General Chat

My oh always has control of the remote too Vera. It must be a man thing!!

I looked out of the wind this afternoon and the sky was very dark mauvey grey and then it started to hail with the wind blowing a gale. Suddenly there was the loudest clap of thunder I have heard in a long while. Just the one....

I have been wrapping the boys presents for their stockings I give them every year. Packed the first one wonderfully but when it came to the next one do you think I could get it the same as the first and all the things were the same in each stocking. I did it in the end as best as I could. Thats another job out of the way.

I do some times cook the veg earlier and then reheat it as I dish up but we don't have so many roasts now but I shall do it for our Christmas dinner.

Going to have a cuppa now.

Well it was all very nice tonight and for some reason the roast potatoes were lovely and crispy but soft inside. Not cooked any differently so I wonder why?

Were they a different varity of potatoes AnnG?

Sitting here in a daze and I have so much to do but just don't feel like doing anything. If only the sun would shine then I would be able to do loads.

Morning all,

It was so windy last night it kept blowing the extracter fan door open in the kitchen. It does that when the winds in a certain direction which is annoying as I can't reach it easily to close it again I have to use a wooden spoon to give it a clout.

Some sun and blue sky and grey clouds and still windy this morning so whats it like with you lot? O its not raining so thats one good thing.

I think they were just Maris Piper Mel, I know they do roast well so maybe that was it.

Very windy here this morning, rained a lot over night by the look of the puddles on the patio. OH has gone to golf, he will come home with muddy trousers.

I had a terrible night last night so don't feel like doing much this morning. Have done a load of washing but nothing else.

I always use Maris Piper pots AnnG they are the best I find for roasting. I just give them a boil up first drain them and let them dry a bit in their own heat and then put them in hot fat and I turn them once or twice.

Just made an appointment for oh to have his flu jab.

Hope Frank can get sorted today as I really miss his posts and what they are up to.

Did we hear from Mandy yesterday??????

Love to Jane. <3 <3 <3

No Mel we didn't hear from Mandy yesterday. Yes I do my roasties like you, as my Mum taught me!!

Morning All,

The sun's out and no wind at the moment. We just had some new dining chairs delivered. The old ones which we thought were leather covered weren't and had started cracking and flaking. The new ones say they are 100% leather, a similar style and most important, more comfy! We are off to the carvery at Lutterworth shortly, then the factory shop and Specsavers on the way back. OH needs to get a photo done at the Post Office to renew his driving licence. He can't do it online as his passport has run out and they won't let you supply your own photo if you aren't doing it on line. More ways to make money out of us!

Sorry you had a bad night AnnG. I had a reasonable one but was awake early with this delivery expected this morning. I always try and get Maris Piper for my Christmas roast potatoes for just the same reason! I like a nice crunch! I might get some today if I see any on our travels so I can parboil, shake them to fluff the surface and freeze them ready for Christmas to save time. :-) I'm also going to try getting the gammon and cooking it and freezing it soon as well. It will free up more time and mean less work to do in the kitchen on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Vera that was a very considerate and thoughtful thing for your grand daughter to give up that opportunity to be able to give more time to her other commitments including helping the Lithuanian boy. She is a clever girl though so I'm sure other opportunities will come her way. That hand shake must be a nuisance at times, but at least it doesn't happen all the time which is good. I thought 'Elizabeth is missing' looked good and have recorded it.

I'd better get ready to go for lunch now as we need to get the papers and drop prescriptions in on the way. BBL

Not feeling very awake due to the loss of sleep. Sorry Vera, I meant to say about your granddaughter. What a mature young lady she is to be thinking of others instead of putting herself first. She will, of course have other opportunities but at her age it is not always easy to think that when an enticing offer is made. So I admire her for her thoughtfulness. I am sure she will go far.

The hand shake must be very annoying and was probably hard to come to terms with. but you seem to have 'met' it with your usual good humour and thankfully, as you say, it doesn't happen all the time.

