General Chat

yes quite often.As you say it is good for finding old songs that bring back memories.I often use it to put links onto facebook too.
can you remember the old reel to reel tape recorders?

Yes my brother had one of those. He also had a Dansette record player with a multichange arm so he could load 8 singles at a time. He used little discs between them to stop them scratching each other or slipping on each other. He used to lug these machines down to our large kitchen when his friends were coming round or even to their houses from time to time.

As we have a considerable age difference I was a hip and happenin' chick and had a cassette player/recorder which was considerably smaller and much more portable. It was a must have at the time, but somehow never achieved the same classic appeal. I still preferred my vinyl (and truth be known still do).

What innovations can you remember that didin't stand the test of time?

Betamax recorders/ players, never had one ourselves !

I've just coloured my hair, and am quite a bit lighter than my original colour as I have a cutting of it from my 20's.

Do you colour yours or do you go 'au naturelle ' and do you remember your original colour.?

Until just about 3 years ago I had never coloured my hair. When I was younger I was lucky to have a fairly warm brunette hair colour. Having gone grey it gradually settled into silver.

However I got an orange mini convertible and since my daughter had been unsuccesfully trying to get me to colour my hair to make me look younger again she eventually went what she exppected to be one step too far and told me to get my hair to match my car so when the hood's down I have the same colour "soft top". She went on about this until I gave in and I thought I'd do it for one summer and go back to natural silver. My hairdresser was actually more worried about it than I was because I'd always refused his previous suggestions too. But I loved it, had brilliant reviews, and here I am still orange but always with a little bit of something else in it. At the moment I have a purple fringe. And I don't see me going back to silver until my son or daughter tell me I look ridiculous.

My daughter's hair colour had not been natural since she started high school. But she has just come back from 6 months travelling around the world where she has not had the opportunity to keep touching up her hair so we were interested to see her natural colour when she arrived back last week. Hasn't lasted long she's gone dark this time.

Would you ever go a crazy colour?

If I had straight hair and could spike it, yes.
Lol, Lizzie you are brave to go orange, wouldn't suit my skin tone !

But mine is curly or frizzy depending on the length, which is usually above shoulder level, but my hair grows out rather than down.

Just had it cut so have gone from looking like a dandelion clock, to a Curly Shirley , which is manageable , I like it, low maintenance and am dark blonde, my natural colour way back in the depths of time was golden brown.

Do you use cosmetic jewellery accessories, or do you like the real thing ..or a mix.?

I wear cosmetic because it is easy to find a necklace to match whatever clothes I am wearing.Only my wedding and eternity rings are real,plus a locket I got for my 40th birthday.I never wear earrings,rarely wear bracelets.
Do you ever wear a brooch?

Only on a smart jacket..I only have one gold broach , a butterfly that one of my staff ( a good friend ) bought me when I finished work.
I do wear cosmetic broaches, my mums the letter L ( looks a bit like an S ), a Sparkly S my mil bought me, and pin sticks for cancer on my lapel.
I always wear small gold earnings ( pierced ears ) and a solid gold bracelet.
Rings.. only my wedding and engagement ring on left hand, and one gold ring on my ring finger right hand.. Welsh Clogau at the mo :)

Would you ever do a bungy jump ?

No, as I don't like heights. One of my friends has Multiple Myloma and is in remission after a bone marrow transplant. She recently did a tandem parachute jump to raise money in support of the Myloma group, as she wasn't fit enough to do anything else and raised well over a thousand pounds.She is a very brave lady.

Have you ever raised money like this for your favourite charity ?

OH and I once did a 20 storey abseil for cancer research. It was at the weekend and we thought it would be off an office block that would be closed, but when we got there it was off a block of flats and as you went down people were hung out of their windows asking "You alright love?" as you went down. My legs were jelly by the time I got to the bottom. I had done some small abseils before with Scouts and got to quite enjoy it but nothing approaching this height - it was a completely different proposition.

Have you ever taken part in any adventurous activities?

If you count jumping into the turquoise sea from a Greek pleasure boat, when you are a very poor swimmer (to say the least) well yes it was adventurous. I can only swim the width of a pool and that is either a very haphazard overarm or backstroke, can just about tread water but for how long I've never timed myself . Hubby ,a good proficient swimmer had already dived in from the deck, I jumped in from the bottom of the ladder.lol
I enjoyed the risk tho, knew hubby was around if I got into difficulties:))

Did you ever go out up the mountain or local area with a a picnic and stay out all day when you were a child..? We used to most of the summer!

