General Chat

Hi all just visiting from Tenerife, one week to go, doesn't seem possible we have been here 3 weeks. Huia thatw as some bill for your vehicle service!

Sylvia, hope today has been less traumatic for you.

The weather here today is cooler than it has been, down to about 22/23 and cloudy. Last week it was 34 and a bit too 'muggy' (humid). Anyway, back to my Kindle for a read now. :-D

Hi all


Had the car in for "repairs" today ................ just over $1,000 (ca £500) to add to the $700 (ca £300-350) last week :-(

OH says it was time for a major service ........... about 93,400 km on a 2006 model


PLUS .......... the mechanic found signs that some small animal had found a cozy place to sleep in a rather inaccessible place around the engine ............. droppings etc .............. AND attempts to chew wires.

Looks like it was a squirrel ............ and probably happened while we've been up at the cabin.


OH has to clean out the mess with the vacuum cleaner, and then take it back in to have the affected wiring replaced.




s
xx

Helloooo girls, I am back home safe and sound, but worn out and weary.
Thank you all for dropping by and keeping the thread going.
I will be back tomorrow to tell you how the holiday went, but I am so cream crackered, I shall be hitting the hay very very soon.
Good night god bless, love to you all, Mo xxx

I met up with Persie this morning. We did a lot of chattering, although I think she might be the winner. I had parked in an area where 120 mins is permitted and when I got back out I found I had been away almost 3 hours, so I hope I dont get a ticket.

Huia.

Huia

it sounds as though you and Persie had a great time!!

Hope not Huia, would take the shine off the get- together. Good thing I wasn't around too, you would have been there even longer lol cos I can talk for England when I start lol You would never have guessed eh Persie?

I had a great night out last evening,( without o.h.) My baby brother was 60 on Thursday, day after the 17th anniversary of our Mum's death. We get on ok but since he married in 1976 I haven't seen much of him, his wife was too career orientated and he was working his way up to become a partner in the company he worked for, they didn't have children and after a few years bought a big old house in the country with 5 acres of land. I have only been there once despite it only being 16 miles away - they always had a hectic social life so altho I think I would have been welcomed had I phoned and invited myself, we rarely met up. I think the last time I saw my s.i.l. was probably at my Mum's funeral in 1995 and it's four years since my bro drove me to Essex to a cousin's funeral.

I was very surprised to get an invite to his birthday party held at a Country Golf club a few miles away, my son was also invited with his girlfriend so we went together. O.h. isn't good socially especially with people like accountants and solicitors etc and had to work all day Saturday for 12 hrs so didn't want to go, but he did pay for a taxi so I didn't have to drive. My bro was pleased to see us and it was good to see my s.i.l's brother who had come over from America, and I did remember a few of my brother's old pals from his teen years with whom he is still in touch. The thing that surprised me most was how emotional my s.i.l. was, she kept hugging me and saying how happy it had made her and my bro that I turned up, our other brother and his family declined (tersely, my bro said) so seems I am in the good books now lol (not sure how much she had been drinking lol) My s.i.l. was also very impressed with my son and said I had done a great job bringing him up and should be proud, well you know I am anyway but coming from her who never seemed to want children and never had a lot of time for him or his cousin when they were young it was good to hear. Just a real shame they hadn't been more active in his upbringing considering his dad was so far away in Malta. I was introduced to two of bro's friend's daughters who are his and s.i.l's God daughters, I bet they made more fuss of them growing up than my son got.

Never mind, they can see now what a great young man he is and it is their loss, might be nice if they put him in their will tho Maybe now my bro is semi retired and running his own small consultancy he will have time for us to meet up sometimes.

It was good too to spend quality time with my son's g/f of a year, I haven't spent much time in her company before - she is very sweet about 6 yrs younger than son, and is besotted with him, she really really loves him, and she told me so. She is very wary of new relationships as she has a little boy of 4 who is diabetic so a big responsiblity but his daddy who left her when he was small, has him a lot and is a good dad so that helps her have time out from the worry of checking his blood sugars constantly and injecting him three times a day.

