General Chat

Sallie, I envy you going to Hobbycraft, as we are abit further out from Nottingham than yourself, But, what is the Range. Am I missing something
Hope you enjoy your trip
Julia in Derbyshire

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick look in before going out. We're off to Hobbycraft and the Range, again.

Liz, it's raining here too, not very nice at all at the moment. Never mind, it's better than having snow, at least we can get about withouut the fear of falling. I too, hope that your new counsellor will be nice and that you get on okay with her.

Sylvia, I'm really pleased that the Canadian skater won the Bronze, I' m sure her mother would have been so proud of her. Well done to her!

Huia, I hope you'll soon be able to find something fireproof for the things you need to keep safe. Perhaps as Liz suggested, you might be able to find a metal trunk somewhere. Hope you'll be able to find something soon.

Well I'm off out now, speak to you all later. Take care!

Love, Sallie.xxx

Liz, the fires should miss us unless the wind is from the east or south east or south. Prevailing wind is west or sw. Maybe I will have enough warning anyway to throw things into the ute and take off.

I have scanned 7 envelopes of photos from my England trip in the past couple of days. About 35 or 36 in each lot so that is a lot of scanning. Havent finished that boot box full though. On previous occasions I scanned lots of very old photos and all the photos in dads 'Log' which is diary + photos + maps + newspaper cuttings. And I have scanned photos from a couple of years on a previous occasion, so I am getting somewhere. But still a long way to go. The English ones made me think of all my friends and relatives over there.

Huia.

HURRAH


the young Canadian figure skater whose mother died last weekend got the Bronze ........ she skated really well, and managed to hold her composure.

I think everyone in Canada was pulling for her!

Almost time for me to sail up the wooden hill as o.h. sails down lol altho sail is hardly the word for him, he plonks down with the belt of his towelling gown trailing behind like a tail lol
Just want to say have a good day one and all, and take care, silly old weather in some parts of the UK but just wet, rain and more rain here.

I am hoping I get on ok with the new counsellor on Monday afternoon, the one I had a couple of years ago was lovely till she let me down lol

I also want to ask if she can find another time if someone else cancels or finishes as with Mondays, you lose the flow when you get to the Bank Hols and we will be coming into B.H. season soon!

I never made anything legal with my relationships so don't have to worry about remembering Wedding Anniversaries, but have enough other dates to recall lol

Huia, could you not find a big metal trunk to put your boot boxes of photos and such in for the time being. Someone was selling one on our gumtree site recently and it might be a way of protecting your precious things altho we all hope no fires or hazards get anywhere near you, love.

take care folks, I am off to bed...... night night lol

Lizxxx

Sylvia, the pine tree that was on O.T.H. was not a native tree to NZ, so at least it didnt have the same meaning for the Maori. Did you visit any other parts of NZ while you were here? I am hoping to go up Rangitoto some time to take lots of photos on my digital camera. I havent been for quite a few years. I was going to take Phil last year but the day we tried we missed the early boat by 5 mins and it was a 3 hour wait for the next one, so I decided it wouldnt give me enough time to get up there on my hands and knees, puffing and panting all the way. I wont be taking Phil when I go, he is now too shaky on his pins :-(((

Huia.

Hi Huia

I did know that .......... couldn't believe it when we heard about it. That attack just didn't seem to fit with our idea of its importance to the Maoris.


Mind you, we shouldn't have been surprised ........... some of our own First Nations have made similar attacks on symbols.



Hi Sallie ...... I have mostly put it out of my mind, after all she's been dead 17 years!

But it was somewhat similar to you .................. she absolutely doted on OH's sister and her children, although I have to grant that she did try hard to treat the 4 grandchildren the same when it came to gifts etc.


And you know, it's strange, but we are now looking at being in somewhat the same situation that she was in re grandchildren, but with one important difference.

Our daughter and her husband live in Nova Scotia, which is an 7-8 hour plane flight from here (that's in the air). It takes almost as long for us to reach there as it did for the in-laws to come visit here from England.

The big difference is that travel is a little easier now than it was 30 years ago, and we have more money than they ever did (ironic, considering what she accused me of!!), so we can afford to go over at least once a year and maybe even twice a year. Plus we are willing to spend all that we have and not keep it "for the next generation" which is what her generation wanted to do.

That's as long as the daughter will have us! Because travelling that distance means that we do want to stay for 10 days or 2 weeks ....... it isn't worth it for a long weekend! And "worth it" means both the cost, and the fact that we cross 4 time zones, they are 4 hours ahead of us, so jet lag also comes into the equation.


Had my afternoon coffee, and almost time to make dinner! Lamb curry tonight, using the remains of Sunday's roast lamb!




sylvia
xxx

Sylvia, I forgot to add that One Tree Hill has been No Tree Hill for several years now as a Maori activist used a chainsaw on it and as a result it was dying, so was removed. It will eventually be replaced by some native trees.

Huia.

