Red cabbage!

No, not those kind of worms! Tiger worms!!!

I bought an "original organics" junior wormery, and had to send off for my worms with a postcard. The poor things arrived in the post today (They must have a headache from hitting the floor after being dropped through the letter box!).

Stupidly though, between buying the wormery a week ago and the worms arriving today, I have managed to lose the instructions. So, I had to try to remember what to do with it. Hopefully, they will be ok, they have all disappeared into the worm bedding, but haven't touched their food yet. (You would think they would be hungry after their trip, wouldn't you?)

Talk about bizarre clubs, but we have set up this weird collective up at work. In my office we have people living in three different boroughs, so we are doing our bit for the environment by swapping our rubbish!!!!

Why? Because no joined up thinking is going on between the bordering authorities and they are all collecting different things for recycling. So, as my doorstep collection won't take card (actually you are lucky if they take anything made of paper that wasn't originally a NEWSpaper), I am now swapping it and some more dubious plastic items (such as liquitab BOXES - type one plastic)for glass and type 1 and 2 plastic BOTTLES which they will collect.

We are doing this because we care about our effect on our environment.

But the real question is this: If we can organise this between us, why can't three neighbouring boroughs of the same county do the same. It would be far more efficient!

I need to come up with a business idea of my own. I am just sick of the daily grind, all the time for someone else to take the credit. I'm sure I could do well if I struck out on my own.

Problem is...That fantastic idea just hasn't turned up yet

My energy direct debit has been put up by £23 per month, so I am trying to save energy. One of my things is to use the tumble drier less. Today my shiny new brabantia drier arrived - it looks like a rotary drier but it attached to a wall and folds up flat.

I decided this was needed, as my current washing line is in a perfect position to garote anyone who steps out of the back door! (This won't look good next time I have a barbeque!)

In other news: I am seriously thinking about packing in my gym membership. They too have hoiked up the price recently, (but seem to be spending less on on their cleaning staff).

Unfortunately not in alcohol, but vinegar.

Today I have been making up jars of pickled shallots (to my mum's recipe!)and the house now smells of a rather unpleasent mixture of onions and vinegar. It'll be worth it when I can eat them in a few weeks time.

In other news I think I need to take a photo of my pumpkin seeds. I think one is actually alien spawn - you wouldn't believe how long it has grown since this morning!!!!!

No.1 Cheap compost bins!
My Aldi compost bin that I had for a few years is full and falling to pieces, so I thought I could do with a new one. However, the price of £40+ has been putting me off for quite a while. Howver at the weekend I came across this website where the 330litre bin cost only £10 with £1 discount for ordering online! I ordered it on Sunday, and my shiny new bin was waiting on my doorstep when I got home from work yesterday!

Unfortunately, I should have read the dimensions, because it was too big to fit through my front door I had to squash it (and several of my fingers in the process) to get it out into the back yard

No. 2 The joy of pumpkins
A further propagator excitement this morning was that 4 out of 7 pumpkin seeds have started to grow. I have tried many time to get pumpkin seeds to grow but have never managed to germinate any at all! Whoohoo!!

Without my new electric propogator!

Maybe this is a little sad, but every morning I rush down to see how my seeds are getting on, I am enjoying unprecidented success! (13 tomato plants, 5 aubergines, 2 chillis, and more basil and mint than you can shake a stick at!

In other news I have decided to reduce the use of my tumble drier, so I had ordered a wallmounted fold away drier.

I think these are sure signs of getting old when you get excited by these things - or maybe its a sign of contentment maybe?

Well I'm not really going to see any difference for my "small portions" (a new year resolution) if I can't stop eating left over Christmas food.

And my other half isn't helping matters by buying cut price party food every time he visits tesco's.

Still no visits to the gym

Thanks to Usksider for letting me know how to do this!

Over the last two years I have gone up two dress sizes, and several people have made coded hints such as "wow, you are looking healthy" (code for "when did you get so fat?". But I regularly weigh myself, and over the last three years my weight has only increased by 1 kilo!

How can this be?

Perhaps I am getting shorter?

1. Have eated small portions all week.
2. No takeaways
3. Trips to the gym: still none
4. Took my own shopping bags to town with me yesterday so I could buy veg from themarket without the use of wasteful carrier bags. Unfortunately, I left them in the car on the top floor of the the multistorey carpark and only realised when I had gone down the eigth flights of stairs to the bottom (tried to retrieve them but my other half thought I had gone insane).
5. Drank two pints of cider.

Verdict: Could do better.

And I have already got my first headache of the new year.

Funny how work manages to do what 2 pints of bitter, 1/2 a bottle of white wine, 1/2 a bottle of rose, and 4 glasses of champagne didn't do on new years eve!

When's the next holiday????

Only ate half a fried breakfast (lunch?) yesterday (well I do have an irrational fear baked beans), and only ate half my usual portion of chese on toast for tea.

Walked to the shops today: Remembered my shopping bag! All vegetables purchase were organic.

So far then:

no booze consumed
two meals with smaller portions
no wasteful supermarket carrier bags used
no trips to the gym (oh well, no-one's perfect)

Question is... can I keep it up? It is only day two after all.

I think these must be the most boring yet, but I think they are necessary.

1. To eat smaller portions.
2. To go to the gym at least once a week.
3. To get my work life balance sorted so that I do less work, and spend more time on myself.
4. To decorate the dinning room.
5. To remember to take my shopping bags to Tesco so that I use less plastic bags.
6. To grow more of my own vegetables.

Having spent many frustrating hours Christmas shopping this year, I have decided that next year all my family will be getting homemade pickles and preserves for Christmas instead!

- is a lay-in.

