General Chat

I don't blame Chris Jane. The news is just so awful and so worrying, and there's nothing any of us can do about it! Ian seems to have a bit of a doomful attitude to the world in general, so we're still hanging in there. He's a Celt, and suffers from Celtic gloom!!! James might get away with charcoal grey, and they're always useful in a wardrobe. Trouble with Dinner Jacket black is that it is very black and I wouldn't think get much wear these days. Mind you it might double up as a DJ?!!!!!!!!
Gill, never mind what your solicitor has to say! If he doesn't like it, that's just too bad!!! You and your OH have done absolutely the right thing. It's your house and your sale, and the last thing you want is the sale falling over later because of this perceived problem, and you getting a solicitors bill, including possibly one from the other side, (because you allowed the sale to progress by knowingly withholding info that could be a sale breaker ) and ending up with nothing! Just see how it goes, and follow your own instincts and stick with how you feel, and what you feel comfortable with.
Sun's out again!!!

WE've both been out in the garden after our big breakfast. Oh has scarified the front lawn and rolled the other one at the west wall. I unpicked the advent ring from the church as it had at last dried out for me to stow it away till next year.

Gill you have both been busy looking at properties and I see the people buying yours have been round again and you have told them about the insurance etc. I hope it dos'nt cause nay problems for them and they still go ahead with buying your bungalow.

Getting yourselves all ship shape and Bristol fashion then Liz in the garden. I cold do with you two down here to give me a hand in mine.

Frank I asked about your emails to oh and he told me to tell you it could be the server and to leave it alone as he said you could do more trouble trying to sort it yourself and by your last post I see you have!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-0 :-0 :-0

I think what we all have to remember is that they are mucking about with this open reach stuff and the faster broadband and it interupts other services. The most annoying thing for us is the cut off point for the faster BB is just a little way up the road just outside the village which is only 2 miles from here if that. I suppose they think there is not many houses out this way that use pc's as we are a bit spread out.

Well must go and corn the girls and banties. My two banty cocks are starting to fight as the spring is coming and they are vieing for the girls. Poor old Cockle is taking the brunt of it so I may have to kick the younger one up the bottie.

Mel I am seeing so many Open Reach vans around at the moment.Not quite down our road but up on the main one.The'Hub' if that is what it's called is up there,so `i am wondering if that is anything to do with our internet dropping out so often at the moment.It is so slow somedays too :-S.Drives me nuts.

Lots of lawn cutting going on around here today.Chris did our lawn but he said it is so wet.He didn't bother doing the bottom bit by the greenhouses and raised veg beds as he said there was no point at the moment as he has been tramping about on it and it is quite muddy.

You don't want any fisty cuffs between the 2 cocks Mel.I imagine it could get quite nasty .We saw a Cockerel on Friday on the verge just off the A14....Heaven knows where it came from as there are no houses of farms there.We wondered if it might have been dumped :-S..
I keep thinking about that little calf that Ann saw.I do hope that with the help of the RSPCA that they found the farmer and the little thing was reunited with it's Mum.It looked so lost and alone. :-(

Liz,James says he has ordered a Black Suit from Brook Tavener (sale price) but still £160.The problem is that no ready made suits fit James properly.If this one is no good he will send it back and just look to hire one.He could always sell the suit from B T on Ebay .Black is not a good colour on James either.He never even buys black trousers
He doesn't want to upset things as he knows that he would never hear the end of it from Jess's family should he not wear black .
I now have to decide what to wear to Joans funeral (when we know when it is).

We have a lovely deboned Chicken with Sunblushed Tomato and Parmesan Marinade
and a big roasting tin of Charlotte Potatoes, Mushrooms,Chunks of Carrots and Courgettes and Baby Leeks for dinner. The Chicken is in a throwaway foil dish,so just the one big pan and plates to go in the dishwasher :-D..Chris will be pleased LOL.

I don't think Thomas had had any catch this afternoon.He has just come in looking for food.He is such a messy eater,it ends up all around the outside of his dish :-S

Liz ,some of my favourite Enid Blyton books were the Secret 7 ...Valley of Adventure,Island of Adventure etc.I can't think of the other titles now.I think I read them after the Famous 5 books.
I would read them in bed.My parents had to put a bolt on my bedroom window after they caught me with my sheets knotted together and me trying to climb out the window !!!!!!!.I did that in my sleep walking days.
They were such exciting books :-D..I did read some of the Mallory Towers books ,but they weren't the same as the Famous Five and Secret Seven.Just reading those books took me away with them on all the adventures :-D :-D...Thankyou Enid Blyton :-D..Just remembered Mountain of adventure and maybe title with Butterflies in?
I think I will have to google all Books of the Secret 7



