The Lockdown GangSTARS still going

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Dear Gangstars just popped in to wish you all a very Happy New Year.

We are still hanging in, in east London and shielding fairly carefully. So no shenanigans for us tonight - a nice supper and a bottle of champagne.

My health has been up and down and currently still in a somewhat downward trajectory.

I just read the last page of posts to catch up a bit and it felt like catching up with friends.

Talking of friends, our dear cat Missy died in September. She was 17.5 years old, with only one tooth and a lot to say for herself. She has left a cat shaped hole in our household.

Wishing all Gangstars the best year possible in 2023.
‘Let’s hope it’s a good one …’

Nortsat how funny, I was thinking of you last night and wondered how you were doing. I must have sent psychic waves to you 🤣
Sorry to hear your health is still troubling you. In view of all the latest round of flu/colds/Covid, it’s a good thing to lead a quiet life.
Oh I’m so sorry about Missy. One of our best Molls. She lived a long life but you must miss her so. She was very pretty.
Enjoy your bubbly tonight. Very best wishes to you and your Dh for 2023. Hope your health takes an upward spiral 😊
Kaimoana ooh that’s crafty. Death by icicle.
I’ve never had mud cake. Always put off by the name. Hope you enjoy it both of you.
Hope you enjoy your NY celebrations with your friend.
Have a good day.
Jan how lovely to hear from you. I must have crossed posts with you last night as I didn’t see your post until I read Kaimoana’s and saw her message to you. Quick scroll up and there your are.
Sorry things are going slowly for you. Be kind to your DH. I am the same with my DH constantly telling him suggesting to him that he lifts his head up, pulls his shoulders back, doesn’t fall over his own feet. He must get fed up with me but I’m just trying to look after him like your DH for you too.
I’m glad you are improving even though not as quickly as you’d like. When it’s ourselves it’s hard to see how things have changed but others can spot signs of improvement.
Wow so pleased to hear you are walking a bit again. That’s so good.
Oh yes, the phrase it could have been worse. Meant for the best but doesn’t help does it. Not when your body isn’t behaving like you want it too.
Sending you very best wishes (and your DH) for 2023 and hope it beings an improvement in your wellbeing. x

Happy New Year to all our gang even the invisible ones.

Sorry to hear that your recovery has been slow Jan. It must be frustrating. Let's hope it speeds up in the new year.

Lovely to hear from Nortsat but also sad that you're not in great health.

I know Zealandia Kaimoana. DS lives quite near. It was built around the reservoir which was at the end of our road, when I was growing up.

It was there, on my most recent trip, where I watched a tuatara lizard moving more slowly than any creature on earth.
DS tortoise positively sprints by comparison.

I've had a busy but enjoyable week. I paid a visit to DMiL in her new home. She seemed happy but missed her wonderful view of the hills. She's now 2 miles from where she was born.

DSis, DBiL DS, DGS plus Oscar the dachshund had a nice wild walk along the prom at Cramond.

I am sad to hear of the demise of Missy. She was a great character. Does that mean you still have 2 cats?

Wishing you lovely lot a very healthy, happy and peaceful New Year.
Let's hope for a clean sweep of the above, but for those for whom this will be a mere dream , I send the warmest of thoughts and biggest of hugs.
I'm good at that. You want to see the size of me post-Christmas. Or, there again, maybe not🐷

Thank you all for your friendship and support. The amazing power of the Internet - to wake up and find new messages and news💐.
Well, from the southern hemisphere, at least😀

Grammaretto lovely photo including a rainbow.
Hope you had a good time with the family and Oscar. Can he go far with his little legs.
Ixion thank you and big hug to you too.
Happy New Year to all the lockdown gangstars wherever they are.
Thank you for your company and fun all x 🍷🥂🍾🍻🍹🍺

In the land of the unwell (again) and have spent the last couple of days in 🛏️ but before I go back to sleep 😴 I want to wish you all a very Happy New Year 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

Happy New Year - Mr M joins me in wishing you all good health, good spirits and all good things. X

A very happy New Year everyone. Let's hope that it's better than '22.

Wasn't able to connect with my UK friend today as apparently he "had a few drinks" and fell asleep.


So I watched the London fireworks alone and thought the tribute to the Queen a nice touch.

My dearest wish for 2023 is that all the Gangstars have improved health and keep in good spirits... doesn't matter what kind!

Love to you all ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Hear Hear! Kaimoana

It may not be better BoadiceaJ but with the gang still here it is sure to be interesting and eventful.

Good luck everyone for 2023

Oh Cherry not again. Poor you. Thank you for popping in. Hope you feel better soon.
Mammissimo and Boadicea happy new year to you and your families too. Hope all are well,
Kaimoana that made me smile. Sorry you missed chatting with your friend. Love to you too.
Grammaretto yes the gangs still here. Amazing isn’t it after all these years.
Love and best wishes to you all x

Hope you feel better soon dear Cherry - bed is definitely the best place when one is not feeling too cracky.

