General Chat

Good morning all. 15 degrees at0700 but very grey, no sun, a bit misty but dry. I have to go to town this morning for a chiropodist appointment. So that is the day taken care of.

Vera, that was a satisfying morning that you had with blood test and prescriptions all sorted (we hope). I always have 8 weeks of meds these days, it used to be 12 but they cut down to save more meds being thrown out when unused. (I wonder if they did save money).
Enjoy your meet up with your friends

Goodness Ann, there are enough problems to contend with without the 'help' of people supposed to be trained to fix problems. I would hope they would offer you some compensation for the trouble they caused. Are your neighbours likely to have made any expensive phone call when on your line? Still hard to believe that this could happen so easily.
Those photos are fantastic of the Kite. What a gift for him/her to sit while you took its photo. But well done to get the focus right. I love the one that puts it in context with the magpies.

Mandy how was Colin last night? Don't hesitate to contact the surgery if they don't come up with the result today, you don't want to let the situation drag on and maybe get worse.

Pics are great. :-D :-D :-D

Evening All,

I'm back but only with a temporary connection so I hope it holds good! Sorry I had to cut you off so quickly Mel, only with still getting used to this newish mobile I was worriied I might press the wrong button to answer! It's such a palava to ring them back too. As Frank might have said, they want to know everything except your inside leg measurement, but in hard to follow english spoken at speed! I'd have got OH to answer, but where is a man when you need him......out at a meeting! We are now waiting to hear from the engineer again hopefully tomorrow to see what's to be done next, which might be digging up the road. I suspect that would affect everyone else in the close as well as us. When nextdoor's internet went down the engineer found their cable in the box underground had been cut, so had fixed things for them by using our cable for them by disconnecting us from it, so leaving us with no internet or landline instead of the neighbour! Luckily with our schools already having broken up, OH has just about managed, and he can write up work without the internet. If the schools hadn't broken up, there are one or two where he could have used their internet. He needs to pay HMRC online before the end of the month, so that will be one of his first tasks tomorrow so he avoids fines. It's surprising how exhausting it is dealing with things nowadays though and I can't concentrate on other things very well, but I've had a good clearout in the study.

Poor Colin and how scary for you both Mandy! I hope the results come through quickly tomorrow and that if it is a bladder infection he can get some antibiotics soon and will quickly feel better as it's horrid being in pain. I seem to remember FIL falling when he had a bladder infection once. I couldn't pick OH up on my own either, so would have to ring for an ambulance.

I hope your BIL can sort the mower Mel. It must be a worry when the grass is growing well at this time of the year.

I'm glad you now have a date to work to AnnG and that it's at the nearer hospital for you. Now you can try and sort out a lift. That was kind of your son to send you the flowers. These dates that come around are bound to make you have those thoughts, but you were happy together and have lovely memories, so he'll be with you in spirit.

It's good you managed to get your scripts sorted out Vera. We both get 2 month's supply at a time. We never seemed to have as many problems years ago did we? Is it the outage that's causing problems with your eye appointment? Isn't it shocking that they now charge for changing details on your insurance and all the extra charges for your holiday if you don't do it on line! I avoid downloading apps if I can, but even had to dowload the one for the hairdresser to save my points to get a free haircut. I Our parents would never have managed to do it.

Someone has been to mow and bale silage in the field at the back of us and it has attracted the Red Kite and Buzzards. I'll send a photo of the Red Kite as he perched himself on the bare branches at the top of the hedge in the field quite close by, much to the annoyance of the Magpies.

It's well past my bedtime now, so I'm going now and hope you all sleep well.

Oh Mandy, that must have been frightening for both of you. Thank goodness your son is nearby and can help. If anything like that happened to us I'd have to rely on paramedics like AnnG. It's silly to say to you not to worry because of course you'll worry but try and remember that things often look a lot worse than they really are If you don't hear from your surgery in the morning with some results, I would be inclined to give them a ring and tell them about Colin falling over and finding the stairs difficult. I hope you manage to get some sleep tonight.

It was nice of your son to send you some flowers AnnG - what a thoughtful gesture.

Annx and her OH must be feeling pretty fed up and frustrated. I hope Talktalk sort her out quickly and maybe compensate her in some way if their engineer caused the problem.

OH's appointment went well. The lady he saw wants to get blood tests to rule out various things. Usually we have to contact a number and they give you an appointment at the local Health Centre, normally quite some time ahead. If it's urgent they are sometimes done at the surgery or we have to go the 20 miles to the hospital. She said it wasn't too urgent, hit a couple of keys on her computer and came back with an appointment for him in 2 weeks but at our small local surgery which he can walk to in about 10 minutes so it's ideal.

