General Chat

Just a few spits and spots of rain here today but it is still quite warm and heavy so it wouldn't surprise me if we got a bit of a storm during the night. I think we are forecast to get thundery rain tomorrow. It certainly sounds as though both Anns have had a hammering.

Finding the rabbits have been at your campanula must be frustrating Mel. I reckon the animal grapevine is working overtime and the word has gone round that Mel's hotel provides the best meal for miles around. Take it as a compliment - you clearly grow very tasty plants. I'm glad you've managed to get some beans at least.

That really was a light bite Annx. I often have a "small plate", particularly if I am out with the ladies and can pair with someone as they are often 2 meals for so much, but I don't think I've had one quite that small before. It's good that you are getting your door sorted at last. The speaking a different language thing is interesting isn't it but I've looked into it a bit more and I think what I originally heard had been a little exaggerated. There is a theory now that the person's natural accent or speech has been changed as it often is by a stroke and the language they speak has often been learnt, in at least a basic way, at school. The change in their accent makes them sound more fluent than they really are, though I would have thought it would be easy to test someone's level of fluency.

I did some hoovering and cleaning this morning which hasn't helped my back pain at all but we are always told we should keep moving. I've also been very good about doing the exercises the physio gave me a while ago. I guess I just need to be patient, it will get better in time, but it's hard to be patient when there are so many things I want to be doing.

All you petite ladies make me feel like a giraffe. I haven't been measured since we moved here 11 years ago and I had to register with a new doctor. I was told then I was 5' 8", about the same as when I was 15. I don't think I've shrunk much at all, though several of my friends have and OH certainly has. Where we were once just about the same height I am now a couple of inches taller. I don't mind being tall but I wouldn't mind putting on a little bit of weight - not round my middle but I wouldn't mind a bit of flesh on my arms and even my face and neck. The trouble with being tall and thinnish is that you can look a bit scraggy.

Here I am rambling on as usual so I'd better stop typing. I've done enough moving for one day so I'm going to get myself into bed with my propping up pillows. Now, shall I read or watch something on iPlayer........decisions, decisions. Sleep well everyone.

Phew what heavy rainfall that was, it was hammering on the conservatory roof and like a river down the road but it's eased off a bit now. Some dazzling flashes of lightning with immediate loud claps of thunder......I hate it. You would have been soaked if you'd tried to get back to the car AnnG. Hopefully OH was in one of the stands, but he will get soaked getting to his car.I hope the rain's washed off a splat from the geese on my car. They managed a bullseye hitting the filler cap which is on top of the wing at the back.

I have to have 25 inch length in trousers and out of curiosity just measured me using a T square against the wall to be sure I marked the wall properly level. I was a bit shocked to find I am just under 5 foot now so have lost nearly an inch and a half. Looked it up and it says most women lose 3 inches by age 80. Vera you obviously don't have the same trouble reachinng shelves and the high clothes racks in supermarkets like I do. :-)

That is fascinating about language when someone can suddenly speak a different language that they never knew before. There are so many things we still don't understand.

I've never seen a black Squirrel either, but some red ones we saw I think at Formby were a very dark red. We keep seeing young grey ones here, some getting run over as they forage for winter food stores. It's amazing how they know to do it, unless they just copy the older ones.

Eight chips each wasn't very many Mel. Oh no not the rabbits now!! You'll have to devise something to protect your campanula now! It does sound like the after effect of the injections doesn't it, but a good idea to not risk you catching something by coming round. I cook extra veg with our sunday lunches and freeze them to add to soup or another meal too.

O dear Ann it sounds like a childs meal but thats about the size of a piece of cod down the chip van as a smal;l cod and chips. Can't remember how much it was but you got a nicelots of chips.

Well Stu messaged me to say he was'nt feeling well today so I said don't worry he also said his girl was'nt feeling too good either so he thought it best not to come round and give anything to me. He's taking his children to Mexico soon and when I went on Thursday he had had two jabs so perhaps they made him feel odd.

I am gpoing to do myself a little roast tonight as I have not had one fr a while and I will do extra veg to freeze for another day. I have my first picking of runners after putting an assult course down there so the deer don't eat anymore of my lovely beans. Just went down to feed them and I had a nice campanular that I had repotted down by the shed and it had filled the pot nicely and as its evergreen I was going to put it up on the patio for the winter for a bit of colour when I looked it has been eaten down to about a quarter of an inch all over. Bl**dy rabbits.

