General Chat

Morning All,

Yes I was a bit busy yesterday and I didn't want to bore you with more blood tests! We actually managed a short walk later around the park next to a Hall in the next village. They have restored the ice house in the park and I wanted to see what it was like and thought I would manage the short walk ok. What they have done to the park and large pond over the last 5 years is disappointing and now I can add the ice house too, although you can pay to go inside it if you arrange it with the council. It used to be a semi wild place with lots of mature trees and although there was a footpath around it the large areas of grass were allowed to grow long with wide pathways mowed through it. Lots of birdsong and squirrels about. Now about half the trees and all the undergrowth has been cleared and the grass mown and manicured and it looks like a city park! The ice house, which was covered in snowdrops before is bare apart from a few around the base. There are far less birds now and I wonder if there will be as many squirrels. Why don't councils leave nature alone when they can and save some money as well? The only good thing was you can now see the old stable buildings behind the Hall.

I'm glad you mentioned OH's car and his aircon which still isn't fixed and I must really sort out with him about a replacement before we get any heatwaves! Did you all see the price of that replacement battery for an electric Mercedes, £15.000 which was more than the value of the car!

That was interesting what your Turkish meal was like Vera and I think I would have enjoyed it. Pity you got indigestion though!

The sun is shining here just now, but rain is travelling up the country according to the weathermen.

I have a zoom meeting with friends next so will BBL.

Morning Anng and Vera and all,

Sorry to hear you are both having rain this morning. We have , at the mo, sunshine which is a nice change from the past couple of days that have been dull and grey with a tiny spot of sun on Wednesday.

Hoping to get on with some craft today and blow the house work although I may do some ironing if I feel like it.

Sending love to all who are missing. <3

Good morning AnnG and all

Raining here as well and apparently it’s 6 degrees though it feels cooler than that.

I too hope Ann is OK. Perhaps she is just busy. I was the one having the haircut; I think Ann had hers cut earlier this week. I don’t remember her saying her OH’s car was being looked at but I might have missed that.

Having had to change my hair appointment on Wednesday because the car wouldn’t start I was glad it started OK yesterday so I got my hair done. In the evening we went out to the Turkish restaurant to eat. It is quite big but divided into several separate areas with a few tables in each. There were just 4 well spaced tables in our bit and it felt very safe. The food was very good. I had a starter of two cigar shaped filo pastry rolls filled with pastrami and cheese, though I couldn’t really taste the cheese. It came with pide bread (Turkish flatbread), a sort of mayonnaise dip and a bit of salad. I didn’t have the bread as I knew it would fill me up too much. Then I had chunks of lamb grilled on skewers over charcoal which was taken off the skewers and served on pide bread with slightly spicy bulgar wheat, tomato, onion and a long green pepper. I left the bread again and approached the pepper very cautiously in case it was fiery. In fact there was no heat in it at all. I had a glass of a Turkish rose wine with my meal and finished with an apple tea. It was all very enjoyable. The downside was that I was awake a lot of the night with indigestion!

I haven’t any plans for today but I ought to get on with a bit of h/w and I have a few phone calls to make.

It’s pouring down now :-(

Good morning all, raining here and looks wet outside so probably rained overnight as well.

Nothing at all planned for today. I had better attack the jigsaw again, I got on well for a bit and then came to a complete stop I don't stick at it for long spells as I need to stand and it makes my back ache.

Yes, hope Ann is ok Am I right she had a hair appointment and somebody was going to be looking at her OH's car (air con maybe?)

No Ann today I hope she is ok.

My aunty Joy lives east the water and as you go over Bideford bridge she was mored on the left just by the bridge. She was there for years and we were sad she went.

Yes sorry Mel finger trouble. She has been into Glos docks many times and once spent quite a long time here Couldn’t really see her properly today but it was like seeing an old friend she is beautiful and, I think probably the largest ship we get here.

Its the Kathleen & May and used to be at Bideford. At Christmas they put all fairy lights from mast to mast and she was all lit up with plain white lights.

Here's a bit of her history.

She was acquired by a film company in the early 1960s, used in a small number of films and then laid up in Southampton Water, where she was spotted in 1966 by master mariner Capt WP (Paul) Davis, a James Fisher skipper. He sold most of his collection of vintage and veteran motor cars to raise the money to buy her. With a crew of one (a retired agricultural engineer, McKenzie (Ken) Morgan), Paul sailed her around the coast to Appledore, where she was berthed on the mud in the estuary outside the port (to avoid port dues). Paul resigned his post with James Fisher and spent the next five years working on the restoration of the schooner with the help of friends, financed by the sale of more of his collection of vintage cars and on occasion by work conducting sea trials on new vessels for Appledore shipbuilders. Paul's ambition was to restore her to working condition and then to ply the Bristol channel as a merchantman again, but the job proved too big a challenge and in 1970 he sold her to the Maritime museum.

