General Chat

Not much doing in Newcastle at the minute ,but it's a nice morning so the missus and i are going down to the Chester Le Street Market in Durham for a look see .
There are some interesting sites too ,so i will take the new camera for a work out,and see what goodies are on offer at the same time.
Some people in this country are pretty stupid with their ideas of celebrations and advertising .
Re the cheese that was sent up into space yesterday only for something to go wrong in that it came hurtling back down when the weather baloon burst ,7 kilos of cheese is heavy ,and it would have easily killed someone,had it hit someone on the head ,i am suprised health and safety allowed it,being as it was an a stupid risk to start with,and a waste of food to boot,in a world that is getting short of staples,such as wheat and rice.
Have to go and get ready now ,but i will be back later to let you know how i get on.
Fred.

Hi Everyone,sorry I have not ben on for a day or two,got caught up with other things.
More rain again today only had a half dozen people in the libary this morning due to the rain. One had come for computer lessons but we had to tell her it was cancelled as the lady that gives them had to take emgerancy leave as her mother is unwell,we could not find a contact number for her but she said she had left her details with the ict person,We kept apolgising but she was not happy,can not say i blame her but we could not get in touch if we did not have a contact number.
It was busier in the afternoon mainly kids as its the school holidays but we had to ask a few to leave as they had been mis behaving ,luckily they did ,so it was ok.
Off tomorrow ,but have a few errands to do ,also having a haircut as I am out to my friends 60th birthdayin the evening,we are going to a chinese restaurant.
I used to think housing associations were good managers but they are not all the same Kathleen,my friend was in a house for a while and she said at fisrt they did all repairs pretty quickly,but as she left they kept fobbing her off about fixing things. My sister works for one in Liverpool,but they seem sto be very keen on keeping things up to scratch and its the teneants who are lax in keeping the gardens and things ok.
Fred,I have had a vision of you in a tin helmet using your new mower,whilst being bombarded with cherry pips etc.
Dorothy glad the family got back ok and had such a great trip. Hope you can get something sorted for Anne coming.
take care ,Brenda

Hah ,so i'm not the only one getting bombarded with cherry pips then Kathleen ,do as i do lass ,get your old tin hat out to wear out back lol.
I have had a nice two hours out back this afternoon in the sun,sat in my chair looking at all my fruit and plants ,all busily growing ,waiting for the day the strawberries are ready,pot of cream in the fridge ready.
The new mower i got out of it's box late this morning ,put it together and tried it out ,brill' no chewing at the edges of the lawn ,and the whole big lawn trimmed without having to clean the box out until i came to put the mower away ,so ,lots quicker and easier for these old legs .
Well ,i'm off to facebook to take the mickey out of a member in wycombe ,who ,i know lives in cressex ,where a cheese fell out of the sky this morning ,lol,wonder if it was my rellie Susie who lives in that area ,a 7 kilo lump of cheddar falling from space ,is a lot of welsh rarebit. ,good thing it never hit anyone ,lol
See ya later peeps. fred.

hi everyone the sun is finally shining and supposed to continue for a few days which will be good for the folks on holidays and for the long week-end coming up I have noticed that some people are all ready heading up to the cottages and the different lakes near me the highway is busy, fred I did not buy the fax it was given to me by the charity that I am working part time for they are donated to them by the major company that supports them of course you have to had them back if you no longer stay with them, I am off to the local c.a.a office to see about some day trips to take anne on when she comes they help with maps and plan routes clearly marked. I don't have one of those things in the car that talks to you I don't really need one gps I think they are called. sorry to hear kathleen that your son has that flue thing it is over here as well I try to stay away from crowded places as much as I can. I think it is going to be a bad winter in regards to this. well I am going to take advantage of this nice weather and go for a stroll and then do the groceries and the library so I don't have to bother this week-end bye for now dorothy

Good morning - whoops just noticed it is 12.20 so - Good afternoon folks !!

