General Chat

Hello and Good Morning everyone.

Sorry I've not been on for a while, between the Old Black Dog, Jennie was in hospital and now the both of us have a bad cold virus, wshich is making us both feel poorly. It seems to be affecting Jennie's joints, making them painful for her. We are both coughing away and this morning my left eye is quite sore and red, so will have to go to a Walk in Centre if it gets worse over the weekend.



Mo, how is your son getting on? I hope he has seen someone at the hospital since he's home and that they were able to sort out the problem for him.

I know what you mean when you say that you don't want to go away now, I'm just the same I'm afraid.The thing is when we go somewhere I always enoy myself while I'm there, but always glad to get home. I'm sure that you will have a lovely time with them all, and especially with Lilly. Hope Lilly is fine, she must be walking by now too.

I've never been to Great Yarmouth, in fact I've never been to that part of the country at all.



Jean, I hope you, Jeff and Debra are all ok. Not sure if you are away in Llandudno now, I know you are going there sometime thia month, but can't remember the date you told us. Anyway if you are there or just about to go, have a lovely time both of you.



Ann, I hope you and T have had a lovely week in the Lake District. How is your daughter now? I hope that she is recovering well from her treatment and that her and her OH have enjoyed their holiday in the Lake District too.



Sylvia, lovely to hear trom you. Hope all is well with you and OH.

Sounds as though you are having some very stormy weather for March.High winds are very frightening, just take care and stay safe.




Huia, you are certainly a very busy lady, no wonder you slept on the sofa for three hours, you must have been exhausted.



Linda, if you are looking in, hope you and your family are all ok. How is your little grandson doing? I bet he's really thriving now, bless him.



Marie, hope you and your family are all alright and that things are a lot better for you all now.



Caz, how are you? I hope your ankle is a bit easier than it was when I last spoke to Joyce.



Joyce, hope you are okay and that you managed to get out to do your usual Saturday shop.



Well I have to go now, will speak to you all again soon.


Take care everyone.


Love, Sallie.xxx

Hello Sylvia.

I didnt visit Phil after all. I had a slightly early lunch prior to getting ready to go out, but when I had finished my lunch I felt so utterly tired that I lay down on the settee and slept for about 3 hours. I hope it is just a reaction to the flu jab I had the other day. I have had a 'muzzy' head since then. If it doesnt go away in a few more days I will have to go to see the doc, though I find headaches are difficult for them to do anything about, apart from prescribing headache tablets. I have been taking some but they dont seem to be having much effect. :-| Many of my problems seem to come right by themselves in time.

Huia.

Hi all
xxx

Hello Mo if you are looking in again. Hello to anybody else looking in. I have been busy over the last few days (when I have been at home) installing a dressing table in my bedroom, and starting to rearrange my clothes in the drawers, trying not to stuff them too full. On Thursday I brought home another chest of drawers from the op shop. I havent brought it upstairs yet. There is a very old one in our bedroom that I want to move to the spare bedroom but I have to make room in there first. Then I can put the new one in my bedroom and finish sorting my clothes.

I am going to visit Phil after lunch today.

Huia.

Oh my word! Whats going on here then, has everyone deserted us.
I know that Ann is still away, but I dont remember anyone else saying they were going on holiday.

Well girls, I just hope you are all well, and enjoying our spate of good weather.
Don't hold your breath for it to last though, as they have forecast rain here in Kent.
I suppose I should consider myself lucky that I have been able to get out in the garden to do a bit of clearing up, before it changes again.

If I don't hear from you, please have a lovely mothers day, one and all.
Love and best wishes to you all. Mo

Oooh Sylvia, I do hope you are weathering the storms over there, and that you are both safe and sound.

I think the market is down all over the world, in the sale of properties.
Friends of ours put their house on the market at the beginning of last year, and have had very few viewings, and have lost the bungalow they were hoping to buy with the proceeds of their sale.
It does seem a shame that you are having to sell the cabin, but as with all of us, unfortunately age does come into it, doesn't it.
Leaving the comfort of our everyday homes, and uprooting for a vacation of one or two weeks, does tend to take it out on us.

