Diary > Monday 27th July

[Roobarb]

Caroline, Although I do a lot of gardening I don't do the masssive amount of sewing that you've done, I don't hand make greeting cards, I don't cook all those fantastic dishes or bake cakes ..... Anyway, if you did the gardening what would your OH have to do?    Fantastic result on the scrabble, nice one! You don't have to apologise to me for eating pesto  I could eat pesto if I needed to, it just isn't something I'd choose. The only thing I remember trying in adulthood that I really disliked is tapenade (olive paste), I thought it was vile, it tastes like iodine. An acquired taste apparently.

Mowsehows, sounds like you had some dreadful weather, good that you got to have the fish and chips anyway. My bench is not exactly pristine despite the work I've done, the top piece of wood has bits that have gone rotten, probably due to my not being so diligent in the past! It'll do. 

Annette, I know what you mean about the weather affecting your mood and I think the current limitations of what we can do or choose not to do can make that more so. Hope you got the brighter weather today.

RTL, it's awful that you end up with these headaches, particularly if they're caused by you having to limit your fluid intake because of your journeys. Perhaps now that the buses are getting busier the public toilets will be reopened. Very sorry to hear about your cousin, it's so distressing for people not being able to go to funerals. I hope the fact that he died peacefully can bring some comfort to you.
Re Boris and his healthy eating plans, someone on TV commented that if he's serious about this he shut tax sugar products in the same way as alcohol. Not sure whether that would actually discourage people from buying them.
I hope your shifts go well. 

[Caw1]

Roobarb- blimy you make me sound like some unbelievable miss perfect!😇 If I told OH what you'd said he'd have a good laugh.... I'm not really doing any more than I've always done! He has his qualities too, when we moved here 33 years ago we talked about extending the house to create a separate dining room.... when he showed me the plans, he'd drawn up, my comment was '  it looks a lot more than a dining room'
Yes, he said might as well do it all in one go! By that he meant taking the WHOLE front of the house off and extend up as well as out 😳 😱😱... this he proceeded to do himself! Just had electrician, plumber, plasterer in rest all by his fair hand.... I agree with you on the tapenade... it's disgusting... mind you I don't like olives either...

Mowsehowse- your weather sounds like it was pretty windy and wet.... not heard from my daughter but expect they got the same. Lovely to meet up with your friends and eat out.... you're braver than I am doing that... hope you manage to catch up with those you missed.

Annette - I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you regarding the weather especially as you've some events to look forward to this week... think by Friday we're all going to be pretty warm!

RTL - I feel for you with the headaches and you're lucky they can clear relatively quickly... dehydration is not good and I don't know how you cope with it when getting to work... you must drink the place dry when you get there! I put my migraines down to lack of liquid and tension... thankfully not suffered from them fir a few years but did so from my early 20's... very debilitating... only O.H mentioned to me the other day that since I had sepsis 4 years ago I've not had any.... im sure you long for your days off so you can have a nice cuppa when you want!
Sorry to hear about your cousin and that you're not going to be able to do what you'd naturally do innormal times... perhaps they'll do it live on Zoom or something somyou can at least be part of the service and to say your goodbyes that way...

LM - hope you can manage to get to see your brother in the near future.... not sure where abouts you are but guessing it's not that near...


Caroline

[River Tyne Lass]

Thanks for the sympathetic messages re cousin.   I do take comfort in that from what I have heard he went peacefully.  It sounds like he hadn't known there was anything wrong and had just felt very tired and had gone home to lie down.  So I am presuming he wasn't worried, so this is something else ee take comfort from. 

I have a particular memory of this cousin.  As a small child I remember being taken to their house one day and had been playing with one of his sisters who was around my age.  There were six boys and three girls in that order.  At one point I was standing and swinging on their garden gate looking out into the street when some older lads came along.  They were looking right at me so I called out "Who are you?".  "We're your cousins", they called back and were very amused that I hadn't recognised them.  The cousin who has just died sometimes used to joke with me down the years  when I bumped into him and would laugh and say "Do you know who I am?"

Re: my sometimes headaches I do think these are often caused by dehydration on top of tiredness.  However, hopefully it won't be too long before public toilets reopen again on my route.  I know certain ones have been reopening around my area so things are improving.  And I was just told yesterday about some that have reopened in Newcastle but these are only open certain times - mostly the times when I am not passing through Newcastle. 

[Roobarb]

Lovely to have such happy memories of your cousin RTL. Good to hear that things are improving re the public toilets.

Caroline, your OH sounds an absolute gem, a man who can remove the front of a house and rebuild it, who also cooks and bakes bread, fantastic!