General Chat

I am sooooo sorry dear Upsidedown Susan, I should NEVER have said undies, of course I meant combinations.

Does the not the South American River company not have a smiley face on its boxes?

I shall of course look out your relative dear, should I see her, I shall of course dish the dirt and pump away until I find out some delicious gossip.

Oh dear........................I said that out loud!!!!!!

Shocked at myself
Auntie Petunia

dont worry Susan you have my email address :-)

common as the rest of us ?????? well I hope that sweeping statement did not encompass Moi. One has never been common. A well tended park, maybe ....... ;-)
(common ..... park .......?)

I thought I was always the last to know. Must say tho, I have never been left to find things out from F book. Tomorrow is another day :-)

hello Petunia dear, so you are back from doing your good works of the day? Do sit down dear and let me fetch you a soothing camomile tea, I do declare you are taking on far too much these days.

You will enjoy Romford Market, I think. I was very nearly an Essex Girl doncha know, and only deprived of having fun because GtGtGtGrandPappy Samuel decided to relocate to East London although it was still Middlesex in those days. A distant cousin of mine lives in Romford so if you should happen to pass her while browsing around the stalls do please greet her graciously.

oh perish the thought I should take over the entire West Wing. This is your house dear, and naturally I dont need reminding quite so often of the fact. I only spread into the box room next to the Green Room and apart from annexing the little corner of the attic room above the Pink Room (carefully avoiding The Wardrobe, of course) you hardly know my possessions are around.

So dear what did you think of the green velvet chaise longue, and the warming pan? And the Fanny Craddock housekeeping hints book? that must have made for some excellent bed time reading. As I said, I have paid the deposit and these items are all yours just as soon as you pay the balance, and I do hope you appreciate my generosity but I just had to do something to thank you for all your hospitality.

A smiley face?

I remember a smiley face that was part of the promotional package for a certain rock band tour, who were having One Wild Night on a Bed Of Roses to give them Something To Believe In while they were all Living In Sin. I think this bubble has finally burst because Ritchie has walked out of the current Because We Can tour and without Ritchie things just wont be the same. Whether or not there was a fight over money, its never a good thing to be sky-high on solvents. I bought the latest album and was rather disappointed with it. Ah well, I saw them twice, and I never thought I'd get to see them once, and nothing lasts for ever, but it was good while it lasted. They sure Made A Memory for me!!

:-D Undies Petunia??.

Pardon me, but you are sounding as common as the rest of us ;-). Isn't it amazing how much is charged for such a small item :-P, golly, it is not like we can go without now , is it??. I certainly can't be doing with those thong thingys.... Uughh, the thought of them some how brings dental floss to mind :-D.

Petunia, I am well and truly back down to earth. Doesn't take long does it... No album yet. Don't think Fruit will be going for a traditional album, she is going for a 'book', photos printed and bound like an ordinary book. Though of course there will be nothing ordinary about this particular book ;-).

CC, such a shame you are to leave us :-(. I shall miss your wit that is for sure.. I hope you do manage to get the operation you need without too much of a wait.. If I ever come back to your shores, we must have a mini meet, maybe in Petunia's parlour ??

I was most put out over the weekend, I found out some important family 'news' vis ruddy f book..... OOh I was cross and spat quite a few tacks. Shame my OH was in the firing line at the time :-(... I have had my say to the family and have moved on :-).

I thought I was going to be allowed to play hooky from work today, sadly not.... I quite fancied a day out and a nice coffee somewhere. Oh well, you win some you lose some I guess.

Our mornings and evenings are much cooler now, in fact I would say 'cold'.. Time to don a few more layers.. The upside is Spring is on its way :-) - after Winter that is ;-)

Toodle pip
Susan

Gooood evening dears, here I am!!!!!!

I see Teresa is still in the 'missing' mode, mind you she is always working her fingers to the bone. I really admire that young gel. She is dedicated to her place of toil, and it gives one hope in these sad and dismal days. No doubt when she has a mo, she will be back.

Lesley, dear, are you any better? I am still coughing very delicately, but persistently.

Now then Cherry, what are these new packages that have found their way into the Parlour. That smiley face on the boxes is becoming a little tedious. I have given you your own bedroom and the adjoining box room, are you thinking over taking over the whole of the West Wing dear?

Dear Upsidedown Susan, you must be coming down slowly now. Have you got the photograph album yet? Or do these young people not have them anymore? I believe they have the photos in colour these days. I remember when photos were only in black and white.

I have posted a new avatar dears. Tis is little gel I know. She was a dear little thing, with silver blonde hair, and the bluest of eyes. She was the apple of her dear Papa's eye..................................how time flies.

