General Chat

Okay, who has got snow then girls. Not me, YET, but my word has it been cold today.
If anybody gets it, I bet it will be poor Purple Liz, as the weather man said it's going to affect her part of the country pretty badly.
I have not done anything exciting today, so have got no fresh news to tell you, but I thought I would just pop on to say hello to you all.
Stay safe and warm girls. Love Mo xxx

I posted it ages ago Sallie then I had no internet for two days when I finally got on you had come back on ,still never mind the thought was there.... glad you like it :-D :-D

love Jean xx

Hello ladies, hope you are all alright today. I'm busy trying to work on my family tree, but there are so many names the same I'm getting a bit daunted.lol!!

Jean, just want to say thank you for the beautiful card that arrived from you this morning....it's really lovely, I was happy to get it.Thank you again for thinking about me.


Ann, congratulations on winning the photo competition. Wish I could take photos as well as you do, they are all excellent. Well done!



Mo, it was the first week of Alun being partially retired, I hardly saw him as he spent quite a bit of time with his trains.lol!!



I'll pop back later on, must try and get some more research done.

Speak to you all later on.



Love, Sallie.xxx

Hello again girls,
Jean, our little madam doesn't say very much, she just has to point at things at home, and she gets them. Not in this house though. The latest thing is, she walks around shouting Yuk and Quack Quack Quack...now thats my own fault, for when I read to her, I make the animal sounds, and she loves the duck noises. Will I never learn.
All of a sudden she will get up, grab my hands, and we have to play ring a ring of roses, when it comes to the all fall down bit, silly ol nanny is the only one that has to fall down, and she stands there laughing her head off.
Sooo it's a little boy then is it, thats great (the new baby I mean). Ours is a little girl, so that will be two great grandaughters.

Well done on the win Ann. The book will probably come in handy for you. Does it show you any old recipes in it?
Sorry to hear that the toothache has not cleared up yet. I dont suppose they will extract any teeth, whilst the infection is still present.
It sounds like you had a field day at Webbs spending loads a money...brilliant ,good on yer.
A friend of mine was given a frying pan as a christmas present, and I thought to myself thats not a very personal present, but it apparantly it had a clock on the side of it, yes I know it sounds strange, and I couldn't visualise it. And guess what, she took it back to where it was bought, and changed it for something else. I just hope the person who bought it doesnt go to my friends house and ask for a fried egg. lol

Hi there Sallie, thank goodness you have posted, we were getting quite concerned not having heard from you in a while.
Alun is lucky that they have cut him down to a three day week, it makes it an easier transition for when they retire completely.
I know when Roly went from working a five day week, straight into retirement, he found it very hard to relax.
Having him home more, will be better for you as well honey. Not so many hours for the black dog to take a hold whilst being on your own. Plus you can get Alun to take you to the hobby shops more often. Now that has to be a bonus. ;-) ;-) ;-)
How is your brother doing now? Is he still enjoying his Parish work.?

Sending hugs to Sylvia, Marie and our Huia, I hope you are all well my friends.

Night Night god bless one and all. Mo xxx

The prize is a book Christmas past and present. Just realised I don't know which photo won it as I sent two. It could quite likely be the one of one of our grandsons aged about 2 at Christmas.

I shall try out the bigshot tomorrow, too tired to use something new today.

Hey you lucky lady, well done Ann, what is the prize? hope its something you wanted... you will love the big shot, I have been doing some more diecuts today, and did a card with the diecut you sent me I have a pic of it so will send it throught when D puts them on for me....the three of us had bad colds and as usual with me it went straight on my chest, left me wheezing, I suppose we are inclined to call all colds the "Flu", when they are not....we all have the flu jabs , so hopefully any colds we get wont last long , I asked the nurse why do we still get the odd cold, her reply was the jab doesnt cover every type of cold germs just hopefully lessens them...although there is a particular strain which is hard to clear....

Mo, what do you get up to fancy blaming poor little Lily, I know your tricks mrs, tsk tsk, she will grow up thinking thats what you do ;-) ;-)
she sounds a little monkey , bet she runs rings around you , does she chatter a lot, our littlie next door didnt say much now we cant shut her up :-D :-D
her favourite sayingis "its bubbish"and she loves to dance and sing to that Zuba guys video. does all the actions too, we are helpless laughing.... :-D :-D :-D cant wait for or little boy to arrive hope I am here long enough to see what he gets up to.... take care my friends ... wrap up warm its quite cold here,
see you all later love Jean xxx <3

Mo and Ann, just missed you both. Glad that all is okay with you both.


