General Chat

It isn’t too bad today a bit on the chilly side, but fourteen degrees and sunny between the cloudy bits. Tomorrow looks worse at only ten degrees. In a way, I am glad that it isn’t hot because Eve is doing her D of E bronze expedition this weekend. I hope that they don’t get lost. They had spent time planning the route, but the school hadn’t booked the campsite for their overnight stay and it was full. They only got a new campsite yesterday,so don’t know where they are going. Apparently they will have a teacher with them for the first hour to set them on the right route - what can possibly go wrong :-S They aren’t allowed to take phones, but the group is carrying a GPS tracker in case of an emergency, so they can be found

A builder is supposed to be coming at “lunchtime “ to give us a quote, but there is no sign of him yet. Another one I contacted yesterday couldn’t do it until July, so he is out.

Good morning.
We have the same weather as you Florence, blowing quite hard & COLD, looks like my garden jobs have been cancelled for today unless the wind abates & I can get out this afternoon.

LOL, LInda re the weed burner, it should be a vey useful item so long as it's not heavy, I don't think it said how much it weighed !
We used to have a petrol burner many years agao but only hubby used it, it worked really well & hubby got a lot of use out of it until it broke dowm,after that it was back to using liquid weed killer,

It has brightened up at the moment, but it's still blowing, it seems to be blowing harder at the back of the house & looking out it seems a wee bit calmer at the front so maybe I will manage to get out later on, I hope so.

Joan.

Morning all looking today.
Well its back to winter here with strong winds, rain and blooming cold!

Was at the hospital yesterday seeing the ortho surgeon about my back pain but sadly nothing can be done! Its crumbling at the bottom of spine/wear & tear but I cant take any pain killers so will just have to carry on.

Im not in severe pain everyday but recently had a few bad days.

Joan, hope your new toy has arrived and so glad you managed out in your garden. Take plenty of breaks of course. Hope your weather is fairing better than ours.

Linda, thats a nuisance when people dont turn up!! Hope you find another builder very soon so you can get the steps sorted out soon.

We may take a spin out this afternoon maybe to local shop/cafe after we have done all the chores.

The tunnel takes up a lot of time now with watering everything. Its beginning to look like the "day of the triffids" lol

Right better crack on as will soon be lunch time.

Happy Saturday everyone

Florence in the Hebrides

LOL Joan, I have visions of you brandishing your flame thrower like Rambo :-D

Good afternoon to you all, a fine day here today, warm but not wery sunny, it has put in an appearnce but nothing like we've had recently.

I ventured outside to see whats what in the front garden, got a bit of a shock to see many clumps of weeds here & there especially between some flagstones & the gravel.
I managed over an hour with several rests, I started on 1 section & managed to get rid of several clumps but the roots are well anchored.

I am waiting on my new gardening toy to be delivered which should help get rit of the weeds roots, it's an electric weed burner, I can't wait to give it a try, fingers crossed it's not too heavy for me to carry .

Joan.

My Morrison’s does employ disabled people AG. For instance on the self checkouts, they have a young man with severe cerebral palsy. His speech is very badly impaired as well as his movement. He is, however very efficient at his job and it is great that he is employed. He sorts everything out just as quickly as his other colleagues, although he is very difficult to understand, but that is fine. He would be impossibly slow on the main tills and that is the problem with some of the people they do have on the tills. Yes in an ideal world we would all have time to stand in a queue for as long as it took to get through, having a lovely chat as we did so, but in real life, we often don’t have the time, so being able to get through the tills quickly is important. Sometimes it isn’t the checkout operator who is the problem, but the other customers. When I went to Lidl the other day there was just one old lady in the queue in front of me. It took her an eternity to get through, she was telling the checkout operator how she had been widowed for fifteen years etc. It was obvious that she didn’t have anyone to talk to and it probably would be he only social interaction of the day. That would have been fine, but I needed to get through quickly so I could get home as OH had a dental appointment and we couldn’t leave the house empty as the plumbers were coming at some stage. That is why self serve, or even better hand scanners are so useful, but my Lidl doesn’t have any.

Needless to say, the builder didn’t turn up yesterday and he hasn’t replied to any messages, so I am really annoyed about that as well. It ,looks like I am going to have to start looking for someone else.

I'm ashamed to have suggested jokingly that it's Morrison's company policy to employ slow workers.

I've Googled it, and find that they are actually a "disability confident" employer.

"We're proud to be a Disability Confident employer and want to challenge ourselves to think differently about disability and take action to continually improve how we recruit, support, retain and develop disabled people."

"We're proud to have a diverse group of colleagues working here and want to make sure we continue to celebrate everyone for who they are. "
https://www.morrisons.jobs/d-and-i

I think that's excellent, and I will appreciate their till operators even more in future.

