🦞Lockdown friends still together🦞

Kaimoana if you’ve identified what is wrong and hats caused the flare up, is there anything you can take or do to help it clear up. I can’t believe you don’t have an appointment yet
Are you still knitting slippers? I’m glad Mepa is coming and you’re not being left to your own devices without Karen. Will she get your shopping for you?
Ixion that made me laugh. I can just picture you doing that routine. No wonder you’re good as a cheer leader.
Grammaretto hope you’ve had a good and enjoyable trip . Safe journey home.
* I’ve had a very busy and enjoyable few days recently. No particularly reason for me to be so miserable and sad today it I have been. Life is not the same without my dear man*
Hope all have a good week

It was a jolly song by Guy Mitchell and pish tush to this ridiculous idea of "cultural (mis)appropriation".
As usual the big mouth critics have missed the point (as they do when they Baa Baa black sheep about racism)
.
CA, is when you take an icon, sacred or otherwise and use it in a demeaning way, often for financial gain.
It's that which ethnic groups object to, not a white woman like me singing Maori waiata or you ixion quoting a 1952 song (written by US composer Bob Merrill) about a Hawaiian dancer.
It’s laughable when you think the Hawaiian people are still fighting to get the US out of their country (now largely owned by the Mafia).

I am a little more upbeat but as yet there is no real improvement but I shall persevere with my cultural appropriations of Maori rongoa as it seems all conventional medicine can offer is fierce drugs and with my history, it'll be frying pan to fire.

I'm gradually getting over the shock of the sudden onset but whatever has happened in my long and eventful life, nothing has ever been able to subdue my spirit for long, I’m far too stuborn, so it was a temporaryknock-back only.

My dear Mepa, filling in for Karen, took me shopping for vegiesd, milk, more wool and the anti-slip backing I sew onto the soles of the slippers.

She fossicked about in the huge box of finished slippers and scarves and has taken some for herself, husband and 80 year old auntie.

Hello ladies,
Arrived home late last night after a trip to a dear friend in Norfolk. Her home is just so beautiful in the spring. It's an old timber-framed house in a big garden (2 acres plus) with a wooded area and a little pond with great crested newts. At the moment it's full of primula- like a carpet in spite of the muntjac deer

We went to celebrate and raise a glass to her most amazing husband who died during covid - Saturday was his birthday

They were fortunate to have lived in this beautiful timeless oasis for many years restoring it and modernising (just enough) to make it a lovely but simple home - from a ruin.
The work was all done with their own hands so though now bereaved, my friend has her husband "hand" in every corner of her home from the timber and brick floors downstairs to the carvings on the stairs, on the cupboards and doorways and right up to the decorative chimneys.

As we left, at the bott

...at the bottom of the meadow area we spotted her newest arrival a pair of Chinese water deer with their odd little tusky faces. I think one was quite heavily pregnant as she was as fat at a barrel! I had no idea they gave birth to up to seven young! ...

Just beyond was a pair of boxing hares. How beautiful they are!

And I've found you again... I'm not sure what happened but when I tapped 'I'm on'...I wasn't and you were all nowhere to be seen. Panic set it and an emergency message to Kaimoana for help was sent.....Have I've been banished to a far flung lobster pot for not attending class I wondered.... Could I even remember what our heading was...Nope. Finally after trawling through lots of sections ( some of the medical headlines are truly scary aren't they?) I found you all again. The relief is overwhelming...you are such a lovely group of ......feel free to place an appropriate word in the space. Luckily I just reread what I'd written and the 'feel' had changed to. 'eels'. Oops.

I've lost an hour and a half trying to find you all so now need to get dressed.... I'll be back...I promise.

Good afternoon....

Just back from my 8 weekly chemical therapy at the hospital and Mr M is soothing my feathers!

They were very busy today and I had to share my bay with a lovely Sikh lady. We were enjoying an intermittent gentle chat when they ushered in an elderly gentleman who leaned towards me and asked whether I minded having treatment next to an "illegal" and if I didn't like it I should complain 😳 Trust me I did - directly to him....and with my complete armoury of Irish and English bonne mots to boot. I hope he learned a lesson - but I expect not.

I'm a school governor and we have a board meeting tonight so I'm off to calm down have a nap so that I can concentrate on the budgets tonight. Mr M seems glad that I'm going out....

Hello Lobstars 🦞 🦂
The winner of the fancy dress at the ceilidh on Saturday night was a Lobster!
The theme was sea creatures. I think
🤔

The weekend was fantastic. The best ever
I'm so glad we potters were not welcome back at the last venue for our Spring gathering I don't know what we did wrong but we weren't allowed to book so the Isle of Cumbrae was a real last minute find

It helped that the weather was dry and sunny

Lovely to see you and darling Spud again Mamissimo
I hope the chemo sessions aren't too gruelling

Well done putting the awful man in his place
My DD had to do battle with a swearing drunk on a train at the weekend She told him she would report him for his behaviour in front of her DC
Another passenger thanked her
That's my girl!

