General Chat

Frank you could always tell her your inside leg measurement just out of devilment next time you go!! It made me laugh when I read that.

Done another wreath. Its all in green and gold. I did gold holly berries on the natural holly gold flowers and bows and if anyone else wants one like that they can whistle cos they were the last three gold flowers I had. I have done lots of bits for another wreath though and only have to do bunches of yellow stuff and three of holly. Done all the cones bows ivy green fluffy stuff and the ring is mossed so won't take too long to put that together.

Oh has ordered my camera for Christmas. I thought he had already done it and it had arrived so I wonder what else he bought that I was'nt aloud to open a while ago??

Gill I also though the big snowman looked like Mr. Blobby. I used to laugh at him on the telly. Blobby blobby blobby........

Good evening all

The photo is one of a previous litter from the breeder we are hoping to get our puppy from, not sure what is in his/her mouth, haven't heard from the breeder yet but she does know we would like a girl as all our boxers were female but if this isn't possible we would have a boy as being small they should be easy to handle, male boxers can be a bit of a handful, my in-laws had males and my Mum & Dad had girl boxers. We have decided to name her Ruby

One of my close friends had twins she already had 2 young daughters and then she had a boy and a girl who were the twins, she also has injections in one of her eyes due to wet macular, the other eye has dry macular.

You have been busy Mel making more wreaths, green & gold sounds very pretty , have you made it for someone?

What sweet puppies the Bostons are Anne.........I bet you are itching to see them and have an ear on the phone!

Frank your mother certainly had her hands full with all those little ones so close in age. There are one or two sets of twins in both sides of my family and mum said her mother had stillborn twins, but of course there's no way I could check it. If it's right it means my grandmother had 11 children altogether. My mother was the last and was born when my grandmother was aged 50. Mum's eldest brothers and sisters had married and got children of their own by the time mum was born an Aunt! How strange that seems that you can have brothers and sisters that never lived with you as a child in your parents' home.

Are your fingers sore from doing the wreaths Mel? The green and gold one does sound nice. I wonder what your other present that arrived is?? :-)

I just watched a video of a cat stalking a mouse. Suddenly a chicken streaked past the cat and grabbed the mouse from just in front of the cat and started shaking it hard to kill it!! I didn't know a chicken would to that, but I suppose it would be the way they would protect their eggs if they were broody and a mouse was about.

Ys chickens do kill mice and then eat them. When I had the pet shop they would often catch a mouse in their aviaries. My chickens here do c atch mice and run around the run with them in their beaks being chased by the others who also want a look in.

No Ann no sore finger a s I hav'nt done that many this year. As I said to Jane yesterday I had three returned last year and I gave them away to my neighbour and Di and kept one for myself. I too can't have a ring on our plastic door, is'nt it annoying? I put mine on our gate to the patio. I must also do something for mums grave. I did look at a pot of ivy and one primrose with a robin on the side in Morrisons which was £7 but thought my things I make were much better and don't get eaten by the slugs and snails.......and deer. The deer ate the tiny rose bush I bought for mums birthday in the churchyard.

Morning all

Been up since 6am, the washing machine and dryer haven't been delivered yet, but they've got till 11am so plenty of time yet.

I didn't know chickens ate mice either. How are your girls Mel with this bird flu around, did you keep them in, in the end?

Did you hear anything about the pups Anne? Ruby is a lovely name, hope you get a girl, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you <3 I can't wait to see a picture when you get one.

How's Thomas's paw Jane, is he still limping?

My Dad was a twin, but his twin passed away at six weeks old with the same condition Sandra had as a baby. Luckily Sandra had an operation at six weeks old and survived. No one knew what she had and she nearly died, the doctor said if we'd of left it another 24 hours she wouldn't of made it, they couldn't operate for a few days as she was to weak. She had Pyloric Stenosis and had to have the muscle to the opening of her stomach cut to release the tension so she could keep her milk down. Before the operation she had lost so much weight and went below her birth weight as she was effectively starving to death. I was only 18 when she was born and on my own as I had left her dad so it was a very frightening time for me. Luckily we know it's in the family now so when my sister's daughter had the same thing they operated straight away. It's supposed to be common in boys but seems to effect girls in our family.

