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General => The Stay Safe Board => Topic started by: Roobarb on Wednesday 07 April 21 23:35 BST (UK)
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Was rudely awoken by NN banging her bins about alongside my garage, thanks a bunch. A grey and cold day.
Tesco delivery arrived early again, sorted out and put it all away.
Out for a walk after lunch, the grass cutters were on the field, they'd completed most of it. Through the woods, down the narrow path, it's usually deserted along that bit but I passed a few people, some taking children for a walk, had to stand in the undergrowth while they passed. I could see further along that a couple of families had stopped to chat, couldn't be bothered to try and skirt around them so took a side path off.
Kept busy for the rest of the afternoon with boring things like (partly) cleaning the oven and other chores. The weather didn't tempt me into the garden but forecast a little warmer for Thursday. The Canadian Landscape Artist programme was on tonight, recorded it but didn't watch, will save for another time.
I finished the latest Steve Robinson book last night, was very disappointed to realise it was only about half the length of normal books. I felt that he'd come to a conclusion rather hurriedly, although I did enjoy it.
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Roobarb, sorry to hear you were woken so rudely, hope it didn’t ruin the whole day for you.
My hip hurt today after my unaccustomed walking in the park yesterday. Hope it is okay tomorrow. We had to go to our local grocery store today to get a pile of provisions as the superstore “up the hill” online ordering system has not been working for us. We have used it for a year now but now it doesn’t keep our reserved time, although the order is there. Talked to three different people on the phone but no one seems to know what’s wrong. We were getting low on essentials so needs must...OH nipped over to the liquor store and got some wine for me and some exotic beer for himself.
Also picked up a couple of books on reserve at the library. Did not get much else done.
Sat outside with book and wine later in afternoon, about 21 C. I think it was. very nice.
Tonight we watched The Canadian Landscape Artist, thoroughly enjoyed it. My daughter briefly lived near where they filmed the first show (maybe all of them?) and I was hoping we’d get to the art gallery at some point, but never did, sadly. I liked one of the winners, not so much the urban style.
That was my day, oh yes, our oven got cleaned, too! Self-cleaning, so not much of a chore, and OH does it 😄.
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Don’t mention oven cleaning. I think that has to be the worst job in the
world house. Mine is is dire need of a clean. When it was quite new a glass dish broke inside it and I’m sure there are still shards of glass blocking some of the gas vent thingies. It is likely to need some kind of specialist gas person to remove it. As for a general clean, I hate doing it so much that I have been considering paying someone to do it for me - apparently there is such a service. ;)
I’ve been reading about the rise in virus cases in Canada Diana - new variants affecting more young people. I believe that was the pattern of the Spanish Flu too - it swept through different age groups.
Roobarb, I have noisy bin neighbours too. Last week some idiot decided to drag his bin out at about four in the morning. The other side sleep all day, wake up in the afternoon, do gardening at night, including gate slamming and bin lid slamming. Drives me mad.
I spent Wednesday at daughter’s house dog sitting. She decided to go to work as her back was bearable, and she is very conscientious, and wouldn’t want to let anyone down.
Odd weather, some grey skies and light rain, and some sunny patches. The forecast was correct. Threw some washing in to take advantage of the sun to get it dry.
Uneventful dog walk, which was nice.
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Yes, Ruskie, cases have been going up on some parts of Canada. Ontario is going into a more severe lockdown tomorrow, with only essential stores open. Schools are still open, though, but they have not opened up vaccinations to teachers or other staff.
Fortunately our neighbours are quiet, both single people on either side. The school across is busy during the day, but quiet at night.
It is supposed to go up to 26 tomorrow, too hot, and too quick. Just last week we had temps hovering around 0. I hate that drastic change. This was the first day, though, we opened the windows in the house, probably since October. Next - ceiling fan and A/C season!
Good to hear your dog is behaving. Ours has stayed out of trouble, but he has less freedom in the yard (leashed sometimes) as he has a new “friend” living behind us, a 9 month old boxer, who I was calling Mr Bo Jangles due to its jangling collar, but turns out it’s a she! Darcy goes nuts if he knows she’s out too.