Kaimoana you are the most amazing lady. You just keep bouncing back. I do hope your skin heals soon though.
Fossicked , not a word I’ve heard before but I think I understand the meaning 🤣
Glad you got your shopping done anyway.
Notspaghetti what a lovely picture you paint of your friends garden. It sounds beautiful. Must be nice for her to be surrounded by so many memories of her Dh.
oh deer and hares, sounds idyllic
Naughtyneine I think we’re still appearing under the coronavirus heading which was when the thread started. Lovely to have you back with us. Looking forward to hearing your news
Mamissimo what a dreadful man I’m glad you put him straight. Hope your school meeting goes well otherwise you’ll have to unleash some more home truths.
Grammaretto it wasn’t you dressed up was it 🤣
so pleased you had a good time and the weather was good. Did you go out much? Did you make anything while you were there? Do any of the others live near you?
Ive had a busy day on the phone to HMRC listening to their very long voice messages. If your call is about this, visit our website, if your call is about that visit our website and so on and so on. Finally they say in exasperation if you do want to talk to someone you’ll have to wait and our current waiting time is 20 minutes. 😡.
DS1 comes back from holiday tonight. I’m hoping I can pop round and see him tomorrow.

Hope you got to your Governors' meeting OK, Mamissimo, and that treatment is as kindly as can be. 🌷

I'm pleased you seem to have secured a most scenic location for your pottery meet, Grammaretto. Are others of the same opinion for a regroup there next year?

Doodle I hope that you have been able to meet up with your DS and hear about his holiday.

Kaimoana, pleased that Mepa is getting you out and about for essentials and a change of scenery!

I have found, usefully, Doodle that if you take too long in keying in information via the keypad, or if you mess it up enter it incorrectly, you are put through directly to a human being.
Incompetence can pay off!

PS Neine.
If trying to find us, just scroll everywhere for the 🦞 logo in the opening title.
Eye catching, --that's us-- 😉

late afternoon all
Im going out tonight to our sons for a meal so will be too tired to post when I get back. Been to sit fit this morning and had a friend round this afternoon. Keeping busy as best I can.
Hope everyone is doing ok especially you Kaimoana and you Cherry
Take care all

NN should have no trouble finding us, ixion I gave step by step instructions when she messaged me.

I hope you don't lose us again Naughtyneine

Have a lovely meal out with DS Doodle glad you keep busy

It was when the AA personal dept spoke to me recently about my overpayment and were gently
offering condolences for my sad loss
*that I realised for the first time that I
am in a different place than where I was 4 years ago*. You never get over it
but you do get used to it. 😞

How are you doing Kaimoana? Is the skin any better?

I was at the Dentist today and luckily there was nothing amiss. She congratulated me on that and said it helped that I wasn't a smoker (true) or a drinker (not exactly true)

I was at Gaelic tonight. We had to draw maps of imaginary places showing our invented place names using the genitive case. The teacher took a photo of my map!
I do believe I'm better at maps than I am at Gaelic!😅🤣😆

Sewing class tomorrow. You see I keep busy too Doodle

My lodger is leaving at the weekend 😢 I am sad about that She has been the perfect lodger but with the uncertainty of my move, she had to find somewhere else and now she has.

Night night Lobstars 🌙

Phew... For a short while I thought Domestic Goddess had made a very unexpected appearance when I found myself on my hand and knees removing fluff from along the edge of the carpet and skirting board....she seemed intent on hanging around long enough to use the magic tool thing (that removes fluff/dog hair from surfaces) on the stairs leading to our bedroom.

Having shifted 2 small kitten sized balls of multi coloured dog hair and hoovered them up and then continued to hoover our bedroom and first floor landing I began to panic that she might be in for the long haul and I'd end up doing something called 'bottoming ' a room. I saw a thread on GN once that mentioned bottoming and actually had to ask what they were talking about.

Needless to say it did not become part of my everyday language or action🤣 and I'm happy to report that having frightened Slutty Housewife enough...Domestic Goddess departed and Slutty Housewife was last seen in the greenhouse talking to a packet of sweet pea seeds. What a relief.

Kaimoana2

NN should have no trouble finding us, ixion I gave step by step instructions when she messaged me.

Apologies, Kaimoana, for any unnecessary duplication.

