General Chat

Good morning all
Well we still have blue skies and I am still wearing short sleeved tops - me thinks that will change next week when we are off to UK. I am getting excited now and looking forward to seeing grandchildren - not seen them for 3 years - missing out so much on their young lives.
Had a phone call Sunday night from the parents of the bride whose wedding we are going to on December 5th - they have booked flights on Thursday 10th and flying to Spain to spend a long weekend with us. We are flying from different airports but landing at Alicante the same time - I assume on different runways !!!
Well Sunday lunch was cancelled - my hubby has pulled something in his arm and spent most of Saturday night·Sunday morning in a lot of pain - so I told him to cancel and we would go somewhere local on Sunday night. We went to a typical Spanish restuarant and thoroughly enjoyed our meal - no sea view but that will always be there for another day. Off out this Sunday evening with friends for another meal - so unlike us to be going out so much - but very enjoyable.
Glad to hear you are not working your socks off Bridget and that your hubby is looking after you. Out of interest how do you find the cost of living in UK compared to Spain ?
Hope you little great niece is making some progress - I remember her in my prayers.
Well, ironing to do and I must go out to the shops. Hope you all have a great day
Take care
Love Mary xx

good evening everyone

the weather has been bery strange...heavy down pours obliterating the landscape a then the sun came out and glistend on all the puddles. tonight the wind has been high but has calmed down a lot so who knows what tomorrow will bring.

very busy at work, BUT for all those who remeber my dreadful dilema last year into the summer of this year i simply want you to know that I AM NOT WORKING LIKE THAT EVER AGAIN!! here I can arrive and depart at sensible times. we have audits every week and the next is on Wednesday, but no one is panicing, the team are great and working very well with me and not against me. it is wonderful to have Peter my OH with me and he makes sure that I have a decent meal every evening and relax as as well.

I still have my quiet times and think of you all my prayers are with you all.

Next weekend i hope to see my Army son and the weekend after the one who lives in Wales.
On 20th Dec we all meet at my daughters for a full Xmas Lunch and to exchangr presents but before that we have 2 grandchildrens' birthday.

EXPENSIVE time of the year.

well good night everyone

Bridget

I had my coffee out on the patio this morning at 5.30 a.m., it was beautiful outside then, quiet and peaceful. As usual the wind has come up, it always seems to blow from lunch time.

I do hope your great niece is doing OK Bridget, I will continue to remember you all in prayer.

Have just printed pictures of our trip and want to put them into an album.. Must get my brain into gear and write the story of the trip to accompany the pictures.

My daughter is enjoying her ridgeback puppy which nis now 12 weeks old. I am really surprised as she has always been a cat person.

That's it for now.

Take care.




Val in SA.

Will be thinking of you all Bridget.



Val in SA.

Good afternoon everyone

First thanks for the kind comments re mygreat neice. her sister has noow been tested and she does not carry the gene....thank God for that. The siblings of the parents have now to be tested so keeping our fingers crossed.......
my daily meditation/prayer for everyone ow has a very personal aspect and if anyone else could have some postive please remember us all.

The weather here on The Ridge has been very mixed, brilliant sunshine and then suden heavy downpours which are leaving wonderfully brilliant rainbows and I am looking at one right now.
A lot of different birds are also here I feel sure that some of them must be those who would normally be at sea as they are rather large. There are two sitting on the roof of the house opposite...they are prodominately black with a brilliant white under carriage coming round, rather like an up side down saddle. their tails are very long as are their beaks.

OH is busy ordering a couple of books for me from Amazon and other than that there isn't a great deal of news.

take care
Everyone, I will look in again later
Bridget

Hello from a cool and cloudy JBay. To-day has been a quiet day, went to church and have just been taking it easy, another way of saing lazy I guess!!

Have been watching Sky News about the floods in Cumbria, my heart goes out to those people. So sad . It brought back memories of the flood we experienced while living in Beacon Bay when the bridge across the Nahoon river was washed away and we were cut off from East London where we worked. Our supplies were brought in by helicopter for a couple of days while the army built a Bailey Bridge which we used for a long time. Sorry I don't mean to detract from the plight of all those involved.

