General Chat

hi well I am back in piece delivered the resume quite the drive and my locks were frozen solid so I had to borrow some stuff to spray in them, the roads were not too bad but some people have no idea how to drive on snow covered roads, the snow is coming down again but I am in for the rest of the day. going to cook something nice for supper steak and veg I think and some fruit cake for desert. bye for now dorothy

Well Dorothy i think you should give yourself a big pat on the back (or a nice drink) after going out in the snow to deliver the resume.!!
My cousin and my friends daughter are newly qualfied teachers and both have had trouble getting posts.They have both had to take either assistants jobs or working for agencies as relief staff.!! because they have families and need the money.
They have applied for lots of jobs and interviews and on most of them they didn't even get a thanks but no thanks ,if you seee what i mean.
hope the absense of Fred means he his moving his family .
Off to bed now at thehospital tomoorw ,will let you know how I get on.Bremda.

hi brenda good luck to-day at the hospital your right fred must be up to his ears in helping the family move hope it all goes well, to-day the sun is shining on the snow and it looks great the cars going by are showing lots os ski's on the roof racks, the downside of yesterday was 800 yes 800 accidents in 22hrs between barrie and toronto according to the ontario provincial police who work the highways a bit high for the first major storm of the winter. as to-day is friday we have afternoon tea in the building for those who like to attend as this is a regular apartment building not a seniors complex we get a wide range of ages so it is quite interesting I have missed the last two fridays so I should pop in to-day. sylvia you have gone quiet again hope all is well bye for now dorothy

Hi all,
Well this last week has been a bit hectic with hospital appointments etc. but that has now finished.
The doctor only found one small polyp which he took away so should be ok for a few months again.
The bladder examination was more painful, but the urologist said it is not as red and inflamed as it was the last time he did the examination.
I tried to book a mid week on the internet but have to phone tomorrow. If everything goes well then we go on Monday 3rd December until Friday 7th December.
I received my first Xmas card yesterday from my cousin in England. She is always so early. I still have lots of presents to buy. It's the knowing what to buy which is the problem.
I have read all your contributions and am pleased everybody is active.
See you tomorrow.
Sylvia xxx

hello everyone,sorry I did not get back yesterday,had some errands to do after the hospital and then had a good number of phone calls from family anf friends asking how I had gone on.
I still have stones in my gall bladder,so it still has to come out,but it looks like the stones that esscaped have disapered "naturally " they think,I will be going in for key hole surgery,but if the Comman bile duct is damaged it will be an open surgery.They don't know when but not too long they think.I had to tell them about my holiday ,so I am expecting to hear in the New Year.
Dorothy hope you enjoyed the Tea ,and seeing your neighbours,its been wet and miserable here.
sylvia,i lso have a christmas card from my friend in Australia,the farest away and first to receive,
Have been sorting out the things i have bought for presents as i want to get the ones I have for Dad over to his house before we go away.
See you all tomorrow .love Brenda

Morning everyone Fred [ooooops ,Badger] reporting in,at last hale and hearty after a very frenetic week,which started off so badly,and finishing with the family in a new home,which they love.
The venor with the bungalow ,pulled out of the deal on Wednesday ,letting the bungalow to someone else for a higher rent.
The estate agent was infuriated ,and told the vendor that they no longer wanted his custom,and reported him to the association of estate agents who promptly banned him too,so he is in bother big time.
Sarah Mains did however pull out all the stops for the family,and within an hour of the first call ,offered him a house in Leamington,just outside tjhe town itself.
The house is georgian,and is prettty big,has three large bedrooms upstairs plus a largish boxroom which Joron has claimed as her bedroom leaving the two boys in one bedroom,the two girls in the other,leaving the third for mum and dad.
The whole house is in pristene condition as regards decor,and is fully furnished and carpeted.
The kitchen is huge, housing lots of cupboard space,a built in freezer ,fridge ,washing machine,tumble dryer,dishwasher,sand a large ,range cooker ,with two ovens and enclosed grill,five burners and a griddle the main burner in the middle for use with a wok,complete with a large extactor fan/hood covering the whole cooking area.
There is a downstairs toilet which will come in handy for training Lewis,there is also a toilet upstairs [seperate] plus a bathroom with a large bath ,and an electric shower.
Two large rooms downstairs ,lounge and dining room ,again with a lot of inbuilt cupboards
Outside there is a small garden,laid out as pebbles,with loads of plant pots ,ideal for low covering flowere,and shrubs.
Within an hour of turning on the heating ,the whole house was snug and warm,so i reckon they have fallen on their feet with that one,so much so that the son loves it and is intending to take his name off the council housing list
At the bottom of the street ,the bus stop has a scholar bus which takes the two girls up to the college every morning and brings them back at night,and the youngest bairns have a school right opposite the house,and another only a few hundred yards away.
Stephen is now living within a thousand yards of the river ,so his fishing is very close for him.there are a good few local shops ,and two take aways ,one ,Pams That WE somtimes use because they do everything from pizzas to fish and chips,and ffrom kebabs to a very nice curry.
The thing that has us in stiches was the vendor for the bungalow,seeing as HIS client pulled out of the deal on Friday morning leaving the bungalow empty still,must be expensive for him,seeing as it's now been empty for nearly two years lol.
Our own house ,well ,it's lovely and quiet and peaceful lol,we have now decided to turn the spare room upstairs back into a bedroom ,leaving the hi fi in there along with the tele' so that visitors have a little of their own space ,whilst staying.
The crowning touch was Stephens lottery numbers come up last night,not a big win,but enough to help out for the first two weeks.
I'm now off upstairs to do a little sorting out,be back later.Have a nice day all .Badger.

