Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 30 August 2015

Evening all:  

Lindybird: Welcome back.  Missed your b'day, but you'll have another one is 6 months, right?  :-)  We'll look forward to tales from the trip.

dibnlib: I was watching the events at the Budapest railway station and thinking of you so glad your agent has given you the go-ahead. It will be an adventure - will be really interested to hear all about it when you get back (when are you getting back by the way?).

Watching Big Blue Live right now. Thought one of the male presenters was a big over the top the first night, but he seems calmer tonight. We're busy watching Bixby and her daughter right now - seriously cute!

Good Morning. More rain overnight, so no chance of cutting the grass yet. A much cooler morning though. I had to use the tumble dryer most of yesterday.

Nothing planned for today. I will do a small shop and probably eat out for lunch. All the HW is done except I still need to clean the kitchen floor. I left the side garden gate open yesterday and on two separate occasions, we were visited by two of our neighbours' dogs, who came in the kitchen door, just after some rain. They are lovely dogs, but don't normally escape from their owners. I did quickly wipe the kitchen floor, but it doesn't look clean this morning. LOL

Good morning from Inverness where the weather can't make up its mind! The heating came on so the house must have been cool :-(

Glad to read, ANNETTE that you had a cooler day.

Not a lot happening here either, BRENDA. OH has just gone to the bank and I will do a bit of shopping later on. Know what you mean about muddy paws. I have that problem here too except the culprit has two legs only! He just forgets to take his gardening shoes off, sometimes, if he is popping in for a drink of water.

I expect that LINDY is filling her washing machine as we speak. Like the rest of us, I am eagerly awaiting the smelly dog story-

No pressure, LINDY lol

There has been no news from Florida so far this week, they must be relaxing after being all 'theme parked out' - DiL's words.

I do hope that they see some of the things that DIANE told me about. I haven't done the Google street walk yet, every time I think about it the phone rings or something similar.

Yesterday afternoon stepson, wife and their daughter visited. We didn't mention The Episode of The Flat and neither did she. Her eating habits are causing her parents a bit of concern. She ( granddaughter) has, since going to university, stopped eating meat and is now cutting out all dairy produce. She says that she thinks it is helping her eczema. She may well be right, I must do some research. However,in my other (working) life I had a 'special interest' in eating disorders so will be watching and listening carefully. Trouble is, I don't see her that often as she is away for weeks at a time and if she thought that I was too curious, she wouldn't visit at all when she is at home. It is the way she is, I'm afraid. We had a light hearted chat about vegetarian and vegan eating plans and the need to make sure that she is getting all proteins, vitamins etc. I learnt a bit about that side of it over the years, from Sheana who has been a vegetarian for many years. I'm no expert though, so I gave GD a couple of recipe/info books that were lurking on my bookshelf.

Sorry to ramble on!

Take care, all

Good Morning:  No early post from me, today, as yes, I've been filling the w. machine, but also my Tablet pc has decided it will not charge up, and keeps putting up a notice saying "Use the dedicated charger for this or you will only get a trickle charge which is not enough" -  I always use the charger which came with it, so something is going wrong, somewhere.

So now I'm on the desktop.  Heather - not rambling, always interesting to hear your news! I would be worried about the "No dairy" bit as it means she will have to make up for the lack of protein in other ways, as I'm sure you know. Its always hard to try and help when people have fixed ideas about what's good for them, or not.  I felt cold this morning, and I'm sure its gone down a degree. Had to put a cardi on, on top of my short sleeve summer sweater.

My OH has been (thankfully on a good solid ladder, which I bought him some years ago) picking plums like a madman, and having given lots to our immediate neighbours, has now gone out in the car to deliver some to farther away friends.  Meanwhile, whilst I had a shower, I came down to find that Bonnie had brought a four foot length of bramble into the dining room and was eating it on the carpet - the mess has to be seen, to be believed......

Brenda:  I sympathise about your kitchen floor, as after all, eight dirty feet can make a whole lot of mess!!

I have now been on the b.p. tablets for a fortnight, and feel quite well.  At first, I got slight headaches in the afternoons but they seem to be wearing off, now.  I see my GP (or rather, one of her colleagues) next week about the regime and whether I need stronger ones.  

Had a lovely birthday, with phone calls to & fro from our sons, as of course it was also our granddaughter Amber's first birthday - they held a BBQ for the family near enough to be there, and our Youngest son & family managed to brave the M6 and M1 to be there on a Bank Hol.  Apparently the rain was torrential, so it all had to be indoors in the end, but was enjoyed by all. We are off next Saturday to spend the weekend with Amber, to make up for having to miss the day.

So instead we went walking in the hills near the coast off the Llyn Peninsula, a beautiful part of the country, and it was a lovely sunny day.  In the evening we had a meal at my favourite restaurant:  I had a Welsh named but unpronounceable, Chicken Leek & Bacon Pie in white wine, with sweet potato chips, and followed that with Cheesecake with summer fruits, which came with a little pot of fruit compote and home made ice cream. My OH had a Steak Pie with chips and veg, and had Jam Roly Poly with custard afterwards, so he was in heaven!!  Next to us, a couple had the Poached Pears in wine which looked wonderful.

I had a large glass of white wine with my meal, but desisted on having more drink when we returned to base, and I'm glad I did as in the night, I was up and feeling decidedly unwell.....   Not sure if it was the pie or the cheesecake, but I still have a very upset stomach :-(

The Tale of the Table

When we started out with our holiday home, we needed a small table & chair set to sit upon our deck with a drink or a lunch.  I bought a nice wooden table & 2 chairs, which seemed ideal but now the table has started to have a pronounced wobble, most annoying.  I researched tables, wanting to just buy the table only, but most small sets seem to be just that:  Sets.  In the end, I found a nice one bargain price, with 2 chairs and also the bonus of a sun umbrella.

