General Chat

Is anyone else having problems with their Genes tree not saving anything? I tried to save something on my tree and it didn't save. :-S :-S

Morning All,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JAMES! How many is that now?

Sunny and chilly here, better than I expected from the forecast! OH has gone to a briefing at Beaumanor Hall, which is a lovely old place with very decorative ceilings and stairs. I went to an Art Deco Fair there once.

While he is out I have managed to hoover the kitchen and steam mop the floor. If I do these things when he is here he is bound to find a reason to be plodding over the newly mopped wet floor.......especially if he thinks I won't notice!!

I hope Ruby is soon on the mend with more antibiotics Anne and that you feel a bit better today with taking it easy yesterday. A bit of rest helps your body recover and is the best thing to do at times.

I would be interested to see the wands you are making Mel. How annoying your sharpie hasn't come to light yet though. The nights are drawing out a bit aren't they.

Are the little buckets to make an advent calendar Mandy and are they painted? It sounds as if they will be lovely with the pictures when you have done them. I would like to see a pic too. The cowl you have knitted will be more useful in a neutral cream as you say and be really cosy.

Gill, I love to do traybakes too. You can do all sorts in them, they are usually very tasty as you say and less to be washed up after! :-D I have my fingers crossed the workmen will be more careful now you have mentioned a few breakages. The boss needs to be more apologetic doesn't he. It may be matter of fact to him but not to his customers.

We enjoy Call the Midwife and I love Silent Witness too. I have been catching up on old episodes of Vera and like that as well. I think the prog on the 4 year olds is on tomorrow and they will be watching their reactions to robots that talk to them.

I like Dunelm's bedding ranges Jane. They have some nice designs at reasonable prices. I know what you mean about the pillow protectors as they go so dingy with washing even though they are clean. It's the same with mattress protectors as well. I hope you are on the mend now, but Chris sounds quite poorly still.

OH made me laugh when he'd been back to Mr Tyre as he said he realised the poor english was more due to lack of communication skills,mumbling and the awkwardness of the young men, not that they weren't english! The boss, who you usually deal with had popped out when he went the first time. Dealerships often take customer's cars to specialist places for work unbeknown to the customer. OH's Citroen garage certainly does for tyre work and MOTs, I've known others do it for paintwork. The chap who took my locking wheelnuts off said the dealerships brought cars to him if they needed any removing. In my case the dealership wanted £100 more though, just to deal with it and take the car to him.

The new puppy was barking after being shut outside this morning. For a moment I had a nightmare vision of us being in the middle of a yapping contest between the dogs either side. :-S I do hope not as we moved here because it was so peaceful. It's early days yet though, but I don't think they have ever had a dog before. When she is on the lead they are letting her lead them wherever she wants and seem to pick her up and carry her rather than call her to them.

Morning Gill and all,

Happy Birthday James. Hope its a good one.

We have sunshine again today. I have at last got into my emails and had one from Em about her scan she had and everything is ok.

IV'E FOUND MY GOLD PEN it was on my desk all the time I just saw the end sticking out from some papers and I had already looked there!

I am sneezing and coughing this morning and my nose keeps running.

Now going to clean the bathroom and strip the bed and wash that.

Afternoon all,

Lovely and sunny here today with a beautiful blue sky and not that cold .

Happy Birthday James hope you enjoy the day <3

Hope you can get the broken concrete post fixed Gill how rude was that chap ,he's very young to be a boss and won't get very far talking to people like that .
The little buckets i've bought are to make an advent calendar i saw on the Chateau programme ,Angel had them and they looked so pretty with christmasy pictures stuck on them .
Oh i see what the Sausage bake is now it's like the sausage tray bake i do with lots of peppers , potatoes and herbs ,it's nice and easy with not a lot of washing up.
It does look like others are having problems with their trees too as there's a thread about it .

The little buckets are painted Ann there's twelve colours so two of each colour as i ordered twenty four .

Mel you said Em's scan ?did you mean her MIL ? i was going to ask how she was after her fall and if she had come round ?

