General Chat

Morning,

Another dull day here. So awful after all the lovely weather we had a week or so ago.

Jane This is all I can find on HMS Burke.

http://www.uboat.net/allies/warships/ship.html?ID=6814

My dads brother was killed at sea on the Acheron on tests carried out at night after a refit. She hit a mine off the Isle of Wight and there were 196 killed and 19 survivors.

Morning All

Kim I'm surprised there was no wheelchair access .No lift ? Good job you didn't hurt yourself.If the Doc sounded positive ,that's a great sign.At least you don't have to wait long now .

Pat that is not good sending mucky clothes like that.I suppose not everyone is like us and it wouldn't cross their minds to clean the clothes first.I don't even put dirty things in the recycling bins .

It is a very warm morning sunny and breezy.The squirrels have been having fun again chasing each other around the garden,and 2 woodpeckers also flitting around after each other.All a bit frisky lol
I went to check my neighbours house just now as they are away for the week.There are lots of hanging baskets and pots still looking beautiful.So I thought I better give them a good water.I had to stretch up to do the baskets and as I was doing one I missed the actual basket and the water came straight over the edge all over Chester :-D :-D :-D

Morning Everybody.

Hi Kim
Hope all goes well with your tests. I had an endoscopy about 3or 4 weeks ago and I was asleep so didn't know anything about it, But I was fine and had no problems after it.

Dry day here (for a change) windy and the sun keeps popping in & out. I have not got a lot on today. very qiuet. OH in France this week LEON I think, should be back on Thursday.

going for a shower BBL

I have also been called up for Jury service but wasent needed..

I bought a coat off E*ay it arrived yesterday,,It was filthy round the neck..Put it in the nachine straight away..I wouldnt donate things to the charity shop in that state...

Sorry I am putting things up separetly..as I lost one lot by touching something :-0
Catch you later call me Pat by the way im not used to Patricia lol

Frank,,, cant delay paying the bill your way..They have given us all the banking details and sorting code so will have to do it on line..But we will keep them waiting for a little while...mind you we are not making much interest are we :-(

Jane..my dad didnt talk about the war a lot...He was in the 8th army and was captured by the italians and spent about 4 years in a POW camp..the camp was then taken over by the Germans and he ended up somewhere on the german borders..
I did have his army number so found him listed on An*estry..

Mandy...I was also thinking what was built on anns ground before as well..

Morning Kim.

At least things are moving now..I hope the tests will not be as bad as they think..
poor you having to climb the stairs as well..hope you didnt hurt yourself with the fall..

Hello everyone,

Sunny day here, but not overly warm.

Gastro man was lovely and a Welsh accent with a great sense of humour.

I'm booked in to have endoscopy and colonoscopy next Monday 17th down at a hospital in Wahroonga. He is planning to take a few biopsies as the tests came back with raised tumour markers. I have been a nervous nellie for a couple of weeks now. He seems confident, so I guess that makes life a bit easier.

There was no wheelchair access, so I had to climb a huge set of stairs to get up to his office and then fell in the door. I'm sure they all thought I was sloshed, but soon realised all was not good when they saw Keith carrying my chair in.

Hope you are all well. Have a good day. 4.27 pm EST

Right I am off now.Need to get some beauty sleep in before that dreaded alarm goes off lol
See you all in the morning .I hope we hear from Kim.
Night Night xx

Frank It could be a transport ship.But I really have no idea.All I know is that Dad was a Marine (diver)He never talked about what he actually did except for once when he said he had to dive to a sunken ship and saw a 'nurse' or some female 's body dangling out from a porthole.I do remember him talking about the 'Suez',and somewhere I have a photo of him in I think Africa with men in Tribal Dress.( Not sure where he would have been diving there lol)
He just never spoke of the war at all.I think just too traumatic as it was for thousands of service men and women.
It would be nice though if I could find out something of those 2 ships. Thankyou :-D

Jane, My father was a navy man from 1901 through till after the war and the pleasure steamers up and down the Thames,Then tramp steamers, till he was too old to go to sea. In all that time I never heard him refer to a HMT. was that a transport ship or a Tanker. I would think if you contacted the Admiralty, either on the web or by letter, you might get some info. In the meantime I will try to check.