The Duke of Edinburgh in a bid to preserve a number of examples of Britain's decaying maritime heritage set up the Maritime Trust in London. The Trust moved her to Gloucester Docks, and began restoring her as a typical West Country schooner.,[1] but failed to secure a £2 million National Lottery Heritage Fund grant.

Businessman Steve Clarke from Bideford, Devon then bought her. Towed by sea to Bideford, in February 1999 she was hauled out of the water by two 1,000 tonnes (1,100 tons) heavy lift mobile cranes, and placed on to the disused Brunswick Wharf at East-the-Water.[2] 70% of the original planking was stripped from the frames, enabling most of her internal timbers to later be refitted. While the stern of the ship was stripped down to the keels, the reconstruction of the bow required the replacement of 6.5 tonnes (6.4 long tons; 7.2 short tons) of sacrificial oak timber. Once the frames were refitted, the surviving parts of the original frames were steam cleaned at 3000psi, to kill fungal spores.[1]

The ship was fitted with a 400 brake horsepower (300 kW) Detroit diesel ex-lifeboat engine, and the single propeller was replaced by a pair of hydraulically driven propellers. The ship now carries enough fuel to do 2,000 miles (3,200 km) under engine power alone. Redecked with new seasoned timbers, she was given a second refit, with all masts and rigging restored to the originally constructed and researched 1900 specification. On completion, she underwent a rigorous MCA CAT2 inspection.[1]

As a result of his efforts in restoring Kathleen and May, Councillor Steve Clarke was awarded the OBE in 2008.

I thought I got on well this morning!!!! I tidyed some stuff up in the lounge so I could get to my dolls house. Put lots of things away in their proper places. a general sort out of things and a draw or two and then thought I would get the lunch as oh was up the caravan. Just as I was starting lunch after taking my lunch time pill he turned the tv on for us to watch Doctors and it had finished!!!!!!!!!!!! Echo said the time was 1.40pm but it was actually 2.15pm. The leccy went out in the night so she must have been showing the wrong time. Funny thing is I usually get hungry around 1pm but today I did'nt.

So now I am all behind, well not literally but I have now lost the afternoon after a good morning. Blast blast blast :-| :-| :-|

Back from my adventure out with Anne. Sad really that it is so exciting visiting Sainsbury's. Actually it was nice although their lunch choices are very limited (especially when I can't bite on my front teeth). My only option was soup and a roll and the roll was a hard roll (meant to be hard) so I had to break it up and put it in the soup, which was tomato and roast pepper and very nice. No cooked meals at all. This store is on the bank of the canal, near the docks the cafe looks out over the canal.

I fought a bag full of shopping which with what I have in the fridge and freezer means I can cancel my Sunday Tesco delivery. I also bought a sweater for £10 and half price pair of joggers (for gardening) £6

After we had taken the stuff to the car We walked along the canal until we reached neilsons boatyard where he has several tall ships in including the Katherine May which I think is based at Charleston now and is used for a lot of filming, sadly she is mostly under wraps so not a good photography subject He is obviously doing well, he is one of the only boatyards that deals with tall ships.

Anne picked me up at 12 and I got home at 2.45. She is very good, when we drive home she always tries to drive a different way because she says I don't get out and about to see places so we came round by Gloucester park and down past where the solicitors we went to once is and she was pointing places out, where she lived, went to church and school as a child. I really enjoyed the afternoon..

After we had taken the stuff to the car And walked along the canal until we reached neilsons boatyalrd where he has several tall ships in including the katherine May which I think is based at Charleston now and is used for a lot of filming, sadly she is mostly under wraps so not a good photography subject

Anne picked me up at 12 and I got home at 2.45. She is very good, when we drive home she always tries to drive a different way because she says I don't get out and about to see places so we came round by Gloucester park and down past where the solicitors we went to is and she was pointing places out, where she lived, went to church and school as a child. I really enjoyed the afternoon.

Afternoon all,

We've seen a little bit of sun today still a bit breezy out but not that cold .

That was a surprise to see William had posted ,there will be lots of excitement at the end of the month with Carmen's birthday celebrations .

Vera enjoy your meal tonight looking forward to hearing what you have to eat .

Anng hope you enjoy your trip out too.

I got all my ironing done this morning had a good hoover through ,just watching Doctor's and then Hope Street is on thats quite good too.

I forgot to say I had a really good night last night. Put the light out at 11pm and woke at 0559 then dropped off again until 0800.

Morning girls from a very grey Devon.

