General Chat

Good morning everyone,

Just want to say thank you all, for your happy birthday wishes and for the cards that I received. It's nice to know that I have so many friends.
I'll speak when I get home from the mini meet.
Take care! Love, Sallie.xxx

Imagining Joyce meeting up with Sallie and Nina, hope Sallie has a lovely time for her birthday get together.


Next stage of the saga - o.h. came home having phoned sc. son in NY and apparently his wife of a year is having problems accepting him coming alone, as she feels shut out as if the family don't want her here! For heaven's sake, she is nearly 30 and has two kids, is she so childish that she can't see everyone has done all they can to sort this out and cannot afford another £620+, plus the fact and cost of picking him up from Heathrow, and taking him back there, that's two round trips of nearly 300 miles and spending money for him as he won't have any spare to bring with him and none in the bank. Apparently they are in dire straits over bills yet she wants to come here and spend money they don't have, how can she expect the family to cough up that much as well as all the costs to do with the wedding already. None of the family are that well off that they can spend money like that. Seems it is adding to the arguments over bills and his lack of work. I give up! He has found some work, shelf filling at a store, which is not what he thought he would be doing, he is an electrician by trade but can't get a job in that line and hasn't done anything like it since 2007.
O.h. is now moaning about his d.i.l. to be here, saying if she hadn't taken the bull by the horns on Monday and got this sorted and booked, there wouldn't be this hassle, I can't see what difference it made, but o.h. was talking to the son in NY about everything and could maybe have had a chat with his d.i.l. there and stopped this feeling she has.

I did say on Monday to the future d.i.l., has anyone spoken to d.i.l. in NY about and heard her views, maybe if they had chatted with her first they could have made her see the position.

I have had enough, if by some means the son gets his wife a flight and she turns up they will have to put up with the way the house looks, I am not breaking my back sorting everything out because of them after all this messing about!
O.h. is also annoyed because his ex was the one who made a fuss about the son coming over and came to o.h.for the money, as she always does. When the son came back from the states the first time and wouldn't just take any job to tide him over so he could pay board etc, she came to o.h. for £150 towards his food and keep, which he paid, and then the son told people and put on facebook that he hadn't felt welcomed properly so the girl in NY sent him the fare to visit her for a couple of weeks to cheer him up, he hasn't been back since!
I can just see this escalating into major arguments with his ex and him, and even the son and future d.i.l. The son is calling round later today to pick up a cheque for the money as he paid on his credit card for the flight.
Oh life is such fun! Not!

Catch you all later, take care,
must get to bed in a mo, as I have yet another busy day myself.

28 years ago, I was finishing off some work being done on my house so that I had a nice bathroom, bedroom and kitchen ready for the new arrival, due on 9th July. I was exhausted having coped with builders, who put a nail through a pipe and almost flooded my new kitchen from upstairs, the carpet was delivered and the store had been holding the wrong coloured one for months, the new carpet had arrived just in time to be laid in the relevant rooms and my waters broke as I lifted the carcass of a chest of drawers into place. I went into hospital later that evening and son arrived 4.30am Saturday 10th July, 1982.

In many ways I wish I could turn the clock back to the days after my son's birth and do it all again, he was such a lovely baby except he never slept much and I was all alone and exhausted, but there are somethings I would 'do different' as the Norfolk saying goes, with the benefit of hindsight.

Que sara,

Lizxx

Wow, for those of you who said everyone was very quiet on here I have taken ages catching up on the news.

Firstly, a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Sallie for tomorrow., I hope you have a lovely day and enjoy meeting up with Cyber Friends.

I remember the regular "Rat Reports" from Mo last year, they are amusing to think back on, so I hope, Huia that yours isn't a rat, but mice, which are easier to get rid of. We have mice here sometimes, and I seem to be quite successful in catching them. I'm afraid I kill mine, but a friend catches hers in a "Humane Trap" and then lets them go a long way from her house. I really couldn't be that bothered about a mouse. Sorry for all you sensitive folk out there.

Jean, ,lovely to have seen you pop in for a quick message. I do hope you are feeling a bit better.

