I am so busy at work with embroidery and many new enquiries, which usually turn into business, I am pleased with the way the business is progressing, I think my advert in the Yellow pages has been worth it as it seems to be generating new, unrefered customers.
I had a call from the web designer yesterday who refered me onto his collegue, Jim, who deals with transfering the email details, he checked which webmail site I was using for email - outlook, outlook express? I confimed I used Netfirms, which is the hosting companies own webmail page. He was glad he had checked because apparently when he transfers the hosting over to the server they are using, unless I was using a version of outlook I would have lost all my emails. This would have been a disaster, I confirm prices, orders, designs all by email. We were then able to transfer all the emails, all 2500, onto outlook express. He called back this morning, I think relieved, the transfer had completed this morning after only 24 hours after he had requested it, normally it takes 5-7 days to complete. Boy was he glad I hadn't lost my emails.
They now wait on me to put together text for the website. It is so difficult. I am too busy to do it during working hours, I sat on Monday night, the delinquents tucked up in bed, hubby on nightshift and as I started I was greeted by upset 10 yo who had a sore head and a sore tummy and runny eyes and a cough. I doped him up with cough medicine, medised for the pain and benadryl in case he was having an allergic reaction to the 3 cats and 2 kittens he had spent the afternoon with. He was sent to bed. He appeared half an hour later and being the sympathetic mother I am, I ordered him to get his house coat and slippers and sit there until he felt ready for bed as I was trying to work. He did, the poor red eyed little boy, sniffing periodically, to remind me he was there until his eyes became heavier and I reordered him to bed for fear that I may have to carry him back to bed as once he was sleeping there was no way he was going to waken after all the medicine. After that I was a bit brain dead, so I will continue tonight.
The good thing about hubby's night shift, apart from the money, is the fact it is 4.20 and I am still at work with the machine rattling away completing another order. Although I would have been happy to leave at 1pm today and might have done if hubby hadn't come in and taken car away to go and see a car for himself. The Real Radio Renegade was in Lennoxtown today with a £2000 bounty on his head, I would have loved the thrill of the chase and the possibility of catching him, I live in Lennoxtown, just outside Glasgow and where was he caught, at the top of our street, I am 3 houses away from the top of the street, hubby had just left the street to come and bring me my lunch. I ordered him out to search at 1.20, he told me he had been in the bakers for rolls and the baker said there had been a wee fat english guy in a chefs uniform asking where the bank was. He lacked enthusism and complained the main street had been busy! I missed my chance, you never know....
Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Sex disappointment
I am not a sex mad woman, much to my husbands disappointment. I find the whole experience pleasant, however, I am more of a morning person, which is useful when your husband is at work. I do tend to 'have the notion' when my husband is not home, as soon as he comes home funnily the notion wares off. Sex is not something I feel I need to talk about, my friends seem to think I am unusual but I am simply tired. I love to have a bath and go to a clean freshly changed bed, to my husband this is a come and take me sign. Unless I am in the mood this infuriates me for a few reasons;
- the bed is no longer clean, I could solve this by putting down a towel, but if I was to put down the towel in advance the hubby might get the wrong idea, I could wait til the action starts but then at what point in the proceedings do you announce 'Wait til I get the towel'
- I am no longer clean, meaning I have to rewash in the morning and that is not on the morning schedule. I have no solution!
- It keeps me awake for another 30 minutes, not the action, it's over in about 5 minutes, 3 minutes to talk me into it and 2 minutes to do the deed itself. Obviously the stimulation wakes me up and I find myself gibbering like a budgie, meanwhile hubby has rolled over and is snoring. Clearly the relief lets him sleep peacefully.
I am quite shy and inexperienced when it comes to sex, I have at the age of 35 only had 2 sexual partners, one of which I have been married to for 11 years but spent the last 16 years with. Every now and again I think I must make an effort and buy some books or perhaps go mad and get a pornographic movie, which I might add I have never watched in my life, but any of my friends would have no problem providing me with such materials, I'm sure they feel sorry for hubby and would be delighted I am taking an interest. But where do you find the time and the privacy? I did once book us into a hotel for an overnight stay with the intention of spending hours discovering each others bodies, we had a little quickie in the afternoon, went to the pub, had dinner, went back to the room and hubby feel asleep watching a film! We then sleep so late we had to get up and leave the room immediately.
Why I talked today, I have discovered www.lindystars.blogspot.com where she talks about sex, at first I was embarrassed, reading without comment, however now I am openly commenting, she is hilarious and made me realise sex is rather funny, in fact I have never laughed out loud so much for a long time. Although I am a little prudish I have no problem answering my children's awkward questions, my son is 10 and has started talking about sex and his peAnis, we did correct him but I think it ruined his day, he thought it was PeAnis because you pea-ed out of it, we then proceeded to talk at great length about the spelling and difference between pea, pee and penis, tuns out him and his friends have been looking up 'dirty' words in the dictionary.
Anyway I am the proud owner of a rabbit to which my friends use as a great example to convert any female who doesn't own a battery operated implement - even Nicola's got one they jest. Obviously my reputation proceeds me.
So today I would like to leave you with this.
THE LORDS PRAYER
My vibro, which brings me heaven.
Rabbit be thy name.
Til kingdom come, thy makest me cum, on earth with eyes on heaven.
Give me this day my daily thrill & forgive me my screams, as I forgive flat batteries.
Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from frustration.
For thine is the rotation, the power and the buzzing.
Forever and even.
No men!
Tuesday, 18 September 2007
Delia Smith v The Real Woman......
Still on the cooking theme, here's a little funny email I got recently...
Delia's Way
Stuff a miniature marshmallow in the bottom of a sugar cone to prevent ice-cream drips.
The Real Woman's Way
Just suck the ice cream out of the bottom of the cone, for God's sake. You are probably lying on the couch with your feet up eating it anyway.
Delia's Way
To keep potatoes from budding, place an apple in the bag with the potatoes.
