything is very lush and green in a traditional english cottage garden , just need the bean row to go in, hundred leeks to plant . Sweetcorn , i had 40 plants then something ate all but 6 , ho hum keeping my eyes peeled for some . So see you around . i shall return!!!

Boots

 So i got dragged to Stickney at 6 in the morning yesterday , beautiful sunny morning not a bit of wind . Did i spend a fortune ?  it was dire , tons of toy stalls , 3d printing , lots of clothing and market stalls but the actual car boot stalls were pretty naff  managed to spend a couple of quid on 2 ramekins and a couple of storage tins walked bleedin miles and achieved only a headache for my efforts . Himself hit the nail on the head when he pointed out there only selling what hasnt sold on Vinted. The house will however reek of onions as i bought a whole net full...lol

Rinse and repeat when i should have had a lay in , but no im awake and ready to be getting on at 5am Sunday morning . Toddled off to meet my daughter at Metheringham , much better quality still bought one thing a posh food flask for himself to take to fishing and half a dozen french beans though my daughter got a bag full of weird stuff

What i think is happening with the charity shops and boot sales is that all the filming and bragging has killed them . A women who bought a large Wedgwood toilet boil for £5 off me has it listed at £75 on Vinted or Ebay , i dont mind I have its sister which i wanted and that one was surplus to my requirements and i sold it for way more than i paid , but bragging and laughing about it on You Tube, well. Wouldnt mind but she wanted to haggle me down at the time ..AAARRRGGGHHH Theres another woman who buys from charity shops and then says how shes made £300 from  £20 shes spent in the shops shes filmed on You Tube and then moans how stuff is getting far to expensive to make a big profit. I specifically  sell to resellers , i paid the mortgage for years with ebay . Now ive retired from that side of it till we get our mother problems sorted out , im only car booting to stop a build up of crap in case we have to move in a hurry , im well aware of the value of things 

Sorry if the fonts are weird its nothing im doing it just a Blogger glitch

Tad Scorchio

 Belting weather isnt it .  in an act of insanity the girls decided we should do a carboot Sunday morning , we were done by 11 as it was so scorchio . Sold stacks of cheapy items , most of it for a huge price of £1 but this was all old stock so i didnt care , the few new bits were a good bit more expensive . Then i took a couple of bin bags of clothes , all large sizes from the jumbles , 50p a bag they cost then i added all my sundresses to the piles , nothing fits me these days , my weight isnt changing but my shape really is , ive turned into a blob with little arms and legs more joys of being post menopausal. i  suppose im going to end up like my granny tucking my tits in my knickers..lol .

Not getting on with the garden , i cant get help from anyone they are all to busy or just not interested , i will do what i can and they can all starve. arseholes the lot of them. didnt do any plants this week it was to hot , im still watering the garden with the washing up water and considering getting a tub to stand in for the shower , but then id be carrying buckets down the stairs which im sure would end badly. Mid week ive an auction collection to do dread to think what i bought for a £1 , but there was one  lot that  i needed that i had to pay a bit more for, so i might as well make a van load with stuff to sell, well thats my excuse and im sticking to it .

Still dont know what is happening about mothers legal matters , its going to drag on and on i think , we now have a nightmare over attendance allowance , they wanted thousands from her estate but they didnt pay her any, the application was sent in they said she was receiving it but they never paid it , they therefore actually owe her estate quite a bit of money but like all DWP matters its a soddin shambles that will drag on and on .

Weak

 Sorry for the delay life has a habit of throwing curveballs at you. Anyway grandson decided to have a wee motorbike accident , bent a few bits broke a few bits etc etc and that was just him , his bike is a bleedin mess and is outside my window, himself  keeps sucking his teeth and pricing bits . It could be much worse but grandson is home and fed up because hes going to be weeks or months till hes back at work and the young get not a penny in sick money. You cant claim on the motorbike insurance because it will double as soon as he mentions it, because its his first year in that policy.  Hes been riding since the first day he could legally , he insists hes never riding again but hes got concussion and hes been talking so much rubbish its hilarious. I do think the fact his girlfriend is a few miles away may change that decision her family are bikers , i think hes horrified that we all just keep telling him to suck it up, shit happens and it was an unavoidable accident caused by a white van with its headlights on main beam coming round a bend on the wrong side of the road . Yes he could learn to drive and be safer but its the cost pure and simple , we shall see , his bike is looking like a right off due to cost , but we have others as does his girlfriends family !!! 

Bikers and Scooterist families always live with the knowledge that the knock on the door may come one day , but it didnt this time. Doesnt mean that any of us want to stop them riding , its part of their souls and everybody has been down the road sometime, im in my 60s and have the scars still and the odd gimpy patch . But it will be his decision and i will make sure they listen to him 

Thieves

 Heres a cautionary tale. Yesterday i took himself out because we hadnt been out all weekend due to expense , everything seems to add a premium on a bank holiday weekend . 
So i wanted to go to a local auction viewing and i bribed him with the promise of a bag of chips, gets to the chippy and my card didnt work , nothing unusual ive always got bugger all in my account but i should have got my pittance from the government , so after i got home i checked it online and found i had 4 transactions to a wedding firm in London? asked my son and he said your cards been scanned its a fraud . I rang the bank and after two or three attempts to get through on the automated system finally got a human in the fraud department , she was really good and i explained that i had unexplained transactions on my account , she asked quite a few questions , whether i had had any unexplained bank texts or phonecalls and funnily enough when i checked my phone id a text in the spam telling me i had set up google pay on my phone , which i knew nothing about !! when she went through all my transactions there was a £1.99 payment to a phone company in Barking London , they asked if i was willing to be contacted by the police which i have no problem with and then said they would stop my card and send out a new one plus refund the payments within 24 hours which they have done . All very prompt and helpful Coop Bank . Sons friend who does something in fraud says that they had set up a small rolling payment on a bank holiday that would gradually clean out your account and most people wouldnt notice so quickly or have so little in the bank so being poor has its advantages. Also because i obviously dont use phone banking at all, it isnt likely the bank would notice till after the bank holiday , so for future information always check your bank over a bank holiday for thieving bastards  

Dry

 im still hanging about unable to get on with my life due to solicitors etc etc . half hearted gardening because i dont know if the council tossers will evict us if this ever gets sorted ..ho hum ... or i could be going to prison, which would be a nice rest. pile of books and a cellmate for company. 

I blew up my dehydrator but it did get some hammer , daughter took it back to Lakeland and they no longer do them which seems strange when they do every kitchen gadget known to mankind. But they did give her a full refund , so she said to order one online from Amazon which i did , it came today ,they just abandoned it on the doorstep and ran , i knew as soon as i picked up that it was smashed , the box was damaged and it had been flattened , more hassle . Im having a bad amazon week my pet vacuum decided to split the water tank , i got it just after xmas and apparently it only came with 30 days amazon guarantee !! unless you took out the extended warranty AAARRRGGGHHH  I pointed out that was illegal and they said it was up to me to get in touch with the manufacturers ..Yingzhou china .....so no chance then but i will try. 

In the real world ive managed a jumble an auction and a car boot , bought a bag of murders , two Saki cups and a donkey planter which i can remember wanting as a kid at the seaside , an Alvingham pin dish lots of plants and veg so an average week