General Chat

Nothing simple in your house gill!!! :-D :-D

Afternoon All,

What a change in the weather after yesterday's rain. At least more of the local roads are passable although the Watery gate ford dipstick showed over 4 foot deep yesterday Crow Mills was still closed this morning and the fields around the river are lakes again. I looked on FB Mel and saw the bad Dipper Mill floods you mentioned. I nearly didn't get to the workshop yesterday as I forgot that under the railway bridge would be flooded. I drove right up to the water but decided it wasn't worth risking getting stuck. It is about 12 miles away and I don't know the busy, built up area very well and silly me didn't even have their phone number with me so I could phone to find another route or a street map to look for another way! I did eventually find a way to cross the railway line and I eventually recognised where I was and got there! When Paul asked me what I would like I told him 'a lie down in a darkened room!!' She had 2 rooms set up again with just 7 of us next to the kitchen (and food!). Everyone was friendly, three of us on our table had come on our own, plus 2 friends and two priests. I admired a pretty beaded tassel one lady had made and she lives in the next village to me and is going to drop the pattern through my door. She and her friend want me to join our local bowls club where they apparently do crafts on Mondays, but I said with my knees and back bowling was OUT. She wouldn't be put off, especially when she said some do painting and I said I did very occasionally too. She wants me to drop in for a coffee with them but I'm not sure! Still as OH said, they must like me.

Frank, I would have been inclined to go straight to Eye Casualty at your local hospital. Any changes like you describe need seeing promptly as there are so many possible causes and some can be serious and are best caught before there is more damage. Get yourself off to the Opticians nice and early tomorrow. That's nice you have little Abbie for company. She sounds so affectionate. :-)

Well from what you all say I think I'm best to stick with the steam mop I have till it packs up and carry on with slow steam ahead. lol. I can't stand the squeegee mops as I find they are so hard to squeeze out. I used to get on my hands and knees to do the floors. Then when I couldn't kneel I would do a sort of sand shuffle with wet cloths under my feet.

I nearly made him lose his mouthful of tea at lunchtime when we were reading newspapers. I'd been reading about the migrants who died in the refrigerated lorry and was asking OH why they would seize the lorry boss's cars. Instead of saying he had a nice Chevrolet Corvette, I said he had a nice Chevrolet Courgette!! :-D

Yes he is quick witted and as sharp as a box of knives! Neither he nor his 77 year old pal were able to program his friend's new satnav that the grandaughter had set up for her grandad yesterday though. He said his pal just went the way he knew in the end and took the longest, winding route to the match. He said there was some hooting at them as well. No wonder OH prefers to do the driving if he can!

Gill, I never knew that shrub was poisonous, although it is surprising how many garden plants are harmful. I had some beautiful, tall, blue Monkshood once and thought how good they would be for flower arrangements. Once I read how harmful they could be I dug them up (with leather gloves on!) I was worried I might get sap from the plant or roots on my skin and wipe across my mouth without thinking.

Vera, once OH retired it was nice to go out together as you say. He was away from home a few nights most months and with the long hours with the travelling he did we were like ships that pass in the night at times. Now I get the 'I'll come with you' even to the supermarket and have to say 'no' sometimes as he then expects us to go home once he is ready which as I've told him isn't quite the idea!

Well done getting the bag finished Mandy and the crochet pom poms on the bag flap would look lovely. :-D I see Chelse made some pom poms too for her room. They seem to be on everything just now. I quite fancy putting some big ones on the corners of our cushions but OH will either not notice them or ask a silly question like 'what are they for?'. :-S

AnnG I don't envy you in the car park getting soaked! The spaces are far too small and the gaps between the rows not enough for today's bigger cars though. I don't even have a rear wiper as my glass roof is a bubble roof and curved so I can't see well behind for backing out. I have to confess that I don't enjoy driving on busy roads in towns I don't know now. Whether it is because we usually go out in OH's car and he usually drives and it is lack of practice or whether it is the lack of good signage and the volume of traffic I don't know. He will ask me if I want to drive, but with him at the side of me it isn't relaxing as he isn't a good passenger despite what he thinks!.

Gill I bet Sandra is all ready for the big switch on tonight! She'll be up ages watching them through the bedroom window!