Anna and I had a lovely time; swapping gifts, chattering (mostly me) and having a delish meal.

Takeaways (lamb kebabs) were intended but everywhere is close on a Public Holiday so it was fortunate I had just made Cottage Garden Pie (minced beef with several different vegetables) topped with potato and a cheese sauce.

Strawberries, cream and Choc Mud Cake for desert but we barely had time to blow out the candles when her parents arrived to whisk her away. (very little public transport either) so she took the cake home.

We actually had 3 hours together but our infrequent meetings are often twice that as we have so much to catch up on

She seems to be enjoying work at the bank - I hope it continues.

I've just been listening to a fascinating talk about sayings and their meanings, including, "A rolling stone gathers no moss," and I'm eager to share

I suppose I've always imagined a boulder rolling downhill too fast to allow moss to stick to it.
Or indicating a person who never settles to a task learns little.
But no.

The expert says it comes from the 13th century when the Egyptian game of bowls became popular in England.
Eventually the well-to-do aficionados wanted an immaculate lawn on which to play. So the gardener was employed to push a rolling stone (see pic) every day to make sure moss could not take hold and the surface was smooth.

‘Aye, there’s the rub,’ said Hamlet, quoting a bowls term; a rub is anything which impedes the passage of the bowl, such as moss.

I wish I knew everything

Good morning 🙂

Kaimoana your rolling stone brings back the memory of the day we inadvertently wrote off our parked -on-our - land prized Saab. Mr M's DF had recently moved to a care home and we were clearing the old family home. At the time we had just moved into Mamissimo Mansion and extensive works were underway.

Mr M's eyes alighted on a vast concrete grass rolling thingy with a cast iron handle which had belonged to his DGF. The man with a van was definitely of the opinion that Mr M was off his trolley was mistaken if he thought that the roller would be transported in the van.

Undeterred `Mr M stood and puffed his imaginary pipe, had a cup of coffee and stomped off to our car. He reversed it up to the roller.....then went and got two stout planks from the back of the shed.

Yup......he tried to push the roller up the planks into the boot.....

The planks broke. Now at this point I was rifling though the freezer looking for some lamb......

When I went out again there was a long gentle slope of railway sleepers x 3 linking our boot to the ground. Mr M had that look on his face when he instructed me to get on the other side of the roller handle and give it a push when he said go......

We both pushed....... miraculously the roller shot up the ramp, into the open boot.......and straight through the floor of it. The front of the car simultaneously lifted off the ground and the suspension broke.

I think my mistake was laughing 😝

Oh, that's made my day week, Mamissimo 😂😂

I should have posted this last week but forgot

Twas the night before Christmas
I’d spent all my lolly
I’d looked at the bank account
Felt far from jolly
Tomorrow my Mad Auntie Martha is due
She never stops drinking and using the loo
She must visit at least 40 times in a day
Not helped by the gin she keeps putting away

And Uncle Horatio, my what vexations
Will tell us, in detail, of his operations
And as for the kids, well I blame the mother
For not having foresight at birth, them to smother
They screech and they yell from morning to night
They chase the poor cat - after having a fight
During which my best vase came a cropper last year
And Tom? He’ll get legless on Dad’s stash of beer

You can bet that the turkey, again will be dry
The Yorkshires will burn and poor Granny will cry
The gravy all lumps and the sprouts give you gas
And as for the stuffing – I think I shall pass.
There are folks singing carols from
Wick down to Dover
But frankly my dear, I’ll be glad when it’s over.

!! Mamissimo !!
That is hilarious but had it not gone through the boot it would surely have mashed your chassis and suspension - a knowledge I mistakenly believed all men were born with.

I'm going to save that story and put it in my journal for whenever I need a good laugh.

A brilliant start to 2023

Hi all.
Cherry hope you are feeling a bit better today.
Kaimoana glad you had such a nice time with Anna. Might have known that you would be able to rustle up a delicious meal at the drop of a hat. Nice you obviously enjoy each other’s company so much.
Well I never knew that about a rolling stone. I thought the
same as you.
Mamissimo I’m sending you my dry cleaning bill. I’ve just splurged coffee all over my t shirt. 🤣🤣🤣. What a fantastic story. Only MrM could come up with an idea like that.
Ixion 👋 made me laugh too.
Kaimoana oh I love your poem. That was great 🤣🤣
Grammaretto hope you’ve had a good day.
I have finally finished sorting out all the Christmas wrapping paper (brought back all the paper from my DS1 on Christmas Day. 9 people and two doges exchanging multiple presents)
Tearing off the sellotape and sorting the paper into recyclable and non recyclable. What a fun job. Next year it will be cardboard boxes and string.
DDIL said she though Mark my crochet cat was lovely and I could do that for a living. I think she changed her mind when I told her it took about 3 months to get one cat done.

