General Chat

hi from a cold and windy barrie and it has rained most of the day this week-end is a holiday week-end over here thanksgiving turkey dinners plus plus. andrew calle me to see if I wanted to go up to the cottage for thanksgiving dinner but there is going to be quite a crowd about 17 with us and lindy's sisters family , her sister whohas returned to canada is driving from ottawa with her family it will be there first thanksgiving in canada in 17yrs, I have decide not to go as I want to be around to call scotland and check up on steven. I not really in the mood for a crowd but andrew will have his dad with him I believe he is coming up. the stores are full of the fall vegatable and lots of turkeys frozen and fresh but they are quite a price. this is the week-end that most people close their cottages so the highway will be busy, but the fall leaves are turning and colours as always are wonderful mother nature at her best. well I say bye for now dorothy

Hello from a sunny and very cold Manchester,if you had looked out the window and seen the blue sky and sunshine you would have thought it was summer.!! Could have done with my gloves this morning when driving the car.!!!
Had a good day with my friend ,but the lunch we had was not very good,we went for cheap and cheerful fast food place,but it was not good ,so will not be going there again.
Got started on christmas and have seven presents now,but still have someways to go.Have a numbe of birthdays inbetween as well.
Hope you enjoy the Thanks giving weekend Dorothy ,and hope it continues to be good news about your brother.
Working all day tomorrow and should be painting at weekend in Davids room,!!!! wath this space.
TAke care ,Brenda

we have been expecting rain today ,but glad to say it hasn't arrived yet.
John should have had a full round of golf.
NOt working tomorrow,but have food shopping to do and shopping for paint and a new TV !!!.
Hope you are all ok and Fred is enjoying Cyprus and Hoope Dorothys brother is doing ok.
Have a good weekend.
Brenda

Have been awake a while in bed ,so have got up to surf the web so to speak and check on here,will also look at the hot matches I have ,11 pages and have not found any that are proper matches for ages.
Hope you are all ok. will be getting a drink after checking the hot matches for a bit.
See you all later.Brenda

goodmorning well the rain of the last few days has stopped and the sun is shining a bit and the fall leaves are wonderful yes brenda steven seems to be improving he has been transferred to a cottage hospital near his home spoke to his wife yesterday she said he was in a really bad mood and she was not pleased with him mood swings are to be expected I guess he has lost a lot of weight and is still quite weak but all in all is on the mend hopefully his mood will improve. I went to brampton on thursday for a retirement dinner for a nurse I worked with it was a good turn out about 60 people a great meal and I saw people I have not seen in a long time so it was fun I needed that lift. the highway was not to bad driving back friday morning but it poured rain all the way. I am going to andrews for lunch to-day bryan has hockey this week-end so andrew and the two boys will go to the cottage on sunday and lindy and laura are going to-day, the former husband came up last night so will be at luch as well and he will go to the hockey match to-morrow . I also started back at my little charity job I quite enjoyed getting back to it. cleared of the balcony all the furniture pots etc getting ready for the winter. must call anne this morning hope you all have a good week-end bye for now dorothy

Greetings, it has been quite awhile since I visited GR and you probably didn't notice my absence. The past few weeks have been very busy helping on a committee organising in our area The Salvation Army's 125 years celebration of ministry and evangelism. Photos of a bygone era were displayed included pictures of the worship halls some were closed and demolished, one became a builder's workshop near the town where I grew up is still there (although worst for where considering it is 106 years old), one became the Army's family store, one hall was sold when a new one was built now seen various groups occupy it. We had 150 or so sit down for dinner on the Saturday and similiar number at the Sunday service. Some wit asked would I organise the next one in 2034, if I'm still about then I would be 86!!

Gayle's fistuala saga continues, she is keeping good health and the surgeon said they will do it but not until she really needs it - and when it happens onlyl two weeks needs to elapse before actual treatment as there would be shunt in place.

