General Chat

Morning on this cold and frosty morning,

Pc is saying cold weather and -1 degree and mostly cloudy but the suns out at present.

Hope you all kept nice and warm and slept well. I got up and went to the loo and turned the heating on and went back to bed for half an hour. I have fern patterns on the car hav'nt seen those for a while.

Yes I think I will collect them the following day but I shall be so cross if the waterboard people don't come.

I always remember my son shut my theumb in the car door once and golly it did hurt and he had walked away cos he was cross at something I said so I had to open the door myself to free it up. It split right across between the base knuckle and the top one and went all blue straight away.

Its been lovely here today plenty of the yellow stuff, blue sky with some clouds and a couple of light showers that made a very vivid rainbow over the big house grounds.

BIL came with the cans of diesel and popped those in the garage and I had gone to the hsop so made hi m a COC and came back and made sandwiches which I managed to eat. He always laughs when I put my sandwich down as with loose teeth I cut it into fingers and today I had cut the crusts off as it was a nice cob I bought in Torrington yesterday and the crust was hard today but the inside was lovely. I don't often have white bread but did enjoy it today. we had nice ham from the shop and cheese coleslaw, I| only had a little bit in mine and picked out the small bits.

It got quite cold this evening when the sun went down but there has'nt been any wind and the flood alongside the chicken run had gone today.

Good you kept the old barrel Annx it shoud have a number on it I think or model code. Its all coming together now with all the jobs you had to have done.

O Vera I hope your poor finger is not too sore and bruised. You will need a nice glass of wine, to take the pain away, or two. Out with the frozen peas. Yes you must'nt cut Penstemons down till April. I have'nt cut mine down since last year but it needs digging up and splitting but I shall wait till the weather is nicer and warmer.

Iv'e had the deer in the garden a lot lately I think they can see the new growth coming on the day lillies and they love that. They still look in the orchard for apples but they have eaten them all this year as there was'nt so many on the trees, I think we had a frost just as the blossom came.

I am having two scramble eggs and bread and butter and fruit and custard to follow that should keep me quiet, I have made the custard.

Evening all,

It's been quite a nice day here after a little drizzle first thing ,I had a good clean in the conservatory, the windows really need a clean but with the sun shining through it would have been a devil of a job to see what I was cleaning so I left that for another day .

Ann you need a power bank each for your phones ,I don't know what sort your phones are but the new phone that son has has a case for the phone that you can charge up if the phone gets low on battery
I must admit he shows me what you can do on it but it just goes over my head ,just like his new smart watch that does all sorts too.

Oh Vera your poor thumb hope you don't lose your nail ,I'll never forget being in town and a women had shut her daughters fingers in the car door the child's screams were awful .
Oh dear you will have to hide the secateurs up so your OH has to ask if you know where they are that way you'll know when he's going to do the cutting and can check up on him lol

Anng that would be handy if the boiler man could come the day you get home to look at the boiler ,hope it's an easy fix .

Mel thats a devil the waterboard men are coming the same day as you need to go out ,could you go to collect them the next day instead .

I missed you there Vera, as I was interrupted part way through my post and sent it later. Your thumb sounds really painful. Sometimes you just don't know what to do with yourself for a few minutes when something like that happens. I hope it is feeling a bit better now. My OH would be liable to say 'what did you do that for?' Not helpful! It's good you got your broadband back eventually. We are so dependant on it as you say.

I was going to say send your OH here as our garden has become a real mess this year, but perhaps not if he is Edward Scissorhands! :-D My OH has to be watched, as his idea of pruning is to just cut everything down, rather like you would do with perennials. It sounds as if your plot is nice and tidy now so that is good. We have had a Camelia as tall as me completely die over the summer, yet others either side of it look fine. Maybe something got at the roots, or it was too dry. There is a concete path buried under the soil that side of the garden so roots can't go down far in places.

Afternoon All,

Yes it's been almost springlike here too, so nice after all the rain,rain, rain and gloom! That sounded like an interesting walk for such a nice day AnnG. Did you get some photos of the trawlers? I hope forewarning your boiler man means he will get to you quickly when you get home.

The hoover seemed to go in fits and starts at first, but after we charged it up it was fine, so half the bungalow is cleaner now and I'll do the rest tomorrow.

