General Chat

Good morning everyone

Having an atrocious night again. I slept from about 11.30 till 1 am and have been awake since. I came into the spare room around 2.30 as I thought my restlessness would disturb OH, then just after 5 I got up and made a mug of tea. At the moment my head’s very painful again but I am sure it is lack of sleep causing it. I am going to try and get an hour’s zzz now before getting up to face the day.

This is a miserable post isn’t it. I might bbl in a more cheerful mood.

When I worked at the PDSA the men in the garage woud send new chaps out of 6 sky hooks. Just love the tartan paint though.

Really tired tonight so it won't be long till I am off up the wooden hill to bed, if we had stairs!!

I do hope its good news for Jane in two weeks.

I had to laugh at your exciting, upcoming 'date' Vera. :-D Your tip is doing the same as ours with appointment slots and I expect others will do the same. It could be tricky though with not being able to help if something is heavy or awkward to lift over the skip edges. Maybe they would tell you to leave it for their staff to move after you have gone if that's the case. We have all sorts that needs taking, old chairs, 2 computers as well as empty paint tins, old flower pots, lots of wood, carpet and other stuff in the garage.

I was very jealous of AnnG’s garden centre outing but now we have a trip planned for next Monday. I’m very excited. We have an 11am reservation at the tip. We mustn’t arrive before 10.55, then we are allowed 5 minutes for getting in and out and 10 minutes for OH to unload. I mustn’t help. I am so looking forward to this outing. My OH really knows how to give a girl a good time :-D

3 cross face emojis Mel! I had to copy and re-paste to word and then back to to GR as I forgot to post and it wouldn't let me post it to a new post without it reverting to the old one......bet you wish you hadn't asked now! I will try and edit it. It worked! So all the wiping down is done now, it's the worst bit I think and the longer between deliveries the more there is to do, but less often.

It's gone quite hot here and OH is sweltering, which makes a change as I seem to be the cooler one lately. Tomorrow after another zoom session we may go for a drive to pick up the prescriptions and take the paper shreddings to leave at the smallholding gate. It's likely to be hot again so the aircon in the car will cool us off nicely. Then OH has 2 virtual meetings in the afternoon and evening. He's liking meetings this way as he saves no end of time travelling and being stuck in traffic. The meetings seem to be quicker too and more focussed which helps with his notes. He's had enquiries for some of the footie programmes, so I need to photograph them so he can email them so they can see the condition of them next.

Mandy I forgot to say I had to smile at Colin's comment about the upside down paint. It reminded me how new people that started where I worked years ago would be sent to ask for Tartan Paint.

Jane I will try icing sugar IF there is a next time! I just followed what Mary Berry said, but I think a bit more lemon juice and like Mandy said to pour it on while the cake is hot would have worked. Because I made lemon buttercream icing to sandwich it with, I let it go cold so that wouldn't melt. I should have done the top before I sandwiched it together though. My next experiment will be the date and walnut loaf, something else new to try!!

What on earth is %3A-S?????????????????????

Sun came out a little while ago. I have fed the strawberries but not been up the border today. Took ages once again to wipe down allt he shopping and I have damp dusted the bedroom and hall except for the plate rack which has loads on it.

Oh is cooking some egg fried rice for dinner with our chinese tonight. He is adding spring onions mixed veg muchrooms and ham and of course egg.

Evening all,

It's been a lovely warm sunny day and i seem to have got lots of little jobs done but you can't see what i've done if you now what i mean .

Hope your tummy if better now Mel it sounds as if it might have been the blackberries that upset it .

AnnG the shorts will probably be ok until they need washing then it will be your fault the patch has come off in the wash :-D but he tried didn't he :-D

Jane that was good you were in and out for your scan quickly ,it's going to seem a long two weeks for you now i do hope you get good news <3
So you have some roses out,how is the rest of the garden has Chris got all his veg in and cues and toms in the green house .

Oh no Gill not a dodgy loo ,hope you managed to turn the water off you don't want to be paying for water running down the drain .
Hope OH can get it sorted soon but at least you can fill a bucket to flush with in the mean time .

Yes Vera the roses do have a lovely perfume in answer to your question i always pick them for their perfume .
You said about trying to fit a rose in your garden ,why not just have a small patio rose in a pot .

