What are you all up to
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ABM,
My fading brain cell! We drove to a Holiday Park in Dunoon and hired a log cabin affair [to enable me to meet Elaine's daughters on neutral ground...] and took the ferry back to Gourock for the return leg of the journey. I remember the quality of the 'Chippie' in Dunoon and my introduction to the 'Fish Supper'
. And the virtually continuous rain; small wonder everything is so green ...And my first Scottish joke: 'What do you call a mermaid who has no boyfriend?' 'A single fish ...' That may need translation for our English viewers ... Stanley Baxter 'Parliamo Glasgow' in that wonderful faux BBC2 Open University Voiceover! Further details can be found on YouTube under 'Parliamo Glasgow' where I've just watched the 'Marrra onna barra' sketch. Wonderful!
Steve
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Oh that's such a nice thought TG, I suppose I vaguely thought that substitutes would be of the type I might choose. Maybe we'll do better with our local farm shop as long as I can get an e mail off to them very early on Monday! 🥦🥕🍎
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Hot water bottles wherenext, and if you have an oven that heats up and a couple of housebricks, they make excellent bed warmers carefully wrapped in an old towel! Or boil in a big pan!
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Oh goodness WN I hope you get your heat and light back soon. Sounds like you need lots of blankets and hot water bottles. At least we have the fire in the living room which we are 'sharing' with our 2 cats. I dont think they know the meaning of sharing though 😁
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Brue I know where you're coming from.
Haven't done an online shop ever! Remember hearing of a substitute on the news quiz radio4 when they first began. Instead of tampax, other brands are available, the substitute was cocktail sticks. Must be 20 years or so ago, but it made an impact 😱😱😱. But I digress!
My neighbours and friends have been great at gathering the bits I need. I take up their offers so no one has lots to get to affect their shopping. "I'll have 4 pints of milk please." " what sort?" That's a fairly simple one but things I pick up without thinking have to be described. I think I mentioned asking for a cabbage and got a white one! Found a home for it on neighbourhood fb, someone who'd lost her job so did her a good turn. My shopping list would say green veg, now I have to what we don't eat 🤔 as I have no idea what the shop has in stock. Friend, a good one - there's a limit to whom you wish to share intimate details with 😉, is going to buy my a chocolate stash - easy browse the shelf and choose, what sort? Can't even visualise the shelf 😱😱. At least with online you can see the products? If were communicating by text I photo the packets. Recent shopper was off to M&S hard to mentally trawl the store item for item, mind you that shows it wasn't for essential items 😂
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Must be contagious we've had the heating engineer at mum's again today, the one she used for years so we left him the keys last week when the job turned out to be more complex than expected!
He needed to drain down etc and it was late in the day. Just as well we left it as when he did it last Saturday he found a blockage and needed another pair of hands. Returned today, blockage sorted, refilled the system fan needed on the boiler. Luckily my brother understands all this so they discussed and engineer sent video of it too, my brother so glad he didn't start it 😂. Going back next week when he has the part. Luckily heating's on low boiler maybe noisy but we won't hear and if it fails it turns itself off 😱.
We were hoping probate might be through soon and were aiming to put it on the market within a few weeks. Best laid plans of mice and men! Don't suppose probate high on HMG priority list - unless likely to be lucrative - ours won't, hopefully zero or I'll want to know why! Don't suppose there's much of a market at present either. Brother wondered if a builder might be interested as a project to keep his employees in a safe environment - who knows??? It will be a project but beautiful views front and back - I'll miss those 😢
Another gardening day, watering the beds definitely made it easier, worms again 😀. Really good progress, just half the large bed, lots of plants to avoid making it extra tricky, to go. Then I can think and see where to plant the 2 plants a friend dropped off on their walk recently, from her divisions. I'd didn't dare ask for a bit of the agapanthas she said she'd taken a saw to 😱 as she followed that by saying she didnt think it would survive the brutal treatment! I've also scattered mums home saved seeds, hollyhocks, cosmos and snap dragons over the newly turned soil. I have planted some sunflowers, another friend - plenty to feed the birds too, and mum's cosmos in pots so I can give them a bit more TLC. Then I've the bulbs I dug from mum's garden, some pheasant eye daffs were in the garden when she moved in 64 years ago! and my Christmas outdoor cyclamens, they have just finished flowering indoors - got them earlier than usual last year November to March, well spent tenner for 5 😀. They like my conservatory!! So can't start indoors yet yippee 😀
I think 2 of the 4 Rose's I bought from mum's appear to be ok - I fear they are not the 2 I really wanted to survive, typical, but I can only be certain once and if they flower.