I think I'll catch up on some programmes off the planner while I wait for the delivery.

Good Morning all,

Not a bad start to the day today as its quite bright and dry with some blue sky and I think the sun may make an appearance if it tries hard enough as it is there.

I think I may go to Lidl today. I forgot oh's wraps this week and he usually has them every day for lunch with loads of salad and a little crab or meat of some kind. I also like their Christmas puds and thats aboput the only thing I hav'nt got stowed away this year yet. I also need some icing and mazipan for the cake.

Morning Mel

It's overcast here, lots of cloud about but really warm for this time of year.
It sounds like you're getting there for Christmas I've still got a few bits of food to buy but will do that next week as it's cream and dips plus the chocolate trifle Sandra likes so I want to make sure they have a good use by date on them.

The washing machine and dryer have been delivered, we had it down as delivery only not installation so OH started disconnecting the washing machine, I said to the delivery men it might take him a bit longer than usual because he'd just had an operation on his back and the older man then disconnected it for him which was nice as we hadn't paid for that service, he then offered to plumb in the new washing machine, but we needed to cut the plug off and put one of our own on as the socket is above the worktop so OH plumbed it in himself with my help as he didn't want the delivery man to know what he was going to do with the plug. OH is just putting the plugs on then I'll be able to do my washing, I have quite a bit since I did the last lot at mums. It's so warm and the spin speed on my new washer is 1600 so I think the washing might dry outside today. I'll still put the towels in the dryer to make them soft and to make sure the new dryer is working okay.

Poor Sandra has fell asleep on her bed, she went in there while the delivery men were here and once they'd left I went into her room to let her know they'd left and she was gone to the world, so I've left her there. We were catching up on Masterchef off the planner but that can wait till later. I need to put everything back in the cupboard anyway and OH is going to take the old dryer down the tip. I'll help him put it in the car this end and his mate, who works at the tip, will help him the other end so he's not lifting to much weight on his own.

We were going to see OH's mum today but I think we'll leave it till next week now with Sandra being asleep. I don't know what time she got to sleep last night and I woke her up at 8am this morning as she didn't want to be in bed when they arrived, so it looks like she hasn't had much rest if she's sleeping again now.

Well, I'd better get back to it, the stuff won't put itself in the cupboard ;-) :-D

Back from Torrington and found some nice bits in Lidl and got the puds we like.

I can see your going to be busy with those new appliances Gill. Hope you like their performance. Its good when they have a good strong spin on them.

We always watch Master Chief. oh always says I could just eat that...... and I say that would'nt fill you up.

Afternoon all,

I walked to the pub last night to see the match, Ros picked me up,so didn't have to walk home.

This morning when I got up. Ros was in the process of taking the door handles off the lounge door. She has bought three new sets for the lounge and bedroom. So I had the job of fitting them. FOUR HOURS LATER and I had finished, every hole had to be re drilled as not one screw lined up with the old screw holes. My back is killing me at the moment.

Glad to hear you have your new washer and dryer installed Gill, no more dirty washing lying around now.

That must have been terrible for you when you had Sandra, and you being so young.

Ann, I had FIVE brothers and sisters who did not live with me as a child, mind you one of each died before I was born . My twin sister had twins, when my X was expecting my daughter, I tried to insure against twins, but the premium was so high, I didn't bother.

Any news on the puppy's Anne? We have a Ruby on the thread who lives in the U.S. A. So she will be pleased to have a puppy named after her xx

What a difference in the weather today,very mild and overcast. Looking like rain.

