General Chat

Morning all,

The sun is coming up here and there was no frost and pc says 6 degrees. Nothing planned here today.

I am a bit worried as I paid my TV licience in Dec a month late but never had an email back from them to say my licience was for another year ending blah blah blah. About a week ago I had an email saying to buy my TV licience now! and to download a pdf file which I did'nt do. Is there any way of checking if you have a tv licience?

Good morning all. Very overcast and grey here but 2 degrees and no frost. Just off to have a shower and wash my hair, out at 2pm for photography but may be on here again before that. Hope everyone is pain free and slept well. I had a weird night, just kept waking up for no reason. Just got up at 0750.

Thanks Gill, never too old to learn about new things. Interesting though. Was not aware that you could get such things.

It's okay AnnG I didn't know what they were until the bathroom people told me. It's boards, quite thin made of cement and covered in a waterproof coating used mainly for wet rooms. The reason I want them is so when I wash the carpet it doesn't wet and rot the floorboards as they are made of wood, plus it stops the dust coming up from between the floorboards which is a pain at the moment and also it acts as an insulation so we don't need the heating on as much. We've noticed such a difference in the room we've already done so once the whole place is done it should be much warmer and dust free. It's also a good way of being able to put lino down in the kitchen which we prefer as it's a bit warmer under foot than tiles and less slippy. If we were to put lino straight onto the floorboards you would see all the lines from them showing through the lino, this way the cement boards stop all that, plus again it would stop any water going onto the floorboards if for example the washing machine was to leak. It costs quite a bit but only needs doing once.

Well, we've made a start on emptying the living room and will carry on with it tomorrow, hopefully it'll be empty ready for the cement boards by the weekend, then OH and I can put them down this time next week when he's off work again.

Going to grab something to eat now then try and watch a bit of TV on our dodgy freeview box ;-) If the picture keeps freezing again then I'll see if I can find them on my laptop later.

I've not had much sleep over the past three days so I might have an early night so I'm not so tired tomorrow when we carry on with emptying the living room.

gill I may be being a bit dumb here but can you explain what cement boards are, what is their purpose as you seem to need a lot.

Not long finished the filler in the kitchen which I'm hoping will be dry by the time OH wakes up, the last thing I want is for him to splash water and ruin the filling I've just done around the sink.

I got in touch with a gardener last week who came around to take a look at the job, he took measurements and said he'd be in touch with the quote in a couple of days.......we're still waiting, so it looks as though we'll be doing the job ourselves after all. The fella said he couldn't do the job until April anyway, by then we'll have it almost finished. Never mind at least it'll save us some money to buy more cement boards.

I'm going to grab a cuppa before OH wakes up and we get on with another job ;-) I think it's best to empty the living room ready for the cement boards and do the bath panel another day. OH is off for the next two nights, so with a bit of luck the room should be empty by the time he goes back to work on Saturday.

I'll try and get on here again later if it's not to late. We lose track of time when we're working and many a time we're still working at almost midnight. I've even worked through the night when OH's in work. Mind you most of the time it's the only time I get to change the bedding, it pretty difficult to do it when OH sleeps most of the day off nights.

Yes done the post van and fed all the birds and am now having a crumpet and coffee.

Nice to knoew Gill is ok and still busy with the house.

Its 8 degrees here now and beautiful suhshine.

Need to do some hoovering next and have a dust.

Nice to see Mandy and hope the tyre on the car is ok when son gets it checked over. Waiting to see a pic of the next toy as its the hedgehog.

Em gave me hedgehog thing for Christmas, a nice tin, a pot hanger and a coaster.

It sounds as though things are moving along in your house now Gill. As Ann says don’t worry about posting regularly but pop in when you can to let us know you are OK.

Were you in time for the post van Mel? Any news from your roofer yet?

It’s strange weather here. The sun is out and the sky is blue but there must be mizzle-drizzle in the air as all the paving is wet. It’s really dirty as well. OH gave it a sweep this morning but it now looks even worse as it just spread the dirt around. The pigeons trample the area under a tree where some bird feeders hang and throw all the dirt and muck out on to the paving. We planted some small hebes round the tree in the hope of keeping them off that area but they just tramp among them. Nothing stops a pigeon when it thinks it’s near food ;-)

I’ve had a hoover and dust around and cleaned the downstairs toilet just because I have a couple of friends coming. Why do we do that, ladies? My house is reasonably clean and tidy anyway and they are old friends who won’t worry if everything isn’t spotless but if I know people are coming I feel I must whizz around and get everything ship shape.

Better go and empty the dishwasher now as we’ve run out of decent mugs.

don't worry Gill as long as we know that you are Ok and you pop in occasionally. You do have such a lot to do, with no time for leisure and relaxing together. It sounds as if you need to make a jobs priority list so that you do the job that needs to be done first so that the next job can be done ending with a nice empty room to watch the TV in.

Mel hope you manage to catch the post van.

Mandy gosh nine degrees, almost tropical. it is 3 degrees here says it is going to be 5 and it is sort of a watery sun.

I have cleaned the bathroom and the sheets are washed. After a coffee I will walk down with some charity stuff.

Hi all, so sorry I haven't been on here for a while, we're so busy with all the jobs I'm losing track of days.

We've had the bonding done on the gas meter so that's connected safely to the electric's now and we've had a socket moved in the kitchen. We had to move things out of the way for the electrician so while the kitchen was almost empty I decided to do some filling on the walls to make them smooth ready for tiling.

