Making Good Use

Twenty Twelve

So, yeah, 2012 - not a stellar year, really.  No great surprise as it followed on from a pretty sh*t 2011 and a nasty end to 2010!!  This time last year P and I were seriously looking into seeing if he could set up as a lawyer on his own and even went to look at some offices to rent in Wickford.  I was going to be his PA / secretary / girl Friday and we were both full of enthusiasm for the idea.  Don't quite know what happened but somehow the whole project never got off the starting blocks.  I don't think either of us ever imagined that the end of the year would see us parted by thousands of miles so that P could, finally, have the chance of working again. 

I hear the b*ll*cks David Cameron is spouting at the moment with his Britain is 'moving in the right direction' speech and I do seriously wonder what parallel universe that over-privileged twerp is inhabiting.  Things are getting better??  Really, not in my neck of the woods and I live in the 'affluent' south of the UK.

Anyway, onwards and upwards.  2013 is just around the corner and surely this year has got to be a bit better for us.   There are a couple of things that are high priorities - intensive internet searching to find a job for P in the UK or, failing that, at least in Europe.  I know how many many hours he put in to find any job so this task should keep me occupied for a while as he just won't have the time to search now he's working again.  (It really is true that finding a job is a full-time job!!)  Plus, I'd quite like to find a part-time job for myself.  I was thinking of doing audio-typing from home but maybe getting out and meeting different people would be a good idea in my present situation.  After nearly a decade out of a working environment going back to work should be interesting for me - to say the least!!

Then there's some work that needs to be done on the house and a somewhat over-grown garden to be tamed (if it ever stops raining!)  Plus, I've still got boxes of 'stuff' in every room that need to be sorted through - but I'm getting there, even if it is at a snail's pace!!

I'm really looking forward to waking up on Tuesday morning with a brand, shiny, new year ahead of me - full of the promise of better things to come.  Hope 2013 is a good one for us all.

Homemade Decs

I'm not much of a fan of Christmas and for the past few years - when both P and I have been away from home over the festive season - haven't bothered to put up any decorations at all.  This year, with the family coming to me on Boxing Day, I decided to splash out and put up a just a few bits and bobs.

Apologies for the cr*p photo - the colours are much brighter in 'real life.'

I'm particularly pleased with the pompom garland I made a few years ago (which has never seen the light of day before, and which I feared had been left behind in Essex at the back of the cupboard under the stairs) as it fits the huge circular mirror in the living room (kindly left behind by the previous owner) almost perfectly. 

And one of my homemade embroidered mini Christmas trees is gracing the living room window sill.  I made a couple of these a few years ago from bits of an old felted cream blanket.  I've got another one somewhere but for the life of me can't quite put my hand on it at the moment. 

There are a few thrifted wooden decorations on other window sills too but the vintage glass baubles have had to be displayed in bowls as the fake Christmas tree I used to have (£1.00 from a scout jumble sale when I lived in Nottingham in the 1990's) had to be thrown out.  We'd kept it in the leaky garden shed and it had completely rusted!!  It was another item mysteriously spirited away by the scrap-metal dealer who lived across the road.  I had no idea there was any scrap value in a rusty fake Christmas tree, but he was very welcome to it!

By Gum, Gumtree is Good

Thanks to an extremely useful tip from Tonya, I listed all the items I'm trying to sell on to the Bristol Gumtree site as well as having them on Trade It.  I only listed them yesterday and this morning I had a phone call from someone interested in the vintage printer's tray.  By 5.00 pm the deal was concluded with one happy buyer and one very happy seller (that's me) who has managed to clear at least one item from the silly amounts I've amassed.  Now, anyone want a small corner pine shelf unit or a child-size Samsonite suitcase??

An Urge to Purge

I've got the urge to purge a lot of the 'stuff' I've been carting round with me for years and years.  Sadly, a lot of it hasn't even seen the light of day in 17 years and now I'm rediscovering it all I'm quite horrified with the monumental amount of cr*p I've accumulated.  Already two boxes of books and other sundry bits plus a couple of pictures have gone in a well-timed charity collection but there are boxes and boxes of 'stuff' of mine still piled up in the garage here. 

