General Chat

Yes as a child we had the shilling in the slot meter too Gwyn.

Afternoon all

This talk about mishaps with gas reminds me that my parents, when I was young had to put a shilling in the slot to keep the gas supply going. They always had to have a plentiful amount ready to feed the meter.
Dad felt that if the gas tap to the gas cooker or wherever was accidently switched on, then only 1 shilling's worth of gas would escape and hopefully nobody would be gassed.
Our water was heated by an Ascot just to the side of the kitchen sink, but Mum would often boil a kettle of water for our morning wash before school instead of waiting for the water to run through and heat.
Moving round with my husband's job, we had to accept whatever form of cooking and heating was provided, but having grown up with gas cooking, it always took me a while ( and a few boiled-over pans of milk ) before I got used to an electric cooker each time.

Afternoon All,

Slept well again and had a lie in! OH has cut down all the brambles trying to infiltrate our garden from the field and I spent 20 mins cutting back half of the Bottle Bush. Didn't want to do too much standing at once so I shall do the rest of it tomorrow. It flowered well this year so I think the cut back I did a couple of years ago breathed some new life into it. OH's tennis elbow is playing up again so he was pruning left handed. Our garden bin is half full now.

I had a giggle about the 'old geezer' too! I hate gas as well and grew up without it till my parents moved counties and to a flat initially. That had one of tthose geysers over the sink and that 'whooosh' when it lit was scary and brought back memories. No gas then when they moved and not in my first bungalow when I married. Then, when we moved to my previous house there was gas heating and a boiler and we had a similar experience to Mel! We were sitting having tea in the kitchen and I noticed flames coming out of the side of the boiler!! Hubby switched the gas off and when the engineer arrived he said some of the nuts holding the panel on the front of the boiler had stripped their threads so it wasn't sealing. That was a lesson for me and I have never set heating to come on while we were out ever since or had a boiler placed where I couldn't see it easily. We have a combi boiler here, but you have to drop a flap down to see the controls and water pressure dial which isn't ideal. We have a gas fire which is only there for emergency in case the electric goes off and the pump to the radiators won't work and we also have a gas hob but an electric oven.

Well we got a surprise today! the silver pan scourer we used to jam in the gap between the house bricks and covered with gravel to stop the mice getting in the loft has vanished!! We think it may be the young Magpies being attracted to the shininess that may have tugged it out and carried it off. :-S I bought a pack of two, but have no idea where I put the other. I thought I could wedge it in harder with a screwdriver between the bricks. Otherwise I will have to use a brillo pad for now!! :-S :-S It seems daft to buy a mortar pack for a 2 inch gap half an inch wide.

The air has been a bit blue this afternoon as OH made a miserable attempt to transfer a maturing investment to another with the same company. While he was waiting for them to text him a one time passcode, they texted him to say they had locked his account instead!! It was sorted eventually with a phone call and instructions, but why is IT such a pain when you want to do something that should be quick.

I picked 5 mini cues today. The plants have sunk down a bit as my knees were bad when they needed tying up so they are just relying on their tendrils round the canes. There are plenty more coming though. Plent of toms and a few more courgettes.

because I am lazy I am copying this bit that I put on the chit chat thread.
It has been a nice day but I have not done anything in the garden. Yesterday it was so wet, we had torrential rain my patio was like a paddling pool so everything was a bit wet out there. It will have dried up now as the afternoon has been sunny but a bit too late for me to start anything. I have had a fair number of tomatoes off three of my plants the one with the most being a tumbler but I also have one plant that is a bush tomato like four of the others and that one has not produced a single tomato, how strange.

You certainly are Vera, you hang on to him.

Argh :-|. A long post has just totally disappeared and I don’ have time to do it all again so I’ll just put the first bit which was on the lines of:

Apologies ladies. I don’t usually correct other people’s spellings but that one struck me as funny. AnnG I know how fortunate I am to still have my old geezer and how much you must miss yours. When OH is driving me to distraction I think of you and remind myself how lucky I am to have him.

