General Chat

Just had rain and its still quite bright out the back. As I type it is now hail.

Morning All,

Lovely sunshine and OH has been for a walk, then went to the shop as they'd run out of the orange juice he likes at the shop I went to yesterday. He used to have one of Asda's with the food order, but prefers this one and it has less sugar so is better.

Lunch is cooking and is salmon with a mediterranean traybake, then we need to go on an errand this afternoon.

That's a shame about the book as I said in my reply to your email with the beautiful bargain daffs Mandy. I don't expect they accept returns? Happy Birthday to your sister!

Best wishes with your appointments AnnG and Gwyn.

Vera it will be good to get those little jobs out of the way. They soon mount up don't they. I'm glad you mentioned batteries, as I need to get some as well.

Morning girls,

Its bright and sunny with big white clouds scudding across the sky in the high wind and 7 degrees rain by 2pm.

Hope all goes well for Anng and Gwyn today and there's not too much hanging around waiting to be seen.

Vera be careful doing all those jobs mind your back and enjoy your lunch out hope you get everything done and out of the way.

Gosh I think the winds getting stronger!

Morning all,

Nice sunny morning so far but we should get rain later, it's still very windy .

Hope all goes well at the hospital later Anng and for you too Gwyn ,hope there's not to much waiting around .

Mel , I think I'm not really in the right mind to start something new at the moment, you asked about the latest rabbit , I didn't take a photo of it and Katie took it home with her .I have done a few bits ,bags etc to go with the rabbits I'd already done and I've sewn labels on that I had printed .

My daffs have really opened up now and the smell is lovely when you walk past
Off to see my sister and bil later as her birthday today .

Good morning all. Very grey here and 4 degrees. I slept OK and got up just after 7am.

Thank you Vera, yes it is today and my head is full of nerves. However I have a morning to fill as the appointment is not until 2pm. One of my concerns is, knowing how chaotic the appointment systemwas with this, that 'they' only have one BCC mentioned when there are three. I did try and find out last June (It was 4 at the time but one got re-referred). Strange to want to have 3 done rather than just one I knoe but they need removing. Well I will find out this afternoon. Then the problem will be finding a way to sleep as there is one on each arm.

Gwyn, hope your appointment goes ok.

That is a lot of jobs to do Vera, hope you get them all done but don't go pushing yourself too hard.

Good morning
Bright but cold this morning though the forecast is for rain and wind. I slept OK for a few hours but I’ve been awake since 5 am and up since 6.30.

We’re planning to go into town mid morning to do all the jobs I have been meaning to do for a while. We need to get a couple of keys cut, see if a local jewellers can put a new battery in a glass clock and provide some tiny butterflies for the back of some very small pearl stud earrings, get some electrical bits OH wants etc. Once all the jobs are done we’ll have lunch out so that will save me cooking tonight.

AnnG and Gwyn, is it today you have hospital appointments? I hope all goes well for you both.

Been raining here but now its thundering down and makeing a noise on the patio roof.

Glad the pharmacy had all your meds Vera. was the wind blowing you in the right direction on the way home?

Mandy's flowers were lovely were'nt they and what a great price. I had some on the windowsill last week as something , maybe a bit of wind, had bent a lot of the stems on the bunch outside the bathroom window. I kept topping up their water but I must throw them away tomorrow as they look like Miss Haversham's flowers.

Mandy are you not pleased with your book? Perhaps you should have asked the library if they have it so you could see the patterns before you bought it.

Afternoon All,

Quite sunny again today but the wind has got up now. While OH was at an early meeting I popped out and had poached eggs on toast at a garden centre and checked that they hadn't got a Camellia I have been searching for for a few years. It is very compact and has large pink flowers that are tight too and smother the plant. (I know this as there are two in local gardens that I envy every year when I see them.

It's interesting that Mel brought up having a smart water meter and Vera has been looking into it like me. As I understand it, we now have three kinds of water supply. The original water supply, which many still have, which has fixed water charges according to the rateable value of the property, regardless of the amount of water used. Then people could choose to have a water meter fitted (which we did) and new houses started to have them installed. These meters charged for the actual water used and mean you can make savings by being careful with what you use and does make you think when you turn on the tap like AnnG said. These meters are still read manually and we have a grey disc on the front wall of the bungalow where they read it, although I've never seen them doing it. We get a bill twice a year. Now, as Vera said, they are starting to roll out new smart meters, although in some areas I understand you can request one and is the kind which Mel says she has. These new ones are wireless, so they feed back useage and calculate bills without the need for manual reading. (so a cost saving!) Other advantages are said to be faster leak detection, insight into daily habits and, if you have one of these new smart meters you can track your own useage via an App or online dashboard, so Mel should be able to track her useage this way and it sounds like they have started swapping them whereAnnG is. So some will be swapping from the old system and some from the previous meters like we have.

My first thought about having one was how big are they and whether one will still fit in the newly done ensuite corner cover that Dave made to fit so neatly over the existing meter! :-S

That's good you got your meds ok today Vera......long may it continue!

I just had a vision of AnnG and Vera whizzing along in the windy air like Mary Poppins!!

Both of us felt weary today after the sessions in the garden so haven't done much else, although OH has an online meeting in half an hour.

I need to download some photos from my mobile now and put it to charge.

Wish I had been there too Mandy. They are
Lovely

Oh Vera that was good you got all the correct tablets this time ,bet you wish you had changed ages ago .
It's gone over very black here and looks like it's going to pour.

