General Chat

It's still a sweltering 26 degrees with not a puff of wind anywhere and I don't think it's supposed to get below 17 degrees during the night so it will be uncomfortable for sleeping again. Apparently it might be a slightly lower temperature tomorrow. I hope so.

That's a long wait for your appointment AnnG but at least you have a better idea of where you stand now and will be able to go to your wedding without worrying. As Annx said, why can't they give you a date anyway even if it is at the end of August? I'm still waiting to hear about my cancelled eye appointment, though mine is just for another check up so I suppose it isn't urgent. It's good your friend's daughter could sort out your wiring and take the wii for you

It sounds as though you've got as long wait to have your gallstones checked Mandy which must be a bit disappointing for you. I understand gallstones can be very painful.

Mel, you are doing well with your food. I would enjoy all your chopped up fruit. At least in this weather it's a bit easier to stick to lighter meals as you probably wouldn't want pies and puddings in this heat.

It sounds as though you had a lovely time with your friend Annx, in spite of a bad start It's always good to catch up with old friends.

I am feeling much, much better now. I still have an ache over one eye and I feel very tired but otherwise I am fine. After my tablet review yesterday morning the prescription for my extra tabs was sent electronically to the chemist I use and I picked them up this morning. I also got my hair cut. While this was going on OH went to the bank and then picked up and paid for his trousers. I don't think they charged for the alterations but I think when he has bought items there before that needed altering he hasn't been charged. They were probably a little bit dearer than, say M&S, but they weren't silly money and the material is lovely quality. We try to support local businesses if we can and I don't think there is anywhere else locally that sells menswear. We'd have to drive to one of the major towns and the extra cost of the fuel and parking charges all adds to the cost of anything we buy.

I also did the ironing today, though there wasn't very much and I sorted out a Sainsbury's delivery for Friday. Now I feel hot, sticky and tired so I am going to make myself some overnight oats and put it in the fridge ready for breakfast and then go to bed.

You've eaten some good things today Mel. We had salad with an egg too and tin of tuna, a small one in brine for me with most of the brine poured off and we also had a punnet of british strawberries between us. I've also had an egg custard, not so good but they did need eating and were better than chocolate! It's 24 degrees here now, but I see it says strong winds here for tomorrow and about 4 degrees cooler which will suit me and maybe I'll feel like getting some things done. Those Bonariensis spread like wildfire here when I had them years ago, but they are nice and mingle with the other flowers and add a nice lilac colour.

OH is still on a zoom meeting, so I am off to bed. I've been yawning all afternoon so hope I sleep well.

I bet it dos'nt and his extended leave is probably to do the private patients. You do know where you stand now and can plan accrdingly and as Ann said he can't think its anything to worry about or he would have got you in before this.

Not done much today but did repot some of my plants and found some seedlings of Verbena Bonariesis (sp) so potted thosse too. Just gone from one thing to another and not achieved much but hey ho theres only me .

I did do the pond filter again tthis morning but hav'nt had the scimmer on today. It turned cloudy late afternoon and now its really quite chilly out there as I have just shut the shed up.

Sounds like you had a lot of catching up with your friend Ann and have you arranged another meeting. She has inspired you to try new things.

I had fruit at lunchtime and am having a two egg salad tonight. The no sweets, cakes or biscuits seems to be working as I feel slimmer already.

Just realised I hav'nt taken all my pills today so I better do that now.

If you google his full name, Mr Okechukwu Okonkwo AnnG, he sounds impressive and go ahead with great qualifications. As you say, at least you know your plans can go ahead now and you can look foward to and enjoy the wedding knowing your appointment will be afterwards.

I hope Karen has got your handset working and it sounds like things are tidier with the wii stuff gone now.

Actually to correct what I just said. It was one of his minions who stated that opinion. I have never met Mr Okonkwo. Sound like he is the only one able to deal with my problem.

Yes I wonder.
I am not too disappointed though as I am away for the wedding the first two weekd of August and wondering If I was going to have to cancel was bugging me.
He did say right at the start that it was not urgent/important. It underlines the difference between Dermatology and ENT. The latter has far more serious problems than dermatology I rhink.

Oh that's unbelievable isn't it AnnG! In any case after waiting so long I would have thought you would have been been given the beginning of August not the middle or later. Also why can't they give you an appointment date now? You must be really disappointed. The only comfort is that they clearly don't think it needs doing urgently.

Edit- I see he also works at 2 private hospitals. I wonder if his extended leave applies to those patients too.

reply from G Royal



Good afternoon Mrs Knight



I can confirm that you are still on our waiting list for your procedure. Unfortunately Mr Okonkwo is on a period of extended leave until the end of July so we will be unable to rebook your appointment until mid-August.



One week after your procedure there will be a face-to-face follow up and six weeks later Mr Okonkwo will do a video call with you.



