Good Riddance 2017

Will i wave goodbye with a tear in my eye?  Hardly what a shitter of a year it has been . 
At least Young Baldrick seems to have settled down, hes now living with a divorced older lady with 3 small children , shes physically disabled and hes her carer . Couldnt make it up but he seems to be settled , off drugs and enjoying being a house elf and child care operative , not a conventional relationship but im past caring .
The DWP reopen properly on Tuesday , so we can once again waste our time applying for their charity . we have the PIP tribunal to look forward to , we have forwarded the whole of Mr BHs GP notes to them , to see if it causes as much humour in their office as it did on the cardio unit . oops just had to remove a whole paragraph on the GPs due to legal reasons !!
The hospital reopens properly on Tuesday as well , so we will know a bit better what the next set of plans for Mr BH are , where hes going etc .  Nottingham has been mentioned , because hes a bit rare and unusual etc etc .  He does seem to be quite popular with the junior minion doctors , he has such a weird collection of problems that  they cluster round him like flies . 

Then to give me the final laugh of the year we get a letter on the mat from Council Tax detailing their calculations for the year dated 25th December , in on Xmas Day ? North Kesteven Council must have some dedicated elves !!
Anyway they have killed Mr Bah Humbug, hes now deceased , my son is now my partner and we have a child together !! I know we live out on the fen but do they find incest normal?  nothing at all is right on this statement , so thats another job for the New Year . Doubtless I will be guilty of benefit Fraud yet again for their mistakes , i'm quite looking forward to this one , I may even see if the caseworker is busy or I could take Mr Bah Humbug and explain hes risen from the dead?

So onwards to 2018 im thinking of changing the blog name to Diary of a Benefit Scrounger , my mothers suggestion , just think all the Daily Mail readers could come and gloat........till it happens to them

Over & Done

Thats the Most Boring Day of the Year over and done with.  Really lost the will to live this week im afraid .
Mr Bah Humbug decided to have his heart stop while at the cardio clinic , so it was all panic stations and admit him to hospital . Much drama then much scratching of heads from the medical people , his heart keeps stopping for no apparent reason but its restarting ,so not to worry?  , they thought he had a valve gone due to his traces , they were all geared up took him up to theatre and found nada.  Much to their bafflement his heart is perfectly healthy , he has virtually no furring in fact hes remarkably healthy for a little fat furry bloke.
They kept asking him if he has chest pain , but as he pointed out hes in pain all the time , so they are going for unstable angina , till they can come up with anything else, but they think it could be linked to his neurological problems . His ribs are still broken so he has chest pain with every movement , they kicked him out with all new drugs and a spray and want him back after xmas ...baffled just baffled
DONT WORRY!!!! well he wont his new pills mean hes tripping and giggly , but im going out of my mind , he musnt have any stress , hes just got to sit there till he goes back to hospital .
There are pluses in our world , we came home to a pair of huge boxes on the doorstep , turned out to be from The New Life Church , someone had nominated us for a Xmas Aid parcel , everything we needed for xmas day even a giant chicken .  We hadnt shopped due to still no funds, 9 months processing ESA and theyre still at it , 6 months for PIP appeal , PIP tribunal in January , though he may have to attend with his heart monitor on !! They will send him with paramedics if hes an in patient at the time , happens quite a lot we gather .
So xmas was quiet , everyone went elsewhere except sarcastic son , who wouldnt leave me on my own with Mr Bah Humbug . I did achieve, i managed to blow up the steamer give myself an electric shock  and blistered my thumb . It made my heart pound a wee bit .
So thats me for the foreseeable , tea lady and heart monitor , i keep checking hes still here .........

This Is The End

Well The End of the posts till after Xmas ..lol  Im xmased out im afraid ive no interest at all so im not planing , im ignoring it . Went into Lincoln yesterday , to sort out some of my banking horrors , sorted some things , some i cant sort .
We are now discovering that the problems with the DWP are being made 10 times worse by out GPs sending letters back to them saying that Mr BH has depression and carpel tunnel syndrome all 4 lines they sent back in 2015 , none of his spinal problems or other stuff just that !! They also havent even bothered to reply to the other requests the DWP  have sent to them . Yes we requested his patient files from the practice manager and its opened up a whole kettle of worms that beggers belief , big chunks seem to be missing . So yes it does look as if things will end up going legal . So im informed i cant mention this anymore in public but yes we are still having daily problems with them .
Still taking any food offered we did get a foodbank parcel  delivered by our case worker and yesterday a huge bag of fruit and veg from the church food bank who have hit a big problem due to bad weather , Tesco donates  all their end of day fresh goods to them , but the homeless dont want salad this time of year , i will take it anytime Mr BH being diabetic needs a plant based diet , plus most people dont want baby sweetcorn or avocados, so thats todays job blanching veg for the freezer , loads of apples as well and a carrier bag full of bananas  . Its not people being ungrateful its just a perfect storm at the moment . Snow and ice mean even the foodbank is less busy and those who usually take fresh stuff cant get in . So ive stocked up the freezer and things dont go to waste thats all im bothered about  . Plus it will be bread and butter pudding for xmas, we got a carrier back full of end of day bakery goods, some were reheated for tea last night the rest can go in the freezer . Krispy Creme doughnut bread pudding sounds good to me !!
On a foodbank note i was in their talking to one of the volunteers and she said donations have risen 20 fold in the last week , though if they never see another chocolate orange they wont be heartbroken a company donated a van load...lol  What they are desperate for are toilet rolls and tinned fruit and uht milk .
So bye for now folks speak to you  Boxing Day .............

Leisure Time

How am i coping being a lady of "leisure " Im now a full time carer as Mr BH cannot be left alone at all . He seems to think this means I should be attached to his ankle at all times . Imagine a giant toddler hanging off your leg all day . My other imagery is Jabba the Hutt with Princess Leah  chained  to him , sadly i dont look good in a bikini  im more burkini material , had to get a Star Wars reference in because its everywhere you look at the moment, anybody would think they had a film to promote .
On the medical front we are now the least popular people at our Doctors practice due to my beloved daughter putting in a complaint , suddenly we can get appointments , in fact they ring and offer us them , everythings through gritted teeth but hey ho its the only doctors there is here so we are struck with each other .
The reason for the complaint ? Well after the other night at casualty , we were told he must see the GP first thing to have another ecg and bloods and we must insist this happened , rang to get an appointment and at 3 minutes past 8 there were none , asked for the triage nurse to ring me back which she did eventually , she stated that unless we had a letter from the hospital there was nothing wrong with Mr BH heart and he wouldnt be seen. Tuesday tried again same response . Tuesday night daughter rang and asked for the practice complaints procedure . Wednesday theyre ringing and throwing us appointments , it seems they found the fax from the hospital finally !!
The gist is he mustnt be alone because they have given him a spray to use but hes confused so i have to be with him 24 7 , hes on blood tests every other day and ecg till he sees the Cardiologist , because his traces are "strange" .
But the big problem is that his pain relief  has to be discontinued because it can affect the heart , one of them is worse to come off than heroin and will take a couple of weeks of gradual lowering of dose , its  2 days and its not going well , hes in agony and he can barely move sleep or much else , we wont go into the gorier details but this is going to be fun , hes also paranoid and agressive . The GP wont perscribe anything else for the pain because he hasnt seen the cardiologist, how long is a piece of string . He also needs to be at Sheffield next week on an all dayer at 2 hospitals and lincoln for different scans , the GPS being useless have screwed up the sedation he needs for me to get him there short of chaining him screaming in the back of the van not sure how this is going to happen because by then he probably wont be able to walk at all .
Then to make matters even more fun it seems we have the council are coming to paint up the house and all the doors and windows must be open for 24 hours a day , mmmm theyre pvc windows , we cant be here because were hospital hopping etc etc and sarcastic son is helping in British heart on the work or be sanctioned scheme ...aaaarrrggghhh
Isnt it Xmas sometime soon...lol

Attending An Event

Well I did rather think I should be wearing something sparkly with added festive hat and earrings sat at the hospital last night .
We got a phone call from the Neurology Consultant at Sheffield tea time last night , strange we thought theyve only just started his tests , he had blood and ecg Tuesday , hes back for lots more in the run up to xmas . The lovely lady said
Do not panic

He panics of course and throws the phone at me and says his usual deal with this!!

Turns out there was something strange on his ecg and his bloods were rather odd so she didnt think it was serious but was going to ask Cardiology to have a look but mostly she was asking if we had had more problems with the GP because she was going to fax them and if that still got no response, report them.  Result methinks ....
 10 minutes later the phone rings its the Cardiology consultant from Sheffield . Mr Bah Humbug  needs to go straight to A&E, he then dictates me a list of meaningless gibberish to me that we must give to them and says we must insist hes seen immediately and show them the gibberish .
So off we go , to the plague pit of Lincoln , with the warning signs on the doors that its closed to admissions due to flu , no visitors etc .Ambulances parked allover etc .
Well we went to the desk and the rather disinterested receptionist says its at least a 5 hour wait , it was like photographs of war zone hospitals in the waiting area , stank of sick, pools of sick , dozens of small children , all the pensioners who had been waiting to go home all day etc etc . So i handed her the list dictated by the consultant with his name and number on and we got seen pretty quickly
I have to say the staff despite the utter chaos seemed to be plastering a smile on and getting on with it remarkably well , they had run out of bays for the ambulances sat full of patients, couldnt admit anyone so they were all being ferried elsewhere hence the glut of pensioners waiting for transport . Well they did another ECG took yet more blood and stood looking at the results and as the Doctor said ...thats unusual , had any chest pains ?

