General Chat

Hi everybody, Hallo, it's time to get up now, the clocks have been put back or admit it you forgot, how many of you forgot? I woke to the sound of Johan getting breakfast. I think he was just getting hungry! Anyway he had boiled an egg, poured the juice in the glasses, made coffee and got the toaster ready. How about that for an eighty-year old? Yes, he is improving with age. Now for the clocks. In our house, I don't know about yours, we have at least one clock in every room. It goes like this 'I'll do that clock if you do this one'. Well my job is to alter the clock radio fixed under the shelf in the kitchen - my workplace. Do you know, at this moment I haven't done it and Johan has done the rest of the clocks. I was just saying this morning that we haven't a clock in the bathroom, and do you know what - yes, we have one now. Clocks appear like nobody's business here. We are still having lovely sunny weather here. Nice to see Mavis is keeping me company. Begonias are so nice plants aren't they. See you tomorrow. Sylvia xxx

Hi everyone, The weather here down under is still great. Garden looking nice and tidy again - new plants growing well and my begonias are shooting well. I have 20 different ones. We were given 12 Begonias in pots by friends last year for Christmas - they did so well we bought more. Quite addicted to them now - just love all the beautiful bright colours. Today we have been to our friends 70th birthday 'do'. Just a 'light lunch' they said. It was more like a banquet - not that I am moaning - I like my food!! Not much to report this time. Goodnight/goodmorning for now Mavis NZ

Hi everybody, Another glorious sunny day here, not that I've seen much of it as I've been baking - as usual. I've made two brown loaves and one white one and a Dutch apple tart. I am feeling quite tired now as I woke up so early that I decided to make an early start in the kitchen. The trouble with me once I am in the kitchen, I don't seem to get out until I am almost dropping. I could do with my forty-winks now, or even more. Anyway we get an extra hour's sleep tonight. I still haven't made my Xmas cake yet, but maybe in the week. Johan's youngest sister's birthday today. She is the same age as I am and was my bridesmaid. She lives in an older type of house and lots of stairs to climb, so Johan and I decided we'll meet up with her in Rotterdam and then we don't have to climb all those stairs. This will be during the week sometime I think. We will probably do a sightseeing bus trip as well. Johan was born in Rotterdam, but so much has changed over the years, that it would be nice to have a look around again. Now will keep this short. See you tomorrow Sylvia xxx

Hi everyone Been having some fun with the parsnip thread that young Daniel put on, so far 525 comments praising parsnips have been added, competing with one saying how awful parsnips are. Kathleen, here's a tip when typing messages in the Add Message panel is to first type what you want to say on your Notepad or Wordpad and then copy paste to the Add Message box, got this tip from Bill of Oz awhile ago. We have been pulling out weeds in the pots on the deck this morning and will be looking out for some new plants to put in. John

Hello everyone, Judy, it took ages to access the thread then I lost it halfway through typing my message, it has taken as long again to get back. In the meantime you had added your message, congratulations to the enterprising young people on winning their award. What a wonderful achievement, you must be very proud of your granddaughter. June, I hope your back is not giving you too much pain and that you recover soon. Hopefully you will have a date for your move soon, it must be stressful all this waiting. Sylvia, I do hope the physio helps with your problem, it must be very uncomfortable however you are still keeping as busy as ever. Brenda, are you still doing as many hours at the library? I hope you are still enjoying the work. Fred, now you should be all nice and cosy in your greenhouse. You will have a lovely lot of plants ready for your garden come the spring. Hope Liz is keeping well. I would normally have made my christmas cake by now but this year I'm all behind (like the lambs tail). I haven't made the puddings for a few years now but have been thinking about doing them this year - mind you I used to do those several months before as they taste better for keeping. Mavis, John, Joy - oh dear I can't remember all the names but I do enjoy reading your messages. Hope you are all keeping well and please do keep writing. Susan is gradually improving, she will see the oncologist in a couple of months, meantime she has started on her medication which she will continue on for at least 5 years. Also still taking warfarin for the clots and having weekly blood tests. Her hair is growing and she is getting her confidence back slowly, she has walked to the hospital on her own this week but she still gets very tired quickly. Hope all is well with Sylvia and Norman. Goodnight and God bless everyone Love Kathleen

