General Chat

Good luck with the quiz night Bridget. I haven't been on one for months, but I know that they can be good fun.

Your grand daughter sounds like a determined young woman - already!
How wonderful that she is doing so well.

In the West Midlands (UK) the temps. are hoovering around freezing point. A lot of the time just above freezing, so the snow is thawring. But we have also had spells of just below freezing. A little snow in the night, and the skies are rather white, so perhaps some more snow on the way, :-(
Keeping my fingers crossed that the thaw continues and the white clouds disperse.

Just tried to wrap part of my youngest grandsons birthday gift, (he will be eight on Saturday) but have ripped the paper!

Off now to have a bowl of porridge (with some golden syrup). That should set me up for the day. :-)

I hope that everyone is well.

Tess

Tess porridge with golden syrup brings back memories - my grandma used to make a saucepan full of porridge on cold winter mornings and there was always Lyons golden syrup to go with it., Happy days !!

Glad to hear you are up and running Bridget - well your computer is what I mean. Hope the quiz night goes well.

Very windy here today and looks cloudy but I shall go and have a walk as I have not been out this week. Had a new printer delivered end of last week so OH was playing with it and setting it up over the weekend - it seems to me to be complicated but I expect I will get used to it. Will have to to do my card making. But at least whilst it was being set up it cleared desk tops and shelves so everything at the moment is sparkling !! Bet that doesnt last too long.

Well hope you are all well and those in colder climates keep warm.

Take care
Love Mary xx

ps should add after the visit by social services mom is now staying put at the home in Bodmin - common sense has prevailed

Apart from my little granddaughter having a lovely first birthday and has learnt to walk, so far this month has been fraught!

Five days ago our electricity went of in each room, and outside as well...no reason given, no warning, it took hours to find out what had happened...then came the shock! Our bank had not sent the money each month since !!!!!!! August !! We went to the bank and at first they claimed not to know anything about it. Ha Ha we said we will go to the police and the Mayor......oh they said please sit here and we will find the person you should see. Next after an hour it was agreed that, a) they had not sent us the new info about a change of the banks name. b) they had not sent any money to the electrics company. We then spent said days without light, cooking, etc etc .........thankfully someone we have known for many years and is Spanish and well known came with us to about five different people so that we got most things resolved...at last we have heat and light but remain very concerned.......

It appears that the said bank is the worst in Spain.......having been taken over by another bank a while ago.

My husband has been fraught as we have always felt proud that like most people we pay all utilities etc before we ever think of anyother item.

We are exhausted both mentally and physically .......this has made me even more determined to return to the UK as soon as we can find someone to buy our house....


Well I am now very tired but think of you all and hope that you are all well.

Bridget

Good morning everyone. OH is watching the cricket on the TV, I have been up for a morning cup of tea and now decide to write on here before I try to unravel some of my family tree.
This set me thinking about just how far one should add new people on my tree, for example ' person is related as six times removed and third great Uncle'. not an actual person but gives some idea of what I am thinking about.

My lovely daughter in law is on her way to Spain to go skiing, she is an excellent skier and such a good mother and wife, I hope that the conditions are OK for her.
Her daughter can now walk by herself but stops when she has to walk from one room into another, she looks puzzled at the change.

Yesterday our dear friends from Attleborough called to say they would like to visit us in early June for two weeks,,,this made me feel very happy and two other people are coming with them........I am looking forward to seeing them

Not much else to add, but will look in later, enjoy you day and take care of your self is my message to you all,

Bridget :-) <3 :-) <3 :-) <3

The continuing saga of Electricity in Spain! We had all our electricity equipment reviewed and brought up to date yesterday and before we can have our Electicity turned on the signed document has to go to Castelon and only when we have the document back can we officially have Electicity in the house! Could take anything between one week to EIGHT weeks......how do they think we can wash, cook etc!!

However we do still have it connected to a neighbours house and that is OK !!!

I am no longer worrying, we have light, and heat but what a palaver!

The weather is reasonable and the sun is trying to break through, jet and Zoe are relaxing. OH is finishing the questions for the Quiz this week and I am just being Lazy!

Take good care of yourselves and I hope to see new entries soon.

Bridget :-) :-) :-)

Oh Bridget poor you and the Electric

Well we have been without our little car for nearly two weeks, got news today that it needs a new catalytic converter and that it will cost just under £500 to fix :-(

The weather has been pretty cold with a lot of snow last week when we had to rely on public transport - this week rain seems to be the trend and temperatures just in double figures.

We had the Bishop of Edmonton preach and preside at church last Sunday - he was there for Confirmations and Baptisms

My team managed to get through to the next round of the FA Cup but only produced a draw tonight against Liverpool - Bridget sorry about the 5-1 last week

Been doing a little bit more work than usual, have to pay for the car somehow!