Ann, both Alun and I decided bot to have the flu jab as both Alun's mum and mine always had a bad reaction when they had it......so we decided not to bother, but of course that decision might change in future.


Mo, I can't believe that Lilly will be two next week. Where on earth has the time gone. I can understand how you felt in BHS, but it made me chuckle imagining Lilly putting the jumpers in her pram.lol!!!
It just shows that she loves being with you and Roly, otherwise I'm sure she wouldn't want to go back with you. Bless her.



Jean, I'm sure you are all getting excited waiting for the baby to arrive any day now. Hope all goes well!



I'm going for my cuppa now, so will speak to you all soon.



Love and best wishes. Sallie.xxx

HI Jean, thanks for the welcome back. Yes whatever the flu virus was, it certainly lasts for a good while. Luckily, Jennie has had little or no problems with her Crohn's with this virus, so I hope it will continue that way.

Alun has now partly retired, he only works Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays now, so he has more time to play with his model railway.Boys and their toys.lolol!!!

Yes I can imagine D being bored with the extra holiday time off work. I'm hoping that when the weather will start to get better, both Alun and I will be able to pluck up the enthusiasm to paint two of the bedrooms. We shall have to wait and see.lol!!!

I had the Grand Calibre off Alun as an early Christmas present, the trouble is now I need quite a few of the larger dies, each time I go to one of the craft shops I end up buying something towards it......although the dies are usually cheaper on some of the craft sites.



Sylvia, glad that you and OH had a good train trip to your daughter's and back. Sorry that you had a bit of a family upset over the Christmas, though. Families, just when you think things are going well, problems always seem to rear their ugly head. Glad that both uou and your daughter were able to have a good heart to heart chat, and were able to get things sorted.


Hello to all my friends on here and hope that all is well with everyone.


Well, I must go now, I'm going to have a cuppa.





Love and best wishes. Sallie.xxx

Hallo all, Just heard that I am one of the competition winners for a Christmas photo of our daughter when she was 3 A book called Christmas past and present.

Just back from a trip to Webbs garden centre and Hobbycraft at Wychebold. It is a lovely sunny day here but when we got up there it was thick fog. It had cleared slightly when we came back so wasn't too bad.

I had £30 worth of hobbycraft vouchers to spend, managed that easily as I spent over a £100. I bought the Big Shot Jean, I thought if I want to cut any really big dies I can do them down at Daughter's as she had the GC for christmas.

Most of the rest of the money went on wool for a shaped scarf I want to try and copy (knitted), a book on crochet, because I am trying to teach myself. And a brayer which was over £11. It wasn't priced, not sure I would have bought it if I had known the price. still I have got it now.

Then in the garden centre we bought seeds for T (he had a voucher, three acrylic angels which have little LED lights in them reduced from £6.99 to £1.75 each, a silk gerbera to add to my vase of silk flowers, and a frying pan (just what you'd expect to buy in a garden centre. We then had a bowl of soup with a chunk of bread which was very nice, and came home.

And I still have toothache, the antibiotics don't seem to be working at all.

Good to see you back on here Sallie, didn't you qualify for the flu jab? You said you had flu Jean, didn't you have the jab?

Mo, looks like Lilly is going to cause havoc when you take her into shops :-D :-D

Coooee my friends,
Sorry to have been absent for a while, but like most families in the country, we have had a few niggling ailments to put up with.
As it is, poor Roly is still suffering with an upset stomach even now, if its not one thing it's another.

