General Chat

Good morning to you all,

Gosh Bridget indeed a multi-lingual lot you are. After not seeing your son for such a long time you are entitled to hug him for ever!! Hope you are all having a jolly good time and the weather has changed for you.

I agree with what you have said about Tenebrae. At our service there are no announcements, we follow the order of service leaflet which is given to us. We start with a hymn, then a prayer, another hymn, then one of the elders lights the 8 small candles and 1 large one. We then have a scripture reading and communion. The lights are switched off, further readings and hymns, a candle is extinguished after each reading, the last candle to be extinguished is the large one. (the gradual extinguishing of the candles and the Church lights symbolises the darkness gathering around Jesus, the darkness of the spirit which swept over Him and the desertion of His disciples), a time of silent prayer and then an elder re-lights the large candle (this points to the renewal of hope and the emergence of new life at Easter). Then we sing 2 verses of "When I survey the wondrous cross". At the conclusion of the service we leave in complete silence. We each take a torch to use when the lights are switched off. I do hope this is not too muddled.

It is quite chilly this morning. We will be visiiting friends as we usually do on Saturday. Oh yes, I managed to get my pansies planted. Yesterday eening we watered the garden carrying watering cans, quite back-breaking. Our gardener didn't work this week because of Easter.

Have a good day and take care.


Val.

good evening every one. I hope that you are all well.
My son, his girlfriend and her son aged 6 yrs all arrived from Barcel..a safely and having promised myself that I would not hug him for too long nor would I cry, i did both!!!

His lady friend is delightful, mature and has brought up her son very well, He is great fun but knows that when Mum says "No" or "enough" she means it.
Now can you imagine this scenario.
4 of us speak English, three of us are fluent in Spanish, two of us speak German from birth, three of us can speak enough German to understand each other.. I am so proud that I am the third one, I thought that I hhad lost all my German. OH asked if they all speak French, well 2 of us do...so are we the tower of Bable????

I look forward to reading all your messages and I will try to come back tomorrow or on Sunday.

21.38 hrs Spain

Good evening ladies, just popped on for a few minutes to wish you all a Happy Easter. Bridget I hope you have lots of fun with your family and the weather picks up for you.
Val I hope you too enjoy your Easter celebrations. Hope to pop back over the week-end meanwhile all take care Penny

Hello everyone

Well Val i had never heard of Tenebrae so I looked it up and this is paet of what I found.

Tenebrae (Latin for 'shadows' or 'darkness') is a Christian religious service celebrated by the Western Church on the evening before or early morning of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, which are the last three days of Holy Week. The distinctive ceremony of Tenebrae is the gradual extinguishing of candles while a series of readings and psalms are chanted or recited. In the Roman Rite of the Roman Catholic Church the Tenebrae readings and psalms are those of Matins and Lauds. The Polish National Catholic Church and some churches within the Anglican Communion also observe Tenebrae. The name may also be used for various Holy Week services among Protestant churches such as Lutheranism.
do you agree with this description?

Bridget

17.56 hrs Spain

It's another very windy day for us, so much so that I didn't even do the washing to-day as it would just have twisted round and round the wash-line.

Lots of visitors here for the long weekend, Monday is a holiday and is known here as Family Day now and then the 27 April is a Public Holiday, Freedom Day which commemorates the first non-racial democratic election which took place on this day in 1994.

Bridget enjoy every moment of your son's visit, I hope the sun shinesi for you.

To-night we will attend a Tenebrae Service, the purpose of which is to recreate the emotional aspects of the passion story.

I would like to wish you all a happy Easter.

Val.

14.00.

I know I have not been on here for ages but just wnted to wish you all a Happy Easter and hope the sun shines for you all - although here in Spain the forecast is rain. more rain and even thunderstorms. Oh well cant do anything about the weather can we ?

Love Mary xx

Jacqueline, Thanks for your message. Pleased to know that you are moving to be nearer your children, Unfortunatley all our children live in various places. I may have said this before but just to let you know.
L..r lives in Barcelona
K,,,,,n lives in Suffolk UK
A.....y lives in Sw,,,a
T....s In the Army
K....h lives in Holland
M....n Lives in London
You can now see how difficult it is to get everyone together!! The one coming for weekend with his girlfriend and her 6 year old son is the first on the list.
Second on list is my only daughter, A &T are my identical twins.
Happy house hunting for when you move, will it be far from where you are now?
Tess, I hope that you have had a good nights sleep. I went to bed at about the same time as you and have just made my first coffee of the day
My father taught my sister and I the "Up the wooden Hill to Bedfordshire and I can recall saying "dad we live in London not Bedfordshire!!

