General Chat

Hello all

Can't sleep and then came in here and found this post up and about again which is more than I have been doing lately - but as soon as foot is better and moonboot off I shall be able to run into office and back onto the computer.
Well we were not affected by the Tsunami - but at least NZ had all the alerts in the right place and they cancelled the National Radio Program this morning to ensure we would know what was happening. I was watching it on TV tonight and did not realise that we have quite a community of Chileans residing in NZ. There will soon be none of us naturalised Kiwis here - I have Sri Lankans living on one side of me and Japanese on the other and they are both lovely families.
Kathleen you should be able to change your name - just go to the boards summary page and change it at the bottom of the page.

Once upon a time in old Genie Reunited Land there lived an enchantress who would not let anyone have the same name as another hence me being Persephone. Then the new Genie arrived and changed the fonts and all sorts of things and shifted buttons around to confuse us all and waved the magic wand and pouff or is it poof and I can now call myself by my actual monika or maybe Ann or Katleen or Jill though I haven't tried.
I thought of changing my name to "press submit and not preview by mistake."

Persey

Haven't been around for a while, pleased to see this thread is still going. I did manage to sit for a short time a few days ago and could not find it - mainly because I couldn't sit for long enough I guess.

I have been (and still am) suffering from sciatica, it is painful but the worst thing was being unable to sleep - not a wink!! Painkillers didn't work, that is the usual paracetamol, ibuprofen then my g.daughter got me some paramol and after taking those I have slept for two days on and off. Now feeling much better though still in pain but able to move. Looked it up on the internet and found the combination of paracetamol and codeine was prescribed - it does work. Also found a thread on here so I know I am not alone.

I hope that Jill's "girls" have their babies safely. Years ago I used to spend time in Hyde Park watching the new lambs that were there each day during spring. We all took our lunch breaks in the park but I don't think they do that anymore - put the lambs out I mean. Too much traffic, back then it was much quieter.

It is raining hard here but doesn't seem to be quite as windy as yesterday. Our roads tend to flood at the best of times, they are now over the pavements in parts. The village is not too bad but here, where it has only been built on since 1950, the roads are dreadful. Always full of potholes and huge cracks. The main road which runs through the centre of this area is lined with trees which doesn't help. They have a tendency to lift the paving or to fall over, as much as I love to see the trees they really are a menace.

Ann, I hope that you are not going to get flooded again this year - the forecast is not good for many parts of the country.

Have to go and take another painkiller, must try to keep moving now.

Have changed my name slightly as I noticed a short while ago that another "Kathleen" had posted, previously there was only me and Kathleen Bell.

Hope you all have a good day. Take care

Kathleen

Edit - it seems the name change didn't work

Jill that sounds quite scary, glad you are OK though and the animals etc. Ducks will be enjoying themselves, glad the tree missed their house. Take care

Jill,
It sounds terrible, I hope that your girls are listening to you and don't give birth just yet. I hope that it all blows over and things are soon back to normal.
Then you can treat yourself to a good night sleep.
What has the naughty ram got to say about all this? I bet he couldn't care less.

A wet night here in the West Midlands, England. But at least temps. are above freezing.
Can you recycle any of your uprooted trees? Must be a big job to get them cleared, I really don't envy you.

Tess

Just gone through a horrendous night of gales and have woken up to another four trees uprooted in what was our orchard. Luckily one tree just missed duck house but has wrecked fencing so ducks now very happy as roaming our field. We are keeping the mums and five lambs in until it blows over and told Daisy and lily to cross their legs and not give birth today :))
Hope everyone is well and that the weather is better where ever you are

x Jill

Hi everyone,

Nice to see this thread nudged up again.

Jill,hope you don't have to get up to feed the lambs too often.

We are enjoying a respite from the heat-it's been cooler today,and we have even had a little rain,with more expected.It's much easier getting to sleep when the weather is cooler. The garden,and our water tanks, appreciate the rain also.

I hope the weather in the UK improves,and Canada's nice warm sunny weather continues.

Best wishes from Margot in a cooler Melbourne.

The snowdrops have been out in our garden for about two weeks and daffs will be very soon, at last we seem to be moving away from Winter. Even our last hen has started laying again with the longer day- light, she is living out her life with the ducks and a cockerel after the fox took the rest, having a happy retirement :))

x Jill

I didn't manage to watch much of the Winter Olympics. My body clock jsut didn't want to know.

I saw (one bunch of ) Snowdrops on Tuesday. Had gone to a local Cemetary with sis-in-law, looking for a family grave. Didn't find the one we were looking for. But did find another family grave that we had been unaware of.

The snow drops were close to the snow, which lay on much of the ground in the cemetary. The streets and pavements, by the way, were completely free of snow!