I hope you have a lovely holiday and your Granddaughter’s wedding is a beautiful day. My daughter is getting married in August so we are excitedly preparing for that!



Please contact me if I can be of any further assistance

Afternoon All,

Phew it’s hot now (25 degrees) but is supposed to reach 26 degrees here this afternoon. Most of the windows and doors are open as there is a slight breeze, but the blinds and curtains at the front are closed till the sun moves round. I slept well last night and woke at 6.30 am, but didn’t get up till after 8.00 am. For some strange reason my hip one side was achey no matter how I lay and hurt more if I pressed it with my hand yet now it is perfectly ok again, so I think it must have been how I lay in the night. I have a very hard mattress, which has been a boon for my back, but maybe not so good for my hips!

When I went to meet my friend they had closed the outside access to the café there used to be, (presumably to make everyone see everything in the shop first via one of those meandering paths that make sure you see everything, (including stuff you would never want to buy!) Not good for the walking impaired but not quite disabled! The shop was a large greenhouse once, so has a glass roof and then you walk through an attached kind of concrete floored very long polytunnel to reach the fairly new café building. Well hot is an understatement, no ventilation, even in the closed each end, polytunnel and by the time I reached the café I couldn’t have gone much further in the heat. Relief then in the airconditioning and after drinking a small bottle of lemonade from the fridge. I sat and waited and wondered if my friend was waiting in the carpark, (I realised I hadn’t got her number in my new phone) but I couldn’t face another heatwave walk back there and then she rang to say ‘I’m at the wrong garden centre aren’t !’ She was so apologetic, but I was just pleased to hear I’m not the only one that does these things.lol Everyone coming in after me while I waited was red faced and fanning themselves including my friend when she arrived. We were there about 4 hours chatting and had something to eat as well. She has found another little beading group with less travel being nearer to where she lives and really likes it and sounded as sounded as if she is learning some interesting new beading designs too which I hope to see. She’s like me and will sometimes go and try different things, or visit places on her own. She used to say to me she couldn’t do painting, but has joined a Botanic Art course, enjoys it and intends to carry on with another in the autumn. Chair yoga is something else she wants to do and I must look on you tube to see if it’s something that might help me to lose a bit of weight. She has sparked my interest in finding more things to join and do. Some in our old group now do knitting for the yarn bomb, so I’m not sure if the few left still do any beading. We talked about FH as she does it too and I showed her my recently discovered connection with Princess Di and Benjamin Harrison the USA president. We chatted a lot about our old friend and her kindness and generosity and who sadly passed away recently and the time just flew till they were about to close and started sweeping up.

OH just has a zoom meeting later so we are having a quiet day doing little today. All my plants in the pots are going beyond the point of no return now, yet the marigolds I haven’t planted yet still look healthy if a bit rootbound. If there’s any of the compost left I daren’t even spread it round any shrubs as a mulch.

Your new book of knitted dolls and accessories sounds really good Mandy and something interesting to make. The animal ones you did were brilliant. I wouldn’t have wanted to part with some of them. I'm amazed at all the poppies you have done. They will look so good tied on the railings.

I still have a few ready meals Mel, but AnnG is right and small doesn’t always mean low in calories or healthy so read the labels and check the traffic lights aiming for more green than red. If I’m hungry I hot up left over veg to eat with them or microwave some peas.

Better post this. I was going to cut and paste it and nearly lost it as I got into some editing screens that wouldn’t let me copy! I’m a lost cause with losing posts.

Karen has sorted all the cables. A bit stressful when we had to lift the tV off the table and she disconnected everything but she found one cable that can be thrown out and another set of cables she couldn’t work out what they were for. So they are in the office ‘pending’ everything else she labelled the plugs. Then we put it all back together to check TV etc was working.
Then she took away all the Wii stuff. If she can’t find a home for it they will take it to the tip.
And she might have got this phone handset working.

Morning all 20 degrees and cloudy according to the pc but the suns out and theres a very pale blue sky so they got that wrong.

Knees hurt like crazy this morning when I got up for the loo.

I sam going to have a nie shower now and then wash my hair I think. The midges got me a bit last night and I am all itchy.

Good morning all sunny and 14 degrees here now ar 0630. I slept very well last night despite the cold I only woke up once.
I contacted my friends who are coming so daughter can sort out the wires but they have decided to still come and risk the cold. so, if they catch it I won't feel guilty. I bet I know where Cynth caught this one. Last Tuesday she was at Cardiff to see Taylor Swift with her friends who live in Wales. So this is a Welsh variety. I am hoping that it won't last as long as the other one, maybe there is a bit of immunity from having had that one.

Yu are right about the heat in houses Ann, As I walk up the stairs I can feel the heat coming to meet me. Although this house is not too bad having had wall insulation put in some time back.

