mummy

 So im the lowest of the low at the moment , Mummy dearest decided to not open the curtains Saturday morning and the neighbour who keeps an eye on her , thought this is it , went across with her spare key and found the doors locked with the key on the inside . after hammering and screaming through the letterbox she heard a little im coming and my mother answered the door in her nightie . But the point is she was very confused and out of it so she rang me while mother was getting dressed , it transpires her carers havent been for days though i rang Thursday and she hung up on me because she said her carers had arrived ?  There was no fresh food in the house and being blind she had been eating green mouldy bread buns , the carers do her shopping for her.  when the neighbour checked she hadnt had any pills since Tuesday , i asked the neighbour to ring for an ambulance but she insisted i ring 111 which i did and then had to explain im over 100 miles away , this meant they couldnt access anything because we are living in a different region , so this turned into a right circus . but finally they got a nice little indian lady to ring my mother it was  decided after this conversation to request an ambulance  so the neighbour stayed with her she was still very confused and looked like death so im told theyd got her sat in front of the telly with a pile of blankets because mother had turned off the heating and was freezing , fed her  pills and given her tea laced with sugar as instructed it took 6 hours for the ambulance to get their it got to the top of the road then had to leave again once . but they checked her and she needed to go in because her heartbeat was allover . Then they sort of  kidnapped her , she sat in an ambulance till she got a bed Monday morning and we couldnt find anything out before other than she was in ambulance triage.  Then the fun begins they rang yesterday and because she hadnt had a fall they wanted to send her home !! Not a chance , nobody not even the hospital has been able to get in touch with the care company involved , i cant leave himself and her neighbour cant be there all the time , so no they will have to involve Social Services . I then at 9 oclock last night get an irate staff nurse on the phone trying to shame me into picking her up because they need the bed , shes mobile and wandering round BUT if shes not taking her medication or able to shop and eat unsupervised and wont put the heating on because shes listening to GB news all day telling her shes poor , its not safe for her to be home alone .  They even said that if they put her in a taxi they cant stop her leaving , she hasnt  got any house keys so she cant get in i pointed out, i was getting very annoyed by that stage .  i did point out to the nurse , that maybe she had a loving kind mother but sadly the little old lady sat in that bed is a bleedin manipulative monster , but she could be stuck here for weeks was the reply .  GOOD so now Social Services can sort this bleedin mess out and put a proper care plan in place . This is a conspiracy by myself the neighbour and other family members to make the evil old bag pay for her care and not treat everyone like unpaid servants in her aim to have a gold plated coffin . So im now officially a granny dumper ...The END not that in my wildest imagination it will be  

Busy

 Out here in the real world ive been busy thats why ive been up since 4am prepping veg for the freezer , not because im that busy but because i got up to let out a howling aged cat then i thought i will just have a cuppa then i thought id just catch up on blog reading , then i spotted the two on the turn peppers , last night i popped on stew from all the fridge gravel , himself asked what meat it was and i informed him its his favourite mystery meat, actually its a bag of frozen stock from a pork joint that we had back in the spring and my collection of chop bones ive being saving , but what he doesnt know wont hurt him and the bones will come out before serving.  did another food shop at the community pantry im aiming for once a fortnight and this weeks yield was better than the last . tesco reject celery , it was a bit muddy but guess what you can wash it!!! lots of peppers, two cabbages, huge heads of garlic ,various ugly veg that i have no problem with. plus free cooking apples if you needed them .  the lady on the till did ask why i take tinned potatoes instead of fresh , i explained i was still getting them from the garden that the tinned ones are excellent in stew once the fresh veg dries up in winter, if i fill the slow cooker right up it lasts 3 days , dumplings the first night , garlic toast the second and just bread on the third . I did laugh when Useful son said his pregnant girlfriend has no idea how to cook ,bless him he is quite a useful cook so thats another reason they might make a go of it in these hard times . I think its just the fact she comes from a very large family and managed to avoid learning  lol . Also i think ive found another good thing about the community pantry it was worth joining just for the cheeses, this week it was wensleydale with rhubarb others were picking it up and looking in horror , i was licking the packet , half for dinner on salad and half in the freezer , last week it was mozzarellas. freezer cheese is great for cooking.  So the poverty diet plan is in full swing to enable us to afford lights on this winter , its cheap its healthy and theres lots of it  

Queenie

 So the Elizabethan era is over , i may as well admit im not a royalist but what a spectacular life she has lived , from a future of living in a farmhouse as a small child with her sister and lots of dogs and horses . To ending up the heir to the throne by default , due to her Uncles abdication on rather salacious grounds for the times. Then we chucked a war at her and she served her country rather well spanner in hand like so many girls of the times , met a dashing naval officer shed had her eye on since she was a kid and lived happy ever after , thy spent endless years on tour to the backends of nowhere visiting the rapidly deflating Empire , Philip making her smile all the way , acid wit being his well known specialty . 4 kids later still on tour back in the days when people queued  for hours to see them , they were influencers before they were even invented .  