I am still trying to consentrate on sorting my paperwork. So not on here quite so much at the moment

Hi Sylvia, what a shame that the Olympics will finish in rain after all your recent nice weather. This must be the first year for ages that our plants have not all been early, in fact the snowdrops are about 2 weeks late.
I boosted the thread up, there were so many good posts on here that it seemed a shame to lose it.

Hello Ann, and everyone

This thread seemed to disappear down the listings. How nice to see it reappear.

It's raining here, not unusual for Vancouver in February, but it does mean the Winter Olympics will end as they began ...... in rain!

Meanwhile, we had such warm sunny weathe rlast week that not only are the crocuses, snowdrops and daffodils in flwoer, but we also have forsythia, camellia and cherry trees in full flower. Magnolias are also begining to show colour. Many of these are about 2 weeks early.


Good luck with the lambs, Jill!



sylvia
xxx

We will keep our fingers crossed for you Jill and hope you don't have to bottle feed.

Good evening to you all from quite a Spring like France today after a night of strong winds and rain. We have been busy with lambs and three out of our five females have had theirs, two sets of twins and a single birth. Its lovely seeing them out in the field but a real pain trying to get them in for the night :)) we have to try and tempt mums in with granules but at the same time keeping the greedy rams and Poppy the goat out :))
Fingers crossed I will not have to do any bottle feeding as that means seven trips out with bottles through out the day, not so bad when the weather is OK but no fun on a cold wet night.
Hope you all have a good weekend

x Jill

Well, I don't think we have had many if any new people posting have we? Not to worry we are a select little band.

Hi Sylvia, not sure what you mean but yes I do talk to myself. No on here I am always Ann in Glos or at Christmas Sparkling Ann in Glos.

We could get confused now, we have two Sylvias, one in Canada and one in Holland!!!

Hi Ann,
Well Ann, and I thought I was the only one who walked around the house talking to myself. Join the party Ann, or is it early dementia?
Have you two names Ann?
Syl xxx

Even in the 1990's my boss (who is a little younger than me), thought that she was eating "foreign food" if she had a pizza!

Saying that, although pizza's are almost a way of life now, they haven't been in the UK all that long.

When my family first settled in Birmingham in 1961, there were only two Chinese restaurants in the city. No Indian restaurants that we could find.
Now going for a curry or a chinese meal is very much part of our culture.

It must have been so difficult for people from other countries who settled here, to find any of the food they were used to.
Thank goodness for progress.

I am always amazed when we return to the UK at the change in the foods eaten from when I left ....................... back in 1967!


You may not have noticed it as you have "lived through it" as the changes happened. But there is an incredible difference


And then there is the veggies


Wen I had to take Home Economics in school back in the 50s, we were taugth to cook all meat well, veggies were cooked for 20 minutes, potatoes for 30 minutes. Usually only one veggie plus one kind of potato.


Now? Rare meat, crisp veggies, 5 or 6 different kinds, 2 or 3 kinds of potatoes.


OH's parents visited us here in 1970, by which time we were having crisp veggies, rare to medium-rare roasts, etc. The message went back to the UK, and was relayed to us by a cousin who thought it was hilarious "Poor (son), his wife really cannot cook at all. She serves him raw vegetables and underdone meat"

Two years later, parents came out at Christmas for the marriage of their daughter who had also moved out here. They were with us for Christmas dinner. M-i-l watched almost entranced as OH ate crisp brussels sprouts, which he had always hated, and refused to eat, when she cooked them

Finally, she said "I suppose you do like your vegetables cooked like this"


Two years later, we went back to the UK ..................... guess who was cooking crisp veggies?!

Never did get her to cook anything but well-done meat 'cos f-i-l would only eat that!




sylvia
xxx

Hi everyone, havent been on for a while ....flu... but read your input, I think we are forrtunate that we are able to have so many produces to choose from, I too never tried any cheese only mild chedder, but one of my jobs was to manage a cheese stall, and so many new sorts started to arrive now we have a great variety to choose from, my favourites are all the blue cheeses
Dolcelatti, Gorgonzola, and best of all Cambazola...the riper the better...now I only use mature chedder, when cooking...

Jean x

Yes and now most people use Olive Oil, maybe that is to do with more people going abroad to Europe for holidays where they get used to olive oil.


My Mum used to put camphorated oil in our ears.

Haven't times changed! I remember when little, back in the mid 1950's being amazed that some neighbours (I think that they were from Malta), cooked with Olive Oil. I thoiught that it was something that you warmed, befor putting a few drops in the ears, to get rid of exessive ear wax! (Well my dad did anyway).
So for a long time, I associated olive oil with ear wax.
While I was young, prcticalyy the only cheese we had in the house was Cheddar, da did have some very smelly blue cheese, was I thought was digusting.

Now I love Stilton Cheese and Brie and some goats cheese. In fact willing to try (almost) anything.
Unfortunately, I have to watch my weight, so can only eat cheese (or anything else) in moderation.

Will have to try some salami next time I go shopping.