21 Nov 2012

First time for everything!

Today we had a meeting at work and for the first time ever I said everything I wanted to say and fought my bosses on every criticism they had of our team. We all really stood our ground on matters and I feel like we really gave our boss something to think about.

Although I'm not sure things got resolved as much as they should have done, I feel better for getting it all off my chest, after all, you can't really get upset about things if you're not prepared to try and change it!

15 Nov 2012

How much is too much?

Recently work has been pretty testing. I'm sure everyone has been or might even be in this position now. This last week has really pushed me to my limits because it's not only the customers that have been unfair (and frankly abusive) and this is where the line has been crossed.

Being a team can get you through anything really and I refer to that in terms of relationships, friendships and working relationships. We have a great team and I love each and every one of those girls. We work SO hard and support each other if a difficult situation arises but today the boss must have had a bit more of a difficult day than usual and went crazy...on US. Our morale was pretty low anyways with the volume of work we had to cope with and staff already off sick.

We were all pretty upset with different pressures at work but this was the straw that broke the camels back and now I feel like we're rotting from the inside too. Fortunately there's an existing meeting set up so who knows what will be said then. The only thing I know is that there are a lot of unresolved issues to be dealt with. If they're not dealt with I think people are going to want to leave. Update soon

8 Nov 2012

Mindy The Micra

Mindy was the name of my first car. A Ribena coloured, N-Reg, Nissan Micra to be exact and I loved her. She came into my life as a surprise 18th Birthday present and was parked proudly on the grass verge outside of my parents house with a big bow on the aerial. My poor mother had got out of bed at the crack of dawn to go round to my Grandma's house where Mindy was hidden in the garage and driven her round to be hidden behind our hedge, out of sight. I opened my presents and the last two gifts were small jewellery boxes. One was a pretty necklace, the other, a car key!!! I'm not a particularly sporty person by reputation but I reckon I nearly broke the land-speed record that day running out of the house.

My friend had a white Micra called Mitch and our next few years were spent being willing designated drivers for anyone who needed a lift anywhere really. My love affair with Mindy ended in a fluke accident. Maybe accident is the wrong word but when your car breaks down as you're driving to a night out in darkest, coldest January 2004 and you're wearing a strappy top (and not a great deal more) you can fall out of love pretty quickly. In some strange and unlucky twist of fate, some debris from the road had flicked into my car somehow and the vibration of all the inner workings of the car had caused the debris to drill a crack into my radiator causing the fluid to leak out and for me to break down on the busy bend of a slip road in rush hour. After a traumatic hour road-side and a lovely AA man towing me back home, Mindy got repaired but our relationship had lost the most important factor in any relationship...TRUST. Mindy soon got exchanged for a Smart car (called Starsky) and I'm not entirely convinced she'll still be around today. RIP Mindy.

Despite the sad ending to our partnership, Mindy will always be my first love (in car terms anyway) and saw lots of good (and plenty of emotional) times that I'll treasure forever.

7 Nov 2012

Waste not, want not.

With the Mr back home and then away just as quickly as he appeared, there's often food open to feed two people that only needs to feed one. A lot of the time I'm left with a half loaf of bread and eating bread as much as is reasonably possible won't use it up in time before it dries out.

Only today have I realised I can use them (whatever the amount and freeze them in smallish amounts) to defrost whenever I fancy. Breadcrumbs is the latest mission and they can be used for sweet and savoury dishes alike. My plan is to blitz the bread once it gets a bit too dry for sandwiches and perhaps bag it in the required quantities for treacle tart or have a bag to coat chicken beasts in for some recipes I want to try. You can mix in herbs etc at a later date when you have a better idea about what you want them for!

So next time you're in a grump like me about the possibility of wasting bread, consider this as a suitable solution :)

6 Nov 2012

The Devil Makes Work For Idle Hands

...or so I've heard, so I thought I'd give it a go. Kitchen Devils is a brand lots of us have heard of and they've been around since the 1960's which proves the quality of their products. Lets face it, if all these big companies are collapsing due to the recession, Kitchen Devils must be doing something extraordinarily right!

As I've possibly mentioned before (numerous times) I'm a bit of a cooking fanatic and use cooking and baking as a way to wind down after a rubbish day at work or just as something nice to do on days off. Last week I got my hands on my very first Kitchen Devils knife. Why is this so exciting? I'm about to explain.

For as long as I can remember, my mam has always been into cooking which is probably where I get my enthusiasm from. People often remark how she can whip up a veritable feast from only a few store cupboard ingredients and she always receives lots of compliments. Anyway that's off the point slightly but she has always had a favourite knife which she got not long after she got married and she still has it to this day. It's one of those comfy knives where you can use it to peel or cut things. It's a great all-rounder and it was my favourite when I lived at home. She has had this knife over 30 years and it's still going strong. This to me is an amazing advert for them and I've always wanted one of my own! Although there's not one that is exactly the same these days, I've got the closest thing I could find to it which is this little beauty which I have used a few times already in the few days I've had it in my possession.


Picture taken from http://kitchendevils.net/lifestyle/


Everybody should have at least one Kitchen Devils knife. I hope I have mine in thirty years time too!

1 Nov 2012

Be careful what you wish for

I recently sold a Jaeger jacket on eBay and when the winning bidder came to pay they gave me a massive story about how the female in the equation had to go away for her nephews funeral and how there was a massive police investigation so she didn't know when she would be back to pay by PayPal and could he send a cheque. The cynical 50% of my brain thought it was an ingenious way of paying by cheque rather than PayPal but I went along with it and promised to send the item out when the cheque cleared. It did, and I did.

So imagine my surprise when I noticed on their profile that they were quick payers to other people during this period and even more surprised to find they had bought it to sell on anyway.

I'm no mug, I know people buy to sell but it was the unnecessary tragic lie thrown into the mix that was the astonishing thing. I've always been told to be careful what you wish for but obviously they haven't. I hope they make a loss to serve them right!

* at the time of writing, the jacket going for considerably less than they paid me. Updates will follow!*