The man fitted the lock and measured up for the glass and isn't charging us for the lock. We had him a couple of years ago to replace sealed units, so know him quite well now. I've kept the old barrel like you said Mel......good idea. It seems this flooding is everywhere this time. The old derelict mill they pulled down a quarter of a mile away sits in a lake now and the old mill house at nearby Huncote sat in a flood that made the road and it's driveway impassable last time and the people there sold up shortly afterwards. I haven't been that way to see how it is this time. It's draining really quickly here now. It must be heartbreaking to see 3 foot of water in your home. The insurance companies are going to take a hammering and no doubt putting the cost up for us all next time they are due. Could you try a nail file on any rough edges on your plate? At least it might make it more comfortable to eat with till you get the new one.

We are still getting the hang of these new mobiles and I've no idea how you change the batteries in them yet, so instead of getting spare batteries like we had with our old phones for when we are out and they run down, we've decided to get a spare charging cable each on Monday, so we can keep them in our cars to charge them in our cars, if they get low while we are out. Mine lasts a couple of weeks, which is much better than my old phone, but I don't use it much yet. I wondered what other people do?

Better throw anything out of the fridge that needs to go and wipe it out ready for the food drop tomorrow and also finish the order next. OH wants me to find and email him a photo of him to go on a website he is on. He seems to be finding me a lot of jobs to do already this year! :-) He's gone to footie in his long johns today as it gets chilly when the sun goes down. :-)

Oh dear Mel, what a nuisance the waterboard people are coming the same day that you need to collect your teeth. Will you have to go without the plate for another day and collect them on Thursday instead?

Has your lock been fitted yet Ann. You're nearly there with all your jobs now.

AnnG, that sounds a pleasant morning out even though it was cold. There's been the odd gleam of sun here today but mostly it's been cold, dry and overcast.

I've watched a couple of the Father Brown episodes as well Mandy and I agree with you. The older ones were better. It also makes me laugh when they say they are based on the original stories by G K Chesterton. I've got a book of the original stories and the only resemblance between them and the TV series is the name Father Brown

Our day started badly. We woke up to find we had no broadband connection but didn't know if the whole area was out or just us. We don't realise how much we depend on the internet till we haven't got it. I needed to find a phone number of a business in town but we don't even have a proper phone book these days. Ours is small and thin and the company I wanted wasn't in there under business or residential. Our broadband provider is BT and the easiest way to contact them or find their numbers is online. No use without a broadband connection. Eventually, after going through paper files we found the relevant number on a letter they sent confirming a change that was being made. OH rang and got a helpful chap who said there were no outages in our area so it was our hub. He tried to get it going again remotely which didn't work so he talked OH through getting it going here. So we have broadband again but don't know why it suddenly went off during the night.

I dusted and hoovered all the downstairs this morning and cleaned sinks and OH went out to the garden again to do more tidying. Well, it does look nice and tidy now; too tidy as he has cut down everything in sight! Some perennials do get cut right back but some just get cut back a bit as I want last years growth to protect the new shoots coming through. Luckily for him he didn't touch my penstemons. He knows his life won't be worth living if he does ;-)

While I was checking on what OH had done I noticed that loads of daffs and tulips are already through and about 2" high, even the late ones I have that don't normally bloom till April/May time. We're reasonably sheltered here so I hope they'll survive any heavy frosts to come.

Tesco are coming with my order between 5 and 6 pm. There's nothing missing and only one sub and that's one I had already agreed so I'm quite happy with that.

To finish up my not-very-good day I've just managed to shut a cupboard door while my thumb was still in the way. My own stupid fault. It brought tears to my eyes and I think some of my nail might turn a bit purple and black. I think I now deserve a nice hot cup of coffee. I am also hearing strange noises from downstairs so I think I need to go and investigate what OH is up to.

Well we can’t complain about today’s weather. Clear blue skies and bright sun all day. We drove the few mikes to Maryport and walked Rio miles around the harbour and back. Then up to the edge of the town for coffee. The tide was out but on the turn so most of the fishing boats were moored along the harbour wall. I counted at least thirteen trawlers of varying sizes. After coffee we came back home for lunch.

Good morning all. Sunny and blue sky this morning and a slight frost. Looks lovely but I bet it is cold. Hoping to get out for a walk today. Just a short one.

I have messaged the boiler Man to warn him about the boiler hoping he can fit in a visit after I get home.

