General Chat

Oh oh it is thundering!!

Now it is reeeaaally raining, how about you Bridget?

Frances.

Hello to you all

It's a lovely day over here but we do need the rain so send it over
Frances! If we don't have good rains soon we will be having
water restrictions.

I was lazy to-day so just made some chips and a salad for lunch.
Picked the lettuce,spring onions and rocket from the garden and the avocado pear came from the tree my daughter has at her home.

Taking things easy to-day and will be off to do the crosswords in the Sunday paper.

Enjoy the rest of the day.



Val in SA.

Good morning Bridget - and all who join in on this thread. Hope you are all having a lovely day.

Forgive me Bridget for not acknowleding your post, but I have just been going through and found it. I'll try to answer your questions - but my short-term memory span is not as good as it used to be!

I live in Sydney, NSW. My suburb is on the western outskirts of the city and almost at the base of the Blue Mountains, which we are quite proud of. In certain climate conditions, the mountains look to be a definite blue - but of course, when visitors go to view them, the climate is warm and they are green like everywhere else! It is lovely to see how they seem to go on and on forever though.

As you know, I am retired since 1991, and lost my soulmate within a few months, but my children were all still at home and we helped each other through that. We then had three weddings in 17 months leaving only the youngest son with me but he too, met his fate eventually, so I was on my own in a 5-bedroom house. I sold it and bought a villa. Just me and my cat now, but the children are all within a half hour drive, so I see them often, particularly my daughter. She drops in each week, but emails me daily. If I don't answer her email within a couple of hours, she is on the phone. She has three lovely children ages 6,11,14 and one son has a little boy almost 3, and a stepdaughter 10.

I can't bend to do any gardening any more, but I have pots all over my courtyard, which is paved and where I like to sit out in the fresh air.
I do transcribing for FreeBMD. Have been doing it for most of this year and have passed the 100,000 mark so I'm quite proud of myself. That's all that much sooner that the job will be finished and all available on the internet for FREE!. They still have quite a lot to do yet, though.

We are now thirteen days into Spring but already the remperatures are creeping up to summer temps. We had a very mild winter with very little rain, so we are not looking forward to summer - more fires, probably.

How does your time compare to the time on these posts? We are nine hours ahead at the moment (standard time). Different parts of Australia have different times because the country is so wide. In late October, we will go forward one hour for daylight saving - but not all states have that - so it becomes very confusing - even to us!

I didn't mean for this to be so long but you asked me about myself - so now I need to go over the thread again, to see if I can get to know all of you. With my memory, I will probably get you all mixed up - I apologise for that in advance!

Thank you everyone for all your messages and a very BIG THANK YOU to Berona who has taken the plunge and joined as.

Berona

I have a lot of contacts re Australia and some very close family connections on my OH side. I will have a look during the next few days and see what I can find. Do you by any chance have access to the records, I know that sounds daft but of course you must but I do not know what is available. My husbands cousin lives in Sydney,. Her mother died when she and her brothers were very young and she went to live with one of her aunts who happens to be my first husbands family and as my first and second husbands are cousins...there you have the connection! She married an Australian Soldier.
Well for someone who thought they didn't have much to say you have done well.

Why don't you save this thread to the sign on the left of the screen that say My bookmarks. I have found it to be very helpful.

Val and Frances, we are having a torrential day..well we were until around half an hour ago, Thunder lightening black skies, and one bolt streaked right across our garden!! Now that was a bit scary, a couple of years ago we had an unusual phenomenal in the garden in fron and down the hill a little when we watched Ball lightening...apparently rae in this hemisphere but fairly common in India...Anyway nothing like that today just loud noises which Jet and Joe hate and masses of ran..Right now the sun is shining. I have not gone to the bar with OH as I am staying with Jet and Joe in case the storm returns...well itis better than being the only female watching the footie.

Bye everyone

I am going to make a coffee and relax


Have a good night

As I write this it is 18.35 hrs in Spain


Bridget

We had pork today It was a boned loin of pork and as I wasn't prepared to use my lovely first crop of eating apples I sued some yellow plums to cook with it and simply wrapped it up in foil and cooked in the oven with a tray of mixed veg. OH said it was delicious.

Good morning to everyone and I hope you enjoy your day.

This morning is very peaceful and quiet here in Peniscular following yesterdays eafternoon and evening stormy weather.

At one point the rain was so heavy we could not see the sea or the houses further up the mountain.The rain sounded like tennis balls hitting the water in the pool and the outdoor stairs leading to the bottom half of the house looked like a waterfall, so far to treacherous to walk down! I have already mentioned the lightening in my previous thread.

