Thors day

Yesterday I had to return an Ebay purchase !
It was something I was quite looking forward to using but when it came, it was faulty.
The vendor arranged to pick up through city link and they were to come in the morning.
I was fuming by the time they turned up, 3.45, because I had to say no when my son suggested we went to town together.
The courier seemed oblivious to his lateness
Then he prepared to leave with the parcel and I said
wasn't he going to give me a receipt?
Apparently they never give receipts so I had him hand write one.
I shall expect my refund to be in paypal tomorrow or there will be text flying through the ether!

I like buying through Ebay because you can pay with paypal.
A couple of times I have used their resolution center and each time it has got me my money back.
Ebay's feedback is useful too.
Once I waited 6 weeks for an expensive item and I left neutral to say good item pity about the wait,to which the vendor responded by phone refunding my post costs(£50), I  didn't think I was unreasonable to leave a neutral as I had contacted them from about week 3,every week till the item materialized, it wasn't like they didn't hear from me. It was the feedback that got the result eventually.

I bought an embroidery machine once a few years back and it came without the feet or part of the free arm. I wrote to the seller who insisted it was all there.
I think I spent about a week writing to her ,explaining that there was a free arm with it but that it had a second one which was the embroidery bit with all the feet stored in it.
She didn't realise she had forgotten to include it in the parcel until I priced up the cost of the missing feet and sent her links to where I would have to buy them and then said I would see her in the resolution center via paypal to negotiate the extra it would cost and how she could pay me!
Next day she phoned me saying she had found the other free arm complete with feet and it was in the post!
I think it was a genuine mistake but it is amazing what a little bit of help from a bigger corporation(with legal beagles) can do .

Today has been mainly spent in completing surveys and reading.

We had risotto for tea using the left over chicken from Monday,carrot,onion and the remains of a bag of Broccoli.
I thicken things with ground lentils now because it works rather like gravy powder but is less salty.

Im on the next Terry Pratchet book.
This one is called men at arms and follows straight on from 'Guards,Guards'.
That man has a fantastic sense of irony.
Seems a shame that he has Alzheimer's.

The hubs is back at work thank Gawd!

OH had an impromptu day off yesterday!
He had a cold poor thing, well more a head ache.
I blame it on the all night TV watching bonanza of the evening before.
That meant the TV was on downstairs for most of the day.
It doesn't bother me as far as 'programs being on' is concerned but it is a 50 inch Plasma screen and so the electricity it draws is disproportionate to the amount of people being entertained.
Also he does tend to drape himself everywhere.
Where ever you turn, he has been there and left something , his glasses , his phone , his keys , pens , opened letters, dirty cups....the list is long..
of course the bread which was perfectly adequate for two people's sandwiches, needed sharing by 3 people as it was so last minute that there wasn't time to get a loaf in the machine.

Today he is recovered and trundled off down the road on his motorbike,oblivious to our cheering.

I'm just off downstairs to get my Bi-weekly personal laundry in the machine.
I have enough clothes to last me round and most of the clothing changes are underwear which doesn't take up much room.
Everyone does their own laundry in this house and bedding and towels get done by whoever is thinking about it.

Garden 


The greenhouse is still managing to keep lettuce and Spinach alive.
It is unheated so I don't know how long it will struggle on.
They only need watering about every 10 days or so ,it is very low maintenance.

OH brought home an electric greenhouse heater but it would be far too expensive to run and wouldn't be worth the cost over buying veg from the supermarket.

DS has finished the compost bin and it is just waiting to get taken down to its alloted space now.
I cant carry it as it is too awkward and neither can DS ,it needs both of us and the inclination to go out into the cold.

Drip feed earning


My survey earnings are going well.
There are a few pending payments ,one for the end of December,one for about 3 weeks time and one for some random point in the next month.
I don't fret over time as it isn't going to make it happen faster and anyway the present buying is done.
I think all told it is about £80 but they were not all earned in this month. One payment ,the largest ,took 6 months to accrue. 

