General Chat

Afternoon to you all,

Nice to see you Jane. Just do a little of getting about and not to overdo it. Sorry I missed Hannah's B'Day. Good wishes to her. xxx

I wanted to Cancel this weekend, but Ros says she would like to go, so as can meet a lot of family she has never met. So Simon will pick us up as pre arranged. I will make sure we take precautions and not KISS and SHAKE HANDS. I'm sure others will be the same and understand.

Still not feeling 100%. Ros got me a Ham Sarnie and coffee for lunch, while we watched the Budget. No big surprises there. !!!!

Ros stood and ironed all the washing she did yesterday, plus re- ironed my shirts for the weekend. Suit all clean, and I have cleaned a pair of Black Shoes. So already for the off on Saturday.

I love a few pints of Guiness, my mum had two bottles a night. She had a very poorly heart for many years, and the Doctor said it would help with her condition. She made it till 86, so didn't do bad !!!!

I hope all of you who are under the weather, are feeling a little better today.

The weather here has been quite sunny, even though it still has this cold wind.

Stir fry tonight, which Ros is going to do, so I am a man of leasure today. Going to have a read of my book now. So will see you all later. xxxx

I suppose it is a good opportunity to see rellies you hav'nt seen before but I still think you both would be better staying at home. Sorry. Did you sleep well last night Frank?

I cleaned the chickens out after doing the HW this morning so they are now all nice and dry for 5 minuets. Had lunch and then did a bit of painting of my bits of clay work. Not finished anything yet as I have to wait till the paint is dry before doing another coat.

Mandy my washing dried too and now its all in before the damp comes down.

Suns gone now and the sky has turned grey with some ominus looking darker clouds.

Its surprising how much you can get done when the sun shines.

Are the stitches out now AnnG. I have been thinking about you. Hope its more comfortablel now and it won't catch on things. You may get a better sleep now. How long is this treatment with the cream?

Stitches are out, took longer than I expected I had a student nurse under supervision do it. She was lovely, very gentle and careful but she had to give up on the last one and hand it over to Claire who is actually not a nurse but a Health something or other, she has been at the practice for years. She got the last one out eventually, it had got embedded so my arm is a bit sore now. That will wear off though soon.

The cream has to be applied for 6 weeks, Monday to Friday. Applied in the evening and left overnight, washed off in the morning. Long time since I had my back washed.

Doctors was quite full but there was hand gel as you went in and instead of booking in on line we had to go to reception where she asked if we had coughs or colds or fever. Before I went in we were on our own in the nurses waiting room which is not very big. When I came out OH was there with a lady and two toddlers one of whom did have a cough. He said even worse was a woman was in there for a while who coughed into her hand. He was not impressed.

Afternoon All
Ann you will be relieved now the stitches are out.There always seems to be one awkward stitch that is a devil .I didn’t realise that your cream for your back could cause tummy trouble plus all the other possible side effects.I would love to have my back washed.Its like having a nice massage if done firm enough.but oh will have to go softly on yours .
Frank as long as you stick to all the precautions you and Ros should be ok and I am sure it will be a lovely weekend.
Clean house and clean chickens Mel.You have been busy :-D

Vera fingers crossed DIL will be fine and able to get home as planned in 2 weeks.Any kind of travel abroad now is a worry isn’t it.

I felt like my Nana this afternoon being taken out for a ride in the car LOL.I did enjoy it though .We went out in the country and I wanted to see this huge viaduct I took a few pics so will forward them.It was just nice to get out of the house I saw so many Red Kite I could not manage to count them!!!!

Mandy you will be pleased OH sorted out your washing line. I think if we had washing out today it would have dried in no time.

I am going to see if my little bit of beef casserole has defrosted.The men have Meatballs.
James has another interview tomorrow morning in Cambridge and another on Monday in Ely.

Two interveiws thats good I hope he gets one and its what he wants.

Oh used to wash mny back when I had a bath but now I don't bath and just have showers I have to do my own with a brush.