Trust everyone is well - I noticed the last three postings were all from Bridget - it is good to find out what's happening - post again soon

Lots of love and prayers
<3 :-) <3 :-) <3 :-)
Gerard

Sorry I haven't been on here much recently.
I try to read all the postings, but don't always have time to add anything.

Bridget, your electriciy saga sounds awful! Thank goodness you have got such good friend and neighbours.

I remember, in the mid-fifties, staying with grandmother in Ireland. It was way out in the country side, a really old house.
No electricity (or gas) No piped water. Lots of fresh air.

Cooking and heating all via a large open fire.
Water from a Spring down the road, or a rain barrel.
To have a cup of tea...
1) Light your fire.
2) Go across the fields with a bucket (or two)
3) Get water from the spring (lovely, fresh and cold)
4) Carry back to the house.
5) put some into the (blackened) large kettle that was on a hook over the fire place.
6) Swing kettle over fire and wait till it boils
7) When water is boiled, make sure that you don't burn yourself when getting it from fire and pouring onto the tea leaves in the pot.

etc. etc, etc,

There was often a pot on the side of the fire, keeping warm. And a pigs head on the wall in the inglenook, being smoked.
Toilets were chemical one, outside the house in the cattle shed, with a low, "half wall" between you and the calfs.
The calfs helped to keepthe shed warm, but also watched you with their big beautiful eyes as you sat and contemplated!

Lighting in 1956 was by oil lamp.
No electricity so no lighting or radio etc.

When we went back in 1960-61 (winter) There was electricity in the house, enough for lighting and the radio. But cooking was still done on the open fire and water had to be fetched.
A wonderful but really hard life.
Because of this, I count my blessings in having clean hot and cold running water piped to the house and electricity just the press of a button away!

I hope that it doesn't take the full eight weeks before your electricity s up and runnung (officially) again.

Most of my time spent on the computer recently, has been spent putting my tree details on Anc----y.
Today, I found some other members who have got one of my distant rellies in their tree (a great-great-great uncle) together with his wife, their ten children and numerous grandchildren.
I have got all these people on my tree n GR. but the Anc. members have given this man (great-great-great -uncle Samuel), different parents!!!!!

So I a a little knocked for sis at the moment.
If they are right, it meand that I have over a hundred people in my tree who are in no way related to me!!!!
My Derbyshire connection will have been disconnected.
:-( :-(

They were such an interesting lot too.
Never mind, if that is all I have got to moan about, I am very fortunate.

Tomorrow I hope to go to some new relaxation sessions. Should have gone last week but the unavailibility of the Ring & Ride (special) bus and the bad weather put paid to that.

Yesterday, managed to get into town to have lunch and a chin-wag with my three siblings and brother-in-law. Enjoyed myself, but rather tired so had a long sleep this afternoon/early evening.



Gerard,
congradulations on your team still being in th FA Cup (mine isn't and I saw them go out!)
I reckon that Swansea are the team to watch this season. I think that they beat you rteam, they certainly beat mine.

Mary,
I enjoyed my porridge and golden syrup (now sold in an easy to pout plastic bottle).
It can now be cooked in the micro-wave, so easy to do. Just don't get round to doing it very often for some reason.
Glad to hear that your Mum is staying in the home in Bodmin.

Take care everyone,
Tess

Tess - Don't worry about Ancestry members who have different parents for your Samuel, they all probably copied each other. I often find incorrect info on there, which has been copied and recopied when the correct information is fairly easy to find. Particularly last week, there was a whole brood of children, ten in all, given the wrong mother, the father had remarried when the children were in their twenties and thirties! and to be honest if the ancestor has that many greats in front, there aren't too many documents to back any info up. Ask some of them where they got the info - it might help you decide whether to remove or leave that branch.

Talking of porridge I bought some yesterday which you only have to boil a kettle and add the water to. At a pound a throw, a bit expensive I thought, it will save so much time, washing up and etc. (going to have one tomorrow for breakfast - had Rice Krispies this morning)

I am pleased to say we have already disposed of Swansea in the third round - but they are looking good to win the Capital One cup against Bradford City.
Sorry about mentioning the football all the time!

You will all be pleased to note that my back is back to normal and causing me no pain at all now (thank goodness)

Keep well everyone
Lots of Love
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3
Gerard :-) :-) :-)

Tess & Gerad, thanks for your posts, I pleasant surprise as they are both so long and interesting, just as I was beginning to think that everyone was hiding away!