Evening all. Strange day for me today. 58 years ago Dh and I went on our first date in a bar/restauran about an hours drive from where we lived. It is now 5 minutes down the road from our flat.
My dear friend has been with me all day today. First church, then we went to the hospice so I could spend some quiet time by the lake on my own having a chat with Dh. The. We went to visit his tree in the park and finally we sat in the same Bar/restaurant with a glass of wine each while I reminisced about past times. The day has not been without tears but not as many as yesterday
Its our elder sons birthday today too. I had a lovely meal with him and his wife last night,
Glad you had a clean bill of health at the dentist Grammaretto
Yes I see you are busy too. It is good for us I think meeting up with others and keeping occupied. Sorry your lodger is leaving I know you got on well. Have you decided anything about what you’re doing house wise?
Naughtyneine I have a magic tool thing inappropriately called a sonic scrubber.(like and electric toothbrush but bigger) It has several brush attachements one of which is small pointed brush that I use for getting the fluff and dust out from the edges of the carpet and skirting board just as you describe.
I am always amazed at the amount of carpet fluff that gets extracted
I expect a conversation with Sweetpeas is more interesting than one with bored beans
Ixion, Kaimoana, Cherry . Love and hugs to all

*Evening all. Lonely little Petunia here. Hope you’re all ok
Been a lovely sunny day today. Going to the walking group tomorrow. Xx*

Hasn't it been gorgeous weather! Doodle
I managed to sit in the sun to have my lunch.
I had disappointing news. My planning application has been refused 😒
I don't know if I will appeal

The planners allow 450 houses on farmers' fields in the Green Belt but my little building is deemed unsuitable
One of the objections is that a tree will have to be felled. I planted that tree
Another that the entrance is dangerous. We've been using that entrance for 45 years!

Ah well. There are bigger problems in the world

I visited my df again today. She is weaker but still wonderful company
Tonight I've been ceilidh dancing

I hope you enjoy your walk tomorrow Doodle

Belated greetings to our Petunia and friends.
58 years? That's a long, long time🌷. Pleased you had a good family evening out.

I am so sorry, Grammaretto, that your PP has been turned down. Was it purely the design (and tree) which upset them, or the fact that you didn't fall within the 450 home provision? If the entrance is such an issue, will your potential buyer be able to convert to a music school with plenty of comings and goings with a change of use?
I do hope this plan A can be resolved for you, and swiftly too.
🌷here as well.

We are awaiting the collection of our old settees, not so much old as d*mn uncomfortable. It was at the stage where I would need to take 2 ibuprofen in advance before settling down for the evening.
This is a carefully crafted plan to ensure, 🤞🤞🤞, that today's exits happen before tomorrow's arrivals. I envisage some hiccup or the other which leaves us with 3 old and 3 new settees all jostling for space in the same room.
Mr.I is faffing around with my tape measure, doing something or the other helpful. He seems not to appreciate that if a set of furniture originally fitted through doorways and turns on arrival, they will leave in very much the same fashion.

Barney went for his annual injections and once-over.
He has gained over half his original body weight again since his arrival last year.
We got a stiff but kindly talking to, and Barney is now on very limited treats and reduced meals. A regime his Mum might do well to follow.

You make me laugh ixion. The best tonic!
I was halfway through writing a message when the music man arrived with a couple of his friends.

The new house and old don't share an entrance . The old house has a big wide driveway and parking for about 20 cars
The new house may not have a car space at all as I want to get used to not having a car

Apparently once a tree grows to a certain height and has a certain girth it automatically gets a TPO on it!

I had a chat to the architect today. He's as keen as ever to keep going, even no extra charge

So I may do that
I have to get a topography and arboricultural report

I hope your furniture goes and comes easily
I have those joys to come!

Actually, Grammaretto, for once our local council has come up trumps with shining colours.

Always a worry that charity shops with furniture collections will turn you down on the day for one reason or another and leave you 🤷‍♀️, (They're very picky, said our sales lady, when questioned about removal).
The council here offer a 'bulk collection', £47 for up to three items. The beauty is, they have teamed up with a local homeless charity who come and collect your items regardless of condition, no questions asked. 😉.
If they're good enough and safe enough, they will put them to good use. If not, they do the dumping themselves.
Win win.

Pleased your architect will plough on with resubmission, tho' it makes the wait interminable.

I've found a book charity who will take anything and everything but I've yet to sort out the things I will miss.

*Another auctioneer is coming on
Tuesday*. *I've been going round sticking post-it notes on everything I
want to go*. I was quite ruthless Well quite *

Grammaretto bad news about the planning permission- but good that the architect can work with it.

There's always a worry with large items of furniture it seems Ixion, but I think it's silly to worry about getting things out (unless they came in through a window)!
Some things are built for a particular room though. My friend built a beautiful limed oak bedding box in their bedroom! It's lovely but will never come out. The doors are very narrow and low and the chest is enormous!

We have brought another couple of hundred books back from my mother-in-law's garage... 😟 I wish it was easy deciding what to do with them. They have been there since he retired... We have deliberately not replaced the open shelving either side of the fireplace after a dining-room make-over a few years ago and have relentlessly been thinning the collection since then
These came from my husband's study at the university (where we had taken loads of "maybe" books 25 years ago when we moved here)...
🤐