Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 22 November 2015

Always nice to hear from you, George, and that you do read these pages, possibly for your entertainment!  We certainly all have very different lives, but that's what makes it so interesting :-)  Well done on getting yourself organised for Christmas.  I hope you enjoy your sons visit and your meal out.

I've been out to collect an order of Christmas clothes (for the G'children) and presents, from M&S in a nearby town.  It was raining when I left home, and it got worse whilst I scuttled from shop to shop. Then I picked up some food in Sainsbugs. When I came out, it was so dark it was like night time! ~  it was 12.35pm!  And it was raining very heavily. On my drive back to our town, it was quite scary-  the traffic on a fairly fast road where I would usually travel at 60mph was slowing to less than 40mph  as we all dealt with the spray and the deluge. At the gutters edge, the water was reaching across the inside lane of the road.  I was really relieved to get home!

Brenda: Not surprised you found it tiring with the pup!  My OH and I sometimes take it in turns to keep Bonnie amused, she is a bundle of energy. I'm not sure I would have had a puppy if I'd known how tiring she would be, nor how she's turned our house upside down. We are going to look after a little pup on Thusday evening for the lady who had Bonnie for us during The Wedding Weekend in Sept. She is a black & white Collie and she's named her "Jess" . I can't wait to see her.

Just back from dentist with new crown in place. Dentist says I may get a couple of years out of it, then I will have to go down the implant route. Anyway all is well at the moment. I am now a happy bunny.

Benson may be nearly 3 years old, but he too likes to be entertained. He is such fun.

Lindybird - glad you got home safely in all that bad weather on the journey. I have just been out and it is raining heavily here too.

EE & Dibnlib - thinking about you at the Dentists today, hope all goes well.

Brenda - I can understand how tired you were after a day with a very lively puppy.  I had a very boisterous boxer puppy once and I was so pleased when she had a little sleep, I used to tiptoe about so that I did not wake her up!

Heather - Hope you have had a good journey home and feel rested after such a nice holiday.

OG - You seem to be well organised with Christmas, I have not started yet, must get going.

The Hotel where we are having our cactus club christmas lunch is The Old North Inn (used to be the Bogroy Hotel) at Bogroy/Inchmore.  We uses to go to different venues in Inverness but have been to Bogroy for some years now.   It saves on the journey for all the Strathpeffer/Dingwall/Kiltarlity etc, people and the Inverness people do not mind driving out.  There is also lots of parking space and flat entry,etc, for a wheelchair member.  They give us a nice room on our own and we can stay as long as we want afterwards and best of all do not charge for anybody who has had to cancel at the last moment, all of which we have had trouble with at other places.

George - Nice to hear from you, another person who seems to be well organised for Christmas, hope you enjoy your son's visit.

Dibnlib - Just seen your post, glad all went well at the Dentist.

Hello, Everyone,

Have just been to Grandpersons (well, this is America) Day at G'daughter's school.

It was (awesome) lovely. The children took it in turns to tell  favourite memories of  things they have done with their grandparents.

Ours told about our trip to the Tower of London last year. She was particularly taken with the polar bear, which lived there once, and fished in the Thames.

I do not have any g'children in the UK, but do not think there is anything similar.

Maybe there is now.

Everyone has a lot of news.

OG's organisation makes me feel most inadequate. But I do realise you need to be prepared.

Lindybird, I also have a small third room. I make it a rule not to use it as a dumping ground, for when I do need to use it as a bedroom. It is difficult, though, as I am a hoarder. It has a bed settee in it.

I hope those requiring/having had dental treatment, manage to hang on to their crowns.

AQ, A good idea about the cushion drums.

Heather, hope the journey home was good. I am working on another trip to Madeira!

Am going to do some baking with G'daughter now.

Yes, I will be here for the Thanksgiving experience. Am looking forward to it. I met several G'parents this morning who have arrived here to stay with their families.

One is staying next door to my son, and is originally from Derbyshire, and I will be meeting her again.

Hi to all

Home safely and thinking ( only thinking!) about Christmas. Our Christmas food does not change much from year to year. I always think about maybe doing different exciting things but the family always want the same things that we have always eaten over the festive season. Oh well!

