General Chat

Mandy pleased that you felt better this morning. Not sure it was a good idea to tackle the washing though. Rest is what you need.

that was an exciting end to my shop in town. Had a pleasant look round as I didn't really go in for anything specific. Bought a few bits and had a nice latte and Danish in a restaurant I like. As it wa sunny I also walked down to look at the outside of the cathedral in the sun. I didn't have my camera on me but took a couple of photos with my phone.
Went to catch the bus which was in when I got there and driver ame quite quickly and we all got on at about 1310. Bus closed doors and started to reverse. then driver realised he was not able to get out of bus station onto the road as all traffic was blocked from going the way he wanted. So he pulled back into his slot and let the next load of people onto our bus which made it really crowded. Eventually having checked with the office we drove off and turned in exactly the opposite direction and went on a magical mystery tour around the outskirts of gloucester. that means he had to leave out quite a chunk of the route. We did eventually get back onto the right route but what would normally take 20 or so minutes took me just over double that. Nobody was complaining though. apparently it was to allow the delivery of a huge bridge to a large building complex next to the bus station. I think the bridge will link up a hotel, flats and Multi storey car park. The lorry delivering the bridge was only able to move at walking pace.

morning had trouuble wit erroe page thhis rninng

Did'nt wake till just after 10am. Need too get on andd feed the girsls.

Glad to hear Mandy feels aa bit better today.

Cna

Morning all,

Yes thank you Anng I do feel a bit better ,my head is not so painful but I have lost my voice , I have just put some washing in the machine and it feels like I've run a marathon I'm so tired.
Seems to have clouded up now the sky was lovely and blue a while ago .

Good morning all very grey looking and dark so far but 9 degrees. I think I may go into town as I had intended going Saturday but won't be able to with them doing the shed now.

Yes they are a good team Vera and, I think what is important, they are hungry for work. Jake has a family to keep. And the two work together well too. Jake never walks when he can run!!! I love how, if I mention anything in the garden. He looks at me and says 'is that the next job?' And he doesn't forget either, has it already planned. Luckily, from being on my own and not spending a terrific amount in the last three years I have money saved for just these sort of jobs. And I feel that getting it all sorted now will be a help later on if I get to a stage where I need to sell up and move. Better a new shed than a ramshackle shed and greenhouse. I do know if T was still here the shed would have been left to deteriorate more. Never could get him to admit we needed to pay somebody to do things that he could always have done.

Of course the next big thing will be to get all the stuff back in the shed. That can be done slowly though.

I keep my Christmas list on my computer and have deleted through the year. It does bring home to you how many friends have been lost in the year. The next thing will be cards arriving with sad news I suppose.

Glad you googled that Vera. Interesting though to know that it is not imagination.

Mel. do get a new keyboard, they don't last for ever. Where T was often changing his for a better one (to work with his flight simulators) there were several spares up in the loft the last time somebody went up there.

Mandy I hope you are still improving and are feeling better today. :-)

You do seem to have got a nasty dose of Covid Mandy. It seems to vary so much from person to person. I hope you feel better soon. It can leave you exhausted so you must take it easy. Let the family look after you for a change.

You’ve been busy in the garden again AnnG. You’ll soon have your shed up now. Jake and his father sound good workers. We could do with a handyman like that. I googled the bleach smell as you suggested. I wasn’t worried by it at all but it did seem odd. As you said it appears to be fairly common and seems to be to do with the cold I’ve had.

Zubes and Winter Mixture - mention of those brought back a few memories. I used to like Winter Mixture.

I went through my Christmas card list this morning and deleted a few people we have lost during the year. That’s always a sad thing to do. I then started to get a few written but my tremor started so my handwriting was all over the place. Instead of the 2 or 3 lines I usually write I just put something like Love and best wishes from....... I managed to do a dozen cards so it’s a start. I also typed a letter to a cousin in Australia and managed to get it to print on airmail paper.

This afternoon I have thoroughly dusted and vacuumed all the downstairs and given some tic to the indoor plants. Now I must go and sort out dinner. Meat pie tonight.

They are certainly hard workers Anng and you were really lucky to find them.

I have just hoovered the kitchen and dining area and sucked up all the cobwebs I can see. No doubt there will be more by the morning that I spy but when its so dark they are hard to detect. When the sun shines I can see them all. Quite a few spiders went up the hoover too, those long leggity beasty that do a little dance if they see you coming near them.