Ive got broken ribs had them since January , so yes lots

off we go to xray

After 6 hours we get to go home , yes he has had cracked ribs one has gone again but it appears, after lots of people looked at his ECG he also has a rather unusual form of Angina .
They sent us home because they cant admit and the nearest bed was Nottingham , as the Doctor said it hasnt killed you yet and youve had this a long while , come back Monday .
Going home Mr Bah Humbug chimes up with
Thats weird my dad has Angina , hes had it since he was in his 30s , he always has to go to Sheffield about it .
So it would appear he has a hereditary heart condition to add to everything else ...BLEEDIN MEN

Heat On The Horizon?

Theres a little ray of sunshine on the horizon we may have a little heating oil for xmas , the cold in this house is killing me by inches . After the nasty snot bug we have all had , including Mr BH who has cracked ribs yet again but cant get a doctors appointment . The munchkin coughing so much he was sick and had to stay off school , and my  post viral asthma making me so breathless , something i get after colds , we are like march of the zombies .  We just keep a tiny oil filled radiator on all the time to keep the living room warm for Mr BH.

The DWP are asking for yet more information as to why im not working more hours plus they want more information that theyve had at least 3 times , so thats a weekends work to get on with ...lol ..
Im so sick of Mr Bah Humbug saying "when this is sorted out we will be fine " Ive long understood that it will never be sorted out , this is the future of daring to become disabled in this shitty country , endless debt and contempt from those just one rung up on the ladder . .

We had visitors from the council yet again the other day , they wernt happy that we have no heating , they want to fit a new energy efficient boiler , which it seems is going to be a big job , theyve gone back to the council gulag to consult with the council caseworker we have never seen or heard of since she was appointed , the one who never responds to the messages you leave etc etc . I wish them luck ...lol

Then we went to see the wizards at the Royal Hallamshire about the odd problems Mr Bah Humbug has , lovely lady was seen , suitably appalled that we have to travel that far when theres a neurology outpatients at Lincoln. even more appalled when she found that Mr Bah Humbugs notes consisted of half a dozen sheets only about his suspected stroke in June , it seems that this multi million pound computerisation of all our files means that even a consultant at a huge teaching hospital cant access anything from another health authority  and can only access 6 months worth without a huge wait and a special request ..bizarre , she couldnt even see any of his scans so they all have to be repeated at Sheffield next week along with some others , so thats another £30 journey .

The gist of the visit is that she thinks he has migraine with aura , we hope he has anyway but then she took him away for a physical exam came back and asked about his suspected stroke , asked why he had only had a CT scan weeks later , why he hadnt been referred urgently to stroke services etc etc. I had to explain that there is nowhere to send him to currently in Lincolnshire except for extreme cases.

Her comment
 Why am I surprised , my parents live in Wales and its just as bad . Centralised services mmmm...it just means that unless you live in a city there will be no healthcare .

So the result of the trip to the wizards ....he musnt drive , he may be having micro strokes , they wont inform the DVLA until he has a firm diagnosis .  But I must make sure he doesnt drive , not that he has being doing for a good few months . Hes got to go on a migraine regime , something i havent looked up yet , just to see if it stops the aura .

Sounds like progress , until yesterday when i had to ring our GP to request his sedation for the scans , spoke to the receptionist and explained who refused an appointment and told me that we had to submit a written request from the consultant in Sheffield because it isnt our Healthcare Trust  ..AARRGGHH spent most of the morning on the phone trying to do that ,eventually spoke to the consultants secretary ,  but the consultant isnt back on shift till Friday , theyre going to ring us then and we will go from there.
So explain this to me why are they sending folks all over the country to see specialists when nothing is coordinated to let the specialist do their job ?

And Then

I have noticed that i tend to get more viewers the more miserable my life becomes , is that because of the Eastenders effect? The more miserable life is the better it makes you feel about yours ? I do wonder , but then again some of you been visiting for years and are a wonderful supportive bunch .
Things have took a grim turn yet again , wage slip due to illness this month wont cover the cost of running the business . So income zero for both of us and its xmas , im glad we dont celebrate except for a turkey dinner , which is languishing in the freezer , its going to be fully frozen this year and all i will need is a bit of fresh veg .
Im expecting the bank to shut down the business in the next 30 days , ive broken my agreement by not earning enough ..ho hum ...plus there was the news that the DWP have finally clarified the rules for self employment and universal credit , you must work at least 35 hours and have an income after expenses of at least £1700 and something a month , something ive not achieved since Mr Bah Humbug took a turn for the worse , if i was getting Carers Allowance I would have to work 24 hours a week on top , so theyre saying i must care 35 hours a week and also work 24 hours a week , so you must work 59 hours a week to qualify for any help at all????  Plus theres the fact that I work far more than 35 hours a week caring , im up 3 to 4 times a night at the moment , with his endless nosebleeds and toilet trips and helping him back into bed after he falls out and being punched and kicked over and over , one of the things your not supposed to mention if youre a carer,  im struggling to fit work around the Drs and Hospital appointments and it looks as if im going to have plenty of my own shortly .
Then to make matters even more fun , we had a really odd council surveyor turn up peering through our windows , strange bloke a bit like Jacob Rees Moggs younger brother . But it would seem that he had been sent to investigate the "claims" that we dont have double glazing ..lol  I explained the whole sorry tale about how none of the houses in this street that were council houses had double glazing and that the council actually accused us of stealing and selling the double glazing , he looked at me gone out until my next door neighbour come out and had a go about it, they have lived here through the whole fiasco , the council paid for double glazing and the fitters put in single upvc windows about 15 years ago and somebody at the council signed them off as double , when this was finally admitted 5 years ago, they promptly fitted double glazing in the 2 pensioner properties and left our 4 houses with the single glazing . Now the problem is that the new folks over the road have a premature baby whos stuck in hospital because there home isnt up to Letable home standard which states they must have double glazing in when a tenancy is granted , I was already aware of this because im an evil old gossip but the man from the council says they can only fit new windows every 30 years and they dont get any more money from central government for refits . Unless theyre vulnerable tenants , I pointed out my partner and the fact that my neighbour collects her pension in February , so hes off back to see what he can do , but being a surveyor he had a good root round and was suitably appalled at some of the so called repairs that have been done and the fact that a lot of the repairs that have been signed off have never been done . So we have them coming to do the gutters and roof repairs that they have signed off as been done  on all the houses tomorrow , under the actual councils supervision , the painting up outside that has been signed off twice is going to be done in the spring , we have a meeting about the heating tomorrow , should be a laugh as we have none due to lack of funds.
The one he really liked was the window they had fitted kitchen cupboards over the top of without removing and bricking it up .....have fun folks

Poverty Plans

Today we shall discuss the coming of the Apocalypse ...aka ...Universal Credit , we are fortunate that its not scheduled till next July here , the first big push starts at the end of the month in a lot of areas .
Never in the history of mankind has a good idea been so badly organised , when it was first announced there was supposed to be huge cost savings by combining all the benefits together , quite a good idea .  Then the Tory Party gave the job to various cronies and American companies and it has turned into a witch hunt on the poorest and most vulnerable .
Number 1
The Housing Benefit scandal
they are no longer going to pay peoples rent direct to the landlord , already every to let sign going up has  No DSS on it , this should be shut down hard , its discrimination the like of which hasnt been seen since the 70s , the good old days of landlords evicting people because they were poor or disabled . Doubtless we will have loads of programmes to cheer up my mother along the lines of Benefits and Bailiffs because there all scroungers out there .
Number 2
The 2 child rule
You will no longer be able to claim anything extra if you have more than 2 children . Seems fair enough why would you want more kids if you cant afford them . This was supposed to only affect those who were born after a certain date . What they forgot to mention is that any change to your benefits means that those who already have more than 2 children will lose the portion of their benefits for the extra kids so thats a whole generation blighted because they are worthless .Also is it 2 kids to one mother ? or will men still just wander around breeding any old how . My mother will enjoy Benefit Breeders the new tv programme or have they not already done that one ?

