General Chat

Hi Brenda ,Dorothy from a veeeeery windy north east of england where i have only just been able to sign on myself .lol,couldn't get on via internet explorer ,or google ,so i hope this gremlin is getting over it's cold he he.
I spent the early part of the morning harvesting ,and cooking my apples up ,ready for freezing ,and making apple crumbles for the winter ,he he ,and then did my veggies for the dinner.
Sorry to hear your therapist still isn't too sure where your trouble lies ,but it's so hard to tell with any certainty,it was a long time before my doc' decided both the hips ,and back had the dreaded lurgy.
Hope you enjoy your break ,anyway and just had a thought ,why don't you hang fire on the printer until march ,if you can? my present printer is only a year old ,an h P ,with wi fi ,and works perfectly,and the only reason i am changing it is that i wanted the print straight from my mobile for when i am on holiday enabling me to send photos straight to printer ,without the need for a computer .
You are welcome to it so long as you can collect at Cleveleys or fleetwood,and it will only cost you the petrol ,or bus fare and would save you some pennies.
Poor old Bill ,never rains but it pours for him ,i was chatting to him yesterday ,when he went off air very abruptly .and it turns out ,the area was hit by really bad storms .lightning ,the lot .near storm force winds up to 90 mph.which ripped his tent to shreds,poor fella has only just replaced it after the last time.
Norway has just copped a packet too ,90 metre waves in storm force to hurricane winds battering the beaches and many small island communities ,so ,i reckon ,all in all ,we have gotten away lightly Brenda.
Off to find something to put in the top oven for dinner ,so that i can do a few apple crumbles at the same time ,lol,catch you later .Fred :-D

Afternoon all.from a very windy and rainy Manchester,the weather was ok this morning ,but has gone down hill rapid in the last few hours,Was going to nip out to the post office for some stamps and also get a paper and a few bits at the local shop ,but the stamps can wait and we will make do without the papers and other bits .The wind is driving the rain on to the side window of the bay and it sounds so feirce,winter is definately here.Glad I have no washing to put out,
Well done on the apples and veggies.Fred Iam sure you will enjoy them .
Thanks for the offer of the printer Fred,will have a think about that ,just want to get the pc sorted first.
Seems we have all had a few problems with them lately hope it does not last.or gets worse,
Hope Bill gets sorted soon aswell,and his weather stays fine,my friend who lives in Victoria tells me they have had some hot weather lately.
Better get on to my emails then do some more ironing.
Take care <Brenda

Hi Brenda, just popped in to say Im still around. like a bad penny.
Your weather sounds ominous, but we should be enjoying sunshine,
never seen it so bad here, and almost Summer too. Sorted out my Computer that got a lightening shock, but lost my small computer that got flooded. Almost lost my tent last night due to heavy winds, had to stand outside in the rain, and hold onto it against the wind gusts to 110k.
This morning I started to put up my emergency Zippy tent, and it snapped its Fibreglass rod, so will have to hold my big tent together with guy ropes, till it stops raining. and get another Smaller tent for emergencies.
Hoped to move tomorrow, but not sure if I can now.

Sorry Fred, got cut of short yesterday, but didnt see you on line this morning Tue. try again this morning Wed .

Evening all.Hi Bill so glad you are ok .but sorry about your tent.Hope you get what you need and can move on soon.
I am still having problems with the other pc ,taking it to my nephew tonight so he can see whats what,can not get on the internet at all ,but the lap top is ok which is run of the router,
At weekend it said to to contact soft/hardweat supplier . Then it came on and then yesterday and today its been the same.!!!
Weathet has been good to day dry and sunny ,but we have been told that we will h ave high winds again by the end of the week. and it will be very frosty Fri/Sat.
Hope Fred and Dorothy are ok and she has not got any of that white stuff.
Having acuppa then going to my nephews .Take care
Brenda
Brenda