Sallie, I am glad Jennies treatment is going so well. It must be a worry off all your minds. I assume that Vitamin D is readily available in tablet form from Health Shops, but would an Ultra Violet lght do the same job? We used to have a small portable light thing when I lived at home, because my brother suffered so terribly with bad skin, and this light used to be propped up on the table and he would shine it onto his face. I suppose it would have been the equivalent of a facial Sunbed, and probably not allowed these days for Health reasons, as Sunbeds as so bad for the skin aren't they?

Another glorious day here today. I went for my usual Thusday walk with my group, which was lovely. Half cliff path and half easier footpaths. We managed a take away coffee stop as we took longer than planned looking at Gravestones in one of the cemeteries that we passed through. It is supposed to be a History Walk but has been renamed "Jersey Jaunts" as we are all the same group and there are only so many times we can be told the same thing. The walks vary each week but we are limited to routes. It is nice to do the same route but in different seasons.

Sylvia, I am so glad that summer has arrived for you. A distant cousin of mine has travelled to Vancouver for a stay with friends over there. She has just finished working 3½ years in Malawi, back to the UK for a month, Canada for 3 weeks, New Zealand for 3 weeks, then off to Australia to look for work and accommodation. She is a bit of a Nomad and travels the world regularly. She is 50 and very single, and that has been her life style for at least the last 30 years. Sometimes I think it must be lovely but other times, I think she must at some point wanted to have settled down. She has never married. Her 3 sisters have all married and had families. She comes from Evesham near to Worcester, so a lovely part of the country.

Syliva, have you ever heard of Colebrook United Church in Surrey BC? I have been looking through some very old papers and found that a relation of my fathers was a prominant member of the congregation and started the Sunday School there. Apparently there is a stained glass window in the re-built church dedicated to her. I'm not after info, just wondered if it was in your neck of the woods, out of pure nosiness. LOL

Anyway, had better be off, bed is calling. Loads planned for the next few days, so had better get some sleep to be able to face the challenges of live in my family!!!.

Hope you are all well. Keep smiling.

Debbie xx

Hi all,


permission to scream?!

The scrounger son just rang from NY - why can't these boys work out the week their dad is on late shift, it doesn't take much if they take a note of one week they know of and work alternate weeks from that! He was waffling on about sending his dad a text, and I keep telling both of them their dad doesn't use his mobile like normal people do, he just gets it from it's case if he needs to use it to call them from work and 9 times out of ten the battery needs charging, not sure why but always has. I only got him the phone so he could call his son cheaply in usa when he went the first time, beginning to wish I hadn't bothered.
Anyway I said to the sc. son, it's good that your flight has been booked now and guess what he said, Yes but now I have to find a way to get my wife over too, as I want everyone to meet her! All about him, he wants to take the stage at his brother's wedding and get the family meeting the wife he married a year ago so he could stay on in America!
He has always been the most selfish person I know. I said to him, How? everyone here has paid out all they can, and he said he was going to have to try somehow as it would be nice for everyone to meet her.

When will this stupidity stop, he wants to steal his brother's thunder, that's what it is, he is always this way.

Wonder what mood o.h. will be in when he gets home - will depend on whether he was happy with son's ideas or has had enough of him as well, but usually he is the blue eyed boy......


Grrrrrrr
Lizxx


btw the son here in UK booked the flight, so not sure whether o.h. is muddled and thought the bill was dollars so said yes to a third share but didn't realise it was pounds, he was converting dollars to sterling and thinking it would be a third of around £600

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SALLIE
xxxx


Have a great time.

I had no internet connection earlier, so I went to another room, turned on the fan in there and read for a couple of hours!


Liz ........................ the barstewards!

Maybe either your oh or his son should have booked the ticket in the UK ..... they might well have been able to get a cheaper fare



When we used to travel with a very young J, seats were half-price over the age of 2 and child got a seat, or 10% of the adult price if under 2, no seat ...... but many of the planes had sky cots that would hold upto a 12 month old. If you reserved earlier enough, you could get the bulkhead seat, and thus a sky cot .............. or put the baby on the floor

We travelled from here to Australia via the UK (see below) when J was a toddler. We were away for over a year, but because J was only 15 months old when we began the trip ..... her ticket only cost 10%, mind you, we didn't officially get a seat for her!