Now I will get out my crystal ball and look to the future ..lol
The Government has decided that due to the single child rule each teenager must care for 10 frail elderly , while holding down a 60 hour working week at the incontinence pad factory  .  this of course is a good thing , they will inherit all the belongings and property of the elderly they care for . After 90% death duties of course .
Due to the lack of low skill labour the rich will be buying foreign staff from Amazon, thats if they can find any foreign staff who are willing to come here ..
I could go on and on and on , but instead heres a pretty knitting pattern , from the days when you could have kids ,stay at home and be a mother , cook wholesome food and be everything that the feminist sisterhood fought against

Still Here

Ive survived my latest brush with the NHS , first day back at work yesterday , ive been working from home all week , code for making a token effort online while feeling like death, got to see the Dr next week just to keep him happy , so we will see .
Poor old Mr BH is baffled as he says . Im the one whos always ill !!!! .  Just to make matters better I had to do an urgent Tesco Online shop with what wages i had , I quickly realised this lot arent capable of any kind of budget shopping or cooking , so the freezer is full of everyday sausages , nasty pies , crap burgers etc etc , but the simple fact is that if im not here they will order takeway which at its cheapest is what i would feed the family for a week on  , then be whining at the doors of the foodbank for the next month.
The Tesco online shop went well , try putting tesco cat food into the search bar if you want a laugh , among the cat food you get Regal cigarettes and a glorious pink Barbie car?? So our cat has some strange wish list on there?
The poor old cat isnt happy with us , she was neutered courtesy of Cats Protection this week , she finally found her howl when i dropped her off then started her howl again when i took her for her check up ..lol  ..so much for the she will be sleepy for a couple of days mantra , she came home leapt out of her cat basket shot up the curtains and proceeded to hiss and spit at us all evening from on high . now she hates us all..lol
Caseworker came back from her holidays to find theres been no progress at all with anything , it would seem Mr BH has another different medical for ESA next week that we had heard nothing about , what a surprise , so she is taking him for it . I wish her luck as his walking is once again dire , his nose is bleedin constantly and they think hes popped his ribs again . This is his Fit For Work Medical...lol  He just wants to go back on his flexible learning programme at the college a couple of hours a week when hes up to it , but they wont fund it unless hes in certain criteria . Im just worried that once again they will find him fit for work , then we have the whole rigmarole of the Job Center again with its 2 disabled parking spots and nowhere else you can park for miles .  Hes unable to attend unless i go with him , if the lift isnt working he cant manage the stairs and it just turns into a whole demeaning circus for him . complete with security escorting him 12ft from the front door where they are no longer liable if he tumbles , they cant help him in any way just ring for an ambulance . 
We shall see ...............

Sick Note

Ive been excused from blogging on the ground of sickness , its been fun ,,....not
Mr Bah Humbug has had a fun week with a camera down his throat , they have found something and taken biopsies , we await with interest . We have also found that his little procedure last week has actually made one of his problems worse so hes looking at surgery and to finish him off his flu and pneumonia jab made him really grotty .
So ive spent a whole week pre payday , trying to fit work around this , with no fuel bugger all in the house to eat and no heat at all ,because we need to keep the lights on .
I actually went to the GPs and saw the new little boy GP , turns out hes an ex army medic so more on my wavelength we had a 5 minute  appointment due to the other GP keeling over at the morning surgery !!
You need to go to casualty
No chance they cant do a lot , 30 years of abdominal surgery tons of scar tissue and adhesions , digestive system runs like a sack of spanners but i manage .
Right try this , huge dose of antacids every two hours , this should stop your digestive system in its tracks take them till monday morning then ring me if youre still here . Youve no fever , no vomiting everything is coming out the other end ok  so youve not perforated , merely damaged or inpinged somewhere in there .  If you were a man you would be rolling on the floor in casualty by now . I will be amazed if your not in hospital by Monday ...Good Luck
Its Saturday morning im still here ...lol

Caring

This week has been a weird mix of up and down , its half term and the munchkin is home and grandad and munchkin are at each others throats 24/7 , day off yesterday for hospital with Mr BH trip to Grantham , one he hadnt been to before , lovely staff , well organised clinics and one of his minor problems hopefully sorted but theyre at least willing to try again if this little treatment doesnt work . It did however prove yet again that he needs to consider getting some wheels under his arse , he managed barely with crutches yesterday , despite him being told theyre not to be used , refused a wheelchair then ended up in agony all last night and hes currently so grumpy that no one will go near him...lol 

We are fortunately having a good waterworks and bowels phase at the moment , just a few minor lapses in the scheme of things which means ive managed a few more hours at work , its amazing just how many hours a week his problems in that direction can use up . But then i find out hes not drinking so he doesnt need the toilet and i can go to work more AAARRRGGGHH  Which is dangerous in itself with his problems. Bleedin Men .

On the depressing front i bumped into an old acquaintance who complemented me on my weight loss and asked if it was Weight Watchers or Slimming World?  I think the DWP diet rather missed her , so she then went on to tell me that what i needed was some face filler just to help with the wrinkles!! It had helped with her gastric band weight loss , the gastric band has led to 10st of weight loss , but shes now unable to work because shes passing out all over the place , she doesnt see the irony in this but her husband can afford to keep her so she wont . 

Then i was sat listening to Mr BH earwigging some locals on the radio , they were doing a fine character assassination on one of their neighbours , then i realised they were talking about someone i have known for years , they were going on about benefit scrounging druggies , taking taxies everywhere etc etc , the person they were talking about had a major motor bike accident 15 years ago , he had major head injuries and his legs are a horrible ulcerated permanent mess , he suffers from major mental health problems , he has ataxia , severe manic depression that needs regular inpatient treatment and his partner is his carer and has the patience of a saint .  People sadly only see what they want to see and believe the endless benefit scrounger programmes on the telly ...ho hum 

On a plus note I would like to thank the person who handed in my purse that I had dropped outside the Foodbank , nothing missing, they wouldnt tell me who it was other than it was a client , not that there was much in it . But an honest helpful benefit scrounger and i would gladly have given them something as a reward .

Its so often those who have the least who help the most 

Thoughts For The Weekend

This week has been a string of beggers belief stories across the media . So I thought id tell a few of my own . 

What a surprise theres a petition been launched on the government website asking our current government to clarify whether they intend to bring in the shopping cards for benefit claimants and asking the question in parliament if they get enough signatures . much the same as the SNAP system in the US , surprise surprise am i turning into a bleedin prophet ....

This led to this rather interesting web page , to see what our local MP actually does get up to.

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/25597/caroline_johnson/sleaford_and_north_hykeham/votes

not much it would seem , do enjoy looking up your own MP im sure you will find it interesting , this lady got in with a huge Tory majority and the help of Shetland ponies and Sinclair C5s , there is no possibility of Labour ever getting in here . The only boom industry here is undertakers , our population is so aged , as fast as one Tory voter dies theyre replaced with ten more retiring here from down south . 

Planning application letters came through the door the other day , it would seem theres been a planning application for the field over the road to build 4 houses , theres not much there, just a couple of horses and on the far side a few victorian farm buildings , my objection is not that they are building there, but the field is huge and theyre only wanting to build 4 houses , so yet again we get more houses that nobody living locally can afford to buy , they say theres a shortage of homes , true. but not in the half a million bracket , its the little cheap stuff we need not more retiree palaces . 

Even better the munchkin came home with a letter from school saying they have been offered a 20 space free carpark if the village supports plans for a large housing estate on the land across the road from the school , the school needs a car park desperately , you cant get away from the fact it serves a huge rural area and the only way to get the kids there for most people is to drive .  Once again its the size of the properties that i object to , that and the fact we dont have the infrastructure , for us its a large amount of properties , our school has 84 pupils , the only shop is soon to be 5 miles away , our lights dim at peak times and the internet drops through the floor of a winters evening .

DWP... it seems a single assessor has had 18 claims turned over at tribunal level in the space of a couple of weeks , all were for terminally ill cancer patients ....beggers belief 

Pull Yourself Together Wench

So in the real world i squandered the price of a bag of porridge on this to cheer myself up.

Its on my dressing table smiling at me . Good old Enoch Wedgwood , posh Josiah wedgwoods second cousin twice  removed . Cheap cheerful and colourful early twentieth century tat , export ware so quite how it ended up in a charity shop in Lincoln is beyond me , one damaged candlestick which can be a repair project but doesnt really matter because im terrified of candles anyway ..lol...theres a weird fact you didnt know about me

Then there was this bit of tat spotted in The Bridge Community Venue on Friday , they were going to chuck it in the bin because the electrics were no good and had to be removed , it took some persuasion but i managed to get them to stick it on their facebook page for £20 , but ive been threatened with finding it on my car boot if it doesnt sell...lol...its gorgeous , with the original shade , but it wouldnt survive for long in my house not with Penny the Gnome Killer and a Munchkin with a Nerf gun . Someone please go and buy it , save it from certain death at my house...lol

Paranoid Poverty

Lost the will to post for a week im afraid , its that time of year , turn your face to the wall and try to forget winter is coming season..lol ...

No progress on the DWP front they sent us another form to fill in which is clearly wrong as none of the questions apply to us at all , we will cobble the answers together as best we can , even the caseworker says this is irrelevant to our case  , but hey ho .

