Happy New Year

Just wanted to drop by and wish you all a Happy New Year.
I will be back tomorrow hopefully  with a regular post.

Early night for me i dont like New Years so rarely see it in now days.
Enjoy whatever you are doing.

Missing in action

I have really lost my blogging mojo.I hope to get back into it again asap.
I have been keeping up with most of you.


Somethings never change though im always looking for ways to earn and save money and always like to share my finds,
Ebay are looking for people to answer simple surveys,you are rewarded into your paypal account.
So if anyone would like to join please click on this link.

https://mdmarketresearch.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_6DMQ1vdGPG7IKIR&SRC=2&TP=1

Speak soon.
nto
x

Day out

I recently won 2 tickets to a craft fair at Stoner Park. (must enter more competitions)
So on Sunday we picked up eldest daughter and head off.The weather wasn't good Sunday morning but the weathermen promised an improvement.

I like this Craft fair you get a wide range of stalls selling items in all price ranges.Lots of free samples and a great chef who is great to watch and you get to try what hes cooked.
I watched 2 of his shows, Venison served with beetroot tartan served on sweet potato mash ,drizzled with a honey and balsamic dressing.DIVINE and it looked so easy.
Also savoury muffins and a parsley and sunflower seed pesto.Cant wait for him to email me the recipe sheet.We also tried peanut butter cookies with m&m.s and girdled pineapple with chili,balsamic vinegar and desiccated coconut who would have thought to put these items together (well i wouldn't)

We spent the rest of the afternoon sat on the grass listening to the live music with the added bonus of seeing the Vulcan bomber fly over,not a planned event we must of been on its flight path.

I only purchased a couple of items,some rapeseed oil and a dish for grating ,,ginger,garlic etc. A simple device but it actually works ,a lot easy than trying to get the bits out of my grater.

Milestones Museum, Basingstoke

DD(youngest)is on holiday in Zante so its just the 2 of us at home.
Yesterday OH and I decided because it was wet to go to a Victorian Museum in a nearby town.
Milestones is in a huge building and houses replica buildings.It was a thoroughly enjoyable few hours.

One of the pictures below shows a floor cleaner which i use in a customers house to polish her floors,she told me it was 55 years old and hers is still going strong.

we visited the sweet shop and got a weeks ration of sweets.about 2 oz i think.

If you are ever in this part of Hampshire i would highly recommend a visit.

Early start

Today we were up at 2 am  to drive our daughter and her friend to Luton Airport,They have jetted off to Zante for a week of fun and sun.Normally Gatwick is our chosen airport but they didn't have a choice.Travelling wise its the same distance took an hour and 10 mins going,1hr coming home.

Very tired now.

I have set up her phone so she can contact me when she wants and it uses her normal phone allowance.I had a text when she landed and a phone call once they had reached the hotel room.
Apparently it was horrendous,dirty,damp,no balcony,no window and virtually no light in the bathroom.
Now i know budget is budget but budget shouldn't be dirty.The pool had a layer of scum on it so couldn't be used.The rep apologised as soon as they were shown to room.
Me being me told them to talk to rep again at there end,i would see what i could do at my end.
1 phone call made and within an hour they had been moved to another hotel which although basic is a vast improvement and they are 2 happier girls.

Today i had a wine delivery...... 6 bottles for £4.99.and offer that i took advantage of on O2 priority moments.£40 off a box of wine,a box of wine which happened to be on offer for you guessed it £40( it has since gone up by £9) so postage was £4.99.

Today sees the arrival of at least 80000 people to my town,which i completely forgot about until i was caught in the traffic.Tesco was impossible to get in but I'm not complaining the festival brings alot of money to the town and doesn't cause too much trouble.

The picture above is outside of Tesco a dj playing in a car.

Qmee

If anybody wants to join Qmee to either earn money for themselves or for charity,
email me and i can forward you an invite to join.( you can only join by invitation)

my email address is
l.m.hart@btinternet.com

thats a lower case L at the start.

x

story time

Once upon a time there was little girl who always worked hard at school and always did well.
She took GCSE'S early and passed them and managed to achieve 16 GCSE'S only one of which was a grade C all the rest were A'S & B's.
Even though she has worked hard she has always lacked confidence,always thinks she is going to fail.
A levels for this young lady were difficult she was off school for months when she broke her ankle and didn't get much support from school resulting in missing a practical exam which couldn't be rescheduled until next school year.So the thought of picking up her exams results sent her into a blind panic as she was convinced she had failed.This conviction that she had failed made her change her mind on her future.University was ruled out and apprenticeships were applied for.Her cv is very impressive along with awards at work.She was called for an interview and said she couldn't  decide how she had come across.Well guess what she got it a years apprenticeship with an NVQ (2 a levels) at the end of it.