I noticed the thread about the family trees as well Mandy and posted on it, not that I was any help as I was just as confused as Nicky. I haven't tried to enter anyone on my tree for a while so I don't know if the problem is sorted yet or not.
I can't imagine how the little buckets can be an advent calendar, do you have a picture? I got a bit confused on how it can be done.

I've been sneezing all afternoon and have just started with a sore throat, I hope I'm not coming down with a bug. How are you feeling Mel, hope the sneezing and coughing is better for you now. Pleased to see everything was okay at the scan. I thought you meant Em's MIL to. Hope nothing has happened to Em as well. I see you've found your gold pen, that'll save you having to buy a new one now.

Oh the poor little puppy being stuck outside Ann, I hope it wasn't frosty like it was here. Did you manage to get a photo of the cat when you last went? I'm the same as you and prefer to do jobs when OH isn't around, it's much quicker to.

Mandy no Em had to have a scan as she passed out one night when she got up to go to the loo. The MIL is still in a coma and has had pnemonia and they are thinking of opening up somewhere so she can breath more easily and not have to put the pipe down her throat. Her sister who is older than she has been to see her and I was told that she had her hand squeezed when she was there. Its over two weeks now and she does open her eyes occasionly but not for very long.

Yes the little buckets were on the Chataeu program. Mandy you will have to make a paper pattern round the buckets

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES. Hope you have a good day,

Mel that was a relief finding your gold pen these things often turn up in the most obvious place. I hope you haven't got the bug that is doing the rounds, you too Gill

Ruby hates taking those tablets it takes two of us , like your cats Gill. Her mouth has to be held open by one and the other one pops the pills as far into her mouth as possible while stroking her neck to make her swallow, they are only tiny and supposed to be palatable. I 've tried covering them in pate and Dairy Lea but it makes no difference

Ann I feel sorry for that little pup left outside I'm sure the RSPCA would take a dim view of it.

Gill I think you should definitely take advice about the builder's attitude towards your property, heart breaking, as you have put so much effort and money getting up to such a good standard and with no guarantee that he will put it back to how it was

Paul was on a course yesterday and the chap sitting next to him had a really bad cold and every time he blew his nose, chucked the tissue under the table, The course is on for a week so hopefully he can avoid sitting next to him again. It's an Electricians' course to ensure their knowledge is kept up to date, this is held in Slough about 30 mins away.

Afternoon Everyone
Thanks for James's Birthday wishes. He is 33 today !! I hope he can get away from work at a decent time tonight .The slow cooker has been on since 10.30 . It's strips of Beef with a Lemon and Chilli sauce ,tin of chopped tomatoes,tin of Black beans,Chopped Coriander Stalks ,fresh Lemon Thyme and a Bay Leaf(off the tree).Celery and Carrots . I shall do Basmati and Wild Rice and a mix of Green Veg.

I had a phone call from Frank just now. Poor thing thinks he has cracked some ribs this morning after falling and crashing against the chest of drawers. Ros rang the ambulance and I think he said a Paramedic came but said they don't actually treat fractured ribs and to ring his GP . So Ros did that and the DR was supposed to come out. It turned out he was given the wrong name and address so went to the wrong person !!!!!. What a farce. The GP is now to visit tomorrow.In the meantime Ros has to go and pick up a prescription for strong painkillers. Frank says he is in absoute agony and can't take a deep breath . I asked him to let me know how things go and said i would let you all know what has happened. He has no idea either when he will get his laptop back. Lots of love to our Frank <3 <3 <3

I havent had chance yet to read all todays posts properly and have just skimmed through them.

Love the sound of that little Tea Shop Ann
:-D

Glad you found your pen Mel

Gill that chap sounds an ignoramous , rude, and irresponsible . Have you been able to maybe speak to the new owners about all the things that the builders have done to your property? I hope your sore throat doesn't get any worse and develop into anything worse. Chris has had to have another afternoon kip today.He did do a few jobs this morning and one was getting the Xmas decs back in the loft,he chopped a few logs ,went to Waitrose and that is as much as he can do today.

