General Chat

Good morning all. Slept in 2 hour sessions last night so not too bad. Leg was painfuul again so I think that is next on the medical agenda but I think I will wait until after I come back from MK on 2oth April

Got Jake coming later. so far it is dry so fingers crossed they can get it done. BBL

Ah yes Vera there was a man as we went in with a clip board so that is the answer then.
I hope I can get a better sleep although the last two nights it was my leg that woke me with the pain.
Reading about leg pain there are several things it could be and I must eventually get it checked out.

Ann Oh yes some of my scars go Keloid and bumpy and there is nothing you can do to prevent it.

In my house when I was young Good Friday was treated like a Sunday. Nowadays it is no different to any other day.

Too much sugar for me too Mandy but you are very good to cook for your son and family. It's funny how we all have different ways of cooking things. Sometimes I just wrap my gammon loosely in foil and roast it in the oven. Other times I boil it in water with an onion studded with cloves and a couple of bay leaves. I wish I could find more time to cook. I did make a tuna and cheese quiche today and it was so much nicer than buying one in the shop. Did you enjoy your chilli tonight Mel?

I hope your arm isn't too sore where the stitches were so tight AnnG. Hopefully you will be more comfortable and able to get a better sleep tonight.

I'm sorry that you are still getting digestion problems Mel. It's probably worth having another word with your doctor. Even if he/she won't give you the tablets back they might tell you what foods to avoid and what are OK for you to eat.

I am glad the beeping in the car has stopped now Annx. It does make you anxious when you hear noises and don't know what they are. You are right, you can learn a lot from old gravestones.

On Monday OH was booking an appointment at our nearest tip as we have a lot of stuff to get rid of. He called out to ask if Friday was OK and I said yes but I had forgotten it is Good Friday. Now I wish we had made it for next week as it somehow feels wrong to me to be going to dump our rubbish on that particular day. When lockdown ended our council had an online survey to see if people wanted to go back to the free for all or keep the appointment system going and the overwhelming majority wanted to keep appointments. There is a man at the entrance with a clipboard and he checks your number plate against his list.

I had a little break this morning as we went for our Thursday coffee. 6 ladies and 3 men this week. I was feeling a little down and the break cheered me up. I've been busy this afternoon again and am feeling a little tired now so I think it's time to take my book to bed. Sleep well ladies.

Evening All,

A lovely day here, very springlike and warm. :-) We both did a bit in the garden cutting back shrubs that were galloping over the stone edging, but we both soon had aches, but at least 2 humpers were filled and emptied in the garden bin.

ERNIE excelled himself and gave me £600 which was good and made up for the previous three months of £25 each time. The neighbour who is getting a puppy was outside painting her gate this morning and said she is having a girl Cavapoo this time, probably in June if all goes well.

OH applied to renew his driving licence about 7 weeks ago and has heard nothing so rang them today. He got a message saying they were busy and the waiting time was one and a half hours!!! He put the phone down and managed to find an email address for them online so emailed them. They rang him back just before 7.00pm. He then got put through to their medical department who said they needed to know whether his eye inflammation was at the back of his eye which it isn't. so said they could pass his application on to those who issue the licences but couldn't give any idea when he would get it. We can't understand why it mattered as you can drive with just one eye anyway and he's passed his last eye test and has them every year. OH said he wonders how much longer it would have been before they had asked him if he hadn't emailed them. He's still waiting to start his treatment after having the xray and blood tests weeks ago. He phoned the nurse at the Hospital last week and she said she'd phone him back the next day but didn't!

AnnG I bet you are glad to be released from the stitches and may have a better night tonight as they were tight, although you may be sore with the area that bled. It's good it's a neat job too. I am lucky as scars from stitches on my arm years ago are flat and almost invisible, but a friend gets those raised red ones.

Vera that was a bargain you got with the meat sub and with your other shopping. Much the same as AnnG's daughter got with her meat. I hope you have managed to send all the emails and do what you needed to for now. You've been busy so have some rest too.

No beeping from the car today either Mandy so it must have been the carwash! I bet the family will appreciate you thinking to offer to cook them some gammon for them. It's lovely how you help each other. I hope Jake's car is back on the road with a new tyre now and that your son's is fixed too.

Mel, OH has been taking a similar thing with the same small risk called Pantoprazole since before he retired over 16 years ago. Since his cardiac arrest and all the tablets he needs to take now his doctor has doubled his dose of Pantoprazole to protect his stomach from the tablets. I looked the PPI inhibitors which is what they are and studies done when he started on them and knew about the risk, but having acid reflux left untreated has much the same small risk as acid creeps into the esophagus, especially when lying down, and can cause changes that can lead to cancer. Did he tell you that they can reduce what your stomach absorbs from your food like calcium? We thought OH's (unusual for a man) osteoporosis might have been caused by it, but the rheumatologist said it would have been caused by the inflammation from the inflammatory arthritis. Is the Canon camera the same one you had for Christmas once?

