General Chat

Evening all,

It's been a nice sunny day but its been to cold to do much outside ,there was a sharp frost this morning .
Went shopping and all wiped down and put away i think i'm getting quicker at it now .
I've pulled my side i think i did it cleaning the kitchen window i really stretched while doing it and it's some thing i know i shouldn't do but i just needed to reach the corner bit and now i'm paying for it , it usually takes a couple of days to get right

Ann that good you've managed to get the sky boxes sorted and got the tele working again after all these months i bet OH was pleased you had a go at them as you say there as nothing to lose as they weren't working any way .
What were the paintings like as the others have said yours will take some beating .

Gill ,things are getting sorted then thats good ,i hope you don't have to long to wait for your new boiler t go in .
How are things going with Sandra any sign of her moving in yet ?

So your shed painting is coming along then Mel ,is OH painting any flowers on it like he did his .

AnnG you've had a busy day , a devil the garage door not unlocking ,do you know some one who could do it for you .

Vera that nice getting a cake delivery each week and having the surprise of what they have cooked .

It sounds as though you are on a roll now Gill. You must feel relieved that things are moving a bit at last. Let’s hope one of the builders or bricklayers can do the work you want.

Well done on getting your Sky fixed Ann. I know where to come now when I am stuck trying to use a bit of technology. What did you think of your fellow pupils’ artwork on Zoom. I bet not many were as good as yours.

Gosh, AnnG, you are getting a lot done lately. I feel tired just reading about it. Whatever you’re on, I want some! Seriously, well done you for keeping at it.

It would be lovely to see a picture of some of your koi if you can get one Mel. It was about 10 years ago that we rehomed ours and I often wonder if they are still doing OK. We were quite attached to them and I had a little weep when they went. Stupid isn’t it – they are fish fgs! We had 20 but we were most fond of 4 of them that we had named; Oscar, Frank, Sybil and Carrot. Oscar was the biggest of them all and I can’t remember how he got his name. Frank had the brightest blue eyes you can imagine so he was named after “Ol’ Blue Eyes”, Frank Sinatra. Sybil was named after Sybil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers because she always had such a sour expression and one of the grandchildren named Carrot. We didn’t really know which were male and which female.

It has been a beautiful spring day here. Wall to wall sunshine with just a bit of a breeze. It was a bit nippy but it is still only March. OH decided his back was playing him up a bit so slept in the spare room and I thought I would sleep well on my own, but I didn’t so ended up reading half the night, but I got myself moving this morning and got quite a lot done. First three loads of washing, and that all dried nicely outside. Then I did some more in the garden. We grow the best crop of moss in town so I cleared four troughs and some pots of all the moss, tidied them up generally and topped up with fresh compost and did a bit of pruning and cutting back.

Our neighbour knocked with his usual Monday offering. I think I told you he cooks via Zoom with his grandchildren who live overseas. Today we have chocolate and banana cake. He is not doing our waistlines any good at all.

Oh, we had a bit of excitement today. The new owners of the bungalow that has been empty for nearly 18 months moved in. I hope we’ll meet them soon and I hope they will fit in OK. With only 6 houses in the Close we all need to get on well and it is such a friendly little road that it would be a shame if there was any friction. I am sure they will turn out to be very nice.

I’d better go and do something about food now. There’s plenty of cold pork so it’s just a question of deciding whether to have it with salad or with chips and beans.

Just a quick update.

Ann the builder I text got back to me to let me know he had received my message and said he would ring me again later to sort out a date and time to do the quote.

We've had the gas people here today to measure up for the pipework they're doing tomorrow. They wanted to look inside our place but I was in the shower at the time so they had to wait. They were really good about it and have even said they'll remove the redundant gas pipe out of the cupboard for us at no extra charge, so I'm glad I asked if they could do it. All I need now is the water tank taken out and we can extend our bathroom and have the double walk in shower we want installed.

