General Chat

Good morning, folks
Well, it is very very chilly here with an easterly wind but.... the sun is shining brightly so a sunny, crisp wintry day.

Daughter has gone off to town but just a quick jaunt as back on the 2.30 bus.

Oh Linda, your poor neighbour but surely, he won't want back on his bike so soon after all those injuries? Thats the trouble on a bike, no protection for your arms & legs etc Hope your OH takes great care.

Ann, I find I get all my cards done fairly early, but then I have to write a note into several as for many of my friends, this is the only time we exchange news and that tales me awhile! Hope you get the machine sorted.

Well, the rest of my pigeon clan were back in my garden today minus 1 and no sign of neighbour's kitten. I put out wild bird seed and they had a feast.

Plenty of washing and tidying up today. My bed has xmas gifts on one side waiting to be wrapped etc...silly season is here lol

Bin day today and at least no rain. Should be here very soon and then i will put the bin back in its place.

Joan, hope your weather has much improved, sending some sunshine over to you
:-D :-D :-D

Take care all

Florence in the hebrides

Brr, it is only two degrees outside, I have just got back from my slimming class, I don’t intend going out again.

We have lots of cats around here, plus some Sparrow Hawks, there are often lots of feathers lying around. Whatever is doing it seems to be very efficient as there are no gruesome bits left.

It is World football day at Esme’s school. They are forever having special dressing up,days. Last Friday it was Children in Need of course and she had to dress in spotty things. She didn’t have anything and her mum couldn’t find anything her size in the supermarkets. So I did a trawl of the charity shops and amazingly found a pair of black leggings with white spots in her size. Next to it was a white spotty blouse, slightly too big, but with the sleeves turned up, it did the job. Today they had to wear their football strip, or sports clothes. Of course she wanted a football strip, so OH went off round the charity shops, being a market town, we have lots of them. He managed to find a matching top and shorts belonging to the local boys team. I would have thought they were supposed to be handed back in to the team, but he bought them and she has gone off happily today wearing them. She has some leggings under the shorts to keep her warm. The next special occasion is Xmas jumper day, but that will be easy to sort out.

OH has gone out for his bike ride, I will be glad when he gets back, hopefully but without falling off. He goes about three times a week just for exercise. The man next door is a mad keen Lycra clad cycling type, he does silly mileage with a cycling club. Last week he had a bad crash, four out of the seven fell off in a high speed down hill crash. He has a black eye, very bad bruising down his hip and leg. He has taken a large amount of skin off one arm and has possibly broken a rib. It won’t stop him though, he had a really serious crash just before lockdown and that didn’t put him off.

good morning all very dark here and 3 degrees but, as far as I can tell in this light, no frost. I am up early so that I didn't sleep in as hopefully the dishwasher man is due today, he says between 9 and 12 but he could be early.

Oh poor pigeon Florence. Young cats are so fast and soon learn to catch birds. And with no cats around the pigeons are not used to the danger.

Yrs Joan I have seen on the forecast about your bad weather, hope it is calmer for you today.

I still have quite a few cards to write as I only do a few at a time. I find handwriting quite difficult these days and my writing gets unreadable if I do too much. I have a few letters to write (type) too to add with the cards, I have slipped behind a bit with my letter writing lately.

My neighbour messaged us to say the poor pigeon was put to sleep as any injured bird that comes to them has to be put down because of the bird flu!
I'm sure with looking after he would have got stronger, and his feathers would have grown back eventually.

Joan I very nearly had cheese toasted crumpets but decided to save the last 2 for my breakfast tomorrow with marmalade..funny that!

Watching The Larkings filmed not that far from where I used to stay in Kent.

Florence in the Hebrides

Afternoon folks.
Well, a busy day yesterday at a xmas fayre. Daughter was selling her Avon and did really well, so I was so happy for her. Lots more people than in previous years so well supported.
I had a great day chatting to lots of teacher friends haven't seen in 4 years and it was so uplifting for me mentally. Two had said they promise to come & visit me very soon so I'm looking forward to that.

