The Lockdown Gang still chatting

Good morning Lobstars.

Hope it doesn't rain on your parade Cherry

Good send off for your dear Mil Grammareto as well as a successful garden party. Was that a fundraiser? When I read about the camera, I was going to suggest it was still worth asking the police - then saw you did what a relief. There are still honest people around.

Had the usual great time with DGS.
We discussed different things, such as "if we had no concept of the supernatural/spirits in our culture, how would we describe what people now say are ghosts and such phenomena?"

Like his classmates, he's into old-school music. 'Gramlyn, have you ever heard of Rudi Valli?'

I was very tempted to ask if that was a place where we made rude noises.

He made shortbread, I made brownies and oaty flapjacks, most of which went home with him on Monday evening.

Today I went to the Kaumatua coffee group and, as they are fundraising for outings, agreed to do baking for a stall we are having during Matariki (Maori New Year) which now has its own official public holiday. July 14th. don't mention the Bastille


They have received donations of all the ingredients, all I have to do is the hard work

Mamissimo what news?

You're well on your way, or even on board, now I hope you didn't leave anything you need behind Doodle. I hope you and your DH have a fabulous cruise ☺️

No, that's the thing Grammaretto, I don't think any run of the mill garden in the Gower, like ours is, is tropical. The plant in our garden is a species that grows in the South African rain forest, so I've been told. I did see a tv programme about a year ago now though where an ecologist was saying that the UK is becoming increasingly suitable for growing tropical plants and that many species are already thriving here.

ixion, what ? Only 67,000 calories a month 🤣 Don't you know that some elite athletes need 6000 calories a day ... I've got my walk tomorrow 😹

Ah, so you've been to Norway before then Jan. Do you prefer to go to Nordic countries when you go abroad then? I hope you do manage to go next year.

It's been cooler here today but curiously I'm melting this evening 🥴. Rain is forecast for my walkie talkie tomorrow but most of the forecasts have been wrong here and I'm hoping it does. Is that odd of me?
My WP said earlier today that when I go on my walk tomorrow he's going to go to a well known diy store B&Q to buy some fence panels with holes in 🤨. Turns out he meant square trellises 😅.

I hope you're okay Kaimoana and had a lovely weekend with your DGS .

Grammaretto love the quotes from DMiL!! Pleased all went well. ixion no it’s all very quiet tonight. Doodle is on the high seas and everyone else seems to have gone to sleep!

So pleased that today went as well as possible Grammaretto.
What a marvellous support team your menfolk provided!

Handing in the camera- how absolutely marvellous. I hope you can unwind a little now but totally understand why you are tired.

Very quiet from the southern hemisphere🤔.
Hope all is well (have I missed anything?)

We will miss you mucho Doodle
Haste ye back!

I really hope it's as good as the best of the cruises

The funeral went well. As funerals go it was one of the best!

DS, DGS and DSiL were pall bearers along with both DBiL and nephew who had flown in from Finland.

My job, ceremonial with several others, was to lower her coffin into the grave.
In the morning we'd had a hive of industry here making up the flowers from my garden and from hers and another group in the kitchen icing cakes and making cheese straws
It was fresh after all that rain and then was just the right kind of weather to spill into DBiL garden...the only downside was I couldn't drink alcohol for I was chauffeur to and from the station..

We were recalling some of DMiL amusing/barbed remarks.

"A, you are the most intelligent of my cousins - now that B is dead"

*C had an accent like yours but went to elocution classes and has lost it. Had you ever thought of doing that?"

The sad part was parting and wondering when so many of her friends and relatives would ever meet again.

Ooh and someone handed in DD's camera to the police station and DSiL raced back down to collect it

I am tired now. Df is cooking us something. We can't live on cake.

Doodle have a great time and enjoy a really relaxing time with no cooking etc. Bit jealous but maybe we will manage Norway again next year. Miss you but as ixion says we’ll cope! xx

Enjoy - we'll cope🥴 ...

Well we’ll be off soon. Glad it’s a bit cooler. Wi fi connection will be hit and Miss but I’ll be in touch when I can. Take care all, I’ll be thinking of you x

Grammaretto glad your party went well. Looks very nice with the gazebos set up.
Sorry I didn’t realise the funeral was Monday. Hope it goes as well as these things can and it is a good celebration of your DMILs life.
I’ve missed something else, or my mind has forgotten. I didn’t realise your son has broken his foot. That must be so difficult and painful for him.
Glad you’ve got the company of your gf for a bit longer. Sorr about your DDs camera. That is upsetting.
Have fun with your DGC
Cherry bondage table mats…..not sure they would be quite the thing 🤣
Yes packing done…..I hope 🤔
We had rain today too. Been much fresher tonight.