Afternoon All,

Sunny and 21 degrees here now. OH has gone to a match at Loughborough. A very posh sports complex he's been to before, so it won't be cheap to go in!

I wrote a post about the door man but can't have posted it. Yes it was Grumpy who has been 3 times before for the letterbox and door lock. Well, he was like a different man this time, actually cheerful and agreeable!! I was all psyched up to be assertive but pleasant, expecting disagreement, but no! Of course the lock behaved perfectly for him as I knew it would, but he said straightaway that it would be the metal strip along the opening edge that holds the linkages to all the bolts that go into the doorframe that needs replacing and not the actual bit where the key turns. Good news as we won't need a new barrel or to buy new sets of spare keys that cost an arm and a leg! He used some special cleaner he had on the white sill at the bottom and it did look much better, but this time he said it shouldn't have had deep scratches like they are and which he couldn't remove and said he would have to pass that to the bosses to decide what to do, as it looked like the door and frame may have to come out to replace it. Yesterday the company rang and have booked an October appointment to come and do both jobs, so that was good. I was beginning to think they might see me as a difficult customer after having them back 4 times before, but when you pay more than £2500 for a door you want it to be right don't you!!

We ate out at Ullesthorpe Court yesterday which is an old haunt and Sharon gives us extra little biccies and teabags. We decided to treat ourselves to a light bite portion of F&C which we've had before and is a little treat without too much diet damage! It should now be renamed 'very light bite' as, although it was nice, all we got was a strip of battered cod about an inch and a quarter wide at one end tapering to half an inch and six inches long with no more than eight chips and a spoonful of peas with a pot of tartare sauce on the plate to help fill the space. After such a small helping, we decided to have the pud off the same menu, which was a small creme brulee. Not wise in my case as I forgot it would probably have double cream in and so I had further proof I have a degree of lactose intolerance later. I don't think we'll be paying £35 for that and a COT again! We are convinced a lot of places are passing every increase in cost to customers so they can maintain their profits. The place used to be busy, especially on Fridays, but there was only one other customer there while we were there.

Switching off now thunder and lightning!!

It was dry and warm then an hour ago, still warm but thunderstorm, it lashed down. We were at a small tea room cafe, out in the countryside couldn’t leave to get to the car as it was so heavy had ham eggs and chips and the ham was home cooked, really tasty.

17 degrees and the suns out.

Morning girls,

Ann I am 27 leg and 5' 2" or I was may have shrunk a bit with age. Grey morning here so we may have rain later but the roads dry at the moment but the car looks a bit damp probably dew.

Don't worry about the spelling Ann we always know when your on the lPad.

I am supposed to remind Stu today about rodding my drain for me. Apart from that I may hoover and go to the shop for the paper and do some painting as I need to get stuff on Ebay. Sold loads this week.

Good morning all, dull and dry so far. But I have heard there is local flooding at home with heavy rain and blocked drains.
Why is it the time I don’t check what I have written that finger trouble gets the wrong key always when on IPad. Trousers 25 27 and 29 lengths. In Bon Marche. Although I am 5 foot 2 so not very tall, M&S short length trousers are too short for me. I buy regular but they are actually a bit long,

my dad made my stilts, I loved walking around on them. When I was bigger he mademe another pair a bit taller. That brought back the memory you mentioning stilts Vera.

My right hips playing up today, having trouble going up and down steps it really gives me whatfor.

With BIL here today I forgot my toenail appointment at 2.30pm, blast shall have to ring on Monday and apologise and make another one. Will probably have to pay for the missed one too.

Yes, when I googled black squirrels the Letchworth area was mentioned.

39" trousers? I'd need to be on stilts to wear those :-D I do however need 31". It's funny how smaller ladies often have trouble finding things short enough and taller ladies struggle to find them long enough.

Typing this has reminded me - we had a pair of stilts once. I wonder what happened to them. I'll have to ask OH.

Vera I have seen black squirrels, they were quite plentiful in the Letcheorth area, just a few miles from where we lived in the 80s and early 90s. Never got a photo though.