Ann i swear when you tell men some thing it seems to go in one ear and out the other :-D sounds as if there was quite a mess to clear up .
Well done making your hair appointment ,my hair is all over the place i keep trying to tuck the sides behind my ears now and use hair spray to try and keep it in place .
Colin did use the clippers at the back to keep it out of my neck as it as beginning to curl up in the neck and he made a good job of it ,i told him to just do a tiny bit at a time so it did take him a few minutes to do .

You make me wanna shout ,come on now, Shout come on now! Now I will have Lulu on my brain Mel! lol. Yes it does seem a long time to wait, but after the scan a radiologist has to read it and do a report for the doctor who then needs to read the report and decide on what the next step might be and possibly discuss with others before he sees you. I expect if it was done urgently things would be speeded up. It's stressful though for you when it's your scan and you are waiting. %3A-S Keep busy Jane! Is it this week you are seeing Fitz? If so that will be nice. Has Valerie done with Ros to Tesco then?

Well, believe it or not I have booked my hair appointment for the 14th July!! %3A-D It is my hairdresser's smallest salon that I go to (6 seats) and is attached to gym. We will all wear disposable gowns and use masks including the staff who will also wear disposable gloves. No refreshments or magazines or cash. Seats will be disinfected after each customer and be marked red or green to show which have been disinfected. We will complete a questionnaire before being seated and use the available hand sanitiser. The towels used will be single use bio-degradeable ones. With all that in place I feel as confident as you can be. The salons are always spotless anyway and Barry has had all of his staff do extra online hygiene training. He is very hot on up to date training anyway and keeps everyone on their toes! Of course if the virus starts spreading again and we need another lockdown it will all be cancelled. %3A-S

Frank it was lucky you didn't land on Ros's plants or do your self more harm with another fall. That is kind of you to do a cottage pie for Valerie as well and I add bits and bobs like you to gravy and I keep burning myself on the oven! Is Val in the car with Ros

OH has painted 2 bits of the top trellis on the bottom fence, but it was too hot then so he will carry on tomorrow. I did a zoom session this morning on making paper beads which was quite good, but I don't think I'll be making a beaded curtain anytime soon!

We tried the Asda fish and chip with pea puree portions today and enjoyed them so I will order them again as they only need sticking in the oven. (the diet's gone down the pan this week as we finished off the cake that wasn't frozen too).

Gill, look at the water pipe to the toilet and see if there is a straight connector in it with a screw head showing. If so, tightening the screw in the connector will cut the water off just to the toilet. You can then just flush the toilet with a bucket of water till your OH can get the part.

AnnG at least your OH is keeping occupied and out of trouble with his pocket repair even though we know it won't last! Mine unbeknown to me has just been hunting for the dettol spray to wipe the bin handles. This is the same bottle of spray that I showed him him where it goes on the front edge of the cupboard under the sink only last week. He started his search in the Utility room for some reason and managed to knock and smash on the floor the silver dip I only rediscovered last week when going through the cupboard. He moved the door and has probably scratched the tiles with the bits of glass trapped under it and has managed to paddlle the contents over the kitchen floor as well %3A-S He's wiped the floor missing half and the grout is covered. :-S :-S :-S

Dear me Gill, you are not having a good day are you. You’ll need to throw buckets of water into the toilet to flush it, but do as AnnG suggests and pour 1 bucket in the cistern so you can see what’s happening there. Regarding BT, do you think you misunderstood what they were telling you. I found the following online:

BT will give you a Smart Hub for free if you contract, or recontract, for a minimum of 18 months. If you are already with them and don’t want the extra commitment, you can have it for £50 which still compares favourably with retail models.

EDIT. This was the beginning of a long thread. I did it in Notes, did a c&p, pressed submit and was told it had posted so I deleted my Notes. Now I see it only posted the first little bit and seems to have lost all the rest :-P. I don’t have time to retype it all.

I tried putting water in the cistern AnnG, but it didn't work, thanks for mentioning it though. I've been looking online for help to fix it, but I'm not brave enough to do it, but at least I know what the inside of a toilet cistern looks like now lol.

