General Chat

When we woke up yesterday morning I checked the route to Liverpool , only to find out that the M62 on the top of the Pennines because of an accident. That meant we would have to go on a different slower route, but luckily by the time we got up, the motorway had been reopened. We set off early, but everything was fine apart from getting lost at the end, despite using the SatNav. In the end it took us two and a half hours to get there. My daughter had stayed at a Premier Inn just around the corner from the church , so we were able to go there and wait with them. The service went very well as did the wake afterwards. Coming back, the traffic around Manchester was absolutely horrendous, so it took us three and a quarter hours to get back.
I was glad to get into bed last night because my back was aching from being in the car for so long.

It is absolutely freezing last night and isn’t much better this morning. OH had a dental checkup just before lunch, so I went into town with him and while we were there, we had lunch out of course :-)

It is back to reality this afterthought as I have the bathrooms to clean nd then some cooking to do as my son is coming to dinner tonight.

Afternoon all

We had a few snow showers last night and they are on & off. The hills have a light dusting. Daughter went to town and said it is a lot worse over there.

I have been busy wrapping gifts and Tesco came too so pretty non stop here.

Xmas decs are nearly all up, just a few more things to sort out.

Linda, hope you manage but if the Pennines is bad, please dont risk it!

Joan, not sure you will manage out anymore now but you can admire from inside where you are warm and cosy. I still have some roses and fuchsias plus a geranium in flower. Pretty bonkers for November.

Hope everyone is warm and cosy indoors and if you venture out, wrap up well and take care when walking on icy ground. It was 1 degree here last night brrrr

Florence in the hebrides

Good afternoon all.very cold here, 3 degrees but cloud and sun and no rain or snow

Hope the snow holda off for you Linda so that you can get to the funeral.
Joan I think now is the time of year when we have to hope the garden can look after itslelf and we don't have to worry about it. I did manage to pick up some of the leaves in my garden from the neighbour's tree. (I am sure most of the leaves fell on my garden. I filled a large black bag with the leaves so they can rot down for compost next year.

Morning to all.
We had a flurry of snow early this morning, most of it has gone now so you can imaginge how wet it is,some large puddles.
It's very dark just now so looks like more rain or snow is coming.

Loks like my garden days are well & truely over for thie time being, it is soo wet out thre so the leaves are going nowhere.
Looking out of the living room window I can see 2 new flowers on one of my Roses !

Linda I hope you manage to get to the funeral. .

Take care everyone.

Joan.

I hope you are all enjoying the snow :-D
There was a good covering here in the middle of the night. It was still on the rooftops and cars this morning, but it has turned to sleet and is mostly gone now. I hope that it doesn’t get any worse as we have to drive over the Pennines to Liverpool tomorrow to attend a funeral.

I am just pottering this morning, but have to go out to do school reading tomorrow

It is a shame that you didn’t make many sales Florence, hopefully the next one will be better.
Esme likes to go swimming on Sundays and has decided that grandma should come as well :-( So for the last three Sundays we have been “ night swimming” as she calls it. It is actually from 6-7 pm. The baby pool is very warm and they have lots of toys out to play with. The problem is that it is very shallow, so crouching down to keep in the water is quite uncomfortable. They have a lane swimming session in the main pool at the same time which is well attended, so we can’t really get in that until the last fifteen minutes of our session once the lane swimmers finish. It is better for Esme to be in the deeper water. This morning we went morning swimming at 10 am at a different pool for a special needs session. That pool is pretty amazing as it was built in the 1870’s. It is just a rectangular pool, but lovely and warm and I don’t get out of my depth until about three quarters of the way down. That makes it better for the children as they have lots of space to play with all the balls and toys. Sadly the pool really needs a log of maintenance, but the council have no money and are making noises about closing it down. The morning swimming is better apart from having to get up early, but they often sleep in, so don’t make it

Afternoon all

Another crisp winters day but dry and only a little breeze.

Been very busy this week and had first craft fayre on Saturday. Not the best day as lack of people coming made for few sales! But hopeful the next one will be busier as a santas grotto and a photographer will be in attendance so hopefully draw the crowds in.

Made 2 dozen mince pies today and have put out some wooden xmas decs on the shelves. Tomorrow Im doing the tree.

Ive got my appointment for my Knee injections 9th Dec but just found out Im being taken to Aberdeen for a birthday treat that week to see The Stereophonics :-D

So shall phone tomorrow and get that changed. Also got my EchoCardiogram on the 16 December so busy busy time.

Hope everyone looking in is well today and keeping warm. Heating going on right now.

Florence in the hebrides :-D

Cold and windy here - but blue sky, sunshine, and NO RAIN!
Such a lovely day, for once.

However, the garden is too soggy to allow much to be done.
The grass is still growing, and I would have liked to give it another cut before winter, but I doubt that will happen.