I have the Doctors on Wednesday to discuss the results of my Blood Tests.Pretty sure he is going to say I am lacking Vitamin D.
Chris (bless him) suggested this afternoon that rather than go to Vienna in September we go somewhere warmer with sunshine so I can get some good Vit D from the sun.
But I said no .He has always wanted to go to Vienna ,so that is what we will stick to.
A week somewhere sunny isn't going to make any difference LOL

Dinner is almost ready now so I need to set the table

Well, £160 isn't TOO bad I suppose in this day and age, particularly if he can sell it afterwards - I'm always forgetting about EBay!! We've got to have a bit of a clear out soon with a view to an EBay sale!
No midwife tonight :-( so we will be looking at a recording till 9pm.

I have spent the last couple of hours since my last post chasing the old cockrel around the garden trying to get it down the back garden but do you think I could.........no I must have looked like a crazed women going round and round the workshop and he would go under the evergreen tree and when I did get him out he went round the back feild again so I gave up in the end. He came round the bungalow in the end and went in the orchard. I got all the hens and the young cock in and the young one up the steps to the house. Got Cockle in in the end but the young one won't let him in the housse so at the mo he is on the steps up to the house. The young one is right by the doorway on the perch on guard. I shall have to sort out the other house tomorrow and bung the youngster in there with a couple of hens so Cockle can go back to his girls. Talk about spring in the air I shall be glad when autumn comes again at this rate.

LOL Mel ,you are getting the run around by the sound of things :-D..They sound like naughty teenagers !!!!

Liz,that was half price for the suit.I bet it doesn't fit right :-S

Not a lot on TV tonight that takes my fancy.I am watching 'THIRTEEN' on line BBC3.It is the third episode tonight ,but I see the second episode is on BBC 2.I think it is odd that all BBC3 is now on line and yet you can still see the programme on BBC2 even if it is a week later.

Dinner was delish :-D..Pudding was a Semifreddo from Lidl .I wasn't sure about that but it went down a treat with Chris and James..Haven't had mine yet as I am still too full.
I was just thinking that my Mum would never have bought a ready made desert.All our puds were home made or it would be Tinned Fruit with Carnation Milk :-)Sometimes with the tinned fruit it might have been Neapolitan Ice-cream. :-D..That was a real treat :-D :-D

Afternoon All,

What a nice springlike day it has been. We went for a walk around Fosse Meadows about 5 miles away. The last time we went was in the 90s and the walk eventually leads to a a stone cross, High Cross, which is supposed to be the middle of Roman Britain. It's at the cross roads of Watling Street and Fosse Way.

http://www.leicestershirevillages.com/sharnford/high-cross.html

We didn't walk that far today as backs and knees are still playing up a bit, but since we last went they have dug out a lake with 3 islands and built bird hides. They've also planted an arboretum and put a play area in for children complete with a zip wire.

Gill, if I were your buyers I think I might be reluctant to sign anything like a contract without my solicitor seeing and checking those policy documents first to make sure they are watertight. I can understand them asking for a copy. It might be a good idea to check your mum's deeds to see if she is allowed to keep a caravan on her property as it states in our deeds that we can't. I hope you find somewhere soon as it would be such a shame now you have found a buyer after all this time. I think Sandra's new name should be 'Miss Marple' after she was a sleuth in the bedroom!! lol.

It sounds like you are all starting work on your gardens. OH went out today and cleared a few weeds off the gravel we have at the front. I just cut his hair today and cleaned the kitchen floor. I see Mel has been playing 'chase the chicken!!' What a dance he led you!

OH has a black suit he has worn for some funerals of staff when he worked, but he wore a dark grey suit to his mum's funeral and I expect he will wear it to his dad's. I wouldn't stipulate what anyone else wore myself, just be glad they came and were comfortable in what they were wearing, but I can understand James not wanting to upset anyone.

I never thought of us having to pay our buyers solicitors bills if the sale didn't go through due to us not telling them straight away of the situation Liz, so I'm glad I took your advice and they now know. I'm pretty sure they will be on the phone to their solicitor in the morning and if that puts their minds at rest then that's fair enough. You're right Liz it is our business what we tell our buyers not our solicitors and they would of found out in the end anyway so there was no point in keeping it from them. OH and I think the solicitor might of suggested we kept quiet so he could make more money out of us when our buyers solicitor started asking questions, as our solicitor would of had more work to do on our behalf explaining things, this way it might of saved us some money if there's less work to do.