Morning all from a very calm north east after the strongish winds yesterday ,maybe the back end of the very bad winds from Manchester that grew into the tornado,blimey our Brenda ,hope your new roof is okay and you still have the bushes upright in your garden.
Bill has now gone to the Gibbo river up country for a week or so ,and is out of range from all but sattelite phones ,so he is having quiet conversations with the fish [trout & carp] which he likes to catch ,and then return to the river :-) .
Sounds as though Dorothy is really heading into winter so i hope that log burner has a plentiful supply of fuel to keep the old homestead warm ,rather her than me ,i get cold and grumpy if the temperature drops below minus 3 never mind in the 20s[shudders at the thought.] :-0.
Reading between the lines re your desk top .looks like your internet is blocked access wise ,but your nephew will be able to fix that for you no problem ,it should only take a couple of minutes to find a connection for you.
I might try to get the wife out to get the shopping in today while the roads are okay ,and the air is okay for her breathing ,tonight the temperatures are set to plunge ,making the usual Thursday jaunt a no no.
Don't know what to do for the dinner yet ,but i may pull some kale leaves out of the garden ,and make a Calgannon with a slice of chopped up bacon rasher ,and a little cheese ,and top it with a water poached egg .
Well people ,the Christmas countdown has really started now ,today being the first of the month ,so i need to get out to post some cards that have to go overseas ,time is getting short he he .old Santa has his Elves polishing the sledge's runners and the reindeer's harness's before they start packing the presents ,lol.
Catch you later all ,Fred. :-D.

Evening all.weather calm here tonight and the morning was sunny!! It went very dull in the afternoon but was at least dry.
Did d bit of shopping at Aldi today John got some sking thermals to wear playing golf,he has started to feel the cold..They where only about £8 a set.which is good.
I do hope My nephew does fix the pc Fred,but I have a feeling it might be a bit worse.It was a recondtitioned one when I bought it from a friend.Just hope I can save the stuff on it.
Have a few emails to send so will see you all tomorrow
,Hope Bill is ok with his own company,and Dororthy is as well
Brenda

Just a quick line or two inbetween finishing the packing,
We are off early in the morning so hope we get an early night,!!!
Hope to get on line somewhere along the way.Take care Brenda

Morning to all from the frozen north ,he he ,our first snow of the winter here ,not much ,but it's plurry cold with it ,lol :-0.
Trust the missus to decide today's the day to make some thick country veggie soup ,so Fred was kicked out of the warm to dig up a few leeks for the pot ,brrrrrrr,and i very soon noticed that the thermometer in the greenhouse was showing -2 as the sun came up,and i could swear i heard the leeks shivering as i hauled them out of soil so hard that the fork prongs seemed to flex quite a bit .
Goes to show ,that our Brenda knows just when to go on holiday he he .enjoy it while you can lass ,it will more than likely still be here when you get back.
Hope Dorothy will look in once in a while ,seems very quiet on here these days :-( .
Going to slope off now ,and get some work done ,catch you later peeps ,Fred. :-).

Hello everyone,having a brilliant time here in sunny Tenerife!!!
weather just fantastic i am sorry to say.we are not looking forward to coming home to the wind rain snow and everything else you are having.
Will be going back to the apartment after this for a bit of a sun bath on the balcony. Might have a sarnie in or go out for coffe and cake later.!!
Speak to you all next week .
brenda

Hello everyone,having a brilliant time here in sunny Tenerife!!!
weather just fantastic i am sorry to say.we are not looking forward to coming home to the wind rain snow and everything else you are having.
Will be going back to the apartment after this for a bit of a sun bath on the balcony. Might have a sarnie in or go out for coffe and cake later.!!
Speak to you all next week .
brenda

Enjoy Brenda ,lol, it all awaits you when you get back but hopefully only the cold and damp so you can get your house nice and snug quickly ,and at least you missed the wind storms we had this week ,a bonus for you .
Take care and enjoy the sun ,you lucky person ,Fred.xxx :-D