Its got very windy here so I shall be putting my big coat on to go for the fish and chips. I don't really fancy fish tonight or a burger or chicken or anything else they do and I don't eat scampi, yuk.......... so I think I shall just have chips and cook myself a couple of eggs. I hav'nt had egg and chips for years. If mum and I had lunch out she would always have egg and chips and thats when I used to have it too.

I am going to see if the pictures from Jane are through yet now.

Wow thats i a big viaduct.

Love the other pics too good content.

Bless him all tucked in beside your pillow.

It must have been nice to be taken for a ride. Oh dos'nt take me for a drive anymore in fact he dos'nt drive now.

That looked like a lovely ride. And quite an impressive viaduct isn’t it. Yes always one stitch is awkward. This one got buried and they had to dig to get it out, so I have a dressing back on now to stop infection. One step forward and three back. Are you starting to feel better Jane? I hope so. Good luck to James for his interviews. At least he is getting interviews that is something.

Jane on the paper I was given, and I checked on line. Aldara has a long list of possible side effects. Hopefully they ease off after a while, they did before.

Evening All,

Dry and the wind dropped this morning but now it's blowy again.

Vera I think OH would be very chuffed to be called handsome, but he does have a smile on his face most of the time which helps! They say women tend to go for men with similar looks when they remarry but mine could not be more different. The first one looked like a young Englebert Humperdink and people would come and ask him if he was him when we were out together. I will see if I can dig out a photo. Hubby buys most of his books from The Works after they have been out for a while and the prices have been slashed! If they are dearer they tend to be for birthdays or Christmas, but even then he tries to find offers or coupons from The Telegraph. The Hilary Mantel one was from W H Smith when they had a £10 off offer. I hope your DIL manages to get home again in a fortnight as it is a long time for the situation to change. I would be worried too.

I noticed our Co-op telling a lady she could only have 2 medium packs of toilet rolls this morning. All this rationing is because of people just thinking of number one. I wonder how many call themselves christians?

Mel I agree and thought at the start they should have stopped much more travel and not brought people home who were quarantined abroad. They chose to go knowing the risk. A school in the city has been closed and is being deep cleaned because 2 boys back from a trip to Italy have been diagnosed. Why did they need to go? :-S I think our NHS have enough to do as it is.

Frank I wouldn't go to a big gathering either even though I can understand it would be disappointing. I'm even twitchy about going to a local workshop on Saturday and there will only be 11 of us.

Your arm should feel more comfortable with those stitches out AnnG, even if removing one made you a bit sore. With the weeks you still need to use the medication I hope it isn't that affecting your tum and it is the same as your OH had instead. Our surgery had hand gel next to the booking screen soon after they had one and the Manor hotel where we eat has had gel dispensers fixed to the walls this week for customers to use and we got a thumbs up from the staff when they saw us using them today. The chef had even carved and plated our meat before we got to the carvery. We are so predictable!

We picked up the spray OH has to use for his throat afterwards and tomorrow is another early start as his car is booked in first thing.

Mandy those little boxes are really easy to make. I will send you an email.

That's good you had a little ride out Jane. The viaduct looks impressive and very long. I see Thomas has no problem with bed rest! He looks very comfortable. :-)

I was just leaving this morning when the phone rang. It was OH's mother's cousin to say his wife had died unexpectedly last week aged 81. They don't live locally and we mostly just exchange Christmas cards as it was his mum and OH's mum that mostly kept contact. I only met her twice, once at their wedding. The funeral has been arranged for next month but we wonder if it will go ahead if the virus situation gets worse.

Morning all,

Sunshine in the back and grey clouds out the front. Still windy but dry at the mo.

Hope you all had better nights last night and feel refreshed this morning.

Have any of you got anything exciting you are going to do today?

Now its hailstones.

Now its sunshine.

Morning All,

Hailstones here half an hour ago too Mel. Now the sun's out again.

We were up with the lark to take OH's car in to sort the flashing message and sticking pedal. They don't expect it to be ready till 3.00pm which will be a bit tight for him to get to his meeting. I may have to run him about if it isn't ready and us pick it up in the morning.

