General Chat

That's right Ann I'd usually get a red or silver cake frill and they had a patterned band in the middle .

Lewis is wearing his blue scarf and I now crocheting Laceys which is pink .

Gosh that's a lot of covid cases just in one school Ann is that one of the schools OH goes to .

I see we're now on plan b and I have seen more mask wearing out in the street again not just in the shops .

I remember those pretty cake frills Mandy, They were paper with fringes cut each side weren't they. I had forgotten about those. How are the scarves coming along? Did you say what colour they were going to be?

Earlier OH told me there had been 440 covid cases at the senior school just nearer the village than us. 'What, since the pandemic started' I said. 'No' he said, 'just in this term'. :-0

Go to your FB page Island and the banner across the page under your avatar shows from left to right 'Posts', 'About', 'Friends' etc. Uggggh Logarithms, I hated them too and why was the writing so small in those logarithm books.

Thanks for mentioning the update AnnG. I would have missed it otherwise. Nothing unexpected, but as usual, probably too little too late again. Pussyfooting around those who aren't vaccinated for no other reason than they don't want it and letting them take hospital beds that others on waiting lists that are vaccinated and need for treatment.

Glad you are feeling more like and got some jobs done Vera. At last.......you have your WFP and £10 bonus, as has AnnG. We used to get people complaining about the £10 bonus years ago and it was worth more then. I used to think if they thought it worthless why not donate it to a charity, as they would find use for it.

Yes Mel, I didn't like FB doing that!! Mind you, as I said, even windows on your PC is making personal information available on websites without telling you. Whatever happened to Data Protection? :-S

OH didn't get very far when he left the bungalow and was soon back saying a warning light was on his car saying there was an oil pressure problem and DO NOT DRIVE. He's had to take my car, which is a sports car he has only driven once before. I told him to be careful with the accelerator or he would take off!! Also to remember it has a 6th gear. He's quite a clumsy, jerky driver (it seems to me) and whenever he's driven my cars before, they never seem quite the same afterwards. I was taught to drive by an instructor who stood a matchbox on it's end on the top of the dashboard and you had to aim to drive smoothly without knocking it over, so we are at opposite ends of the spectrum. He has another meeting tomorrow night and it's in the city in a really rough area where he wasn't even happy parking his own car, let alone mine. He will have to ring the breakdown people first thing tomorrow, so I just hope it's something easy to fix. I really think we'll have to sort him out with another soon.

Evening all,

I'll try again lost a whole post this morning so gave up in disgust so I'll just do a quick one in case I loose it again .

It's been another nasty dull rainy day the wind picked up a bit again too.

Mel thats a shame they don't want your wreaths they were lovely and you put a lot of work into doing them too ,have they got some one else making them cheaper do you think ,you'll have to have a look and see if they have some there when you go in next week .
I always buy the florists ribbon to go round my Christmas cake and any birthday cakes I make ,I bought some nice tartan ribbon the other day for this year's cakes .
I use to always buy those cake frills but I can't always find them now in the shops.

Done one bigish flower arrangement and another round one. Just have to make some bows for them now as I forgot to take the ribbon out with me.

I don't have that problem with FB Ann as I don't go on it. It just goes to show that its not that safe as in your case. Fancy them putting your mobile number up what a blimmin cheek. I hope nobody took your number down.

Vera glad your feeling better today. I have a lot of wreath flowers and ribbons to use up so thats why I wanted to do something with them. I had just bought a new lot of flowers and things like the binding wires and florist wires which aren't cheep, I think the stub wires cost me £27 alone and I have two boxes of plastic Christmas roses. I always spent some of the money from the rings to buy stuff for the next year and had done that and then when I said last year about rings next week they told me they did'nt want them this year.

Wonder what Boris will have to say at 6pm?

I enjoyed maths until logarithms came along..... whoosh, brain said no, I still have no idea.