Hi everyone
Popping in for a visit, seems I'm a rare visitor to GR these days. I had a bit of heatlh problem a week or so a go. I was vomitting on the Sunday and Monday I went to my doctor who decided to do an ECG and get bloods done. :-0 Later I got a phone call telling me to go to A&E for further checks. Further blood tests, ECGs, Xray and endless questions they determined I had an irregular heart beat. I wasn't given medication and was told that should I experience a recurrence to get an ECG done at the doctors or hospital. They also said that this may never happen again, and I pray that it doesn't. Mind you I had to pay for the ECG at the doctors where at the hospital no charge. I felt find to do voluntary work on the Tuesday but was told they would kick by seat it I turned up and so like a good fellow I stayed home and went in a few days later. So I've had an eventful week.
This week is reasonably quite and did two days volunteering at the Sallies as we are getting ready to hand out gifts which started yesterday. A friend said a lot of these people depend on handouts and dont make the effort to actually prepare for Christmas earlier in the year. Sadly its true and another sad factor everybody is struggling with debt and making ends meet is an awesome task.
This year we are having a lean Christmas with few gifts - both Gayle and I subscribe to two magazines so thats our present this year. Craig and Gemma are joining on Christmas Day at the Sallies for a shared Christmas lunch - went last year with Mum and my brother and it was very nice.
And yes I will take care of myself. Have a great week. John :-)

Hi everyone,back from out brilliant holiday all relaxed and rested.Now in the middle of sorting out washing etc and getting ready for christmas,Will be back later .Brenda

Morning John and Brenda from up north where it is a tad on the nippy side at the mo'
Not much on up here at the minute ,the beef corning is under way now ,and i should have a very nice2 & a 1/2 kilo piece of Salmon cut ready for the new year,which will make a nice change from the black Norfolk Turkey and the pork.
Looks like we have a mild spell on the way for mid Week too,so i may yet Get a chance to fire up the new B B Q and sit with the cat on the patio and share a turkey leg with the cat ,what a spoilt pussy tat ,black turkey leg on her plate ,nowt too good for my pussums ,he he :-D :-) share and share alike i say ,lol.
We have the grandson here today for dinner ,nothing posh ,he wants his mince and dumplings ,which he dosn't get at home ,his dad now a shift worker at Asda,and no time for cooking much in his off time.
Chris has problems with his laptop ,with it refusing to boot up ,so i have told him to bring it down here ,because i have an original windows 7 ultimate disc ,which he needs to get it up and running again ,there being no M S dos ,on windows 7.
hopefully that may work ,if not it's another laptop needed sigh ,this windows 7 is more trouble than it's worth ,a deliberate ploy by microsoft to make more money ,no wonder more and more people are deserting microsoft and going onto apple products.
my spare laptop is on windows vista ,and is staying on it ,at least when THAT does wrong you can do a full recovery.
I have the new regulator onto the spare gas heater now ,and have a fire on the upstairs landing ,and one in the kitchen ,so we can at least stay warm if we lose power ,something that is going to get more common over the next couple of years as we loose more of the old power stations ,with no new ones yet to take their place.
Have to go and give the missus a hand to put the new ,heavier duvets on the beds ,but hopefully will be back later ,Fred :-) :-D

Afternoon all,well we have had a good fall of the white stuff this morning so its a bit cool here today,luckily we are not going out and are busy cleaning carpets and then I will be wrapping gifts..I might even get to ice a cake or two,Nothing fancy just a snow scene with peaked icing,
Glad you have got your self all cosied up Fred you deserve it .The turkey leg for the cat on the BBq sounds brilliant,John brought some fresh salmon down from his mums yesterday.it was given to her and she is not keen,the cats are loving it.!!! I expect they will turn their noses up at the tinned stuff tomorrow,!!!
John has asked if you would mind sending us the recipe for the corn beef Fred,he used to do it forty odd years ago when he worked as a butcher.and fancies doing some again,!!
Better finish me cuppa and get back to work ,we are also expecting a visitor or two later.they are just dropping things of and picking up, as they put it.
Be back tomorrow after my christmas lunch with my friends.
Take care Brenda xxx

Evening all.have a few minutes while I am having a cup of tea,,
Been to town this afternoon for our christmas lunch,which was really good.We behaved ourselves and did not go overboard with starters and puddings as the lunch was substanial.,Then on the way back to the bus stop I did a little bit of shopping,funnily enougth the two shops I went to seemed really queite .!! I must have timed it right ,but the bus journey home was a night mare,!!