I had to ring the council as I hadn't received the permit for our garden bin, we have to pay to have it emptied here and it's due to be emptied tomorrow. The woman was very good and said to put the bin out and she would email them to let them know to empty it without the sticker on and she's going to chase up the permit for us.

I then rang our insurance as we hadn't had any paperwork come through to be told it was emailed to me. I hadn't received it so changed it to them posting it to me instead then I can keep it in my file, that should be here by the end of the week.

I'm going to get something to eat now, with being so busy I haven't had anything all day and I'm hungry. Once the gas pipe goes in I'll then get in touch with our utility provider and have the metre installed, then we can hopefully find a plumber and have a boiler put in so we'll finally have some hot water. What a luxury that'll be lol :-D

Been outside and taken all the old stlaks off the bean frame as I wait for them to die over the winter as they are easier to get off. Pulled up a lot of dead grass and scraped up lots of moss off the road down to my shed. It was like a green carpet down there.

Off out again in a min to pick up what I swept up earlier and then get the dinner on.

I have cleared up in the kitchen too around the sink as things get put there to be washed and left there till you know who washes them. Took some things out to the shed to.

Oh has finished painting the shed and has put the door and window furniture back on and I need a new latch to the door which he has ordered and it should come tomorrow.

Had to come in for a drink.

Roast chicken crown tonight with roasted veg I think all in one pan.

Sounds to me like things may be happening for you at last Gill. You will feel better when all this in out of the way and you can get on with your gardening. Just think how big your kitchen is going to be once the chimney breast is out. Is your kitchen bigger than your last one anyway? I know you said it was very small where you were before.

Had lunch and oh is off out mowing again. I did a bit of sweeping and now I am going to go and cler up the piles I have swept up and do a bit of cutting back of the alchemilla mollis that grows in front of the bungalow.

Thanks again Ann for the number's you gave me, I've spent all morning ringing them and have left a message with one, two only do extensions but one of them said he might be able to take the chimney breast down in the kitchen and is coming here tomorrow to take a look and the final one asked me to text him my details and he'll ring me back later, although quite a few builders have said that so time will tell if he does get back to me or not.

OH had to go and pick his glasses up from the opticians and while he was there he noticed a van outside for a plasterer so he asked him if he knows a bricklayer which he does so he's going to pass my number onto him. OH gave me the fella in the van's number and while I was speaking with him I mentioned there a downpipe from the gutters where the rain water comes down onto a path as there's no grid and he said he could do the grid and drains for us, so he's coming here tomorrow around 4.30pm to take a look.

He also said he'll look at the bricks while he's here so he can let the bricklayer know how bad they are. He's also going to take a look a the hall ceiling as that needs plastering. There were polystyrene tiles on it and when OH took them off all the glue is still on the ceiling. I've tried taking glue off before in our old place and it took forever to do so it'll be a lot easier to just have the ceiling skimmed.

Why are workmen like buses, you can't find one for ages then they all turn up at the same time lol :-D :-D

We've got our gas pipes going down tomorrow as well and I've been called in for my first vaccination, so we're going to meeting ourselves coming back tomorrow. Poor OH is on night's tonight, so I don't expect he's going to have much sleep with everything going on.

Anyway I thought I'd let you know how I got on with the number's you gave me Ann and to say thank you again. I was just about to give up, so I'm really grateful and to everyone else who has helped me as well.

I had BT ring me today wanting me to change our monthly payment plan to a whole bill instead, but I stood my ground and even managed to cut our monthly payments in half. I can now use that money towards my electric bill as that's going to be high now we're using the electric fire all the time.

The woman from BT was like a dog with a bone and tried everything she could to make me change our way of paying, saying I would get into debt, which was silly as they owe us money. I could tell by her tone of voice as we'd finished our conversation she wasn't happy. Maybe she gets some sort of commission for us moving to a whole bill payment plan.

