General Chat

Hi Girls,

I'll try to write this again...I got about two thirds of the way through typing a message to you all, and lost it.


I've had a busy few days with the family, so haven't had time for anything else.
It was nice having Richard and Christie stay for a few days. We had a couple of outings and also had a meal out to celebrate (a bit early) my birthday. We went to eat at the place we mostly go to when we have something to celebrate and we weren't disappointed, the food was good as it usually is.

Richard and Christie went back home yesterday, so it's back to normal again.



Sylvia, I hope all goes well at the doctors for you today. If you need to have a biopsy do you think if he knows you are going away for three weeks he might be able to arrange to get it done before you go?
As it would be nice not to have it hanging over you so that you can relax and enjoy your holiday. Thinking about you and sending you lots of positive thoughts.



Jean, you must be thrilled to have Jeff home again, I bet he's being spoilt between you and Debra. I'm also sure that Jeff is really happy to be home with you all again, and if the hospital food there is the same as it is here, he's glad to get home to home cooking. Still at the end of the day it's the medical and nursing care at the hospital that's the most important thing.
Take care.




Linda, glad that you enjoyed your weekend at Aberystwyth. I have only ever been there once and that was many years ago, so can't remember much about it.
It's a shame that the rain stopped you going to Tintern Abbey. It's lovely around that area , but you do need a nice dry there. When I was in school Tintern was one of the places we went to on the school trip...... along with the other favourites, Bristol Zoo, Wells Cathedral and Cheddar Caves.
Those were the dayslol!!!

Hope that your mum and dad are feeling better, and that your dad is managing to cope OK with your mum. Thinking about you all.




Caz, hope that Phil is improving day by day and that the hospital are starting to get his medication sorted. I kow it takes a while to get the dosage right.

Also hope that you are feeling a bit better than you've been lately and that you feel more comfirtable and not in as much pain, as you've been. It's lovely that you don't have to go to see the Consultant for a few months.
Thinking of you both and sending lots of positive thoughts.



Jude, hope that all is well with you and your family.Thank you for asking about Jennie....she's much better and back to her usual happy self, thank goodness. Although she's hasn't regained her appetite completely, it's a lot better than it was. She's going to get in touch with the dietician today as there are a couple of things that she needs to find out.




Ann, hope that you and T are both alright. Have had time to make any cards lately?
We went to the Range late yesterday afternoon, I only went for some
6x6 ins blank cards, but I couldn't get the ones I needed there but I found that they had had some of their new Christmas stuff in, so as you can guess, I bought some of that.lol!! So I'm like a child with a new toy now, can't wait to get them started, but I have to make a few birthday cards before I start on them.



Huia, I wish that I could do as much on the computer as you can.....I can only do so much and then have to wait for Alun to help me with the rest. Also you are also good at photography.....I really admire you.

Hope that Phil was well, and alert and responsive when you last visited him. Thinking about him.



Mo, I hope that both you and Roly are feeling better, and that your cough is not as bad as it's been.

Are your son and his family back from Scotland yet, or are they staying longer and making it a holiday? Hope Lilly's Christening went well. Bless her.

Have you got a darts match tonight ? Hope your team will win if you have.
I'm sure that you told us at one time that your darts matches stopped during the summer holidays, but I might have got that wrong and dreamt that you had told us that,lol!!




Marie, hope that you are alright. Also hope your grandchildren are okay.
Have they heard anymore from the hospital about what's happening with your granddaughter's kidney? I hope that all will go well and that they can sort the problem out for her.




Tess, hope all is alright with you and your family. It seems a long while since I have spoken to you.




Betty, lovely to hear from you and hope that you are making some progress with your family tree.Take care.



I've heard from Joyce, she's got an appointment with the doctor this evening, she has to pick up a letter to take to the hospital when she goes, so let's hope that they can sort out her chest problem, and also a couple of others.




Well, girls, I'm going to have a cuppa now and start on the cards.


Speak to all soon.


Love and best wishes. Sallie.xxx

Phew I'm out of breath as I have just been reading Sallie's post. Made up for lost time Sallie.

Pleased to hear that you had a good time with Richard and Christie, nice to go out for a meal with them isn't it. We enjoyed ours out with L & J when we were in the Lake District.

Yes we are both fine, we have a lot of birthdays in July so I have been busy making their cards.

Huia what make is your camera. I hope you get a lot of pleasure out of using it.

Not achieved much today except for doing the food shopping. T****s have a the spend £50 and get 5p off a litre of fuel on (I think S's have an offer on also), As it happened there was a lot of meat in the reduced secrion so our bill was £97 so way over the £50. still the meat frozen will last a while.

Hi all
xx


Just waiting for OH to come home ... he had an eye test at 12:30pm in the neighbourhood, so phoned a little while ago and said "why don't I pick you up to go back to the university". Otherwise I would have had to leave the house right about now to be sure to get out to the university in time for my appointment!


