General Chat

Good morning all. Our weather yesterday was not as nice as the rest of you. It was dry so I was able to spend a couple of hours in the garden. But it was very overcast and dull and not very warm. Still quite a bit got done
It looks fairly bright out there at the moment but as it is still before 8am it is only 6 degrees so we shall see.
It was a shame that there were not many people at the fair Florence but it does seem a strange day to have it even though it is not such a bank holiday there as here. Maybe people still went away to family for Easter or, as somebody else said, they were all in their gardens.

A beautiful day here too.
There was a cool wind this morning, but this afternoon it's been warm enough to sit outside without a jacket, in a sheltered spot.

Bees buzzing, birds singing, sun shining, spring flowers blooming! Lovely!
It won't last, but it's very enjoyable while it does.

What a shame about the poor attendance at the Fayre, Florence. Still, your cads will keep until the next time.

I hope you enjoyed your ham, Sylvia, even though it wasn't what you wanted.

.
Happy Easter.,
On Friday went to a garden centre for lunch and bought two large planters and some evergreen plants with white flowers to go in them. I can’t remember what they were called :-S. I also bought some more herbs as I left all of mine in the last house

It was glorious yesterday, so we spent the day in the garden.OH made plastic liners for two large troughs we had bought, we filled them with compost. They have a tall trellis on the back of them, which screens our view of the neighbours. We have two large Red Robins in them, which were just in pots, but now they have much more room to grow. He cut some slits in the bottom for drainage, but I think he should have made more, we shall see.
OH tried out his new smaller battery driven lawn mower, we did have a large petrol mower, but have given that to our son in law.

This morning we went over to see the girls. The Easter bunny had been of course, so there was lots of chocolate to add to the eggs we took over.
OH took our scarifier as son in law wanted to borrow it. They ended up scarifying the whole lawn which is really big. I helped with raking up the massive amount of grass which came out. I also did lots of playing with Esme. We used finger painting to make Easter cards.

I hope you enjoyed your meat Sylvia, I have a large joint of pork in the oven now as well as a ham. I cook a small ham joint every week with whatever roast I do. It is much nicer, not to mention much cheaper than buying sliced ham in the supermarket.
I think we are going to be eating pork all week as all the joints in Aldi were really big.

It us a shame about the fair Florence, maybe people were more into gardening this weekend

Happy Easter everyone looking in :-D

lovely dry, sunny day here but the NE wind is chilly and keeping the warmth of the sun at bay! However it is perfect for getting all the laundry dry.

Spring Fayre was sooo quiet yesterday as think many families went away for the holidays. Didn't sell very much at all so hugely disappointed :-(

I reported my red Robin shrubs as they were not growing and the leaves started to dry out. When I emptied them out of the pot, i could see what maybe the problem was.
The soil was very wet and clogged and I realised the holes in the bottom of the pot were so tiny, the water wasn't draining properly. so now in bigger pots with bigger holes, I hope they will recover as were not cheap, about £15 i think for the pair!! W shall see what happens.

Hope everyone else is having a nice day with lots of sunshine so peeps can get outside in their gardens,

Take care

Florence in the hebrides

Good morning all 8 degrees here at 0815 and so far sunny. Maybe today will be a get out in the garden day. Yesterday was not nice, windy, one minute sun the next torrential rain.
Joan I am pleased your weather let you get out in the garden. It does lift your spirit if you can do that.
Oh deal Linda why am I not surprised? How do these people get jobs when they can't communicate or understand what they are supposed to be doing? I hope the next lot of appointments sort it. And, as for the lady asking for a good report, she deserves what she gets.
Florence I hope all goes well with the fayre today.
Sylvia. your poor OH must have dreaded bringing home something he knew was wrong. another person not listening and doing what they want. Could you cut that joint into two and use one? and freeze the other?

Oh dear, Linda. It was funny to read, but not to have to experience it!

Florence ............. I hope you enjoyed the Fayre, and are feeling much better.

Today started off cloudy, with rain very early in the morning, but the sun came out by early afternoon, and it was quite warm. That promises well for tomorrow and Sunday/

Most shops were open today, except the odd independent store, and, of course, all the banks. Many pharmacists, even the one in the Safeway, were also closed!