Good to get the vacuum cleaner back Ann, all systems go on the floors then?

Hopefully, even if colder, we will now get some dry days so the floods can go down and people can start to dry out.

Morning all,

Its a nice bright morning so far today but pc says mostly cloudy and 5 degrees.

Woke this morning and thought what date is Wednesday? yes its the day the waterboard men are supposed to be coming and they may be here all day!! so that means I can't go out. O well I suppose I shall get around it somehow. The old plate made my gum so sore yesterday so I am going to leave it out today but pop it in togo up the shop for my paper.

Glad you all got the decs down and packed away. I have only to get the card bobbles down and three things off the window and they all need the stepsso I left those yesterday. I don't like using the steps when I am on my own.

The floods have been bad around here and I know dipper Mill has been out most of the week. There a lovely old farm house that owns the land where the river runs through and they have a holiday cottage which was the old mill and thats been flooded badly just after they finished converting it and the water was three feet up the front wall nearly to the windows. I have seen the river take their land over the years I have lived here. It has taken half their field where the cows used to graze. There are two bridges there the first one took the flood water and then the second one took the main river. They planted willows along the edge one year but the water washed them all away. Now they have planted more Willow all over the land that is left but I bet theres not many of those left now either.

Well I better get on as I am not sure what day BIL is coming. He did ring me yesterday after I left him a message on his answer phone. I don't think he went to work this week as SIL was still bad with this cough and he did'nt want to leave her on her own but he said she is better now.

Don't forget to look and see the number on the lock being fitted to the door Annx and see how he does it. Its good the hoover is back in action and you are getting jobs done off your list. You'll soon be straight again.

Have a good day everyone. I wonder how long the sun will last today?

Evening All,

Nearly there now! The hoover man rang to say the hoover was ready, so we have that back now and it is like new, as he has cleaned every bit of it I think! I've got plenty of work for it to do now. :-)

The door lock is being done in the morning, so I'm pleased about that, and he'll measure the small window for new glass at the same time. The Christmas decs are packed away and OH will pop them back in the loft over the weekend.

The floods round here have been awful too. We popped to the Co-op in the next village where the brook runs through this morning and although it always floods across the road the other end of the village, it had flooded so bad at the opposite end of the village this time, there were sandbags piled up at people's doors which I've never seen before. We parked down a side road to collect the hoover but had to turn round in the road after as we could see the bottom of the road where we needed to turn left was flooded from the river. It's a good job your OH allowed plenty of time for your friend's hospital appointment Vera and he's very good to help out with friends like he does. .

I expect all this housebuilding is bound to make flooding worse as you say AnnG, as well as the chopping down of trees to build them. Every bit of land covered by building can't soak up water and neither can trees if they are destroyed. It's good you aren't at risk of the floods in your area. We are much higher than the river here too or we wouldn't have bought our bungalow. I have seen the flooding across the meadows near it since childhood and it only gets worse.

I haven't started my jigsaw yet Mandy. It is a Christmas scene this year, so hopefully it will be easier than last year's. Yours cludo one sounds intriguing and maybe more tricky. You will have to let us know!

That lady had a cheek using someone else's charger. She'd driven off the road to park in the man's drive to use it. I think she'd just noticed it and thought she'd risk it with no cars being in the drive and assuming no-one was at home. We thought about where we'd put one when we had the new garage door, but thought if it had to go on the side of the garage we'd have an isolator switch inside the garage to switch it off. Otherwise inside like AnnG's daughter and leave the garage door up an inch for the cable to go under as we can't get a car in our garage.

Mashed up food for you for now then Mel. I hope it won't take long for them to sort them for you. It's not nice having to manage.

I'm off to bed now, as I don't often sleep well and have to be up and clean the conservatory window sills and floor before the lock man comes as they always seem to have deceased creepy crawlies!! I hope everyone else sleeps well.

Evening all,

Vera I could have sworn I posted the other day ,it's been a drizzley old day here ,I did manage to go into town for a few bits in the dry but after that it's been wet and dull.
Got all my Christmas bits put away and had a good dust and hoover .