Makes me wonder how things will go with them, I know my son wants his own children as much as he is very good with her little lad, and she seems nervous about having another child....... Told her I had ordered grandchildren from the time my lad left school lol She took it ok but perhaps it will get her thinking, who knows. It would be better if my lad could find a job again but our night out wasn't expensive, lol, free bar, food and music and company, forgot how much I missed it.


Lizx

Liz, nice to see you on here again, even if I am later coming on than you. I am glad you had such a good time at the party. I hope the family reunion is the beginning of a great friendship with your brother and his wife.

I tried to find Persie on FB, finally found her through GRs FB site. But she couldnt find me on FB and we cant find how to invite each other to be friends. I did find Ann in Glos so clicked on her name. Maybe if she accepts me as a friend I will be able to contact Persie through her account. Anybody else on this thread that I can contact? Or who can contact me? I go under my full name. There are other people on FB with the same first and last name as me, so I am not unique :-(

Huia.

Morning Huia
I am on Facebook, if you want to "friend" me just send a message on GR and I will look for you.

Everyone else hope your weather is brighter than ours,just yet.

I am still knitting for the special care unit. A couple more hats made and need to add buttons to a tiny cardigan.
Trouble is I need more wool especially for the blankets and it's not cheap when on no income until Iget state pension in 2 years time.

Have a lovely Sunday everyone

Linda xxx <3 <3 <3

Hello Girls,


Mo, lovely to see you home again, looking forward to hearing about your holiday. Hope Lilly was alright and didn't suffer any problems while you were away.



Huia, it certainly sounds as though you and Persie had a good time. I'll keep my fingers crossed that you won't get a parking ticket....as Liz says it will take the shine off your get-together.
I hope that your car is all sorted now and that you won't have to spend anymore money on it again for a long while.




Linda, you have done really well making all those coats, hats and blankets for the baby special care unit.....as you say the price of wool is awful. My friend knits and crochets quite a lot of baby clothes, she gets her wool off our Thursday and Saturday town market. It isn't expensive, a lot cheaper than buying it from the wool shop, and it's good quality.
Mind you, having a hobby these days is expensive, whatever it is.

How is Sebastian? Hope he's doing OK now with no more problems.





Liz, it's lovely to see you posting on here again, hope we'll hear from you again soon.

Glad to hear that you enjoyed yourself at your brother's party last night....it was good that you were able to spend the evening with your son and his girlfriend too.




Caz, if you are looking in, hope that you are feeling a bit more comfortable and not in so much pain. Take care.



Sylvia, hope you and OH are both alright and that your car won't need anymore money spent on it for a long while.



Well girls, speak to you all again soon.



Take care.



Love and best wishes. Sallie.xxx

Hello my friends,
I have to give my apologies to Liz, as I was meant to be meeting her last week when we were away.
But stupid me forgot to write the number down, and didn't take my laptop away with us,so I didn't have Liz's number to let her know I couldn't make it.
Oooh Liz I am so pleased you had a good night out with your son + his OH.
It's pleasing to hear that things have been smoothed over with your brother.
Life is far to short to bear any grudges.
At least now you will be able to meet up with them both on nicer occasions, rather than just weddings and funerals. lol

Well now, our holiday.........it was o.k, but nothing to write home about.
The caravan was beautiful, the camp lovely and clean, but entertainment was zero. Not even a knobbly knees contest, I was soooo dissappointed about that, as I was going to enter Roly in for it.
They didn't even have a dart board,or even a sports area at all.
They had two swimming pools, one inside and one outside, but that was of no use to us, as we didnt take our costumes.
Baby Lilly did enjoy her swim though. She is such a joy.....until night time, when she just doesnt want to go to sleep.
Our son had to take her to the doctors on Thursday morning. She had such a dry cough, and was choking herself into being sick.
The doctor said she has got croup, and they dont give medication for it, the body has to get rid of it itself. Poor little mite was a really poorly little girl.
The weather on the Saturday and Sunday, was glorious. Monday it rained, and Tuesday we had hail the size of small marbles. But the rest of the week was lovely and dry.
We visited Yarmouth and Norwich a couple of times, but spent most evenings playing Canasta, with nothing happening on the camp site, and Baby having to go down to sleep, we tended not to venture out far.
Buy it was so nice to get away for a week, even though we have come back more tired than before we went.
I suppose it's that we are not used to being woken by a baby so early each day.
One morning I was up with her at 3.15 in the morning, and nobody else heard her. Another morning it was 5.30, and I was feeding her milk, cornflakes and toast at that time, before she fell back to sleep again.
Just my luck being the lightest sleeper of us all.
I think her mum and dad had a good rest, but good old Nan and Grandad were inbuilt baby sitters during the day.

