General Chat

JG let us hope that it doesn't rain now that you have had your windows cleaned.

It has been a pleasant morning here, I spent over an hour cutting back some dead branches on the rambling and climbing roses and tying the rest into the trellis supports. It is garden bin day tomorrow and mine is almost full so will be glad when it is emptied.

Pleased that your phone has been sorted out Linda and hope the furniture arrives ok.

Florence do hope that now Easter has passed you get to hear from the solicitor.

Morning everyone,

We had some nice sunny mornings over the weekend and today but it is clouding over again now . I have washing out so hoping it doesn't rain .

Have been doing some veg seeds to start off in the mini greenhouse and have a tray on the kitchen window sill . Fingers crossed we get a decent crop this year, it keeps OH happy in the garden doing the planting etc. He also has his fish pond to look after which will need sorting out soon .

Window Cleaner just been so now have lovely clean windows , our windows get very dirty quickly due to being on a main busy road and the rain we have had doesn't help either. Rain can be very dirty.

Hope everyone is ok .

Ginnie

Morning all
It is wild, windy, overcast and very cold so not a nice day.

Linda, so glad you got the landline sorted out and hope the nice lady will be back to move the socket for you.We only have 1 master socket as the lounge is where"my office" is along with the phone and PC.

In my old house we had 2 sockets but one had to have a filter on it as it used to make a shhhing noise. But was handy as we had 2 PCs and one was in the bedroom.

Hope you new furniture arrives on one piece today, thats so exciting.

No gardening jobs today sadly so confined to indoors. The hall cupboard needs its usual declutter so that will fill an hour lol.So hoping the sol or estate Agent will tel or mail this week with some good news hopefully.

Hope everyone else looking in is well and has better weather than us!

Florence in the hebrides :-D

Good morning from sunny Yorkshire.
Well the OpenReach engineer, a very nice young lady called Gemma arrived at 8 am.
It took her a long time, but she finally sorted out our telephone line, so we now have a landline which is connected to our correct number. She first went to the local cabinet, but discovered that the cable for our number wasn’t actually connected to the cabinet. So she had to go to the exchange and physically trace the wire among thousands of others all the same colour and connect it to the correct cabinet. It was a shame that it took her so long because she had offered to move the master socket to the study, but had to move onto her next job. Moving the socket arranged for next Tuesday. She said that she will look out for the job and pick it up if she sees it. I hope so because she was very good

It is a horrible day here. Only 7 degrees and it has been raining all morning, but it has stopped now. We went to the local DIY store mid morning as OH needs some No Nails to stick the skirting board on the dining room before tomorrow. He had ordered some on line as it is much cheaper, but it is massively late in arriving. Our new dining room furniture is being delivered tomorrow, so the skirting boards need fixing on before tomorrow.
We called in to see the girls on the way back and I ended up playing schools with Esme as usual

sunny here and 12 degrees. Just did half an hour out there, in for a rest as my back was stiff. Warm in the sun.

names :-D :-D :-D I had to chuckle at your post!

Reported...hahaha

cads......hehehe

I think my inch long nails don't help either!!

Quiet overcast day but its nippy in the breeze outside.

I received the wood stain for my planters but the sandpaper hasn't arrived yet so shall have to wait to start that job.

Felling better but still very husky and daughter has it now but not as bad.

It would appear that many families have gone away on holiday hence the place is empty of cars and people. my own brother is skiing in Switzerland with his family for 10 days and a photo of the resort is packed with cars!

Not sure how to spend the day other than doing chores! Its so quiet, its like a Sunday!

Hope everyone else is having a lovely day

:-D

Typos do give me a giggle.

Florence reported her Red Robins ( to whom I wonder) and now she appears to have a houseful of cads. I hope she chucks them out after making sure they buy her cards but the they wouldn’t be such cads if they did. :-D :-D :-D

Good morning all. Our weather yesterday was not as nice as the rest of you. It was dry so I was able to spend a couple of hours in the garden. But it was very overcast and dull and not very warm. Still quite a bit got done
It looks fairly bright out there at the moment but as it is still before 8am it is only 6 degrees so we shall see.
It was a shame that there were not many people at the fair Florence but it does seem a strange day to have it even though it is not such a bank holiday there as here. Maybe people still went away to family for Easter or, as somebody else said, they were all in their gardens.