OH went to Safeway this morning, mainly to buy some of the first of this season's catch of halibut for tonight's dinner, and also to get a roast for Sunday. I wanted a Simple-Carve Boneless Hickory Smoked Ham, and wrote it out very carefully for him, including the brand name ................ it does come pre-packed, but has been very good on previous occasions.

They didn't have any in the morning, said there would be more in "later". So he went back in the afternoon. For some reason, he ended up talking to the deli lady not the butcher .................. and she sold him a chunk of Black Forest Ham :-S

He said that he showed her my shopping list which specified exactly what I wanted, but she didn't send him over to the butcher section, just kept asking him "how much" he wanted. Ended up with a flat chunk about 1½-2" thick, quite heavy ....... and correspondingly quite expensive!

We can't return it, so the choice is, do we re-heat it for Easter Sunday dinner, or freeze it and try to get what I really wanted.

Both are valid options!

Oh dear, Linda. It was funny to read, but not to have to experience it!

Florence ............. I hope you enjoyed the Fayre, and are feeling much better.

Today started off cloudy, with rain very early in the morning, but the sun came out by early afternoon, and it was quite warm. That promises well for tomorrow and Sunday/

Most shops were open today, except the odd independent store, and, of course, all the banks. Many pharmacists, even the one in the Safeway, were also closed!

OH went to Safeway this morning, mainly to buy some of the first of this season's catch of halibut for tonight's dinner, and also to get a roast for Sunday. I wanted a Simple-Carve Boneless Hickory Smoked Ham, and wrote it out very carefully for him, including the brand name ................ it does come pre-packed, but has been very good on previous occasions.

They didn't have any in the morning, said there would be more in "later". So he went back in the afternoon. For some reason, he ended up talking to the deli lady not the butcher .................. and she sold him a chunk of Black Forest Ham :-S

He said that he showed her my shopping list which specified exactly what I wanted, but she didn't send him over to the butcher section, just kept asking him "how much" he wanted. Ended up with a flat chunk about 1½-2" thick, quite heavy ....... and correspondingly quite expensive!

We can't return it, so the choice is, do we re-heat it for Easter Sunday dinner, or freeze it and try to get what I really wanted.

Both are valid options!

Oh dear, Linda!
That's such a funny story when someone who isn't involved reads it - but obviously not at all funny for you.
So frustrating! But sadly it's the sort of mess we almost expect nowadays.

Better luck with the next appointments!
It's fortunate that your son seems able to sort things out if the people who are supposed to be doing it can't.

Oh my Linda, what a saga!!!! I hope you are having a large glass of something strong as you certainly deserved it.

I sometimes wonder how these people get jobs as engineers or technicians as clearly when they turn up, they don't seem to have a clue about anything.

I mean, once when the electric went off years ago in a bad storm, I tel on the landline to report the power loss. The woman said, are you sure its off? have you tried turning the switch on ?It beggared belief. i said well, if we had power, would i have sat in the queue for 45 minutes then???

We are all ready and packed up for the Fayre tomorrow leaving at 8.45 am so up early at 7am. Sandwiches to make etc. It was a good turn out at xmas with over 500 people filtering through the hall so heres hoping it will be as good or better tomorrow.

Not sure where everyone is today, probably enjoying good weather and if so, please send it up here as cold, wet & Foggy all day :-(

I thought that I had better post my rant in case I lost it all.
This morning, I got a phone call from the Talk Talk escalation team to check how moving my master socket had gone on Wednesday. Grr, I explained in no uncertain terms about the mess they had made. She looked up their notes and said that the Open Reach appointment clearly said that it was to move the master socket and that they were paying for it. So now I have two more Open Reach appointments, one next Tuesday to sort the phone line out and one get following Tuesday to move the master socket. What could possibly go wrong?
I now have my own allocated escalation lady who is going to phone me and check how everything goes.
I do feel a bit guilty because I told her about the technician telling me that she wanted me to give her a nine or ten. Apparently that is totally forbidden, so she was going to escalate that. I have visions of getting poor technician losing her job, oh dear.