J slept on the floor under our legs all the way from Calgary to Manchester on our first trip back to the UK when she was 15 months old. In a sky cot from London to Johannesburg 6 weeks after that. Then a sky cot from Capetown to Perth Australia, 3 weeks later. Almost one year later, she slept on the floor at the bulkhead from Fiji to Hawaii and Hawaii to Vancouver ...... the cabin crew moved away the man who had reserved the aisle seat. Told him he really didn't want to travel in the same row as a 2½ year old!!



The usual thing that happens when you are travelling with a small child under 2 years old is that it does not get a seat (unless you pay the extra), but the cabin crew will attempt after take-off to find a seat where at least one parent and the child can sit together ................... this becomes a problem if the plane is full.

So far as I am aware, a child over 2 has to have a paid seat.


On their flight to here, J&M have reserved a window and an aisle seat. That leaves the middle seat vacant. Apparently a block is put on the row (Infant travelling!) and the seat is not given away until there are no other seats available.

If it is taken, then either M or J will change seats with the passenger ............ probably giving him the window seat so they have a bit more freedom to get up and walk around with MJ


All children under a certain age have to be strapped in with the mother for take off and landing .............. there is an extra belt that attaches to the mother's seat belt and then goes round the infant. That applies even if the child has its own seat



Did you know that you are not supposed to move from your reserved seat to another seat elsewhere in the plane until after take off? At least that is the rule .......... cabin crew will often move people before take-off if they can, but they have to make note of it. Or they say they will do it later.


The reason is, in case there is an accident.




sylvia (slowly melting)
xxxx

Sallie there is a birthday thread up for you as well love.

Sallie, will leave it till you come back after the meet, I told you so might be appropriate lol

Seriously, enjoy your time with both 'girls', what a way to celebrate a birthday lolol

Lizxx

Thank you for the birthday wishes, Jean. Also for the compliment----I wish! lol!!

Love, Sallie.xxx

Mo and Liz,
Just seen your messages, thank you both for the birthday wishes, my friends.

Mo, it would be lovely if I was 21 again, and know what I know now, it's a shame we don't have that option, lol!

Liz, now surely Dutch isn't that bad, is she? Nina and I will have to sit each side of her, and give her a nudge each, when we want to speak, lol!!

At least it's better than having to sit with someone, and having to try to make conversation. I'm looking forward to meeting both Dutch and Nina, so I'll let you all know how it went tomorrow evening.

Love, Sallie.xxx

Have a great Birthday Sallie I dont think you you look a day over 18....lol...

Mo and Roly enjoy your weekend , dont do anything I wouldnt do, now there you are bags of scope....lol....enjoy...

love Jean xx

Hello Ladies,

I've just been telling Alun, that Laura, Chloe and the baby, called in on the way home from school today. Chloe had her skipping rope with her, they're allowed to take them to school so they can use them at playtime.
As they were leaving, Chloe was skipping up the driveway, she wanted to know if I wanted to try it, but could I try and skip backwards. Now that would have been a sight, me trying to skip and falling flat on my back, lol!!
I did say jokingly to Chloe, ' you do realise that I'm 110 years old ', she laughed, and said 'Mam, you're not that old yet'. I may not be that age , but I certainly feel it sometimes, lol!!

Huia, I could deffinitely do with a bit less ' flesh ' on my bones. I think I should have taken Chloe up on her offer today. lol!
I hope to goodness you haven't got a rat, it's bad enough having mice. Many years ago, when Alun and I were first married, we had a rat in a spare downstairs room. It was the only room downstairs that still had wooden floor boards. The Council had been doing some work on the sewers in the park behind our house. Somehow a couple of them found a way in from under the house. Once we got in touch with the Council, the rats didn't last long after they put some poison down. I hope that you'll get rid of them very, very soon.

Mo, I remember the problems you had with that rat last year. Just the thought of them being in the house, is horrible. I know it wasn't funny, but we all had a giggle about it at the time--each day it was just like tuning in for the next episode, lol!! That rat was determined it wasn't going to get caught.
I'm sure that a skirt and top will be fine to wear on Saturday night, I don't think you'll go wrong with that. I shouldn't worry too much about it, Mo, the way that some people dress to go out for a meal, and they think that they're the bees knees, lol!


