General Chat

Bye Ernest,
Don't work too hard in all that heat grrrr

Tec

Well I must also away to my bed.

So enjoy your day all you warm people,
and sleep well all you freezing people - cwtch up.

Diane I hope you survived and have thawed out,

Goodnight my friends

Tec

Yes, I know what you mean Tec. This area where I am has been rejuvenated with old homes demolished to make way for these complexes of villas and townhouses - and none of them are more than five years old. Ours is only three years old. What annoys me is that it's our taxpayers who are paying for all this 'free' education these people are getting. The least they could do is be clean and tidy and say hello to neighbours, instead of giving them a stare and making life unpleasant for them.

Well, as Allan said - we are being earnest to-day. Whinge over. If Armageddon is coming, I'd better go and do a few things - don't want to leave the place untidy!!! Talk to you again. Keep warm.

Well here I am late again, as you all know I have been busy in Town today. Yes I did need to thaw out as the weather got colder as the day progressed. Got all my pressie's now, we have a department store called Primark and it is 5 storie's high, the higher up you went the hotter it got, phew could hardly breath by the time I got to the top floor. When I finally left the store it was really bitter out side and it had gone dark so I was able to see all the Christmas light's, I went into the part of town called Liverpool One to see the Ferris wheel which I had intended to go on but the queue was so big and by this time I was so tired I decided against it.
I finally returned home at about 9-30pm and all the car's in the street were covered in frost as it is freezing now and we have had a little snow fall. That remind's me in the town centre there were real Reindeer in a pen and a Snowmachine which was making very realistic snow.

Diane

I will now say thing's in responce to the post on here, the billboard outside church was in very bad taste, no wonder society is going to the dog's. The other point about political correctness has gone bonker's, if it carry's on the way it's going we might as well be Robot's, what was so wrong with the way thing's were in the fifty's when I was growing up, were people care'd about neighbour's, kid's had respect and people had pride in the area's they lived in. Now it's just I'm alright jack S*D the rest of society and kid's ( well what can I say ) I only have to listen to my own grand children and the way they talk sometime's and all kid's seem to think about is ( my mobile cost this much ) how many of them even know what Christmas is all about. Sorry I just got on my soap box but it seem's to me that Christmas has lost it's way and maybe that is why so many of us dread it, it is not like the Christmas's I remember when I was a growing up.

Allan I hope you didn't over do the gardening hun.

Hi to Sue, Tec, Berona, Linda, Pat, Perse, Tony, Carole, Lynda and Alison if your well enough to be looking in hun, not much longer now and it will soon be all finished and then you can start the New year looking forward.

Well now that I have done all my whinging I will say farewell

Goodnight all Brit's stay warm and cosy
All you Aussie's have a nice day and don't overheat lol

Diane

Just popped back quickly to say

Sorry Sue all my waffleling and whinging in my last two post I forgot to say thank you so much for your beautiful E-mail Card hun.

Diane

Hello Diane - you are probably asleep by now. You did very well to get all your shopping done! Now, all you have to do is wrap the presents up - then you can relax!!!! Too much rushing around and you will be looking forward to going back to work! - and we can't have that.

Hi Berona - no hun I am still up lol, fortunately I don't have to many to wrap, grandchildren are haveing money this year so that's easy, only got about 8 to wrap so shouldn't take to long. How has your day been, have you finished or have you still got more to do, I only have to buy food for the Christmas period now and get some deccy's up, will probably do that over the weekend.

I know I said goodnight and bye earlier but got side tracked so that is why I'm still around, best be off now though as it is now 3-28am

Speak to you soon


Diane

It really has been an importance of being earnest thread earlier today my time.

The lyrics: Living in a material world and I am a material girl - are very true with my grandchildren's generation and even my youngest daughter's generation.

Luckily where I live all the neighbours know each other and we have contact numbers of each other in the event of a crisis - and we also have contact numbers of next of kin for each other.
My mother knew all her neighbours - she shopped just up the road and carried it back in a couple of string kits and what a trip it was we only lived at no 11 which was five houses down and she would stop and talk to someone up at the shops and then at one or more houses for an over the fence chat on the way. We did not have a fridge nor a phone, but when we did eventually get a phone she would be on it for hours... so much so that my dad had to ring the neighbour over the road to tell my mother to get off the phone. Dad had broken his leg and was in hospital having it plastered.

Now - my other bit of NZ stupidity - we do seem to have them -
The manager of a cosmopolitan club refused entry to a turbaned Sikh - they have a no hats policy. The event that was on was to recognise Mr Singh's service to the community. So he was not able to attend an event given in his honour.
The subject has been debated on our radio and one of the speakers said that the same cosmopolitan club refused entry to a baby in a pushchair until the mother took off the infant's knitted bonnet.

