Supermarket Sweep

With all the dire warnings from Tesco and Waitrose , plus everyone singing the praises of Lidl and Aldi . Ive been supermarket hopping this week . Had to pop to the new Lidl in  Lincoln for some tool item requested by Mr Bah Humbug , what can i say ?  I used to love Lidl back in the days when you were supposed to be ashamed to be seen with there carrier bags . Recently ive not been so keen , an example, I used to buy there shampoo i have psoriasis and it was great , then a few weeks ago all the shampoo vanished to be replaced by Pantene and Head and shoulders plus there generic brand turned into the watery stuff that nobody in there right mind would use . ive noticed this quite a lot with other items , now theyve got instore bakeries all the bread products have gone up in price big time . Meanwhile even mid week you cant get parked in Aldi and waiting at the tills is a nightmare due to the Chelsea Tractor driving hoards , with there overladen trollies . 

So I ventured to the tranquil depths of little Tesco hidden away off canwick road , not the new mega tesco i hasten to add , its handy on the way home has ample parking and its very quiet .  If you shop carefully Tescos isnt any different price wise , im not a big brand person and some of there bargain brand stuff is decent and with the price matching lark they all do now, not much dearer , what does make me laugh is they hide there own brand stuff in corners and bottom shelves and in most cases its often sold out , but i did manage to get 10 packets of their value mashed potato while they had it , its the only edible instant potato product ive ever found . My son wants to know where have all the value curry pot noodles gone , nobody has any and hes got withdrawal symptons .

But the big thing with Tescos is the staff always look so bleedin miserable , ive had friends work there and they say its the whole culture and atmosphere the constant laying off and never knowing how many hours you will get each week . 

So thats this weeks round up of my supermarket gripes...lol ...got any more ?

Just Passing Through

I think this could be described as a desperate post , squeezed into the real world work schedule , ive a few more work heavy weeks till it dies a death at xmas till about march . im told we've a newbie going in to be trained next week , its a bit like the Borg they will try to assimilate him then send him out to play with me at which point i get to put him through living hell for a couple of weeks , its always good for a laugh . theyre usually horrified when they find im a little old grey haired granny ,whos driving is appalling. I may make a special effort for this one and turn my rusty old wreck into a Mexican taxi , take my bible to work and ask him to pray with me and ask him to pray with me in Mcdonalds . It will be just my luck they have employed Ned Flanders !! I do so enjoy a good newbie , ive been warned not to scare him away but they dont realise thats not the idea I need this one to stay so i can slow down a bit .
This is how desperate things are , Lincoln is a beautiful place heres the view from the ladies public toilet doorway ..lol

Blah Blah Blah

Its been a very Blah weekend , i started with good intentions yesterday finishing Mr Bah Humbugs oops I didnt paint behind the furniture and i didnt think anyone would notice effort , guess what i decided to change the current furniture for something else and I noticed , hes a star sometimes!!
This sort of turned into one of those jobs you wished you hadnt started , Ive upset them all by dumping all their coats in their seats in the living room and informing them put them away or i burn them !! Now have a huge dustbin bag of rags for the charity shop because ive thrown anything they moaned over , not as harsh as it sounds nothing my lot have finished with is ever more than rags . Chucked all the odd shoes i could find ..sod them ..they were given till this morning to take any they wanted .
On a good note Mr Bah Humbug in his urge to score a few points actually let me get the boys to drag my victorian cast iron legged table up from the bottom of the garden , ive been looking all summer for a replacement top and not found one , so its installed at the bottom of the stairs and looks just fine with an egyptian rug on the top to hide the state of it .
I also found a huge amount of craft stuff i havent been able to get to , including tapestry kits id forgotten about lots of quilt patterns and bindings .A lot will go to the charity shop .
So to be truthful ive spent the weekend ransacking the place trying to tidy up ...does that make sense?

