Naughty, naughty boy!

Well hello there my grumpy pals

I'm still alive, so are YoungPlum and Destructo, although how the latter survives I do not know as she is a very naughty dog, I think she is high in the loveable factor which mitigates the damage she does. Every evening when I come home, she just gets silly and starts running off with stuff - everyone says it's my fault and i'm starting to think it might be true

We are still muddling along without sitting room furniture. One day, we'll have a couch maybe! Rather randomly I did buy a new tv as the lounge room which we can't really use anyway looked silly with my little tv in it .... the fact that it looks silly without any furniture in it seemed to temporarily escape me! In reality, I was getting YoungPlum a second-hand xbox 360 as she missed having one, so I gave her the smaller tv to put in the spare room so I didn't have to watch/listen to her shooting people and so bought a larger tv that was on a good special offer - end of financial year sales are big here, as most people seem to get a tax refund.

I'm currently trying to buy a lawn mower but struggling because they aren't interesting, I have no view on the subject other than blue ones look pretty. Truth is I don't want to mow the lawn, i haven't mown a lawn since i was a .... I don't think I've ever mowed the lawn in all honesty, or if I have I think I've blocked out the experience as too traumatic. Petrol motors seem to be the lawn-mower of choice up here ... and 4 stroke seems to be the easier option as no mixing oil and petrol - see I've learned that. i've also been told not to get the "easy start" ones as whilst in the short-term they are easy start, in the long term they are the ones least likely to start as the "easy start" bit fails. Hurrumph - I don't like mowers!

It's totally wonderful though having a place of our own, the neighbours seem nice and the road is quiet. Just about everyone has dogs so no-one has offered any objections to Destructo's occasional barking bouts, although we do always bring her in quickly when she barks and apparently she doesn't bark when we're out.

Work is killing me. I'm up to 2 split shifts each week which mean I am on the go from 6.30 in the morning til I get home (the second time) at 11pm ish - whilst I do have a break in the middle, that's filled up with the school run, any housework and doing dinner. The next day I'm zonked - and i always do 2 shifts like that in a row so by the 3rd day, I struggle to stay awake. But you have to do what you have to do. They like their pound of flesh.

YoungPlum is continuing to thrive at high school - socially but not academically - I hate the fact that all their work is done on laptops so it's very hard for me to see what she is up to on a daily basis and I more or less have to trust her that she's telling me everything. Trust a teenager with homework? doesn't sound like a good idea to me - and so her marks are not good. However, she is happy and getting along with everyone so other than threatening her with an apocalypse if her results don't improve for the end of school year there isn't much I can do. I've always said to her as long as she gets top marks for effort, attitude etc... then the grades are fairly immaterial to me - but she hasn't been doing too well in the "effort" department although all her teachers seem to love her. Ahh well, we shall see what happens.

I'm a bit depressed in general, I have come to the realisation that I am totally lacking in a life. I exist to work, pay bills and look after YoungPlum. All life outside of this for me has ceased. I don't essentially want to be on my own. How sad is that. However, life has improved in all other respects so maybe now that I am getting on a better footing, I can work out a solution to the social aspects of my life. Of course, til then, I will blunder along smiling and laughing as always.

Enough about me. I've read quite a lot of the grumpy antics, so much so that I can't remember most of them! The polish wedding did sound like an absolute hoot - i particularly liked the picture of someone pointing out dishes that didn't have much meat in them to a vegetarian - really made me giggle

I will try to come in more often - I still suffer from the "if you've got nothing nice to say, say nothing" mantra - so I tend to go quiet when I'm feeling out of sorts with the world. I know this is wrong but it seems something I struggle to by-pass.

Anyway, I hope life is treating you all well and big hugs to all those going through tough times. I should and do count my blessings regularly to keep my stuff in perspective.

Lovely plum great big hugs so good to see you, keep going you have come this far little plum is a treasure to love and together you will both conquer your step back and move forward.

Bat and Sad hope you both enjoyed the wedding safe journey home.
Love and hugs to all grumpies.

aw missed the Plum

afternoon all

Darling Plummie, welcome back! We've missed you!

Something to bear in mind - moving house is a very, very stressful thing and so this has probably affected your mood a lot - that, and the fact that you DO work very hard and are on your own a lot.
Please, please, PLEASE come on and talk to us when you feel rubbish - that's what we're here for and we all help each other.
And get yourself onto Facebook as well so we can see what your new house looks like!

