General Chat

Good afternoon all

It’s very warm again today but not much sun and still no sign of any rain. According to the weather app on my phone there’s no rain expected for at least the next 10 days. I think we’ll be down to a choice of letting the garden plants die or watering everything and running up a big water bill. Our one small water butt has long since been emptied. We shouldn’t complain when we get good weather but just a little rain would be nice.

It sounds s though your man is doing a good job with your drive AnnG. It will look great in a couple of weeks’ time when the burning and weed killing has done the job and he has filled in the gaps. He sounds quite a find. It’s always handy to know people who will do all those odd jobs that we can’t manage and do them at a reasonable price.

Your poor OH Ann – no breakfast and not much lunch by the sound of it. He’ll be fading away! What a faff trying to get your 4th jab set up. Perhaps you had better move here. I’ve just checked our surgery’s website and it says that Covid vaccine appointments are available if you are over 75 and it is 3 months since your last vaccination. I sometimes think we don’t appreciate how lucky we are with the medical services round here.

Sitting out in your garden sounds really relaxing Mandy and makes me think we should do that more. We seldom just sit in ours and enjoy it. I have tried to read out there a couple of times but it is a bit of a suntrap and the sun glares off my kindle or iPad screen which is what I mainly use for reading these days. I even borrow library books on my iPad as it means that I don’t have to choose my books during library opening hours but can browse the shelves late at night if I want.

I had a really thorough dust and vacuum through this morning, including moving as much furniture as I could so by lunchtime my back was quite painful. Since then friends have called to see how OH is (he’s absolutely fine). We made a cup of tea and while we were drinking that I sat on a low stool and for the last hour I have been sitting at the computer. I don’t help myself do I? I think I might shortly be taking a painkiller which I avoid as much as I can.

Today’s my daughter’s birthday. How can I have a child of 57 when I’m only 35 myself? Well, in my dreams I’m only 35.

Enjoy whatever you are doing for the rest of the day and have a good night’s rest tonight.

pleased with the drive so far but it will look better once the weed killer takes out the remaining bits of weed and he fills the cracks between block with the compound they use. He won't charge me for the return visit to do that probably next week.

2 birds 1 stone. He is going to do that garden bit I want doing. He was apparently a gardener originally then has gradually branched out doing all sorts as he found people wanted small jobs doing when they were too busy to do them or, as they got older couldn't manage. He has gradually built up a client base, from about a year ago, and gets jobs by recommendation and he doesn't believe in over charging. While looking at the garden, he fetched his steps and his lopper and finished off lopping the rambler. and when I said to add it to his bill he said. 'don't be silly'. He is also going to paint the bit over the garage door which is flaking off and repaint the blue surround as well. But I might have to get some more paint for that. I am going to have the garden area graveled He suggested boxing it in and raising it slightly which would eliminate digging it all out and having to hire a skip to get rid of the soil. He showed me where he has done it before in a garden so it means a step up onto that part which is fine. I can then put containers on it. He said gravel is cheaper to do, to make it into another patio would be expensive and not really necessary as I already have two patios.

Ann, a mystery which you will never solve I reckon, the newspapers.

did you take pity on OH and get hom some lunch?

That is strange about the vaccinations. Only just now I saw on line that our community centre still has vaccinations for those who want them.

Morning All,

Sunny and 19 degrees here. I was up fairly early and OH went to a breakfast business meeting at the council a mile away. He's been before and they are open to enyone if you book and they have speakers on various things. This week was to do with green initiatives for businesses. I decided to try the garden centre and see if they had any of a particular alpine I want that's in flower now with pretty pink flowers. I have it elsewhere in the garden. It was very quiet at the garden centre, they didn't have the plant I wanted so I had a browse and called in the cafe for a breakfast as no-one else was in there. No need to get a lunch then I thought, but when I got home OH said they only had croissants this time, and which are no good with him now pre diabetic, so he got no breakfast and I'm not doing lunch!

