General Chat

Morning all,

Another dull morning here and a bit chilly .
Sounds like you have a busy day Mel .
Anng could you have a good lunch so you can then go out to the neighbours get-together.
I had a christmas card from Gill today she said her laptop is still broken and that she hopes to come back on line when she can get it fixed ,so it's nice to hear that she is OK.
I have stripped the bed so thats in the washer and I want to give the upstairs a good hoover and dust today .

Good morning all. slept better last night, finally woke around 8am. 7 degrees here and very grey. Yesterday turned out to be a nice sunny day, no rain. Meeting went well 8 of us. Mince pies and sausage rolls went down very well.

Sorting for packing today. Then may go to a meet the neighbours get together this evening. It is awkward as it is for 'any time after 6pm'. which clashes with when I eat and then you don't know how long it will go on. I will have to see. Fairly new young neighbours with two under three year olds.

Morning all ,

Builders here and I was still in bed but I heard the door of his van shut.

Its 8 degrees here this mroning and pc sayas near record high for the 16th Dec.

I have to go to the post van this morning and to the foot man this afternoon so a full day for me and I don't know how long Dave will be here.

Mel I think it is not something you should have clicked on. google secure web search and it will hopefully give you advice. It is some sort of suspicious extension.

I clicked on it and now I can't get a page up

11 degrees Mel? That's nearly tropical weather. It's only 4 degrees here. It's very brrr...

Can't help you with your green screen message as I have never seen that. Maybe someone else can advise you or could you contact whoever you get your virus protection from - Norton? McAfee? - and see if they can help?

Morning Girls,

Its dull here too this morning but now its 11 degrees. There was a frsot last night after the lovely day we had yesterday.

I have fed the girls and the wild birds just need to clean thier bird bath out and do some house work.

This morning I have a green screen come up in the corner of my screen which tells me my secure web search is off shoiuld I click on it or not?? When I turned the pc off last night it updated could it be to do with that?

Morning all,

We had a beautiful sunrise here this morning ,I was so surprised when I pulled the curtains back and saw the sky now its as dull as dish water .
I did sleep a little better last night I soon went to sleep where as the last couple of nights I laid for over an hour or more before I slept ,I did wake a couple of times but soon went off again.
Anng it could be related to covid , I still feel so tired at times it just seems to sweep over me .
We're off later to see Colin's sister and take christmas cards.

Good morning AnnG and all
It’s cold here today, 3 degrees and drizzle. Only a week to go now till the shortest day. I slept better last night so am a bit more “with it” today. I’ve not got much to do, just a bit of tidying and then our friends will come for lunch.

good morning all. 4 degrees here this morning still darkish outside with heavy cloud cover but not raining. Not that I am going anywhere today. Meeting here this afternoon so a bit of tidying and chair shifting this morning. sort of slept ok but still woke three times.

Sound like a nightmare journey in both directions Vera. Hope you had a nice time with your friends anyway,

Strange isn’t it that so many of us have trouble sleeping. If I remember correctly my sleepless nights only started after zcovud. But I can’t think that had anything to do with it. Maybe it is an age thing. Which it could be for me and maybe Vera but not Mandy

Sorry to hear you’ve been having bad nights as well Mandy. I hope you sleep better tonight. I wonder why several of us aren’t sleeping well at the moment. I had 2 appalling nights which meant I had a stinking headache all yesterday. Last night was just slightly better so I’ve lost the headache and just feel tired and zombie like.

It’s a shame you have such an expense just before Christmas but the rotten wood would have made your decking unsafe Mel. We don’t want it falling to bits and taking you down with it.

Weather here has been much the same as Mandy’s, not very nice at all. Yesterday it poured all day and we had arranged to go to Southend. Our normal route is cross country through the back roads to join the A12 just south of Colchester. As we were driving along a bus came round a bend and flashed its lights at us so OH slowed down. Just as well. Round the bend there was a small queue of cars stopped by a long stretch of flooded road. The driver at the head of the queue wouldn’t venture into the water so had just stopped. Everything else had to try and get round her in a narrow road with cars coming through the flood in the other direction. I don’t know if it’s right or not but I was taught that driving through water you keep the revs up and the speed down but some people seemed to think you had to get through as quickly as possible and cars were aquaplaning and sloshing waves of water everywhere. Anyway we made it through and drove on.

