General Chat

Good morning everybody and to some good evening I am about to put up the Christmas tree in front of the stereo and want still to put on my CDs. Last year we had the tree in the window corner and since changing the lounge around an armchair is there and Gayle doesn't want to move it. Our tree looks like the real thing except it doesn't drop pine needles on the floor and will have lights and the usual decorations. We haven't finished our Christmas shopping, our son's gift being the hardest to find. Gayle and I decided to give each other replacements for items that have worn out and to keep it a 'surprise' we have hidden them until the 25th. As I think I mentioned in a previous message we are having Christmas at home before heading to my Mum's for a few days. Mum had her 84th birthday birthday in October and her health is not the best recently she some more melanomas removed from her face and arms. Just shows what the sun can do to the body. John

Hi everybody, Well Johan and I overslept this morning. Anyway, why should we get up early on such a dark, gloomy day? We were having breakfast around 10.00 am. Only tidied up a bit and prepared a lot of post to take to the Post Office tomorrow. I have a parcel to return to some mail order firm, two calenders, all my Xmas cards for here in the Netherlands - the overseas ones have already gone - and a parcel for a friend in England. I feel like the postwoman herself with such a big bag of post. Fred you have such a lot of food in your house for Xmas. I don't need so much as we are with the two of us. Not quite sure what to do, but want turkey, probably pieces. I still have to marzipan and ice my cake. I am going out with my daughter on Thursday to Hilversum and hope to buy the remainder of my Xmas presents. Johan is quite content to leave all this to me. Not much news to report, so will close for now. Have a nice evening everybody Sylvia xxx

Morning all,i am a little late this morning owing to putting all the turkey down in the freezer and then starting another load of soup. Enjoy the little one Mavis ,at least ,when you have had enough you can give him back lol,but to be honest ,i would be lost without my grandkids,they make everything worthwhile. Is everyone gotten geared up for the festive season then? wwe have all our dec's up,nearly all of the pressies are wrapped,and as you know.all the foos is sorted,apart from the cakes and savoury things like sausie rolls,and there i will be cheating ,as we love the Greggs rolls and won't eat others.we do tend to get a lot of our table fillers from A|sda,and the rest we make ourselves. Our little hedgehog is back,i havn't actually seen him but there are a load of droppings on the patio,i must remember to ask him [or her] to do it on the garden which will save me the job of brushing it off the concrete. The cold is starting to bite now,and my birds are coming back to be fed,the robin seems to like the fat balls,and the wren is hanging about,the thrushes and blackbirds are fighting as well,yesssss, everything is as last year lol. I connected the freeveiw box up yesterday and it's brilliant,all the channels i had on broadband ,but no charges at all,great. The missus is buying me a breadmaker for christmas which will save me a lot of work,i can set it away overnight on the timer and wake up to fresh bread to go with my boiled egg[and indigestion no doubt],but it will save me having tro do it the other way kneading ,proving, and so on adinfinitum lol. The eldest son found me a nice ,free tv site, you pay two pounds for the link join the club so to speak and can then use the puter to log onto free films,sports, games ,from all over the world.i reckon i will be spending quite a long time on that channel. i'm off for a look around now,but am in all day so i will be calling back later on .see ya all.Fred.PtfA&G&G&S.

Good morning everyone, Not a lot of spare time at the moment to get on here. I usually only go on late evening otherwise the phone line is blocked! Then I am in trouble! With local calls free here in NZ the phone is always busy during the day. The Doctors, Dentist, Hairdressers etc all ring to remind you of your appointments. We chat to neighbours in the bad weather rather than walk outside - we are spoilt. Made a bread pudding today again Fred. Doesn't last long in this house. Babysat our daughters little 7 month old foster boy again yesterday. He is so cute. Smiles and chuckles all the time. He loves his food (fruit and custard etc) I am not so keen when he blows bubbles and I get splatters all over my glasses! Not so keen on the nappy changing either! We love having him though. We feel as though we are doing our little bit to give him a little loving etc. We sometimes wonder what the future holds for him. The weather is still very changeable - can't seem to settle at all. Finished my Christmas cards at last. One or two presents to get still. All for this time. Mavis NZ

Hi Everyone,had a very busy day yesterday at work,the morning started slow due to the rain but just before lunch yhings got hectic,due to the reduced hours in the week.We have had large notices in the library for ages telling everyone about them,but the number of people who said they did not know was remarable. Kathleen,we have a new library built along with a new college but two of the older libraries have to close so it can be manned.they are used well but the new building will let us have more facilities.I am not going to have the new library as my Base, the management have taken the oppurtunity to have a reshuffle of staff so I am going to another one.We actually get to work in them all at some point ,plus the new one is to be open longer and on Sunday as well. June hope you hear something positive about the move soon. I am not able to go to Leeds ,could not get the day off.So you will have to see father christmas for me,I will let you know what to ask for me later,when I have made up my mind.!!! Sylvia glad your visit went well.hope you are both feeling better. Not sure when I will be back as my shifts are all over the place again. LOve Brenda

Hi everybody, Where are you all again? This morning is sombre, but maybe it will clear up later. I cannot stay long as I have one or two things to do before the day is over. Have a nice day. Sylvia xxx

