General Chat

Hello everyone,,have managed to get all my errands done in one day for a change!!!
Dorothy you sound as bad as me when going to the book store etc,we are having some work done in the bathroom in June, so will have to be really strict with myself for a while with my spending as its a bit dearer then we thought,
Just need to make sure what the weather is doing so I know what to take with me tomorrow,we never know if we might be going out in the evening or not,so i am never sure what to take.the weather is supposed to stay dry tomorrow but will be raining Sunday ,but we will be coming home before lunch as we are out for lunch for my sons birthday.
Feeling chilly at the moment but will be staring tea soon so will warm up then I expect.
will be back sunday evening or Monday
Take care .Brenda

Hi all,
Well our pc has been to the doctor for a week. Johan took it in last Saturday and we have just got it back. Everything is strange and I have a lot to sort out, but at least I have found you all. Would all friends of mine please e-mail me their e-mail address please as I have lost my e-mail addresses. Anyway it is good to be back, the rest will come later.
Sylvia xxx

Hi all, Gayle is waiting the placement of the fistula in her arm so dialysis can begin. She sees the surgeon tomorrow as there might be a graft done instead ----- what a waiting game.
Anzac Day [25th April] we didn't venture out to any of the memorial services either at dawn or later in the morning but stayed home and watched two on TV one from Wellington and later from Gallipoli. These services are always very moving. My grandfather lost two brothers in WW1 one of them won a military medal died to injuries towards that war's end.
Hurrah - Sunday night means I will be able to see what's happening on 'Casualty' - being on UKTV on Sky means we are behind what's screening in the UK and that doesn't matter.
One British series I really enjoyed was 'Wild at Heart' - I think I mentioned a while ago that the broadcaster here screened the series back to back. I think ITV is making series 5 so I can't wait for that to screen here.
Catch you another time, John

Just a quick one this morning folks,to let you know that we are still here,lol.
have now finished restoring the xp computer,loaded in windows ,and it,s back on line ,yippee ,it means Chris can do his games again and he isn't looking over my shoulder as i use the big laptop,i sure wasn't letting laddo on £750 worth of my H P.he he.
Getting on well with the garden now ,front nearly finished ,apart from fifty bedding plants which i will put in this evening.
I have also restored my vista computer too ,but havn't put windows back in yet.,but i did install a second dvd rewritable rom drive which will help in copying discs ,one drive to the other without putting it on the hard drive first.
Time to get on with the dinner,but will be back later.
You chose the right time to visit Blackpool Brenda,the son and family came back yesterday from their weeks break ,and said the weather was brilliant for the time of the year.
There seems to be a firebug down there with a grudge ,another fire which did a lot of damage to the buildings.
See ya later peeps,Fred.

Brenda have pm you hope you dont mind
Dutchx

goodmorning from a warm but wet barrie ont we have had high temps for the last two days but it has rained both days and on sat it poured with high winds but at least we did not get the snow my sister has in calgary, john I hope that your wife gets the procedure done soon I was interested to see that you like casualty on the tele, wehave it on bbc canada though I suppose we are way behind but I enjoy it. brenda should be on her way back from blackpool I hope the visit went well and that they have a great birthday lunch with her son.great to see sylvia is back on line I missed her updates it is 10am over here so I should get on with the day bye fornow dorothy

Hi from a rainy but sunny Manchester,it does not seem to be able to make its mind up.Only working 2-5pm today so did some washing at home this am but have to now get it dried as the rain was intermitent.
We enjoyed our time in Blackpool but because we go to see Johns mother and step father we do not go any where as she finds it difficult to walk about much now. The lunch went well ,but think David would have preferred a pizza!!
Nearly home time so I had better get some things finished.
See you soon ,Brenda