We called in Sainsbury's on the way back and there were a lot of staff filling shelves. Plenty of toilet rolls but no flour! Snack shelves were pretty empty so folk are making sure they have those. lol.

We are avoiding busy places so are going for the lunch specials at a nice place a mile away where it will be easy to park my car. It has lots of private nooks and crannies away from other people and doesn't get busy. This is mostly because it is very cold there which is why we don't often go, so we are going to wrap up warm! I don't think we will be eating out much longer as this virus spreads.

Better get the cobweb brush out now.........Oh oh the garage have rung and the car is ready but needs to go back in in a month for a new brake master cylinder!

Morning Mel, morning all,

Bright and really breezy here ,I washed Max's bedding and pegged it out the next thing I knew Colin was shouting Max has got a peg the washings off the line , his vet bedding is quite thick and it's a job to peg on the line, so one peg well chewed and the night before last he had another toilet roll , and I told him they are in short supply :-D

Thanks for the email Ann I'll save that for when the girls come , I keep meaning to ask you or Mel might know too is there one felt better than another ,I bought some felt quite a while ago not sure where from now but it seemed really stiff and hard not soft like I remember the felt we used at school .

Jane thanks for the photos that's a big viaduct, do the trains still use it ? It must have been nice to get out of the house for a while.
Lovely to see dear old Thomas too ,is he still getting the rabbits and mice ?

AnnG I hope your sore arm didn't keep you awake last and your tummy feels better .

Hope your feeling better today Frank and you had a decent nights sleep.

Mel did you have your eggs with the chips last night ?

Wonder how Gill is she didn't post yesterday did she ,hope your ok Gill.

Morning Ann ,you posted while I was typing.
It's a strange one the flour shortage, no plain flour in our Aldi the last two weeks .Yes go and enjoy your lunch out today as you say you might not be able to do it much longer .
I can see some really black clouds so I'm off to get the bedding in .

Morning all

Sunny but windy with it, no rain so that's good.

I written a post yesterday, but silly me forgot to send it before I shut the laptop down. I had an early night last night and slept really well, I think it might be because I haven't slept properly for so long, I feel much better for it today.

Good luck to James with his interview today Jane and for Monday to, I hope he's offered one of the jobs, or better still both of them, then he can choose which one suits him best. I did wish Hannah a happy birthday and Gordon, but think it might of been on the post I forgot to send. I hope they both had a lovely day. Love the picture of the viaduct, it's massive and very pretty in amongst the greenery, the one of Thomas is so cute, he looks very comfy snuggled into the pillow.....bless him.

Oh dear, naughty Max, I hope the washing didn't fall off the line and you had to wash it again Mandy. Yes toilet rolls are in short supply, is he practising for an audition for the Andrex toilet rolls advert lol :-D :-D

After saying I wouldn't panic buy I decided to buy extra toilet rolls with everyone else buying them incase they didn't have any when we needed them. OH thinks once this virus episode is over everyone's going to be left with an awful lot of things hanging around their property for some time to come. Tesco's told OH that they will still be getting everything in so they didn't understand why people were buying so much when the shops aren't going to run out. They might have to wait a short while, but it's still being delivered.

Did you have your egg and chips in the end Mel? I haven't had that for years either. Nothing planned for today as OH is in bed after a night shift so I need to be quiet. I have submitted my metre readings for the gas and electric, so they'll be a bill arriving soon. At least it's out of the way for another month. I might watch a bit of TV later.

Did anyone watch Elizabeth the 1st and 2nd? It was interesting how their lives were very similar. I quite enjoyed it.

Pleased to see your OH's car is fixed now Ann, apart from the new brake master cylinder, he'll be able to drive himself to his meeting now. I watched a bit of the coronavirus programme yesterday and our country seems to be the only one not doing much apart from washing hands, having said that I noticed on the web this morning there are going to be more things put in place with possible school closures. There was one man on the programme yesterday who has already taken his 9 year old daughter out of school as he thought not enough was being done. He's a scientist so I should think he would know a bit more about these things than us. At least our country is starting to do something to protect everyone. I hope it's not to cold when you go out for lunch, I think given everything it might be wise not to go out so much for a while. Sorry to hear of your sad news. Talking of getting the cobweb brush out reminded me of a massive black spider crawling on my bed last night, I got some toilet roll and grabbed it, squashed it and flushed it down the loo. I then inspected the rest of the room before going to bed. It was so big and black it gave me the heebee jeebees :-0 :-0 I hope there aren't anymore as OH is on nights again tonight and I don't like big black spiders.

