What are you all up to
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Finally got to see Dad this afternoon - appropriately on Father's Day!
Only 30 minutes outdoors (luckily in the dry) and at 3 metres distance so conversation was a bit hit and miss. But we were surprised to find how cheerful and positive he was about things - a testament I think to the carers and staff who have been working so hard to look after him and the other residents. He'd even had his hair cut - not a lot of it to cut, mind you, but it did make us a little envious. The dogs, of course, were the star attraction - I think he'd have been quite happy for us to drop them off and sit in the car ourselves!
It's a gradual return to normality - the residents are only allowed 1 visit per week and only 2 visitors at a time - we're hoping his grandsons will be able to go up next, though they're both back at work so it'll have to fit around when they're free.
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It’s an elite little club Goldie, I ended up in A&E last year with a mystery illness. Turned out to be as close to seasick as possible, on dry land, around 60 miles from nearest bit of salt water. Hey ho, I now travel with some magic pills......
Hope you recovered and still enjoyed your afternoon.
Great that you got to see your Dad M, and that he looks and sounds fine. We have done a weekly visit to Mum all through lockdown, helped by great weather. I miss taking her out and about though, doing a lot of the things we usually do together. I need to trim her hair as well. Little Sis is brilliant with food and a patient carer, but hairdressing isn’t her forte....😂
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Good that you (and the dogs) were able to see your Dad at last moulesy. How lovely that we was so cheerful and positive. It must have given you a lift.
Daughter and eldest son came to see OH today for Father's Day. They surprised us by coming together (although in separate cars - son more or less has to pass his sister's door on the way but not allowed to travel in the same car). It was the first time they had seen each other in person for months. We sat in the garden for an hour or so - such a treat. Youngest son rang from N. Ireland. So a good day.
We have a hair appointment in just over 2 weeks. Our hairdresser contacted us a couple of weeks ago to say she was taking appointments in the hopes that she will be able to get back to work from 4th July. I do hope the Government are going to allow it. I presume we will all have to wear masks.
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Our hairdresser has said everyone has to wear masks and no social chit chat, so it will be strange to say the least. Hope you get the appointment Millie, I haven't tried yet as I know they'll be busy.
Nice to hear that you saw your Dad Moulesy and the dogs visited too...taking dogs to residential homes is always a big hit with the residents (most of them enjoy seeing pets.)
Goldie, well at least you got out, hope you're ok now. I think this is the only time we'll be seeing uncrowded places for a while.
Our daughter, partner and visiting dog came here today, we sat out in the very blustery weather and visiting dog ran up and down the garden as usual with our little dog in pursuit, I hope they've tired themselves out!
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You might remember that picture of an old ship I posted about yesterday?
I've found it that is the remains of a 'concrete' tug Cretehawser built in 1919.
All British built concrete ships built between 1917 and 1920 were given names with the prefix Crete, hence Cretehawser.
On 15 March 1919, the Steam Tug Cretehawser was launched by the Wear Concrete Building Company Ltd, the first of an order for eight such tugs placed with the Sunderland shipyard by the Ministry of Shipping.
By 1935 she had reached the end of her commercial life and was sold to the South Stockton Shipping Company Ltd for scrap. The resulting hulk was bought by The River Wear Commissioners for use as an emergency breakwater and moored in the South Dock. In 1942 Cretehawser was holed during an air raid and towed up river and beached not far from where she was built
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Good to hear Fathers Day news and especially from Moulesy. Yet another lot of interlopers though.
Had a grand day. Obviously had to cook my own celebration meal. I'm not into material things so was hard pressed to comply with present picking but did succomb to purchase a new knife for the kitchen. Expensive too. Amazed to find it was made, not in China or Japan, but in Germany. Why, of why, did we run down and close our world beating Steel industry??
Not meant as a political point more as an anguish for a lost chance. 0 -
Happy memories of holidays as a child at North Berwick and swimming in the open air pool with the long chute and diving boards! They said it was heated but it was never that heated! Now used as a dinghy park and lobster farm unit as the swimming pool was relocated to the school as a public facility and it is heated! Dunbar had an open air pool but I never got to use it!