I'm so tired.
I don't know why, but I am exhausted.
I have to go to bed as soon as I get home from work. I have had to cut short two evenings out with friends because I can barely keep my eyes open. The house is a tip because I haven't been able to quite keep up with it.

I would do anything just to sleep through Christmas day this year.

My first message on the new bcuk message service is spam!

How pleasant it was today, to travel home in only half the traffic! Yay! Local schools are on holiday!

Usksider: would this solve your little "flashing" problem?

Travel John Disposable Urinal
2 used & new available from £4.70

Sorry, no customer review of this one!

1) They will not buy anything that requires going out of the house: Therefore, if it cannot be purchased from Amazon, they won't buy it.

2) They will seriously suggest items like this as a present for your mother:

Here is a really helpful Amazon review of the item:

I bought this item on the spur of the moment whilst shopping in the Lake District. As we climbed our first hill the next day I packed it into the top of my ruck sack a bit unsure if I'd be able to use it or if it would work. Normally I'm running down the mountain, hiding behind a rock while my husband stands watch for passers by or exposing my rear to the midges but with the Shewee it offered easy to use complete freedom without exposing a jot. So good I'm now buying one for each of my daughters who both hate sitting down in public toilets. Really good to keep in your bag for all occasions anywhere.

Desperately trying to reduce the amount of packaging that passes through my home.

My target is have nothing in carrier bag this month. But is it ok to turn up at Morrisons with a pile of Sainsbury's heavy duty re-usable carrier bags?

Spent the morning putting poppies on war graves (including in the section that is fenced off because its unsafe!).

Am now relaxing, trying to warm up my soaking wet and freezing cold feet.

Not sure why I always apologize when I have to step on someones grave.

For the first time ever I have had a blog post dedicated to little ol' me!

Well I've never really been into halloween. But when I arrived home from work tonight, I found that nearly every house on my road was decorated with halloween type stuff, and I almost felt I had missed out: It must have taken a fair amount of co-ordination to put up all the fake grave stones and creepy spider's webs, (and without me knowing about it in advance!) However, when I just popped out to get a photo, my neighbours were hastily packing it all away.

Thats when it all clicked into place. The place were I now live is very famous for its ghosts, and when I went outside, there seemed to be a guided walk just leaving the street!

Anyway, while I have no inclination to take part in this stuff (i'm sitting in the back room with most of the lights switched off), I will however be hanging around my local cemetery at the weekend - putting poppies on the war graves.

I just realised, that even though I worked from home today, I wasn't disturbed by my neighbours dog barking all day like usual. (This might be why I seemed to get through much more stuff than usual)

I hope its ok. (but, also that it stays quiet)

I hope nothing horrid happened while I was away. Poor lonely dog.

I thought I would share the conclusion to my little shopping spree from the other week when I was buying clothes for work.

Whilst in M&S I spotted a suit that I quite liked that was on display. After hunting around the area I couldn't find any similar so I asked an assistant. She replied that they had been moved to another part of the store because they had a sale starting the next day and they would be in it. I don't like sales, there is never anything I want in my size, but she said, you should reserve the suit, and then pick it up tomorrow and you will get it for the sale price, even though its not marked down yet.

Anyway, I looked, but alas there were none in my size. "Don't worry!" said the assistant, "we can order it for you in your size!"

So, I managed to pick up the trousers before my holiday, and was quite chuffed to find that they were marked down from £25 to £12. However, today I picked up the jacket. It had been reduced from £39.95 to £5!!!!

A whole work suit for only £17.00!

Lets just say that I will be buying new (non-work) shoes with the money I have saved!

Just got that, "spent ages writting a post, but now its gone" feeling.

Again.

Well I'm back from my holiday. Have had a lovely relaxing week, where I finally seemed to shake off the horrid cold/flu/chest infection type bug that I seem to have had for weeks.

Have been back two days, and I already have a sore throat and a snotty nose.

Maybe I'm allergic to the UK?

But its just not working today.

Came home from work with a horrible headache. Probably just because I'm tired. Went to bed last and next doors dog woke me up early barking. They are so cruel, to have a dog and then leave it locked up barking all day everyday. Its not the dogs fault, its just lonely. They have a lovely garden but I never see it out.

I just barks and barks.

Well the weather seems crappy now I'm home. I don't really get to see the weather these days. My new office doesn't exactly have a view, and we have to have the lights on all day, so I don't even notice when its nice out. I had a few pangs for my old place today. I admit it, I had got really comfy there, and I still feel out of place here, like I'm on holiday without all my home comforts, living out of one suitcase. But I miss it all the same. The grass isn't always greener, I wish I had learned that before.

Oh well, off to have left-overs for tea! And put the washing on.

What a truely uninspiring day!

I don't usually mention work much but this has been brewing for a while and I need to let it out somewhere, otherwise I am likely to swear at the person concerned and end up with a disciplinary

I like to think that I can get around on a computer, but I'm no wizz. I can manage all the things I need to do for my job: Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc. However, it isn't my job to do anything more technicaland I have never really had any proper training in anything else.

Thats because in my office we have a "technical support" guy, and as far as I am aware, technical stuff is his job.

So when I can't do something, or I am a bit slow on the uptake of some new computer thing, why does he shout at me??? He gets paid to help, but every thing I've asked him about for several months now, he just shouts at me, and when I ask him not to shout, but to explain what I am doing wrong, he just walk off in a huff.

I can't help it if I didn't study computers, and don't have diplomas and things in IT. I get paid to help our customers, and I can't shout at them if they are a bit slow on the uptake.

This is starting to upset me now, and I must admit to having a little weep in ladies when he did this last week.

MEN!

(I would just like to point out that this is the same "technical support" guy who removed my old but working printer in June, and replaced in with a brand new one late July, but has so far made no effort of allocate it to my computer, so I always have to log off my own computer and print every document on someone else's)