goodmorning all first brenda I am glad to hear your news re the gall bladder and lets hope it is keyhole surgery though the open surgery has improved greatly over the years and not too long of a hospital stay over here it is about three days, fred I laughed till I cried about the vendor of the bungalow her got his in the end, the new house your son and family have obtained sounds smashing and your discription of it was spot on especially the details of the stove , I am sitting here thinking about you and your wife looking around your home enjoying the peace and quiet and each others company. nothing to much new over here the boys have hockey games to-day but I think that I will give them a miss, I shall pop into the library this afternoon as they have some books for me, I read 8 last week so I need some more, the sotes are very busy on the week-end so I shall stay away from them the tourist come into town from the ski hills good for the local business's though. have a dentist apt this week I do not enjoy those apts and the week after the cats are due there shots bye for now dorothy

Just a few quick lines ,Fred glad all turned out well in the end,you and Mrs fred must be feeling a wee bit lost in your house now.!!
Made a start on the wrapping of dads christmas presants.will take thn over later this wek and start on my own.Want to be sure all that sort of thing is done before i go away next week.
At my ex mother in laws funeral tomorrow,We did have a few disa greements but she was also very good to me at times .
Dorothy,I seem to have ordered two of the Neil White books ,so someone else is getting an extra christmas present.Will be looking at the web site for the book awards again later in the week.Brenda

Hi Brenda,Dorothy,Edith ,and everyone else.
i was so pleased to hear that they have traced your problem to stones Brenda,an easy peasy op that will have you out of bed the same day ,or the day after,and should see you home ,hale and hearty in no time,treat it as a little holiday,hee hee,you could do with the rest.
Liz and i are still getting used to this peace and quiet,and even Hissy is still skulking around under chairs and furniture in case the kids pounce to pick her up lol,but i expect she will chill out in a couple of days.
She did however sleep the whole night between me and Liz ,curled up on top of the quilt,so she is improving ,even staying there till 8 oclock this morning ,so old Badger got a lie in [yipee]
Going into town today for the ingredients for the corned beef,most of it i already have in ,including the cloves and coarse salt,but i may have trouble getting allspice kernals ,you learn something new everyday however ,i allways thought allspice was just that ,a mixture of spices ,but ,it seems ,not so ooooops.
I may even have to use the ground varietyif i can't get the other,we will see.
The weather up north has turned mild again but i don't think that will last very long this time of year.
I'm off now ,to wait for the person to arrive and start this trial of the energy conservation device which is being fitted to our shower unit,it is supposed to cut the energy used qiute a bit,and the beuty of it is ,if it works ,i can keep the unit after the trial finishes,a sort of free chrissie' present.
See you all later.Badger.

goodmorning brenda, fred, sylvia and other friends well fred your first evening sounded great I am sure the cat will get used to being able to roam about without the help of the children! your free energy saving device sounds grand, oh brenda you are good buying two of neils books I am sure he will appreciate that. it is a cloudy day and we are in for rain and snow showers later to-day they say. brenda where are you off to next week I am sure you have mentioned it but I have forgot and also could you sned me a private e-mail with your address and phone number I was going to phone you yesterday and can't find the address book I took to england with me anywhere. I have put it in a safe place so safe I can't find it. going to have a housekeeping day to-day and swing the duster around the cats will love that bye for now dorothy

Evening all,weather dry but not too cold and at least its not wet.
Went to my ex m.i.l funeral today must say it was weird being with my ex and the mother of his daughter,and his present partner(who I work with sometimes ) and the family of his second wife.!!(I was the first) LOL
Mind you its so long ago now that what ever has gone on is well past.
Dad got his cooker fixed so he is happy,my sister phoned from Cypress where she is on holiday and is happy sat in the sun with a nice drink.
John played a good round of golf and should be out again on Wednesday ,weather permitting so he is happy.
Me I am feeling ok wouldn't say happy until i have had my holiday and operation as I am still restricted on what i can have,
Off to do some emails and look at getting an e11 card on line ,Brenda