Delighted to hear that you are now back to good health Gerard.
Tess how I have enjoyed read you entry, brought back many memory's, it has made me wonder if I should write a book for my family about said memories. I would have been thrilled if I had one given to me. After all I do not know if my family will be using the sites we are or even be interested BUT if each child had a copy maybe the next generation would enjoy it....???

Well still no electricity of our own, due to all the festivities happening almost every day and night.....hoping it will be on soon......

Time to get on with today's work but hope to look in again this evening.
:-)

Good afternoon to you all
Well Bridget Spanish electricity is a real pain - hope you get sorted very soon. Today the weather has gone cooler and the wind has come back which is a cold one. For the past two nights we have not had to put a fire on it was quite warm.

I don't know whether I have mentioned it before but parking here in Oliva is terrible to say the least and OH usually parks about 5 minutes walk away from our house. Thursday he went to work in the car and Thursday afternoon we do our weekly shop. When OH came home Thursday lunch I asked where is the car - he replied where he had left it Wednesday night !! I looked surprised and then laughed - you daftie you went to work in it - guess you have guessed correctly he had left it down by the office. I do sometimes wonder if he is safe to go out on his own !!! But we had a good laugh about it and I had a 15 minute walk to the car before we went shopping - at least it was warm and dry.

Today I have had a lesson on our new printer - I have 2 birthday cards to make - our old one was easy switch on and hit print button - this one is completely different but the quality is much better. Just hope I can remember how to do it on my own next time !!
That word remember seems to be the forefront these days !!

Well have a good weekend all and hope to see you soon

Love Mary xx

Just popping in to say hello to everyone, I have not forgotten you all but have been busy on ANC....RY making sure that I have each family correct. Started with my Fords, should have stated with A not F!

Watching darts with my husband an we are waiting for our lunch to be ready in about 10 minutes. We are being prudent in using as much as we can from the two freezers and in the store cupboard.......then we can start again.

I hope you all have a pleasent day

B :-) <3

A quick visit,
Gerard, usually I am satisfied that the other Anc---ry members have got it wrong, but this time I am not so sure. My Samuel was with his parents at a few months old and not again after that. Most of the children in this family left at a very early age.
Wil work on other parts of the family, perhaps I will get a clue as to why I thought that this was my Samuel.

Bridget, go on, write a book. It has got to have benefits for you as you write it. Might even clarify "happenings" in the family, as you start to write it all down. There is a good chance that somene in the amily would be interested in the result.
As they say in USA "Go for it girl!".

Mary, hope that you have fun with your new printer. I am still trying to get to grips with mine and I have had it for ages. Need to get some more ink, and to work out how to scan.

Haven't had any porridge for a few days, perhaps tomorrow....
I cook mine in the micro-wave ust measure out the porridge and water into a large (suitable) bowl. Set the timer, press the button ... and its done.

This afternoon I will be going to the Library. The one I used to go to in my teens.
It is only open 9-5 and closed for lunch 1-2, not very good for those at work.

Got up too late to go this morning. At least it is dry aout at the moment, I hope that it stays that way.

Tess

Tess, thanks for your positive message about writing a book about my family. I have decided to start with the Fords and then the Poole family as these are my grandparents who I still miss so much. Just goes to show how they influenced me. The only thing that they would be cross about is that I have married twice.!!

I also have a tree on Anc...ry which is rather large now. I am becoming disappointed more and more each day with GR. the only reason I have stayed for this year is because of the "pen pals" I have. However I could get around that by finding who would like to stay in touch.

Well time to do some work and then maybe think about how to approach my book writing skills. All suggestions welcome.

Bridget in warm Spain :-) <3 :-)

Good morning to you all.

Life is never humble in my view.

So here we go with my true story of yesterday !

We had a call from good old Loius who has been a godsend to us since we first moved here. He speaks excellent English as he lived in England for 20 years. He told us that he had called the people dealing with our paperwork requesting that our electricity should be reinstated. Result being " it will be at least another two weeks ".

About 15 minutes later just as we had driven out of our house we saw an electricity van coming up our road......stopped to ask was he going to be doing our work? Reply, " the name is Sullivan ??". Yes, we replied, 10 minutes later we had the electricity back and a rather state of the art meter! Well that is Spain!!

The relief was amazing, we no longer felt worried or tired,.

Can you imagine this happening in the UK.

Part two of yesterday.

I telephoned my daughter just to say hello, my granddaughter, whom some of you will rember, answered and said that her mum was at the hospital with her brother, he had collapsed at school and so did several others and they all seem to have a strange virus..........no more news this morning ......I will wait until this evening if I haven't heard more. The good news is that daughters friend sent a quick message to say " not I'll through drinks or any substance but a virus ......thank goodness for that!.