Hi everybody, Where are you all again? This morning is sombre, but maybe it will clear up later. I cannot stay long as I have one or two things to do before the day is over. Have a nice day. Sylvia xxx

Hi all, Yes, I'm back after being spoiled by my daughter for two days. I left here with the taxi on Thursday afternoon and the taxi driver told me that he had a daughter who lives two flats away from me. She has lived here for two years but I have never spoken to her. I am sure I will now as I have heard so much about her. I do know that she has two cats and one fell over the balcony, but is ok. From my kitchen window I can look across at her windows and sometimes see a cat sitting on the window ledge. On Friday Janet and I went to this Creative Market in Eindhoven and enjoyed ourselves. Janet was disappointed and said the market was not as big as it usually is, but to me it was fantastic. Friday evening Janet, her partner and I went to the local shopping centre and in the evening played cards until around midnight. This morning I came home with an iranian taxi driver He was very interesting and I asked him lots of questions over Iran as I was interested. He had been to University but couldn't use his degrees here without doing another couple of years study. He said he couldn't do that to his wife and child as he is buying a house here. We talked non stop all the way home, so much so that he was 'flitzed' by the speed cameras and will be fined for speeding. Johan helped me upstairs with my suitcase and shopping and I cooked dinner this evening, but suddenly Johan was sick - all the excitement of me coming home of course! Anyway he is now feeling better and I felt a bit sick too after dinner. See you all tomorrow. Sylvia xxx

Hi everyone, Sylvia and Fred, June, Brenda and Mavis you are keeping the thread going thank goodness. I suppose people are busy at this time of year or perhaps, like me, they are having problems with their computers. Nothing too serious, just losing my connection - plus of course that it can sometimes take so long to get this thread that I give up or am too tired to do more than read your contributions. June I do hope you get your move sorted out soon, it does seem to have gone on for ages. You must be really fed up with it now. Brenda, is your library closing down or just closing for a short time? We currently have a petition going round as they are threatening, once again, to close our local library. It took so long to get it and has been under threat of closure before. This area is very poorly served for most amenities though we pay the same council tax as everywhere else in the Borough. Fred your soup recipes sound wonderful for this cold weather, though it has been much warmer lately. In fact today has been very wet and a horribly blustery wind - and thunder!! Please could you send me your bread pudding recipe? Haven't made it for years and I am not too sure whether I can remember how. Also does anyone have a recipe for parkin? Sylvia, I envy your creativity, making all those cards which are obviously very popular with your friends and neighbours. Not surprising as you obviously put a lot of thought into making them 'personal'. I wish I could be as original. Mavis I hope you get some better weather now that you are officially into summertime. We all seem to have had more than our share of wet weather recently. I think Susan should get her final check before Christmas, she is looking well though still getting a bit breathless with effort. Still having weekly blood checks and various other tests so she visits the hospital at least twice weekly. Fingers crossed all will be well in the end. Now venturing out without her wig, her hair has now grown into a (very) short style but a bit like babies hair, fine and soft. Keep well, take care God bless Love Kathleen

Hi everyone, Brenda, I see you have had the same message as i have had a couple of times. Its most annoying when you have written a long thread and that happens, I have been at Preston Hospital this morning with Gaynor, all to do with pain control with the injury from the car accident. Then I dropped her off at work, she is covering for one of her friends, who's mum isn't very good. So then I went to Asda to do the weekend shopping and fill my car up with petrol. Its an old habit of mine, when I was working I always did the food shopping on a Friday and filled the car, so whatever happened, I had petrol in the tank. I am expecting a phone call from Denmark, so I will leave you, I dont want you to think that I have forgotten any of you. Take care. June xx

Fred,beginning to feel this is a bit like the Marie Celeste,I think people look in and haven't time to say hello or feel they have nothing to say. and sometimes the site is that slow you don't get chance to say anything. I did not get chance to say hello to Mavis the other night,so I apologise to you Mavis.!!! Have been doing yet more clearing out of things we don't use much or at all again,it's amazing what you keep when you don't need to really. Have a good visit from the granson Fred. Working again tomorrow so might not get back until Sunday as we are expecting a heavy day in the library ,with the reduced hours that we have on at the moment in the week ,in the run up to when we finally close in two weeks. Brenda

Morning peoples,we seem to be a little short handed again,where is everybody these mornings?we cant ALL be christmas shopping still. Liz and i had an early chrissie present last night.the grandson turned up two days early ,so we have him for the next week ,then he comes back in the new year for another week before going to the gulf for three months. I have to take thewife out shopping now ,but i will be back later.to see whats going on.take care all.Fred.PtfA&G&G&S.