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Wonderful that Kaimoana's rolling stone brought back that fantastic story Mamissimo
I read it as a cautionary tale relevant today as I was offered a very heavy old mangle. The plan was to convert it into a clay slab roller.....
After your experience I may stick to a rolling pin.

You and I Doodle could start a company. The slow crocheter and the even slower knitter
Doesn't roll off the tongue but we could work on a name

I was back walking today and calling in on neighbours'.

My lodger returned from her Christmas holiday. I think things are beginning to get back to normal.

Next time we're all a bit low I'll tell you part 2......otherwise known as how Mr M made me phone the car insurance company to explain the hole in the car........and what they said. 🤣

Talking about recycling Xmas paper.

A couple of years ago dgs and I became ultra eco-conscious.
I'd saved some of the hundreds of kilometres of brown paper which arrives at my house as packing material. I have a lot of stuff delivered as I can't shop instore.

We made potato stamps: stars, Christmas trees and dabbed the paint-loaded spuds all over the brown paper.
In between the prints, dgs used felt pens to embellish.

It looked lovely and we had enough to stock a shop but as we wasted potatoes (and yes, my Yorkshire soul was crying out to cut off the green paint and cook them anyway) I don't think the world eco-balance benefitted.

My mother used to insist we children undo our Xmas gifts very carefully as she ironed the paper and saved every inch of string.

Once sellotape became popular she would soak it off and use the wrapping paper the following year.

When she died and I had the task of sorting out her house, I found a big box of neatly folded, ironed fancy papers and hundreds of tiny balls of string.

She'd brought it all the way from the UK and all the way from the 1950's as well.

Batten down the hatches; wild weather today and predicted for the next week or so. El Nino again?

Karen and I went to a garden centre today and bought pretty daisy-like plants, with vouchers I'd earned by doing surveys online.
When I plant up the tub, I'll send a picture.

I've heard of ironing brown paper and used to cover all the DC school books with ironed wrapping paper but I never knew about soaking sellotape.

I was asked if I would lend one of my many church pews and this morning 4 strong bodies manoeuvred it out the pottery door. It wouldn't turn the corner to get out the front door though I m sure they came in that way. Must have grown.
I hope it has left for good.
You see I am decluttering.

I had a df for coffee this morning and she has taken my knitting to fix it. I love her to bits .
But don't worry Doodle this doesn't mean I've speeded up just that I can begin a new project.
Neither the dishwasher not the washing machine work so I'm guessing it's the sockets and have called Sparky.
In the meantime I m just not changing very often.
sorry if this is too much information

Ah a garden centreKaimoana I can't wait. I think I saw bulbs coming through so it will be Spring.
Meanwhile I think my choice of a bike for DGD was a bit off the mark.

Grammaretto glad your lodger back. Nice to have someone else around apart from Sparky ( just read your second post and see I spoke too soon and Sparky is needed again)
What lovely pictures. Still some snow on the ground. Like the snowman but he looks a bit chilly. How about you knit him a scarf. 😊
I just wonder how many people could say they had a spare church pew or two in their house. Your home is like a treasure chest.
Mamissimo I can well imagine……actually no I can’t. How do you explain a garden roller went through the boot of your car 🤣
Kaimoana I admire your mum. After half an hour of fiddling with wrapping paper I was ready to give up. It never occurred to me to soak off the sellotape.
Those flowers will make a lovely tub display. Hope you keep safe and it’s not too windy.

It's dark as dusk here but 8am on a 'summer's day'. The rain, which never stopped all night, is still falling.
Even the birds sounded dispirited at dawn.

Pictures taken in my suburb and the nearest low-lying one, 4km away.
www.rnz.co.nz/news/galleries/auckland-flooding

This will be the 800th post on our latest thread; isn't it great that we are still together?

I think of our sporadic Gangstars as 'old girls' who come back occasionally to see us students still at our desks!

Doodle I think the kind of gum on sellotape these days is no longer the type you can soak

Grammaretto It must be nice to have your tenant back home

Hoping for better health and spirits for our lovely friends Missedout, Nfk &DH, Cherry and Jan16

Good evening 🙂

We took H Beagle to the vet this morning and they decided that she is old (!) and there may be something wrong (!) and if they found something she's too old for anaesthetic but would we like them to do X-rays, blood tests.......ladies, we declined! She's lost 3kg of weight but is otherwise quite chipper.

She is however refusing to eat dog food of any description. So now I'm cooking for the dog 🐶 Rice, shredded chicken, carrots, green beans.....offered some to Mr M who thought dinnertime had cone early said it looked a bit bland. H Beagle woofed the lot.......Mr M still in the dog house!

I'm amused that these days every week of the first trimester of pregnancy is named by the size of fruit the embryo is. Last week DD2 was carrying a grape and this week it's a strawberry....next week is fig week......I guess it must help some people to visualise.

Tomorrow is de-Christmasisation so I bought daffodils to chert the room up. They are small......and non glittery. 😢