Might bbl

My geezer was in hospital when the heating went off and had to talk me through how to get it working again - it was January and bloomin' cold. It was a good job he'd had happy drops and not general anaesthesia. The other men on the ward were highly amused as he'd phoned me to say 'I'm back on the ward' and ok.

Sunny today so a big change from yesterday.

My old geezer has just told me off for staying into Asda tracking my order.

Today would have been my childhood best friends birthday she would have been 72. She died in France of cancer.

Yes I thought that when Vera posted Anng.

And I knew it was wrong but couldn't think of the right spelling so went with mel's. Well done Vera for being more awake than both of us. and, needless to say I wish my old geezer was in my kitchen.

Yes Vera Geyser but it was early and thasts all I could think of to spell it. Senior moment or should I say another senior moment. :-D :-D :-D

Suns out here now.

:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

You’ve started my day with a big giggle. Love the idea of an old geezer in the kitchen. Come to think of it I’ve got one called OH.

(think you mean geyser)

Ah yes Mel Geezer.

Geezer?

Morning Anng and all,

At the mo it is grey but dry. May be it will brighten up later on.

The other trouble I had with gas was when we moved into the bungalow in Redbridge the gas boiler was in the corner of the kitchen. One day I went in the kitchen and could see flames coming from the boiler in the 4 inch gap between the boiler and the tiled wall. ONce again it was dad to the rescue he built a boiler house outside and we had it moved out there giving me a lot more room inthe kitchen for a new washing machine. That was my first automatic as before I had a twin tub.

Mel, I grew up in a bungalow that had a gas cooker and in the kitchen a gas 'thing; (can't for the life of me remember what it was called that when you turned the hot tap on would light with a 'whoosh', used to frighten me.
When first married we had one of these heaters in our flat and it was an old one that made an even louder noise when it lit.
The only gas we have in this house is the boiler for the heating in the garage, gas is not even piped into the house. Our old boiler you could see when it was lit as you could see the pilot light. The boiler we have now is about 5 years old and is fully enclosed so you can't see the light or any switches or buttons to press. Obviously if there had been I would have tried pressing one. However, it is confusing because the control panel in the airing cupboard for the water and central heating is not showing any lights. this sort of tells me that the problem is with that rather than the boiler but I need an expert to tell me. anything else I would experiment but not with gas. My suspicion is that it has been caused by low water pressure as we suffered this last Thursday and maybe Friday

Vera, I hope that your OH's neck is better. that is such a painful pain (if you know what I mean). I had actually told T that we would get somebody in to do any decorating and I had got him to agree, but time ran out for that.
As I said I was feeling quite good about how I was coping on my own but this has knocked me a bit. He had taught me so many things but, because for ages the boiler had been ok I suppose it slipped our memory so he didn't tell me what to do in an emergency. (and maybe I wouldn't have trusted my memory if he had).

Mel, yes it was a horrible thing to happen.

What a terrible thing to happen Anng. I have never like gas either. When first married I lived in the bottom floor flat owned by mum and dad. I had a gas boiler in the bathroom which was off the kitchen. It was just on the wall inside the door. I turned on the hot water once to do the washing up and when I turned the tap off the boiler carried on going. It terrified me as I could hear the water boiling in the boiler so I left the tap running and ran dad who was a builder. He told me to turn the tap off!!!!!!!!!!!!! No way it would blow up so he had to come over and when he came in he walked up to the boiler and p[ressed a button on the front of it and it turned it off. Now why could'nt he have told me to do that on the phone? It only had two buttons on the front a green one and a red one. I was only 20. We never had any gas while I was growing up, no I tell a lie, we had a gas ring in the kitchen when I was tiny and I think it may have been to heat the copper boiler thing we had. No gas cooking only leccy.

At school we had gas cookers in the domestic science class and I hated turning those on and lighting them. Then there was the bunsen burners in the science lab and the one I had to light blew back and the teacher ran over to turn it off. So no I don't like gas at all.

