Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 31 December 2023

Sorry about your missing sunshine, Pat. We've had it pretty much all day. Hopefully the water will now have a chance to soak into the ground, as a few dry days are predicted. Been watching a clever squirrel trying to get peanuts out of my bird feeder - he doesn't move when I rap on the kitchen window, but soon scarpers if I let Bonnie outside!!

I thought you must mean indoor bowls at this time of year, after I wrote, Pat!

Taken down my decorations so now I have the job of packing them away. Every year now, I try to reject a few so that it becomes less. Over the years I've usually accumulated but it's become far too much, so I say to myself "Less is more".

ANYONE who wants sunshine, please take some of ours. I was out this morn to fetch bread and return a stash of library books. Phew, the sun was burning. I returned about 10.30 am to discover OH had eaten the sausage rolls I had left thawing for his lunch. Will he want another lunch at lunchtime?

I must cover my tomatoes before it gets hotter. I picked my first ripe tomatoes this week. Sadly I noticed holes in some small green ones. As I removed them to compost, a caterpillar head looked out the “window”.

Awh!! Bless you AQ...

Re Hubby eating Rolls, doh!! I know what you mean,

I used to have to make sure, when Hubby left on own even for a short while,,  NOTHING was left,where he could catch sight, as they have no perception  of time- good - bad etc,,,

OR  leave a BIG note, saying "DO NOT touch/move or eat"

and that seemed to work for a  while....very tiring.

Take care and BIG Hugs.

AQ - I can’t imagine how hard life must be for you. Sending hugs. You obviously and your tomatoes obviously don’t like the heat. Here, having had one nice day, we are back to dull and drizzly.
I don’t have my car today as it is having its MOT. Fingers crossed as it is 15 years old. So, I am having a cooking and freezing session. I have just made a curried meatloaf (a recipe of my Canadian friend) I slice it into pieces and freeze them. It smells lovely and I will have one slice for tea. (What I call dinner or supper!!!!! )

I've been busy. No rain today,thank goodness. Caught up with laundry nonetheless, even though there wasn't much point in putting it outside. It's draped around the house,together with boxes of tinsel, Christmas ornaments and china, all waiting for me to sort them out! A strange mixture.... I'll get around to doing the last of it in the morning.

AQ - Frustrating for you. And it does sound way too hot. So tiring. Hope you got some new books when you took in the old ones. Sorry about the tomatoes - the gardeners plague, tiny creatures eating your produce, grr.

Had my hankie out for a very good drama in the TV this week - an episode a night of the true tale of how hundreds of sub postmasters were wrongly accused of fraud. The fight for compensation is still going on, even though it's been over 20 years since the story began. A scandal of our time.

I tried to post several times last night but the site wasn’t cooperating!
That drama about the Post Office scandal has been excellent hasn’t it Lindy? It was a dreadful scandal and is still having repercussions on the people involved.
Well done for getting your decorations tidied.
What I wanted to say last night was that my car passed its MOT yesterday and my curried meatloaf was very tasty!!!

Rusty – Two good bits of news, with a MOT certificate and a delicious curried meatloaf. Good for you!

I have been watching with a mixture of horror and tears the programmes about the subpostmasters versus the Post Office. Bits of information have been available over the years, but to see it all laid out in four hours of television was horrifying. Are we really all at the mercy of big corporations and computer systems? Dreadful seeing honest working people’s lives ruined and ended by such high-handed behaviour backing a computer system which was obviously not properly set up. Makes you wonder what other computerised systems are similarly wrong?

For example, my car insurance is due for renewal. I have received a renewal notice from my present insurers for four times what I paid last year – nothing has changed apart from my being a year older. How can that be right? I’m trying to build up the strength to ring them and query it. Not expecting to get anywhere, but I have to try. I assume the renewal notice was produced by a computer …

Anyone here like waxwings?  Thought so:

Click on this lovely character to see a few more.

Well, I took several deep breaths and rang my car insurance company. Spoke to a lovely man who admitted this was the largest renewal quote he had ever seen. At almost 400% that didn't surprise me! He could get it reduced by pennies ... and was really apologetic. He completely understood I would not be renewing with them, and asked me to try again next year. Maybe ... I am now covered by another (well known and recommended by a friend) company which has undercut my present company by more than £300. Still more than twice last year's premium, but that seems to be par for the course. One unhappy but legally insured motorist!