Good evening everyone

Yes Mel, we did remember the clocks but I hated it when it seemed to get dark so early this evening. It's suddenly so cold as well, though we did have some sun today. According to the forecast the temperature is going down to 0 degrees tonight. I've put the geraniums I lifted and geranium and penstemon cuttings I've taken into my mini greenhouse and OH has brought a couple of potted fuschias that aren't very hardy into the conservatory. The garden is beginning to look like winter now.

Glad you are getting Sandra's lights sorted Gill. Life in your house is never boring is it :-D

You were wise not to risk driving through the flood water Ann. I had never particularly wanted a mobile phone but some 15 years ago I had to drive through flood water to get to work and got stuck in the middle. I did manage to restart the car and get myself out but when I told OH he insisted I had a mobile phone. It sounds as though you are much in demand at the craft clubs. I can see why - your work is so good. I shall now forever think of that car as a courgette :-D

I've had an odd day. I changed all the bedding and washed a big duvet cover, and did a few other household jobs. Then I wanted a word with a neighbour so called out to OH "I am just popping over to see A & D". When I got there the husband opened the door and said A was next door with another neighbour P. So I knock on P's door and go in and we sat chatting for sometime. Then A left as she was going out to an early lunch. P then started talking about a tragedy in her family some years ago but she got very tearful and emotional so I couldn't leave her till she was calmer. Eventually I went home, expecting OH to have gone for his Sunday lunchtime pint with his friend but he was still at home and in quite a state. He had noticed A & D drive off and thinking I had been in their house expected me to walk in the door. When I didn't he started getting worried, walked up and down the road looking for me, rang friends and got them worried too and somehow convinced himself that I had either had an accident or lost my memory again (this happened once 17 years ago!). I just couldn't believe it. He isn't normally the panicky, worrying sort at all and he knows I would never go off anywhere without letting him know so I don't know what had got into him. Anyway what with staying with the neighbour longer than intended and then spending time calming OH down the roast went in the oven an hour later than usual. After about an hour I was just thinking of putting the roast potatoes in and the doorbell went . It was the neighbours with the alarm. They had come to tell us that the company had been and had fixed things so there shouldn't be any more problems with it. But they came in and they stayed an hour. By the time they went the roast pork was cooked but none of the veg had been done. We eventually got our 2 pm dinner at 4 o'clock.

Now I am waiting for a phone call from my daughter. A long while ago we got fed up constantly leaving each other messages on the answering machine and always missing each other so now we text and agree a time when we are both free. She's calling me at about 7 pm. My friends think it's hilarious that I make an appointment to speak to my daughter but it works for us. She has got me on tenterhooks though by texting that she has good news about her daughter, the one doing a degree in drama and film.

I've been rambling on again. I can't think that all my everyday doings are of any interest to anyone but once I start writing I just seem to get carried away, so I will stop now. I hope you all enjoy your evening and sleep well tonight.

Vera I was wishing I had the internet on my mobile as I sat wondering what to do. At least I could have looked up another way to go or rung where I was going to! I still have a simple PAYG for contacting OH or emergencies. I can quite see why your OH was worried and my OH would have been too in that situation. I bet he was so pleased to see you and it was nice of you to sit with your neighbour till she was calmer. I don't think it was my beading or craft skills Vera, but we did have a lot of laughter and tried to help each other out.I wonder what the good news will be!

A lot of our clocks update themselves Mel, but I still have my car one to do and OH did the cooker and boiler when he got up and the car when we went out. His mobile updates itself whereas mine doesn't. You made me think of FIL and all their clocks to change!!

Yes, we did gain an hour after getting up AnnG, we thought we'd got up on time, only to find out later that we'd got up an hour earlier than we normally do.

You're right, if anything can go wrong it normally does in this house, but we get there in the end. We just had enough cable clips to complete the job, so that was lucky as we never found the missing ones in the end.

It's all finished now and the two lights are on, Sandra is sitting at her bedroom window looking at them......bless her. Now all we need to do is put the rooms back to rights.

