General Chat

Afternoon All,

We are luckier than Vera as it's just 25 degrees here so a bit cooler and for once it is hotter where Mel is which makes a change. I slept well with just a sheet over me and was up early as OH had to be up at 6.00am to do his tablet and food regime and shower before going to a council meeting at Coalville in the rush hour. I nipped to the shop that's air conditioned, as we are nearly out of milk and my bread and it was good to see people walking their dogs before the pavements get hot, unlike yesterday when I saw three little dogs on hot pavements at midday. A friend of mine once told a woman with a dog to take her sandal off and feel how hot it was. To her credit she did and said she hadn't realised.

I've washed bedding and put it out and have damp wiped the hall. The very fine dust after the work seems never ending. I also grabbed some weeds while I was outside, but it's too hot out there now.

Vera I don't understand how the GP can do a medication review without seeing me either. My notes just give the date the review was done and not how it was done. Pharmacy2you talks about meeting with your `GP or Pharmacy and gives a list of categories needing reviews and I am in three categories

Those over 75 years old
Those regularly taking prescription medicines
Those taking medicine for a long-term illness

How nice you had photos sent of the little one with her cards and books on her birthday. That is where the internet is good! The party sounded good and how lucky the prize was a book you hadn't read by someone you liked.

Mel I did say about the Asda site changing. I don't like some things they have done. They just don't charge for the things you hand back as they take payment after the delivery. If you saw or recall I had a job to find where to get a refund recently after the driver had gone. They hide things in menus now which is something I hate. Far better to have them where you can see them easily. I know what you mean about having to leave jobs half way through and then forgetting to finish them. I leave things out ready to carry on sometimes and OH will tidy them away. That puts me off getting them out again to finish a job!

Better get something to eat now. OH will sort himself as he isn't back yet.

Iv'e just had a thing about Asda new things on the site. It says we only take payment once your order is delivered ( which means no more refunds!) Do you think we arn't going to get any at all now?

Morning all,

Nice bright morning today and pc says unhealthy air quality today and 18 degrees already.

Had a very good sleep and did'nt wake in the night for the loo. I went to bed at 12.05am which is early for me. I had taken two paractamol and dropped straight off. I also took my heated money and put him on my back which I think helped a lot. Its not too bad at the mo but I hav'nt sat or walked around much yet. I must remember to not do too much at a time but its hard once you start a job thats been waiting for ages to be done and then getting half way thorugh and giving up and then forgetting about it all together. This is what I tend to do.

Well I have had my morning coffee and had a little read and chat so I think its time to get dressed as its shopping day today.

Like the proverbial bad penny I’ve turned up again

I’ve been having some problems lately with swollen feet and ankles, particularly bad in my left foot where I broke some bones. It doesn’t seem to be anything to do with the heat, although that isn’t helping. Friday I couldn’t get any shoes on! Even the straps on my more open sandals wouldn’t stretch far enough over the swelling for the Velcro fastenings to stay done up. Eventually, by removing the insoles I am supposed to use and the toe separator on my left foot, I managed to force my feet into a pair of lace up shoes and we set out. OH came with me so he could do the driving which was a help.

My library card had expired so I couldn’t borrow any books on the Libby app. The app has been “updated” which meant it sent me round in circles and still told me I had to go into my branch. So that was our first stop. It took ages. I joined Suffolk Libraries when we moved to the county in 1986 and never had a problem before but this time all my details had to be checked and double checked, then I had to prove who I was and where I lived. Luckily the assistant was prepared to accept my driving licence which was all I had with me.

Then I remembered that my hairdresser goes on holiday next week so popped in there to make an appointment for this week and on to a jewellers to get a new watch battery fitted in my “good” watch. I’ve had it a few years and this is the first time the battery has had to be replaced. It has a small, rectangular watch face and I had to have the danger of the glass cracking when the battery was pushed into place explained to me and I had to accept the risk. They asked to keep it overnight and I said I would collect it Wednesday of this week. This all took time.

Finally we went to Waitrose to buy ingredients for food I was making for Sunday’s garden party and some fish which is 20% off on Fridays. When I got home I found my Waitrose card had been scanned but my 20% hadn’t been deducted, so I wasn’t happy.

Saturday morning I did a bit of gardening and a lot of cleaning and then spent the afternoon cooking. Among other things I made a large tuna and cheese quiche and a big glass bowl of Mandarin Cream to take on Sunday.