I have done four loads of washing, and got it all dried and ironed and put away.
How can two people make so much washing, after being away for just one week. I dread to think how much I would have had, had we been away for a fortnight.

I couldn't believe it when I read that Ann has only one week left of her holiday. That has really flown by hasn't it.

I can just imagine Huia and Persie gassing away, forgetting about the time.
You know what they say Huia, time flies when you are enjoying yourself.
You can find me on F.B as well Huia. If you use my shortened name as on here, and my surname, that you already have, you will be able to find me.
In fact I am going on there in a minute, so I will try and find you.

Well my friends, I am doing a Huia here and gassing away to my hearts content, and I will have to do a Sallie, and put the kettle on for a cuppa, as my throat is dry.
Tat ta for now girls. Love to you all. Mo xxx

Good evening to anybody looking in.

Chloe the cat has taken to sleeping downstairs in the workshop. I have been feeding her down there as she seems to spend most of her time curled up there - she is elderly. This morning I took her food down, then took some water down for her dish. As I was walking back across the workshop to go upstairs I heard a clicking noise, and saw that the rat trap which had been on a shelf was dangling from the string with which it was tied to the shelf. There was a BIIIGGGG rat caught by one front foot and it was struggling to get free. I got a bit of wood and a hammer and was trying to bash the rat against the wood, but it kept jiggling and swinging. I finally managed to knock in out and it fell to the floor. I dont know if it was dead at that stage but I bashed it really hard on the head. UGGHH. Made sure it was dead. It had beautiful fur, dark grey on top and lighter towards the sides and stomach.

I then went to check on the traps I had in an outside shed and there was another rat, just as big and beautiful, but luckily it was killed by the trap. I think they were both males, so I hope there are no pregnant females around.

Huia, Fighting Against Rats

Huia, I just couldn't have done that, I couldn't get that close to a rat, in a trap or not, you are so brave.

My hedgehogs came back once or twice last week but haven't seen them since. We have an injured blackbird in the garden, it's been around since last Tuesday pm, has only 1 flight feather on it's left wing and half it's tail feathers are gone so it can't fly, it runs everywhere and seems very lively altho sometimes other blackbirds chase it, seems they see it as an intruder now so will try to kill it. It has lots of hiding places in the garden behind tubs and pots and under shrubs and I am leaving out special high protein food as instructed by my friend at her animal sanctuary. We just can't catch it tho, o.h. has called it Scooter cos it scoots around so quickly. It seems to roost at night in the berberis hedge, it can get up quite high by jumping from branch to branch and can jump into pots about 1 ft tall. It will take 5 or 6 weeks for the feathers to grow back so I hoped I could catch it and let my friend take it to her place where it can live in an aviary till it can fly again, but o.h. made a net up with very long cane handle, very unwieldy, and caught it last week but when he put it in a box to call my friend, he didn't cover it over and the bird jumped out and ran off lol Just hoping it can stay alive or will let us catch it so we can keep it safe at the sanctuary.

Lizx

Hello Liz, I hope you are still looking in.

I didnt enjoy having to kill the rat, I used to leave such things to Phil, but now I have no choice.

I do hope your bird survives. I love birds (or most of them).

Huia.