Hope this message gets on ok ,did write last night but was told the server could not be found and didnot have time to re do it .Going out now but will be back tonight or tomorrow as its my day off. Brenda

Hi everyone, We have a lovely drying day here today. the sun is out and there is a nice breeze. Sorry I haven't been around, I did write a long message a couple of days ago and flipping Genes woudn't update. I still haven't moved house, I'm beginning to wonder if it will ever happen. I have decided that I may as well get on with my Christmas shopping at least I wont have that to worry about. If I get them wrapped up, I can pretend I am Father Christmas delivering them to the new address. lol My daughter and me were going to the Trafford Center this morning but she was called into work because one of her workmates had been called to the hospital because her mother is very ill. So of course she went in this morning to cover for her. There's always trouble for someone at Christmas. I have a visitor, I will try and get back later. June xx

Hi everyone. Thanks Fred for the recipes. Sound delicious. What a co-incidence - I had made a bread pudding this week - had friends here who had never heard of bread pudding. I gave them my old recipe and then lo and behold yours came through. Exactly the same as my recipe. N Zealanders only seem to know of bread and butter pudding. Not quite the same eh? Very warm and sunny here today - officially the first day of summer. Will it last I wonder. Text from my Grandson today - he has managed to get a part time job in New World supermarket in the produce department. He has just finished his exams and has now to wait for the results. Hopes to go to Uni. He is a very shy lad so we are so pleased he will be working - will give him a little more confidence hopefully. He loves 'to save money' - not so keen on spending though! We hoped to put the weed and feed on the lawn today but it was a little too windy. Pip will have to get up early in the morning before the wind gets up. He is not too good at getting up but I will wake him with a cup of tea! I probably wont be too popular! Had a stone fly up and chip our car windscreen today. They were able to repair it fortunately. Although we are insured should we need a new one. Must go. Late again. Goodnight/Gooday Mavis NZ

Hiya Brenda, Sylvia,i have just about sorted this ruddy puter so i should now be okay. Nothing i can blame the puter for,it's only me trying to do things the easy way which was not the right way and screwing everything up lol. Everything is fine here Sylvia ,and to cap it all ,i made a lovely soup today which tastes lovely. This is a home made version using carrot parsnip leek potato,mushroom ,split pea and lentils, a handful of this sort of hodge podge which ,this time has turned out spot on. i will have a few loads to put down in the freezer tomorrow morning and a little over for supper tonight. I will be going to town tomorrow morning armed with my trusty digital camera to get some shots of parts of the town that will dissapear for ever under the redevelopement plans from the c.council. Some of these buildings should be protected and probably are but this town has a habit of mysterious fires before the developers move in [if you know what i mean] so i am taking no chances,some of the buildings have been here nearly two hundred years and ditto two of the markets.i want photo's to put on file for people to see in the future. I have just lit the heaters in the greenhouse ,so that the plants don't get frozen roots overnight,but i may be able to let up a little tomorrow night seeing as the weather is supposed to be milder for the next few days. Hope everyone is okay out there and you are all starting to look forward to the weekend. See you all later.Fred.PtfA&G&G&S.

Hi everybody, Nice of you Brenda to put in a few words although you are so busy. Well, somebody has to work to pay in our old age pension. Thank you Brenda. A very cold day here today. My hairdresser turned up and I got a shock as she was not supposed to come until tomorrow. A sigh of relief she came to see if I had any cards for birth of a baby girl and birthday card for a one year old. Well the first I had but the second I had to make for her which she will pick up tomorrow. I changed the beds and washed the duvet covers etc. as well as the other washing. I hope to iron it tomorrow morning. My hairdresser is coming at 11,00 am and the taxi is picking me up at 3.00 pm. I'm so looking forward to a few days at my daughters. She has all the energy that I used to have. I am so behind with my Xmas shopping, but I know she will help me. I have sent most of my overseas cards away, so that is the first step forward. I'll try and post tomorrow otherwise see you all Saturday. Sylvia xxx

Hiya Short and Sweet tonight as I did not get on here this morning for any GC stuff ,but have been here to night to read and send emails. Working all day tomorrow so off to bed now,hopefully not to be woken by noisy cars racing down the street ,or by that little switch in my head that clicks on any time between 2am and 5.30 am and wakes me up ,feeling bright eyed and bushy tailed,so that by 7am when I should be waking up I am shattered.!!!! Brenda

Hi everybody, Yes, it's me again. Fred you're doing it again - posting twice the same message. Are you alright? I now have received two Xmas cards and one Xmas present. No, I haven't opened the present as Father Xmas told me not to, and I always do what I am told otherwise he may not visit me again next year. Now the weather here today has been beautiful, sunny all day, but very cold. Johan and I went to the wholesalers today, which is about 3/4 drive from here. We are always knackered when we return so have done nothing else. Tomorrow is another day. I really am all behind with my Xmas shopping, I do hope when I go to my daughter's that I can find some more gifts, otherwise it will have to be gift vouchers. Now I'll love you and leave you and get some more done to writing my Xmas cards. Sylvia xxx

Hello Everyone,where ever you all are,we have snow here in Manchester and a it is very cold as you can imagine,had to go out for a few things,mainly a birthday card for my friend and a present for her its not till weekend but will be seeing her before hand,also got my dad his birthday card thats not till just after christmas but leave it any later and you don't find them, John is watching some thing on the discovery channel and I have just put some meat I bought earlier in the freezer and some presents I got at weekend in the wardrobe. Was going to print off more of the census stuff I have saved ,but will come back later to do that when the heating is on its getting chilly in here now.see you later,Brenda