Evening/morning!. Hope it's a good week for all. Check the previous blog for the latest adventures of Emma Peel and Steed plus recent posts from the usual suspects. :-)
Emma - what a whirl! Hope daughter's new boyfriend isn't headed back to Afghanistan any time soon.
EDIT: Oh this is interesting, in the following sentence, I typed the name of Germany's controlling political party during the late 30s/early 40s and it was replaced by asterisks! Just watched a great Netflix DVD - The Rape of Europa - about the pillaging of art by the *** and the subsequent repatriation of (most of) it after the war. Really interesting with footage I'd never seen before. After that, even more leftover Txgiving pie and rerun of Bridget Joans's Diary on telly while perusing latest Xmas catalogs. Have a good Sunday!
Gary – I had been flatting with a girl friend for a few years. Her mother bought me a second-hand armchair for $1 but only charged me 97c, as she found 3 cents down the back when she cleaned it. LOL. We borrowed from home and we shared the purchases, eg she had the crockery & I had the cutlery. So when I married we first dined with a cheap set of cutlery, 4 plastic picnic plates and a small (20" x 38") table made by my father. I reckon we were happier than those starting off with "everything". Our offspring & their cousins have continued the frugal trend.
Lindybird – The giant pandas (the only ones in the southern hemisphere) are expected to bring in lots of tourists to SA and hence lots of money. The accommodation, food and other touristy things will benefit the economy overall. They expect such crowds that people have to book online to visit the zoo. I did mean to visit the other now-ignored inmates before all the hoo-ha but I guess I shall wait until things quieten down.
We are grand-kid-sitting next weekend, so I hope to have some help decorating the Xmas tree (plastic variety). Last year they ended up fighting over the ornaments. And the tree looked very peculiar. I had to do some rearranging later. Maybe it will be quicker & easier to do it myself but I believe it should be a shared task. Himself would be happy not to bother at all <sigh>
Dibnlib – Many years ago I tried swimming. I don’t how swimming loses weight – I came home ravenous with sad results LOL
TerryM – Thanks for the word-picture of the floods. The media never give the aftermath and we can easily forget what people are having to endure.
Yesterday I tried to photograph the honeyeaters zapping in and out and around the abelia in our backyard. Occasionally one would sit on the fence – briefly. Hm, I have some pretty good pics of the fence!!!!!! They are just so quick.
First day of summer tomorrow. So far today looks bleak. 15 C at 8.30 am. Overcast, rain threatening. Washing still in basket waiting for sky to make up its mind. No, I mustn’t complain this is so much better than that awful heat we had.
OG, good luck with all the workmen tomorrow, hope it comes together OK. That is funny about your son. Don't tell him, he won't know!! LOL
AQ, great stories about the sofa etc. You are right. I think if you didn't start with much/anything then whatever you achive/get means so much more. As you say, sadly a lot of young people don't feel that way. Hope I don't sound old and bitter as I don't think I am! Don't knock the cool weather:)
Annette, how was the shopping trip. Was there someone "tinkering the ivories"?? LOL
Careann, welcome back whenever you come back.
Happy Monday everyone.
Evening/Morning all:
TerryM. Thanks for the eye-witness account of the aftermath of the flooding. Sounds like the service folks have really done well. I assume there's some sort of drive to raise funds to help the folks who lost so much.
AQ: Sounds like my early furniture - in fact our current couch (we left ours in LA because it was so old and ratty) is one that our good friends up here were going to donate to Goodwill (same kind of charity as Salvation Army) but gave it to us when we moved up. We're going to Thousand Oaks in the San Fernando Valley by LA tomorrow to look at new ones (shopping in Santa Barbara is very, very limited and consequently expensive).
OG: It certainly seems like kids have much higher expectations these days, which probably makes it much harder when things don't pan out the way they planned. I love Cafe Rouge; we ate there when we were in Cambridge a couple of years ago, and last year when I was with my granddaughter. Seems good and reasonable. Good luck with the ensuite (is that one word or two?)
