General Chat

() ()
( '.' )
(")_(")

HAPPY EASTER SUNDAY ALL.

Morning All and Evening Kim,

Dry again and the suns out and in and out again.

Oh is out ringing for Easter Sunday Services.

I have sone all the chickens and are just about to get the big breakfast ready.

Love to David and I hope you get home next week where I am sure you will feel much happier just to have your own things around you once more.

Hope Carmel is better today and love to you also.

Frank thanks for the raindrop pics. Thats the kind of thing I like to do. I often take a pic of our Alcamilla Mollis with raindrops on it or the lupin leaves. Must try and get one with flowers behind or a picture of flowers behind like those ones.

Good Morning all and a VERY HAPPY EASTER.

It's taken me ages to read all the posting.

We came up here Saturday lunchtime. In time for me to walk round (two minutes) to the pub for a few pints. When I got back. Jan put on the new Bond Film , I lay on the sofa and slept through most of it (not my sort of film) to much noise. !!

I treated them to an India meal at the Restaurant in Oakham, Very nice it was too. I tried a new beer "MONGOOSE" 5% proof, a couple of those and I was anybody's. We got home in time for me to hide myself in the conservatory to watch Match of the day, while they watched what they wanted in the lounge.

We came through a real blizzard yesterday, and the snow from the drifts was still 2/3 foot high on the roadside. So I think they had it worse than we did last week. Nice bright sunny morning first thing, but seems to have clouded over a bit now.

Dermot I did enjoy your tails, I thought it could only come from an Irishman's mouth LOL LOL. So very true what you say about H & S. If my parents knew half of what I got up to, they would have gone grey headed long before their time.
We would be out from dawn till sunset. Swimming in the river, birds nesting (it was allowed then) Always carried a box filled with cotton wool and a needle for pricking the eggs before blowing the them. We would feed ourselves from whatever we could pinch from allotments, orchards etc. Climb and fall out of trees, build dens in the forest. The summer went on for ever when we were kids. No holidays by the sea. You might be lucky for a day out to Southend on Sea. by coach or train. But we had so many things to occupy us we didn't need Television and play stations etc, like they do today.

David nice to see you around, hope you soon get home and Ellen will be able to cope with you. ;-) ;-) ;-)

Will what a shame for Carmel, that's all she needs after what you have both been through. Give her another cuddle from me !!

I think I mentioned before that I was a rep at the time of GS Stamps and collected thousands from my petrol station, who always gave me more than I should have, but also remember,a lot of people never bothered to collect them.

It was the same with the Esso Petrol stations where you collected tickets, and exchanged them for glass's and electrical goods. I worked at a garage that sold Esso Petrol, so I was able to get a complete set of all types of glass's from Flutes tumblers ,Whiskey, Brandy. We still have a lot of them even today .and that was from the mid 80s. Conrad managed to collect enough for his first DVD player. Kettle Toaster and all manor of things.

The girls are going off to see Jans daughter Kerry, who lives just outside Corby, then we will have dinner about 3.30 pm.

Will try to get back later

Afternoon everyone and Happy Easter

I take it everyone remembered to change the clocks !!

Family have been for the Easter Egg hunt which we managed to do out side as it was nice and dry ,they all had their bags and soon found the eggs ,when they came in the eggs were all put in a bowl and then shared out , son bought us both an Egg so i might sample a little chocolate later :-D

That's good news David, i bet you will be glad to get home after all this time in hospital, and Ellen will be glad to have you home too i should think , how has she been managing on her own .

William , how is Carmel today ,feeling better i hope <3

Frank, is it today you have the big joint to eat ? beef wasn't it ?

Nearly lunch time i see ,better get a sandwich sorted .
BBL

Ive caused Ellen a lot of unessary worry

SHE WAS TELLING ME OUR NEGHBOUR THOUGHT I'D HAD A HEART ATTACK !

No Mandy, Roast LEG of lamb today. The beef joint is tomorrow when Harvey and Julia come up. I'm just about ready for my dinner now, I haven't eaten since last night. Just tea and tablets.

David what size was the wall you attempted to jump over. ?? old boys like us don't do wall jumping anymore. Climbing stairs is about all I can do, and I might add not with the greatest of ease.

Clock change didn't happen till I reminded them this morning !! then I had to do the cooker, microwave and wall clock in the conservatory . Jan did the others downstairs, I don't know about the bedroom clocks, Conrad will have to see to those.

.I have offered to lay table for dinner, but Conrad says leave it to Jan. 'cause it's bound to be wrong. :-D :-D So I am sitting having a couple of cans of beer to build myself up, ready for dinner. It feels like my throat has been cut.

The afternoon sun is now out, I haven't been out and don't intend to do so, but it looks nice out there.

How's the weather your way Mel ??

Hope Carmel is feeling a little better.