I am to be taken to Romford Market in the near future dears. But only if it is a little warmer. I have never been before, but I believe there is a train locally that will take us. As I mentioned to dear Lesley, I am always open to new shopping locales. One is practically banned from the local shops [I cannot think why when my helpful comments are............well.....................so helpful] so I need to spread my wings a little further. Just as long as they have a 'proper' haberdashers and somewhere I can buy my silken undies, I shall be happy.

Writing my shopping list
Auntie Petunia

I'm free !!!!!

coooeeee Teresa, come out come out wherever you are.

Perhaps Teresa is really one of our elusive ancestors Lesley. Are you feeling any better now? I do hope so.

Well my FMP membership has expired and I wont be renewing. Its not long to this GR membership expiring and I wont renew, as I said before, because I've finished all the research, and I have a hip operation to go to at some point hopefully before the end of the year so I wouldnt be able to use the computer for a while anyway. Am trying to get back to the same hospital who did my left hip last year, the GP said she will support me in this. I figured, wherever I go, whoever does the surgery would have to apply to the GP for funding so I might as well see the same surgeon in whom I have the utmost confidence, he's a brilliant surgeon. Cos nothing went wrong !!! :-D :-D :-D

Hello Ladies I am getting increasingly concerned about Teresa's absence:-( do you think she may have been abducted by Rosemary due to her lapse over the Easter holiday :-S

I will be starting a search for Teresa this afternoon is anyone free to join me?

Lesley x

good morning ladies.

you're late putting your clocks back Susan, we did ours a week ago *acquires prim/goody-goody expression* ;-) ;-) ;-)
yes there is no other explanation, except the question of "why" arises. Why pick on a pensioner who is minding her own business browsing the sales modules. :-S They should have been at home playing with their xboxes in messy stuffy bedrooms ....... Well, no serious harm was done. And, pink cheeks takes a few years off my face.

Ah there you are Petunia dear, I hope you slept well after yesterdays exertions. I forgot to tell you previously that I put a 5% holding deposit down on those gifts I acquired for you, so you only need to pay the balance. And the vanman kindly agreed to deliver everything for free gratis, but no doubt you will want to give him a very reasonable tip.

I shall be off shortly - thanks to one of Sainsco's £5-off vouchers I have the new Bon Jovi CD to listen to, so I may be gone some time .....

Morning ladies,

Tis morning here, our clocks went back so we could actually 'see' when we arose from our bed. OH quite early as he took the pup for a walk..

Petunia, glad to hear you had a lovely time keeping 'order' . I so wish I was able to attend a meet.. Maybe when our boat comes in...

I won't hold my breath as our lotto tickets are always useless. I just don't know why the machine keeps spewing out the wrong tickets for me.. One of lifes mysteries. I am not really a gambler, but " you gotta be in to win".

CC, though not a gambler, I would put money on those little blighters in the supermarket being responsible for your pegging :-D.No doubt they are still chuckling, I wonder how many other 'victims' they have.?

I want to mow the lawns today but the mower is useless and my OH is too busy to get to town to buy me a new one. I would go myself but I no nothing about mowers - only how to push one :-|... OH worked yesterday and has gorn off again today... One is not amused :-P.. Once I have out the house to rights (again), I may just lounge on the couch all day ;-).