At the moment it is bright but very windy, have had several very heavy downpours so not able to hang out washing nor do anything outside. The birds are bombarding my roof with the stones from next doors cherry tree - well they look like cherries but not sure what they are, just that they make a horrendous mess. Mind you not as bad as the flippin' elderberries when all my washing gets covered in horrible purple mess, every garden at the back of me seems to have elderberries. The house immediately at the end of my garden has apple trees, now totally neglected and covered in ivy and elderberry. Such a shame, I remember them being planted by the very nice man who lived there. That was in 1961 and he told me to pick as many apples as I wanted for the children. For a few years we had some really lovely eating and cooking apples but then he disappeared and several people have lived there since but none have looked after the trees. Actually the current tenants have made a real mess of the fence which is falling down - when it does all their rubbish (which includes old mattresses) will come into my garden. I believe it is still owned by the housing association and I have spoken with them about it but they tell me the request for new fencing has to come from the tenant. Odd really, when they had to do repairs to the upper maisonette's balcony they had to come through my garden and take the fence down so they could get their equipment through. Seems I have to approach the tenant myself to tell them to report the problem - thing is they have dumped rubbish there and probably will not do anything as that is strictly not allowed. Feel inclined to help it on it's way and see what happens - the rest of their garden looks to be reasonably neat and tidy, just the end under the trees and all their ivy and brambles come through to my side. Dose it all regularly with strong weedkiller (which I don't like using) but is the only way to keep it down a bit. I can't really grow anything down at that end.
One of my sons has got swine flu - during his week's holiday. Indira went to get his medication and I will pop down later with some food. We have to put it in through a window as he is in quarantine. He doesn't seem too bad at the moment but keeps saying "keep away Mum, I don't want you to get it". Not heard of anyone else around this area with it - he works in London and had lots of meetings last week so that's probably how he caught it.
It's persistingly raining again - and I have to go outside to the freezer to get out the lamb chops for dinner. Have lamb hearts in the freezer inside but not feeling like messing around with those today. Chris has to work tonight so have to cook his dinner early.
Must go and feed Philip now. Hope it''s better weather where you are.

Take care
Love
Kathleen
ps. They are going to relay the floor in Indira's flat in a few days - just waiting for it to be officially approved.

Morning Dorothy ,Brenda,,Kathleen ,and anyone else who happens by,yes ,i too was caught out by the rain again ,getting back from the garden store as the heavens opened yet again ,so my new toy ,still in it.s box was shoved into the garden shed ,couldn't even assemble and play with my new toy grrrrrrr.
Hissy had me in stitches again yesterday morning ,and i wrote about her antics on the other thread,too long to rewrite it on here though ,lol,so,on to other things.
Fixed the laptop up with the wood i bought at the same time as the mower ,and it seems great ,no more fumbling to hit the right keys on the board ,and lots easier on the wrists ,which was what i was after.
Nice to see someone else likes their stir frys ,we love 'em and the wife made a cracker yesterday which was so tasty.
It's called a stir fry because it's cooked in a wok ,but in fact the cooking medium is a couple of tablespoons of water ,not oil.
lots of ingredients in ,basically cauli' florets ,cherry tomato ,chopped .a fat free french dressing ,salt ,pepper ,chilli flakes ,basil ,corriander ,and a little cheddar cheese taking no more than ten minutes to knock up ,really lovely ,and light too,so ,if anyone wants the where with all ,let me know ,and i will twist the missus's arm for you [evil chuckle].
Sorry to hear of your friends troubles and illness ,Dorothy ,and it's a pain being so far away ,i know ,only too well with both my ,mum and sister being a four hour drive away,but i'm sure your friend will be comforted by knowing you are there for her in spirit,it is a large comfort i assure you.
Suprised you went to the trouble of buying a machine for faxing Dorothy when there is a programme on the net to use your puter to fax ,in and out ,but as Brenda has said ,well done on the fixing up of ,lol,does this mean i can get you to sort my stuff out if it breaks down ,lol,i have various machines here that could do with a good teck'y, .
No need to water the garden with all the rain ,lol ,so ,there was only the greenhouse to do this morning,waste of time these days even looking at the forecast ,how good are these people ,who are sooooo good at their job ,that the people in Scotland get no warning of a small twister that hit yesterday ,no one hurt mind ,but quite a bit of damage to cars and houses,and at a holiday resort too ,a place that the weather people should have been watching very closely at holiday time .
Off to do some work now ,before thinking of something for dinner,i have a nice swordfish steak in the freezer that i will thaw for my teatime salad ,yum. Fred.

hi one and all and yes I awoke to the sound of rain slamming on the windows the weather man has not been doing a good job it was not supposed to rain again to-dayits 8-45 and its pouring down, last night I went over to the family's for dinner lindy did a great stir fry and I was filled in on all the happenings on the trip and then some it was mostly good except for Ian being seperated from them in a crowd of people in the palace of versaills (not sure if i spelled it right) for over 20 minutes andrew said it was the worst 20 minutes of his life, the security guards were looking for him when he made his own way back to them he said he stood still for a while at the end of a corridor and then made his way back to where he thought they where so it ended well, so it was a fun evening they are getting ready to go to camp next monday, when I came home I recieved a call from a friends daughter with sad news my friend peggy in prince edward island has been battling breast and lung cancer for a while and now it has spread all over the place so she has had to be put in hospital she is a fellow nurse and we worked to-gether for years she is a very strong woman and the most honest person I have ever met, she has maybe about a month or so left her daughter gave me her number direct to her hospital room so I shall phone her when I am finished here, she is in hospital for pain control and then she will head back to her home to be in the place she wants to end her life in , surrounded by all that is important to her, I wish I was not so far away distance is a problem at a time like this , she was clear for 4yrs but did not make the fifth mark. enough fo that brenda good look with your dad's house it is never easy getting a houe ready for others to view bye for now dorothy

