General Chat

Good morning all. Very grey here dry at the moment but that won’t last. I have stayed here while daughter and SiL have gone to collect the Turkey. They have a half hour slot for collection..
Yesterday in Morrisons a lot of the joints of meat were half price at £5.50 a kilo. Daughter was buying beef for goulash but instead she bought a joint of beef which cost less than the beef for goulash and cut it up herself but first cutting off a small joint for later. That was a really good offer.

Morning girls,

Miserable morning here and pc says mostly cloudy and 10 degrees. Its so dark I really need the light on.

I woke with a start as I thought I heard BIL at the garage but I must have been dreaming as when I arose he was'nt there. I was dreaming I was down the shop buying iced slices and jam doghnuts which were'nt at all they were cheese and pickle bagels.

Goodness Mel what a pain that water problem is proving to be. And you would think with it having gone on so long they could have done it sooner than the 15th.
Shame about the scarf hat and, as it was not as advertised they should refund postage.which firm was it bought from?

Vera it is a very clumsy way of doing it isn’t what’s app? The second time I used it I knew not to spend time writing out the full problem. But you don’t know that the first time. I did actually get to ‘chat’ to a person the first time but not the second. I just think it is clumsy. Still you got a refund and free meat.
Maya slept ok last night and seems to be getting better.

Gill, hope OH is ok to go into work tomorrow. Well done dragging out the job so he didn’t feel guilty for resting. Hope he feels better now.

I'll catch up with the rest of the posts when I get a minute, Sandra is on the phone.

Oh Mel, it sounds like you're having a bad time of it lately, I really hope things improve for you soon.

January 10th is our wedding anniversary, we were going to have our bathroom floor fitted that day but the woman moved a few appointments around and now the floor is being done on 8th January. She said she felt awful that we were spending our anniversary watching the fitter do the floor which is why she changed the date for us. How nice was that and we didn't even ask her to do it.

Poor OH woke up feeling unwell this morning, I think he's got the bug I had, he's feeling a little better now and hopefully he'll be okay tomorrow, if not then he'll have to ring in sick, as he's supposed to be in work.

Even though he didn't feel well he insisted on doing some more on the kitchen so I took my time doing one of the jobs which had to be done first to make him sit down and take it easy. I only had to screw four wheels onto the unit we made, but managed to make the job last almost three hours. I've never worked so slow but by the time I'd finished he was feeling and looking a lot better so he finished the unit by putting some strong wood underneath so it doesn't warp if anything heavy goes in it. He then put the shelves in, so now I can finally put some of the kitchen stuff away and he got the rest he needed this morning.

I would push for a refund and postage for your scarf, Mel.
It's neither the colour you want or does what you want...so not as advertised.

O and the colour I ordered was a nice light grey in the picture almost lilac with a white fur lining. This one has come with a bright peach lining.

Vera the date they gave me for the men to come is 10th January between 11am and 1pm. I mentioned to the man that came today that I thought they may have got a stone down the pipe as it was such a wet day when they did the leak and then talking a bit later on he said they may have got a stone down the pipe!!!!!

I ordered a hat and scarf combined and on the video of it it had a double bit on the scarf you could tuck the longer end through. I have waited ages for this to arrive and it came today but when I tried it on I could'nt find the tuck in double layer on the scarf so I took it off and looked all up both scarf pieces and no there isn't one on the hat I recieved. I have emailed them but I don't expect a reply so its going to take me more money to send it back and then I may not get a refund. It was 14.95 and when I had paid the postage it came to just under the £20. It seems I can't do anything right at the moment I am so fed up with myself. :-(

Oh Mel, your water problems seem to have been going on forever. You must be so fed up with it now. How quickly will the contractors be able to come and look at it? If it is their fault I reckon they ought to give you some compensation for all the inconvenience you've been put to. Lovely to have Jenny Wren around. As you said, my meat would have been OK to use but I would have needed to cook it quickly which wasn't at all convenient which is why I got it straight in the freezer. It should be fine as long as I cook it the day I take it out of the freezer.