Oh well!

It has literally rained all day from when I got up and has been so dark I have had lights on all day. I seem to have found plenty to do though and have not attempted to got out of the house at all.

I hope that your results are good as well Gwynn when you get them.

It is a cold rainy day here, but the rain isn’t very heavy. It seems to be much worse both north and south of us.

I spent the morning doing housework and I have several loads of washing on the go. Apart from that there isn’t much else to do, so it is quite boring really

Good news about your Echo results Joan.
I'm still waiting to hear about my latest one, but I've heard indirectly, from other hospital departments that the situaion looks much improved, so I await the official word with interest.

How lovely that lad wanted to read with you Linda. Let's hope he is as keen next week.
It's great, when the youngsters are keen to read, as it's the pathway to so much of their learning. I'm often surprised that parents haven't heard their child read for many weeks. Just a couple of pages doesn't take that long.

Such a beautiful bright blue sky today. Not too chilly now that the fierce wind had dropped a bit.The leaves are crisp and dry on the ground unlike the soggy ones of a few days ago. I saw narcissus leaves growing quite tall in a garden near my friend's house. I must check for flowers, when I'm round that way again, as that garden usually has the first ones to bloom.
The gardens around here are generally still quite colourful with many summer flowers like Busy Lizzie, Marigolds, Begonias and roses all doing well still.

That is good news Joan.
It is dismal and rainy here today.I spent the afternoon doing my school reading. There is one boy who seems to have ADHD, he normally refuses to read even for the TA. I haven't tried to read with him, but when I went into the classroom today, he asked me if I was going to read with him, so I did. According to his reading record, he hasn’t read anything at home since September, he actually read to a high level. At the end of the afternoon, I made a point of thanking him for reading with me and asked if he would like to read again next week. He said he would, so we shall see.

Still rainy weather here, just when I think I might get outside the rain comes on, so depressing.

I got my Echogram results today, said to be satisfactory, no follow up.
That's a relief.

Hope all is well wih everyone.

Joan.

The weather has definitely turned here, it has been raining all day. Good for the reservoirs as we still have a hosepipe ban and they are only about sixty percent full.

I got my new glasses last week and I knew straight away that something was wrong with them. The optician said that my left eye had changed a lot and the sight in it was much better, so the new glasses would be strange at first. I persevered with them, but my left eye was so sore all the time and my distance vision was no good. I rang up yesterday and they gave me an appointment for today, so I went this morning.. They get the prescription from a machine these days, then the optician just tweaks it. When the woman used the machine, she said that the prescription for my left eye wasn’t much different from my previous glasses,so no wonder my eye was hurting as the lens was far too weak. -They are remaking them and it will be a week to ten days before they come back. In the meantime I have gone back to my old glasses and they seem perfectly fine to me.

This afternoon it was the memory cafe, we have a Painting Pots shop in the town and the woman who runs it came with Xmas decorations. They all had a good time decorating them, there were some very artistic efforts. They have gone off to be fired and we will get them back before the next meeting.

Having a male nurse of doctor doesn’t bother me Joan, if you need to go back, just request a female .

I hope your Xmas fayre goes well Florence and the weather is nice, so you get a good turnout

Hi, another ubbish day here, not cold & calm but soo dull & now the rain again.
I'm not getting outside is getting to me now, leaves everywhere.

I'm not coping well at the moment, the days are so long when cooped up inside all the time, there's only so much housework to do now that I am on my own, & not being overly active I don't sleep well at nights, I so miss Jack'

Our daughter tries to come over but she can't be here all the time, she has a little job now & though it's just for a few hours her 3 children take up so much of her time, The 3 of them have various after school & holiday time activities & the eldest now has a job after school & as it is not on our bus route his mam has to take him & bring him home.

re the Echogram scan, I have never had a male nurse for any type of appoitment before, I felt very uncomfortable, I don't know why they bother with a gown as the first thing he did was throw back the opening !!
He was quite young & I do wish now that I had asked for a female to do the scan, I would be reluctant to have the scan done again if it was a male nurse !

Florence, so sorry to hear you were off colour,hope you are ok now.

Linda, as usual you & your hubby are kept very busy with various things.

Joan.

Afternoon all

Wasnt well yesterday as had a dreadful migraine which got worse as the day went on so i had to take to my bed all afternoon. Last night it had eased but was still painful. So went to bed at 11 and slept right through til 9am today and am glad to say, I "normal" again!

Glad it wasnt later in the week as we have our first xmas craft fair this Saturday. We are all organised for that and shall load up the car on Fri eve as we leave at 8.45 Saturday.

ArgyllGran, sorry to hear about your coughing fit whilst you were out. Hope you are feeling much better now.