Hi all,its been raining cats and dogs again here to day,at least i got in before it started.was over at my dads house trying to sort some things out ,but it was impossible as we could not guess what others wanted and what should be sent to charity shops etc..
It is being valued on Friday and my sister wanted it to be de cluttered.!!
Have been scanning some photos to do one of those Moon pigp cards for my neice who is 21 .Did not have any decent ones on the pc already.
Well done with the fax Dorothy ,want to come and sort ours out at work.??
Hope the tea at you sons was good Fred.
See you tomorrow.Brenda

goodmorning rain rain and more rain this am but it is supposed to go away and the rest of the week is supposed to be sunny well we shall see, sorry brenda that you have that awful shift try and think pleasent thoughts just finished reading reg hills midnight fugue it was quite good. fred I have been giving first aid to the tomato plants as they did get quite damaged in the storms over the weekend good job I can remember how to apply a bandage!!!! finally put the fax machine to-gether and it works so in the winter the charity office can fax things to me rather than me going over there in the white stuff off to do a few chores and then some phoning bye for now dorothy

Morning all ,i was just going to say ,from a Sunny Newcastle ,but it's startig to cloud over again ,nothing changes he he ,and here's me ,out in the back at six this morning going daft with the hose complete with feeding head on,still ,never mind ,things could be a lot worse ,it could be snowing.
Kathleen ,if you have a mobile phone on contract ,you could renew it to include a lice little laptop free with the new contract and still get plenty of phone minutes free as well ,the phone companies are desperate for business and there are some really good deals out there,
I took out a deal for this lappy with T Mobile costing £27 a month with free texts and 200calls,and virgin ,vodaphone and most of the other companies are doing simular deals ,the laptop? ,that you get in with it and after the eighteen months it's yours to keep ,and then upon renewal you downgrade to the phone and calls only .
\seems we are off to the youngest sons for tea ,so i only have dinner to see to ,hmmmm ,i feel a stir fry coming on ,lol.
Time to see to other things now ,so i will leave you all to your days ,may you all enjoy it ,no matter what ,catch you all later ,Fred.

just a few lines as I am still in work and should not be here,!!
weather really good to day,but have been in here since 12.30pm till 8pm.
Glad everyone is ok , will be back tomorrow when not working,
Brenda

hi everyone froma still very rainy barrie we are going to need noah's ark soon the rain has been torrential and done a lot of damage to my plants on the balcony they have been bowled over by the rain and high winds I even went out in rain gear and put them in the most sheltered part of the balcony, I am still tryuing to understand the fax machine I think I have finally got it to work, not very much new at the moment we have a holiday week-end coming up at the end of this week so will have to get my shopping done by friday and then on the 3rd the children go to camp for two weeks further north from barrie all the cousins will be to-gether all 8 of them they do a lot of boating swimming and camping overnight they stay in cabins but the overnight camping include portaging the boats. lindy sister and family move back to canada permanatly on thursday . hope you all have a good week bye for now dorothy

What happened to the long, hot summer that was forecast? (was also forecast last year - didn't happen then either).
Has now stopped raining after several hours of heavy wet stuff, it is now very windy, brighter but still cloudy - and more rain to come it seems.

Just popped in to see how you all were - obviously all busy.

Hope you all enjoy your day

Take care
Love
Kathleen

Good morning all, it is bright and dry though a bit cloudy and breezy Warm outside but my house is quite cold. Maybe not having the heating for those last weeks of the cold weather has made a difference, no retained heat inside. Wish I had a laptop I could take outside.
Good to see you Sylvia, pleased you are feeling better. Hope you enjoy your trip and the stay in the hotel sounds wonderful. It's good to spoil yourselves once in a while.
Brenda, retirement has it's good points but the drop in income can be a bit of a shock. However you have to do what is best for you, maybe you could cut down your hours as a start? I was made redundant at 63 - no chance of getting another job at that age so I became a Betterware distributor which I did for 14 years. Quite enjoyed doing it, in my own time but expected to produce orders so sometimes had to put in the extra hours. In the end a new "manager" gave me up, she was young and wanted all her friends to join in. As I expected they were all enthusiastic to start with but soon realised it did mean working so soon gave up - as she did herself eventually. Not sure that I could do it now though I have given it some thought. We have a lot of places that have stairs to climb and not sure that I could cope with that again - but we haven't had anyone doing the job around here for a couple of years now,. The extra money does make a difference.
Fred, not sure which makes me laugh the most, the antics of your Hissy or the things you get up to - well not so much the things you do but "it's the way you tell 'em".
The saga of the flat goes on ---and on---!! Had a visit from the lady who calls to check all is well - she is going to chase up the floor problem (and so am I) but did say that though all the bathrooms have been done some of the kitchen areas are to be done sometime between the end of this year and 2011. It's all a question of budgets.
Hope you are all enjoying the weekend.
Take care
Love
Kathleen