Today she did go for her results or rather i did.They were opened as i drove and then the tears came....
She had passed them.Geography and Phycology .I had every faith in her as i knew she had worked hard. If school hadn't of cancelled her last practical and said she had to do it during the next school year and just let her do it  we would be looking at 3 passes but we wont dwell on that.

So moral and end of this story is believe in yourself like i believe in you.

Jade you have made me and always have made me very proud.

xx

My Supermarket

I'm sure the majority of you here in the UK have at one time compared your shopping on My Supermarket.
If so did you know you can get cashback on a variety of items you buy,..

You can also download an app onto your smart phone,this is called my super list and is very easy to use.
Not only can you compare your shopping you can see what items are currently offering cashback.
for example at the moment you can buy Flora cuisine 500ml in Tesco.MSL is giving you 50% cashback on this item.
you purchase the item,upload your receipt and they state within 30 days( i normally find it goes in a lot quicker) they give you the discount into your paypal account,so your Flora would have cost 50p.
Other items currently listed are
Flora light 1kg  £2 in Tesco 50% cashback
Youngs chip shop fish in Bubbly batter 4 per back,this is showing on Ocado as £1.50 £2 in Asda
with 50% cashback ,so a bargain.
coke zero 2l bottle 100% cashback so free.....

There are many more items offering cashback,You have a monthly limit i think its £35.
Have a look and start saving
My supermarket

If you sign up use this code
GV-VLCTMIDTWD

you will get £10 off your first order and i also get £10

Great News

My blog is mainly an online diary where i can plot the ups and downs of my life,with the added bonus of interacting with loads of really nice people (that's you)

Well today i have had some terrific  news.My son has proposed to his partner and she has said yes.


They want the wedding to be next year ( so i better get my a*se into gear and loose some weight)

The Geek within

I have been reading lots on forums about the International space station being visible at different times this week in the night sky.So i looked up to see what time it would be visible where i live and yesterday it was

Wed Aug 7, 10:13 PM

6 min

51°

10 above SW

11 above E

So DD and i stood out the front to look for it and dead on 10.13 we spotted it,It appears to the naked eye to move fairly quickly.

so some facts

its roughly orbiting 205 miles above us.6 people are on it including 1 woman.it is the size and width of a football pitch

Tonight we can see it again and also the HTV4 as well as the ISS .So guess who will be stood outside again.I took a photo you can see what looks like a star.

Thu Aug 8, 9:26 PM

6 min

37°

10 above SW

10 above E Ispot the space station

I'm sure my Chickens would pull up a chair and eat with us if they had a chance,We were making the most of the dry weather on Saturday evening and eating in the garden,my in laws were eating with us and the chickens were hovering around their feet just in case they dropped something.

Yesterday much to my husbands disgust we cut,split and stacked the wood i have been collecting.We have now run out of space in our wood store and need to construct or better still OH bring home a storage unit from work(the kind of thing slabs and tiles are delivered on)

Tonight whilst the oven was on i decided to make date and oat recipe recently published on Frugal Queen's blog.Didn't have the stated amount of dates but used what i had and it looks like its worked ok,Its cooling as i type.

I really need to start emptying the contents of my freezer and cupboards as they are bursting,so I'm joining in on Austerity August and I'm going to endeavour to use up and sort out my cupboards.

Foodbanks

Like many of you in blogland i have been reading many articles on foodbanks and food poverty.
So after reading A girl called Jack's blog i decided to do my bit .
Frugal Queen posted on her blog a list of Asda stores that were participating in collecting for The Trussell Trust.Not one of them were near me.I searched to see where my nearest Trussell Trust foodbank was and even though one of them is due to open near me i got no response from the mobile number given for contact.
So i contacted Asda headoffice and asked why i couldn't donate at my local..
The lovely lady explained that it was down to the trust not having the facilities to service every area so the stores were chosen to be near a distribution point,understandable really....BUT i have been reliably informed that all Asda's are acting as a collection point for donations and then the food will be given to a local foodbank.So i popped along yesterday and purchased some items from me and from one of my customers who had wanted to do her bit after i told her what i was doing.(so 2 lots of items in picture)Customer services had been informed so it was nice and easy to pass my donation over.
Today I'm going to take along a few bits Ive sorted out from my cupboards.

The week that saw....

3 more birthdays in my household.....
In the last nine days we have had 4 family birthdays, (didnt plan that well did i)

in the last few days i have celebrated my birthday,my nieces and my sons birthday.

I have had some lovely presents ,a Cath Kitson purse, boots a lovely plaque to hang on my Remembrance tree in my garden.I have a couple of books due to me on self sufficiency which i cant wait to receive.