I got paid this month , partly. So we squandered on paying enough of the water rates to stay out of court and getting my work phone bill payed so that i can actually work , my car has a wheel bearing going so thats the end of that vehicle shortly , just dont have the funds to repair it.  Still have the van that apparently got us into this unholy DWP mess in the first place , because we have a van we must be guilty of benefit fraud . Err no the van is over 10 years old and was Mr BHs when he was working , would you want stinky fishing gear and oily crap inside a mobility vehicle ?  

Still arguing about work with the council and there you must give up work because its making it impossible to work out your Housing Benefit mantra .  I must give up work and claim jobseekers by xmas or our half payment on the rent will cease . No wonder im losing the will to live . 

We go over to full Universal Credit in July , so im hoping the tribunal is sorted by then , hoping but not holding my breath . 

Its reassuring that we are not the only ones , apocalypse Universal Credit is going to hit big time just before xmas for millions of people , HO HO HO from the Conservative Party , theyre also toying with the idea of benefit claimants being given a prepaid card for benefits which will prevent them squandering what they are given and limit where they can shop and what they can buy , I presume this is why theyre allowing Housing Benefits to be paid direct to the claimant under Universal Credit, then as the homeless feckless families are plastered all over the Tory media they can come to the rescue with the prepaid card system , which will only allow you to shop at the Tory supporters supermarkets , just think of the captive customers they can boost their profits with . 

We are basically being sold the biggest turkey on the whole planet , we are using the poor to create wealth for the selected few , we are creating a system that is so complicated that you cant traverse it because your feckless and stupid  , so the caseworker job market will flourish . The cost of the list of basic foodstuffs they will allow you to buy will soar to increase company profits for the suppliers, so all the holier than thou "we would never allow this to happen to us " will also find theyre paying through the nose for basics . Or will there just be a separate "poor " aisle for the DWP card holders or certain hours they can shop at so as not to offend the Haves . 

I sometimes think were one step away from being barcoded to show we are poor .

This has turned into a right paranoid rant of a post , maybe i should be medicated ?  but i cant even afford a perscription ...lol 

Little Ideas

 So I think i found the ultimate competition for some of us , I still pursue the five a day rule on the competition front though ive won nothing lately , this little beut popped into my in box today but i shant be entering as our tenancy states we cant have bees chickens or livestock .

http://snip.ly/zm7jf#http://www.eatnatural.co.uk/pollenation/become-a-beekeeper

Meanwhile the rest of my inbox is filled with the usual twaddle , endless why havent you used the £2200 pound in that bank account you forgot about and claim your free bitcoins from some helpful foreigner with worse grammar than me on a Gin Day .

Now someone suggested conker washing liquid , so to that end ive been looking it up and thanks to the howling wind and the fact kids arent allowed to play conkers due to elf and safety, the munchkin picked me a whole carrier bag full in five minutes this morning waiting to go into school .

 http://wastelandrebel.com/en/make-laundry-detergent-out-of-chestnuts/

I will let you know what happens...lol

Im also going to try the five a day rule on the ebay shop , hoping to get it to a steady 30 items all the time , this slightly went askew when i nodded off and slept most of yesterday , plus people keep buying stuff and spoiling my plan ..lol.. I want to try and list as diverse a collection of stuff as possible , if i shot my pet cripple I could probably make a go of it , but its actually making me want to do something , rather than have to put up with my miserable real world job that never gets any better on the paying me front , im supposedly getting my back pay Friday ..ho ho ho

A little pattern porn from the Ebay shop 

Winter is Coming

Walking to School this Morning was a reminder that winter is on its way , blinding sunshine icy take your breath away wind , a wee bit bracing .
Today will be packing away the odds and ends of car boot stock worth keeping , rags to the charity shop , books to the 50p shelf in Tescos , door curtains must be kept out of the vast pile of curtains , they can be facebooked once the weather really turns and people realise they cant afford to run their heating all the time . Will ask our caseworker if she knows anyone who needs curtains , the church charity did give me mountains of them and most only required new header tape or the hems repairing , the ones beyond saving will be cut up for oily rags and cleaning , plus theres a pair of big blotchy heavy linen ones that might be useful for rag rug backing , the header tape off these will be recycled back onto vintage ones , people love the vintage ones but they dont tend to buy what they have to put any effort into , so thats a winter project , may also make up some big shopping bags for foodbank out of some of the truly vile 80s ones ...lol ..the joy of owning a Singer treadle is that you dont need electricity to craft !!
On the electricity front , the final post office in the area shuts in January they cant even make a living selling tourist tat as a sideline , so that will be a 10 mile round trip for electricity to the coop , but as i want to grow the ebay shop , i will have to go to civilization most days plus you get dividend points for buying electric at the Coop . Still not having a smart meter yet , awaiting generation 2 meters where you will be able to switch suppliers at will . this could make for big problems if we get bad weather ..but , ho hum cross that bridge when we get to it
And my winter project has entered the building , lots of little jobs need doing to it  but i think im in love .

If the living room wasnt such an oily man cave i would fill it with houseplants and pop it in there , for now its in the bedroom with a kitten asleep in it , alternative pet bed methinks , not bad for a £1 , even love the shabby faded hood . i think my toy and doll problem springs from never having these things as a child. I may accidentally forget to sell this...lol

Jumble Season

Has there been any huge changes , its been a good the bad and the ugly kind of week .  On the good front Sleaford Cats Protection have received a legacy to neuter Cats , so thats one less worry , little penny is awaiting her appointment . Nobody has been able to do it before because we arent receiving the correct "benefits " the fact that we are receiving no benefits excludes us from a raft of useful things that are available . Sleaford Cat protections current Neutering offer is for anyones cat  you dont have to be poor ..

On the bad front , its another strange DWP one , we received a letter asking Mr BH to renew his sick note , rang the doctors who didnt want to see him , they would ring him when it was done .
Goes to pick the note up only to find hes fit for work again , the format has changed yet again , previously there was a third option work with support  , this is what Mr BH was in . Asked the receptionist , who said youre kidding me !  Dragged the little boy GP out of his cupboard and asked him to explain .
 Ahhh yes we had a meeting about this . Apparently we can no longer say youre unfit for work unless your on special measures .

Right so this says hes fit for normal work

No theres a box at the bottom for light duties only. The DWP now decides if youre fit for work . Ridiculous isnt it ?

So there we have it the DWP now decides if hes fit for work , cant wait . But ive a sneaky feeling they will just rubber stamp it and send him back to the horrified Job Center yet again . If it means he can get his funding for college back that would be a bonus , but then again we cant afford the fuel for him to go at the moment ...caseworkers going to love this one !!

On the ugly front , i got paid a little from some work done in May , have we splurged wildly ? No weve bought nothing but food, this should carry us through till xmas , ive now lost the will to cook because we have choice in the cupboards , I kept a whole £10 for myself and have done the charity shops and a jumble sale .

a whole 20ps worth of knitting patters for my collection  , a stack of winter reading , hedge loppers , a few sewing machine bits .  couple of tops and a large ugly item that will be revealed once ive cleaned it ...lol
I managed to resist the huge vintage dolls house that i couldnt lift for a £1 , i know how much it would cost to restore and ive a little one thats sat here glaring at me for the last 2 years!! All this and change of £3

Bum

So Friday evening we get a phonecall from the hospital can Mr BH come in first thing Monday for a root up the buttocks type procedure . Bless him he was ranting within seconds and i had to ring back and check it was the right procedure , which when I rang it turned out they hadnt read to the bottom of the booking slip , it was for a procedure the consultant  had decided not to do because it was to risky but we got it sorted and he had the correct procedure this morning . Talk about terror he was sweating before we pulled up in the car park , dripping by the time we got in the building and his blood pressure was through the roof . So he had to have a sit and a cuppa to calm down .  What made it worse was the nurses dealing with him were lovely lads but they were a pair of trendy hipsters with the big beards . He said it was a judgement on him for taking the mickey out of hipsters all the time , i think he must have cracked every bad joke in his extensive bad joke book .
Bizarre really , all the truly scary stuff hes had to have done the last few years , where he hasnt batted an eyelid and this was the one where he freaked .
He came out eyes wide and commented " they shoved an alien tentacle up my orifice and ive been violated by hipsters !!! "
Men....theyre just strange

Grim Day

Saturdays are usually pretty grim , everybody's home , they all want things done NOW  and its always creative cooking day , the weather forecast looks good for tomorrow so ive got mountains of curtains to measure and label , oh the joys of probably the last car boot sale of the year , i need to get rid of tons of books so a 10p sale on them tomorrow , just on the grounds of  by Spring i will have read dozens more ..lol
I dont have much storage space , ive 40p to my name till someone pays me, no fuel and theres a good cat jumble sale today Aaaaaarrrrggggghhh 10am Birchwood Scout Hut    just spotted another Scout Hut Nettleham 11am , tiny jumble but ive found some amazingly strange stuff there from time to time.
Weird cooking fact , seriously out of date cuppa soups , half a bag of freezer burnt mixed veg , the bones and skin of last nights chilli chicken , slack hand full of lentils and pearl barley and a few soup noodles make good soup .
The ebay shop is up on its wobbly toddler legs , diabolical photos and scans. Because the postage on the listings is so hard to figure, im only listing teeny things and selling in the UK which is a bummer .