The Real Woman's Way
Buy Smash and keep it in the cupboard for up to a year.
Delia's Way
When a cake recipe calls for flouring the baking tin, use a bit of the dry cake mix instead and there won't be any white mess on the outside of the cake.
The Real Woman's Way
Tesco's sell cakes. They even do decorated versions.
Delia's Way
If you accidentally over-salt a dish while it's still cooking, drop in a potato slice.
The Real Woman's Way
If you over salt a dish while you are cooking, that's tough. Please recite with me the Real Woman's motto: "I made it and you will eat it and I don't care how bad it tastes."
Delia's Way
Wrap celery in aluminium foil when putting in the refrigerator and it will keep for weeks.
The Real Woman's Way
It could keep forever. Who eats it anyway?
Delia's Way
Cure for headaches: Take a lime, cut it in half and rub it on your forehead. The throbbing will go away.
The Real Woman's Way
Cure for headaches: Take a lime, cut it in half and drop it in 8 ounces of vodka. Drink the vodka. You might still have the headache, but you wont give a sh*t?
Delia's Way
If you have a problem opening jars, try using latex dish washing gloves. They give a non-slip grip that makes opening jars easy.
The Real Woman's Way
Why do I have a man?
Finally, the most important tip ..................
Delia's Way
Freeze leftover wine into ice cubes for future use in casseroles.
The Real Woman's Way
Left over wine???? Hello!!!!!
Delia's Way
Stuff a miniature marshmallow in the bottom of a sugar cone to prevent ice-cream drips.
The Real Woman's Way
Just suck the ice cream out of the bottom of the cone, for God's sake. You are probably lying on the couch with your feet up eating it anyway.
Delia's Way
To keep potatoes from budding, place an apple in the bag with the potatoes.
The Real Woman's Way
Buy Smash and keep it in the cupboard for up to a year.
Delia's Way
When a cake recipe calls for flouring the baking tin, use a bit of the dry cake mix instead and there won't be any white mess on the outside of the cake.
The Real Woman's Way
Tesco's sell cakes. They even do decorated versions.
Delia's Way
If you accidentally over-salt a dish while it's still cooking, drop in a potato slice.
The Real Woman's Way
If you over salt a dish while you are cooking, that's tough. Please recite with me the Real Woman's motto: "I made it and you will eat it and I don't care how bad it tastes."
Delia's Way
Wrap celery in aluminium foil when putting in the refrigerator and it will keep for weeks.
The Real Woman's Way
It could keep forever. Who eats it anyway?
Delia's Way
Cure for headaches: Take a lime, cut it in half and rub it on your forehead. The throbbing will go away.
The Real Woman's Way
Cure for headaches: Take a lime, cut it in half and drop it in 8 ounces of vodka. Drink the vodka. You might still have the headache, but you wont give a sh*t?
Delia's Way
If you have a problem opening jars, try using latex dish washing gloves. They give a non-slip grip that makes opening jars easy.
The Real Woman's Way
Why do I have a man?
Finally, the most important tip ..................
Delia's Way
Freeze leftover wine into ice cubes for future use in casseroles.
The Real Woman's Way
Left over wine???? Hello!!!!!
Monday, 17 September 2007
The whole chicken
So the whole chicken has been put in the freezer and is scheduled for Wednesdays dinner, I'm looking forward to the proud moment it goes into my fabulous fan oven. As I said in the previous post I have never cooked a whole chicken at home, we eat plenty of it but I always buy fillets as whole chickens frighten me.
I attended Glasgow College of Food Technology between 1989 and 1992, I gained an HND in Hotel and Catering Institutional Management which quite simply means or should mean I can cook, I can manage a catering establishment and I can also keep the books, hence I own an embroidery company? Every Wednesday we had chef Craik, who was probably mid 40's and I remember quite clearly he had a white Ford Escort XR3, he always seemed just a little to old for it, how I longed to have an XR3, but I was 17-20 so a Metro it was! We started off for weeks chopping vegetables, using extremely sharp knives and learning the termonology for different cuts of vegetables, we then learned the basics of cooking and then came the whole chicken, and when I say a whole chicken I mean a whole chicken the only thing missing were the feathers, someone had very kindly plucked the chickens. So we learned how to prepare a whole chicken for cooking, we removed the claws, Chef showed us if we pulled the tendons how the claws retracted, very amusing, we removed the neck, not quite as amusing, I think I did that with my eyes closed, then came the most disgusting and degrating part, sticking ones hand up the chickens rear end, keeping close to the breast bone, sliding & pushing, seperating the inners from the lining, reaching the back, cupping ones unprotected hand and scouping until shloooooop the inners were now on the table. I was not comfortable, it didn't feel right to be invading the chicken in such a way. And as if the chicken hasn't been though enough, the giblet are then bagged and put back! I have never been able to look at a whole chicken without feeling a certain amount of shame, but when I saw my whole little chicken in Asda with the words 'without giblets' I decided it was time to face my fear and take it home.
I will never forget my Wednesdays with Chef Craik, although he shouted, most Chefs do, he was almost kind when I fainted gutting fish the following week, he made my partner continue with the process until I came round........
Perhaps the preparation's not for me
I attended Glasgow College of Food Technology between 1989 and 1992, I gained an HND in Hotel and Catering Institutional Management which quite simply means or should mean I can cook, I can manage a catering establishment and I can also keep the books, hence I own an embroidery company? Every Wednesday we had chef Craik, who was probably mid 40's and I remember quite clearly he had a white Ford Escort XR3, he always seemed just a little to old for it, how I longed to have an XR3, but I was 17-20 so a Metro it was! We started off for weeks chopping vegetables, using extremely sharp knives and learning the termonology for different cuts of vegetables, we then learned the basics of cooking and then came the whole chicken, and when I say a whole chicken I mean a whole chicken the only thing missing were the feathers, someone had very kindly plucked the chickens. So we learned how to prepare a whole chicken for cooking, we removed the claws, Chef showed us if we pulled the tendons how the claws retracted, very amusing, we removed the neck, not quite as amusing, I think I did that with my eyes closed, then came the most disgusting and degrating part, sticking ones hand up the chickens rear end, keeping close to the breast bone, sliding & pushing, seperating the inners from the lining, reaching the back, cupping ones unprotected hand and scouping until shloooooop the inners were now on the table. I was not comfortable, it didn't feel right to be invading the chicken in such a way. And as if the chicken hasn't been though enough, the giblet are then bagged and put back! I have never been able to look at a whole chicken without feeling a certain amount of shame, but when I saw my whole little chicken in Asda with the words 'without giblets' I decided it was time to face my fear and take it home.
