General Chat

Afternoon All,

Pouring with rain here so OH will come home soaked from the match.

Mandy, does the GP just think you need more iron in your diet to resolve the anaemia then or is she going to do more tests or test you again after a while to see whether you are still anaemic? It's good your bowel test was clear. It sounds as if you have a good diet as you say and vitamin A also helps iron be released so enjoy some carrots! :-D I'm glad you are feeling a bit better with your tum now.

Vera I have the same issue. Our kitchen, conservatory and utility are all tiled the same, but around the sink and cooker in the kitchen it can still look a bit dirty/gresy round the cooker and infront of the sink. I'm trying the spinning brush on mine on those areas next time to see if it will clean it. I hope my flashmop will clean the residue up after to save bending.

AnnG, you were only talking about Vera and the Tango the other day as well, so there was your chance for some fancy footwork! It made me chuckle too, but it was nice he asked you.

I'm not sure which password you mean Mel. Is it one you had saved before?

O meant to say I knew about the hot water to drink as I had to do that for mum many a night.

He may be quite ok driving Anng and it would save getting the bus.

I have made a big quiche and three small ones and two raspberry trifles. :-D :-D

Guess what I am having for dinner tonight.

I hope you’ve got the sequins out and are practicing your twirls AnnG :-D. You get more romantic proposals than me. The day we moved in here - and I was 10 years younger - the elderly chap then living next door walked in through the open door to welcome us and I couldn’t get rid of him. After a while he told me he shopped at Waitrose and invited me to go with him next time. My daughter thought it was hilarious, her comment being “Mum, you’ve pulled” but I think he just wanted someone to carry his bags.

Surprise, surprise, I heard from my granddaughter to say that she and her boyfriend are coming for the weekend. Her younger sister wants to come but doesn’t yet know if she can get time off from her weekend job but will let me know. Tbh I am not expecting to see her as she is also studying hard for A-Levels which start soon.

I forgot to say a couple of days ago that I had some good news. At least I think it was good once I managed to interpret the medical jargon. It was a copy of the letter the consultant at the eye hospital wrote to my GP after he’d looked at all the test results and specialised photography I had done on my last visit. He said my last injection was 9 months ago and my sight is still stable so hasn’t got any worse, there is no macular oedema and there was so that’s an improvement and no NVE. It took me a while to find out what that meant but apparently he is saying that there is no neovascularisation elsewhere. After a lot of googling and reading medical articles it seems to mean that my eye problem hasn’t extended to other parts of the eye where it could lead to AMD and possible blindness. Wouldn’t it be good if patients could get a letter in layman’s language? However I’m well pleased and hope that at my next visit, which the letter said would be face to face, consultant will discharge me or at least just do an occasional check up.

Btw, I did get a banana sandwich at lunch time. I’m fine with them earlier in the day but can’t have bananas in the evening or I get terrible indigestion.

Mandy I am probably out of the ones there today, the second oldest.
Fish is good so keep it up. Daughter said he sounds as if he want somebody to look after him. However I think he is fitter than I am and has three daughters who live locally that do look after him. a bit worrying to me is he still drives, and has latched on to the fact that I could need ferrying to meetings sometimes.

Get out those dancing shoes Anng :-D if your the youngest there he probably thought you'd be the best one for holding him up :-D it made me smile .

I like banana sandwich too but I do find now they seem to lay a bit heavy on me ,I had tuna sandwich today and I have some nice smoked sweetcured mackerel fillets for tonight so two lot's of fish today .

Vera what did you end up with for your lunch did you get your banana sandwich ,sounds as if you have a very busy week next week .

Mel have some hot water as hot as you can drink it if you get indegestion again that's what sister said they would give the people in the home were she worked .

Rain has stopped but its still very grey looking out .

That made me laugh Anng so I do expect T was laughing too.

I can't seem to get in to anything today so I think I will make a quiche and perhaps some buns as I now have plenty of eggs. BIL has'nt come today and may not come tomorrow as he cut the lawns quite short last weekend coming on Saturday and Sunday.

Vera I am interested in what you did get for lunch? I like a nana sandwich which I had'nt had for years until quite recently. They used to give me terrible indigestion but since being on one of my pills it seem to be ok now. I did get bad indigestion last night, I had sweet and sour chicken and egg freid rice ready meal for one done in the micro and in the later evening I had a walnut whip and watching telly I had what I thought would be a nice glass of Rose' to finish things off. Very bad move I had the worse pain I have had for a long while and ended up outside banging my back on the wal but it worked and by the time I went to bed I was ok. Shan't do that again.

I have had a little fiddle with my polyclay and been up the shop for the paper and some of their nice ham and now I am going to start cooking.