Anne ,you must dread it when it is time for Ruby to have her tablets . I use to wrap the pill in a bit of ham when we had Chester,then hold it high above his head so he was looking up and then I would tease him a bit until he was ready to grab the ham and when his mouth was open enough I would drop it in his mouth and it usually went straight down :-D. Sometimes though after I thought it had all gone down I would find the pill spat out somwehere on the kitchen floor LOL

It is really cold today.I lit the fire at lunch time and seem to be getting through a lot of logs. We have a delivery of logs on Friday so will be all stocked up again . I will be helping Chris get them all stacked away even though I know he will say he will do it on his own. The way he is at the moment he will need a hand whether he likes it or not :-D

I think I gave the wrong impression Anne as the little pup is only put outside for a few minutes, probably to encourage her toilet training and she has a thick tartan coat on. They've also got a new patio heater they leave switched on for her. She would be over 12 weeks old I would think as she had her last innoculations about a fortnight ago. Ruby isn't keen on her antibiotics then! I can remember stroking our poodle's throat to get tablets down when I was a child. It was to give her Bob Martins I think.....do they still have them?

Mandy the buckets sound as if they will look lovely and colourful next Christmas and something very different. I bet hubby could fit you a gold watch in one!! lol :-D

My Hubby has gone very quiet.........he must be doing his tax return! ;-)

Poor Em waiting for those results of her scan Mel. I bet she was relieved when she got them and saw she was ok. Her poor MIL still doesn't sound good with having pneumonia now and needing help with her breathing. I bet you are chuffed about finding your gold pen. It's amazing how you can look for something and it's there all the time.

I do hope you and now Gill as well, aren't getting the nasty cough and cold that Jane has had. Gill, I'm taking my camera when I go on Friday so fingers crossed Cleo will be around and not mousing! I must try adding to my tree and see what happens.

I wonder if those old charm bracelets will become trendy again? I have a silver one that my first OH bought me for my 21st. Most of the charms opened and it's a shame it isn't used. I might dig it out and remove the charms and just wear the chain with the padlock! :-D I bet it needs a good clean as well!

Ohhh poor Frank Jane! What a shame he's fallen and hurt himself. OH cracked his ribs once and couldn't breathe very well or drive it was so painful. I hope he has the strong painkillers now and that they are helping him. It must be miserable to not have his laptop to take his mind off it either. It seems to be taking a while to repair.

Gosh, James 33 already! Doesn't time fly..........have you got him a cake? :-D :-D

O no not another fall from our Frank. The silly boy how could he do this to himself when we are not around to give him support. Like Ann said he could do with his laptop to take his mind off things. I hope the strong painkillers work and he can get some sleep tonight. Sending Love Frank even though you can't see it. <3 <3 <3

Well I did'nt get the bathroom cleaned but I did change the bed and washed that but it did'#nt dry outside even though its been out there all day. Its now on the airer in front of one of the rads.

The other thing I have done is get rid of the old printer copier off my desk and the second screen that gave up the ghost. I am half way through cleaning the rest of the desk as it has got so dusty with the Christmas decs and tree up. I picked up my brass M for Mel off the front of my big screen and there's an inprint of it in the dust!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Out with a damp sponge methinks.

Must get the chicken in the oven now too or we won't be having dinner tonight and oh dos'nt like it too late.

BBL

Oh no poor Frank , thanks for letting us know Jane , he'll be in a lot of pain with cracked ribs ,i hope these strong pain killers help to ease it for him and that he doesn't need to cough or sneeze :-0 <3
My dad cracked his ribs ,he slipped getting out of the bath and he was in so much pain i remember he was all strapped up but i don't think they do that now .

Gill ,i don't have a photo of the little buckets that i saw they were on the television but they are hung on a chain and i have to decorate them with christmasy pictures ,i did wonder if they might look good hanging on the christmas tree .

Anne i don't have any problem with Max taking tablets he will gobble any thing down ,is there any thing that she really loves that you could pop the tablets in ,it's a pity they don't do liquid drops as they might be easier .
Oh goodness Paul needs to keep away from that chap with the cold ,fancy him chucking the tissues under the table !!!

