General Chat

Well the fine weather has come to an end. First rain in days but the plants outside need it and I think the loch across the road looks like the water level has dropped a bit.

The snow is def coming next week on Tues, Wed & Thursday, so glad i got my Tesco order yesterday so well stocked up.

Finished off decluttering kitchen cupboards this morning and now the pan cupboard looks half empty. I did throw 3 old baking trays out that had no non stick on them anymore and an old pan that was a bit burnt!

Now just to tackle the hall cupboard!!!! But not today as quite tired now, tomorrow will do. My new super kingsize duvet arrived so will strip my bed tomorrow and swap the quilts over. i also have a pile of ironing for tomorrow.

So now to relax a bit and not sure about tea, something light and quick tonight.

Hope everyone else ok today.

Florence in the hebrides

Oh JG what a nuisance! But at least you have found the damp and getting it sorted, just all takes time and you will be in a "bourock" as we say up here(a muddle).

Not a bad day, here, bright, some sun but temp fast lowering towards 2 degrees!

Linda, when I lived with my son elsewhere we only had 1 MB on comp, so if i was gaming online and he logged on, one of us would get booted off as the line split in 2 so 1/2 MB each but we each needed 3/4 to both be online at the same time.

Over where I live now both daughter and I are on at same time but the internet is far better now. The up and download speed has improved over the years, used to be snails pace.

We have a total of 6 devices in this house between us.

Had a good day re sorting my food cupboards and the plates etc. Looks far better and some space now as was getting cluttered.

Didnt managed the pan cupboard....groan the worse one of all. Its a corner one and so difficult to get into!

JG, good excuse to have a declutter of all those ornaments then!

Good tv tonight as Apprentice and later Question Time. Last night i switched off the tv as seemed to be nothing but blooming football on every channel grrr.

Florence in the hebrides

Hello to everyone,

All is upside down and every which way here. Needed to get the damp proof course renewed so removed a fitted cupboard and found underneath it the floorboards had rotted eek!! . Due to be sorted soon I hope. Damp course done and now need to get new skirting boards and wallpaper and paint . We always have textured paper which is then painted as I don't like flat smooth painted walls. OH doesn't care which we have so I get my own way. lol.
My spare bedroom is storage at the moment for all my ornaments and books etc that we have had to move out of living room for the work to be done. good chance to go through it all and sort out what I don't want. That will take longer than the work I expect. lol. Have to look at it all properly don't I? Decisions Decisions!!

Hope everyone is ok and keeping warm.

Ginnie

I think you had better put the heating on next week Florence.

My WiFi has been a real pain, constantly cutting out, so we keep having to restart the router. The main problem is that there are too many devices connected to it. I have the fastest speed we can get, which is pathetic compared to people who live in big cities.

Until very recently there was no full fibre broadband in the town, so we are fibre to the cabinet down the road , then copper cable to the house. A firm called Zoom have been digging the town up and now apparently we can get real fibre which would be faster, but cost more. We would have to change to an internet phone and it would mess up my tv set up, so I can’t be bothered to change. Instead I have bought a new router which is much better than the free one supplied by the internet provider. We have also installed a mesh system, which sounds odd, but it is two small devices which look a bit like little speakers, one in the lounge and one in the kitchen. They spread the WiFi evenly around the house, so there are no weak spots which there were previously. It does seem to be a huge improvement, the speed tests are about half as much again. Hopefully it will solve the problem when we are all trying to use things at the same time. It has identified twenty four different devices in the house!

My son in law set it up, it was a bit pricey - things always are when he recommends them!

The ultimate solution is to move somewhere with super fast broadband, but that is a bit drastic

EEEk! I have just looked at the forecast for us next week and its showing snow for Mon-Wed for most of northern Scotland and 0 degrees. Brrrr

and warmer than Mallorca.

I am warm inside and with no heating on, the temp in the lounge is 20 degrees, like the Bahamas :-D :-D :-D

Maybe they only brought the temp toilet when they removed the old one Florence.

It is mostly dull here with occasional patches of sunshine and it is 7 degrees. I have only been out to the garage, there is quite a cold wind so I am glad o stay in bu I have no heating on and am not cold at the moment.

Oh btw the workmen are still in full swing and now there is a toilet outside :-D :-D :-D
I feel for the poor lady and was wondering how she is managing as she never asked to use our loo. Must have been crossing her legs!

ZZzzzz, hope you are feeling better, sorry forgot to mention you on previous post.

Well good afternoon everyone.
March, in like a lamb and out like a lion!

Still no wind and very calm here but freezing cold. Ventured out to put number stickers on my bins, something I had just not got round to before. I noticed the other neighbours had numbers on their bins, so thought was about time I got some.

Was only out 10 mins and my fingers were soo cold.

Ordered a lovely black cardigan with pockets, longish, past my hips. Came today and am delighted and so comfy and fits perfect. I guess you get what you pay for as was £27.00 but worth every penny.

