Just setting up the new thread for the chatty Frugaleers.
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Ipsomatic · 13/02/2017 16:13
ipso thanks for the new thread. If I were you I'd see how you feel after a few days - if no better go to the Gp.
Wreck I wouldn't hand your notice in until after the new employer has got your references and issued a formal written offer. As an employer we would just check no deal breakers but i have retracted offers, usually on high sickness absence that was not previously flagged /explained. As an employee, even though I had v low /no sickness and expected good references I would still wait to have a written offer before handing in my notice. If nothing else, it motivates the new employer to get the paperwork sorted because they know you have to work x weeks notice and expect that people will not resign before receiving a formal offer... so they will hold up your start date to their own detriment if they don't sort it! Once you have resigned you lose your leverage if they are just being slow... tge last thing you want is to have resigned and a month later still have no written confirmation of the new job - even if it all works out fine it would be a stress.
DS has had a couple of meltdowns today over things being wet or dirty (a few teardrops on his jeans; a smudge of paint on my hand when we were making cards). I really am getting very worried about his anxiety. 
He got upset when I suggested going for a walk in the woods and I am giving the playground a swerve (half term crowds and big kids) so we've been inside all day. Waste of a lovely day really, but at least no random spends, just £95 Ocado. 9 days since last delivery so not too bad.
Aaaaargh lots of new posts. I use catching up as a way to avoid doing uni work though...
Spends today:
£4.80 on lunch in SU shop - sandwiches, bottle of coke, and a flapjack. FOUR POUND EIGHTY IN AN SU. Our SU has gone all horrid and corporate, two years ago we had "homemade" sandwiches made by student staff starting from £1, it's awful. Had to buy lunch as nothing from home to take 
shopping coming this evening though. And I didn't even eat my flapjack in the end so will take it to uni another day.
£6 mug for valentine present for DH.
DH bought me flowers yesterday for valentines day on his way home from work. I've nagged him loads of times cos he's never ever bought me flowers. They are a small bunch of beautiful red roses I am made up .
What are you all doing for valentines tomorrow if anything?
Seacow probably DS will get better and regulating his reactions to unpleasant sensory experiences as he gets older, but the anxiety that it produces probably won't change much if my experience is anything to go by I'm afraid. When I was little I would get in a state and cry too but now the panic is still there but I'm better able to focus on remedying it (i.e. dash to wash hands!!) and generally don't cry or shout etc. But I still have great difficulty with things like washing up, mixing food with my hands etc even if I wear gloves so DH most of the "dirty" type stuff so I don't have the stress of it thankfully.
Regards London, it's funny as DH and I are going to London but not for about two months. We have a friend who lives there so we are going to stay with him and his partner just for a weekend and go sight-seeing and things. I've only really been to London once or twice and each time was for a day trip or only stayed one night so I've been the theatre there once, and to a gig at the Roundhouse, and also went to the Natural History Museum but that's it. Any suggestions for must sees? I think one place we will go is Battersea Dogs & Cats Home though .
Finally got confirmation from one of my departments that my mitigating circumstances application for a presentation that I missed months ago has been accepted and I won't have to do it at all as they're going to create a predicated mark for it based on an average of a listening exam I will have in a few weeks and the summer term presentation, phewwww. I have also finally had contact with the company contracted by Disabled Students' Allowances about my laptop and they said as it failed the health check they asked Student Finance to approve a new one which they have done! So I will be getting a brand new laptop with my software and date all moved onto it by the company. I don't know if it will be exactly the same laptop but I guess not seeing as that was bought about 4 years ago and things change so fast with technology.
meadow thank you for giving your perspective. It's actually really helpful to hear the perspective of an ASD adult. I wish I had some way of identifying someone who was 'like DS' when they were 4 so I could ask them how it was growing up, and what was managed well and poorly for them. My DS is such a sweet and lovely boy, I just find it really upsetting when his anxieties get in the way of him doing things. Yesterday I had to take a book off him - it's one of those dry wipe books where he can practice writing the numbers over dotted lines and then rubbing them out. He loves numbers... but he was getting really upset every time he drew outside the lines (which was most of the time). He was in such a state and I couldn't calm him so I had to take the book away. I felt so mean because he wanted to do it. On the plus side though, I took him to a birthday party on Saturday which was pretty noisy and busy and he coped much better than i expected and even sat at the table to eat with the other children (which he's never done at a party before). I was so pleased for him and very proud 
Ipso I haven't tried dietary restrictions. I think it would be worth getting him tested for allergies / sensitivities but I won't otherwise restrict his diet. He already eats a very limited range of food and it would have quite an impact to restrict it further so I will only do it on medical advice. We are overdue a paediatric review so I will raise it then.
On the subject of the great Enid Blyton, I have never stopped reading them! My favourites are the 'adventure' series which I own and re-read every couple of years
in fact I might go and do that now
Oh Meadow that's very good news about the laptop! Re. London, can you give us an idea of your and your DP's interests and we might be able to make good suggestions?
We don't do much for valentines day. Usually just cards and I sometimes make something special for dinner. I might make a trifle as i overbought sponges and custard at Xmas and DH loves it... might also upgrade the meal plan which currently says 'freezer dive'
meadow great news about your laptop, what are you studying?
I would like ideas for London too...i do find it expensive and time consuming - it takes a long time to get to events, do the event, eat, sight see, travel home, its a full day. But always worth it.
I'm away with DH on our own for 2 nights in Suffolk (drum roll) on our own - whoop whoop.
Sat having a glass of prosecco.
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