General Chat

Hello Everyone,

I do sympathise regarding making decisions about going out.

Last week I went on our local bus for the first time in 18 months. It felt strange to do something, which had at one time been so routine, but it felt OK, with few people on the bus and very spread out.
I was disappointed that I seemed to be the only one wearing a mask though :-|
As soon as I got off the bus, I used the hand sanitiser, which I always carry with me.

Next month there is the start back of an evening group, where we have talks by visiting speakers.
Like Vera, I am wondering whether to attend ?

Part of me thinks that I can't live happily being worried at home and yet.......
so have decided to get out into the local area again, but in a managed way, - wary but not fearful.

A dull start here, but not at all cold and I think it is due to brighten as the day goes on. :-)

Morning Vera anng and all,

Suns out here at the moiment and its 13 degrees but feels quite cold out a proper September day. Not sure what the forcast is for later. We have lovely blue sky with great big white clouds and next to no breeze.

Girls you are both very brave mixing with others as oh and I hav'nt really done so yet apart from the doc and me going round Em's next door but still keeping a distance. We had a very low rate down here in north Devon till Boris lifted lock down and everyone and their aunt came down to Devon for a holiday. I felt very safe in lockdown and did'nt mind it a bit as we both have plenty to keep us occupied here at home and were never really people to mix a lot with others or go out much.

Nothing planned for today yet so see how it goes as we go along may do some ironing and washing.

I am sure it would be ok Vera, especially if you all wore masks. If you are all jabbed there is not a lot else you can do. If you feel uncomfortable make an early excuse and leave but at least you will have tried it out.

I am humming and haaing whether to go into town when the sheets in the wash finish. I haven't been on a bus for ages, infections are quite low here so I feel I ought to make myself do it before I start to become a hermit.

Good morning AnnG and all

Very grey and not very warm here today. I’ll be ironing this morning and I’ve got a Tesco delivery this afternoon. Otherwise I am not sure what I’ll be doing.

One of the clubs we belong to is re-opening tonight and I am dithering whether to go or not. If members don’t turn up the club will gradually fold and we don’t want that. Everyone there is our age group and fully jabbed and we’ve been seeing most of them outside for the last couple of months. Otoh, the room we meet in is not very big so we wouldn’t be able to leave a lot of space between us. Decisions, decisions (sigh).

Have a good day everyone.

Good morning all, a bright morning here so far with a clear sky but Brrr! only 8 degrees. Slept fitfully and dreaming a lot so feel a bit tired this morning. Other than stripping and changing the bed I am not sure what I am going to be doing today.

I meant to say Ann that I wouldn't want to start a group teaching card making. There are so many different processes and many of them involve people having to buy items such as paper guillotines, die cutters etc plus the actual dies and then there are the stamps and ink pads which I have bought over many years. I also don't think I am a patient enough person these days to make a good teacher. Compared to some people who make cards I am quite basic in the cards I produce. But my friend really only wants to know the basics. she actually belongs to the u3a craft group, which I don't, they seem to do all sorts of crafts and not normally card making. Apparently the November meeting will be Christmas cards which she rightly says is a bit late. My problem with showing her is space. I think I will have to transport stuff down to the dining room table as there is not room for two of us to sit in this office,

Good to see you Gill. I have had a couple of experiences recently when a tradesman has not phoned back.beach time it was because they had not written it in their diary. So phone and ask if they have forgotten.

Ann not a gardening day for you then. We had a couple of showers but they didn’t come to much.
I might have told you this but my dad once bought my mum a hot water bottle as a present on the Christmas tree.

I wonder if Frank is home. I thought he said either 16th or 18th so if I am right he should be

Evening All,

Woke to heavy rain this morning but it stopped by lunchtime and was sunny, then started again mid afternoon so I haven't even stepped outside today.

Not a fun journey home then Vera! Kings Lynn is the main route to a Norfolk holiday from here in the Midlands, so I suppose that may not have helped with traffic. At least you got home safely though which is the main thing. You have been busy today though catching up with the holiday wash and getting your food order sorted. I would most likely have forgotten what was in the container after a week too! lol. My private pension people soon replied when I changed bank account, but DWP took about a month! My payments did go in my new account though. My old bank won't let me close my old account yet though. I think they have to keep it open so they can redirect any payments for a while? It's early days yet to see if other payments go in ok. The other thing that is proving difficult is registering my new bankcard so I can make payments on my PAYG mobile! I sorted what to do but the number always has a queue of 10+. By the time I would get through my remaining balance would be used up! I meant to say before how awful for that lady to fall and break both arms and her new hip. So much pain and she will lose her mobility for a while till she can use her arms and crutches. You have to be really careful after having these things done don't you.

You have been busy too AnnG and I see you are going to be teaching a friend to make cards. You could start up a group and show people what to do!