We've had the double glazing fella here who said he might not be able to fix the broken window handle in the kitchen so we've decided to leave it as it is as we don't use that window anyway and we can't afford to have the whole window replaced. With leaving it I'm able to fill around the window and window sill so that'll be smooth for the tiles soon. He's going to try and sort the back door for us and we need to choose which front door we want so he can do the quote. He said they are very busy at the moment so the job won't be done until the end of next month or later, which we don't mind as the weather should be warmer by then.

Our Sky system gave us the ghost yesterday so I'm watching TV on a set top box connected to an inside aerial which isn't very good, I'm having to watch some of my programmes on my laptop too.

Sky can't sort out our new box until the middle of next month so we'll just plod on as best we can for now. We have Sky in the living room which, at the moment, is full of boxes and furniture so we've got to empty the room into the room we've just put the cement boards down in, but to do that we need to put the bath panel on the bath as it's in that room and taking up space. So lots to do. Once the living room is empty we can put the cement boards down and sort out the plastering which needs a miss coat putting on it ready for decorating.

With OH working most nights and sleeping most days it's a slow process as there's only so much I can do on my own and I can't make to much noise during the day while he's asleep. Luckily the filler I need to do in the kitchen is a quiet job so I'm going to get on with that now so it'll be dry when he gets up later.

I'm sorry I haven't been on here much but will try and come back as soon as I can.

Morning all,

Blue sky here and 5 degrees ,might even get up to 9 degrees they said for today, seems to be a little wind too as I can see the trees moving about so it might make it feel cooler than 9 degrees.

Just got a second load of washing in ,might have a bit of a dust round and clean the bathrooms but apart from that nothing else planned ,got the wood coming tomorrow and son is taking the car to gave the tyre checked ,its still up.

Morning Anng and all,

Sunshine here this mroning and I think there was a frost as its still on the car roof. 5 degrees anmd pc says partly sunny so it may disappear later on.

I have a few errands to do this morning so I better gbet on as I overslept and want to get down the post van before he leaves.

Good morning all. 2 degrees here, no fog or frost......... or sun.

Nothing planned for today but I must sort out my Tesco order. I have actually got my bedding in the washing machine, but I am not dressed yet. so better get on probably BBL

It was quite Misty when we drove to the garden centre but mostly over the fields and river. We had a pleasant lunch, both had toadies mine was Brie and cranberry, really nice with a few crisps and a side salad/garnish.
I bought another fairly short bird seed pole holder and another seed feeder but still too cold to buy plants.

Good you have your battery now Mel. You will have to drive out regularly to keep it charged.

Glad you got there and back ok and had a nice day.

It’s good you’ve got your battery fixed now Mel. You’ll feel happier knowing that you’ve got transport if you need it.

I’m looking forward to seeing your next knitted animal Mandy. I bet a hedgehog is awkward to do with all the spikes.

Did you buy anything at the garden centre AnnG?

When we left home this morning it was still quite murky but the journey wasn’t too bad. There was quite a lot of traffic and there is a long stretch of roadworks along the A12 which slows everything down but we weren’t delayed much. Coming back took about 45 minutes longer than usual. We left about 4 pm but the rush hour seems to start earlier these days and it was stop and start most of the way. We didn’t get in till 6.15. We had an enjoyable few hours there and handed over the Christmas presents we had brought back from Yorkshire with us.

Tomorrow I must do a bit of housework in the morning and then a couple of the “girls” are coming for a cup of tea in the afternoon.

It looks as though it might be a bit warmer tonight.

Evening all,

The fog hasn't lifted here all day but the temperature has come up and the frost has gone as it drizzled a bit just after lunch .


Hope they had a safe journey there and back to Southend and that they didn't have the fog.

Mel thats good you've got your battery sorted ,have you rung the roofer ?

How was your trip to the garden centre Anng .

I don't seem to have got much done today, no motivation, but I did go up to boots for our tablets and called and got some more wool ready for Noah the horse and some for Bella the cat, still knitting Holly the Hedgehog with her spikes :-D

Had my new battery fitted to the car this afternoon so I am all ready to go now thank goodness. I don't like being without the car.

Did a bit of painting this afternoon.

Mistle started in the afternoon as Stuart arrived, I think he must have brought it with him.... then it has turned to light rain this evening. Its been really dull all day after the bright sunny days I have had lately.

Hope Vera's trip went off with no hitches and she enjoyed herself.

Yes where's Gill? busy again I suppose.

A bit boring on here today. And Gill has done a disappearing act again. Hope her laptop is ok.

Morning Anng and all,

I have been trying to sort out my ebay account so I was up at 8.45am but have been on the pc.

It is 2 degrees here and there is no frost but the sky is grey here like at yours Anng. My pond has completely defrosted too and there's no frost or hail left even in places the sun did'nt reach yesterday.

Stuart should come and do the battery on my car today but he's not arrived yet.

Hope you have a good journey to Southend today Vera and the back is ok. Mind how you move and rest up with your company.

Good morning all up later today so no idea if there was a fog earlier 2 degrees here now and grey but no fog.
And I am the first on here anyway so maybe up before mel.
I guess Vera is getting ready or on her way to Southend. Have a safe journey Vera and a good day out and I hope your back has eased again. I think you have to keep moving gently but I suppose then it is inevitable that the muscles will complain. Hope it is easier this morning.

Looking forward to seeing what you have done Mel.

I am out lunchtime to a garden centre with Cynth.