Week One - 1st - 7th December 2013

Ok Sunday - here we are my friend, it is time to spill the beans and tell you all just how extra nice I have been this week. How, I have attempted to go out of my way to do something a little bit extra for other people and spread a little kindness. Here goes.... Sunday 1/12 I kicked off the challenge in great style and held a party, which I think very well. It was mainly combining two lots of people - a post-production party and also a Christmas get-together. Made sense to me to have both at the same time and everyone seemed to really have a lovely time. Lots of laughs, good food and wine! Shame some people couldn't come at the last minute, a few with good reason, more than a few without. Monday 2/12 During the arduous task of returning the hired glasses from yesterdays party, back to Tesco. I was stood in the queue wondering if indeed I was still over the limit and should I actually be driving anywhere for the next week - there was a lady in front of me. She was on her phone and looking very down in the dumps, I started thinking on how I might be able to shine a little happiness into her life. I saw she had a really lovely dress on, so I complimented her on it - out of the blue, no warning and the smile that spread across her face was priceless. Tuesday 3/12 Sat in my drawer at home, amongst the christmas supplies were 2 packs of cards that you pop a picture of your own in. They were destined to sit there for another year until I gave them to a friend at my craft club to pass on to her daughter to create some nice cards featuring her little boy to send. I would have normally kept them on the off-chance I would have used them for something, sometime. Wednesday 4/12 Gave someone a lift, it was on my way, added another 15 minutes but was worth the effort as we had a nice chat, opposed to me talking to myself in the car (as usual!) and took them home again. Thursday 5/12 Got good customer service today, so fired off an email to the relevant company asking that it be placed on the staff members personal file. Friday 6/12 Local power cuts meant that this was the second day of outage for some people I know. Had some over to fill flasks, get hot drinks, charge their phones, have a hot lunch and to stay a while. Opened the house up when in all honesty I probably would have helped in some way, but not to this extent. Saturday 7/12 Attended a Christmas Fayre and complimented a stallholder on their stall and the goods that were on it. I would have normally just looked and then poached some ideas, this time I bought. Week One done and now dusted. I have to admit that going that extra mile does take a little thinking about, but so far has been worth it. From this week I have seen that sweeping, expensive gestures often are not valued as much and it is the simpler things that mean the most for some people. I am wondering if all this will prove that karma and pay it forward really do exist and I will receive some of the happiness back - maybe the spreading of it will be all I need?

Play Nice Now!

So, towards the end of November I realised that it would have been nearly a whole year since I posted on here. Not very good eh?! To be fair to myself, it has been rather a busy time for me. To be extra fair to myself, I do tend to take on more than I can chew. Sue, a blog is a great idea, but where can I actually get the time to post on the damn thing amongst running the house and doing all of the other millions of things I rope myself in to? Crikey, sometimes I don't even have the time to go to the bloody loo! It struck me, that now I am managing to get on top of things - the house no longer looks like a bomb site (well not all of it anyway), my theatre directing stint is over and yes, although my Uni degree has just started again and the next production rehearsals have begun (I am in the chorus btw!) - I would like to raise this old and crusty blog off out of the grave and start over. And what better way to start but by doing something meaningful? I decided that from 1st December, I will attempt to do something kind and/or meaningful every day for a whole year. My aim is that as the 1st of December falls on a Sunday, this will be the day that I write about the week gone by. So, join me on 8th December to see how the first week has panned out!

All Mouth and No Trousers

As much as I keep trying to put a rational point of view across, there will always be numpties who try and swing it into the political arena, when actually there is no need. It all started with me reading quite a few posts on the netmums site from people- who are employed by the way - who are missing meals and who cannot afford to heat their homes because the rise in costs have pushed them over the financial 'ledge'. People are seemingly quick to blame the current government, when actually I feel the country would still be in the mess it's currently in, no matter who was in power. I don't give a rats if you have a degree in politics, social sciences and social welfare - it's living in the real world that counts, not by reading about it in text books. I am constantly flabbergasted by individuals who spout vitriol about various political parties (depending on their choice) having done them - personally - apparent injustice and in 'their' opinion 'ruined the country' when actually these people, with said opinions, have homes, mortgages, businesses, jobs, are earning a decent living, have food in their bellies, enjoy foreign holidays, had a nice Christmas, go out once in a while, are probably drinking a nice glass of wine tonight whilst watching the tv, have had an education and live quite comfortably thank you very much. So, in essence mate, YOU have not actually suffered in any way then under whatever government you are choosing to give your verbal diarrhoea to? YOU have not ever had to make a choice between keeping warm and feeding yourself? YOU are not on the cusp of being homeless? YOU are not living in a permanent state of anxiety about giving your family their basic needs? Basically then my friend YOU KNOW NOTHING. OK, level head MM - keep calm, free speech and respect other people opinions and all that jazz. No matter what flavour of party is in Government, there will always be mess that has to be sorted, there will always be things implicated that a percentage of people will not be happy with. But rather than blathering on with small minded and selfish - 'oh I am so hard done by' (when actually I am not) - views. Get off your backside and do something to help others. Oh, I am sorry - I am sure your work/holidays/socialising/bone in your leg doesn't allow you the time to actually help does it? But then again your opinion is, that it's not your problem isn't it?!