I will never forget my Wednesdays with Chef Craik, although he shouted, most Chefs do, he was almost kind when I fainted gutting fish the following week, he made my partner continue with the process until I came round........
Perhaps the preparation's not for me
Saturday, 15 September 2007
Football Saturday
Funny, it's Saturday and it's raining, unusual for it to rain on a Saturday when my boy plays football...NOT! Although it didn't rain last Saturday. The game was at 9.30 this morning, which was great, finished for 10.35 and I was at work for 10.45. To give the boys a great boost they beat the other team 11-0, they needed the boost because they were starting to lose every game they played and it becomes demoralising. We mothers at the side lines were becoming embarrassed clapping, with each goal the clapping was not quite as loud, but we did shout encouraging things to the other team, like, good save goalkeeper. As I've said before my football lingo is limited.
Our goalie, a great goal keeper, but a bit of a wide boy, bit of a bully, was beginning to get huffy because he was 'bored.' Towards the end of the second half he dived for the ball, saving it, of course, and a 'red' player stood on his finger, he got up, kicked out the ball and then did a whole load of mouthing of to the offender with his arms out stretched in the 'come ahead' position, the game continued and our boys were tiring, they have just gone from playing 15 minutes each way to 25 minutes. The reds were fumbling through and the said offender went in to score, he shoots, the goalie dives, catches the ball and the offender then proceeds to fall over him. Purely accidental, well.....the goalie leapt to his feet, the offender runs, realising he is somewhat slower than the offender the goalie punts the ball at the offender, who stops and one of our coaches had to go and hold our goalie back. His mother meanwhile looks at us, who are all looking at her and asks 'whit's rang wi um?' I tell you if it was my son I would have gone on there and dragged him off, not the kind of sportsmanship we want to see. I was also thinking if my son had been on the receiving end of abuse like that he would have been traumatised. However, the goalie was whipped away quickly into the changing rooms for a pep talk straight after. I will find out later what was said as hubby is one of the coaches!
We had run our fridge and freezer bare this week, in fact everywhere was bare, we are starting our healthy eating this week. I am not fussed on veg and although I like fruit I barely eat it. I have that motherly guilt thing that I don't give my children enough of a balanced diet, my daughter loves fruit and eats it without force, my son, he would live on crisps. So last night my daughter and I went to Asda and stocked up on proper food, loads of fruit and veg and a variety of beef, pork and chicken, no processed foods, well apart from Jetters for the kids for complete emergencies.
Now that I have mastered the complete routine of getting myself and the children out in the morning at the same time, I used to walk them to school and then go back for the car and my lunch and oh well I'll have a wee cup of tea before I go, but now that my husband uses the car, we all leave, I walk them to school and go straight for the bus. So here I am ready to throw food preparation into the equation. I love to cook. I spent 3 years at college learning to cook as I thought this was my calling, I soon realised the unsociable hours were not for me. I am even contemplating getting a recipe/cook book or dusting of the old ones I have, not for fancy food just good old fashioned home cooked food.
Today I brought to work organic mixed nuts and raisins to replace the choccy biscuit, I did not intentionally by organic I just liked the look of them, but after seeing the price on the packet I will look for non organic the next time! So far I have no chocolate craving and I do have a nice muller yoghurt if I want something sweet.
I nearly forgot I also bought a whole fresh chicken, now I'm sure that is nothing unusual for the rest of the nation but I have never in my whole entire left home life (which amounts to some ahem 15 years) cooked a whole chicken, my husband said as long as we didn't have it on Sunday he would eat it. In my house we had chicken every Sunday and then my father got the left over in his pieces on Monday. I have very good reason but I'll keep that for the next post........
Our goalie, a great goal keeper, but a bit of a wide boy, bit of a bully, was beginning to get huffy because he was 'bored.' Towards the end of the second half he dived for the ball, saving it, of course, and a 'red' player stood on his finger, he got up, kicked out the ball and then did a whole load of mouthing of to the offender with his arms out stretched in the 'come ahead' position, the game continued and our boys were tiring, they have just gone from playing 15 minutes each way to 25 minutes. The reds were fumbling through and the said offender went in to score, he shoots, the goalie dives, catches the ball and the offender then proceeds to fall over him. Purely accidental, well.....the goalie leapt to his feet, the offender runs, realising he is somewhat slower than the offender the goalie punts the ball at the offender, who stops and one of our coaches had to go and hold our goalie back. His mother meanwhile looks at us, who are all looking at her and asks 'whit's rang wi um?' I tell you if it was my son I would have gone on there and dragged him off, not the kind of sportsmanship we want to see. I was also thinking if my son had been on the receiving end of abuse like that he would have been traumatised. However, the goalie was whipped away quickly into the changing rooms for a pep talk straight after. I will find out later what was said as hubby is one of the coaches!
We had run our fridge and freezer bare this week, in fact everywhere was bare, we are starting our healthy eating this week. I am not fussed on veg and although I like fruit I barely eat it. I have that motherly guilt thing that I don't give my children enough of a balanced diet, my daughter loves fruit and eats it without force, my son, he would live on crisps. So last night my daughter and I went to Asda and stocked up on proper food, loads of fruit and veg and a variety of beef, pork and chicken, no processed foods, well apart from Jetters for the kids for complete emergencies.