I'm off to Norwich shopping with DIL tomorrow ,it's Lewis's birthday on the 15th ,i think he needs some new trainers so we'll see what we can find ,much more choice there than in town .

No Cake Ann. Just some Cup Cakes . I got him a big tray of different cup cakes to take into work but there were to many so we have kept back 3 and I have 2 sparkler candle things in the shape of 3 so 33 :-D.. James is still at work :-S :-S

That is good Em is ok Mel ,but her poor MIL still sounds very ill and not really having any improvement . Pneumonia is not a good sign now :-(

James is at last on the way home so I will get the rice on . Chris is beginning to fade but hanging on . I think as soon as we have all eaten he will be away to bed.

I just had to mop my eyes laughing at the thought of Max gobbling his tablets down. It sounds like they don't touch the sides Mandy!! LOL. :-D At least he isn't a fussy eater bless him.

The cup cake with the 33 sparkling on it will be a nice treat for him Jane! That brings it back.....the buying of cakes for work on your birthday! Oh goodness, that could be expensive at times. Sometimes if you were working on two sections at the time you could end up buying twice as many!! I used to bake cakes to take sometimes as did the others, but fresh cream cakes were usually the order of the day. The nearby cake shops must have made a mint from our office with all the birthdays.

I think it will be an early night for us too after we've watched the GP Surgery prog as we've both been yawning all afternoon.

We had a new bin rule over Christmas that any extra rubbish could be put in a plastic bag for collection, but it had to be a clear bag. It doesn't seem to have gone down well judging by all the black bags up the close this morning. They took them though.

Sorry to hear that Frank is in a lot of pain after his fall, does anyone know how long before his ribs can be expected heal up?.

James's birthday cup cakes were a good idea Jane so he will be popular at work tomorrow. We always got our birthday off when I worked at the Park the downside was if your birthday fell at the weekend. Mine being in December was a good chance to do Christmas shopping the downside was having to book a meal a way in advance.

I wish Ruby was more like Max, Mandy, Paul bought her some treats she hadn't had before which she loved and kept asking for more so we inserted one in her tablets , no luck, now she won't even look at them even though we only tried it once she must have a very keen sense of smell little madam..

I'm so pleased I got the wrong idea about the puppy being left in the cold Ann.

We did exactly the same thing with our cats Anne, tilted their heads back popped the tablet to the back of the throat then gently rubbed their neck so they'd swallow. At first we didn't do it properly and they would spit it out, then we'd have to start again with a soggy tablet......yuk. We soon learnt how to do it properly and above all else quickly, there's nothing worse than 20 claws and a bunch of teeth to make you do the job as fast as possible lol :-D :-D
What a horrible thing for the man to chuck his dirty tissues under the table, how disgusting and poor Paul having to sit next to him. I hope Paul can find somewhere else to sit for the rest of the course and he doesn't catch that man's cold.

I'm still feeling under the weather. I hope I feel better tomorrow as it's our wedding anniversary.

I was worried about the little puppy and had visions of him stuck outside in the cold for ages Ann. I'm pleased to see that's not the case. I hope you manage to get a photo on Friday of Cleo, Sandra would be thrilled to see it. The Genes tree is back to normal now, apparently someone reported it, still don't know what the problem was though.

Poor Frank, maybe he should go and have an x-ray it might be worse than he thinks. Hopefully the strong painkillers are helping him. It's been a while with his laptop, I hope he gets it back soon then he can join us all on here again.

Sorry to hear about Em Mel, what a worry that must of been, at least she has peace of mind now knowing her scan was clear. Did they say what caused her to pass out? Let's hope it doesn't happen again. Her poor MIL sounds quite poorly to, hope things improve for her soon.