I am still having trouble with my keyboard not typing when I press the keys. I have put new batteries in it thinking it was that but its still not typing always and then a long line of n's comes out or other letters. May have to see if BIL can fit me a new one. Or I may have a gremlin in the works.


Salad tonight as I cooked lots of new pots yesterday so I can have a nice tato salad with it.

Just heard from Jake he has just messaged me he has been up to Worcester today and found a firm that will make an 8X8 shed (a 10X8 was £700 more as it would need more base as well so I am staying with the 8X8). He can collect it on Friday and they can put it up on Saturday. I am pleased with the speed they have done all this, I expected to be waiting until next year. I guess it is also helping them as work might be a bit slow this time of the year in gardens and Christmas is coming. (and four children!!!)

Yes I used to like them too, supposed to be for coughs I think but we ate them to keep warm. like 'winter mixrure' remember those?
Really dark here but still dry.

No you can't Anng. I still have roses flowering on the wall and down here at the house on the box hedge.

Its turned really miserable here now and I have that very fine rain that seems to get everywhere.

I don't know why but at lunch time I was thinking about Zubes Mum used too buy those and I loved them. They came in a round tin that I think was orange with a diamond pattern behind the word Zubes.

That is the bottom of the garden tackled as much as I can until the leaves of neighbour's tree finish dropping. always annoying as most of the leaves fall into my garden. Anyway just spent 45 minutes cutting back a Berberis that I that we had cut right down a few years back and tidied up a couple of bamboos in pots. I thought I had lost them in last year's frosts but they seem fine again now.

Better think about lunch I still have some very tiny tomatoes to use up smaller than cherries but very sweet. I had a really big crop of them but I don't think I will grow those next year as they are so fiddly to pick. Still can't complain at still using home grown tomatoes on 22 November.

Its lovely to hear from you Mandy and I hope you are now on the mend. It sounds like you had a nasty dose of covid and it must have been from the supermarket if thats the only place you've been. It just shows you its still about and catching unexpected people out. Hope your eyes stop aching soon. I think they dsay 10 days of nastyness till you start to feel better. Sending love and wishes to you both for a speedy recovery. <3 <3 <3

Sounds like you got a really bad dose Mandy. Have you had your jabs? I hope you are now on the mend and will soon be back to normal again. and don't forget to get fluids into you. <3 <3 <3

window cleaner has just been, I have done some admin bits on here, it is chilly out but I have some stuff to take down to Irene for charity 9stuff cleared out of the wardrobe). so I might do that now.

Morning all,

Feel a little better today but I have been bad .

When we rang 111 for some advice on Sunday they thought it best I was checked out by the ambulance crew they checked me over and asked if I had tested for covid I said no as I hadn't thought of covid as I was coughing and being sick
Luckily we had tests so we both did one and we both tested positive.
Oh hasn't been that bad just a tickily cough but I have had such a bad head and ache all over and yesterday a dicky tummy ,my temperature has been sky high so I've had a fan on me .
The only place we've been to last week was the supermarket, we've not had anyone round not even the family so it could only have been in the supermarket were we caught it .

Hope everyone's OK I haven't read any posts as my eyes hurt .

Morning girls,

Dullish here today and only 9 degrees and pc says cloudy but I can see that when I look ut of the window.

Vera I have been smelling bleach too when I hav'nt used it but its mainly when I flush the loo or run the bathroom taps. I do know they put bleach in the water at night or sdo I was told but nothing that can hurt us.
I hvi m

good morning all. Very dark and grey so far and 7 degrees.
I googled your bleach problem Vera. It seems to be not as uncommon as you think so worth googling. It doesn't appear to be anything really worrying as far as I could tell.

good that your visitors won't be coming this weekend as it gives you time to get over the cold you seem to have hanging around.

Window cleaner coming today. They seem to have suddenly switched from turning up every 8 weeks back to every 4 weeks. good for the windows not so for the pocket.

It sounds as though you had a good trip out AnnG and a nice scenic drive.

You are doing well selling all your little hand made items Mel. Don't worry about having 2 bags of baby pots. They keep well in the fridge. We've just eaten some that were about 3 weeks old and they were fine.

Gwyn, I don't like Christmas decorations going up too early. I must be a right old misery guts, but it seems to take all the excitement out of Christmas when it starts so early.

