Fantabulous February with the Friendly Frugaleers!

[Cagliostro]

Hello everyone, new thread time yet again!

Grrr I'm pissed off now. Had a phone call from council asking why I'd only just given in my self employment form income thing. So I told them DH has been asking for MONTHS how do we declare my tuition earnings to them and they've said - more than once - not to worry until the financial year ends because they'll do it retrospectively and readjust. Only recently did he speak to someone else who gave him a form! She said well I certainly didn't tell him that and I've been dealing with you from the start, errr I didn't actually say it was HER, but someone certainly did tell him that! He kept asking. I hate being made to feel like I've hidden my income because we never have, DH kept telling them and they wouldn't do anything about it! 😡😡😡 she said as it's a small amount it won't change much anyway which I knew but GRRR I just hate being spoken to like when we have tried doing everything by the book 😞

Cag I hate that too. We get it from the school system and GPs all the time and it's really hard to keep being well-meaning and co-operative and kind when they are not. Especially in GPs surgeries when there are posters that say we're not allowed to be abusive, and they are all the time. I reckon that the world has just gone weird. I didn't think it was like this before. Do you think it was an I've just forgotten?

Cag if you can be bothered I would write a politely worded complaint saying that you felt you were spoken to rather rudely, given that you struggled to get the relevant information out of them in the first place. They should look at the training of the individuals who are dealing with the public's queries if they are not currently giving out the the correct and consistent information.

(I love the idea of writing complaint letters but can rarely be bothered in the end. I should get my green ink out more!)

on your behalf Cag. How bloody ridiculous. Aargh.

3 miles in 40 minutes is very brisk walking Creme.

Thought provoking post Cath. In a good way. I thought about it as I walked my dogs. Training for a marathon seems similar to revising for exams. But using physical exertion. Or mental for you obviously. For a marathon, I would have an extremely structured training programme for, say 16 weeks. Run the marathon. Be on a high for 4/5 days. Then feel utterly exhausted, quite teary and down. That fatigue never really left my legs for months (although that did get better after a few marathons). But the first one, I was extremely focused and did experience physical and mental burn out I guess as it meant the most to me. Like your finals maybe? I hadn't thought about it like that before though, kind of plodded on.

I wonder if my powers of recovery are just different to yours? That isn't a criticism in any way, just an observation. I kind of just carried on running and waited for the exhaustion to pass. And that got much easier with time.

Very similar physiological responses to different stress. Interesting.

I'm glad you have the circumstances to recover though and I honestly mean that . That just wasn't an option here, I have to work and DH is away very regularly and always has been (he is now!). So I've kept plodding on.

Sorry, excessive use of

Can I ask when can I sow cucumbers inside please? I have time this year to use the greenhouse again. Last year we competed every weekend and didn't have the opportunity to nurture the plants as they would need.

Also, herbs. Can I grow basil outside successfully? I have a full raised bed devoted to herbs, so any suggestions for unusual ones that I can use to cook with would be appreciated.

I plan cucumbers, tomatoes, courgettes at the minute.

Hullo!

Need I know literally nothing about plants, definitely not green-fingered in the slightest much to my DF's disappointment.

Did another 9-4 day at uni today, feel so proud of myself! Spent £1.30 on cup of tea and £1.75 on lemon & blueberry fragipane in the library café...I can't actually add that up I struggle with maths...£3 something?

Just realised I forgot it was DGuineaPigs third adoption day yesterday ! I feel like a right bad piggy mum for forgetting but then again it's not like they know! I don't even have any funky treats for them or anything but I just gave them some apple which they were delighted with as always.

Cag I have had some truly awful experiences with council staff unfortunately. The very worst was trying to get my disabled persons' travel card. The first time I went (after being instructed to do so by my support worker from social services, and with the required form filled in by my GP) the woman on reception was incredibly rude to DH and I, said that I wasn't eligible (without looking at the form or anything) and sent us away. I was absolutely fuming and mortified as well. Luckily I told my support worker who was absolutely fuming about it and complained on my behalf to someone high up in the council offices who apologised to her and managed to find the relevant staff member to tell them off and 'update their training' . I can still remember her saying something like "for example having back pain or a broken leg isn't a disability", I can't even remember why as neither of those things were relevant to me and she was on reception anyway so was just supposed to direct me!!

Ha, I had lunch, washed up, put a load of laundry away, replied to some emails and phone calls after, before heading to the sofa, where I've been since 3, Need. Pacing in action!

Snuggly, I hope your appointment goes well and enjoying your chippy tea.

I am very tired 😴😴. I'm going in early again tomorrow and I'm picking someone up so no snoozing for me.
I am def not a runner I've tried and it's so hard. I really admire people who run.
The virgin man is coming tomorrow to hopefully fix my broadband and TiVo box.
I'm so miserable at the moment I'm sick of myself I just can't shake it off 😞

Sorry to hear that brighter

Home made burgers for dinner.

Nsd.