Thanks for mentioning about the caravan Ann, I didn't know about that either. I feel so silly not knowing all this stuff and I'm so grateful for everyone's help :-) :-)

Yes Sandra was our little spy, we had already arranged for Sandra to listen out at what the buyers said when we went outside, so all she had to do was keep quiet in the other room so the buyers didn't know she was in there. Crafty I know but it was the only way of really knowing how they felt about the situation. Unfortunately, just before we came back in Sandra coughed so the buyers worked out she was in there, but fortunately for us Sandra had already heard what they had said. I've just had to explain to her who Miss Marple is, she is still laughing now.

I've been taking another look for properties around here but there is still nothing, OH said why don't we just go to Devon or another location down south, so I might take a look at what's online tomorrow. I'm just a bit nervous of him not having a job to go to as it's a bit far for him to travel to Devon for interviews from here, plus we don't know the area so wouldn't have a clue where about in Devon to move to, we'd hate to end up in a bad area because we didn't know any of the local areas.
I'm starting to think the sale isn't going to happen as we're running out of options and it's quite scary.

You did make me laugh though Mel, when you were talking about your old cockerel, I don't suppose it was very funny for you, but it was just what I needed to cheer me up. I hope you manage to sort them out tomorrow ;-)

It sounds like everyone's been out in their gardens today. OH cut our grass again and it looks so much better with the second cut, we also sorted out some more pots and cleaned the patio. We took away the make shift water feature as the pump broke last year and also cleared away all the tatty pot plants. Neither of us like it all cleared away, but like I said to OH "It had to be done weather we move or not because if we do end up staying here we are looking at getting an extension done where the pots were anyway" OH has almost finished packing his things up in the garage so that's a big job almost out of the way.

Well, it's getting late and I'm tired so I'm off to bed now
See you all in the morning
Night Night

Cold wind here this morning, but at least it's dry!
Gill, I think the fact that your OH has got his NVQ will make it pretty easy for him to find another job wherever you move. My MIL was in a home in Dulverton (Devon/Somerset border)for a while and they were always looking for staff, particularly trained staff. If you were to find an area you like you could always make a note of the care homes in that area, write/email/phone them to enquire about the availability of jobs. I think your OH would be snapped up!!! We lived in that area for years, only moving back here to be nearer family otherwise we would certainly have stayed there. Bampton (6 miles from Tiverton) is a lovely little town, Dulverton (5 miles from Bampton) is also very nice. Tiverton has everything you could wish for in a town including a huge Tesco's (a must!!!). If you Google these and surrounding villages//towns you can see what they have to offer. It might be worth looking at.
Taking Cas to the vet his morning for her yearly jab!. I'm not sure whether it's strictly necessary, some say you should and others say every other year is OK. Have to see.

Morning all

Lovely and sunning here today, we had a frosty start but it's warmed up a bit now. OH is going to finish packing up his garage today before he goes back to work tomorrow.

Thanks Liz for letting us know about areas down south. OH and I have been talking this morning and we're seriously considering pulling out of the sale, staying put and having an extension built instead, as we can't find anything that comes anywhere near close to what we already have for the same price we are selling for, so we now think we have sold this place way under market value. No wonder nothing is putting our buyers off, they obviously realise what a bargain they are getting.

Both OH and I are getting excited about improving this place, so maybe staying put is what we both really wanted but didn't realise until now. Because we can't find anything to buy OH said there is something keeping us here and I think he might be right. I'm a great believer in everything happens for a reason and us not being able to find anything to buy must be telling us not to move.

I remember Frank saying that if we couldn't find anything we liked, to stay put and that has stuck in my head, so it looks as if we'll be taking his advice. We are going to get a quote off the builder we met the other day and take it from there. We are both quite relaxed now the stress has stopped and like I said we are getting excited on improving this place, we wouldn't be excited if we really wanted to sell. So we're listening to our sub conscious.

I haven't read any other posts yet, apart from your Liz, so I'll read them later as I've got a few things to do first :-D :-D

Morning all and evening Kim,

Bright and sunny here today but I hav'nt been outside yet and oh said it is very cold and that the wind has changed. He's been out and put the bins up the top as its bin day for both. They never come at the same time lately which is a pest when you have to take it right up our long drive in the car only to find they came really early and you have to bring it all back down again.

Morning Mel

Forgot to mention earlier Mel and anyone else who's interested. The F1 starts this Saturday I think 12.30pm on channel 4. I noticed it advertised last night. I'm looking forward to it. There's also a programme on channel 4 at 9pm on Thursday with David Coulthard.