Rescue volume with great colour plates of a little french bulldog 

Auction Time

Well once again ive been bidding online with a zilch budget and without much hope . Imagine my surprise when i got a couple of, you are the winner emails . So it was a trip across the county to pick up my winnings . Mr Bah Humbugs reaction? WHY THE HELL .
even im not quite sure what i was thinking , I bought a spinning wheel , my excuse that I know what these retail for was, met with the frosty stare of doom , ebay methinks , errrr buyer collect methinks . This would be one craft too far , must get this listed over the weekend ...lol
Louet S15 anyone?

 at least the other stuff is easier to hide

Miracle Brooches

Now were getting to the no car boot ,the odd jumble sale and laughing at the stock in the charity shops time of year , its time to start show and tell from among the vast array of stuff ive pack ratted away over the years .
So lets delve into my brooch fetish

I have a weakness for Scottish Miracle Brooches , these are made from tumbled agates from the scottish highlands and were made popular by Queen Victoria , usually set in silver or silver metal . The large orange agate is beautiful , virtually translucent , no hallmarks and the pattern in the silver has been nearly polished away . It cost a whole £1 at an auction a few years ago , i didnt even know what i had bought till i picked it up . Then theres the more traditional tourist souvenir multi stone , 50p charity shop find , theres still tons of these to be found quite cheaply . Just for contrast theres the silver brooch pendant , victorian and bought for me many moons ago , all celtic knotwork and very heavy

 i fell n love with this wooden hand carved jewellery box for no better reason than the fact it looked like dragons wings on the front , someone had put such a lot of work into it and it was sat looking lonely at a car boot .

Hobbies Keep You Sane

Rumors of my blog demise are ill founded , just had a bit of a strange week , dwelling to much on Mr Bah Humbugs next treatment and  last ditch attempt at fixing him next month and pondering meaning of life matters , or as he would say , overdosing on self pity and negativity . Sometimes he can be a little to close to the truth .
So apart from a solitary jumble sale where i spent a whole £1.20 on a tin and a blanket , ive done little but read and potter , which brings me to this , does having a hobby keep you sane ?
 Ive quilted huge items when ive been stuck in the grey fields of negativity , totally mindlessly . my dad was a chronic whittler when he was stressed , my mother knits when shes angry . But what will generation playstation do ?  I come from a generation where every girl was expected to be able to mend and sew , at school boys learned metalwork and woodwork all these skills have gone from the curriculum , now the yummy mummys are learning in their 30s thanks to a few TV programmes and Mollie Makes but isnt it still becoming a bit of a hobby dessert out there , more for males than females , is that why mental illness among males has seen a surge ? Once upon a time men had a shed, nowadays they dont even seem to have that luxury in most cases . Back in the 50s and 60s by now they would be churning out farms dolls houses and garages ready for xmas . The chippy home made 50s dollshouse I was given , has been claimed by the munchkin , hes spent hours with a bag of plastic soldiers and lego fighting battles in it
 .http://kayerunrig.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/why.html
With xmas on the horizon isnt it time we started to look at the whole shoddy commercial aspect and encourage blokes or mums  to have a go at making something , small children really dont care if things are perfect , they just care that they were made with love

A Visit From the despair Squid

I suppose nobody remembers the despair squid ? An episode from Red dwarf many moons ago . But hes been at my door for a couple of weeks , its the not having a single positive thought syndrome . Not depression , been there done that , took the drugs, lost the plot, moons ago
This time of year tends to hit me like this , its been rain everyday , work everyday nothing to look forward to on the horizon . Positively not feeling positive ..lol
The season of mists and mellow hopelessness , looming on the horizon xmas happy families , so glad we dont do it in a big way ..lol
I seem to spend my days working , doing the laundry , munchkin duties and not much else . I cant craft under artificial light , cant read for long etc etc , so winter looming does this to me , im getting the urge to hibernate . Bed at 9pm every night , put the TV on and im asleep in 5 minutes , but the day starts at 5.30am so thats not a bad thing . By the way i did try the whole SAd light treatment thing a few years ago , had no effect whatsoever ...story of my life
Lack of thrift scores , havent found a single item on my thrift list , no winter boots or veg steamer , not a single pillowcase for weeks , not even any vintage xmas , just an infestation of vile gift sets and Poundshop items for £3 , I must have been in Age UK or British Heart Foundation for that
And just to annoy me even more the capital d on the keyboard has died ...AAAAARRRGGGGHHHH