Oh no Mel I hope you can find something nice and soft to eat or your gums will get sore .
I watched Father Brown today but I do think the old ones were better with the other housekeeper and the posh ones in it

Ann thats good you have your teles sorted at last sounds as if the lady didn't do a very good job fitting them perhaps she was new in the job ,one thing off your list of jobs .
We have our jigsaw that Jake got us for Christmas on the go ,there was two in the box both oldie worldie pictures which we like .
We also have a cludo jigsaw to do but I think its going to be a hard one as you have to read bits as you do it and all is not as it seems apparently.

I’m glad your TV seems to be working OK now Ann and, hopefully, it won’t be long before your car can be repaired. We were originally told the repairers would need the car for 2 weeks but they had it for 4. Can you believe that stupid woman using a charger at someone else’s house? Apart from the fact that she is presumably trespassing who does she think pays for the power that is charging her battery? I can just imagine my son’s reaction if he caught someone using his charger.

Sorry to hear about your plate Mel. Is Torrington far from you? Do be careful driving as some of the roads could be flooded. OH said he had to go through flood water in several places when he was taking our friend to the hospital this morning so it was a slow journey but they had left plenty of time so they weren’t late. It stopped raining about lunchtime. It’s supposed to get drier but colder so with any luck the excess water will drain away.

While he was out I showered and washed my hair, ironed a couple of big duvet covers and got my Tesco order done. The site seems OK now. This afternoon we took down the rest of the decorations and got them all packed away in the garage.

We haven’t seen Mandy for a couple of days. I hope she is OK.

I’m off to put the kettle on now as I think it’s time for a cuppa and a nice choccy biccy.

Ooh that is a long time. Weekend I suppose. Soft foods then? Home made soup. Something with mashed potatoes? Apparently we have fix pie tonight. If you have mince maybe cottage pie for Sunday. Good job you don’t have to go to work and meet people. If you are like me you will find it difficult to talk without your denture.. have they said how much it will cost. I assume it is just a repair as you can’t have extra teeth added without impressions.

I shan't have my teeth back till Wednesday.

Morning girls,

I have been in touch with the dentist and I have to take my teeth in to Torrington. I rang BIL but can't get through.

I have also had a message to help someone with their tree. The lady that contacted me is from Australia by her email address she was trying to help someone in this country I think on Rootsweb. I do have this person in my tree but can't really find out much about him. His father is from Copenhagen. Anyway I shall have to leave it for the mo and get my teeth to the dentist.

Good morning all up but not dressed. I didn’t want to go back to sleep as we are going out about 10am. Going up near Carlisle to Dobbies garden centre.
Just been Looking at the floods in Gloucester we get them every year but they are worse in some areas than others and I wonder how much the huge new housing estates have made things worse, one very large estate of over 1000 houses is built on an area that always flooded which was ok when just pasture but that water has had to go somewhere. Tewkesbury always floods but even that seems worse this year. Where I live is a bit further out from the river so ok I think.

Ann I assume that silly woman thought the charging point was a public one. Lyn’s is in their garage.

Good that you seem to be getting sorted with your jobs, then you can get back to painting.

Vera before I came away I did have a bit of trouble with Tesco site stopping and starting but it did always aPologise for the inconvenience.
Your friend would have a problem without your OH so well done him.

Evening All,

Well a nice young man came from SKY early this morning and would you believe it, the wretched mini box worked when he switched it on and don't you feel like such fools. lol. We'd tried it dozens of times before with no joy, but given up over Christmas and since. However, this engineer was really good and said what we'd been told by the last engineer was wrong and that the box should feed from the other bedroom like it was trying to do and not the main box like the previous engineer said. As to our being told before that a cable could be necessary and holes needing to be drilled in the new bookcase to fit it, he shook his head and said 'naaah, absolutely not' as the signal was fine. He said most likely there was old software in the new minibox she'd fitted, she may not have checked and installed the latest software, or that an update since via the main box could have corrected the problem. Anyway, we are just glad it is resolved now!

