General Chat

~~~waves to Jane and Cos and wishes Cath a smooth ferry trip. Lovely thread, Ann, it is quite amazing how many people read but don't comment. I remember the first time I 'spoke' on GR, well on any forum really, and it was a scary experience! lol

I have three books on the go right now, and am just finishing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which cost me £1 in Sue Ryder:-))

BC XX

Hi corinne, glad you joined us, hope you pop in again. Hope Catherine has a smooth trip.

BC, yes I remember the first time i ventured on the boards....scary. Girl with the, a very good book and the next two are good as well.

Hi all
Its been a very busy few days; but quiet this morning as OH and Son are at work. All the neighborhood is quiet too.

Have finished all the washing and it is dry already in the wind.
Yes there is water every where here Corinne, But the wind is not hot as it usually is this time of year. I have a nephew and his family living in Wynham. They work in the mines.

I was given 2 books for christmas gifts. Son said he looked everywhere for a book to help me in my family search, but nothing that he thought would be useful, so he chose, "First and Only Women" by Lynn Santa Lucia. Has different stories of women down through the ages and also photos.
Daughter gave me "Everyone Worth Knowing" by Lauren Weisberger author of "the Devil wears Prada"
hope to start reading tonight.

I am visiting with my grandson this afternoon its his birthday, turns 7. I told him yesterday 7 has always been my favorite number. His mum made him a castle cake, with windows, turrets, and vines all over it. It looks too good to cut into.
Im taking him a Kick board for his gift, has handles and a rope. He loves swimming and I know he will use it all the time.
He is a real out door type of lad.

My sister and her family are flooded out in SE Qld, just hope she has enough help from her children to manage the clean up later.
Terrible Christmas for her, but at least she is safe and out of the water.

Son1 was in Phoenix for a week and cant get back to Maine. They have to fly into Boston which is all snowed under, and then take the train or bus north. HE is Hoping, like everyone else that the weather clears soon.

Best wishes to everyone for the New Year. Hoping 2011 bring everyone many blessings and peace


Annette in Albury NSW

Well Robin if you like to talk about books why not join Glossy Ann's Greader's thread, I think we are next reviewing around 10th Jan is that right Ann?

I have noticed that some people don't post as often as they did - even our Liz is not on here as much as she used to be.

Ann is right there are still a lot of us on here that enjoy a pleasant discussion. I could probably write quite a long list - some stick to the same threads and others roam a bit like I do - that's how I meet them all.

Cheers Persey (^_^)

Hi all,
good to hear from so many.my hubby Jdy and I had a great Chrisie, we have 4 boys/men between us, he has 3 and I have 1. Will my son works flyin/fly out too he works up at Cloudbreak.north but inland of Newman western Australia. he has 2 littlies, Tilly/Matilda is 4 and Lawsey/Lawson is 2. Tilly has had 1 sleep over but Lawsey hadnt had any so it was interesting, esspecially since Jdy hasnt much patience with tiny tots, he hasnt been around littlies for a long long time.But he wasnt too bad and the kids dispite pops growls still love him.
We are cutting down on gifts this year but my mum gave me a really great book on water wise gardens. Amazing isnt it with all the extra water around some of us are still very dry.I,m in the process of killing off all the from grass and am going to put in natives, should be good.

Have been doing some searching with Genes this morning trying to find Jdy,s great gr mother, got a little further along the line was trying to find her grave in Karrakatta Cemetery in Perth and somehow got through to Ancestry.com and ended up in hubby,s nephews family search. havent met the bloke myself but I,ve now emailed him and said g,day. All in a days work.
and girls sorry I do chat a lot, you can all tell me were to get off if you like.

But the book mum gave me is called WATERWISE GARDENING its by READERS DIGEST.Its about how to create and maintain a beautiful garden without wasting a drop. I mustnt forget Jdy gave me a great speaker for my laptop ,the volume isnt to good and I,ve been looking for speakers for a while, this 1 is great it just connects to the screen,and I can take it off easy as..I take my Laptop with me everywhere .except work.
but gotta go .
Regards
Corinne from AUSTRALIA

TO ALL
I,VE JUST DECIDED MY ENDING POST KEEPS CHANGIING EVERY TIME I PUT SOMETHING IN SO INFUTURE I,LL SIGN OFF WITH

COS FROM WEST OZ.

HOPE THIS IS OK.
(WAS Corinne from Australia)

Perse the next Greaders review is 8th January. Anyone is very welcome to join the Greaders (GR Readers) group.

Annette, hope your son manages to get home soon, they have had a terrific amount of snow haven't they. Did anyone see last week on TV the pictures of the lighthouse covered in ice? Looked like a wedding cake.