The toilet is driving me mad though with the water trickling it's making me want to go to the loo and that's not good as it won't flush. I think it has something to do with a flapper or at least the Internet is telling me that. It's a rubber seal that might of worn a bit or needs cleaning. I'm thinking of turning the water off to the toilet as it will be costing me a fortune on my water bill, we have an isolator valve so only the toilet will be turned off, everything else will work.

The cistern isn't filling up there's just a inch or two of water at the bottom of the cistern. I've just check what make it is and it says Macdee AFV40100 and AFV40200, but when I looked online for a replacement there isn't one. The toilet is about 12 years old, but I don't know if any new ones would be a suitable replacement for the old one. It might just need cleaning, but given how old it is it'll probably need replacing, but I don't know which one to order with not being able to find a like for like one.

As for BT I'm not sure what's going on with them so will have to wait until Friday when OH is home as it's in his name so he'll have to ring and ask them or give me permission to talk to them myself as I was the one that did the router, so if they ask OH questions he won't know what to say.

The paint is almost dry so when it is I'm going to cut a little cross where the insulation has come away from the wall in the middle and stick it back down with some bathroom sealant, I did that on the other side and it worked. I'll then paint over the cross to hide it.

In the meantime I've managed to clear the spare bed of all my craft kits, so once the single bed goes back into the room I'm decorating, I'll have two rooms back to rights. The single bed is propped up against the double bed at the moment.

I hope my water bill isn't going to be to high as we're on a water metre and the toilet has been running all day. Trying to get to the isolator valve will be fun.....not, as it's right in the corner of the bathroom with only about six inches to get near it. I might need a torch to see what I'm doing, when I lean over the toilet to find it I'll block out the daylight.

Oh the joys of being on your own ;-) ;-) What a day I'm having, I should of stayed in bed lol. At least the place isn't being flooded, so that's something.

tWO WEEKS IS SUCH A LONG TIME TO WAIT FOR RESULTS. yOU WOULD THINK THEY COULD SOMETHING BETTER THAN THAT.

Sorry did'nt mean to shout but it makes you want to.

Gill it sounds to me as though you have entered into a new contract and thats what the payment is for. As for the loo does it have an overflow outside or is it going down the pan?? Our one in the caravan does that. It may be that something has either stuck or broken in the workings. Do you have a ball in the cistern or not?

Frank not another trip. I do hope you hav'nt hurt yourself you silly boy. Sending love
<3 <3.

I think you could be right AnnG.

Was'nt Ann's owl lovely. Loved his big eyes.

Still waiting for the order for the big wipe down to start. I bet it come just as Iam going to get the lunch. He's usually here by now but the order says between 11am and 1pm.

Oh caled my out last night and said bring your camera. Off I went to see what he wanted. It was a mass of baby spiders that had hatched and waiting for a breeze to blow them away. I got a few pics so will send them when I have time.

DONE IT AGAIN DID'T POST THIS

Gill temporarily until OH gets home. Have you got a bowl or bucket or some other container that you can fill with water and put in the cystern. You should then be able to flush it. Or you will also see if the water drains away without flushing.

the bill from BT could be for the new router. Maybe you have missed where they said you will be billed for it. It is maybe like the virgin boxes, we had to pay for the new ones we had. Seems a cheek when it feels as though it should be part of the contract with them.

Frank, I did mention this before, are your glasses OK? could they be the reason you are tripping over things? Although I have almost tripped over log roll edging that we have in the garden before. Pleased that you were not hurt this time anyway.

Jane two weeks to wait then so you need to find things to take your mind of the results now.

Afternoon all

Cloudy again today, but no rain.

Well, our toilet has finally given up the ghost, I was hoping it might of lasted until Friday when OH is home, so I don't know what we're going to do now as no where is open before or after OH finishes work, so he can't buy a new part. I've tried looking online for help but none of it made sense to me, nothing knew there, and the bits inside the cistern's on show didn't look like ours. At the moment there is a continuous sound of running water, but the cistern isn't filling up and the push button flush just goes straight down as if it's not connected properly, even though it is, I think it's because the cistern is as good as empty, there's only about an inch of water at the bottom.

I've just done the second coat of paint on the insulation I papered and wouldn't you know it, the insulation has come lose in the middle, you don't notice it until you get nearer, so I think I might just leave it. I'd love to take the whole lot off but I know the wall would go mouldy if I did that.