I'm starving.

Anything in particular making you feel like that brighter? Not wanting to pry though.

need basil is not very hardy so I don't think Northern garden air would be warm enough (maybe in the greenhouse though I'm not sure)! I've grown it successfully in pots at intervals of about 2-3 weeks so you have a steady supply. If you keep picking the leaves then it keeps producing. I love growing basil, rocket is really easy to grow too & seems very hardy. I grow both as we eat lots of salad in the summer and they are quite expensive ingredients so it's good being able to pick your own as & when you need it.

I'm not a runner either brighter my boobs flail all over the place. Even with a sports bra.

Spends today £4.45 (!!) on a panini and a can of diet seven up for lunch. Colleague spent all my lunch telling me that it was called a panino. And I was wrong. Apparently panini is the plural. pedant

Off to meditation and mindfulness class this evening.

I wish I knew north. A relative died in August last year, I've been helping my dad sort his house but that's come to a standstill there's still a lot to be done. Which I'm frustrated about. My mum role has changed if that makes sense. My dcs are older and I think I'm struggling more than I realise to come to terms with it. I've been a mum for 22 years!
I am very independent and I'm quite happy doing my own thing.
I also feel that I daren't do anything because everything seems to go wrong.

Need It's very interesting indeed to hear your running equivalent of my exam thing. I totally understand what you mean about keeping plodding on.

The thing that amuses me about when I'm recovering from burnout of the brain bits is that my brainwork is such an engrained habit that I don't really stop doing it even when I'm knackered. Just as you don't stop running when you've run too much.

For example I'm sitting here recovering from this bug, and though I'm resting my body, I'm not resting my brain at all. Every day I've read every inch of the financial times from cover to cover, and I'm combing the BBC news website and have been listening to the brexit debate and reading the goverment white paper on brexit, and so on and so on.

I think different people just have different muscles that they like to use. You love to run and I love to analyse, and even when you run too much, you keep on running, and when I analyse too much, I rest by keeping on analysing, though perhaps analysing something different (for a rest!).

One of the funniest examples I've ever seen was a group of computer scientists who were working on a phenomenally complex operating system design. Their work is so tricky and so multi-layered, that it is akin to professional chess playing all day every day. But how do they relax? Do they chat? Do they go for a walk? No. They do the Times fecking crossword. It hurts my mind to think of it.

LOL! In your honour, I will run to the bottom of the garden and back sometime later this week.

cath I did the times crossword once. It took me a week. That is a house record. i usually give up after about half an hour

Cath. If you run to the bottom of your garden and back then I shall read an article from DS's New Scientist magazine.

Seriously, do you think this constant thinking inhibits your recovery? I can relate to that, as runners notoriously run through injury or illness, to their detriment. But they can't not run iyswim? Just like you need to think and use your brain.

I couldn't run for 6 years. Now I am back, I realise how much this affected me, or to turn it round, how much running gives me. I went to every different consultant going looking for an answer, searching for a way to run again. I never really got one.

Anyway, tell me about cucumbers!...

I've finally sat down. I've had an energetic day today and felt like cracking on. I've made Jamie Oliver healthy Chicken Kiev, with roasted vegetables and peas. Just waiting for it to finish cooking.

Thanks North re basil. I do really well growing fennel each year, an expensive vegetable to buy.

need I'm starting my cues this weekend, in seed trays with little lids, inside. Will pot on once two sets of leaves are up, then out to the greenhouse once no chance of frost (am going to buy a greenhouse heater with a token dp got for Christmas, ssh don't tell him 'till I've bought it).

I plant basil later on as it grows quickly, and keep it in the greenhouse with the tomatoes (well, they get eaten together).

I'm starting earlier this year, as last year the growing season seemed to end before the toms, cues and peppers had reached their full potential. This year I'm clearing the shit clutter from behind the machines (washer/dryer/spinner) and having some plants inside to see if they fruit earlier. My utility room is an ill-used conservatory! (laundry/dog/turbo trainer/boot room with extra glass).

Today was spendy, £100 on food split 40/60 between lidl and tescos. Got enough for 10 days of food, except chicken breasts and mince, which I'll get from the butchers. The meat didn't look brilliant in lidl, and wasn't red tractor in tescos, so I won't buy it.

Dd2 on different anti biotics to try and clear her chest (its very crackly as well as wheezy). This viral wheeze asthma thingy she has truly scares me.

Em Well done! I never do crosswords. They're just not my thing.

Need LOL about New Scientist. I'll let you know if I manage a turn of speed. Maybe we could start up an exchange.

I don't think the reading slows my recovery. I've been doing this mindfulness stuff and I find that reading things I really enjoy is a form of mindfulness for me. It takes my mind off the stuff that might otherwise be a burden and moves it onto stuff I find hilarious and enjoyable. The FT sounds hard, but for some reason just at the moment, with the life I have, I find it a real pick-me-up. Just like other people enjoy Eastenders, I enjoy the politics gossip in the FT.

