The Lockdown Gang still chatting

Hi All. Well we are packed ready for our somewhat windy and damp week on the Norfolk Broads!!! Well it will be a change of scene and sure Charlie the heron will keep us amused! Good food - not cooked by us - meeting up with friends one day - several drinks in the pub - a good book - watching the boats - a few drinks in the pub - whats not to like? Ooops forgot - a few drinks in the pub 🤣🤣

Doodle are your calcium tablets big round ones that you chew? Ad Cal? I was put on those at least 10 years ago when I slipped on ice and badly broke my wrist. Since then Ive broken my leg and the other wrist so I reckon Ad Cal are a waste of time. Stupidly I saw my GP today and forgot to mention it! Must remember next time!

Jan the stiffness is a bit difficult to cope with isn’t it. I don’t get anything like electric shocks just numb and tingly. The only time it’s really comfy is when I got to bed and wear the splint. After a while my hand gets warm and because im not moving it goes to sleep (it has a life of its own I think🤣)
Hope you have a good time at the Broads and the weather is better than you think. Hope to hear more tales of Charlie.
Not collected my prescription yet but I’m expecting Calcichew plus vit D. Was on them years ago. Don’t know if that’s the same as yours but doesn’t sound as though they’ve helped.
Have a good time at the pub watching the boats 🍷
Grammaretto sorry the funeral was sad. I’m going to one next week too. My cousins husband. He was 90 and hadn’t really been ill so a good long life.
So instead of a support for your garden climber you are going to have a barn for cows, lovely 🤣. Can we all visit for a barn dance. Where does this one come from? Is she due soon?
Kaimoana sounds like a lovely day. Nice picture of you, you look happy and enjoying yourself,
Of course I did wonder why they sent you home with haggis ( dyslexia strikes again)
You have been really busy recently. Wonderful how much you’ve achieved.
I think your publishers have behaved badly so I’m pleased they apologised.
Do hope you get to see your family. That will be the icing on the cake of a good day today. 😊

How are you Doodle and how is the dude?
Great that you are off again to the broads Jan it sounds fun.
.I am a little tipsy tonight. I met my badminton df at an Indian restaurant where you can bring your own bottle.
We put the world to rights.

She really wants to go to Wimbledon next year so I told her I would find how to get tickets. I was boasting it was the wine talking
Come on Jeeves, bring us a night cap.

These are our drinks. Cheers.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202307/medium-783841-waimatariki.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202307/medium-836682-matariki-stage.jpg

Wishing you good weather Jan

I got my icing Doodle . DS arrived alone at 11am and stayed until 4pm - the other family members had things to do. No matter, it gave me and my lovely boy a chance to gossip and, like Grammaretto but without the booze put the world to rights.

I'd made a couple of small Quiches; one to eat and another to take home for tea. I put out salad too but I was the only one to eat it, DS preferred the savoury muffins. I don't blame him, it's not salad weather: cold, windy and wet.

We were so lucky that the Matariki Festival had a rare dry, sunny day and evening.

It occurs to me you may not regard salmon and prawns as gourmet food. I really meant pricey.

3.5oz of salmon costs £10 and the jumbo prawns are roughly £39 for just under 2lb (40 prawns = £1 each).
Ours were fancied up, served singly on Chinese spoons.

All the kaumatua are, like me, on pensions, so Waipareira are treating us to something special they know we could not normally afford. .

The dogs come again tomorrow but I shall be taking things easy and mostly knitting.

Grammaretto I find funerals coming up more often than I'd like as well. I suppose that's to be expected when you surge past 70.

Just yesterday we lost one person from our kaumatua group and heard another is terminal.

My Dil's father is in hospital with pneumonia, as is her 90 year old grandfather in Australia. He's refusing all treatment. I guess at 90 you've had enough of poking and prodding.