Now that I have mastered the complete routine of getting myself and the children out in the morning at the same time, I used to walk them to school and then go back for the car and my lunch and oh well I'll have a wee cup of tea before I go, but now that my husband uses the car, we all leave, I walk them to school and go straight for the bus. So here I am ready to throw food preparation into the equation. I love to cook. I spent 3 years at college learning to cook as I thought this was my calling, I soon realised the unsociable hours were not for me. I am even contemplating getting a recipe/cook book or dusting of the old ones I have, not for fancy food just good old fashioned home cooked food.
Today I brought to work organic mixed nuts and raisins to replace the choccy biscuit, I did not intentionally by organic I just liked the look of them, but after seeing the price on the packet I will look for non organic the next time! So far I have no chocolate craving and I do have a nice muller yoghurt if I want something sweet.
I nearly forgot I also bought a whole fresh chicken, now I'm sure that is nothing unusual for the rest of the nation but I have never in my whole entire left home life (which amounts to some ahem 15 years) cooked a whole chicken, my husband said as long as we didn't have it on Sunday he would eat it. In my house we had chicken every Sunday and then my father got the left over in his pieces on Monday. I have very good reason but I'll keep that for the next post........
Friday, 14 September 2007
Promoting NHP Embroidery Services
I had a meeting this morning with a very nice web designer, he has gone away to start on my wonderful web site. I did try and arrange a website before and I stupidly told the designer I was not in a hurry. 7 months later I told her to forget it and we parted company. She still sends me Christmas cards so I obviously didn't offend.
I have been very busy this week again, with more business coming in and I have at the moment 14 customer orders on the go. Well actually 4 of the orders belong to the one customer. A great customer I might add, she and her husband own the local dance shop so she gets work wear for the staff in the shop, she works full time within a group of gym teachers so she gets polo shirts and this year hoodies for the staff, well she orders, they pay. On a Friday she now works coaching gym staff and teachers who deal with dyslexic & dispraxsic (forgive the spelling) children, teaching them exercises to stimulate and assist the children. So they require polo shirts for that and the rest of her life she is a baton twirling teacher so she buys clothing and sells the garments on to raise funds for the children. Oh yes and she also coaches as part of the Scottish Baton Twirling Association and they compete world wide so she has track suits for the girls and polo shirts for the travelling supporters, although we do that in June. These are my favourite customers, not to mention the fact she pays cash.
I am enjoying working at the moment, not that I didn't before but I am only one person. I man the shop, I work the machine and I can't be out promoting the business and in the shop. It's not as simple as getting a shop assistance, because they have to be trusted to work the machine. So hopefully the website will continue with yellow pages and yell.com to direct the business my way. But, of course, blogging during working hours doesn't help, but as I've said before the machine is running and nearing completion of one customers order.
So I will justify my blogging by promoting myself:
NHP Embroidery Services is committed to providing quality embroidered corporate work wear.
Project an image of professionalism with your company text or logo embroidered onto your work wear. We have a policy of no minimum order.
We deal with any team or club or individual requiring uniformity.
And of course we deal with school wear, if you wish to shop online please visit;
www.stores.ebay.co.uk/NHP-Embroidery-Services
I thank you
I have been very busy this week again, with more business coming in and I have at the moment 14 customer orders on the go. Well actually 4 of the orders belong to the one customer. A great customer I might add, she and her husband own the local dance shop so she gets work wear for the staff in the shop, she works full time within a group of gym teachers so she gets polo shirts and this year hoodies for the staff, well she orders, they pay. On a Friday she now works coaching gym staff and teachers who deal with dyslexic & dispraxsic (forgive the spelling) children, teaching them exercises to stimulate and assist the children. So they require polo shirts for that and the rest of her life she is a baton twirling teacher so she buys clothing and sells the garments on to raise funds for the children. Oh yes and she also coaches as part of the Scottish Baton Twirling Association and they compete world wide so she has track suits for the girls and polo shirts for the travelling supporters, although we do that in June. These are my favourite customers, not to mention the fact she pays cash.
I am enjoying working at the moment, not that I didn't before but I am only one person. I man the shop, I work the machine and I can't be out promoting the business and in the shop. It's not as simple as getting a shop assistance, because they have to be trusted to work the machine. So hopefully the website will continue with yellow pages and yell.com to direct the business my way. But, of course, blogging during working hours doesn't help, but as I've said before the machine is running and nearing completion of one customers order.
So I will justify my blogging by promoting myself:
NHP Embroidery Services is committed to providing quality embroidered corporate work wear.
Project an image of professionalism with your company text or logo embroidered onto your work wear. We have a policy of no minimum order.
We deal with any team or club or individual requiring uniformity.
And of course we deal with school wear, if you wish to shop online please visit;
www.stores.ebay.co.uk/NHP-Embroidery-Services
I thank you
Thursday, 13 September 2007
Human hair v pet hair
I deal with many customers, customers who come to me and I supply and embroider their garments and customers who bring their own garments to be embroidered. I have no preference as long as they are happy and return, in time people realise one phone call and I can do it all. They don't have to go hunting for garments and then bring them to me and then come back and collect them. One phone call and then one journey. Easy.
I have other customers who want the corporate image but are on a tight budget and bring me garments, mainly polo shirts and sweatshirts and usually from Primark. Corporate image, on a budget, sorted. I have no objection.
My objection, dirty clothes. During the week I was given a bin bag full of polo shirts, when I started to unleash the polo's I was greeted with a little bit of saw dust, being builders, fair enough. The garments were clean, as in washed, but were covered in long blonde human hair and short animal hair. I must speak to the builders girlfriend about brushing and eliminating hair from her laundry when she comes to collect the garments. I hope she's blonde! I have no objection to animals either, we are going ahead and getting a kitten from next door, despite the hubby's protest, the kitten has been officially named Angel, I am delighted with the name as the others in the running were Gabriella or Fluffy, neither of which I fancied shouting in the street. Anyway animal hair causes me no end of grief. I cannot allow pet hair in the working area. Can you imagine my customer, the friendly pub owner who is just about to pay £500 for lovely crisp white shirts and blouses being given his order with me advising confidently 'don't worry about that, it's just a bit of dog hair.' Although his pub is called The Drookit Dug ('The Wet/Soaked Dog' for all non Glaswegians) I doubt he'd see the funny side.