In the Bon March today they had trousers in lengths 25: 27 and 39 lengths

You’ve had a busy day or two Mel. You need a breather now. It sounds as though you had a good dinner with Stuart and co. I always think a meet up with friends does us all good.

Your day sounds good AnnG. I like the sound of the beads and the pots you bought. There is a Bon Marche at Bury St Edmunds and a couple of my friends buy trousers there but I can’t as they don’t seem to do longer lengths which is annoying.

I got my plate back this morning and the technician has done a very good job with it and they charged £40 less than they quoted so that was a good result. We’ll both be back there in 6 weeks for our normal 6 months check up so there’ll be more to pay out then. I’ve also got another eye test on 2 Oct and I suspect my glasses might need changing again so, in Frank’s words, it will be MORE EXPENSE.

I felt I should try and use the good weather so after lunch I did just a very little deadheading and took some cuttings of argyranthemum. I was struggling to find suitable shoots so I don’t know if they will root. I’ve got them in water on the windowsill in the utility. I also cut back and repotted a house plant. I can’t just sit and do nothing but after an hour of this my back pain was so bad I was near to tears. I can’t take any anti-inflammatory pills because of the blood pressure pills I take, Paracetamol on their own don’t do much for me so I have a 30/500 Co-codamol but even those are only easing it a little. The last time it was this bad was a couple of years ago and it was about 3 months before it recovered. Right, I’ll stop moaning now as I know you all have your problems too.

Just after we got back from the dentist son rang and put it on speaker phone as he was in the car with dil, who was driving, and granddaughter. They were taking her to uni for the start of her first term. Dil said she wasn’t sure if E was nervous or excited as she was quite het up. I think it was probably a bit of both. She’ll be fine once she settles down and makes a few friends. It’s a big step for these youngsters.

When I was telling you about Vienna I forgot to say that at one place we visited we saw 3 black squirrels. I’ve never seen one before though Mr Google tells me there are about 25,000 in the UK. Of course OH didn’t take a photo. In fact we took hardly any pictures while we were away.

I put a couple of pork shoulder steaks in a casserole dish with some carrot, onion and sage so I’d better go and see how they are doing and start cooking some spuds and green veg. OH has been watering in our garden and has done the whole of next door’s and has just come in saying he is peckish. Our neighbours will be back on Sunday and I will be quite pleased as at the moment he is giving their garden a lot more tlc than he is giving ours.

Had a good day today. Visited two craft like centres, had coffee and scone in the first then a look round and bought some Christmas presents. Then in one that last year I bought the amber crystal beads I found another vintage bead necklace. Then looking around I found a couple of Ainsley cottage garden pots. Took one to the counter and the man asked me if I had many pieces. When Intold him he produced two more from out the back. These are circa fifties. Anyway I bought two of them. They were only £10 each. Apparently all the vintage pots and this China belong to two elderly sisters, he calls them the girls. He is selling all their vintage stuff for them loads of necklaces.
He also has a 19/ year old cat which has very little sight. This complex is on a dairy farm. It even has a model railway so something for everyone.

Anyway we went on to the next complex which is built round a garden centre. We had lunch here and I had fish and chips. It was very nice.
There is a Bon Marche there and Son bought me a top for my birthday I also bought a pair of pull on trousers to wear indoors.
Had a good look round the antique shop and garden centre shop then came home. Had a light shower while in the restaurant but otherwise it is sunny and warm.

BIL just gone after having lunch with me and he's mowed all the lawns and helped me clean out the top filter I can't reach.

ContinuedHad a nmessage from Stuart saying would it be possible to bring the dinner to his and do a bit for his son too as he was at the docs having jabs. We could warm it back up in the microwave.

Have you ever had yorkshire pud heated in te microwave? its horrid so I did'nt make the the toad in the end but just did the sausages, mash and the cauli cheese. When I got there his girlfriend turned up so there were four of us for dinner but she had the chicken curry she had made the day before. Lots of chat and we had eaten ours by the time James came in and he warmed his up and ate all that was left for him. I have never seen him eat such a big dinner before. He said all he had had today was three little apple pies and a bag of crips.

BIL is mowing and I have been up the post van and now need to feed my chickens.

I think I shall meet myself coming back today and I still have lots of HW to do.