The lady hosting our summer party is Rumanian and our youngest member, probably early 40s. I wish we could get more young members but she says her contemporaries just don’t want to join clubs. The party numbers were down a bit as we were missing 8 people for one reason or another. There were probably about 15 of us, plus our hostess’ lovely husband and his mother who was staying with them for a week. There was also an 11 year old son who mostly kept to his room but appeared from time to time for food or to speak to his mum or dad.

The hostess’ mum-in-law was a real character, all 4’11” of her. She came to the UK from Malaysia at 18, 50 years ago, married an Englishman and settled here. I don’t think she stopped talking the whole time we were there! She seemed to take to the little group round our table and sat with us most of the time and talked, and talked, and talked. It could have driven us all mad but she was such a lovely person that you couldn’t help liking her and laughing with her.

We usually have a raffle at the summer party but it’s all very casual. If anyone feels like donating a raffle prize they just take it along with them. Sometimes there might be 3 or 4 but there must have been a dozen or more prizes yesterday. After several prizes had gone, one of our tickets was drawn out and OH went to choose something. There were 2 lots of men’s toiletries, 2 boxes of chocolates and a book left so he took the book. I was pleased as it was a nice hardback copy of one of the Alan Banks books by Peter Robinson and one I haven’t read before.

Today has been boring. I’ve done 4 loads of washing, bed linen and clothes for both of us, and some general tidying up and sorting out. Dinner is prepared and I’ve just got to walk a short distance to deliver some birthday cards to a club member who will be 80 tomorrow. He wasn’t at the party yesterday and as I’m the one who lives nearest to him everyone gave me their cards to deliver.

Yesterday was our great granddaughter’s 2nd birthday and today her mummy texted me a thank you for the money and books we gave her and sent us photos of her opening our card and parcel and looking at one of the books. Apparently she loves her books, especially the sticker book. There was a large exclamation mark after that so I wonder if she has found the stickers make a good decoration on the furniture.

I see I’ve written half a book again so I had better finish. If you have managed to read to the end without falling asleep you get a gold star.

Sorry your back is bad Mel. Take something to ease the pain and rest up for a couple of days. Hope it’s better soon.

Its just started to rain just as I was going round to the girls with their corn.

Back is getting worse so I think I will take some pills.

Looks like we are back to heatwave conditions. It’s stifling and the forecast is for it to get even hottter and last for several days. It doesn’t look as though the temperature is going to drop very much overnight either.

I’m glad you found your fork Mel. It’s frustrating when tools go walkabout. OH is a great one for putting tools down and forgetting all about them. He’s banned from using “my” secateurs after he left them on a garden bench and it poured with rain all day.

I hope the plumber has sorted your son’s problem AnnG. My daughter would have tackled it as well and so would my son now he’s had the experience of completely rebuilding and renovating a large house but when he was a young man he couldn’t even be trusted with a screwdriver.

Annx, I am puzzled. How can your surgery review your medication without contacting you? Last year I had a telephone consultation and from what I said in reply to a question about my headaches the pharmacist upped the dosage on one of my pills. This year I’ll be able to say that things improved on a higher dose and I feel the dosage is about right. How would they know these things without talking to me?

I hope you are pleased with your shed roof Mandy. It’s lovely that your son and family live close enough to help with these jobs

Gwyn, most of our windows don’t really have sills either, just a strip about 3” wide. It’s enough to gather plenty of dust but not big enough for a nice ornament or vase of flowers. You have been busy sorting out your garage. I love looking through old books but you can’t keep all these things. Is there a chance that one or two might be a bit rarer than most and so worth a little money? I wish I could get OH to tackle our garage with me. He’s happy for son and daughter to call in clearance people when we’re no longer around but I feel there might well be stuff in there that could be of use to someone now.

I’ve got some jobs I ought to be getting on with so I think I’ll post this bit now and come back later to tell you what we’ve been doing at the weekend (nothing very exciting so don’t hold your breath).

25 degrees here now but its become a bit vercast and pc says sunny.

I have put the washing in the machine but not turned it on yet as I hav'nt shoered yet.

Your getting there with clearing the garage Annx. I still have some of mums stuff that can go now and papers of oh that should be burnt.