Menu Plan - February 2013

Spurred on by saving nearly £40 of my grocery budget last month by planning ahead, I have decided to have another go. Here is my menu plan for February - not set in stone as things do crop up, but here we go; 1st - Toad in the hole with mashed potato, veg and gravy 2nd - Lamb curry, rice, naan breads poppadums and pickles 3rd - Out for dinner 4th - Lemon and garlic chicken with new potatoes and vegetables 5th - Spaghetti Bol with spaghetti and garlic bread 6th - Fish, chips and mushy peas 7th - Shepherds pie, vegetables and gravy 8th - Gammon, egg, hash browns and beans 9th - Pizza-topped chicken with salad 10th - Kung-po king prawns with noodles, stir fry veg and prawn crackers (Chinese new year!) 11th - Lasagne, salad and garlic bread 12th - Mediterranean chicken with rice and vegetables 13th - Pizza and salad 14th - Mexican starter, Steak, jacket potatoes, mushrooms, corn on the cob main, tiramisu dessert (Valentines meal with hubby, the children will have fish fingers and chips and farmed off to bed!) 15th - Sausage, bacon, egg, hash browns and baked beans 16th - Tuna pasta bake with salad 17th - Roast chicken, stuffing,roast potatoes, parsnips, vegetables and gravy (Sunday lunch) 18th - Italian sausage spaghetti 19th - Herbed baked salmon with rice and vegetables 20th - Chicken fajita wraps with salsa, guacamole, sour cream and salad 21st - Steak pie, potatoes, vegetables and gravy 22nd - Meatloaf and vegetables 23rd - Chicken kebabs with pitta bread and salad 24th - Roast lamb, roast potatoes, parsnips, vegetables and gravy (Sunday lunch) 25th - Chicken and bacon pasta bake 26th - Sausage and mash with vegetables and gravy 27th - BBQ chicken, chips and coleslaw 28th - Pork loins, new potatoes and vegetables

Maverick Mummy - Cooking

I love food - it's not hard to notice that most of my FaceBook posts are indeed of the edible variety. I was popping on recipes, tips, hints and information on my own page , but people were forever asking for details and I would find myself faffing about trying to find them or type them up. So, the FaceBook cooking page was created, here is the link http://www.facebook.com/groups/530469143650305/ Nothing on it is rocket science, just a basic knowledge of cooking and if, like loads of people, you worry that you know nothing - then there are plenty of nice and helpful people to assist - there is no such thing as a stupid question either. For those who follow my - rather sparse and sporadic blog (which I intend to change in to a regular feature in my life), you will know my feelings on skills being lost as each generation passes so I do sympathise with the people who just have not been taught how to boil an egg or knock up a quick sponge cake. That is where I come in, not by throwing them out to ridicule, but to get them the advice and information they need. Happy Cooking! x