We've had a letter off BT thanking us for our order and a bill of almost £50, I wasn't aware we had ordered anything, in fact I know we haven't, all I've done recently is put in the new router, which they said was free. They said they were going to send me an email when the fibre is up and running, I don't know why they bother as I've never been able to get onto my BT emails with not remembering the password and when I told them about it they didn't seem to want to help. I don't have a BT ID so can't access anything. Luckily there's a phone number, but because it's in OH's name they won't speak to me and he isn't here.

So that's the three things going wrong for today, hopefully there won't be anymore as I'm feeling really fed up of it all now.

Onto something nice, I love the roses Mandy, how pretty are they? I wish we had nice ones like you.

You've done a really good job on your drawers painting them Ann, what a difference a lick of paint makes. Have you filled it up yet? I only had a small amount of painting to do and it's emulsion so I haven't got a headache. Mind you I had one before I started and took a painkiller so that might explain it.

Frank, do you have any fizzy pop in your house? If you do have a couple of mouthfuls of it, it takes away hic cups, it has to be very fizzy pop though, or it doesn't work. I swear by it and it works every time. Much better than making yourself sick. Sorry to hear you've had another fall, thankfully you didn't hurt yourself.

Pleased to see the scan didn't take long Jane, hopefully the news will be good in a couple of weeks time.

I had to smile AnnG when you said mending the pocket kept your OH occupied, poor thing, you're right it won't hold for long, but at least he had a go. My OH doesn't mend any of his clothes and passes them onto me to fix. He gave me some jeans to mend once and I ended up breaking my needle, it was a really good one that used to be my Nan's. All I've got is a tiny one that's not very good, so I'll have to go and buy a better one now.

Thanks for all the good wishes for OH's job situation. His boss has said she'll give him a bit of bank work, but he has to have a week off first, something to do with his contract, but he doesn't know how many hours each month he'll get as it's an if and when needed, so he definitely needs a full time contract soon.

Afternoon to you all, Where has the morning gone. ??

Was awake early, but managed to drop off again until 9.00 am. I felt Ros get out, so I knew it was latish. As I walked into the kitchen, I kicked something. It was a glass dish,under it was A BIG SPIDER, that you could have ridden round the room. Ros saw it when she went in the kitchen, and grabbed the first thing that came to hand. She said it just sat there looking at her. !!!! :-P :-P :-P

Be careful with what EMAILS you reply to. There is one from T.V. LICENSING saying you have over paid, and to give them your details, if you don't do it within 24 hours you won't get it. I guessed it was a SCAM but rung T.V. Licensing, who confirmed it is a SCAM.

Yet another fall yesterday evening, I went to water the front garden and the pots down the drive. Changed over hoses and went to water the bottom Veg patch and greenhouse. All done, so I thought I would do the side beds, as I walked from the gravel to the lawn I tripped on the log surrounding, that keeps the gravel off the lawn. I ended up half way up the lawn on my knees , still holding the hose. No damage done.but a bit of a shock.

Cottage pie for tonight, I have made a small one for Valerie. so will save her cooking. I have minced the cold beef from Sunday, onion and carrot. with a sauce mix,plus garlic Lea Perin sauce, and a dash of brown sauce.

Ros popped into Tesco about two hours ago, where she has got to, I do not know. She couldn't stop off anywhere, unless she is sitting in her car, chatting to Valerie.
I will give her a ring.


See you all later. xxxx

Afternoon All
The sun has at last come out after a very cloudy morning.We have a Rose in bloom now :-D others are not far behind.
Loved your Roses Mandy.
Ann I too have never heard of Yeomans paste.You did a wonderful job on the little drawers.They look great. I always use icing sugar to do a drizzle .

The scan was over and done in no time yesterday.It was in the mobile unit in one of the car parks.I will hear the results when I next have my telephone consultation in 2 weeks.

Gill I am keeping everything crossed for your OH and hope he gets this job.It would be such a relief to know that he has employment again.It does sound hopeful.

Just going to have a little lunch now

Good morning all, sunny here at the moment and 17 degrees although the air still feels a bit cool to me. OH is actually in shorts and I left him mending the pocket of another pair. He strengthened it (because the material is rotten, by ironing on two pieces of material with bonding tape. won't last long but kept him occupied.

