General Chat

Hi everyone,
yes Ann a new boiler right at christmas, always happens when theres no money left. New boiler was fitted last week but had a faulty control box so more waiting and then problems with a non-return valve that was preventing oil from reaching burner. All sorted now and its lovely.
Been cold here today but still dry so thats a bonus.
Hope everyone is well

Cath xx

Ann, have sent you a p m.

Cath xx

Hi all

Yes, OH got the car out safely ...... he has very good snow tires.

We now also have decent heat in the main part of the house again!

It's blown air from a gas furnace, and it hasn't been working properly for the last 10 days ................ but of course, I'm the one at home, and it's been upto its set temperature by the time OH has got home, so it hasn't had priority to him

This room, whith the computer and tv, is on its own electric baseboard heating, so I've been nice and cosy in here.

Anyway, he got home last night, and I was moaning again ............... he went down to check the furnace


and the filter needed replacing. It was completely clogged.


he put in a new filter


heat fine this morning!



s
xx

annoying when these problems are easily fixed once got down to isn't it Sylvia. Glad you and Catherine are now both warm anyway.

thanks for the PM Catherine.

My daughter Annagretta likes Guernsey - her mother-in-law is from there.

Gretts met her then husband to be in the UK (he was born here in NZ).

His mum comes over here to NZ every year as both her son and daughter live here. I finally got to meet her Christmas 2009 (they got married in 2002 and came back home early 2003) when they all had Christmas at our place.

Persie

Hi Persie,
quite a trip for her to make every year. If ever your daughter comes over let me know and we could meet up. New Zealand has always appealed to me but unfortunately I dont like flying so will probably never get to see it.

Cath xx

Anne (daughter's MIL) is a lovely person and before they got married she shouted her son and daughter and their partners along with her a trip to Tobago. She belongs to the bird society over in the UK etc.

Pity she doesn't belong to GR she would be great to have on your other thread glossy Ann.

Thank you Catherine, I will pass that on.

Where I worked one of the finance managers moved to Guernsey to live. He took his then preschooler down to play soccer but as he had come from Rugby stock they could not stop him from handling the ball so he got made goal keeper. His wife is from over there as well.
Back in the seventies when I worked in our Post Office I used to subscribe to first day covers from Guernsey and Jersey - no other countries just the two Channel Islands and our own country.In those days we had to use British Postal Orders to pay for them and you were restricted on how many you could purchase. How times have changed.

Persey

hi ladies
Havent been here for a couple of days so its good to catch up on what you are talking about

my OH is to be treated for irritable vowel syndrome, he is to stop all his other meds and go onto this new tablet.

Im so relieved its just that.

very hot here the last 3 days but the nights have been cool enough for a good sleep.
I drove my daughter to Wangaratta today , one hour drive on the freeway, because she had to get her uniforms for work. The shirts are cobalt blue and the skirts and trousers are navy. Look quite nice. We had to wait an hour for the lady to embroider the hospital emblem on the shirts, so we went to a nearby cafe and had quiche, and apple juice.
then we went to visit the hospital as daughter needed to meet her supervisor. She was told she starts 7am on the 7th February.

when we got home it was 2 oclock.
OH mother had her 88th birthday today, so we went to have afternoon tea with her.

Tonight Im very tired, but I came on here to see what you are all doing, as its too early for me to go to bed yet. If i go to bed too early then I wake up about 3am and cant get back to sleep, then the next day Im a terrible grouch

Hi everyone,
Perse I have just finished a really good book by Elizabeth Edmondson (she who wrote the Villan in italy). If you haven't read it do, it is a really good read, she tells such a good story. it was actually one of the book club suggestions (mine) but didn't get chosen. Pity I would have liked to know what people thought about it. Called The frozen Lake set in the North of england

Annette, glad that they have sorted out your husband's problem, hope the medication works. Your daughter's uniform sounds attractive.

