General Chat

Good Evening from a VERY chilly north London.

I went out with Dave again today, he is hoping to go back to Uni in September on a Fine Arts Course. So I went with him to get his paints and canvasses etc from the Art Shop. We bought so much stuff, he would have been hard pushed to carry it home on his own. So his dear old Mum went with him to help carry the load. I love Art Shops, I used to do a bit of painting myself, but am doing something else at the moment, so dont get around to it.

I'm still struggling with my tree, and I have a book unopened. So will get around to it all eventually. I am SO knackered when I get in from work, I dont want to do anything too energetic.

I do hope Mo's daughter has a good time tonight. Time to get back in the swim. With a loving Mum she will be ok.

Hope Rita's sons op. will be successful. I am sure he will be fine. Charing X is a very good hospital.

It is freezing outside, the frost is forming already on the cars. Dog dont even want to go out for a pee. lol

See ya later.

Maddie
x

Buck up Stephen, we will cover you in leis when you come back to us, and proclaim you as our Big Chief.

Yes Stephen we'll have the fatted calf ready!
Maddie I bet it'll be cold tomorrow morning when I go to mass. Not looking forward to that!

wooohooo

im here internet seems fine at the moment i had to put the disk in and go though every think againg seems to have done the job

just had a little read back
i use to climb tree as well we had this big one in the back garden
and we lived almost next to a park so i climb them tree as well and i use the climb the fence that was joint to the park and the cemetery
but i was to scerd to go into dead mans canuion
only the boys was brave enuth to go in there when thay was showing of to us girls

I had another email from my son. then two from my sister she went to see Anton de beck dancing with his partner we see them on Strickly come dancing. I think the show was at the Barbican in London she had booked her seat weeks ago , she wasnt feeling too well but went now she thinks she is coming down with the flu I told her I will phone tomorrow and see how she is ? if she isnt that good . then I will go and stay for a few days
I have to be back on 8th as I have my blood trests to be done.

I have four numbers up on Lotto tonight. I dont know what I will get ?maybe ten pounds like I did last time maybe nothing as I didnt get the bonus ball. I was so close with the other numbers.


I am going to watch The Tudors and that finishes at 10 40 then I am off to bed.

so I will say Good Night everyone have a good nights sleep. Stephen I hope you soon get yourself sorted on GR.

Rita

Morning All,

Pat I should be going to Mass this morning but this tooth of mine is giving me problems will be glad when antibiotics kicks in for the second time !!

Rita,.... I will light a candle during the week for your Mike I pass the Church when I go to the dentist.

Shelly Its a wonder you like cemetery's now especially not liking them when you were younger, there still dead don't forget ..LOL

Got the Grand kids calling in today, they need topping up on their mobiles , guess Grampy has some spare notes for them.
Their not stupid kids !!!!

Its a bit overcast here, dull & dreary, Oh I 'm back home ...

Morning Marilyn
Guess everyone is having a lie in

Have to sort some old photos out today.............. well up to 30 years ago for the Birthday Boy. A friend wants to make some posters for his special day. He'll probably hate me when he sees them.

Have a good day everyone
Hope the tooth eases off Marilyn

Linda :o) XxX

Morning everyone

It is still dark here but I am hoping it will brighten up later on during the day.

Thank you Marilyn my son will appreciate you lighting a candle for him. my sister is going to do the same and has asked Father John to say mass for him. I am sure he will be pleased to know all this.
It will be one week of worry.
I am intouch with my cousins daughter now which is so nice she lives in Chatham. I am so pleased. as he family had shrunk over the last 20 years till there are hardly any of Mums family alive.and now I am intouch with two.
I hope you all have a good Sunday.

see you later ?
Rita
x

Morning all.
Please notice, I did noy say good morning. Oh boy,what a night,I got hardly any sleep.
Our daughter lives on a main road,and the traffic was horrendous. Noisy people walking home at 1.30 a.m,talking at the top of their voices.
The girls were absolutely brilliant. The eldest went out clubbing with her friends, for one of their birthdays.
She was as quiet as a mouse when she came home.

Pauline, our daughter is 40. Her OH left just before her 40th birthday, little rotter.

Rita, Chatham is just down the road from me. So I am so close to your cousins daughter, I could even say good morning to her for you. LOL

Still no Stephen, ahhhh what a shame. We do miss him.

I wonder if Dermot will write more for us today.

See you all later. Bye for now.

Oh dear, Good afternoon.

We had a late night, watching DVD Tom Browns Schooldays. It didnt finish until about 12, then we watched Withnail and I. From the sublime to the ridiculous.

First thing I know it is 10am. Never, ever have I slept so late.

Cooked the meat, so that is done. Kevin got to go out for a couple of hours, so will probably have dinner at about 4pm. I am not used to being so late with everything.

That hasnt stopped me being on here though, has it? lol

Stephen we will lay palms in your path when you return.

I am seriously imagining Dermot now, some cartoon character with a big belly. No, cannot be.

Pleased your daughter went out Mo. It must be very hard for her, but she needs to get back in the swim.

Gonna do a bit of pressing now. No peace for the wicked, I must have been a right little monkey.

