On your marks, get set, go...it's the countdown to Christmas 2020. Thread 1!

[ThatsMySantaHisBeardIsSoFluffy]

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Afternoon.

Here we go again! It feels slightly bonkers setting off again before today is over, but it's tradition, so who am I to argue?!

Fluffy , Fanny that seems like a bargain m'dears
Yes Fluffy she will , which will help a lot thankfully ,there is so much to pay for , the stamp duty , solicitors fees mortgage arrangement fees you name it
She better make sure when she buys a place she stays there. l can't be doing this work again , it's labour brain or what little l have left of it intensive .

Wreck l know it's daylight robbery and there is nothing here !

Wow Fanny that's amazing!

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Morning!

Dry and chilly outside today. It's meant to be nice. The washing is out, anyway!

We'd be £169 for C and £189 for D. We're in a 3 bed Victorian semi. Our town has loads of massive houses. More than any other place I've lived in. I have double fronted envy! 😂

Wreck, I hope your DD is better soon.

Our council tax is £130 a month but not sure what band that is off the top of my head. Looking forward to the council tax break in Feb and March :)

Dd is still unwell so I've got to take today off. I have no idea what we will do tomorrow if she's still unwell I've got a massive school booked in and DH is busy building

Hope she is better for tomorrow wreck! Sick children when you have no family support nearby is so hard.

I do have family but our parents all still work! It's just impossible. I think after today I'll be up to my max on carers leave for the year (if anyone can work it out I get the equivalent of my working week in one year and I do 24 hours a week term time only I reckon that gives me about three days?). Such a stress. I know I'm lucky to get any carers leave as most don't.

That sounds right if you work 8 hour days, Wreck.

It is good you get carer's leave. We don't even get sick pay above SSP! Though that's typical of many private sector firms.

Your poor DD, Wreck. Hope she's improving though.

I think it's 20 hours and I do 6 a day. She's still asleep at the moment. I'm lucky with the sickness policies etc, it makes up for the poor wages

It's so dark still! The road is flooded and someone tried to drive through it again also quite a few roads blocked from fallen trees

We get sick leave but carers leave is unpaid.

Morning all.

We don't have any council tax here. Nor water charges. We do pay rates though. I think ours is about £1400 p/a.

It never rains but it pours. After dd had tonsillitis last week, DS has a chest infection and a perforated ear drum now. We had to go to the gp yesterday. I think I'll need to get my name on a chair there, I'm there that often.

Wreck hope you dd starts to feel better soon.

Morning!!

Oh no Wreck I hope DD is better soon!! I had to take 2 days off last month due to DD2 being ill.

Nero's I hope the illnesses bugger off soon too.

We are band 2 and paid £116 a month, but that is set to go up this year.

Band B even

Morning everyone 😀
So sorry to hear about your DD Wreck poor love💐
Nero hope Ds is better too m'dear💐
Fanny well done to DH he is incredible l👏😄
Fluffy those houses sound gorgeous ❤️👌
Off today 😄 just been to the crem to do the flowers for my beloved friend. l noticed another lady kissing her fingers and running them across their last bed ones name . Humans are not different l thought 🤗♥️. Cold out , though it is 8c .
Blue skies and sunny 🌞 lovely morning 😁
Off to Newport now just to
look at sofas 🙄😂
Have a lovely day and hope the DC are all better today 🤞💐

Loved ones name 🤗

MrsMad you're doing so much for your DD, I hope she's grateful!
Your council tax is crazy - ours is £145 a month which I think is 😱 for the little you get - and it increased by almost £10 per month about a year ago although I guess we have a lot of local services (lesiure centre, parks etc).

Have you looked in Harvey's in Cwmbran for a sofa (in retail park with TK Max)? We got ours from there a few years ago and bought a bed from Bensons upstairs the same day

Out of interest I checked leave entitlement at work - dependency leave of up to 2 weeks per year, unpaid (unless manager uses discretion and decides to pay you) which isn't bad is it?

Wreck & Neros I hope your dc feel better soon.

Yay for the change of supplier flouncy 🥳

I'm in work and there's WWW3 going on about milk 🙄 Each dept buys their own but a big department (sales) don't have any and have basically stolen some from my dept and another one. People are not happy!
I'm staying out of the way - I have a to do list that covers almost 2 pages today and zero patience 😣😴

We have property tax rather than council tax - I'm not sure how much as its one of the bills that DH pays. Our gas and elec combined are roughly €1,500 per year, but I need to change supplier. And we are about to drop Sky as the broadband has become really bad and we are reasonably happy with free-to-air channels and Netflix so don't need the Sky programmes.

I am writing up answers to legal queries today - the meeting was clear as mud on some things, and gave me suitable fudging answers on others, so I will leave it to the very expensive barristers to earn their fees. I'm giving them the factual info we have and some vague opinions without being too definite.

Someone asked about purdah - not quite. Lots of stuff stops - so we have no parliamentary questions now for at least 5 weeks, and all legislation is suspended. But we are in a drafting phase in my section, rather than actively going through parliament - so it's more that we have a small breathing space to make progress. But we also have to start drafting things like a complete briefing book for our new Ministers (main and at least 2 juniors) on everything that the Department does - so we all have to review the last version (4 years ago) and rewrite it for today, and in ladybird language (lots of the more recent Ministers, and many of the potential new Ministers, have not been in office before so EVERYTHING has to be explained, not just the complicated things).

And I woke late so forgot my lunch (in the fridge), and will have to go out into a major protest by farmers later to get something to eat (they're planning to park 400 tractors in the city centre overnight....).

Your poor family has been through the wars, Neros. Let's hope this is the end of it.

Well done on sorting your DH out, flouncy even if it was MSE that persuaded him. Our broadband is up for renewal in June and then my SIM card in August. I'll have to see what deals / cash back there is at that point.

Biddy, I hope you found lunch.

Crazy, our CT went up £7.00 from last year. Our water goes up and up each year too (also £45, flouncy, but unmetered). We get a fair amount for it, really, I suppose!

Milk gate sounds fun! Or not! I only drink hot water at work, so I'd not be getting involved either!

Our water also went up last year, £60 a month, ds2 likes to take long showers when he finally gets one

I need to crack on with looking for the gas and energy, deal ends end of next month.