Out of our hands now.........

Got the passport info in the mail Thursday afternoon.  All four went in one envelope with reference numbers all over it to ensure there is no confusion about any paperwork included, along with a cover letter!!!!

Sent it airmail, with signature required.  Didn't require me to take out a second mortgage to pay for the postage...LOL  So all in all happy with that.

So now we wait.......Canada Post told me 6 business days for delivery in the UK.  They did say there had been a number of these same envelopes going to the same address over the past few days from a lot of disgruntled people....no kidding!!!

Busy bee, but with nothing to show for it!

Isn't it always the way, you feel like you have never stopped, but honestly have nothing to show for it?

One thing I was doing today was putting together a box of food to send up north to a food bank.  During the month of October, Canada Post has had a special where a business can send a box under 5kg anywhere in Canada for free on a Tuesday.  So the last couple of Tuesday's I sent a box of Evan's new born clothing up that he had grown out of.  They were in perfect condition; in fact a couple of the pieces I am sure hadn't even been worn.

This week I decided to put together a box of food.

Now it may look like an odd combination of items, but there is a reason behind the things I popped in.  I had the cake mixes and frosting in the cupboard.  I won't be using them before they expire next year.  They cost a small fortune up north; I think around $9 each, so they are classed as a luxury.  I popped some sprinkles in, because who doesn't love a cake with sprinkles!!  They always need spices, and sugar.  Due to the weight, I just popped in the small packets of sugar.  I also had a can of condensed milk, that I know some people put in their coffee, so figured that should go as well.

If anyone has a business account with Canada Post and wants to send a free box up north and would like a contact address please let me know.  You will have to print out a shipping label tomorrow to take advantage of the deal.  I will give you details of where to send too and what they would like.  Tea and honey are things they love.

Flat Rate Box..........

 As I have mentioned in a couple of posts, I purchased a Flat Rate Box to send my little girl's birthday box up to Nunavut, as it is a much more cost effective way to mail things.

The boxes come in three sizes, small, medium and last.  They cost $15, $20 and $25 respectively, plus the ever present 13% HST tax on top of that.  You can have up to 5 kg in these boxes and they can be sent all over Canada. 

I bought the big box and when I took it too the Post Office to ship we decided just for the "fun" of it to see what it would have cost if I had used a regular box:

As you can see there is quite a difference in price.  $61.26 versus the $28 something I paid including the taxes.

Why I am talking about this; is that prior to me shipping this birthday box I had never heard of this service?  Also when I went to see where I could get one, imagine my dismay to find there are very few places where you can pick up these boxes.  You would have thought that your local post office would keep them?  My local post office doesn't and didn't even know where I could get them.

I looked up online here and you can see how few the locations are in Canada where you can buy them.  Why?  Turns out it's a "pilot programme" that's been in the "pilot" stage for nearly two years?

I posted a message on Facebook asking them to make these readily available all over Canada, no response from Canada Post, no surprise there.  

I know people from various countries read this blog, do you have something similar in your country?  For the Canadian readers, have you heard of this?  Is there another way I could ship things up North?

More goodies in the mail......

I love it when parcels arrive in the mail, don't you.  So on Friday I was all excited to see this box arrive:

It was one of those flat rate boxes.  I will talk about these type of boxes in another post, as I have quite a bit to say about them.

Anyhoo, inside of my box were these goodies from Dailylike Canada.

 The cactus fabric is 60 " wide cotton canvas, which will be perfect for bags.  I just love it.  Underneath the thistle fabric is also 60" wide but is a cotton oxford which is a little lighter in weight but still great for bags.  I LOVE, LOVE that one also.

 She was having a good sale on the weekend and had some remnants for little to no money, so I picked up these three all for under $5 and all quilting cotton.

 I picked up a couple of yards of cotton webbing strap to try.  This is actually grey in colour.  Never used it before but thought it might be a nice change as handles on tote bags?

 This is laminated fabric in a pale pink with houses on it.  Perfect for lining cosmetic pouches.

 I love how she also adds a couple of small samples of fabrics, so you can see what else she has.

 Finally the natural cotton canvas was a bolt end and the green flower is also a bolt end in cotton oxford.

Lots there to keep me out of mischief.  Love the service I get from Dailylike Canada, and love all her products.