Coming back to my dear dad he would have been 100 today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD. <3 <3 <3

Yes I thought I was doing well with managing the garden and the finance and so many other things that two of us have done for sixty yesrs. And I knew it was possibly the gas gone out but it is an enclosed boiler in a shut garage and I did go and look at it but couldn’t see how to get into it. Also I actually hate gas,always have done ever since my best friend’s Mother was found dead in a gas filled kitchen with a leaky gas wash boiler when I was about 17.

Yes, I am sure they haven’t discounted the vouchers. Their accounts are done by computer but they don’t always enter the right information and you know what they say “Rubbish in, rubbish out”. Our local paper went up in price a while ago and they undercharged me for about a year because they forgot to change the price on the computer. I told them 2 or 3 times but after that thought it’s their loss. This morning I spoke to the girl in the kiosk and she said she would let the owner know and ask her to sort it out so I’ll just wait for a new bill.

Your OH sounds like mine Mel, a handy sort of chap who can always find a way to do an awkward job or can always repair something. The trouble is over the years I have come to rely on him and haven’t got a clue how to do much around the house. I do occasionally get him to show me things and then I promptly forget.

I’m glad you have got your post at last Ann. Men are not the best at clearing up are they? Little bits of glass can travel quite a long way and those tiny slivers can really embed themselves in a foot so good job you realised there was still glass on the floor.

I didn’t get a walk as I kept finding things to do but I did get in the garden for an hour or so, mostly deadheading. I do like to see big clumps of flowers but it takes a lot of work to keep them blooming all summer. It’s not hard work but it takes time and all the time I’m doing it I’m thinking I ought to be weeding.

We’ve had no rain today at all which is a blessing and I think I might go for a short walk now before it starts to get dark. It’s quite cool so I’d better find a jacket or cardi. Sleep well tonight everyone.

Ann he spends quite a bit of time thinking how he is going to do something before he does it.

I have just picked 6 long beans and a little handful of short beans for a taster for dinner tonight. I shall also be using another courgette.

Hi Everyone,

Just lost a post as I went to submit it grrrr!

Vera they have forgotten the coupons haven't they. We get vouchers for one of uour papers, but the newsagent could never get the money right so OH used to have to write it out for him.

AnnG it sounds like the pilot light may have gone out with the breezy weather or that the water pressure has dropped too low and needs the water topping up by turning the knob on the water pipe till it fills to the right level. I've always made sure I could do these two things with having lived on my own and with OH working away a lot before he retired. The handbook should show you how to reignite the boiler, but it would be a good idea to use the opportunity to ask the plumber how to do these two things when he comes to look at it, even if they aren't the problem. At least you can manage till he comes.

That's funny as I said to OH today that I thought we may have an early autumn. I went out to take photos, but the heavens opened, but I thought the verges and trees looked as if they were ready for autumn

Vera, I had my card and cheque book arrive today with a load of other post. Despite being sure to put our full address in on the online form, the bank has missed out our village name on our address! This matters a lot, despite the postcode being right, as 5 years ago the council in their lack of wisdom, gave a city close the same name as ours and post has ended up being redirected at times. Another job someone else caused for me to sort out! :-S

I have the same trouble as your OH about doing jobs! I always did all the decorating in both marriages and even painted rooms and the staircase in mum's house in my 50s. It grieves and frustrates me now to see the decorating that needs redoing here that I would do easily once, but can't just now, but only because of my knees hurting. I hope your OH's neck soon eases. OH is still being careful with his, especially driving and looking to the left or behind him!

OH smashed a glass this morning in the kitchen and swore he'd swept it all up, but I heard crunches as I walked over it in my slippers and told him he could cut his feet to ribbons. He soon got the hoover out! :-D He was at a council meeting this afternoon and said it looked like most were working from home, the place was so empty.

That's a horrid moment when cramp strikes Mel! You never know which way to go with your leg, but can't bear holding it still! Luckily you stopped it getting worse. I think your OH has a lot of 'practical' sense to work out the best way to do things. OH doesn't and never does things like forward planning. ie thinking where he will put something and open doors etc before he picks something p to move it.