I'm getting nowhere fast with trying to sort out my 4th covid jab due next week. I was going to call in our chemist, but when I rang they said they have stopped doing them. I rang the surgery to see if they were doing them, but they said they have stopped and won't be starting till September now. They suggested another chemist to me and I rang them and they have stopped as they have run out of vaccines! I then rang the little hospital where we saw people queuing to get them when we went to the factory shop last week and they have stopped doing them as well. It seems the only way to get one now is to ring the 119 booking number and when I checked that a couple of days ago it just showed the main hospitals in the city. So it's another fiasco with little advice for those of us reaching 75 now. It's already over 6 months since my last booster, so that will have waned a lot. I bet a lot of people who are reaching 75 now won't bother and will just be at extra risk till after September or whenever they are called. :-(

That sounded like a nice relax in the garden Mandy. :-) Yes, we thought someone isn't getting their paper and would have reported it too, but with the shop speaking little english I'm not sure they would have understood. They actually put the paper inside the wheelie bin and OH only realised as he spotted it was a different paper to ours when he went to add something to the bin himself. It could have been going on for months and months!! We know we aren't being charged for them as we have discount coupons for our papers and the shop is unable to understand how to work out what to charge us, so OH has to work it out and tell them/write it down for them himself. The person delivering must find they have a surplus paper so stick it in our bin that's handy to use.

You have reminded me AnnG that I must arrange a qoute for getting our drive cleaned.

Mel keep an eye on your OH up that tower! Has he managed to do much of it yet? I have washing out too.

Morning All,

I had the same trouble this morning, could'nt get on here it kept saying Bad Connection with a blank page.

Sun is out and its a beautiful morning and supposed to be all day.

Oh has been up the tower this morning cutting more hedge and the washing is spinning and I want toget that out as it has two heavy cardi's in it and they dry quite quickly once they are on the line.

Did'nt get up early this mroning so not got much done but I have dusted the bedroom and now I am going to hoover.

Pleasant young man is here to do the weeds in the drive. He is using a type of flame thrower to burn the weeds out and will then spray the area with weed killer. He says if you pressure wash it, it lifts the soil between the blocks. Sounds logical. He also thinks it is not having cars on the drive that allows the weed to grow. Maybe I should hire my drive out then?? He was here at 0830.
It is a long job but he is working at it and says he will scrape the weeds out the put down a safe weed killer. Then in a weeks time with come back and put the compound in the gaps between the blocks.

I couldn't on Genes for about half an hour they seemed to be down, tried on the desk top and the Ipad so pretty definite. Not long came back.

good morning all. Up early as I didn't dare go back to sleep as man coming to weed the drive/front said 0830-0900 start. Bet he is later. Still I am awake now, not dressed but awake.

Dry and bright so far, hope it doesn't rain.

Evening all,
It's been quite sunny here and we sat out in the garden listening to the birds and the wind in the trees if you close your eyes it sounds just like the sea rolling over the stones on the beach at Sheringham .

Oh Vera they are very naughty ladies ,like this Covid will never go away ,that lady didn't want to pass it on to her 90 year old mother but didn't mind passing it on to someone's else's elderly mother while on her holiday and all those on the plane coming home .
What a shame you had to cut short your trip away but you both did the right thing coming home let's hope you can find a time to arrange some time away again soon .

Ann how strange you keep finding these papers ,are they actually thrown in the bin or tucked in the handle ,perhaps the paper boy has this paper left over at the end of his round and doesn't want to take it back to the shop but then surly the customer must have rung to say they have no paper ,very odd .

Anng have you defrosted now ,at least that's the last one now for a while ,very hard to drink when your mouth is so numb .

It's good your out with OH while he's up on that tower Mel, you can't be to careful so it's best to keep an eye on him and get a little gardening done at the same time .

I seem to have been on the go all day and can't see what I've done really ,all small jobs I did put some descaler round the two bathroom basin taps which really needed doing and had a good hoover through ,shopping day tomorrow so I must get a list sorted or I'll get home without half the things we need and bags of things that we don't.

I suppose it is no good saying your OH should really give up smoking is it.my friend who takes me out is a widow. Her OH was a heavy smoker with breathing problems. He ended up losing his legs and being in a wheel chair for a while before he died. I know it is hard to give up but might be easier if you both did it together

Have your teeth defrosted now Anng? Hope so so you could have a drink.

We were both out in the garden after the wipe down. I still do it cos both of us smoke and oh is diabetic and has various other things wrong too and he uses a huffer ever so often so breathing is bad sometimes. He is more vunerable than you lot who are good and don't smoke. I have a smokers cough and should realy give it up again but its hard when oh still smokes.