Sylvia, the last time we went to NY, there was a lady and her little boy, sitting in the seat behind us, and her husband and their other child was sitting quite a way back. They hadn't paid for a seat for the little boy, but were told by the Air Stewardess, that once all the passengers were seated
there would be two seats together further up the aisle, but she wasn't happy about that--- she wanted the Stewardess to move some passengers out of a row with four seats together, so that their family would be together. She wasn't happy when the Stewardess said that she couldn't do that, because of various reasons, people needing an aisle seat, etc, etc, and that they had specifically asked for the seats when they booked. I don't know what happened in the end, because she took the two seats together further up the plane, with an offer from the Stewardess that she would try and move them altogether once we were in the air. I didn't know that they would have, to have paid full price for a seat for the little one.

Liz, I too was wondering if you were okay, since you haven't been on here for a few days. Let's hope that it's all now sorted for OH's son to come over for his brother's wedding. Have you got all your outfit for the
wedding, yet? It will be lovely when it's all sorted.

Ann, you've been busy doing some cards and a scrapbook page. I'm hoping that the family will buy me a couple of embossing folders for my birthday, but I won't hold my breath. Alun will probably say he didn't know which of them to buy, even though I've pointed them out to him, more than once or twice. Never mind, I can get them myself. Just hope that I can use the Cuttlebug alright.

Marie and Debbie, I hope everything is alright with both of you and your families.

I've spoken to Jean by pm today, I was getting concerned because hadn't heard from for several days. She's feeling better than she's been, but still suffering from vertigo. So let's hope that it will soon go, and that she'll be back on here with us all.

I'm going for a shower now and then make myself a cuppa.

Speak to you all tomorrow evening when I get back from Sheffield.

Mo, just in case I miss you, hope you and Roly will have a great weekend and take care.

Love and best wishes. Sallie.xxx

Should we put up a separate thread for Sallie or will Dutch have asked Jeniwren to do it.?

A Very Happy Birthday Sallie, whereever you read it, and don't forget to take the gag for Dutch so you and Nina can get a word in lol

Have a great day, it will be different for sure,

Lizxx

*********************************************************************************
A HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOR TOMMORROW SALLIE,HAVE A LOVELY DAY.
*********************************************************************************
Look girls our Sallie is 21 tommorrow yippeeee.
Have a really wonderful day,and enjoy the meet with Dutch.
I will be thinking of you.
Lots and lots of love Mo xxx

I am ok, thanks all, just snowed under with things to do and sort out right now.

You might be able to uncross your fingers soon, seems a flight has been booked by groom to be for his brother only and o.h.and his ex and her partner, and groom are paying! I am going to wait til I see the details on the email o.h.got today before I go Phew! lol

love to all
Lizxx


Edited later, just had a call from groom to ask his Dad for the money, £310 - seems the fare was nearly a thousand US dollars!!!! Thought it was going to be divided among three of them, seems someone needs to check his maths!
My lad won't be getting much in his card if o.h. is dishing that much out tomorrow! (He usually gets £20!)
Lizx

Ooooh Huia I do hope it's not a rat. We had all that problem with the one we had last year. The little blighter liked the fruit,but did not like the rat bait that the rat man laid out for it.
In the end we caught it with a rat trap and peanut butter,just like you have put down.
It was not a pretty sight,seeing it caught in the trap dead. But I would rather it that way, than to have had it running round the house any longer.

Sylvia. I forgot that young mums these days can buy travel cots. But I have to admit that I had not thought about large floor pads. I have never heard of them before.
How unfair that they have to pay full fare for MJ. But as you say, it's a long journey for him to be held in the arms. And little ones get very fidgety after a while,and need to be able to have a sleep.

Tommorrow, I will have to pack my suitcase,ready for the weekend. I am not sure what to take with me. We are going out for a meal with Roly's cousin on Saturday night,so I dont want to over or under dress.
Perhaps I will just stick to a skirt and top,to be on the safe side.

I hope that Liz is o.k as we have not heard from her for a couple of days.

