General Chat

Good morning all. We have had the BIGGEST RAIN SHOWER in the last few minutes. It came from nowhere, and was gone just as quick.


Conrad left here about 8.15 last night. Had an hours hold up just outside Towcester. but then had a good run home. Didn't get stopped, so all was good.

Simon has been on the phone to say he has just seen FIFTEEN American Fighter Bombers fly over also SIX chenouke (sp) Helicopters.He only lives about 10 miles from me at Daventry. Strange we never saw or heard anything.

We have our 2nd JAB at 2,50 this afternoon at Grabge Park about 5 miles away.

Very overcast here, and I expect to see more showers.

Hope you are all well. xxxx

O more of you getting your second jab. Good luck and hope its not too achey afterwards.

Suns still out here but there is a wind out there today.

Just having a COC and slice of toast as we were hungry.

Yes Mel neighbour is taking me.

Hope all goes well with your jabs AnnG and Frank and Ros. How quickly you get the second jab probably depends on how much vaccine is available in your area. We had our first the day after AnnG but I expect we’ll have to wait another couple of weeks for the second.

It’s blowing a real hooley out there. I just went out to the garage and nearly got blown over. I don't think I’ll be doing anything outside today.

We've had a hail shower but it did'nt last long.

Had lunch. Hav'nt done any ironing yet!!!!!! :-D

I have washed a lot of 3" flower pots and some bigger ones and washed two ceramic pots ready for the flowers I will put inthe this year.

You know I ws saying about having nice pink glory of the snow? Well the pheasent walked through them today on the rockery and bent all the stems. The good news is the day lillies up the border are getting taller as with the wire over them the deer can't get to them. They are probably waiting till they grow through the wire.

Afternoon All,

Slept well again, but what a change in the weather here. Lashing down with rain and quite windy this morning so I wished we had dropped our scripts in yesterday instead. I was amazed how the Willow trees and shrubs have really come on since we last went out. Lovely blossom on the trees and yellow Forsythia. Now we are back it's stopped raining and the sun is trying to break through.

I was wondering when my next jab will be as it's 8 weeks today since I had my first and I wonder if it will be a different vaccine next time as it seems to just be the Astrazenica one now from what friends have had. At least it will be before we hopefully go away and should also be fully effective before then. As soon as we can go out more we are going to drive a bit further to at least Rutland at first so I can take photos and it will start getting us used to driving further again ready for the Cornwall trip.

I have one more painting to finish off today and send to the teacher, then I have a few weeks' break before the next ones start.

It's hammering down with rain again now and has gone dark! I need to finish my Asda order for Sunday and there is the weekly zoom with friends in an hour, so I'm not making much headway with my list of things to do. When the Post Office delivered parcels this morning the chap was driving away before I had even reached the front door!

There was me thinking I might switch my bank to Santander in the next village when OH reads out to me that it is closing!! That is 2 banks there that have closed branches now. It looks like OH will have to find somewhere else too as he posts his cheques there.

I hope your back is a bit better today Mandy and wonder if we will hear from Gill. I bet you would have enjoyed seeing those planes fly by Frank. We like it when the airshow is on in the next village where a friend lives. She gets a free airshow and we see some of the planes fly over our bungalow on the way to it.

Missed your post there Mel. Those naughty Pheasants and their big feet. Those bulbs do have stems that bend easily even though they are short and I think mine have flopped a bit. When I moved into my last house, all the borders in the front garden were full of them and I had never seen them before.

that is me fully vaccinated now then. about ten minutes before we went there was a terrific hail storm. But by the time we left the sun had come out and is still shining. Still had to wait fifteen minutes otherwise i would have been home before my appointment time.My 2nd one was Pfizer as well as my first. I was asked what my first one was so it appears they had the choice there. So they had first jab and second jab and AZ and Pfizer so quite complicated for them. But all running very smoothly.

For anyone who is interested Suttons Seeds have up to 70% off bulbs and tubers till the end of the weekend.

Thanks Ann I will have a look.

Three days now we hav'nt heard from Gill.

Just made a Sheep Sh*t pie and need to get it in the oven.

That's good you have had both jabs now AnnG. That's interesting to know that it looks like they try to give you the same second jab too. Hopefully any side effects will be shortlived and maybe just some soreness or achiness for a day or two.