Ros has prepared dinner for tonight, Roast lamb,roast pots,parsnips, Brussels carrots leeks and swede. It will be nice to have an evening away from the kitchen. Dish washer can go on tonight, so no washing up ! ;-) ;-)

Christmas lights are just coming on outside the tree lights wont be long before they are on,

A friend round the corner decorates his garden and house every year, with donations going to Help the Heros. Some lowlife has ripped the donation box from the wall, fortunately he empties every night, so there wasn't a lot, if any money in it, how low can people get :-( :-( :-(

Yes, it was a trying time Frank, especially when they told me the op would only take 15 minutes and they were gone for over 2 hours, I was in a right state with worry, so mum ask the nurse what the delay was and apparently they had to wait for an ambulance to bring Sandra back from one side of the hospital to the other, you'd of thought someone would of come and told me, especially after what I had to go through when she was first admitted, she had to have a monitor on her for her breathing and the nurse told me that if she stopped breathing for more than 10 seconds an alarm would go off, they had put me and Sandra is a side room so needless to say I didn't sleep very well that night as I just lay there listening to the monitor bleeping hoping the alarm wouldn't go off. Although the doctor was brilliant and even drew me a picture to explain the op I didn't think much of the nursing staff back then they were really cruel to me and even accused me of starving Sandra, they wouldn't let me feed her when we first got to the hospital and insisted on doing it themselves, like they didn't believe what I was saying about her not being able to keep her milk down, I know it sounds awful but I was glad when Sandra brought the milk back and it went all over this really nasty nurse. It was so different when Sandra had to have an operation on her knee when she was 19, the staff were great and understood her special needs, they even let her sister stay with her and also let Sandra take her stuffed dolphin with her for the op, although I doubt they would of let it in the theatre. They put a plaster on her dolphin which had pictures on it.....like I said so much different from when she was a baby.

That's terrible Frank someone stealing from a charity box, like you said "How low can people get?" Sorry to hear about your back, mine is a bit sore with lifting the dryer outside to put in the car for OH to take to the tip. Sandra helped him put it in the boot as I couldn't get the reach to help him myself. As he says I'm vertically challenged........the cheeky thing, I asked Sandra and OH if they'd mind doing a bit of shopping on the way home and OH said he'd be okay to do that, so I've been doing all my washing and even decided to wash the bedding too as that needed a freshen up.

I'm a bit disappointed with the washing machine as I thought it was a 1600 spin speed on the wash I wanted to use but it's only a 1000, the only one that's 1600 is the cottons which runs for almost three and a half hours. That would cost me an awful lot in electric not to mention time and with the amount of washing I have each week it wasn't very economical, so I decided to use the 30 minute rapid wash which to my surprise cleaned everything brilliantly. I had a towel which I had to wipe the floor with as some of the water came out of the old washer so you can imagine how mucky that was as all the dirt under the old washer had come out all over the floor, but to my surprise the rapid wash cleaned it good as new. I then put the same wash on a drain and spin as that is 1600 and only takes 10 minutes. When I took the washing out it was practically dry so only took a further 30 minutes in the dryer to finish it off, so in total 70 minutes to wash and dry. My old machine took that long just to wash it and it never came out as clean as it does now. I noticed there was another rapid wash for 14 minutes so I used that one for my bedding and again to my surprise it came out lovely and clean, I then did the 10 minute drain and spin and now it's in the dryer which should only take about 20 minutes to dry.......it's brilliant, but unfortunately I've ran out of things to wash now LOL. So the only problem is I have to do a drain and spin after each wash to take out the excess water otherwise it is to wet to put in the dryer. Apart from that it's great :-D :-D

Afternoon All
Gill your washing machine and dryer will be going full pelt now LOL..Can't beat a good high spin on the washing machine :-)...I get cross sometimes with James when he puts his washing in and forgets to put it on the high spin.
Glad you made it to the Pub last night Frank.Did you enjoy the drinkies party before hand?
Why has Ros bought new handles for the doors? Were they just tarnished ? How annoting that the screws didn't math up to the old screw holes.

