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 .