Joan, hope the fog has gone so you can get outside.
Today ots a beautiful winters day with blue skies and sun. Little wind and a nip in the air but none the less a lovely day.

Re your Echo Cardiogram, I have had several done by men & women. I didnt request a chaperone as it really doesnt bother me. They are there to do a job and check my heart not look at my bits! But maybe if you had asked for one, Im sure you would have been given one.

Sometimes, we have to ask these days for these things and being offered is a thing of the past. I guess its down to if they have the staff to spare maybe.

Anyway hoping all went ok and you got a good report. I have one due before the end of the year as I have them 2 yearly.

Just waiting on Tesco 1-3 but no sign yet so just have to be patient.

Florence in the hebrides
PS

Linda....oh my Im exhausted reading all your news!! Hope son in law is recovering well.

JustGinnie, we dont drink in this household either so its only food to buy for the festive but...we do have some non alcoholic wine and Pimms which is just as tasty.

Good morning everyone, I have been reading the posts, but haven’t been posting for a couple of weeks, things have just been so busy.
Half term was busy as usual, lots of playing with Esme while her mum was working. I took her to Lightwater Valley for the last couple of times this year. They finished the season with a large fireworks display, before closing for the winter. Esme was distraught at the end of the last day, she was actually crying when she was saying goodbye to her favourite entertainers. She got lovely cuddles from her favourite girl.

I had my sister and brother in law staying for three days in half term as well, so that entailed lots of meals out, not good for the diet. Since she had the massive brain tumour removed, she is so incredibly slow in doing anything. It is a miracle that she is still here of course, but she insists on hovering and helping in the kitchen. I have to accept her help of course as I don’t want to offend her, even though I would just prefer her to go and sit down, so I could do things four times faster.

Then during half term Esme’s father finally got to the top of the NHS waiting list and had his gall bladder removed. It was done by key hole surgery, but he had four separate incisions so he has been very sore.A couple of days ago, he bent over and hurt his back(a long standing problem) He has a two week sick note and can’t drive. That means that we are having to pitch in to get Eve to school, poor OH has been getting up early to drive her every morning. We also collect her on an evening to take her home. We will have to do that for at least another week
:-(

Grey and cloudy here, too - but dry and calm.

It definitely seems that Christmas is on the way - already.
"Santa Baby" (which I love - makes me want to boogie in the aisles) was being played in one of the shops I was in this morning.

It's hard to know what to do about Christmas presents.
One of my adult sons doesn't give presents to anyone over 18 - but does give presents to me.
My other adult son gives presents to all the family.
My daughter wants to stop both giving and receiving presents - but will still give them to her children (aged 17 and 25).

It would be good if everyone would decide on one policy - and stick to it!

And the question of cards -
I love receiving Christmas cards, and enjoy writing them to other people - but it 's ridiculously expensive to post them now.
E-cards just aren't the same.

I'm getting to the end of a horrible cold. My colds always end with a cough which lasts for days. It's a tickly cough which is uncontrollable once it starts.
It attacked me in the middle of Aldi today - eyes streaming; couldn't stop; people looking - so embarrassing.
Another customer kindly gave me a bottle of water which did help - though of course I had to pay for it on the way out.

I hope Sylvia in Canada is OK.

Morning to all.
I had planned to go outside this morning as it was dry & brightish, but the fog came down so that scuppered my plans.
It was foggy yesterday as well so no leaves shifted for a few days.

I had to have an Echgram scan on Wednesday,& was not happy that it was a YOUNG male nurse that did it !
No-one asked me if that was ok & there was no chaperone, I so wanted to be "awkward" & request a female nurse but there had been an issue with getting the appointment at MY local hospital in the first place & it took 6 mths to get the appointment so I said nothing but I wasn't happy.

I just hope my "upset" didn't affect the scan !

Some of you ar getting busy with your Christmas present shopping etc, I only do money gifts now & only to the grandchildren, & my Card list is very short so not many to write.

Still quite foggy so looks like I will be getting the hoover out instead of getting on with the garden jobs.

Joan.

Morning all, hope everyone is ok.

I have started buying Christmas presents not that I have many to buy now as grandchildren have money off us . We don't do big presents just a smallish one for each person. Also been deciding what food I shall need for the xmas period as will have some visitors from overseas then. Don't have to worry about booze as we are all non drinkers so just some soft drinks to get.

This is the month for blood tests and OH diabetic screening so will be out and about to drs etc . a few times.

Fireworks here are a nuisance most nights around here we have the bang and boom of them being let off usually after midnight , this happens all year round not just November . Fortunately our dog seems to be ok with them we've had dogs in the past who were petrified .

Florence your chairs sound really lovely, well done for recycling .

Joan hope you get some more dry weather so you can get rid of some more leaves. They are awful when they are wet.

Well must go and do some h/w and sort out what I need from the shops tomorrow.


Take care all.