Annx good idea to parboil and freeze the potatoes and gammon. I have a better idea, we are going up to daughters and probably the meal will be cooked by the two Grandsons who will be there. Or maybe just the one who is actually staying with daughter, the other one will probably have enough to do with a hyper 3 year old.

Thank you for the card Mel. OH decided he wanted to put it together so he did, and managed very well.

That is a far better idea AnnG. :-D It's good that the grandsons can cook a Christmas Dinner and yes an excited 3 year old would be a full time job. I read the other day that 1 in 10 adults have never cooked any meal! My first FIL cooked Christmas Lunch every year while his wife took herself off to visit local relatives on Christmas morning, but my first OH didn't carry on the tradition. :-S You talking about payroll reminded me of doing a week's training for work on Sage this time of the year at a hotel on the seafront in Scarborough. I hated the course and everywhere was shut except the theatre. The thing I have never forgotten is Mrs Krankie walking over and spending an evening with us at our table.

We had lunch and got all of our errands done which was good and my next job is to see whether we have enough of the thick felt stuff to cut pads for the new chair legs so they don't scratch the floor.

Thank you for your pretty, sparkly card Mel. :-D I must see if I can make a start on mine tomorrow afternoon. Our letterbox rattles like that when the wind blows in a particular direction. Even though I know it will rattle it still keeps making me jump.

Just a quickie as Sandra has spilt some Blackcurrant juice on the carpet so I'm just about to get the carpet cleaner out, plus I'm up to eyes in washing, silly me decided to do the bedding as well as a pile of clothes so I'm plodding through all that, plus I'm in the middle of doing a bit of sewing. I also need to straighten my hair and re-make the bed, so busy busy busy.

MESSAGE FROM SANDRA

Thank you Jane for all the stickers and the card, I love the flamingo's and butterflies, also the unicorns, you're so kind sending them to me. Thank you <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Thank you to Mel for your Christmas card, I love it. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Thank you Jane for our card, it's lovely. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 I hope you are feeling okay today, I've been thinking of you. Sandra is thrilled with the Flamingo stickers, as she can't buy them anywhere around here and she'd ran out.

Thank you also Mel for your lovely Christmas card, I've put it with the others

Right I'd better go and clean the carpet, sorry I haven't caught up with the posts yet, I hope everyone is okay. My headache has finally gone, it went a few hours ago, after starting yesterday. I'll try and get back on here later if not I'll catch up with the posts tomorrow.

Ah, luckily I never had to use Sage Ann. Everyone who had to do the course used to have trouble with it and complained it was sooo hard. I worked in wages and salaries departments in three different places, in the 50s/60s (Dockyard), In the 70s Local gov and in the 80s MOD. All were different systems, the first of course not being fully computerised

I didn't realise how many hearts were on my last message, Sandra asked me to put on loads, I think I've covered her request lol :-D :-D

But have you got the blackcurrant juice out of the carpet???????????? I hope so.

I have hoovered the kitchen and dining area today and you should have seen the cobwebs all around the plate racks round the room. Also had a go in the boiler cupboard and the water tank area which dos'nt get opened much. I have had lots and lots of tiny spiders spinning webs around the house not only in the kitchen and they are not the usual leggy ones.

Glad you like dthe card Anng and it gave T something to do. I thought you may be able to adapt it to your card making after Christmas with it having three sides. I think I sent those to others on the thread last year as they were special ones.

Glad you liked the card Ann and I sent Jane the same. They were nice and I only got four in the pack. Oh's sister had one and auntie Joy.

Still no Mandy I hope she is ok......... Perhaps she's busy.

I don't like frozen bacon I think it gets a funny taste so I would'nt put ham or gammon in the freezer and also things that come out of the freezer can sometimes be saltier after being in there so watch out if you have never done it before. Its just a thought.

Mossed two more rings today and cleaned the big girls out and started another arrangement so a good day all in all.