Sallie I will be back later to speak to you. Well I hope to,as I was frozen out off this site,three times earlier. I ended up rebooting the laptop,so keep your fingers crossed for me that it doesn't happen again.

((((((((((((((((HUGS FOR JEAN)))))))))))))

I hope Dutch had a safe journey over.
Bye for now. Love to all Mo xxx

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick look in to see how you all are. It certainly is very quiet on all the boards lately. I wonder where everyone has disappeared to!

I'm busy getting things sorted ready for when Richard and Christie arrive tomorrow night, so I'll talk to you all later on.

Hope you're all alright, take care!

I'll be back later! Love, Sallie.xxx

Mo

we are not buying a cot or borrowing one.

I thought J was bringing a portable playpen with her, which is what many people use .... but she has decided that MJ can sleep on the floor


She has a quite large pad, that is specially for babies to be put on on the floor, it folds up quite small, and she reckons that it will be as comfortable as any cot mattress. Plus he sleeps on a sheepskin pad, and she is going to try to bring that.

They are limited to 2 checked cases each, and MJ does not have a luggage allowance on the way out here. They have booked a seat for him going back ..... J said there was no way she could hold him for what could be upto 8 hours or even more .. and then he does get the same 2 bag allowance. They have to pay full adult price for the seat.


It takes almost as long to go from Vancouver to NS as it does for us to go to the UK .......... NS is actually closer to the UK than to here!




s
xxx

Mo, we dont have a cellar. Our basement is the garage and Phils workshop. The house is up above. I think it is some of the gardening stuff that they are getting into, blood and bone or lime or seed-raising mix. I did have something eat half an apple in the fruit bowl in the kitchen but I havent been able to catch anything, although it did set the trap off the first night I set it, probably by running over the top of it, unless it was a rat, horrid thought. I have some mouse traps that are not like the old fashioned ones. They are like a large spring clip clothes peg. I just put a dab of peanut butter on the trigger, apparently they love it. When it catches a mouse I just squeeze the trap to release it, dead of course.

Huia.

Hi Sylvia and Huia.
It makes it rather difficult when people have different dietary needs doesn't it Sylvia.
But as it's not for a long term arrangement, you can work around it can't you.
I bet it's all excitement in your house at the moment,with looking forwards to the baby arriving.
Have you bought a cot for him to sleep in,or will mum and dad be bringing one for MJ.
At least you will have the good weather for when they arrive. Just as long as it does not get to hot for baby. Little ones get very fretful when it's to warm.

Huia I did mean Robin Hood,not our Sallie, bless her.
Flippin mice are a real nuisance arn't they. Are they just in your cellar.
My grandaughter had them in her old house,and they were eating into anything they could find.
She went to have her breakfast one morning,and the mice had chewed through the cereal box, into the cornflakes. Yuk. She didn't bother with breakfast that day.
She had traps down all over the place,but the little blighters managed to avoid them all.
She has a dog that totally ignored them,unless it wanted to play with them.
Soft bu**er that he is.
Good to hear that Phil was responsive to you. It makes you feel much happier doesn't it love, even though it's a hard job to walk away and leave him there.
We dont have mid winter christmas celebrations. But I bet you look a picture in your white christmas hat.

Well I will say good night god bless you all. Love to all. Mo xxx

Mo, are you saying that Sallie has no flesh on her bones (dem dry bones)? Oh, perhaps you mean Robin talking about himself.

I visited Phil again yesterday and he seemed quite improved. He has put on weight and is walking unaided, so I was told by a carer. He was chatting to me. Usually he only talks if I ask him something. The only problem is I cant understand what he says, but I just answer noncommittally. There is a mid winter Christmas party there next Wednesday afternoon so I am going to take my white 'Santa' hat to wear. I dont suppose you have mid summer Christmas parties in England.

I have had mice in the basement and have caught 4 in a couple of days. I havent been downstairs yet to see whether I caught another last night. I told the cat off for not doing her duty. I think I need a few more traps. A friend had said there was a plague of rats and mice this winter. Living in the country has its drawbacks.

I woke early this morning and couldnt get back to sleep. I suppose I should now get my breakfast as it is past 7 a.m.

Huia.