General Chat

good morning all, the sun is shining first day of autumn and 7 degrees out there at the moment.
Tesco this morning otherwise nothing else on today. I do have a few plants waiting to be planted in a container so I ought to do that.


:-D You have a whole new language Mel. But I get the gist. You do need to get somebody to look at either your keyboard or your PC.

M itwtype agin

Evening All,

What an upsetting time for your friends with the seriously ill sister Vera. They will appreciate your kindness and sympathy listening to them at this time as talking can help, as does having a little normality for a while. I see what you mean about our getting older and the effect of hiring and car insurance. All too soon it will start affecting us too,although I hadn'treally thought about it. So unfair if you are fit and well and have had few accidents, that the more experienced have to pay more. I'm not sure I fancy the electric bike suggestion on our main roads that OH made! I hope you can sort out the travel you need to do and manage till you get the car back.

So a jab in each arm as well now Mel. It's our turn a week on Wednesday. OH said when he called for our meds yesterday, that it was chaos at the pharmacy with people wanting jabs. He said some where sitting on the wall outside filling forms in. Isn't it a pain when you can't find something you know is SOMEWHERE. We found lots of FIL's spanners clearing one side of the garage, some huge ones we would never use, so they and some other old tools will be going to the auction in the next few weeks, as we will never use them and I don't fancy the effort of a car boot sale any more. What are the UV lights for......to kill the algae?

What was the subject for your photography this week AnnG? We found it really chilly tonight and so like you 'tested out' out our heating for ten minutes to take the chill off. Like you say, we wanted to be sure it would work ok before it gets colder. I've seen 3 Squirrels in the last couple of days, so it looks like they are stocking their larders now there's a chill in the air.

I had a chuckle with a neighbour last night after OH had gone out. He had agreed that we would fetch a parcel off their doorstep as they needed to go out earlier and she had now come to fetch it. I handed the parcel over and she told me it was a wet suit for her husband. He is a quiet man and she said she had been getting him interested in different hobbies as she was concerned what he would do if anything happened to her. They have already joined the bowls club in one of the villages and like it and her son had decided to take his dad to try out swimming at the local diving centre at one of our disused quarries. I asked 'is he wild swimming then?' and she said he was with a giggle and that he had enjoyed it. So the wet suit was for the colder weather, but she said she thought his waist might now be too big for a wet suit. I told her it would most likely be good and hold it in well and that it being too tight in other important places might be more of a problem and we both had a good laugh. :-D She's going to let me know how he gets on with it. :-)

Good afternoon all

How are the arms today Mel? I hope they are not too sore. With bil’s help you are getting your pond sorted but sn’t it strange how you can never find the tool you want for a job even though you know you’ve got one somewhere?

The weather is strange today. It was really chilly for a while this morning, then the sun came out and it got quite warm, now it’s overcast and breezy and looks as though it might rain at any minute but there’s no rain forecast. The weather app is telling me that it’s 17 degrees but it doesn’t feel that warm.

I had a bad night and it took me a while to get going this morning but once I got my act together I gave my en-suite and the bathroom a thorough clean and disinfect. I didn’t wash the floors but that can wait until I have the cleaner out for the downstairs tiles. I cleaned some other sinks as well and after lunch managed to do a bit in the garden. Mostly I was clearing pots and troughs of annuals that were near enough dead. They suffered badly with the extreme heat and no watering while we were away. The neighbour and I will have to get together and make sure we don’t go away at the same time again.

Now I am going to check my diary and see what I have on in the next couple of weeks and work out how to get there. I know I have a hair appointment that I can manage by walking there and getting a bus back, but I also have a birthday lunch in an out of the way pub so I shall have to ring around and see if I can cadge a lift to that.

Had Em here for eggs and we talked for quite a while then BIL turned up with two new UV lights for the big pond. He fitted one but needed an adjustabele spaner to get something off. Of all the tools oh had do you think we could find one or a paair of swan necked pliers and I know he had two of three pairs of those as I bought them forr him. No luck there either so we could'nt get the end off to clean the glass tube the lights fit in. So I have one new buld thing in there and an old one. He could'nt stay for lunch as he had to go shopping so off he went. So now I am £45 lighter and had to raid the chickens egg money and my float to pay him.