Glossy Ann - I have recently read one of hers as well I know it had the word Voyage in the title - set just before war broke out in 1939. Was very good... I do like her books there is quite a lot to them. It's out in the sleepout so will dig it out and if you haven't read it will recommend.
I read your one by Louise Douglas ... Missing You I shall review it... now I have started Colin Cotterill's one.... I did venture into the unmentionable one again but I really can't be bothered with it.... so I looked at the gruesome pictures and read the questions posed at the end... that was more than sufficient.

Oh Annette you made me giggle.... I know you meant IBS but you typed vowel and I thought to myself I get irritable vowels, I get them all mixed up, especially in words like manoeuvres. My OH had trouble reading the word seasawed ... could not work out what seaweed had to do with the item in the paper.
Sorry very norty of me.

Seriously though:

Does he have to have metamucil or something similar on his breakfast or in a drink of a morning as well as his tablet? Some people only take tablets when the pain is bad one lot called Buscopan (they have a new name for them now) are very good but ones called Merbentyl can make your mouth feel rotten and leave you with a fluey type feeling. I hope he comes right - there are a few good books on the subject... you can read about other people and what they have done about it and try changes in diet etc. That and diverticulitis do worry people until they are diagnosed.

Just call me Nurse Perse....xx

Nurse Perse! I like it.

The other one Of Elizabeth Edmondson's I have read is The art of Love, not read any more. Not read Missing you yet either but have got Keeping the dead here to read next.

I saw that vowels too and chuckled - sorry Annette.

Evening ladies,
Annette hope the new medication does the trick for your OH. Did your mother in law enjoy her day?
I am reading a James Patterson thriller at the moment and have just had given 'The God of small things' which I am looking forward to reading next.
Hope you are all well

Cath xx

Hi all
xx

I have IBS, the diarrhea form ........ but control it with diet, and by taking Imodium (Loperamide) if the diarrhea becomes too bothersome. I'm lucky that I don't get tooooooooo much pain with it.

I did discover by doing a food trial that drinking too much clear liquid makes it worse. I have to keep at around 1-1¼ litres per day, which is less than everyone tells you one should be drinking!


He might find that things like too much spices, garlic, etc can have an effect.



What a start to the week for us .........NOT!

OH went to open the back door this morning, and the snow shovel fell in!

The door opens into the carport, and next to it is a space under the study

and the recycle box was also moved from its place under the study.


............. AND the portable generator we store under the study had gone walkabout.

It's quite a large generator, on wheels, that we use up at the cabin but bring down here for the winter. It had been covered with cardboard, and was tucked away ................. so someone had to have come into the carport to really see it.

It cost us about $1500 (ca £700 or so) 5 years ago.


Then we discover that we cannot find the manual, so we can't tell the police the actual model number, etc. We're both certain that it was in one of the two "book" boxes that we brought down in September, but blowed if we can find it! The other option of course, is that we somehow left the manual behind, and it is now under about 10' snow!

OH has reported it to the police, and we have a case number, but they can't do anymore until we have the details.

Because we have a case number, he has been able to report it to the insurance, and we're now waiting for an adjustor to phone.


The snow shovel being leaned against the back door means that the theft happened after about 6:30pm Sunday evening, because that is when OH came home from rehearsal, and came in through that door.



sylvia
xxx

Oh Sylvia how awful. Just knowing somebody has been poking around on your property is scary. I hope the insurance can sort it out for you and replace it.
Take care

Cath xx

You do feel violated when things like that happen Sylvia. We have had the odd thing go missing when the kids were teenagers and one has to surmise that they have had a light fingered friend. Nothing serious... we did catch one youngster out when the children were quite small - the young girl down one from us had pinched Barbie doll clothes and odds and ends and then given them to another child three or four doors up. This young girl later went on to work in a bank when she left school.

Ann I have read the Art of Love ....then I read the Villa one ... the other one is called The Voyage of Innocence. I see Frozen Lake is mentioned in the front of that and yes I will read it. I tend to read everything by anyone I like.