Sylvia, I'm really sorry that you had to put up with so much from your m-i-l. My in-laws were not as bad as that, but m-i-l absolutely doted on Alun's sister and her OH and children.

Whatever our children did, L's always did better--we never said anything about it to our kids, but they had obviously noticed, as one day they said 'why is it that Grandma always talks about Aunty L's children and think that they are so much better and cleverer than us'. We still didn't want to poison their minds against her, so we just made light of it. That's how it was until the last few years of her life, it's a shame it couldn't have been better from the time we got married.

Relax and enjoy watching the Olympic games. Take care!

Love, Sallie.x

Sorry to those of you who have m-i-l problems.

I looked at some fireproof safes in a shop just last week but decided they were nowhere near big enough for everything I wanted to keep safe (e.g. old books and other old family things).

Off now to reply to somebody on Ancestry who had finally replied to a message I sent him 2 weeks ago.

Huia.

Hi Sallie


My problems with m-i-l got worse as time went by, culminating after her husband died after which she literally never had a good word to say about me .............. that lasted for about 10 years until she herself died.

The relationship was fine when we first got married, and up until about 1983/4 .................. although she was a great one for saying things like "You've done very well, but so-and-so did better". For example, OH was a good driver BUT his father was better. Our daughter played the piano well BUT her cousin up north was better ................... the reverse was said to the cousin!!.

It was as if she had to pit people against each other. Despite all her best efforts, OH and his sister (who is 8 years younger) have a great relationship, and so do our daughter and her 3 cousins who managed to survive being told that one or t'other of the others was "better".

The worst was when she told OH at least twice on trips that he made specially to see her in England that I "was no good for him, he should divorce me, and if he didn't, she would re-write her will so that if he died before her I wouldn't get one penny of her money because that was all I had married him for". (imagine very shocked look here!!).


Our saving grace was that we were over here, and she was over there, so most contact was through letters.

She did try 2 or 3 times to emigrate over here after her husband died. But she wanted to live with her daughter in the small northern town that is under ice and snow for 5 - 6 months of the year. By that time, sis-in-law was also widowed and was trying to raise 3 teenagers by herself ...... and m-i-l needed so much care that D was completely unable to do it, as well as being unwilling (and unable to afford) to buy a new house which is what would have been needed.

It would also have completely bankrupted both ourselves and D because m-i-l's pre-existing medical conditions would never have been covered under a health plan. We would have had to bear the full cost of all medications and treatment from the time she arrived to the day she died. The estimated costs for her heart condition alone were estimated in 1986 to be around $60,000 a year (or about £25,000). That was more than either family got in yearly income!

Needless to say, I was considered responsible for D telling her mother that she couldn't come.

Oh, it was one hellish time, from about 1984 to when she died in December 1993.

We were able to keep most of it from our daughter, because we so rarely saw "Grandma" in the flesh, and most of what was said was either on the phone or to OH when he visited her over in England. So we haven't tarnished J's memory of Grandma too much.




sylvia
xxxx

Hi again,

Sylvia, it's nice to know that I wasn't the only one to have a few problems with the in-laws. The strange thing is four years later when OH sister got married they decided that there would be no problem closing on a Saturday. We moved first to London, then back to S. Wales, near Swansea and then lastly to Derbyshire, I know they weren't happy with that, they always wanted us to stay near, so that on Alun's day off he could help in the shop. Thankfully things got better between me and the In-laws in later years.

Huia, I think Ann's suggestion of getting a small fire proof safe is a very good idea. Hope it will stay cool for your travels, you have a busy day in front of you. Take care!

Jean, you are very busy doing all the knitting-- the knitted toys are a great idea to so for shows and fairs. The model railway club that Alun is a member of, have their annual show on Sunday, so I tend to buy some things through the year as prizes for the tombola, so do the other members wives. I think some of the knitted dolls and toys would be ideal.
I have loads of wool, so I'll have to get started.

Mo, I feel better than I've felt for a long, long time, still got a good way to go, but I feel as though I'm very slowly getting there. My head is now starting to feel a lot clearer, and I'm now able to concentrate a bit more. So that's a plus in my book.

I'm now going to make myself a cuppa. Speak to you all tomorrow.

Take care everyone! Love, Sallie.xxx

Sylvia, forgot to say that I noticed last night that we can now add a message at the bottom of the page. Not sure if I'm keen on that, with the writing being so large.

Sallie.x

Huia could you perhaps buy a small fireproof safe, we managed to buy one here, It doesn't hold a lot but has plenty of room for passports, a few DVDs a flash drive and important papers.

Sally.glad the therapy is progressing.

Mo.p.m.sent

Hi all

Have any of you noticed that you can now click on Add, and get a reply box? PLUS, the type is larger in that box than it is in the Reply box up at the top. One of my friends on another thread noticed it.

Sallie ...... OH's parents were both pharmacists, and couldn't close their shop on any day of the year. They always had to be at least on call for part of the day, even on Christmas Day. Unless they got a locum in ...................... so we just went ahead and got married on a Saturday, and they got a locum in!