Successful shop in Lidls then Mel :-D..I keep meaning to go to Aldi for Cranberry sauce as it had the best ratings there.

Poor old Chris has been in bed again nearly all day.This cold and chesty cough is taking its toll on him. He missed lunch with Fitz and me.Slept right through :-S
He is up now and looking a little brighter. This has been just over a week now that he hasn't been right.

I had to laugh at Fitz. After the funeral for his cousin in London yesterday,he was sitting in St Pancras Station waiting for the train and having a glass of wine .He was in his suit and black tie. Some chap in his 40's (probably had a few drinks) came up to him and said that he thought he looked " F*****g brilliant and classy with his beard and suit LOLOL

Poor Larry hasn't had the injection in his eye
:-S :-S...He had the injection of dye and all the pictures taken of the eye,but then it turned out all the times had been taken up for injections by other patients.
So he has to go back on Friday for injection. The dye injection he had turned his skin a bit yellow !!!!! (which is apparently normal).He said he looked a bit Chinese lol
So tomorrow will be the day and another worrying nights sleep tonight :-S

Easy dinner tonight ....James has a ready meal after his Badminton ,and Chris and I will have Pasta and Sauce (with added mushrooms and diced pancetta)
I do hope Chris feels better soon.It has been just over a week now.He has not been like this for years.

Jane I still have a chesty cough and still sneezing to and I had my cold at the begining of November, gave it to oh on his birthday on the 6th and he is still blowing his nose too.

I tend to use my 20 min wash on my new machine as that seems to be the only wash that uses the 1600 spin speed. I thought when I bought it that you could choose the spin speed as thats what the lady in the shop said I could do. She even said she had one like it too!! I sahall have to have a look at the drain and spin and see if that works on mine.

Poor Larry after going all through that you would have thought they could have squeezed him in. Now as you say another sleepless night with the worry of it having done all over again. When mum had that yellow die they told her she may wee bright yellow just to reassure her everything was ok. She did!!!!!!!

Evening all,

It's been a really dull old day here and quite chilly too.

Gill you have been a busy trying out your new washer , i wash on a thirty and it gets things nice and clean ,i think the powders and washing liquids are much better than years ago , i have a 20 degree wash but i've never used that as it takes nearly three hours , i think the quick washes are ok if you don't over load the wash ,although i've never weighed my washing to know if i am over loading it, does anyone weigh their washing ?

I bet there were a few choice words over the door handles Frank , but it's good you managed to get them sorted in the end .

Poor Chris , it's taking a while for him to get rid of his cold .
Oh your poor BIL Jane, now he has to go all through that worry again , it carn't be a very pleasant thing to have done ,he got his self all prepared and worked up for all for nothing and now he has to do it all again .

We seem to have been on the go all day ,his afternoon we went to see Colins sister and his brother called in too while we were there so we exchanged all our christmas cards .
His sisters son is doing the christmas dinner this year and he decided that it would be an Indian Christmas :-D
They have bought their sari's and have been looking on youtube to see how to put them on as there are yards of material in them , sounds as if they are going to have fun.

I must start wrapping some presents tomorrow i haven't wrapped any yet ,i have bought the children a christmas bag each to put all their presents in ,no way can i put them under the tree with Max about .

Any news on the puppies yet Anne ? i think Ruby is a lovely name .

Evening All,

No I have never weighed clothes either. I have just used the 40 degree wash up to now on my new washer, but I see it has a 15 min quick wash for a lightly soiled small load. I must try it! I bet Max will be very interested in the bags too Mandy.

Gill yours spins faster than mine which goes up to 1500. What I do love about mine is that it doesn't jump across the floor when it's spinning like the old one did. :-0 That was good of the man to do the disconnecting for you and save your hubby's back.