Will say one for your son Rita. God Bless.

Maddie
x

Afternoon everyone,
I've just got back from seeing an old neighbour.
I thought it was quite cold this morning.
Rita well done for getting 4 numbers. I've never had that.
I'm cooking my dinner tonight. I got some chicken pieces and a tin of red wine sauce and micorwave rice. Pushing the boat out!
Mo your poor daughter. Sometimes people can be so horrible.
Marilyn hope you get the tooth sorted soon.
Have a nice afternoon x

Hi everybody...Pat, Cath, Yvonne, Lady, Sue, Jean, Dermot, Stephen, Linda, Maddie, Mo, Rita, Marilyn, Shelly.

What a horrible thing for your son-in-law to do Mo. It feels bad enough hitting 40, without having to cope with being left. I hope it turns out to be the best thing that ever happened to her. He's probably done her a favour.

Rita, those prices are unbelievable, how come an LP was dearer than a bottle of scotch?

I don't do the lottery, how much do you get for 4 numbers?

I've lit a candle for your son on the candle site, Rita, he'll be in my prayers.

Marilyn, has the pain started to ease off yet?

Stephen might not be able to get back on until Tuesday because the problem seems to be with his bank.

Haven't seen Jean's name, hope she hasn't done herself an injury on those horses.

PAULINE
I think the luxry items were dearer then.when I look back and see how cheap the things were , but, then realise the money was bad my husband earned £6. week when we got married it was the overtime that made it up to £9. at the football trials for Queens Park Rangers he got through and they offered him a place but it was only a couple of Pounds.so he didnt take it up. I still have the card he had from them and the letter.
So it really does not do to compare prices.
Pat I looked on the site and I should get £ 44 I was one number out of getting five numbers which was a couple of thounds pounds. I dont get many wins I had one a few weeks ago of £10 but I had about three in a year of £10.

It is very quiet on here today.
My daughter and her husband came this morning it was so nice to see them. they were here for three hours. Steve looked a little tired. he is still very thin.

Rita

Rita, your son will be in all our thoughts and prayers. It will be the longest day ever for you, waiting for news, but just know that we will all be with you in spirit, wishing him well.
What a pity you couldn't have had that other number on your ticket for the lottery.
But had you have done, we would all have expected a box of chocolates.lol

Pauline, my daughter found out after he had left, that he has moved in with another woman.
The eldest grandaughter in their family, will not have anything to do with him.
He has asked the three girls to vist him,at her house, but they will not go.
Our daughter has been so brave, and really does deserve to be able to start again.
Christmas has been hard on all of them, but, life has to go on.

I wonder if mrs lazy bones has had her dinner yet. Maddie, trying to burn the candle at both ends doesn't work.lol
Are you at work tomorrow as well. Oh boy you are going to be shattered.

Mmmm chicken in red wine sauce is lovely Pat, I hope you enjoyed it.
Sometimes, what we class as lazy meals, taste better than some we slave over for hours.

Hi Marilyn, Linda, Shelly, Jean, Cath,Yvonne, Lady, Sue, Dermot and not forgetting BIG~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~TO STEPHEN

Our Feathered Friends - Part 3:-

During the daytime, I occasionally called into a neighbour’s house who also had birds in a cage like ourselves. It was lovely to see & hear them chirping away & hopping around on the perches. If they were sad or disappointed being held captive, they never showed any agitation.

The most sought after birds were the linnet, the chaffinch or the goldfinch, if you could get one. A few neighbours kept exotic birds like a parrot or canary but, mostly, it was the home grown variety. When we headed out on a bird catching foray, we were regularly reminded by our parents never to touch any eggs or disturb the nest in any way.

Of course, some birds themselves did not receive such sound upbringing. The magpie was a law unto himself & he was the main culprit because he nicked things that did not belong to him. There was no shortage of nest building materials. Maybe, it had to do with the competition for food or a good nesting place - a bit like our MPs really!

Most of us know the magpie rhyme which goes something like this:-
‘One for sorrow; Two for joy; Three for a girl; Four for a boy; Five for silver; Six for gold; Seven for a secret never to be told‘.

Another bird that was not liked too well was the noisy Jackdaw. I’m sure it had a ‘posh’ name but we just knew it as ‘a Jackdaw’. It had a nasty habit of building its nest in chimneys. Smoke from a turf or coal fire in country homes needs to rise up through the chimney to escape. The presence of a nest somewhere up the chimney curtailed this scientific fact resulting in some smoke bellowing back down & into the sitting room.

I remember one occasion when the jackdaw obviously lost his footing & fell down through the chimney & out through the open fireplace. Soot & feathers everywhere. The cat, curled up in his fireside basket, was so scared, he scampered out the back through the open window. He did'nt have time to use the cat flap. The last time I saw him move so fast was when mum accidentally dropped the salmon she was preparing for our lunch. Our parents must have thought it was bad luck because, whenever we joked about it afterwards, they told us to be quiet.

The lark was reputed to be a good weather prophet - perhaps the Met Office might take note. The best way to get an accurate forecast for tomorrow is to phone the Met Office on the following day!