Any way i do not think I have to go to town for anything else.
Going to ice the other cakes tonight,the others were good.if I say so myself,
Take care Brenda xxx

Hi Brenda, Fred, JB,and Dorothy if your looking in.
Hope you all have a peaceful holiday.
I have just come out of the Bush, and just for shopping.
missed around 13 Kangaroos on the road on the way out. so thats a good start.
We are having thunder storms nearly every night lately, and horrendous downpours. Yes its Oz.
Havnt fixed my car from last months Deer strike, cost too much, $1,765.
Deer may have died, found a dead one last week.
going to get supplies from Aldi, amongst others, enough to last at least 2 weeks
I reckon your feeling the cold after your tropical holiday Brenda.
havnt done much Xmas shopping this year.
Hope to chat later (when you get up) Fred.
cheers all.
Bill in Oz.

Afteroon all ,having had a chat to Bill earlier ,and done all the hoovering .& dusting ,it's time to sit down and chill out .
I tried to recover the grandsons computer and got as far as opening the default settings ,only to find that the hard drive has decided to remove itself from it's mortal coil and is well and trully bu*****d ,lol.
To anyone out there thinking of a new laptop this Christmas tide ,do NOT buy Toshiba ,they take forever to boot up ,owing to far too many inbuilt ,imbedded programmes ,and the hard drives in them are still very prone to breaking down ,and cost over£ 250 to replace ,so ,having been caught once ,when mine goes ,it will be going in the recycle bin.
Go on the net Brenda ,and look up ,Beef for Corning ,and then salt petre for cooking ,which you can no longer buy in the shops ,if you have any problems i can give you the name of the company who sells it ,you should have been a bit quicker lass ,he he ,i ordered mine two days ago ,and it is supposed to be here tomorrow.
Hope Dorothy is okay ,i keep looking for her on F talk ,but havn't seen her on line yet though i have seen a few peeps off the other thread ,who i talk to from time to time ,and the beuty is ,it costs nowt ,lol ? :-D.
Looks like Bill is going walk about for the holiday period for a bit of peace and quiet ,and i can't say as i blame him ,lol,i hate the city at thebest of times ,and can see where he is coming from ,he he ,just as well i sent his card early ,and he picked it up yesterday :-).
Have to go and get the crumpets done for the dinner ,mine with stinky blue cheese on ,lovely.
My cat is a funny one Brenda ,she is like your mum ,she hates FRESH salmon ,but loves the tinned ,so it's just as well i love both sorts ,or the cat would go hiungry :-| he he.
Catch you later all ,Fred. :-D

Evening folks,hope the rain holds off a while for you Bill,I like going shoppinmg at Aldi myself,but find the service very slow ,they never have more than two tills open at anytime.
I will look on the internet like you suggested Fred for the Corn Beef.,
Have done a lot of the wrapping and will have to deliver presents tomorrow night mainly to my brothers ,who luckily live near each other..
Have a couple of last minute things to get so hope to be up and out early tomorrow,Will be cutting down what presents I buy again next year ,mainly because ,i buy for my great neices and nephews and they are getting older,and next year we have two new babies due,so I think some of the older ones will have to take a back seat.!!
The cats finshed the salmon off pretty quick and also some chicken a day or so later.They are now having to make do with tinned Whiskas or Felix..
Have a few things to do later so had better have my cuppa and get started,
Take care Brenda

Hi again Brenda,Fred,Dorothy,JB. and JA, if your looking in.
I'm just about to head off into the Wild Green Yonder, for the Xmas Period, Back again in the New Year.
I hope you all have a Care free xmas, and dont spend too much on xmas presents.
leaving a message for you on Messenger Fred.

All for now,
Bill in Oz.