There were only six of us at the meeting but it was a good chat. We actually discussed all the things we used on phones, Ipads and PCs, all the apps and it is surprising how many people are not on facebook at all, One, who I know is really good technically with anything to do with photography had not heard of google. We are a very mixed group 3 male, 3 female today ages from early 70s to about 93. Lots of discussion about the problems of being somebody who lives alone and more to come at the next meeting which, unfortunately, I will miss.Talking about social activities and one person mentioned tea dances, which they hold at the Community Centre where we were holding our meeting. I said many years ago we went to dances. He said I should go and have a waltz as he doesn't have a partner to take!! He also said I would probably have to be careful he didn't fall over. He is the 93 year old :-D :-D :-D And he was serious. Somewhere T is having a laugh at me being propositioned by a 93 year old!! :-D

Another cold, grey, wet day :-( The weather on the PC I'm using at the moment says it's 7 degrees, the app on my iPad says 9 and the one on my phone says 11. They can't all be right and at the moment it feels even colder than 7 degrees. Downstairs where the heating is on we are both having to wear several layers, upstairs where we haven't put the heating on I'm wearing a fluffy dressing gown as well. To cap the lot I have just read in the paper that we are all wrong thinking April has been cold as it has apparently been slightly warmer than normal.

I haven't really done anything much today. In fact I've been up since 8 am and I can't think how I've filled the last four and a half hours. I must walk around in a daze half the time.

I hope your jab was OK this morning AnnG and you have no reaction. I had mine on Wednesday and the only reaction was an aching arm and that's easing up now. I hope you enjoyed your coffee group.

It's good you are feeling a little better Mandy. You'd probably be wise to stick to bland food for a few days and take it easy. A doctor once told me it will take you as much time to recover as the time you were unwell so don't start rushing around.

My lemon chicken tray bake was fine last night but not as good as the complicated recipe I used once before which was somehow a bit special. There was a good lemony flavour to everything but I'd also put in several cloves of garlic and some thyme and you wouldn't have known they were there. Still, it was quite palatable and filling. OH does our snack lunch and I have put in my order for a banana sandwich but as he has very selective hearing I might well get pate or cheese.

We have a bit of a hectic week next week. Monday I am going shopping but I expect that will take all day as I want to go to a funny little shoe shop tucked away a couple of miles from Colchester that specialise in awkward fittings. I want some light coloured trainers and this shop look on their website as though they have a good selection. I've bought stuff there before and they take endless trouble to get you the right fit but their shoes are modern and not just "granny" styles. After that we will be touring jewellers to find the perfect earrings for youngest granddaughter's 18th birthday. The other girls have all had a good quality piece of jewellery to keep and some money to spend when they were 18 so we want to do the same for her. One of her sisters suggested earrings for her rather than any other sort of jewellery so we'll be on the hunt for those.

On Tuesday we have the dentist. That will take at least half the day as we are both being seen and it's a 25 mile round trip. Thursday is our friend M's birthday so a group of us ladies are going out to lunch with her and then back to her house after. OH will take her husband V out for a meal. Friday I may be dashing about sorting out bedrooms and cooking as I may be having one or two grandchildren to stay. They will arrive late Friday night and go on Sunday afternoon but I am still waiting confirmation of who is coming or, indeed, if anyone is coming at all. It's all very vague and my grandchildren all seem to think I am a mind reader.

I've written all this as an explanation in case I don't post much next week. If you don't hear from me I'm probably fine, just running round in circles and chasing my tail

I can hear movement in the kitchen so I am going downstairs now to investigate what I have for lunch.

it seems too be ok today MandyI just have to put the new password in eachh time. Glad you'ree feeling a littlle better if still a bit weak. It must have been those tablets affecting you like that.

Enjoy your meeting Anng and have a nice chat.

Need to pay my car tax next week.

Morning all,
Raining here just light rain at the moment but I think it should be showery all day and the same again tomorrow.
We were hoping to get the toms and cues seeds in the pots over the weekend but I don't think that's likely now ,Monday and Tuesday should be better days so hopefully we can do it then if I do a little bit at a time .

My tummy seems to have settled now and I'm feeling a bit better I just need to have a couple more days of taking things slowly .

Enjoy your meeting Anng .

Mel thats odd about your emails I thought it was working OK yesterday .

Good morning Mel and all. Up early then Mel after that good sleep. I had a broken sleep night but am ok.
5 degrees here and drizzle. Out at 1040, Covid jab then a U3a coffee morning meeting of MOTO (members on their own). But home then this afternoon.

Hope stopping the tablets has helped Mandy, possibly take a few days to settle down properly.

Mel, so that has not worked then? does it give you the opportunity to choose a new password again?

Good morning all,

Dull and dreary and its been raining. It started yesterday late afternoon and I think its still that light rain in the air as I can't hear it this mroning . pc says degrees and light rain. I suppose we have this for the next week at least.