A beautiful day here too.
There was a cool wind this morning, but this afternoon it's been warm enough to sit outside without a jacket, in a sheltered spot.

Bees buzzing, birds singing, sun shining, spring flowers blooming! Lovely!
It won't last, but it's very enjoyable while it does.

What a shame about the poor attendance at the Fayre, Florence. Still, your cads will keep until the next time.

I hope you enjoyed your ham, Sylvia, even though it wasn't what you wanted.

.
Happy Easter.,
On Friday went to a garden centre for lunch and bought two large planters and some evergreen plants with white flowers to go in them. I can’t remember what they were called :-S. I also bought some more herbs as I left all of mine in the last house

It was glorious yesterday, so we spent the day in the garden.OH made plastic liners for two large troughs we had bought, we filled them with compost. They have a tall trellis on the back of them, which screens our view of the neighbours. We have two large Red Robins in them, which were just in pots, but now they have much more room to grow. He cut some slits in the bottom for drainage, but I think he should have made more, we shall see.
OH tried out his new smaller battery driven lawn mower, we did have a large petrol mower, but have given that to our son in law.

This morning we went over to see the girls. The Easter bunny had been of course, so there was lots of chocolate to add to the eggs we took over.
OH took our scarifier as son in law wanted to borrow it. They ended up scarifying the whole lawn which is really big. I helped with raking up the massive amount of grass which came out. I also did lots of playing with Esme. We used finger painting to make Easter cards.

I hope you enjoyed your meat Sylvia, I have a large joint of pork in the oven now as well as a ham. I cook a small ham joint every week with whatever roast I do. It is much nicer, not to mention much cheaper than buying sliced ham in the supermarket.
I think we are going to be eating pork all week as all the joints in Aldi were really big.

It us a shame about the fair Florence, maybe people were more into gardening this weekend

Happy Easter everyone looking in :-D

lovely dry, sunny day here but the NE wind is chilly and keeping the warmth of the sun at bay! However it is perfect for getting all the laundry dry.

Spring Fayre was sooo quiet yesterday as think many families went away for the holidays. Didn't sell very much at all so hugely disappointed :-(

I reported my red Robin shrubs as they were not growing and the leaves started to dry out. When I emptied them out of the pot, i could see what maybe the problem was.
The soil was very wet and clogged and I realised the holes in the bottom of the pot were so tiny, the water wasn't draining properly. so now in bigger pots with bigger holes, I hope they will recover as were not cheap, about £15 i think for the pair!! W shall see what happens.

Hope everyone else is having a nice day with lots of sunshine so peeps can get outside in their gardens,

Take care

Florence in the hebrides

Good morning all 8 degrees here at 0815 and so far sunny. Maybe today will be a get out in the garden day. Yesterday was not nice, windy, one minute sun the next torrential rain.
Joan I am pleased your weather let you get out in the garden. It does lift your spirit if you can do that.
Oh deal Linda why am I not surprised? How do these people get jobs when they can't communicate or understand what they are supposed to be doing? I hope the next lot of appointments sort it. And, as for the lady asking for a good report, she deserves what she gets.
Florence I hope all goes well with the fayre today.
Sylvia. your poor OH must have dreaded bringing home something he knew was wrong. another person not listening and doing what they want. Could you cut that joint into two and use one? and freeze the other?

Oh dear, Linda. It was funny to read, but not to have to experience it!

Florence ............. I hope you enjoyed the Fayre, and are feeling much better.

Today started off cloudy, with rain very early in the morning, but the sun came out by early afternoon, and it was quite warm. That promises well for tomorrow and Sunday/

Most shops were open today, except the odd independent store, and, of course, all the banks. Many pharmacists, even the one in the Safeway, were also closed!

OH went to Safeway this morning, mainly to buy some of the first of this season's catch of halibut for tonight's dinner, and also to get a roast for Sunday. I wanted a Simple-Carve Boneless Hickory Smoked Ham, and wrote it out very carefully for him, including the brand name ................ it does come pre-packed, but has been very good on previous occasions.

They didn't have any in the morning, said there would be more in "later". So he went back in the afternoon. For some reason, he ended up talking to the deli lady not the butcher .................. and she sold him a chunk of Black Forest Ham :-S

He said that he showed her my shopping list which specified exactly what I wanted, but she didn't send him over to the butcher section, just kept asking him "how much" he wanted. Ended up with a flat chunk about 1½-2" thick, quite heavy ....... and correspondingly quite expensive!