If you look at the dictionary: one of the meanings of cosmopolitan = free from national limitations or prejudices.

Glad you are resting Diane after the shopping - and the rest of you are well as can be expected either coping with the extreme heat or the extreme cold. Here we have cool - warm weather so I guess I should count myself lucky.

Thinking of you Alison as I/we do every day - build up those muscles.

Persey.

Hello All

I am officially on holidays now !!

Diane - Hope you are enjoying your holiday.

Alison - If you are looking in...thinking of you, hope you have been able to eat some more. xx

Talking of neighbours..one side of us are very nice could not tell you their names but we always acknowledge each other. The other side well thats another story..not long after we moved in here I was just driving out of my driveway and looked over to their house as I heard something she shouted out to me what are you looking at???? far out they have no visitors and I really feel sorry for the young toddlers that live there. The oldest boys is always at the window and I cant help but sneak a wave to him and he smiles. We have lived in four houses and never had a problem with neighbours but they are just weird...Can her her swearing at the kids all day when home. I keep to myself but its nice to know that if there is a problem help is at hand so at least we have one neighbor. Next move is out to the bush I am thinking !!

Working with the elderly I see a lot of them being left on their own with no family or family that are either too busy or just don't care about their relatives to visit. So neighbours in some instances are a lifeline to some people.

Hope is well with everyone...

xx

Hello Janet. Nice to see you on here. Don't worry about the neighbours - they probably have some kind of worries and take it out on anyone who is around them. At least, you have nice ones on the other side.

It's sad when the elderly don't have anyone, isn't it? My daughter never allows a day to pass without some kind of contact with me. I know she is checking on me, but I do appreciate it. Of course, sometimes we send about ten emails to each other, but even when she is very busy, she always makes contact and watches to see that I acknowledge it. Sons are a bit slack, but their wives are pretty good too - just not as constant as my own daughter - but that's life, isnt' it?

I'm the same with my brother. He lives alone and I keep in contact with him. I know if I didn't, my daughter would.

Hope you enjoy every day of your holiday.

Good morning and welcome to my white world. We have lots of snow and it is still coming down. I do not intend going out today, it looks far too cold out there. I will just stay indoors and admire it from the warmth. Luckily I went to the supermarket yesterday and did a large shop, so that will keep me going for a while.

You have all been very profound overnight. I live in a small road which only has ten houses in it, we are on the edge of the town, so are fairly isolated from everyone else. All the neighbours are lovely and we all get on very well. We socialise together and help each other out. Most people seem to hold a neighbours key so that if a burglar alarm goes off for instance the person with the key will deal with it. While we are away,the neighbours water our plants etc. One of the little girls next door was eleven yesterday, she got a lap top for her birthday. I know that because I had it here for a couple of weeks to stop her from finding it. I also have their Christmas presents, they are very annoyed with their cunning parents.

I am glad that you had a good day yesterday Diane.Make the most of your holidays Janet, get the family to wait on you for a change.

Linda - nice to see you posting at this time. I am usually joining in as you are thinking of going to bed. I have been using the computer a lot to-day and as I do each job, I look in here to see if anyone has posted - and now, I decided to look in before closing down for the night. Hope you have a nice day. It must be lovely looking out at the snow - but that's all I would be doing - looking at it! You wouldn't get me out there in the cold! Yesterday, the temperature reached 42 here - and to-day, we've had very light rain all day - most unusual - but so light, we couldn't see it. We had to get out and feel it on our faces - and the temp only reached 20! Whilst 20 is a lovely temp - the sharp drop after yesterday tends to make us feel cooler than we really are!
Well, a little different from usual - goodnight from me - and hope YOU have a nice day! Talk to you again in about ten hours!

Sleep well Berona. 42 sounds dreadful, impossible to be out in and uncomfortable for sleeping unless the aircon is running full blast I suppose. I am not a late night person, I like to go to bed early and watch the news programmes. I couldn't stay up like Diane did last night. I also just say that I am going and then that is what I do, I don't come back until the next morning. The time zones are difficult, but I think that we all manage really well.

Love to Alison if you are looking in. I was thinking about you in the middle of the night when I woke up. I wonder if you were having a treatment then?

It does look lovely outside, OH has just gone to the cinema to collect the takings from the safe and bank them, just one of his little duties.

I decided that I would put the tree up today as I am not going out. I am part way through doing it. I do feel sad though because a couple of years ago, we decided to stop having a real tree and it is just not the same. We bought a real tree every year since we married in 1970, but a couple of years ago when our son had finally left for good, we decided to buy an artificial one. There are some very realistic looking ones these days, we bought one in an after Christmas sale. It was still costly, but with the price of real trees, we worked out that it would pay for itself in three years. After that, we would have it for free, so to speak.