Thank you all for posts, will get back properly, tomorrow. Our night in Gatwick hotel was not good for either of us. The room was fine but OH suffered with his bad hip all night, following a very cramped flight. Next time, we will spend more money on flights because he just must not suffer like that. It is the first time that we have flown budget for longer than an hour and a half, the seat pitch was just not good enough for my old boy.

George, Oh dear, somebody else who is fully prepared for Christmas. Well done.
Have a lovely weekend with your son and enjoy your meal at your favourite restaurant.

Linda, Sounds like a very difficult drive for you. It has been dark here all day, but our rain became lighter as the day progressed, nothing like what you had to endure. Drizzle at the moment.
Good Luck with the pup on Thursday evening. My worst moment was when I was checking a  pan on the hob and the pup jumped up and actually touched the edge of the hob !!! It really did get told off and locked out of the kitchen. It is a Jack Russell.

Dibnlib, So pleased to hear that you didn't need an extraction and you still have a beautiful smile.

Rita, Pleased to see that your Christmas lunch will be held somewhere that you know and that you will be happy with the meal etc.

Rosy, OG has always been so organised. Most of us can't compete LOL.
I am so happy that you are having such a wonderful time with your family.

Heather, I do agree with you about the plane seats. Nothing worse than being cramped in your seat. Hope your OH has a better night's sleep tonight.

Heather :  glad you're back home again.  When we returned, we felt as if Christmas had arrived in our absence!  - there was suddenly so much stuff out in the shops already. We hate the cramped plane seats. Usually, we request aisle seats when checking in, so that my OH can stretch his legs out a bit. We were on a budget airline too, this time, & you couldn't book your seat. But we struck lucky as I got the most rear window seat, which was nice & cosy, and there was a reasonable amount of space between the rows, too.

Rita:  Nice that you've found a good hotel for your special lunch. Hope you have a good time.

Rosy:  How lovely to have a special event for grandparents. Your day sounded really wonderful.

Dibnlib: So pleased for you that the crown was a success.

Hello!  Felt really well today, so got on with a few things – and even persuaded OH to do things he hadn’t intended!  He was fine with his crown’s final fitting and some extra capping on the teeth he had ground down with the ill-fitting old crown, but came back with the news that our lovely lady dentist is going elsewhere!  We each had only one course of treatment with her, but got on so well after some really awful recent dentists.  Just watched “The Quartet” which we had recorded – and I sat through the whole film without falling asleep, although I was doing a crossword at the same time!

Brenda – sorry you found the Pup so tiring; sounds like half a day would be enough, or, as Linda says, take turns with her.  Our Christmas is easy, really, as there are only the three of us, and we know what we like – with a few innovations this year.  As I always say, plans can be changed if necessary, but I prefer to know what we intend, to have a kind of mental map of what should happen!

George – good to see your post, and that you too have all your Christmas plans sorted.  Enjoy your weekend with Son visiting and the meal out!

Linda – sorry about the weather.  We had some showers, but much less than forecast, and some lovely sunshine between.  Pleased you reached home safely.  I hope you can rest tomorrow in preparation for the extra Pup on Thursday!

Dibnlib – so glad you (and the dentist) managed to keep the tooth!

Rita – sorry to say it, but we thought the Bogroy/Great North Inn had gone somewhat “downhill” when we were up in October.  It seems to have changed hands (and sometimes returned to the same people) rather a lot over the last few years.  I hope they will do better for an organised party than they did for casual diners.

Rosy – pleased you are having such an AWESOME time and enjoyed Grandparents’ Day and meeting other Brits over for Thanksgiving.  I remember one of Daughters, in the UK, used to send my parents (also UK) a GParents’ Day card back in the 1990s – and I think it was the same day as in the US.

Heather – I am sure your Christmas thoughts will soon become actions when your feet have had time to touch the ground!  Sorry about the hotel and plane discomforts.  I hope you found all the family well and coping!

Tiler didn’t appear today to deliver his materials, but that wasn’t a definite promise – tomorrow is, so watch this space … .