General Chat

Morning all.
Its raining here but more drizzly than actually raining.

Just waiting for the carpet men to arrive. Slept quite well on the sofa but boy it was far too warm as the room was chocca with stuff.

Have a good day all.
Florence in the hebrides

Linda, I used to be a Support fpr leaning Assistant and worked with a variety of children from 5-14 yrs on the spectrum. Some were a 10 and had difficult behaviours and some were maybe a 2 0r 3 and had perhaps social issues.

But but the one thing we did that was consistent was always Praise the Positive & ignore the negative. Finding good distracting strategies for those times when a child is having a meltdown is one solution.

The problem is, children thrive on routine & structure and sudden change can affect them badly. So trampoline is out but maybe big cushions could be another way of jumping safely and having fun? Its no easy task as I have been bitten, punched and kicked many times.

One therapy though that does work is calming music on in the background or songs the child really likes.

Sorry I sound like i'm preaching to you when i'm sure you are all very aware of what can happen when changes occur. But I leant a lot over the years and picked up new ideas from other staff in other schools. I guess the key with changes in behaviour is to try and spot the change at the earliest you can so to minimise a meltdown.

To get a child off a swing or trampoline go and make ice cream cones and im sure they will come to you or whatever their fav lolly is etc.

Anyway, glad SIL made it back in time for your family meal.

My bedroom is completely emptied, dusted the skirting and hoovered.

Spring cleaning of a major kind springs to mind lol

Joan, I think you are amazing with all you do and yes I remember when you were so ill a few years ago but like me you made a good recovery and I'm not fit for the recycling bin yet either :-D :-D

I decided for tea, I'm having millionaire salted caramel cheesecake and fresh strawberries. Its a Tesco cheesecake and is delicious.

Still hot and sunny here and thankfully no sign of any thunder!

Florence in the hebrides

Oops sorry about that Joan. I am really glad that you recovered after you illness

The rain has started to come down here. It was unfortunate that Esme was having a lovely time playing on the trampoline when it started. She us now having one of her autistic meltdowns It is really difficult to cope with her when she has one of those.

My daughter is half way through a book entitled “ No fighting, No biting, No screaming. How to make behaving positively possible for people with Autism and other developmental difficulties “ hope she finishes it soon :-D :-D :-D

Linda, you have mixed me up re robot hoovers, it was Florence that said she had not heard of them, lol.
I have heard of & seen them but never fancied one.

On the whole I feel quite fit & can usually tackle lot's of jobs particularly in the garden, but I do have to pace myself.
It was a differnt story 3 years ago though, I was really ill & I thought it was all over for me, I can hardly believe how ill I was & how I am today !!

Joan.

The vouchers sound to be a good idea Joan as at our age, we really have all the possessions we need. You must be fit with all that work.

Son in law actually made the meal, just a little bit late, but that was because the carers had locked him in the house and he couldn’t get out.He had to call them and get them to come back when he realised what had happened They use a key in a key box outside. He doesn’t have a key anymore as he just uses the one in the key box when he arrives They don’t have a key in the house as his father used to unlock the doors and wander out, or even worse he would lock the door from the inside, then leave the key in the lock, so no one could get in.
Personally I think he would be safer in a home, but in his more lucid moments, he is adamant that he won’t go in one and to be fair, the carers situation works well.

I thought everyone had robotic hoovers Joan :-D. We actually have one as it was a present. I used to turn it loose downstairs and it would beaver away, you just have to be careful not to fall over it. I haven’t used it since the girls took up residence as there is usually stuff all over the floor. Mine is just a cheap one , so I have to plug it in to recharge it.

I think the robot lawn mowers are good, my daughter had a fairly small rectangular lawn in London and they had one. You just bury a wire around the outside of the lawn and it randomly cuts the lawn inside the wire. When it has finished, it goes back to its docking station to recharge itself. Without it, the lawn would have been a foot high because they are not keen gardeners. OH has a petrol mower because our lawn is large.

