depurple1

OH went to Sainsburys on Saturday for all the non-perishable stuff, during the Strictly Come Dancing final. He figured it would be empty and it was I did the veggies and turkey from the local farm shop today, and that was fairly quiet too

At least it is still in one piece! I got Max one of those bean filled things that you warm up in the microwave as she is a bit stiff. I turned my back for about 30 seconds and looked back to find the beans all over the floor and Max looking really pleased with herself. I have now compromised by putting the bed next to the radiator

Somebody has already posted there - thanks for replying though

Crossposted from another forum with permission (hope this is OK): Details of horsebox: I can't believe that people would be so heartless as to steal a box with animals in it, and then just dump the horse by a main road! Please can people keep an eye out for the dog...

I was in a reptile shop buying stuff for my sugar gliders when the owner got a phone call from an old couple who had just found a spider in their grapes from Asda. They got it into a jar and brought it in, and it turned out to be a black widow. It was an evil looking thing. It at least had a happy ending as the shop owner is an exotics expert and kept it.

I have got nice vanilla perfume from a perfume house in France called Molinard. I don't think they test on animals - they are purely a perfume house rather than cosmetics, and their factory is family run in the traditional way with everything done by hand. I visited the factory a while back, in Grasse. The perfume doesn't cost the earth either We used to have a Kleeneze lady in the village, and I used to order something from most of the catalogues. She stopped coming, though, so I guess it wasn't profitable. I don't think that Kleeneze helped, as sometimes we would order stuff and they wouldn't send it as they had run out

Uniqlo sell that kind of thing, I think, but they're still on summer stuff at the moment. I got some a while ago and they are quite tight. This is the only T-shirt type polo they have at the moment though (unless you want cashmere!): Polo

I rarely take minutes, but I have to read a lot of them (mostly board minutes) for my job... This is how they usually look: Put the details of the meeting (e.g. board meeting), the date and the location at the top. Then have a list of attendees and apologies. Then updates on items from the last meeting, and whether everyone has agreed that the minutes from the last meeting were accurate. Then the key issues discussed under headings listed in the agenda, as a list of points plus who it has been agreed will action any of them. Any other business is summarised at the end. The date of the next meeting is usually also included at the end. Often the initials of each person present are included in brackets by their name in the list of attendees, and each person is then referred to by their initials throughout, which saves time by not having to write names out a lot of times. Hope this helps

Double posted by gremlins...

I just got a new phone, but it's not a touch screen, it's a Nokia E51. It seems pretty good so far though. OH is now on his third touch screen this year as the first two have gone wrong. None of them were Samsung though. That's not much help, is it

You could also check your credit file to see if anything untoward is going on there...

Our last home gas inspection deemed our boiler "dangerous". This is apparently because the vent is not big enough. The vent is exactly the same size as it has been for the last 10 or so years, but this year Corgi have changed the rules. I asked the gas bloke if it was dangerous last year. He said it wasn't. I how it was now dangerous this year being that it was exactly the same. He didn't know how, he just said that it was Excuse me if I don't rush out and make a bigger hole in my wall... Oh, and if you're vegetarian, watch out in Burger King. I opened my veggie burger today to take out the slice of tomato, which was lucky as this meant that I could also take out the two slices of bacon that were in there. When I spoke to the manager, she said that the new staff couldn't understand that bacon is not supposed to go in the veggie burgers and keep putting it in there

I've had 6 moles removed - 1 burnt off by my GP, and 5 removed by a cosmetic surgeon. Only one has come back, on my leg - apparently it was a different type to the rest and had a "root". It also bled a lot afterwards. I had one removed from my face. There is no scar, but in bright light I can see that the skin where it was is very slightly lighter. I don't think anyone else would notice though. When the cuts were healing, I put gel plasters over them. The one on my face looked incredibly silly, but I think they helped the healing a lot.

I think the MEN arena is about 10 miles from the airport and there are lots of hotels there. Recently I have stayed at the airport at Bewleys, which I would recommend, and the Crowne Plaza, which has small rooms and is overpriced.

Not sure if we've had this one... Instead of joining a gym, excercise at home/outside. I used to spend a lot on gym fees and more on parking and petrol to get there. Now I go jogging, and I've got a set of weights and an excercise bike at home, plus a few DVDs for if I get bored. Plus I can multi-task by taking a dog with me when I jog

My dad just has a normal padlock on his garage door, but he also has a ground anchor to secure his motorbike to within the garage.

I think it may be some kind of Saxifraga, but I could be wrong...

Thanks for the ideas people - I will suggest them to OH and neighbour. Do the reeds spread? I have some reeds in a pot on the patio - I bought them in the garden centre because they were pretty, then got them home and read the label: Height - 3m. Spread - infinite. Thought I'd better leave them in the pot I thought of living willow, but I wasn't sure it mightn't get a bit dense? I don't think there are any restrictions - not in our deeds anyway. We have a 6 foot solid fence on the other side of the front garden - it's a bit of a mish mash. I think the fence actually belongs to the lady next door, but she's already said she's happy with us changing it and increasing the height as long as the fence is see through.