Have a good weekend everyone

Grammaretto we are ok thanks. Been to see community heart failure nurses today. Not a lot to report. I think DH was expecting more info but they can’t really say anything until he’s seen the Consultant. Been raining all day so not done much else.
Ooh I love being a bit tipsy. Such a nice mellow feeling. 😊
Kaimoana I know how much you love spending time with your son so a good few hours chat will have made you happy I’m sure.
I know salmon is pricey but as I don’t eat fish have no idea how much you’d pay in the Uk.
A nice treat to have the dogs with you tomorrow. I expect they will be very happy to see you. Hmmm hope they don’t try and help you with your knitting. 🤔
Sorry about your friends and your DILs father. My funeral next week is for my cousins husband who was 90.
Sleep well lobstars 😴

Good morning Lobstars!
Or goodnight as the case may be.
The last day of DCuz visit and mine before I leave for Skye.
I have eaten so much food this week. It was like being on a cruise with you Doodle
Last night's was Italian/Scots and very yummy. We even succumbed to pavlova and fudge cake.
I gave 4 dresses to Oxfam as I'll never fit into them wear them again.
I had a surprise visit from a NZ girl who had been a helper here years ago. She's in her 40s now and is very mature and responsible. She hopes to see me in January when I'll be in Wellington.
DS sent photos of the Matariki celebrations and news that DGS poem is included in an anthology.


I guess next week will be like school dinners at the college.

Here is the reflection on the water at the Matariki in Wellington

Hello lobStars

Just popping in briefly - a lot of things like life have been put on the backburner in the last few days. I just wanted to say I hope you all are having a decent weekend 😁

CherryCezzy Hope you’re ok. Take care

Grammaretto your meal sounds lovely. Pavlova is one of my favourites.
Is it tomorrow you are off to Skye then. Hope you have a lovely time. Don’t forget to take some photos.
That looks like quite a celebration. Well done your DGS on his poem.
School dinners ……Hope you get jam Rolly poly and custard…..maybe spotted dick. 😲
Cherry sounds like you’ve got a few problems. Much love and hugs. Hope things are ok soon. xx

Hello Cherry nice to see you popping in Look after yourself.

Oh Doodle I know it's not funny but that expression. "community heart failure'"made me smile.

Grammaretto that's a lovely photo; I sent you a video. A much more spiritual approach to Matariki than our crass celebrations here.

A quiet day for me. Knitting and listening to audio books all day. No cooking as the hangi is enough.

Wonder if wee Spud has arrived yet?

The Matariki celebrations are becoming more respectful, I hear. The fireworks have stopped.

I'm waiting for a train in Fort William. It's wet and dreich. The cafes are packed with holidaymakers and me.. I just chatted to a Danish couple who were looking for mountains and a change of scenery.
They were about to give up and go to Edinburgh. They couldn't see the mountains.

Is spud due about now? How exciting.

I arrived! It was a marathon of a journey but worked, just. I had to run for the ferry because the train was late. Luckily several others were running too!.
Had supper, had a social and am now in bed.
I managed to watch the last minutes of the men's final, at the ferry terminal whilst waiting for a taxi.

Please send Jeeves over with some hot chocolate. There's only those little sachets of tea and coffee here .

Hope all Lobstars gave had a happy Sunday.

Run for the ferry Grammaretto 😱. You’re much fitter than me. Can’t remember the last time I even walked quickly for anything.
Glad you’ve arrived safely. Hope there are some nice people to socialise with. The weather doesn’t look too good. Hope it improves. What’s the plan for tomorrow?
Sending Jeeves with some hot chocolate and a little tonic 🥃
Kaimoana after all the work you’ve been doing recently for the fundraising, I bet some knitting and a good book is well deserved. Are you still knitting slippers?
Cherry hope you’ve had a better day.
DHs new chair is coming tomorrow. Just as well as his back is bad so hoping it will be more comfortable for him.

I do hope that new chai gives your DH some comfort Doodle. Please tell him we are thinking about him and wish him much ease and better health. He's had a very challenging time over the last year or so but valiantly went cruising, bless him.

Grammaretto I read this:
"I managed to watch the last minutes of the men's final, at the ferry terminal whilst waiting for a taxi."

And wasn't sure if they were the lasat people to be running for the ferry!