3 feet on the pavement side where I vaulted from, the drop on the oher side is nearly twice that

Evening Everyone.
We are home after a smashing time in London.It was so busy yesterday but much quieter today for some reason.The play was a bit slow to start but warmed up to be really funny and good entertainment.Hotel was good.It was a Studio room and had a mini kitchen area.Just microwave,kettle ,sink etc and bowls utensils etc.(not that we used it) then there was the bedroom and a separate sitting area with TV and WiFi.
We could see the London Eye from the window.
It was nice to have a couple of meals out with Hannah and John.They took us to a very unusual Cocktail Bar before we went to the theatre.It is called the Drawing Room and is in a Place called The River Front (where we ate).On a wall the was a Floor to Ceiling Bookcase and hidden behind when it was slid open was a staircase leading up to the Cocktail Bar.It was done out like an old library with a few small tables and comfy chairs.A nice surprise as Hannah had booked a place for us.

I haven't read the posts other than I did see Carmel had been very poorly.I do hope she is on the mend.

I am now very worried about Chester.He apparently has eaten very little while we were away.,and I barely got a greeting from him.He is just asleep all the time.I did do a scrambled egg which he would normally love but he turned his nose up at that.He has had a little dry food with a very small bit of wet food from a little pouch.I just put enough of that on the dry food to make it smell good.That did work but he hasn't moved out of his bed since and when I try and wake him he just looks up and puts his head down again. :-( :-( So I really am not sure what is going to happen.

I will have a look at what you have been chatting about later......It's still blooming cold :-S

Hi Jane, Glad you had a nice evening last night, and a safe journey home. I do hope Chester improves a bit, will it be another trip to the vet. or will you see how it goes ???

Still very cold here, and the winds starting to get up, so will seem even colder.

We had a very nice dinner. The lamb just fell off the bone. You didn't need to carve it, just picked at it with a couple of forks. Plenty of veg. Jan. did an Apple crumble for afters with loads of custard.

They are all watching T.V. which is a bit load for me.

Jan has just come in from the kitchen and opened the window. I have moved to the other end of the room, with my back to the radiator.

David you are a twerp. Fancy jumping over a wall with a drop like that on the other side. No wonder you did a lot of damage.
Did you have a brain wave ???

How's the rest of the sick bay this afternoon. are the spots coming out now,? and how is Carmel ?

Oh poor Chester , do you think some of his not eating is because you went away and left him , they do sulk don't they ,i hope he picks up poor little chap , i must admit it brought a tear to my eye just thinking about him <3

We had a flurry of snow earlier ,the sky looks black now.

David why did you jump over the wall ? that was one heck of a fall going down six feet the other side !!

Just watching the Andrew Lloyd Webber programme .

I think it will be a see how things go day by day now.He has actually just sicked up all the food he had. :-S I'm waiting to see if there is any more.
I can't look at him without a feeling of sadness .Chris will get fed up with me lol

David !!! That was some jump :-0.Were you practicing for the next Olympics or something ???

I just had some Easter Egg and now I feel sick :-| :-| :-| :-|.

I will catch up properly with everyone tomorrow.I'm going to switch off now x

Morning/Evening All
Pinch Punch 1st of the month and no return for ever :-D

It's a grey looking morning and chilly.I had to get up early as I was lying there in bed wondering what I was going to find downstairs.Luckily no more sick and he was still curled up in his bed.I have quickly cooked some fish and while Chester was out on his very wobbly pins for a wee I flaked up the fish and cooled some off and he has just eaten that.Fingers crossed it stays down otherwise I can't give him his pills.

I have no idea what we are eating today as I forgot to take anything out of the freezer last night.So I will just go and buy something this morning.

I hope Carmel and William are feeling a bit better today and to anyone else who is under the weather.

Now I will sit here and enjoy my Tea and have a bit of a read.There is no way Chester will get up the stairs now to snuggle down in my bed.Chris and James are still in the land of nod.
BBL

If I live to be 99 I couldn't justify that foolish jump.Was I showing off? no,I just didn't think......... I apolgise to all. The enforced rest gves you lots of time to think and to realise just how lucky I am.

Morning All and Evening Kim,

Pinch and a kick for being so quick Jane.

Dry here and still bl**dy cold in the wind. It is a bit more cloudy today too.

O Jane I do hope Chester will be ok, poor old boy. It is alway very sad to see a pet you love so much being poorly. Give him a big kiss for me please?

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Nothing planned for today in fact there has been nothing planned for m onths now.......................fed up with staying in and seeing nobody, just the occasional person who drops in usually wanting something. O exept when Di came to give me my birthday present in March a month or so late but hse has'nt been well.

David you are a silly boy............it will make you think more in the future.

Sending love to you and well wishes. x

We all do things without thinking David.All part of our Human Nature.Fortunately for most of us we haven't been as unlucky as you.Have you a date for going home yet ?At least you live in a bungalow so no up and down stairs to worry about :-D Have you got good company in hospital someone you can have a chat with when you fancy?I imagine many of the patients on your ward will in for a lengthy stay like you.