Been on Facebook a lot these days and Gayle tells me I spend to much time on it, which probably true. I need to make sure I check into GR a bit more regularly than I have in recent months. Take care, John

hi from a very thanksgiving sunday it is only 3 degree's john I am sure that people have noticed that you have been missing on the thread glad to hear that your wife is in good health at the moment long may it continue your dinners sounded great , I spoke to my sister in canmore yesterday they had gone to their 2nd place for a few days they had about 4 inches of snow and it was -11 rather chilly but she said the mountains were beautiful I am off to the hockey game in a little while I don't really enjoy them but grandmas have to do these things sometimes and bryan appreciates it when I go, ther is a great smell of cooking turkeys in the building to-day I suppose lots of people are having their meal to-day, I am going to have either chicken keiv or a beef wellington that I picked up at the frozen food store plus some nice fresh vegatables hope you all have a good week-end bye for now dorothy

Hi all.John,yes you are missed!! Just hope Gayle is ok with all this waiting,you must be doing a good job if they want you to organise the next dinner,even at 86!!
How is you weather over there,Spring should be with you I think!
Dorothy glad your brothet is on the mend ,my mother used to say if people got in moods in was a sign they where on the mend!!
Hope you enjoy the match and that Anne was ok when you phoned her.
Have to go .john has just made a brew and Iwant to watch a tv programme before getting some ironing done.
TAke care ,hope Fred and Sylvia are ok
brenda

HI all.just had my tea break at work and its really slow here at the moment,I will be to tired when I get home to go on the pc so thought I would see what messages are on now.Hope everyone is ok,we have another sunny but really cold day here,hope yours is ok
Take care ,Brenda

Hello everyone,hope evryone is ok.weather really chilly again today ,going to have a bowl of soup at lunch to warm me up.
Been busy this morning,better go and straighten some books.
brenda

Morning all ,made it at last ,the internet is hopeless out here,and it is more often off than it is on,but.however ,it seems more stable this morning.
We went out yesterday ,back to the castle we had to leave last Friday because of the heat,and had a very enjoyable two hours ,in and around the site.
It was built by Christians in the 3rd century a d,and used to produce sugar and wine for hundreds of years by the ,christians ,then the turks, and also the arab Marmadukes who sacked the .place before leaving ,for other places to raid and plunder.
Hard to believe that Christians played so big a part in the islands history ,but i took a pic close up of the motiff on the castle wall ,and it shows knights shields and one being the Royal family crest of the time ,richards crown over the top of the shield and crest.
The castle itself is amazing ,with a very well thought out water system ,with three wells in the castle basement in case of attack.where the stores were kept and the wine made..The kitchen was on the first floor along with the quarters for the knights and their servants.
The middle floor had more quarters and another well,as well as latrines sunk into the walls[hope the knights took their armour off before using them ,lol it's a ruddy long way down if he were to slip].the walls on all floors had windows on all sides .slabs set into them for peeps to sit on,and enough room for narrow tables down the middle to eat meals on.
The top floor was the same apart from the stairway leading to the roof which was for the lord and lady of the castle .
This is the main reason i am staying in today ,the long walk up this spiral staircase was difficult ,to say the least ,even the school kids from the local schools were complaining lol,so for an old goat who had forgotten his stick [smacks wrist] even the long rest we took on the roof taking pic's of the scenery before coming back down was not long enough ,because coming back down was worse than going up with no handrails ,and by the time i got back onto the lords floor ,i was well and truly shattered ,with all the stairs to go down yet to reach the drawbridge ,ooooo ,i was ,and still am sore ,to say the least,but to see this castle ,and to take all those pics ,well ,i would manage to do it again if i had too ,[with a stick of course].
The wife and i made some flans this morning ,spam and egg ones plus some jam tarts with the left over pastry, the flans will make a nice change ,cold with a nice salad for dinner.
I managed to get my large centre parting mowed yesterday too once i had cooled off £12 it cost me ,,ere [thinks] this barber on camp is on a good screw ,if he does 30 peeps a day easy with the army here as well,you are talking 360 euros a day ,wow, open four and a half days a week,no wonder this fella is driving a series 8 B M W to work every day he dosn't pay rent ,him doing the crown good service in keeping the troops well turned out ,and leccy on the base is £12 a month so .the overheads are very small[ something tells me i took up the wrong trade] he he.
Hope everybody is well ,and doing fine ,take care all.Fred & Liz.