It has been really warm here this afternoon, people were walking round in T shirts, it still managed to rain though.
We went out to a garden centre and had lunch. We bought two large pots and shrubs to do on the decking. I also got some herbs as I left all of mine in the old garden.

Wednesday was an absolutely head banging day. :-(
Open Reach were coming, to move the master socket from the downstairs hall to the upstairs study, or so we thought. I even had a phone call from the Talk Talk complaints department the previous day to confirm it. I also hoped that they would actually connect the line as we haven’t had a dialling tone since the broadband went live. When the Open Reach engineer turned up, he said that moving the socket wasn’t on his job sheet, he had only come to connect the line. He was an African gentleman and I couldn’t understand a word he was saying!
Oh well at least if he connected the line, that would be a step forward. So off he went to the cabinet, he came back saying that the line was working, but I pointed out that he had actually cut off our broadband. He then listened to the line and declared that it wasn’t connected to our number :-S. I think that he said that we could either have the phone line connected or the broadband, but not both. I told him that he had to reconnect the broadband and leave the phone line. So he went back to the cabinet and the broadband came back on again.
He then said that he would go back to the exchange and try and sort the line out, but he had my number, so would phone me. Of course, that was the last we saw or heard of him.
I decided to plug the phone in and realised that there was a dialling tone , so assumed he had fixed it . So I used my mobile to ring our new number, but it didn’t ring here, a man answered it instead. I assumed that I must have misdialled, so apologised to him. I then dialled our new number very carefully and the same man answered. He was very nice and gave me his number, so I could try and sort it out as we obviously had a crossed line. I wondered what number the land line was on, so I used it to dial my mobile. That rang and showed a completely different number. When I rang that number from my mobile, the house phone rang. So we have a working phone, but the number it is using isn’t the one which is allocated to our Talk Talk account.

In the afternoon, I bit the bullet and phoned Talk Talk. You get one of those automated bots, but if you are careful, you can manage to get through to a real person. The first time I tried I didn’t manage to get a person, instead the bot started a test on the line which would take about half an hour.
So I tried again and this time managed to get through to India. After having explained all about the line, the problem was passed upwards to their technical team, so I had to try and explain it again to another Indian lady, who kept laughing as I went through it. She thought the Talk Talk engineer didn’t know what he was doing. As I was talking to her, I got a text from the line test which said the line was fine, but as it came in, my broadband cut off. Some I told the technician and that is when it all started to go downhill :-(
We haven’t used the talk talk router for at least two years as it is rubbish and kept having to be restarted all the time. Instead we have use a mesh system using Deco routers which give a really strong signal all over the house. That was especially important in our old house which was an L shape, so had dead spots with the Talk Talk router. At first, she said it was fine to be using a different router, but then when she tried to look the settings up on her system she couldn’t find them, so she insisted that I put the Talk Talk router in as that was the only way I could get the broadband back. She was insisting that I use the new router which I had been given on March 12 th when our broadband went live. I couldn’t get her to understand that we hadn’t been given a new router, but only had the old broken one. She insisted that I use that, so it took an hour and a half to get it working. We could hear her all the time talking to her supervisor as they tried to get it working.
In the end, we had a very weak signal and after she rang off we realised that we couldn’t connect any of our devices to it if we moved more than a foot from the router.
Before she finished the call, she said that the next day, I would receive an email asking how she did on a scale from 1-10 and it was very important that I give her a nine or ten because anything less than that wasn’t good for her!

I was so fed up on Wednesday night because we had no broadband or phone. On Thursday my son in law came over and sorted the mess out and reinstalled our Deco system, so now we have the broadband back.

I did have a nice day yesterday because my old neighbour came and we had a nice catch up. We then went and collected Eve and went out for a nice lunch. Eve used to do lots of crafting with her, so if very fond of her.

Good afternoon to you all.
A beautiful day here, a really lovely sunny day, so nice I have been outside & managed a bit of tidying up of some old branches that have lain all winter, however I am not as fit as I was, lol, I had to take a few breaks in between shifting them.