I did a wash before they all arrived and still had to drain the machine again twice before it would rinse and spin.

Morning Anng and all,

11 degrees here and pc says partly sunny. The suns out at the mo and the deer was lying against the fence out the back when I got up. I had three in here yesterday and BIL took loads of pics. It seem I have a young one with no mum and mum and baby. I have seen them all in the garden twice now.

This morning I have two sore arms so I am going to stay off the pc again today.

BIL said he may come again today but he would see how it goes.

Did'nt wake up till 9.15am this morning which is late for me lately. I did take the extra two paprs last night though and my arms did'nt hurt a bit in the night.

Good morning all, a lovely bright sunny morning but still only 7 degrees and the windows are all misted on the outside. autumn is here it seems and goodbye to whatever short bursts of summer we had. I actually tried out my heating yesterday evening, only on very low but I have been caught before in October by a boiler not working.
That reminds me I had better get the boiler serviced sometime soon.

Nothing planned for this morning but photography meeting this afternoon.

You are welcome Mel I hope they survive the zroyal Mailnwithout being crushed. And that they are the sort you can use. I will be interested to see what you do with them.

O Thanks Anng I will let you know when they arrive and thank you once again for finding some for me.

They only hold the flu cklinic and covid jab at the docs on a certain day. I am back now and I had two nurses one on each arm at the same time but the flu jab hurt more and took longer than the covid jab. All done now anyway and I picked up my ompresol and made an apponintment with the chiropodist (sp) so thats not till 20th Oct which is wear pink for breast cancer day so I shall have to remember that.

Just having a COT and a hot cross bun.

Vera its going to be a long while without the car I hope you manage ok. Its not till its not there you really miss it. When we lived in Alphamstone we only had a bus once a week. I lived oppossit where the bus stopped and was always having to go out and tell people sitting on the seat under the horse chestnut tree that it was'nt coming for another week. Mind you that was over 30 years ago. We did have a community car thing but I only went on that once with a friend from the village.

good afternoon all. I decided to go into town as it was dry and sunny. I got back home at 12.45. I needed to go to the post office to post your shells Mel. I actually forgot to put a covering note inside but my name and postcode is on the back of the envelope. The shells are in a small pink box so you will know they are from me. Let me know when they arrive, I sent them 2nd class.
I am not sure that you should have the jab in the arm that hurts it might make it worse. Maybe you should have one jab this week and leave a week before having the other. My daughter has to do that as she has Lymphoedema in her left arm.

Vera life is certainly a bit hectic for you at the moment, not good for you not to eat properly but I suppose it was unavoidable. I hope you were able to comfort your friends anyway.

Ann I didn't see anybody wearing a mask in town today but I did notice the queue in the post office was well spaced out instead of all bunched up. I must admit I actually took and used hand gel which I have not done for ages and wore gloves on the bus. Buses were relatively empty today actually and windows were open.

Afternoon all

We had some very heavy rain during the night but it’s a much calmer day now. It’s about 17 degrees and sunny with just a bit of a breeze so it’s quite pleasant but I think we are due for more rain later on.

Mel, I hope your flu and Covid jabs are OK this afternoon. Ours are coming up in just over a week. I know it will be hard for you but you might have to stop working outside and rest your arm completely for a week or two. As you are always busy on the ponds or cutting back brambles and other things your arm isn’t really getting a chance to heal. Just do whatever is essential to keep the fish and the chickens alive and let the rest go hang. You might need to get someone in to look at that Ash tree in case there are other branches that might break.

OH took the car in this morning and managed to get a taxi back from a nearby Tesco. We haven’t got a courtesy car, Ann, as we decided not to put this job through the insurance. I’m not sure we would have got a courtesy car anyway without paying quite a bit as extra insurance because of our age. It’s difficult enough once you are over 70 but hopeless if you are over 80. Some 10 years ago a neighbour backed into us. He said he would cover all costs and, living in the middle of nowhere then, we hired a car just for 3 days. Even having it with just OH to drive we, or rather our neighbour, had to pay quite a chunk of money as insurance because OH was over 70. Anyway the body shop that now has the car has said they will update us with progress every Wednesday. How many Wednesdays do they think they will need to keep it?