Wherenext hope you have light and heat before you have to resort to anything too drastic
Milliehull will you have hot water and heating tomorrow? Much wiling down of surfaces 😱😱. Stay safe.
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What about a 'half loaf'?....but it might just be a Fife thing!
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Steve, don't know how long you've lived in Fife, but if you're on FB the Auld Fife and It's People group should be of interest to you. My nephew helps to run it......My father was a Fifer, from Leven.
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My OH is originally from Aberdeen, but grew up in Ayrshire, then Uni in Glasgow, where we met, .
After a year in Norway, we moved back to Ayrshire, then to Fife and Inverclyde, before ending up in posh Bearsden, so she has a pretty neutral Scottish accent, but can understand the accents and words from where we have lived.
it can be quite educational!
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Nellie,
We've been in Fife, on and off, since 2006, initially splitting our time between Glasgow and Burntisland until we were both retired. We then bought our hovel in France in late 2010 and have been flitting to and fro ever since. We planned initially to move to France permanently but there were too many complications, even before Brexit.
I have discontinued FB because of their policies and the tone of posts in some quarters. Scotland is very much our home now - braw!
Steve
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Bakers2, no not tomorrow, they are coming on Monday. I think it will be a 2 day job. So a few days of 'showers' with 2 buckets of water and a jug 🥺. I love your description of your gardening. How lovely to have some of your Mum's plants. They must bring you some lovely memories. We have really enjoyed watching Garden's World this evening. Just what we need at the moment.
I have a Tesco delivery coming on Monday (organiaed when we came back from.holiday 2 weeks ago) and I am now very nervous about what we might get 😱. Needs must though as with things getting worse we are not venturing any further than our house and garden
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On a slightly different tack, has anyone noticed that words and accents change over the years, get more universal?
I have not lived I Norway since 1970, and it seems things have changed a lot there, local dialects are dying out.
My oldest nephew came to Uni in Glasgow in 1985, he came to visit us and brought a Norwegian friend with him, who commented later on my way of talking.....apparently I was very old fashioned! He found it very amusing apparently.
Since then, it has of course got worse, even my sisters have changed how they talk!
OH learned to speak Norwegian, from my family, back in the 70s, so has an "antiquated" accent, much to the amusement of some relatives.
The influence of TV means the typical "Oslo accent", which we find quite amusing and odd, is taking over much of Norway, I do not think things have changed as much in U.K.
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Dyson designed a new state of the art ventilator in 10 days. At least 15,000 will be built in Wiltshire with 10,000 going straight to the NHS, and 4,000 expected to be sent to other countries in need.
So far the UK has already increased its ventilator capacity by more than 60%, from 5,000 to 8,175, with more coming in rapid time.Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s chemical company Ineos is building two hand sanitiser factories in days – producing a million bottles a month.
Scottish brewery BrewDog has started producing hand sanitiser at its distillery in Aberdeenshire. It is delivering ‘BrewGel’ sanitiser to hospitals. Other distilleries are doing the same.
Amazon is prepared to deliver a home ‘finger prick antibody test’ to millions of households if Public Health England’s trials this week are successful.
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Good to have some uplifting news OP.
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Just to add a note of caution (sorry!) Dyson's design has not yet got clinical approval. There is another consortium already producing ventilators which are approved, If dyson's design is approved it will of course be good news, but there are questions marks over the motivation behind his company's premature announcement!
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no half loaf was pretty much all over, Mum used to say "I don't want a half loaf I want a whole loaf" but do you want a 'Pan' or 'Plain' loaf or when asking for a bottle of lemonade you would get " what flavour do you want" 
lemonade flavour. Which of course in Glasgow is known as 'Ginger' 
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On a slightly different tack, has anyone noticed that words and accents change over the years, get more universal?