Just as Sandra watched us turn the lights on, the new neighbour who moved in a few days ago must have visitors and at the same time as us switching the lights on she let off lots of fireworks. Talk about good timing for Sandra, it looked like it was meant for her switch on. Of course Sandra watched the fireworks while looking at her lights. She got her camera and took some photo's to show her Nan and Gran. I'd take some on my camera but it has an automatic flash so we wouldn't have the same effect.

So right now, Sandra is a very happy bunny . <3 <3

OH and I had a shock when we turned her lights on as that's when the first firework went off, but at the time we didn't know what it was and thought the lights had blown. Both our heart were pounding, until we heard the next firework and realised what the bang was.

OH has just painted the black cable in the spare bedroom, so once that's had it's second coat and dried we'll put everything back, then Sandra can watch her programmes in the back room while we watch the F1. She can't get anywhere near her TV at the moment as everything from the spare bedroom has gone in there.

I'm so pleased the lights are finished now, they seemed to go on for ages with all the problems we encountered. Never mind they're done now and look really good.

Nothing is confirmed so I can’t say a lot and anyway it won’t happen till next summer, but granddaughter has been approached to take on two big Shakespearean roles (Juliet and Lady Macbeth). These are professional groups so she gets paid and gets points towards getting an Equity card. One will be a production touring secondary schools, I’m not sure where the other will be performed. What is really exciting her is that at least one of them is being taken to the Edinburgh Fringe. So that was the news daughter told me over the phone tonight :-)

Good morning all, sunny this morning but we had a fairly hard frost last night. I don't remember getting frosts this early here. OH has gone to golf but he won't be playing yet I am sure as the frost is still around.

Annx Yes the weather definitely improved yesterday after the previous couple of days. But, oh dear what a journey you had to get to your class. full marks fir determination, glad to got there. That beaded tassle sounds very pretty, look forward to the photos when you make one. Sooo will you give in and join the bowls club?
Oh I will always think of your Chevrolet Courgette remark now, food must have been on your mind! :-D
Unfortunately most car parks these days are not recently built and are still marked out to take the older and smaller cars. I think his problem (and mine) was the rain as the windows were so steamed up he didn't have clear vision out of the side back so couldn't see the cars either side which had parked after us and were not exactly straight. Yesterday the car park (which is actually a new extension at the garden centre, had equally narrow spaces but he was in his car with the warning bleepers and computer parking screen so he was fine getting out.
I won't, if I can avoid it, drive with OH in the car, he is not a good passenger and always prefers to drive himself. Which is probably why I hardly ever drive anywhere.

Vera I hate the dark evenings too. Well that was a strange day you had. I can imagine my OH would be the same as yours. He probably only worried because he saw the original person you visited going out and didn't know where you had gone.
And what great news from your daughter re your so talented granddaughter. what an opportunity for her. I wish her all the best and hope that she can go as far as she wants to in the acting profession.

I bet that made Sandra's day Gill when the fireworks went off at her lights switch on. so pleased that it all worked out for her. The fireworks would have been fo Diwhalli (I am not sure of the spelling of that).

I am waiting to hear how our little Granddaughter Inara is. She gets very wheezzy (takes after her Dad and his Dad) and has an inhaler but yesterday they had to take her to the hospital because the inhaler was not helping so she was given antibiotics. However, and I can't believe this, the medicine is so nasty (Grandson says it tastes foul) that she spits it out. I believe on daughter's advice she did take one spoonful with (one of three suggested) either yoghurt, honey or chocolate spread. Waiting to hear how she is today. Never ending you start off worrying about your kids, then the grandchildren and now the greats!

Morning all,

Not as nice here this morning as it was yesterday morning as it is all clouded over and there's no wind but it is veryy cold.

Vera what a talented granddaughter you have and you must be so proud of her. Good luck to her with these new parts and I am sure she will do them really well. Its nice she has two parts to play in the Shakespearean roles as many of her age don't want to do those kind of plays. I think she is set for a good career on the stage.

Perhaps you should have popped back home and told oh you were going in another neighbours house Vera and then he would'nt have worried about you. I always tell oh where I am going so he dos'nt worry about me and when I do go out he always tells me to "Be careful".

As to the parking spaces, in Holsworthy we have a small carpark in the square in the middle and you are aloud to park on the sides as well. The spaces in the square are all straight and its a job to back out of them with the cars parked at the sides too. If they had made the spaces on a slant it would be so much easier to get in and out instead of having to shuffle backwards and forwards in a tight space and its not just us oldies who have trouble but a lot of the younger drivers too.