We can't return it, so the choice is, do we re-heat it for Easter Sunday dinner, or freeze it and try to get what I really wanted.

Both are valid options!

Oh dear, Linda. It was funny to read, but not to have to experience it!

Florence ............. I hope you enjoyed the Fayre, and are feeling much better.

Today started off cloudy, with rain very early in the morning, but the sun came out by early afternoon, and it was quite warm. That promises well for tomorrow and Sunday/

Most shops were open today, except the odd independent store, and, of course, all the banks. Many pharmacists, even the one in the Safeway, were also closed!

OH went to Safeway this morning, mainly to buy some of the first of this season's catch of halibut for tonight's dinner, and also to get a roast for Sunday. I wanted a Simple-Carve Boneless Hickory Smoked Ham, and wrote it out very carefully for him, including the brand name ................ it does come pre-packed, but has been very good on previous occasions.

They didn't have any in the morning, said there would be more in "later". So he went back in the afternoon. For some reason, he ended up talking to the deli lady not the butcher .................. and she sold him a chunk of Black Forest Ham :-S

He said that he showed her my shopping list which specified exactly what I wanted, but she didn't send him over to the butcher section, just kept asking him "how much" he wanted. Ended up with a flat chunk about 1½-2" thick, quite heavy ....... and correspondingly quite expensive!

We can't return it, so the choice is, do we re-heat it for Easter Sunday dinner, or freeze it and try to get what I really wanted.

Both are valid options!

Oh dear, Linda!
That's such a funny story when someone who isn't involved reads it - but obviously not at all funny for you.
So frustrating! But sadly it's the sort of mess we almost expect nowadays.

Better luck with the next appointments!
It's fortunate that your son seems able to sort things out if the people who are supposed to be doing it can't.

Oh my Linda, what a saga!!!! I hope you are having a large glass of something strong as you certainly deserved it.

I sometimes wonder how these people get jobs as engineers or technicians as clearly when they turn up, they don't seem to have a clue about anything.

I mean, once when the electric went off years ago in a bad storm, I tel on the landline to report the power loss. The woman said, are you sure its off? have you tried turning the switch on ?It beggared belief. i said well, if we had power, would i have sat in the queue for 45 minutes then???

We are all ready and packed up for the Fayre tomorrow leaving at 8.45 am so up early at 7am. Sandwiches to make etc. It was a good turn out at xmas with over 500 people filtering through the hall so heres hoping it will be as good or better tomorrow.

Not sure where everyone is today, probably enjoying good weather and if so, please send it up here as cold, wet & Foggy all day :-(

I thought that I had better post my rant in case I lost it all.
This morning, I got a phone call from the Talk Talk escalation team to check how moving my master socket had gone on Wednesday. Grr, I explained in no uncertain terms about the mess they had made. She looked up their notes and said that the Open Reach appointment clearly said that it was to move the master socket and that they were paying for it. So now I have two more Open Reach appointments, one next Tuesday to sort the phone line out and one get following Tuesday to move the master socket. What could possibly go wrong?
I now have my own allocated escalation lady who is going to phone me and check how everything goes.
I do feel a bit guilty because I told her about the technician telling me that she wanted me to give her a nine or ten. Apparently that is totally forbidden, so she was going to escalate that. I have visions of getting poor technician losing her job, oh dear.

It has been really warm here this afternoon, people were walking round in T shirts, it still managed to rain though.
We went out to a garden centre and had lunch. We bought two large pots and shrubs to do on the decking. I also got some herbs as I left all of mine in the old garden.