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Coat-Bestway-2095-Pattern-Original-50s-/192311752588?ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT

So im off to measure curtains wish me luck , ive mountains to get through but i know i will start rooting, find something interesting and my mission will take most of the day ...lol

Bimbling Along

Ive always loved the word bimbling probably because i like life to be bimbling , sort of unexciting and regular . Sadly theres not much bimbling anymore ...lol
I feel that im writing a record of the decline and fall of the human race most days , the end of the world is supposed to be some time this week or the next , according to someones translation or prophecy.  The Rapture is booked for the 23rd I believe , which could be a shocker to those who think theyre  holy , when there still stood here as the most unexpected people just up and vanish.
So what do you buy from the jumble sale , when youve £4 between you and the end of the month , I think I did well, a jug full of good make LED lightbulbs  for 50p, much needed as i have been going to bed with a torch for a fortnight , theres enough bulbs to see us through the winter.  A huge carrier bag of "sewing rubbish " as the lovely lady called it for a whole 50p , it was packed with lace and ribbon , binding, elastic , piping cord and at the very bottom 3 white and one pale pink Gutterman unused reels of thread....Woop Woop . Also 4 brackets to go into the greenhouse construction box for a whole 10p each , the next book in a series ive been reading etc etc and I still have change in my purse . So the thrift gods shone  in the right direction if nothing else .
Meanwhile it was caseworker day and she rang the DWP to ask the question on everyones lips . Why do we qualify for not a penny at all !  There was much mumbling and eventually they came to the conclusion that we hadnt filled in a farm eos31 or some such , our caseworker had never heard of it , they have certainly never asked us or even sent us one, in fact they have never mentioned it at all before !!!  She asked if we could do this retrospectively , much mumbling again , yes  Where do we get said form ? Its not available online you must go to the jobcenter and ask for one . Thankyou said the caseworker jumped in her little car and went trundling off to do the 30 mile trip to get one ....
3 hours later she returned to tell us the Job Centre had never heard of this form and it wasnt till she had a paddy with the DWP on her phone and the Job Center manager was dragged from his office , they eventually found said form , theyd always wondered what these were for because nobody ever asked for them !!!
It took her 3 hours because someone had once again jumped off the roof of the multistory car park in central Lincoln so she couldnt get her car out .........Just one of those days
We filled in the pink form  of 30  pages of information they already have on a blue form and she took it straight back to them and stood over them while they checked it and sent it on its merry way to HQ.
What will be the result of this form we have no idea , but you have nothing to lose when you have nothing anyway.  But the annoying and worrying thing is theres no reference to this form anywhere , nobody at the job center knew anything about it and most of our Job Centre are pretty useful and helpful , both our caseworker and I have spoken to the DWP numerous times been stuck on hold with the god awful music that saps everyone's will to live , patronised by kids in a call center for hours in the last 6 months and im bleedin angry about the whole shitty performance . They will not tell you anything that actually helps you , unless you ask the right questions they dont give any answers what the hell is going on ?

The Joy of Poverty

Now heres a little challenge for you all if your purse was really empty with cobwebs in the corners and you have a prepper attitude what would be the things you forgot to stockpile for the apocalypse ?
Heres a little list of the irritating things I forgot and the strange things ive had to adapt .
Wash powder , why have i never stockpiled washing powder ?  But nobody noticed  that i spent 2 months using dozens of odds and ends of bath foam , posh weird shampoos and even washing up liquid to do the laundry . I can vouch that Matey makes your towels lovely and fluffy !! and cheap washing up liquid cleans soiled sheets far better than any posh powder .  I now have a huge box of Easy the £5 for a huge box from Iceland courtesy of daughter , she only noticed when there was more room on the shelf in the bathroom and her bedding smelt of her disgarded nettle shampoo ...ooops.

Why is a bar of soap so cheap these days?  it works out a fraction of the price of shower gel , I have a huge selection of unopened soaps gleaned from auction lots , unopened xmas gifts we find in them and big bags of the little hotel soaps. I could probably go years without shower gel...lol

On the sewing front , white thread and white quilting thread ..AARRGGHH  when your miles from a shop and youve got not a penny thats the really irritating one .  Had a blinding idea the other week at the jumble , mattress covers , you know the varying thickness ones that nobody ever buys . I got a dustbin bag full for 30p , you guessed it theyre now all unpicked and i have tons of wadding sheets for quilting , far less messy than the time i decided to undo a duvet in the garden for wadding ...lol

On the never putting the greenhouse saga  , Mr Bah Humbug has finally after 4 years admitted hes no longer having anything to do with it...HOORAY ..the boys and i will create something that resembles a greenhouse with the greenhouse frame and the rubble we started to liberate from the airfield  a local dumping ground and resource for those needing breeze blocks and rubble . First batch of breeze blocks and bricks currently hiding in my boot at the moment . We also did a few minor storm repairs to the sheds and noticed a few more me and the boys can tackle , one shed window broke and we have plans to replace it with some toughened blue glass shelves from a wall unit i salvaged and hid years ago.  Roof repairs to leaky shed will be tackled once the munchkin returns from his holiday and i can ram him on the roof . I have some multicoloured  bits of wagon tarpaulin , just need to get some felting nails  which im sure i can turn up at the car boot and the shed will have a pretty patchwork roof ,  it will irritate Mr BH no end   and the neighbours will doubtless report us yet again...Ho Hum
So go on confess , whats the strangest think youve done while poor or just in a bid to recycle ?

a little pyrex love just because im in that kind of mood and i just washed it up and put it away

Gray....

That I think sums up life these days , nothings going very far on the DWP front , we had a letter a few weeks ago saying they were refusing to accept the consultant letter we supplied regarding the current situation with Mr BH and the lower back and bowel problems , they told us we must reapply  because they were a new condition that occurred after his assessment ...REALLY
This week we have a letter from the tribunal service saying they have received the same letter and it will be included in the evidence pack for his tribunal.
If you didnt realise what lying cheating skanks the DWP are you would get nowhere with anything .

Not around much at the moment due to work and harvest commitments , being poor is bleedin time consuming im afraid , its all a bit 50s housewife , by the time its picked prepared and into the freezer or jammed thats another day gone .
Someone did ask if I would publish recipes , but being as im a spur of the moment cook and what i cook is hardly healthy , just filling and very cheap , that will be a very occasional happening ..lol
On the crafty front I think i should hang out a sign saying closed for the foreseeable future , I just dont have the time.
What I really need at the moment is a nice sunny sunday to do one last car boot sale , ive been donated tons of curtains and bedding by the church charity shop , they were going to send them to the ragman but theres really nice clean items among it , tons of big modern curtains and nice bedsets that sell so well out here in the sticks .  We had one of those chats where you realise that the person youre talking to has no concept of real poverty and rural poverty is very real where i live .

Bless her I caught her chucking piles of blankets to the rag man , nice expensive aertex and real wool blankets , she was baffled when i said price them up and sell them .

But nobody uses blankets these days

Live in a house with heating you cant afford to run , you use a lot of blankets come the winter

A wonderful christian charitable lady , love her to death but shes never had to think before she puts on the heating and really doesnt grasp that theres a lot of people out there who have no heating all winter. Theres plenty of houses that i visit where the kids spend the whole of winter under a duvet on the sofa with hot water bottles . Our munchkin is a hardy soul who spends his time moaning that its to hot at school , even now hes getting funny looks running to school in his shirt sleeves , they look even more baffled once it gets to January , the trick is physical activity first thing in the morning and popping your hands and feet in a icy bucket of cold water when you get up , my dad taught me that one many moons ago its an old farmworkers trick it constrictes the capilleries in your hands till the point where they hurt , but you dont feel cold again all day even working outside . Guess i just grew up in a farm house with one little range it was only warm when we had the washing copper on all day and  we all had corned beef legs from sitting to close to the fire and fighting the dogs and cats off the hearth rug ..lol ...those were the days its sad to see them back again .