Well, I hadn’t heard anything from the builder by the time we went to bed last night. He sent a message at 7.35 this morning to say that his phone battery had gone flat ( second time this week he has used that excuse for not contacting us) and he didn’t get in from work until late. He said that he was on his way, he was just going to drop the kids off on the way.
Five minutes later, he sent a second text asking bus to “bare” with him as he had a flat tyre and would need to sort it out :-|. Just after that Esme FaceTimed us, she often does before school, so I was was telling the tale to her daddy who was looking after her. As soon as I mentioned the flat tyre, Esme chirped in with “He is lying” swiftly followed by “Liar, liar, pants on fire”. She was so funny, but we thought that she was right. What I hadn’t seen was that he had sent a photo of his car with trailer attached, complete with a flat tyre. It is now 9.15 and we haven’t heard anything else
:-(

That's interesting that your Morrisons' staff are slow, Linda. I wonder if it's a company policy!
They are very slow in my local Morrisons, too - but I refuse to use the self-scan tills, and am willing to wait at a manned (or more usually womanned) one.

One of the till operators is entertaining. She has a very sour expression, and is always grumbling under her breath - and often out loud - about how useless the management is, and how they have told her she has to smile and engage with the customers.
I don't know how she has kept her job - unless the management know how much the customers enjoy hearing her grumble!

It's a beautiful warm summer day here. The cuckoo is cuckoo-ing like mad.
Three loads of washing have all dried outside, which is very satisfying.

There was a pine marten in the garden yesterday, strolling along the back of the house, towards the bushes. It may have been looking for birds' eggs, as the birds were making a great fuss.

It is a.very slow journey today Ann :-(
The builder who was supposed to turn up at 9am sent a message to say that he had a couple of jobs to finish, but he would see us this afternoon. Of course, he hasn’t turned up and hasn’t sent a message :-|

The plumbers turned up mob handed, there were three of them all trying to to fit into our en-suite. They took the shower cubicle out and could see where it has been leaking from, so they have added lots of silicone . Hopefully, that will do the trick, we shall have to see.

I went to Lidl this morning because I wanted to buy another couple of plastic boxes for the fridge. I got some at the weekend and they were just the right size, so I went back for more. I was hoping to buy all of the ingredients for the week’s recipes, but they didn’t have half the things I needed , so I had to go to Morrisons this afternoon. Annoyingly they have decided not to continue with the scan as you shop zappers and have taken them away. They are the only major supermarket not to have them. I refuse to use the tills as it is like care in the community. The people they employ are incredibly slow. One woman can only use one hand, so you can imagine how useless she is. One chap, scans one item the stops to chat before he scans the next one. I know that I sound ageist, but I am 76 and I could knock spots off the people they employ there. They do have a self scan which I have to use, but if you are doing a large shop, it is really annoying.I use Aldi a lot of the time, but there are things which you can’t get there and Morrison’s is the nearest large supermarket. I will probably start using Asda or Sainsbury’s for my large shops even though they are further away because they both have the hand scanners.

OH finished the front garden this afternoon. It looks good. There is still a lawn to cut, but he can manage that, all the new borders have weed proof matting and a covering of gravel, so they should be reasonably maintenance free. He can’t use the shower for twenty four hours, so he is running a bath. No doubt there will be a large tide mark to clean off.

Linda all go at your house today then. Hope both jobs are successfully completed today, especially the shower as you really don't want the ceiling damaged. anyway, the steps are another move forward so it is coming together. I feel we are on a journey with you.

I hope that things have settled down for you Joan.

Yesterday, I took Esme to Lightwater Valley, it was a really nice day, so she had a good time. I was very tired by the end of the day though. It was supposed to be really warm here today, but it was cloudy, so it didn’t get hit until about 5pm.

This afternoon, I went to do my school reading. They are year three, so first year juniors. Most of them are reading fairly well. There is one little girl who is struggling and one boy who just doesn’t want to do it. He has a horrible attitude and is obviously going to be a yob when he is older. I already want to give him a good shaking, but am totally professional of course

OH is soldiering on in the garden, he dug up some more of the grass in the back garden today. We had ordered a one ton dumpy bag of gravel which was supposed to be coming tomorrow , but arrived this afternoon, so OH but down the membrane and he shovelled the gravel onto the new front border.
Tomorrow is going to be a busy day as the builder is finally coming to put the new steps into the back garden. Also the plumbers are coming to try and sort out the problem with the new shower cubicle which they put unto our en-suite last June. It leaked not long after they put it in, damaging the hall ceiling below it. They supposedly fixed it , but about a month ago we realised that water was coming through the ceiling again. So they came back and resealed it, but we didn’t put the skirting board back, so could see underneath and that there was still a small leak. So the head of the company came and he has decided that the whole thing needs to come out and be put back together again. Unfortunately, he is sending two men, one of whom is the one who keeps bodging it, so we will have to see if they can finally fix it. :-|

Whenever i have my BP done either by myself or at the GP. it always feels so tight and yes it is really really painful but it cant be done any other way really. If the wrap is too slack it wont give an accurate reading.