We need to be up early tomorrow as I've suggested we go to M&S down the road. OH wants a new suit now his weight is steady, as the ones he has are far too big. They don't have any with single vented jackets, but at least he can try some suit jackets on to see what size he will need now!

I boil my gammon in water with 10 black peppercorns, 12 cloves and two dessrt spoonfuls of brown sugar. 20 mins a lb and 20 mins.

Off to Stu's now we have chilli so he says.

Ooh a lot of sugar for me and a no for daughter with her diabetes.

Anng its one measuring cup of light brown sugar in the bottom of the pot ,joint on top of the sugar and half a measuring cup of sugar on the top of the joint ,it melts and the joint cooks in the liquid , it comes out a brown colour and its like it's had a glaze .

Mel, I guess you won't have raised much money with that bottle then Mel. That would be a good find for me. Well both would be actually. What sort of Canan camera?

I would have thought it would have burnt without liquid. How much sugar Mandy?

No Anng no liquid ,I was a bit worried when I cooked the first bit like that but the sugar goes to liquid so there was no burning of the sugar on the bottom of the pot .

Oh when I had my stitches out on my wrists one lot of stitches had to be dug out ,left it really sore and bleeding , I hope your scars heal nicely now the stitches are out and that any soreness soon eases .

Well you might not have done much Mel but you found some treasures lol

Nice and sunny here now and no more rain

Sounds nice Mandy but you say with just brown sugar. No liquid?

I was almost 30 minutes late going in to have the stitches out. They had a staff shortage. Makes me wonder how many have gone sick to extend the Easter weekend.

Took her a lot of patience and quite a long tome to get the 8 stitches out of my arm, She said he had done very small tight stitches, as she had to dig a bit it bled so it has a dressing on now until tomorrow. The 6 stitches on my temple came out easily and that is uncovered, qhite a long scar but very neat.

Not done a bl**dy thing this morning except have a go at my toenails and that took a while. Also had a look for something in the wardrobe and got sidetracked found a canon camera and a bottle of Bells whiskey in its Christmas box that we were given to raise money for the bell fund.

Afternoon all,

Cloudy one minute then we see a little sun ,we've also had a little bit of fine drizzle and it's quite windy too , we went and got our shopping a bit earlier today as we thought with the children on holiday it would get busy , it was getting busy when we left so it was better going early .

Anng hope the stitches came out without to much pain and you got a gentle nurse .

Ann that was good the car stopped the pipping ,sounds as if it could have been all the water from the car wash .

I have a piece of gammon cooking for son and family , I asked if they would like me to cook them as piece as they have both been into work this week so it will save them cooking a piece , I cooked a piece a few weeks ago for us and i did it in the slow cooker with just brown sugar and it came out and tasted lovely so I'm doing their piece like that too .
I have a piece of gammon for us which I'll cooked tomorrow or Saturday .

Well done Anng, hope all goes well having the stiches out and you get a good nurse.

Morning all,

Its a nice bright sunny day here today and pc says mostly sunny and 8 degrees. It feels quite chilly here in the kitchen where the sun dos'nt reach till much later in the day and year.

Well the postmans just been with my vitabiotic and returned the cake box I gave him with his cakes in. Still has the kitchen towels in it and not washed up. YUou can tell he lives on his own.

I meant to say Vera. My daughter ordered a piece of gammon half price from Tesco, a small piece reduced to £5.something. They subbed it for a very large piece normal price £30, and charged her the £5. whatever.

I have just managed to do a semi strip wash/half shower and washed my hair with only a few splashes on the dressings.

Good morning all only 3 degrees here and defitely feels chilly. But the sun is shining so maybe it will be a pleasant day.
Stitches due out 12.20, not something I look forward to. Hope I get a skilful nurse. they do vary.
Another night with little sleep.
Ann, yes probably a good idea to try out Dunelm although it may depend on the chef (cook) in your store I suppose. I had always had coffee and bacon rolls etc from dunelm when T was alive, but had not eaten food in this one (we have two, one Cheltenham, one Gloucester, this was the latter)).

Vera try to pace yourself, don't go rushing at things and give yourself another migraine.

Annx I eat wholemeal bread not white and not seeded as the seeds get under my plate. I have got a thick sliced multigrain in the freezer.

I had it again today and took rennie again. I was taken off my Omeprazole because they said long use can cause throat cancer like what our lovely Jane had. When I was taking them I could eat anything and it did'nt upset my tum at all. Oh's older sister takes them too so I must ask if she's been taken off them as she took them long before I did.

Off now so see you in the morning hope you all get enough sleep tonight or enough to keep you going.