Catherine, I used to read James Patterson's I liked the one's with the numbers in the titles and his first ones named after Nursery Rhymes and then he started to get into the realms of fantasy and less thriller, so I got more choosey. I have also found that he churns them out - they are spaced out to look more than they are.

I joined Ann's GR bookclub mainly so we could chat about books - see what others read and read books that I would not choose for myself to read.

Cheers Persie

I shall look out for the voyage of innocence Perse then.

Sylvia, how nasty for you, not just the loss and the cost but the inconvenience and the knowledge that somebody was on your property. Would it have been easy to wheel away? I hope you get something back on the insurance.

Hi

thank you for your comments.

I think someone had to have come onto the property earlier, and peered into that space ......... it was tucked away and could not be seen from the street, nor from the back lane. The only way to see anything more than a "stack" of cardboard was to be right in the carport, when it was possible to see the wheels.

I also think that more than one person was probably involved ............... there is a step up into and then down into that space. The generator has to be either lifted up and over, or a small ramp used. Neither can be done by one person with the car parked in the carport .......... and the car was not moved. It would be just about possible, but difficult, to get it out lengthwise to wheel it right out. And it is far too heavy for one person to lift and carry.

Once out, it would have been very easy to wheel away.

Interestingly, the police are not interested in coming out ........ because it was not a break and enter.

They must've really wanted it to go to all that trouble. You'd think the police would want to have a look even if it was just to check out the cunning involved. There could be a link between your theft and other crimes in the neighbourhood.
Did you get a victim support form to fill in? Over here they give you forms to fill in for everything - chap got his lawnmower pinched off the berm (grass mowing strip outside property) when he went inside for a few minutes. He got a victim support form. He said it is not as though he was bashed over the head or anything... he didn't think he needed grief counselling.

Persie

No we didn't get a vitim support form!!


I think it was also complicated by the fact that OH couldn't find the manual, so couldn't give the exact model number ................... that model is no longer sold, and all we could find on the web was the "nearest"

We do have to contact them again when (if) we find the manual and more information.



sylvia

Sylvia,

what on earth is happening in your street?
So sorry to hear you had such a valuable item stolen. I really hope you can find that model manual, and the police can be more effective in trying to find who did it.
Seems to me that some thieves are working the area and looking for useful objects. Any of your neighbours had thing go missing lately. the extreme cold you are experiencing lately makes a generator a very handy item.

Ann and Catherine and Perse the nurse, thanks for all your advice, will keep it in mind if husband needs suggestions.
I havent had much time for personal reading this week, as Have been otherwise occupied with Navy son, nurse daughter, and grandson, as well as OH.

I didnt realize that I typed the wrong letter. I guess I get my bees and vees mixed up as well as my pees and Quus.

I had to chuckle myself too when I re read my mistake.
OH would never get his vowels mixed up. HE was a champion speller in school. With awards to show for it.

Just goes to show I was tired when I wrote that.
Oh just has to take the tablets (Colese) when he gets severe pain, keep off the beer, and chocolate. Now that going to be hard!
Daughter is a nurse and she said it is to stop spasms in the bowel.

this morning had a call from son1 in Maine, he said very cold at -14F last night. He drove to the mall for the first time this week as the snow plough had just done its work. They have postponed their visit with us until

June, which is much better for everyone. Hoping to get a house on the coast for a week when they are here. I grew up on the coast and Im getting keen for a seachange very soon. would love to return to live by the sea. Hearing the waves at night was one of my favourite things when I was a child.

I rang the shop where I have placed my FTM for Mac. order. It was released in Aus on the 20th. But i was told I have to wait maybe another week for mine to arrive, Even though I placed my order on the 6th Jan.
tomorrow is Australia Day, and we have celebrations in the park in the morning, followed by a free BBq and entry to the swimming pool with lots of fun things to do for families. and a music band playing etc. then they announce the local winner of Australia Day Award.
I dont know who is nominated this year, so it will be interesting to find out tomorrow.