General Chat

Hello to everyone.
First of all I am sorry for not coming back to the thread sooner, I have been deseperate to get back & chat to everyone but I have been really struggling with the loss of my husband Jack, I am finding it all really difficult to deal with particularly at night.
I don't like the long dark nights at the best of times but at the moment I am finding the nights very difficult to deal with, I am having a big problem with not being able to sleep, & when I do manage to drop off it's just snatches here & there.

With the help of our eldest son & eldest daughter I have managed to get the various paperwork in order apart from one company !
Jack had a private pension with the Royal Mail (he was a Postie for over 25 yrs) & trying to speak to someone at RM about his death etc has not been easy.

At first no-one would talk to us & said because there is no will we needed the courts permission to make a claim on the pension, (hat turned out to be untrue!, ( the estate isn't big enough) After several days passed our eldest son eventually managed to speak to someone about the situation& pointing out that RM were still putting the full pension money into the bank !

He was told that a bereavement pack would be sent out to me & I would have to fill in the relavant forms & send them back along with the original death certificate before any alterations to the pension could be made & in the mean time.pension money would cease.

That was almost 2 weeks ago & still NO forms have been sent, not only that the FULL pension is STILL being paid into the bank !!
I dare not touch it as I am not entitled to the full amount & likely as not I will have to pay back any over payment.
It's causing me untold worry as I only have my own State Pension to live on at the moment,( my savings went on the funeral costs) my hubby always told me I would be ok should anything happen to him, as I would be entitled to 1/2 his Post Office pension & all I had to do was contact RM pensions & they would sort it all out.

My son is going to phone them again tomorrow & I don't envy the person on the other end of the phone !!

I am trying hard to keep myself busy with things in the house, & have spent much of the time cleaning out drawers & cupboards, hubby was a bit of a hoader & never really threw anything away !
I have lost count of all the little things that I have come acrosss this past 2 weeks, several small baccy tins concealing soo many old screws, nuts & bolts & old batteries, you wouldn't believe what I have come across on my clear out !

Some things I have kept as they meant a lot to Jack & though not much use to me I have known them for so many years & they were part of him & I can't bear to part with them'
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On a different note, the weather has been reasonable here, several sunny days, with rain holding off until the night time, but it has been really cold which has stopped me getting outside.
I bought a few Primroses recently, & have managed to get them into the flowers borders without freezing my socks off, I still have several lots of branches to clear away but it will have to warm up somewhat before I can do that job.

We had snow yesterday & I thought the daffies would be damaged but fortunately, though it was a heavy shower it didn't last too long, it happens every year, just as the Daffies are about to bloom we get snow !
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Linda... so happy for you that you have moved into your new home, you are still being kept as busy as ever with the various jobs needing to be done in the house, I really hope all will go to plan & that youu will get things sorted quickly.

I hope all is well with everyone on the thread, take care of yourselves, & THANKYOU once agian for thinking & asking after me..

Joan.

Morning everyone.
Oh my Linda, its not easy is it? Hoping your painter gets done fairly swiftly. But at least you have 1 cosy room you can use.

Its amazing re the addresses when you think its all sorted and then.... it still presents problems. Glad you got it sorted swiftly though.

Have you not arranged with the PO to redirect for a year? I did it and it worked so well, cost around £60 if i can remember? But it was worth every penny. If you haven't done so already. maybe worth it and then at least you will get all your mail & parcels etc.

Sunny day but when I popped out to the bin, my golly it was cold and a chilly breeze too so didn't spend any longer than I needed to outside!

Admiring all my plants growing on the windowsill. The geraniums seem to be growing by the hour!! They will soon need repotting into a larger pot.

Linda, I'm thinking maybe Joan just has had a lot of things to deal with recently and maybe isn't up to posting? Here's hoping she will be back soon and hope she isn't ill or something.

Nothing special on today so pottering around tidying up etc. Might throw out some washing as its dry & windy, save the tumble drier lol

Have a good day all
Florence in the hebrides

I wish that my house would soon be as I want it Ginnie, but it is one step forward and one step back.
The builder is doing very well with the ceilings, he only has the main bedroom, en-suite, hall, landing , kitchen and utility room to do. We have to give up the main bedroom tomorrow which I am not looking forward to. It is the only room in the house which is cosy and warm. We have a tv in it, so as soon as we have finished dinner, we have been going upstairs and using it as a cosy lounge for the evening.