Wow! Cherry a tropical plant in your garden. Is your garden tropical?
We have had a hot sticky day ending in thunderstorms
The wee DGC are here overnight. I hope they are not woken by the storm and torrential raín.

Poor DD who is also here left her camera in a public’ toilets by mistake. She went back 15 minutes later but it was gone. She is upset because it's her career too. A photographer not a frequenter of public toilets.

Sorry Grammaretto, I did, at first, think when you said you were making a cake from your DMiL's recipe book (the Simnel cake) that it was for her funeral. Then when you were talking about the garden party on Friday that you'd made a sunken lemon cake and finished the Simnel cake I thought I'd got it wrong and it was for the garden party.
I'm not surprised that there was a lot of prep' involved for the garden party, as well as a lot of tidying up afterwards, from the picture you have at least three gazebos. You went to a lot of effort to make it nice and I'm really pleased that it went well ☺️. As to the very good food, did everyone bring a different dish/ contribution?
I'm sure your dGf doesn't mind vacating his room to make way for your DS, it's certainly no fun trying to hobble up stairs with a broken foot. It was good of you to get him a pair of shoes for your DMiL's funeral tomorrow, much more appropriate than the trainers. I hope everything goes smoothly tomorrow and your DMiL gets the good send off she deserves. I'm sending you a big cwtch x

Have you done all your packing for the cruise Doodle?
Binding for six table mats you say 🤔 Do they need tying up then 🤣

I was thinking of doing a rain dance earlier today though I don't know what that involves. Then .. it rained! Yippee 🤔 ... no not quite, it wet the ground but not much more 🙁. I'm surprised that the plants haven't given up are still growing, but they are. We have a tropical plant in our garden, don't ask me what it is -we acquired it from my niece1, it's positively thriving and is putting out a flower for the first time. I can't wait until it opens. Isn't nature wonderful 😁

I'm sure your hand repair is perfect Cherry .
I'm wide awake in the middle of the night again.
The garden party went well yesterday (Saturday) but there was a lot of preparation and even more clearing up. The food was very good.

The Simnel cake is for tomorrow's (Monday's) funeral.
While df was out climbing I bought him some black shoes from the charity shop so he can also come. We didn't think white trainers were suitable. He will stay a few more days but tonight he will vacate his ground floor room to make way for ds with his broken foot.

If mixing up days is an attempt to confuse me Doodle it is working well.
Here is the garden before the guests arrived..

Oh Cherry I think it would be a good idea. I had it firmly in my mind today was Friday not Saturday. Oh course the party will be tomorrow, Sunday 🤣. I blame the heat.
Well done with the sewing. Please will you now finish sewing the binding on the six table mats I made before I broke my wrist.
Jeeves iced tea for Cherry and an ice pack for me please.

I think I should have previewed my message, or do I need an OPAL test 😉

I'm a bit concerned *Doodle^ 🤔^Is it tomorrow or Sunday ^ . Should we get someone to carry out an OPAL test on you 🤣
Sorry that you're melting, it's horrible when it's that muggy heat isn't it 🥵 It hasn't been as hot here today so it's the first day this week when I haven't melted, still hasn't rained though 😕. Your cruise is to Norway then?

How did your garden party go Grammaretto, I hope it was a great success Grammaretto. Did everyone enjoy the simnel cake?

😱 Today I've been doing some sewing. Not my forte! I've been repairing a summer skirt that I couldn't be bothering to repair at the end of last summer which got torn last year when I fell whilst having a seizure. I didn't want to get the sewing machine out -- it's up in the loft-- so I had to stitch it by hand. It's was a lovely skirt so I had to give it a go. It looks okay a five year old would have done a better job 😁
Some iced tea for me tonight please Jeeves.

I’m melting 🫠 my hair looks like a frizzy mop and I haven’t the energy for anything. Roll on Bergen……it always rains there 🤣
Grammaretto glad your German friend enjoyed himself. Will he be staying with you for a while longer.
So much to do for you. Hope tomorrow is a big success and the weather stays fine. (Is it tomorrow or Sunday?)

Well done our Cherry! I think you've more than caught up and have smashed the OPAL test.
I think I now know what everyone is doing thanks to you.

There was no singalong on the bus I'm sorry to say.😕
German df came back from his conference on the romantic poets which seems to have been enjoyable and he made some new friends.
Tomorrow he will help to set up for the garden party by putting up the gazebos and moving tables and chairs I have put 40 glasses in the dishwasher, made a sunken lemon cake and finished the Simnel cake.
I think i can go to bed now.