Morning All,

It's 24 degrees already so will be boiling by afternoon. We turfed the unwanted cardboard boxes out of the garage and I packed them inside each other as much as I could and OH loaded them into the car and we just managed to squeeze them all in. I sat in the passenger seat with my knees each side of a big bag of shredded paper and off we went to the tip a mile away. We weren't sure whether we needed to flatten them, so were pleased to discover we needn't. There's a nice space in the garage now for sorting more out in there.

I've watered the pots outside but they are suffering from all the heat and every day there seems to be more nasty weed to spray.

Glad the journey wasn't too bad AnnG. I know Fridays can mean holdups on some journeys, but probably later in the day when commuters are on the move home. That's very good your granddaughter has found herself some jobs while doing her OU degree. Some extra money helps and is what my best friend did years ago. I hope the plumber soon fixes the cistern.

Vera how strange my emails are still going to your spam folder. It must be to do with the connection between our providers as we don't have a problem with other emails. Yes the little sprig of flowers I divided was only £1.64. The only disappointment with the ensuite was not being able to have the shower base lower to the floor. Being a bungalow and having no wooden floors it would have meant digging down through the concrete along the floor as well as outside to lower the drains and not worth the cost.

I see you have things you are sorting in the garage too Gwyn. We still have about a quarter of the garage space taken up with things from my in laws house when they passed away. It;s been there for years now, but as you say there comes a time when you want or need the space back. My first MIL still had a trunk full of things belonging to her son in law's brother when she passed away that he'd never collected.

I'm not surprised you are achy today Mel. Pulling weed out of a pond catches your back.

I hope Mandy's shed roof job is going well.

I can't decide what to have for lunch but OH is happy to have one of the extra meals I did in the slow cooker and froze so we can have that wih some 2 minute rice.

Shower next and pop to the shop then.

Morning girls,

Nice morning and I am still achy from yesterdays pond cleaning, pc says its 21 degrees and rain coming!

Glad you got to sons safely Anng.

Not doing much today.

Good morning Ann and everyone.
Glad the traffic was not too bad. It can make such a differerence to a long journey.
My girls are very practical too Ann and have fixed several things around the house.

Mel, Good to see that you found your fork. I hate losing track of something, which I frequently use.
Glad the poppy seeds arrived OK and I hope you get some to grow. They self-seed in daughter's garden ( north facing) quite freely and she is constantly finding little plants growing in cracks in the path or brick steps.

Annx, Your en-suite looks very smart and as you say looks easy to clean, - I'm all for that ;-)
Good idea to go for neutral colours, which won't date.
Your new flowers look fine. What a bargain!
Most of our house does not have windowsills, but when we had new living room windows, I got them to make a windowsill too, but as it gets full sunshine most of the day, I don't keep any glass on there, because of fire risk.

Vera,
Pleased that you are OK and have just been busy. I look forward to reading what you have been doing. Your little club sounds great and it's good for people's well-being to be able to meet regularly like you do.

Mandy,
I hope your son and family were able to get your shed roof sorted. It's lovely that you and their household live near enough to be able to support each other like that. I'm sure they are so grateful for the lovely fruit you buy regularly and all that delicious baking for them, so it's good that they can help you too.

Daughter and I have been busy going through old suitcases in the garage seeing what we can move on to charity shops. As OH's siblings live abroad, it would seem that our garage became the receiving station for anything they hadn't found a home for, when they were clearing in-laws house in Hampshire. It's mostly books, father-in-law bought so many, but why did they not dispose of them in Hampshire charity shops, rather than bring them here. I like books too, but some of these are so old ( 1902) and we are not likely to read them.
Time to be ruthless. We need that space.

Good morning all. Have to be up early today as plumber is expectef at 0800. Sticky cystern. Son not the best at practical jobs daughter would have fixed it.

Good morning all. Have to be up early today as plumber is expectef at 0800. Sticky cystern. Son not the best at practical jobs daughter would have fixed it.

Had a good journey traffic was heavy but moving. A couple of detours but they didn’t make the journey any longer nice to be with family although granddaughter is out until tomorrow. She has several jobs as well as still doing her degree with the OU. She is dog/house sitting for the eeekend.

Thank you for your concern ladies. We have had a busy weekend and I haven’t had the time or energy to post

Your email had gone into Spam again Annx. I thought we had got that sorted but clearly not.. I have again told the machine that your email address is safe. Your en-suite looks great. It has a calming feeling about it and I like the flooring. The vase and flowers look quite elegant. Are they the flowers you said you bought cheap? If so you got a bargain.