How was lunch Mary - hope you had a good time.

Off to make a cup of tea.

Keep well.


Val. in SA.

Hello all, spent the afternoon writing Christmas cards, no easy job when you send about 150!!!!

We have had the very high winds and some heavy rain but nothing like they have had up north, I feel so sorry for those poor people in Workington and Cockermouth, just before Christmas. And that poor Policeman, his family have such a sad Christmas in front of them, my thoughts are with them.

Glad the job is going well Bridget, make sure you stick to your guns and don't work the long hours. How long is the job going on for?
I am so sorry to hear about your great niece having cystic fibrosis, so sad for the family. I hope the other little one was able to enjoy her birthday despite the sad news.

Take care every one
Ann
Glos

I'm really late to-day, but better late then never!
Still no sign of rain here.
Jimmy collected for Retina Foundation this morning, not something I like doing, standing with a collection tin, although I have done it once or twice. Amazing how invisible one becomes.

Hope your son is not too badly affected by the floods Mary. Enjoy your lunch to-morrow.

Take care,


Val. in SA.

Hello everyone and thanks to Mary and Frances for your comments.
Some friends from Spain called in a couple of days ago on their way to the North of England. They enjoyed our "bijou" home and we had a splendid mmeal at the local pub last night. they left around lunch to=ime and called several hours later to say that the rain had got steadily worse as they drove North to Chester. At least here it was a pleasant morning with the sun shining. It is damp now but not exactly raining and at mid day the sun shone and everything looked splendid in the gardens.

Had some good news from SSAFA but you will have to look at the other thread to read it!!


Well bye for now will be back tomorrow

Bridget

Hi everyone
Frances enjoy your cat and house sitting - if you get the chance there is a brilliant market at Altea on a Tuesday.
Good to see you Bridget and glad everything is going well on the work front.
Another beautiful day here today - we are so lucky - much luckier than those poor folks affected by floods in Cumbria. Had an email off our eldest son last night - he lives in Ambleside - said the river was at the bottom of his drive. But he managed to cycle to work and the boss let him off early before it got dark.
Off for a meal on Sunday lunchtime to celebrate 8 years living in Spain.
Hope you all have a good weekend
Take care
Love Mary xx

Good afternoon Ladies,

That deletion was me, a senior moment I'm afraid, hit the wrong button!!

Nice to see you back Bridget, you have been missed.

The sea is choppy to-day because of the strong wind which is blowing. Most of the country is having good rains but somehow we miss out.

Enjoy your "cat sitting" Frances, I think we all need some "me" time now and again.

While we were away we managed to get some stone-ground bread flour for Jimmy's bread-making, now he just needs to get back i nto bakin g mode.

Mst be off later to do the weekly shopping - not very interesting.

It gets light here very early in the morning now, broad daylight at 4.30 a.m. to-day, so I get up early and do whatever chores need doing and then the day is mine.


Take care.



Val in SA.

Hi Bridget,
I have to say that you have been missing some fabulous weather here...very warm, very sunny...perfect. Today it is sort of hazy but still quite warm....keep dragging clothes out of the put away until next summer box!!
Going 'cat & house sitting' for a friend next week. They live on the coast at Albir so I will be able to take myself to Benidorm shopping one day....OH is staying at home to look after our cats. Quite looking forward to it, I think we all need time to ourselves now and again.
Enjoy the day

Frances.

Hello everyone

Bridget is back!!
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this thread, without you all this would have died and I would miss each and everyone of you.
The weather her in The Ridge nr Hastings is windy and wet. We have had a lot of rain and high winds. Last Saturday whilst shopping the wind was so severe that in Hastings shopping center people were being blown over we helped a couple of people to get back to their cars safely. The sea though looked both magnificent and threatening. The water was grey and the waves were high and strong as they crashed onto the shore.