My friend with the big cats gets her Whippet puppy next Thursday and we'll be able to see it at our zoom meeting the day after. She isn't sure which she will have yet as others will be getting the first pick and then she will get the pick of the last three. There are fawn and white and fawn with a dark mask, boys and girls. I wonder what the cats' reactions will be as they are house cats.......horror I should imagine, but they are big enough to put a puppy in it's place if it thinks they are new playmates!

I hope Gill is ok and not having any problems with the internet.

Off to bed now.

good morning all.
Ann, yes good to get it out of the way. didn't sleep well at all last night but nothing to do with the vaccination, no idea why. so far arm is a little bit achey but all otherwise ok. Lovely sunny morning here at the moment with a blue sky and no clouds at all, not sure it will last though 3 degrees outside.

I hope your friend doesn't have any valuables around, I can imagine cats chasing the dog and vice versa could cause mayhem. Puppy will probably be very frightened.

I meant to say that our vaccination hub has a bucket collection at the door, raising money for UNICEF, in particular money raised helps send vaccine to poor parts of the world, last week they raised almost £400 for comic relief.

From the D Mail

Britons over-70s will be given Covid-19 vaccine booster jabs in September to protect them from emerging variants of the virus.

Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi unveiled details of the plan that will see people in the top four priority groups receive a third injection.

As well as over-70s, this group contains frontline NHS and social care workers and the clinically extremely vulnerable.

Hi all, I've finally got a few minutes to come on here, I've been so busy this week I'm meeting myself coming back lol.

The gas pipes are in, they came back yesterday and made good the garden and the hole in front of the drive, so now I'm waiting to hear about having the gas metre put in, as I rang them the other day. They said someone will ring me but it should be in by mid April, so that's one step nearer to having running hot water. I've done a check on the gas safe register and have a number to ring once I know the date for the metre going in, then I can organise the boiler.

I had a call from a garden fella yesterday about the removal of the massive hedge. I started cutting it back yesterday but there's going to be to much rubbish for us to get rid of and when I spoke to the gardener he said not to cut it as the digger will take it all out in one go. Once that's done, as I managed to get down to the bottom of the garden so I could see our boundary down there, we'll have a fence put along the back as the old wire one has fallen down.

The drains men rang yesterday and came here again last night to put a camera down the drains to see where they went as we don't have a man hole, they're doing a quote this weekend and if it's not to expensive they can start on Good Friday. They said it'll take about 5 days which they will split over a few weekends as they both work full time, so that should be done soon. Sky are coming back on the same day so hopefully we'll have a more reliable TV then as our Freeview box keeps going off, so I'm watching TV on my laptop at the moment. Sky couldn't do the job when they first came as they wouldn't come indoors to drill the hole, now they can come indoors if it's safe to do so. With a bit of luck they'll think it's safe and finally put Sky on for us.

We had a builder come and do us a quote for the re-pointing but he said he can only re-point the lower bricks because of the bitumen damp proof course, he said if you take the bricks out one course up or down from the damp proof area it makes the damp proof fail, so we're thinking of having the whole place rendered instead. Unfortunately the builder doesn't do rendering. He sent us a quote for the jobs he can do including the removal of the chimney in the kitchen but it's a lot higher than we thought it would be so we're going to see if we can get another quote to see how much that one is and compare it with the first one.

I've just had a call back from 111, I've been quite poorly after my vaccination and now I have a symptom which may indicate I have Cancer. I had cancerous cells years ago and had this symptom so now I'm waiting for the out of hours surgery to ring me as I need to have it checked out within the next six hours. Hopefully it'll be nothing to worry about, but it's best to have it checked out. I've had problems for about a year but was to scared to go to the doctors with Coronavirus being around. I wish I'd gone now and had it checked out earlier. At least with the symptom happening today I've finally made the call.

Gill you left the most worrying bit until last. Sorry you have been so unwell and sorry you have worrying symptoms. I hope that all is eventually well and that you are worrying for nothing. However, it is very wise to get checked out so well done for phoning. Please let us know that you are ok.

Wow there has been a lot going on in your house and around it this week, it sounds exhausting, hopefully things are moving now towards a swift conclusion. (although with so many different workmen I doubt it will be fast. good idea to get the hedge taken out professionally what sort of hedge is it? Private? Hawthorne? And exciting that you got down to the end of your garden too.

