General Chat

I have had a bit of an indulgent morning doing some research, but I had better have a quick tidy up before lunch, then I will go and entertain the tourists again. See you this evening

Oh well Linda is off to do the "Can Can" - she must be a great boon to the tourism industry....

.... and I am going to make a hot drink and then off to bed...... One thing about being the only Kiwi on here I get to have the pillows how I want them, the duvet (doona) how I want it and can wear what I like.

Persey xx

It's dry here but I think it rained during the night. the bus was wet this morning. the driver told me that the windows were left open all night.
hope you have a good sleep Perse. I've got an afternoon of work to do.
i've never been to the Isle of Man either.
Pat x

Good evening / good morning to everyone .

Pat , the soggy bus doesn't sound very pleasant : (

I didn't manage to get on here last night so couldn't commiserate with everyone's aches and pains , I wonder if any of them are weather related as there seems to be being a lot of rain mentioned ?

I hope everyone is feeling a bit better today .

Tomorrow my eldest Grandchild will be eight , his Mum is throwing him a party on Saturday but I have invited all the family for a big stew dinner tomorrow , as three of my four " kids " have boyfriends / girlfriend , there will be eleven of us in total sitting down to eat ( three being children ) . OH won't be about as he is supposed to be going on a weekend sailing trip ( mind you the weather isn't looking promising ) . I am already thinking I'm going to have to drag in a couple of the garden chairs and I'm thinking it's going to be one hell of a squash to get us all round the table .....lol
I hope one of the guests will volunteer to wash up afterwards .

Evening Amanda

When we have had a large crowd - even the piano stools get used (we have two but only one piano). When we had my eldest's 21st, twenty years ago I borrowed my dads big go round the corner couch for extra seating in the lounge.

When I was a youngster and we lived in a big old villa - the hall was very wide and one New years dinner, my father put trestles and tables up the hall, we sat on chairs and apple boxes. My dad's brother sat at one end by the front door. He wanted seconds so he went out the front door and around to the kitchen at the back of the house.

Persey

Hello Persey ,

LOL at your Uncles clever trick there , I can't imagine anyone getting " seconds " of the stew , I 'm already thinking there won't be enough to go round the first time ....lol
We used to have a Lloyd Loom chest / box in the hall ( to put the shoes in ) and it doubled up as extra seating at the table but it fell apart a few years ago .

Amanda,
The birthday party sounds wonderful. Take lots of pictures!
It's also my sister's birthday tomorrow. She is a lot older than eight!

Hello Pat ........ I hope your sister has a lovely birthday : ))

Yes , I will take lot's of photos , it's not often that I get all my lot together at the same time these days .

Good morning/evening all. Hope you are all well and not too water logged. A soggy bus doesn't sound too comfortable.

Pat - I'm glad you had a good if exhausting day in B'ham.

Amanda - if the weather's nice we put a long trestle table on the front verandah and everyone seems to fit around that. Not much room in our kitchen dining room for a lot of people. On the rare occasion when my family are all together I take loads of photos. I hope your gorgeous girl has a great birthday - 8 is such a lovely age.

S x

Good morning Sue

If us lot dined outside we would look like something from Alice In Wonderland .....lol

It's a birthday boy actually : )) The lone Grandson is going to be eight ...lol

I shall be making the obligatory sponge ( but his Mummy has bought a posh chocolate affair for the party on Saturday ) .

Sorry Amanda - oh yes the one with the cheeky face:-))

The good thing about eating outside is that the neighbours often come up for a drink especially at Christmas.

S x

Sue ....lol.....the thought of eating in the garden at Christmas almost confused my brain then .......for geographical reasons I find that a difficult concept to grasp.........lol.......it must be lovely for you lot as it's what your used to . Do the Christmas greetings cards in Australia have snow and robins on them , just as a matter of interest ?

Good Evening/Morning,

I haven't been to Cumberland, or the Isle of Man - but I have been to Kent many times. It was known as "The Garden of England" because of the acres and acres of fruit trees, that seemed to go on for ever - particularly beautiful in the Spring with all the blossom on the trees.
Another feature of Kent, was the Oast Houses, with their conical chimneys.
These were in the Hop Fields when huge areas of the county were given over to growing hops for the brewing industry.
Whole families from the East End of London would descend on the hop fields in the summer to pick the hops - this was their summer holiday.
When I was a boy living in Essex, many of my friends would announce that they were going "Darn 'Opping" for the summer. I imagined this to be a place at the seaside. One day I asked my mother where "Darn Opping" was. She looked puzzled at first, then the penny dropped, and amid laughter she explained what was meant by it, and that it was the hop fields of Kent where people could have a holiday in the country, and also earn a little money.
It is a great shame that the lovely county of Kent has been carved up by the motorway to the ferry, and Channel Tunnel Terminals.