Hi all,
Well I am still learning about my pc all over again. How I miss my e-mail addresses. I hope friends will send me theirs as soon as possible.
Lovely weather although very cold again.
I t's our ex queen's birthday and everybody is still celebrating her birthday - this year 100 years. it is a holiday for everybody and there will be festivities everywhere.
I have been baking lots of apple tarts. Last Saturday I made one for my son in law and today for the 9 year old daughter of my household help. I must make another one for somebody who has given us a lot of help with our digi camera. Didn't know what else to give her.
I have piles of ironing. Anybody got a spare pair of hands?
I think I'll go and do an hour's ironing now as it is only 21.45.
See you tomorrow.
Sylvia xxx

hi sylvia your pies sound great would love to try one and I would not mind helping with the ironing my friends all tease me as they call me an ironing freak as I iron everything, I know that with the newier fabrics one does not have to iron as much but I like how things look after you are finisned with them. had an e-mail from fred this am re the little girl that is missing over here another sad situation after three weeks you tend to think the chances of her being alive are not good bye for now dorothy

Good afternoon folks from a very sunny but chilly Manchester,no rain today but pleanty in the night.Did not stop John going to golf!
Its my day off today but I am not going out as I had a few jobs that i keep leaving and wanted to get finished,have managed a couple as I was doing some washing and tidying up in between.
Hope you get your email addresses Sylvia,I kknow what it is like to loose them ,I have most of mine in an ordinary address book as well as on the p.c .
John has just come home and has made a hot drink so i will go and have it now.
Dorothy I have to be in the mood to iron but I know at least three people who love it like you do.
Take care ,Brenda

Hello All,well its cold again and it has been raining in the night,just the weather for sitting at the pc doing some research or by the fire with a good book.
Off work agai today so been shoppinh and will be ironing shortly,working tomorrow so not sure when I will get on here.
Probably be back Saturday unless we go to Bury Market.its May day bank holiday on Monday so hope the weather picks up.Brenda

goodmorning well I have just read on the line the english papers and was so sorry to hear about the incident inholland yesterday I am sure that sylvia is upset by this what a horrible thing to happen to innocent people. I have spent the last two days helping out with the children after school and this evening I am taking Ian for his special birthday dinner he has changesd his mind on the place now we are going to jimmy's fish and ship resturant they also serve gelato ice cream we have not been there before but he has heard about it from friends he loves fish and chips his favourite place is down east charlies fish and chips which has a great reputation in the eastern provinces, when he was 7 he said that after university he was going to move there and work at charlie's, so I hope this place pleases him. all the acceptance papers came inyesterday for his move to the new school in sept for the programme he is keen to follow french imersion part of the day and then the gifted education part for the other. I have a friend coming to visit next week for a couple of days so that will be fun. bye fornow dorothy

Hello everyone,We have some warmish sunshine today ,pity I did not put my washing out to dry.!! Have 7 minutes of lunch time left,so cannt say much as I have to do a few other things.Hope the fish and chips go well Dorothy,we are out for a Chinese lunch on Monday for my friends 65th birthday .We are trying going out for lunch instead of an evening meal, will let you know how we go.Speak wiyh you tomorrow.Take care ,Brenda

hi brenda so this week-end is a bank holiday at home hope you all have a good time yes the fish dinner went well last night and the gelato he decided on was watermelon we ended up sharing it as it was a very large serving I dont like watermelon as a rule but this was good, then we wandered around chapters book store Ian bought a book with some of his birthday money and of course brenda I ended up buying two paper back books I am not to be trusted in a book store can't resist books, I bought unforgotten by clare francis I am pretty sure I have not read this in hard backnad lamb to the slaughter by aline templeton have not seen this author on the shelves before so thought I would give her a try. recieved an e-mail from amazon uk there is a delay in sending me neil's new book now to arrive between may 7th-25 so here's hoping it arrives soon. ;off to see a lady this morning who would like me to do some work for a local charity ie on the phone they pick up used clothing and small pieces of furniture she asked me about a year ago but then they went under a lot of changes so they seem to have got it all to-gether so I will go and see what she is offering it is a paid position and involves just a few hours a day before you would work out of the office but now it iis done from your home, it is a well recieved charity as all the items are picked up at a time convienant to the home owner so the calls are not considered an intrusion as I say I will see what she has to say in the past I have found her a bit wishy washy anyway if you go tot he market to-morrow brenda and happen to pass the cheese stall think of me and the lancashire cheese with garlic just the thought of it makes my mouth water bye for now dorothy