We are due to go to Great Yarmouth in May,and we are taking our son and future daughter in law, and baby with us.
The thought of packing up, and living in a caravan for 10 days, is a nightmare for me.
I used to love going away, but I am getting to the stage where I am becoming a real home body, and dont want the upheaval really. lol
Even though when I get there I will enjoy myself. Oooh I am an old misery arn't I. lol

It looks like everyone has deserted us lately doesn't it. But I am sure they will all pop in at sometime soon.
Toodle pip for now. Love Mo xxx

Hi everyone

Mo ....... we usually get gales in November and March, but this was considered the worst ever March storm

The lighthouse keeper on one small island off the western coast of Vancouver Island ....... ie, in the direct line of the wind ........... measured one gust at 187 km per hour. The meteorologists are shaking their heads at that!


There seems to be no damage, no trees down, in my immediate neighbourhood. Lots of branches and twigs down on the gorund, of course. The main street, about 1 km away, had a power outage from 10 am to noon. It covered about 16 blocks, and included our coffee shop, as well as Safeway, banks, etc etc, plus there are also houses and small apartment blocks.

There is more wind forecast for overnight tonight, and heavy rain tomorrow.

The one thing with all this rain at sea level ......... the local mountains are getting huge amounts of snow! The skiers and snowboarders are loving it!


We still have the cabin, we are preparing it to sell, but the market is down at the moment, so we are in no rush. We usually try to make our first visit in early May ............ there's usually snow around until then, and it is still pretty cold at night.

Once again though, we don't see ourselves being able to get up there for more than 2 or 3 weeks in total




take care everyone


sylvia
xxx

Hello girls,
Sylvia, it certainly sounds like you have got the old saying, "March Winds",
perhaps the April showers will follow. But on second thoughts, you seem to be getting both months weather at the same time.
Do you normally get these kind of storms every year, or is this one just an exception to the rule.
Were any trees near you blown down?
Have you still got the cabin, or did you end up by selling it.?
It must be coming near to the time when you would normally go up there.

Well done on your handy work Huia. You will have to put a notice up offering handy work jobs. There must be a lot of people who don't have your capabilities and skills, who could do with a helping hand sometimes.
I hope your arm is not hurting after your flu jab. I know they dont always hurt, but sometimes the nurse can be a bit brutal, and just jab the needle in without thinking, and hurt us.
I know you mention that you visited Phil, but how is he looking to you. Is he just as handsome as he always was. The reason I ask, is that carers sometimes dont seem to have the time to care for the patients personal appearances, and that is such a shame, as families want to be able to relate to the person they left in their care.
My poor mum would often be wearing other peoples clothes, but was totally unaware of it, but we knew, and it used to hurt our feelings,that they couldn't be bothered with her.

Take care girls, love Mo xxx

I glued and nailed and clamped the drawer this morning. I am waiting 24 hours to make sure the glue sets properly. I also put a bit of glue under the runner for another drawer, where the runner broke some time ago.

I went to town just before lunch, (took my lunch with me). Went to visit Phil. A carer had started feeding him so she left me to finish, except that I had to do it left-handed as I couldnt get my chair the other side of him. Anyway we got his first course and then his desert into him after I gave him a couple of sips of his drink I gave him the cup (it has a lid with a spout) and he finished it by himself.

I came back to Papakura, did a small amount of shopping then went to the doctors for my flu jab. I am now home relaxing for a short time before I start to get my dinner.

Huia.

Hi all


this was a very stormy day ............. the worst storm of the winter, and one of the worst March storms ever!

The wind got up late on Sunday night, and continued through the night until early Monday afternoon :-0. It reached hurricane strength on the outer coast of Vancouver Island (ie, about 120 km/hr), but "only" 80-90 km here in the city. We were fine, just wind and rain battering the house, and the trees blowing like you wouldn't believe ............. but many trees have been blown down or branches broken off, and many power outages around the city, and elsewhere.


