Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 9 July 2017

Unknown said:

AQ – how long is this school holiday?  Ours in Scotland started hols here already, but not in England yet

OG – These school holidays are this week & next. We have 2 weeks each in April, July & October. The 6-week summer break is mid-Dec to end of January. Our school year starts end of January. Miriam is a cutie. Friend has intermittent health , so we escape when we can.

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Annette, Linda & Lynette - re Tour de France. It is not the cycling I watch. I enjoy the scenery, the castles, abbeys, churches and places I shall never visit. . . and if I did I would not have a helicopter view!

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I gave up watching tennis when I could not bear the grunting, the racquet smashing, etc, also our Aussie commentators never shut up, they talk such drivel. Nor do I enjoy watching the players stand behind baseline, bang bang bang, Whatever happened to running to the net? Rant over.

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I have booked a bus trip for October. I’m too late for one in Sept, am on waiting list in case someone cancels. If enough demand the trip will be repeated another year. Anyway it’s the “upper leg“ of Yorke Peninsula, close enough for Friend & I perhaps.

Good Morning.  Late today, because I am late!   Stayed up late last night for no particular reason, then my OH left me to sleep in this morning.

AQ -- Glad you've managed to book a trip for Oct., and hope your friend is OK. I love some of the golf tournaments my OH watches, because of the scenery!

Don't get me started on the tennis grunting........ <puts hands on head and screams>

More picture removal today, plus the last of the cupboard emptying, as OH's cousin, a burly fellow, is coming around to help move the heavy stuff. Don't know where we're going to eat for the next couple of days! Perhaps if it's dry, in the garden! (Kitchen is too small, conservatory will be full of stuff from dining room)

Here's today's pic:

I know I'm exotic!!

Linda – pleased to see your Friend’s op went well – thanks for alerting me to your post yesterday.  Soon after I wrote that we were still dry here, gentle rain started and went on through the evening – lovely gentle rain which is so good for the garden; today is dry and sunny.  OH went to cut one courgette and came back with two courgettes and a nearly-marrow which had been lurking under the leaves;  it is actually a good size to stuff so I shall keep it in the fridge for the two of us when J is away (he doesn’t like them stuffed).  Pleased to see your OH has help with moving the larger furniture.  If you have nowhere else to eat, perhaps you need to eat out all weekend; LOL?  Who is that proud-looking rainbow bird?

Chrisy – pleased you enjoyed LotL; it is such a lovely area around Dunkeld and Birnam.  I hope your broadband will be working well when you arrive home.

Dibnlib – thanks for the baby appreciation comment.  I hope your arthritis flare-up has subsided.

Lynette – pleased to see you are fitting in regular swimming again.

AQ – your school year is similar to ours – in Scotland we have two weeks in October, December and April and seven in the summer – teachers and assistants have less due to training days adding up to a week.  School year starts in August, although academy children go up a year after the exams and start new work then – not very helpful, as they sometimes return to new teachers, and the summer is long enough to forget what they learnt in June!  Pleased you have a tour booked later, and I hope you get a place in September – although I thought you did the Yorke Peninsula a few years back?

Heather – sorry you have not been well; I hope you will be back to full health soon.

OH is shopping and J is just going down to the docs to try to get an appointment to have a toe-nail removed.  The podiatrist has been working on it for many months, but says he should now have it removed and try again to grow a new one straight.  If the weather stays good, it will be a gardening afternoon – reinstating the perennial bed at the other end of the deck.

Hi, saw Heathers post earlier and have been too busy to come on and comment - sorry to hear that you're not too good, Heather :-(  take care of yourself: I wonder if you tried to do too much in the garden?

OG -- Courgettes sound good. Don't know what kind of bird it is....     My Youngest had lots of problems with his big toe, and even had his toenail surgically removed, but it still grew back!   I think it's alright now, as he keeps an eye on it. Hope Js.can be sorted out, as it's such a nuisance.

Linda - toenails do grow again (J's did before) unless the whole nail-bed is removed which is more drastic surgery.  GD#2 had both her big toe nails removed last year, and one of them was followed by three new ones growing together!

LINDY   I know what you mean. Our dining chairs go to be reupholstered on Monday, back on Friday. We have a breakfast room off the kitchen where we have brekkie. Not sure whether to keep moving the chairs from room to room or just eat all meals in the breakfast room!!

LINDY   exotic, definitely.

HEATHER   Get well soon.

OG   arthritis much better, thank you.

ChrisyB: Good to see you. Sounds like a lovely few days near LofL.

OG:  Cutie Ms. M. looks very pleased with herself. I think kiddies are telling us something when they find so much pleasure playing with boxes and other simple things - good for the imagination.  Oh my, am agog at prospect of three toe nails on one toe.  Our bodies' solutions are amazing sometimes.

AQ: I seem to remember you saying how you admired the background on the Tour de France. My friend watched the Olympics in London a few years back just for the bike events, which were routed through an area she knew very well.  Have to say I enjoyed that too. There seems to be less grunting at this stage of the tennis than in recently. I read - where? - that players are trained to exhale loudly these days.  :-(   And yes, more baseline playing than previously; maybe more emphasis on power hitting?  Also, they seem to play more directly to each other than I remember, but since I'm basically clueless about that, it's safe to ignore me.    Sorry about the OZ commentators though.  Glad we've got some time to rest up before your net bus trip.  :-)

Lindybird: When in doubt, eat out!  What IS that exotic creature?

Heather: I'm sure we must be related coz I get those kind of issues under the same circumstances.

Watching Querrey/Cilic match right now. Not sure if I'll make it to Tai Chi....