Happy birthday to Lacey Mandy a bit late, sorry. They are all growing up now aren't they?

Good job they found the trousers Vera, if they hadn't I suppose your OH would have had to start all over again looking for another pair he liked. Luckily T always found trousers he liked in M&S which was convenient. Many years ago when living in Bedfordshire we did have a friend who was manager of a mens' tailors and T used to buy blazers there.

Mel check those meals for one for what they contain. they may be small but sometimes they have a lot of salt in them and are high carb count as well which means high sugar. You do go on working into the evenings, I couldn't do that, I rarely do any work in the garden after 4pm. And keep drinking the water. I have to admit I am not good at that myself. I try to keep a half litre bottle filled with tap water to drink so I can see how much I have had. But still forget.

Ann, now I am looking forward to the meet with your friend saga. Ooh two garden centres to choose from!!

This hot weather isn’t helping us sleep as well as usual and it gets light so early as well. Our binmen were here at 6.30am this morning, the earliest they’ve ever been, no doubt so they would finish before it got it’s hottest. I’ve read a suggestion to sleep downstairs to be cooler if you live in house and hot air does tend to rise upstairs so there’s some logic there.

Happy Birthday to Lacey! I still think of her as a little girl too, but how the time flies. Well at least it sounds like the iron tablets started you on some weight loss Mandy! Your diet ideas sound much like mine when I lost weight during lockdown. Mainly fish and chicken and with mostly veg or a salad on the plate too. Green veg have less calories than the root veg so more of those is a good idea and eggs except fried ones. I am pre diabetic as is OH now and my next test is due in a couple of months, so it might improve those results. I must start using the slow cooker to make some soups too as there is a lot of salt in bought ones and not much veg in most.

I too have an old Wii AnnG and still weigh myself on it. I ought to still do some of the balance exercises too. They do have a tangle of wires as you say and we seem to accumulate more wires still with modern tvs and we still have an old dvd player. Ours were all tidy once after I squeezed them all into some of that flexible pipe, but when someone had to come out to the tv they pulled them all out and never put them back. I look at them, think how my back and knees will ache bending down and have left them for now. What a shame Cynth didn’t warn you about her cold. I hope it is one that clears up quickly too.

That’s good the trousers turned up Vera and I bet the shop was glad when they turned up as well as they obviously pride themselves in good service. What a shame you had that horrendous migraine. I think this hot weather can sometimes seem to bring them on. You did well to brave it out with tablets to watch the film and I hope the increased dose will help in future.

It’s very late for me now, but the bedroom should have cooled down, so I’ll wish you all sweet dreams and tell you about meeting my friend tomorrow. Things didn’t start well as she went to a different garden centre to the one I was waiting for her at!!

I'm pleased the trousers have come to light and I should think with ll the upheval he should get them shortened at a cut price. If they could'nt have found them what would they have done then?

Had a sweep and now I am tired but I hav'nt picked it up yet. I have a barrow load I swept up ages ago and BIL has'nt emptied that for me. He usually puts it in the big trailer and dumps it round the wood by the bonfire which I hav'nt had for over 18 months. I can't light it when the weathers wet and I don't lie to do it when the weathers nice as all the neighbour are in their gardens.

I think I shall do some fruit, just cut it up for tonight and have one of the meals for one out of the freezer. They are only small so with the fruit that should do me.

Sorry to hear you’re all snuffly again AnnG. I hope this cold gets better quicker than the last one.

All this talk about weight made me go and weigh myself and I was surprised to find that I’d lost a bit more and am now under 10 st. As I’m tall I wouldn’t want to lose any more and would feel more comfortable with about another half stone. And can anyone tell me why my arms are getting thinner and my neck scraggier but I still have a spare tyre round my middle? It’s just not fair.

I didn’t get back after my early morning post yesterday as within a couple of hours I had developed an horrendous migraine. Although the pain was everywhere it was centred, as always, on the left hand side of my head and face and was excruciating. Even my teeth on that side hurt. So the rest of yesterday was spent in bed with just a few sips of water. By this morning I was able to manage some porridge and a cup of weak tea.

As luck would have it I had a telephone review of my meds booked for this morning so I was able to tell the lady at the surgery how I was feeling and how the migraines are getting more frequent again. She is upping the dosage on my migraine prevention tabs and said if after a while on the higher dose there’s not much improvement I should see the doctor. I wasn’t sure what to expect as my review has usually been carried out by the GP and this lady was a clinical pharmacist but she talked everything through thoroughly with me and really listened to what I said and obviously is able to do some prescribing.

After that I had another hour on the bed and during this time the hairdresser rang to see where I was as she had me down for an appointment. I know I booked it for tomorrow. I wouldn’t have booked it for this morning knowing I had the meds review so I think she had written the appointment down for the wrong day. She can fit me in for tomorrow so I’ll still get my haircut.