Making salmon fillets today, new potatoes and cauliflower plus peas but nooo soy sauce. I sprinkled some sesame seed oil, herbs and black pepper plus a little water over the salmon and all ready for the oven later.

Was supposed to be sorting out cupboards but what with neighbour visiting and now its the afternoon, energy levels are too low to start the job now. Tomorrow we shall do it instead.

Joan, hope you and hubby are well, Linda, AnnG and anyone else looking in.

Florence in the Hebrides

Gwyn, I realised earlier on that yes, they will be using up all the rd funds before the next financial year. Pity, they couldn't use it to remove the speed limit signs and move them further back.

The boy racers seem to think we live on the M25!!! I have emailed twice the local councillor but got no reply. Says it all really. Don't know why I bother to vote in local elections as haven't seen any improvements anywhere!

It is sooo cold, I have the heating on. The sun has gone on holiday elsewhere today and i think the weather is on the change maybe. Lovely though there is no wind & rain.

Cant decide what to make for tea as im quite hungry today. Was gonna make some kinda veggie pasta bolognaise, comfort food with naan bread too.

Daughter's room is almost back to normal, whatever that is :-D :-D

I wish the council would use up their budget here to fill the pot holes and repaint all the road markings here, but there is no chance of that happening. All the local councils are being amalgamated into one large North Yorkshire council in April. My area had a lot of reserves and intended using them prior to the change, but they have been stopped from doing that and all the money has to be handed over.

We couldn’t get rid of our bath in the main bathroom Florence as we need it for Esme. The one in the en-suite is fine for us at the moment, but there isn’t room in there to put a double walk in shower. We will probably down size again before we get too decrepit and then I would remove the bath for a shower, but we always come into the self funding bracket. Having said that we did get a grant for cheaper cavity wall insulation once, but that was some government scheme,other than that we just pay up.

Perhaps all the council work everywhere is a little flurry of activity to use up this financial year's budget. ;-)

The men have been out with their mowers cutting the grass verges here today.

I didn't go in in the end, didn't feel up to it so paid the bill online instead.

There have been local council workers here on and off over the last few days but I can't get out to find out what is going on. :-|

Lots of excitement for you, Florence!

Another beautiful sunny day here, with blue sky wall-to-wall, same as for the last few days.
Such a lovely change from the usual rain here on the west coast - but it's cold.

However, it must have been cloudy during the night, as there was no sign of Northern Lights, nor of stars, either. I went out several times to look, around midnight - but no joy.

I saw them a few years ago, though - beautiful.

Good afternoon all.
Well the workmen across the road had just been re-tarring the edge of the rd where I guess it is a small path for people having to walk on the road or their dogs as there are no pavements, well it is the countryside after all!

They have had the steam roller to smooth it and now moved further up the rd to do another section.

Vans were next door at 8.30 sharp, then at 9am, the drilling and banging continued. Neighbour messaged daughter to apologise for any noise etc but they will be there all week as their bathroom will need painting etc too.

Daughter rearranging her room today and I am trying to go through paperwork etc and make some space in my filing cabinet.

Later I need to carry on with friends family tree. Tesco order needs finalising too as order coming on Friday.

A bit grey and overcast today and very cold so not as nice but still calm and dry.

Linda, could you get a grant to assist you with changing the bathroom maybe? Always worth enquiring. My mum got it done through Help the Aged and didnt have to pay anything . They removed the bath, replaced with a shower, a seat etc so was more of a wet room but she could sit and shower so was much easier than standing.

Hope everyone else ok today.

Florence in the hebrides

Hello everyone, I have been reading, but haven’t posted for a while.

I tried to look for the Northern Lights last night, but it was too cloudy. It is a horrible drizzly day, so I don’t want to go out. I have been doing lots of litter picking lately, but it is too wet for that today

If I just had a shower over a bath, I would have the bath taken out as well. I can’t remember the last time I had an actual bath. I find it difficult to get out these days. In my defence, I do have a shower every day in the free standing one in the en-suite. For when I get very old and doddery, I would like one of the large double size showers, so I could put a proper shower chair in it and sit down. I remember that both my mum and the old lady I used to look after had to stop using the shower because they couldn’t stand for long enough. Mum used to say that she felt like the water was pushing her over. She did have one of those bath chairs which lower you down into the bath, but it didn’t take her right down to the bottom, so she was only sitting in shallow water.

Oh dear ZZzzzz, did you not get out in your bright orange jeans then? Hope you feel better soon.

Mystery of workmen next door solved as i see a bath in the front garden :-D :-D :-D

They removed it to put in a shower for the lady as she is disabled. other workmen have disappeared now, must be lunch lol

Not feeling to good today so staying indoors all cozied up with hubby and watching telly. Stay safe everyone.

Gwyn , we posted at the same time.
No, not this time we didn't see the Northern lights but I believe as far south as Cornwall and Kent had them last night.

Sadly, since I moved to the "other side", my view of the Northern Lights is not so good. You need to be in the North East or on the East Coast, like Elgin, Forres, Lossiemouth etc as they seem to get the best views.

They are pretty amazing though aren't they :-D