Silence

Can you hear that?  total silence the munchkin has gone back to school today !!!
Its sort of weird to get used to , but it does mean i can get on with my harvest chores , mountain of blackberries boiled up awaiting straining first job of the day . Going to try the pickled pears Hairy Bikers recipe , im missing a few ingredients , so i will improvise ..lol
Noticed the rhubarb has sprung back into life , so i will go and chop it all down and freezer a load , plus i may do a jam .  Sultanas soaking in tea for a batch of tea bread buns .  Apple everything with the windfall apples , main crop due this week...AARRGGH
Raspberries to pick theyre just yielding a pint a day at the moment but theyre going to glut shortly .
The freezer is starting to look grimly empty , so need to find cheap protein from somewhere , starting to realise that is going to be the stumbling block through the winter on the extreme food budget were on at the moment .
 Ive tried to explain to Mr Bah Humbug that we can happily live without meat but hes been really twatish about it , not that we could afford much meat before our latest financial apocalypse ..lol  He had a paddy because i served up the worst sausages of all time the other day , just straight forward sausage egg and chips and he goes off on one , only to be told hes been eating them for weeks disguised in various fajita rice , sausage casserole etc etc .
We eat a lot of cheap supermarket eggs , bacon miss shapes and liver , because they are cheap , cant beat yellow sticker liver , we had a yellow label pork chop each last week sheer luxury ..lol ..Theres a lot of indian food as well , its amazing what you can achieve with lentils and chickpeas , endless bhajis and falafels , ive always stockpiled gram flour and semolina flour so ive barely made a dint in them yet , i always mix 20g of semolina flour in when i make pastry it seems to make it less sticky and gives it that store bought colour. Getting low on dried onions but you can get a sack of onions for a couple of pounds out here in the wilds.
I have a shopping list in my head for when were flush ..lol...if it ever happens

Ramblings

Have things improved....mmmmmm  well my mood has, though the practicalities of life have not .
So lets answer a few questions on my last post ,
Sadly you are not allowed to video these assessments though we did have our case worker there as an  impartial witness , some people have taped them without anyone being aware and there have been attempts to prosecute some assessors but the DWP and Capita refuse to provide their identities and its progressing to the High Court to whom the DWP and Capita are not responding to.
You must provide all your evidence of disability to the assessor on the day , we were not due for reassessment for another year so dont have a lot that is up to date , she refused to look at what we did have and we cant now submit it at a later date , they have just refused the last consultants report we sent them . Ho hum we will take it to the tribunal with us , in the distant future when we get a date .
The mandatory reconsideration was sent back as refused so it does have to be a tribunal .Yes our caseworker is handling the appeal process , bless her she needs a medal .
So thats it. we are at a bit of a dead end until we get the dates and we gather theres a huge backlog at the moment
So now lets get to the cheerful stuff , my wageslip shows about half what i expected for this month , nothing changing their , still hoping i dont have to give up work just so we can get the rent payed , the Welfare Help have just passed the buck back to the caseworker again , insisted we apply again for a different variation of ESA that we have tried before and they just say we arent entitled to ...AARRGGHH
Big plus i did a car boot sale that made a bit more than usual so ive splurged on yellow label turkey mince and liver and dreadful cheap sausages so we wont starve , meanwhile im trying to be an ostrich over the mountains of apples and pears we are currently infested with ..lol  The huge potato crop needs lifting im using my 8 year old slave a lot more now, he doesnt seem to mind that  im now his only childcare due to him being a very naughty boy at holiday club
 Raspberry glut is very visably coming in the next couple of weeks then its cob nuts , so easy to store, then im thinking its time to find a cheap grinder cum blender and make nuts for baking ...seems like a good idea but i cant find much about using native nuts to cook with , but im game .
Just remembered i have a gallon of red wine vinegar , it was cheap thats my excuse, so may try pickled pears im sure it was a hairy biker recipe ?
Not much canning im afraid , due to electric costs , does my head in, ive a large collection of Kilners that i wont be able to afford to fill this year ......being skint is no fun at all !!!

Shock!!! PIP

Well today we received our copies of Mr Bah Humbugs PIP report , ive just read through it and im frankly gobsmacked , its just a vast tissue of lies , not even small lies these are huge ones . Apparently he can bend down and touch his knees and practically gambol around the house!!! he was observed to walk  200 metres unaided He has no incontinence issues , didnt sob through part of the assessment , in fact hes practically fully healthy can cook for himself , shouldnt need any help with bathing or toileting and is mentally just fine . And his wrist operation has cured him !! he even got marked down for attending church!! which we do once in a blue moon .
FFS have these people no shame .
I really hope theres a special place in hell for the woman who did this assessment , the one who turned up late , had him sobbing in under 5 minutes , never asked him to walk and just pointed to a chair in the garden and asked if he could get there . She can clean him up when hes sobbing and apologising when hes soiled himself and she can  do his endless washing . Hes so embarrassed at what hes been reduced to it makes me want to cry every day . Yes he was clean and well presented , so if your disabled you should be filthy and and dressed in rags . And lets be honest hes clean and tidy because i keep him so . She should have to see him try to cook a microwave meal then be unable to get the film off it and end up with it all over the kitchen . Yes he can make a pot noodle , if someone takes the lid off  and only puts enough water in the kettle for what hes doing . She can mop up the trail of blood when hes constantly cutting himself  because he has no feeling . Or even better lets see what she has to say about the self harm scars his arms are covered in , many more just recently due to this sorry situation she has created .  And lets not forget 80% of those with my partners spinal problem kill themselves within 2 years of diagnosis , because its impossible to take away the pain without drugging him into a coma and hes tried to leave this world on more than one occasion already
And yes i am crying writing this  ...............

Trapped

Well thats what it feels like , im surrounded by so called professional help that doesnt appear to be much bleedin help !!! case workers are messing about over  juristiction issues.
 My daughter being in the legal profession is refusing to pay the rent because shes of the legal profession and they have given us nothing to confirm the payment arrangement just a scrap of paper with a couple of figures and dates ...AARRRGGGHHH
Lincoln Hospital are driving me nuts Mr Bah Humbug was referred back in December for an ENT appointment we waited 6 months as this is none urgent , then the appointments arrived 4 times and each was cancelled over the phone and rescheduled , then they cancelled again and nothing , so while chasing up another appointment I asked what was happening and they said he had been discharged for repeated none attendance!!! This is the second time in the last couple of months that this has happened with appointments at Lincoln Hospital , it goes on his record that he doesnt attend and that could be used against him at his coming tribunal!!!  I was told they couldnt change what is on his records and it was his own fault for wasting NHS resources !!!
So I marched to the GPS spoke to the lovely sentient receptionist and she made me an appointment to speak to the practice manager , which when i showed her this had happened twice in such a short period of time came to the same conclusion I did , they are doing this to massage their figures for seeing people within so many weeks , if it wasnt for the fact that Mr BH has complex needs we wouldnt have spotted this , they could be doing this to loads of people , then claiming its an error if people question it . Because your discharged you go to the bottom of the list again ...AARRGGHH  the GP has put in a formal complaint .
Im leaving voicemails here there and everywhere trying to sort these messes out  , nobody gets back to me , apparently its the holiday season so nobody is available , my partner doesnt need a carer he needs a full time secretary !!
Todays mission try to get in touch with a couple of the other consultants secretarys about the reports he needs for his tribunal , GP refuses to help because they dont get paid for it !!  we may have to pay for the letters , the DWP doesnt ask for anything from the medical profession it is all down to you the disabled person to prove that you have any disability  , they only ask your GP for a copy of your medical records , if youve ever accesed your GP records online you realise that there very patchy , some of the locums records make no sense and it probably bears little resemblance to your current condition , there may also be lots of coded acronyms from years back about you being a malingerer , hard work etc etc , GP records seem to have approved immensely since patients have the right to read them , what a surprise...lol
Im sorry if im boring you all to tears , it feels like im documenting the decline and fall of  the NHS for posterity at the moment , but i do feel that its something that needs to be put on public record

We're Off To See The Wizard

Well finally we got Mr Bah Humbugs Urgent Head CT results  , we also got to see the newest doctor at our GPs .  One who appears to be actually qualified , he came out of his office looked at MR Bah Humbug hobbling down the corridor and looked at me aghast .  Hes had a very bad week pain wise and one side of his body has visibly dropped yet again .  Hes mentally terrible, very irritated by things not working in his body and lashing out at everyone in frustration , one of those weeks when i want to run screaming for the hills .
So his head CT is perfectly fine , no stroke , no brain shrinkage, which has cheered up MR BAh Humbug a lot , it means he gets to keep his driving licence, not that hes fit to drive and not that i would let him at the moment , but the thought is there .
The Dr is referring us to neurology at Sheffield , which is where theyve been trying to refer him on and off for 3 years , hes had to lay it on heavy with the referral because most now get rejected at committee , we need to be careful not to see the GP who cancels all the referrals .
He was telling us there is now no Neurology , Mental Health or ENT service in the whole of Lincolnshire , he had a list of other hospitals the Nearest being Nottingham and Sheffield , we are familiar with Sheffield and Mr BH usually has to go there for his spinal problems . But as the GP points out this is a lot of use for the elderly and those without transport or much income , which is us im afraid , but he needs to go , so we will toddle off .
Well we got a visit from the Council this week about the rent , they were nice people and explained the decision  to us , apparently because we now have virtually no income , we must  pay half the rent each week , or rather my daughter must because her income is so high , this has gone down like a ton of bricks we have had teenage toddler tantrums of the first order , not bad for a 25 year old , shes told us shes leaving and taking her son with her , apparently her current car payments are more than me and Mr Bah Humbug have been living and running a house on for the last 2 years !!  Shes always paid into the house, bought a few groceries , paid for the water and took me on treats once a year , but i dont think shes ever considered just what having a home cost wise amounts to , you can cut the atmosphere with a knife , so i havent a clue what is going to happen , but if she doesnt pay they will start the eviction process at  the end of the month if she leaves they start the housing benefit again ...Bizarre
They then offered us food bank vouchers, yet again we refused the gardens running full bore now , plus we have to have appointments with Welfare Rights and The Council Debt Counselling Service . It seems there are quite a few people in this boat particularly in this area and it would seem its the same PIP assessor who has marked down everyone to nil points and blatantly lied through her teeth , the council is looking into it and have taken copies of the paperwork we have received .
I was once again told im daft for even trying to work , that i should be receiving carers allowance , which i cant get because of the PIP decision and that they will review the rent arrears in December . Its all very soul destroying , on one hand we have a Government bragging that Work Pays but in reality your far better off for sitting staring at a wall all day.