Clothes done, rebagged, hair and all and then clean up begins. Wipe up, brush up, hands washed. Perhaps a sign saying 'Triple charges will apply for hairy clothing' would do the trick. I would certainly not be short of DNA evidence this week.
This has been a very busy week, I have today secured another new customer, a local nursery. I am feeling very motivated and entering into my fourth year in business I know I've made the right choice even if there has been poorer times.
I have other customers who want the corporate image but are on a tight budget and bring me garments, mainly polo shirts and sweatshirts and usually from Primark. Corporate image, on a budget, sorted. I have no objection.
My objection, dirty clothes. During the week I was given a bin bag full of polo shirts, when I started to unleash the polo's I was greeted with a little bit of saw dust, being builders, fair enough. The garments were clean, as in washed, but were covered in long blonde human hair and short animal hair. I must speak to the builders girlfriend about brushing and eliminating hair from her laundry when she comes to collect the garments. I hope she's blonde! I have no objection to animals either, we are going ahead and getting a kitten from next door, despite the hubby's protest, the kitten has been officially named Angel, I am delighted with the name as the others in the running were Gabriella or Fluffy, neither of which I fancied shouting in the street. Anyway animal hair causes me no end of grief. I cannot allow pet hair in the working area. Can you imagine my customer, the friendly pub owner who is just about to pay £500 for lovely crisp white shirts and blouses being given his order with me advising confidently 'don't worry about that, it's just a bit of dog hair.' Although his pub is called The Drookit Dug ('The Wet/Soaked Dog' for all non Glaswegians) I doubt he'd see the funny side.
Clothes done, rebagged, hair and all and then clean up begins. Wipe up, brush up, hands washed. Perhaps a sign saying 'Triple charges will apply for hairy clothing' would do the trick. I would certainly not be short of DNA evidence this week.
This has been a very busy week, I have today secured another new customer, a local nursery. I am feeling very motivated and entering into my fourth year in business I know I've made the right choice even if there has been poorer times.
Friday, 7 September 2007
Complete outrage
We had a visit from the police at 10.30 last night. Just as I had made my way up to bed in my fleecy blue pyjama's that I use for lounging in. I peeped out of the window to see the panda car, now normally when one gets a visit from the police at 10.30 in the evening one can only assume that someone has had an accident, not us, we are on very friendly terms with the police and have been for the last 9 months since 2 officers first appeared at our door on 8th January 2007. Having given a very small chap at the door, I made my way down stairs to be greeted by my usual friendly PC and a colleague, he apologised for calling so late (night shift) and I excused my attire!
The hubby appeared from the living room wondering what I was doing. The 2 already stout PC's, appearing larger with their stab proof vests, batons, CS2 gas, radios and all the rest of the falderal, had to squeeze passed the clothes horse in the hall to make their way to the living room, hardly needing an invitation they've been here so often. They came with disappointing news, no proof, they said, so there it is 9 months of investigation and with 2 words it's over.
I will try and make this brief as I'm not sure I can go over it all again, I am fed up listening to myself> It all started in December 2006 the few days between Christmas and New Year, the hubby's boss called him to say his head office had received an anonymous phone call, from a lady, to say he (the hubby - not the boss) had a criminal record and he should be watched. No concerns, he had just left a company to go and work for an agency, with better hours and better pay, just a prank, sour grapes, we thought. Then in early January I went to cash line, I was refused money, I called my husband, he tried, he too was refused money. We went to the branch, they confirmed I had reported the cards stolen, the cards were reordered and arrived the next day. Strange, we thought. I then started received text messages of an 'adult' nature and got an email thanking me for joining Match.com. Strange, the hubby thought! Still we are unconcerned, oblivious, just a coincidence. That was until the 8th January when we arrived home from swimming lessons, drove into the drive and were closed in by 2 young speeding officers in a panda car, who leapt out of the car. It was like a scene from The Bill. One officer went one way round our car, the other went the other way, while we stood there looking at them, then at each other. Come in, we said. I knew nobody had died, they didn't put their hats on.
They seemed to think we would know why they were at our door, they asked me to leave, my husband told me to stay. They had come to give him a warning, he had been threatening to petrol bomb a pub in the next village. They had received substantial information to support this. We realised at this point something was not right. We went to see the Sergeant at the police station to get further information, an anonymous phone call (made by a female) had been received by the pub, who's manageress had then quite rightly gone to the police, he confirmed they had to check this out and that they would be keeping an eye on my husband. I was ill, there had been a fight in the pub in September, my husband had gone for the police and was being called as a witness with our friend. The hubby was on night shift and I had visions of some mad nutter breaking into the house during the night to harm us. The police said they would give our house 'special attention.' I didn't sleep for nights. There was then a further phone call to hubby's work and our friend's work who also received an anonymous call, by a female, to say he was bringing the fire service into disrepute by brawling outside a pub. It had to be something to do with the pub, there was no other explanation. We called the Sergeant, he then sent our friendly PC to visit and a formal investigation was opened.
We had to go through the whole thing, dates, times - I forgot to mention all the hang up phone calls we were receiving during the night, all withheld numbers. Match.com had all my details, anybody could get that information, my business cards contained most of the information, but when I went to cancel the subscription, I requested the password be sent to me via email and discovered the password was my son's name. This made me shudder, I was a wreck, locking doors, asking people to give me 2 rings and then recall before I would answer the phone. We couldn't work it out, if it was to do with the brawl, my husband was not a local man, nobody would know him, never mind have all our details including my sons name. It had to be something else. 'Who has your bank details?' was the question that triggered it, the only people who had access to that information were the people that we had given cheques to for Christmas, two family members, one we would eliminate straight away, a nephew, who's girlfriend was English and it had been established the caller was a Scottish lady and the other the hubby's brother who is married to a lady with 4 children and we had given 2 of these children cheques for Christmas. An investigation was opened on this assumption, my sister-in-law was a suspect!