Well ,this is nice ,quite a few peeps showing up of late with some very interesting scuttlebutt,makes my life look a little tame ,lol.
Sooooo miserable here this morning ,dank ,dark and drizzling nearly 0900 and still need a light on to see the keyboard .
We managed our B B Q okay yesterday ,starting at 5 pm ,going through to 7-30 ,lots of nice nibbles all done at a very slow pace ,this is the advantage of gas over charcoal ,control over the cooking to ensure everything is cooked slowly but properly.
I quite enjoyed sitting in the late afternoon sun watching sausages sizzle on the grill and,toasting the muffins slowly on the hotplate while watching the aircraft flying back to Newcastle airport from the big Airshow in Sunderland,my only gripe with this is a lot of the heavy aircraft no longer use Newcastle because the airport authority is far too greedy with the service charges and they lost all the business to [Goosepool] [Teesside airport who are chuffed to bits getting the aircraft in there.
Dropped a clanger though ,he he ,who left the mower out in the open last night oooooops ,who needs a new one grrrrrr. ,lol ,never mind ,i was thinking of getting a new up to the edge of the lawn ones anyway ,ending the bare patches that you get when the mower tips as it goes off the edge .
Who left the greenhouse door wide open too ,he he ,i didn't need to water it this morning the way the wind was blowing lol,only hope the floor dries out before the wife sees it.
Off for now for a mooch about ,but will be back later.Fred.

hello ,well it started out a bit dismal but turned into a really nice day, We even had an ice lolly this afternoon,i found some sorbet icelolies with not many calories and no fat ,they were not big but really nice,they weren't too dear either so we might be having them again if the weather stays ok.
Dorothy I suppose I have backed into a corner but I have also sadi barring something untoward happending,but I think I am ready to finish work ,or at least drop my hours a whole lot.!!!!!!!
Glad the family are home and you can relax.
See you all tomorrow,the BBq I was going to has been cancelled. due to the weather /

goodmorning from a very happy dorothy yes the family arrived home last evening they phoned me about 9-15 all of them very tired but having had a wonderful trip the children had gone straight to bed but lindy told me a few things about the places they visited andrew said they spent 5hrs at the tower of london and had a private guide the hildren loved it I remember taking andrew there about three times , so I shall see the children later to-day or to-morrow to get a full report from them I must say I slept better last evening knowing they had arrived safely, good to hear from sylvia I hope you enjoy your visit and the fancy hotel, so brenda have you backed yourself into a corner with the retirement plan you have to do what is best for you no matter what other peole think it is raining again to-day that is 3 days straight but supposed to clear up later bye for now dorothy

Just a quick hello to you all,Nice to see you Sylvia and so pleased thingsseem to be picking up for you.Hope all these tablets work and that you also enjoy your trip.
I have been telling a few people about finishing work,so I will have to go with it now,Need to get a plan of action so Ican get some jobs done while I have wages !
Weather still very mixed am off this weekend so would like a nice dry warm wekend does not have to be really hot ,just nice will do.
See you all later take care Brenda

Hi all,
Have just been reading through all your messages etc. and laughing at Fred's cat's antics.
I am feeling a good deal better now. I now take 17 tablets a day and have vitamine B1 injections. Anyway the last they found out was that I had potassium in my blood so have 6 tablets a day to swallow for this and seems to work with the vitaine B1 injection and the extra thyroid tablet. I am like a rattlesnake now with all these tablets. I do still fall asleep a lot but hope that will get better.
I went out on my scootmobile to the market today and got absolutely soaking wet. Oh it was also so cold. I was so glad to get back again to a cup of hot coffee.
My daughter is off to Italy for 3 weeks and we are going into her house in Eindhoven for some of the time. Whilst there we will visit Johan's sister of 86 and other things we wanted to do. Johan has booked us into a luxury hotel in Maastricht for 3 nights, sounds like a bridal suite!!!!!
Maastricht for us is quite a drive so if we do it from Eindhoven it won't be so stressful. Maastricht is a beautiful old town and I am looking forward to this.
Now have a nice weekend everybody.
sylvia xxx

hi brenda (6-30 my time) I guess you will be sleeping as I type this I hope that you do think about retiring in march its funny how our bodies slow down but the mind still thinks like a young person, well it poured to-day I have not see this much rain in ages I thought I was driving through a river on the way home from andrew's and I did not take the lake route home but now the sun has come out rather late in the day but thats ok. bye for now dorothy