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We had far more freedom than today's children and whole days were spent exploring Fairlight Glen or spending the day on Hastings beach in the school holidays.We were fortunate in having both sea and country to explore. Picking primroses in the spring and gathering chestnuts plus blackberries in the autumn kept us busy for hours. Family holidays away on the Norfolk Broads for a change of scenery.

Where did you usually spend your family holidays ?

I think I was fortunate..( well compare to my hubby ) from a baby,( I am the youngest of my cousins) we used to have a caravan holiday , my mum her sister and us kids in Porthcawl in S. Wales for 3 weeks during the school hols, a real extended family holiday.lol then when dad was able to take his hols from work we had a fortnight in Tenby. We did later venture further to Devon before the first Severn bridge was opened.. took ages to get there.lol

Do you ever travel by rail..?

Not usually but last week while in Kent we travelled on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch miniature steam railway.We find the best steam railway journeys are in Scotland because of the beautiful scenery.

If you have travelled this way what is your favourite journey ?

I don't travel by train that often any more and when I did it was commuting from Essex to the City of London. Not a wild journey although it occasionally had its bits of interest. But I do remember a couple of train journeys I very much enjoyed.

The first was on a school trip to Italy where we took the ferry to France and the rest was done by train and coach. As we reached Basle there was an almight thunderstorm over the Alps which was quite spectacular. I'm sure the train was leaning to one side with us all hanging out of the windows watching.

The second was in my first job out of uni when I had been involved in organising a conference in Edinburgh. We had to travel from St Pancras and that is a lovely journey through some lovely countryside.

I enjoy driving and now we've moved from London to Wiltshire I like pootling out to find out about my new county. When I have time I particularly like just spotting a lane on my journey and finding out where it goes. Sometimes I end up on rarely used lanes that have grass down the middle and no passing space. Always good fun if you meet a tractor or a herd of cows. Then if I found somewhere really good I get OH in the car at the weekend and take him out to show him and for walkies. Lovely.

Anyone else do anything like that?

Absolutely.....
I live in a semi rural area, but family home is 5 miles away in countryside with loads of small lanes often with grass down the middle.
My boss had to do accompanied visiting with me and I used to scare him to death taking him along the back lanes.lol I'd go anywhere in my little Corsa, even hubby's Vectra,at that time. He used to say ' do you think you have an off road 4 x 4 ?'
Only scared myself twice ! Once on a tiny single lane mountain road, with a shear left hand drop..only went up there for a nosey.lol
and second time wasn't my fault, was driving the Vectra up a small bendy country leafy lane, when a farmer in a Land-rover came hurtling towards me. I slammed on the brakes ( wasn't going fast ) threw it into reverse and the farmer ended up skidding into the bank...not me thankfully! as it was hubby's car not mine.

Given the choice where would you prefer to live, village, town or city..? Why ?

when I moved from a town in 1978 to where I live now it was a real old pit village. Plenty of allotments and seats to sit and watch the world go by.It was surrounded by fields. But today it is full of housing estates,less shops but lots of take aways. Ideally I like the old village green type places but not too far from a town with a decent hospital etc

If money allowed would you move to another area?

As a very small child I stayed with my mother at St Michaels, Tenterden, Kent for a few years when dad was in the army. My great Aunt owned a small holding bought by her husband when retiring from the police force, it cost him the grand sum of £650.00 pounds, recently it came on the market for £650,000 and we would love to have bought it. Although we live in an expensive area [not out of choice] this was still beyond our means.

Have you moved house many times in the past?

No ...............(if you discount when I was at Uni )

Family home from birth to marriage
Current home from then til now:)
Love my bungalow, had 2 extensions and also 2 children.lol

Did you know your grandparents ?

Yes, both of my paternal grandparents and my grandmother lived to see our 3 sons although they don't remember her as they were too young. On my mother's side only my grandmother who was divorced from my grandfather, he was a violent alcoholic not helped by the fact he owned The Silverhill Tavern in St Leonard's on sea,so had unlimited access to drink. My grandmother had a sad life she had 5 children and lost two sons to meningitus in the same year. She had put her home in storage when she left my grandfather and when she went to retrieve it he had sold everything leaving her without anything.

Did you know much about your grandparents' lives ?