Gardengirl

I’ve just pruned roses this afternoon, the first pruning to stop wind rock; I normally do the second pruning in early March, but Valentine’s day is a good aide-memoire.

Conservatives have held Wokingham since 1950, when the constituency came into being, and our MP from 1987 has been John Redwood. He has always been strongly in favour of leaving the EU and is a member of the ERG. Normally nobody could beat him, but there’s a small chance this time. Philip Lee left the Conservative party, for whom he was MP for Slough, and is standing for the Lib Dems. He’s also a GP. Wokingham voted to stay in the EU in the referendum and votes in a high number of Lib Dem councillors. I’ll be voting for the Lib Dems, I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed and hoping against hope that Philip Lee wins.

Our BA flight from Marseille to Heathrow tomorrow evening has been cancelled; I was told by BA when I phoned their helpline that it’s due to French air traffic controllers going on strike tomorrow. We’ve had a look at a few flights due in at Heathrow tomorrow evening around the same time as our flight was due to arrive from other places such as Spain, but all were shown as taking place. Odd. We’re now rebooked on the late morning flight on Wednesday, having decided to leave as planned tomorrow and we’ll stay at an airport hotel overnight, preferring not to make an early start tomorrow.

I mourn all three, but Jonathan Miller and Clive James lived with terrible illnesses at the end of long and superb careers. Gary Rhodes was a superb chef, who Ingreatly admired, and who has died at such a very young age - he was only 59. RIP to all three. I wasn’t aware of Gary Rhodes’ background, Mint, so thank you for that.

Paul, such a nice reminder of our group get-together on Coops’ Itchy Feet Tour. It was such a pleasant day, a lovely group meal and then some of us went on to delicious cakes and more chat at Rose and Grey Man's house. I used the search function recently and there Deb was, replying helpfully to someone’s post, I bless her when that happens, such an endlessly helpful, interesting and brave lady. This forum was the poorer when she died.

I read that it could take between 1 and 6 weeks for the DNA test results to be ready.

Corned beef legs? Unless it was the red, blotchy state legs got into by being too close to the fire if you possibly could get close, that is. Yes, the frozen milk up sticking up from the bottle! Delicious in winter, could be disgusting in the summer, when it was warm and sometimes went off. I was ink monitor from about age 6, had to spoon the ink powder out of the big ink powder tin into a jug and add water carefully, stirring gently until it was mixed properly. The ink then had to be carefully transferred from the jug into the ink can, which had a long, thin spout for pouring into the little hole in the top of the ink wells. It was a very tricky job as both the ink powder and the ink itself could make a big mess. It was a job only a couple of us were trusted with, brilliant being able to go into the warm school early out of the cold or wet, but it didn’t feel such a privilege in sunny summer weather.

Memories flood back reading some of these posts. The one fire, the clothes horse being round the fire for days on end so you couldn’t even see it for the washing. If you could get near the fire, only one side of you could be toasted at once.

Poorly was always the phrase in the NE, never ‘ill’ or anything else. It was used however seriously ill anybody was, right up to when ‘the sick note’ was out for them - meaning they were close to death. I can’t actually remember being poorly, apart from having my tonsils out in hospital, so don’t know about having to stay in bed when I was poorly. Our sons knew that they would have to stay in bed if poorly, until on the mend, so it wasn’t worth trying to swing a day at home playing like some of their friends got away with. Having said that, they mostly loved school. Most younger people in the Sunderland area of the NE used to go out in the evenings to dances etc in shirt sleeves/ dresses when I was a young adult and on returning from college. No thought ever of wearing anything warm, even in the depths of winter with snow on the ground. Maybe people were hardier then, no central heating, there would be ice on the inside of bedroom windows in winter, but very few seemed to get colds. Of course, those liberty bodices kept us cosy when young! Adults used to have a well-used comment ‘ it’s 2 top coats colder up there’ when visiting the south. I can remember my father saying that to people when visiting us in Berkshire or my brother’s family in Hampshire.

Just my thoughts, Sue; could I have changed anything, reacted differently, why am I alive and not her, she had her whole life ahead of her..............

5th December strikes?

We also only ever had chicken at Christmas. Much like others, playing outside all the time, no sprays etc, meals basic as mentioned, no allergies, but friends 2 doors down had TB, which meant that they disappeared to a sanatorium for quite some time. Our younger son, besides eating anything and everything on offer, even third helpings at cub camp, which they had never come across previously, was found several times eating rotting bits of carrot from our compost heap. He was never ill although he was well known at A&E as he was a daredevil. Thank goodness there were no concerns at that time about such injuries he had, although he had broken bones when away with cubs and on a school exchange in France, so it wasn’t only with the family.

Knees up

Head - ache

I wish I’d had prior warning that it was going to be hilarious - not nice giggling with a hurting back! Thank you very much for the link, Cajal.

Paper - toilet

What excellent news, Mint! ? We’re back in the Gard for another 3 weeks for various events, including a big Christmas lunch party on 1st - seems so very early! We’re also having a lot of rain, but at least we have transport this time, as my husband is allowed to drive again following another heart problem 6 months ago. My sleep isn’t great, mostly due to nerve damage from ops and although I take the appropriate tablets each night, sleep evades me quite a bit. However, I’ve been prescribed a great assortment of drugs today for a painful back - if I could bear to jump up I’d rattle loudly! Judith, sorry to read that your lovely birthday cruise was dampened.

A terrible tragedy. I’ve read that hunt dogs in the area are being tested for DNA as well as the woman’s dogs. But apparently it's thought locally that wolves might be in the forest.

WB said: ‘’In the meantime there have been nearly 10000 views of the copper pipe thread. So, now we know that everyone has been fiddling with their piping!’’ There’s a lot of antique copper pipe in that thread - it dates back to 2005!

Hoddy said: ‘’Richard you really have gone too far this time. The forum is not "Strange that it cant be policed better." as badly policed as you seem to think.’’ Well said, Hoddy; I was just catching up on this thread and was totally astonished to read that comment! You facilitate a light touch on this forum, which is very much appreciated, and most posters rub along together very well. It’s a pity that not all posters even try to get along with others. Posters don’t all hold the same view on every subject, how could we, but a bit of goodwill and give and take go a long way. Edited as I had forgotten that quoting when using my ipad causes gobbledegook.

+3. The OP and the 2 other posters forgot to add their ages. I’m over 21 (a few times over).

It’s good to be on the winning side for something today!

Lehaut, good point about a kindle or similar. I have a huge library on my ipad and enlarge the print when reading in the evening or when awake at night. The ipad isn’t as good as a kindle in sunshine, but at all other times I find it very good. I haven’t personally used the plastic enlarging sheets, as I haven’t had the need, coping fine with my ipad and better reading lights. Two people I know have found them very useful for reading books, magazines, newspapers etc. At the moment my cataracts aren’t very advanced, but my husband found reading a problem in the time leading up to his op; he used his ipad with enlarged print to be able to read.

WB might be too thick for a PhD - or not, but I credited him with enough sense to get his eyes checked out properly. I have found reading smallish print more difficult over the last few years, especially in the evenings and have bought new reading lamps to help - but have checks on my eyesight every year. It has remained fairly steady, requiring only very minor changes in my prescriptions, but my eyes need assistance such as I described.

Sorry to read that, WB. When my husband’s cousin developed that problem we bought various sizes of magnifying sheets, some from our local optician, some over the internet. When it turned out she had macular degeneration, we bought her a quite expensive headlamp used by cavers, so that light was directed precisely where it was needed.