Slept well just up once and straight off again afterwards.

Hoping Mandy is a bit better today after stopping the tablets.

By the way it dos'nt recognise my password for the internet this morning.

I love bread and jam...


Had a gameof cards on the pc and nearly fell asleep. Vera just put all your veg and cchicken inthe tin and squeeze the lemon over the chicken and bung the rind in too and bake it it'll be lovely.

Think I may have chicken sweet and sour tonight. as I don't feel like cooking after all the things I have been through today. All I have done is hoover the kitchen and diner and fed the chickens and wild birds and fish.

I think I saw a Sparrowhawk fly across the garden today and all the little birds went quiet.

Gwyn I hope your swans have more success this year after two broods failing last year. We love to hear about your swans and Vera's too. When I did Bideford market years ago on the way into Bideford there were a pair f swans on the river and I watched them for years . They were always some where long a certain stretch but not seen them now since being with oh even when I used to go to Bideford shopping.

Wrote it and did'nt post it!!

Well done Mel, at last you're in :-D I've got to get on to BT as well and I keep putting it off. I got everything set up on my new iPad except emails and every time I try to set it up I get the message that my password doesn't match my email address. I can get emails on the PC, my phone and my old iPad so I haven't worried about it too much but I do want to get it set up.

It has actually stayed dry today. Hooray! I don't know why I'm cheering as it's still not very warm and it's quite overcast, though the sun put his hat on for 10 minutes earlier.

Mandy, I was going to say the same as Gwyn about vitamin C. It is important to help the body absorb iron. I hope you are starting to feel a little bit better now.

I'm glad you enjoyed your walk Gwyn. It's a shame your swans don't seem to be nesting this year. I enjoy reading about them as I can compare them with ours. I haven't been down to the river for a while but OH walked down there a couple of weeks ago and he said one swan was sitting on a nest and the other was swimming up and down nearby so hopefully they will be breeding again this year. I assume it's the same pair as I know swans mate for life. A couple of our friends had swans as a decoration on their diamond wedding cake but I don't think many of the guests realised the significance.

As I think I've said before we have a large hall, kitchen/diner, utility, downstairs cloakroom and a conservatory which are all tiled in the same very light coloured tiles. We usually do them with a steam cleaner but I get fed up because they all stay nice and clean looking except for the kitchen bit of the kitchen/diner and that always looks grubby to me. I think the floor gets splashed from the sink and the stove and then any muck gets trodden around. So, this morning I decided I would have a real go at just the kitchen area. So out came buckets and bowls, squeegee mop, scrubbing brush, detergent etc and I really attacked it. It's a fairly large area in itself and I didn't want to put my back out completely by scrubbing the whole floor on my hands and knees but I gave it a good going over with the squeegee and detergent and used the scrubbing brush on the more stubborn marks. It looks good at the moment but I am sure that by tomorrow it will look grubby again. And my back is telling me that it knows I've been bending and twisting but, as they say, there's no gain without pain.

I'm going to go and start preparing our dinner now. Some while ago I followed a recipe for a lemon chicken tray bake. It was really delicious but so complicated and took ages to prepare so I'm going to attempt to do my own simpler version of it. It'll either taste good or end up in the bin and we'll be having bread and jam.

I'm in hooray................ :-D :-D :-D :-) :-) :-D :-D :-D

I had so many emails to delete I think there were 17. I just hope I can get back in tomorrow as I am not shutting it down till tonight.

Still not got through to BT they said they would ring me back and the phone rung once and all they said was their call was not answered. I have rung again and am in a waiting list for 20 mins.

I hope Mandy will soon feel better and gradually be able to increase the foods that can be tolerated.
Don't forget to include plenty of Vitamin C in your diet, as your body needs that vitamin to be able to absorb and use the iron in your food.

Mel
I hope you can get your 'net' problem sorted. In must be so annoying for you.
Thank you for the photos of your new girls. One of the photos did look a bit like 'them and us' and keeping the 2 groups apart, but the arrival of eggs seems to show they are settling in. They are good-looking hens.

I'm not long back from a country walk with a friend. No rain and now that the bitter wind has dropped, it seemed much milder. It was quite pleasant walking. We heard the cuckoo..my first one this year.
No sign of the swans building in their usual place this year. If you remember, they failed to hatch any eggs from 2 clutches last year. Maybe they are too old. I don't know how these things work.

Mandy just search for iron rich foods. As Anng said red meat and eggs are a good source of iron andthe green veg but you say you eat plenty of greens.

Still can't get on the net will have to ring BT again and spend all the rest of the morning on the phone.

I am not sure that the things on the list you give Mandy, except for veg are high in iron. Red meat is good, but if you can make yourself eat some of the things on the Red Cross list it would be beneficial.

Mel, that is annoying about your internet. Do you know why you have lost it?