I wouldn't mind but I pay £5 a month for 500 free UK calls to both landline and mobile numbers and I'm not going to be using all those minutes forever. I know I've got a lot of calls to make to workmen but the money they owe me will go towards that. Once all the jobs are done I'll hardly use my phone. I said we'd reassess the situation in June when the next bill is due and could she ring me back, to which she replied you ring us. Talk about moody. At least I halved the bill and saved us £60 a month which I don't think she was expecting :-D :-D

Going to have a drink now as I've let all my drinks go cold so far today and I'm really thirsty now.

Finished weeding the two p;ots, bin out now for collection tomorrow. spent two hours out there.

Yes the garage door is a real nuisance. Luckily there is not a car stuck in there.

No All weeds are not wild flowers in my book, some are thugs and spread everywhere choking other flowers. Anyway have thrown the wild flower seed over the garden, don't get many seeds for your money these days. I am hoping all the digging and raking will have encouraged any poppy seed lurking to germinate. Sadly T didn't like the poppies and pulled a lot up after flowering last year.

Arn't all weeds wild flowers???

Ann yes his kio are huge now I shall have to see if I can get a picture of them but the light on the water is not good I need a really dreary day or the sky gets in the way.

I have two lots of washing on the line fed the wild birds and the chickens, hoovered the kitchen diner hall and little loo and bathroom. Picked up some sticks in the garden and some weeds (wild flowers) and am about to go back out there and do some sweeping.

What a bother with the garage door Anng. Hope you can get it fixed.

It will be nice to see others attempts on your course Ann. I bet yours are the best.

ann I am pretty certain that the ones causing the real trouble were notning to do with the original protest but were a large group set on causing anarchy and unrest. Hopefully those who were not wearing their masks will be identified and charged. But it was disgusting and like pictures of the IRA in the fighting then.

I have done half the weeding, then came in for a coffee and to wait for DPD who was on time then when I went to open the garage door it would not unlock T mentioned something about a part broken but he had fixed the problem. The last ime I opened it it wouldn't unlock first time. This time it won't unlock at all. so now I have to fine somebody to fix that and had to drag the chair into the house and out to the conservatory and it is not very light (I couldn't lift it in the box if I tried.

Morning All,

Yes it is a bit chilly here too and very dull. I was late last night, but I did sleep well and the window cleaner has been and on the right day so that was a bonus! I have changed the bed and sliced up some leeks and chopped up a half courgette that need using, so we are having a 'make do' sort of lunch with big soups and the veg microwaved and added. :-) I have also ordered a couple of square buttonned seat pads in a sage colour for our arbour. The seat is a bit high under the knees for me and the pads are just long enough to fill some of the dip at the back of the seat and raise me up! They will make it comfy too. :-) I have a problem with most seats being too high as well and we had to saw some off the legs of the arbour so I could reach the ground with my feet.

Yes I did see you say about your little fish Mel. I'm glad the Heron didn't get them all. I expect they will develop some more orangey bits as they grow. How many Koi does your OH have now, some of them must be quite big by now I would think? I bet the video of the children was nice as they always seem to be so happy don't they. Good luck with the garden. Our bed is only a couple of inches off the floor with having drawers each side so no chance with the hoover! I have to push it across and turn it to reach all the patch it covers. I will be glad when we lose the carpet and have a hard floor as I think the wide floor mop would go under it then and save having to lug it about so much.

I see you have your day planned AnnG with weeding the wild flower bed. I like the sound of that, but watch your back and don't overdo it. You can always finish it another day.

Painting the dreaded Roses this afternoon in class. The teacher said for this last week she has selected an anonymous gallery of some of our work and we shall be discussing them which will be interesting as we don't see each other's completed pictures we send to the teacher.

I can't believe the awful behaviour to the police and animals in the Bristol protest yesterday. Causing so much work for the emergency services and spreading the virus around in the middle of a pandemic. Words fail me! Why don't they spend their time and energy into doing something useful for society instead of all this me. me, me and what I want attitude.

I have done a wash load and had a bacon sandwich, now gearing myself up to get out in the garden but it is still only 6 degrees out there so a bit chilly.