Think I may have the plates off the rack and give them a wash for Christmas then I can put my bobble string up for my cards. I tend to leave the one over the computer desk as its hard to get to and its the longest one. The two shorter ones either side of the lounge double doors I can reach easily.

Evening all,

It's been a nice day here lots of sun but so cold with it and very windy ,we went to Makro this morning and stocked up ,got a load of nice Chicken Breasts and a big joint of Pork which i cut in half to make two nice joints for when the family come ,also got one of their Christmas pudding logs which is split into two so that will be ideal for both days over Christmas .

Thanks Mel for your lovely card ,took me a minute to work out which bit went where ,it's now on the Mantel piece sparkling in the light .
Your Wreaths look lovely, you have been busy and the stall looked nicely set out too.

Ann our chairs have gone the same as yours ,they are starting to flake but they are nice heavy chairs so i might see if i can cover them some how .

AnnG we had some nice roasties tonight with our Chicken ,i use red Desiree Poatoes for my roasties .
I have been raking my brain as to how i did my roasties for Christmas last year ,i think i par boiled them and them froze them ,but i also remembered par boiling some and chilled them in the fridge over night to use the next day ,but for the life of me i carn't remember which came out the best now ,i have par boiled some tonight and put them in the fridge to see how they come out tomorrow , i have to do two trays with all the family coming so i want to ease the work a bit on chistmas day if i can , i also cook/steam veg early and then reheat in the microwave .

Sounds as if you've had a busy day Gill ,hope the blackcurrant comes out of the carpet .

Tomorrow we're off into Church to see Lewis in his Nativity play ,i love seeing all the little ones trying to see where mum and dad are and waving like crazy :-D

Love to Jane <3 hope your feeling a little better

Glad your headache's gone Gill and I hope the spilt blackcurrant juice doesn't give you another.

It's a good thought and I hadn't thought about the saltiness Mel and I agree about the fat on bacon going rancid if it's in there for long. I have frozen half of boiling bacon joints we've had at Christmas before so we don't get sick of it and could have the second half at New Year, so I might still try doing it a couple of weeks before being as it will only be frozen for a very short time. It's either that or I buy a cooked joint this time. I just can't stand for ages in the kitchen without my knees starting to ache any more so doing things ahead of the day will be a big help. You've had a good day and got lots done. I don't think I've ever seen so many cobwebs as we've had this year. There have even been webs on the top of the curtains!

So I'm not the only one that didn't like Sage then AnnG. We didn't need to use it thank goodness, but as Inspectors who visited businesses to inspect payrolls and records it was thought it would be helpful to us to learn how it worked. Some employers expected me to access things myself and looked a bit askance when I said they needed to do it for me, till I said I couldn't afford to be sued if I lost all their records!! :-0 As you say, there were different systems too and they didn't bear much resemblance to each other did they! Some of the printouts did my brain in trying to find the figures I wanted. I know one did printouts with narrow green lines and the sheets folded up like a concertina. Happy days......well not every day! :-)

Mandy it very swiftly crossed my mind to do the same, but it would be tricky in leather and to do the full backs as well. If they were just pads to recover and in material it would be a lot easier. OH resorted to putting black tape over where they flaked and we are forever hoovering up the brown bits that flake off. It will be lovely to see Lewis in his Nativity play. Will he be a shepherd? It sounds like you are filling up your freezer and the log puddings sound interesting.

I hope Jane feels a bit more clever now. <3 <3

Evening folks

I am going to take issue with you ladies over the choice of potatoes for your roasts. By far the best ones are King Edwards and, though I say it myself, I do make a good roast potato. I can't say the same for the rest of my cooking but my roasties do get praise. Apart from the variety of potato, I do much the same as you - parboil, drain well and shake them about a bit over the heat for a few seconds till they are dry and roughed up a bit. Maris Piper aren't bad and are my second choice if I can't get Edwards. I've never thought of parboiling and then freezing them so that's something new for me to try.