He came home with a new camera on Tuesday ............... I'm buying it for him for anniversary and birthday presents. I'm thinking it might be the next 10 years worth of presents :-D..................... it's a Canon Rebel T3, with a 50mm macro lens.


hope you are all well.




sylvia
xx

Ann, my camera is a Canon Power Shot SX20 IS. I am supposed to format the memory card but havent managed to do it yet. I didnt have to do that with the one for my Fuji camera. I had a lot of trouble getting the mem. card out of its wrapping, bits of cardboard all over the place.

Sallie, Phil had a temp. yesterday morning, I was told, and he still felt hot when I visited just after lunch and seemed to have a bit of a cough. He only opened his eyes a couple of times and wouldnt look at me. I did spend an hour with him. There was one man who is just there for daycare who said 'this is the loony bin isnt it?' I told him that it was a hospital to care for people who were not well. I dont think he was convinced though that it wasnt the loony bin. Such things dont exist these days!

I must change my calendars while I think of it, since we are now into July. Then I must have a play with the new camera.

Huia.

Sylvia, you posted while I was typing. I hope your OH enjoys his camera. What sort of thing does he like to photograph?

Huia.

Sylvia, sending you extra good wishes for your appointment. I'll be thinking about you. Take care!



Huia, sorry to hear that Phil wasn't too good. I hope that he's better soon. Bless him.

Hope that you can sort out your new camera OK, so that you can use it. But I'm sure you will manage to do it.



Ann, I did write rather a lot, as you say I was making up for lost time.....hope you got your breath back OK.lol!!!

I've had a look at yours and Jeans cards on the blog.....lovely as always.




Love, Sallie.xxx

Sylvia that sounds a wonderful camera. Does your OH take a lot of macro shots? Of flowers or insects?

Huia hope you have managed to format the card now and that you enjoy playing with your new camera

Sallie glad you like the latest cards. Hopefully there will be more from you soon.

Ann, I dont know what they meant about formatting the card. I decided to try taking photos anyway and took 4 but have deleted 3 as the lighting wasnt right. I couldnt work out how to get it into macro. I tried doing what I do with the other camera but it didnt work so I guess I will have to read the book to find out how.

Huia.

Hi

Huia ... sorry to hear that Phil has a temperature. Hope that it does not develop further into a cold or flu.



The news from the doctor was that I have to wait for the mammogram clinic to make an appointment for a biopsy .... they are still almost 100% certain that the calcifications are benign, but want to be absolutely sure.

Tomorrow (ie, Friday) is a holiday here ....... Canada Day, Canada's 144th birthday, and as big here as July 4 is in the US ....................... so I shall wait until Monday and then call the clinic to tell them that I'm away from July 9 to 27.



Huia and Ann ......... OH likes to take photos of flowers, plants, and insects, as well as scenery and "people".

He used to use a Pentax, lovely camera, that he'd had for many years (it has a metal body!!), and which had all kinds of lenses that he'd acquired over the years. We still have it, but he decided it and all the accessories were getting a bit heavy to carry around


so he got a Canon digital ..................... but it doesn't do justice to flowers. I forget the model he has

so he started talking about getting a larger digital, and then settled on the Canon Rebel.

Fortunately it came on sale this week at the camera dealer that we usually use, for about $300 off.


so I took the chance to solve the perennial problem of "what do I buy for ...?"


I have the Canon PowerShot A720, and find it good for what I use it for ..... scenery and people. I have been thinking at looking at a smaller one that would fit more easily in my handbag. J has a very tiny digital that she can carry easily in her pocket. She uses it to keep a record of "jobs" that she does, and says it is really clear, and easy to use.


We have a shelf-ful of "old" cameras .... the Brownie box camera that my dad used in the 40s and 50s. A little Boots "point and shoot" before there were such things ................ that one took 2 photos per negative! An Itlaian made one called Comet, also I think from Boots.

His prized one is the Kodak Retinette IIB that his father gave hime as a 21st present about 50 years ago. It had just come onto the market and has all kinds of features ............ in fact Kodak took it off the market within the year, removed some of the features, then brought it back at a higher price!

He's always taken slides, and I've always used film for prints ....... until we went digital that is



sylvia
xxx

Sorry I missed you Sylvia. I expect you are in bed now. I have found out how to do macro shots - just point and shoot. With my Fuji I had to press the 'thing' in the right place, once for up to 2 cm or twice for up to 1 cm. My next task will be to see if I can get the photos onto my computer. I just hope I dont have to download (or is it upload?) a new thing to enable me to do it.

Huia.

Good evening everyone.
I hope that this post will not vanish into thin air, as I have been having problems with my laptop.
I am doing a full scan at the moment, and will do a defrag when that is done, to see if it clears the problems up.
If it doesn't work, it means back to P.C world to get it sorted.

Sylvia, thinking of you constantly, and praying for a good outcome love.

All is well here, apart from the problems on here. I will say bye for now, and fingers crossed that you get this message.
Love to you all Mo xxx

Sylvia, you and your OH sound just like us!! We have a shelf and a cupboard full of cameras.including a Kodak instamatic, an Olympus trip, several Minoltas, those are all film cameras, also a russian cheap large format. And a few other cheaper cameras all film. Then we have several compact digital, An Olympus or two, a Konika, that is very small, and a Panasonic Lumis TZ3. And there are two digital SLRs OH has a Fufi fine pix 7000 and I have a konica Minolta Dynax auto focus with interchangeable lenses and a Hybrid (smaller than an SLR and larger than a compact but with all the features of an SLR but a fixed lense (x 24 zoom). So plenty to choose from. I did have another minolta digital SLR but gave that to our eldest Grandson. We are off to a National Trust garden tomorrow to take pictures of the flowers there.