Grammaretto your trip to Glasgow sounds fun. Nice time with your family too. Lunch, play, more lunch, play….sounds like my kind of day 😊
I would fail any dementia test. Hopeless with dates and my memory is awful. Only comfort is I’ve always been like this.
Someone said to me it’s not dementia if you forget where something is only if you forget what it’s for. I’ll hang onto that thought.
ixion that’s classic 🤣🤣. Wonderful. I’m wiggling my fingers as instructed. Do you have to wiggle your toes?
Cherry I wasn’t trying to give your WP any ideas. Nude gardening isn’t for the faint hearted…….especially if you’ve got brambles 😱
I certainly think you’ve passed the test. A very good summary.
Now, what was the dates of the Second World War and how do you spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious ….backwards? 🤣

What a busy lot you are, I'm playing catch-up 🙃
Who's who, what's where ? Will I pass the OPAL test 🤯 ...

Grammaretto's dGf has arrived and has a conference. Its going well, it is isn't it? The skip has gone in readiness for the garden party. Have the gazebos and furniture arrived? She's been on a coach trip to Glasgow. I'm glad you thoroughly enjoyed it Grammaretto. Did you have a sing-a-long, the wheels or the bus or stop the driver maybe 😁. Last but not least her Highland family made a short visit. It sounded quite lovely, nothing pleasanter than eating and playing on a Summer's day 😊

Doodle is busy trying not to fling food in the air and at other people . It's surprisingly difficult and frustrating chasing food around the plate and cutting it isn't it. I honestly can't remember now how I managed to do it when my hand was bandaged up like a boxing glove, if I did I might or might not have been able to give you some tips. She's been told that it will take a year for her wrist to heal and she'll never recover full movement. I was told I'd more than likely lose full use of two of my fingers Doodle, they're not quite as nimble/dextrous as they were it's true but I've adapted to the point that it doesn't pose me any noticeable problems. It might take you a year to heal, my hand did the first time I burnt it, but you will adapt to any limitation ^if you end up having any. Oh, and she thinks my WP is gardening in the nude not really 😱 🤣.

Jan has enjoyed her holiday in Norfolk and is going back there in a month's time. I'm so glad that you enjoyed it Jan. I know that only a few weeks back you were getting cold feet about going away and look at you now, you are positively adventurous! I'm really pleased about that ☺️

Kaimoana thinks she's getting past it because she can only manage to make simple things like lime cheesecake 😋 now. You, past it Kaimoana? Hardly! Anyway didn't anyone ever tell you that the simplest things are often the best 😁. She's given up on a publisher because they haven't got back to her. Their loss! I hope your story does end up in the anthology 🤞. Her broken toe, which she hasn't mentioned since she first told us about it typical behaviour from a stuff and nonsense lady is improving. I'm glad to hear it. Last but definitely not least her DGS is coming to stay. I hope you both enjoy your lovely long weekend together ☺️

ixion had been to A&E and was greeted by the OPAL team 🙀. They were reassured by her competence though. I'm glad you didn't have concussion, don't have head injuries (apart from bruising) and aren't going ga ga ixion. She did have an x-ray which showed her little tootsies are broken though 🙁. You won't be trialling for our footie team any time soon then 😉

I think I've caught up, though I'm not entirely sure 🤔 Have I have passed the OPAL test?

😂.
That's the trouble with these memory checks for the OPAL brigade. (You did note Grammaretto that I was not routinely seen by one of their team, didn't you😉). I have no problem remembering dates in the dim and distant, but ask me what I did last week ....

Classic from my elderly mother, having fallen and suffering a #NOF. Due an X-Ray housed in temporary accommodation way off.
Young porter: Hello. I've come to take you to the other side
Mother: I'm NOT ready for that yet, young man, thank you very much.

Hello Lobstars,

My Highland family have just been on a flying visit. Lunch, play, more lunch, more play. No pottery this time and now they're away for the weekend camping.
The coach trip to Glasgow was brilliant. I feel the perks of being in the OPAL age group.
Though I branched off on my own to eat my sandwiches. i wasn't going to wait an hour for a mediocre, expensive lunch in the restaurant
The gallery itself is looking lovely. I went round with a guide. William Burrell was very rich and loved collecting beautiful and unusual things.

Your experience with the OPAL team Ixion reminded me of when DH was in hospital and the poor fellow in the next bed was being asked these questions to establish how demented he was
Spell LEMON backwards. He struggled. Then "What are the dates of the 2nd word war?" Backwards? Came the anxious response.