Re smog ......... there was one occasion in Oldham when a bus followed a car, until the car veered off to the left. The bus driver was then faced by a stone wall about 1' from his engine. It was that same Y-junction I mentioned in the previous story. The car had taken the left hand branch, but the bus needed the right hand one. :-0


Take care everyone




sylvia
xxx

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ to Ann, up there in the lake district. Ann, you had better buy yourselves a trailer, to bring all your goodies back home.
It's only Monday, and goodness knows how much more you can buy before you go home. lol
Enjoy yourself my love. xxx

Sorry, too much to type again so copied from the Welsh thread.

Hello all from the Lake District. Yesterday was a lovely day and we walked round Tarn Hows, only one and a half miles but daughter is recovering from radio therapy and tires easily, she enjoyed it though. Today has been cloudy but we found a LD Horticultural society garden to visit, Holehird gardens. They were great and we couldn't believe how many spring flowers were out including a huge number of helebores, many that we had not seen before. There were still a few late varieties of snowdrops and lots of daffodils, but other flowers too including, to our surprise some Azaleas, camelias and rhododendrons. Bearing in mind this was on the side of a hill overlooking Windermere and facing across to the Langdales. The heathers also were a picture and the greenhouses were interesting with the alpines growing in them. We shall certainly return in June when we come up here as they have the National collection of Astilbes and a walled garden that should be at its best in June. The garden was apparently started in 1854 by a John Dunlop, there is a lovely mansion in the grounds too but that was gifted in 1954 to the local council for the health and well being of local people. It is now a Leonard Cheshire home. What a lovely spot to end your days it is too.

From there we went to Lakeland (Plastics) in Windermere where we had lunch and bought lots of things we didn't know we needed, then to Hayes Garden World in ambleside followed by a stop for a cup of tead in Hawkeshead where I bought a gillet and OH a jacket and daughter bought me a light jacket for mothers days. We then came back to the apartment. Spent out and wondering how we are going to get it all into the car to go home.

Hope Sallie will feel able to come back on here soon and ~~~~~~~ to everyone else.

Oh Huia, you do make me laugh. I am as guilty as you for shoving so much in my drawers,(no not my knickers ) that Roly is forever having to repair them.
The trouble is that the chest of drawers was a cheap one, and the bottoms are only made of a soft veneer type stuff, and fall through so easily.
And I also have what I call, my going out clothes, and my slobbing round the house gear, and no doubt the charity shop would have a field day with half of the stuff I could donate. lol

It's so good to hear from Joyce and Caz, and catch up with their news.
Thanks for the update on Sallie Joyce, it's good to know she is o.k, and will be back with us soon.

I must go, doing chicken and chips for dinner, yummy.
Speak to you tomorrow girls. Love Mo xxx

Good evening all.

In the morning I have to try to repair one of the drawers that I keep my clothes in as I tried to shove too much into it. I bought some glue and panel pins today to do the job. I am thinking of buying another chest of drawers at the op shop. I have put my name on it. It would help if I also got rid of a lot of my old clothes. But I wear them around the house (or some of them). Ah well, I will get myself sorted one of these days.

Must be off to bed soon as I am yawning my head off.

Huia.

GoodMorning all
Sallie is ok just taking afew days off but sure she will be back on when she is up to it
Caz hope your ankle feels abit better today
Mo sending best wishes to your son and hope he is soon fit and well again ,what worry for the family
Ann enjoy your holiday i could do with one well have my Grandaughters wedding to look forward to in august .but not very happy on having to be pussed in my wheelchair but Jan and grandaughter said i have to
Linda ,Huia,Sylvia and anyone i may have forgot take care all and stay saft
LoveDutch
ps nearly forgot our Jean that would,nt do hope your both wellxx

I had to laugh as well about the car and bike but it was horrendous when the smog was so bad, but the busses still ran, I was on one when the conductor had to walk with one foot on the pavement to keep the driver in place, terrible it was but they wouldn't do it these days.
I am getting about a bit better with my leg missing it's cast, it was a lot easier with it on, my leg feels wobbly and weak now and my ankle is swelling so I have to keep it up.
No more news so I will see you all later.

