General Chat

I had a card in the post this morning too Mandy so thats gone to the side.I think its three of us with a birthday in February, You me and Vera.

That's good it's done Anng can you leave the plate in over night so as not to disturb the clot I think if its that that you disturb or the clot comes out that's when it might start to bleed , keep up with the paracetamol it will help .
I must admit when I had my two front teeth out years ago and had my plate straight in I soon got use to it ,I have one other tooth on it on one side and I find they keep in perfectly with no need of any denture fix ,people usually say I didn't know you had false teeth .

Oh dear Ann I have a confession I didn't get any windows cleaned today as I decided to shop today but ar least it spured you on to do yours so well done .

Oh Mel I remember those fluffy little bolero cardies I can remember my sister knitting a jumper and brushing it with a special brush that made it all soft and fluffy , I don't know what the wool was but I do remember it was lilac .

Sister called in this afternoon and dropped in a large slice of their anniversary cake we have just eaten it for a pud it was lemon cake .

Mel I posted the gloves off today and your birthday too.


I had two cards in the post today so they are on the side ready to open on Friday.

Yes Ann, daughter suggested a taxi but another friend (the other one who takes me out sometimes (u3a friend) has given me her phone number to call if I need her at night. she is also bringing me a cable needle this afternoon and has sorted out an odd job man she has for her jobs to come and look at my loft door. Yes dentist gave me a small dressing to stop bleeding if necessary in a sterile pack. I also have one in the drawer that T was given and never used. Dentist actually said you can use a tissue or kitchen paper as well. I actually don't normally have a problem after extractions except once when I was about 18 and had septacaemia in a cavity but I think that was the dentists fault, he was worried enough to do a home visit. I now have four top front teeth on a denture, I have to say I am pleased with them, they are very natural, not that you can see my teeth when I talk

At least it's over now AnnG. My dentist told me once to press hard on clean cotton wool over a tooth extraction for a while if it carried on bleeding. The salt water kills bugs and will help too. I must admit I never wore my denture with one tooth on it for a few days as it would have been too sore. I ought to get another now with more teeth on. Try not to worry, as keeping calm will lessen the bleeding. If you needed A&E there's always a taxi.

Thanks again to Mandy I have cleaned the ensuite window and the bay window in the bedroom and the long mirror. I wiped the white tiles around the ensuite window and was surprised at the film of dirt that came off. Methinks the rest of the tiles in there need wiping down as well. Now I must sort those kitchen drawers while OH is out and won't be interrupting and asking what things in there are for.

They are trialling 3 weekly bin collections in some areas here with extra bins for splitting the recycling up. Where will some people keep all these bins?

Back from the dentist. Just taken two paracetamols. I don't take those lightly so you van tell it is painful. The new denture is pressing on where the tooth was taken out and it is very painful It also feels strange at the plastic bit of the denture is larger than my old one, No doubt I will get used to it, dentist said it will be swollen where he extracted the tooth which is why it will hurt. Lots more instructions than I have had before with an extraction. No hard exercise, no heavy lifting!!!, don't chew on that side today )so soup or mashed potato for dinner) Instructions on what to do if it bleeds a lot. rinse with salt water. and if it bleeds more than you think it should overnight go to A&E. Well that might be difficult. If it bleeds a lot in the day call in to see him. A bit worrting if I stop and think about it, especially as Cynth will be away from tomorrow until Saturday.

Forgot to wish Anng a good dental appointment and hoep everything goes ok.

Just finished. Now where was I ?

One year it was white angora and the next year it was pale pink.

We had jellies an oval one with a dip in the top and a round ridged one and the bunny one. all serverved with icecream from a long block in pressed waxed dishes with a fluted edge. Salmon paste sandwiches, little sausages on sticks and iced gem biscuits and the iced ones with the pictures on and egg sandwiches and ham. The drinks were orangeade and Tizer. Also a big birthday ake made by mum of which everyone went home with a slice wrapped in a serviett. We played blind mans buff, pin the tail on the donkey, pass the parcel, musical chairs and a game where you were blindfolded and sat in an upside down rectangular stool and lifted up till your head hit the ceiling which to us small children was a long way up. In actual fact you were only lifted a little way up and a book was plonked on your head which made you think you were up at the ceiling. We were only aloud in the room one at a time so you did'nt know how high you were lifted and the stool was wobbled around a bit. The other game we palyed was one dad invented. He was a builder and decorater and had lots of old wallpaper pattrern books. He would cut lots of the pages in half and we would be given a pattern and wouldhave to rush round the house in all the rooms to look for the other half of your print. It caused great rushing about in and out of the two bedrooms hall and porch bathroom and kitchen. When you returned with your match you would be given another one to do it all over again and the pairs would be added up for each child and the winner would get a small gift of sweets which were the presents for all the games.