Kaimoana glad to hear Karen can use her hand now. I’m sure the lime cake was delicious. I love lime flavour.
Might have been me with the broken toe. Broke mine at school when I was 15. If it rained I had to go to school with a plastic bag over my foot
I would read that as accepted too.
I thought it was this weekend your grandson was coming sounds like you might be having fun telling ghost stories. How nice he can talk over his interests with you.
'Grammaretto glad you have some enjoyable company. Hope your friend’s conference is going well.
How did the trip to Glasgow go? Did you buy anything or just sightseeing? You weren’t singing the wheels on the bus were you?
Jan so pleased you enjoyed your trip so much you are planning another.
Yes it may be dangerous for anyone at a nearby table. I just hope DH and I can eat on our own so I don’t spear anyone else 😊
ixion OPAL! Now I’ve heard it all. Oh yes I’ve heard those questions when I went in with my broken wrist. They also asked about the bruises on my arm whilst casting doubting glances towards DH. Poor man was totally oblivious to their line of questioning until I told him after. I had to remind them it was the nurse fighting to get some blood out of me that caused the bruises.
How funny, there was a man in handcuffs in the waiting room with me too. Glad you’ve escaped with just a couple of broken toes. I think that requires complete rest with foot elevated. A constant supply of chocolates. Strictly no housework and take away meals. 😊
Hope you manage to track down your parcel. I wonder where it’s going next 🤔.
Sleep well. I’m sending Jeeves over with some grapes 🍷 🍷 🤣

Evening all.
A day whiled away in the local A and E, where I was dealt with by extremely friendly and competent nurse practitioners which was probably for the best as the place was bring run by Consultants. Greeted by one who pronounced herself as part of the OPAL team. Suggestion here - if you don't need to know, don't ask ... OPAL? Old people's Assessment and Liaison 😱
I was all for a smartish sprint to the door at this point, but she explained that in extremis they were all having to mix and match their skills to cover the service. Usually she dealt with hips, falls emanating from the frail and/or confused. Was I really (just) 72? I looked much younger. Yeah, right.
Did I know what year we were in ✔️, where I was ✔️, and could I recite the months of the year backwards ✔️
But I did find the need to enquire about my bowel habits a tad disconcerting.

Having passed the quiz with full marks, I proceeded to X-ray (2 baby toes only broken but no action) and CT pour la tête.
Was then directed to sit and sit in the cheap seats as I shouldn't have been sent to the lounge-y waiting area cos I wasn't ill 🤷‍♀️
There I spent a relaxing hour, sunlit room, muted conversation interrupted only by the chink (can one say that these days?) of handcuffs from a pair of prisoners, each with 3 minders. A chance meet-up, clearly, but they all seemed to know each. All very civilised, nay genteel, even.
Finally got my discharge papers, nothing damaged just bruising. 🥳🥳🥳

Tomorrow's project is to investigate the doings of Aus(tralia) Post and to why my tracked parcel reached Brisbane in record time (its destination), only to learn that it was on its next journey to Melbourne and is now in some town which appears to be in the middle of nowhere in rural Victoria where there is no resemblance to the labelled address. It reminds me of that scene in 'the spoof 'Airplane' film (not terribly high brow, I'm afraid) where the plane is landed broadside on to the arrivals hall and all the waiting crowds run pell mell from one gate to another in an attempt to keep up with the errant plane.

For those who haven't 😴-ed off yet, I shall sign off🥳, wishing everyone a pleasant and trouble/pain free evening.

A bientôt and many thanks for your earlier concern.
Bet you wished you hadn't asked 😂

Grammaretto Hope you’ve had a great day in Glasgow and all sang loudly on the bus!
Think I’m a bit better but it’s such slow progress. We did enjoy our holiday so much so that we are going back there in a month! It was really just driving from different Broads to watch the boats interspersed with coffee and pubs! We did use the wheelchair at all as I just staggered with my stick walking as if I was 110!
Doodle Know what you mean about eating. I can’t hold a fork either and if I do manage to spear a piece of food it’s as likely to go up my nose as in my mouth! When we go out to eat I usually choose something that I can eat with a fork in my right hand. Does reduce the choices though! Good luck on the cruise!!

Hello Lobstars,

I would say the publisher likes your story Kaimoana whether it will appear in print though - who knows. I am sceptical by nature so rarely get excited in advance because I'm afraid of failure?

We breakfasted together, my German df and I. His conference is going well. The hardest part was yesterday as he was organising it..

Your description of your dinner table antics had me in stitches Doodle .
😅🤣 It's so very true. I think df was a bit shocked to see me without my teeth. He was finding it hard to understand me and his English is better than mine 😕
I need subtitles.

Anyhow I am going to Glasgow today. I wonder if there will be a sing song on the coach.

Ixion Have you discovered the extent of your injuries yet?
Jan are you any better? Your holiday must have been such a tonic
I hope the Doodles enjoy the cruise.
I also hope Cherry is ok and the Nfks

See you later!