General Chat

We've had sunshine and showers today Mel, thanks for the further help with the router.

Pleased to see James is getting on well with his new job Jane, 7.30am is an early start but I suppose if he has conference calls with people in the likes of New Zealand, his times of work will vary quite a lot, as will other countries, until lockdown is over.

Oh dear Vera, what a lot of work just to buy some food, pleased you've got a few slots now. Next time your message goes off try the back button it might come back then you can try to post it again or copy it, then paste it in after you've signed on again. I always use the back button when the error page shows, although I've never been asked to sign in again so it might not work. Worth a try though. Good luck.

I bet you feel so drained today Frank with no sleep to speak of last night. Pity there wasn't any Plaice for Ros, the chicken nuggets didn't sound very nice, let's hope she can have the fish she wants next time.

Sorry to hear you had a headache (eye ache) yesterday AnnG, hope you feel better today. Pleased to see your son has managed to get you a slot, that'll save you doing it and a lot less stressful. We're lucky our shops aren't far away and are easy to get to by car.

Going to watch the news now, I haven't seen it all day.

Oh that is a mystery Vera. I don't know about slots at all I have never booked one myself. all I ever see is no slots available. I probably wouldn't know what to do if there was suddenly a date available!! I have asked my son if he has any ideas?

I was so cross this morning when I got the error message and lost my post. I was already feeling tired and irritable having had virtually no sleep and that was just about the final straw.

I can’t type out all my responses to your posts again except to say it was lovely to see your niece and the video Mel. They all look as though they are enjoying themselves and it’s great to see something happy amongst all the doom and gloom.

There was a reason I was so tired and grumpy this morning. I wanted to book another Tesco slot for 20th or 21st and I knew 20th would come on at midnight. I logged in at 11.40 pm and then just kept refreshing the page till the window came up saying I was in the queue at 11.50. This seems to be the system at the moment and when it is your turn in the queue you are automatically redirected to the page for booking slots. This time I was redirected at 12.04 and would you believe there were no available slots left for delivery or click and collect. In 4 minutes they had all been filled and I was faced with doing it all over again tonight.

I was so uptight that I couldn’t settle to sleep after that so I made a drink and read till 3 am when I fell into a restless sleep for less than 2 hours, got up and decided to check Asda out again. Our nearest one is some distance away in Colchester but will deliver here so at 5 am I was registering with them as well. Didn’t do me any good as they hadn’t got any slots either :-|.

However, the saga doesn’t end there. AnninG, I owe you a drink as you have inadvertently got me a slot with Tesco :-). I couldn’t understand it when you said that your son had booked you a slot for 27th as the latest date I could book was 20th. At midnight tonight 21st will be added but it will be several days before we can book for 27th. So I went online to see if there was something I had missed. However hard I looked I couldn’t see any way of booking beyond 20th. But while looking I found that a number of slots between 15th and 17th May, that weren’t available last night, were suddenly free so I booked one for 17th. It’s a bit earlier than I wanted but who’s complaining? It’s a slot. I now have 7th and 17th booked. I’m still puzzled how your son booked 27th - maybe different areas of the country are operating in different ways.

Who would have thought a few months ago that a three act drama could be made out of buying a few groceries or that we’d go through the whole gamut of emotions doing it?

Now it’s pouring with rain again. Oh well, c’est la vie.

A jet plane has just gone over our house. I wonder if it was one of the ones from the fly over for Colonel Tom Moore?

HAPPY 100th BIRTHDAY TOM. We all love you and what you have done for the country and its people. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Afternoon all, IT'S HISSING WITH RAIN HERE, and has been all day.

I finally got my hospital call at 5.30 pm. Half an hour after the Doctor from the surgery. The hospital are taking mr of the clinic list, and the doctor at the surgery is giving me TESTOSTERONE (sp) in cream form. Rub in to the skin and leave. No shower for at least six hours, after application.

Believe it or not, but I laid awake ALL NIGHT until 7.45 am I then dropped off until 8.30. My body feels that it doesn't belong to me today. Ros was up, and hoped I would sleep in.

This morning I heard a flight of JET PLANES go over. They could have been the RED ARROWS, going to do the fly pass for MAJOR TOM's 100th BIRTHDAY. Will watch the local news later, to see if they mention it.

I have made TWO SHEEP S@@T PIES this morning, one for us and one for Valerie Barker. I did enough cabbage for her also.

The F & C man came in the close last night. I went out to get some Cod and Chips for me. They had no Plaice, Chicken or fish cakes. So Ros ended up with CHICKEN NUGGETS, Didn't eat many of them, as she said they were tasteless.