The weather here this morning is damp, gray and cold, not typical Easter weather here. I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed that it might just brighten a little.

well apart from wishing everyone a Happy and safe Easter, there isn't much more to say of any interest, so Bye Bye for now

Bridget

07.55 hrs Spain

Just popped in to say I'm about to go "up the wooden hill to bedfordshire" as my father-in-law used to say.

Back tomorrow, good-night ladies.

23.32 UK

Tess

Hello Everyone although I have not posted recently I have popped in and read the posts. I hope that your son makes it to Spain this time Bridget, it will be lovely for you to see him after so long. I know what it feels like not to see your children even though I see mine every couple of months or so and talk to them on the phone. We have decided to move closer to the children later this year as after my OH's serious illness over Xmas we have decided that we are too far away from them. In the meantime I can look for work up that way and if necessary go and stay with one of my children during the week whilst I work and come home weekends. We have lovely sunny weather here in the UK and it is forecast to last until after the Royal wedding. We have the same surname as Kate and I am trying to find a connection to her through my OH's family tree. I think that's all for now and if I don't pop in before Easter have a happy Easter everyone,.

Bye for now.

10 pm here in the UK

I will be busy for the next few days so thought I would say," Happy Easter" everyone.
I am very excited about my eldest son coming tomorrow to stay for Easter, I have not seen him for nearly 2 years. Every time we arranged something, the plane was delayed, he was offered work he could not turn down, or I had to work, etc. We have talked to each other regularly but it is not the same.

Bye for now.

21.42 hrs Spain

PS forgot to ask, where is Berona, have not heard from her for a few days.?
Also a few others who normally post fairly often, are they all sun bathing??

Valerie, you certainly are having a number of birthday people who are having a great time..

Your breakfast looks great, judgment sort of meal my OH used to have when he was working at a port near to Ips...h in the UK. He worked shift work in the I......tion, department which of course was open 24 hrs per day.

Very occasionally we have one at home.

Good luck with the new plants. Our roses are thriving and the colours are quite stunning. We had to cut a branch off the lemon tree down stairs garden as it had a lot of White powdery stuff on it. I did not know what it was but thought it best to dispose it.
All the other fruits are doing well although my cumquats are still very small.

I am glad to note that you enjoy shopping, I think I may be addicted to it but have to remember now that we are one income down..just as well that the clothes shops where I live are certanly not my style!

Talking of shopping wevare going out soon to buy some food for the Easter weekend. All the shops will close early tomorrow, open again on Saturday for the day and then will not open again until Tuesday..just as well that we have two fridges and freezers.

Captain pug wash your garden sounds fun and such a good idea about the railway sleepers etc. We used these in our garden in the UK and they were super.

Well time to take OH away from watching the snooker so bye bye for now

14.19hrs
Spain

Afternoon all,

You have the rain Bridget, we have the wind to-day and oh boy is it blowing, as a reuslt the sea is very choppy.

Well, we had another birthday celebration to-day - about 20 of us were treated to a lovely breakfast at a restaurant, eggs, bacon, tomato, chips, juice, toast and tea/coffee. The food was very nice and the company good, needless to say we are giving lunch a miss.

We managed to get the new pump for the water feature and I bought some pansies to plant, now we must get ourselves into gear to sort everything out.

That's it for now.

Val.

Evening ladies, thanks for the welcome back nice to know I was missed. My friendly garden was done because I realised my arthritis was not going to go away. Had my lawns taken up and replaced with wood bark chip, never liked the idea of slabs all over!! They are contained in structures made from old railway sleepers, sounds strange but looks very nice. Borders are planted with various shrubs, and a small water feature.
Bridget sorry to hear its raining such a shame busy time of year for you. For a change we have a Bank Holiday looming and the weather looks set for sunny!!! Well all of you take care,. Penny

Good morning,

How lovely to see you both on here again Tess and Penny. I would also . like to know about a "friendly garden". Penny, our seasons are opposite to the UK, it is Autumn here now and we are heading for winter, the winter in JBay is mild but some parts of the country have very cold winters with snow and frozen water-pipes!

We want to get our little water-feature working again so to-day will go out to buy a new pump and then re-organise some plants in pots around it. The pump has been out of action for some time so replacing it is long overdue. I love to sit outside for tea and listen to the water, so relaxing.

Am off to do some shopping. I think I was born to shop!

Take care.


Val.

Hello Captain Pugwash

So pleased to see you on here again. Being rather mosey I wondered where you were! I have found thatbthe knees actually benefit from a bit of gardening. I had to have ops on one knee a few years ago, the cartalige had to be removed andvthen a couple of years later the other knee was done following a fall. However I was determined to do some gardening and all I do is have a break about every 30 minutes and I find that helps.
I am interested in a "friendly garden. Is that a raised bed garden"? When I was working every nursing or residential home I managed had raised gardens put in and most of the residents really enjoyed keeping them in good order.

Tees you write such pleasant comments and never any spelling mistakes, unlike me! Therefore I must be even more muddled than you are!

