General Chat

Good morning, No frost here, but the distant hills had 'disappeared' in fog, when I got up. The sun is shining brightly now and is burning that away.
Lap top says 2 degrees and sunny.

I have to pick up my repeat prescription later and while I'm in town I'll make an appointment to have my blood pressure checked. I had my annual 'M.O.T.' check with the GP's nurse before Christmas, so was surprised to get a letter requesting me to check BP. Apparently full blood results were recorded and also my height and weight but there is no record of my blood pressure :-S
I'll take my diary with me and get that booked.

Good morning all, a hard frost last night and it is -4 here now. Only plans at the moment are for a shower/jhairwash and get dressed. Not sure about later.

I won't be upset Vera you tell us all your lovely plans.

We have a really hard frost out there now so its going to be a cold one tonight thats for sure.

My last job lot of minitures went on ebay tonight so I have to get that all wrapped up and ready to post once they have paid for it.

I ended up tidying up a lot of paperwork and throwing out envelopes and leaflets etc. to the recycling bin, so I didn't go out to the coast today.
There is a local bus which will take me within reasonable walking distance of the coast, so I may go during this week, as the bus is to be discontinued in the economic cull :-(
I admit not many people use it, so it was half expected.
The trouble is that someone with no idea of the route or needs of people must have planned the timetable, I can catch a bus locally to a supermarket, but it begins the return journey a few minutes later :-S The next bus to return home is over 2 hours later. The last bus to come here arrives about 2.30, when it returns empty to town, as it is then 'out of service'. I can't understand why people can't catch it to the nearest town even if the bus didn't continue on the full route.It's really hard sorting out appointments in town to fit in with the buses, but from next weekend we won't have a choice and will have to walk about half a mile to the main road bus stop. :-|

Vera, a long and happy marriage is to be celebrated, so I would love to read of your plans. We weren't lucky enough to reach our 50th, but it doesn't stop me being happy for you :-)

Vera amazing how we fill our time yet have nothing to show for it. I managed to move my kitchen around ending up back where I started but a bit of help fro Avon on here hads pointed me in the direction of a multi type plug with a metre+ cable that will sort out moving the frier. Daughter pointed out that the air frier had a 10am fuse so I should only plug that one thing into the plug. It has three sockets so a good warning. I also managed to give the bathroom a quick clean, and made carrot, parsnip, keek, and potato and coriander soup. And also made two quick cards for charity.

Vera as far as I am concerned please do share your plans for your diamond wedding. I won’t upset me. But it depends on the others of course.

Good evening

I'm a bit late on parade. I don't seem to have had any spare time today and yet I don't seem to have done much!

Did you get to the coast Gwyn?

I think I must be about the only person I know who doesn't have an air fryer now. I have considered getting one but it's yet something else to go on the work surface and I seem to be managing reasonably economically with the slow cooker and microwave and only using the oven when I can cook everything in it. I used the oven today but our complete dinner went in it. We had beef pot-roasted in a red wine gravy, yorkshire pudding, potatoes, parsnips, carrots and cabbage and very tasty it was too :-) I've roasted most veg but it's the first time I have done cabbage in the oven. I'll be doing it again as we both liked it.

As well as sorting out our dinner I had a nice shower and hair wash and spent half an hour on the phone with our daughter. I've also stopped trying to find the manual for my radio and have downloaded one from the internet. I should have done that in the first place as it barely took me a minute. I've just had a quick glance at it and it looks as though I have to do a complete system reset so it will have to wait till I have an hour free and am in the mood to sort it out.

We have our diamond wedding anniversary coming up and have been trying to decide what to do. I am well aware of how very fortunate we are to be reaching this milestone when several of you have lost your partners so I hope it isn't upsetting for anyone if I mention it. Please tell me if you would prefer not to hear any more about it and I will not mention it again.

Island, in answer to a query you had yesterday Those racks are extremely tight fitting aren't they, hopefully they will ease up a bit with use. but I think you just have to press them into place.