Hope your arm isn't to sore today AnnG, at least the stitches are out now, so it should feel much better soon.

Mandy there is acrylic felt and wool felt. Its probably the acrylic which feels harder. Wool felt can vary a lot as some can be very soft and not so close together than it used to be. Its just a case of trial and error I think. I use both.

Afternoon All

It is a fairly bright day here so far but it is looking more cloudy now and it is really quite windy.
Oh Max !!!!! he is a devil isn't he Mandy :-D :-D You better hide the loo rolls from now on :-D

Gill you must feel so much better after a good sleep. You sound as though you are doing well with being on your own more now that OH is working.

I hope that OH s car is sorted today Ann and that you enjoy byour lunch out. I am not sure we shall be going out for our planned Mothers Day lunch. We could all well be in lock down by then ! :-S :-S

No flour on the shelves here either.Is everyone deciding to make bread suddenly.Its bonkers isnt it. Not one loo roll in Waitrose yesterday Chris said,( not that we need any more).

That Viaduct has 82 arches spanning 40 feet each.It is the longest Viaduct to cross a Valley apparently. Steam trains travel over it Mandy but I am not sure if it is used for normal trains.I would love to travel over it.The view must be amazing from high up there.

Crumbs I just see all schools in Ireland are closing until later this month !!!

Good afternoon all. sunny here but with a very cold wind so if it rains we will probably get sleet or hail. We drove out to a garden centre about 10 miles away, medium sized but we knew it would be fairly quiet at this time. We got some seeds that OH wanted and some plant labels and gladioli corms.It was a nice ride in the sunshine but, as I said very cold walking round outside. We wanted to get the seeds as the plan is to stay in alternate days and then OH can plant the seeds in the greenhouse even though it rains. He is not good with staying in so I dread to think how it will be if we go into lockdown. I shall have to make a list of jobs that need doing.

My arm is fine today, I took the dressing off this morning and it is looking good. I will try and take a photo later. Tummy is still a bit achey but is OK. And I slept well last night too.

Yes Annx best to make the most of this lull before it all tightens up, as it will as we head towards more and more cases. So enjoy your lunch.
That was good that they got the car finished before they said. At least it save you being taxi driver. Is your OH OK with these meetings? I am surprised theya re still holding them.

We heard on the local news yesterday that there is a coach load od senior school children on their way back from N Italy. This is a combination of two schools, one about 5 miles from here and one in the Forest of Dean. They only went last week (I could not believe it when I heard that!) because the area they went to on the border with France was not at the time in the lockdown. Of course Italy changed it and it then became in the area. so these children are supposed to self isolate when they get home. Can you see that happening? neither can I. Parents have no control over some of their children so they are going to shrug off that suggestion.

Mandy oh dear bad Max! tell him that people are crying out for toilet rolls but if he waits until this is over there will be lots spare to play with!!
I hope the washing didn't get muddy.

Gill, pleased that you had a good nights sleep. Is your OH a heavy sleeper? Hopefully you don't have to tiptoe around. It can't be good for his system chopping and changing from days to nights. It is not what they normally advise.

Hope G gets on ok with his night shifts and gets enough sleep today Gill. at least you managed to get the spider out of your bedroom. If mum ever had one she called me to get rid of it and I used to throw them out the front door. They were usually in her bedroom or little loo. I still get big ones in the little loo.

Good they fixed the car earlier than expected Ann so G can go off to his meeting and you don't have to drive him.

Hope Jane has another good day today and that Hannah's sore throat is better.

Mandy there was flour in morrisons this week as I needed both but on bringing the bags in for me oh managed to squash the bottom of the self raising box so it dos'nt sit straight in the cupboard now.