Can you believe it, our Lilly will be two next week, my how the time flies by. She is a right little character, and knows how to play to an audience.
We had her for the day on Wednesday, and she was as good as gold. But on taking her home to her mum at six p.m, she decided she didn't want to stay there, and threw a right wobbler, until grandad told her she was a naughty girl, and she then ran to her mum for cuddles.
When ever we have to leave her, she seems to under the impression she coming back with us, and clings onto us.
I took her shopping into BHS, I was looking for some jumpers in the sale. Before I knew what was happening, she had taken a load of jumpers of the hangers, and was either throwing them on the floor, or putting them in her pram. I quickly put them back on the racks, and ran from the shop. Well, I didn't want to be had up for shop lifting did I. LOL No I am not training her up for it either, oooh can you imagine it, if I had been unaware of what she was doing, and walked out with them. Cor lummy, I could have made the national newspapers couldn't I. I can just imagine the headlines...." Granny charged with aiding and abetting grandchild,in her shop lifting spree." :-D :-D :-D

I hope you are all well, take care my friends Love and hugs for you all. Mo xxx

Hi Sallie, lovely to have you back on here , this flu thing is really hard to shift, we had it before christmas and still feel iffy, our little one is any due day now,
we are all ok, thanks, I was hoping we could get through winter without more snow and ice, but the forecast looks ominous, I have been doing some die cutting cant remember if I told you J bought me the Grand Calibru for christmas , cant move for machines now....but I love them all and can do so much more now, I have just done some fancy edged cards on the G/R using the very big dies,and lots of small dies all at one go,
How is Jenny , I hope she is doing o.k. D has been taking some of her holiday days, so he had a big break over christmas, but within two days she was bored and couldnt wait to get back. and neither could we...lol....take care
love Jean xx

Happy Birthday Huia, hope you have a great day. Also a Happy Birthday to your son, who's birthday is the same day as your's
Hope your headache is a lot better soon.


Jean, hope you, J and D are all okay. When is your grtgrandchild due?


I haven't been on for a couple of weeks, between one thing and another. Firstly Richard's car broke down the Saturday before Christmas, so Alun and I had to go down on the Sunday to bring up here for Christmas, and then we took him back on the Thursday. We were going to stay a couple of days with him but I started with a flu virus so we came home the next day. It lasted almost two weeks and I still don't feel 100% but a lot better than I was, thank goodness.


Mo, I was sorry to read that Rita had passed away on Christmas Eve, she was such a lovely lady. I'm sure she is greatly missed on the Friendly thread.

Hope you and Roly are both okay. How is Lilly these days? I hope that she is alright now.


Ann, hope all is well with you and T.


I know I'm late, but I just want to say thank you to you all for your Christmas cards and hope that you all had a good Christmas.

Wishing you all a belated but Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New year.



Love to you all. Sallie.xxx

Happy Birthday Huia, hope its a good one for you and hope your headache is much better, take care

Love Jean xx

we save old pillowcases, boli them clean, so they are great to use , up here we can buy ready made boil in the bag rag puds, they are wrapped in greaseproof , also most folk use small pudding basins, and our local chippy sells them in foil cases ...... we also like toasties too, the last toaster was a nightmare to clean I had to unscew the plates to clean it, so we binned it, now we have a lovey proffesional one with deep sections, which also pop out at the touch of a button making cleaning easier, there is a recipe book with it and lots of great ideas....cant wait to use it.......

Jean, what 'rag' did Debra use to cook it in and can you give us the recipe please? It sounds nice.

Whoops Huia I should have gone to you-know- were :-S :-S sorry...

That is not me with curly hair, Jean, that is Gaal.

I have been to the doc this morning and she says I would have been dehydrated. I might have knocked my head when I fell as I have had a headache ever since so she gave me some stronger pain killers for when I get fed up with it.

Thats it Ann, its known as rag puddings here but just the same as your mum made only with meat and gravy....suet pastry.... tonights meal was one D saw on the Hairy Bikers show, made in the slow cooker incl sauseges , chicken, and loads of veg all chopped fine and it was lovely I dont do a lot of veg, she told me after I cleared my plateI had had six various ones :-0 cant believe it all mixed fine so didnt realise I had them :-D and there is enough left over for another two meals .....the recipe is on the show that is low calorie food , so we shall be watching all the series.....

Huia The pics are great you did have a big climb and did very well too...
curly hair as well....now. well done ...
thanks for sharing them with us

love Jean xx

Jean lol :-D

Is it just meat then? No suet pud? My mum used to make a delicious bacon Roly poly in suet cooked in cloth of some sort. Loved it.

Jean (and anybody else interested) my blogspot is:

http://rangitotoclimb2012.blogspot.co.nz/

You have to click on the oldest post and look at them from the bottom up to get them in chronological order. Click on my profile to see my other blogspots.