Next problem: coming over a bridge we could look down on the A12 and it was at a standstill. We got to the roundabout where we move on to the A12 and the slip road was closed. No diversion signs or indication where we could join it. In the end, having driven south, we had to go a long way north again by a different road in order to get us on to another route to Southend. The journey normally takes one and a quarter hours. It took two and a half.

I won’t bore you with the saga of getting home again except to say OH planned a route carefully to avoid all the known hazards and delays. Unfortunately for us so did everyone else so for at least half the way we crawled along bumper to bumper in an endless parade of cars. It took another two and a quarter hours to get back.

When we got home our friends M and V phoned and OH blithely invited them to lunch tomorrow. Guess who’s the one sorting out the lunch? They won’t expect a full meat and 3 veg type dinner but I must give them more than a crumpet. So as well as the other jobs I had planned I’ve had to dash to the supermarket and make some soup. I’m giving them soup with sourdough bread and then salad with sausage rolls. We can finish with coffee and cake.

All this talk of food is making me peckish to I think I will go and prepare our dinner. It’s salmon tonight and that’s always one of my favourites.

I thought he was coming today to screw the boards down but he never came and I have had a day of doing nothing except feed the chickens and the wild birds which are eating me out of house and home.

I took the bin bag up a little while ago and thought I would drop off Hazel and Jonathon's present so parked in the car park and went to ring them and after faffing about becuse the phone kept giving me up strange colours and only my favorite number I at last got into contacts and rang Hazel as they keep their big gates locked because of the dogs, anyway what did it do to me? rang my SIL and when she answered I said Hi its me I'm in the carpark!! Hello said Heather are you here? then i clicked and had to say sorry the phone had rung the wrong number. We chatted a bit and by this time I was at the gates to Hazel so said bye and rang Hazel. Had a lkittlke chat with them and a couple of choccies and came home. So all in all a real nothing day. Now its time to cook dinner.

Its been a dry sunny day today but there's been a bitterly cold wind and I expect frost tonight cos the sky is still clear. Pc is telling me its mostly cloudy so its got that wrong, so much for technology (sp). its still 7 degrees.

Afternoon all,

Dull cold and wet here today but it should turn a bit milder later in the week.
Went shopping this morning got a few christmas goodies some cheeses as they had a good date on them ,we do like some nice cheese and biscuits.

Mel it sounds as if it will be a good job done on the decking ,you could have really hurt yourself on the rotten wood ,the trouble is with decking is you can treat the decking but you can't treat the wood underneath so it does rot .
Hope you can sell the fishing gear would your bil have an idea on prices for it .

The last two nights I've had terrible nights sleep ,taking ages to go off and waking up again after a couple of hours ,laying for a while before going off again ,we even had an earlier night last night but it didn't make any difference.

Good morning, 7 degrees here as well dry and very cloudy so rain coming I think. Strange PC is telling me it is sunset. Must have missed a day.

Although it is to cost quite a bit Mel, it will be worth it. Sounds as if it was very unsafe and now will be safe. Not only is that a good thing it will keep up the value of the bungalow. If the wood was rotten it would only have got worse. Three years ago when having the roof of the conservatory done, one long piece of wood cost £40.

Morning all,

Dry this morning and no frost but only 7 degrees at the moment. Builder coming back today to screw the decking down and do the bit by the filter shed. The wood alone was over £300 so a smal job that I thought it was going to be is going to cost a lot. Most of the boards he took up were rotton and the other that arn't will go to mend patches.

Slept right though to 7.10 am this morning and had a little lie in and got up at 7.58am.

Have to get up the post van again this morning so better get dressed.