CC, Marmite did come back onto the shelves in our supermarkets and sold out in the first day. I still have not spotted it on the shelves. I did purchase some vegemite but I don't like it. The marmite saga was named 'Marmagedon' :-D. A near national disaster.... My fruit loves marmite and used to take much pleasure in introducing her international flatmates to 'marmite'. I don't think one person ever liked the taste.

~~~~~~~ to Teresa and bids farewell for now to t'others

there is a possible explanation Lesley although it doesnt make sense.

On Thursday I was shopping in SainsCo and was browsing around the housewares aisles. There were three children, a girl and two boys, shoving each other around as giggling as children do. The girl suddenly spoke to me, asking my opinion on a product, which one did I think looked better, and I was surprised to be asked this but obligingly said the blue one looked better. She thanked me, and trotted off, clutching the item, with both boys. I am wondering if they were responsible for the peg, and if so .... why. I was very conscious of a possible distraction attempt, but I always wear my handbag with the strap around my neck, and the overflap next to my body.

I never use a zip handbag as these are so vulnerable.

So it could have been them, except that children these days dont normally play such pranks any more. They have xboxes and playstations and other such technical items to keep them ungainfully occupied. But if it was these kids, why target a stranger ....... ah well, God moves in mysterious ways and no harm was done.

ttttchaaaa! fancy wearing yourself out at the London meet, when you really should be taking things easier at your time of life Petunia dear. While you were gone, I toddled off to Battlebridge and have virtually purchased some virtual items just for you dear. They were such bargains .....

one bed warmer
ok it needs polishing to restore the warm copper glow it once had, but the devil makes work for idle hands and will give you a break from knitting each evening.

one green velvet chaise longue complete with cushion
yes the velvet is a little mothbitten now but with a green felt tip pen you could do a wonderful restoration job, and I am sure the scratches on the wooden legs wont be noticeable once you've dabbed them with used tea bags.

An assortment of old books to replace the ones in your private library that we had to burn to keep warm this winter. One is the Fanny Craddock and Johnny housekeeping advice book, perhaps Mrs Berry might like to borrow it occasionally? Fanny and Johnny werent really married you know. What a scandal that would have been, had people in the 1950s found out that they were cohabiting in sin. What a difference a half-century makes .......

Flops down on the chaise longue.

Dear oh dear gels. I have been keeping order at the London Meet.

What a gay lot they are. Plenty of laughter I detected.

I shall return when I have had a naice cuppa cha and a bikkie.

Exhausted
Auntie Petunia

CC I should have said the newish shopping centre in Stratford is not for me:-| Stratford station I believe is know in the top 20 of Britain's busiest stations, or so was said on Pointless :-D

Sorry I can't suggest any reason for a clothes peg attaching itself to your coat :-S I do hope the peg wasn't there when you were out shopping :-(

Susan I am surprised you arent leaping up and down in jubilation and exuberation ....... I hear that Marmite will soon be restored to the shelves of NZ's supermarkets very soon. The factory is back in production. Apparently your Marmite doesnt taste the same as British marmite, so imports would not have been acceptable.

*

No Lesley I didnt know about widening the goal posts but I will be sure to include this in my list ready for next year's victims ....... :-D I hope you are feeling better now.

I went to Stratford once, the East London one not the Avon one, and I didnt actually "go" there, it was more a case of I ended up there by accident. I had caught the train at my local wail-way station intending to go to Liverpool Street - to meet a lady from GR as it happened. While "stargazing" out of the window I realised the train had taken a different direction and we werent headed for Liverpool Street. Panic set in as all the stations we thundered through were far away places with strange sounding names ie not Hackney or Bethnal Green or London Fields. And thus I arrived at Stratford. I wasnt able to pick up a London Underground connection to get me to Liverpool Street so I hobbled back to the main line platforms just as a train was pulling in. I saw a guard leaning out of the carriage window, and asked him where the train was headed for. Liverpool Street, he replied. I hopped on, and was allowed to walk through the first class carriage to get to the hoi polloi coach where I sank into a seat and waited for the palpitations to subside, and I wasnt too late for the rendezvous. I think a temporary new route had been set up for the Olympic Games. I know there is a shopping centre at Stratford, and I have a credit card, but I havent felt brave enough to repeat this experience. :-S :-S

oh pleeeaaazzzzz Petunia dear, surely you dont think I am one of those common ladies. I never wear nylon. Not since I got such a static shock my hair stood on end and all the office computers blinked out and all because I flipped the (shared) printer switch. My housecoat is a quality M&S slinky silk affair that fits where it touches. Unfortunately it makes one resemble the Michelin Man but one cannot have everything can one.

One's first husband once wrongly sorted the laundry and a rather unusual tinge of pink appeared all over the blue and white bedding. On the white side.

Oh yes I remember Fluff Freeman and Pick Of The Pops. It'll be all right on the night, all right. He was Australian, doncha know.

Now dear, do sit down in the corner there where all is peaceful, and I will fetch you a cup of tea. That's right dear. Let me turn off the standard lamp dear. There. The dim light is so flattering to your skin. Is the tea to your taste dear? Do have a Duchy Original .......

Now, you see dear, I have a problem and need some advice. One visited one's first MIL this afternoon and on arrival I removed my coat and threw it on her settee. When leaving, I donned my coat and she told me there was a peg attached to the belt which I leave tied behind my back, it pulls the waistline in a little. She removed the peg and handed it to me. I immediately suspected one's daughter was responsible for a little prank so when I got back home I texted said daughter.

The reason I suspected my daughter is because of something I did when I was a child. My dear Papa used to leave his jacket on the banisters and one day, feeling devilish, as small children are wont to do, I put pegs along the bottom of his jacket, and he walked all the way to work from Stamford Hill to Dalston so attired. This story is well known in the family.

Daughter texted me back to say she didnt know what I was talking about, she hadnt been messing around with any clothes pegs. There were no clothes pegs on MILs settee that could have attached themselves to my coat. I'm sure there was no peg on the coat when I went shopping yesterday, in fact I am sure there was no peg on the coat when I went out today. I dont use pegs, as I throw my laundry over the clothes airer that lives in my kitchen.

So - where the blinky heck did that clothes peg come from???????

Susan now your talking 21 degrees is just the perfect temperature for me :-)

Oh Stratford for shopping noooooooooooooooo :-0 I only went there once and there was nothing that made me think I would like to return :-\ Auntie Petunia have you tried Camden and Dulwich, my friend raves about both these areas for shopping.

CC I will admit I didn't read all of your April 1st message so you may have included this......................................my MOG told me he had read that if the devils game (which I enjoy) goes into extra time the goal post are going to be widened, as soon as he had repeated what he had read you could see him blushing as he said it's April 1st isn't it :-D :-D :-D

Good upside down morning ladies and peeps,

We have the sun out but the wind is a tad chilly, the powers that be 'forecasters' are predicting 21oC today :-S, rather warm for an April day, let us see if he is correct.

For the last few days, we have had a Bellbird sounding out it's glorious melody each morning. Tis a joy to listen too. The Bellbirds and Tuis visit our Banksia tree. The tree is very old ( thirty years or so) and is looking a little sad. Hope it doesn't turn up its toes or we will lose our feathered visitors.

Why Petunia, you will look very fetching in your old new hat, not sure the coat is the correct match, but hey ho, needs must and warmth is more important than fashion sensibilites :-). One of my blisters wore a hat to the recent nuptials..... all the day and all the night :-(.

CC, you must be related to the Michelin family, the tyre family that is, not the gourmet tribe.... Why you must look positvely anorexic when you 'disrobe'. Talking of biscuits, our supermarket has a rather pitiful 'international' section. Yesterday I noticed a packet of wagon wheel biccies, with a price tag of $5 :-D. I didn't purchase any at that price, in fact I rarely buy biscuits - cause I eat them all :-.D :-D.