The real lounge has the fireplace ripped out, I had hoped they would put the new one in this week, but they are too busy and it is going to be a week tomorrow :-(. to make it worse OH has started taking the skirting boards off in preparation for when the wood floor goes in. That means there is just raggy looking concrete on the bottom of the walls :-(

I had to go back to the old house yesterday to collect two parcels. I had ordered several batches of blinds and a few days later some curtains.. I payed using PayPal as I normally do. I had changed my address on both PayPal and on the credit card which pays PayPal, but it was only when I ordered the curtains that I noticed that PayPal was dispatching everything to my old address. I thought that I had messed up the address change, but when I checked, I hadn’t. I googled it and it seems to be a recognised problem when if you have dealt with a company before and they have your details in their system, PayPal will revert to that old address . I had to ring Pay Pal up and they removed all traces of the old address from their system. To be fair to them, someone in America answered on the first ring, unlike most of the UK websites where I am on hold listening to canned musak for ages. Most of the orders hadn’t been dispatched yet, so the company altered the delivery address, but two blinds had already gone to the delivery company. They did try to get them diverted, but it didn’t work, so I had to go and collect them. It was a good job it was only half an hour up the road and not a long distance move.

I hope Joan is alright as she hasn’t been posting

Hello all, well it's not raining today so an improvement on yesterday at least.

Hoping everyone ok , not seen Joan for a while so really hoping she is ok .

Always seems to be a problem with something when moving and the internet is usually the one it seems. Hope all goes well and it gets sorted for you Linda.
You are definitely motoring on with your new house. Soon be just as you want it.

Your dad sounds like my OH Florence. My OH doesn't take advice easily and I've lost count of all the minor( luckily) cuts he has inflicted on himself because he 'knows' best.


Done my shop for delivery tomorrow, nearly forgot as this week has gone so fast but then I say that most weeks. lol.

Take care all

Ginnie

Oh Lordy Lordy...what a day!! Its stormy here and very gusty winds. Tesco is several stops away and i don't envy the driver carrying my boxes to the back door, poor person but I shall be extremely grateful.

My dad is very breathless again but has an appointment with the cardiologist tomorrow which is good. He was also in his workshop using a grinder and managed to slice a bit of his finger!!! Blood flowed quickly as he's on blood thinners but he grabbed a cloth and then wrapped insulating tape around the cut. Seems it has healed ok now but honestly, he won't listen about taking it easy!

He is not a dressing gown & slippers man and says he will keep going until his demise much to the worry of me his daughter. I just said to try and take care when using these machines. What else can I say.

So today I'm just pottering about as not much to do until after food delivery. Laundry all up to date etc.

Hope everyone else looking in is well and ok.

Shall look in later on

Florence in the hebrides

Hey Linda, glad you are ok. Yes each move out with the area requires a new number. Think I had to let about 70 organisations know and that took ages!!

Dark pink ceiling, certainly different from white!

Just been wet & windy here all day but further stormy weather later....just the usual.

Been trying to work out some of my DNA matches without any success grrrr. Most of them are 4 cousins etc so quite distant but I can go back 5 generations on most of my families but not having much luck.

Waiting on a phone call with a friend I haven't spoken too in ages for a catch up an then sort out my evening meal.

Take care Linda

Florence in the hebrides

No now he re but it is bitterly cold because the builders have all the doors and windows open to dry the plaster on the ceilings. It is going very well, we have the lounge back now with a dark pink wet plaster ceiling.
Good news on the internet, it will be up and running on March 12th :-(
It was supposed to be the 24th Feb, so fingers crossed they will actually do it this time. The annoying thing is that tgey are giving us another new landline number. I have already changed it in lots of places, so I have to do it again. In the meantime I am having to use my phone data to get online

Morning all and what a morning!

No ferries and yes Im suppose to get a Tesco delivery tomorrow.

Here's hoping as they would have had a delivery last night, that not too many items will be out of stock. Haven't had any avocados for 3 weeks and they are good for my heart as contain Potassium.