This morning after wiping down I went out in the garden and did some dead heading and got more of the clippings off that bit of the rockery outside the kitchen window. He is back out there up in the air so I better go back out and make sure he dos'nt fall off the tower.

it is saying 20 degrees here but is not feeling that warm and we have no sun. while my teeth were 'defrosting' I answered a couple of email, tidies out my nightwear drawer and sorted a few things for charity then pottered in the garden pulling up dead poppies that I don't want to seed. I have also made five very basic cards today for charity. So, with walking to and from the dentist about 10-15 minutes each way I have done quite a bit.
Tomorrow I have the man coming to do my drive etc. He has good recommendations so I hope he is ok. :-)

Afternoon all

It was quite a muggy night though I didn’t sleep too badly. Today is very warm but again there is a good breeze so it feels quite pleasant.

Enjoy your haircut Ann. Mine is due again so I’d better ring for an appointment. How strange to find those newspapers in your bin. You’d think the newsagent would have wondered what was going on as whoever they were meant for has probably complained about not receiving them. Very odd.

I agree with you AnnG - the NHS advice when restrictions were lifted was very confusing but my ladies were on a Greek Island and the Greek rule is that you must self isolate for 5 days after a positive test and longer if you still have symptoms. They both had bad throats and coughs and I am sure they at least suspected Covid but didn’t want to have to isolate so didn’t test. That way they could honestly say they hadn’t had a positive test. I know one of them better than the other and she has been very cavalier about the whole thing refusing to wear a mask except where it’s been a legal requirement and mixing with all and sundry indoors even when we were restricted to limited numbers outside. I just find her attitude a bit immoral. She has a right to decide on the level of risk she is prepared to take but not to put anyone else at risk.

Mel, I now only wipe down anything I am going to use straightaway and otherwise rely on hand washing and sanitizer.

I nearly forgot to say that I saw our swans on the river this morning. I felt I needed to move and try to loosen my back up a bit. OH said that he would come as well and if I found it too much he’d walk me back to the road and leave me there while he came back for the car. In fact I managed quite a long walk though I ache a bit now. Last time I saw the swans there were four tiny cygnets being watched over by Dad while Mum was on the nest with what looked like a new hatchling and an egg. All being well there would have been six young ones. Today we saw Mum, Dad and four well grown cygnets so it looks as though they lost two. They looked lovely gliding along in single file with one parent leading the way and the other bringing up the rear.

I’m sitting in the conservatory with the door open and I am far too hot so I am going to get a cold drink and move somewhere cooler. Enjoy the rest of your afternoon and evening.

Afternoon All,

PC says 16 degrees here and it's sunny but feels quite muggy today.

I'm glad your OH is feeling much better Vera, but you made the right decision I think as it could have been a bug that you got too and it could have spoiled the break. You can sort another visit out later as you say. Sorry your back is playing up again. I wonder if the sitting while travelling set it off again.

Mel we have stopped wiping down now, but wash our hands after putting the shopping away and after fetching the bins in. We may start doing it again if infections keep ramping up like they are doing though.

We keep finding different newspapers in our bin!! We told the newsagent but they don't speak much english and the papers have carried on appearing in the bin?? They have numbers scrawled on the front, but are none that we know, so we think the paper deliverer is having the same trouble and just sticking them in our bin. I expect they use our bin as it is tucked round the side of the bungalow on the front whereas everyone else's bin is round the back of their bungalows.

I'm off to the hairdressers now and looking forward to the head massage! BBL.

Morning all,

Quite bright this morning at the moment but still a cloudy sky pc says mostly sunny and 15 degrees.

Shopping arrives today and I still wipe it down so that will take the morning up as long as it comes earlish. Its suppose to come between 11am and 1pm. I think theres quite a lot today. It was'nt so bad lst week as I did'nt have as much as this week.