Hi all,
Yes, Dorothy I was very upset about what happened here on the queen's birthday when some anti-royalty maniac ploughed into the crowd at top speed in his car . To date, 7 dead, some injured still. Unfortunately the driver killed himself too, so he can never be put on trial. Apparently he was a bit of a loner who had just lost his job, 38 years of age. The aged look on our queen's face when she gave a speech in the evening was saddening to see. It seemed to have put years on her. It all happened before the royal crowd who were all sitting in the bus waiting to take them to Palace het Loo for the final celebrations of the day.
We now have Remembrance Day on Monday evening and Day of Freedom on Tuesday, so hope these events will still go on.
Fred, where on earth do you get all your programmes from?
The people who repaired our pc took lots of things off our computer. I now have to upload WORD and EXCEL. I had Norton anti-virus. l had paid up til next March, and they have taken this off too and put another make on.
I hope my ex son in law can get the CD of WORD and EXCEL for me as if I have to buy these it will cost me a lot of money.
I baked yet another apple tart today as I have visitors myself. Since last Saturday I have now baked 4 apple tarts.
I must get down to making some new curtains for our bedroom. I had crotcheted curtains for the whole flat, but they are beginning to show wear.
I don't take them down to wash. I have bought the curtain material, just need the urge to get behind the sewing machine.
Have a nice evening everybody.
Sylvia xxx

Hi everyone, good to see you back Sylvia but what a shame you have lost so much from your computer. I do hope you manage to get it sorted out, losing all your e-mail addresses is such a nuisance, that happened to me a few years ago when we had big problems with the computer. Luckily one of my sons had copied a list of them for me - and all my bookmarks as well. I was so relieved when he gave it to me as some of the websites I had bookmarked were so useful but I would never have remembered them without his list.
Well, g.daughter's chest infection still didn't clear so I took her to the doctors again a third course of stronger anti-biotics and sent for an x-ray. Seems poor thing has pneumonia so doctor doubled her dosage of the antibiotics and will see her again next Thursday. Strict instructions to stay indoors - but she went to work today (Saturday) because she said she needed the money - now this evening she is in pain again and coughing badly. She is 18 - you can tell them but will they listen? At that age they seem to lose all common sense but I think she will do as she is told now. She certainly won't be going to college next week.
Reading about the trips to Blackpool brought back memories of living in Preston and the occasional trips to Blackpool, usually with my friend whose father worked for a film company and sometimes had to travel there so he would take his family and invite me along. It was usually out of season and also the early days of the war so was a bit dreary and not the busy place I remembered from trips with my parents before the war when it was full of people and seemed a much brighter place. I recall then that the beach was lovely silvery, fine sand and seemed very clean.
We came back to London at the end of 1940 and I have never been back to Preston where we lived. Bet it has all changed a lot now.
I used to walk to school across the fields where later, after school we could go and get lots of wild rhubarb and later in the year pick loads of lovely blackberries and raspberries. The best blackberries grew on the other side of the railway track which we were forbidden to cross - of course we did but I have to say we were very careful. It was possible to see a long stretch of line in both directions and we would listen carefully and never, never run across. In the same area we could pick lots of wild primroses as well, they grew under the trees in a large area of woodland on the other side of the river. Out all day, we would come home, tired, very grubby and very proud of our haul of fruit and flowers. We thoroughly enjoyed eating the pies our mothers made with it and of course the elderflowers and elderberries which my mother made into cordials (think she might have even made some elderberry wine for the adults). It was a carefree time, we had so much more freedom back then todays children miss out on so much.
Well I didn't start out to write an "all our yesterdays" message but the memories are such happy ones I got a bit carried away.
I have a new gt.niece or nephew due to be born on 5th, he/she will share a birthday with big sister who is 5 on that day. Was due to arrive on 17th but Mummy is having some problems so the birth has been brought forward. Hope it is a little man as they have two little girls and it would be nice for my nephew to have another male in the family. At the moment he says it is just him and his dog against all the females around him!!
John I hope your wife has been able to start her treatment now and that all is going well with you both.
Take care
Love
Kathleen

