General Chat

AG, so did we have to cover our school books and wallpaper was brilliant. i also loved doing that too and btw, no we are not sad just creative lol

Hope you get on ok with your jags.

AnninGloucs, please can I have some of your sun to brighten up the day!

The flu jag is made of egg and i'm severely allergic to that so don't have it any more.

Currently recharging the batteries as the rechargeable ones from last year are near dead and tested in the xmas ornaments showed very dull lights. Can only do 4 at a time and takes hours!!! i still maintain the 20 Kodak i bought in the pound shop was better value but hey ho.

I think it depends on how fir we are physically, how susceptible to colds and various other things as, If it is the same jab that I had for covid it hits your immunity system. However, maybe it is the flu jab that causes some people problems, no idea what is in that (which is quite a concern really). I had mine last Saturday, had a sore arm on the side I sleep on (which is the covid side) but no other problems. My much younger neighbour had hers two days before me and the day after she felt exhausted and nauseous) but only for one day.

It is a beautiful day here, sunny with clear blue skies. Whic means I should be out in the garden. :-D

AG, OH and I had our jabs last week, covid in one arm and flu in the other, and neither of us had any side effects at all, not even sore arms. We were in and out in 10 minutes, so here's hoping yours goes as well. :-)

I like wrapping, too!
In my schooldays I used to love covering schoolbooks, as we were expected to do in those days. Wallpaper was good for that. I took pride in making a very neat cover - how sad am I ?!

Yes, Sylvia, your sniffle may well be an after-effect of your jabs.
Several people here have said they felt completely exhausted for a day or two after their most recent ones - apparently different stuff is being used this time.
I'm going for my jabs this afternoon, so hoping it doesn't affect me like that.

AG forgot to mention, i looked at flight radar and saw there was a lot of jets and Ryl Air Force about in the west of Scotland and yes, they are really loud.

This is the first time in 20 years, we didnt do a shoe box :-( But we have given very generously over the years and yes its amazing what you can fit in. Wrapping the lid & box was quite tricky even for me who actually likes wrapping lol

Morning all
Not a nice day here as windy & raining and now quite misty so indoors today!

ArgyllGran, I bought a xmas jumper 2 years ago and it is black with a lovely Robin on the front and a very cosy wear. Hope you enjoy wearing your too all through the winter.

What a nuisance with your electric meter :-( Gosh I so hope they sort it out for you and can they not revert the heaters to come back on at their normal time? The signal isnt probably strong enough. Here a few miles along the rd. there are plenty of blind spots where there is no coverage or signal for the internet or or mobile. The joys of living in a remote & very rural area.

You can't move the hills not even with all the modern technology!!

Sylvia, i am so sorry youre not feeling great. Maybe its the side effects of the jags? They say after about 10 days, you may feel groggy and have a cold and thats letting you know the meds are in your system I guess.

I so hope you feel better soon.

Being organised for xmas or any other event is ingrained in me from my banking days. We were trained to be organised from day 1 and keep your desk tidy, your filing 100 % accurate etc, use a desk diary too. All that training has remained with me throughout my life. So i have always been called " Mrs organiser" lol or Mrs fix it as i was trained to problem solve which has been a valuable asset too in life.

Today, we are doing something which some may say NOOOOOO but it has to be done when we are both here and daughter is going to be busy with volunteering from next week soooo. Yep shes going up to the loft to get the xmas tree and decs down and before anyone thinks we are putting it up were not! It will go in her room as she has more space until the time we decide to put it up.

My big responsibility is to hold the ladder steady and catch her if she fell :-D :-D :-D
Heaven help me if that happened as I would fall with her!!

Anyway, that's the plan in a bit. For now just usual housework and then some lunch.

Looking out my lounge window and I can see just how wild it is as the top of the Rhododendron is being moved about and that takes some doing as its huge and a heavy plant. Thank goodness I wasn't going to town today.

Well better crack on just now.

I may look in later

Have a good day all

Florence in the hebrides

I hope your sniffles clear up soon, Sylvia.
How is your husband coping with not seeing you for several days?

You say you don't think there will be a Christmas tree - is that because it's a multi-faith community and they don't want to either favour or offend anybody?

Well, I've been "in isolation" since Thursday last week!

Nothing much has happened, so I didn't post.

I came down with a very runny nose over Wednesday /Thursday night, although it had cleared up somewhat by the time I got up in the morning, but I really felt "cold-y". So I put in a call for one of the nurses to come and check me. Immediate "isolation", with meals brought to my room (apart from breakfast which I always have here, from my own supplies of cereals).

Since Sunday, it has gone day by day as to whether I should stop or not ............. with the fact that one of my table mates at meals is 101 years old being a large part of the equation!

I seem to go from sniffly one day, to coughing, to blocked up .......... and repeat! The weather hasn't helped either! We had our Covid and Flu shots on October 9, just 2 weeks before I came down with this cold ....... it isn't Covid!

I'm getting a lot of reading done!

Florence ......... you amaze me with your early Christmas preparations! I haven't even given a thought to it. I doubt we will have a Christmas tree or dinner here, but there is OH and family to think about cards, along with money gifts for grandson and great- nieces and -nephews.