Good morning all quite bright here so far is 9 degrees but Alexa says I can expect 20 degrees later.

dentist again this morning. I shall say no more

Vera, pleased OH is ok again but sorry your back is bad.
Cynth is fine, covid seems to be as mine was, quite mild.
Re your ladies who just carried on with their holiday. Hopefully they were not too close to people but the NHS England advice was actually confusing when restrictions were lifted as they said no need to isolate once you reach the 5 day mark as long as you no longer have symptoms as you are not likely to be infectious. It insinuated you no longer had to have a negative test. Hopefully most of their holiday they were out in the air. They could of course have had it before their flight out too I suppose. So much of it around and who knows if ordinary masks prevent anything? Just have to hope if we catch it, it is mild.

Mandy, you are so clever at making things from oddments of material and everything always looks so professional.

Lovely to have the swallows back Mel. Let us know if you see any babies.

I hope Cynth doesn't feel too ill with the Covid AnnG. Hopefully you won't get it if you haven't seen her for several days. I've just heard of 2 acquaintances who have just come back from a Greek Island holiday and believe they picked up Covid on the plane out. They both felt unwell 2 or 3 days after arriving but didn't test and carried on with their holiday as normal, going in and out of cafes and tourist attractions etc. It was only after they were back that one of them tested because she was going to see her 90 year old mother in a care home. Of course, she was positive so the other woman tested and was positive too. Goodness knows how many people they infected while they were on holiday. My feeling is they knew they had got Covid and deliberately didn't test so they could carry on with their holiday and say they didn't know they were positive.

It's been a hot but quite breezy day so it's felt quite pleasant. We really could do with some rain. The water in the bird bath had completely evaporated by this morning.

My back is giving me a bit of trouble again but I managed a short walk. OH seems back to normal and is eating properly again now. We would probably have been alright to go to his sister's but we couldn't know when we made the decision how he would be. Hopefully we can arrange to meet up before we get into late autumn and winter.. As my back was bad and OH was OK he did a load of deadheading for me and tonight he has had the hose out and given everything a good watering. We try not to use the hose on the garden too often. The pots and troughs do dry out quickly so we have to try and keep them watered but usually do them with the watering can.

I'm beginning to feel a bit tired now so think I will go to bed and either watch something on iPlayer or read for a while. I'm in the middle of "The Moth Catcher" which is one of Ann Cleeves' "Vera" books or I might watch the last "Who Do You Think You Are".

Still dull here and rain in the air. Pc says 16 degrees and partly sunny!

Bedding stripped and washed. some shredding done and now I am going for a coffee before going out in the garden.

Morning All,

Dull here now but it was sunny earlier when I did the walk. I put a bit of weight back on after panicking when the consultant was concerned at me losing weight so won't feel able to manage 2 laps just yet. My last urine test came back normal, so it was obviously my dieting to lose weight that was the reason after all. It's hard to get back on track again now as I have to be really strict and stick to 800 to 1000 calories to lose anything. I must do it though as it helps knees, blood sugar levels.....everything!

I popped in the Co-op after to get a paper and OH's pasty that was missing from the order. The windowcleaner was parked on the drive when I got back so I was able to pay him as OH was out at a meeting in the city.

I've watered the greenhouse so now it's back to my painting and tackle some jobs on my list.

Morning Anng and all,

Dull cludy and rian in the air here this morning and oh has just gone off to the doc's for his blood test and check. O he is still outside at the mo at the car , in now and off.

Nothing planned but I do need to do a bit of HW so will see how I get on and then I cna play.

Hope Cynth is not too bad with covid and can cope ok.

Good morning all, bright and dry at the moment and 9 degrees. Slept quite well but woke at 0530 and couldn't get back to sleep.

Oh dear Vera, what a shame to have the weekend spoilt. Pleased that your OH recovered and hope you didn't catch the bug whatever it was. Will you try for another weekend to see the family. It was obviously disappointing for you all.

Ann I was surprised that there was only one sub. I did have one thing unavailable but that was notified the day before so I was able to substitute it myself. It was chilli infused salmon fillets and a lot of the salmon products were unavailable. I was able to get plain though. It was a fair sized list as well so I was pleased it was all there.

I think it is pretty certain that Cynth caught the covid from the friend who also has it as he spent the day in her house on Wednesday and they also went out in his car to see the bank to sort things out. and he tested positive on thursday morning as did his wife. I had not been in contact with Cynth or even seen her really since the Tuesday so pretty certain I will be ok. No she is only in her 60s so has not had a 4th vaccination.