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Diana, your little lad sounds just like my dog. We take her out on a lead because people behind us have dogs.
Previous people had a dog and it really wound my dog up. They would face off barking at each other through the fence. Not vicious, but still noisy.
They moved out and people with two dogs moved in. Oddly enough my dog isn’t as bothered with these two, though they still bark at each other a bit, it is not so bad. She is therefore now sometimes allowed off lead. Recently she has been quite good with coming back when she is called, but with previous neighbour’s dog we had to go out with collar and lead to drag her back.
Dogs are odd creatures.
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Dogs are indeed odd creatures.
Yesterday a French bulldog puppy was tired and sat down refusing his little leader's commands, but when he saw me he was very curious, and decided he had the energy to walk in the wrong direction. Poor little girl just had to run along behind him! :)
Walked into town in the morning to post a birthday card, and we had read that Superdrug are collecting medications plastic packaging to re-cycle (Rotary involvement I think). I was glad the assistant knew about it and was happy to take mine... so this platform can help spread the word.
After lunch went around the lakes. Despite rain in the night, the paths weren't too muddy, but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, though I suppose there may be plenty of nesting going on out of sight in the reeds.
Continued trying to read a book to review. It is TRULY dreadful. I find it unreadable and have had to give up. :-X Now I have to craft a review giving no praise, and trying to avoid consigning it to the craters of hell, without encouraging anyone to spend good money or time on the darned thing. SO disappointing!!
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Continued trying to read a book to review. It is TRULY dreadful. I find it unreadable and have had to give up. :-X Now I have to craft a review giving no praise, and trying to avoid consigning it to the craters of hell, without encouraging anyone to spend good money or time on the darned thing. SO disappointing!!
I'm sure you have some well crafted polite phrases that will leave the readers of your review in no doubt as to how good or otherwise the book is. I think teachers or former teachers are quite good at those phrases - things like disappointed , doesn't quite meet the standard type thing that some school reports have. I used to get disappointed on my maths reports ( I was useless at it ) except for one year with one particular teacher and I got 88 in my exam. I was ecstatic! However he then got promotion and left to be a deputy head elsewhere, so of course the following year my marks dropped and one phrase was 'we are at a loss to understand this drop in standard' . Well I could tell them - other teacher didn't treat me like an idiot and explained things till I got it. Next teacher taught to the top group ( former grammar school) and didn't do explaining, so I just floundered.
The one I laughed at most was 49 in history and the comment was 'almost satisfactory' - yes you guessed it, 50 was satisfactory!
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Y-e-s..... very far from satisfactory I'm afraid; but someone put half their life blood into creating it, and speaking as someone who detested a Man Booker prize winning book, I am not sure if my opinion really counts!
Would "a rambling mess" cover it do you think, or is that not sufficiently well crafted and polite? :-\
p.s. I had a wonderful maths teacher who went the extra mile for me, bless her heart. I finally achieved the desired GCSE maths grade at the age of 40.
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Oh Candleflame! Maths!
First day at Grammar School and Maths teacher - an ogress , said we must ask if there was anything we did not understand as we were all from different schools ( no National curriculum in those days)and had done different things.
So when she was putting , what to me were full stops in the middle of numbers I put up my hand and asked why?
Oh ye gods, the explosion of wrath! She was screaming,spittle flying about etcetc.I never asked amother question,and she never did give the explanation of Decimal points!
By the third form I had enough ,so just put anything down on the exam paper, rubbish, got ,wait for it —- minus two ;D ;D ;D ;D
Had to see The Headmistress, told her the story from day one etc and said I was too afraid to ask questions ever again.
Next year our form had another Maths teacher and I did better but never really caught up ,however when working with the little infants reception class I started all over again with the foundations I never had even at the first school I attended nor the next where I sat my ElevenPlus exam.
I was doomed to always gave rotten Maths teachers from my first day at school!
So cold here , and no incentive to do any gardening.
Now! My big oven is clean, so stupid,a drop down door which is in the way when you lean in to clean,I suppose I could take the door off but would I ever get it back .
I do find if I have baked I can clean it before it goes cold but with a roast well you are busy and want to eat whilst all food is hot .
