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