Mandy that's good your tip had a day you could take paint. We have some tins that we won't use now and are probably no good. I might ring and ask them if they do the same. I think money is the best present at Chelsea's age, so she can choose what she wants to spend it on. I much preferred the money by the time I was her age and we often do it ourselves or buy what we are certain the other will like. MIL was a devil for getting us a 'nice surprise' as a gift. One year she bought me a lovely big plant arrangement in a basket. It had a lovely mix of orange, yellow and white flowers. The only trouble was our lounge had dark red carpet squares, plum settees with the same colours in the curtains so it didn't look right at all. Nothing matched in her house so I expect she thought I was the same, but it's not as if she hadn't seen our bungalow. I still have a titter thinking about one of OH's 'surprise' presents from his gt Uncle Percy (who was single) many years ago. I think I have told some on here before, but as you may know, OH has had very little hair since his 20s, but grows a good beard. Well one Christmas OH opened his present from said uncle to find it contained two items, Egg Shampoo and Shaving Cream!! :-D :-D What was he thinking!! lol.

It's a bit of a nonsense about skips really, as unless you got permission in writing, people could later deny you had permission anyway and most people aren't taking a load of copper piping to sell as few people would put those or items of value in a skip. How many I wonder when they get a man and van to collect old furniture like a sofa for the tip ask to see his Tipping Licence, check the number with the Environment Agency and ask for a Transfer Note? If the item gets fly tipped the householder can be fined as they have no proof they didn't do the flytipping. Mum got a shock years ago when an old sofa of hers had been dumped and they found something with her address on stuck down the back of it. :-S

That's good news about the electrician Gill. Hopefully he will come and give you a quote, so you can get things moving again. I think some of these workmen just forget to ring back so I would try again with the joiner. The builders should be less busy soon as you say. It's good to hear from you so keep us updated! :-)

You have been busy today Ann with all the cutting down you have done in the garden and making Christmas cards. It sounds as though your ratchet secateurs were a good buy. I think the information about the skips stuck in my mind because we had been teasing granddaughter about her "thieving". My memory used to be very good but isn't very reliable these days. Only today I was looking in the freezer and came across an unmarked plastic container. I had to open it to find out what was in it and realised I only put it in there the day before we went away. I thought that something in the fridge might be getting "iffy" by the time we were home from hols so had frozen it. I now remember thinking I wouldn't bother to label it because I would remember it and take it out of the freezer when we got home. Yet in just over a week I had completely forgotten it!

Good to hear from you Gill. It's a shame you are still having so much trouble getting the jobs done. Let's hope the electrician comes up trumps for you.

I slept poorly again so got up heavy headed. It goes off after I have been up for a while but wasn't helped this morning by OH saying he was going for a short walk. He was gone for ages so I then started to worry which is silly as he had his phone and would have rung if he had been in trouble but my imagination works overtime sometimes. He said he had only done a short circuit round and about but stopped to rest on garden walls a couple of times. Strangely enough he seems to be able to drive quite easily and says he can hardly feel the pain when driving. He is seeing the doctor on Wednesday so we'll see what she has to say then.

I got four loads of washing done this morning. Some went in the drier and a few bits got put on a clothes airer in the conservatory but most of it went on the line outside. I managed to get it all in after lunch just before the thunder started and the rain fell down. I also cooked our usual big Sunday dinner and got an order in with Tesco for delivery tomorrow. I had booked the slot and put in some goods to hold it before we went away but I needed to go through the cupboards and see what I need and update the order. I noticed quite a few products where it said "Not currently available".

You're having problems with hospital appointments Ann and we're having problems with the DWP. I think a while back I said we had an account with a bank that had been set up years ago as a telephone savings account where we could transfer money from that account to our normal current account at another bank by telephone. It has been updated and changed several times in recent years and the latest changes mean that it's not fit for our use anymore. We therefore set up a different account with the bank that holds our current account but can't close the useless one until we are sure that a couple of regular payments in are now going to our new account. Is this making any sense? Anyway I wrote to the provider of a small private pension I have. It was all changed very easily and my first payment from that has gone where I now want it. We both wrote separately to the DWP about our state pension. We both had a letter dated 19th August saying that they had noted we wanted paying differently and had amended their records. Have they heck! A month later and state pensions have gone into the original wrong account. We can't access the money till we close the account and we can't close the account while the DWP are still paying our pensions into it. We know we have a couple of big bills coming up and will need some of the money in the account that we can't access. I feel I am going round and round in circles.

Oh well, tomorrow's another day.

Hi all

Just a quickie as I'm sorting dinner out.

