Take Up Your Mat ...

I love the Bible Story, which appears in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke where Jesus heals a paralysed man. The guy was unable to get to Jesus by himself, so his four good friends carried him, then let him down, through the roof of the house right in front of Jesus. And Jesus healed him, and said ‘I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 

Great story - and the guy wouldn't need to lie on his mat begging anymore, but that didn't mean he could leave it cluttering up the houseowner's property! [I do hope the four friends helped repair the roof afterwards] Anyway, enough of Mark Ch 2 [and Lego]
I have a self-healing mat. Yes, I know it sounds a weird thing- but those of you who do quilting and papercrafting and use a rotary cutter will know about these. I have had mine for years. At least 20 [I know this because I had it in London before we moved to Leicester] It is made of some sort of polymer, which is able to 'heal' itself when cut with a scalpel or rotary cutter.
But mine has got hard and dull, and there are lots of cuts in it. I recently came across an article about caring for your mat. Who knew? Nobody told me! I have always kept it flat, but I didn't know it needed a regular soak in the bath as well. There are full instructions here

After so many years of serious neglect, I suspect my mat will never regain its original smoothness - but the baths [I repeated it 3 times over 3 days] have certainly restored the bright green colour, and the surface has lost a lot of the dullness, and feels much better. Preliminary test cuts with a scalpel show it seems to heal properly too. 

One other important tip to pass on - and possibly more useful to you frugalistas out there. Thank you to my daughter Steph for promptly sharing this with me. It's about Nectar Cards

In the past, I have sometimes saved my points for the whole year then cashed them all in at Christmas. I haven't done that since we moved to Dorset - but Steph tells me that now you need to cash in your points within six months of acquiring them. So bear that in mind if you let them build up - you really do not want to lose them!