We expect emails in the Gaelic you know

I hope the chair is a help for DH, Doodle.
He has had a difficult time of it recently.
Did I say I ran for the ferry? I lied. It was more of a huffing walk with people offering to take my case they must have thought I was about to collapse

I met one of the teachers on the course who says they'll find me a level of Gaelic I feel comfortable with. it's there such a thing?
There's a Frenchman here who has been coming every year for 20 years.
A woman who's possibly German and adds a new language every year
I discovered all this at the wine and cheese reception.
I can't sleep. The room is too hot!

Sorry Kaimoana I don't think I can write in Gaelic yet. Thanks for the video

Hopefully Cherry has been having a better day.

Hello everyone, and apologies for not yet catching up with all the postings...things just seem overwhelming at times, don't they? I promise that very soon, I shall be totally au fait with all your doings.
I have been really struggling with the cardiac issues that the cardiologist believes to be COVID related. My garden was totally disgraceful, and I just couldn't look at it without my fingers itching...Mr J was becoming pretty cross when he found me outside with a spade and a wheelbarrow. But the rain! the rain and yet more precipitation. Midwinter temperatures in the high 'teens, and rain direct from the tropics have meant mud, flood and crud (as in rot). I dug hundreds of kilos of kumara when MrJ wasn't looking...they are selling in the supermarket for $13 a kg!!!! Not mine- I give them away to the needy, but the price rises are totally unprecedented,
Yesterday, I drove down to see my lovely cousin whose DH just died...so. so sad - they were such great mates. Her DH was lying in state in the sitting room ...something I'm not really used to, I have to say, though for my whanau it's customary and vital for healing. Just a three-hour round trip has knocked me out for today, annoyingly, with a heart rate in the mid-low 30s, I'm good for nought.. I'd hoped to go to Adelaide for my DD's 40th, but just can't do it at the moment.
Being confined to a chair has its benefits, however - I'm still working on family stuff and have discovered 2 interesting details:
1) I'm related to Karl Marx, well, his wife, anyway.
2) I have a Cornish ancestor named Sampson Trevethan _ what a name!

Morning All

I'm sorry, I should have opened GN before but somehow time has got very elastic and some things seem months away and others which I know was the next day is only yesterday. Does that make sense at all?!

It's happened. Ten or is it eleven days ago. "After' has happened and I'm a widow. It's all very surreal still. Last Friday I had an appointment with the undertaker to arrange everything - and then walked into the living room to tell him when the cremation would be.

Things have got more into perspective since I took myself off last week in the new little camperbubble for two days at Kessingland. Sitting on the shingle watching the sea put life back into perspective. But the days have flown by, friends have continued to be wonderful and keep me chatting. He doesn't want a funeral or wake or any fuss which makes life so much easier. I don't know how I'd cope with the emotional stress. We both decided some time ago that we wanted to slip away quietly. But, I am going to have a gathering here. (Two actually as the house isn't big.). For me, the family and our friends. There is a need. He didn't want it, so it's not a wake or memorial or celebration. So it's a family reunion and a bbq to say thank you to close friends.

Now I have the death certificate, I'm now off to try to sort out pensions and then off to the bank. At least we were able, with advance warning, to get his 'affairs in order'. And he's left me a list!

NfkD
😥♥️
What to say. I am so very sorry it has happened.
I wish you strength to face the future and indeed the next days.
Xxxxx

Nfk. To one Norfolk dumpling to another. I’m sooo sorry and know exactly how you are feeling as I lost my beloved first husband almost 20 years ago. I’ve been thinking of you lots and wondering how you were. We are in Horning at the moment and I’m still struggling with this b….y stroke.
I can only say how sorry I am but how your DH fought that horrible illness.
Sending love and hugs xx

Sending love and hugs to Nfk x

Thinking of you, NfK, as I read your sad news.
I'm so very sorry🌻

Nfk I’m so sorry for your loss. We’ve all been thinking of you and wondering how you were.
Your trip in the camper bubble sounds as though it helped sort out some things in your mind. Glad you’ve got friends to be with when you want to.
The idea of a couple of gatherings at home sounds a good and comforting way to meet with those to whom you are closest.
Much love coming your way in my thoughts and my prayers to have the strength to get through this time. So, so sorry. 💕xx