After lunch I had tickets for the film One Life at the local theatre. OH wouldn’t go without me and I was feeling quite a bit better so I dosed myself up with painkillers and went. It was very good, quite an inspiring story and the air conditioning was great. You couldn’t hear or even feel it blowing but it was a comfortable, cool temperature. I was glad I went for that alone as it was more comfortable than in the house. It’s currently 27 degrees here and looks like another hot night.

Oh yes, OH’s trousers. For his birthday I had bought OH a gift voucher for a local men’s outfitters that he likes. He chose some nice trousers but they needed to be shortened. When after about 10 days he hadn’t heard from them he rang the shop. That was on Friday and that was when it was discovered that all the paperwork was at the shop but the trousers had gone AWOL. On Monday the shop rang to check a couple of details with him and said they would take everything off every rail and shelf in the shop and storerooms till they found them. OH wasn’t too bothered as they hadn’t taken any money from him yet. Today the owner of the shop rang to say they had been found in some obscure place and to apologise so OH will collect and pay for them tomorrow. I know something went wrong this time but the owner and staff of this shop really know the meaning of customer service. They are always friendly but very polite and go to endless trouble to find exactly what the customer wants. They have even let OH bring clothing home for me to approve before he buys anything.

Well, OH will be wanting some dinner soon and I haven’t even heated the oven up yet so I’d better get my skates on. Stay cool and sleep well. See you tomorrow.

Hope you've had a lovely catch up with your friend today Ann and it wasn't to hot for you both .

Oh no Anng that was kind of Cynth to give you her cold you'd have thought she would have told you she had one so you could have kept your distance from her especially when she sneezed.
The back of our tele is a maize of wires if it wasn't for son sorting things for us we'd be in a right muddle as to what goes where ,we have a plastic box under the spare bed full of wires and chargers ,I think some are to do with the video cameras Colin use to use on holiday and he had three different ones and its something else that really needs sorting out but we don't want to throw out something that might be needed for something to make it work.

I heard back about my ultra sound and they could see the gall stones ,I can have them looked at but she said there's a long long wait :-( she also said I have a fatty liver ,like you said Ann all to do with weight so I must try and lose some more ,I have lost over a stone since I had the trouble with the iron tablets which I don't take now ,I'm making sure I eat more greens and fish ,I never have been a meat lover and do eat veg,salads and all sorts of fruit and I've cut down on bread and potatoes.

We have been so lazy today just did a few jobs indoors and sat by the fan ,I did a few more poppies ,the count now is 48 ,I did get son to order me a new book of knitted dolls ,12 dolls to knit and over 50 assesories so that should keep be busy and give me a change from poppies .

I have been playing with the ponds today. I was determined to get the big one clear so I have had the air on nearly all day. I was ging to treat it with cloverleaf blanketweed stuff and thinking I had three tubs of it I opened the first one to get out what was in there and only two scoops so off I go to get a bucket of pond water to mix it in put the two scoops in and open the next bin only to find it is full of salt and then the next one was too so I only had the 2 to put in and I usually put in 10 scoops. I had to come in and go through all the adverts on Ebay to find the cheapest one and I ordered some so now I have to wait 2 or 3 days for delivery.

I have also had a scrape out the front again and am now going to go and sweep that up but came in for a glass of water.

I do have semi skimmed milk Vera and I had a big bowl of cornfakes at lunchtime and shall have a dinner tonight. I also have a nice lot of fruit now the shopping has been. I forgot raspberries but did get cherries,a pineapple, I took the pears and some lovely looking necterines all nicely red and I have two apples so I am going to mkae a huge fresh fruit salad to munch on whenever I wish. I'll let you know if it working after a couple of days and Vera you are very welcome to some fat off my tummy. I carry it all in the middle. I have skinny arms and legs so quite a throwback I think.

Right had my water and am going to corn the chickens and then sweep up the mess I have made right along the front of the bungalow.

I think this is definitely a cold not hay fever. Thanks Cynth.I usually used to get one cold a year until covid, then nothing for three years now two in five weeks. Not happy. Just hope it is milder than the last one.

I have a tickly cough and a bit sniffly. I was thinking it might be hay fever as the pollen count is very high, But Cynth has just told me she has had a cold which started Saturday. (she sneezed when we were at Norton garden centre and I asked her if she suffered with hay fever. She didn't tell me she had a cold. It is only a month since I got rid of the cold and cough I had on holiday.
24 degrees now and sometimes overcast. I did see in the forecast we were expecting 89% humidity.

Talking about weight. There is me who could do with losing at least half a stone, maybe more. And there is my sister who badly wants to put on half a stone. She is actually 3 stones lighter than me. and nearly 7 years younger.