Slavery

Lets talk about something thats hit the news big time here in Lincolnshire . Now some of you may know I work part time for the Darkside , something im not allowed to talk about , they are truly crap employers .
I am familiar with the Rooney family both through my job and the fact that they are local legends , and theyve all been found guilty of modern day slavery offences and robbing the vulnerable .

http://thelincolnite.co.uk/2017/08/notorious-family-members-convicted-modern-slavery-lincolnshire/

Couldnt happen to a nicer bunch of folks , they give travellers a bad name , in fact they give the human race a bad name.
So the purpose of this rant is to bring up a few things ive seen over a number of years ,  that appear to be more common. than people realise .
The controlling males of both the Asian and Eastern European varieties  , this isnt saying  that other nationalities dont do these things . It seems to be very comman for males working here to bring theyre spouses and families  here . Then they socially isolate them , the women never go out except escorted by the male , therefore they never learn any English and the male does all the talking for them , with government agencies , schools etc etc . Some have been here for 10 years or more and cant even communicate for basic things , its abuse of a dreadful sort , they have no access to money , no friends and are trapped sometimes with partners who are physically abusive as well .

The abuse of migrant workers , ive seen many cases of vulnerable people working in this country who are abused shockingly by there employers , some have been here years but there employers cynically take the piss , i met a lovely middle aged lady , eastern European  who had been ill for several weeks had submitted a sick note to her employer and received not a penny of her statutory sick pay , she had been here and paying national insurance for 7 years . So the government will be paying her employer the money and they should be paying her it . I pointed this out and she stated that she had raised this and she was told to shut up or lose her job .  This is not a tiny employer they are a medium sized company , this lady works unpaid overtime , she is expected to work 12 hours a day 6 days a week and always earns the same 40 hour week minimum wage .

Weirdest conversation of the lot a young English Asian man who had married a girl from the home country and her parents had given them a tandoori chef as a wedding present!! This grinning little bloke who spoke no English but was an amazing cook was living in the happy couples garage, quite happily , he was indentured to the brides family in Pakistan because of debts owed by his family . The lad was horrified and was trying to sort out the immigration status of the poor bloke in the garage . But as he said his whole extended family couldnt see what the problem was , they all "employ" staff in a similar vein in their indian restaurants .

So heres a few horror stories to remind you that unless you really look you dont see the awful things that are going on around you , theres a lot of people who quote the "stealing our jobs " mantra who have no idea what is actually happening in this country . Slavery is alive and we are in Lincolnshire not London , open your eyes and look !!

Doctor Tales

Well heres a surprise , we saw a useful member of the medical profession yesterday, a wee child ,bum doctor consultant , he informed Mr BH that he is 99.99% sure that he doesnt have bowel cancer or anything else sinister down in the depths , but will book him another CT scan to confirm last years MRI scans , he says that all the bottom half problems Mr BH is having ,from the gradual deterioration of his spine discs and bone causing more and more nerve damage .  He says they cant do a colonoscopy as it would do more damage than good  because of the nerve damage and hes somewhat baffled that a GP  would suggest this . We did point out that the said GP had sent Mr BH for physio because there is nothing showing on his MRI to show why he is in constant pain . We got a raised eyebrow at that point .  So thats one appointment down and 2 more scans to add to the list hes awaiting .
We are still awaiting the results of his head CT its been sat at the doctors for over a week but he hasnt been able to get an appointment , no change there .
Here is a tale told to me by Mr Bah Humbugs friend , hes a bloke that doesnt bother his doctor very often but he recently went into his local GP surgery to book an appointment , next to reception was a very large poster stating you must book 2 appointments if you have more than one problem , so he asked for 2 appointments only to be told he couldnt book 2 appointments they needed  to be booked for different days and times and he must ring at 8.30 in the morning to book each appointment they no longer book appointments at the desk .
Now Mr BHs friend works and is unable to ring at 8.30  every day until he gets an appointment so he pointed out this fact , he was then told if he was at work he obviously didnt need an appointment .
At this point he had to walk away .
He managed to ring up 2 days on the trot only to be told there were no appointments, on the third day he finally got through as far as the triage nurse who told him to ring again tomorrow to take paracetamol and fluids and go to bed .  at which point he pointed out his testicles were after 5 days of trying to get an appointment, now the size of a football and the paracetamol wernt doing a whole lot , they sent an ambulance!!! he was at work !!

Skint

Well I excelled myself  this weekend and survived the wet muddy hell of the scooter rally.  Thanks to his mate sponsoring the event for us , bores me to tears but it made Mr BH a happy man he got to spend lots of time talking gibberish with his mates  and i mostly slept through the whole event ..lol

As usual his mates are suitably appalled by the state hes in , most hadnt seen him since last summer , his mate was a huge help with the getting him around and  the up  in a morning side of things . But by Saturday Night he was exhausted and because of the mud, content to hold court in the tent . He was most impressed that he wasnt the most crippled there , a couple were wandering round with portable oxygen , endless crutches and sticks and a bloke with Motor Neurone in an electric wheelchair with a pair of carers kept getting stuck in the mud and having to be rescued it was a memorial rally for a friend of Mr BH who died of cancer and were all getting old .   I once again proved myself to be weird and an oddball by not drinking , snoring by 9pm  and walking the mile and a half into Syston  to wander round the charity shops . I think the last act just appalled everyone...lol   Didnt  buy a thing not due to poverty but because they were so damned expensive , the one notable exception The Caudes Equines Shop , never seen a shop with so much craft stuff , mountains of it , hidden away in a tiny modern shopping precinct . glorious , cheap and full of wonderful . But I was good and didnt buy a thing, its all about needs not wants at the moment .

On the shopping front the kids are being wonderful , though im not so sure about the nutrition levels of what they buy , diets are very much out of the window for the foreseeable future , im still wasting away, because there are a lot of things i cant eat due to my insides having been reorganised . Im still the size of a hippo but im back to my small hippo clothes at the moment .

This months shopping list will include , sugar for jam making , razors for my pet ewok , toilet rolls thanks to Penny the toilet roll killer who is growing at a rate of knots . Gram Flour , sack of Onions, something i dont grow because they are so cheap to buy . Endless everyday value from Tesco because its the nearest supermarket and they keep sending me vouchers that make a big difference even Tescos realise were poverty stricken. All topped up by the occasional yellow label item from the Coop in the next village . I did manage to score a good bagfull  yesterday thanks to my son , £3.75 for loads of bread, new potatoes in herb butter and mushrooms . Sadly the Moy Park chicken shop is under renovation till the 7th so i cant do a chicken run , im hoping the prices dont go up due to the renovation , we will see .  Now I just need to see if payday comes around on Friday , I await this with interest!!

Progress?

Has there been any progress?  Nope , his mandatory reconsideration has been rejected and was failed completely not a single point given .  So now we must await a very large form and then a tribunal which will be months , somewhere between 5 months and 2 years due to the huge backlog of appeals.
On a plus side we actually had a visitor  , a mate of Mr Bah Humbug , who is the average working bloke , works 60 hours a week, his missus has just been told she has heart problems, she also works hideous hours , theyre barely keeping up with the bills . He was appalled that we could be left with nothing at all , despite Mr having worked since he left school. We will probably never see him again as we served as a horrifying reminder of what happens these days if one of you becomes ill ,  He offered to take us out for a meal which we politely refused , mainly because we dont have the fuel money to go and get back here .

Today im expecting a call from my boss because i told the firm I work for on Friday that im grounded due to lack of funds. I forked out my last £50 on fuel last week I have nothing now for 2 weeks .  My work licences are due next month and i have nothing to fund them either  so i guess this is it work wise . I cant keep paying to have a job , they never catch up with what they owe you ever, and if you walk away you never see the money they owe you either .
 So where we go from here i dont know ? Ebay methinks .

Wait I do know , in theory we are going on an all expenses paid trip to a wet muddy field at Leicester , Mr BHs best friend is funding him a weekend at a scooter rally , small problem we have his urgent brain scan on Friday , but at least this means he cant try to ride there , he is kidding himself that he could, but we dont need to rub in the fact that those days really have past .

Biggest tragedies  of the week ?  I snapped my garden fork off digging potatoes  ..lol   I also have a badly swollen knee for no apparent reason , so im hobbling about a wee bit . It peed it down so no funds from car boot this week .  The daft things you run out of ?  Razors !!  So Mr Bah Humbug is now looking rather like an Ewok , in a cute furry sort of way ......