I bought a good quality counter top oven “ Sharp”, but that is dreadful to clean as the finish in parts comes off if you use anything slightly abrasive .
However it is good ,a super grill and exact temperature ,
My big one can vary and the service engineer said twenty degrees either way is acceptable ,well not to me it isn’t !
I ought to get it taken out and replaced but came with a new fully fitted kitchen,what wouldn’t I give to have my old Cannon,self cleaning gas oven back!
At a loss what to prioritise today,I won’t be bored that is for sure , ought to get rid of the boxes taking up precious storage room in the built in cupboards like box rooms in the big bedroom , all the cards etc from schools,retirement and 60th Birthday etc, why do I keep such things!
Well because my last house had four bedrooms and in three there was one full wall of floor to ceiling storage cupboards ,a floored attic with proper staircase etc etc etc .
For a hoarder,paradise!
I must be ruthless though .
I will keep family stuff and let school stuff go ,but only after I have read them all again ,I mean I retired in 2002, !
Well post arrived so into isolation for a few days .
Cheerio.Look after yourselves.
Viktoria.
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Y-e-s..... very far from satisfactory I'm afraid; but someone put half their life blood into creating it, and speaking as someone who detested a Man Booker prize winning book, I am not sure if my opinion really counts!
Would "a rambling mess" cover it do you think,
How about - it was hard to follow the plot in this book’, the characters were not well defined. I didn’t understand where x fitted into the story, the plot seemed confused and lacked direction. ......
Any of that fit?
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Diana, my rude awakening was around the time I'd normally get up but I hate being startled awake, that's why I only use alarm clocks if absolutely necessary, they're the work of the devil!
Hope your online ordering service gets itself sorted out.
Can't imagine why on earth your neighbours feel the need to move their bins at that ungodly hour Ruskie. Very brave of your daughter to go to work after all her mishaps, hope she's okay. One of my neighbours used to do professional oven cleaning, I never used it although I was tempted, I hate it too. Mine is a slide and hide oven, the door slides below the oven so you can get near it.
MH, when you mention medications plastic packaging do you mean the bottles that pills come in? I put those in my normal recycling. I'm intrigued to know what the truly dreadful book is! There have been books that were in The Sunday Times bestsellers list that I would have hung on a nail in the loo. ;D As an avid reader who reads the reviews I'd appreciate the comment that goes for the jugular, no use shilly shallying about. :D
Hope you've maaged to sort through some of those boxes Viktoria.
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Our wheelie bins stay in the back lane, permanently.
Mainly due to the number of steps up to the lane - 10 of them!
However bin-men start with us at 6:00 to 6:15, reversing down the lane.
Then we get them coming forward, picking up all the bins.
About 6:30 when they get to me.
Who needs to sleep in on a Thursday?
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;D ;D Roobarb, some on the "bestsellers list that I would have hung on a nail in the loo" really made me laugh.
The Man Booker winner I couldn't read was a great disappointment to me as it used a gift huge book token, which I felt had been wasted.
The book currently giving me the headache is pre publication, so must remain incognito for now, but I do feel "going for the jugular" ;D would be the correct approach, despite that attitude has got me sacked from jobs in the past!
Candleflame.... in truth, ALL of it fits I think! :'(
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Ref Superdrug and recycling of medication packaging..... Definitely the BLISTER PACKS, but it would be worth asking about the bottles too.
There is a link here:
https://www.retailtimes.co.uk/uks-first-medicine-blister-packet-recycling-programme-launches-in-superdrug-and-independent-pharmacies/
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MH, let us know what the book is when you are allowed to do so. I’d say just admit you couldn’t finish it .... so your review only relates to pages 1 to X.
I love your maths story Viktoria. I’m hopeless at Maths too, but feel I am in good company with you and Candleflame. That slap on the legs I got when I was 6 for using my fingers to do sums obviously didn’t work. I still use them. ;D
The recycling packaging is always a good move. Our supermarkets have a bin for recyclable packaging, however I’m not inclined to save all my still slightly bloody meat trays (despite the rinsing) and other plastics and take it to the supermarket. I’ve never seen anyone else doing so either. Nice idea but ....