I've also not frozen a cooked gammon in case it dried out a bit. Do you just bake it and then wrap and freeze it as it is?

I hope Frank's absence is just because of his internet problems.

AnnG, I hope you have a better night tonight. I've had the same idea as you, let someone else cook Christmas dinner. We will be at daughter's house. I have offered help and been asked to bring another dessert as a couple of people don't like Christmas pud. and to bring some Christmas crackers so I am having an easy time this year.

You were lucky to get a week's course on Sage, Ann. I came in to work after a weekend to find the boss had got it installed on the computer and I was expected from then on to use it for most of our accounting, VAT and payroll needs. So the boss and I learned together by trial and error (quite a lot of error ;-)). I got on OK with it and it certainly made my life easier with invoicing and VAT and we were a very small company so I didn't have loads of employees on the payroll to deal with.

I hope you got the blackcurrant out of the carpet Gill. It's one of those things that can leave a horrid stain if you are not quick to clean it up.

It will be lovely to see Lewis's nativity Mandy. I think the little ones always bring a lump to the throat when they act out the Christmas story.

If you are looking in Jane, you are still in my thoughts. Anne too, I hope she is feeling much better. <3 <3

I did a couple of loads of washing this morning and a few odd jobs. This afternoon it was in to town and oh, that wind. It was bitter. I went to the post office with 2 cards for Australia, 1 for Spain and a large letter size envelope for Germany and didn't get much change from £10 :-( Then we took a duvet in to be cleaned and then managed to finish my Christmas present shopping. I've got 7 people in Yorkshire to buy for and as we are unlikely to see them again before late spring or early summer I shall have to post their gifts. It's been quite a problem finding nice presents for them that didn't weigh very heavy. I must admit the two step-grandsons have got vouchers. I'll try and wrap them and pack them all in one box tomorrow and get them to the post. I dread to think what the parcel is going to cost to send.

Like AnnG we have had some good news as an early Christmas present. My brother had the results of his latest tests and scans and they are the best they have been so it looks like all his operations and treatments over the last 2-3 years have had the desired effect. I am full of smiles at the moment so on that happy note I'll say Night, night and sleep tight.

How appreciative we all were to have a lot less than we now take for granted.
My late parents worked harder for less. They never owned their home, they rented.
They raised three sons who are grateful for what they have.

Morning all

The weather today is forecast to be really bad from around 9am so we're going to stay in where it's warm and dry. The wind is suppose to be 60 to 70 miles an hour I'm not looking forward to that, it worries me what damage it could do and it's suppose to be raining really heavily to.

How lovely to go and see Lewis in his Nativity Mandy, I used to look forward to watching our girls in theirs. Like you said the little ones look around for mum and dad and wave to them, it's so cute to see.

That was a long time filming for a few minutes of film Vera, I never thought about all the editing involved, it's quite a long process isn't it. How thoughtful your granddaughter is, I'm sure another opportunity will come along for her in time though. What wonderful news about your brother and just at the right time before Christmas.

Yes, I got the Blackcurrant out of the carpet, Sandra said it smelt nice after I'd cleaned it for her. Luckily we had the heating on so it didn't take to long to dry and was okay for when she went to bed. I've got a dehumidifier so I put that in her room which helped to dry the carpet. She got herself a bit upset over it, which of course I said was okay and accidents happen, I think it's because she's had a bad week, first she got the virus then she burned her finger, which has gone into a sore and then the spilt drink. I joked with her and said sit down then nothing else can go wrong. I big hug soon made her feel better though. I'm going to wash her bedding today. I was so tired yesterday with being so busy I was in bed before midnight which is early for me. Mum is calling around later so we can exchange Christmas presents, I hope she makes it here before the weather turns bad.

Going to get a cuppa then take another look at OH's tree before Sandra wakes up and I do her bedding. I want to check if there are anymore people to copy over, or if I've finally finished that bit.