Lots of plants are showing new growth, the Daffies are looking nice considering they got a battering the other day. The Snowdrops are fading, I so enjoyed seeing them & I do miss them when they start to die off, we had a lot of Crocus this year, I was hoping for a good show after planting a lot of new ones last Autumn & they didn't disappoint.

Our youngest daughter was here last Saturday, she went back home on the Monday, it was lovely to have her here, I didn't want her to go home but of course she had to, she has her own family to care for & her work, she will be back again, probably during the school summer holidays.

I have stopped what I was doing in the garden now & concentrating on todays meal, I am making Fish & Chips, the usual Friday meal.

The shps are open here as usual & there was post this morning which always happens on Good friday, the banks are closed of course & the Health Centre, otherwise it's very much like any "normal" day.

Well the kitchen & my stomach are telling me it's time to start cooking so I am off to tackle the potato & turn it into chips, not very good at peeling spuds so there won't be many chips by the time I have peeled of more than just the skin, lol.

I hope everyone is well & your weather is as nice as it is here, talk agian soon.

Joan.

Shops are all open here. I can remember when I was young everywhere shut on good Friday. As it is everything will be shut on Easter sunday here but I think shops open in Scotland.

Morning all

Cloudy overcast day here but no sure if its rain or.....snow that's coming eeeek!

I managed to get on ok but MTG on the London board seemed to have a problem earlier on so maybe the problem is with Genes in general?

Still coughing here but its more wheezy so have doubled on my inhalers and that's helping. daughter started coughing but isn't too bad thankfully.

We have the Spring Fayre tomorrow and I am going whatever but as long as I don't don't talk too much, I will be fine. keeping quiet means less coughing. Everything is priced up anyway.

Its a BH in the UK but schools here are open and only the Banks are shut!

Right better get productive and do some chores now.

Have a good day all

Florence in the hebrides

Hello Florence.
It's the LOCAL branch i need to speak to, they are based in Aberdeen..
Soo frustrating that they are not answering the phone or returning the calls when a message is left.

Horrible weather here today, very wet day & soo cold.

Joan.

Afternoon all.

The weather has turned nasty here and is raining, windy and very cold! Was going to poke my head out for some fresh air but quickly knocked that idea on its head.

Joan, I'm not sure if this is the number you have for the Union.
It said the Postal Workers Union was changed to; Communication & Works Union based in Wimbledon , London
Tel 0208 9717200 or [email protected]

Apologies if you have this already, was just trying to be helpful.

well when I went to bed at 11pm , i somehow knew I wasn't going to have a good night as within minutes of settling down, the coughing started and carried on and on. In the end, I had to get up and get a drink, take several puffs of my inhaler and sit awhile in the lounge before returning to bed with propped up pillows.

I really thought yesterday I had made a huge improvement! As I stopped being sick, I made my honey, lemon & glycerine drink and slowly sipped that so hoping it will help. its so annoying when you cant stop coughing and daughter was kept awake too!

I emailed my sol again as its now 2 weeks since he rang me! It may be he has been off sick or something but surely his secretary can email any updates? So far no reply and on Fri its a Bank holiday so he will be shut until next week probably. Brother is away Friday for family holiday and he thought we would have it sorted before then but obviously not. Here's hoping he will be in touch soon with news to cheer us.

just been slowly pottering and tidying up, putting things away as the table looked cluttered with papers and i hate that. Everything has its place as they say.

Well I have put on the heating so it will be warm by the time daughter comes home as she will be cold.

Hope everyone ok today

Florence in the hebrides

Florence..... the cheque from the tax man stated DR as my status, instead of MRS, & so it has to be re-issued.
I wouldn't be able to put it into my account under DR, & they will re-issue,but have been told it will take much longer for them to re issue than it took to send me the incorrect cheque in the first place.

Linda....... as for the R Mail pension, they had already OVER paid me 4 weeks pension money even though they were told of hubbys death immediately !
I got a letter yesterday asking for me to RE PAY it.
I hadn't touched any of it & put it into a different account to be sure it was available to pay back,however what does annoy me is that "they" are willing to accept the money back via my bank account, & of course that is in the name of JOAN !!!!

edited to add......
I am still trying to get in touch with the Post Office Union of which hubby was a long time member, all his working days & sice he had retired.