Do you have a favourite amongst those fabrics?

Some things I am whining about.......

Had a run in with the garbage man, as he wouldn't take my green bin as it contained yard waste as well as food waste.  I thought if the green bin wasn't full you could top it up with yard waste.  Have done this time and time again and had no problem.  Things have changed so he said and no yard waste is allowed???  He then said in loud slow words; "DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"

I thought to myself, I speak English and I am not deaf......should have said it out loud, but couldn't be bothered to argue with him anymore, so walked off.

Went through the MacDonald's drive through and ordered a couple of coffee's, a couple of muffins and asked for butter.  There is one woman who works there that has a problem with my accent.  By the time I had gone through the order numerous times and two other cars had gone through the other lane with their orders, we got it right.  By this time I was ready to bang my head against the dashboard.

By the way, the way I pronounce "butter" was the major stumbling block in all of this.  Canadians pronounce it "BUDDER."

At the beginning of the month I sent a 11 1/2 " by 15 " envelope to New Zealand.  I sent the same envelope with the same stuff in it to Prince Edward Island in Canada on Friday.  Not only did it cost more to send to PEI, it will take bloody longer also!!!  Not sure what to say other than Canada Post sucks..........

Finally I own a delightful Ford Fiesta.  Great little car, other than the bloody transmission.  There is a known problem with the transmission and I have had mine replaced.  I have also had it reprogrammed twice and I feel there is still a problem.  They have told me I have to live with it, but after "juttering" around town yesterday I had, had enough.  So I marched into the dealership and told them they HAVE to do something.  I take it next Wednesday for them to test drive it with the computer?  What that will do who knows, but at least they are doing something.

I think they probably knew by my demeanor I wasn't in the mood to be fobbed off again!

Now a bit of good news after all that moaning.  I "think" we have a guy lined up to do the drywall in the basement.  Dh has to go over the fine details with him, but it should be a go; I am hoping by the end of May.  The guy seemed alright and his price was not the cheapest, but not the dearest.  So fingers crossed it all works out.

Not an ear infection............

only (!!) a virus/sinus thing going on {SIGH}  He gave me a prescription and told me to fill it if it didn't clear up in a few days.  Otherwise pull up my big girls pants and get on with it, another {{SIGH}}

Spent a delightful couple of hours trying to get quotes on our house and car insurance.  They range in price from less than $1,500 for both to nearly $2,500 for both {{{SIGH}}}  For those of you who live in Ontario, Presidents Choice Financial Insurance is the cheapest so far and seems to have great coverage.  Thinking we may go with them.  Mind you as my mam always says, an Insurance Company is only as good as how it performs when you do your first claim.

Major crisis, well it is to my mind.  My laptop is away for repair.  The fan stopped working on it.  Took out the extended warranty thank goodness, through Staples.  I have very little faith in those guys after I sent in my Dell laptop for a new power cord and they changed the bloody hard drive..........there was NOTHING wrong with it {{{{SIGH}}}}

Told them this time under no circumstances do they touch my hard drive and to only change the fan.  Called yesterday for an update and was ready to pull my hair out within seconds.  He was rattling on about how they couldn't test the computer because of the security settings I had on it.  Took me a minute to click he was talking about someone else's computer!!  Finally got him talking about my computer and they have sent away to Toshiba for a new fan.  Fingers crossed I get it back before the end of the year............I'm telling you I have no faith in them.

As you know we sold our lawn tractor back in April.  Has anyone ever tried cutting five acres with a regular push lawn mower?  Neither have I, BUT I am getting in plenty of practice in cutting around the house with a push lawn mower.  Suffice to say I am NOT IMPRESSED!!

Got some more things sorted out.  Cost $92.60 to get Canada Post to redirect our mail for a year.  It's actually money well spent in my opinion as you always forget to tell someone you have moved.

Got some more packing done also today; still have a ways to go though.  Who knew there was so much "stuff" in this house!!!

If you're reading this I thank you.

Gill

Thank you Canada Post........

I was whining on the other week about Canada Post changing our mailing address, which included us having a new postal code.  Called the insurance on Tuesday and we now have to pay an extra $229 a year on our car insurance.  Luckily for everyone I am sick so neither have the energy or the motivation to yell at anyone about this.  It bloody well sucks though.