Morning all,

I have just read yesterdays posts as I had an awful afternoon sorting out my Amazon account on the phone to somebody I ould'nt really understand but he was very patient with me for keep asking him to repeat what he was saying and I was on the phone for quite a while and he was telling me what to do on the pc at the same time. Click on this link and press that but we got there in the end and I now have my own account which dos'nt go through oh's now. He could'nt find oh's old account but his old email or his telephone number abd we did'nt get Echo sorted but she works ok for me the way she is I still have to do the three Amazon ipads but that will be another day.

I had three deliveries yesterday and while I was cooking the dinner my new neighbours came down with 4 big bags of sawdust for me for the chickens. What next I thought nearly burnt the sausages and had to interupt Janine as the cauli was cooked and I needed to cool it down so as not to over cook it.

BIL just arrive will tell you the rest of the story later.

Morning all,

Really dull here this morning but doesn't seem cold when I went out to the bin .

Ann I hope you got your lock sorted this time and you didn't get Mr Grumpy again ,I'm like you with the chocolates I prefer the nutty ones rather than the cream ones .

Vera hope your back soon eases for you ,no more gardening or heavy jobs for a few days .

Hope your toad in the hole turned out OK Mel and you both enjoyed it .

Anng a nice trip out to a craft centre and then garden centre sounds good don't spend to much .

We're off shopping today so a day off from all the sorting out of the shed ,my goodness I have been busy getting rid of all sorts that we'll never use or need again ,there was all the pipes from the swimming pool, skimmers , pumps and pool steps loads of metal pipes from goodness knows where and there's still more I'm sure .

Good morning

Cloudy but quite warm at the moment and the forecast says sun from 10 am to 6 pm and temperature getting to 22 so the weather looks promising.

The craft centre sounds interesting AnnG. Don’t spend all your money.

Did your door get fixed yesterday Annx? I hope you didn’t get the grumpy engineer. I was thinking of your strange dream the other night when you found you couldn’t speak English. I believe there have been a few cases of people coming round after being in a coma and speaking quite fluently in another language, in one case I think it was Welsh. I just can’t understand how someone who hasn’t learnt a language has something in their brain that enables them to suddenly speak it. I can only think that all our ancestors’ traits are wired into our brains and come to the fore at times of extreme stress. Fascinating but eerie

I think OH got out of bed the wrong side this morning so I’m keeping out of the way for a little while. I hope he’s in a better mood by 10.15 when we have to leave for the dentist. I’ve said I can drive myself but he’s determined to drive me. To be fair to him he doesn’t usually stay grumpy for long.

I brought a cup of tea back to bed but I’d better get up and face the day now. Enjoy whatever you are doing today.

Good morning all grey bright so far and dry. Off out later to craft centre and garden centre. BBL

Hallo ladies

Another lovely day here. It’s bright sunshine and 22 degrees; it might get to 24 this afternoon. I got tempted to do a bit in the garden but am paying for it now. I can’t sit and do nothing when I can see jobs that need doing and I was very careful not to bend awkwardly or twist my body but my back is very painful now.

I’m sure your toad in the hole will go down well, Mel. I haven’t made one of those for ages. I might make one next week. I took some mince out of the freezer this morning so I think we’ll have shepherd’s pie, or I suppose it should be called cottage pie as it’s beef. My mum called all minced meat with potato on top shepherd’s pie and I do the same.

What a shame you missed the lady who didn’t pay Mandy. She’ll have a shock when you do confront her. I hope your hand isn’t too bruised from being attacked by the plug. As for my toe, it’s nothing really. Wearing open toed sandals and not looking where I was going I banged my toes against a chair leg and my toes came off worst.

I think that was a good price for your plate AnnG. I vaguely remember mine costing about £800 and that was, I think, early 1990s. I think it might be possible to get a metal plate on the NHS now but they only use the cheapest type of metal available. Looking online the private dental charges seem to vary quite a bit depending on the metal used and the number of teeth. The best price I’ve found for my type is £1050 for 4-12 teeth. I get my plate back tomorrow and I’m hoping it’s going to last me many years.

I hope you’ve been enjoying your chocs Ann.

OH usually gets lunch but I think he’s absorbed in something he is doing on the computer so I’d better get something ready. I think we’ll have it in the conservatory with the door open. That way we can get some fresh air and watch the 1 o’clock news at the same time.