Val I hope that you enjoyed visiting your neighbour for his birthday, and of course that he also had a splendid time.

I think we have more or less finished changing the garden for this year. I have decided that if anyone asks what I would like for my 65th birthday I shall ask for plants and a new small table for my special and favourite place to sit.
Having cut down or taken out so much the tiling in the garden was a disgrace so yesterday wevwent outband bought some special cleaner. It is chemical based so we had to be very careful, I put Jet and Joe on the veranda upstairs and closedvthe door so they were safe. It took us about 3 hours to do all three levels , but it looked fantastic when finished, it made the tiles look like new.
Today the weather is also helpingbas it is raining heavily, so that will take away any residue. Of course the down side is that thevforecast is for rain, rain, and more rain including over Easter weekend.
That makes me rather sad as we have visitors and of coursevit is a very special weekend herevin Spain. The town would normally be packed and the businesses rely on this as the first good tourist time as well.

Well I think I have written enough for now, so keep well everyone, enjoy yourvday, I shall think of you all in my quiet time.

07.08 hrs Spain

Evening all, I am back!! Goodness all this spring cleaning from you all makes me feel quite guilty, feel I should be doing some too.
Tess it rather sounds as if you are not too keen on gardening, I must admit I am not too keen, never have been but have an excuse now as I have arthritis in my knees so find it difficult. Had most of the garden made "friendly" a couple of years ago so now only need to tidy, that is hard enough sometimes. Your garden Bridgit sounds lovely,can just imagine it. Val are your seasons the same way round as ours in the uk?
Well ladies hope to back on tomorrow. Take care. Penny

Hello everyone,
before I forget Bridget..the Warley I mentioned is in the West Midlands, near Birmingham.
The Warley Male Choir will be one of the (many) choirs singing at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham on Saturday evening (23rd) my son has bought me a ticket.

I have still been keeping quite busy. Doing loads of washing now that I can hang it on the line to dry.
Also bought myself an electris mower (ordered Thursday arrived Friday).
I had to put it together, adn now can't get it to wok! Meanwhile the grass is growing. Has anyone got a goat I can borrow?

I have been rather busy recently (for me), activity makes me tired, and tiredness makes me muddled.
So, recently I have
-

Put my watch on upside down.
Stood on my glasses, which were on the floor,
Tried to stir-fry some veg, which were clearly labelled "roasting veg"

These are the mistakes that I have noticed and can remember!
I dread to think what else I have done.

All-in-all though I am keeping quite well, just a little muddled and tired.

Bye for now,
Tess

16.21 in UK

Hello,
A lovely day here, warm and a gentle breeze. Early this morning the sky was a beautiful pink.

Washed all my net curtains this morning, they dried very quickly and are all back in place. The next job to tackle will be the lights, but that's for another day.

Have just been round to the neighbour, it is his 83rd birthday to-day. Next thing to think about is lunch which I think will be something very light.

The town will be busy this weekend, the schools close for the Easter holidays so there will be lots of visitors here.


Val.

11.47.

Good morning to you all.

Yesterday was very busy. OH painted all the exterior White Walls and I must say he did an excellent job. The house is now becoming home again, as the people who stayed whilst oh was in the UK with me cared for the dogs wonderfully well but house and garden keeping was................

I took all the covers off the very large cushions that make the settee. There are two very large cushions to sit on and two for the back and then 4 small cushions. Then there are the two big arm chairs each with the large seat and back plus two small cushion. They look bright and cheerful again and smell fresh. It is the taking off the cushions and then putting them back on that is the difficult part.

Whilst these were washing, I decided to pull out the furniture and also took out the little slide through the bottom of the doors gadget. Well what a shock I had. These are supposed to stop drafts but mine were covered in dog hairs!!
As I normally clean these every six weeks or so I was stunned to learn that neither of the two families who stayed here have never removed these in their own homes let alone in mine whilst they were here!! One couple has a very large dog so I am amazed.
I must say though that housework is proving to be very therapeutic for me and I enjoy doing it.

No big plans so far for today apart from going out to buy some salad items I think we shall have a restful day. We had pork for dinner last night and it was succulent so as we have some left over we will have it cold with the salad for our dinner tonight.

The view across the sea this morning was stunning, it looked as if it had been covered in a silver blue and was so calm and still. The fishing boats left at around five am and it was rather sad to see just how few are aloud to go compared to when we first moved here. The quota has diminished considerably and therefore the cost of the fresh fish has increased.

This weekend is going to be busy as it is Easter Weekend and it will be interesting to see how many non Spaniards come, again the economic climate is affecting the tourism. Many shops have closed this winter and we are all hoping that they will re open.

Well enough chatter from me, I will look in again during the day.

Take care of yourselves, and have a good day


10.01 Spain