Hi Brenda & FNW I agree this site has become ridiculously slow,I am now only trying to have a look in every other day,time is too short !! We had some wonderful news this week,one of my grandaughters and her school friends have won a national award for 'Young Enterprise'.This is held each year and involves school groups competeing for best Company of the Year.Their product is a temporary tattoo which indicates when more sunscreen needs to be applied,looks like one of our large stores is going to market the product along with chemists etc. and it has full support from the Cancer Society. Sylvia I love thick pea soup too made with smokey ham bones and eaten with lovely hot fresh crusty bread ... oops ... think I can hear Fred stirring bound to have a super recipe : Haven't heard from Sylvia and Norman for awhile,hope all is O.K. Happy thoughts to all JudyNZ

Hi everybody, Another fantastic, sunny day here today. I scooted to the market and bought some bits and bobs for making my cards. I also bought some more stewing pears which I have done this afternoon in red wine. More for the freezer. This is the time of the year for buying stewing pears and my freezer is getting full. I tried to buy split peas here for making our traditional pea soup, but it seems everybody else has the same idea as all the supermarkets were sold out. I bought all the vegetables for this and frozen them in. Now when I find the peas I can make the soup. This is a traditional winter cost here in the Netherlands and the soup is very thick that you can stand you spoon up in it. It is not something you would eat in the summer! This afternoon my eldest daughter and her partner came unexpectedly. It was nice to see them again. My granddaughter has done the cleaning, so the house looks ok. Not much news today, so have a nice evening. Sylvia xxx

well i am wondering if everyone else has the same problem getting on this thread as I nearly gave up ,I waited that long. The weather has been very wet,very,windy and very miserable. thought I would get on here before my son gets in and claims it. But noone has been on since me .so theres not much to say,have a good weekend folks.Brenda

Evening All,thought I was never getting on here tonight ,but here I am.Mavis hope you enjoy your busy weekend . Joy I am hoping to get to the places where some of my rellies lived at somepoint,somehow the fact that i am only a few miles from most of them doesn''t have the same effect.!!! I can understand what yiou mean. Hi Joyce nice to see you, hope you can drop in again. fred,my you do get up to somethings,never a dull moment is there,but just becarefull and don't overdo it. Sylvia,hope you got out on your scooter and enjoyed yourself.Hope the health issues are getting better, June on count down now until Nov 12th. Take care Brenda

Hi everyone, I hope you have all a good day/night. I have had a busy day, I went through my files and got rid of old bills and instructions for things I no longer have. Then I sorted out some of my Family History, I hung the washing out and it was nearly dry when the heavens opened, so I had to do a dash and collect it in. At 3 p.m. I sat down with a cuppa and promptly fell asleep, I wakened with a start because I had to put the chops in for dinner. After dinner, a friend arrived and we put the world to rights! That is another day finished, so off I will go to bed, hope to speak to you all tomorrow. Might night, June xx .

Hi everyone,sorry to be missing for a couple of days but fred has had an interesting week so far. i was finishing off the garden jobs a couple of days ago ,and had a call from the daughter,when she sprung a leak,so i gathered the tools together and shot of up there to give a hand. It took fiften minutes to find the stopcock,mainly cause the council in it's wisdom decided to put the hot water stop cock ,not in the drying room next to the tank,but under the bath.Secondly because the son in law decided to put the new bath panels on with nails instead of screws,and painted over them ,so ,seeing as i didn't know where they were [the nails] i had to rip the whole lot off the bath to turn off the water. Anyway ,i got it done .and gave a hand to clear the mess up,telling the son in law to use his common sense ,and screw the new one on,and not to paint them ,just in case. I was tired when i came home ,and didn't do a lot that day. I had another go in the garden the next morning and took the daughter shopping ,went to bed early and slept like a log.. Sooooo,here i am again,having started ,with Liz's help to put the seeds into the greenhouse ,and prepare the geranium cuttings for next year. Short and sweet peeps ,just to let you know i havn't jumped ship .Syl .Fred.PtfA&G&G&S.

Hi everybody, Well the weather has been quite pleasant today, even had some sunshine! This morning went to the dentist and had a piece of my dentures filed away which was causing friction. This afternoon went to the doctor and found I have a dropped bladder which they are going to try and lift with physiotherapy. I also have a bladder infection. Nothing at all serious, just annoying things. I've had a headache now every day for 4 days, but I suppose that will disappear one day too. I hope the weather is ok tomorrow as I want to get out on my scooter. Have had enough making Xmas cards for a few days. Have a nice evening everybody. Sylvia xxx

Hello. I have been to Suffolk recently ''treading in my ancestors' footsteps'' - quite an awesome feeling being in the churches where they were christened and married over 300 years ago!! :-) Joy