Wednesday was an absolutely head banging day. :-(
Open Reach were coming, to move the master socket from the downstairs hall to the upstairs study, or so we thought. I even had a phone call from the Talk Talk complaints department the previous day to confirm it. I also hoped that they would actually connect the line as we haven’t had a dialling tone since the broadband went live. When the Open Reach engineer turned up, he said that moving the socket wasn’t on his job sheet, he had only come to connect the line. He was an African gentleman and I couldn’t understand a word he was saying!
Oh well at least if he connected the line, that would be a step forward. So off he went to the cabinet, he came back saying that the line was working, but I pointed out that he had actually cut off our broadband. He then listened to the line and declared that it wasn’t connected to our number :-S. I think that he said that we could either have the phone line connected or the broadband, but not both. I told him that he had to reconnect the broadband and leave the phone line. So he went back to the cabinet and the broadband came back on again.
He then said that he would go back to the exchange and try and sort the line out, but he had my number, so would phone me. Of course, that was the last we saw or heard of him.
I decided to plug the phone in and realised that there was a dialling tone , so assumed he had fixed it . So I used my mobile to ring our new number, but it didn’t ring here, a man answered it instead. I assumed that I must have misdialled, so apologised to him. I then dialled our new number very carefully and the same man answered. He was very nice and gave me his number, so I could try and sort it out as we obviously had a crossed line. I wondered what number the land line was on, so I used it to dial my mobile. That rang and showed a completely different number. When I rang that number from my mobile, the house phone rang. So we have a working phone, but the number it is using isn’t the one which is allocated to our Talk Talk account.

In the afternoon, I bit the bullet and phoned Talk Talk. You get one of those automated bots, but if you are careful, you can manage to get through to a real person. The first time I tried I didn’t manage to get a person, instead the bot started a test on the line which would take about half an hour.
So I tried again and this time managed to get through to India. After having explained all about the line, the problem was passed upwards to their technical team, so I had to try and explain it again to another Indian lady, who kept laughing as I went through it. She thought the Talk Talk engineer didn’t know what he was doing. As I was talking to her, I got a text from the line test which said the line was fine, but as it came in, my broadband cut off. Some I told the technician and that is when it all started to go downhill :-(
We haven’t used the talk talk router for at least two years as it is rubbish and kept having to be restarted all the time. Instead we have use a mesh system using Deco routers which give a really strong signal all over the house. That was especially important in our old house which was an L shape, so had dead spots with the Talk Talk router. At first, she said it was fine to be using a different router, but then when she tried to look the settings up on her system she couldn’t find them, so she insisted that I put the Talk Talk router in as that was the only way I could get the broadband back. She was insisting that I use the new router which I had been given on March 12 th when our broadband went live. I couldn’t get her to understand that we hadn’t been given a new router, but only had the old broken one. She insisted that I use that, so it took an hour and a half to get it working. We could hear her all the time talking to her supervisor as they tried to get it working.
In the end, we had a very weak signal and after she rang off we realised that we couldn’t connect any of our devices to it if we moved more than a foot from the router.
Before she finished the call, she said that the next day, I would receive an email asking how she did on a scale from 1-10 and it was very important that I give her a nine or ten because anything less than that wasn’t good for her!

I was so fed up on Wednesday night because we had no broadband or phone. On Thursday my son in law came over and sorted the mess out and reinstalled our Deco system, so now we have the broadband back.

I did have a nice day yesterday because my old neighbour came and we had a nice catch up. We then went and collected Eve and went out for a nice lunch. Eve used to do lots of crafting with her, so if very fond of her.

Good afternoon to you all.
A beautiful day here, a really lovely sunny day, so nice I have been outside & managed a bit of tidying up of some old branches that have lain all winter, however I am not as fit as I was, lol, I had to take a few breaks in between shifting them.

Lots of plants are showing new growth, the Daffies are looking nice considering they got a battering the other day. The Snowdrops are fading, I so enjoyed seeing them & I do miss them when they start to die off, we had a lot of Crocus this year, I was hoping for a good show after planting a lot of new ones last Autumn & they didn't disappoint.

Our youngest daughter was here last Saturday, she went back home on the Monday, it was lovely to have her here, I didn't want her to go home but of course she had to, she has her own family to care for & her work, she will be back again, probably during the school summer holidays.

I have stopped what I was doing in the garden now & concentrating on todays meal, I am making Fish & Chips, the usual Friday meal.

The shps are open here as usual & there was post this morning which always happens on Good friday, the banks are closed of course & the Health Centre, otherwise it's very much like any "normal" day.

Well the kitchen & my stomach are telling me it's time to start cooking so I am off to tackle the potato & turn it into chips, not very good at peeling spuds so there won't be many chips by the time I have peeled of more than just the skin, lol.

I hope everyone is well & your weather is as nice as it is here, talk agian soon.

Joan.