This duly arrived, just before we left for Wales.  We got the chairs out and they seemed OK but we decided to just take the table & umbrella with us. When there, my OH built the table from the many leggy parts, & I came out of the shower and declared it "very smart", but it was black and I had ordered a set described as "copper coloured"!!   It is a glass topped table with black metal edge to it, and legs.   He took it to pieces again.  We looked at the umbrella packaging (it was packed separately)and on the outside it said "copper" so we were then undecided about returning the whole set. We brought them all home with us again....

When we got home we once again unpacked the chairs - they were in a package marked "copper" too.  Then it dawned - the chairs have black metal frames & legs but with a smart copper coloured mesh as the seating part. On the internet, it is impossible to tell if the description meant that the metal parts were coloured or just the parasol and seating.  Big sighs all round. We decided to keep the set, but of course it will all have to be hauled back to Wales again......  (& meanwhile, I will have to find somewhere to store it all, seeing as we are not going back to Wales for about 6 weeks due to The Wedding & other factors!)

Oh LINDY, just the sort of thing that illustrates the perils of internet shopping! I'm sure that we all empathize :-( Ages ago, OH ordered a sack trolley from the Daily Mail online shop. When it came, it was so small that we gave it to one of the grandchildren so that he could 'help' in the garden! I'm sure that the dimensions were there to be seen somewhere, but not by us...

I hope that DIBNLIB will be OK on the journey in Hungary.

ANNETTE - those tongs will be in a really silly place. I speak from experience.

It is grandson Callum's 17th birthday on Friday. Where did the years go? He is wildly excited because he will be getting his provisional driving licence. His mother and I are nervous.

Heather:  I agree, that you do need to be super careful when ordering things online.... I have made several "mistakes" - well, some of them went straight to the charity shop if they were only cheap things.  Agree about your grandson:  where do the years go?  Our grandson Tomasz is going to be five in December, and starts school this week, which just seems unbelievable.  I would be nervous too, about the driving licence thing.

Annette: I swear by those wooden tongs to haul stuff out of the toaster with.  Mine are in the teaspoon drawer! Hope yours turn up soon.

Have been to the Opticians, she gave me a thorough check-up which is nice, but then announced that I have an infection called "blepharitis" which is chronic but treatable.  I have to use drops several times a day, and also get some cream on prescription from the Doc's for the skin around my eyes, which is sensitive.  I bought the drops right away and am due to see the Doc anyway about the other problems I have. She (the Optician) did say, by the way, that we should all drink plenty of water as it helps - "no water, not enough tears to cleanse your eyes" she said.

The Tale of the Dog Who Smelt Truly Terrible

We take Bonnie out for walks several times a day:  there is hardly ever a walk without incident, as she is curious and also, being a Spaniel has a very good nose.  When we go on the local beach in Wales, my OH now has to keep her on a long lead as although she bounces around and uses lots of her surplus energy there, she also finds the most disgusting dead seals, dry and wet dead fish, crabs, bits of plastic etc. etc.  One one walk alone last Monday, she found two crabs, a piece of roofing felt, a large feather from a gull, the heel off a man's shoe, and two (empty) drinks cartons. She ate the crabs and abandoned the other stuff when she found something more interesting.

Last Friday we went on a favourite walk above the cliffs and through the gorgeous heather, and we let her off the lead.  She bounded around, and all seemed well, until she came towards us with suspiciously more brown patches on her white coat than is usual.  As she came nearer, we both held our noses and gasped:  it was Truly Awful!   She had found, well, I hate to have to describe it, but there was no doubt - she had rolled over and over in Human Excrement.....   The path we use is a popular one with folks who walk the Welsh Coastal Path, and someone had hidden behind a rock to "go".   My OH was furious, and the dog was truly disgusting. There is no doubt that it smells worse to our noses than even dog mess.  She was blithely unconcerned, and kept running around us.   We had to find a small stream & try to get her to wade through it, but it wasn't deep enough.  Then we walked until we reached some large deep puddles, as thankfully it had rained in the night.  He got her to run in and out of these, then he washed her with one hand as best he could   -----   We rode back to our caravan with all the car windows open!  I then passed him some buckets of warm water and the dog shampoo, and she was washed twice before being allowed inside.  Afterwards, we had to wash his trousers, too.  She did still smell, so got no cuddles that evening, but the next day thankfully it was much less noticeable.    UGH!!

Morning all:

Heather: Good idea to give granddaughter books on vegan diets as a supportive rather than anxious approach. Not sure what you can do about Callum's impending driver's licence though. Do they have graduated licences there?  Once a teenager passes the test, they (well, the Dept of Motor Vehicles in some states) restrict the hours that he/she can drive without an adult/experienced driver and, from what I remember, when and how many other teens can be in the vehicle without an adult. Am vague about it (clearly).

Lindybird: What a pain about the table. I've found out (the hard way) that reading questions other potential buyers have asked sometimes avoids these kinds of hiccups; I know Amazon has this option. Not sure about others.  Surely it couldn't be yummy cheesecake causing tummy problems? :-)  Hope you're better now.  I've heard of blepharitis - friend has it flare up from time to time. That's a good point about keeping hydrated.  Oh dear, oh dear, what a rude development on your walk with Bonnie. Yuk!!!  Your poor OH. Gross!

Brenda: I bet you're thinking you'd rather have 8 muddy feet than one stinky Bonnie!  :-)

Went for nice long walk this morning; now home to more pre-painting garden chores...