Bookish Monday rolls round again

I have been immersed in Terry Pratchet!
The book I have just finished was called Guards Guards and is very funny.
I especially like the Grim reaper who comes and waits for the deadies to realise they are dead !
Some hilarious Clichéd quoting too from Clint Eastward films.


If you have read and enjoyed any of the Red Dwarf books ,you will find these are at east equal in humour.
I think they are better but that is maybe just me.

Pull ups


I have been keeping up with the pull ups. I can manage about 14 in one go .



I'm afraid I have been slacking off on the running lately because it is cold and damp out and I am a wimp.


Presents



Presents are now all bought and paid for. I always buy them from my Internet survey vouchers if I possibly can.

This year I successfully managed to incorporate everything within that criteria . Just as well as the self employment was going nowhere.


OH has a couple of new things and the afformentioned vouchers and cover.
DS has something he will find handy(he mentioned how good they are and I took note without hopefully letting on that I was doing so ). 
DD has her reader dubries.
We don't go overboard on relatives.
OH has bought a few bits for his nephew and 3 nieces .
I haven't any on my side and all my aunts and uncles are dead .


For those of you who think Christmas us humbug, I don't disagree, I do think it is a great excuse though, when your kids are little and want everything.
I always used to say  'yes it is nice but that is the sort of thing you only get for Christmas or a Birthday present'.
It worked really well over the years and I still stick by it.
So for me anyway, it is an excuse to buy someone something when I avoid doing so at every other time of year.

present perfect

I bought an ereader for the daughter, on ebay.
It is for xmas of course,cant warrant that kind of spending every day.
It came today and is spiffing. LOL
I thought it was a greyscale screen but it is actually colour and can even play film files.
She is getting through a lot of books in her course at uni so it should help her keep down the costs.
I spent £39 on it and about £4 on next day delivery.

Here is the case I made for OH's phone.
Its similar to his bought one but I made it narrower so that the phone doesnt slew about .
That is my phone in it at the moment which doesn't have a camera.
The flap at the back folds either half way down or rolls and folds depending on if you want to see the back of the phone.
Folding halfway down means the rain shouldn't get in while it is in video camera mode.

Pennies from Heaven

I found a pound lying in the road on Friday.
That rarely happens.
Sometimes a Penny or a 2 pence piece.
I bought a Poppy with it from the Sea Cadets on the way home as it was Armistice day .

Then when I was at the supermarket today,the cashier insisted I had given her £30 but I didn't remember having that much in my purse.
Anyway she wouldn't accept it was £20 so I came home with £9 change in my pocket .
I still cant work out how it could have been £30 unless 2 notes were fused together when they were dispensed from the ATM on Friday.

Funnily enough,the book I was reading a while ago 'Busting Loose from the money game' states that once you aren't thinking about money all the time and chill a bit, it seems to jump up everywhere without explanation.
Well I don't know but I really don't mind if it is true :)

oops where did the week go?

Yesterday I went to the poundland shop in town and bought;

• a pack of chocolate to share with my son
• A sectioned box for small tools or screws
• A bottle of concentrated star drops.

The box is for my salvaged dremel and its little blades.
I cut two slots in it near the hinge side and fitted the dremel in.
It fits with the chuck poking out one end and the wire poking out the other.
All the blades fit in the other sections.

Today I played with the scroll saw.
I have had it years. We bought it when I wanted some Montessori puzzles and accessories for teaching the kids.
We couldn't afford to buy them so we bought the saw and wood and made them.
Last week I found that I can get new blades for it cheaply on ebay.
Now I just need a new spring for the blade assembly and it will be good as new.


Christmas

I am in my usual Xmas making mood.
I spent a day of last week making a new waterproof pouch for OH's phone.
He has one but it is quite battered so he will have another.
I used a found clear plastic umbrella which had a little tear in it, for the plastic,it has to be transparent as he uses his phone to record video of his commute via motorbike so it must let the lens work.
It must be waterproof although not immersible, so it doesn't wet the phone if it rains..
This was cut to size, folded and folded and melted with the iron using foil to stop it sticking.
Then The edge was finished all around with the umbrella edging which was purple but it is very dark once you fold it and melt it so not particularly a bad colour to use.
I will get a pic of it up tomorrow,cant at the mo as OH is downstairs and might catch me in mid camera wielding mode.