We have a back garden that is fenced with 6 foot wooden fencing all round. We also have a front garden, which currently has some chain link about 3 foot high, a rather manky, bare hedge and some gates which are on their last legs. The dogs can't go out in the front garden because of the height of the chain link. We want to get rid of the chain link, some of the hedge and the gates and replace it all with something 5-6 foot high. Therein lies the problem... OH won't have higher chain link. I hate conifers. Next door neighbour has requested something that isn't solid because part of the fence goes by her bay window and she doesn't want the light blocked. We have looked at wrought iron (very lovely), but it is £50+ per foot plus fitting and we have 76 feet to replace - over £4,000 which is insane! Does anyone have any interesting ideas for high-ish see-through fencing that won't break the bank? I would really like the dogs to be able to "help" in the front garden this summer

I'm loving looking at all the garden pix This is my garden: Before, about 4 years ago... I got rid of nearly all of the plants that were then when we moved in - they were mostly old and uncared for and not really suitable for the garden. I have also spent 4 years picking up all the grey slate chippings and pebbles that the previous owners dumped everywhere. Here is the garden now: The random rose arch in the middle of the lawn is going to replace the wooden one as it's going a bit rotten at the base. The chicken wire is to keep the dogs off the new grass seeds and new shoots for a couple of weeks (I'm repairing the damage they did in the winter). This was the kiddie's play area when we moved in. It had a swing and a lot of woodchip. I re-did it last summer. These are some acers on the patio. Our new, Mason-proof herb garden. He kept peeing on the other low-down one. Veggie patch just starting to grow. I have another veggie patch which is much bigger in my parents' garden, so there are just a few bits in this one. The front garden is still a bit of a project... My ericaeceous corner. The pots are my parents' old cold water tank out of the loft. I chopped the top off and planted stuff in it instead of sending it to the tip.

I think there are two kinds of underfloor heating - the expensive one with water channels under the floor which is a central heating substitute, and the cheaper matting kind which just makes the floor nice to stand on. We have the matting kind in our bathroom - it's lovely, and not very expensive to run. We have ours on a decent thermostat, so we can choose which hours of the day it is on and at what temperature, for each day of the week. We only have it on for a couple of hours in the morning and evening most days - not sure if it would get a lot more expensive if it was on all the time. We did have to turn it down a bit though as Max decided she was going to sleep on the hot bathmat instead of her bed, which with a tiled floor underneath wasn't great for her joints as she is a bit old. It wasn't hard to install - we had a tiler do ours in a day. You have to lay plywood first (6mm I think), then stick the matting to it, then tile over the top. We also had to get an electrician in to do all the wiring which was the most expensive bit.

Benefits for your employer: Less space needed for office based workers, therefore can rent a smaller building, which saves costs. Workers may accept a lower salary because of no commuting costs. Happier employees who like working from home are less likely to leave, therefore less recruitment and training costs for new employees May be able to attract better calibre employees by offering flexible working Employees may be able to be more flexible in overtime, etc, for example could pick kid up from school then continue working if needs be, rather than being unable to because there is no childminder Disadvantages for employer: Cannot see everything employee is doing (unless on webcam) Will have to invest in technology for remote meetings, etc More expenses - broadband costs for many homes rather than one office, etc. Environmental benefits: No daily commute, therefore lower carbon footprint With today's technology - email, videoconferencing, netmeetings, etc - you can do some jobs from practically anywhere Employee advantages: Can do chores, etc during lunch hour instead of going into town and spending most of salary on shoes Happier and healthier due to better work life balance as less time spent commuting Save money as can make own lunch rather than having to buy from shop Employee disadvantages: May be taken advantage of with regards to "working all hours" More difficult to separate work and home life Can get lonely by yourself No nice shiny coffee machine

I know two people who have had long term temp jobs - one has now been made permanent, and the other lost her job the second the company hit difficulties. However, she soon found another one (which was higher paid) through the agency. I took a big gamble last year, taking a large pay cut to move to a different company. The job I left was boring, and I worried about job security as it was a small company and the work could sometimes be irregular. I also didn't like the way I was managed there. So far I have liked my new job much better, although it's sometimes difficult living on much less money.

This is how my vet told me to do it: Put a cotton wool ball into a plastic bag. Turn the bag inside out over your hand while you are holding onto the cotton wool ball. When the dog pees, catch the pee on the cotton wool ball, then turn the bag the right way out back over it. The vet can squeeze enough pee for a sample out of the cotton wool ball. Worked for me...

Just seen this thread - really glad that you weren't badly hurt