I think it may be the same with your running. 10 miles sounds unspeakably hard to me, but for you, it's sheer joy.

I figure we're all different, and that's really okay.

Cucumbers: I don't think you'll be able to plant them out where you are until May unless you have a greenhouse that's heated to be frost free, or a seed propagator that will keep them frost free by being plugged into the mains. If you buy in plantlets from Thompson and Morgan or similar, then they'll get off to a roaring start and just put them out in May unheated. Otherwise you're looking at planting seeds on a warm windowsill, maybe at the beginning of May, then cold frame then greenhouse in May. I think.

Is it May when the north of England is frost-free? You might need to google to be sure.

Seeds at the beginning of April I mean. I've head people say it's best not to start too early as they'll grow really fast once the weather's right and if you start too early they'll just sit around doing nothing and potentially getting leggy. I reckon this time of year is for clearing and planning and putting your feet up.

Ooo! The internet thinks you're a month ahead. Here's the sowing guide for Durham. No idea if it's right.

garden.org/apps/calendar/?q=Durham+uk

You might need to do some googling to find out about your own area.

I wish I liked exercise - I never have!

I too am an analyser. I've always bounced back quickly from exams or periods of intense work though. I find thinking hard does make me tired but to be fair, it is usually combined with burning the candle at both ends so it's hard to know how much to attribute to that! If I am thinking hard for a normal day's hours at work I don't even notice it. At the end of my PhD write-up I was working up to 20 hours a day (and have had periods of those insane hours of analysis through work too, most recently for 6 weeks or so 2 years ago when I had to write a strategy to a ridiculous deadline). I felt pretty rough then. But even after a couple of months of that intensity I can usually bounce back with a week or two's rest afterwards. I think I'm just lucky to be able to switch off once a deadline is past and find it refreshing to think about other things. I can also function okay on very little sleep (even if I don't enjoy it much). I also quite like creative pursuits (cooking, knitting /sewing) and I think they really help me to unwind - they can be quite meditative, so a good background to processing my thoughts, and they can also 'quieten' my mind when it's not shutting down so well. Repetitive movements, hands occupied, seeing something gradually take shape... I really recommend it for those whose minds don't switch off well.

Good day today - only spends were parking for £3. DS has been lovely, bar the odd moment when I took the iPad away . He even came to cuddle me in bed this morning, not something he normally does though I am trying to train him by being effusive in my joy. There's no nicer way to wake up!

I am having this nice thing for dinner - cheap and yummy:

I do tweak it though - no carrots but a couple of chopped peppers (not as frugal but lovely with the beans) and I don't always put spuds in, sometimes I serve it with baked potato. Would recommend it, and defo worth buying the picante pimenton as it is delish.

Also potentially good, an old colleague contacted me today to see whether I am free to do some freelance project work for him. I wasn't intending to do any during this year with DS but being pregnant has changed that a bit as I will need to be off for longer. And I won't qualify for maternity allowance unless i do another 3 weeks' work before the baby comes (because of when I left my job, just short of the qualifying number of weeks' work required). So a short bit of work is quite attractive but I am not sure I will be able to do it... I have 2 days per week where DS is in nursery but I have various maternity appointments (which I have arranged so that I don't have to drag him along) and am also about to embark on the rather onerous process of agreeing his education and healthcare plan which will involve meetings on those days. Hmmm. I am meeting the ex colleague on Tuesday to explore the options anyway. Will see what they want and how flexible they could be about when I work - if I can work from home a bit I can work around appointments and just catch up in the evening. We'll see.

No link!

Here it is:

www.waitrose.com/home/recipes/recipe_directory/s/smoked_paprika_sausage_pot.html

Hello all, just catching up.

Need you really do inspire me with all your exercise I think I will try and factor a run in this wend.

Brighter hope you are o.kay, be kind to yourself though we can only do what we can do

Cag ugh, that sort of thing winds me right up

I have had a draining work day, lots of very poorly patients which is really sad I can honestly say though that money means nothing if you do not have your health.

The cm needs paying so thats £74 and I popped the car into the garage before work, it is losing oil so have booked it in next week to be properly checked out, they charged me £20 today for topping up the oil and looking at it

I have the munchies tonight stuffed myself on noodles with peppers, mushroom and chicken for dinner and am still starving!!

This is our tea, Jamie Oliver healthy Chicken Kiev. I'll post further from laptop. It was a bit of a faff but delicious.

Eugh girlie. We've had lots of people die recently. Only one on EOL at the moment but lots on yellow on the palliative care list.

One of our patients was found dead walking her dog, so sad she just died with no warning and no significant medical history.

I could go on but I won't. No ill children on though, thankfully.

I'm feeling a bit meh tonight. Both dc ate all their dinner though. And I'll soon be on level two of the shred. I was reading someone's notes at work today and it stated that their ideal weight was 8st1. They were the same height as me! If I lost a stone I would be a teeny size six.