We still haven’t had any rain, it is very humid and the storms are supposed to be coming later on. I have just planted out all the geraniums I bought, the soil is like dust, so they got a good water. If the forecast is correct, there should be plenty of rain in the next few days, so they should be OK

Good afternoon everyone, another lovely day here but we have a welbome breeze that has made my day in the garden so much easier to deal with.
No rain or storms yet ! really need some rain if only to save on my legs when having to water things myself, lol.

I have got quite a lot done today & still feel able to do more but i neeed to have a wee breather before its time to have tea.

I have trimmed back a 15 foot "hedge",which has grown up & over, along a garden wall, it's a bit of a mixture of plantings, mostly a Cotoneaster & a Fuschia ( a hardy native Fuschia that is almost impossible to get rid of !!
I have managed today to trim it all back to 1/2 the depth that it was & reduced the height, looking much better, really chuffed to get it smartened up, lol.

Our daughter came over with cards & pressies for her dad, she got him 2 vouchers for the local chippie, lol, lovely idea in my opinion, he's absolutely delighted with them. no use by date on them so we can have them whenever.

Tattie soup for tea, smells lovely.
Bye for now, enjoy the rest of your Sunday everyone.

Joan.

Afternoon everyone looking today.

Thankfully, the storm clouds eventually passed over with just a couple of rumbles of thunder but no lightening.

Its a little cooler at 19 degrees but still warm outside. I shifted 2 chest of drawers, 2 bases and a king size mattress. Oh boy needed a sit down after that.

my lounge now looks like a junk yard as does daughters bedroom. But we hoovered my bedroom as the dust behind the bed etc was dreadful.

I have realised that the large pot where i planted some peas must have contained a few bits of potato from last year and the pea seeds are well out of date. So instead of peas growing. I have at least 6 potato plants :-D :-D :-D
So very strange! :-S

I stripped my bed and its all drying nicely on the line and a good breeze as I think our weather is going to break on Tuesday so making use of free drying.

Linda, poor son in laws father and what a carry on. At 99, is he safe to still be on his own one wonders. a robotic hoover? Never heard of that, must be a new invention.
Hope he does make it back before the girls are in bed though. Hope you enjoy your Sunday lunch too.

As for food today, I just cant face much. I have had a nectarine and a plum plus some toast and that's me full. See how I feel later.

Well off to make a coffee and catch up on some emails.

Florence in the hebrides

Well, the rain stopped just after I posted and we haven’t had any more. Looking at the forecast, we have a sixty percent chance of getting some this afternoon, so fingers crossed.
I didn’t hear any, but according to the local Facebook page, there was a huge bang at 3.30am and half the town has lost its electricity. It is still off and isn’t expected to come back on until late morning.Luckily this time ours hasn’t gone off, so I can smell breakfast being made downstairs.

The girls came in just after eight with Father’s Day presents for OH. Esme wanted him to have breakfast in bed, but he hates that, so he is downstairs supervising.

The girls daddy isn’t here because he had to drive over to see his father yesterday. He said he was leaving at 11am, but he is so disorganised that is was 1.30 by the time he actually left. We are going out for Sunday lunch, but I doubt he will be back in time as he will have to leave his fathers by 9am and he will never do that. It will be a shame for the girls if he doesn’t get back, so we will have to see.
He wasn’t supposed to be away this weekend, but at 5am on Friday morning they had a call from his fathers fall alarm company to say that the alarm had gone off and they couldn’t get through to him so they were sending an ambulance as they couldn’t get in touch with any of his carers at that time. His father is ninety nine and still lives alone even though he has dementia. He has carers four times a day and it generally works well. The trouble is he won’t answer the phone and goes round unplugging things if he can get to them. When the ambulance got here, he was fine, but they thought he had unplugged his alarm box and that sets the alarm off. Later on it turned out that it was actually the robot vacuum cleaner which had “ eaten” the wires. It is programmed to clean the lounge and the hallway at 4 am, then go back to its docking station. His father rarely gets out of bed until the carers come, but occasionally he does, hence him having a fall alarm. The vacuum cleaner shouldn’t have been near the alarm wires, so maybe his father had been fiddling with things again. No one will ever know, but that is why the girls daddy had to go to sort things out.

Well we had another hot sunny day and not a breath of wind and no midges...yay! :-D

However just after tea, we suddenly noticed how dark it had become and all the pegs were shaking on the washing line. So opened the back door and oh my, the wind had just whipped up like a tornado and the angry black clouds were above us.

