General Chat

Afternoon everyone
Well its a bright, sunny but very chilly windy day. Its forecasting snow here tomorrow...eeeek and as per its Black Bin day on Monday!

Courier came today and left this huge box in my porch but it was so light. I opened it and then realised it was my Nicky Soft Touch toilet rolls I ordered via Amazon.
Packet of 32 rolls for £8 but minimum order of 2 packs. So I got 64 rolls for £16.00 and they are actually better than supermarkets own and far cheaper.

So today, dusting and hoovering and general tidy up. My lovely neighbour who was away xmas & new year is popping round tom at 2pm tomorrow for a coffee and a catch up so looking forward to that.

Not sure what to make for tea tonight as I have a bit of a headache so not feeling terribly hungry.

Joan, hope you are ok as haven't seen you posting for a few days, hope all's well?

Take care all
Florence in the hebrides

Well linda, im sitting at the PC with a can of diet coke and a bag of wine gums :-D

Last minute decision for daughter and shes away to see her nanna for the weekend as shes off out tom for afternoon tea to celebrate the birthday.

So Im now on my own all peaceful, no dramas and long may it last. She may not be back until Wednesday so a tidy house, less washing and im the boss of the TV :-D :-D

I may well have a salad for tea...what could possibly go wrong with that? :-D :-D

Oh dear Florence, I would just sit down and not move for the rest of the day. Have a cold dinner, no cooking in case you set fire to the kitchen

Finally my shopping arrived but with a couple of substitutes but was ok.

However whilst waiting, daughter nearly flooded the kitchen!!! She put her new fluffy fleece duvet into the wash with far too much washing liquid which then started to come out the machine. the suds were terrible. I grunted a few choice words at her and 4 washes and rinses later its now all back to normal.

Oh my just need one more thing to go wrong as they come in threes lol

I could do with a stiff drink except I cant have alcohol with my meds but....no better not ;-)

Ah, that would explain it Florence

Oh well, just had a message from Tesco's to say my delivery has been delayed until 2.30 due to a broken down van!! Grrrrr

And then I realised it's Friday 13th!!!! ;-)

Yes Linda I guess I could do that. Mind you so far since before xmas, the postie hasn't been seen much. So far once this week!!

I'm currently fed up with waiting for my Tesco delivery since 9am. I got up jolly early today but no sign yet. The window was 9-11am.

Its just cant really get on with much else until they have been.

Its flat calm here....for a change but its forecasting snow for us on Saturday and -1 degrees. it is only 3 degrees just now so pretty brrrr.

Oh well a hot coffee to keep me warm me thinks.

Back later on

Florence in the hebrides

Florence to weigh a parcel, weigh yourself first, then stand in the scale holding the parcel and do the Maths.

The parcel people have said that they want me to use DHL, but I can wait until it is convenient for me.

We had a really wild night, the wind and rain were buffeting the windows, so I woke up several times. I slept through the alarm, but luckily OH woke up and roused me so I was only about ten minutes late in getting up to sort the girls out

Yes to all the first bit but I have never tried to send a huge, heavy parcel by post.

We don’t always keep the same postie as they get moved around a bit because they all loath trawling around the outlying villages. But our most usual one is very friendly.

Our biggest problem is the post box is timed for one 9 am collection. We just have to walk into the village to the post office counter or a bit further to the sorting office. Not such fun at the moment with all the rain.

Names, I think they do have this service as a card was put through the door awhile ago. But im guessing, you have to weigh the parcel yourself, download and print a label, and pay online? But how do you weigh a huge parcel on bathroom scales accurately?

My worry was if I have weighed the package incorrectly, the recipient would end up having to pay extra.

My local postie isn't too friendly as often I hand a letter to them complete with stamp for posting and I always feel they dont want to take it as it wont go until the next day.

Im thinking I shall be sending my xmas cards and presents in September this year in the hope they may arrive by December!

Florence, done here in the soggy south the Post Office are beginning to offer a pick up your parcel from home service.

Doesn’t help with delivery companies drop off being miles away but great if you have to use the post.

Added: it’s called Parcel Collect

Afternoon all.
Well my breadmaker i ordered just a few days ago on Amazon was delivered by Royal mail today along with a box of bread mixes as well. I have already put a cheese and onion bread mix into the breadmaker but it wont be ready until about 4.15pm. Smells divine and so cant wait to eat it.

Yes the Amazon site in Gourock is closing but there is a centre in Dundee which is where most of my goods come from so not sure what the effect will be on us up north?

I have been sorting out my boxes in the bedroom as since xmas, all my gifts etc and some spare ones have been cluttering the floor. So we have sorted a box for the charity shop, broken up about 10 boxes for the recycling which exhausted me.

I finally received from dad, 3 Mirano rainbow fish which belonged to my grandma. I washed them in soapy water very carefully as they have been wrapped in a towel for years! They are now on display on my filing cabinet and look quite at home lol. i think they are from the 60's and are worth a few pounds now but its just so nce to have them on display like they were when i was a child.