So slept well but was woken sharply at 8am by the loud squawking of crows in my garden. The racket they were making was unbearable and couldn't understand why until......I decided in the end to get up at 8am and soon all became clear.

I had my coffee but left the back door blind down until about 10am. When I raised the blind, all became clear what was going on. There were feathers everywhere, all over the grass, my path and around my doorstep.

Suddenly I saw something move behind my big black pot and realised it was the kitten next door but has grown as about 5 months old. He had feathers in his mouth and was biting something. I then realised he had a pigeon trapped underneath him and he was yanking all its feathers out. Oh my poor wee thing!!!

I opened the back door and tried to shoo the kitten away, but he wasn't budging even using my stick to move him away. But then I saw the bird was still moving so I went round to the neighbour to tell her, and she came round straight away.

I gave her some thick rubber gloves and she picked up the pigeon. It was alert but very shaky, so she took it in her home and put it in a box in a dark room to let it calm down and tel the RSPCA who have now arrived.

Sadly, she thinks they will probably put it to sleep as it's only a pigeon and not a dog!

It was so distressing to see, and I know it was only a pigeon, but I feed them regularly and gave them all names.

Just not used to having cats around here as no one else has one.

So that was how my Sunday started.

We have put up the little tree on top of my filing cabinet and put out the wooden decorations etc but the main tree won't get decorated until Beg of December as per.

Sunshine & showers here with double rainbows and the wind had died right down too but extremely cold so had to put the heating on (another saga for another day!)

Something light for tea, cheese toasties I think, not feeling too hungry as still feeling full after all the "junk "we ate when away.

Hope everyone else safe & well today.

Florence in the hebrides

Ha! ha! No, neither do I!

Thanks, Andysmum.

ArgyllGran, I agree - the website is a bit lacking in info!

As far as I remember (from pre-covid) the restaurant, open to the general public, is open until about 9pm, but we have only been there once and were not impressed. The service was so slow that we had to skip any second course or miss the concert!

The cafe/bar is meant for theatre-goers and opens a couple of hours before the start of a concert. It is open for drinks in the interval, but is shut by the time the concert ends. In our case this was about 9.30pm.

I have just found something on Google which says it is open 24 hours!!! This I do not believe.

Thanks, Andysmum.
I've had lunch there once or twice - long queues!
Do you know what time they stop serving food? I can't find info about opening hours anywhere online.

ArgyllGran, when you come to Glasgow next time, why not try the cafe/bar in the Concert Hall. It is very good. Just make sure you are nice and early to avoid the queues!

Aw Joan, I have seen the local news tonight and the flooding in some places is dreadful and also places have lost power. I hope you eventually got your fish & chips cooked and nothing burnt!
Hope you have a torch and candles ready just in case your electric goes.

Oh Linda, that's a setback for Esme. here's hoping she will refind her confidence and be back swimming very soon. With special needs, it doesn't take much to throw them out of their comfort zone, so gentle steps needed to get them back to their usual stance.

Keep warm and stay safe everyone

Florence in the Hebrides

I am glad that you are safely back Florence. We use Premier Inns regularly and have never had any bother. We only have breakfast there, we always go out to eat elsewhere. The menu looks a bit like Wetherspoons to me. All precooked and just microwaved, not to my taste at all.

The weather has been horrible here for the last few days, we have had a huge amount of rain. I have a chesty virus, caught from Esme’s daddy. He is back in London, but has been very ill since he went back. Esme has had a day and a half off this week with the virus as well, but she hasn’t been too ill

Being a special school, they have a hydrotherapy pool. She used to love swimming, but she started refusing to go in.We think that maybe someone let go of her, so she was floating herself. That frightened her and she has been very clingy even when we take her on a weekend. The teachers have been trying to entice her back, by getting her to be a “helper” on the side. She has started splashing about on the steps. They hoped she would get changed into her swimming costume today, but she refused, but she got deeper and deeper until she went in in her clothes! That was fine because she always has a complete change in her bag. They said she could put her costume on next week, but she told me she likes swimming in her clothes, so she is going to do that!