Mandy, it sounds as though your joint is going to be enough for this Christmas and next. Never mind, big joints always cook up better than little ones.

I hope little Maya is beginning to feel better AnnG. You're right about customer support at Tesco. I've emailed customer support before but it no longer seems operational and you have to phone or, as you said Ann, send them a WhatsApp message and that's the route I went down but what a performance that was.

I wrote a long message and then sent it and got a message back "Not delivered" so I did it again and again "Not delivered". So I checked the number was correct and entered it again and resent my message. Hooray, it went through. I got back a ridiculous message about their Christmas slots and their FAQs and goodness knows what else before I got to a bit asking me if I wanted to carry on. I said Yes. Then I was given a list of things to say what I wanted to talk about. Nothing applied so I said "Other". Now I had to say "in a few words" what I wanted to talk about. I said to query a very shortdated item in a home delivery. All this while the robot I was "chatting" to kept saying I would be put through to a real person soon. Next I had to give my full name, then first line of my address and postcode which I did. Now the robot wanted my email address. By now I was getting a bit twitchy. I know they have to be sure who they are talking to but this was going on too long so I decided to call a halt and check that it was genuinely Tesco I was talking to. So when I was asked my email address I typed in "Sorry. I've stopped chat". The reply I got was "Great. Now I can put you through to a real person". At that point I stopped being twitchy and got the giggles as I was clearly "chatting" with a robot machine and not a person trying a scam and only a company like Tesco could fail to programme its robot to recognise what is an address and what isn't. I then got a message saying someone would ring me within 2 hours, or if they were busy it might be longer.

At this point I went to have lunch thinking I might get a call today if I am lucky. Well I didn't get a call but within half an hour I got a WhatsApp message that was full of apology and saying they would be contacting the store that supplied me and they have refunded me £13. I was very polite in my message to them and didn't ask for a refund. After all I do have the meat in my freezer. All I asked is for them to warn the customer if something is shortdated and give them the chance to reject the item. However I am happy with the result even if it was a pain in the proverbial getting through to them.

I've done some washing today and wrapped daughter's presents and the man who cleans the cooker has been and has left mine gleaming. I'd better get on and pay him now. Like most of the tradesmen who come here he likes to be paid by bank transfer and I try to do it within about 24 hours or I'm liable to forget I owe it. So, that's the next job and then get on with preparing our dinner.

I hope you're all having a good day. Shortest day has gone, it's all upward now and it'll be spring before we know it.

A man from SWW came and tested the water flow in the bathroom and asked where they did the repair and we went up there and he said there was pressure from the meter to the [potting shed outside tap and he turned the new stopcock off and on again and said said I have to get the contractors back who did the job as he suspects the same as me that they got something down the pipe which is why the pressure is low to the house. I am no better off than I was before.

Good morning all. Mel good luck for the water board men coming, that is getting silly now isn’t it?

Oh that Tudor kitchen sounds lovely. What do you do with the rooms when finished? Do you have somewhere to display them? It is a great hobby to have and you are very talented to be able to make all the bits.
Mandy Lol. Half a cow! :-( :-(

Morning all,

A bit brighter this morning but still very windy pc is saying 11 degrees adn windy. I can actually see a little bit of blue sky something I hav'nt seen for at least a week.

Well now today is the day that the water board men should come and sort out my low water pressure. I wonder if they will???I do hope so as I can't go on like this with no shower and having to have a strip wash every day.

Better get on cos I don't know what time they are coming.

You need Desperate Dan to dinner Mandy.

With the car how it is I have put an order in for my shopping on Sunday.

