General Chat

Morning all looking in.

Well I slept last night as I really was so tired after being awake the night before.
The wind is howling here and rain lashing on my windows. Thank goodness I haven't any of my appointments today.

We are on an Amber warning for stronger winds later eeeek so we shall wait & see how bad Storm Jocelyn is.

Linda, my daughter has to put all her pills like you into these boxes as she has so many, its better this way and then she wont forget to take some.

Joan if you are looking in, hope you are ok and that you slept better last night. There are still people without power but we are still ok thankfully.

I have got the washing machine on a quick wash as want to get the load dried asap as to have wet washing lying around would be dreadful.

Got an email from sol yesterday saying that the Freeholder of mums property charges for completing their questionnaire to the tune of £180 which we have to pay the Freeholder direct!!Not to the solicitor. Considering its almost identical to the one I completed its outrageous. However I paid straightaway as don't want any delays.

Right I'm off now to finish my chores and refill the flask plus the house needs a good vacuum.

Take care all

Florence in the hebrides

I hope everyone up in Scotland had a more restful night, although it sounds as if Joycelyn is on its way. The wind has died down here, it is just raining and very dark.

I sat down this morning and filled up my monthly pill box, that is a very fiddly thing to do. I have a separate little box for each day with an am and pm section. I have two tiny pills to take first thing at least half an hour before I have anything to eat or drink. They are too fiddly to get out of the packets when I am still half asleep and J end up dropping them, so it is far better to decant them into the pill box. I have another tablet to take on an evening and I also take a multivitamin and a lutein tablet for my eyes . Again it is better to sit down for half an hour every month and put them into the pill box.
I know that the chemist can make up bubble packs, but they wouldn’t include my non prescription vitamins and lutein, so as long as I am capable, it is easier for me to do it myself. As the individual boxes have the date on them, it stops me wondering if I have taken them that day.

Well we managed to get our evening meal all cooked although at times the gusts were so bad, thought we would lose power.

Storm Jocelyn is now heading our way and its looking worse for us on the west coast :-( :-(

Joan, wrap yourself under the duvet as sitting on a stool all night is not comfy and will give you backache! What about sleeping in your sitting room? maybe quieter than upstairs. Take your duvet downstairs, get comfy on the sofa with tv on and stay there all night. i have done that before and slept quite well and was warmer too.

I boiled cauliflower florets, baton carrots and sliced onion. Placed in a rectangular dish. Then melted 2 pots of cream cheese with peppercorns. Poured over the entire dish and covered in breadcrumbs. Popped in the oven for about 30 minutes, By golly it was tasty and enough left for tomorrow. :-D

Off for a coffee before settling infront of tv as a few programmes to watch tonight.

Take care everyone

Florence in the hebrides

Oops, sorry Florence, I will look at a map of Scotland to get my bearings. I am pleased that you managed to keep the electricity on.
My neighbour said that both ours and their recycling bins had blown over in the night, but only a few bits had come out, so he picked them up first thing. OH had tried to jam ours in the hedge, so maybe that stopped it all from spilling out.
The wind is really picking up again now and it is raining hard.

Oh dear Joan, how on earth did you manage to sit in a stool all night? I would have snuggled down in bed with the quilt over my ears I hope you manage to sleep tonight, although the next storm is on its way.

Good to see you posting Joan and you didn't lose power but yes its frightening at night just hearing the wind gust. I'm amazed we never lost power although it did flicker around 6pm.

I have just looked at the SSE power track map and can see hundreds without power including further south from here!
I just got my prescription delivered and when i opened the door.....oh my the wind, it is still storm force!

I am going to fill another flask as I feel, its just as bad now as it was at teatime yesterday.

Glad everyone on here is safe and ok but just take care.

Florence in the hebrides

Afternoon to you all.
Well what a night that was, I went to bed around 10-00 pm after watching Vera only to have to get up again within an hour as the wind was starting to pick up & I couldn't get to sleep.
I sat up in bed for the next 1/2 an hour but was starting to worry as the noise of the wind was scaring me.

Went to the bathroom which is at the back of the house & the noise of the wind banging against the window was really bad, by now it was about 11-30 & the wind was really serious & I was by now absolutely terrified.
I ened up sitting on a stool on the landing & even though the noise was terrible it was the "quietist" place in the house. I sat there until just before 6-00AM, covering my ears when the gusting wind rolled in.

I was praying that the power wouldn't go off as it had been flickering, it did go off at one point but only for a moment, I couldn't believe it when it came back on so quickly & actually stayed on for the rest of the night.

By this time the wind had died down a lot & I returned to my bed, slept for an hour then I had to get up again as I could hear the wind again, it's still windy today & so I'm hoping it won't get any worse, I couldn't stand another night like last night so soon.

I can't see anything amiss when looking out of the windows, I just hope all is well with the house itself, as it's still windy I am not going outside to check.

I hope everyone is ok & all is well where you are.