We have phoned several times a day for the past 10 days, but no-one is answering the phone & no-one has returned the call when we have left messages.
They owe me money as they continued to take several weeks of union dues, but I can't get in touch with anyone so as to be able to get the money back.
The whole thing has really stressed me

Joan.

Afternoon everyone

Well as the day goes on, i'm feeling stronger and my appetite has returned. managed 2 crumpets and marmite today. I weighed my self out of curiosity this morning and was shocked to see I had actually 6lbs!! having said that, i'm glad I did but wished it hadn't been in the way I did. Temp is now just under the 100 which is reassuring.

I had gone to the bingo 2 weeks before but on Tuesday last week, daughters friend popped over, (think it was Tues?) and we took a spin to a local community place just for 1/2 hour. The place was deserted of customers and we were hardly in the place that long. Wed & Thursday I started sneezing, then the coughing started on Fri. So if fresh air gives me an infection, then I really don't know!

Linda, you & your OH are something else! All the work and buying furniture etc made me tired reading all your posts. But at the same time, it is all very exciting for you both. It sounds like it is all coming together.

Anng. that consultant didn't sound pleasant at all grr. They should be taught bedside manners as part of their training! I hope it wont be too long before you get a date for your op.

ArgyllGran, its a nuisance being without a car. many a time mine went to the garage and i was stuck without it for a few days or use the bus, not very convenient doing lots of shopping and having to carry it on the bus! Hope it comes back soon with a small bill!.


JustGinnie, glad to hear your OH has now been discharged, that's fab news. Hope your washing is as dry as mine will be.

It is a lovely bright and breezy day and daughter put out lots of washing but oh my its is very very chilly in the wind.

Poor you Joan, it never rains does it. I mean Mr?? poor human error that and so upsetting. One thing I do know is that because of the fraud in replicating certificates, many companies when dealing with a partners estate have to provide original copies of birth, marriage etc. When I worked in the bank and I dealt with peoples estates, to help the family cut costs, I use to photocopy the death cert then get it stamped" this copy is a true copy of the original" and then it was stamped by the bank and signed by a manager. We did maybe 5 copies for the family as it meant, they could send the stamped copy away instead of the original incase it got lost.

Extra copies at the registry office were several pounds each so we found a way round this. Yes the price for special delivery has really gone up but at least you know it will be tracked until received and then hopefully, it will all be sorted out very soon.

I have today ordered some Ronseal for my square planters as over the winter, the wood looks rather shabby so on a dry day will be sanding them and then painting this stuff on to smarten them up.

My plants inside on the window ledge are doing very well and by end of April will be ready to be hardened off before transferring to bigger pots outside.

Well that's enough screen time for me today and I need more water to drink.

Florence in the hebrides

Oh dear Ann that really doesn't instil confidence does It?. I really do think that people in professions like Drs etc. should have a good command of English. Hope this time as well you will not need radiotherapy. Hopefully you won't have to wait too long for your next appointment.


Ginnie

Oh dear Ann, that didn’t sound like a very good appointment. It is a good job that you know so much about it, or you could have been very scared.
Esme had a orthopaedic appointment this morning as well, but the consultant decided that she wanted a hip X-ray, so they had to wait one hour forty minutes for that. They only got it in the end when my daughter said she was leaving because she had to get back to work. It was fine, just a routine check.

We went back to Thirsk this morning because we both had dental checkups. No prob,ems for either of us. We took some things to one of the charity shops because it is easy to park and free. We then went to Tesco’s. It was great to be able to whizz round picking things up because I knew where everything was.

The TV aerial man was supposed to be here quite a while ago. He phoned to say he would be here in forty minutes, but no sign of him. This was after he didn’t turn up yesterday, so I have no faith in him turning up today.

Poor Florence, I am glad that you are on the mend , you do seem to be catching a lot of bugs.

It was really nice to hear from you Joan. Good that you will be getting some money back even if they have messed it up. The pension is silly, but you know you are entitled boy half, so as long as you don’t go on a mc spending spree, you can leave the rest in the bank in case you need to pay it back