Ann, as I said on the email the drawers look really smart and I love the owl. I found it very liberating visiting the garden centre and, because it is a small one I never felt threatened by anyone, it was all well marked out and some parts closed off both indoora and out and the two till were a long way apart and enclosed behind screens. And only saw two people in masks as well.
I am like you, I have a phobia of being sick and, also like you have only had one bout in over 30 years so no way could I make myself sick. I even hate reading about it.

Mandy, as I said in my email the roses are beautiful, lovley colours.

Mel, I can't eat roo much acid like blackberries and apple it would upset my tum so that is probably your problem.

Morning All,

A right old grey day here this mroning as thats what the sky is. I had got used to the lovely sunny days and last night we had that fine mizzle in the air. Not really enough to wet everything but still make things wet . The leaves look a little fresher but the ground still looks dry so it did'nt do any good there. Hav'nt been out yet so don't knwo what its like as to whether its warm or not.

Ann we watched the programs about the Valley Of the Kings and they were very interesting. Your set of draws looks nice for its coat of paint now you have something to put lots of bits in.

Fingers are a bit achey today after an afternoon up the border pulling more weeds out and crumbling the earth.

I do so hope Jane got on ok yesterday as I keep thinking about her. Sending love and wishes.<3 <3

Got a bit of a funny tum this morning and I don't think I should have eten so much blackberry and apple crumble last night after dinner.

Gill hoe oh is successful with the job application. It must be good his friend has been asked to give him a reference even if it is a while since he applied. Good luck to him and I hope its what he whats if he gets it.

My sons birthday today...................he will be 51.

Evening All,

It's been much the same as yesterday here weatherwise, but I sat and finished painting the drawers and they are in place now as they dried very quickly in the conservatory.

Mandy I just used ordinary (granulated sugar?) like you have in your tea for the cake drizzle. I think it needed more lemon juice as well, but it was a bit crunchy by this morning. After I saw the scales this morning and 2lb put back on, I froze a third of it!! lol :-0 Your Roses sound lovely and colourful. I bet it was nice to see the children and for them to see you too, even doing it safely.

Oh Frank, you need to do something to make things safer for you. As mum would say when I was young ' you'll break your neck next time!' Was it the same place you fall with the laundry basket? I hope you don't have too many bruises. Like Mel I have never stuck my fingers down my throat and couldn't do it. I hate being sick and have only been sick once in the 34 years since I met OH and that was once too often!

Gill I hope you can get on with your painting tomorrow. I think the fumes painting my little drawers this morning gave me a headache, but it's gone now so get the windows open tomorrow. Fingers crossed your OH will get the job!

I'm itching to go to the garden centre AnnG, but we are waiting a bit longer, although the infection doesn't seem to be rising with the easing. We wondered if the garden centres might struggle to restock if they rely on imported stock,say from Holland. I haven't been in any shops since a week before the lockdown and OH has only been in the chemist. When we did go to drop off our prescriptions or to the chemist, it felt like being naughty! lol. We are waiting till the rush for the tip is over before we venture there. We did think about taking our bags of shredded paper to the smallholding and leaving them by their gate as they may be running short.

Oh Vera, the quiz would have stumped me too with questions on those subjects! Let's hope your grand daughter has some easier ones when she does it. I remember well wrestling with mattresses. Our current one has instructions not to turn it over, just end to end which is a lot easier. It is a really hard orthopaedic one so maybe it is because of the construction.

Is anyone else finding spiders are back a week after you dust the webs away? We seem to have more than usual this year and those horrid tiny red mite things are swarming over the white PVC and coming into the conservatory.

We are watching the Egypt progs we recorded a while ago about the Valley of Kings and looking for undiscovered tombs. We have found it really interesting.

I didn't think about them being so busy Mandy, that would explain why it took so long to make contact with his friend for a reference, I should imagine his boss will have heard something today to, I wonder what she'll say, with her not wanting OH to get another job. I really hope he gets the job though, it'll be one less thing to worry about.

You made me smile when you told us what Colin said about you making sure he didn't put the paint on upside down lol :-D :-D :-D I hope it's not to busy when you go to the tip on Wednesday.

I wonder how Jane got on today, I've been thinking about her all day. Hope it's not to long before she has the results.