Poor Larry, after all that Jane. Let's hope he gets it done with no cancellation tomorrow. My cough wasn't a very chesty one but it has finally cleared up properly this week. I still wonder if that bad throat for 5 weeks was the start of it all. I bet Chris is feeling a bit worn out now as all the coughing makes you tired. Hopefully he'll start to feel better soon. I had to chuckle at Fitz's compliment from the chap at the station. He was right though as I can imagine him with his white beard and hair and smart black suit. He would look 'classy'. lol. :-)

How disgusting for someone to steal the charity box Frank. You could understand it in old times if someone was starving but these days it is usually to buy drugs, fags or booze or just plain greed. :-S

Mel I saw on the internet that the suction hooks from Homebase will hold the cord to hang a wreath on a plastic door. Tried to get one today but the chap there said they don't do them anymore! :-S

I wanted another wreath hanger for one of the inside doors and was looking for one today. I pointed to some that were very short in length and silver, so were not suitable on either count but OH swooped on them and thought they were ideal!! Our others are red or gold so why does he think something that doesn't go with the others we have is ideal? We ended up not getting anything!!

Good evening everyone

Been quite busy today had the Sainsbury delivery to put away and then popped down to the chemists for the prescriptions and into Aldi for a few bits. Wrapped the last of the presents, they will have to stay upstairs as Toby would probably rip the wrapping paper off them

This evening I emailed Sasha to see if there is any news about the puppies, nothing yet but I can't access emails on this laptop so will pop into the small bedroom to check before I go to bed. We chose the name Ruby as it was Rosie's[our boxer before Amy] mother's name

You have been busy Gill putting the new machine through it's paces like Mel mine does a 20min wash and 1600 spin. A friend of mines baby boy had the same condition as Sandra very worrying when a new baby doesn't thrive but not too difficult to put right, fortunately. I agree about how much better the treatment of Mums when their young children are ill, when Richard had cancer in his eye and had to have it removed at the age of 3, I got no support at all they weren't even allowed to give me a cup of tea. The sister on the ward was a real cow with no patience with a 3 year old. I can remember Richard standing in the middle of the ward announcing in a very loud voice " I don't like that blue nurse"

Poor Chris, Jane, still suffering with that cold there is a lot of it about, Paul had a couple of days off work last week with the same thing

Frank. how annoying none of the door handles line up on the doors, I hope your back has eased up now, four hours is a long time to struggle with something How can anyone sink so low as stealing from a charity box that is the worse type of theft.

Ann could you have two wreaths one on the outside of the door and one on the inside tie them on one piece of ribbon and hang over the top of the door .

Now that's a good idea Mandy..........but the door opens against a wall and I have a fir garland hanging with baubles around a mirror on that wall behind the door so a wreath on the inside might get tangled. I could perhaps make a flatter simpler wreath to hang on the inside though.........I'm going to try it!! Thank you :-D

I did have to smile at the thought of the ladies getting to grips with their saris!! lol We had a lot of asian ladies at work and they used to try and explain to some of us how to put a sari on. All I remember is that it wasn't as easy as it looked and involved folds and pleats held in at the waist and winding it around.

Frank we had the same trouble when we changed some of our handles. I think one screw in the ensuite door is still at a funny angle after OH gave up on it!

Still waiting patiently for your Ruby then Anne. :-)

We're lucky as our front door has a knocker so i hang our wreath on that.
Could you put a door stop behind the door so it doesn't go back onto the garland on the mirror ?

I did say to my SIL that they will have to have a practise putting the Sari on ,i had a look on you tube and there is a lot of tucking in and pleating to do .

I have seen women putting a sari on on the telly once. Also a man putting a turban on. I find it fasinating.

So no little Ruby appearing yet then. Horrid when you are waiting for puppies to be born.

I did all oh's presents up this afternoon while he had an hours sleep. O just thought of another one in my wardrobe, I must'nt forget it.

My front door has that rippley glass in it so a suction pad would'nt stick. I might try a ribbon over the door and back a ring with something that would stick to the glass to take the weight.