Joan.

Afternoon all

Well we are ok and no loss of power. The wind fairly picked up mid evening but by 11pm seemed to have abated. However around 3am, the wind was howling stronger than before and lashing rain so I never slept a wink for the rest of the night.

Linda, I'm not in Shetland, that is over in the East, I'm in the west of Scotland in the outer Hebrides but Joan is in the East somewhere. Not sure if she lost power but think they had it more severe than us as many areas are without power in her area.

We are set to have this wild stormy weather all week and just typical as i have a Tesco delivery for Thursday!! Fingers crossed but no ferries for now.

Not up to much today as im really tired so gentle pottering and some paperwork followed by family tree work.

Its a real nuisance when a neighbours bin moves and spills and we have had that here several times. We have secure bungees around all 4 bins attached to the fence plus large stones on top and they rarely move but other people are not so "organised" and we end up with rubbish strewn over our garden too which we have to pick up!

Hope anyone else looking in is safe and ok. I think Ireland and wales lost power to thousands of homes.

Shall be back later

Florence in the hebrides

Here in northern Argyll we seem to have got off lightly compared with some other places.
It was certainly a very wild night, and some items were blown around in my garden, but nothing damaged, and all now retrieved. The wind is back to a more normal level now, though still with occasional strong gusts.
Our electricity stayed on, thank goodness.

Are you OK, Florence?
From Google, I can see that the wind is still about 50-60mph in your area, and there's a yellow warning for wind until Wednesday, because of the approach of Storm Jocelyn.

I hope everyone is OK, I read that lots of electricity is off on Shetland, so I hope Florence isn’t affected.
It was very windy last night and this morning, I saw that a recycling bin over the road had blown over and though they had picked it up, there was litter all down the road. So I have just been out and done a litter pick of the area and got a large bag full .. The wind seems to be picking up again after having died down, so I will stay in apart from popping next door for a coffee this afternoon

Good afternoon, the wind is starting to get up here, so the storm is on its way.
Someone came this afternoon and collected the dining table and chairs. I think she didn’t realise how big the table was, but that is her problem now, It is gone ,so that is good for us. I deleted the add and have made a new one with the dresser and corner cupboard on it. We don’t really want to take them, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world if we did as it will probably be a couple of months before the new kitchen and dining room cupboards will be ready. At least, I could use the current cabinets in the meantime.
We have a round metal patio table and chairs, so we have brought it into the dining room to use until we move and buy a new dining set. . The table has tubular metal legs and OH had to turn it on its side to carry it in. It has left a trail of black drops all over the floor which look like oil, bur will just be years worth of dirty water. Thankfully the downstairs flooring is wood not carpets, so I was able to just wipe it up.


We do have a selection of supermarkets to choose from here. There is a small Co- op just four or five minutes walk away in the town square, but that is expensive, so I only get the odd thing from there. Tesco and Lidl are just a ten minute walk away I sometimes walk there with my trolley, but usually I would be doing a bigger shop, so I take the car. We also have an Aldi a ten minute drive away.
The new house isn’t as convenient, it will probably take me about twenty five minutes to walk to the town centre, but there aren’t any supermarkets there. It will be a ten minute drive to an Aldi or fifteen minute drive to a large Morrisons . Twenty minutes would get me to an absolutely massive Sainsbury’s. I could get deliveries, but while I can drive, I prefer to go myself, or I could get a taxi easily

Linda, forgot to say, at least you have a choice of supermarkets!

Where you are moving to, are the shops as close as they are now and is there a lot of choice?I think as you get older, having a few shops within 5-10 mins walking distance is good as you can get a daily exercise and make a trip 2-3 times a week rather than drive for one big shop.

Home deliveries are good for me being immobile but if I could use the bus i would as it gets you out of the house and you see people. The downside of only getting home deliveries is that you are isolated if you live on your own and you dont get out to socialise.

For some doing a small shop in the supermarket is good for mental wellbeing .

Hope you get word soon from you solicitor

Morning all

Joan last night we had what we call here the "pre gales" . It was very stormy and a local power cut affected a village several miles away but not us. It is now sunny and calm but its later tonight, the wind is supposed to strengthen. Here the local website give out extreme warnings etc every time but we are so use to it, i dont take much notice as quite often it is scaremongering and it doesn't happen!!

All I do is take sensible precautions like secure the bins and small flower pots by moving the pots into a sheltered spot. I have always a good supply of batteries for the torches and now a flask which i may fill again later on.

The problem with the news channel is, is that they do repeat every 1/2 hour. I prefer to have the radio on, at least news and weather is only every hour.

I have my friend and neighbour popping in later for coffee and a catch up so looking forward to that. I think she's quite happy to escape her hubby for an hour on sun afternoon as he watches a lot of sky sports and she cant stand it lol.
Tesco cancelled her order yesterday afternoon so she had to drive 60 mile round trip to buy her own things!

Call the midwife tonight and Vera(last one) so good viewing.