Yesterday was a strange day. We were supposed to be visiting friends who are going through a difficult time. Apart from their own ill health and other problems, the husband’s sister was receiving 24 hour palliative care in her own home which is in a tiny Close just near us. Sadly she passed away yesterday and our friends spent several hours organizing everything but left their car at our house so that there would be room at sister’s for various specialist people who had to come, including a hearse to take her away. I kept putting off cooking us a meal while we were waiting for them to arrive back with us and they didn’t get to us till 7.30 pm. They looked so shattered that we sat them down with tea and biscuits and they wanted to talk so stayed till 9 pm. By then I was too tired to bother to cook and eat a dinner so we just had some cheese and biscuits.

OH has just called that he has made us a lunchtime sandwich so I’ll go and eat that now and then we have a Tesco delivery this afternoon.

morning all, Nice bright mornig here today with nice sunshine but pc says 10 degrees and mostly cloudy so \I hope its wrong.

Arm hurt in the night again after a visit to the loo and now I am sneezing as I type and it hurts my hip!!

Docs at 4.20pm for my flu and covid jabs wich I am not looking forward to as its one in each arm which means thats soemthing else for my arm to take discomfort wise.

Thanks for your anniversary wishes. Some days it seems less than 20 years, other days more! It would have been 54 years on the 13th if I’d stayed married the first time………..except it wouldn’t as he passed away in 2012…….asbestos related. His much younger second wife passed away two years ago as well.

Thanks also for the info about your phones which was helpful as I was a bit wary of having an iphone as I thought it would be complicated. I have an old (very old 10 years plus Samsung) at the moment. We are going to Curry’s in the morning.

I agree and hope the facemasks don’t have to come back as well AnnG, although I can see it would be harder for you. Yes it doesn’t seem any worse than the other ones, just more infectious and with no needing to report or isolate, even more likely to spread. At least us ‘oldies’ had the extra booster in the Spring as well as the one we are getting soon.

Boy it was windy this morning and we’ve had more showers, but that’s ok as, like Vera we need it here. The grass still looks quite brown on the verges. I nipped to the shop this afternoon and had to come to standstill as soon as I turned into our close coming home. One car was parked at the roadside and another woman was in another car in the middle of the road talking to her. It’s a blind turn into our close one side as there’s a high hedge, so it was a dangerous place to stop so close to the end of the road. The car moved on and I followed and she turned right in the ‘T’ at the end where our narrow road goes straight on, then nearly reversed into me as I started to go past the back of her into our road. I think she had assumed I would turn round as well and was waiting for her, as she looked embarrassed as she drove away. Judging by the time it was, I think both cars were there to wait to pick up children from the school near the village about a 10 minute walk away. I know there has been a lot of trouble with parents parking on drives and verges next to the school and blocking residents from getting to their driveways, so if that’s been stopped I hope they aren’t going to be a nuisance here instead. I must drive past the school sometime and see if they have been stopped from parking outside the houses there.

Well that’s a long time to be without your car Vera, so I hope they manage to get it done sooner. Was there no courtesy car for you? I expect it would cost even more than a taxi to hire a car. I know what you mean about the future and getting to places when both of you can’t drive any more. I think about it and although we can order food and meds online, we have to go into the city to the hospitals and there’s no bus route from here to the doctors. Mum never did learn to drive, but got a mobility scooter, when she couldn’t walk as far, for local errands and then used taxis for other journeys. I must admit that OH’s parents used taxis almost daily when they gave their car up, saying what they saved running a car covered it, but they only did short journeys. Maybe there will be driverless cars for us to use by then! That was a nice £20 saving on your shopping!

Mel, maybe you need to just give your arm a bit more rest. If it’s your right arm, it wouldn’t have been easy for it to be cleaning all your outside windows the other day. It might help to give it a few days off and as you will be seeing the doctor it would be worth mentioning as there might be stronger patches? It’s a shame about the tree and I hope it didn’t damage your shed. At least getting it trimmed will make it safer in these winds we get and it will still be there to look at. I wish I lived nearer to buy some eggs off you.