Good morning all ,cor ,eck ,Fred has one heck of a sore back ,my own fault for going mad in the garden while the weather lasted ,but i have had to give myself the day off to recover a little.
Poor old Sylvia ,been there ,done it and got the tea shirt to prove it .
I hope you won't think me cheeky if i pass on a little advice i got from Bill,in oz years ago when i kept getting bother with an early tower on xp pro,get yourself an external hard drive lass ,put all your programmes and files onto it for safe keeping ,and put it in a safe place,any trouble in future ,and you can be back up and running in a few hours.
Following mate Bills advice again i systamaticaly,starting with a boot up floppy disc,going on to a windows 98 disc,a xp pro disc ,and finally a vista premium disk,i got all the gear to restore my own puters.
All the new puters now come with windows installed ,and it should only be a matter of running the factory install programme to put things right, a word of warning though ,if you are not conversant with the computer operating system ,leave well alone and get someone to do it for you,otherwise you can screw the puter up to the stage where it needs a full windows re install, and for that you need to remove the hard drive partition and reboot from a disc reformat and re install windows,not for the faint hearted.
The weather here today is a right mix,i am waiting fora dry half an hour to put the weedkiller on next doors garden for her,her son is not a garden person so i said i would see to it for her,and make sure i was on hand to watch him putting the turf down,havind sait that ,he has done a great job of laying her patio for her ,it must just be that he is NOT green fingered lol.
I have just incurred the wrath of my boss [ooooops] in that i sent her an email that i sent to others this morning which needs power point to open,forgetting that i had not put microsoft office 2007 0n the xp [ooooops again] i will have to do it this afternoon before the stick comes out.
Hope everyone is relaxing over the long weekend ,for most of us [commiserations to our country wide library staff ] who i notice are open all over the holiday,with the lousy wage ,and long hours it has to be a labour of love [take a bow Brenda]
Have a great holiday all ,catch you later ,or tomorrow,Fred.

Hi Everyone,well I have read your messages and think you are all so good being busy with so much.Sylvia hope the curtains look good,two or three of my friends always make their own curtains and they are in their late sixties early seventies.
Kathleen hope your grandaughter gets well soon,she could end up in hospital with pnuemonia,it happend to my sisters ,sister in law.who is in her 30's.
Fred i will take a bow ,but with a smile,it was really quite at work and John had the dinner ready on the table when I got home,still I am tired now so will be sat reading my book soon,Have the new keyboard to install but it will do tomorrow...Have you heard from Bill lately!!!!
Brenda.

hi just read the postings from sylvia, kathleen, fred and brenda what good reading sylvia I have to agree with you I watched the broadcast of your queen and she lookes so sad and older a very dreadful thing, kathleen I hope your grandaughter gets well soon she can't fool around with pneaumonia but as you say you can't tell the young ones sometimes, I loved reading about the primroses and picking the fruit in places that you were not supposed to go yes we did have more fun as children I think even though they may have more technical things , brenda glad you had an easy day at work and fred you amaze me with your knowledge of computors , to-day I put out the furniture on the balcony and my solar lights I have a butterfly and dragon flies and sun's and moons, at night they look great, I brought the dragonflies over to anne and she put them in the garden , it was 62 to-day but on the cool side as we had quite a wind. I was pleased with the tennis results to-day as andy murray has moved up to no.3 in the world long may it last . enjoy the rest of the bank holiday bye for now dorothy

goodness everyone must be busy no postings for 3 days hope all of you are well, brenda neil's new book arrived in the mail yesterday started it last night have some shopping to do to-day so I have put it down for the moment have to take the car for an oil change, we have had some nice weather the last few days but still some frost at night so I have not bought any plants as yet , my company arrives to-morrow evening just a short visit but it will be good to have the company bye for now dorothy