After that we walked through town to the main surgery to sort out my scripts. I think it must be our lucky day as I actually got someone who understood what I was telling her and seemed to know how to deal with it. She's noted that everything is to go on one prescription and my next lot of tabs must be ready to collect in 3 weeks. She's also going to arrange for me to have 8 weeks supply then instead of the usual 4 as I will be due to collect the following lot the day we go away. She then said that she would put my scripts and her notes in the basket that go upstairs for the pharmacy clerks to deal with; then she smiled and said that she was working upstairs herself tomorrow so she would deal with it all.

Next it was into Roys for a couple of bits and I had a look for the Bisto while I was there. They had plenty of large packets though they had gone up in price to £5 so only a fraction cheaper than buying a couple of small ones from Tesco. But these had a long date (BBE Feb. 2026) and will probably go up in price again so I bought 3 packs. That'll keep me going for a while.

Lastly we finished up in Waitrose where I wanted some salad stuff and some fruit and our luck ran out there. The shelves were half empty. No rocket, no vacuum packed beetroot and the Granny Smith apples OH likes were a joke. They were hardly any bigger than apricots! When we were first married we used to buy huge, juicy apples in the market and lots of varieties. Then the powers that be started grubbing up all our orchards and we end up importing all this small, tasteless stuff. I ended up just buying a couple of bananas and some "wonky" strawberries.

It ended up being a busy afternoon but, on the whole, a good one. Tomorrow we are meeting friends for lunch and are looking forward to a good catch up. They were our next door neighbours in a village we lived in from 1972 to 1986. We then both moved away but always managed to meet up once a year roughly half way between our houses. The lockdown intervened but we've managed to meet once since then. About 9 months ago they moved back to the original village where we were neighbours - in fact, back to the road we lived in then - so it will be good to hear what's going on there now.

Just spoken to Ann on the phone and they have only been online about 2 and a half hours but I had to ring off cos she had a call from talktalk. Apparantly next door had an engineer down to fix their internet and he cut Ann's cable and connected it to theirs so thats why Ann lost her connection but its still not completely sorted and they may have to dig the road up!!! The engineer said there was a very weak signel to all their close.

O Mandy I should have posted after Vera's post and had'nt seen your last posts.

Don't you think you should have the doc out to him? Its just as well you hav eyour son nearby. Don't forget to give him boiled water cooled down. He may have a bug in his tummy.

O poor Colin I hope it is just a water infection and can be sorted quickly.

Anng go up the garden to your special place and have a nice G & T and wish him happy birthday. Just remember the good times thats what I do when I am feeling down.

Shopping come and two subs which I did'nt pick up on on the order info but both acceptable, mixed grapes instead of green and Emlea in stead of double cream.

Done it again forgot to post this

I have been making him drink plenty but he hasn't been eating that much because the pain in the tummy but he had a cuppa soup and a round of bread for lunch and a little pot of trifle. We're having fish tonight with veg
It will probably be tomorrow before the results come in.

That was lovely of your son to send you the flowers .

Mandy that definitely sounds like a UTI, make sure he is not also dehydrated as that will cause confusion and falls. I hope the doctor gets his results through quickly as it sounds as though it needs sorting quickly. It is lucky that your son is close enough to come and lift him. I had to rely on the paramedics who were lovely but I felt I was maybe using them when somebody else might need them more.
thank you for your thought both of you, I have just received some lovely flowers from my son.

Oh dear what a morning ,i came in to get our tablets that we take before lunch and I heard an almighty crash dashed out to find Colin on the ground he had got up from the garden chair and then went backwards and fell ,thank goodness he hadn't hurt himself so luckily son was over the school two minutes away so he came over and lifted him up ,that's the second fall he went over Sunday night in the lounge ended up on the sofa ,he has Elephant feet on his chair to raise it but the sofa is lower and there was no way I could get him up off there he can't lift himself from a low seat ,so son came then to get him up .
Going up the stairs last night was a nightmare as he didn't seem to know which foot to lift ,he got to two treads from the top and just stopped ,I didn't want to go up in case he fell on me and took me down ,in the end he made it up ,son coming tonight to help him up the stairs ,I'm so tired as I didn't sleep with this all on my mind .

Good day all

20 degrees but dull and cloudy and we had some heavy overnight rain. Well, that wasn't forecast. OH wasn't best pleased as he spent ages yesterday hosing both our garden and next door's and it was a waste of time and effort as it all got soaked later anyway.

Sorry to hear Colin isn't too well Mandy. It does sound like a water infection doesn't it, as they often cause confusion. I hope he feels better soon.

OH has a doctor's appointment this afternoon but, of course, it is not at our local surgery or the one I need to visit to sort out my prescription problems. If there is time after his appointment and it isn't raining we'll walk through town to the main surgery where the pharmacy people are based and try to get my scripts sorted out.