Caz xx

Oh I had to laugh about the car and motorbike Jean.
The same thing happened to us, when Roly was stationed in Germany. We had been out for the night, and on our way home we hit a big blanket of smog.
The car in front of us seemed to know where he was going, and Roly decided to follow him.
About two miles away, he came to what we thought was a turning in the road, only for his break lights to come on, and for us to discover we had followed him onto his own drive.
Another time, we were on our way home from Germany to the u.k,and was travelling through Brussels.
There was thick snow on the ground, and we could see no road markings.
Suddenly Roly said we have to turn right here, but oooops, the car wouldn't turn.
Out got Roly, wading through the snow, only to discover that we had got stuck in the tram lines.
There we were, both of us, lifting and lugging the car, till we got it out of the rut. Why do these things always happen to us, we wondered at the time.
But hey, thats life isn't it, and we still giggle about it even now.

Sylvia, the tale of the bus drivers, was exactly what used to happen here as well, with the conductor either on the bonnet, or leading the driver ahead.
He would have his torch, that no one could see, let alone how he ever managed to find the way. I'm sure half the time, they found the way by second sight, having travelled the routes so often.

Well, I hope everyone is well, and I hope that we hear from you all soon, with your news, good or bad, we are here to support each other.
Love Mo xxx

Sylvia, what memories you have stirred up, I worked in Manchester and had to get a bus there and back from Rochdale, the times I left work at 3.30 when the smog was down and didnt get home until 7 or 8 , we had some laughs when the conductor used to sit on the bonnet to tell the driver which way to go... there was once a motor bike following a car and we saw him go up the drive of his home with the biker right behind him...lol...the friendly way people acted was great biscuits were usually handed round or sweets when we were on a long time, it kept the little ones quiet...

Happy Birthday to our Caz, have a lovey day, better now the pots off but do take care ....

love to all Jean xxx

Hi all


just showers today .............. so a bit better than they forecast!

Gawd ........... those smogs of the 50s were awful weren't they??


I can remember taking buses home from the centre of Oldham with the conductor walking about 2 ' in front of the bus most of the way to the terminus. That was as far as the driver could see. On one occasion, the conductor also couldn't see very far .............. and he almost led the bus into the corner of a house on a strange sort of Y junction! He only stopped when he tripped over the curb :-D :-D Then the driver had to slam on the brakes so he wouldn't hit either the driver or the house!


...... and everyone always used to thank the conductor and driver as they got off at their stop.


The drivers never seemed to want to give up! They'd then have to do the journey in reverse back into town. And sometimes, they would again drive out of town.

The strange thing is that we were quite a bit higher up than the town, very close to the Pennines on the Huddersfield road ........ yet the smog would be much worse with us.




sylvia
xxx

Oh my word it's late, and I am just checking in.
Sylvia, I hope you have got your welly boots handy for the rain. We are told there are going to be droughts in this region.
They have been taking water from the river Medway, and putting it through treatment, to fill up the local reservoir.
So we could do with a bit of your rain my love.
Mind you, we have been getting the March winds, so who knows we may get the April showers yet.
Our seasons have changed so much over the years, and I know that most of it is due to mans damage to the environment.
Gone are the long hot lazy sunny days of when we were children, thank goodness the smog has vanished, but I could do with things going back to how they used to be, without the bad bits.
I am not asking for much am I. lol
Well my friends, I am going to my bed now, so I will say good night to the u.k dwellers,and good morning to our friends at the other end of the world.
Take care, enjoy whats left of your weekend. Love Mo xxx