Women

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

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

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

Sanity

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

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

What If

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

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

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

    

Waiting

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

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

Zombie

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

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

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

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

Mildly Ranting

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

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

Life and Stuff Like That

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