General Chat

Late morning all,

I came out of the shower and was standing in the bedroom doorway and himself was looking in the fridge (he expects whatever he wants to immediatley fall into line at the front of the shelf) he looked a bit dazed. I said "Are you alright?"
"Well no I made myself a cup of tea and was back in bed reading and I must've moved because the next thing my tea is spilt and I have a wet bum. The bed will probably smell now."

I knew nothing of this did vaguely hear him muttering whilst I was still asleep. I usually wake up to find either my body being used as a book rest or newspaper pages tickling my face or ears etc.... he can only read facing in my direction.

grrrh no thought to immediately removing sheet and under cover thingy straight away so have now done another wash and our mattress now has a very large wet patch (amazing how far a cup of tea can go).

Other than that everything is lovely there is a nice breeze out there for drying thank goodness.

I like going to the hairdressers, bit like going to the shearers I am less woolly when I come out. But most of all I really love them washing my hair they give my head a jolly good massage and with that and having my feet up I can drift off to other pastures.

Christmas Tree goes up here on Christmas Eve and comes down on the 12th day of Christmas. Ours is fake has wooden toys on it and a few baubles and a little Maori girl on top.

Some streets of Auckland go the whole hog with decorations and it gets very competitive all trying to outdo each other and then people come from all over to visit said streets and cause traffic jams. We took the grandies once when the boy was about 3 and he was so excited but by the time we got there he had fallen asleep in the car and no amount of prodding from his older sister would wake him up. Bah humbug.

Persey 11.42am

Good evening/ morning Tec and Amanda, Sue and Berona

you all sound as though you are going to be busy this weekend with doing your tree's and dec's. I don't put a tree up anymore as there isn't much room for one in my living room but I do put up dec's and light's around the room.

Linda I hope your meal with your 2 couple's went well and that it was a good time had by all.

Amanda your OH sound's very clever and apt at his metal work.

Tec if I do ever decide to have a tree again I will get you to come round and deck it, I love a tree but hate doing it lol.

Sue you sound as though you are going to make the best of your nice weather hun, good luck with bathing the dog's.

Hi Berona, hope you are ok and enjoying the nice weather.

Sandie hope your visit to hairdresser's went well and wasn't to traumatic for you hun.

Perse I hope your daughter is much better and that thing's have settled down a bit for her, lucky for her that she has you and other's to help her.

I don't mind having my hair done as I have a mobile hairdresser who does mine, she also does employer's mum's hair and used to do my elderly Aunt's ( the one who is now in a nursing home ) she is very cheap and good.

Diane

Good Morning Persey,

Sounds like you had a fun start to your day lol.

Good Evening Diane,

I'll be happy to decorate your tree when you have one - I enjoy doing it.
The four little children that live nearby always visit to see the tree and I always give them a bauble each to take home to put on theirs - this is becoming a tradition which has been going on for five years now. If it carries on they'll have to get a bigger tree lol.

Tec. 11-03pm.

Good evenine, Diane - good morning/afternoon Perse.

I, too, am going to take advantage of the heat, before it gets too hot to go outside. I still have woollens waiting to washed and put away for the summer and I have changed the bed linen and that needs to be washed too. I have to get it all done this morning because we are having our garages sprayed from 1pm. They were to be done a couple of weeks ago, but rain prevented them from doing it. I use my garage door as my 'back' door. Much easier than unlocking the door from the dining room - which I only do when I have a few people here, so I need to do all I want to do before they get here.
That means I have to be off now. Keep warm Brits - Stay cool if it's hot where you are.

Good morning Persey .......what a way to start your day ! ....lol ..... I hope you have a good dry out for your laundry .
Your comment about driving your Grand kiddies about to see the local lights has made me wonder , what time does it get dark in your area at Christmas time ? Here the UK , it gets dark at about 4.30-5pm , the lights on the outsides ( and insides ) of houses are all the brighter I suppose as we are chasing away the deep gloom of winter .