Morning all,

Its 10 degrees here too and dull and looks like rain to the west and pc says rain so that will be it all day once it starts I expect.

Shopping coming today and builder this afternoon I think anyway he will turn up at some time today. He may be interested in oh's fishing rods as his wife wants to start fishing with him. Thing is I have no idea what they are worth. Iv'e had a look online and nothing makes sense to me. There's loads of stuff up the caravan a seat box with all draws that pull out full of floats and places to put your bait boxes etc.

Anyway I am going to attempt to make a couple of table arrangments for the shop at some time and I still have presents to wrap.

I can't understand why but this keyboard is working perfectly since the new one arrived, sods law I suppose.I fell asleep at the table last night watching the telly so went off to bed quite early for me and slept through till 7.35am but went back to bed where it was nice and warm for a while. Not even had a drink yet so I am going to do that now.

good morning all. Mine last night Vera was a night of two halves. I slept really well until just after 3am then didn't sleep much at all the rest of the night, finally got up at 8am. I don't know why I didn't sleep as i had been out in the air and walked quite a bit around town. Good job nothing is planned for today.
It is very dull here and not very hopeful looking. But it is 10 degrees.

Evening everyone

It sounds as though getting your decking sorted out is quite a big job Mel. I hope the rain holds off for a while so your builder can get on with it.

I'm very late on parade today. I had a dreadful night last night and didn't sleep at all till about 5.30 this morning. I woke again at 7 and then dozed off till 9 am when I got up. That's late for me and, not having slept much, I found it hard to get going with the jobs I wanted to do so I've been chasing my tail all day.

I changed the bedding and got all the washing done. I hung most of it out and there was a bit of a wind so it was nearly dry when I brought it in. Then it was more present wrapping. We are going to Southend tomorrow and will be exchanging presents. When I couldn't think of what to buy someone I decided on half a dozen small things instead of one more expensive thing, but it meant half a dozen things to wrap. It seemed to take me ages. I also had one last thing to be posted and I also got that wrapped and ready to go tomorrow.

Then I showered. Without thinking I got in, stood under the shower, shampoo'd my hair and then remembered I'm getting my hair done first thing tomorrow anyway

As it stayed dry for most of the day OH got a good bit of sorting and tidying done in the garden. We've got 2 Physocarpus shrubs that are growing too big for our little garden. One was cut back a bit last year and still grew like mad through the summer. I happened to say that if we can't control them and keep them a bit smaller they will have to come out. Next thing I knew OH was out there with the electric trimmers and they are certainly a lot smaller! Mr Crewcut has been at it again. He never checks so I am not sure if this is the right time to cut them anyway. Well, we'll find out when spring comes whether they are going to survive or not.

As I said I'm getting my hair done first thing, then we are going straight on to our friend at Southend so I might not be posting tomorrow. Right now, I am going to get ready for bed and hope for a better night.

Hope you got your tree sorted Mandy and got more presents.

Builder left about 5pm. He took all the decking up that was rotten and cemented some old blocks I had lying around the garden as all the wooden ones had rotted. He had to go and sort out something for his elderly mum who had got in a muddle with some of her finances, shes 93 and while he was away I cleaned the chickens out so they are all nice and clean for now. He will get some new decking for me but he has bought my cement mixer off me and he cemented a couple of stones that had fallen out of the wall where the rockery bit is outside the kitchen window. The mixer was going a bit rusty so I only got £30 for it and he will take that of the bill.He offered me £50 at first but seeing the rust he dropped the price still it gets another thing out of the leanto where the mowers are over the west wall. I sent him home with a can of lager and a Bass beer.

Apart from getting things for Dave like the extention lead for the cement mixer and showing him where the blocks were in the orchard and going to the post van where there was a huge que this morning and talking to Graham from across the way from car to car Iv'e made Phyl's wreath today so thats ready to go to her in the week. Had some lunch of a nice ham and lettuce sandwich and I am going to have egg and bacon tonight so thats been my day.

Still 10 degrees here at the mo and theres been no wind.