Jumble Sales and Thrift shops

Another hectic work week , so very little time for anything . we have now reached the time of the year where we get thick fog and chainsaws, thats all ive heard today , we would kill for a woodburner but they cant go into these houses , were stuck with oil heating and due to cost it will be another month regardless of the temperature before we get the hour a day of heat in the evening. were in a 50s prefab so insulation and warmth are a minimum . Plus its the season of mould, ive had an hour of my favourite winter chore de moulding the windows  , plus the bathroom needs another coat of mould paint as the walls are once again going black . So much for the expensive anti mould paint , its flaking off ..lol
Plus theres the getting washin dry chore , you have to wait for the sun to break through to hang it out let the sun dry it on one side then turn it all round then take the outer layers off the whirly dryer and move them to the airing cupboard and just continue till you reach the end ..lol
Mr Bah Humbug has a huge cauldron of bolognaise bubbling away , so at least ive been cooking exempt today
I think ive visited maybe 20 charity shops in the lunch hour this week and i  couldnt resist these heavy plaster cottage bookends , plus ive found a 50s ladies head hat pin holder , ive seen larger ones of these on quite a few American blogs but never found one here before

I managed 2 jumble sales yesterday and spent a whole £1.45 , a broken brooch , some rainbow framed sunglasses that i figure nobody will pinch out of my car , a pikachu keyring and some really heavy 1930s seashell uplighter lamp shades , ebay for them if they get through the cleaning challenge , theyre very rusty and grubby at the moment .

Newark Auto Jumble

Mr Bah Humbug got stood up by his date to trundle off to a scooter parts fair somewhere in the wilderness , so i just dropped in to the conversation that it was the Newark Autojumble  and yeah he took me .
Still my favourite day out with him , he looks for lumps of rusty crap and i errrrr look for lumps of rusty crap . Theres just so much of a non auto theme among the heaps of stalls that there really is something for everyone . We both fell  in love with the vintage Coca Cola cool boxes but they were way out of our price range .

Then i just spotted the blue industrial storage bins , the conversation went like this.
I like those
What the hell would you do with them
Theyd look good in the kitchen
Theyre bleedin huge
mmmmmmm
Think of the prep work
No id just want the interiors blasting the outsides would look good as is
They just wont fit
Think of the storage , veg in one bucket , all the bits of scooter that should go to the shed , you get a full 4st potato sack in the bottom
Theres no room
I could get rid of the freezer
we need the freezer
mmmmmm
Needless to say i couldnt have them

rusty blue lust objects 

sharing at   www.wecallitjunkin.com

Small Boys

Once youve had sons you realise that yes men really cant help it , theyre just born that way . You know that gung ho crazy , lets see what happens attitude that any rational human would know was a bad idea .
It doesnt get better once you have a grandson , especially when they live with you , but at least if youve done one generation you get kind of blase . My poor daughters still at the total despair level...lol
So heres a couple of munchkin tales , that will follow him for the rest of his life . Munchkin and his regular henchmen , two other 5 year olds are playing on their bikes in the little close where we live . all of a sudden theres loads of high pitched squealing that isnt getting nearer to the house so must be something serious . on going outside i find they've collided with each other and his friend has squashed his naughty bits . theyre busy unravelling him and picking him up, one under each arm and theyre carrying him back to his granny next door but one , as he sobs and grabs the offending bits . As theyre staggering away ,munchkin chimes up " I told you that you'd hurt yourself if you didnt wear your cycle helmet"  Ive since questioned him and found out that he believes cycle helmets are magic and prevent any injury ?

It gets worse , much worse.
A couple of days ago the munchkin started shouting for me to come and wipe his bottom after a poo, hes being doing this by himself for ages , plus he'd started spending hours up there .My daughter was thinking about taking him to the doctor .
Anyway , when she wasnt around I decided to investigate , on close inspection his bottom was bleeding a little , on even closer inspection his poo had something silver in it . Later that day i heard him say to his friend " Its true if you swallow it , it does come out of your bottom " On interrogation it seems they had been eating Meccano nuts , just to see if they came out the other end . I told my daughter and hes never going to hear the end of it . It was made even worse by her 20 year old brother chiming up with " Meccano nuts are nothing you should try a 4 block Lego brick"
MEN!!!!

Why?