I complained to our Council once about how early our bins were collected, and was assured that they didn’t leave the depot till 6am. Nonsense. They’d been up and down my road with their squeaky brakes collecting bins at 5:30 for weeks.
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It hadn't even occurred to me that blister packs were plastic waste but of course they are. Thanks for the info MH.
I hope you manage to sort out something for your review, what a dilemma.
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It hadn't even occurred to me that blister packs were plastic waste but of course they are. Thanks for the info MH.
;) AND metal too.
I hope you manage to sort out something for your review, what a dilemma.
:-\ I have ramped up the "disappointed" aspect.... problem is, obviously it's totally subjective. Just my opinion.
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It does make you wonder what constitutes “ a good book “ personal taste obviously plays a great part but I hate to think how many times I have swallowed the blurb written about books , and flung them down in disappointment .
Well I am s l o w l y ,oh so slowly grinding my way through Martin Chuzzlewit
still, !
Lovely bright but cold day.
Son coming with some fresh shopping ,veges ,fruit and a chicken.
I have his rose bush, the Captain Tom one ,the bark scraping looked good so we will see, Ihave phoned as I said and if they so not get into leaf and flower I can have a refund.
His W.A is not until May 10th ,but the rose might be in leaf by then if he plants it now.
I keep trying my hairdresser’s number but no answer as yet .
My bins are in a “bay” ,a bit taken off my garden,yet fenced , so I can put stuff in them from in the garden yet the bin men can collect them to the collection point without coming into my garden, very handy when I had the dog ,she may have got out had they needed to open the gate abd also she might have had the odd leg or two off!
There are also two steps ,shallow but awkward for me to get a bin with any weight in it up to the lane .
So I had assisted collection ,but do the lads put the bins back in the way most convenient for both them and me?
Of course not ::)
I could probably manage now so I phoned the council to cancel the assisted collection after the bay was made but was advised as I would then have to wheel the bins along the lane to the collection point ,and the service might not be given back to me if that proved difficult as I got even older!—- it was better not to cancel it.
At least I don’t have four whacking great bins in my garden.
Some Daffs going over now but tulips well on the way and hyacinths still blooming.
All sorts popping up in the garden,flowering currant in bloom ,dogwood not yet , no sign of foxgloves . Peonies coming up strongly , Aquilegia , YellowLoosestrife ,oh lots.
I worry about blister packs, plastic and metal mixed but I do recycle them .
We have four bins ,Black ,for stuff not recycleable, Green, paper and card.Blue,tins glass and plastic,Brown, food and garden waste .
The brown emptied every fortnight ,the others monthly .
Oh I must get in with the myriad jobs I could be doing but hate it when there is no fixed time for today as an example ,my son pops round .
It could be this morning or this afternoon .I do know the moment I make something to eat he will come !
Ican’t expect him to be exact but just an inkling re am or pm so I can take the tablets I need to take with food.It is only once a week though so I mustn’t moan .
Did anyone watch the dog programme last night, oh a lovely Schnauzer puppy, not in complete control of his back legs but lovely .
The two little dogs, related, and the girl of the family so outgoing and her brother so shy but the dogs really helped him.
Well I really must get on.Cheerio folks .
Viktoria.
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Well, Prince Philip has died.
As The Queen said a while ago ,we will never really know how much we owe
him.
A bit of a loose cannon, his own man , nevertheless a support to The Queen.
Mountbatten tried to influence him and get some measure of control over the Royal Family ,but George V1 was a shrewd match for him ( Mountbatten) , refusing to change the name to Mountbatten.
Such a breath of fresh air into the rather stuffy and dated life of the Royal Family so with him as he was and The Queen as she was ,a good combination.
He asked for a simple low key funeral, but there will surely be ,ASAP ,a commemoration of his life and service.
A sad day ,and thoughts go to Her Majesty, what with Harry and that thing he calls his wife ,now this, I just hope she is able to take yet another bitter blow.
Viktoria.
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You lucky people having your bins emptied, from next week our crew will be on strike for 3 weeks, I don't mind the paper and normal rubbish bins not being emptied but I do object to the garden and house waste bin not being emptied, warmer weather, flies and maggots , thank you council !
Louisa Maud