I wanted to move mine to the other side of my kitchen. This involved moving out the slow cooker, the tray holding all the oils and vinegars and the bread bin. Once they were moved I realised it was a good opportunity to wipe down the worktop where they have stood for quite a while. Then I moved the frier over. Only to find the lead is so short it wouldn't go where I wanted it to. why does the slow cooker have a nice length lead but the frier has a relatively short one. so it is back where the old one was. No problem I just though it looked better on the other side. Now my late electrically trained OH would have solved that problem.

Forgot to say Ann. ...Your visit to Tetbury sounds very interesting. I would have enjoyed that.
I have only been to the town once, when we went to Westonbirt. We had picked up a leaflet about the arboretum, which said there was reduced entry price if one arrived by public transport, so we parked up and looked at some of the town... and some pricy shops, I recall.
Our short visit obviously missed some other 'gems'.

Good morning all,
Really bright sunshine in this south east corner.
It makes me want to get down to the coast. I've seen the sea in recent times on various car journeys, but haven't actually walked nearby for a while. I'll have a look at the tide times, because some stretches of coast are more picturesque at certain stages of the tides.

Thank you for sharing the photos Mel. I wouldn't be at all happy having the horses and hounds trampling through the garden. Good job they were soon gone.You must have a huge plot to care for and don't need any unwelcome damage. I think I saw snowdrops featured in the photos. My friend and I are planning to go to a country park later this week to see the snowdrops which have naturalised there, especially round the valley sides and around the lake. The following week will be half term locally, so we thought we'd go before it gets too busy.

Ah when I looked out as it got lighter I can see we had quite a hard frost.
Good morning Mel

Morning Anng and all,

Bright here this morning so far and pc says 4 degrees but it feels more like your -1.
the skys blue without a cloud in it today...yet. Did the washing overnight so that can go out in a min.

Nothing else planned today but I may change the bed if I feel like the fight.

Good morning all, Just getting light outside and only 1 degree this morning so a lot colder than the last few days which is a shame. PC is saying -2 but that is probably up in the Cotswolds a few miles away.
Nothing planned at the moment only a Tesco delivery 11-12 and sort out the new air frier.
Actually should do some HW, changed the bed and washed bedding yesterday so no washing to do.
Slept really well, asleep before 11pm and woke a few minutes before 6am. Didn't even get up for the loo. :-) :-)

It feels nice and solid and the fact there are two drawers means you can cook two different foods at different heats at the same time. Daughter cooks fruit crumbles in here which is not a Lakeland but is very similar.

Thanks for mentioning Lakeland Ann, Argos have been out of stock in my area for weeks. You might just have saved my mediocre appetite. I'm looking forward to some crispy food again. :-D

Mel, same here - the price. I hadn't looked at Lakeland until Ann mentioned them as I thought they would be too pricey. Still not cheap but I don't think 40/50 quid ones would last.

I was going to buy one when I bought the slow cooker and had a word with BIL and his wife had bought one and said it was good so whenn I saw the price on Lakeland I thought I would give it a try.

I am going to watch Hotel whatsit soon cos I am watching All Creatures at the mo from the begining again. Theres nothing else I want to watch and I can't watch TV as the ariel moved in those winds we had a week or so ago and BIL will take a look when he comes over next. He is back from Iceland tomorrow.

I have recorded it Mel. I think Lakeland ought to pay me commission as that is two they wouldn't have sold if it wasn't for me saying about them.

Island that is the best way to do it, learn as you go along. I had planned bacon and eggs tonight so stuck to the frying pan (not literally I add.

I think you can cook a small chicken Mel, I have actually cooked chicken thigh fillets.

Did anyone watch Hotel Portabilo on friday night ITV. I think it is going to be good.

First go with mine this evening Mel :-D Not very adventurous - why burn cordon bleu when you can burn something out the freezer LOL I haven't really :-D but baby steps.
Didn't bother much with the instruction book - too long winded, just dived in.
There's some nice tempting recipes online.
It's not as big as I thought it would be and the worktop needed a cull anyway :-D

Iv'e ordered one!! Something else to get in the way on the worktop!!! but it should save me money if I want to do some chips or cook a small joint etc.

Thanks Anng. Could you cook a small chicken in it?