OH then phoned the bodywork man and took his car for him to look at the damage. OH said he was really good. but said as a nearly new car it would need a new door, which would be around £1000, so it would be cheaper to claim on his insurance, so that's what he's done. I shop around for his insurance to get a good price, so we had no experience of his present insurer, but up to now we've been impressed. His no claims is protected so he won't lose any bonus and they collect the car and drop off a courtesy car so he isn't without transport. They sent a form online and we had to take photos of the damage and all sides of the car, a photo of the mileage and the VIN number (I expect assessors stopped coming out to do this in the pandemic and now they have found it saves them the cost of their travel and time). The repairers called before we finished taking the photos and agreed a pick up date (3 weeks)and in view of the shortage of parts they asked OH if he minded recycled ones, which he didn't, as they give their work a 5 year guarantee. I told OH about your experience Vera, so he's going to see if he can find out 'how long' nearer the time. :-S

I saw an interesting video yesterday where a man in his office was alerted by his video doorbell. A car was parked in his drive and a young woman was charging her car from his charging point! He spoke to her and asked what she was doing and she told him she was visiting a friend a few doors away and the friend hadn't got a charging point. She was arguing and seemed to think charging points were freely available and that it was a bonus he wasn't at home in his drive so she wasn't inconveniencing him!

Electric cars are cheap to run, but car insurers are having to raise the insurance for them because the repairs are expensive and any hint of batteries being damaged and they write them off. I would like one but not yet for lots of reasons. It's ok if you don't need to use chargers other than at home like AnnG's daughter, but they say it's stressful looking for working charging points otherwise and I'd hate all the waiting while they charge your car. Noise when reversing is good as you can't always see well behind you. I hope they don't make them much noisier going forwards though, as the thought of being alble to sit outside here without motorway noise would be bliss. Also for those that live on busy roads.

I haven't joined any painting courses yet AnnG. There are a lot less online courses now and the teacher I liked is specifying just beginners on his portrait ones and isn't showing any landscape ones. I did buy a couple of other discounted courses you download, watch videos and send your work in for feedback some time ago and OH suggested I set time aside each week to do those which isn't a bad idea. It would get me back into the swing so to speak. I must get sorted what else I want doing in the ensuite first though before I fall off the wonky toilet seat !!

Yes, my book is by the Supervet as Vera said. He does wonders for animals to get them on their feet again.

I hope you have managed to get on better with your Tudor man today. I find some days it's easy to get distracted.

Off to bed now and see if we can get a lie in tomorrow. :-)

Wishing you luck Vera with your order.

Well its happened and I told the dentist it would. My plate has cracked right across the front teeth so now I only have the few back ones on the plate and it dos'nt really stay in properly so its a phone call in the morning to see what can be done. I was only eating mince for dinner so no real pressure on them.

I've come back for a third attempt at posting without being interrupted.

You seem to be making progress with getting your jobs done Annx. Have you had any joy getting the bodywork on your car sorted?

I had a bit more sleep last night which pleased me. We didn't go to the group Thursday meet-up for coffee as OH had gone for a walk and was out longer than expected, then he decided to repot a hosta and then it was getting a bit late to go. I did some filing and a bit of shredding and paid a few bills, all boring stuff.

This afternoon the phone hasn't stopped ringing. First it was an old school friend who lost her husband earlier this year. I haven't seen her since well before lockdown and we've only spoken a couple of times in recent years so there was plenty to chat about. Then the opticians rang to say my new glasses are ready for collection. Then it was our friends M & V. M was due to have an op in a private hospital in November but got Covid so it was put off till this Monday. Getting the paperwork etc ready the hospital realised that the pre-op tests she had in November are out of date so some have got to be done again and the only possible day is tomorrow. She does drive but the hospital is about 30 miles away and she might be somewhat shaky after the tests she has to go through. V isn't allowed to drive because of his medical problems so it's my OH to the rescue again. It means him leaving home before 8 am but he doesn't mind as we know M would do the same for us if necessary.

When I had trouble with the Sainsbury site a few days ago I booked a slot with Tesco and put enough of an order in to hold the slot. This afternoon I made a proper list and a little while ago I went on to the Tesco site to update the order. Would you believe there's a problem there now. At least they have a notice up saying something has gone wrong and they are aware of the issue and asking me to try again later.

The computer and the phones have been a bit strange all day. I wonder if they are affected by the heavy winds and rain in any way. Some of the flooding I've seen on TV looks awful. Gloucestershire. seems to have had it bad in places. I hope your houses are safe where you live AnnG.

Well, I am now going to make another attempt to update my Tesco order. Wish me luck!!

Enjoy your chilli and your plain mince Mel. Like the others I’d be inclined to give the WI another go. Just try one or two meetings and see how you get on.

Sorry, phone call I must take. Will try to post later.