Morning Anng and all,

Not a bad morning here either with sunshine now and then but grey sky to the north.

I too watched Midsomer Murders last night Anng. I used to like Sykes the dog in it but this new one is quite good too.

Yesterday was World Down Syndrome day and I had a lovely video from our niece of all the troup dancing.

Oh is out painting the fiddley bit off my shed and today he is going to put the furniture back on the window so I can close it. He did'nt want me to close it and get the paint stuck together so the back window has been open for about three nights.

I am planning to go out in the garden and do a bit more today so see what happens later. Must get some washing in first and get the chicken crown out of the freezer for dinner tonight.

Gosh you were late Ann. No doubt I will not have as much energy two days running. I slept well and woke up at 0600, forecast was for a nice day today so I need to find energy to get the patch of ground for wild flowers weeded.
good that you got your Sky fixed. Now that would have confused me, I don't think I could have sorted that out.

Anyway, good morning all, hoping for a nice day.
Went to bed expecting nightmares after seeing the atrocious scenes on TV of the riot in Bristol. These so called peaceful protests are anything but. The organisers should realise that these days they are always hijacked by people out to cause unrest. and 'peaceful' they are not. It reminded me of Ireland and the scenes from there with the IRA etc. Still I didn't have nightmares so must have been tired. I also watched Midsummer Murders which was one I was not keen on. too many bees!!

Your late on here Ann. Did you see I said I had seen my tiny fish?

Good luck with doing under the bed. My new cordless hoover goes under ours fine and if I wiggle it about I can do all under the bed. Mind you we have a bed with legs so there is a space of about 8 or 9" which the corded vac won't go under.

Best of luck with them Gill and I hope you are successful. A tip might be to let them know when you ring that you have more work needing to be done later in the year too. It might make them more interested and you will have no obligation to them other than consider asking them to give you a quote for the other work when you are ready to go ahead with it. It sounds like you are making progress with things in the meantime and are a bit warmer now. The gas work will soon be done and you will have hot water and it will make a difference to how you feel once each thing gets done. It sounds like you will soon have a kitty friend coming to see you once the cat gets used to you. We have cows to look at which are not quite as nice as horses, but still better than buildings though.

AnnG I want some of what you are on! You have blitzed through so many jobs today and are really making progress. We never finished cutting back and tidying the garden last year either as OH had so much more work than normal so we need to catch up too, OH has pulled more weeds up today and I have checked my seeds to see what I need. I'm not sure about 2 packets of courgette seeds with no labels! Is one those Pattypan that came from China? I thought I'd thrown them away. I think all I can do is plant both as I will know as soon as the leaves appear as the chinese seeds had yellowy green leaves.

I only grow 2-3 tomato plants now Mel. It is enough for us with plenty to blitz and freeze as well. Our cars haven't been washed for over a year now and mine has a few green bits on the window rubbers and it shows with it being a white car. I bet yours looked good after a clean.

I had another look at sorting these SKY boxes out as I had seen online that some were waiting 3 weeks for an engineer. I told OH we had nothing to lose as he doesn't like me messing with things! From what I gathered the minis would only connect via the main box but although that played through satellite ok it needed resetting to enable the minis to connect to it if it isn't a SKY router. Nothing seems to tell you this anywhere. Despite OH looking doubtful with all the switching off and rebooting I got him to do, I got everything working again. Now he thinks I am a 'star' as he was able to watch 2 matches on the tv he wanted to see. :-D He didn't think I was a star though when I dropped the lid off his eardrops and it managed to roll straight under the bed to the middle!! Oh the dust and fluff under there! Another job we need to add to the list.

I managed to get my sketch done for tomorrow too and OH has put 2 lots of window cleaning money in an envelope to leave out for the window cleaner tomorrow. This way it saves having any change to handle as we couldn't make up the right money for just tomorrow.