British Food Poverty - Should Shame Us All

How is it that in, what is readily accepted to be, one of the more affluent countries of the world, are we in such a state? Now, before any of you get on your political high horses - stop right there, Governments past and present have a great deal to answer for but blame does not entirely lay at the doorstep of number 10 or the big house full of crumbly politicians. I don't want to go into the realms of all that monkey business and global economy as quite frankly it's not going to help you, me or Joe Blogs next door. There has been and always will be people living in sub standard housing, having to contend with food poverty, fuel poverty (as in heating), crap wages and a rubbish standard of living. I said some years ago that we were heading for a recession, and a significant one at that. I felt it prudent that we should tighten our belts and be just a little more thoughtful and resourceful about how we lived. We now have a fruit and veg plot - admittedly we would have starved this year if relying on this produce alone - but you learn fast. We have chickens and ducks, I bake a lot more than in previous years, cook from scratch rather than relying on ready meals, jars and packets, make my own bread, preserves, chutney and even dehydrate foods to store. I like to make do and mend, up cycle, make something tired look refreshed - which often is a thank less task, especially when it comes to trying to refresh myself sometimes! All in all, I looked at things and cut my cloth accordingly, whilst people all around me continued to deny that a recession would come, ignored food and fuel prices going up, still lived at a standard of living that was getting more and more difficult to maintain but remained in this bubble that had to burst sometime - and they have started popping all over the place now. Some people I know, now regularly put their mortgage/rent, council tax, food bills on their credit cards. Now if personally if my situation got to this, I would be looking to cut my outgoings - sky, mobiles, non essential activities or purchases. I would look very carefully at all my expenditure and make sacrifices. But actually these people are so desperate not to lose face or standing within their family/friendship group, that they will not do this in order to keep up appearances - even taking out these horrible payday loans on a rolling monthly basis. To these people I say - for gods sake get a grip and to be honest, I will really struggle to show sympathy when eventually the poop does hit the fan. What bothers me however, are those people who are genuinely stuck between a rock and a hard place. Lets face it, it is not just the problem of the unemployed and low wage earners anymore. It's is now creeping up into the middle income bracket. Those people who work, have travel running costs linked to work, child care, reductions in hours to contend with, seeing their expendable income reducing every month because the cost of living is getting more and more expensive. These people do cut their cloth, they make necessary adjustments to their expenditure, they down brand their groceries to save money, they shop at cheaper alternatives but still money is tight. For instance, it costs us about £600 to fill our oil tank, a further £100 for coal and this will last, if we are carful for 3 months over the winter- that is over £200 a month for heating alone. If we have temperatures that came in 2010/11, then this will not even last 3 months. I will also point out that I don't have the heating cranked up full and waltz about in a t shirt either! A friend of mine said the other day that she didn't know what she was going to do if her finances got any worse. She had already made deep cuts in her outgoings, she shopped in the cheapest places available, yet still sometimes went hungry in order to feed her children. Yet she and her husband both work full time - they are totally and utterly miserable and I can't blame them for being so. Reports from the charities that run food banks say that there has been an alarming increase for their services over the last year. This has to, surely, make us sit up and worry. I know I do, I worry for my friend, my family and in all honesty for my little unit but what can I do? Keep going, that's all.

Scrap In The Scrapstore

So, if any of you have been watching the Channel 4 series - Superscrimpers - you will have undoubtably come across the notion of the 'Scrapstore'. I knew these existed a while ago, as a friend of mine who lives in Somerset has one very close to her. She was telling me that you could basically fill up a shopping trolley of stuff for £10. No this, sounded like an opportunity too good to miss, but again - living in the North of Northumberland - it seems we don't have children (not a great deal of things to do for the children, but its getting better), we don't plan to have children (the maternity unit is closing and the nearest birthing care will be a 60 mile trip!), we don't wear decent clothes (hardly anywhere to buy glad rags. And unless you go into Home Bargains (which do some pretty good deals and I go there often), no decently priced anything really. So I discover the nearest Scrapstore to me is in Selkirk - 60 minutes away. The moment I find out about this Aladins cave I want to go - it was midnight, but I wanted to go the next day but 'coises' it is closed for a holiday for the following week! Aaaarrgghhh. I patiently count down the days and today was the day. So before the epic trip I thought I had better ring to find out what I need to bring to become a member. The friendly chap just said 'nothing at all', so off we went in the car.

Inevitably, we get there and we can't find the place, so another call to the friendly chap and he talks me in - I am on in-car speaker by the way before any of you go and report me to the rozzers!. I walk in and my eyes pop out on stalks, everything you can think if is there; fabric card, cardmaking stuff, paper, buttons, ribbon, felt, plastic, paint, frames.... the list goes on. The majority of things there are salvaged from companies who donate them, other things are new but very very cheap indeed. My friendly chap explains how things work - its not like the one in Somerset as those particular ones are heavily funded - you choose what you want (some things are priced) and then make a deal on what you pay. There is a membership fee £7 for individuals, £25 for groups who have up to 25 users, although friendly chap said that I didn't have to become a member - but quite frankly if you didn't that is taking the p*ss, they are a charity for flips sake! So my little haul - is pictured below. Now bearing in mind I had the ankle snappers with me, I couldn't concentrate and luckily (according to the hubstacle!) didn't spend as much as I could have done!

There is a large sheet of silver card, orange, yellow and black felt, a huge piece of navy fabric, sheets of thick card, box of cardmaking bits and pieces, coloured labels, coloured papers, bias binding which came to £11, with my membership, I spent £18 which by any stretch of the imagination is a total and utter bargain. I love this place - its my new best friend!