That wasn't very good sending you beef with today's date Vera ,I suppose the pickers are so busy they just grab and go .
Jake is getting us a nice piece of beef but I'm a bit worried as when son went in the butchers Terry the owner said I'll keep your beef until the last minute as you'll never store in your normal fridge how big a bit has he ordered :-0 sounds like half the cow lol

Vera your meat willhave been ok to use even if the date was short. If you complained to you may get a complete refund. Hope you do.

Once again I hav'nt done much today apart from setting up the new bird feeder, feeding the wild birds and chickens and fish and unwrapping a parcel that should have been delivered three days ago but they could'nt find me in the dark. Take in more parcels from the postman and start mums little posy for her headstone and it was getting dark by that time so I had to stop.

When I opened the shed door this morning Jenny Wren was in there and must have been in there all night so tonight I put mealworms in her dish and a dish of water just incase she's in there again hiding somewhere warm for the night. I'll let you know tomorrow when I open the shed if she was in there as the mealworms willhave been eaten.

One parcel today was the Christmas present I bought myself. Its a kit for a Tudor dolls hosue top box but I am going to make it into a Tudor kitchen as I have been making Tudor pottery and collecting Tudor kitchen bits and things. I have a beautiful Tudor table, chair and a little secondhand Tudor style dresser come shelf unit and other pots and pans but I am going to have to make a Tudor fireplace and cooking area for a spit. I have lots of Tudor style plates and make Tudor food so it shoud be fun and keep my occupied for a long while.

That was not a good date on the beef Vera, getting careless running up to Christmas. I will be interested if you manage to email Tesco as I have not been able to when I wanted to. Their customer services is not on line ant more. I had to contact them via what’s app

Afternoon all,

Oh dear Mandy, another one with car trouble. I hope it’s nothing serious. As Mel says what with her car and washing machine, Mandy’s car and AnnG’s fridge, everything is falling to bits.

You are lucky to get the long-tailed tits Mel. We only get them fly in occasionally. In fact there haven’t been many birds around at all. We’re mostly seeing blue and great tits on the feeders, though there were a couple of goldfinches yesterday.

It’s been a day of gusty winds with a few odd showers. At one point I thought I would have to take down the wreath that’s hung on the door as it was swinging around so violently I thought it would end up in next door’s garden.

We went out this morning and had trouble squeezing past an ambulance outside the house on the corner of the Close. The people there moved in just before Christmas last year and we’ve only seen the wife once. I know her health isn’t good so I hope there’s nothing seriously wrong. On Thursdays we meet friends at Starbucks for coffee and that is on the upper floor at Sainsbury’s. I was glad I didn’t want any shopping as it was absolutely heaving.

This afternoon I have washed towels and done some odd jobs around the house and had a lovely long phone call from one of my granddaughters. Now I am going to email Tesco with a polite complaint. I had a delivery around 7.30 last night which included 2 very large packs of diced beef. I wanted to cook a stew on Saturday, enough for 2 days, and freeze the rest of the meat. When I took it out of the fridge I noticed both packs were marked Use By 21 Dec. That’s today! When was I supposed to cook it - at midnight last night? I had to rapidly get it all in the freezer and rethink Saturday’s meal.

Just seen the time - where has the day gone? Tomorrow the man is coming to give my cooker a good clean and I must get some more presents wrapped but I expect I’ll be back online at some time during the day. Bye for now.

I don’t know if it is all stores but Morrisons had meat joints for half price. Really nice joints of gammon, pork, beef and lamb.

I forgot to post that last post this morning.

Mandy you and me with car trouble then and washing machine trouble and Anng fridge trouble. What an unlucky lot we are.... :-(

I really wanted to go to either Morrisons in Bideford or Torrington Lidl as I won't have a delivery the Tuesday after Christmas with it being Boxing Day.

I wanted a small piece of pork loin or beef and a chicken crown so I have some meat for the week thats a bit festive. I like to pick my meat.

I have a disaster this morning I just heard a bang and my poor old bird feeder had collapsed and broken. I have a new one oh bought me so today I shall be taking the old one down and trying to put the new one up.