Weekly Chat, Sunday, December 5, 2010

Morning all:  Determined to stay low key and productive and let OH answer the phone today.   Eventually went to bed last night with hot milk (comforting),  toasted raisin and nut bar dripping with butter and book (Somerset Maugham bio).

OG: Next time, don't waver, send cake. :-)  Lovely  markings on the Bovver Boys!  Think Tesco's gift card very good solution; as you say, son can buy what he wants - or needs.

Thanks Margobird, for ID'ing OG's pix - we don't have starlings here (well, if we do, they don't look anything like that).

Alan:  Glad Hamish is recovering and still up for walkies.  I'm not so much bothered with the Panasonic telly having a problem as I - and the repair guy - are by Panasonic's customer service folks.  We have Panasonic and Sony products, but I hear that Samsung makes good stuff too.

dibnlib:  Marvellous shot of seal - oh those eyes - but needs a wooly scarf and hat methinks!

Lovely sunny morning here, though very breezy. Woke up too early but plan to retreat to garden at some point.  I too have been thinking of Diane - she was hoping to have the funeral/services this weekend due to expected storm.

Afternoon to all the thaw has arrived here and the temperature has gone up to +6C. Yesterday went to the PO and sent my C cards away as with the weather we have been having I think the post has a big back log, I sent my DIL 's birthday card away last Saturday and as of Friday she still hadn't received it  I hope it gets there as her birthday is tomorrow.

The starlings and the blackbirds are fighting over who gets first go at the bird table even tho' there is enough for all but it does keep me amused. Alan glad Hamish is feeling OK after his op. Annette  sorry to here of your problems with your tele maybe yours was either a Monday morning one or a Friday afternoon one.

Took a trip to Dobbies at Halbeath this morning and the place was really busy and they hadn't cleared their car park properly but the snow there hasn't cleared nearly as much as it has at the coast.

Hope everyone manages to keep warm or cool which ever applys 

Thanks Alan  for the Dunedin osprey info.

Hello everyone, so lovely to read all your news and stories, and all those wonderful pictures.  I hear that various parts of the country are now having to endure flooding.  OG sorry to hear the pipe burst in the garage.  What a pain.  Fluid/liquid seems to get everywhere when it spills - it is surprising how far a dropped bottle of milk will go! 

Like you all, I am totally appalled with the student demonstrations-***-riots.  I feel quite ashamed to be British when things like this happen, and am scared at times for the future.  At least the young man who climbed the flat on the Cenotaph is suitably contrite, and his parents ashamed of him.  I think it has done absolutely no good to their cause.

Oh dear Annette what a day you had with the the Panasonic TV.  It reads like a Greek tragedy!  I hope it continues to work for you over Christmas and that Panasonic get their finger out with your replacement.

Alan I am so pleased to hear that Hamish has no side-effects to his op.  What a little champion he is.

Paul we had Tree Sparrows on the feeders last winter, but not since.  I am pleased I managed to get a photo of them, as my neighbour rather doubted I'd actually seen them!  I showed him!!  Like a lot of you, I have a pile of ice from the water baths for the birds.  Seeing them enjoy fresh water makes me realise how often they use it: I often don't notice them in the water, just take it for granted.    Still no luck in seeing waxwing, although I see that some have been spotted in Cambridge.  When it was really cold (as opposed to just cold!) I would throw out handfuls of bird seed on the grass (in addition to the feeders) outside the kitchen window and have great delight in watching them.  I have a box with two holes on one side, and perspex on the other, supported on bricks, which in theory is a bird feeder - we have seen these in Switzerland and the local birds have no problem in going in the holes to eat seed out of the wind and safe from preditors.  Unfortunately my birds haven't sussed this out, so I put seed on the top as well and can sit and watch them by the window!!

Margobird what a wonderful 'card'!!  I remember seeing something like this when I was working - it too did the rounds.  Great fun.

BrendaH lovely to be able to see Nutcracker.  I have only ever seen it on TV, and in fact only ever once been to a live ballet performance.  I cannot now remember which is was called, La Sylphide or Le Sylphide, but it was the unfashionable one of the two, however I really enjoyed it.  Your doctor sounds excellent!  I hope your OH's finger soon feels better!  Ahh!

Gary I can sympathise with you over your 'cell' phone.  I am on Orange and it is just useless in the house.  I have to stand in the garden by the garage to get a signal.  And folk wonder why I never have it on!  I am afraid the phone is for my benefit, not for others to communicate with me - I have a land-line with an answerphone for that!!  And I have to say that each year when we holiday in Scotland we have been known to travel five miles down the road to be able to make an important call or indeed to access emails!  I think that Vodaphone is better on those occasions.

Dibnlib what a sweet photo of the seal with icy whiskers!  I am another who will keep an eye open for the Polar Bear programme. 

Brother and I visited Aunt in hospital on Thursday.  She is responding to treatment, but needs further tests.  Bro and I were hoping that at last she might accept she would be far better off in a local church-run home.  She is fine with the idea for a few days, but give up her flat?  absolutely no way.  She has a bus stop outside and she can go out for her shopping, and could not do this from the home - although only a few hundred yards she feels the walk is too much.  I despair!  She would be safe, warm, have her food provided, her laundry done and no housework to worry about (not that she appears to do much of that anyway!), and she knows folk there.  Clearly the Occupational Therapist and Care Management Team think that at 92 yrs old she would be safer there too, but it is down to convincing her!  I asked the Ward Housekeeper to arrange for a hair wash, cut and set as she was looking like the wild woman of the west!  She has had this done and is delighted. Our return journey was thwart with travel problems on the M25 and the M11 and took 3.5hrs.  Grrr.  All we wanted after a busy day.

I have started the cards!  Why does it take so long?  I don't really like doing a Christmas letter, but at times it collects the news in an orderly manner, without scribblings, crossings out and repetition!  The present buying is progressing.  Do you ladies find your OH a problem, or do they drop enough hints?  The one staple present I have is the Good Beer Guide!  Apart from the very first edition the OH has every copy!  I have tried to find the first on-line, but they are like gold dust.  But as for other ideas, I am still looking for the obvious hint.  Have I missed it I wonder.

Hi all have posted a link below.  If you can't open it copy into your browser or do Google search on it and hopefully it will then work.  Have been fiddling around for ages so I am crossing my fingers now.

http://www.care2.com/send/pickup/134/481/643/165/778/362/

Check this out:

George: That's funny - a Monday morning or Friday afternoon telly!  :-)

I did check it out Alan and found a bird on the nest - it seemed to be a snapshot rather than a vid, and it soon logged me out. 

Hello Annette, I hope you are feeling more 'together' today!  I too am one who seems to start a task, then slip onto another one, which necessitates something else being done, and before long everything is in a total muddle!