Mum would also take pictures of us all together. There were quite a lot of children around our area I played with and we lived on a corner so there were three children in our road and three uop the road we were on the corner of Derek Maddison, Paul Fenton and Denise Brown lived in Peaketon Ave and Sandra Hunt, Delia Baxter and Ann Jeffries in our road. My friend Jane Mills, (mums friend Iris's daughter) Terry Handscombe from Falmouth Gardens and his sister Jennifer and brother Ian and my 2nd cousin Malcomb.

One year we had a fancy dress party. WE had a policeman a mounty, a fairy, Bow bells, a dutchman (Sassie who did tap and ballet) a medieval couple ( Ian and Jenifer) a cricketer ( Dennis) I can't remember what Delia was but I was a ballerina dressed in a Tu Tu of pink made by mum. I shall have to try and dig out the pictures and send them to you. Great times............

Think I better get lunch on the go now.

Oh is up the caravan so I am nice and quiet down here. Its only soup today and nice new bread.

Afternoon Everyone,

We were up early to get to the garden centre before anyone else and I got the 3 yellow stripey carex grasses I wanted for a tall grey pot that has a dark red acer in it. It looked too drab last year so I hope these will brighten it up a bit. As there was no-one in the cafe yet we stayed and had a small breakfast as well. We were going to continue to Nuneaton to just have a second look at the car model OH wants, but he had a migraine and headache last night, (cheese again!) so felt a bit washed out, so we are going tomorrow instead. He also has 2 meetings today that are at the schools so it meant less rushing around for him.

I went and posted the gloves and a little card I painted through the friend's door yesterday. Her bin was out for the bin men, but I don't think she is home yet, but the gloves will be a nice surprise for her when she does gets home.

Mandy I thought just the same about the windows on the front this morning. The sun was showing how badly they need cleaning and it's on the inside too as the outsides were done yesterday.

Yuk, I just stuck a finger in my mouth and it was covered in sanitiser!

The shopping arrived so I will finish my post later.

Good morning All,

Bit grey out there today and it not windy and is quite qarm out.

You talking about parties reminded me of the ones I had when I was young. We lived in a bungalow with my grand parents ( dad's mum and dad) I had a party every year for my birthday and a Christmas party. Mum knited me a little pink bolero in that rabbit wool.

Morning all,

Nice bright morning here ,got to pop to the post office and bank then back to the usual jobs in the house might clean some windows .

Anng good luck at the dentist today .

Better get moving and get up the town before it gets busy ,mini Market day today .

Looks quite bright this morning. Good luck at the dentist AnnG. BBL

Difficult to know if it is a natural progression of getting older and being more cautious or the result of being restricted to the house and locality that is the cause. However just remembering T's 'journey' I can look back and see him deteriorating through 2020 although he did still do that long drive up to the L District in the August when he was 82 he seemed to mentally deteriorate when we came back the longer we were restricted by the virus as well as his medical problems. I suppose it is a combination.

Anyway, good morning all looks grey out there but it is only just light. Another dental appointment to 'look forward' to today. Hopefully that will be the end of this lot.

Neither OH nor I ever had a birthday party or went to any. OH was an only child and so was I till the age of almost 9. There was no special food on the day either. I lived in a small village with no other children my age and my school in the next village had just 2 classes with 30 children altogether so 15 of the eldest in my class up to the age of 11. I bought the rabbit mould after I first got married so I could have what I missed out on as a child, but I only made a couple of blancmanges in the end. I used to like the neapolitan icecream in 3 colours with a slice between 2 wafers. As Gwyn says there were oblong cones that were made to fit the slabs of icecream too.

AnnG not only confidence about walking, we were both saying the other day that we felt the same about going far in our cars now and feel we are being extra careful and making bigger allowances for traffic before pulling out onto islands etc.

Oh yes Vera I am sure we played this games too.

Definitely no party bags. We usually got a piece of birthday cake in a serviette. As a variation on musical chairs we sometimes played musical statues, always played Pass the Parcel and Pin The Tail on the Donkey. If there were enough guests to make two teams there was passing the orange under the chin or matchbox on the nose. Happy days :-)

No party bags for us either Ann.
Having a Christmas time birthday, I do remember that sometimes my mother would take a chocolate tree ornament off the tree for each friend to take home.