Keep safe everyone

Enjoy your outing on Friday, Florence!
I hope you find al the Christmas things you're looking for.

I really haven't thought about Christmas yet, apart from having put together a shoebox of things for the annual Blythswood Shoebox Appeal.
You can get a surprising amount of stuff into a shoebox!
Covering the lid and main part of the box separately in Christmas paper is the tricky part.
And then finding a big enough elastic band to go round the filled box.

Oh yes, I've also bought myself a Christmas jumper!
It was an absolute impulse buy from Home Bargains - a lovely warm jumper.
The warmth was the main appeal, but it's also colourful, cheerful, and not too naff.


No particular progress with the supposedly smart meter. Scottish Power have raised the matter as a complaint, which they say is the quickest way to get a resolution. The man I spoke to a couple of days ago says he thinks the new meter will have to be replaced, as it's clearly not working as it should.
In the meantime - a week on from the installation - the storage heaters still come on during the day instead of at night, and Scottish Power haven't managed to connect the meter to "the network".
Personally, I think the signal here just isn't strong enough and they should never have installed the useless thing.
However, we'll see!

It was a calm , dry, and mainly sunny day here, and the RAF were taking advantage of it for exercises.
Four jets zooming down the loch, so loudly that my friend and I had to stop talking until they'd passed, as we couldn't hear each other.
Also two very low, very slow cargo-type planes. So slow that they seemed to be hardly moving, at about treetop level.

Afternoon all.
Not a bad day but getting windy and the clouds looking darker. I think tomorrow the forecast is awful with heavy rain!

But We managed 2 loads of washing and bedding and got it mostly dry outside so less work for the tumble!

Making a list for my trip to town on Friday with my pal for the day. I'm finalising the xmas pressie shopping but made a couple of changes too. I decided to buy a basic toolkit in a carry case for my 13 year old nephew as he is doing woodwork etc now and very into making things so thought this would be a better idea for him.

He wont have to borrow his dads tools then!

Im also planning my after xmas buffet for my friend & her family and that will take awhile. They will be 8 or poss 9 of us so a lot of mouths to feed but Im quite used to that so no more work to feed 4 than 8 really as long as its planned well.

I hope everyone is ok as we seem a bit thin on the ground on here?

I'm sure we are all just busy busy in our own lives.

Florence in the hebrides

Afternoon all
Had a busy productive day today and was quite nice earlier. The fog/mist has crept in so very damp now.

i managed to put together the cart I bought for the garden. It has 4 wheels and a tipper tray. The front wheels turn so you can go in any direction. i had tried to put his together some time ago but couldnt work out how to tighten the nuts.

So today, decided it cant be that difficult and finally i managed. So was able to transport several plants and 4 large bags of compost round to the back garden and into the poly tunnel. Was so easy rather than having to carry it all as we did before!

I then spent the afternoon wrapping and parcelling some more gifts as my xmas paper I ordered arrived. So thats another 2 jobs off my list.

I always find it so satisfying when you have a list of jobs to do and you manage to tick them all off :-D :-D

Hope everyone else is doing ok

Shetland is coming back on soon for those that watch it. Gonna be on a Wed eve which will be great as Tues is also good viewing too.

Better see to my eve meal and tbh, nothing sorted yet as been too busy so something quick tonight.

Florence in the hebrides

It is a nice sunny day here, we just popped to Aldi because when I got back from Aldi yesterday, I realised that there were a few things which I needed and hadn’t been on the shopping list

I haven’t been on the thread for a few days because my daughter was in working in London for a couple of days. That meant going to their house and entertaining Esme after she got back from school, cooking dinner for them and getting her to bed before coming home. I let Esme help to make dinner on both nights, she is getting good at chopping things up and really enjoys helping.

It is half term next week, so no doubt we will be out and about.

Morning all

Well yesterday i was so busy as it was a flat calm, dry dry hence i wasnt on here.

I put together the 2 bar stools i had ordered awhile ago for the polytunnel. They were heavy steel legs and a lovely wooden seat, very classy looking. So after I had finished them, I then started transferring loads of things that were to go across one by one as I need my stick in the other hand.

I carried the huge black 100l bin and got the bungees to attach to the fence. That is now sitting between tunnel and fence and well secured. So that took awhile sorting everything out and now my kitchen is back to being a kitchen and not a garden centre lol

We didn't do baking as daughter had stuff to do as yesterday she went off to Glasgow for a hospital appointment so we had to go to bed early on Thurs eve to be up at 5.30am!! All went ok and she was back home before 8pm but almost straight to bed as was exhausted.

So yesterday when it was dry & flat calm, i was wishing it would rain later to fill the bin up. Well guess what...... its pouring hard today and very windy again so i guess we should be careful what we wish for lol

Tesco's coming this afternoon 4-6pm so usual housework to do and some paperwork. Thick it might be a chicken supper later so no cooking hopefully today as I'm still tired and didn't sleep that well last night!

Hope everyone else looking in today is well & ok.