I have some sort of ear, nose and throat thing going on.  Mainly ears and throat, and I feel as though someone has sucked the energy right out of me.  Which is a shame as Tuesday afternoon turned out to be nice and I wanted to go outside.

Things are starting to change outside and the trees are starting to come alive:

Now to hope I return to the land of the living soon!!!

I have posted another book review here if you are interested.

Grocery shopping and a bit of a whine!!!

I had a good day grocery shopping on Friday and picked up some good deals and stocked up on a few things.  I did also cash in $20 worth of PC points which bumped up my savings.  I got free cereal, orange juice and a  dish scrunge.  So a good start to the month.  Lets hope I can keep it up!!

Now for the whining.........should we have cheese with this?

Firs thing to happen on Friday.  I was in the bank on Friday morning at the ATM machine.  It is in a confined space just outside of the branch inside of the vestibule.  So if anyone is in there with you and having a conversation you cannot help but overhear.  So I am doing my banking, when a guy walks in followed shortly by a second guy, who knows the first guy.

Second guy starts talking and is pretty peed off at his work and he had to leave that day as he was so stressed out and his fellow employees are just winding him up, so his doctor says he has to go on stress leave.  This I gathered in all of a couple of minutes.  What bugged me that every second word out of this guys mouth was F***ing this and F***ing that.  So me with my big mouth turned around and said please watch your language.

He in return said you should mind your own F***ing business!  I turned back and got on with the rest of my banking and he proceeded to tell this other guy, who by the way was older than I was, that he is also F***ing sick of people sticking their noses into other people's business.  I had finished by this point and turned to him and said in this room you can't help but here what people are talking about, and there is no need for that bad language.

I walked out and I noticed he came out shortly afterwards, so he wasn't in there to do any banking as he didn't have time for that.  As dh said I should be careful as in this day and age he could have easily pulled a gun on me.  However good manners tell you, you don't stand there swearing like a trooper if a woman is in the room.  Or at least that's why I think; and why do people think that every other word has to be F***ing?  No manners what so ever.

Second thing to happen on Friday.  I called our newspaper as my "discount" was going to be up and I do this dance with them every three or four months where I "negotiate" another discount.  It's bloody annoying as it reminds me of Bell Canada and their bloody rates, but we do what we have to do to get the best deal.  I only get the newspaper on a Saturday and Sunday, but a few dollars saved here and there all add up.

I get a guy who has an accent.  Coupled with my accent, so begins the nightmare.  Suffice to say I gave up as he couldn't understand me.  I was getting frustrated and asked to speak to someone who could understand me, telling the guy because of MY accent he wasn't understanding what I was trying to say, I was being polite by saying that by the way.

The supervisor is of course busy, so I have to leave a message which they say will be returned (called back) within 2 to 3 business hours.  I am still waiting for that phone call, and the lady has a very strong Oriental accent {SIGH}  I have such trouble understanding Oriental accents, so I don't see that conversation ending well {{SIGH}}

Third thing to happen on Friday.  Not sure if I told you or not but Canada Post is changing our address.  We're not moving, but they are getting rid of the rural route designation, plus the rural postal code.  So we got word on Friday of our new address; which in our case not only changes our postal code, but also our town.  As due to a long winded reason we live in one town but our postal address is another town.

Now on the good side, they were threatening to have us pick up our mail at a community box goodness knows where; that seems to have been put by the wayside, so we are still getting mail delivery to the end of our drive.  Also the post office is paying for a years redirecting of our mail, so that they will deliver things to our old address.

Now on the negative side, I have to bloody well call, email or contact everyone and their auntie to get the new address to them, and it was in our  local paper, that some people's insurance has gone up with the change of postal code.

This is not limited to our area, so if you live in a rural location with an RR # be warned it may be coming to your area soon.

This action is supposed to make delivering and sorting your mail easier.  Also a lot of the older postmen/women are retiring and the newer ones are coming in and have no idea who lives where, because some people's address is:

Mr Smith
RR1
Anytown, Ontario
L0N 1A1

So unless you actually know which house Mr Smith actually lives at, RR#1 can encompass many rural roads, so finding it could be difficult.