Oh well we shall see.

Chores all done and my knees were aching so Im now having a rest with me coffee for 1/2 hour. Not sure about the rest of the day.

Seen aa report of heavy snow but not for us. Anyone else got snow apart from poor Sylvia. Hope you havent a lot?

Hoping Joan is ok. Maybe she still has lots of things to deal with? <3

Florence in the hebrides

Thank goodness for mobile phones. When we moved into our previous house the phone hadn’t been reconnected and there was a power cut that night. Overhead wires would touch and everyone would go off. Over a week for a phone, the few neighbours we had were all away and the phone box was mikes away,

Good morning all. Sylvia hope you don't get too much and please don't send it this way, we are not so prepared as you. even when warned we are surpised when it happens. I think this area is still on a flood warning.

It snowed today, with more thought to come over night :-0 :-P

Well good morning all.

Never slept a wink last night as the wind & rain kept me awake. Daughter has put bins out but just now a really heavy shower came and wind was gusty. Thankfully, bins haven't moved and i'm wishing the lorry would hurry up.

I'm sitting in my waterproof jacket, scarf & gloves so the minute the lorry comes, I shall go out and put the bins back asap once they are emptied. I wanted to leave them them but it would be another 3 weeks and they are 3/4 full so they needed emptying.

Was blue recycling and organic which is full of cardboard so has to go.

Then another disaster with a bin! This time with the non recyclable kitchen bin. Daughter decided to empty that too except when she last emptied the bin she forgot to put a bin bag in first grrrrr. So Got a bin bag and tipped the bin upside down and had to shake hard to get all the stuff out. The bin needed a clean so is now upside down in my bath drying out( she washed it outside with the hose first).

Seriously, I think I am jinxed with the bins, there is always a disaster or something and the weather doesn't help the situation lol

So home alone until Friday afternoon so a very quiet house and all spic and span.
I have a few small chores to deal with and then will decide what i shall do this afternoon.

Seeing Openreach along the road at the junction box so hopefully they are sorting out the internet as ours has been very slow and keeps crashing. My friend in the north of the village was complaining too so its not just our line.

I remember when I moved to the previous house and we had to wait 6 weeks for a new number and the internet, I couldn't get 4G either so always sat in the supermarket car park on way home from work to check and send emails! Was a right pain.4g just wasn't working in the village where I was or until I got 6 miles up the rd which was unbelievable. I did ask my neighbours about it but they were all over 70 and none had a smart phone!
......

Right lorry just came so had to leave this and glad message was still here!

So windy but the guy took my bins up to my gate for me which was very kind of him.

Hope everyone else having a good day.

Shall look in later

Florence in the hebrides

Glad to see you posted Linda and the move went ok. Oh what a pain not having the internet...you have my sympathy, I was without for 6 weeks!!

The Artex swirley, oh my mum has this on her ceiling. Was all the fashion years ago.

Hope you continue to get things done bit by bit,

Its freezing here tonight and had heating on full blast. Of course its bin day tomorrow and its blowing a gale....never blooming fails its become a joke here
:-D :-D

I re-potted all my seedlings and my Red Robin shrubs into bigger pots so a good job done.

Right off to make a coffee now

Florence in the hebrides

Glad that you are in the new house Linda, even if things are a bit chaotic. I am sure it will all be worth it when everything is finished. The internet problem is a pain though. Hope that gets sorted soon.

It's good to know that the move went well, Linda.
I'm impressed that all those tradespeople have made a start so quickly - apart from Talk Talk, of course!
But it probably doesn't feel quick enough to you!

Hello all, well internet has been on and off again hope they sort it soon. The neighbours have gone and fingers crossed the next ones will be ok.

It has been cold today , I ventured out into the garden but too cold to stay out for long so came in and started some housework , it has to be done sometime

Watching the new programme now, The Jury. Give it a go anyway.



Ginnie

Hello, I am just looking in quickly using mobile data as my internet provider has stuffed things up big time.