Oh Linda, what a palaver trying to return things!Our main PO is 30 miles away and an hour by bus so I hate it if we order things and then have to return them.

Joan if you are looking in, hope you and hubby are ok?

Well Im in need of a cuppa after all the tidying we did.

Florence in the hebrides

We waited in all day Tuesday as we were told our DPD delivery was due, eventually got a message on Wednesday to say it was arriving. Driver then demanded my first name and then never posted the confrimation of delivery.

Told him I wouldn't give my first name but said I was Mrs... He claimed he needed to know my name as there possibly lots of people in the house with the same surname. So I eventually told him 'M' as he asked for an initial. M being the first letter of Mrs.
I've given totally false first names before ;-)

Amazon deliveries in Scotland may change as they are closing one of their sites, in the west I think.

I've ordered many things from Amazon in recent years, and they've always arrived very quickly and with no problems via either Royal Mail or Evri.

However, something I ordered on 5th January, and which was originally supposed to be coming by Royal Mail, and should have been here by now, is now apparently coming by DPD, and isn't expected to arrive until possibly 19th January, which is disappointing.
I don't think I've ever had anything via DPD before, so don't know whether to trust their word or not.

That's a good result about the high chair, Linda.


EDIT (13 Jan):
My parcel arrived today!

I admire people who are artistic. Any cards I made would end up looking like nothing on earth :-(

The saga of my parcels still goes on. It took a few emails to get the people who sent the high chair to understand that I was keeping it and needed to pay them again because .they had already refunded the money. They couldn’t work out how to do that so told me just to keep it.
The company who I bought. My son in laws present from offered me a discounted price just to keep,it, but I have no use for it, so just want a return label. That was fine until they sent a link to a label but they are using DHL and the nearest drop off point is a twenty minute drive from here. All of the drop off points are places where I have no reason to go, so I told them they were joking if they expected me to do a long round trip just to return their parcel.They sent the replacement by Royal Mail, so I asked why I can’t send it back via them, or Evri as there is a local drop off for them. I think they will have suspended their Evri contract after all all the problems they have caused them. They replied offering to let me keep it for only £15, a pretty good discount as it was £50 originally, but I don’t need it, so have said that if they insist on using DHL, they will have to wait a few weeks until I need to go to one of the locations . I await their reply today.

good afternoon all. I think we have your gales and rain here Florence, would you like them back? It was really nice first thing but by lunch time it was horrible and still is.

Your card sounds really nice, I hope your friend is pleased with it.

I still have 11 cards missing, at least one that I know was posted from very local to me.

I had very nice carrot and coriander home made soup for lunch. I made enough for two days and today was the last day so all gone now.

Afternoon chit chatters.
Well finally the gale has passed and the weather has settled down. The rain during the night pelted my window and was so noisy, I never slept that much.

Today I made my first birthday card for a friend in February and am quite pleased with it. A pink card, decorated with purple butterflies and a border plus little gems down the side. It took me about 1/2 hour before I was happy with the layout and then stuck it al down.3 pink feathers fanned across the middle.

Hall cupboard needed a sort out and we have now put up the xmas decs back in the loft. We are selling the xmas tree as we want a change but its still in good condition so hoping someone will buy it.

The postie has been with very little since before xmas. So I'm wondering how long before all the backlog of letters are delivered? I still haven't received 2 birthday cards, my dad did not receive my sons card and son never received his grandads card. I posted a birthday card mid Dec for a friend on New Years Day and it hasn't arrived either.

No veggie soup left but a little mackerel pate still in the dish for later just not sure what else to have today.

Hope all's well with everyone

Florence in the hebrides

I have been in a similar situation before with Amazon and they always say keep it, but these two are small firms. I want to keep the high chair, so may need to pay them again, but I don’t want the other one. I just want a postal label from them.

Some years ago, I had a similar situation with something which I'd ordered but which hadn't turned up.
The suppliers sent out a replacement - and both the original order and the replacement arrived a few days later, both on the same day.

I asked the supplier what to do, and they said just to keep both, at no extra cost, as they had already claimed on their insurance .

Fortunately, it was a duvet, and I didn't mind having an extra one!

I had a surprise this morning when Evri turned up with the four parcels missing ifrom before Xmas. Two were for me and two for my daughter. One of mine was the dolls high chair for Esme’s new doll. I am pleased with that as it is much bigger than the smaller second hand one I managed to find for sale locally. Her new “ baby” is a life sized newborn and she was struggling to fit it into the substitute chair. So now we have two highchairs so even more clutter.

I had a refund from the company so I have had to email them to ask what we do now. My second parcel was my son in laws main present.As that had gone awol, they sent a replacement out after Xmas with parcel force That came in a couple of days, but now the original has turned up. I have had to email them as well to find out what to do about that.As it was reasonably expensive, I assume they will want me to send it back, but I am not going to pay the postage

One of my daughters was her partners main present from her, so she is pleased it has turned up as ge is going back to London tomorrow. The other one was a dress she had ordered for Eve to wear at an Xmas party, a bit late for that now

It is dreary and dismal here, really dark, so we need the lights on