1.30 NEWS is about to start, so will sign off and try to get back later. xxxx

AnnG just after I posted it rained and now its duller than before. I have fed the chickens and am going up the shop as I have run out of milk and it s all I drink and water with the occasional ovaltine.

Grrr :-|

I was first on this morning and did a longish post. When I pressed submit it asked me to sign in again. This happened twice then I got the error message and now my post has disappeared into the ether. No time to do it all again now so will try to get back later.

Just missed you Mel, good morning. Still wet here although maybe looking a bit brighter at the moment, strong wind though.

Has everyone decided to stay in bed today? Don't blame you if you have it is horrible out there. We were up a bit late and by the time we had showered and washed hair and had breakfast half the morning had gone. Anyway I have prepped tonights meal (cottage pie), cooking the mince in the sow cooker with mushrooms, carrots and tinned tomatoes and peeled the potatoes which are like marbles.

Son has got me another slot with Tesco although not until 27th which is 18 days after the next one which is on the 9th. so quite a big gap but I think it will be OK.

Hopefully will do some card making this afternoon. I did make one yesterday..

Hope everyone is ok. I had a headache (eye ache really) yesterday which is probably the first I have had since I retired 20 years ago. I used to get cluster headaches when I worked but they finished when I left. I think too much screen and/or reading. And being indoors no fresh air as it was wet.

Morning all,

We have a brightish day lots of clouds but some blue and some sun shine. whats it like with you lot?

Only been up a little while so hav'nt been out yet but the trees are only stirring a little so not much in the way of wind.

I have to go up the shop for milk today as we have run out so thats one job for me today.

As I drove up there on Saturday morning all along the hedgerows were red campion flowering and white hedge garlic and bluebells. The wild garlic in the front of our garden is in full bloom and I must remember to keep my eye on it for some seeds for Ann.

Another youtube film with my neice in it with her friends.

https://youtu.be/7Qtd2iXnzk8

Gill oh said it may still work on the old router anyway so don't worry.

Nice to see you Jane. How are you feeling now? It will seem funny for James when he does have to go into work but it will be the same for all the other employies. Sounds like he is enjoying it though.

We all asked how Geogette is now and has she recovered completely? Sending love and wishes. <3 <3 <3

Afternoon Everyone

How is that tooth now Mel? Did you manage your toast? Fancy the little Blue Tit nesting on the bird table !!.Hopefully you will be able to keep an eye on it and see how things progress.

Oh GillI am so sorry to hear about OH's job :-(.. I too was going to sufggest he contacts the big supermarkets as I think they are still trying to recruit more staff for various jobs.Hopefully in the meantime he will find another carehome that need staff.He has plenty of experience now and will have a good reference.

Crikey Frank, you sounded like you were ready to blow a gasket !!!!!!!!!!!.. Have you calmed down now?

It has been a funny old day weatherise .Just dull and overcast really with a little rain .It doesn't do much for the mood does it. I have done Normandy Pork for dinner and rice so it just needs reheating now. I will eat first as I find I need to eat earlier than the men .James is never ready before 7 and I am nearly ready for my bed by then !!.
I haven't done any more of the puzzle today as just not in the mood for it.I will have another bash tomorrow. If it is dry in the morning I will walk down the lane with Chris as he is going to pop a magazine in Fitz's post box.
We have another Tesco delivery on Friday but it will be a small load this time as we only had Waitroses yesterday and that was quite a big one.

Mel what a shame you lost your slot with Asda. My card details are with Tesco so the payment is taken out automatically as soon as we have had the delivery or click and collect.

James seems to be getting on fine with the new job. But is desperate to be able to actually go to the office to work from there and meet everyone on the team.Yesterday morning at 7.30 he was on a conference thingy with several countries all linked up.I think he said it was New Zealand,Australia and Canada.It must be difficult with all the different time zones.

I think I am ready to eat now so will go and heat mine up.

Can you thank your OH for letting me know what to do Mel. I can't leave the filter on the master socket as it's right by the bedroom door so would be kicked. Would it work if once I've set it up using the filter on the master socket, I moved it to the bedroom again using the filter on the end of the extension lead in the bedroom and the other end of the extension lead in the master socket. That's how it is now.

I think when OH's friend set it up for me years ago he set it up in the hall then moved it to the bedroom. I didn't watch him (wish I had now) so I don't know what he did with the filter when he set it up. The filter is now in the bedroom and the router works okay. We hardly use our landline phone, but sometimes if we do it knocks me offline, once we've finished using the phone the Internet comes back on, I should imagine it's because the filter is on the extension lead and not on the master socket, but I can live with it going off occasionally, rather than risk it being trodden on or kicked on the floor of the hall.