Tec.

Hello Tec - a large number of my ancestors are Kent people as are some of OH's lot.

Amanda - you can buy Christmas cards here with snow, robins and snowmen but you can also buy Aussie cards with scenes that suit our Christmas. I love getting Christmas cards from the UK - they always look so.....Christmassy:-))

It's hard for people up-top to imagine a Christmas in summer. One year was horrendous with dreadful bushfires that we could see from our house.

S x

Tec - I will copy that piece of information on Kent .... I have a lot of ancestry from there.... they didn't get about much between 1400 - 1850.

I spend a lot of time on Kent websites, fossicking around in Graveyards and directories.

This morning I have been attending the Musical Quiz with fellow Razz Ma Tazz Amanda...

Now I have to go and get ready for day but shall be back.

The sun is shining here but that will be short lived.

Persey (curtseys to Sue and leaves)

Have a good day Persey ..... I don't think I was as clever as you in the quiz : ))

Sue ....my cousin who lives in Australia sends us a christmassy card but I did guess that perhaps you Aussies send each other ones that actually reflect your sort of christmas season .

I have loads of Kent ancestors as well and spend quite a lot of time trolling through the records on CityArc .

Good morning/evening all.

Sue: Oh my goodness. Fancy having a child out of wedlock…… And to a Catholic no less???? Brings back childhood memories. My maternal grandmother who raised my sister and I and her family were all Methodists. Yet, for some reason, my sister and I were christened Baptists. And I can remember my favourite Sunday School teacher was ‘sacked’ because someone saw her out to dinner one night and she was, shock horror, wearing lipstick !!!!!! Some of the restrictions placed on people back then were unreal. I can remember getting flogged around the legs with a switch from a plum tree because I continued to talk to a girl from around the corner who was a Catholic against my grandmother’s orders. She used to tell me that Catholics were terrible people. Hence me wanting to keep on talking to this girl because I wanted to find out why Catholics were so terrible. Guess it was the beginning of my enquiring mind.

Perse: Your comments are interesting. I haven’t had much to do with the ‘religious’ for some time but I did leave the ‘flock’ because of the judgemental attitude of many of them. Mind you, I was only 14 at the time.

Berona: For years I put up with the pain of hips that I was told by a surgeon needed to be replaced. Then I went to my chiropractor for my 6 weekly checkup one time and mentioned the story to him. He put my hips through a series of movements which he said proved there was no way I needed hip replacement. He advised me to get my GP to check for bursitis. Sure enough, he was right. I had injections in both hips and the first lot of injections lasted for 3 years. I’ve just had the injections again and it’s wonderful. I think the orthopaedic surgeon was just salivating because I had high level private health insurance at the time. Hope this info might be useful to you.

Pam

Hello Pam - it's my opinion that some Christians didn't and still don't act in a very Christian manner. Having said that I also know some people who have a very strong faith who are kind, loving people and people who are not religious at all who are also kind and loving.

S x

My two best friends when I was working in the big smoke were both catholics. One of them her older brother got married to a non-catholic and she would not become a catholic. The poor girl suffered two miscarriages and her MIL told her that that was because she had not become a catholic.

The other one - I was at her cousins with my friend and another catholic girl and myself were sitting on a rug on the back lawn and they got talking about confession and I just could not believe it ... they were working out what to make up to say in confessional as a sin.

I am sorry if I sound blasphemous - but I also worked with a chap who told the most incredible lies to suppliers - and when I challenged him on it, he said All good stuff and laughed. I said it is okay for you, you can go and do a few hail Marys or whatever and be forgiven. The rest of us, if we lie we are stuck with it. I know that was norty of me... just couldn't help myself.

Sorry about the fib I told the other day Linda!!! LOL

Persey

Amanda, I was going to ask if there was a spare seat at your table as I am rather partial to a good stew, but looks like I'm out of luck. Oh well.

Sue and Persey, Interesting that you both had Kentish ancestors. Lots of history in Kent with its proximity to the English Channel, the old dockyards at Chatham, and Rochester has a fascinating history.

Pam - it is amazing the restrictions that were placed on people by various religeous factions. My cousin was a member of a Welsh Chapel, when he left school he got a job as an apprentice electrician with a local contractor. Most of the contractors work was in a large brewery, consequently my cousin worked in the brewery. He was summoned before a meeting of the Chapel Deacons where he was told that he either changed his job, or he would not be welcome at Chapel in future - needless to say, he never went to Chapel again.

Tec.