Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 28 April 2019

Have safe journeys, and hope all goes well for you all, OG. The Trafford Centre is particularly easy to navigate, and certainly has lots of choice for eating out. Not been there for ages as my OH hates shopping anyway, but in particular large shops!

LINDA - thanks. It is several years since we went to the Trafford Centre, and we usually find some part of it has been changed, but they do have good visitor information there.

OG: I hope all is well with J. I wish you a safe journey, and I hope you can enjoy yourselves shopping and eating out in the restaurants. So lovely that you've seen the rare linnet. I Googled it, and it's a beautiful little bird. Your great-grandchildren are adorable!

Heather: I can't reply to your post to Annette, Jane, and me. I'm not at all surprised at that development, but to comment further would require many sweary words and get me banned from this site. LOL!

Annette: I'm okay here. It's predicted to storm all day again. The storms and rain have been relentless, day after day, dismal and dark. I'm going to start building the ark and loading up the animals. The male groundhog is in my front yard this morning, but I'll have to find his mate. I'll have an entire ark full of various species of woodpeckers, which may not be a good idea in a wooden boat. LOL

Diane: Please take care in the storms. We all worry about you!

Have a great mental picture of a woodpecker laden boat, LOL!!

A showery day here, but I managed to get around without getting wet. We both went out to vote in the local council election this afternoon: I bet there is a poor turnout as everyone is fed up with politics and politicians now.

Evening all: Friend now back home; went to whale shift - no whales. :-( Off to friend's house for bite to eat and to vent about The Orange Menace & Co. at some point, but won't let them dominate the whole evening..

LINDYBIRD: Good to turn out and vote, regardless of how fed up we are with all of them. Can't complain if we didn't vote. :-)

I assume I've missed OG; sounds like she's planned some sensible side trips around J's appt.

Take care all

Aussieland has compulsory voting which means we have to be signed off on the roll and then, who would know, one may or may not fill in boxes as required. We have 2 more weeks of pollies ranting before our Federal election. Though candidates are dropping like flies, some having been caught out saying un-pc comments on social media and forced to resign from race. I wish they had a little box labelled “none of the above”.

We have our own “grand designs” underway next door. We are not sure exactly what is happening as their front bedroom nearest us juts out and we can’t see! Last Friday the asbestos removal team took away the ceiling of the carport at front of house and also the back eaves. Puzzling that eaves nearest us were left. Monday to Wednesday the carport was dismantled & removed, front drive dug up, little trenches laid where carport was. Yesterday all was quiet. Today the plumbers are working. We wonder if a new room on front, if a complete rearrangement as kitchen was tiny or what. OH is peering through our windows checking every noise, waiting for cement truck LOL We are not over friendly with most of our neighbours, just a wave and a Hi is usual.

AQ: Do you have a "write in" box on your ballot for such candidates as Tooth Fairy, etc.?.. You and your OH clearly must arrange more trips to local store so you can keep tabs on next door's doings. Read in the paper today that an elderly couple Down Under were the mistaken recipients of a package woirth $US7million, apparently destined for the local meth dealer. (Wonder who screwed that up and how his colleagues felt about it.) Anyway, the couple called the cops who put 2 and 2 together and managed to arrest a guy a few houses down the road....

ANNETTE - If we add anything other than the numbers, the vote is declared "informal". I do wonder how many Mickey Mouse or Tooth Fairy names get added to ballot papers. Yes, I saw the mistaken delivery report. Someone can expect a holiday in a small room. Hey, it is Friday! Who stole some of my days?

Just had to sign in again. There's no pattern to it...

Good Morning. Damp and rainy, here today.

AQ - I would be agog as to what's going on next door. You would be amused at the talk here about temperatures: we have a May Day Bank Holiday on Monday, and last year it was the hottest one ever, at 29c - - but this year its going to be the opposite, at only 13c! We talk about the weather a lot, LOL!!

Annette, we don't have to vote but in a way, I wish it was compulsory. I voted for two Independent candidates. Having said that, there's no way we are going to waste our time voting in the upcoming European Elections, coming up. I think most people feel the same.

I agree with LINDY, AQ! I don't think of myself as a nosy neighbour (!) but will happily look out of the window if I think something is going on.....
DIANE - your weather sounds dreadful. I hope that you don't lose power or broadband. Take care.
ANNETTE - good that you enjoyed time with your friend but sorry no whales. Something is definitely up.

I do a postal vote and got the preliminary card recently, before the EC elections.
The English results are interesting to say the least.

I'm thinking about OG, EE and J today and hoping all goes well at the Christie.

It's dull and cold here today. I've just heard sad news from a neighbour - our window cleaner collapsed and died from a heart attack yesterday. He was only in his forties, was a banker in his previous life and gave it up because of work related stress. He was so happy working for himself and such a lovely guy.