OH's sister came over to Canada about 3 years later to teach, and, of course, met someone over here. They decided to get married just before Christmas, and OH was going to give his sister away because the in-laws said they couldn't come, they hadn't managed to save enough money to pay for the trip and the locum since their trip over the previous year. Fortunately .............. a close friend of theirs was a non-practising pharmacist who still had her license, and said she would do the locum for 2 weeks, free. So they came over, attended the wedding up in the freezing north, and then had Christmas with us in Vancouver.

M-i-l always blamed us for her daughter coming over here, and then staying .......... later in her life, the blame moved from "us" to me (and my life became h**l). She either never knew or didn't accept that if we hadn't been here, my s-i-l would have gone to Australia, that was her first choice. But she then thought that having family on the same continent might be rather nice!


Huia ...... I have fond memories of One Tree Hill. We found a very pleasant and comfortable B&B near there back in 1993.

The Ladies Ice Skating Long Program is on this evening ............ I'll be watching and pulling for Joannie.

Yesterday was a great day for Canada. A Gold and Silver in 2 man bobsleigh, a Silver in short track speed skating relay, and a Bronze in long track speed skating ...... and they were all WOMEN! Then the Men's Ice Hockey beat Russia very convincingly (7-3) in the Quarter Finals.


Yes ... I am now resting more ...... I shall go out to meet OH at the coffee shop in the middle of the afternoon (about 3 hours from now), but I may just take the bus (I have to take one bus south, then transfer to another one to go north on another main road) instead of walking. It takes about 15 minutes (or about 1 km) to walk from here to there ............. and sometimes 20-30 minutes on the buses (taking in waiting time).


Take care everyone




sylvia
xxxxx

Jean my love,I know just how lucky I am. You don't come across someone like you very often. And I consider myself very lucky.
( I think )>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.runs quickly off the thread>>>>>>>>>>.

We had some rain yesterday, and it has been quite a bit cooler, for which I am very thankful.

Tomorrow I am taking plastics, paper and cardboard to our monthly recycling at Hunua, a 9km drive away. From there I will go to visit Phil and then on to One Tree Hill in Auckland with my computer for my nephew to sort out. A full day out, so I hope this cooler weather stays.

Watching the news last night, there was a big fire in a pine forest in the South Island, fanned by strong winds. As there are pine trees near us and some gorse and native bush between them and us I started to worry about the possibility of a fire starting in the pines. I have so many treasures I would hate to lose if the house burnt down. I did start scanning some of my photos, but there are probably the best part of 20 'boot boxes' with them in. It will take me forever and a day to scan them, even though I wont be doing them all (some are out of focus, some I have no idea where they are, some are the same scene photographed on several occasions). When I get them scanned I will burn them onto DVDs and give copies to my son to care for. Or at the very least have them where I can grab and run in case of fire. Along with old books and other treasures. Must have them all in the one place.

Huia.

Evening all, Ann, hope you soon feel much better, rest and drink plenty was the advice the doc gave me, it seems that you can get really dehydrated when the cold is an heavy one, but I agree with you it does take a lot out of you, we will be praying for a swift recovery....

Sallie glad to hear you are getting on with your therapy, sounds as though you are on track for a lasting recovery..... I must have made so many of the dolls over the years, I made 50 small ones for an orphanage in Romania, there was a great result from there, a little boy used wet the bed every night he was a very sad little boy, they gave him a lttle footballer doll and he never wet the bed again, he just wanted someone to love.. made it all worth while.. I also made the 15" dolls for young ladies going to uni, I was inundated with orders, but as they sell at £39.00
and there is a copyright on selling , it must go to charity, I decided not to go down that road, I still do some for peeps they just pay for the wool,or if they are friends, free.. with love....

Mo, J knows when he is on to a good thing.... not boasting but........and
you are so fortunate haveing a friend like me....rofl.......

Love Jean xx

I hope you are being cosseted by your OH Ann. Thats the problem with this time off year,it takes ages for all coughs and colds to clear. You would have thought that all that snow would have killed the germs off.
Stay in the warm,and get better soon Ann.
Sallie,I totally agree with what the therapist says about,the over the phone
therapy. How the heck can it work,when the person on the end off the phone cannot see how the patient is reacting.
You must be progressing better than you think,if she thinks you are well enough to go to the next stage. You are doing sooo well,keep going and don't forget,you have each and every one off us,as support for you.
So now we know where our Jean gets her christmas name from (Mrs Jolly Jingles),the doll she knitted years ago. Poor J,he has to put up with her>>>>>>>>>>>but we luv her all the same.

Hi Ann, I'm sorry you're feeling worse today, rest, keep warm and take care of yourself. Hope you'll feel better tomorrow.
Looks as though a few of us got married in the month of August. We had to get married on Bank Holiday Monday, because Alun's parent's had a shop and they wouldn't close on a Saturday, so we chose August Monday, of course it was the first time the Bank Holiday fell at the end of August instead of the beginning.

Love, Sallie.xx