Hugs and strengthening vibes to you - come back and chat sooooooon !!!!

Whilst I am sorry for disappearing, it is nice to know that I was missed

Facebook is on my to do list - which means that I'll get round to it one day but probably not for a little while. Trying to focus on getting more stuff sorted at home rather than idling away more time, then once everything is sorted then I can be extremely idle. That is Plan A.

We've been on a bit of a mexican theme at home for no good reason, with YoungPlum and I finding it disproportionately hilarious that if we had people round for a mexican dinner we could cook them "Jalapeno Sandwichos - they're authentic!" - has to be said in mexican accent a la Spaghetti Westerns, the good, the bad and the ugly etc.... Anyway, today Destructo who is a bit of a Desperado in her food scrounging ways earned her mexican bandit name and is now El Horriblo! Bless her, she's a dreadful dog! .... and YoungPlum and I are getting increasingly more silly.

Today was a crappy day at work, but on the plus side I have tomorrow off - woop woop! Downside is though i've still loads of tidying to do for the house inspection later in the week, plus buy the lawnmower and mow the lawn..... and tonight just as I got home from work, one of my car headlights blew, so I need to sort out a bulb, I'll probably just go to my nice mechanic guy and look pathetic again and see if he'll sort it out for me

Hi Plum. Hope you are feeling more positive today. What Handy said but in capitals - but not shouting rude just emphasizing. I think it just corrected my spelling to American. I have had a trip to the dentist which was not fun but is over now. Then lunch with a friend where we had a mini pudding- just after I had a lecture on unnecessary sugar. Oops. The brownie was delicious though. This afternoon I have mostly been on my kindle

Happy Monday x

Hola Plum! Great to see you and hear how you're doing. I know it's priorities, the job, the house and the kid ( not necessarily in that order ) but I'm glad that you're recognizing your loneliness. I went through this as a fairly young widow. I had death related legal stuff to deal with, a kid to finish bringing up, etc. but I kept it on my "to do" list that I wanted to end my "aloneness". I was happy enough in my day to day life alone but I would try to imagine myself 10 or 20 years older and I knew that I didn't want to be alone then. The actual getting from one to the other was the stumper. How do you get "out there" to find and to be found? I understand your dilemma.

It's been been bucketing down here on and off for two days and lots of very high winds. This was the most destructive wind storm here in years and many big trees have been completely uprooted and felled by nature. The downed trees knocked out tram lines, destroyed cars, gardens and property and hurt people. So far my balcony and garden are unscathed and it's a miracle. But it's not over yet so fingers crossed.

Hope SP and BG are drying out painlessly and have stories and photos for us when they return tomorrow.

Hi to all! xx

yoo hoo all

Yooo hooo snowbes, you lovely lady

I feel all empowered today - I bought a petrol mower and mowed my lawn - I am woman, hear me roar!! Anyone in the vicinity would also have heard me curse - many times! vociferously in fact Destructo aka El Horriblo clearly hadn't read the manual and kept walking with me - it said dogs should stay away ... she even wandered right in front of me and squatted for a piddle! How rude! I did tell her off for pooping on the nicely mowed bit of lawn when i was half way through, then I realised it was better on that half than the half I was yet to do! The garden still looks raggedy though but will have to do - I haven't got a strimmer thing and couldn't find any long handled edging shears - so that will have to wait.

My next challenge is to get my headlights sorted - I went to an auto shop today where they say they'll change the bulb for you as part of the service, but unfortunately mine is an awkward car and the battery and something else will have to be taken out to get to the headlight - how stupid is that! too late in the day to do anything about it, so it means i'm going to have to dash around first thing tomorrow to try to get it sorted in the first part of my split shift, so that the car is useable at night, otherwise i'm going to be deep in the doo-doo

This evening, i've got to sweep the house and mop the floor after YoungPlum and destructo go to bed - it's either that or leave it til the last minute and do it tomorrow night when i get home from my split shift at 11pm ish assuming i make it back to work! i'll probably leave it, I am a champion procrastinator!

Stop being so hard on yourself Plum you do a fantastic job under terrible circumstances we are our own worse critics lovely to read your ramblings you just keep rambling we are all ears sending you love hugs and vibes.