Jet and Joe hid under my bed and they really hate the thunder, I can only imagine it must hurt their ears.

Later in the evening about 23.00 hrs the rain had stopped and we were sitting on the balcony because it was warm outside and we watched the lightening light up the sky with an amazing range of colours from pale pink to crimson, some yellows and sharp blues.

Finally went to bed abou 00.45 and slept soundly because the temp had droped and we didn't need aircon or fans., wonderful;..slept all night.


Today the sky is blue in places but more clouds than blue sky, and the weather forecast says more storms for the next three days and then the sunshine will be back.

Vain SA please tell us how your husband gets on at the doctors today, I thought about you both when I had my quiet time today.

Berona, it was lovely to hear from you and so you do not forget us why don't you put a sticker on your fridge door? I do this if I think I might need a reminder and it works rather well.

Keith, WHERE ARE YOU! only put in capitals so you can hear us missing you...how is the new work place, have you been to anymore concerts, booked a holiday, cooked a meal etc etc.


AND anyone else out there who reads this thread why don't you join us, it is interesting and fun! as well as seroius occassionally. I always say I have cyber pen pals rather than the Pen Pals by letter I used to have when young.

Well Jet and Joe have just left the room and I know that is the signal for their breakfast so bye for now everyone

To everyone who contributes to this thread thank you and I look forward to seeing your messages

Bridget

Good morning All
Well the sky looks threatening here on the Costa Blanca - we also have storms promised for 3 days - keeps changing its mind but no dount the storms will arrive - we certainly need the rain and a little cooler temps.
I have so much housework to do having moved back home to an almost completed kitchen - things never go to plan do they ? But whatever I am lucky to have a sparkling new kitchen with a decent oven - only taken us 6 years !!
Enjoy your day everyone
Love Mary
ps thanks Bridget for a great thread and I really must catch up on the culinery delights.

Just a quick hello before making my way to bed. It is getting on for 10pm here, so I guess it will be coming up to 2pm where you are Bridget. Hope the rest of the day and evening are good for you.

I am happy to look up anything for you, but I doubt that I have access to any more than you have. The Australian records are very strictly protected. Access to the index is available on the internet but only up to:
Births 1908, Marriages 1958 and Deaths 1976. They may have changed since I checked, but only by one year. My daughter-in-law tried to purchase her grandmother's marriage certificate, but was refused - even though both grandparents have long departed.....However, I am happy to make phone calls for you if you wish, if that would help. Please feel free to ask me at any time if I can help in that way.(or any other).

Whilst I am answering Bridget here, the offer stands for any and all.
Bedtime now. Good afternoon/evening/night all!

Good afternoon to everybody,

Although the sky has been dark to-day and it looks like rain , we haven't actually had any but here's hoping, maybe to-night. Where we live
we don't normally have bad thunderstorms, although there are parts of the country which do. I don't like thunder and lightning, especially what we call fork lightning.

Well the visit to our own doctor to-day went well, he has changed the anti-clotting medication and things are definitely improving, and that is a relief.

I have just returned from the garden centre having bought lettuce and coriander. I have not used coriander before so will have to learn all about it. Oh yes, I also blought some green bean seeds which I hope will germinate, I never sem to have much luck with seeds.

I do hope you are enjoying the rain Bridget. We have been told we will be having water restrictions if we don't have decent rains soon. I do try not to waste water.

After I have a cup of tea I will get busy in the garden.


Take care,


Val in SA.

Afternoon all,
Just had another humdinger of a storm here. It was a little cloudy first thing this morning but had brightened up by lunch time and then about an hour ago 2pm here, the lightening and the thunder started. It is still rolling around but the rain has stopped 3.25pm. Just going to make OH a cuppa as he is babysitting next door's elderly dog in their garage..they have gone to a lunch and the dog has waterworks trouble so they left him outside with the garage left open but he took exception and has been making a lot of noise so we are taking it in turns to sit with him....soft or what!!!
Enjoy your day,
Frances

Well I thought I miht add to "Mrs.Dales Diary":o))>pmsl. just to get your tastebuds working, I felt a little peckish so I,m having some Hot Toast with Beef Dripping and black pepper. it tastes great. **M**>:o))>

Hello to everyone,
What a good surprise! I have just returned from shopping, yes I know we went recently but the ink for my computer had run dry and also a front light on our car had died.
Now the ink I could manage for a few days without but the police have become rather vigilant about lights on cars so we had to go... We also called in to a furniture shop to look at a new desk for OH but he said he didn't like any of them. The problem is he is used to using a beautiful blue and white tiled table on a wraught iron base and he doesn,t want to give it up..but I want it back for the graden or we have to buy another.