Also hope your sister gets her house dried out and glad she is OK.

The birthday cake sounds fabulous, there are some clever people around. My daughter used to make cakes like that when her 3 boys were littlies.

Corinne, that gardening book sounds great. Some summers we could do with knowing a few tips from there. Looking out at the moment our garden is a bit soggy so no need but July/August it will be a different story.
And yes, it is fine to sign off Cos. You will notice I rarely sign off, I rely on my name at the top of my post because I am lazy. If I do sign it is always
Ann Glos.

Ta Ann

I have read the three books and another one on the list so I can review madly. Plus I have read a few others.

Sorry to read about your little Molly passing away Julia. We paid heaps to the vet with one of our disabled cats several years ago - he was the only one that had a holiday that year - we even had him flown to the veterinary medicine college here. He loved everyone and everyone loved him, his sister mainly fancied blokes and she poor thing got taken by a dog. Being disabled she could not get away quick enough.

Now we just have visits from neighbours cats, they seem to regard our place as a stroll on through for a visit from time to time.

Persey xx

Thanks you for your kind words Persey. Our search goes on as I speak.
Sorry to hear of your cat, I love them also.
Julia in Derbyshire

Hi Shona

the girl with the dragon tattoo my wife has read those and she made me watch the move and i really enjoyed it.

Sadley the author of those books died just after he handed them in,he wrote three of them in all.

Thanks Persey i think i will join it

Rob

Two of those books have been GReader reads Robin - in fact I recommended the first one. My OH and I have both read them all and I am hoping that Steig Larsson's partner and his brothers can settle their differences and publish the fourth book... it is supposedly the one that draws it all to a conclusion.
With being in Ann's GReader group my reading has taken on a new life - have read books I would never have dreamed of getting out of the library.

Persey

Watch this board on 8th January Robin. There will be two threads go up. One asks for the reviews of this last lot of books, the other is the suggestions thread which asks for two suggestions from people. Then after a couple of days we vote for two books to read and have six weeks to read either one or both.

Hi all

Lovely to see some new posters!

Glads to hear that you all seem to have had a good Christmas and New Year.


I got some lovely presents .... althouhg OH and I diod not take many of ours with us. We don't see the point of taking books or larger presents etc over there, only to bring them back here!


So we actually ended up having almost a second Christmas here on Monday night! Opening a few presents, and loads and loads of cards and several calendars!



Regarding our trip .............


I got my 3rds and 4ths all mixed up!!

I was absolutely convinced that we got back on Tuesday 4th .............. but the train timetable said Monday 3rd!

So we got back on Monday, but we have been running in little circles since then, and this is the first time I've really had time to spend on the computer!


We had a great time ............ lots of congenial company on the train going, with the usual good food.

Then a good time with J, M and MJ ..... although M had a melt down on Christmas Eve with J, and then J had one on Christmas night with me ...... both spats only lasted a short time, and things improved.


MJ is a delight .......... almost always laughing and smiling. I think he has decided crawling is a waste of time ..... he's going to go straight from just sitting there with legs stretched out in front of him to walking!

We had snow overnight Boxing Day / 27th, which meant that we cancelled a trip to meet up with M's grandmother, a delightful lady who will be 85 in February. She lives about an hour away, but they always get much worse snow than Halifax, and as Halifax got about 5-10 cm snow ............................


Then another great train trip back, with more congenial people. We spent New Year's Eve on the train somewhere in northern Ontario. The chefs cooked a special meal ........... I had the most delicious, tender, beef tournedos that I think I have ever had.

Then there was a party in the lounge of the dome car at the back of the train ............. mainly just chatting, but with some entertainment from a folk singer. Then, close to midnight, there was free champagne and canapes, party hats and noise makers, and several senior members of the train crew (including one of the chefs) came to join in for midnight.

They then began talking about celebrating again in one hour!

We had celebrated on Eastern time, but we were actually in the Central time zone which is one hour behind

OH and I decided we were too tired, and swayed our way back through the 4 carriages to our cabin!


One of the Australian couples on this return trip was from Rockhampton in Queensland, and were extremely worried about the situation there. They kept checking the web at every possible opportunity (ie, station stop) ............ there is no internet availability on these trains. The information they were getting seemed to imply that they would be stuck in Brisbane after they arrive back in Oz on Thursday, with no way of getting into Rockhampton.


There was another couple from Adelaide, and she is a member of GR!



s
xxx

Cheers, and Happy new year Sylvia,
sounds like you had a lovely time with your rellies, and the train trip was very pleasant too.

