Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 25 October 2015

'allo all:  Thank you Diane!

AQ:  While your neighbors are adding add-ons, ours are all putting on new roofs in preparation for a possible El Nino.  Hope the family event isn't too exhausting. What is grandson up to?  

Brenda: That sounds like a sharp increase in prices for those tools!  :-)   How did the bonfire night go with the rain?

dibnlib: Who are the recipients of the goody boxes from your church?  Does anyone sneak in any "unecessary" items?

Rita: Let us know how the lemon sole recipe works out.  Nice to think of you tucking in your tortoises for the winter.

Heather: Sorry that your OH put his foot in it re the dessert fork.  Dessert forks? We use spoons, fingers, etc., depending on the dessert.  :-))  

Lynette: I'm soooo out of my gym routine it's pathetic. Parts of me seem to be moving independently of other parts. It reminds me of that kids' rhyme: Jelly on a plate, jelly on a plate. Wibble-wobble wibble-wobble, jelly on a plate.  :-(

Diane: Good luck with the leaky roof. Any chance of getting it patched/replaced?  Sounds like you have a front-row view of the changing seasons in your backyard.

Would also like to add my good wishes to OG and EE on their travels; also sending healthy wishes to dear Margo.

Well, I've been out and about ta lot. A few weeks back there was an ad on the local web site for extras to work on a movie to be filmed in the area. What caught my eye was the note that folks with vehicles older than 1979 were especially needed.  We have a 1972 Ford 250 truck so I took it off to the audition and - surprise! - got a call last weekend asking me to show up with the truck Monday.  I "worked" Monday, Tuesday, Friday and all day today. Mostly it involved either parking the (large) truck to block newer vehicles that might be in the way of the shot, or driving a certain distance behind the car being filmed so that if the road twisted and turned to the extent that the camera caught other vehicles, they'd be "period appropriate."  Most of the time though, it was very much a case of "hurry up and wait." The movie is 20th Century Women and stars Annette Bening and Billy Crudup plus some young actors I've never heard of.  Was a fascinating experience, even when we (up to six other vehicle owners) were just hanging out watching the whole production procedure. However, am really tired tonight (who'd've thought sitting around all day would be so exhausting).

Have a good Sunday everyone.

Site won't let me "like" so I hope it is going to let me post!  Arrived home safe very late last night - terrible traffic congestion much of the way - English school's one week holiday started this weekend.

Funeral went well and spent good time with various cousins - more later.

Good Morning Everyone.

Thank you Diane. An extremely bright moon last night, after the rain stopped. You paint a lovely picture of the deer in your yard. I guess you know which type of spider bit you and it is not a dangerous one. I do hope Patricia diverts away from your house. Have you had an estimate for your roof repairs ? We do worry about you.

Lynette, I hope your OH will be ok.

Annette, Are you going to continue speaking to us, now that you are a film star ??
In spite of all the sitting around, it does sound interesting and exciting. Keep hold of that truck, you never know when the phone may ring for your next part. Well done.

OG Good to see you are home safely, although you were plagued by heavy traffic and congestion.

The village fireworks did go ahead last night, but we didn't go to watch. It was raining steadily. There were some very loud explosions, which made our house vibrate though. On the way to church this morning, we saw lorries and road sweepers cleaning up after the event. It was on a field outside of the village. I did feel sorry for all the wildlife. It is not run by the council, but by a society, who give all profit to a local charity, but they must have some large overhead costs. The main road through the village is closed 6pm until 11pm to allow a procession of drum bashers and torch carriers, all in costumes of the period. Other villages send their participants.  Not always a popular event.

Hello everyone,

Diane,      How lovely to be able to see those deer so close to you. I am sure that must be good for the soul.

Exactly how big was that spider? Not something I would like to meet.

I hope Patricia has run out of steam before reaching your area.

Thanks for the moon info. Have you a special interest in such things? It has been too cloudy here recently to see the moon at all.

Annette,    Impressed with your 'film star' status.

OG,     Glad you got home safely. Yes, schools half-term holiday.  Dodging around scooters on pavements and in shops for a week. Great fun for the kids, but hard on old knees! Increase in traffic when you are trying to get somewhere is worse, though.