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Happy Birthday, WN, just be very careful with that knife!!
Glad to hear that you had a good weather to go and see your dad, M, and to hear that he's doing well.
Don't know about anyone else but we had a lot of rain through the night, which has not done a lot for some of our Sunflower plants. Hopefully they will right themselves in due course. It has been dry and sunny for most if the day although it did look like rain a couple of times.OH was able to get washing done and dried on the line, again. Plenty out walking this afternoon but all keeping well apart.
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They are usually chilly😂 I think I recall Ronnie Corbett being involved in trying to save NB pool? We love NB, a great little town, so interesting and some lovely independent shops. Tantallon Castle is superb.
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Talking of lidos, I found this great video of the refurbished old logo in Scarboroughs North Bay. It was a fantastic place, happy memories. There was a lido in South Bay as well.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bXNMitMzQIw
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I have just finished cleaning and oiling our back garden deck, it is fairly easy to clean and treat as we have the plain side of the boards up.
However, at the front we have a balcony 7.5 x 1.2 metres where the boards, contrary to our wishes, were laid ribbed side up and they really trap the dirt. Difficult to clean too as it is above our front steps and garage doors (and the caravan), so the dirt would go everywhere. We are considering whether it is possible to lift them and turn them smooth side up.
OH also thought of composite deck boards, easy to keep clean, but she has found that boards about 3.6 m long and 15cm wide will cost anywhere between £30 and £60 each. We would probably need 18 boards, so £540-£1080!!! 😮
I think I favour lifting and turning the existing ones. I would have to remove them anyway, so will see if I can do it without damaging them. We will still need a couple of new boards, and new screws, so about £40 if I am successful, £250 if not and we have to buy all new boards.
Could be a while if that is the case as there seems to be a widespread shortage of deck boards at the moment.
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KjellNN ours are ribbed side up. I didn’t know you could fit them the other way up. Unfortunately we can’t turn ours as some have rotted through in places (near the ends). So far we’ve researched boards that are 3.4 metres in length at £32. It will cost but look much better and less maintenance.
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Our son is going to lay a small amount of composite decking, at a previous house he did some in wood. The composite is virtually maintenance free and easy to clean.
Lidos...there is a really good one next to the Stonehaven site. 🐳
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re my mention of car sickness a few posts back - it wasn't always so.
In the 1990's I was the navigator in Historic Rallies. Eyes down following the book, no sickness!
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Goldie you must have had a strong stomach for that. We used to be involved in the rallying world and it was my job to make sure there was a bottle of water and a sick bag ready at the end of each stage for my sister (the navigator) to use. We could tell how the stage had gone, according to how white her face was, as the car came back into the pits!
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That is a good price, is it a local to you place, or on line delivery? And are they ribbed or smooth? Finding it difficult to get any prices from local places, most are either not open to go and take a look, or have no stock.
I would consider around £30 per board as they will be much easier to clean, my main problem is that the spacing of the support joists, and the overall length of the structure does not fit well with the board lengths that seem to be available, so I can foresee quite a bit of waste. OH has sent for some samples.
Ideally, we would like to lay them to give a solid surface instead of having spaces between them that the rain drips through onto us when we go in and out of the house, but I read that the composite ones need an expansion space, I need to do more research!
The boards on our balcony are only 13 years old, so still have plenty life left, no rot at all. Also need to consider, at our age, how much longer we will be living here, before we make a big investment!
OH was looking at the wooden boards and noticed that some have a completely ribbed side and the other side has grooves about 30mm apart, not totally smooth like ours, so something else to work round if we stick with wood.
When we had the back deck done some 20 years back, the people doing it asked which side we wanted up, and said that although the ribbed side was more non slip, it would be much easier to keep it clean if we had the smooth side up, and it would only be slippery if we did not keep it clean.......and they were correct.
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KjellNN we’re looking at a local place called Listers (I will try to show you a link). It’s meant to be easy to attach to existing joists and I think it’s ribbed.