Yes, they haven't had prices on the menus for a few years now - I agree it is annoying, and unhelpful.

Florence -
the Premier Inn which they call "Buchanan Galleries" is actually in West Nile Street, just opposite the side of the concert hall.

Buchanan Galleries, the shopping centre, is 100 yards further along, but I don't usually go there for shopping - though John Lewis's toilets are very handy, opposite the bus station!
I always used to shop (or browse) in Sauchiehall Street, Buchanan Street, and sometimes Argyle Street, but haven't been for ages - well, not since 2019.
When I was there earlier this year, I was so disappointed by Sauchiehall Street, and bothered by the crowds (it was a Saturday), especially as I hadn't been among crowds all through the pandemic, that I didn't bother going down to Argyle Street. I Didn't need anything, anyway!

The Buchanan Galleries map does show some empty shops:
https://buchanangalleries.co.uk/your-visit/centre-map


I used to really like Premier Inns, and looked forward to staying overnight there any time I went to Glasgow - ho hum!

I,m sorry you had problems with Premier Inn. We’ve always been luckywhen we have used them

But have you noticed they no longer have prices on their menus when you look on line? A bit annoying if you want to check out best value for eating, especially if you are in a city centre.

Yes, last time I was in Sauchiehall St, it wasn't as good as 10 years ago. Braehead had many empty units. Even MacDonalds and KFC were pretty empty although, it meant we got served very quickly.

I wanted a jeweller to look at mum's ring and the only guy I asked, said he couldn't see the marks inside as it was very dirty and needed cleaning, he wasn't allowed to say if he thought gold or silver either! The shops selling jewellery were very modern with young staff who have no real knowledge of hall marks etc. But I bought some silver cleaner....£9 indeed!!

I think many of the people who checked in were either off early on a flight in the morning, or those checking in at 8pm had just landed and didn't want to drive or travel late to wherever they lived. There were young children, a baby crying one side of us.

As the dining room was so full, they allowed people to order takeaways and let them eat in the bar area. They provided plates and knives & forks.
I don't eat meat and fish & chips was really the only thing or cauliflower curry!
Daughter wasn't impressed as they had no steak lol

They even ran out of the cheesecake, so ice cream was really the only desert.

It's just the whole trip cost so much, I feel we didn't really get our monies worth, and it will be a long time before i could afford to go away again and don't think it will be Glasgow either! Trouble is, if we went to say Inverness, you end up meeting people you know, and I hate that. Being in Glasgow, we could be anonymous lol and not have to visit anyone, just have the time to ourselves.

Ann, you have a big job there sorting out tools etc. I'm sure someone will make use of some of them.

ArgyllGran, Buchannan galleries used to be good but I'm guessing, some shops have closed down?

Glad you got on OK,, Florence.
But sorry to hear that the Premier Inn was so poor.

I was in Glasgow for a concert about 6 or 7 months ago, and stayed overnight in the Buchanan Galleries Premier Inn.
It wasn't noisy, thank goodness, but the restaurant was dire.

They were very short-staffed, as so many hospitality place are these days.
At that time their menu was terrible, from my point of view - almost everything chilli-based in one way or another, and I can't eat that, so it was going to have to be either fish & chips or lasagne.
(I'm delighted to see that the menu has now changed, and it's back to mainly non-spicy food, as it used to be several years ago.)

I had booked a table for 5.30, the earliest possible time. However, they told me that even if I placed my order at that time, it would take about 45 mins before it would actually arrive at my table, because of lack of staff.
That would have meant I wouldn't have had time to eat it before going out to the concert, so I had to go out to get a sandwich to eat in my room instead.
And even if I'd had time, they had no fish, and the lasagne was also off the menu that night!

I'm going to another concert in March, so I do hope they've sorted out their staffing and supply problems by then!