Annx, I can't see 'About' on FB :-S

Strange isn't it Ann I failed maths twice but was always good at mental arithmetic and any arithmetic that was not algebra or geometry

Well posts have been creeping in ahead of me! How lovely it would have been Island if you had found that box when you cleared the house. OH found his corgi and matchbox cars when we cleared his mum's house, plus his bagatelle. He really thought they were gone. I managed to get an 'o' level in maths, but am hopeless at mental arithmatic and could never have worked in a shop or pub! Geometry was more my thing. MIL was a whizz at it after working in and managing a local Co-op for most of her life. She would soon pull up a shop assistant if the added things wrong after she retired or have the answer before they had worked it out. She used to tell us a tale about someone she'd worked with. Remember when shopkeepers would chant their totting up out loud and quickly when they were adding up the amounts for your groceries? Well this man would do that and add things like 'and one and sixpence for me' in the middle of the list and no-one would notice!!

Afternoon All,

It's 6 degrees here and cloudy according to the PC which is about right although it felt colder outside first thing! I slept well last night and we had lamb mince, onion, mushroom and lots of oddments of veg with our liquidised tomato added and some wholegrain rice for lunch. OH is out again tonight but should be home much earlier than gone 10.00pm like last night.

I have been ringing the bank, and various other places this morning and managed to sort a few things. I just happened to be looking at the 'About' section on FB and noticed they have put my mobile no on there and available to anybody! They never asked or told me and I would never give my mobile out on something like FB. I've now changed it so only I can see it. When I went to remove it it said I may not be able to renew my password if I forget it if I do! So have a look ladies if you are on FB and don't want your mobile no available to everyone in the world including scammers! :- Since I've had Windows 10 I've noticed you only have to start entering something and it pops up with all your details, very convenient to not have to fill them all in, but not very secure in the wrong hands. Some sites show the last 4 of your bank or credit card too. On the subject , why do organisations give your full name or middle initial on letters they send and why does your NiNo need to show on your pension payments on your bank statements? All gifts to those wishing to commit fraud. Well that's my moan for the day.

Well it's your decision whether to do the rings Mel, as it is you, not OH who does the work making them. I can see why he thinks that, if they don't want your rings, but maybe the flower decorations will sell better. As they would say in the 60s, tell him to 'get knotted' if he keeps fussing. :-D

I have returned the wellies with zips and the wrong little christmas tree they sent today, so it looks like we will make do with the one again this year now. My next job is to get writing Christmas cards. I am all behind everyone. :-S

Island what a shame you didn't find the box of treasures.
I still back my on line bank accounts by having a ledger in which it is all recorded then I balance that against the on line. It does come in handy when I want to check something paid in or out in a previous year. I can go back years.

You got in ahead of me there AnnG. Ten minutes to type my post :-0 Very different careers I think but I continued with mental arithmetic when doing my accounts - in case the calculator was wrong!

Afternoon all

I'm pleased you're feeling better Vera :-D

Going back, if I may, to button tins. I missed out there LOL - how interesting is that?.
When I was about 8 I was given a box of fabric scraps by a granny age lady. She was an accomplished dressmaker who lived next door to my mum when she was little. The box was about 10 x 8 x 3 inches, covered with dark pink fabric with a padded lid. I loved that box of scraps and mostly just got them out to look at and re-arrange. I made some dolls clothes out of them but not many as I didn't want to spoil my 'treasure trove'. I am surprised that it didn't turn up when we had to clear the family home, I would have been so happy to have been re-united with it.
I did find another box of doll clothes which I'd made though and still have them.

When I worked for the Admiralty in 1956-61 was when I became aware of punvh cards and computers (as I said below). I didn't punch the cards then but all our wages work which was done manually using to add up Vera a Compometer (The Comptometer was the first commercially successful key-driven mechanical calculator, patented in the United States by Dorr Felt in 1887)

We would have the work sheets and the clock cards of employees, they would be balanced against each other then the wages calculated by hand using a large book which was also called a computer I think or something similar. this was in the form of tables each page for a different wage e.g £3.50 per week. and the number of hours worked listed down the side. So we would check e.g. 42 hours against whatever the wage for the grade of the person and that would be the weekly wage before tax I can't remember the next procedure for tax etc (well it is over 60 years ago.) The weekly wages for each station would be listed on paper and added first in our heads and then checked on the comptometer
And I can still run a pen down a list of figures and add them in my head.