Florence in the hebrides

Florence hope the weather is improving for you. And hope that there was not too much mess in the kitchen for you to clear up after the cooking session.
A bit mist here, 11 degrees now and the sun is trying to break through. No wind at all and dry that is the main thing.

Morning all
Still another rotten wet & wild day here but......its supposed to be calming down after 3pm yay :-D :-D

I wont hold my breath but we live in hope.

Daughter on her way back here later and has decided to she wants to do some baking!
Patience hat will be going on I guess for all the mess lol

Hope everyone looking in today is well and keeping ok

Florence in the hebrides

Linda, after all the posts I've read of yours about your grandchildren I've never noticed this co-incidence before. Our grandson has 2 daughters, Esme and Eve. They're in Kent though, you're not likely to bump into them.

Oh dear AG, smart meters do seem to cause all sorts of problems, fingers crossed that they sort it out soon. We don’t have one here and I am not volunteering for one.

Esme was very cross last night because mummy was going to London for two sleeps, but about an hour after she left, she perked up and has been fine since. She had a good day at school.

Eve has two weeks off for half term, although Esme doesn’t realise that. She hides in her room until after Esme leaves for school on a morning. Esme thinks that she sometimes goes to a mythical place called Sports school which starts very early, so grandad picks her up and takes her before Esme gets up. She then comes home just before Esme arrives, wearing casual clothes instead of her usual uniform :-D. One day she will cotton on and major tantrums will occur :-(

I downloaded a treasure trail around the nearby town of Boroughbridge and the village of Aldborough . Eve , OH and I did it today and had lunch in a cafe along the way. It was a very nice warm day and we managed to solve all of the clues correctly. We got back in time for Esme coming back from school. We played for a long time , then I helped her to make some chocolate brownies to take into school tomorrow. Both girls made a sausage pasta dish for dinner. Esme was so proud of herself chopping all the peppers on her own and cutting the sausages into small pieces. She used her craft scissors as the cooking ones were too sharp :-). She wants to help me again tomorrow.

Oh ArgyllGran, what a bother for you!! But as you say, your signal is weak and it may not be strong enough to get the readings sent automatically. Surely they must know this before they install?

Since a pole came down in another part of the island in the gales, no 4G is now available even though a new pole was put up. Vodaphone say there are no faults in that area but daughter cant get 4g on her phone and the house she is in doesnt have the internet!

As my dad always says, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Its all ok when everything to do with technology works but when the system stops working, its a complete nightmare isnt it?

AnnG, in my craft drawers, I had hidden some little sweetie gifts but they began to fill the drawer so i have now taken everything out and sorted it. i can also see my bed properly as all the clutter has been tidied away.. Glad you had a lovely time in the New Forest and your weather was kind, that was great.

I now have ticked off al the jobs to do today and wondering about my eve meal but nothing is inspiring me to make anything that takes more than 10-15 mins lol

Well, I knew it was a bad idea to get a smart meter!
I should have listened to my better judgement and left well alone.
Apart from being very old, there was nothing wrong with my old meter.

The man came and fitted the meter yesterday afternoon.
I asked him at least twice if he was sure my storage heaters would work properly with it, and he assured me they would.

He switched the power on again at about 4pm, and left shortly afterwards.
He said there was no signal, and therefore the meter wouldn't send readings automatically until Scottish Power had sorted that out. Fair enough - I know the signal here is weak, and I'm used to taking readings myself.

About 5pm I noticed that the storage heaters were charging, which they shouldn't have been doing. I switched them off to prevent them using peak rate electricity.

Turned them on again before I went to bed, and noticed that they weren't charging at that time - which was as it should be.
However, they didn't come on at all last night, so the house was cold this morning.

This morning I also noticed (once I'd figured out the complicated method of finding readings for Rate 1 and Rate 2 - he didn't leave me any instructions) that all the usage since the meter was fitted is showing on Rate 1, the more expensive daytime rate. There's nothing on Rate 2, but there should be, as the fridge and freezer were working during the night, even though the heaters weren't.

Phoned Scottish Power.
They said that it sometimes takes 48 hours for a new meter to settle down, and these things may sort themselves out.
I've to keep an eye on the heaters today and note when they come on and go off (they came on at approx 1.30pm, and are still on at the moment).
Scottish Power will phone me tomorrow afternoon for my report, and will then decide how to proceed. As the heaters do come on, although at the wrong time, it won't be treated as an emergency, so I may have to wait a week or so for an engineer to come.

On the bright side (possibly) the meter is showing a bill amount of zero.
That won't last!

Afternoon all
15 degrees here but feels chilly, it has been gloomy and dark but the sun is coming through the clouds now and is so bright it hurts your eyes.

Linda I hope Esme has bounced back again now. such a shame they can't find something that stops those episodes for her, it must be upsetting.

Florence I thought you said craft drawers not sweetie drawers.
Hope the weather improves for you soon and the mail gets through.

We were so lucky for our week away in the New forest area last week. The only rain was over night a couple of days and at the start of our journey home from the Portsmouth area where we spent one night seeing family. We were able to get out and about every day which was great.