Hello Diane ..... I hope all is good in your world , I've not been keeping up with the thread as much as usual , has your employers Mum had her Op yet ?

Off to bed now,
Enjoy your day Sue, Berona, Persey, all Down Under,
Sleep well - keep warm Amanda, Diane,

Goodnight,
Tec.

Goodnight Tec .....sweet dreams to you and the Duchess .

I'm off as well , so Goodnight and Good Day everyone .

Bye Berona, enjoy your day and don't work to hard hun.

Hi Amanda, yes my employer's mum had her op on Monday, I took her to the hospital and she should have come home the next day but as her bladder was not working properly and her blood presure was low they kept her in till Wednesday, our hairdresser and myself picked her up wednesday afternoon and our hairdresser stayed the night with her as I had an appointment early the next day so was unable to stay with her. She is a bit wobberly on her feet and quite sore ( which is only to be expected ), I was there today for 3hrs doing some cleaning and also went to the post office to post some airmail card's and some present's that she needed to send to family in the Isle-of-Man.

Thank you Tec I will remember that if I do put a tree up in the future, I remember you saying last year about the kid's who you give the bauble's to, do you get new one's each year to replace the one's you give to them, if not you must be running out by now.

Diane

Good night Tec and Amanda, have a good sleep and stay warm.

Diane

Sorry, I had to go off the computer, we have installed a new modem and it kept cutting out and I think he had his wires crossed or something like that.

We have now got a wireless modem and will collect my laptop (yippee) and a wireless printer next week. Yahoo. Our computer support people are three clever young lads and two sausage dogs. The sausage dogs are security manager and 2 IC security - their pics are on their website. They are really cute and being so low on the ground walk around under chairs and desks etc.

I remember that too Diane, Tec gifting baubles each year, thought it was a wonderful idea, I think it should be introduced to replace halloween.

Hope everyone has a good sleep and Linda's Cordon Bleu dinner evening was successful. I do Gordon Blue cooking....

Have a happy day Aussies

from your friendly Kiwi 1.46pm.

Hi Persey and everyone,

Perse, sorry your daughter is having health problems, lucky she has you to look after her.
I'm glad you have sorted your computer problems, it makes life easier.

I found out from my daughter the other day that our collie is a Kiwi, I automatically thought of you. I was too busy playing with the puppies to hear that bit of info, I liked Alfie cos he was the naughtiest one there and the most playful one too:-))
His ancestors must have been sheep herders because he has taken to herding rabbits, he doesn't kill them, just plays and herds them up!! Keeps him occupied for hours!!

I hope everyone is well, and not panicking like me cos its getting closer to Christmas and I'm nowhere near ready!!

I need a holiday!

Carole xxxx

HI Carole

All you have to do is say to Alfie, get in behind, he will do the rest.
I am always amazed as to how the cows get queued up for milking and it is always the same ones first and little Sunshine was always first to have the cups on. I used to yell to the dogs to go "way back" to bring in the stragglers.

This little sausage dog kept coming under the desk and then looking up at me, I was sitting in the dog's chair. She didn't bark or nudge just sat there, so I got up and then she didn't want to know, went off in a huff.

Saphie the ragdoll puss will be getting new neighbours so there will be lots of new sniffs for her. She was over here the other day checking out progress on our place.

5.34pm with dinner cooking slowly for later.....

Persey xx

Just helping with a question asked by Amanda - about when it gets dark.
Here in the Southern Hemisphere, we don't have twilight. Once the sun goes down, it gets dark virtually within minutes.
Our longest day is 22nd December and right now, leading up to that, sundown is approximately 8pm (I haven't checked but that would be close) and it is completely dark before 8:30. (Daylight Savings, of course).
In the states where they don't have D.S., it is probably dark by 7:30. Maybe Pamela can help you. It could be different for her because although Queensland doesn't have D.S., she is 'way up north - so there might be a difference there.

During the summer months with Daylight saving here in Auckland we don't get dark till around 8pm and will get later in the evening as we head towards Christmas and New Year.