Anyway, back to the lark. We loved to hear them in the bog land areas flying higher & higher. Good eyesight was needed to have any chance of actually seeing them in flight. The word was that: ‘If the lark flies on high, the sun will glow but when it stays low, prepare for a blow’.

The call of the corncrake too was more common years ago. They nested on the ground in amongst long grass & would fiercely protect their young from animals or humans who might carelessly stray too close to the nest. The coming of the grass mechanical harvester was a death knell for many corncrakes. Hopefully, they will not follow the total demise of the dodo.

One bird that has always been plentiful in these islands is the robin. Some say that there are as many robins in the UK as people. Feel free to count them & report back to me if this isn’t so.

When digging in the garden, the robin seems to know that they can come up close & not be harmed. In church, we were told never to hurt a robin because legend says that he comforted Jesus on Calvary & stayed on his shoulder right to the end. The robin tried to pluck some of the thorns from Jesus’ head and for his efforts was given a red breast to keep for all time.

There was a small ventilation opening high up on the gable of our cow barn & that was where some swallows built there nest. They would come back to the same spot year after year, long before SatNav was invented - an amazing achievement. We used to wonder where they had been & what they had seen along the way. If you every wondered why they flew to Africa - well, it’s just too far to walk.

Our horse stable became the bats abode. They didn’t mind sharing with our lovely pony which we named ‘Dan’. One chore I did not like was to be asked to close the horse stable door around dusk. Bats would sometimes come flying out. They flew a bit too close for comfort occasionally & it felt a bit scary for a nine or ten year old. Years later, I found out that they were not birds at all but flying mammals & a close cousin to the mouse.

Well, that's it for today. There might be a bit more tomorrow but only if you are all 'good'. Meanwhile, perhaps Stephen will organise a Burns Night on Tuesday 25th. Haggis & Scotch Whisky all round.

Hi Everyone.

Pauline my tooth is about the same as it was when I bit that olive stone...MURDER !!
It keeps getting more infection by the day, but with self medication I hope it clears before Thursday . Never had a bad fester in my mouth, its can only be due to this Crown that's lodged further up in my gums. I am for ever rinsing my mouth out.

Pete went out and bought me a new rug this afternoon, mind you I had seen it before and spotted it !! So that's cheered me up as I have my new settee coming on Friday .

I have Spaghetti Bolls for dinner.....cant eat anything that needs a lot of bite, oh dear I feel an old woman ...LOL

~~~~~~~~~~~~ to Stephen. why cant you pay by your Credit Card ???????

MORE MORE, Encore Dermot.
Cant wait for tomorrow's episode. Judging by your writing, I gather you must have grown up on a farm.?
It would be no good my relating my life history, as dad was a forces man, and we travelled all over the place, and would take me hours and hours to relate.
But my greatest escapade, was living in Malaysia, and having to go to a boarding school. Oooh the fun we had here.
It was during the time when the terrorists were in the jungle over there.
We had to have an armoured escort, to take us up the mountain to the school. And they were stationed there to protect us. We thought we were the bees knees, special kids to warrant such treatment, but we were unaware of what could have happened to us.
Enough of my wafflings.

Well done Dermot.....you dark horse !!

Now one wonders why you never mentioned the Barn Owl, my favorite bird I love them, with their gorgeous eyes on that fluffy face of feathers !

We have a order from the council to house the Barn Owl that was here nesting where I live , but sadly it flew away ,and never did return.

Also we have loads of House Martins fluttering around our Barns ,but although a nuisance with their poo falling on you , quite a pleasant bird .

Oh dear I'm in competition with Dermot .....getting carried away with Birds ..LOL

Marilyn, your tooth won't get seen to until Thursday! oh dear that's a long time. Spag Bols ok. I like pasta!
My chicken in red wine is cooking in the oven!
Dermot your bird story was good. I've never seen more than 2 magpies together.
Living in Malaysia Mo, that sounds interesting. Me I've always lived in Exeter and although I've lived in 6 houses since I was born you could draw a circle round these houses on a map. I've worked at the same place for 36 years!
I promise to be good Dermot so more story please!
That's a good idea for Stephen to do a haggis evening.I look forward to that. I got drunk on whisky and orange once!

Marilyn
That e mail about the butterflies was lovely. I sent it to my 2 closest friends. Carol and Karen.
Thanks x

Wow that was a story and a half Dermot. Well done.

Oi Mo. Who you calling lazy bones. I have done me pressing, cooked the dinner, put polish on the shoes [Kevins job, but he had to go out] then dossed in the chair. lol

Yes back at work tomorrow. I have an annual meeting this week, to discuss where I want to go with my career. Ha ha. I'm now at the age where all I want to do is, Get into work, get my work done, and Get home. I've done all that where I got in early, took work home, and generally flogged my guts out.

I lived in the Midlands for 10 years. Oh dear. Small town with small minded people. If you weren't born there, they didnt talk to you. Apart from wanting to know all your business.

I never was a gossip so I never fitted in with the New Mums. A daily meeting at someones house, and the one that was missing, that was the one they all talked about. Not for me I am afraid.

Back later.