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The Friday Five for 12 December 2025

1. Did you get an allowance as a kid, and if so, how much was it?

I did. I don’t remember the amounts because it increased as I grew older. First it was a weekly allowance, and then later on I got a monthly allowance. I usually spent it on candy, comic books and if my friend and I went to see a movie, the price of the ticket came from my (monthly) allowance too. This was in 1980 -> 1990.

I never got money for good school grades or for doing chores at home. Things like that were and are considered things you do for yourself (learning), or need to know and nobody’s gonna be paying you to do them when you’re living on your own (home chores).

2. How old were you when you had your first job, and what was it?

I think I was probably 14? My Mom’s work hired their worker’s teenagers (if any were interested) to wrap the Company’s Christmas presents for their employees and business partners etc. This was for 4 nights during one week after school in November, and each night I worked wrapping gifts for 4 or 5 hours. I did this for two years. It was fun, I was familiar with Mom workplace and many coworkers already because she’d been there like 20 years, and Dad and me would pick her up with the car whenever there was something we had to go do right after work together. And during the summer vacations, I (often with my best friend) would often bike to Mom’s work for her lunch hour and we’d all have lunch together.

3. Which do you do better: save money or spend money?

I don’t know. I’ve never been freely able to do either. My monthly income is just too small and/or uncertain. Back when my father had died and I got my portion of his inheritance, I was able pay all my education with it and the free public education benefits (taking a loan wasn’t that common back then, unless you went to university which I didn’t), to buy a small apartment upon graduating and then to stretch it out for many years using it to supplement unemployment benefit which was and still is unlivable. But because work was few and far between, I had to keep dipping in to my savings simply to pay rent and eat until it all run out.

4. Are people more likely to borrow money from you, or are you more likely to borrow from them?

Neither.

5. What's the most expensive thing you've ever bought?

My apartment.

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website news

Server Down - Should be resolved now

Yesterday/today's downtime was due to server downtime, according to my host Asura Hosting:

We apologize for the inconvenience. We experienced a temporary server downtime. Our technicians are working on it to get it fully normalized again. The issue will be resolved shortly. We truly appreciate your patience in the meantime.

Do let us know if you have any other queries or concerns.

I reported my problem a few hours ago, and now the issue appears to be fixed and the sites are loading again.

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website news

Sites Down

My sites are currently down. Don't know why.

I've reported it and my host is working on it.

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31 days of gratitude

31 days of gratitude

So to combat the general feelings that we're rapidly heading into he'll in a handbasket I'm attempting December's 31 days of gratitude challenge.

Pretty simple rules:

Commit to writing in a gratitude journal daily for 31 days in December. Just 5-10 minutes each day listing what you're thankful for can transform your mindset, improve relationships, and boost happiness. No special skills needed — just a notebook and willingness to appreciate life.

* Write Daily: spend 5-10 minutes writing 3-5 things you're grateful for each day.

* Be Specific: instead of "I'm grateful for my family," write "I'm grateful for my sister's encouraging text today."

* Feel It: don't just list items - truly connect with the feeling of gratitude as you write.

* Mix It Up: include big things and small moments, people, experiences, and personal qualities.

* By hand: write it in a dedicated journal or on a piece of paper by hand. The physical act of writing is important here.

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me: weekly summary

Week 49 - final month almost here!

December looms which means I have 3.5 weeks to get my flat in order so I don't spend the time I have off work stressing about going into the new year totally disorganised. Challenge accepted!

#ORJENISE100 I've started on these but not finished any yet.

HOME: have maintained tidy kitchen, bathroom, hall, landing, stairs which is a win. I'm chipping away at the bedroom but plan to push on with this a couple of nights next week. Aiming to have it at least tidy by close of play 7 December.

HEALTH: pretty good!

LIFE ADMIN: a little financial jiggery pokery.

DIGITAL DECLUTTER: got email down to 11,500 then it went back up to 12,000 but currently back to 11,700. Need to set aside 30 mins a day to deal with archived folders. No progress on phone images recently. May just need to leave this to Xmas hols!

GARDENING/ALLOTMENTING: just have the three living room windows boxes to do. Still not made it into the back garden Lots of tidying to do in the tiny back gardenmnor taken the compost to the allotment, also have to sort out houseplants. More tasks for Xmas hols.

COOKING/EATING: last week was still about eating down deli items and living on sandwich lunches. Onn the plus side my fridge is almost empty for my next Oddbox which arrives on Friday and I am currently defrosting some stuff from the freezer to see me through next week and I plan to make a giant curry tomorrow.

READING/LISTENING: nope.

WATCHING: still watching Pluribus and Robin Hood. I like how they've pitched this iteration with Henry II gallivanting in France, we get Eleanor of Aquitaine scheming, plus Sean Bean is a pretty decent Sherrif caught between a rock and a hard place. Since I subscribed to Acorn TV I've had detective shows on in the background. Have just hammered through Hinterland which would lead you to believe Aberystwyth is the murder capital of Wales - it led me to check 34 homicides in the whole of Wales in 2021/22. It was a good show with a compelling storyline through all 3 seasons but was grim viewing. I'm ready for an overload of saccharine Hallmark Xmas movies now.

CREATING/LEARNING: I've been to one Monday and a couple of Friday crochet sessions. I think I'm going to pass or only do 1 Monday a month and focus on the Friday lunchtime ones. I've almost finished my freestyle beanie hat and the Xmas garland is coming along. We did granny square Xmas trees on Friday which are cute and simple - finished one in class and made 5 more at home. Also made some simple stars at home. Focusing at the moment on fast makes that can be completed in 15-30 mins and have been raiding Pinterest and YouTube for free patterns. I also bought a giant load of wool (thank you Black Friday sale) from Wool Warehouse so I can make a start on the totally mad granny square blanket next year. I seem to also have acquired lots of wool over the last year - obviously bought for specific projects but I did not label them at the time (yet another task for the Xmas hols).

CATS: all good.

VOLUNTEERING: still can't get back into allottment Insta but did chase up the other things I needed to do. Will miss next committee meeting tomorrow as it's the AGM for the 23 sites at work tomorrow night.

SOCIALISING: online catch up with friends last Thursday which was good.

WORK: did 3 late night's last week with a colleague as we're both inundated. Productive but long days and it did mean last week was all about work and nothing else! No work-life balance at all. Which I will remedy in December and in to 2026!

Look! I remembered to post before December started this year!

Hello, friends! It's about to be December again, and you know what that means: the fact I am posting this actually before December 1 means

karzilla reminded me about the existence of linear time again. Wait, no -- well, yes, but also -- okay, look, let me back up and start again: it's almost December, and that means it's time for our annual December holiday points bonus.

The standard explanation: For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.

( The fine print and much more behind this cut! )

Thank you, in short, for being the best possible users any social media site could possibly ever hope for. I'm probably in danger of crossing the Sappiness Line if I haven't already, but you all make everything worth it.

On behalf of Mark, Jen, Robby, and our team of awesome volunteers, and to each and every one of you, whether you've been with us on this wild ride since the beginning or just signed up last week, I'm wishing you all a very happy set of end-of-year holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and hoping for all of you that your 2026 is full of kindness, determination, empathy, and a hell of a lot more luck than we've all had lately. Let's go.