The Party Season

What to say..mmmmm , well I picked up some holiday cover , either that or yet another staff member has walked out..lol  this is a big risk , the big risk being will i get paid this month or will the firm go into liquidation again because they cant make the wage bill ?

Despite being cured by the DWP Mr BH hasnt been to well the last couple of weeks , im not so sure that isnt caused by the stress of our current situation , we managed to see a GP the other day , the nice one who always seems to be on maternity leave , she must have a huge family..lol  . So now hes got to await a head CT appointment due to some really odd neurological problems hes having ,  we can add that to his ENT appointment thats been 6 months cancelled 5 times still waiting for his next one . His urgent be seen in 2 weeks bum doctor appointment thats now been cancelled 6 times and been over 6 months.  Orthopedics dont want to see him again , his hip and pelvic injections having been totally ineffective , they have once again come up with theres nothing more they can do . Thats 5 consultants and 3 different hospitals  all say the same , but the DWP know better .

Odd fact , they now ration the heavy duty painkillers he has for when he does something dumb or takes a tumble , bit bazaar as these were what they wanted him to take daily on cost grounds before he insisted on seeing the pain consultant , it has to be really bad for him to take them as they knock him out and turn him into a grinning zombie . But he is allowed 4 a day in short bursts because otherwise we would be cluttering up A&E every time he tumbled . It would seem your only allowed 5 days worth now because people sell them!!   We could be rich and not know it .

Heres a little DWP logic to lighten the situation
Pain does not score any points in an assessment
If you have had a operation since your last assessment you must have been cured (if only)
There are no points for mental illness caused by your physical condition
100m walking in the DWP universe can be measured at 20m with a normal measure , even if you never asked to see the person walk .and only pointed to a chair in the garden  less than 20m away .

So this month we have achieved , all the bills got paid because we sold some stuff , we ate rather well because i grew a lot of veg this year , its my birthday and the kids have bought me fuel !!! so i can do more work i might get paid for and its raining properly at last , so the apples and pears may finally swell ready for the first harvest .

Just Knit It

So in the depths of the dry and arid wastelands that are the fen edge what have i been up to?  Truthfully not a lot , work has dried up , we dont do a whole lot during the school holidays , plus theres the small matter of the receivership and the new investors the men in charge are currently threshing out a deal with .  Its surprising how much i can save by not going to work , so we are just managing on the odd car boot and a bit of ebay at the moment , our caseworker has gone off sick so nothing much happening in the world of form filling and scrounging off the state .
Im just building up to restarting the ebay shop during the school holidays and for a change i will run it into xmas  , I decided its better to car boot and have a good clear out through the decent weather , the local car boot is now free , so if i make £20+ a week selling total crap I can live with that and it keeps us in bread milk and fuel .
  Theres a certain snobbery at the car boots , the stall holders are mainly men of a certain age who are as miserable as sin and class a £100 a week as their pocket money . I had a bit of a spat with one next to me the other week .

I wouldnt get out of bed to sell the shit you do .

Really??

Bloody junk that should go in the bin .

I view it as recycling , theres a use for everything .

Your even giving stuff away, whats the bloody point in that .

I was giving away a box of jam jars and a box of eggboxes , I knew someone would have a use for them.  I also give away stuff im sick of the sight of ..lol  the ends of stuff ive had a big pile of , or the cant be bothered to pack it back into the car stuff . The eggboxes got me a dozen lovely eggs from the lady who took them , im more than happy with that .

Its such a spiteful selfish world we live in and its the little things that make me happy . sitting outside at 5am reading , because the hot flushes are back with a vengeance stress methinks .  The orchids growing in the lawn hence the peculiar cutting pattern..lol  , bee watching in the clover beds  etc etc

Meanwhile this bit of tattyness brought a smile to my face , take a close look at the red hat at the back , yep back in the 60s it was acceptable to mount a golliwog on top of you kids head .....how times have changed

Bored

Being poor is boring ...that should be the whole of this post ..lol
But its not , today im sat here trying to justify going to a sale for the day just to get a break from Mr Bah Humbug and his endless bad tempered, woe is me attitude .
He has crashed and burned mentally yet again , not a big surprise under the circumstances i must admit , refusing to wash and shave or change his clothes , I know he has mental health problems , but once again hes refusing to see the doctor and hes just so damned nasty to us all including the munchkin that life is now hard work .  I feel as if im the referee in a rather sarcastic boxing match , nothing is right for him.

The dreaded interview with housing benefit went rather strangely , told them the circumstances and there was an awful lot of tooth sucking , it seems once again im technically guilty of fraud , because he has been in receipt of ESA since March and i havent informed them , but they hadnt  informed us till a week ago either !!  He receives no money he hasnt for over 2 years now so how would we know . It seems the information was never sent to them either , so they hadnt recalculated anything , so they have to recalculate from march ....err but we havent received anything so the calculation should be the same ...much tooth sucking again.

So once again  i was issued the eviction speech  , so i just pointed out that my partner is disabled and this is a disabled adapted property and that we do have a caseworker . More tooth sucking
I finally left with a form for discretionary Housing Benefit which i will give to our caseworker to try and sort out and a lecture on how i need to work more hours ...so a result methinks !!

Try not to laugh at this , received a phone call from the boss , it seems that they have been in receivership for a week because they couldnt make the wage bill this month , had i not noticed a different name on my pay slip?   Not really as i hadnt had a damned wage slip and they now owe me a considerable sum of money , peanuts to them but not to me .
I wish they had gone to the wall then we could get some financial help !!

My Way

We ive cleared loads of crap by doing a couple of car boot sales , still lots more to go as i havent even tackled the sheds yet...lol
Sarcastic son has been a big help and daughter is starting to sort me tons of stuff out , just donated a pile of university text books that will go on to ebay once the kids get there results , law and politics are good sellers , so thats a couple more weeks of bills paid .
I have to sort out another bank account because theyve shut my personal account ,i havent had a wage from the business in months , im once again credit blacklisted ( cant eat your credit rating so not that bothered ) Creditors wise some have been lovely , Anglian Water however are their usual twatish selves we had to go to the regulators last time we had financial problems !!
Found out that most banks wont accept me because I dont have a UK Passport , so will try to get round the Coop as they have social exclusion policies that arent affected by a bad credit rating .

British Gas rang to drop a bombshell, we will no longer be able to use home vending on our  prepayment meter from later in the month , we must accept a smart meter , yes great, but they dont work here, we have no mobile signal of the correct type , plus if you take a British Gas meter thay are different to other suppliers and then you cant change supplier!! British Gas are currently the cheapest prepayment suppliers in this area , but we have no shop to vend a key the nearest post office is a village away but it hardly opens anymore and we dont have enough regular income  to put a weeks worth of electric on at a time !! we use the odd £10 in Paypal to top up normally.

Wish me luck im off to North Kesteven Council to try and sort out the Housing Benefit , last time they just started eviction proceedings at that point and accused me of Benefit Fraud !!!  Ho hum out of everything theyre the one that makes me lose the will to live , they have nice staff and a few absolute swines who just think your off the programmes on the telly .

What Fun

So to celebrate destitution I buggered off on a trip to London , my birthday trip from my daughter so all paid for and done in advance . We took the Munchkin on his first trip to a gig rather than a big concert . Alan Doyle and the Beautiful Gypsies.  At the Bush Hall in Shepherds Bush , lovely venue fantastic staff only the size of a large pub , former music hall and bingo hall and you could take kids!!! We were sheltering from the sun round the side of the venue and the munchkin chimes up
Hello Alan !! sign my Ipod case for me
Next thing i know hes been kidnapped by a dodgy Canadian bloke and vanished into the venue to meet the band ..lol
He reappeared well pleased and laden with freebies , what can i say theyre a band of real nice folks . We were right at the front and they stopped for a natter with the munchkin half way through the gig ..lol..hes never stopped singing since we got back

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nGPgcZ3CWI


On the destitution front ....you all worry to much , we are fine for a couple of months at least , its going to be grim but its been grim in the past and weve managed .
For those from abroad , let me explain . Because i am self employed i receive nothing from the state if sick or out of work for 6 months . it makes no difference if we split up , I would still receive nothing. Mr Bah Humbug would receive something if i left him , not much and it would be eaten up by carers fees , he still wouldnt be given anything to live on until his appeal is heard and their are layers to the appeals which the government is spending on lawyers to fight the appeals thats why it takes so long . Many of the appeals are queuing for the High Courts that can take up to 2 years , they hope you die during this time !!
A benefits queen "friend" of the type you see on the TV , never worked , different ailment everytime they threaten her with work, all the kids statemented with different problems did give me some advice.
I should dump Mr BH  in the Local Jobcenter and scream the place down about how hes incontinent and let him crap all over the floor , thats what she would do !!  They soon cough up then ...REALLY!!
In the world where i live you just plant another 20 cabbage plants , and dig out the bed pads you made before we got the damned PIP payments in the first place and just get on with it......

Thanks for all your kind words , we have internet for another 2 months  , so i will keep you posted