Well I managed to get in touch with an electrician yesterday and he's going to ring me on Monday to arrange a quote, I think he said he was away at the moment but the line wasn't good so I might have that wrong. I tried ringing a joiner for the loft ladder and boarding the loft out but he didn't answer so I'll need to find another joiner now. I rang the insurance about the bricks around our property which was a waste of time as he told me to get a builder to say how the bricks are damaged and if it's general wear and tear we're not covered. I haven't even tried to ring a builder with the luck we've had lately, so that's something we'll wait for. Hopefully once the winter sets in builders will be more available to come around.

We never got to the kitchen place in the end as OH's been busy in the garden and taking the rubbish down the tip. I haven't done anymore of the hall ceiling as my wrist is still a bit sore but hopefully I'll get back to it when OH goes back to work next week.

So I've made lots of calls to various workmen and still haven't got very far. At least the electrician answered and with that being the one job that's holding everything else up I'm pleased he's ringing me back on Monday.....Well I hope he rings me.

Happy birthday to Chelsea and Happy anniversary to Ann, hope you all had a good time. Going to sort the dinner out now before it burns. Hope you are all okay. Take care.

That is 9 cards made today. 7 of them re-makes frot my friend for the charities and two easy ones because a friend is coming on Thursday to see how to make cards for Christmas.

At the moment I have treated it with the recommended type of weed killer to aee if that works. If it doesn't I will go for the roots. It is bound to re-grow anyway because I am sure the roots go a long way so I will have to cut off any regrowth when I see it. But at least it is not so big that it looks like bringing down the fence. Can't do much out there because plants are all wet from the early rain.

You've been busy then Anng. You want to dig you loppers aro9und the base of the blackberry and see if you can cut some of the roots off otherwise it will just grow again.

Well it stopped raining so I got the lopper out and the blackberry is now down to almost ground level. It actually needed that combination of tools. The outside stems were thinner so the bypass secateurs coped well with them, then the middle ones were thicker so the ratchet /Anvil secateurs coped with them then the two at the back were really thick and because of the angle, awkward to get at. But with a bit of manoeuvering I managed to get the lopper jaws on them and they are noe down. I then used the lopper to cut the earlier ones cut down a lot more and then sprayed them with Roundup. let's hope that works.

I then lopped off a few rambling rose branches off the archway at the bottom but can't do all of them because it is still flowering.

Meanwhile I have washing in the drier and a couple of bits need ironing.

Morning Anng and all,

We have sunshine at the moment but it rained in the night as there's water in oh's trailer and the blackbird was bathing in it. The chickens were kicking up a racket when I woke up so I went round there and there were two in the nest box and a whole egg so I whisked that out and left themk to it.

15 degrees here at the moment.

Hope you got some sleep last night Vera and its cleared your poor head and all others. I slept like a log and feel good this morning so far. Legs is still black and seems to be getting bigger. Its the shape of the rim of the bucket I landed on. A big bucket.

Nothing planned for today but I do need to clkean the chickens out and the bantams so thats probably what I shall do.
Love to all and waving to Island~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Good morning all, raining here at the moment, not heavy but constant and 14 degrees. Nothing planned for today other than wash my hair.

Glad that Chelsea had a good birthday Mandy, I must admit that I always give Children , grandchildren and spouses and great grandchildren money for their birthdays. That way they can chose their own clothes. with the young ones I send it early so parents can buy presents for them with it. Although the last time I think the 8 year old got to spend his own on books.

Vera, pleased to see you got home safely. when we lived in Clifton, Beds, we used to drive out to Kings Lyn for a day out. I really liked it there for photography. What a pity it turned out to be such a hassle though. sounds like your OH is as stubborn as mine was once he has decided which way he is going. Hope you slept away the headache that was looming and that OH didn't make his pain any worse with the long journey.
Thanks for the info on skips, your memory is so much better than mine I knew I had read somewhere about it being possibly theft. I am sure the TV programme where they retrieve stuff from skips to rejuvenate is set up be arrangement.

Happy Anniversary Ann and Mr Ann. I hope you have both enjoyed your day.

We left about 10 am and got home about 4 pm after a slightly fraught journey, partly due to OH being a pain in the proverbial. He decided he wanted to come home via Kings Lynn as he thought it would be a slightly shorter route than the way we went, and Lynn would be a good place for a bite to eat. I disagreed which was stupid of me because it made him dig his heels in, but it started quite well. On the way we passed a huge Dobbies so went in for a pot of tea. Kings Lynn was quite a long way and when we got within a mile or two of the town centre traffic was moving at snail's pace and bumper to bumper. It took forever to get into town and then we had to find a car park that wasn't full. By this time it was about 1 pm and I was tired and irritable with a bit of a headache.