He has 2 cinema tickets stashed away for his birthday too.They need using by the last day of the year but I cant see that being a problem. People buy tickets for events as presents and they are often in 3 or 4 hour windows of one day,whilst these will be able to be used for any one of 9 days or any two if he decides to go alone to two different films.

Stiff legs

Ooch , I had stiff legs on Saturday morning.
We ran about 3 miles on Friday night ,having wimped out Thursday due to the rain.

BUT

it is Our postie who is responsible for my stiff legs!

He knocked on the door and handed me an envelope saying;
'back in a minute with a couple of parcels'.
'OK' I said and because it was cold ,pushed the door to as he had walked back up the path to the pavement.
I thought 'I will just keep warm while I am waiting' and grabbed my skipping rope.
It was more than 10 minutes before he came back with the parcels LOL

I think he must have mistakenly thought they were in his trolley only to find he had to finish the road and then get back to his van to fetch them.

Chicken thoroughly stretched this week!

• Monday we had roast with veg
• Tuesday was Chicken stew and dumplings
• Wednesday Pizza with chicken and Mushrooms ,spinach from greenhouse sprinkled on just before I melted the cheese over it all.
• Thurday Risotto and
• Friday (Today) was left over Chick stew for me and OH and a Freezer Bolognaise for my son as the chicken isn't quite THAT Elastic.

That was 14 servings from one Chicken.

The pizza does 4 when my daughter is home from Uni so the boys were well and truly stuffed as they got an extra 1/8th slice each.

That really makes it 15 portions.
33 pence a portion for the meat.
Not bad for a Fiver.

Risotto a la garcon

That's a posh way of saying, my son cooked tea :)

I had 2 chicken carcasses taking up space in the freezer so they were plonked in the slow cooker this morning ,covered with hot water from the kettle and spent the day turning into stock.
There were enough little bits of chicken still stuck to them to make the meat content for our Risotto.

The boy decided to give it his expert attention , so he put a cup of raw white rice in a big mixing bowl.
Added 3 cups of the stock and put the whole thing in a carrier bag with the two handles tied in a bow.
This went in the microwave for 13 minutes and resulted in a fluffy cooked rice and no left over water or stodge.

Meantime, he chopped an onion, added a cup of carrot slices from the freezer and a good cup of frozen broccoli and cooked them up in the rest of the stock.

Then he pulled enough bits of chicken off the now cooled carcasses and when the rice was cooked, he added the meat and the veg to the rice and mixed it all in.

The remaining stock and any of the chicken meat that was remaining on the bones, was put in the empty bowl in which the rice had been cooked after we had dished out our meal. That will make soup for two for tomorrow lunch time.

Twas a lovely flavour and also luxurious for me who didn't need to cook for once.

In the cold windy garden

The onions and Garlic are starting to surface.
I planted the onions around a month ago I think and only had to replant around 4 bulbs.
The birds pull them up if they see them poking out.
I try to plant them with nothing poking out in consequence but birds have very sharp eyes.
The garlic is surging ahead despite being the last to be planted.

These will be ready around early summer having spent the winter taking advantage of the cold ground.

You can also plant in February/March when the newer onion sets are in the shops.
Those grow until about August before needing to be harvested.

Once they are harvested, I shall chop and freeze some, dry and package some and pickle some. There wont be any for stringing as they don't keep as well as the spring planted onions do.

Trotting along as usual

We ran yesterday evening.
It was cold and I had 3 top layers on and a thin jacket plus my ronhill trackies and a beanie hat I made from a jersey that had shrunk and felted ,plus gloves.

The hat being pure wool was far more comfortable than my usual acrylic and thinsulate hat because the wool was warm and the natural fibers allow my skin to breath.
It isn't as big either so I am not pulling on the cuff to get it out of my eyes when it slumps down.

The run was okay. I haven't done any skipping for about a month and we only ran once last week so I wasn't expecting to be fast but we still managed the full run without needing to stop.