Plus

 Well fancy meeting you lot here . Not a single thing has gone wrong this year !!! I hope everybody liked their daft presents , the look of horror on our latest trainee daughter in laws face makes it all worth while ..lol 

 Mommy Dearest  spent Xmas Day stood in the toilet of her elder care prison , apparently if your feet are in the water the spiders cant get you , the staff never seem to bat an eyelid , she has however upset my daughter on her pre xmas visit by mistaking my daughter for me and going off on a whole ghastly rant about how fat and useless my twiggy daughter is.

Im sat here surrounded by the plants i won , wondering where the hell to put them all in a house without window sills , son has ordered me another grow light so they can go in a dark corner..lol  now i just need somebody to put me up some hooks for the ceiling ones .

Old Cat has had a good xmas , an autistic child guest discovered the cat likes Babybels cheeses and fed her a whole net full , the cat has been in a two day cheese coma , i was starting to get a bit worried as she slept for two days straight apart from the occasional fetid fart , but shes stood at the fridge howling this morning ready for her next feast 

ive spent the morning recycling buffet items into the freezer , chopped celery , big bag of coleslaw , wraps , the birds got the last sausage rolls , grapes and a wedge of pork pie . So theres no waste when you live in the countryside , just half a veggie quiche and a few mozzarela  sticks to finish up in the fridge , ive a huge plum loaf all the cheese and biscuits i forgot to put out and that will last ages .ive somehow gained another xmas pud for the collection..lol 

Tomorrow i need to crank up the dehydrator for all the cheap veg in the porch , its just all go this year , i will be glad when i can get back to my normal routine  

Holidays

 So thats me done, a Merry Xmas to all , may it be what you choose see you on the other side

Nearly Time

 Maybe i should panic?  ive got a full house this year , im cooking xmas day and ive got a buffet to do for Boxing Day ..lol  havent been this busy for years , ive decided the buffet will be a meatfest its just easy that way lots of wraps and make your own mixed salads and pickles along with various nibbles from Heron that were cheap and cheerful and just require chucking in the oven , ive been buying bits since September so its proved not as expensive as ive feared on the current strict budget .i will do a mountain of my infamous Bhajis for the boys . I did venture to the chicken factory last week and they had huge family sized chickens for £5 but i have no freezer space so bought a load of cheap M&S products of a chicken nature that are keeping us busy this week. All the veg is prepared and in the freezer ive just mash and roasties to do on the day and xmas eve i will churn out loads of yorkshire puddings . We are auditioning a new trainee daughter in law with attached teenager this year , dread to think what they will make of our joke bad taste prezzies and lack of festive bullshit and himself shouting all the time  but ho hum at least theres no weird diet requirements this time . Son does say he plans to marry her , we shall see

ive had my third win on the competition front and for a change its one just for me ive won a huge selection of House plants, pots and plant paraphenalia . got the mailing invoice today and im horrified at the cost .

Scary

 Went to Asda today , himself had a dentist appointment and it was the nearest supermarket , it was crowded but bearable , packed with pensioner couples arguing like hell ..lol.. one old bloke was about to die for saying he didnt like the  colour of the wrapping paper the missus was buying , guess he should have waited in the car like he does all the rest of the year , There was dozens of bewildered blokes wandering round with shopping lists obviously told to pick stuff up on the way home then you tripped over them shouting down their phones at their other half because they couldnt find stuff or it wasnt in stock and they darent make any descision for themselves . I did laugh one builder with a white van full of his stuff literally tipped his whole trolley in on top of everything then just launched his empty trolley across the carpark . I do think the shops are making a bit of a heroic effort this year this is the first time ive seen the shelves packed in there all year and they even had all the checkouts manned , mind you for the prices they are charging they need to be . Ended up having to pop into Lidl for the last 2 items on my xmas shopping list , streaky  bacon and cranberry sauce . who knew they would be hard to find ?

Anyway please remember its now pensioners driving on busy roads time of year , so please take granny shopping before she leaves a trail of devastation in her wake . Also the foodbank reminder, no chocolate oranges or selection boxes they are over run with them this time of year , dried milk is always a good one and i did see a lady loading a donation bin up with small boxed xmas cakes but you can eat those anytime .

Non Retail Therapy

 The problem with me having a small pile of money pre xmas is i will spend it not so much on xmas , but on the last jumble sale of the year a whopping £2 worth of pleasure , A ring bound Grand Canyon cookbook , another big kilner cliptop, a gorgeous turquoise Pyrex divided dish and a little rexard doll from the 70s . But then you have to realise its the pre xmas auction season and box lots are going for next to nothing..lol ..we had a trip out to Grantham to pick up the other day only to find my 2 boxes of weird and wonderful had mutated into five boxes and an Antler wicker picnic basket ..lol ..i did ask and the man said its all got to be cleared and you always buy crap?  it was free so what the hell . I managed to fill my wheely bin with a whole box of fake Tupperwear  himself filched a few for his fishing and i kept a huge cake carrier and the worlds biggest Pizza plate for the xmas buffet , the picnic hamper was filled with table lamp bases , they will be stripped for the wire and cable for updating lamps i like . I really did actually buy a box of dolls and cuddly toys , the dolls are worth a bit and can go to ebay after xmas, the teddies can go in the free box over xmas . There were tons of brand new RAF ties and black ties and tea towels, towels and tablecloths , so useful things and finally a big box of craft stuff with lots of part finished tapestries and my reason for buying it a huge file of vintage knitting patterns from the 30s , im still rooting my way through it all . Ive another auction to pick up from tomorrow and the last sale of the year is on Thursday .  I still have change from my £10 pocket money to spend ..lol 

Online auctions can be a cheap and cheerful bit of fun its not all antiques and spending hundreds of pounds .  4 china dolls have already left the building for £20  to a lady who goths them 

Wanders In

 Its the funny season yet again , tapping my foot waiting for xmas to be over ..lol but in the real world we have had to find nearly 5k for the van repairs so we are having a very skint winter and im trying to sell the contents of the dining room online, such is life . 

So in a fit of misery i bought a raffle ticket for a whole £1 and won a huge grocery hamper , not a xmas hamper but real everyday food and it was huge , far bigger than shown and it was from Tesco delivered the day after my skint monthly shop , so we cant move for food , im frantically dehydrating loads of veg because ive no freezer room , theres a stack of ready meals in there , just hundreds of pounds of real food , you open any cupboard and it all falls on you , himself has discovered he doesnt like blueberries and theres a limit to how many kiwi fruit he can demolish , guess im going to be dehydrating fruit mix next , plus theres several bags of frozen fruit , theres rice, pasta and so much more packs of heinz soup , tomatoes , spagetti beans etc etc , theres not a single thing that we wont use  . This will keep me going well into next year , so we celebrated by spending every penny we had on heating oil , the luxury of heating might even cheer me up a bit