I think it is really cold .So the fire will be lit when I get back from Tes**.

A little bit of hopefully good news..........Chris can now raise his 'frozen' eyebrow .Not fully but it is a start :-D

White rabbits and all that.

Morning my lovelies an William/David/Dermot,

That old wind is getting up here, Conrad has just been sent to Tesc#s for cooking apples, for the apple pie.

I am still in dressing gown, waiting for the shower., Ros beat me to it. Hope she won't be long. Harvey and Julia are due about 11.30/12. noon.

Lewis will be pleased Man United play Chelsea at lunchtime today. So dinner will be after the final whistle He won't miss that one !!

Had a very lazy evening and watched Foyle's War. then off to bed for a read. We didn't get up till 10.00 am this morning. Had tea and hot X buns for breakfast.

Hope you all have a good day, and no jumping over the bed David to get to those nurses :-D :-D :-D

Mel I think another saying after the pinch and punch was a kick in the eye for being so sly.

Morning Frank.A nice easy start to the day for you then :-D.Have a lovely day with the family.I must get to Tes** now.

The nurses were telling me that Jackie Charlton had a hip replacement on this ward,Paul Gascoinge spent time in here after his car crash and Alan Shearer has also been a patient.......

More of our feathered friends -

During the daytime, I occasionally called into a neighbour’s house who also had birds in a cage like ourselves. It was lovely to see & hear them chirping away & hopping around on the perches. If they were sad or disappointed being held captive, they never showed any agitation.

The most sought after birds were the linnet, the chaffinch or the goldfinch, if you could get one. A few neighbours kept exotic birds like a parrot or canary but, mostly, it was the home grown variety. When we headed out on a bird catching foray, we were regularly reminded by our parents never to touch any eggs or disturb the nest in any way.

Of course, some birds themselves did not receive such sound parental upbringing. The magpie was a law unto himself & he was the main culprit because he nicked things that did not belong to him. There was no shortage of nest building materials. Maybe, it had to do with the competition for food or a good nesting place - a bit like our MPs really!

Most of us know the magpie rhyme which goes something like this:-
‘One for sorrow; Two for joy; Three for a girl; Four for a boy; Five for silver; Six for gold; Seven for a secret never to be told‘.

Another bird that was not liked too well was the Jackdaw. I’m sure it had a ‘posh’ name but we just knew it as ‘a Jackdaw’. It was brash & loud in nature. It had a nasty habit of building its nest in chimneys. Smoke from a turf or coal fire needs to rise up through the chimney to escape. The presence of a nest somewhere up the chimney curtailed this scientific fact resulting in some smoke bellowing back down & into the sitting room.

I remember one occasion when the jackdaw obviously lost his footing & fell down through the chimney & out through the open fireplace. Soot & feathers everywhere. The cat, curled up dozing in his fireside basket, was so scared - he scampered out the back. The last time I saw him move so fast was when mum accidentally dropped the salmon she was preparing for our lunch. Our parents must have thought it was bad luck because, whenever we joked about it afterwards, they told us to be quiet. Another old wives' tale no doubt.

The lark was reputed to be a good weather prophet - perhaps the Met Office might take note. We loved to hear them in the bog land areas flying higher & higher. Good eyesight was needed to actually see them in flight. The word was that: ‘If the lark flies on high, the sun will glow but when it stays low, prepare for a blow’.

The call of the corncrake too was more common years ago. They nested on the ground in amongst long grass & would fiercely protect their young from animals or humans who might carelessly stray too close. The coming of the grass mechanical harvester was a death knell for many corncrakes. Hopefully, they will not follow the total demise of the dodo.

One bird that has always been plentiful in these islands is the robin. Some say that there are as many robins in the UK as people. Feel free to count them & report back to me if this isn’t so. When digging in the garden, the robin seems to know that they can come up close & not be harmed. In church, we were told never to hurt a robin because legend says that he comforted Jesus on Calvary & stayed on his shoulder right to the end. The robin tried to pluck some of the thorns from Jesus’ head and for his efforts was given a red breast to keep for all time. A nice thought particularly on this Easter weekend.

There was a small ventilation opening high up on the gable of our cow barn & that was where some swallows built their nest. They would come back to the same spot year after year, long before the SatNav was invented - an amazing achievement. We used to wonder where they had been & what they had seen along the way. And if you every wondered why they flew to Africa - well, it’s just too far to walk!

Our horse stable became the bats' abode. They didn’t mind sharing with our lovely pony which we named ‘Dan’. One chore I did not like was to be asked to close the horse stable door around dusk. Bats would sometimes come flying out. They flew a bit too close for comfort occasionally & it felt a bit scary for a nine or ten year old. Years later, I found out that they were not birds at all but flying mammals & a close cousin to the mouse.