Lets talk about the kids ..err Charlie our once and future king , not much good at marriage , too used to getting his own way , climate hypocrite , how many trees does he have to plant to carbon offset his jetting round to eco conferences? Andrew cant say nothing good so saying nothing . Edward dragged out of some backwater closet to do the job they had lined up for Harry and Anne absolutely distraught by her mums death being dragged around the country as a public grief martyr.

Its the whole public spectacle of it that i object to , im sure the queen would have been more than happy to be interred with Phillip driven there on the landrover he loved surrounded by her loving family allowing  them to privately grieve.

Please dont get me on the subject of how we have all watched her wither away since Philip went, thats the cruelist part of all . 
Or maybe thats the fact they dragged her of her deathbed filled her up with drugs and got her to shake hands with Liz Truss in the name of duty .

Good At It

My first visit  to the Community Grocery in Sleaford , i managed to scrounge a lift with my daughter who insisted in having a look with  me . Its bright cheerful and the staff are great. They explained the system where you get 5 tinned items, 5 veg items  then apologized because Friday is the busiest day so stocks were low and a freezer item and a chiller item with two treats as extras was rather good value , i ended up with  A pack of walls microwave sausages that will be thrown into sausage sandwiches , they also had great big packets of Richmond sausages and 4 pint cartons of milk frozen .i got  a pack of feta cheese , huge tin of potatoes , tin of minced beef in gravy jar of lemon curd   6 pack of chipsticks  plus a huge pack of digestives  , my treats were two sachets of posh cat food for old cat . The veg front was really good ,  bag of carrots for stew , 3 sweet potatoes , giant cabbage , bag of onions and a pack of chestnut mushrooms .  So for the 6 pound charge i think i did well . i could have done better with different choices but we have no need of huge bags of cooking apples and pears at the moment or potatoes you could even get 5 pot noodles if you dont cook or are living in a tent up the rec ground . My daughter was horrified lol ...how the more well off live .  we live within our means , we have no possibility of our income going up so every little saving helps at the moment. I noticed most of the customers were my age and older says a lot about the value of pensions i think.

While in Sleaford i wandered into iceland not much i could afford but i was searching for Easy wash powder and they actually had some . Daughter however was laden up having found they had a sale freezer which had the summer barbecue packs in for 2.79  half priced so she got a couple one had to go in my freezer because theres no room at her house . i do think my daughter shops well but the problem is shes shopping cheaply through choice not because shes forced to shop that way .  

Its all a bit catch 22 on the shopping front , shopping online is costly most of it doesnt show up , but im struggling to carry stuff . Theres things that are having to drop off the shopping list because they are so unaffordable whether himself likes it or not .  he was looking at my sweet potato mountain the other day with bafflement , they are cheap at the moment so im stocking up, they are practicaly immortal and will keep for ages , the potato harvest is miserable so its a good healthy substitute . All i have in the garden at the moment is potatoes kale leeks and mountains of beetroot  if the weather holds i will have broad beans and bush beans  yet again , spring onions and lettuces and the tomatoes are late but thriving   

Potter On

 Oh be joyful Useful Son has found another flat near his job , but he has one day to move into the new one and it has a terrible access yet again and electric heating . just like his old one but he will have the luxury of double glazing and floors that are flat and solid , no holes in the roof  etc etc . On the heating front hes not bothered he works two jobs and the heating in his old flat never worked  anyway . All he uses his flat for is to sleep and shower.  So thats this weekends chore with thankfully loads of help from daughter and family , get him moved AARRGGHHHH . We have to take his hamster because hes not allowed pets so we have got off lightly till the cats get it . 

Just to make life fun ive had a tiny shingles flare , only a tiddly patch on a rib that feels as though ive had a good kicking and the usual ache allover self pity . No covid connection this time as far as i know. only 11 years till i can have the jab .

In the real world i have signed up to the nearest Community Pantry its 5 pounds for the year and 6 pounds for a load of groceries , because of the distance its not viable for the twice a week i can use it, but once a month should be of help for veg & bread etc    https://www.lincolnshireworld.com/business/consumer/community-grocery-store-opens-in-sleaford-3764438

 im looking at any possible savings i can make at the moment , we are playing oil chicken at the moment trying to save enough to get oil for the winter at a price we can afford so its watch the daily rates for drops . on the food front we are pretty well stocked and we do have the advantages of access to the Moy Park factory shop for none organic dirt cheap chicken plus the good old tin factory 

https://www.facebook.com/people/Derek-Meeds-Foods/100057522426568/

24 tins of Branston beans delabelled with 2024 date 4.80 at the little portakabin in the middle of  nowhere , they also have a good selection of catering sized stuffs and they do deliver locally .