I am grateful we chose to take this further as 2 days later I received a call from social services looking to speak to me, immediately I asked if this was to do with an anonymous female caller, yes, was the response. I will not go into this any further as it is too upsetting, however, I immediately informed the lady of the situation with the police and I had to go over it all again, times, dates etc. before she would discuss the matter. Social services had received their call 2 weeks earlier and had spent that time investigating our family, checking criminal records, speaking to the head master at the school. I cried buckets all over the lady. I had finally broken down. I pulled myself together, made an appointment to see the headmaster, filled the hubby in and called the police to update them.
You may wonder why a sister-in-law would have reason to do this, and apart from the fact she obviously has serious psychological problems, we had been friends, worked together and then parted company. I became uncomfortable with her ability to tell lies with no conscience, I am the most honest person you would meet and I don't like lies, people who lie always get caught out. There was no fall out, no exchange of words, I just decided I would take no more to do with her. End of. She clearly understood as we just said hello in the passing thereafter. The night before her children were due to be christened (they were older so they could make their holy communion) she called, a year since we had last spoken, to say it was a small do and therefore the whole family were not invited. This resulted from a text message sent by the hubby to his brother to see what time the service was at, as we would go for his brother. It was a civil call and I thought it most decent of her to call - how stupid am I. A moment later she called back, demanding to know why we would want to go, that her and I had had this falling out blah, blah, BLAH. She tore shreds off me, I was to stay away from her and her children. Afterwards I cried and then I thought 'I should have said this, I should have said that' the hubby called his brother, the godfather of our son, he said ignore her! We never spoke again. She then told everyone in the family (6 sisters and 2 brothers the hubby has) that we had stopped the cheques we gave the kids for Christmas, she filled their heads with loads of nonsense, we were oblivious. That was until she was taken in for questioning, the brother threatened suicide and we had several family members on shouting about the state we had got them in. At this point we discovered 'she' had been passing small comments for months, said we had keyed their car.
We filled my mother-in-law in on all the goings on as by this time we had a diary, she then revealed all the things she had been told. The family tension was terrible and I was so upset to be accused of things we didn't do, surely the family knew me well enough, we've been married for 11 years and together for 16, never mind me, their own flesh and blood.
The police did get a mobile number for the call made to the fire brigade and would you believe it it was the sister-in-laws mobile. There was hope, hope of a charge under the 'malicious calls act' they requested the calls from the mobile phone company to confirm she had made the calls and we have waited and waited, we have had lawyers letters confirming we must stay away from them. We did see our lawyer but she suggested not wasting our money replying. They have recently moved, as they only lived a mile long the road, the brother keeps saying he is frightened of my husband, that is a laugh, he may be grumpy, but he's not violent. So last night was the night, the phone company only keep the calls for a short period of time and they are no longer available so it stands, no proof, no charge.
The friendly PC confirmed he knew she had done it, we know she's done it, but they have no proof, she has gotten away with it. We are unclear on the intension, was it to damage our relationship, our work lives, have our children removed or just generally wreck our whole world. But we are stonger, together and united we have stood through the lows and I'm am a great believer in what goes around, comes around.
I'm gutted, there is no closure........
The hubby appeared from the living room wondering what I was doing. The 2 already stout PC's, appearing larger with their stab proof vests, batons, CS2 gas, radios and all the rest of the falderal, had to squeeze passed the clothes horse in the hall to make their way to the living room, hardly needing an invitation they've been here so often. They came with disappointing news, no proof, they said, so there it is 9 months of investigation and with 2 words it's over.
I will try and make this brief as I'm not sure I can go over it all again, I am fed up listening to myself> It all started in December 2006 the few days between Christmas and New Year, the hubby's boss called him to say his head office had received an anonymous phone call, from a lady, to say he (the hubby - not the boss) had a criminal record and he should be watched. No concerns, he had just left a company to go and work for an agency, with better hours and better pay, just a prank, sour grapes, we thought. Then in early January I went to cash line, I was refused money, I called my husband, he tried, he too was refused money. We went to the branch, they confirmed I had reported the cards stolen, the cards were reordered and arrived the next day. Strange, we thought. I then started received text messages of an 'adult' nature and got an email thanking me for joining Match.com. Strange, the hubby thought! Still we are unconcerned, oblivious, just a coincidence. That was until the 8th January when we arrived home from swimming lessons, drove into the drive and were closed in by 2 young speeding officers in a panda car, who leapt out of the car. It was like a scene from The Bill. One officer went one way round our car, the other went the other way, while we stood there looking at them, then at each other. Come in, we said. I knew nobody had died, they didn't put their hats on.
They seemed to think we would know why they were at our door, they asked me to leave, my husband told me to stay. They had come to give him a warning, he had been threatening to petrol bomb a pub in the next village. They had received substantial information to support this. We realised at this point something was not right. We went to see the Sergeant at the police station to get further information, an anonymous phone call (made by a female) had been received by the pub, who's manageress had then quite rightly gone to the police, he confirmed they had to check this out and that they would be keeping an eye on my husband. I was ill, there had been a fight in the pub in September, my husband had gone for the police and was being called as a witness with our friend. The hubby was on night shift and I had visions of some mad nutter breaking into the house during the night to harm us. The police said they would give our house 'special attention.' I didn't sleep for nights. There was then a further phone call to hubby's work and our friend's work who also received an anonymous call, by a female, to say he was bringing the fire service into disrepute by brawling outside a pub. It had to be something to do with the pub, there was no other explanation. We called the Sergeant, he then sent our friendly PC to visit and a formal investigation was opened.
