What are you all up to
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The strange thing is when your away and the TV reception is poor you suddenly miss it! We did stay in one place where there was no reception for anything, tv,radio, phone etc. we relied on a few dvds as otherwise the silence was deafening...
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I miss a wifi connection more than a TV signal. Some of knitting patterns I use are online, and if I forget to download😱 I have to make it up, and it doesn’t always work out🤣
Clumber is going to be interesting. A well known local black hole. It might send OH out looking for a booster cable. Only so we can see what is happening on race day……
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Thanks Brue. We had a really wonderful week - I can recommend it for anyone who is interested.... The beaches are wonderful - lots of history too.... It's a long drive though!!
Just 5 random photos: Sunrise on the ferry; Callenish Stones; Black Houses at Carloway, Harris Gin tour!!; beach at Ness.
David
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Oh how I would love to have fibre to the house Brue. We're still dependent on the copper wire.
DK The only time we ever took a TV away with us was when we went to Europe. Not for UK tele but to help with language, so we used to watch French news broadcasts because newsreaders are better speakers than most. As our language skills improved we started to watch some drama series. especially anything that had subtitles albeit in French or German or Spanish.
Never took it away with us in the UK and got rid of the caravan one many years ago.
We're like Oneputt, radio, music and conversation. Sometimes, and quite often, silence, a silence that seems somehow more blissful than any noise.
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We always took a tv away with us. And we have two in the static van, one in the bedroom, which is mostly just used by our family. If we are about in the day OH likes to watch Bargain Hunt. I watch the soaps if we are in, if I miss them it doesn’t matter. We also like documentary’s. I tend to read a lot, OH likes to keep up with the news and his football online. Conversation throughout the day but, unless we have friends over, then not so much in the evening - well we have been married over 50 years😁
Just general house tiding and a bit of gardening today. Visiting dog restricts us going out but to be honest we try not go far normally during the Bank Holidays, unless the family visit. One more week and the ‘silly season’ will be over here and us locals can venture out again, then the golden oldies will arrive. Dog has been very unwell and we are trying to bring her slowly back to her old self, lots of patience and calm, it has been a very worrying and trying week. Two more days and her family are due home from abroad, thank goodness.
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I suppose our situation was a bit different from many because before retirement we used to work at the same place, so we travelled to and from work together, often saw each other during the day. At least we had a good understanding of each others gossip
The trouble is when you are in the confined space of a caravan/motorhome you may want to do different things. Margaret likes her soaps and I like to use my laptop. Margaret also likes to read but her eyes get very tired which tends to limit reading a bit. She seems to being fast tracked for a Cataract operation, although she is not looking forward to it! We are awaiting the appointment. I suppose everyone will tailor the way they spend their time away to suit their own needs but I don't for us, I don't think that would exclude the TV! I also find it annoying not getting a good TV signal but apart from buying a satellite dish I am not sure I can solve that?
David
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David, I quite understand how Margaret feels with the strain of reading with cataracts !
Had both mine done in the same year but about three ( 3 ) months apart ~~ it was utter bliss to be back driving again !! There were different surgeons so slightly different procedures ~~ No talking allowed since the head would move so the first surgeon had his nurse there to hold my hand {
} and If I needed to cough or whatever I just gave her hand a squeeze and she did the talking -- typical female ! Have to say I never felt a thing till the day after first op when I went back to the clinic at Leighton Hospital. They were using a spare office alongside the maternity unit but all went well until I was asked why I had not used the second bottle of eye-drops, I explained I tried but nothing came out, Honest Doctor Sir. He looked at the bottle and growled, because the patient name label was placed over the instruction to Screw down tightly to pierce the little spout first 
. Thereafter all went well until I went for a regular trip into Spec Savers when I needed new glasses of much lower power and higher price ! Aaaaaargh, twas ever thus -- no gain without pain !!
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Well folks in or around Tarrant Hinton really should steer clear of the GDSF site 'cos the show's over and some severe heavy haulage traffic as well as the majority of campers n caravanners will be thinking of supper and a long bath at home so there's your warning !!
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and i thought we were unique, never watch tv in the van, we did have one many years ago to watch the royal wedding, but took it down the re-cycling last week, by the time we have had evening meal, given the dog his bedtime walk we are exhausted, so off to bed read and listen to music, we have a competition as to who snores first .
off to Devon tomorrow for 1 months, 1 site, 1 pitch, done this for probably 4 years now, return home 30th Sept, then 20th Oct we are off to Spain for Christmas & New year
it is a SKI holiday, (spend the Kids Inheritance) 0 -
We spent ten years working in the same office space but with lots of visitors, we had an awful lot of conversations along the way so as long as I've got something else to do, reading, sewing, internet, I know OH prefers to "chill out" with the TV. Hope Margaret's op comes up soon, I have a similar problem but no op needed just yet.
Hav a good time Rufs, we're off for a short Devon break soon.