A quick hallo and goodbye from me again. I have just caught up with reading the posts. I hope beeping cars, digestive problems and painful legs are all better now. I did manage to find an hour this morning to hoover and dust round downstairs and straight after lunch I had a Tesco delivery to sort out but the rest of the day seems to have been spent on emails going back and forth and phone calls about our friend and the funeral arrangements. I feel quite tired and heavy headed now as I have been on the computer for too long today.

I did well on my delivery. When I placed the order half shoulders and legs of lamb were on a half price Clubcard offer. I ordered a smallish half shoulder. They had all gone so they subbed with a larger half leg and charged me the price the small shoulder would have been i.e. £6.99 As the full price of the half leg was about £20.00 I thought that was a good deal. They also warned me that the potatoes I had ordered were short dated but I said that was OK. Tonight I got an email saying that they had refunded me anyway so I got £1.85 back. I wish all my shopping was like that!

There was something I meant to say but have completely forgotten so I'm closing down for the night now. Sleep well everyone.

Evening All,

A dry day here and OH had a call while he was out last night to say the man was coming to cut the hedge back again from coming over the fence this morning. I was up and showered early as I needed to nip to the shop, get some money from the hole in the wall and see if the garage there had fuel. The new serve yourself machines in the shop were unattended so I used one of those. You have to be careful when you ask them for a receipt though as they shoot out of a slot at speed that's higher than my head!! Some people have to scrabble around on the floor. I was holding my breath as I set off, but the beeping has stopped now, so it must have been the car wash strong jets of water being blasted through the grill.

We think the man charged us less than last year and he is going to come back and clear the brambles and ivy from behind the shed and arbour and other gardening jobs like lowering some of the Holly and shrubs and remove the Cordyling from the front that is making a comeback and as tall as me. A bit of help and our own efforts should get it looking better.

We went to Sainsbury's garage down the road then to fill my car as they'd had a delivery and the other place I saw earlier had big vans at all the pumps and had coned off one pump while I was at the shop. On the way back we went another way through the village and I parked by the church as I wanted to photograph their lovely wild, blue Anemones and primroses as I noticed how pretty they were the other day. The man who lived at the old hall opposite the church many years ago has a marble tomb there and not only helped fund building the old school on one corner of the crossroads but also the headmaster's house on the other corner. and also the restoring of the church. OH had decided he would walk home from there about a mile towards his exercise as it was dry and not cold, so I wandered into the churchyard. A few years ago I discovered and unusual headstone that was carved stone log effect in the shape of a cross and researched when I got home that he was born in Cornwall and was a stone mason. I wondered whether he had made the headstone himself as his wife was mentioned and had died before him. Anyway, sadly the cross has fallen or been knocked over but is still intact. A little way away was another more traditional looking headstone, except it seemed to have carved stone boulders at the bottom. The words were hard to read but I looked up and traced who it was, another man born in Cornwall and his occupation had been a Superintendant of quarries! There are old granite quarries in the village and an active one a few miles away, so I expect they had moved to the area for the work. Quite a journey in the early 1800s though! It's interesting what you can find out these days.

Gwyn I think the schools here finished last Friday like where Mandy lives. I Hope your latest echo results come through quickly and are good. I expect the children are getting excited about Easter now. There is one field I pass on the way tto the shop that has lambs in it now and they are so white compared with their mums, except for the black ones. They like jumping on and off the stumps of the big sawn down old trees.

I had to chuckle at your outing to the dump AnnG. You know how to ring the changes with your trips out! We haven't had to make appointments since covid but that's a good point about them knowing if people should be there or not. That was good value for your meal at Dunelm though. I told OH and he said we'll have to try our Dunelm as the price is much cheaper than our choices near here. It's a shame about your leg demanding attention again. I was much the same and didn't really sleep after 4.00 am and took paracetamol. Perhaps we'll do better tonight.

I liked the intricate painting reel Mel. Those are special calligraphy brushes that hold more paint or ink, but you need a steady hand, but the painting inside was so accurate. That Raven has been telling the others hasn't he! I wonder if more still will turn up. :-0 It does sound like you may have to see the doc again for something else for the indigestion. Did you have white bread, although I think you've said you have the seeded warburtons now. Why did the doctor take you off the others?

Friend needed petrol to get to her volunteer ‘job’ tomorrow. Tesco garage was jam packed but she got what she needed but apparently at least two garages in the area are out of petrol. I wonder how many people are filling up just in case they need it. Panic buying is always a problem

It sounds lie you had a really great three hours Anng. Enjoyable with chat and laughter and a good lunch to boot. :-D

Had my lunch, I had a cold pork sandwich with 5 tiny toms and then 5 grapes and a few walnuts and three fig biscuits and a glass of water. Took my pil;ls so there's justone more to take tonight with my jointace.

Going to have a bit of a tidy up now and wash up the lunch things then do a bit of admin. Feel as though things are getting done today now.