Liz, That's a good start to being in your new home. :-0 :-0 :-0 Glad it's all sorted.

Ann, I have beed in the same position as your OH with a plastic bag stuck in the lock, right load of trouble to get it sorted.

Anne it might be worth checking with the local council, to see if they might know. what was there before your house was built. I know in Blisworth, when they built some new houses, it was over the remains of the PIG FACTORY with a massive pit in the grounds, which got uncovered when the person had an extention built.

Still working on the trees.

Evening everyone,
What a windy day !! not at all cold though i've had the back door open all
day.
Kim,hope your news from the specialist was good and not as bad as you think it might be .

Mel, i have a few Fairies that my sister got me for some of my birthdays, Strawberry Fairy, A Ladybird one , Ice Maiden , Bramble fairy and a couple of others , your right they do get dusty !!

What a todo with the plastic bag Ann, you wouldn't think that a piece of plastic bag could cause so much trouble.
I wonder what all these brick walls are in your garden Ann, do you know what was on the land before your bungalow was built ? if there's footings it must have been some sort of building !!

Anne,Happy Birthday to your OH, enjoy your meal out tomorrow .

My DIL did Jury Service a few years ago ,before she had the little ones, she took the bus each day and had expenses paid at the end .

Chris was eager then Jane !! good job he didn't get up LOL

Glad to hear your OH got your Loo mended Liz, thats some thing you carn't do with out !! don't want to be nipping out behind the hedge !!!!!

Well it's nine years today since i lost my dear old Mum , where has the years gone .

Mel ,I know all expenses are claimed.I was just thinking of those people called for Jury service who can't afford to pay up front.There must be some people who would find it impossible to fork out all that .
I will be checking that alarm clock tonight ;-)

Hope you are not 'running' too much Liz ;-) ;-).Glad you got that sorted

Oops Anne ,I just re read your post and see you are off for an Indian.Hope you have a lovely evening.

Does anyone know how I can find anything about a ship called U.S.S . Francis Asberry(1944) and another one H M T Burke(my Dads ship).
I found a letter from Master of USS Francis Asberryto the Officers and Ratings of HMT Burke.It says
I am privileged to express on behalf of myself and my officers,my gratitude and thanks to you and your crew of brave seamen who rescued the survivors of my abandoned vessel.
We only too well appreciate the danger you faced when you came to us through mine infested waters.
May God be with you in your future voyages and return safely home.
Respectfully
JV Patrick.(Master)
The letter is dated 9th Dec 1944.
I don't know where this rescue happened ,but know my Dad often mentioned the Suez.

I have tried looking and don't be seeing to get anywhere.Maybe there is no record ( I don't know).But I thought that was a lovely letter ,and to know my Dad was one of the rescuers.

Jane I think you can slaim for the parking and poss the petrol when you are on jury service. It's worth asking anyway. I know when mum and dad had to go to court as witnesses to an accident they were reinbursed for thier lunch etc.

Gosh Jane I had to laugh at the alarm going off and Chris thinking it was 5.30am :-)

Done th eweeks shopping and saw my sister in law outside the shop she works in haveing a ciggy! Had a quick chat as I only put half an hours money in the meter. I had jusst whipped up the high st to get two more of those bins for my chicken food.

18.35pm and it looks quite dark outside tonight. The old evenings are surely drawing in and then the clocks go back at the end of the month, don't they?

Have you seen how the price of butter has gone up lately? :-S

I only buy half a pound every now and then but I shall be getting up the local shop now as we have a quite local dairy that supplies our shop and it is only £1.10p half a pound compared to £.50p in the supermarket.

The other thing that has gone up is the price of meat!!

Happy Birthday to your OH Anne.Are you going out to celebrate this evening? No rain here other than some in the night again.

Ann.what a day for you!!! :-S :-S :-S and poor OH and getting the bag stuck.I bet he was not the happiest Bunny :-|
Do you know what all these walls are under your garden are?