I walked through the tree section of a garden centre last week and was amazed at how much the real trees were being sold for, so our tree will have paid for itself this year. It takes ages to put up though because all the little twigs have to be fanned out and they are really scratchy. It doesn't smell of course, which is the only thing OH says he misses. I got some pine aromatherapy oil to use last year, but it wasn't right.

I suppose that I had better get back to it and then I can go through the annual ritual of trying to find out why the lights won't work.

The snow is coming down really heavily now, serves OH right for getting bored with helping with the tree.

No one is around, so I shall just chat to myself while I have a cup of coffee. The tree is done, but I still have some of the other bits and pieces to put out.

I love opening the Christmas decorations box because some of the items hold so many memories. I think my most treasured possessions are the little bits and pieces which the children brought home so proudly from school when they were little. I kept them all and they take pride of place every year.

This year I have an extra addition which I brought back from mums. When the children were little I used to do art and craft things with them and we used to make Christmas cards for their friends. One year the card had a Santa stuck on the front, complete with cotton wool beard and a sack on his back made from brown felt. It stuck out from the card and inside we put a tiny roll of sweets. There was a copious amount of glitter involved as well, most of which has now fallen off, just leaving the glue stain . Inside I had written the inscription from my children, but my son had written his own name. It is so cute because the letters are all large and messy, it must have been one of his first attempts.

Mum loved it and she brought it out every year. After she died, the children took a memento from her house, but the one thing my son asked for was his card. I have it here to keep it safe for him.

Tec, my tree is always just red and silver.I love remembering where some of the tree decorations came from as well. I have some glass tear drops which I bought in Macy's in New York, they are still in the original box with the store name on. I wished I had bought some more because they were much cheaper than the glass drops you can buy here. it is a bit of a long way to go to get some more though!
I also bought some red glass drops which I am very fond of. They came from the antique/flea market at Clignacourt in Paris. They are actually drops from an old chandelier. The stalls sell the actual chandeliers for silly money, but one of them had a box of odd drops. Most of them were clear, but there were some red ones,so we rifled through and found all the ones we could which still had the wires attached. they look really nice and we wished we had got some clear ones as well. Still it will be a good excuse to go back again. The rest of the baubles are far less exotic, they come form good old Yorkshire!

Hi all
just popped on quickly to say am on my way back to town to change pressy's for son ( wrong size ) lol
Catch you all later, thank god for late night shopping

Diane

Oh dear Diane, going back is the last thing you need, never mind, at least you have time to do it

Like you Linda, we have had an artificial tree for about five years now, and yes I do miss that fresh pine smell of the real ones. When my daughter was young, up to age 18, and I could get home for Christmas, there was the treck into the forest to buy a tree from the Forestry Commission.
I enjoyed the ritual, though freezing cold, boots covered in mud that got transferred to the car, and having to fight the tree that was usually much too big, into the car. My daughter would scrutinise every tree for sale, of which there were hundreds - it had to be exactly the right type, shape, colour etc etc. Eventually, I would drive home, with branches of pine tree around my neck, up my nose, everywhere.
No mater how many times the inside of the car was vacuumed you would still find pine needles in mid summer. As the years passed the trees became very expensive to buy, for something you would discard after Christmas.
So it made sense to buy an artificial one, that only entailed an annual trip up to the attic.
Some of the decorations we have had since our first Christmas together, including the fairy that we thought we'd lost, but has recently been found carefully wrapped in a tissue box. So she has been reinstated in her rightful place. Some baubles were bought abroad, some in America, that at the time were far superior than anything we could buy here. Some I bought in the Far East, and more recently, some that were sent by friends in Canada. My favourite decorations are those that my daughter made when she was about five. They are looking a little tired now, well they are forty years old, but always go on the tree. Others that I like are 20 little wooden ones of miniture figures and toys painted in primary colours, that I bought along time ago in Sweden.

Tec

We used to take the children to the Forestry Commission site as well Tec. They always used to come home with some strange misshapen thing because they felt sorry for it

I hope that you are not too cold, it is dreadful here. We are forecast for minus seven over night, with more snow to come in the morning.

Good Morning/Evening Everyone,

Dianne - Sounds like you had a good day in town - you are a brave lady.
Sorry you get to ride on the Ferris Wheel, but maybe you can do that another time. Like your son, I don't have a head for heights either, so I will mind your shopping for you if I'm around - you can give us a wave.
Bit of an aggravation having to go back today. I expect it was extremely busy in Liverpool - by contrast, I went into our nearest town this afternoon,, it was virtually deserted, and you could park where you liked on the main street - I imagined the tumbleweed blowing down the road. The wind was stiff off the sea, and cold enough to rip your face off, probably why it was so quiet.

Tec