I hope Mandy and her OH aren't feeling too poorly. Covid can leave you feeling completely drained and it is difficult if you are both ill at the same time.

I didn't feel great first thing and feel a bit rough again now as I am getting tired and I seem to have developed a very strange symptom. I can smell and sort of taste bleach but I haven't used any bleach today and OH can't smell anything. I keep sniffing my clothes and my hands and there's no bleach smell there. It seems to be in me. Isn't that weird? Anyway, I wasn't too bad at all in the middle of the day so we went into town to do the things I had planned to do yesterday. I managed to get a couple more Christmas presents which pleased me and also got some bits and pieces in Iceland and took advantage of their 10% off for over 60s on Tuesdays.

The last I heard from grandson was a text a couple of weeks ago when he said they were looking forward to seeing us at the end of the month. As I hadn't heard any more I texted him today to check that his visit was still on. Yes, they are definitely coming and will arrive lunchtime on 1st December. Since when was the 1st December "the end of the month"? Good job I checked or I would have had meals ready and then been panicking because they hadn't arrived. At least it gives me an extra week to buy some more presents and get them wrapped as I am hoping he will be able to take all the stuff for Yorkshire back with him.

I think I am now going to settle down in bed with a hottie and a book. Sleep well everyone.

Perhaps everyone feels they need cheering up Gwynne,
I have heard of The Churchill Gwynne but not seen it. I used to dive for Fareham right across the top of the hill from Fareham when visiting a friend who lived in Leigh Park. In fact I skidded on ice up there one day when there was no ice anywhere else. Driving an old MG Magnet with daughter aged 3-4 in the back hit black ice, the car was longer than the road width so it bounced off verges from side to side and shattered the fog light that was fixed on the front bumper. As I stood looking at it a Naval officer going the other way stopped and wired it up for me. He said a lot of people had skidded there that morning. The sun was out but the ice was in the shade of a tree or bush.
Fareham Grammar school I don't think was open in 1951 when I went to Purbrook. I could have gone to a school in Gosport but Purbrook had such an excellent reputation and Mum was a bit of a snob!!! I did not do particularly well at Purbrook. but I suppose that was me being younger than most of the year and smaller and shy and scared of sports 'stuff'.

We had a good trip out to Fosse Way garden centre, I had been there before it became a Blue Diamond but it has been re-furbished and is now huge and very well stocked. They even have an in store butchers. And the restaurant is very good too, very big and the food is ordered at the table and comes up really quickly as the order goes straight to the kitchen. I managed to spend £50 but most of that is on presents so I was quite happy about it. the drive there and back was lovely, even if it was grey, misty and drizzly on the way there. On the way home it was bright and dry and the trees were beautiful. I left at 10.30 and got home at 2.45.

A dull start here with dampness in the air, but the sun is doing it's best to make an appearance now.

No Ann, it wasn't the George, although I remember that well, being at such an important junction of several main roads. We went to The Churchill, which is more on the actual brow of Portsdown Hill on the Fareham side of Cosham.
My sister was due to go to your old school, but my parents and also my friends' parents applied for their two younger daughters to go to Fareham school instead, as we older sisters were already pupils there.
Maybe Fareham hadn't opened, when you were eleven?

It sounds as if you are really busy getting your garden organised. Our back garden in particular is very heavy with clay, so ideally needs a good overhaul and some lighter soil dug in.... It would be more manageable to dig then , so that we could successfully grow more veg.
I hope you enjoy your outing to the garden centre. I wonder if you will find anything tempting to buy ;-)

Mel, You seem to be very busy making and selling your craft items. Well done !

Any news on Mandy? I hope they are OK. So difficult if they are both ill at the same time :-(

Vera, I hope you too are feeling better and your cold is improving.....It's not what you want when you are so busy and possibly expecting visitors too.

Several houses around here have Christmas decorations up and the caretaker was putting the school decorations up in the hall today. I thought they usually go up in school on the first weekend in December, so that is quite a bit earlier :-S

They sent me basa fillets instead of smoked haddock and chocolate buttons instead of malteasas. Stupid lot they went back. The strawberries were'nt what I ordered and the orange juice is not smooth but with juicy bits which I don't mind. Why o why did I order two lots f baby pots???

Been to the post van and sent a poarcel and swept leaves off the decking and done some painting and varnishing.