I have had two lots of painkillers today and it still aches. I think scrolling on the mouse dos'nt help so I am trying to stay off the pc today.

Hope yiu get the car done ok and its not as long as you think it may be Vera.

I too am sending Ann and G belated 20th anniversary greeting as I think I forgot the other day.

While I was outside on the patio having a ciggy I heard a crack and a fare sized branch fell off the ash tree and hit my shed. I think I shall have to have someone come and look at it and maybe trim it up. It would look really strange without it.

Now I think I may do some baking as I have eggs coming out of my ears.

Sorry to hear your arm is playing up Mel. Have you been overdoing it keeping everything in order round your pond and on your piece of land?

Belated congratulations on your 20th wedding anniversary Ann and Mr Ann. You have been busy at home; it will be like a new house by the time you have finished. I am sure it won't take your OH long to get used to a new phone in place of his Blackberry. We both have Apple iPhones, fairly old ones now, but find them easy to use and I know my late brother was pleased with his Samsung. The trouble with modern phones is that they come with so many apps and things that most people of our age group are never going to use.

Mandy, that wood was a good freebie. That will save you a bit of money in a year or two when it's seasoned.

We've been dashing around this morning. First into town to the bank, then out to the Farm Foods shop which had some really good offers on products I use anyway so I stocked up there and saved at least £20 on Tesco prices.

I hope you don't get soaked this afternoon AnnG. Our forecast is much the same, that is heavy rain this afternoon. It's very blowy still. I was out in the wind for a couple of minutes and got back in the car looking as though I'd been dragged through a hedge backwards. Yes, we have thought about how to manage without a car when the time comes. When we moved here 10 years ago the bus service was reasonable but it has been cut more and more so it is pretty dire now. The money we currently spend on the car with tax, insurance, servicing, fuel, new tyres now and then etc., will have to be put aside to pay for taxis when really necessary. We will also have to change our lifestyle a bit to fit in with the few buses we have got. There is also a community transport organisation which is mostly used by disabled people but we are eligible as pensioners. The problem with that is they ask you to book at least 3 days in advance. Our doctors often give you an appointment the same day. To take you for a hospital appointment and bring you back the charge is £25 and they will wait for 90 minutes which is very good. But if, for instance, OH came with me it would cost us £50 and there's no guarantee that we will be out in 90 minutes. On the other hand the current price for a taxi to and from the hospital is about £100!

Till recently our group of friends all helped each other out with lifts but we are all much of an age so some of those are stopping driving now. We will manage as all the non-drivers round here have to.

I have rabitted on again haven't I. This afternoon we are going to see friends who are going through a really rough time and the wife, in particular, really wants some company so we are going while we have a car. Tomorrow morning it disappears again for 2 weeks to have the damaged bodywork sorted out.

Going to get some lunch now. Enjoy the rest of the day whatever you are doing.

good morning all, really horrible here, blowing a gale and lashing with rain Alexa says 16 degrees. I am hoping this is going to ease off as it is the U3a main meeting this afternoon. I do have a lift but have to walk round to the main road to get it so if it is still like this I will be soaked before I go anywhere.

Nice to see you on here Ann. I see you are still busy but it sounds as though you are slowly getting straight. It won't be so easy though now the schools are back.
New phones then. I find my Iphone (an older model) is easy to use most of the time, my sister likes her Samsung. Good luck with finding one you like.
I think there will be quite a lot of Covid cases as the last vaccination was quite a while ago and it will have lost protection. However I have seen where they say the new strain has not given any more cause for concern than the last one. I really hope they don't bring back compulsory masks. a nightmare for me.

Vera, I wondered why you had not posted on Monday, glad you are ok.
You had a busy day yesterday, hope OH's back is better today.
And hope you get the car back Quickly so you can get all the errands done.
If transport is so bad where you are do you have plans for when the day comes that neither of you can drive? I have to admit I had not realised how much I would have to rely on buses and other people. taxis are not cheap so can really only be used when absolutely necessary.