Being a summer baby my birthday was in the school holidays and parties were in the garden. I don’t remember any indoors so we can’t have been rained off. Yes we had the blancmange rabbit and jelly I can’t remember anything else except a cake with candles. We played hunt the thimble and musical chairs using the radio from kitchen to garden. I don’t remember any other games played at mine and we didn’t have take home party bags, in the 40s and 50s I was grateful to have a party, money was tight.
Strange you say about losing confidence Vera, with not going out during Covid , and then T falling a lot before going into hospital I have lost a lot of confidence walk-in, still do it but have a fear of falling (which thankfully I haven’t).

Vera, I am sorry to learn that you have more illness in your extended family.
Like the others, I hope the family member can be kept pain free.

The mention of a rabbit mould brings back happy memories.
We had a glass rabbit mould and a birthday blancmange would be made and carried through to the bedroom windowsill to set, - We didn't have a fridge until a good few years later and our small kitchen was on the sunny south side,
It would be set out in chopped jelly 'grass', as Vera mentioned.
I used the same mould for my children, but often made a milk jelly rather than blancmange.

As a child,we never had ice-cream at birthday parties, but it was sometimes a Sunday lunchtime treat to have a slice off the family size vanilla block bought from the Walls icecream van, which only called into our road on that day.
The block would be wrapped in many layers of newspaper and again taken into the bedroom, which was the coolest room in the bungalow.There it stayed until after dinner.
Sometimes our 'slice' was put into a 'cone' with a rectangle shape at the top, made specifically for these family blocks.

Other treats for children's parties might be pink wafer biscuits, chocolate finger biscuits or marshmallow cakes wrapped in bullseye silver and red foil wraps.
Iced biscuits with picture sillhouettes on them were another treat... Were they called Playtime?

Only in much later years were crisps and sausage rolls added to the menu.

Do you remember any party games you played?
Hunt the thimble was quite popular and I don't remember prizes for finding it. One's reward was being allowed to be the hider for the next game.

Rabbit moulds - there's a blast from the past. Birthday teas when we were little often included a pink blancmange rabbit sitting on a bed of chopped up green jelly "grass". I remember one party when I was about 6 where, while we were eating our sandwiches, the man of the house ran up the road to the sweet shop and came back with a block of neapolitan ice cream wrapped in several layers of newspaper and this was quickly cut into chunks before it melted. I think it was the first time I had eaten ice cream at the tea table. I felt very sophisticated. Now we can have a freezer full of goodies that the kids eat every day but I wonder if parties are as special as they used to be.

Lovely hellebores in your photos AnnG. We have one dark pink one that is in flower and a yellow one that has buds that seem to be coming straight through the ground without any stem. That one was new last year and didn't bloom at all and it isn't looking good this year. We also have a white one just coming into bloom and another white in a pot that is full of flowers. OH dug that one up a year or so ago to throw away as it wasn't blooming and looked nearly dead. I persuaded him to put it in a pot and hide it behind something else just to see if it would recover at all. It looks lovely now although the leaves are a rather pale green but it has lots of flowers. I might try digging the yellow one up and potting it. I also have 3 patches of aconites which are all showing a lovely bright golden colour and should be fully open in a couple of days.

It sounds as though the afternoon tea for your sister and bil was lovely Mandy. I bet they were surprised to see you all there. Colin's brother is clever making that wooden chain. I really admire anyone as skilled as that.

You're right about our parents and technology. My Mum died in her 50s so never really got caught up in the digital age but my Dad was 93 when he died and could just about cope with the basic television channels and operating his microwave, at least he could until dementia hit. I remember once when he was probably mid-late 80s and was staying with me. It was my brother's birthday and he was away on holiday, so I sent him a text from Dad and me. Dad asked when he would receive it and didn't believe me when I said he had already got it but had to believe it when a minute later we got a reply. He really found that hard to fathom.

I hope your knees aren't giving you any trouble today Ann. Keep on with the little and often exercise regime. I'm a good one to talk as I am really lacking in exercise lately. After I broke the bones in my foot I seemed to lack confidence in going out on my own but I am trying to make more of an effort now and have been for a short walk of about a mile this morning. Perhaps we'll all get out a bit more as the weather improves. At least today has been sunny for us, though it is still very cold.

I need to go and look through the fridge and cupboards to see what I've got that will make a meal with cold pork left from yesterday. I know I've got potatoes and half a cabbage so I can do bubble and squeak if I can't think of anything better.