Hi all,
Quite a peaceful day. I sent Johan out to the Post Office to get our Xmas stamps. He bought 6 sheets of 20 stamps. We pay 29 cents a card instead of 44 cents. I wish they would reduce the overseas rate too. I can use these stamps until 4th January and if I have any over then I can still use them but must add extra postage to them. The Post Office do this for us every year.
The washing I did this morning has now been ironed and everything put away. Lovely feeling. Tomorrow we are going to the Makro, the wholesalers. When I get back from there I will be knackered as it is so much walking, and I never want to miss anything!
Enjoy your peace Fred. I loved the photographs.
Sylvia xxx

Good evening team, Haven't we grown? Looking through this thread a month has elapsed since I was here.
The vegie garden is surviving and oddly enough the garden at the front of the house gets a lot of rain whereas the back garden doesn't meaning the hose being used. We have even put some potatoes in pots which are actually growing. Fred, you mentioned not trying silver beet, its actually very nice cooked with cabbage. Gayle won't eat silver beet by itself unless it's with cabbage. We may try growing carrots yet.
Christmas is getting closer each day. This month we have had three dinners - the first one on 17 Nov. was an amputee's dinner and Gayle joined me and 23 others for an end-of-year function. Then on 19th we had a home group's dinner with about 14 people, 93 people sat down to an Over 55's dinner at the RSA on 21st . There is two more luncheons to go to before Christmas when we'll stop eating.
As fellow Kiwis have mentioned we have been having great weather with temperatures 20+ and higher.
That's it from me
John

Morning all,and hello to John,nice to see you back.
Your carrots shouldgroww well ,as would parsnips if the soil is very sandy,they usually grow fat and long if given some good ,liquid feeds at the roots..I now have my two tattie bins covered to keep them dry till needed,i will open the first barrel christmas week,and hopefully won't have to buy new potatoes for at least three months.
I have a lovely graze on my forhead this morning ,courtesy of hissy ,the flying cat grrrrrrr.
We have a shoe cupboard at the bottom of the stairs in the hall,which is handy because we can sit on the bottom stair to put our foorware on.
Now the family are gone [yippee] we only have three pairs of shoes in at any one time ,so it's pretty light,any way,i had the bottom door open [which opens down over] ,a bit like most oven doors these days.
There was Fred,sat down reaching for the first shoe ,when that plurry cat decided to help master,launching herself from half way up the stairs,hee hee,i saw this black and white streak come past ,over my shoulder, just before all the lights went out
She must have landed on the open drawer catapaulting the cupboard forward till it hit me on the head,i tell you folks ,i have never seen stars in daylight before ,nor yet without looking up to the heavens .
I called Liz to help me get up but she was useless propping herself up on the door jamb,shaking with mirth[i will talk to her later]
I have already got the veggies done for the dinner,and put thewheelie bin out which gets emptied this morning..
I noticed yesterday that i still have two leeks in the fridge ,so i will use the tattie peelings ,and leeks to make some soup up for tea,we usually have our main meal dinner time and have soup with a bread roll for tea.
Know how you feel Brenda,when my angina was really bad before my op ,i was starving myself ,because every time i ate ,i had such bad chest pains that i had to force myself to eat at all,only eating something when i had to,no fun at all is it?,still .hopefully you will have that op pretty soon and then get back to normal.
Pity you arn'e in the states where a lot of stone op's now are done using ultra sonic sound waves ,the noise breaking the stones up so that they pass out of the system without surgery,still ,you know us brit's, ten years behind anyone else lol.Have a nice day all.Badger.

goodmorning oh fred you do get into the wars did hissy apologise! nice to see john back and get up to date with his news it seems like everyone is getting ready for xmas all this food talk makes my mouth water. I have the family over between xmas and newyears, the menu is an assortment of everyone's favourite dishes, chicken kiev for the children and adults plus ham for the son and heir, mixed vegatable plus the campbell soup green bean cassarole. salad and small dinner rolls. crackers on the table we all wear the hats. plus an ice cream desert. not the usual xmas fare but this is requested every year. off to-day to pick up a phot frame I ordered one of those digital ones the photo's keep moving on I am not explaining it well but I thought that lindy and andrew would like it as they have one of those digital camera's. the weather is not too bad snow coming this afternoon but just flurries. had an e-amil from my sister in calgary she said it was -25 yesterday so she is not putting her nose out of the door can't say I blame her bye for now dorothy

Hi all,
Well all my plans have gone to the wind again. Johan has been taken into hospital and has lost blood from his anus. They are going to start with giving him 2 bags of blood. I have to cancel the mid-week holiday we were going to have on Monday.His heartbeat is irregular too.
See you tomorrow.
Sylvia xxx