Huia, so the memory card didn't need formatting at all then? Or maybe it formatted automatically when you took your first photos. Yes my OH has a digital compact that you just point the camera and shoot on macro, the camera judges by the distance. Mine I actually set either to macro or to macro zoom.

Mo, hope you get your pc problems sorted out.

When I installed the stuff from the 'solution disc' that came with the camera I found that it had a user guide, 180 pages including the 34 that came with the camera. It looks as if there is another way to use macro so I will have to study the instructions which I have printed out for that page and see if I like the results any better.

Apparently there was an earthquake in Auckland last night, only 2.9 but felt by quite a few people. I cant say I noticed it. :-(

Huia.

Good morning if anybody is looking in here! I went to see my sister and her OH today. I asked him to take some photos of me on my camera, they have to be suitable for a billboard. I wasnt entirely happy with the results as my top was a bit loose and crumpled around the waist, but I have cropped it, although as I am going to town tomorrow I will see if I can get somebody in the photo shop to take some better ones. I really need to wear a burqua to hide all my moles and wrinkles.

After lunch I went to visit Phil and he was awake and looked at me a few times, though I dont see any sign of recognition in his eyes, but he was talking to me. Unfortunately even with the hearing aids on the correct setting and with my head quite close to his I cant hear what he is saying for all the other noise in the room and his quiet voice. But at least it is nice to hear him talking to me.

Huia.

Ahhh Huia, what a shame you were unable to hear Phil properly.
Did they sort your hearing aids for you, when you went to see the people who fitted it for you.
Don't forget to send us your new updated photo.
I am still having problems posting, I am not sure if it's something to do with Google, or just this site.

Our little Lilly and her parents have arrived safetly back from Scotland. I could not believe how much she has grown in just one week.
She has decided she wants to be on her feet constantly, and screams when she is made to sit in her chair.
The same thing happened when they took her to Scotland the last time.
Apparantly when G grandma decided she was going to lie down, Lilly had to go with her, so little ones routine has been completely upset.

So Sylvia you will definately see a difference in MJ. when you see him soon.
I hope you are o.k my love, you are in my thoughts daily.

Nothing really exciting has been happening here I'm afraid, so not a lot of news to tell you about.

Heres hoping that this post will be accepted.
Take care my friends. Love Mo xxx

Hi all


another sunny day here ....... although it did begin to rain, hard, at about 9 pm last night, and continued for several hours. It was just cloudy this morning, then the sun broke through


Now, that I could live with!!


Mo .... thanks for the thoughts xxxx




sylvia
xxx

Hello all, just a short note.
I am still having a lot of trouble trying to get onto Genes reunited, it took me almost 30 min's just to get onto the site then I wanted to get into the Wattlers site but got the "" Error ! sorry we cant take you to this site,""so it is weeks since I have been able to get into that site.
Sylvia I do hope your Biopsy , when you have it done is negative good luck.
It is wet and cold here. we are all well for the moment I am rather tired .I will be starting to write up the Tree for the reunion as soon as I can get some suitable paper to do the first draft then I shall try to find a nice Paper or parchment for the final draft. :-)
Lots of <3 to you all.
It is late and I must cook my self something for dinner
God Bless you all Marie ;-)

I went to town this morning. The young woman in the photo shop took 4 photos on my camera (5 if you count the first one where I am saying 'Oh' because I realised I still had my glasses on). She didnt charge anything for taking the photos, even though I asked. I came home, put the photos on my computer and then onto the dvd disc on which I already had the ones my bro in law had taken. Back to town, posted the disc to Invercargill, then into the hospice shop for the afternoon. My partner and I took over $300 in the afternoon, 12.30 - 4.00. The morning women took a bit more than us. Some of the stuff in there is very good. I came home with a laptop case for $2.50, not that I have a laptop, but it might make a good cabin bag for my trip for the camera etc. Also some knitted slippers, nice and cosy, $7, and a glass microwave turntable $2, usually about $25 to buy. I do have a microwave and my turntable is still fine but I thought it would be handy to have a spare at that price. Last of the big spenders, that is me.

Huia.

Huia, you are supposed to go to work in the shop not buy it Lol!!! It must be very tempting though.

Marie, Have you contacted GR about not being able to get onto thesite or into the Wattlers thread. Put it on the suggestions thread as that is where they are picking up problems. Have you tried logging on under the ZA site? Down the bottom second flag from right on mine, if you hover you can see which site it is in the left hand bottom corner of your screen. This log on seems to have fewer problems.

Ann, on mine the ZA site is the one on the right. To the left of it is the NZ site and to the left of that the Aussie site, then below that is the US site. No mention of the UK site. I am on NZ.

Huia.