Today I've mostly bin...

[LAT]

Fingers crossed all will be well.

[chazzie]

Hope this lets you relax (de-stress) a bit over the next couple of days...as LAT says fingers crossed things work out

[Bunnylump]

Just got back from having had a meal out with some girl friends. Couldn't quite believe it, when the waitress came over she said
"I'm very sorry, but there are rather a lot of things off the menu."

She wasn't kidding.
No fish and chips.
No sea bass.
No mixed mezze.
No duck salad.
No haddock.
And wait for it...
No chips. Yes, folks, you heard me right. They had "run out of" chips. I did try asking why they couldn't cut some potatoes up, but apparently that was beyond the capabilities of the chef.

So, we picked our food from the few remaining dishes available and then looked at the wine list. We decided on a bottle of red wine.

"Sorry, we don't have any red wine." This being a pub.

Flipping heck.

[LAT]

I don't suppose you'll be rushing back!

[Bunnylump]

Errr...no.

[chazzie]

"Sorry, we don't have any red wine." This being a pub.

Flipping heck.

They must have had some party over the weekend!

[Bunnylump]

It must, indeed!

[Bunnylump]

...Getting the piper alarm folk ringing me to say that the lady next door's piper alarm had gone off but they couldn't hear her. So with much trepidation, we went round, to find her stuck on the stair lift half way down the stairs. We couldn't get the flipping thing working again so D had to give her a fireman's lift back down the stairs. That wasn't as easy as it sounds because she's quite tall and big boned, so weighs quite a lot for an old lady. So for once I was glad he didn't have much work and was here to do that. The funny part was that she was a little disappointed that we hadn't had to fetch the fire brigade. She had rather fancied some nice burly firemen rescuing her...

Anyway, the engineer came within a couple of hours, and it's one of those intermittent faults. Great. It must be really worrying having to rely on things like that.

[Bunnylump]

...Making an entirely red dinner. Just because I could.

[gill216]

Inspired by your red dinner..............

I just made a rainbow dinner . tomatoes. Mandarin segments, yellow peppers, lettuce, blueberries (cheated! ) beetroot And mayo with a bit of food colouring. Filled the semi circle with chicken strips and the young ones devoured it!

[gill216]

Re your elderly neighbour. I've kind of adopted my elderly neighbours at the caravan. It frightens me how little help they get at home or away. They are quite independent but really need daily help. He is 78 and cant drive anymore. She isn't much younger. He was a chef but his hands shake now so he cant cook either and he's done the cooking for most of their lives. He's used to good food and she is a basic " feed the children cook".

They cant get to the shops on legs so were paying for taxis. I take them shopping twice a week now. While they are there they have either a breakfast or a lunch. I'd love to offer to cook a main meal for them on a daily basis but right now I think its a step of interference too far. She also insists on buying me flowers chocolates drinks etc and that isn't what I want them to do.
Yesterday they got marooned in town. She tried to ring me. Something is up with their mobile. They can receive phone calls but can't ring out. Bit like the problem I had a while ago and guess what? Their phone is Virgin.

Whats worse is that their daughter is a community carer. By necessity she works all the hours sent her way - but cant look after her own mum and step dad. Simply because she hasn't time because of her necessity to work all hours.

Frightening.

[giraffe]

My MIL is nearly due for release from hospital after two weeks. They seem to have decided that she basically isn't looking after herself, so instead of her private carer going in once a day,nhs will pay for carer to go in 3times a day for first 6weeks and physio 3times a week. She has three children, but we are 225miles away and her daughter lives in France which just leaves BIL and his wife. They do so much for her, but SIL doesn't drive so they are limited in what they can do alongside working and looking after their children. MIL hasn't told anyone that she isn't cooking proper meals, so now they are going to arrange for someone like meals on wheels to take her meals. Very difficult when old age takes over.

[LAT]

Indeed. Old age is no fun. My aunt has carers going in three times a day now. She is 94 and apparently was considered the sickly one as a child but has outlived her brother and sister by several years!

I liked the sound of your rainbow meal Gill.

[Bunnylump]

I seem to have started an epidemic of scary dinners!!

Old age isn't much fun, really, is it?

[Bunnylump]

I was quite shocked today. Was in Tesco local in the queue, and there was a strange looking man (who was wearing a woolly hat) making a really big fuss about using the self checkout (how do I weigh bananas etc.) Then he said, out loud "Oh, one penny too few" as he was about to pay. Next thing I know he's just walked out of the shop with all his shopping without paying. The cashier shouted to him that he had to pay, but he just strolled right out of the shop. I just couldn't believe the brazenness of it all! He walked right past a police car that was parked in the car park outside.

I said to the cashier "Aren't you going to get someone to go after him?" and she said that she was too short staffed. So I ran outside, thinking I would just go and find the policemen to deal with it. The man met two burly looking friends on the grass opposite and was as casual as you like, standing there chatting still carrying the stolen groceries. Unfortunately I couldn't locate the policemen, and didn't fancy tackling the three men on my own. But I just couldn't believe how he got away with it!

[eirian]

...getting ready to drive back home, leaving Thomas with his Grandparents and Uncle Scurra for a week. In a week's time, I'll come back down (with Daddy this time) for another week in Devon. Will be interesting to see how much energy grandad has left, not to mention what sort of lego structures have been built! (Me & Scurra have already been rebuilding the castle & spacestation we had as kids - t'internet is really useful for things like old lego instructions from 1978..)

[Bunnylump]

That sounds lots of fun!

Hope Grandma and Grandad have lots of fun too!

[Bunnylump]

...Up to London (well, OK, down.) We had to drive up to collect a load of stuff from idiot child #2, who has suddenly realised that he needs to have moved all his stuff out of his flat while we are in Scotland. Anyway, after a HIDEOUS journey (is there ever any other kind when going in or out of London, I wonder? ) we eventually got there. After shifting all the stuff, we went and bought a picnic and walked to Victoria Park to eat it, which was sunny and pleasant. On our way back we stopped briefly in the Museum of Childhood, which looked absolutely brilliant. We couldn't stay long (Dibble had some experiment he needed to get back to) but saw some wonderfully nostalgic things (they had the same Betta Builder that I had, plus the same Jack-in -the-Box, same Tressy Doll, and some similar string puppets.) If it wasn't for the fact that it is in hateful London, I think it would definitely deserve a longer visit!!

[Wulfruna]

We are having a great time! Thomas is such fun and is brilliant at entertaining himself quite a lot of the time. The Lego is a great success - although it took quite a long time sorting through all the bricks that had been just piled together in a big box for well over thirty years! However, we had not anticipated Eirean and Scurra reverting to childhood and spending a whole evening re-building their respective structures......
Uncle Scurra has been a great help in playing with Thomas, so will be missed when he returns home today. No doubt Grandma and Grandad will notice the difference! I can assure Mummy and Daddy that he is fine and doesn't seem to be missing you at all - sorry!

[LAT]

...On our way back we stopped briefly in the Museum of Childhood, which looked absolutely brilliant. We couldn't stay long (Dibble had some experiment he needed to get back to) but saw some wonderfully nostalgic things (they had the same Betta Builder that I had, plus the same Jack-in -the-Box, same Tressy Doll, and some similar string puppets.) If it wasn't for the fact that it is in hateful London, I think it would definitely deserve a longer visit!!

I seem to remember that I tried to organise a meet with a visit here but got outvoted and we went to the Museum of London instead.