Anyway good to hear from you we were, as usual, concerned about you. :-) <3

Morning Anng Gill and all,

Sun and clouds here this morning as the suns out the back and the clouds are to the north. It says its 16 degrees out there but I have not been out yet.

Having the bungalow rendered will be expensive too Gill I would have thought. Its a good idea to have the gardener with the digger as that wil soon get that hedge out and it needs doing soon as there is bound to be birds nesting in it already as I know they are in mine and mines about as big as yours width wise and probably length too. Is it a box hedge??

Usual Saturday things to do today shop and egg drop off. Then if its still dry I may go inthe garden and do more tidying.

I've just had a call off a doctor from the out of hours surgery, I need to go for an ultrasound scan which I have to book through my doctor so I will ring him on Monday. I was in a bit of a state on the phone but the doctor was lovely and wouldn't go off the phone until I felt better and stopped crying. She's going to write a letter, I presume an email, to my doctor so he should know what's happened by the time I ring. It looks like the symptom has eased now, (bleeding) but I'll feel better once I know what caused it and have treatment if that's what's needed. It takes up to 2 weeks for the appointment for the scan.

Yes, I was thinking about birds nest to Mel, so I kept a look out for them, thankfully there wasn't any in the bit I cut back.

All of sudden from not being able to get hold of anyone I seem to have lots of people now, so I need to think of the correct order to have the jobs done so the workmen aren't in each other's way. The gas metre has already been sorted and should be done around mid April and providing the quote isn't to high the drains should be started next week and finished by the time the metre needs to go in, then we can get someone to take the chimney out and sort the bricks on the bungalow.

In the meantime we might have time for the gardener to come and dig out the hedge, then we can see the boundary and work out how much new fencing we'll need. I've decided to wait to have the boiler put in until the chimney is out with them both going in the same room, plus with having a coal fire it's going to be a messy job and I don't want the new boiler covered in coal dust. We also need the kitchen floor repaired and a new back door as we only have a wooden single glazed one at the moment, but at least things are starting to move in the right direction now and it'll help take my mind off the scan I've got to have.

I'm looking forward to the F1 starting again today, poor OH is in work tonight so will miss the qualifying but he's off tomorrow so won't miss the race. We watch it on Channel 4 so only watch the highlights. Even if we did subscribe to Sky we couldn't watch it as that's not been put in yet. So we'll be watching it on my laptop with the Freeview box going off all the time.

I must admit I miss Sky and can't wait for it to go in next week. I just hope they can come inside this time as they weren't allowed to a few days after we came here, so it had to be booked in again.

Hopefully it is nothing serious Gill but you will know more after the scan.

You seem to be organising the order of jobs ok. Take each batch of jobs (garden, builder, gas, inside, outside and have a good look at them then make a list, as you have been thinking, as to which job in each part needs doing before the other jobs can be done. I used to know the graph for doing that, many years ago it was part of one of my jobs. But also be aware of how any jobs impact on the need of the man with the digger needing to access the property.

Good luck with it all working out. Will be great when finished.

The drains look like they'll be the first to be done AnnG, providing the quote isn't to high as they want to start next week cutting the trench around the property to install the Aco drains. As far as I know that's the only digging they'll be doing and it'll only come about 6 inches or less from around the bungalow. OH will need to move all the bags of rubbish, but once he's done that the digger should be able to get past the drain's men. Luckily one of the men doing the drains gave me the gardeners number so they know each other. I'd like the drains and hedge done before the scaffolding has to go up for the brickwork as that'll stick out a few feet so there'll be no chance of a digger getting around the back then.

I got a number for a brickwork fella off our neighbour the other day so I'm going to Google him now. I always do that before I ring them just to make sure they're okay. I should think any bad reviews would pop up on a search so I'd rather know what they're like before I make the call. The last brickwork fella I rang gave us a very big quote so I'm hoping asking for another quote off this new fella will give me some idea of the price, plus I like to have more than one quote for each job if I can. I've had so many problems trying to find a builder I'm pleased I managed to get the one quote, even if it's higher than I thought it would be. I think I just need to try and do a price comparison, to make sure the quote I've already got is a fair one and I'm not being ripped off.

Well, I'd better go and Google this new brickwork guy to see what I can find out. Hopefully he'll be on checkatrade or some other similar site.