The was some thunder in the distance but was awful seeing the sky like that.

I went on this site called lighteningmaps.org and there you can see where in the whole of Europe where the lightening and thunder is. I could see it was several miles from us but is edging nearer all the time grrr. I am quite scared of storms and daughter even worse.

however like you Linda, I don't care if it chucks it down as we are so desperate for water. The grass cant be mowed until there is some grass to mow as it is just bare and strawlike!.

Just light chores and moving things out of my bedroom bit by bit. daughter managed to water the plants before the wind picked up.

Off to make a coffee in case we lose power.

Florence in the hebrides

Hurray, it i# finally raining

I drove my daughter to Harrogate today with the girls as she has an appointment for an eye test. It was sunny this morning and we weren’t expect rain until later tonight. While we were having lunch, it began to get very dark and then it started raining. Of course we didn’t have any coats with us, so we ended up getting wet. It was quite warm though, so it didn’t matter.

When we got home, we found that there hadn’t been any rain, but it has started now. It isn’t very heavy, but as long as it keeps going, I will be pleased.

They still give the scraps out here, people get a whole bag of them.

It is also extremely hot and humid here today. I went to the nearby town today as I needed a few things I can’t get here. I also wanted to go to the nursery to get some more bedding plants. It is a charitable organisation which trains disabled adults, so I like to support them. They had very few left, but they were all half or ice. I bought fifteen geraniums to put in the borders. They have bright pink leaves, very unusual, but they will be very striking in the borders. Best of all, they were only £1,20 a pot. I won’t put them in the garden until Sunday, we are due to have rain then thank goodness.

Esme loved her bed,she was really pleased that she could get in and out by herself. She often needs to go and have a rest during the day, she doesn’t ever go to sleep, she just watches her iPad. We put the side up at bedtime in case she rolled out, when she had her rest when she came home from school today, she insisted on having the side up, she must feel more secure. My daughter was pleased because she said that this morning Esme’s head was still on the pillow and she hadn’t slid down the bed at all

Florence, interesting to hear your description re "scraps" from the chippy.

In York where I was born & grew up (yks in general ) our scraps at the chippy were the loose bits of batter that fell off the fish,whilst being cooked, folks would always request scraps when buying fish & chips,& no charge. Yummy.

Here in Aberdeenshire chippies never serve them up to customers, they throw them away !

Joan.

So Tesco came a wee while ago and everything away and in its place. We made pizza bases today and created our own pizza to have with chips.

Talking of chips, I bought a large bag of Hearty straight cut oven chips from Tesco as they are cheaper than leading brands. I opened the bag and put enough for 2 into a freezer bag to make it easier to store in my small freezer. I made 4 bags up in all.

However, in the bag was loads of what we used to call scraps. You could get a bag of scraps from the chippy near the end of the evening for pennies. Tiny bits of potato.
I have never seen so many scraps instead of actual chips. So i have taken a picture of all the scraps, the bag, barcode and the date and am going to email the pics direct to the company and see what they say.

So anyway, was far too hot for me to sit outside and its still boiling. My little flower pots are so dry, the Alyssum and marigolds are dying before they have flowered. We havent managed out last few days much as the midges stopped that so really hoping we can give everything a good water with a jug a bit later on.

Joan Fish & chips sounds good whatever the weather. Always have when at the seaside on holiday.

Its currently 25.5 in my lounge as the sun is in here nearly all day but my bedroom is at the back and cooler at 23.

Mums flat has now had over 100 views/searches, just hoping for some viewings very soon!

So relaxing for a bit before putting on the food.

Florence in the hebrides

Very hot again here too.
There's enough of a breeze to keep the midges away, thank goodness, and in a shady spot with the breeze it's very pleasant.

We're hoping for rain this weekend - hopefully lots of it, so long as it doesn't then keep raining for weeks, as often happens here.
People locally with private water supplies are almost without water now - including my daughter and one of my sons.

This long dry spell is very unusual on the west coast of Scotland.

In weather like this I keep the windows and doors closed, so as not to let the hot air in.
The spare bedroom is the coolest room, as it never gets any direct sun.