Much of it is quite large and / or heavy 'stuff' which is not really suitable for ebay selling (and speaking of which, I have uncovered so much I'll be able to list on there in the New Year that I could take a break from visiting any charity shops between now and Easter - not that I will!!  Just thinkin' I could if I really wanted to.) 

Anyhoo, what to do with some of the larger items?  My sister came up with the perfect solution - list them for free in the online version of the local Bristol  'Exchange and Mart-type' newspaper' Trade It.  It was really simple to upload the ads with photos (much simpler than listing on ebay) and I'm keeping everything crossed that the phone will be ringing off the hook this weekend with locals wanting to buy my 'stuff'  in time for Christmas. 

Things are not really helped by the fact that a) I'm finding it difficult to hear the phone ring if I'm not in the living room (no idea what happened during the move as the phone used to have a perfectly sensible ring but it now seems to be uber quiet,) and b) I had no idea that there is now a voicemail service since I changed the phone provider to Virgin.  I actually had six messages on there (only one related to a Trade It ad) which have accumulated since Monday!!  That'll learn me not to bother reading the instruction booklet I was given by the engineer.

So, if anyone in the Bristol / Bath area wants to buy a vintage printers tray, an unused and boxed vintage bread board and knife set (Prestige none the less), an oak framed vintage hall mirror, or a vintage framed Lyles Golden Syrup advertisement check out Trade It online and give me a ring!!!!  I'll be really glad to see the back of any / all of the above items.

5p Very Well Spent

The weekend before we left Essex, P and I went off to a Christmas Fair at a little village church.  There wasn't an awful lot in the way of bargains to be had but I did pick up a couple of bits of toiletries and a huge pile of vintage postcards for £2.50.  Amongst the toiletries was this teeny tiny little pot of Origins Youthtopia firming eye cream which cost me 5p. 

I knew Origins was a good make (and, indeed, think I came across some Origins face wash at the same Christmas Fair last year) but it wasn't until I got home and checked out their website that I realised these teeny tiny little pots (5oz / 15ml) cost over £20!!  Goodness, what a price!!  I didn't list it on ebay as someone had obviously tested the product at some point but thought I would use it myself.  Well, whaddaya know, this stuff is marvellous.  I've been using it every day for the past three weeks and the bags, wrinkles and dark rings round my eyes have definitely improved.   It's pretty miraculous and I'm really impressed.  Not sure I'm impressed enough to spend over £20 but for 5p I am very very impressed indeed.

Hello, Me Babber

I heard the above phrase spoken in the broadest Bristolian accent on Saturday (at a local Christmas Fair) and knew at that point that I was home again. 

The move went as smoothly as these things can, and we were very lucky that we moved last Wednesday and not this Wednesday as Essex was badly hit by snow yesterday - which would have made for a very tricky move indeed.  Luckily, we've yet to see any sign of the white stuff here in the ever-so-slightly-warmer West Country.

Poor P only had the one night in our new home and flew off to Hong Kong last Friday evening in order to start his new job on Monday.  Today was the first time I've been able to speak to him on the phone (a week was the quickest Virgin could connect me which is not bad at all considering BT were quoting a date in January!!  Seriously, they think six weeks without a phone or the internet is acceptable in the 21st century.  Jeez, I don't think so!!) 

 We're both missing each other like mad but such is life in this economic downturn.  At least P has a job for the next six months.  He's still hoping something will come from the interview he had in Switzerland last week and so am I, especially as you can fly direct from Bristol to Zurich these days.

I'm still surrounded by unpacked boxes and things are a bit daunting at the moment.  I have been helped tremendously by having Mum round the corner (I pop round for a cup of tea most afternoons) and she has been a real trooper.  Some very good friends of mine who also live just round the corner have been fantastic, too, and I'm really grateful to them for all their help.

We found that the garage roof was leaking quite badly in one place - not ideal as we have a ton of 'stuff' stored in there at the moment - but I contacted a local builder who has, hopefully, fixed the leak.  He'll be back again on Tuesday to start on the rather long list of fiddly little things that need sorting out around the house.  Again, it's helpful to be on familiar ground as I know he is a reliable and pleaseant chap to deal with.

I'm taking everything one day at a time and eventually it will all get sorted.  At least there is no looming deadline like there was with the moving date, so that makes things easier to cope with.