Hello Everyone,Had a nice day today weather was good as well,Glad to see Fred is having a great time,even when he forgets his stick!!
Have an appointment to see a consultant about my knee next week ,but am expecting him to say that I can not have any treatment till I have lost weight!! Don't like taking the painkillers which do not really take the pain away ,but leave me with other effects !!So I will wait and see what they say.
Hope Dorothy and Sylvia are ok and John too.
Take care
brenda

goodmorning one and all from a very cold barrie it is -8 at the moment and its about 8-30 am my time, yes brenda I am fine just been a little busy on monday I had turkey dinner with a lady and her family up stairs from me it was very good I think all my friends and family had a good thanksgiving week-end, lindy and her family put the cottage to bed for the winter and byran had a good hockey game. this week I am doing my little job plus helping out with the children andrew had an unexpected business trip, and lindy is busy at school as far as I can figure it out she fills in for 13 teachers, each teacher gets planning time and when they do lindy takes the class that they should be teaching at that time, so she covers jnr and snr kindergarten and grades one through three, las night she was setting a science test for grades one and she says some of them can not read, it appears that some children have not had much help at home with reading etc. I loved reading fred's message re the castle while I am sorry that the steps where such a problem the castle sounded great I would have loved to have seen it. the white stuff is starting to fall quite near to barrie but so far has missed us I should take the car in to have it winterized and check on the snow tires so I will make an appointment for next week. brenda I hope that your knee improves what have you done to it, I have had no news from scotland for the last few days so I assume steven is slowly on the mend may phone to-morrow take care bye for now dorothy

Goodmorning from a rather cold but dry Manchester,hope it stays that way have a few errands to do today.
Hi Dorothy ,glad you had a good thanks giving.
I have oseteo arthritis in my right knee and hip.the knee has been getting worse bit by bit for a few years,but last month it went on for longer than prevous and I have a constant pain .which ebbs and flows so to speak.Might need a bit of a clean out or they might say it needs replacing according to the doctor!!!Hope its the first one ,don't want anything like a replacement ......yet! Up early as the pain woke me at 5.30 and I could not get back to sleep.
We have had the radiators put in now and they look great ,but becaause they are smaller ,(but more effiecent and economiacal than the others) we will have to repaper one wall in the living room and dining room.Luckily we have a few spare rolls of the paper we used in the dining room so that will save some money.The hall is painted plaster so just needs paint.Have been looking at paint colours but not sure what colours to go for ,bit restricted in the living room ,because of the suite and curtains,but the hall is nutral at the moment. Bertter go and get dressed I want to get out early to do the errands.Take care
Brenda

Hi all,its grey and chilly again today,and freezing in the library,we have had a go at resetting the heating so lets hope it is ok on Monday.Been very steady today with people wanting more books to read as they say there is nothing on the tv to watch!!
Had a good day yesterday ,did all my errands and even a had a half hour in thr garden cutting back the dead flowers etc.Had a nice hot coffee afterwards with a choc chip muffin so that was nice.
Hope you are all well ,and have a good weekend.
Brenda

hi brenda thanks for the update on your knee one of my younger friends has had both knee's replaced due to years of nursing no doubt and she thinks that it is the best thing she ever did. so your weather is not great we are in a very cold spell at the moment the sun shines but it is bitter cold, I am not doing much this week-ned some chores around the house and then some phoning for the charity. the week ahead looks kind of boring but that is how it goes at this time of year, I am looking around for a birthday gift for laura she will be 13 on the 10th of nov. the library had a major malfunction of its main computor system so things got heald up re books that one has orderd but to-day it is finally fixed . I am reading ian rankin's new book at the moment and it is quite good bye for now dorothy

Evening all.hope you all had a nice weekend ,mine was really quiete ,work yester day and housework,well a bit ,today.Have some ironing to do later and tomorrow,I have an errand to do before work,which I was going to on Friday and forgot!.
Weather very grey and cold,but at least its dry
Hope it stays dry for a day or two ,we have loads of leaves in the garden (we have no trees just the leaves)and I want to get them swept up and in the bin before friday,when it gets collected and the only day I have is Tuesday.John would do it normally .but he will be busy decorating the walls where we had the radiators changed.
John has made us a drink so I had better finish on here and get down for it.
Hope Fred,John and Sylvia are ok.
Speak soon Take care all
Brenda