Pleased that you are feeling better Vera, I hope you have big plans for the Christmas bonus""" However, laughing aside I am sure there are people who would benefit from £10 extra.

I laughed at your triple and then double posting AnnG. It did look funny coming after the talk of drinking gin, but we've probably all had posts appear multiple times for no apparent reason.

Mel, I can see where your OH is coming from as well but, if you enjoy doing it and you have materials to use up, you go ahead and make your arrangements.

Ann, my £100 WFP did eventually end up in the correct account. It only took 5 months for the DWP to get it right! I think comptometers were a sort of glorified adding machine. Were the punch card machines called tabulators? I'm not really sure. We didn't punch the cards, just got them when there was an error on them. Then we would have to find the relevant questionnaire (out of thousands sometimes!) and try to tie up the questionnaire answers with the holes in the card to find out where the error had occurred. It all seems a very long time ago. It was a different world then.

I am busy this morning catching up on all the jobs I haven't done while feeling unwell. I had a reasonable night and feel a lot better this morning though I still feel muzzy and a bit drained. Ironing's done, last of the cards written, banking checked and our £10 Christmas bonuses have gone in. I've also bought another Christmas gift online. I only have my grandson to buy for now.

The wind has dropped quite a bit and first thing this morning it was dry but it wasn't long before it started raining again and it's really miserable now. I'm feeling a bit chilly too so I think I'll go and make a coffee to cheer myself up.

And you enjoy doing them Mel so tell OH it is your hobby and you like doing them. I can see where he is coming from but also no point worrying about something that you can't change.

Morning Anng and all,

You enjoy your gin Anng I am only kidding. Rotton morning here as its still windy and wet but we have had a little sunshine too. Pc says 8 degrees and a pic of a cloud with a rian spot on it and light rain.

Must finish off the rings today and get them up to Erica and then I may do a couple of flower arrangements for the shop. Oh is not happy with me doing them as they don't take my rings anymore. Thing is I have to get rid of a lot of wreath flowers and ribbons as I have boxes of it.

Goodness know why that posted twice again, it seems to happen when I am on my Ipad as opposed to the main PC so it could be without knowing it my finger touches the screen twice. and rest assured Mel, i am only having the same amount of gin as I did pre calendar and that is two small singles with a lot of tonic

Good morning all I have been up but not dressed for an hour reading the local news on the PC and checking my bank. I will be OK financially now as I have just had a Christmas bonus from DWP a whole £10 Wheeee!

Nothing planned for today, still wet but the wind has dropped can't see any damage in the garden from here will wait until it is dry before going out to check. 6 degrees here now, it has dropped as it was 7 just now.

Have you been on the advent calender again Anng? posting twice.

I completely missed a couple of posts on the other page and could'nt make out what Mandy was talking about with the beans. I had to go back and read them.

Lovely to see Island posting and yes not long now till the nights start drawing out again and don't we really notice it once it starts?

We had hot dogs and chips tonight as I felt I had been on the go all day today.

I need to get up the post van and send this little parcel off to Mandy for the children. Also HAPPY BIRTHDAY Katie where have the years gone? Please pss it on to her Mandy.

I think I must have clicked on reply to all. No problem anyway.

Vera glad that you found your post. Sound like a nasty migraine, I wonder why you suddenly had that?
I would think computerisation made things easier for those surveys. And then the advance of computerisation. I used to do some work at home for T’s department on punch cards in the 70s but when I started work the wages were punched into cards and then put through a computer that filled a room. Today she was entering answers directly into her laptop. The company head office is the same as the census in Titchfield near Fareham. I know exactly where it is as my sister worked there some time ago,