Hi everyone, Just to let you know I am still around! Beautiful weather here still - so nice to see the blue skies. Had a great evening babysitting for my daughter. The baby (fosterbaby) was so good for me. Smiling all the time. Straight to sleep - no tears. We then had a fun time with our grandsons. Andrew 12 and Nick 15. They had a book - The Weakest Link - of questions - boy were they hard! But perhaps we are just getting older! So nice to have this time with them. Planted our runner beans today, also various flowers. We just love Spring - everything coming to life - even us I think! Busy week this week. Out for Dinner tomorrow and a 70th birthday bash on Sunday. All for now. Mavis NZ

Hi Everyone, I tried to get on here on Tuesday morning ,but it was so slow I had to give up,as I was at work at 12.30pm. Then when I got home at 8pm ,had my tea and then came on here the light bulb had gone.Couldn't get it changed as the ladders are needed as it is an old house with high ceilings,the ladders are locked in the shed and the weather was not good to go out messing with locks etc at 9.30pm. I am hoping John can get it done this afternoon,whenhe is home from work.I did think I might mangae last night with a table lamp but all the sockets are being used. June so pleased your tree is getting bigger for you, John my dad did go to lip reading lessons at one time but the council ran out of funds for them and it stopped. I am so glad your sons speech went so well,my dad his brothers and sister all have good speech ,but grans was a bit stilted but we knew what she said.I have no idea if any one else on grans side was deaf or not. I am waiting for my friedn to tell me wher her neice is over there. have to go and get that milk now so John can have a drink when he is home. take care love Brenda

Hi everybody, Thanks for helping keep this thread alive John. I think the rest have been washed away with all this rain. Fred, you are not camping out this weather surely! June, are you looking for Beckham? I bet he has found himself a nice warm place out of the rain. Now for me, well I have been making Xmas cards all day, well practically all day, only short time making dinner. I've never had so much free time. The weather terrible, pouring with rain, gales etc.etc. I do have to go out tomorrow though as my lower dentures have been hurting and need a piece taken off so have made an appointment for tomorrow. I also have an appointment with the doctor in the afternoon as I've been having trouble in the pelvic region. Better get it sorted out I suppose. My dear granddaughter Linda phoned this morning to see if I wanted any shopping as the weather is so bad. What a kind thought! Not much news, but at least keeps the thread alive. Keep warm, keep dry and keep healthy. Sylvia xxx

Hi everyone We are all having a share of bad weather but it probably pales when one sees the news reports of the hurricanes hitting the states causing damage. However that aside I have little sympathy for those people who stay in the hurricane danger zone when told to move out and then complain that nobody told them it that things would that bad. One born every minute. The pictures of the area here in New Zealand that Judy mentioned shows sea of mud and roads washout. John

Hi everybody, What terrible weather, but then again it is Autumn and we cannot expect anything better. It is nice to have four seasons. I know because I have lived in the tropics where we had only two seasons 'wet' and 'dry'. Oh how lovely Spring is where everything is so fresh and bright, summer to laze around, Autumn to get over the summer and prepare for winter and winter to get down to all those jobs you have put off all the summer. I saw in the folders which come through our letter box lots of bargains but didn't want to go out in this weather. However, Annemie's husband is always backwards and forwards to the shops so he was willing. I told him 'I wouldn't send a dog out in this weather, but don't mind sending you'. It's a good thing he can understand my humour. Anyway, he came down for a few glasses of Amaretto at 4.00 pm which made our dinner late. We usually eat at 5.00 pm, but I had to sit down with him and my husband. I haven't done very much today, just tidied the sitting room and stewed some more pears for the freezer. Have spent this afternoon making cards again. What a life! See you all tomorrow. Sylvia xxx

Hi everyone, Its a horrible day here, raining heavily. Its lovely to see you all and read your thrteads. Saturday night I met a friend for a meal, we have now been friends for 31 years, sometimes we dont see other for a year or so but then always get together and catch up the news on our families. Yesterday I had my head in some information sent to me by one of my contacts. I entered well over a hundred names to my tree. There was also notes on quite a few of them, which makes it more interesting. She also sent me another lot of names, unfortuneately I haven't found a connnection yet. I was looking forward to entering them in on such a miserable day. well I had better take the dry washing out of the drier and put some more wet clothes in. Speak again soon. June xx

Hi everybody Brenda - the wedding went well and our son Craig said his speech brought laughter to the 40 or so guests - one part he said something about the groom's driving and that he should be on the TV series NZ worst drivers which the groom's father agreed with. Speaking about the deaf when Craig used to have his mates around you couldn't get a word in so to speak what with the signing and giggles. It was even more funny when you had his deaf and hearing friends in the room as the verbal skills got used. Mind you when Craig is talking its hard to keep him quiet and at 31 he still wants to tell us everything that happens. John