Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 19 May 2019

Nanny duty was busy, heaps of chores (helped by Little People). They were in the sandpit slopping sand & water, playing “grown-ups”. After a while I convinced them to finish, wash themselves under tap & come inside for a shower, fresh clothes (they dumped wet & sandy ones in laundry), snack time - savoury bics spread with vegemite or peanut butter [what happened to peanut paste?]. Dau & Miss7 return, more snacks. Quiet time, only 6 books to read while Dau prep-ed tuna mornay for tea, then she was off and it was washing up time, assisted by MissL & supervised by MissJ, both standing on stool. I had just sat down for my first rest when Dau rushed in wailing that she forgot to tell me to take mornay out of oven after 10 mins. The crumb topping was dark brown in places, I scraped the worst off and declared it would pass. Came home. I wonder why I am so tired this morn?

Nextdoor neighbour’s renovations are progressing. Blue steel frames have appeared, indicating maybe 3 small rooms. OH said that while I was out yesterday, there were loud noises from the Back Neighbour. Our blocks are such that we have 2 back neighbours; we had heard that one house was to be demolished and replaced. “Only a single story, but a parents retreat upstairs”. Isn’t that 2-story? Most of our homes are single storey and people do not welcome anyone overlooking their backyard.

Evening all:

Lindybird:  Good paint presented no unpleasant surprise; it's so hard to judge until it's on the wall and dried.

OG: I too had to smile at thought of your "invigorating" observance of OH in the garden!   How long will it take to fix J's car?

AQ:  That's a very busy morning!  Hmmm. Does the city  have to approve any second story additions?  We had a similar situation with some new neighbors who planned a large two story house in a community of single story homes.  The immediate neighbors went to the planning meeting at the city and put up a fight (after alerting the rest of us) and enough people showed up to support them that the council denied the permit.

Had a good day with more garden work; tomorrow I'm planning a  quiet day with paperwork, etc.  Take care all.

Good morning all -
Well, AQ, a very busy day for you, indeed! A shame about the oven - if your daughter had remembered she could have phoned you. Guess that she is always chasing her tail, as we would say. Hard to believe that the twins are now 5!
Regarding planning permission. This end of our street has two storey homes next to single storey, Victorian and, Edwardian next to sixties and seventies homes. All a bit of a mish mash. Plots were sold individually by the land owner/lairds over many years. Not the prettiest of sights.

Forecast is for another grey day today. My youngest lives in Morayshire and it rained incessantly all day yesterday. She doesn't drive and had two walks to school and back, a meeting at school and then home,and also another walk to take her younger daughter to karate, home and then back to collect her. Ten walks and got very wet!!! She doesn't complain, driving is something that she just doesn't want to do for reasons that I won't go into here.

Regards to ALL

Good Morning.

I too, smiled at OG' s description :-)

AQ, you sounded as if you coped very well with the demands of the littlies, it's so tiring I know. I presume the local council have to pass plans for extensions before they're built, as they do here. I can imagine that folks are not happy about having neighbours overlooking their outside space.

Heather, hope it's a bit less grey there today. Your poor daughter! - so many wet outings. I had to do the same when our children were small and my OH needed our only car to get to work. Thankfully their school was only 12 minutes walk.

I had a good chat to my late friend Gs OH yesterday: he is coping, and coming to terms with being alone. I think having his little dog helps as he has to turn out for walks with her at least twice a day, and he meets some of his neighbours doing the same with theirs.

LINDY - good to read that Gs widower is coping. The little dog will be helping. My friend in Wales got a puppy after her husband died and he was such a comfort. Now, she is lonely again, she had to give him up after tripping over him and fracturing her pelvis..... At least he has gone to a good home, a friend of hers and she sees him most weeks.

The weather is pretty dismal this morning.. We have friends who are holidaying on Mull with some German relatives. Such a shame that the weather has been so poor for them. Also for my friend who is walking the West Highland Way this week. Our friends will be coming to see us Tues/Wed next week so hopefully the weather will have improved by then.

Let's hope so, DIBNLIB. Maybe the low pressure will leave us!

AQ - I can't remember it being called anything else here but ' peanut butter'. Maybe others have better memories ! I love the crunchy variety on toasted bread.

Good morning – another day of good weather – with less wind this time.

LINDA – being without J’s car overnight wasn’t a problem – with him unable to drive till December for medical reasons, and me a non-driver, we actually have two cars and only one driver. The use of OH’s time was the main factor – took him all morning yesterday before they found a courtesy car and we had lunch at 1:45 instead of 12:30. Today he has had to juggle getting ready for the cleaner, sorting me out to leave, taking J to work (due to his bad knees) and getting back to receive the car which should have been fixed with a major part delivered overnight, and then this afternoon he has to get J from work for an appointment at Occupational Health agency. At least my appt at rheumatology tomorrow has been cancelled – two ways of looking at that: saves some precious time, but it means I won’t get the injection which I am desperate for! I hope you will soon get accustomed to the new paint and even come to like it! It will probably vary at different times of the year, due to changing light levels in the conservatory. That Poppy is never boring – always cheers me up! Good that G’s OH seems to be coping; is he likely to stay there, or move nearer to his daughter down south?

AQ – plenty to keep you busy on Nanny day! Neighbour buildings sound “interesting” – hope you won’t be overlooked by new build behind!

ANNETTE – I hope your planned quiet day for paperwork turns out that way! Things do have a habit of rushing in!

HEATHER – sorry about the dreich weather up there, especially for your daughter’s walks to and fro for the girls.

DIBNLIB – not good when weather mars people’s plans, especially with guests visiting. Looks like next week will be more variable.Good morning – another day of good weather – with less wind this time.

Cleaner is nearly done – she loves rubbing shiny things such as bathroom support bars and seems to have a vacuuming fetish – not sure what else she actually does! We’ve recently been sorting all our pillows, and are partway through washing all but the two new ones which we bought in Manchester – I actually condemned J’s; I think they came home with him in 2011!

HEATHER and AQ - I like my peanut butter with marmite - or strawberry jam!