I have managed to get a few reductions in the supermarket,a leg of lamb for £5 which will do nicely for dinner on Friday when DD comes around again served with mint sauce.Im going to try Frugal Queens mint sauce with this one.
Also managed to get some cream reduced which was immediately turned into butter,Just now need to make jam out of the raspberrys i picked up ,reduced of course.

I'm going to try and cut back drastically in August as June and July have been horrendously expensive and i need to get back on track.

The last few days in pictures

Update posted on Facebook from Gary's father

David Tweddle Wrote:
Good morning to all our very kind and supportive friends across the world. Its day 10 now and the search still continues. I will give a full update later in this piece, in the meantime I want to bring to the fore our recognition and gratitude to some amazing human beings, truly amazing and most of you are in that category.

Over the past 10 days more than 1000 people have searched, coordinated and supported the efforts to locate and return Gary safely. Helicopters, planes, dogs and 1000 people from NSW police S&R, The SES (State Emergency Services), Paramedics, Rural Fire Service, Bush Walkers, Riot Squad and many others. Most of these people are volunteers with lives and jobs yet they did 10 days on the bounce, a massive thank you to them, their families and their employers, what can I say.... amazing. I will be forever indebted to Senior Constable Steve Adams and his Management team in the NSW police, I do not have words to encapsulate what an amazing professional job they have done, Mick, Darryl, Paul, Ian and all, THANK YOU. These people have risked their health to work on this, absailing 200m cliff faces, going places that no human has been for 10's of years and generally working far to hard. Please join me in thanking the state of NSW and the Nation of Australia, they could do no more.

Oracle, Gary's employer has been without doubt an incredible support, Michelle and Rebecca HR, Wade from Security and all of Gary's mate and colleagues have worked tirelessly under the direction of Robert (The boss) to make sure no stone is unturned and the family need for nothing. People drive 3 hours a day to search for 6 hours and all of this is coordinated by an outstanding human being Darren Palmer. Darren is a mate of Anika and has not moved from a map table coordinating all the friends, helpers and colleagues that come up here to help. Further proof that humankind is deep and strong.

Bernard and his team here at the Fairmont Resort in the Blue Mountains. The caring and understanding this team has shown to the family has been breathtaking, again we need for nothing and they are so kind and professional it has to be experienced to be believed. Please please please if you are in the area come here and support this resort I will be forever in debt to this place, simply wonderful.

Finally on the subject of thank you........ THANK YOU!!! Thank you for every ounce of support, best wish, X, encouraging comment and everything else you took time to to send us. I would sit at night and read every single one of them, I cannot tell you how much it helped, it has been incredible, we have cried, laughed and experienced every emotion from your comments and mails. It have meant so much to me personally to receive this support, you got me through, you made me get up when I couldn't move, you inspired me to drive this search and thank volunteers and cops when they came in for briefings and lunch. You have contributed beyond your own comprehension. The beer is on Twedz anytime, you have been incredible, please know that. THANK YOU 

This operation moved to a recovery as of lunchtime today, it isn't Search and rescue anymore. Stories of Jamie Neil and 10 days survival are in very very different circumstances to this. Gary was not prepared with resources a Bush walker may have plus the terrain is different. The NSW police will continue to search FOREVER if that is what it takes, WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP HOPE. Please be assured that today there are 60 people out there and tomorrow there will be 50+ and we will keep at this, however we the families need to take some hard decisions and united we are doing that. There is a term, "Step", step dad, step mum, step brother...... there are no "steps" in this family, we are united in every decision and action and the support we have given and received has ensured nobody is alone or hurting alone. Clive, Carol, Michelle, Craig, Amy, Emily, Fraser, William and I will miss our Son and Brother. Anika, Jo, Doug, Beth, Tessa and Max will miss their loved partner and buddy and as a complete unit we will go on looking, hoping and supporting. There is deep love here now.

Finally to my beloved son Gary, I miss and love you unconditionally Gaz. I am so proud of all you have achieved at Oracle and with your private life, the depth of this pride is infinite, you are a true star in all our lives. We have had so many incredible times together in UK, ZA and Goa to name a few and there is nothing I would not give for 1 more second of time with you. Money, possessions and material becomes irrelevant now, its all about time, so my closing message to you my friends is cherish every second you are fortunate enough to have with the people you love. Waste not one moment, be available and show love at every opportunity. I love you so much son, so so much. Dad X

Appeal

This is an appeal to anyone who may read this in the Blue Mountain area of Australia.

Gary Tweedle age 23 went missing 9 days ago after leaving a function.He is the brother of one of my daughter in laws friends.Please can you check any outbuildings .The search is due to end very soon so its vitally important for people to keep eyes and ears open.
Many thanks and lets hope he returns to his family.

It was Marvellous.....