Chris was home by lunch time as the chap pleaded guilty.Not a good start lol.
It is £7.50 to park for the day .So if he has to go in each day for the next fortnight that will add up to a fair whack.Now it is alright for him as can afford that ,but what happens to some people who really can't do that,plus petrol or bus fares etc.Can people claim expenses beforehand I wonder?
He did stay for a bit of lunch in the canteen as they £5 something per day for food and he just had to add 18p lol
He has just found out he has to be there at 10am tomorrow,not like today which was 9am :-S
It was funny last night (well I thought it was).The alarm clock went off.Chris leaned over to turn it off.I asked him what time it was .He said 5.30.I said are you sure (as I felt I had only just gone to sleep).Turned out it was just Midnight !!!!!!!.What a good job I got him to check .Otherwise he would have been up and making his coffee lolol

Well what a weekend we have had . Firstly the weather has not been very good with lots of cloud and rain. It's stuck over us for the next couple of days so drying the washing in the conservatory. We have turned on the heating and feel that our Indian Summer is over.
Spent yesterday making a Yellow Brick Road for the forthcoming production of Wizard of Oz. It took 2 of us 6 hours to paint so consequently have got horrid backache today.
Today is hubbies birthday so we have been to the RSBP sanctuary at Saltholme, in the rain, but we saw lots of geese and swans which have just arrived and enjoyed a bowl of soup for lunch. Tonight we are off to the Indian for a celebration meal.
When we woke this morning we could hear a sawing noise and discovered a man sitting in the middle of a nearby tree thinning it out. I was sure that he was going to fall but he didn't. Certainly livened up breakfast time.
Our neighbour has gone on holiday today and is having some decorating done whilst the house is emply.For some unknown reason the drive is covered in dustsheets and it looks really weird. Nothing appears to be happening today so we wait in anticipation for developments!!
I was called for Jury service two years ago and had to travel everyday to Middlesbrough. I met some fascinating people in the jury room but did not get a case. Hope Chris has taken lots of reading material to keep him occupied.
Glad to know that everyone else is keeping busy and enjoying the sunshine :-| :-|

This morning close to the island from the motorway a big vehicle had broken down and the big tractor back wheels on it were splayed out like it had knock knees. It is still there and apparently it is a combine harvester and now there is traffic building up everywhere because of it. The electrician said they looked as if they were taking it to bits when he went by at lunchtime. If I go to Sain*bury's later I think I'd better go the long way around and stay out until the traffic eases.

The slabs are still missing but they are looking for them!! If all else fails, tomorrow they will get more to deliver Wednesday.........I'm beginning to feel like Pat did. lol

Where is everyone today??

POOR YOU ANNX. It's time like this that you wish you haden't started :-| :-| :-|

Afternoon All,

Well things are not going to plan!! The slabs were delivered on time, but there was 1 pallet short, so I rang the people I ordered them from and the lady said she'd chase around to see where they are but hasn't got back to me yet. OH worked like a trojan this morning clearing stuff and shovelling the gravel back and putting the furniture in the shed.

Then he decided to take some plastic sacks of garden rubbish down the tip out of the way. In his hurry he trapped one of the plastic sacks in the lock of his car hatchback door and it wouldn't open again. He had to rip the sack free and unload through a side door at the tip. When he got home and had a proper look he wished he hadn't done it!! The plastic panel at the back covers the lock and the whole width and he couldn't get it off because you need to lift the (stuck) door to do that. He managed to free the bottom end of the panel and prise it up enough to see and then had to lie in the back on his back with tweezers and pliers and torch to try and pick and pull the plastic out. It took him over an hour and then a big bit came out and freed the lock so he could open the door.........boy is he going to have a stiff neck tomorrow!!! :-S :-S

Now the electrician has found another buried 9 inch wall going across his trench and has gone home to fetch his Ka*go vibrating hammer to break that up and the footings under it. I'm beginning to think this water feature could be very expensive!! The garden is beginning to look like a tip with all the rubble and big holes where these buried walls are and tomorrow the patio will be ripped up too!!

Nice to hear from you Kim and I hope your appointment goes well.

Oops....better go......electrician says he is making progress and OH says he (not the electrician) wants feeding!! :-) :-)