We found a little tea shop which only had a few tables and they were divided by floor to ceiling plastic screens so it felt as though they were really being careful. We had tuna sandwiches with some salad and crisps and then had a short walk but time was getting on so we couldn't stay as long as planned. It was another pain getting out of Lynn but once we were on the right road everything was fine and we had no more problems but I was quite tired when we got home.

Since then I've unpacked and sorted everything out and got the washing machine loaded ready to put on first thing tomorrow and picked the tomatoes that had ripened during the week. By the time I was ready to have a look at the garden it was getting dark so I left it till tomorrow.

As we arrived back our neighbour came running out to tell us there had been a burglary in the cul-de-sac right next to ours. It's a tiny little road, there can't be more than 3 or 4 bungalows there but apparently a couple came home and the burglars were still in the house. They called the police and they have caught two people but there may have been another one or two involved. Very frightening for the couple who live there.

Oh dear Ann, what a shambles with your hospital appointment. I don't think the medical people and the admin staff can ever communicate with each other. I do hope they don't put you at the back of the queue again as you're the one with the cause for complaint.

That sounds a useful trolley/table you found Mel. One of my granddaughters took an old chair from a skip some while back and I remember looking up the legal position then. It was very vague as it seemed to depend on so many things, such as where the skip was, if you were trespassing on someone's land to get to it, whether it was owned by a company with a skip licence, what the owner intended and so on and on and on. The consensus seemed to be that taking something out of a skip could be construed as theft. I don't think you'll end up in Holloway lol, but if you do I'll come and visit you.

Happy birthday to Chelsea. How old is she now Mandy? Present buying gets more difficult as they get older and I now usually just transfer a bit of money to their bank accounts. They always seem very glad to get some extra funds to spend or save as they wish. I often buy one or two small bits and bobs as well but money is usually their main present.

When is Frank due back?

Sending a friendly wave to Island and Gill ~~~~~~~~

I am quite tired so I'm closing the computer now and aiming for an early night.

Evening all,

I'll try again

<3 <3 Happy Anniversary to you and OH Ann <3 <3

I should has remembered it was your anniversary as its the same day as Chelsea's birthday, we took her presents this morning ,Mostly clothes and lots of smellies and some money in her card, it gets harder each year as they get older to know what to buy but she does love her clothes although that's harder to buy them now as she knows what she likes .

Hope Vera is home safe and sound now after her time away ,sounds as if they enjoyed it ,I had to smile at the hair washing fiasco :-D

Strictly tonight I wonder if we'll know half of them on it ,each year we only know a few of them but we still enjoy it .
Ann we enjoyed All Creatures last night we were trying to remember how the last lot finished .

This weekend was the weekend you could take old paint ,weedkiller etc to the tip so off we went just made it to the end of the queue before they turn you away because it blocks the entrance to the Roy's store .
We had about twenty minutes in the queue ,Colin got out and took the tins we had to the table then a chap takes them off and another chap then emptied them into these big plastic lined bins ,poor chap I should think he's high on the paint fumes by the end of the day.

Mel that was a handy find ,I don't suppose they mind people taking things out of the skip as they'd thrown them out anyway and it would makeroom for other things to go in .
Our neighbour was saying the skip they had was £250 and they need another one as they have more stuff to go, we put odd bits in our bin ,there was old bits of down pipe and guttering that Colin cut up and put in and there's more thereto cut up but I think son said the school would have it as they use it in the nursery for the children to run cars down it and they use it in the garden group to grow stuff in .

Well so far so good so I'll get this posted before my thumb catches the side and I lose the lot again .

The reason I wondered about it was because I vaguely remember way back reading that taking out of skips can be classed as stealing from the people expecting to make money out of what they collect. However things may have changed now.

Thank you Mel. :-) I was a while posting so missed your post. I think you would be ok taking that handy table with wheels. Those programmes with Kirsty and others as well, often do up skip finds don't they. Do you remember, I think it was Maureen, saying they stuck things like fridges on the front and they would just disappear when the scrap people spotted them. Oh you've been playing with your clay then. I haven't started anything with mine yet......too many other unfinished things to do first.

Thank you AnnG. OH didn't enjoy the journey to and from his match. He had forgotten his aircon isn't working and was boiling hot, even with all the windows open. He said there were more goals than supporters today. :-) Your ratchet secateurs sound good as some stems/branches are quite tough to cut through. It sounds like the saw will be best for the bigger ones. I have some smaller secateurs I really like for small branches. They grip what you cut so it doesn't fall to the floor and save my back picking bits up off the ground.

No I didn't go out in the end as it got very overcast and there was fine drizzle for a while when I picked some more tomatoes. I ordered lunch for tomorrow and got the salad ready to go with the chicken I'd cooked yesterday and chucked out some magazines and papers instead.

We watched All Creatures last night and it was just as good as before. Have you started a new craft project Mel?