Mandy in a couple of years all that wood will save you a bit. You must have a large garden to be able to store so much wood without it being in the way.

Mel Are the patches not working? Have you told your GP this? Have you done anything in the last couple of days to make it so bad? Hope it easies soon

ck today and I may not.



BLASWTR just lost my post so maybe I will see you tommorrow. Arms really bad.

Evening All,

It's been cooler here today and I even fished out some socks to wear. I keep seeing complaints about rain on tv, but we haven't really had much this year and it's been parched instead. We did have a sprinkle yesterday and this morning which should help the garden plants. It is getting windy though and when the man from FENSA came this morning to check the front door installation I opened the front door and the inside doors all started slamming with the wind.

It was our 20th wedding anniversary yesterday, so we did go out for a meal but just to the carvery that keeps offering 30% off! Places are still not doing so well since the pandemic and I checked the Helston bead place I've been to in the past today and that has gone too. They were giving 75% discount towards the end when I found them on FB, so I wish I'd known.

We had a panic yesterday when OH couldn't top up his mobile and we thought we'd been cut off, as our ancient phones are only 3G ones and that is being turned off this year. He managed to sort it by going online instead, but it has spurred on to get new phones now so a trip to Curry's this week methinks ,as we could be switched off any time in the next 14 or so weeks. OH was hoping to get another Blackberry as they are much more user friendly than my phone, but read a little while ago that they have stopped doing them.

I've done the new bedroom curtains and we hung them yesterday and they look much better than the old ones. There's still plenty of storage space in the bedroom, even with OH's clothes in the wardrobes, so we've been able to give a new home to some other things out of the study.

Hubby is at a meeting now and will be every day this week. The autumn term always seems the busiest in the schools. One person can't attend as both she and her husband have covid! I can see it going back to online meetings again before long as the latest strain is even more infectious. Better dig out the face masks ready. One of the surgeries in the city has already re-introduced masks again.

Better get back to the job of looking at a brochure with new toilets in and choosing one for the ensuite. What an exciting life I lead just now! lol.

I am definitely going doolally in my old age - I could have sworn I posted yesterday but obviously I didn't. It was a bit hectic yesterday. I did loads of washing, changed all the bedding, sorted out a Tesco order for delivery Thursday and did a bit of h/w. OH's back wasn't very good so I didn't get any help from him. He has tabs to take when it's bad and it usually improves over a few days. He said it's a bit easier today.

The car was supposed to be collected between 8 and 10.30 am yesterday to go in for a bit of work that OH had requested but things had got behind and then there was a problem on the road so it wasn't collected till nearly 5 pm. That means the work wasn't done till today so we are now waiting for them to bring the car back. That means we only have tomorrow to dash about and do everything that needs the car as on Thursday it goes off to the body shop to have practically a whole new side where it got damaged at the funeral we went to in July. The body shop say they will need it for 2 weeks. Managing without it will be fun as the bus service is atrocious and taxis have got quite expensive.

Today I've done the ironing and vacced through downstairs and also vacced the stairs and seem to have had a lot of phone calls to answer. I'm hoping to vac around upstairs tomorrow before going to have a cuppa with a friend who is having a very stressful time at the moment and in need of some company.

We were supposed to be going to a Club meeting last night but we didn't think the rather uncomfortable chairs in the room we use would do OH's back any good at all and I felt exhausted so we decided to give it a miss. I texted the Club secretary to let her know we wouldn't be there and she said that 7 members had said they weren't going, plus there are always one or two who don't turn up on the night. We aren't a very big club anyway so the poor speaker probably only had an audience of a few.

It's been horrible weather the last couple of days. Yesterday we had a lot of really heavy downpours in the afternoon and evening. I just got my washing off the line in time. Today it's been lighter showers but blowing a real hooley. I'm not complaining about the rain because we really needed it round here but I could do without the vicious gusts of wind. I've just remembered it's bin day tomorrow so I'd better take our bins down the road. It's recycling and garden waste tomorrow so I'll have to battle the wind and drag them down and hope they are still on the rec., where we have to put them, in the morning.