Either way its no excuse for nurses to treat you Joan in a way that upset you.

Here's hoping you will be feeling so much better now and not have to have your Bp done too often,

Miserable day here as raining all day and windy.

Did some repotting in the tunnel and now all the plants will be ready for the raised beds soon. Rhubarb is taking over lol! Ginormous leaves.

Last episode of Grace tonight in the current series at 8pm so cant wait for that.

Hope everyone looking in today had a good day.

Florence in the hebrides

How upsetting for you, Joan!
Some nurses, and some doctors too, can indeed be very dismissive and not listen to what the patient is saying - although I know they must have some patients who make a big fuss about nothing.

I remember, years ago, when my father was admitted to a geriatric ward, the nurses wanted to give him a laxative, apparently as a routine part of the admission process.

In vain, he told them that he knew from previous experience that the stuff they proposed giving him worked very quickly on him, and that he wouldn't be able to reach the toilet in time.

They ignored what he said, gave him the laxative - and discovered he was right.

Oh. I don't mind having bloods taken, it's just that I have had to have so many done over recent days, I'm hoping this next one will be the last for a little while at least !.

I never told you about the nurses that were assigned to me when in the Aberdeen hospital, 2 in particular were not pleasant I can tell you & obviously took (for want of a better word) a "dislike" to me !.

I have said before how I find having my blood presure done "electronically" I find it very painful, my own GP is really good about it & understands my problem wiith it & has included this problem in my notes.
When I spoke to those particular nurses about it they literally poo-pooed me & said it still had to be done & that was that !

They would wrap the cuff around my arm really tight & so that when the cuff blew up it was excruciating !!
When I was having the transfusion the BP had to be done every 15minutes & the same nurses reduced me to tears every time it was done, one of the nurses ( prior to the transfusion happening) actually "threatened" me by saying I wouldn't get the transfusion if I refused the BP being done.

I never refused to have it done, I just wanted them to know my problem with it & how things could be done in a more gentle way by not wrapping the cuff so tight OR doing it in a lower position on my arm as some other nurses had already suggested & done !

Joan.

I don’t ming having blood tests, but they are difficult as I have no visible veins on the inside of my elbows. Some people are absolutely hopeless at finding a vein and are digging about. :-(. There was one phlebotomist at my last surgery though who was really good, I was always pleased to see her.

It is cloudy here, but quite warm . This morning I went to help at a coffee morning to raise funds for the Memory Cafe which I volunteer at. It was open for two hours, but I was there for half an hour on each side of that. We had a tombola and a raffle as well as lots of home made cakes. We made £420, so that was a good mornings work.

I went to the supermarket this afternoon, then supervised OH planting some shrubs in the garden. It is starting to look good, but we need to put lots of perennials in to cover the ground. That is going to take time.

Hi everyone,thankyou for you replies & kind words, I still have 2 more appointments to go to, one of which is for yet anotherablood test.
My arm is still tender & the bruising is horrible, it's going to be sometime before it clears up altogether.

I am feeeling more able to do things around the house now & no longer breathless, I managed to make a small pan of Broth yesterday which turned out really well considering I just guessed the amounts, I have always been used to making a large stockpot of broth / soups in the past so I was well chuffed at yesterdays effort of a much smaller portion.

It's rather dull hhere today & a little windy, so no garden work,it's not going to be esy getting back to the gardening jobs as it's been soo long since anything serious was done, it will be like starting all over agian with it especially the weeding !!

Joan.

Aw Joan, you poor soul. What a lot of trauma you have suffered.

Hopefully the iron tablets will kick in and then you wont feel so breathless. If you like beetroot, have a sandwich of beetroot everyday, some fresh orange juice and some dark chocolate as all are good sources of iron! ( not all together though lol)

Then before long, hopefully you will be back outside doing what you enjoy best.

i was thinking it was over a month since you last posted so you were missed on here.

Horrid day here today with rain all day and its very windy tonight!

Supposed to be a heatwave but we shall see!

Florence in the hebrides

What a saga, Joan - you poor soul!
I hope you continue to feel better, and that the iron tablets do their work quickly.

I hope they can find the underlying cause for your low blood count Joan and treat it. Sorry that you have had such a bad time