Morning one and all, Evening Kim,

I feel as though I have been away a week, with all the posting I have had to read.

When I got back from the match, Ros told me Jan and Conrad were stopping off for a meal and a bit of a rest, before travelling on to Devon. She did extra veg and potato's. There was enough meat on the joint to go round.

Ros had got all the bedding out, thinking they would be staying, but they decided to go home. Conrad has a lot to sort out before flying back to Spain at 10.00 am tomorrow.

After he finished his dinner, he took a quick look at the computer, and he found all my links and EMAILS. I hope you enjoy the one I sent this morning. I will send it to you Mel in a few minutes. I know it will be one you will LOVE <3 <3

The match finished in a 1-1 draw, so will have to go through it all again.

Clear blue sky's here, I haven't got dressed yet, so don't know if it's cold.

I know how you feel Frank, I had a few days away from my laptop and it took me ages to catch up with all the posts. I still can't remember half of them :-D :-D

I think I said happy birthday to Ian instead of Gordon so sorry folks for my silly mistake.

I noticed that West Ham will have to play again Frank and thought of you. Fingers crossed they win second time around.

My sister has just been on the phone, she is at mum's so we'll be going round there later to see them both. I've not seen my sister for ages so it'll be nice to have a catch up.

I seem to have another two squirrels who keep coming for nuts apart from Rosie, which is nice. One of them is just as tame as Rosie and will eat the nuts even if I'm in the garden and quite close to her. She has a limp paw as well and OH seems to think she may be related to Rosie and it's a birth defect, especially with them both having the same temperament. We also noticed Scruffy is back, Scruffy is a male blackbird who doesn't realise that he's supposed to sleep when it goes dark, you can hear him chirping away at midnight some nights. We hear another bird chirping back, so he might be getting told to be quiet. All the birds are in and out of our hedges at the moment looking for a nesting place......I love this time of year :-) :-)

Sorry, meant to say, I'm pleased you've got everything back on your computer now Frank <3

Glad your all sorted out now Frank pc wise. Good old Conrad for fixing it.

Thanks Gill, Conrad is such an expert with computers. Whenever I get things wrong I SKYPE him in Spain and he will talk me through it or send me instructions by email.

I have emailed Harvey this morning, thanking him for our evening out on Saturday and praising him for all the work he has done in his lounge. I wonder if the ICE will start to break ???

Gill I can see you are in a right old fix, regarding what to do about selling and buying your house/bungalow. If you now feel you have undersold your property. NOW will be the best time to PULL OUT,otherwise all the searches will be carried out and you will be landed with a bill from the Solicitors. Not that you won't get one anyway. But the sooner you make up your mind the less the bill should be.

I haven't bought a suit since the 90s. Then I had four on the go. one every week, and then start again. I wouls brush and press them, and put them in the suit cover. They are still in my Cupboard on the top rail. They are a bit tighter than they use to be. I THINK THEY HAVE SHRUNK !!!!
;-) ;-) ;-)

I showered and shaved this morning and am still feeling like a wet weekend !! It takes so much out of me. :-( :-( :-(I wonder if I am getting old ???

Mel, did you manage to catch the "COCKIE COCK" and put him away with his girls ?? Spring is in the air !!

What was that old saying " if you stay like that and the wind changes, you will always look like that" or something like it ;-) ;-) ;-)

Fancy more squirels in the garden Gill. Are you close to woods ??

Ros has just had a sort out under the folding bed. Shew has turned out old dressing gowns, slacks and jumpers. All off to the Charity shop. I bet they will soon be replaced with new ones <3 <3 <3

Yes Gill, you need to tell your agent that you have decided to pull out of the sale asap else your solicitor will charge you for the work he's done particularly if it mounts up. As Frank said he may anyway, but you don't want it to be any more if you're not planning to to ahead.
Cas has had her booster so she's up together!!! Nice afternoon here but a cold wind.

We have wall to wall sunshine and it is such a change from th endless rain and . The breezey wind is very cutting though as it seems to be comeing from the east. I may have said that before!! :-S

Oh has been mowing again. Thats the trouble when you have as much land as we have. I have picked myself another bunch of daffs as the wind has bent a lot of them over and taken some of the dead heads off others. Oh got the other little chicken house off the grass on the back garden for me andI have put the young cockerel in it now I only have to catch a couple of hens to bung in with him to keep him happy.

Just washed my hair while oh is outside and it's nice and quiet but he will be in for a COC in a min and I have a nice scone for him too with some butter and jam.

I better see whats in the freezer for dinner as I had forgotten about that until now!!