We think Perth accents are nothing like they used to be, there are a few of the oldies that are still quite strong but the rest are nothing like it used to be and the sayings have all but disappeared. We have quite a lot of families from Edinburgh living here now, property is much cheaper than in Edinburgh and the schools not so crowded.
We have noticed among the young though that a bit of the Fife accent is creeping in (but)
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There is a lot of stuff in speech, mainly spread by TV and radio IMO, that I find very annoying....every reply starting with "so"..........sentences interspersed with "you know" or "I mean"..........things being "3 times less" rather than one third...even the supposedly educated TV and radio pundits use these expressions......but then I am just a grumpy old man!
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'Going forward' gets my goat! What's wrong with 'In future', not least because now UK is marching steadfastly into recession, in about 5 months time, a Government Spokesperson will have to talk about the recovery plans.
So. [sorry Kjell!], will it be, 'Going forwards, going backwards as the recession bottoms out, but we're confident that, at this present moment in time [i.e. 'now'] we can be clear that we do not recognise the term contraction or recession per se, preferring not to talk about losses, but more about negative profits ...' etc, etc
Chuck in a modicum of 'Landing zone' [if we've any planes still flying], add last season's 'Blue Sky Thinking', season with vintage 'Pushing the envelope' [pre privatisation of Royal Mail, and possibly from 2 metres away from the letterbox], and the job's a good 'un. End of.
Steve
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When I first came to U.K. in 1963, to study at Glasgow Uni, I could understand English fine, but speaking English was much more difficult, I don't think I spoke much for at least 3 months!
My older brother came at the same time, we stayed in digs to start with, then his wife and children also came over so they got a flat near Uni. I stayed either in Halls or flat share, so mixed with the "natives" and soon picked up the accent, whereas my brother, and other Norwegians I knew kept their Norwegian accents when speaking English, which I find strange. Some of them, like me, are even married to Scottish girls, but still, even after 50 years sound foreign.
Until they heard my name, most when I was working thought I was Scottish, though quite a few were convinced I was from Shetland. Having been often to Shetland, working in the oil industry, I am really not sure how they came to that conclusion!
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Just had to remove a (fairly) large and very black spider from the bath for OH......she hates spiders, moths and daddy long legs...it was nothing compared to the one I found snoozing on my bit of oak in the garage.....and there was a slightly smaller one on our bedroom wall yesterday. Managed to remove it before OH noticed it!
We do not usually get bothered by spiders in Spring, it is mainly in Autumn, has something changed?
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IMO life is to short to worry about what words people use and most commentators spout drivel anyway
Another bright sunny day but with a bit of a wild northerly wind.so will have to wrap up if going into the garden. On the other hand I could easily be a couch potato. I saved the series by Michael Wood, 'The Story of China' which I think is worth watching, could be a plan for the day
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Early trip to Co op in village for essential items to avoid having to drive to Asda whilst also minimising contact with other folk. 1700+ steps towards the 10,000 minimum target so need less time wandering the streets a little later when more folk will be at large.
No need to queue to get into the store and more stock available [no leeks for the soup and no bananas for the porridge and no toilet rolls!] and all 'BOGOF' offers withdrawn. 1 item of each product per household per shop so my notion to get 1 wholemeal loaf each to avoid a second shop was ruled out. Fair enough, just means another visit to the store tomorrow which we were hoping to avoid.
Weather is brighter after yesterday's [and the day before] dreich grey windy offering with chilly temperatures under a meteorological 'BOGOF'. If it doesn't do its usual trick of 2 hours sun around breakfast then grey chill cloud for the rest of the day, we might venture forthinto the garden and begin the harvest of the semi jungle that masks some plants and shrubs in the murky depths. Nothing too enthusiastic since we have no method of disposing of the cuttings/trimmings etc and no idea when the recycling facilities and brown bin collections will resume. Possibly after the first bog roll sighting of Spring?
If it is, I'll look for the 'Lesser Spotted' variety ...Steve
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