Well time to do some housework so bye bye for now

:-) ;-) :-)

Bridget, I hope that your grandsons and his school friends make a quick recovery, so that all the families and friends can stop worrying.


Great that you have got your electricty back, one less thing to worry about.

I am off to my exercise session in a little while (as soon as the Ring and Ride bus turns up).

Will check in later (or tomorrow) to see if there is any more news.

Tess

Bridget I hope your grandson and his friends have recovered from the virus, there are so many around just now.
Pleased that you have your electricity back and quickly in the end too after your friend had spoken to them.
We have just done a weekly shop, earlier than usual this week as I have a hospital appointment with my dermatologist on Thursday. I am almost certain he is going to be carving more lumps out of me as he attacks another rodent ulcer so, never knowing how many stitches I end up with it is best to get the heavy work like shopping out of the way beforehand. Sooo not looking forward to Thursday at all!!

Bridget, hope that you have had some good reports about your grandson.

Ann, I hope that everything went well at your appointment and that you haven't got a lot of stitches.

Weather here is rather cold, but at least we haven't got snow (at the moment).

Saw Les Mis. (film) yesterday with my son. (special offer two for one, and free car park).

We both enjoyed it and would highly recommend it.

The type of film that you can see more than once and still enjoy.

Beware though, it might get you singing on the way home.
Rather embarrassing if you are on public transport.
Just intend pottering around today, as still tired from my busy week last week. Really need to file some paperwork and to order some ink for the printer. ... after that ... who knows..

Tess

AT last, I have ordered some printer ink. It's taken me months to get around to it.

Should come within a week. Then I will be able to do lots of things in my "To Do" pile.
Wether I will or not is a completley different matter.

Luckily, we do not have snow in my neighbourhood at the moment.

I hope it stays that way.

Shopping early using the (specail) Ring & Ride Bus. I like shopping before it gets too crowded .

Hope that everyone is well,

Tess

Well, yesterday we got to the hospital early for my 4.35 appointment, have to go early because we go by bus and there are several lots of road works with traffic lights. Strange to be going out at that time of night rather than going home! And, of course, the bus was full of school children going home too so quite noisy.

Anyway, as usual the appointments were running late so I didn't go in until 5.05pm. And then it seems he had only been given 5 minute follow up appointments so he was feeling the pressure a bit. He is very nice and very kind and refuses to be rushed but apologises for keeping you waiting. (actually he thanked me for my patience!).

So, this time no cutting out of the little so and sos, next time he has told me he is going to scrape (sounds lovely doesn't it?) two of them on my back, and do a small biopsy ( a puncture hole apparently -had it done before) on my thigh. He thinks two of them on my thigh (there are 3) are dormant but I don't agree so he will be watching them. He wants another appointment for me before we go away end April. But that is in the hands of the booking office so who knows?

Anyway, as I'd had nothing done we walked on into town. (saw the starlings going to roost, a wonderful sight), and had a curry in Wetherspoons. Usually quite quiet in there at that time (about 5.30) but there were a group of 20+ year old males in there making a heck of a noise, obviously well oiled by the time we got there. staff were watching them but they are all so young, I wonder how they cope if there is trouble. we were home by 6.45.

While walking into town we saw a car clamped, in a two hour roadside parking slot, with the young girl driver taking stuff out of the glove compartment. The clamp had DVLA on it. Never seen that before in town so we were left wondering why it was clamped and didn't just have a ticket. Thought maybe no insurance when the number was checked.

Anyway dry here so far and OH hasbeen to golf which gave me a bit of time to myself. Although most of it was spent walking to the local shops to collect our prescriptions. I did get a couple of cards made though.

Hope all is well with everyone, glad you got around to ordering your ink Tess, when we order our it usually comes in two days. we get ours from Britink.

I have not forgotten you all but been rather busy. Yesterday we went shopping and noticed that a shop which sells, all electric items you would want and it is to be closed in the next few weeks. I have been looking for a new cooker but they have all been soooo expensive that I just carried on. We had a German cooker but it was very old?

Anyway we went into the shop and found a really nice cooker, hasn't got all the things the old one had but then I didn't use most of them. Anyway we bought it and was told that someone could come to our house at 18.30 hrs if we wanted it installed straight away. We were delighted and it cost 50 Euros and this included taking the old one away.

I used it today for our lunch and it was so much quicker I just about got everything ready at the right time.

My grandson who wanted to go into the Army became very unwell and was admitted into hospital, luckily he is physically well but has some other issues. Please remember him in your positive thoughts or prayers. He is the brother of my granddaughter who had the awful accident.

Hope you are all keeping well

Bridget