It's too hot to do much in the garden. Luckily the grass is only growing slowly, because it's so dry.
The strawberries are beginning to colour now - with the sunshine it should be a good crop this year.

Afternoon all, Very hot here ,our lounge gets full sun nearly all day and at the moment it is 26.5deg. in there and just slightly cooler in the kitchen . Our garden is looking colourful but if we don't get rain soon the flowers won't last long.
Florence I am also glad we don't get the midges or I would never go out in the garden ,any bites I get always seem to end up with me on antibiotics .

AnnG I was up at 6am this morning and it was already hot, I had a large glass of cold water to take my meds and then sat in the kitchen for a bit with the door open . Too hot to do much else.

I had to phone a company this morning and as well as the now usual list of options and endless music I got put through to the agent and 2mins later got cut off Grr

Joan I hope your OH enjoys his fish and chis and you don't overheat.
Linda the bed is very expensive but worth it for Esme, good you didn't have to wait 2 years.

Enjoy the weekend everyone looking in.

Ginnie

Oh what a HOT day once again, it's much too hot to do anything, the house is terrible even with windows/doors open & curtains drawn.

I went into the garden first thing to water the various plants that needed, took me 5 trips back & forth to do that job, all is looking good with the vatious plants so far, I had a wee chuckle at your description of my garden Florence, err beautiful, lol.

The main/best bit is not so bad, tidy anyway, not so colouful at the moment, waiting for more of the flowers to bloom to give more colour, the Poppy has 11 huge buds on it just now but only one of the buds has opened so far.
I bought 2 Gentian plants yesterday which are in flower, the deepest blue, they look nice in the planters.

Very pleased that we don't have a midge problem like you Florence, must be awful having them around.

Well it's Fish & Chips day today, bit too hot for that but hubby is looking forwrd to them, lol.
I'm going to be over heating whilst I cook them !!

How did the new bed go down Linda, I hope Esme slept well etc.

Joan.

Morning all . You are an early bird AnnG :-D

I had a very sleepless night and was up every 2 hours, just couldn't get settled but im not feeling tired....yet lol

Very hot here already but at the back I watered some plants in the shade as last night the beasties were out in their millions even though the haar came in really thick and fast so was dampish but still they were biting. Daughter and I only managed 2 jugs of water and then ran in quick as we got bitten grrr.

Tesco coming between 1-4pm so quite a good time to get the chores done.

Linda, hope Esme loved her new bed and slept well. I hope you feet are not too sore today, keep putting cream on them.

Joan hope all is well with you & hubby. Hope you have managed to do lots in your beautiful garden and also relax on your new chair too :-D

Off to be busy, take care all

Florence in the hebrides

good morning all 14 degrees here at 0700. Another hot night but I didn't sleep too badly under just a sheet.

Linda I hope Esme had a good night in her new bed. It costs a lot but I guess that is because of all the different functions it has. So pleased for her that the funding came through quickly.

I was wrong about the cost of the bed, it is £3200.

They sent one man on his own to deliver it. As it is brand new, it came in lots of tiny bits and he had never put one of this type together. OH helped him, I don’t know how he would have managed without him. He was here for two and a half hours in the end. It is far more complicated than the one we dismantled this morning and that was bad enough. We were wondering how we would manage when we move, but luckily they have an equipment moving service, so they come and do it for you.

Linda, our post crossed!

I am so delighted for Esme getting her new bed. 2 years to wait!!! Its unreal isnt it how disabled children get treated. When my daughter had cancer aged 5/6, she spent a year in hospital and they rented a water bed for her. It could be raised up and down, the head and bottom and water moved every 5 minutes underneath her so she wouldn't get bedsores as she was in bed most of that time.

I asked the sister how much do these beds cost and she said "we are renting it at a cost of 10k a month!" She had it for 7 months!

We also had a super large buggy that the hospital loaned us as she was also too big for a normal pushchair.

I don't think people realise how difficult it is to get all these things.

Bet her face will light up when she comes home later bless her. :-D

Edit: Oh no your poor feet Linda. Put loads of after sun on or put them in a bowl of cold water