OH has just phoned to say that his boat has just docked at Harwich and he hopes to be at "home" between 10.30 and 11.00 hrs so I hope the weather does not worse, he has been to Amsterdam to see our new grandaughter who is now nearly 5 months old so it was about time that she met her grandad.

Today has been very difficult. My eldest sisters, father died in the early hours of this morning. he had a long and healthy life until about 5 years ago when he started to become very frail. at least he died peacfully.
Then I had a call from my younger sister to tell me that my great neice aged 8 weeks has just been diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. My sister is in floods of tears as all family members will be investigated to see if they are carrying the gene. It is the 5th birthday tommorow of the sister of the new great neice....Her planned party is going to be very difficult for her parents and they are being very strong but the little baby is truly poorly.

I do hope that I do not sound dismal but as I sit here with six beautiful healthy grandchildren I feel very lucky but also very sad.

work is going well there is a few more weeks of hard work and putting Policies and Procedures in place and the worst part of it will be over. I am NOT working the long hours I worked last year until the spring of this year and having OH here makes a big difference.


Well eveyone that is enough from me, I am now going to eat my microwave Weight watchers fish Pie!
I will peek again later this evening
Bridget

Sorry I have neglected the thread too, think we are missing Bridget's input. today it is dull and very wet and miserable and a bit chilly so I have opted to stay at home. OH is playing golf and will no doubt arrive home complaining of being wet and cold. Will he get sympathy?? I will leave it to you to guess the answer.
Mary your Casa sounds delightful. Not long now before your trip 'home', hope the weather dries up a bit for you.
Val you are welcome to some of our rain!! Our shops have had the decs up for a while now and the town decorations are due to be switched on this weekend, I hope the weather dries up for them, the children do love to see it all.

Good morning everyone
I have been naughty and not adding to this thread - sorry Bridget !!
Last week workmen moved in again armed with scaffolding etc. ready to paint the front of our house. Took them a week - and it is only a small house !! Still it does look lovely, bright and clean. We opted for a pale blue on the bottom half plus blue around the 2 windows and the rest white. So our little casa is looking great. Monday I cleaned from top to bottom so yesterday I treated myself, or rather hubby did, and went to the hairdressers and had my hair cut and coloured - ready for our visit to UK in 2 weeks time. Getting quite excited about it - only I know the time will fly by. We fly on 2nd December and arrive back on the 10th.
Our weather has been great, blue sky and temps around mid to high 70's . we had a bbq Saturday lunchtime too. This Sunday we are going out to lunch to celebrate 8 years since moving to Spain. As I have already said time flies !!!
Well as I did not do the ironing yesterday I must be off and do it this morning.
Hope you all have a great day and that Bridget will manage to find the time to add to her thread soon.
Take care all
Love Mary xx

What's happening? Everyone is so quiet.

It's a cool and cloudy day to-day. If only it would rain, we had water restrictions imposed on Monday, can only water gardens with a watering can.

Christmas decorations are up in the shops and carols are being played.
Will only be putting my tree up next month. Have received my first Christmas card. Oh yes, I made my Christmas cake yesterday, won't be icing it as I don't like marzipan.

Take care.



Val in SA.

glad you had a good time Val.

No news from Bridget this weekend yet?

Well I am back! Had a wonderful time and the weather was perfect, didn't wear a jersey once! We visited a lot of towns, stopped off at some super roadside stalls, had a cheese and wine lunch at a farm cheese factory absolutely super. The one place I had not been to before was a free flight bird aviary (the world's largest I believe) the dome covers indigenous forest and there are about 3000 birds in the aviary. Among the many birds which we saw I think the most striking was the Scarlet Ibis, Chinese Pheasant and a variety of very colourful Parrots. Needless to say a week wasn't long enough.

Enjoy the weekend.



Val in SA.

Thanks Frances and Mary, friends hire car is not too big so I will have to curtail my packing! I have never learnt the art of travelling light so I guess now will be a good time to start!



Val in SA.

Have a great week Val and hope the weather is kind to you.

Love Mary xx