ToadyI have been mainly Vol. 7

Tegan enjoy your visit 'oop North' lucky you! Only the fact that I am off to Newbury stops me from being too envious of the Grans off to Edinburgh.
I shall blow Liam a kiss from you! Good luck at Kelso.
(Knight's Reward, will be entered in a Bumper later in the season, heard it from the owner's mouth!!!!)

I'll raise a glass to you in Edinburgh!

I'm scared to back Houblon in case I bring him bad luck, but he is a 'stats' horse and Aidan has picked the wrong stable horse before in the past.

OGM Tegan you two horse racing buffs speak a different language to the rest of us. Give us a translation some time.

Aidan and Liam both ride for the same stable; Aidan is number one jockey so usually gets to choose which horse to ride if the trainer has two horses in the same race. A few years ago he chose the wrong one in the Grand National and Liam won the race on a 100/1 outsider. He's a member of our racing club and we meet up with him every April. We look on him as 'our boy' and he's doing really well at the moment. Aidan is riding a horse called Katenco tomorrow and Liam is on Houblon des Obeaux, who isn't quite as highly regarded as Katenco, but Katenco had colic a while back and may not be 100% tomorrow. At the moment Liam is winning about 33% of the races he rides in. A bumper race is a flat race for jumping horses. It gives the horses a chance to gain some experience on the racetrack without any jumps getting in the way. There's usually a bit of gossip going round about which bumper horses are potential champions, so Knights Reward might be a bit of a nudge nundge wink wink horse . My nudge nudge wink wink horse for tomorrow is 'Sweet Deal' but he's no price.

Thanks Tegan That does make things clearer I do not follow horse racing but It does help to understand the "jargon".

Sweet Deal not running .

Been shopping with 17 year old DGD (INSET day at her school - which her mum had to attend - tee hee)

We had a wonderful time, choosing presents for the two younger DGDs, having coffee, generally pottering. She is a joy to be with! [ smile]

feel refreshed and invigorated after my swim & massage !
Will have a good night tonight !!
x "s to all .

My grandson [6] played the piano at the school assembly this afternoon. He didn't have to do it but said he wanted to. Am very proud of him!

Tegan wonderful, these DGC, aren't they?

Today, I have been to the new Sainsbury's that opened near us - it's huge and I got confused but still seemed to spend and inordinate amount of money.

I also went to see Mum who seems to be wearing her oxygen canula as an trendy piece of jewellery round her neck. I was there an hour and 'hooked' her up again 4 times. She also told me she isn't eating very well (which the staff are concerned about too) as she ate 2 bourbon biscuits and drank a milky coffee.

Sadly, my elder brother, known to the rest of us as 'the good lad' wasn't recognised last time he went in to see her and this time I got 'Lovely to see you - shouldn't you do something about your hair'. My mum in a nutshell.

Today I'm on a train in Norway! Yippee!
Not yippee is the loss of my daughter in law's suitcase, which is still in Heathrow.
The sky is green in the distance and it's really dark, even though it's only mid afternoon. Our dear Norwegian friends have volunteered to meet us at the station and drive us the last two miles to our lovely log cabin so I'm feeling excited and full of anticipation.
I wish I could bottle some of the views for you, I'm mesmerised by the colours of the evening. Beautiful.

Have a wonderful time ga

Have a wonderful Christmas ga

ga I am so , I love Norway. have a wonderful Christmas.

I am in Cheltenham with our two DGDs, whose Mum and Dad are away in York. Grandap and youngest (7) are still flat out, and the older one (very, very nearly 10) and I are just lazing around. Lovely. I have talked them out of going into town today, thank heavens!

Home on Sunday to finish off Christmas "stuff"!

Oh it was lovely re-reading my last post on here. Our Norwegian friends sent us a photo of the snow today and I could picture their house blanketed by snow so clearly.
Ho hum.
So back to today. My little (!!) Afghan elves washed all the outside windows and helped me with all the indoor paintwork downstairs. I was the 'supervisor' and worked alongside them indoors. A short time later the WM came into the sitting room (lounge, front room, drawing room - what do you call yours?) and fixed a wall light that was coming adrift from the wall. I helped him to pull out the sofa to get to it and he did a good job of drilling/screwing the light into place. So far so good. He then got a clean cloth and wiped up the bit of dust he'd made (excellent!). A few minutes later I noticed that he was still cleaning the skirting board - the very same one that I'd scrubbed earlier myself. I pointed out to him that it was in fact clean because I'd only just washed it and his look of incredulity means that I really hadn't done a good job or that one of us needs to get our eyes tested. Bloomin cheek!!!

So far, I've baked a loaf and put a leek and potato soup into the soup maker to make itself.
I'm having a very lazy day.
I've found one thing difficult with my shoulder and that's winding my long case clock. I had to do it left handed. Dexterous (or should it be sinistrous) with my left hand I am not.
Pedants. Is there such a word as sinistrous?

Try sinistral Galen. Hope you're recovering.

Or possibly just sinister.

Thanks. Yes it's ok so far. Just scared to do much with it until I've seen the physio. There is a substantial risk of it happening again, hence the urgent physio.
I was lucky, I got a cancellation otherwise it would be halfway through neXt month! So much for urgent!

Sounds quite a lot for someone who was in hospital a week ago galen . Impressed with clock winding as I would be saying "oh sod it I'll wind it when my shoulder is better". (now that's lazy)
Just been into the "city" to look for a jacket that is properly waterproof (rather than just shower proof and leaks when it actually gets wet). All very quiet and sad there with only the chain stores open - and there are not many of them. New Look for instance with about 5 customers in it. It's my nomination for the saddest city in the Uk when it comes to high streets.
Found jacket on sale in Millets - tried one on an bought it. Result! Looked for "thin t shirts that i can wear to the gym - not white" for DH. As usually all XXL t shirts have medium armholes and sleeves.A neat but failed attempt at delegation. I think go straight to Cotton Traders and order their bargain t shirt is the only solution. Having been started by rugby players they do understand that XXL man has different proportions to SM man. Just like a size 8 woman is not a perfect accurate scale model of a size 18 woman.

I love this thread.

Today I have spent quite a bit of time watching DD2's youngest daughter (15 weeks) giggling away at her almost 3 year old sister. It's lovely!

kitty,it always amazes me that tiny babies can tell the difference between children and adults and the joy they find in them.

Today I have been getting interrupted....... every time I try to post something
My lovely SiL who is visiting has been doing some gardening for us and kept wanting me to tell him if things are weeds or not. This is complicated by the fact that we have a lot of borage coming up and I said that he could take some out but not too much, because of the bees.
DH kept telling me the car wouldn't start, then if I saw the keys would I let him know. I was inside, he was outside
A friend phoned to say that as he was going to get a paper for a housebound neighbour did we want one and five minutes later, phoned from said neighbour's house "just testing her phone".
I'm a slow typist at the best of times and thought I had some free time to concentrate on GN.