I bet you're looking forward to Tuesday and Wednesday and loads of hot water. Good luck finding a plumber and hope you have more success in getitng one than youseem to be having with a builder. Keeping my finger crossed for you.

Thanks Ann for the builders web address's and phone number's. I'll ring them tomorrow and let you know how I get on. All I want is for one to pick up their phone or reply to messages I leave. I'm beginning to think I'm never going to find one. Hopefully I'll have more luck with the number's you passed onto me.

I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself today as I have a sore tum. I think it might be a bit of stress with having so much to do and not getting anywhere with things at the moment. I'm drinking plenty of water, but it doesn't seem to be helping with my headache.

At least we managed to get the electric fire and surround into the hall last night, so now this place is a bit warmer.

OH has taken some more rubbish to the tip today and only has a small amount of the pampas to take now, so I should be able to get into the garden myself soon. He's bagging some rubbish now so he can take it to the tip tomorrow as he's off work tonight so won't be asleep all day. I can't wait to be able to get near the massive hedge and start cutting it down, then we'll be able to see the size of the garden better.

I noticed there are horse's in the field to the side of us and now OH has taken some of the rubbish from behind the garage I can just about see them eating in the field. It's so much better than seeing houses behind us like we had in our old place.

Next door's cat is watching OH cut up the old shed that had fallen down, I think he's getting used to him now but is still wide eyed when he see's me. I'm sure he'll get used to me when I can finally get into the garden to help.

It sounds like you've all been busy, I feel lazy only making phone calls all day. At least the gas pipes are being done on Tuesday and Wednesday so hopefully it won't be to long before we have our boiler put in and finally have some hot water. I just hope trying to find a plumber for the central heating isn't going to be as hard as trying to find a builder is.

Exhausted more like and back aches a bit. I planted all the seeds in the pack, 12 I think as T never got them all to grow so I doubt I will. After lunch I cleaned some of the windows in the conservatory couldn’t reach all of them.

Not got back out there as the suns gone now and its a bit chilly. I have sowed my tomato seeds, only four of them as I have'nt really any space for anymore. I am hoping oh will let me put my little plastic greenhouse at the end of the decking which is a bit lower than the actual deck, but he has'nt finished putting the new netting round the end of the upper deck yet.

He has washed my car for me this afternoon with the prssure washer which meant I could'nt do the washing up till he had finished.

I am now going to corn the chickens and have a little sweep up round the front door and along by the tubs.

You got a nice lot done Anng you should be proud of yourself.

Mr tesco was on time, two subs a 700g shampoo instead of a 250 for the same price which is very nice except the huge bottle doesn't fir where the shampoo bottle go. And no lamb shanks but ready cook brisket instead, cheaper than the lamb and with a good long date so no problem with it.

I also did a load of washing then I cut the lawn, That will be easier when I get the new mower put together. At the moment I find it awkward having the lead attached and, because of the centre island I have to go back on myself to get both sides done, not a problem but aggravating.

It is a case of not knowing where to start when I get out there. I have not done the edges though.At the moment I am playing catch up because T stopped doing anything in September which is when all the tidying up jobs are done. yesterday I started to tidy the greenhouse, didn't finish it today because I wanted to do outside jobs while it was sunny, it has come over cloudy now

. I also teak oiled the wooden seat and planted some tomato and lettuce leaves seeds which are in the conservatory. And started to tidy the side of the house as I have got Charles coming on Wednesday to rebuild the storage shelter that is there. That is a days job in itself, lots of things like tomato feed, ant killer etc..

And another job I did was the cracks between the patio slabs, I weeded them all with a gadget T had.

so, jobs for this week, finish the greenhouse, clear the shelves down the side of the house, tidy the shed and get rid of some of the junk.

Vera I will give them another week and then maybe contact them if nothing has come through. I wouldn't mind but I paid a years tax about two days before T died.
Looks like your OH has been busy as well Vera.
and you making bread and Mel in the garden and Ann tackling her painting or the sketching for it. what a busy lot we are.