I hope AnnG had a good journey and is enjoying her son’s company.

We have just got in from a club summer party. We’ve been there since midday and it was very hot so all I want now is a quiet cup of tea and a look at the Sunday paper followed by an early night. I’ll try and find time tomorrow to post and tell you all we’ve been up to this weekend.

Afternoon All,

Sunny today with a slight breeze here so quite pleasant but it's now 26 degrees and too hot. After OH did a shortish walk we did a bit of sorting of more cardboard boxes that were in the conservatory this morning and some that were in the study. One had about 20 recycling bags in that they use in the city (we have a recycling bin instead). They were what a lot of the footie programmes were in that OH inherited. I thought they would be handy for putting the shredded paper in to take to the smallholding so I folded them neatly and sat on the pile to flatten them and they are in a bag on the garage shelves now. Another box had a load of the 'bag for life' Asda carrier bags they used to use for our deliveries early in the pandemic. I've kept those as they are always handy. Smaller bags I can use for the food waste/peelings etc as I always bag that before binning it. The rest can go to the tip with the cardboard boxes. It is only open Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays in the week so it will be good to go first thing in the morning before it gets hot. OH has unearthed some local, not valuable local footie programmes now some of the boxes have been moved so he's taking them to someone he knows would like them when he goes to a match tomorrow night.

That's a good point about glass and the sun Mandy. I thought it should be ok there with the vase filled with gravel and the blinds are left closed in the mornings till the sun moves round the back of the bungalow as it gets so hot in there. Our neighbours the same side of the close as us do the same with having bedrooms on the front. I had to move my glass parrots out of the hall into the conservatory while the men were here as they were up and down in the loft next to them. I worried about them being glass with the sun so wouldn't put them on the windowsills and put them on the floor in a corner with an old towel covering them! You can't be too careful can you. OH has a tendency to put things like spray cans on the conservatory window sills and I have to move them onto the floor in the shade.

It will be good to have the shed roof all sorted in the nice weather and ready for winter Mandy. I bet they'll appreciate the food and drinks!

Yes it's good now that job is finished. I wanted to keep it quite neutral colours without patterns that might date it in time. I can always add a plant, coloured towels and a picture to add some colour if I want. It's nice to have everything behind cupboard doors too, makes cleaning quicker and I'm all for less HW.
:-D

Isn't it annoying when a weed gets among a nice plant Mel. Isn't Parrot Feather one that is quite invasive.....I can't remember now.

I hope AnnG had a good journey. I couldn't get off to sleep till well into the early hours.One of the houses with huge gardens that back onto our close had a do in the garden. It started off reasonably quietly then as more wine and beer flowed it got noisier and noisier till after 2.00am. I didn't want the window shut, so could hear it above the TV and no chance of getting to sleep.

Vera hasn't picked up my email either unless it's gone to spam again. Hopefully she is just busy.

YOu'll be pleased to get the shed roof done Mandy.

Yes hope Vera is ok and just busy.

I have been tackling the weed in my pond I have taken out a whole wheelbarrow loads of not native oxyginating weed. Maybe canadian pond weed. Also the parrots feather weed is growing where DON'T WANT IT AND HAS GOT ITSELF INTO MY PINK IRIS.

Sorry finger caught the cap lock.

Morning all,

Lovely sunny Sunday the çhurch bells are ringing away.

Safe journey Anng hope the traffic isn't to bad and you have a nice time with the family .
Tomorrow son and Jake are coming to finally do the big shed roof ,all this time we have had a tilt covering it so it will be lovely to get it done, the summer holidays is the only time son has really got time to do it , I have bacon and sausages and rolls in for their lunch and plenty of drinks ,dil will come to she said I can climb up there no problem.so she will help too.

So today we just need to sort out round the shed so it's all ready for them to start .

Where's Vera ,hope they are both OK.

Ann the ensuite is lovely ,it's nice and bright and fresh you must be really pleased with it

Morning girls,

Sunny and 16 degrees and this is a new one to me pc says UV will be high.

Safe journey with your son Anng and have a lovely rest.

Nothing planned for today so will just see how it goes along.

Good morning all 11 degrees and sunny here this morning. didn't have a very good night, was still awake at 2am Probably had only 3 hours sleep all together so my eyes are very sore this morning. Son picking me up around 12.30 so I can do a few last minute jobs when I get my body going.

90-105 would be an interesting exercise Ann. A higher percentage than you would think I expect.