I just don't want to try it that way and then find I've lost my internet altogether, as OH will need to look for another job and I like talking with you all. The Internet is a lifeline for me, with or without, lockdown. Without that I'm totally on my own and would have no one to talk to then. All it said online was the filter had to be in the master socket, but it isn't now so would the Internet be the same as it is now, cutting off when we use the landline, if I set it up the same way as the old one? Like I said I can live with that and it would be safer to.

Gill oh says you must already have a filter which is connected to your phone socket. Have a look and see if you have a small box with a short lead on your master phone socket. Oh says the filter you already have will probably be perfectly ok to use with the new router when the time comes.

He also said changing over the router is just a matter of taking the cables out of the old router and putting them in the new one. They are all different plugs so you can't go wrong. Simples.........Don't worry about a thing cos every little thigns going to be aright...........

Take one cable plug out of the old router at a time.

Hope you get it sorted ok when the time comes G~ill you don't want to lose contact with all of us. You knw you can text me if you need to talk.

Oh has the mower deck back on as the belts arrived today and he is out mowing now so he's happy till he cmes in with back ache.

Do you remember I said I saw a Blue Tit with a beak full of grass? Well its just broken another mythe. It is nesting in the top of the bird table where I told oh birds DON'T nest at feeding stations. When he made the bird table I told him off for putting holes in the roof bit but now I have been proved wrong by him ONCE AGAIN.

Thanks AnnG, I've been looking online and then went and had a look at what I already had and it looks like I've got a filter. The switch over isn't until 15th May so I'm not going to worry about it today. I got myself in a bit of a mess before thinking about it and ended up crying......I know I'm silly, but with everything else that's happened this year, I think it was the last straw.

If I mess it up and end up with no internet I won't be able to have an engineer come to my house, so I will be off line until it's sorted, another reason I don't want to attempt it yet. If that happens I'll text Mel to let her know, then she can let you all know why I'm not on here.

It's using an extension lead, which i do now, that's bothering me as it said online that it might not work, even though it does on the router I have now. The master socket is in the hall in an area where I can't put the router, so I need to use the extension lead or I can't plug it in.

The only way I'm going to know if I can do it is to install the new router using the extension lead and hope for the best.

My laptop is the only way I can make contact with you all and with being on my own all the time I don't want to lose that. Hopefully it'll be straight forward and once done I'll wonder what I was worried about. I'll leave it until I have to do it though, so at least I know I have the Internet up and running, OH will need it to job search, which is more important than anything else right now.

gill OH thinks that is something that used to be necessary to stop some sort of noise interference. He says you should be able to plug it straight in and it should 'fire up'.

Oh dear Frank, what a day you've had and it's only half way through, I hope you have the phone calls you need from the doctors and can get through to the F&C man if he doesn't ring back. Have you thought of buying a board to do your puzzle on, I have one and they take puzzles up to 1000 pieces, then fold away, so storing them is easy as they're only about 2 inches thick when folded. I believe you can fold them with the puzzle inside , but I've never tried that, so I don't know if that works.

This B@@@@y COMPUTER, is ready to be thrown out of the window. !!!!

I am getting so annoyed today. Neither of the phone calls have come through. When I rang the surgery, I was told the nurse was very busy, and would ring me before 12.00. It;s now nearly 1.00. and they closed for lunch at 12.30. So NO PHONE CALL Also my EYE APPOINTMENT hasn't rung either.

I nearly had a HEART ATTACK. Ros had gone off to get some COMPOST as the seedlings need potting on, when suddenly the lounge door burst open. It was MADAM, she had got to B & M in Towcester. Parked and reached over for her handbag, it wasn't there. The silly woman had left in on the sofa. She's gone off again in a right old tiss wass.

I m also waiting for a call back from the F & C MAN. Ros will only eat PLAICE, so I rang ask if they did plaice,if ordered. AGAIN NO CALL BACK.

Gill sorry to hear about your OH and his job. As mentioned, the Supermarkets are crying out for drivers, during the pandemic, so it might be something to tide you over for a few weeks.

We have loads of jigsaws in the garage, but with Ros needing the dining room table for all her cutting out of these bags, and the sewing machine in situ. There is no room for anything on the table. We have even taken to eating our meals off of trays. lol

If I don't hear back from the F & C man soon, I will need to sort something out for dinner tonight. DO YOU WONDER I AM ANNOYED.

KEEP SAFE. xxxx