So I popped into the Bridge , wonderful cafe and charity shop on Newark Road . Sat having a natter and discussing stigmata, as you do, and someone walks in with a load of donations of toys . They never say no to anything and you get a free cuppa if you donate , plus you can park outside to drop stuff of and  theyre open monday to Friday . See I even give them a bit of promotion, even if its a long way for most of you to travel for a cuppa .
Anyway they were all looking in horror at this particular item , which i thought was lovely . Then i realised that i'd said out loud that I liked it . I was then informed they were putting it in my boot !!!
So im now the puzzled owner of a dilapadated home made 50s little dollshouse . I had an uncle who used to churn these and forts and farmhouses out for years , in fact i often see his efforts in local salerooms its not one of his but somebody probably used the same Hobbies magazine pattern that he did .

When i got home Mr Bah Humbug was in the garden pottering with his scooters so I thought I would get the, what the hell have you brought home now lecture , instead he sort of liked it . Mainly because yesterday i realised hed hid yet another scooter in the back of his van ..lol
We really are a bonny pair of pack rats and made for each other in so many ways , but even im struggling to figure out what im going to do with it or where to put it , theres a project list as long as my arm already on the go , maybe over xmas?

Statistically chuffed

Pageviews by Countries Entry Pageviews United Kingdom 407 United States 273 China 66 Canada 23 Australia 15 Ireland 15 France 8 New Zealand 5 Germany 4 Spain 2

do you ever read the google statistics for you blog , the one i find fascinating is this, i love the little map that changes colour from time to time , somehow out of all the data they provide this one seems to make an impression on me . Its great when a really obscure country produces viewers , you know , the ones you learned in geography 40 years ago and have only seen on a wildlife programme since .
Why am i gaining followers in China , do they have an interest in the Lincolnshire Fens? or are they secretly monitoring my consumption of takeaways . Come on China talk to me , please do tell .
Last month i had tons of Eastern European visitors , that i can understand as most of their relatives live locally and they could have typed in Boston in the search menu .
Have I secretly started the league for women of a certain age? bored grannys of the world united ?Or is this  becoming a meeting place for those of us who just muddle along . Whos tablescape will always have a cat sat in it , who always starts crafty projects then get distracted for 5 months or those of us who view the world and our family as a bunch of aliens from another planet 

The Missionary Position

It had to be done just to see how many page views it generates !!!
Tedious day off would be the truthful title , I managed to get a day off today by turning off my phone and ignoring the world
6am im outside hanging washing out in the dark , I love the feel of grass on my bare feet even when it gets frosty , at least i dont startle passing dog walkers with my un sexy nighties and pj's in the darkness .
make  Mr Bah Humbugs pack up , stick in more washing wave him goodbye
7am daughter trots through on her way out of the door , mumbling the days orders , then the munchkin arises for homework breakfast and a good chunter, he really isnt a morning person even at nearly 6 .
8am hang out more washing , sort out the washing yurt thats amassed this week , give up in disgust get dressed and then its the school run  9.50 hurl still muttering munchkin through school gates .
9am get home , notice youve 6 missed calls and umpteen voice mails all work related , turn off phone sod them all!!!
9.30 settle down with Outlander and a huge pile of month end paperwork , finish paperwork at 2pm having lost the will to live !!! and eaten vast amounts of Galaxy chocolate .
3pm fetch more washing in hang more washing out , look at the sock pile and debate just hurling them all in the bin to see if theres any reaction when then say "ive got no socks" and i inform them i chucked them all .
3.30 sit down to blog , and assume the Missionary Position an excellent little book rescue that cost all of 50p  Women in the Mission Field , love it, it's so middle class saving the poor heathen , you have visions of these ladies if they existed in this day and age going across to Calais and preaching the word to the heathen hoard , then coming home on the ferry with half a dozen strange foreign blokes stuffed in their eco car. sadly missing a page so it will have to rest in the home for redundant volumes

What will the rest of my day off contain , pick up munchkin, take for a wander to the
park for homework , he needs leaves to make something. plus yet more conkers to trip everyone up . Cook tea , listen to them all moaning about there hard day , sort yet more washing , notice that despite all the washing being at the washer this morning and being able to see the floor around the washer for the first time in weeks by 7pm there will be another pile AAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHH
lifes so exciting when your a working granny