Stay safe everyone

Florence in the hebrides

Morning Ann.

I mean on TV, I watch GBNEWS channel a lot, unfortunately they show the weather forecast every 1/2 an hour & it's far too often IMO.
They scare the living daylights out of me when they tell us about coming storms & show the UK map with all those scary symbols swirling around, we might need to now things like that but there are oldies out there like me who live on thir own & get very worried about forecasts like that.

Joan.

joan do you mean on TV or radio. I find it easier not to listen or watch the weather and news sometimes.

good morning all, 10 degrees here and dry but dull and rain promised later.

Good morning.
A nice sunny, calm morning at the moment, & I'm happy to say that the snow has almost gone, there is still some on the house road & around the edges of the fields.

I thought the storm had started early for us last night, around 8-00pm the wind got up & carried on for a couple of hours then nothing (i was glad about that) but the weather folk are ot in force today scaring folk like me to death with how serious the coming storm is going to be.
I really don't need that.

I hope all is well with everyone.

Joan.

It was freezing when I went to Tescos . There were massive gaps on the shelves, they didn’t have any bananas at all and a very poor selection of apples, no Granny Smiths for instance. Luckily Lidl is just over the road and they had plenty of bananas there. I also got some dishwasher salt which Tesco’s didn’t have. Everything must be stuck on ships having to come the long way to avoid Yemen.

Despite eating chocs Florence I managed to lose a pound this week.
I am very naughty Linda I don't eat enough fruit. I would eat bananas but they are not good for a low carb diet (strangely a lot of fruit seem to fall into that category) I do like and eat berries and Kiwi fruit when I can remember to get them.
Joan glad you sorted the latest water problem.

It is supposedly warmer here, but we have been out and it was still very cold. My daughter came with Esme and we went to the nearby town. She had ordered a sheet of Perspex for a project in the new house. It was cheaper to pick it up from here than order it in line.
We went shopping as Esme wanted some “perfume” of her own. Eve uses perfumed body spray and Esme has been coveting it. So we had a trip to Suoerdrug, so she could buy some. She also had her feet measured, but they hadn’t changed. The sale was on, so she bought a pair of very sparkly trainers with flashing lights on the sole. They were half price, so that was a bonus.

We then went to the garden centre and had a very nice lunch. Eve was supposed to be coming, but she stayed behind with her daddy. He was supposed to be doing his tax return, but I bet neither of them actually did anything.

I need to venture out to Tesco now as we are very low on fruit and we eat lots of it.

I am pleased that your snow is melting up north. I hope the storm doesn’t cause damage.

Hello~~~~~~

Well the temperature has rsen a wee bit, enough for the snow & ice to get away.
It started shifting yesterday, quite quickly considering how much we had, the sun helped.
No sun today so the thaw has slowed down, the snow is slushy & wet & the house road is difficult, worse today than when it was just fresh snow, but daughter managed to get to the hose with care.
It looks awful outside, slush, wet & sooo mucky.

The water situation had changed this morning, after flushing the loo it started to re-fill but not properly, just slow plopping, the bath & sink taps were running a bit slow, anyway daughter coame over & checked the holding tank again & it was still full, so it looked like there was an air lock.

Opening up the water presure pump then opening the 2 bathroom taps, & waiting for the spitting & fa__ing to stop all was well again.
Our friend hasn't started to look for the break in the wiring yet, it's not safe for him to have to use the ladders in this weather, I would rather he waits until this mucky slushy weather has gone.
I don't want him to have any accidents with the ladder, the holding tank is big so I should be ok for water for a good while & daughter will check on it to make sure it's topped up.

re Chocolate.....I'm not a big chocolate fan but I do like the Thorntons Classic selection, I can eat almost all of them, just 2 types that I'm not keen on, but only because my teeth couldn't manage them, LOL.

Not looking forward to the forthcoming storm Florence.

Joan.

Morning all

its cold here as a very windy NE wind and getting stronger. Storm Isha will make its mark later and so just now we have emptied the bins, secured them and shifted a few small flower pots into shelter.

I had a moving around morning and so shifted various vases etc. It now looks more streamlined in the lounge & hallway and less cluttered.

Postie just left me something I ordered but oh my!!! A pair of soft trousers, elasticated and loose fitting/wide leg. But they are at least 33 in side leg or more and look like they would fit someone who was a size 24 !!

So another thing to send back. I really despair when I order anything these days as clothes never seem to fit properly.

Here's hoping in Mar when I go for a hospital check up, I shall get to the big shopping centre and go on a spree then lol.

Joan hope your water supply is fully working today and the young man found the fault.

AnnIn Gloucs, I will probably end up throwing some of the chocs away. i had a box of the Shell chocs. Belgium ones but not a fan of them. The milk Tray dont even taste the same either. Oh well I lost 2lbs this week so onwards and upwards.

Hope everyone keeping warm and staying safe

Florence in the hebrides