Good morning Brenda ,Dorothy ,John.Sylvia ,and anyone else who drops in for a chat.
Sspent some time over the last two days ,reloading vista ,and messenger 8 ,and finally got the puter to start upgrading itself again ,so ,hopefully that's the end of getting booted off the server every two minutes.
We are confined to camp now until Sean can get down to the guardroom to renew our gate passes ,the original ones had the wrong expiry date on and we got pulled at the gate Saturday when a guard spotted that the passes were out of date by four days ,oooooops.lol,they should have read 10th of november ,not october he he.
We had a grand day on our last day out however ,revisiting Kourion roman/christian site that we visited in January ,but even now ,we have to go back yet again lol,there is a roman house on site ,specially built to withstand earthquakes,so ,they knew all about quakes in cyprus even in those days.
Some parts ofthis site showed advanced use of water for baths , saunas and swimming ,all drained from the river Kouris which runs into the Episcopi bay resort ,but of course ,these days feeds one of the massive dams that supply the whole island with water as it comes off the mountains to the north.
I have tons of pics from all the sites we have visited ,as well as many of the streets and lanes in the towns and villages ,the people ,and the wildlife many of which are snakes and lizards,and some unusual crows ,which are some size ,and unusual colouring.
The visit to the Monastary Of The Cats went well ,we went to see about getting Shade looked after and were chuffed to find that they would take him ,no bother.
The monastery is now run by nuns who really look after their charges,so well in fact ,that despite the main gate being left open till dark every day ,the cats never cross the gate posts onto the track,they know where they are well looked after i suppose.
We were escorted all roundthe grounds by three or four lovely friendly furry chums riding on our shoulders until we sat down ,whereapon we were inundated to the point where our laps were overflowing with little bodies lol.
The gardens extend well out to three acres and the cats can go anywhere they plese it would seem.and i took a few pics of o0ur escorts ,fig trees laden with fruit,olive trees that keep the nuns well supplied with oil,and orange and lemon trees ,along with veggie patches ,these nuns won't be short of fresh produce for their kitchens.
We were pleased anyway ,because a prior visit to the cattery that gave Sean shade in the first place ,are well stowed out ,and couldn't take any more cat's onto their books ,being over run already ,the alternative i couldn't bear thinking about.
I made a nice thai green curry last evening ,complete with a can of cocanut milk ooooo it was good ,despite the fact i overdid the ginger a bit ,hot hot hot lol,but despite that it went down well ,hey i'm getting to be quite good with some of these native dishes too .
One lady stall holder at the market asked what we used leeks for in britain ,so i made a deal withher ,i would taste a greek dish ,if she would taste one of ours ,saying that it was meat free and using leek.
She said okay ,so we are going back for dinner on Friday to try this dish of hers ,and i will take some calgannon that i will make in the morning first thing so it's nice and fresh,you know ,with some fresh ground cyprus black pepper i reckon it will be a bit of all right,he he ,i'm hoping for a convert ,it being so quick and easy to make.
Have to go now ,i am in charge of dinner today ,a bread &cheese pudding ,nice and light and again ,easy to do,and i now have two versions i can cook.
See ya later Peeps Fred.

Morning all,or rather good afternoon,hope you are all ok.Fred seems to be having a right old time,just glad he is enjoying ot all.
Weather damp today ,good job I am not putting washing out.I was busy in the house today moving things round,so did not manage to get in the garden ,and am off to work shortly til 8pm ,had alate yesterday as well,so not a happy bunny!.Just going to have some home made potato and leek soup then have to get ready for work.
Take care ,Brenda

goodmorning from a dull and overcast barrie I have had trouble trying to get the gene's site opened the past couple of days, glad to hear that fred is doing so well on holidays the reports make very interesting reading you could almost believe you are there with fred and liz. brenda you are keeping very busy these days I thought you were supposed to be taking it easy. I have been busy doing some calls for the charity and the fax machine is spitting out some more lists as I type this, but as the weather is not great it gives me something to do I average about 4hrs a day in 2hr slots and get to speak to some interesting folks. nothing much planned this week as andrew is home this week so I am not doing any looking after the children. I am going to pop over to the library as they have a couple of books for me and also say that I have one overdue and that never happens in this house, I think when the computor system crashed the other day that they have made a mistake so I shall sort it out to-day, oh yes we have recieved another new program to us on the bbc canada it is heart and soul with sarah lancashire and I am enjoying it I am sure it was on over home ages ago bye for now dorothy