So there you are my whines for a Sunday morning!!!

Absolutely Ridiculous!

First how much do you think I paid for that little lot?  Answer down the page.........

Now back to the title of the post.  I went to the Post Office on Tuesday to mail Rose's blu-ray that she won. It came to $5.17, so far so good.  So I said well how much is it going to cost, as normally they add taxes to the shipment.  Discovered that they don't tax shipments to the States, but if I am mailing something within Canada they would have added 13% in taxes???

I am going to assume it's both the Federal and Provincial Governments fault for this stupid system, but it doesn't make flipping sense does it?  Mind you the whole taxing thing in this country is strange to me and very confusing for tourists and visitors to the country.  As just because it says $1 on the price tag, it hasn't added in the HST (taxes) like they do in Britain for example, so when you go to buy the $1 you discover it costs you $1.13.  Even after 23 years of living here I still haven't got it all down pat!!!

Now for the grocery question.  If you said $14.87 you win!!!  Kraft Canada had a deal where you paid $30 and you got a number of FPC (Free Product Coupons) for their items.  So all the Kraft products you see in the photo were "bought" with FPC.  I had a FPC for the Old El Paso taco kit, a buy on get one free on the two boxes of cookies and the potato chips and two packages of Fruit Gums, were bought with a gift card I got given. 

I guess though I paid $44.87 if you factor in the $30 I paid, but the savings added up to $62.70, so I still came in ahead of the game and I still have a FPC for Amooza cheese snacks, that I have to pick up yet.

Also, just to clarify, regarding the quilt club.  The $10 is for the instructions on how to make each block, and the material for each block.  If you want to make a full sized quilt, you need the finishing kit, which costs around $170.  I will not be purchasing the finishing kit as it's not in colours I like.  I personally am not keen on the colourways of the finished quilt, there is a photo of the blue colourway on the bottom left of this webpage.  However if I wanted I could purchase the finishing kit, which I think is to finish the front of the quilt; then change the block colours to suit.  

I have made a start on the baby quilt and this is proof:

I have a heck of a mess though on the kitchen table:

The striped fabric is the border and the back is white minky, which is a material I have never ever used.  I think if I can do an hour or two per day, I should get it done before the 6th of October.............I hope!!!

Writing and mailing letters.......

(photo credit)

It's not something I do that often, in fact I only correspond on a regular basis with our next door neighbour in England; and by regular I mean I send a letter maybe four or five times a year.  On Tuesday I sat down and wrote a letter to them; then while I was cleaning out a drawer I found another note card from an acquaintance in the States, so I also wrote a note to her.

I went to the post office on Wednesday and discovered that the cost of mailing these letters has increased again.  It now costs $1.80 plus tax to mail a letter to Britain, and $1.05 plus tax to mail a letter to the States.  Even sending a letter in Canada costs 61 cents.

With these prices I am guessing it is one reason that sending an email is so popular.  Though I will say I find an email not as personal and would prefer people to call me to talk.  Must admit though, it is nice to sit down with a cup of tea and a biscuit, reading a letter.

Do you write letters or notes and mail to people?

FYI: Shopper's Drug Mart is having a "Spend $75 and get 18,500 Points," this weekend.  So hunt out your coupons and match them with the deals and earn those points.  Oh, and don't forget to buy a Shopper's gift card first to pay for your groceries, and get points for buying it.

I am hoping to use $10 worth of coupons,  to bring my total including taxes below my $75 weekly budget.

Sorry............

Just haven't felt like blogging.

Life is pretty mundane at the moment, the weather sucks and honestly nothing much has been happening.

Worked both Tuesday and Thursday this week.  I normally only work on a Tuesday now, as I have too much to do at home to work more.  Anyhow the money will come in handy as it cost $200 to put a new exhaust/muffler on my car this week.  Had to take the car back to the garage on Friday as they hadn't tightened the screws enough and I even heard it rattling, so it had to be bad!!  So I guess I won't be using that garage again...........

I see gas prices are finally starting to drop.  I paid $1.215 at a Canadian Tire gas station on Friday.  I wish it would drop to below $1 a litre, but I guess that'll never happen.