Hope Bats and Sad had safe journey home, hoping to hear all about it.
Grumpies are the best

Congrats on the mower Plum! I found the petrol ones too heavy for me and the pull cords too difficult with my condition so have had electric for the past 3 mowers. They're a pain with having to watch out for the lead and having an extension lead and somewhere to plug it into though. Does yours have a pull cord to start up? I don't know about the petrol ones but the ones I have had you can lower the blade distance to the ground. You start off on the highest level when you're cutting high growth and lower it down for later cuts. I keep it on the lowest setting for maintenance throughout the summer.

Today I learned to say "no". I told my neighbour's pastor that I can no longer help in his care when he rang me to ask if I was willing to keep a spare key again after they change his locks today. He's worse than they realize since I see him day to day and last Thursday and Friday he wandered up and down the street every couple of hours holding his trousers up. Since he needs his hands for balance and was trying not to let go of his pants he kept stumbling. I think he's going to go missing again any day and he's been making a pest of himself by ringing everyone's bell at once when he locks himself out. No, I'm out. I'm done. But why do I feel so bad and a bit guilty?

Please don't feel guilty Me@ you done your best by your neighbour but things have changed and your neighbour needs professional help if not in a care home for his own safety omo. It more than many neighbours would have done.

hello, what a soggy few days
well Plum and me, I too have an electric mower and it freaks me out...

got my ugg boots back on...they are waterproof...my feet got soooo wet in Fridays downpour.

I'm wishing that I was a better swimmer and thinking that I should also Google how to build an ark.

I think France will be getting back to normal again now.

Plummy - sorry to hear life's not a bed of roses at the moment. This will make you giggle, though. Sad and I were in this fab museum, there for hours so needing a pit stop, so off we went to the restaurant. It was a buffet type thing and a young chap explained what all the dishes were, but every single one had meat in (and quite a bit of meat too )... There was a similar section a bit further up so I asked what that was and he said it was the vegetarian selection. Most excellent, I thought, then got there and the first thing I spotted was the salmon.

It's a good job Polish cakes and puds are so good (yes KJ, I know ), and we found a really lovely place that does afternoon teas, so that's already penciled in for the Grumpy Tour. And there's a wine bar under the same roof, which might be useful...

So, a good time was had. And a busy time too. And although we almost missed the flight, we're home!

me@ - you're feeling guilty because you're a good person and the natural instinct is to help, but you're quite right to withdraw. This chap sounds like he needs a lot more support than he's getting and that he can get from neighbours. I don't know the ins and outs of the system over there but social care does exist so what he needs is an assessment and then an appropriate level of care from people whose job it is to provide it. Hopefully things are better there than in the UK, though. Here everyone seems to wait for a crisis before springing into action.

Anyway, I've missed my bike so that's on today's agenda, as is food shopping and other domestic doings. The paperwork on my desk doesn't look too threatening for once, so I might ignore it until the end of the week, and for now pretend that I'm still on holiday.

Wotcha ladies. BG has said it all really (KJ - you're a cheeky sod ) and I will be putting some photos up once I've got round to it but unlike BG my paperwork is of the slightly more menacing variety and since the rest of the week seems to be taken up with appointments I'd better crack on with the rubbishy part first.

Not dressed yet though, obviously

Plummie - YAY for you being back, and just you keep offloading and not hiding.

Me@ - what the others said - no guilt, he's not your responsibility. Report him/the situation to the social services though by all means. And get everyone else in the block to do likewise - you might get a swifter reaction that way.

Big hugs to everyone else. I love Warsaw, had a fab time, but it wasn't until we thought we genuinely might miss the plane that I began to miss my own bed and the prospect of being back

(((((GOW))))

> Destructo aka El Horriblo

Plum, get on FaceLift so we can see the dog even if you are bashful. El Horriblo or DestructoPup would be a great username, and it's the dog's real name right?

> (KJ - you're a cheeky sod)

Nowt wrong with a lady carrying a bit of timber Sad. For example, woof!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOGRxppJLaw

+1 Netherlands

woof woof

ooo chilly again this evening

Evening grumpies its freezing thought it was meant to be summer at this rate will be putting the heating back on, just to test the new boiler of course

Morning!

I'm missing summer weather.

Cold and damp here.

Don't like it.

Have come home from work early with a headache.so what am I doing on here? cant take any more paracetamol for a couple of hours