~~~~~~ to Lesley and Teresa. Hope you are soon on the mend Lesley, you must be getting fed up with yourself by now.?

The pup has gone home, I wonder if she lasted the night in her kennel - I shall no doubt hear tonight, Fruit and Mr Fruit are coming over for dinner. We are going Indian tonight - thanks Pataks ;-)

Toodle pip

Good evening Ladies.................#takes the kettle off the Aga and refills bottles, and places them inside a pocket of the Arry coat#

Aaaaah, that is better.

Indeed we did have snow today. It swirled, and fluttered and generally made a blooming nuisance of itself. How horrid.

Aah the tissue saga, one knows of a Mama who always found white socks encased within black socks when she emptied her washing machine. Rendering the white socks grey!!!!! Not attractive.

Your housecoat dear Cherry, did one purchase it from a place in Brentford perchance? They were always being advertised on the tv by dear old Fluff Freeman. I did so love his countdown on a Sunday night.

He loves me Yea, Yea, Yea!!!

Lesley, I am always looking for new places to shop dear. I have been recently to Stratford, Lakeside and Bluewater. But I need a dear little town with individual shops. Mass production is fine, but I want something like myself, unique.

Pass me a cup of cha dear, and a custard creme would be divine.

Dunking delicately
Auntie Petunia

*plods into Motie Towers and divests self of Nanook coat with hood, three cardis, two trousers, five pairs of socks, fur lined boots, and six pairs of gloves*

brrrrrrr ..... the central heating is off again ..... MRS BERRY I'M HOME !!! ANY TEA IN THE POT?????

Well its all right for some Petunia dear, I'm so glad to learn you are cosy and warm now, and perish the thought that I should hog your log fire so I will sit and shiver in the corner. We've had more snow today with fine hail mixed in ... sigh ... even the postman who doesnt usually have two words for me and cant even look at me if I'm not dressed when I open the door (although I am always respectably covered in a housecoat) had a grumble about the weather today. I sympathised and suggested he buy a hat. How different things were twelve months ago ....... and they call this Global WARMING ?????

Easter mAssage Lesley? LOL. although it has to be said I am skilled in many hands-on activities :-D .....
washing up the dishes, scrubbing floors, cleaning windows, laundering, general multitasking, and some days I even manage to find five minutes for ME time!!!

The tissue always ends up in the dark wash because someone didnt remember to check all the pockets ..... and that someone wasnt me. ;-) ;-) And its a beggar to get it off isnt it. I usually end up having to launder everything again. And I also find soap powder manages to leave white marks on black clothing and have to redo much of that as well. These things are sent to try us and indeed they do :-S :-S

Ah the tea has arrived, excellent, and bourbon biscuits as well. Heaven !

Hello Ladies.

I hope all in the UK are able to keep themselves warm and dry......................oh dear what cranky weather we are having. :-(

Thank you for your Easter massage CC

Auntie Petunia I hope Teresa doesn't mind me saying but I really couldn't recommend anyone travel any distance to shop in her hilly town.....................................................there isn't anything there :-|

Can anyone answer a question for me please ........................................why does the tissue always end up in the dark wash.:-S

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~To Susan and Teresa x