Gary: Funny you should mention it, but no-one at the piano; of course, we didn't arrive until 4 p.m. so peak shopping hours were over and people were heading home. Did NOT find the gift certificate which, incidentally, I discovered some weeks back. Heaven knows where he's put it now. Sigh. Didn't buy anything today.
Time to go sort out the M/card bill.....
Happy Birthday to Gary.
Happy St Andrews day to all Scots at home or abroad or even in England and to everyone who loves Scotland.
Weather is sunny now on TI. Lots more rain overnight and the wind has swung round to the north. First taste of winter as ground frost forecast for tonight.
Temp 4.2c , Wind N 17mph gusting to 29mph , Vis 30kms , Pressure 998 hPa tising.
Happy St. Andrew's Day!!! (I love Scotland, Alan!) I hope that you all have a wonderful day!!!
I see from Alan's post that it is your birthday, Gary? Happy Birthday!!! Enjoy your day.
As you all enjoyed the Cream Tea Rooms at Cockington Village. Here is another photo:
Happy St Andrews Day to all who are celebrating!
It is perishing cold here today, wind, sleet and now hailstones :(( ... a real shock to the system!
OG - I hope all goes to plan today with your wet-room, and glad you enjoyed your weekend.
Have enjoyed reading everyone's posts re furniture/cars/weather etc. I helped my godson with the purchase of his car recently - he's only 20 and a student - just passed his test so was hammered for his insurance. I felt sorry for him as he'd been saving diligently for a few years for the car and could afford either car or insurance but not both!! (I have no children so he tends to benefit!)
Joan - avid bird and nature watcher in Northumberland!
Index Thread
dibnlib so sorry to hear about your mother and your brother. Marriage break ups are so sad and also having a parent who is not well is very distressing. Please don't feel to guilty as none of knows what is going on behind closed doors at times.
Hope you enjoyed your swim and found it nice and relaxing.
Enjoyed our short stay in Cornwall despite the weather, especially Saturday when the rain came down in torrents all day. Didn't stop us going out though to revisit favourite haunts. We followed the rain back to Poole and just 10 miles from home had to make a bit of a detour as the A35 had to be shut through flooding. Have never known this to happen before but shows how bad and heavy the rain was. My neighbour told me that he had five inches of rain on his patio and I can tell from the state of my lawns which now resemble swamp land how much rain fell. It started off wet and cloudy here this morning but has brightened and the sun is shining now although the wind is icy and we are promised a frost tonight. Really have to knuckle down and sort myself out re Chistmas shopping, card writing etc.
Just to let you know I managed to stay upright despite the very strong winds. I am very careful now.
Margobird
Afternoon all! Still relatively warm and rainy here, shall see when it starts to get more wintry
DjoanS, what a weather. BTW who was St Andrew?
Aquilareen, record shops seems to be a vanishing breed here. People get their music either online or by downloading. Your pandas make to news even in here!
OG, glad your trip was a good one. When I was in Kirkcaldy I made a few day-trips to Edinburgh by train, lovely town. Rowantree is my favorite!
dibnlib, so sorry `bout your mum..
TerryM, what a bike-trip in Borrowdale, huh
Annette, when I got my drivers lisence I said to my dad that I would like a Mercedes, did not get one... ;)
Gary, don`t know if you heard, but I just sang HappyBirthday to you!!!
my photos in flickr
Happy St Andrews Day to everyone. I'm not a Scot but love Scotland so I hope that counts a little:)
DjoanS, that is lovely of you, I'm sure much appreciated:)
Annette, good luck shopping. Are you sure you didn't put the gift certificate in a "safe place" ?LOL
Thanks Alan and Diane, yes it is my birthday today, 25 again................................. Alan, enjoyed that picture of the tea rooms. Looks a lovely place.
Off to put up our outside christmas lights before the rain. Catch up later everyone