Yes, the Glasgow shopping experience isn't what it used to be. Sauchiehall Street has hardly any shops open now.
It used to be a treat to go to the city for a day's shopping - or even for just browsing. But not now.

Daughter and I got rid of loads of stuff that was kept 'in case' when my OH died last year and just recently I managed to get rid of some of the big stuff no longer needed but there are still a lot of tools out there (we have a shed as well but that is full of garden tools etc) No doubt daughter and I will have another go at the garage some time when they are here.

Florence glad the hospital went ok but the hotel sounds a bit of a nightmare. that is a lot of rooms and a lot of people when they are full wonder why there were so many people there was there anything on in the area. Children are not on holiday up there are they. Sorry you didn't find anything to buy, sounds like most towns if shops are shut.

Anyway glad the trip overall was ok and you are home now.

Yes folks, I'm back from the "big city."
The trip went well in as much as the assistance I received at both airports was as always excellent. So much easier when it all goes smoothly.

The Premier Inn was fully booked with 238 rooms!! So glad I booked well in advance. But it meant the dining room was full each evening, but we managed to get in around 8.15pm. Menu was very basic so that was a disappointment and they had sold out of a few things too; however, I had the fish, and it was well cooked and very tasty.

Room was ok but noisy neighbours either side and above! When I was down south in August, it was the same then lol.

Reception was banging on the door of the room next to us at 7am and I heard them say, "you have set off the smoke alarm." So, I think they were smoking in the room was just so glad the alarms didn't go off and we would have been outside in our nighties, perish the thought!!

Our shopping trip was quite disappointing as many shops had shut down, the likes of M&S, Primark were crowded and to be honest, just didn't see what I wanted.
Bought a few things from The Works and Card Factory.

On Wednesday had the hospital and again went ok but nothing new to report except a repeat brain scan in the New Year. She was surprised I never got a check-up after my heart surgery so has sent a report to GP with a recommendation that I see a cardiologist as maybe my BP drops are to do with my heart!

So arrived safely back last night around 5pm. Slept for Scotland as I was really sore in my legs and arms with the walking and using my stick more than usual.

So that's it in a nutshell.

How has everyone else been?

Florence in the Hebrides

I remember after my father died, it took ages to empty the garage, his workshop and a shed. Most big it was just junk. I keep getting OH to go through our garage and dispose of things he hasn’t used. It is a lot better than it used to be, but he still has far too much which he has kept “ just in case”

I can’t wait to have my house back, so I can have a good tidy up and sort out. At the moment all my daughters things are here as well, not to mention the mountain of toys.

Afternoon folks
Horrible wet day here and very dark skies so feels like early evening already!

Bags all packed and ready for off at 6.45am tomorrow. Can't wait to get away!

Have a floor plan of the shopping centre so have planned out the shops we need to go to 1st and then those we just want to visit afterwards and of course where the eateries are...yum yum :-D :-D

So, I'm now relaxing as everything done. All washing & ironing. all up straight etc

I do sometimes wonder how some people panic and rush around last minute before they go away. If you plan ahead, it should be all calm and no stress!

Linda, glad you enjoyed your son's visit. Really hope the property sells fairly quickly so you get your house back to yourselves.

Joan, hope all's well with you. Good that the wind blows the leaves elsewhere sometimes lol, less to sweep up for you.

Ann G and anyone else, hope you are all keeping well.

I shall not post again until after I'm back now with my tales of the "Big City" :-D :-D

Florence in the Hebrides

All is well with us Joan. My son went home on Wednesday, it was really nice to be able to spend some time with them.
My son in law has been here for about nine days as well. The girls have really enjoyed having their daddy here. He is going back to London tomorrow. The house is on the market now, they have had quite a few viewings, but no offers. They couldn’t have put it on the market at a worse time. It should have been finished ages ago, if it had been, it would have sold straight away As it us, it will probably take ages to sell, so they will be here with us for even longer :-(