We had to go through the whole thing, dates, times - I forgot to mention all the hang up phone calls we were receiving during the night, all withheld numbers. Match.com had all my details, anybody could get that information, my business cards contained most of the information, but when I went to cancel the subscription, I requested the password be sent to me via email and discovered the password was my son's name. This made me shudder, I was a wreck, locking doors, asking people to give me 2 rings and then recall before I would answer the phone. We couldn't work it out, if it was to do with the brawl, my husband was not a local man, nobody would know him, never mind have all our details including my sons name. It had to be something else. 'Who has your bank details?' was the question that triggered it, the only people who had access to that information were the people that we had given cheques to for Christmas, two family members, one we would eliminate straight away, a nephew, who's girlfriend was English and it had been established the caller was a Scottish lady and the other the hubby's brother who is married to a lady with 4 children and we had given 2 of these children cheques for Christmas. An investigation was opened on this assumption, my sister-in-law was a suspect!
I am grateful we chose to take this further as 2 days later I received a call from social services looking to speak to me, immediately I asked if this was to do with an anonymous female caller, yes, was the response. I will not go into this any further as it is too upsetting, however, I immediately informed the lady of the situation with the police and I had to go over it all again, times, dates etc. before she would discuss the matter. Social services had received their call 2 weeks earlier and had spent that time investigating our family, checking criminal records, speaking to the head master at the school. I cried buckets all over the lady. I had finally broken down. I pulled myself together, made an appointment to see the headmaster, filled the hubby in and called the police to update them.
You may wonder why a sister-in-law would have reason to do this, and apart from the fact she obviously has serious psychological problems, we had been friends, worked together and then parted company. I became uncomfortable with her ability to tell lies with no conscience, I am the most honest person you would meet and I don't like lies, people who lie always get caught out. There was no fall out, no exchange of words, I just decided I would take no more to do with her. End of. She clearly understood as we just said hello in the passing thereafter. The night before her children were due to be christened (they were older so they could make their holy communion) she called, a year since we had last spoken, to say it was a small do and therefore the whole family were not invited. This resulted from a text message sent by the hubby to his brother to see what time the service was at, as we would go for his brother. It was a civil call and I thought it most decent of her to call - how stupid am I. A moment later she called back, demanding to know why we would want to go, that her and I had had this falling out blah, blah, BLAH. She tore shreds off me, I was to stay away from her and her children. Afterwards I cried and then I thought 'I should have said this, I should have said that' the hubby called his brother, the godfather of our son, he said ignore her! We never spoke again. She then told everyone in the family (6 sisters and 2 brothers the hubby has) that we had stopped the cheques we gave the kids for Christmas, she filled their heads with loads of nonsense, we were oblivious. That was until she was taken in for questioning, the brother threatened suicide and we had several family members on shouting about the state we had got them in. At this point we discovered 'she' had been passing small comments for months, said we had keyed their car.
We filled my mother-in-law in on all the goings on as by this time we had a diary, she then revealed all the things she had been told. The family tension was terrible and I was so upset to be accused of things we didn't do, surely the family knew me well enough, we've been married for 11 years and together for 16, never mind me, their own flesh and blood.
The police did get a mobile number for the call made to the fire brigade and would you believe it it was the sister-in-laws mobile. There was hope, hope of a charge under the 'malicious calls act' they requested the calls from the mobile phone company to confirm she had made the calls and we have waited and waited, we have had lawyers letters confirming we must stay away from them. We did see our lawyer but she suggested not wasting our money replying. They have recently moved, as they only lived a mile long the road, the brother keeps saying he is frightened of my husband, that is a laugh, he may be grumpy, but he's not violent. So last night was the night, the phone company only keep the calls for a short period of time and they are no longer available so it stands, no proof, no charge.
The friendly PC confirmed he knew she had done it, we know she's done it, but they have no proof, she has gotten away with it. We are unclear on the intension, was it to damage our relationship, our work lives, have our children removed or just generally wreck our whole world. But we are stonger, together and united we have stood through the lows and I'm am a great believer in what goes around, comes around.
I'm gutted, there is no closure........
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
Well I refrained from blogging ...for one day. I promised no more during working hours but I can't help myself it's so much fun. This will be the last one during working hours, I promise.
The hubby started his new job yesterday, he came home very dirty, that was unusual. Having put on a lot of weight gradually, I asked him casually 'is it a manual job?' he's an electricians mate and some jobs don't require any physical work, after dinner I couldn't help myself as I watched him sit with his belly poised on top of his legs and out it came 'is your belly getting bigger?' I have already tried 'the holiday photo's should put you to shame' to no avail. He replied with a big frown 'I don't know' 'can you not feel it in your trousers' I said and as quick as a flash I blurted out in hysterics 'no, you wouldn't because you fasten your trousers underneath your belly.' He went out. I was highly amused for hours, you had to be there!
Hopefully I have shamed him into doing something about it, I blame night shift.
Anyway my friend was going to the gym yesterday morning so she dropped me off at work and I got the bus home at 2.15, back in plenty of time for the kids. Managed again this morning, even picked up the bus lingo pretty quickly '2 journey' I said confidently to the bus driver and knew it was £2.50 - it tells you on the window! £2.50! It cost £1.40 for a one way to go 8 minutes along the road. Get this. £1.40 to go from my village to the town I work in (8 mins/3 miles away) but it costs £1.65 to go all the way to Glasgow which is 13 miles away, so technically it should only cost 25p from the town to Glasgow, daylight robbery.
Going to get on with work, my paper file system is nearly complete and I updated my ebay account last night and I have many order to complete.