Summer daylight hours in the South Island are extensive and always have been before they brought in daylight saving. The further South one goes, the lighter it is. For example, you can still play tennis in Invercargill at 10.30 pm mid summer.
This is very handy for anyone who doesn't know how to play tennis ; <}

Persey @ 9.22pm where it is dark outside so will play indoors.

Lol Perse, I love the tale of your OH and the tea, fancy leaving it to soak in, i think I would have had stern words with him for doing that.
If you are going to use your lap top on your knee I really recommend a lap top tray.During the day I have my laptop on the desk and attached to a docking station,so I use a full size keyboard and a monitor, but on an evening I have it on my laptop tray while I watch TV, it is very comfy and lets air get to the vents underneath the computer. Just go to ebay and do a search for lap top tray.I took the little light off because it kept falling over. I had to buy a larger size because I have a wide screen laptop, but the standard sized ones are very cheap

The meal went very well last night and we had an enjoyable evening. I had a late night, but then woke up in the middle of the night because a load of snow slid off the roof. I had just gone back to sleep when it happened again,so I am tired now.

I have been out twice today and am glad to be back. there has been a partial thaw, but the pavements are still inches deep in hard packed snow, now covered with a thin layer of ice. the roads are just a sheet of black ice, it was quite amusing watching the faces of the drivers on the corner outside the house as they realised how bad it was

Good evening Linda , I'm pleased to hear that your dinner party went well .
It sounds as if you need a few quiet nights now to recuperate from it .
All our snow has gone ( not that there was much about here ) , it is good to not have to watching where one walks as the ice has cleared off . I think it might return to our area next week but it's mild here at the moment.

Thank you for the answer Berona and Persey . Having never been out of the UK I have no real concept of other lands . The thought of no " twilight " is most strange , I like the twilight and find it most "magical" .
Where I am it gets dark in mid-summer at about 10pm and when we holidayed a few years ago , in the Inner Hebrides ( right at Mid-summer ) it was still possiable to see ( just about ) at almost mid-night !!

Pleased that your evening went well Linda, I trust your dinner guests were suitably impressed by your standard of cuisine, and went home happily wined and dined.

We have no snow and ice here, except on the hills where it doesn't matter. The sheep have been brought down to lower levels. Today has been dull and grey with a light drizzle, cold and damp.

I am in sole charge on the domestic front as the Duchess has to stay off her leg and sit with it on a stool. Consequently, weird and mysterious things to eat have been emerging from the kitchen for a few days now.
I was thinking of bringing the Christmas tree down from the attic, but ran out of time, so that will do tomorrow.

Diane, We do usually buy a few baubles each year to replace those the children take, but we've accumulated quite a few over the years, so not likely to run out. There are much nicer ones available now, and we had some sent over from Canada two years ago, they are rather special, so won't be letting the children have them.

The children live along the road and are ages 9-7-5, and nearly 3.
The girl is the eldest, and the rest are boys. They are very polite,and well mannered, except when their trying to tell me something all at once. Their mother will not allow them to call us by our christian names, but only Mr and Mrs ******* When they see me in the road there is this chorus of "Hello Mr ****** that I find very funny. The 7yr old boy is very quiet, and struggles to get a word in due to the chatter of his siblings, the girl making the most noise, so you have to pay particular attention to whatever he has to say. They will be here next week to choose their baubles, and there will be a little something for each of them under the tree.

Tec.......7pm.

You are a real softie Tec, but that is nice.
I am sure your meals are nice Tec, there is nothing wrong with fish fingers and custard!

I quite like tropical evenings Amanda where it suddenly gets dark, yet it is still warm. Apart from the biting creatures that come out, I don't like those at all

Good Evening Amanda,

Have you been amidst the happy throng of Christmas shoppers today?
I haven't been out all day, but can imagine how busy it would have been in the towns and cities.

So glad to be beyond the fringe!!! lol.

Tec.....7-21pm.