I started a coupl eof things over the weekend but did'nt finish any of them so today I am going to try and do that.

Hope Jane is feeling a bit better today. I don't think we heard from her yesterday did we?

Good morning all,

Just popped in to let you know the eyes still the same. We are both getting ready to go to the opticians, to see what they think is wrong with my eye. Will report back later. xxx

Good morning Mel, no I don't think we did hear from Jane yesterday so hope she is not too bad today, and that Frank has gone to either doctor or optician.

Just checking birthdays for next year and I can't fins any note of Vera's or her address either. maybe I have stuck it in an odd place somewhere but could you message it to me Vera Please.
(I don't have Frank's either)

AnnG I have pm'd you.

Both new girls have been out this morning and fed while the others were at the feeding ball eating brown bread I oput in it. Its a good way to keep the older ones away while they have some pellets.

Daisy laid again this morning so thats every day since she started laying. We had her eggs with our big breakfast yesterday, two each.

Meant to say good luck at the opticians Frank and hope they can see whats wrong and you can get a result as to whats up with your eye. It could be cataracts (sp?) or glocoma.

Shall wait to see the result later. xx

Thanks Mel but still haven't got the birthdays for them

AnninG, Will pm you my details later. Jane and Frank, I have your birthdays but no address to send a card. If you are happy for me to have your addresses, perhaps you could pm me. In a rush now but will be back later

Afternoon all,

Lovely day here with nice sun shine after a sharp frost ,we had to pop out to the doctors as Colin had to have a blood test ,he was in and out before his time so that was good ,we had a coffee when we got home and then got on clearing out the green house ,there's lots of pots to wash and more tubs of rubbish to go to the tip later in the week .

Vera what exciting news for your grandaughter well done to her ,you must all be so proud of her ,what a great opportunity for her i wish her all the very best in the months to come .

AnnG i hope your little grandaughter is feeling a lot better today ,fancy them giving a child a nasty tasting medicine ,they would spit it out ,there must be some way of giving it a better taste so they would take it .

Hope you can get your eyes sorted out today Frank ,it must be a bit of a worry that they haven't cleared at all.

For those that like it i see there is a new lot of Escape to the Chateau DIY this afternoon at four o'clock on channel 4 and then a new lot of Escape to the Chateau on Sunday channel 4.

Mandy she is fine in hereslf and they have managed to get her to take a dose of the antibiotics. Daughter has had her for the day while Mum works so I will know more later. She hasn't gone to pre school.

Pm'd you again AnnG.

Really cold and still cloudy here.

Thanks Mel, yes cold here too 7 degrees outside according to Alexa.

its 5 degrees here according to Echo.

We hav'nt heard from Frank yet I do hope he is ok. they may have sent him to the hospital! <3

Evening Folks,

No news from Frank yet? I wonder if the optician sent him to Eye Casualty? Or maybe his eyes are still recovering from the drops and he can't type yet. I hope he's ok.

Vera what great offers for your grand daughter! She must be so excited and thrilled now. :-D :-D

Poor little Inara AnnG. I hope she is recovering now, but that medicine sounds horrid so you can understand her spitting it out!! I can't believe you have gt grandchildren!! :-0

I went to see the lovely lady who runs a craft/haberdashery shop in a lorry container in the village this afternoon. We are making a rag wreath at class on Wednesday and I wanted some green fabric to go with the red and the blue pieces I have. I have no idea what the finished article will look like but when I told her what I wanted it for she said 'come this way' and led me round the corner to show me one she had made which was hanging on the wall. Well it was lovely and she had even tied red, white and green pompoms all round the centre in a circle. Another lady came in while I was there for 'more supplies'. She has been making Halloween flower brooches with pumpkin centres and ribbon petals and leaving them around the village for the children to find. What a lovely idea!

The newest girls seem to be eating and settling in Mel and it's good that Daisy is giving you a daily egg now.

Thanks for mentioning the Chateau progs Mandy.......I have just recorded them. You have reminded me I still need to sort out our greenhouse too.

No Jane again.....?