We mentioned the first lot of damage to the new owners who weren't impressed and couldn't apologise enough Jane, but we haven't seen them since to let them know about the two fence posts. We have fixed the post around the back, it just needed some more concrete putting in and so far it seems to be okay, but the concrete one in the front is to big a job for us and knowing the boss he'll probably take it out eventually anyway as I believe the new people want to put a gate up there and the post is to short to attach a gate to. I think they'll probably take all the concrete posts away and put in a new higher fence, but what type that'll be I don't know. The new people said they would talk to us first before they do anything with the boundary, I just hope they keep to their word. There's another skip there now and today the builder has taken the old tin shed down, so that's in the skip now. We also think he knocked the small wall down they had in the middle of the back garden. We couldn't see what he was doing but it sounded like that to us. Not much else is going on at the moment and the new people told us they wanted to move in, in February. The way things are going I can't see that happening.
I meant to ask earlier, did James have a nice birthday? That was a nice idea with the cup cakes.

I didn't see the programme with the buckets Mandy, but it sounds a good idea, I'd love to see a pic when you've done them. Yes you could put them on the tree or maybe make two lots, then you can have them on the tree and as a chain to hang somewhere else.

I forgot to say, the other day a Blackbird landed on the bottom of our water feature and had a drink, he kept tilting his head back when he swallowed, Sandra couldn't stop laughing. I must admit it was funny to watch. I was surprised he drank from it as it was turned on at the time and the water comes down quite quickly, maybe that's why he drank from the bottom as that is like a small pond bit. He'd been looking at it for days and finally plucked up the courage to drink from it.

You just wait and see he will be in there for a bath next. One of our Blackbirds bathes in a soak tray oh has on his potting bench over by my pond. I was watching it today and was going to take a pic but by the time I got out there with the camera it had gone.

We had a beautiful pink sky tonight. I called it a Sandra Sky. All the clouds to the east were pink too as well as in the west where the sun sets.

Gill if you go online and get Channel 4 Iplayer look for Escape to the Chataeu and its the Christmas program, the last one of the latest series. Angel hung the buckets as an advent calender for the children.

Hope James enjoyed his cup cakes and his birthday.

Naughty Ruby spitting her pills out. Does she like honey Anne. You could perhaps dip them in honey and pop that in a piece of meat. I think you can get antibiotic injections????????

I am going in the shower now and then going to watch the last bit of Manhunt. I could'nt see it all last night as I was so tired.

I should sleep well tonight as I hav'nt stopped all day for long.

Morning all

There's a bit of a nip in the air today, but no frost.

There are window fitters next door, so that's good as the place will be more secure now Having said that the bi-fold doors aren't going in till next week, but at least the rest of the windows will be in which will deter anyone from going into the property and will also make it look slightly better. I offered them a cuppa but they'd just had one so asked if they could have a drink in about an hour. I've stripped the beds and I'm getting on with some washing. We've nothing planned for our anniversary, just pottering around here doing a few jobs. Sandra made us a lovely card, in pink of course, covered in beautiful stickers and a border of diamonds.....very pretty. She also made another one with a black kitten on it which was really cute. She couldn't wait to give them to us so we ended up opening them at midnight before we went to bed.

Thanks Mel, I'll see if I can watch that programme on my laptop later. I watched Manhunt to.

I assume you have nicer weather today if you had a pink sky last night. Yes, Sandra would of loved to have seen it, she always gets excited when the sky is pink here. I must admit it does look nice.

I was thinking the blackbirds might bath in our water feature at some point as we used to have a large pot that had water in it and they used to bath in there, which we all loved watching.

I think my washing machine has finished so I'd better go and check it.

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<3 <3 <3 HAPPY ANNIVERSARY GILL AND GLYNN <3 <3 <3

Have a happy day whatever you do.

Morning all,

Bright and sunny this morning after last night heavy frost. There is still some on the roof of my car at the moment.

I have library today. They decided they would keep the mobile library going once a month so thats good as there were talks of stopping it altogether at one time. We had to fill out a form if you remember me telling you.

Shall have to get my skates on and get a few things done before going up there.

Are you all hybernateing?

Been to the library and fed the wild birds who are feeding like crazy and just had a COC but now its time to get lunch so we can see Doctors.

If its like this where you lot are you will have had to clear you're windscreens this mroning.

O I must defrost the bird bath even though they have somewhere to drink and bathe by the ponds.