Listers
Our decking is about 4.5m x 2.5m and looks really nice when it’s just been painted but each year it looks horrible until we clean and repaint.1 -
I think it was mind over matter. For a while I never ate the night before (until I gave in and had a curry like the rest of the crew).
I always took pills and one of those bands with marbles in them on my wrists. One night, on a local rally I remembered halfway round that I hadn't taken any pills. That was it. In the end we had to give up as I just couldn't go on.
But for the National Rallies I was either more resilient or determined.
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Respect indeed Goldie. I start to go over if I have to look at a map when we are out anywhere. If I am in a vehicle that wallows (Citroen notorious) I am boffing almost instantly. Funnily enough, we had an early Range Rover, but that was never a problem. I am fine driving though.....
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Well I've done the days carpentry, but would have received a right rollocking from my old w/work master Alf "Jasper" Pearce
'cos I used a rip-saw to cut the wood instead of the 'correct' cross~cut. But the wood still got cut to size any way .And despite having made the nice new level base for the Wotan slide viewer I wont be using that for a fair few days 'cos my nice brand shiney new T.E. Register is sitting by the key-board just waiting to be opened & data to be checked
. So If I should go missing for a while, just check on my steam coal stocks for me please 
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We went to walk my daughter's dogs this morning. Haven't seen my youngest grandson for thirteen weeks and my word how he's grown .
He's 14 in September and he must be well over 5 foot 9. It's a good job our seats at the football are on the back row of the stand, by the time we're allowed back in nobody will be able to see over him
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It is strange catching up with folks you haven’t seen for a while. Some are a lot hairier😂
OH has just fired our MH up......click.....brue brum, first time. Hasn’t rolled a wheel since Mid January, but we could be out for day this week😁Excited.
Had my first taste of the new “normal” today. We needed a few urgent items, only short queue for those, all well organised. Then got overtaken by the urge for a Greggs coffee and pasty. All well organised, except I could feel the impatience growing behind me, until finally the customer exploded...... “Bleeping Hell, how much bleeping longer” sandwich and a pack of doughnuts went flying, and off he stormed! My only comment was to hope his sandwich making course at home went well🤣🤣What a plonker. Confirms that it won’t be long though before folks get fed up. Lady behind counter said they had only been open three days and the abuse was unbelievable.
We thoroughly enjoyed our coffee and pasty though. We shut our eyes, and transported ourselves to Morrison’s car park overlooking Mick’s Mount in the sunshine😂😂😂
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Miserable wet damp day today
someone send some sun up here you have far to much of down south Of course its miserable the schools would have just broke up for summer holidays up here, I think its set in stone that it must rain on school holidays.
Been sat at the sewing machine again today, not sewing masks this time though.
OH been moving the curtain rail in our bedroom for me, I bought new curtains yesterday out of Dunelm and the rail was a bit to high for them.
I'd looked at the on line awhile ago before the shop opened up. Glad I did buy them then they were less than half price in the shop. In fact just about everything was reduced.
I bought a new sewing machine bag for Mum's machine, her casing had broken and you could no longer pick it up with the handle. It's a good machine (better than mine) so it was work the £12.50 (half price again) I need to sit down and get to grips with her machine though as its not been used in years and will need a good clean and service.
This afternoon we took the Kuga in to have its MOT done, then OH is putting it up for sale
Goodness knows how tall our grandchildren will be by now, haven't seen 2 of them since November and the other 2 since February. The eldest one will be 14 this November and she was not far off my height the last time I saw her (I'm not short
) I think they sleep in grow bags 2 -
We've been fortunate regarding our grandson, he's seventeen and as his parents are divorced (his dad lives with us at present ) , we have been allowed to drive to his home and bring him to ours . In the early days it was strange driving up the M20 and having it pretty much to ourselves.😀.
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Bean sprout Youngsters, sleeping in gro-bags ??
I quite understand what you lot are saying
As a youth / young adult I stood a good 5ft 11inches and got regular complaints about "Looming " over other regulars at the bar. Now, when I've shrunk but still clear 5ft 10 I seem to be a bloomin' dwarf, even the girls are at least at eye level ~~ Scarey
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grrrrr
!!