Sent a photo of my lovely daffs I got from Tesco's today there was loads there all in a crate and I do love a bargain lol

I hadn't realised that you had a new meter put in when you had your major leak Mel. I've been doing a bit of googling just out of interest and if you have a smart water meter that isn't transmitting accurate data the water company have to fix it. Have a google, it's surprising what you can learn :-S

I know just what country living is like Mel - farm muck and mud, tractors, no public transport, no pavements or lighting, no gas, car needed for everything. Until we moved to our present house in 2013 we lived for 26 years in the middle of nowhere. We lived in a fairly large country area within which there were 5 tiny hamlets with a total population of about 250. We lived in the largest of the hamlets. As well as a few houses there was a pub and a church but nothing else but farmland. We were lucky in that we lived near the top of a slight slope - you couldn't call it a hill. If there was a storm and half the fields washed on to the lane or the ditches got blocked and overflowed, most of the muck flowed downwards past our house. We loved that area but we were getting older and decided we would need to move at some point in case we had to give up the car.

The wind got quite strong and, like AnnG being blown to and from the hairdressers, I got blown to and from the pharmacy. It did seem a long trudge, particularly coming back when I was nearly bent double walking into the wind. All went well. I got all the correct tablets and was told that my next lot will be available for collection on 21st April. Although it is all done electronically with our GP surgery, the system seems to be slightly different than with the old pharmacy but I don't mind that as long as it works.

Afternoon all,

Very greyish here too and windyish this morning but I think its now getting a bit brighterish and hopefully we might see a little sun .

We went to tesco this morning for a few bits ,I needed to get some fliwers for my sisters birthday tomorrow.

Mel yes that's the book but looking through it I'm not sure I like the patterns very much

I find I have to trim the white edge off the stamp books and then it just fits my purse.

Iv,e got another moan now. The books of the new stamps are so big they don't fit in my purse anymore. I shall have to keep them in my card box now I think so when I ask you where I have put them can you please tell me because I am bound to forget. :-(

I have all the bills, perhaps one missing, from Feb 2024 when the meter was put in. A couple of them had a government grant on them.

Glad you did'nt get blown away on your walk home from the hairdressers.

Just putting the biscuits away I order jaffa cakes they have sent chilly and honey jaffa cakes. I have asked for a refund as they did'nt send any subs today. I did check I had ordered the original ones. Just because the box had lots of colours on it I thought it was just an easter thing or soemthing like that.

If you had a new meter then Mel I assume it would have been a smart meter as that was not long ago. So it should be sending readings, if not they should fix it. I forgot when remarking on not seeing meters read that, although I do have a smart meter (which is wwhy I am careful using water on the garden etc as with a smart meter you pay for every drop. with the old meters you didn't.) Anyway some in this road are smart meters, some not yet changed over but they are working on getting them all changed. I assume the meter is at the end of your long drive as you are responsible for any leaks along the drive as well. so what I think I am saying is, are you comparing the cost with before and after you had a new meter? It could be , if that is so, that you were getting a lot of water at a good price before. Smart meters can save you money but they do make you think before turning on the tap.

Vera yes a very ish day here too and I slept quite well.

Just been wind propelled to and from hairdresser. Not cold but very windy and gusty with damp in the wind. I debated wether to wait for the bus when I came out of the hairdressers but there was a 6 minute wait (in the wind, no shelter) so I walked and got to the bus stop at exactly the same time as the bus.

All I have done today besides that treck ia a bit of admin and washed the towels.

Morning all you ish girls,

Its the same here greyish, coldish, drearyish but dry ish, Pc says 11 degrees and light rain buy fiveish.

About my meter I had a new one put in after that very large leak I had and they fitted new meters to most of the houses along here. You have to remember I live out in the country and our roads don't even have names only the crossroads. We have many tractors coming past every day and lorries and no pavements just grass verges and banks. Water seems to run down our road whatever the weather. there are 8 dwellings including the village hall next to me and including the big house. Outside the big house there is a dip in the road so the residents of the house could'nt see the peasents going past and thats where it always floods and they installed a pump in the drain that that takes water to Mussle Brook which runs through the land not far from the road..

We also have a dirty farm up at the next crossroads from us with many farm tractors and vehicles always going past ours. Alsoo I have a very long driveway to the house from the road where the meter is.

I must get on as I over slept this morning. Hope you all slept well as I did up at 6.15am for the loo and back to bed and straight off again till 10.15am.

Good morning ladies

It’s an “ish” day; greyish, coolish, windyish and I slept OKish. I’ve no real plans apart from picking up my meds and I’ll go and do that as soon as I have posted this.

Mel, are you sure your water meter is a smart one? Has it been changed fairly recently? The water companies are beginning to roll out smart meters but they haven’t got very far yet. Smart meters do send readings but ordinary water meters don’t. Ours is still an ordinary meter and gets read once a year and our monthly direct debit adjusted according to what we’ve used over the year. It doesn’t seem very good that yours is filled with sludge but at least you can get to yours. At our old house our meter was on our drive. Here, it isn’t even in our road! It’s set in the pavement in a road that runs parallel to ours. How stupid is that.

Doorbell ringing. OH is answering it but I think it’s for me. Must go.

good morning all. Grey here this morning but dry and 9 degrees. I think strangely the garden actually could do with a shower but hope it waits until after 12 when I should be home from the hairdresser.

Ann if I have to get down on the floor (planned) I put a small stoll (one of the folding ones) next to me, that is enough to lean on to help me to get up. but sounds as if you also have a plan which works

Mel, surely all that sludge around your meter could be affecting your readings. I am still confused as I never see anyone round here reading water meters. When you receive your water bills, do the readings show estimated use? surely they should show that if they are not actual readings. I have just read my last bill and no readings are estimated. Keep copies of everything you pay in a file so that you can check next time there is a bill, and maybe somebody should come out to check the meter again because of the sludge.