When we first arrived in Spain 6 years ago we bought a large solid rectangular table with 6 recliner chairs for our main garden and rather put our noses up, in true British fashion< at the people who live fairly near to us and mostly Spanish using plastic basic equipment.
Well now we know why. The wood dries out in the summer swells in the winter and has to be carefully looked after with rubbing down with sand paper and varnishing throughout the year and the wood still swells and dries so now we have a very uneven table.
We can't turn the slats over as that has already done...so the moral of the story is "never think you know better than the natives",
I bought this lovely table OH is using and it lasted one season in the garden, I went to UK for a month or two and when I came back he had hijacked it......

As we are coming to the end of the season I am hoping to find either a desk he does like or another table!!

Mary in Spain

Glad to hear that you are back in your home even if everything is not quite finished. I am still waiting for my new kitchen and it will be six years in December since I first said I needed a decent kitchen.

An English chap we know who has a kitchen business has measured etc and first said it would be done in April, then June and now it is before Xmas.!! I do not want to go elsewhere as I know he will do it and it is a high class product which will last my lifetime and evertthing will be intergrated so i have to remind myself to be patient...also it is cheaper coming from England than it would be locally!!!
Every house I have lived in since I first married in 1970 has had to be renovated with the exception of one which as soon as the basic building was agreed safe we moved into with 4 children, a dog and heaven help us a Nanny...I needed that nanny she wasn't a luxury as my husband was constantly away and many times I was expected to suddenly join him.
In fact the Nanny and I are still in contact and she lives in Germany and sadly never had children of her own.

Oh dear I do ramble on don't I ?


If I have left anyone out today I apologise...

I will peek again sometime this evening, anyone know what has happened to Keith, it would be good to have a few chaps join us, afterall they are 50 % of the population and some of us ladies enjoy sports, etc and many men enjoy cooking but none have joined that thread either so any suggestions as to how we can recruit them

bye for now


Bridget

Bridget, Try Bribery.:o))))>**M**.And try my toast.xx

Thanks Merlin, now exactly what sort of bribery are you talking about????
We ladies are quite particular you know yet it would be good to have some conversations with males as well

Bridget

I like my toast well doene if it is toasted bread we are talking about or champagne if raising our glasses for a toast!

Merlin

I love toast and dripping with pleny of pepper....maybe you should add it to the Culinary delights!

Bridget

Toasted in front of an Open fire ( Much better than toasters,) and the Dripping is from Aberdeen Angus Beef.very tasty.As for Champagne,Unless it really good,I prefer Laphroiag Malt. from Islay. enjoy your day. **M**.:o))>

Toast and dripping, gee that takes me back to when I was a child, we used have dripping on bread, with lots of pepper, lovely! I still enjoy it to-day.





Val in SA.

Good morning to everyone,

well this is a short message I will be back later with all the other news but

I have now been asked back to work commencing about 1st October for 6 months. company have agreed to rent a property for me rather than staying in hotel so OH can come over as well!!

Now does anyone know Hastings area in Sussex UK, as I need some advice re areas to live. I shall put this on General as well as I would like to know asap which area to avoid!! The actual place is Whitegate

Many thanks

The weather here is now VERY WET. we have had thunderstorms all night since around 21hrs yesterday.
The lightening is all across the sea and it looks as if we will be staying this way for the next 24 hrs. The air is much fresher and the plants and greenery are all looking good.


I will be back later


Bridget

Morning Bridget and everyone,
Raining again, shouldn't complain I know but summer suddenly came to a full stop, hope it comes back again!!

What I wouldn't do for toast and dripping!!!!

Went shopping yesterday, bought myself a pair of ear-rings and a necklace, last of the big spenders.LOL!..cost me 15euros for both! Had a look in the clothes shops, obviously, but nothing caught my eye, can't have been in the mood. I don't want to think about buying winter things.

Enjoy the day
Frances

Hello everyone,

To quote Winnie the Pooh, it is a blustery day here. All signs of rain have gone. As I was coming down the hill from the post office just now I could see about 20 fishing boats which had taken shelter in the bay.

It is nice that your husband can accompany you when you go to the UK Bridget.

I planted a few lettuce seeds in trays this morning, I just hope they
grow.

A very kind GR member has sent me a lovely book on Reading and it looks really interesting. I will be able to get an idea of the area my family
came from.

Till next time.


Val in SA.