Brenda,      Early for the fireworks. I also am concerned about the effects on wildlife.

Not as exciting as Diane's deer, but the seagulls are back on the river, They are perched around the boats in the mornings like strings of pearls, so evenly spaced.

Later, they fly off and drift with the tide, fly off and do it again, several times. They look as if they are enjoying themselves.( I know I shouldn't say this) but it does.

They all disappear in March.

There are also  a lot of cormorants in October. The most I have seen  at any one time this year  is three, but in previous years I have seen as many as seven on the same boat.

All good wishes to everyone.

Hello, I'm back --  and posting with a squint as I can't find my "right" glasses for looking at the screen!

Good to  see, above, that OG & EE are returned safely and that all went well.  Its a sad fact of life that you can do a lot of catching up at funerals.

Only skimmed through the above posts, but love Diane's description of the White-tailed Deer       ~  "Good for the soul" ~ absolutely, Diane!

Just squinting some more and going back over my typos, then off to cook dinner - see you All tomorrow.

ps:  that came out as "sqwinting"  which I quite like!  

We had a lovely few days, by the way: more of that tomorrow......

This is not the promised catch up, but thought you might like to have a go at guessing the swearywords in the air here as we were told the shower room work can't start Monday, but is now promised to start Tuesday!  Looks like it will therefore dribble over into the next week, but I have appts for pre-op assessments on Monday 2nd - "normal one" and one with a senior anaesthetist - so we can't have them here that day!  Urghgh!

PS - I am trying to avoid stress!

Afternoon all:  

OG:  Arghh!  What a hassle, but I'm imagining only polite sweary words in your house. Do hope you can keep any other untoward events at bay over the next week or so. Don't worry about catching up on here.

Brenda: Is the fireworks event timed for Halloween or Guy Fawkes (or half term holidays)?  Re the movie, don't look for me at a theatre near you any time soon. :-)  Seriously, watching the camera and sound folks organize the logistics was really interesting - so much equipment!   It took forever to get around to actually shooting a scene (and then redoing it over and over!). The entire crew (including transport, catering, electricians, etc) was working 14-16 hours a day with much of the time spent just hanging out, then rushing around for an hour or so only to hang out again while the actual filming took place. Can't imagine anyone trying to keep a marriage going with a schedule like that. (Must say that Annette Bening looks great offscreen.)  

Rosy: Our winter birds have arrived and just the Anna's hummingbird (year round residents) are visiting those feeders.

Nice to be home today.  Back to normal tomorrow. It's getting cooler and I'm getting a bit anxious about fitting into my "winter" clothes.

Have a good Monday everyone and, of course, best thoughts to Margo.

Brenda – Putting my car in street could be risky with delivery & cement trucks backing into drive opposite. When vision obscured, I asked OH to assist by looking for traffic. Street is wide enough for a single lane of traffic when cars parked both sides. Besides usual traffic, we have circle line buses twice an hour. At least no one has parked across our drive, fingers crossed.

Dibnlib – We have similar boxes of love which are sent or travellers take to Cambodia, etc.

Rosy – What did I do before nanny duty? Well for a start I did more of my own housework! And I may have kept pace with the weeds. Then there were the weekly visits to city library for research & lunch with friends. I have been doing family history & churches research. Church-bakery excursions with Chauffeur-Friend. She enjoys driving & is interested in history & old buildings, so she drives, I buy lunch and I capture more churches for my flickr website. But we haven’t managed an excursion this year, just a coffee chat.

Heather – Some days I don’t know how to keep going and then I remember that I get a good night’s sleep unlike Dau & s-i-l.

Margo – {{{HUGS}}}

OG – {{{HUGS}}}

Hello to everyone I’ve not mentioned.

Family gathering entertainment was provided by wee ones being cute. I know I was supposed to be a guest but I gravitated to the kitchen sink to clear an accumulation of pots & pans. Perhaps I should have left them for OH who has today’s nanny duty <grin>, while I am lazing around here. I did find the duster, wow, there is furniture under the dust!