The actual move was OK although we didn’t get the key until mid afternoon. We managed to unpack as much as we could over the weekend, but most things have to stay packed because of the building work. My son scraped the horrible wall paper off the wall in the lounge. Miraculously it came off easily and we saw that the paint under was the same as the other three walls, so the wall is perfect with no need for skimming.
The fireplace people came and removed the horrible gas fire and capped the gas off. They took out the wooden surround and marble hearth. They will return with the new ones as soon as the builder has replastered the ceiling to cover the swirly Artex.
The builder started work this morning and us getting in well, every single room in the house is being skimmed to cover the Artex
The kitchen designer came this morning, so it will take about a week to come up with the new design. Once we agree, it will the four or five weeks to put the new one in. I can’t wait because the storage is dire. I still have three large boxes of kitchen things in the garage which I cant fit in.
One flooring company came to give us quote today and one is coming in the morning . We are having engineered Oak flooring downstairs as we did in our last house.

Talk Talk have totally messed up our internet change over which was all arranged before we moved. Tonight, I have had to cancel the order for the house move, so we are back to paying for the old house. Tomorrow I have to contact them again and set up the house move all over again and wait to get yet another appointment for an Openreach engineer to come to set up the internet. No doubt it will be several days before that will happen. In the meantime I am having to use the data on my mobile phone to get on line which is expensive of course

I hope everyone is well, I will look in when I can

Afternoon everyone looking in.
Its bright and sunny here with a breeze so washing went out but....its freezing out of the sun only about 6 degrees but feels like 0 because its a NE wind. Its set to get very windy late afternoon.

Neighbours are a gamble aren't they? When I moved in here in May 2021, I had a lovely couple at the end whom still are there. a single man to my left and to my right a young couple. Single man left and another single man moved in. Quiet and pleasant chap, works 6 days a week so hardly see him really.

Other side is another family, one young, one old and are ok but boy do they slam their doors!!! Why on earth do people do that? so unnecessary but on the plus side, they are very pleasant and don't cause any problems so we are very lucky.

My last house was a private rental and the neighbours were fab and always there if you need help with anything so cant complain really.

I need to repot my seedlings as they are growing so fast, the pots are now too small! So a quick sandwich for lunch and then to transplanting.

Hope Linda is getting on ok. Im guessing she hasn't got internet yet?

Hope Joan is ok too.

I just phoned my sol and they have received the paperwork sent at the weekend which is quite amazing given that usually post takes ages so very pleased with that.

Right off for lunch.

Have a good afternoon all

Florence in the hebrides

good morning all 4 degrees here cloudy bright and dry so far.

Sylvia. That must have been disappointing for his son if he was expecting to have the house. did he have the land to re-build on?

Goodness that Camellia has done well. I hope your weather doesn't kill off all the flowers if it deteriorates. that is the problem with the climate now, so many things coming into flower before they should. Although nice to see flowers early it somehow 'spoils' the proper order of things in nature. Well to me it does anyway.

Hope Linda is starting to get straight and getting used to the 'new' house.

Everyone else, have a good day.

JG ................ I wish you luck with new neighbour

The house next door to us was rented out for years between about 1980 and 2007, it was owned by the same guy who'd bought it in 1972 but they'd moved to another house and he kept the one next to us for his son, a cultural habit.

We alternated good and bad tenants until the late '90s when he got ones who stayed until his son did get married and needed the house. For whatever reason, the landlord believed in increasing the rent to the maximum allowed at the end of every year. Finding a new rental was not too bad back then, so all the good tenants moved out. Bad ones also moved out quickly ........ there was a midnight flitter, major damage, loud noise, etc etc. He also did very little maintenance though the last tenants did some quite major repairs, but the end result was that the old house had to be demolished because it needed too much doing. The son was really disappointed because he wanted to live in the old house!

Our very old Camellia is in flower!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Flowering is usually in April. It was here when we bought the house in 1972, and was probably at least 5 or 6 years old then. Now it is huge though we moved it to the "wrong" situation in 1977 according to all the experts ..... to the north east corner of the house! The flowers are white with red streaks, a cultivar no longer found as the colouring is apparently caused by a virus.

Cooler weather is threatened for early next week, so I hope no damage is done.

Hope that all is going well for Linda and the move.

Joan ....... I hope that you are well

Take care everyone