I am wondering if a squirt of bug bomb in the rat's face would knock it out enough for me to deal more easily with it. It was so hard when it was struggling and swinging all over the place. It also prolonged the agony for the rat. Please dont tell the RSPCA.

Huia. :-|

I know you had to do what you had to do Huia, and I won't tell honest.
Maybe you need a handy sack inside one of those pop up weed carriers so you could drop the rat and trap in (make a quick release knot when you tie the trap to the shelf) and then you could carry it outside and do the deed without actually seeing the rat.

Scooter is usually around by this time, hope he/she is ok, I think it's a young blackbird as it has a yellow bill but is not really black, more dark brown but females don't have yellow bills I don't think.

Will keep you posted, must get to bed now, have a good day


Lizxx

p.s. Mo you are forgiven - shame that we couldn't meet but a week flies by fast so I understand that you had no time, even had you had my number. Have you googled that P.S. I mentioned? The doc that baby was seen by hadn't considered that diagnosis till I told the Mum to ask but as soon as she mentioned it, things moved really fast.

Lizxx

Sorry I haven't been on here very much lately, I'm afraid that the 'black dog' is here again, but this time a lot more severe, I'm finding it hard to concencentrate, so if I'm not around very much you'll know why.


Mo, hope you are catching up on some needed sleep. We are not the age to be woken up by babies and toddlers now, are we? lol!!. As much as we love them, we can't cope with them as we did when our children were Lilly's age.




Liz, nice to hear from you again and hope you are feeling a bit better than you've been for a while.




Huia, you are very brave dealing with those rats. I couldn't have done what you did.



Hope all our other friends on here are alright.



Take care everyone.


Speak to you all again soon.


Love and best wishes. Sallie.xxx

Oh my goodness, someone give Huia a set of pipes, she is like the Pied Piper of Hamlyn, with all the flaming rats she has to deal with.
Bless you Huia, you are so strong being able to do what you do, even more so, because Phil used to do it for you.
I have a vision of the rat squirming on the shelf, ooooh yuk.
Chloe is getting very brave in her old age, going down in the workshop for her food. I remember her not wanting to come into the house the last time you had the dreaded visitors.

Hi Liz, can you send me the name of the condition you described to me the other day. Coz guess what, I deleted all my messages by mistake, yes I know, I am a stupid idiot. lol :-(
Has Scooter shown it's head again yet.
I sat in the garden this afternoon watching a blackbird, having a bath in our bird bath.
It was so funny, it jumped in and out the water about six time,ruffling it's feathers in between times, and having a good old scratch. It was so sweet to watch, and I was frightened to breath in case I scared it away.

Sallie honey,stay strong, and pop in and out whenever you need a chat. Give that black dog a kick up the backside. (((((((((((((HUGS FOR YOU)))))))))))

I hope everyone is well, and that our friends from over the water are all well, Sylvia and Marie. We know our Huia is o.k,but sending her hugs as well.

Cheerio for now girls. Take care, love to you all. Mo xxx

Marilyn, how do you know that the ghosts of all the rats I have dealt with this year have not come back in the night to 'get' me? It must be about 2 dozen by now. I would have liked to skin the last two, their fur was so beautiful, I could have made a fur coat. Well not really, 2 wouldnt be enough. I wonder if the animal rights activists would object to a fur coat made from rat fur?

Huia.

Huia, Marilyn is not on this thread love, she's over on the friendlies, it was me that posted earlier.
We wont tell the animal activists anything dont worry. But do not make yourself a rat fur coat, they are riddled with fleas, and will make you itch like crazy. lol
Mo xxx

Oooops, I got you mixed up with her. I knew it was somebody whose name began with M.

The rat wasnt squirming on the shelf. The trap had fallen off the shelf and was dangling by a string tied to the shelf with the rat caught by its right front paw. It looked rather funny but I was going 'oooh, aaa, eee, ugg' while I tried to stop it swinging and jiggling so I could bash it on the head. Why couldnt the stupid thing have got caught properly, instead of just poking a foot in, it would have been killed instantly if it had poked its head in. It would have saved us both a lot of trouble.

Huia.