My son and his wife were stuck for an extra 4 days in Phoenix before they could fly back to Maine. They had to get different flights and wait their turn, but were able to get back on New Years day. Their is snow everywhere, but he said this morning that the ponds have not frozen over yet.

It surely is a worrying time for the people of Queensland this week. their 2011 is going down in history as the largest amount of land under water ever. A region in SE Qld the size of NSW, is a disaster zone.
The Rockhampton airport is closed and under water, food and clean water being dropped by army helicopters only.
Bridges, rail lines, and highways washed away.

My nephew lives with his young family in Bundaberg, and is surrounded also. fortunately he lives in a higher street, and in a queenslander home (house on stilts). The water in flowing through underneath a metre deep.
They cant get out and food and water is being brought to the homes by small outboard motor boats.
Other homes on ground level have all been evacuated.

Sad thing is that this area of Qld supplies most of the fresh food, veges and fruit, to many city people.

As a result of this tropical weather system, we in the southern areas of Aus are experiencing fine and dry weather, but cooler than normal temperatures for this time of year.
Cousins went to the coast but cant go swimming as its too cold. I dont mind the cooler days, but surely it will be hot again by February, which is always our hottest month.
OH is felling better after Dr changed his tablets. So he is not so grumpy.
He has gone up to his little farm to pick the apricots, and water the tomatoes. tonight he has to drive the stock truck to the markets for 8pm and then again in the morning another load.

Its quiet here with son2 working away all week, but he does bring his washing home to be done each weekend. There wasnt too much last time as he said he did a load midweek.

I have been looking after my daughters dog while they are away. It sleeps all day, and barks at night. Couldnt get much sleep last 2 nights.
I will be happy to see them get home again in 4 more days.

In the meantime I have finished one of my Christmas book, and just started the second last night.

Best wishes to all
Annette

On 2nd Jan we had the last of a 6 episode series of Who do you think you Are? (australian) I thoroughly enjoyed this last series because each episode was completely different in what was researched and How it applies to the person looking.

Next week we are to begin the Stories of Famous USA people. Oh I do hope it is much better than the last US Series.


Annette

Good morning

Hi Sylvia, I am pleased that you had a good time. Your train trip sounds very enjoyable and a lovely way to celebrate New Year. I am sure that holidays spent with relatives, like christmas, bring out the worst in people which causes rows. Glad your were over quickly. We enjoyed our new year which was very quiet with just the two of us, we watched the fireworks on TV, London's were excellent this year, then we stayed up watching Jools Holland's programme and went to bed at 1.15.

Where is everybody?
Post festive hangovers perhaps.
Went away for new year and had a great time but came down with some flu type bug when I got back which wasn't a good start to year. Hope you are all well and had a good christmas/ new year.
Ann, I'm reading Kite Runner now and its brilliant, every bit as good as A Thousand Splendid Suns.Do you know if these are the only books Khaled Hosseini has written?
Kite Runner was on BBC2 last night so I have recorded to watch after I finish book.
Best wishes to you all,

Cath xx

I can't see any others on amazon Catherine.

I don't know where people are. It has been very quiet since Christmas. I think maybe there is a lot of illness around. I hope that you are feeling better now, shame to pick up a flu bug at christmas, I hope you didn't take it back to Guernsey with you.

Hi catherine, Hi AnninGlos,
yes it has been very quite in here. Maybe everyone is attending to their new years resolutions to ..... get fitter, etc.
But most likely they are devoted to reading their christmas' books or entertaining visitors as I have been.

I think Im going to order the Kite Runner book since everyone is raving about how good it is. can you give my a tiny precise of it please.?


How is the weather over there?? Are you able to get about easier now, or is there still too much snow?

we has hot weather the last 3 days, in the 35 to 40 C, then last night it poured raining again, and now today is down to 30C max. so that better.

Yesterday I had a phone call from my first cousin, who I found on GR.
After his father died 10 years ago, he moved house and I didnt know where he went. Turns out he lives about half an hour from my sister.!

now I know thats wierd. Still I live on the other side of Aus away from both of then that it has to be an annual pilgrimage if we want to visit.
Thank God for email and skype.

Sylvia, got back to normal after your holiday adventure? I see you are busy answering queries on the ttf board etc.

Well must do some housekeeping this morning. the fairies arent on the job lately.

Annette

Hi Annette

and everyone


more or less back to normal, whatever normal is for us!!


but I don't have too much exciting to say on my "chatty" threads ............. life seems pretty boring at the moment!


Our temps are around 0C overnight, upto 3 or 4C in the daytime .... but it is nice and sunny at the moment.



sylvia
xxx