I am very sorry to hear about Johan,Sylvia,it's to be hoped they get him sorted out quickly and return him home,i for one will be thinking of you both.
Dorothy,hissy followed me around all day yesterday ,curled up on my lap all the evening and then followed me to bed ,where she promptly settled on my arm so that i couldn't so much as move without waking her,and then slept soundly till this morning.if i had been mad at her [which i wasn't] ,quite funny looking back on it,after last nights close attention.i couldn't have stayed mad at her lol.
No,she is now a fully fledged member of the family and i love her to bits ,daft half hours and all.
She won't be too lively today because i have just wormed her,and i noticed last time ,thay it slows her right down for a few hours.
I am going to clear up the patio today,remove all the wood offcuts from my woodworking spree,and sack the lot up,and dispose of it.
I was going to take it to the recycle point in Newburn,then i remembered Martins mate,Brian ,who has just got himself a new job as a ranger in the local forest,so the off cuts will come in very handy as kindling for his range wood burner cooker in his new bungalow.
This lad has his head screwed on all right,getting a job as a ranger,but having his own bungalow on the edge of the domestic site,gets most of his meat free ,from the culls and shot rabbit and gets all his fuel free too ,all for the sake of going into the forest with his chain saw ,and cutting up all the fallen boughs for his range ,and fire,hee hee,nice work if you can get it.lol.
The worming tablet is having some effect already ,usually by this time Hissy is having a mad half hour ,thundering up and down the stairs and along the top landing growling and spitting at her shadow lol,none of that this morning ,so ,i will enjoy it while i can ,cause no doubt she will be back to normal by tomorrow.
Have to go now,the boss is up ,and i had better at least LOOK busy ,or i will be getting extra jobs [whine ] hee hee.
See ya later peoples.Badger.

Hi everyone,can not say much I have not had any internet at home ,bit of a blimp. At work and can't say much will be back tomorrow.Brenda

hello sylvia I do hope that your husband is feeling better soon look after yourself as well. fred glad to read about hissy's antics de worming does not sound like much fun. the weather was bad last night lots of blwoing snow along the highways coming up to us it was during rush hour so many accidents were reported. the repair shops will be doing good business. at the moment it is clear and cold so I am popping out to do some shopping as it is calling for more snow flurries to-night being so close to the big lakes we get a lot of flurries of the lake. brenda are you all packed for your trip bye for now dorothy

Morning all,pretty cool here this morning ,but no sign of snow,thank goodness ,i need to get out to the shops for a few bits and pieces before we start decorating the spare room.
Thanks to a member of genes ,i have the names and birth ,christening dates of Mr Richard Barnes,and all his children,cor ,magic,this is gonna take me forward good style.
I only had two of his childrens names,but knew there were bound to be others ,these barnses,being very prolific hee hee[easy to see what they did in the days before tv before radio and t.v for entertainment in the evenings] lol.
I think next week is earmarked for the fitting of the new dish washer ,so if you all hear muffled swaer words and banging under the draining board,it's only christmas Badger trying to back out of the door and gotten stuck hee hee.
I't only a bench top one mthere only being the two of us,and space in the kitchen being at a premium,but it will take four place settings which is more than enough,and will leave more time to do the interesting stuff ,like trying new recipes.
Once the washer is in place i may be able to do away with the wall brackets and put the new mic' straight onto the top.or even move the mic' to the other side of the kitchen,out of the way of the benches and work tops
We are going out this morning to get the beef in for the corning of ,which will take anything from a week or a fortnight,we then intend to cut it all into slices ,and put it down into the freezer until required,this corned beef is reckoned to be very tasty hot,or cold in sarnies,so ,a report at the time will be forthcoming especially to Mary ,in oz bless her for putting me onto it.
Seems in nearly all countries but england ,some butchers actually supply corned beef ,already salted and cured so that all you have to do is cook it,but ,of course ,the brit's are behind the times as normal lol.
I will have to make sure the greenhouse is locked at night or we will be overrun by stray cats after the meat ,because it's the only cool place i can think of to put the beef while it's curing ,i may even put Hissy on guard duty with my trusty catupault lol.
I hope Sylvia will keep us informed as to how Johan is doing i think more than a few of us are rather concerned over the bad news.no fun ,is it ,when your rock is poorly.
Well ,off now to get a cuppa before disturbing the wife ,who ,for some reason has had a restless night,but there dosn't seem to be anything actually wrong .
Maybe she is sneaking around behind my back looking for her chissy presents for a nose ,HA,out of luck lass ,they are at your daughters hee hee.
Catch you all later.
Christmas Badger[aka Fred].