For those of you who are not in Canada, we are on week three of a postal strike.  It's a pain in the butt, and I wish the government would get on with legislating them back to work.  It's really going to hurt Canada Post, as I have signed up to get some statements online now.  I know at work we are emailing invoices out as much as possible.  Again we have registered online to pay bills.  So when this strike is over we will not be using Canada Post for a lot of things at work, and I am guessing a lot of other companies and people will do the same.

Did anyone watch the new series "Combat Hospital?"  I have to say that was one of the best shows I have seen in a long time.  I am normally in bed just after 9pm, but stayed up to 10pm to watch this show and I am glad I did.  If you have a chance make sure you catch it.

I'm back and a couple of things I dislike about living in the country...

First I must say we live in a beautiful part of the country.  I love how the sky in this photo, just goes on and on.  I don't know how to use photo shop, as it would be an even better photo if the hydro lines were not in the photo.  This was taken from the truck.

Now to get on with my whining...LOL

1. The Post Office........

Our mail delivery person is driving me to an early grave.  Not only does she not put the flag up when she has delivered the mail......believe me that's not a difficult thing to remember; deliver mail put the flag up...........I once again put mail in my box to be picked up and mailed only for her not to pick it up?

She has already had a "word with me" regarding me complaining, so I have to say I was reluctant to call again.  However enough is enough.  She is getting paid to deliver the mail.  Since she has taken over, instead of getting the hydro and telephone bills in the space of a couple of days, there is at least a week between the delivery of them both.  I get a newspaper delivered and although it gets picked up from the newspaper office on a Thursday morning, I get it at the earliest on a Monday, but it can take up to Thursday to get it delivered?  Some weeks I don't get it at all, and then the following week, I'll get the two weeks worth of newspaper.

As I write this Monday night I am fed up with Canada Post.  I rang the office Monday afternoon when I discovered she hadn't picked up my mail, and to cut a long story short, I have to call back on Tuesday morning to talk to the supervisor.  As I said to the lady on the phone what good will it do to complain again?  However she said that I am not the only one complaining about the way she delivers the mail.  I will let you know how I get on.

2. Ambulance Service.......

This is a story I meant to tell you about a while ago.  When my brother Pete was here at the end of August, he asked us how long does it take for an ambulance to get to our house.  After much consideration both me and dh figured around 10 minutes, as that is where the closest ambulance station is.  The closest fire station is around the corner, a couple minutes drive at the most, but its a volunteer fire service, so everyone has to be paged.

Later on that night, me, dh and my brother were sitting outside on the back deck, when all of a sudden we looked over to the side road and witnessed a person driving along, and then rolling the car on the corner.  There was a big puff of smoke, so we "ran" or hobbled to the truck as we thought the car was on fire.  It turned out the puff of smoke was from the dust from the gravel road.

Anyhow, a young lady was coming along a newly gravelled road too fast; despite telling everyone she wasn't speeding....okay whatever!!!  Luckily she wasn't hurt, other than a few scratches to her feet.  She had managed to get out of the car and as she was wearing flip flops (a big NO, NO when driving a car) she lost them when getting out of the car.

One of the neighbours close to the crash site was on the phone to the emergency services.  I don't know what she was telling them, but she was on the phone with them for a long while. 

So the answer to my brother's question," How long does it take for an ambulance to arrive at our house, or close by."

20 minutes..........20 sodding minutes, in fact the first ambulance to arrive wasn't even from the closest town, it was from the town 20 minutes away.  Right behind it, was the ambulance from the closest town (a ten minute drive from our house).  Plus two fire trucks with assorted personnel and two police cars.

Now to be fair I don't know what that women told emergency services, but it doesn't bode well knowing that it can take 20 minutes for the ambulance to arrive..............

Now I am not a professional medical person, but the dippy neighbour who was "looking after" the young lady was doing a crap job as she was making such a fuss all it was doing was making the young lady think more about what had happened.

So I went over to talk to her and talked to her about her life and what she did for a living etc.  It took her mind off what had just happened to her and made her a bit more relaxed.  I thought that was a more productive thing to do?  If I am wrong please let me know...........

Had a busy weekend doing yard work and other getting ready for winter jobs.  Back at the dentist today (Tuesday)..........I think I should just move my bed in there it would be easier!!