A day of memories for you AnnG. I am sure you have lots and lots of happy memories so think of those and, as Mandy said, raise a glass in Tony's memory <3

Morning all,

Nice sunny morning and it's feeling quite hot out there already .

Colin is not so good we think he might have a water infection dil called this morning and got a bottle from the docs and then waited and has dropped in back to the docs so they can do a dip and then send it on to were ever its tested so we should hear tomorrow but if the dip shows something we might hear later ,he's been really tired and has stomach pain ,I've been worried as he seems a bit confused at times and just isn't his old self.

Better get the washing out its Max's bedding and towel and I've got some bath mats to do next .

Mel our schools finished last Friday, schools seem to all have different times when they break up .

Lots of memories for you today Anng have a sit in the garden in the sunshine and raise a birthday glass to T <3

Morning girls,

Quite bright here this morning but cloudy now 16 degrees and pc says mostly sunny.

Shopping day today and then some gardening if the weather holds I must look to see if I have nay subs.

Its my neighbours youngest last day at the primary school today. Em said she has been going up the village for 15 years and it will seem strange not to have to go anymore. He will be going on the school bus with his older brother in September.

good morning all 15 degrees dry and dull, I think (hope) the wind may have dropped.
Well I have a few weeks to sort it out Mel so we'll see.

It would have been T's 86th birthday today so feeling a bit sad that he is not here to celebrate. We would have been going somewhere special, his choice (usually Hidcote manor or Batsford would be his choice, followed by fish and chips at a garden centre)

As it is I have nothing planned so probably a bit more gardening.

We've got that fine rain now snd it soaks everything. \I left the tub of fish food out and it has a nibbled edge to the lid so I a glad I saw it before dark as it may have got the rain in by morning.

Hope someone can pick you up after your op Anng.

I tried to ring Ann today but had no answer.

All that makes travel so much more stressful doesn’t it Vera. I will try and find somebody who can take me and fetch me afterwards but nobody is allowed into the day surgery centre but patients. It says because there is not enough room. However about 20 years ago I had an op there and T was allowed to wait with me. I am sure it has not shrunk as it is the same place.
I mainly need somebody to collect me as I could quite easily get a bus there.

24 degrees now and the sun has just come out. It's still very breezy and, as it was so dull and cloudy earlier, OH decided it would be OK to get some watering done so he's had the hose out next door and in our garden.

It's good that you've got your appointment through at last AnnG and lucky that it's at a convenient time and place. Will anyone be able to go with you?

I rang the hospital about my cancelled eye appointment and was told that I was definitely on the list for a new appointment but they couldn't give me any idea when that would be. The "team" are apparently meeting daily trying to organise setting up more clinics. Goodness knows what has happened there as there has never been a wait for appointments before. Good job it isn't an emergency but just a check up again, although it is now 14 weeks since my last appointment and the doctor said he wanted to see me in 8 weeks.

I've been printing out some confirmation of our holiday details and also all our travel insurance stuff. Why do customers have to do everything themselves nowadays? I had to make a change to a medical declaration on the travel insurance recently. Log in to their site and do it online and it's free, ring them and tell them the change over the phone and there is a £15 charge. Yesterday I discovered that I have to check in online to our flight 24 hours in advance which means I have to download the airline app to my phone which I don't want. If I have to check in at the airport I will be charged £55 per person!!! Oh, and I have to check in my own luggage and get my own label printed when I get to the airport. I only hope my phone can cope as it is an old one that no longer gets updates.

I'd better get the rest of the washing off the line and put away and then think what I am going to do with some cold ham from yesterday's gammon roast. I'll probably just do a ham salad.

Sunny here and 20 degrees. Just put the brown bin out and while it is out the front I did some weeding and cut back the overgrown and scruffy Valerian. Neds more doing out there but it will do for now and the sun was a bit hot, I didn't put a hat on as it was not shining when I went out.

You must be relieved you now have your appointment through Anng as Mel said let's hope there's no cancellation before then .

Well I got the washing out and it was drying well , went out and got my tablets and put the scripts in came home and there was a fine rain like a mist you could feel on your face so as the sky was really dark I got the washing in then blow me it stopped and there hasn't been any more since .

Glad you now have your appointment Anng lets hope there's not another cancelation.

Done a bit of painting this morning and varnishing and dead heading of flowers on the patio. Not touched the ironing yet and Mandy I have quite enough of my own so don't need yours. Maybe you could do some of mine for me?

Its still 17 degrees here and we had a tiny burst of sun while I was typing this and at least its stopped raining for now.

Hope it stays cooler for you Vera and did you have a decent sleep last night?