Oh yes and son went to the youth club for the first time last night and had a fantastic time, this is the boy who won't go anywhere apart from football. Before we went he said he needed £1.50, 50p to get in and £1.00 for spending. My only concern was that they are allowed to leave if they wanted to, so some of the kids were going to the shop across the road, the very busy road on a blind corner, for sweeties. So I said he could go, but he wasn't allowed to leave unless an adult came for him and if he wanted to be given £1.50 every week he would have to earn it and take the recycling out, he agreed. That night as he went to bed and we discussed the fun he'd had I reminded him that he would have to behave and earn his money (I'm a great believer in having a dangling carrot for good behaviour) and remember and do his recycling. His words, 'I know, I know recycling on a Monday' as he said it he realised and we laughed 'did you mean everyday?'
He had the biggest grin on his face and I knew why....he made his mum laugh.
The hubby started his new job yesterday, he came home very dirty, that was unusual. Having put on a lot of weight gradually, I asked him casually 'is it a manual job?' he's an electricians mate and some jobs don't require any physical work, after dinner I couldn't help myself as I watched him sit with his belly poised on top of his legs and out it came 'is your belly getting bigger?' I have already tried 'the holiday photo's should put you to shame' to no avail. He replied with a big frown 'I don't know' 'can you not feel it in your trousers' I said and as quick as a flash I blurted out in hysterics 'no, you wouldn't because you fasten your trousers underneath your belly.' He went out. I was highly amused for hours, you had to be there!
Hopefully I have shamed him into doing something about it, I blame night shift.
Anyway my friend was going to the gym yesterday morning so she dropped me off at work and I got the bus home at 2.15, back in plenty of time for the kids. Managed again this morning, even picked up the bus lingo pretty quickly '2 journey' I said confidently to the bus driver and knew it was £2.50 - it tells you on the window! £2.50! It cost £1.40 for a one way to go 8 minutes along the road. Get this. £1.40 to go from my village to the town I work in (8 mins/3 miles away) but it costs £1.65 to go all the way to Glasgow which is 13 miles away, so technically it should only cost 25p from the town to Glasgow, daylight robbery.
Going to get on with work, my paper file system is nearly complete and I updated my ebay account last night and I have many order to complete.
Oh yes and son went to the youth club for the first time last night and had a fantastic time, this is the boy who won't go anywhere apart from football. Before we went he said he needed £1.50, 50p to get in and £1.00 for spending. My only concern was that they are allowed to leave if they wanted to, so some of the kids were going to the shop across the road, the very busy road on a blind corner, for sweeties. So I said he could go, but he wasn't allowed to leave unless an adult came for him and if he wanted to be given £1.50 every week he would have to earn it and take the recycling out, he agreed. That night as he went to bed and we discussed the fun he'd had I reminded him that he would have to behave and earn his money (I'm a great believer in having a dangling carrot for good behaviour) and remember and do his recycling. His words, 'I know, I know recycling on a Monday' as he said it he realised and we laughed 'did you mean everyday?'
He had the biggest grin on his face and I knew why....he made his mum laugh.
Saturday, 1 September 2007
Let's celebrate
It is official the hubby is back in employment and he starts on Monday. Finally the agency came through. Thank god because I need a break. Due to the hubby's availability he has been dealing with the kids and with a detailed list of little jobs to do each day to keep on top of the housework, which makes me a 'happy wife' I have been working 9 to 5 for 6 days a week, I have needed to with the amount of embroidery and new enquiries I have handled, so the timing worked well. The hubby normally works hours like this and does not complain, but next week the swimming lessons start and the Brownies and the football and quite frankly I can't work 6 full days, keep the house, arrange the kids & make the dinners etc. etc. etc. so he goes back to work and I return to my normal routine. Well normal apart from the fact the hubby will have to take the car for the first few weeks, which means public transport to work....shock, horror. I am not adverse to taking the bus, it is after all only 10 minutes along the road, I'm just always concerned something happens to the kids and I am car less or I get caught up with customers and miss the bus and am late collecting the kids at school. Of course I will discuss this with my friend who will collect the kids if I am not there, so no problem really.
I have tried to refrain from blogging at work and have spent the week cleaning out the unit, it now looks very presentable. Today I had to give in and have a little post and a read. I am on a mission over the next few weeks to get my paperwork in order and get my accounts up to date. Today's mission is simple - I now have many returning customers and although I have a computerised image of every ones logo and remember this with ease I now find I am starting to blank with the shade of 'whatever colour' they usually use. I am putting in place a system, a very simple paper system, quite simply everyone will have a file and in this file will be a copy of their logo - complete with colour details and a copy of the order each time, as I use a variety of suppliers. It will then be placed into an alphabetically listed lever arch folder - simple.
The hubby has offered to take us out to dinner to celebrate getting a job and also because I don't think he has parted with a penny since his last working day. I am proud to say I have kept us for 2 whole weeks, paid the bills, bought the shopping, even paid for the pictures, as soon as hubby mentioned 'back to work' my purse was closed. Actually it was empty. We went for diesel last night, he filled the tank - 'use your switch' I responded when he made a money gesture. Back to normal. I'm very glad.
I have tried to refrain from blogging at work and have spent the week cleaning out the unit, it now looks very presentable. Today I had to give in and have a little post and a read. I am on a mission over the next few weeks to get my paperwork in order and get my accounts up to date. Today's mission is simple - I now have many returning customers and although I have a computerised image of every ones logo and remember this with ease I now find I am starting to blank with the shade of 'whatever colour' they usually use. I am putting in place a system, a very simple paper system, quite simply everyone will have a file and in this file will be a copy of their logo - complete with colour details and a copy of the order each time, as I use a variety of suppliers. It will then be placed into an alphabetically listed lever arch folder - simple.
The hubby has offered to take us out to dinner to celebrate getting a job and also because I don't think he has parted with a penny since his last working day. I am proud to say I have kept us for 2 whole weeks, paid the bills, bought the shopping, even paid for the pictures, as soon as hubby mentioned 'back to work' my purse was closed. Actually it was empty. We went for diesel last night, he filled the tank - 'use your switch' I responded when he made a money gesture. Back to normal. I'm very glad.
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