Pc says 7 degrees and a pic of a nice grey cloud I don't think. I thought it was going to be nice weather th is week with sunshine but we've not seen much of it yet and there's only a couple of days to go to the end of the week.

Nothing planned for today so will see how it goes when I get going. Just having my COC.

Enjoy you're meal out tonight Vera and I hope its as good as the take away you had from the other one.

Enjoy your trip out to the Gloucester dock area don't spend too much money.

Good morning all, looks like slight drizzle out there, very grey PC says 6 degrees. Not sure what time she is picking me up but Anne is coming around 12 I think and might be going to Gloucester docks area. She said something about visiting the big Sainsburys there, hopefully it won't be too crowded,

Annx glad to be of service and look how much you got done. I half filled my bin but it will go down as it was all light prunings. Pleased I did it now it is too wet to go out there today.

OOh Vera, a meal out to look forward to how nice. Enjoy it.

Good morning all

It looks like another very grey day.

I had another awful night. It’s not that I didn’t sleep but I woke every hour, pretty much on the hour. After 10 or 15 minutes I fell asleep again so in total I probably got a few hours but only sleeping for about 45 minutes at a time I never got into a proper deep sleep.

OH wanted to go out for a meal to the Turkish restaurant in town, having enjoyed the takeaway we had from the other Turkish place. There will only be the 2 of us and they space their tables well so I said OK. I did ask him to book earlier than his usual 8 pm so we have a table for 6.30 tonight.

Other than that and the hairdresser at 3 pm I have no plans for the day.

Today was Candlemas the day the birds pair up. If you bred budgies this was the day to put your pairs together.

Well you put me to shame so I went out and filled 2 humpers with prunings AnnG! OH started protesting that the bin was nearly full, but he never allows for the fact that it settles down after a few days and there's more room then. They never emptied the garden bin last week and we wondered why and then we found someone had posted our 'PAID' sticker through the door so it must have come off the bin. The way the lorry handles the bins has also nearly taken off our house number too.

Oh Vera it's not been your day has it! What a nuisance the car decided not to start when you needed to get to your hair appointment. I must admit I have started to wonder about the battery on my car as it still has the original which is over 6 years old now. Still at least it should be ok tomorrow and your OH will get a new battery fitted soon.

You can enjoy a weekend without worrying about your tooth AnnG. I hope all goes well with your two appointments next week.

Hallo William. I knew your name but think you had more or less stopped posting on this thread before I started so it’s nice to “meet” you.

I see you are as busy as ever Gill. I wish I had half your energy. I bet that bungalow and garden will look amazing when it is finished. It will be a home to be proud of. It’s taken a long time for Sandra to get her boiler sorted. She must be really pleased she’s got heating and hot water at last.

There hasn’t been any sun here today. It stayed dry and was quite mild though there was still quite a nip in the breeze. The skies have been grey, grey, grey...matched my mood perfectly. I’ve had such a frustrating day. OH got the car out of the garage for me as I had a hair appointment at 10.30. He said it was a bit sluggish to start. It’s only a 10 minute drive to town and a few minutes walk from the car park to the hairdresser so I went out just after 10 am. Car wouldn’t start! After 3 attempts I came in and called OH who couldn’t get it going either. So I had to ring the hairdressers and get rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon while OH rang the breakdown people. We’ve got a Volvo so use their own VolvoAssist. While we were waiting for their engineer to come I got rid of some of my irritation by going for a short walk and then vaccing the downstairs and giving it a thorough dusting, doing all the bits OH misses when he dusts for me. The engineer arrived about 12 noon. It appeared to be a dead battery though the car has been used regularly. Anyway he spent a couple of hours testing and charging it up and it should be OK for a while but I expect OH will get a new battery fitted before too long. So I feel today has been wasted and my plans for tomorrow have gone to pot because I now have to go to the hairdressers. C’est la vie, as they say.

I’ve had enough for one day so I am not cooking a big dinner tonight. We’ll be having an easy egg and chips meal.

It has been and still is sunny here PC says 11 degrees. I did about an hour in the garden cutting back stuff. I thought I had cleared it all in the autumn but there is still plenty to do out there.

Mel, just the xray today. Monday he will do the impression, Tuesday he will take the tooth out and put the new denture straight in.

You can sleep easy for a few days now anng. So it was'nt as bad as you thought. Did you have the imprsessions done today?

Its 11 degrees here and quite pleasent out and Iv'e just put wasshing on the line and done some ironing and had a nice long shower while oh was at the doc's.

I am now going to do his pills for the week and mine too. Soi that will be another job out of the way.

We have had some sunshine and its still tryiing to come out over the back but the front is still grey.