My DD was given two tickets to marvellous festival 2013.This is an event that happens every year in a country park about 20 mins from my home.Tickets aren't cheap £35 each(per day) and normally the weather is rubbish and i begrudge spending that amount to get wet.
Marvellous is a 2 day event ,music from tribute acts.We were given the tickets late afternoon so arrived just  after 6 pm.Just in time to see Changing Man a tribute to Paul Weller and the Jam.    Brilliant....Looked good and sounded good.
Highlight of my evening was seeing Trextasy.Even though i was only 11 when Marc Bolan died he was my idol.My mum used to put ringlets in my hair with toilet tissue so i could have my hair like his.I have seen these before about 10 years ago,loved them then and they didn't disappoint this time.It was lovely to boogie in the glorious sunshine.
A few pics of my evening.

Another hectic day today,Its my eldest daughters birthday and we are going to a BBQ at hers this afternoon.This morning my son is doing another half marathon so I'm off  to Cheer him on.

Birthday Treat

It was my OH,s birthday last month and my present to him was a night away.I found a perfect deal on Amazon Local.
It was for a one nights stay at Wheelers of St James's ,Camberley.Wheelers is owned by

Marco Pierre White.
We had the pleasure of eating at his restaurant in central London a few years ago after i won a competition and always hopped we would get the opportunity again.
So when i saw the deal on Amazon Local i knew it would make a perfect present.

The hotel is only a 20 min drive from home so we arrived just  after 6 pm.Our table wasn't available until around 9, so we had plenty of time to relax in the hotel grounds and listen to the music coming from a function at the hotel.
It was such a treat to see the disco set up outside and everyone milling about outside,

The restaurant was very busy,obviously very popular.As part of our deal we could have 3 courses off the set menu or choice any 3 courses off main menu at a £20 supplement.We stuck with set menu.
I had
Parfait of Duck liver
pan fried breast of chicken
and Raspberry sorbet

It was sooooo nice.

We met a couple of similar age to us and sat chatting in the bar until bed called us.

After a very comfortable nights sleep and a lovely deep relaxing bath( normally only shower at home)
we went for breakfast and as it was once again we sat outside to have our total scrummy breakfast.

Short drive home in time for Oh to go to work.

My favourite

My favourite flower is a lilly.I know alot of people associate it with death but i think they are beautiful.
I have a few that come up year after year and this year they seem better than ever.
This lovely weather is doing wonders for my tomatoes they just need to ripen now,

Youngest daughter is now back from her girly holiday,tired and suffering ( sore throat)I think its lovely having her home ,whether she agrees with that is another matter.

Enjoying the weather

Because of my stupid thumb i couldn't go to work yesterday(hope to go back Thursday when strapping is off) So as my OH had worked Saturday he had the day off.

Day started with breakfast with eldest daughter which was lovely.We then went to OH's parents where we were meeting up with DS and family where after a cup of tea we drove the short drive to Henley On Thames.The regatta has finished now so its now possible to get into Henley.We parked
in a little free car park( didn't know they still existed) crossed a small field and arrived on the banks of the Thames.
The Thames and Henley is a beautiful place to visit,especially on a hot sunny day,its a very affluent area and very very expensive to live here. We strolled along the bank,nosing at the properties and watching the boats sailing up and day.
It was a lovely afternoon .
Here's some of my day in pictures.

Look out for the boat with the dog bed on it with its own little umbrella attached for shade.
Also the boat for sale,cant even imagine how much some of the bigger boats go for.
If your eyes are good you will also see in one of the pictures a very brave wild water swimmer.

A special day for more than one reason

Sunday 7th of the 7th will me a memorable day for more than one reason.

Andy Murray won Wimbledon,never  got the opportunity to watch it but lots of people around me were able to keep me updated on the score.

My darling Granddaughter was Christened .She behaved impeccably and didn't mummer at all whilst she was anointed .We had an amazing afternoon sat out where they had the gathering as most people will already know ,our weather is and has been remarkable.I was and am extremely proud of my son of how he is now as a father to all his girls and this showed with how the day went off.
And lastly to see my son and eldest daughter reunited.Many of you who read my ramblings will know the difficult times i have gone through on this mater.
My son without prompting asked me to ask DD if she wanted to come to the Christening she said yes immediately but on the run up the nerves kicked in and i thought she would bottle it.Tense times at the beginning a few tears but she was consoled by my brother but as the afternoon went on things improved and even though i didn't see it a hug was witnessed between the two siblings.I'm welling up just writing it down.
I'm not expecting them to invite each other to coffee mornings but it will be so so nice to have all my family together in the same room...

My thumb is doing ok,its not until something is out of action you realise how much use it is.
i cant turn the ignition on in the car.
do or undo my bra
undo bottles
cut food
spread anything
awkward brushing teeth
and the list goes on

I'm sure later on in the week when the dressing is off and the swelling and bruises have subsided things will be alot easier.