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We have had a pleasant bank holiday weekend. We haven't been anywhere much as we tend not to at bank holidays. We had a nice Sunday roast yesterday at local son and DIL's. We haven't had a roast dinner for a couple of months as it has been too hot. It was good to catch up with them all after their holiday. Today we have spent doing some gardening as everything seems to be growing again, especially the weeds so it needed a good tidy. OH got the mower out and gave the grass a quick trim and also 'swept' up the leaves with it. It is looking very autumnal out there as our Rowan tree is losing it's leaves quite quickly now.
David do tell Margaret that there is nothing to fear about the cataract op. I had both of mine done last year about 2 months apart. It was very straight forward, quick and painless. It was so good to be able to drive and also read again. I had been using a kindle for about 2 years before my ops as I could enlarge the print and it had a back light but I do prefer a proper book. Also everything is so much brighter now. I had no idea how 'foggy' my vision had become. It is a wonderful op.
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We haven't taken our TV in the van for the last 3 times out and doubt we will take it next time either. I spend my time on Kindle, reading, on-line and listening to music on Spotify, while OH uses hers to watch films and series on Netflix etc. We link to our mifi/dongle or use the WIfi provided by the site we are on. At home there is very little that we now watch on TV, the news mainly and the occasional series such as Shetland and Vera, although there is a new Val McDermid series coming that we may watch together, a rare occurrence these days.
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MillieH, You have mentioned the one thing I omitted
, the first op took place in Summer and the first thing I did after the eye-check the day after was to get into town ( ASDA actually ) popped into the opticians and bought a pair of Wraparound sun glasses COST A FORTUNE !! but they are a bit good at doing what was needed !! Some Vivienne Westwood Woman sold 'em .1 -
Well I must confess that we do watch TV, at home and in the van. I also record programmes at home that we don't have time to watch and take them away with us. If we can't get a signal we watch the pre recorded ones or Dvds. We have lots of material to watch, not always live TV.
We like programmes like Shetland (isn't it popular) also nature programmes and some documentaries. Can't stand reality TV. Love things like the Olympics, Common wealth games etc. definitely no football ever. Rugby yes, cricket no, golf occasionally, tennis occasionally.
We have Freeview at home over 200 channels, no need for Sky but we do also have Freesat in the attic room.
We also read, use our tablets and phones, rarely if ever watch Utube or catchup TV.
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ABM, I forgot to mention the sunglasses. An absolute must for the first few weeks after the op. I looked like Stevie Wonder for a while!
We watched The Earth Prom on BBC2 last night. Marvellous music and wildlife footage. We are really enjoying BBC Proms this year. The NYO orchestra playing Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue was brilliant as well. We do watch TV in the evenings - mostly documentaries, wildlife programmes, history prorammes but never soaps. OH likes the news and some sport. We used to take a TV away with us in the van in the UK but never abroad - too much hassle and we never found we needed or wanted it.
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Geez Mills-Stevie Wonder. . .what kinda OP did you have?🫣😵💫😂
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I watch more tv than OH he usually on his iPad and has different forums he looks at Birmingham one from where he came from and usually a few techie forums some tv he will watch but generally very little as he does not do dramas or soaps nor do I much, my choice is usually wildlife and some of the older comedy programmes plus a few other and the news sometime, we do not have Netflix although a friend does watch all the time we do not get any iPlayer or other catch up due to being in France, I like watching Andre Rieu when I remember to watch and have recorded Earth prom to watch and will record last night of the Proms as we are away as I have it on a bit louder than normal. The tv will be in the caravan when we are away although taking Dvds with us and will take some Cds as a good sound system in the van we do not do much radio although we can get it through the tv the French radio takes some getting used to as some music ok some awful a bit the same with French tv awful quiz programmes and the same with their dramas.
OH has music on his phone so will take head phones with us.
Well my car has had it service yesterday all ok and just had its CT (MOT) all ok so that is it for another two years hooray, so did a bit of shopping whilst it was being done today a nice local Spar shop bought a few things that were not on list.
The other bit of news is that we do not have to pay the tv license anymore and now free for everybody in France so a saving of 138.00 euros a year hooray.
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🤣🤣
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That's my concern brue.
We are off to France and Spain in a few weeks and they are desperate for rain, it worries me that when it does come it could cause much flooding. I don't usually look on the black side but it has got me worried.
That's us back from 3 nts at Loch Ness Shores. What a lovely relaxing site and location, once you've got over the approach road drive. ☺️
Lots of MHs coming and going daily, folk out on the Loch on paddle boards and canoes, all seemed to be having a good time.
Bit of a drive if you want to go anywhere is the only downside of this site. We had great weather until this morning when we could barely see the mountains around the Loch. Cleared up after a few hours but you can feel the change in the weather.
Rain on and off all the way back, not heavy and not enough to refill the lochs and rivers. We don't have any shortage of water here but then we've not had the heat the rest of the country have had.
Won't be long before the heating will be needed, I know my elderly neighbour already has hers on.
All electric here unless you have oil or an LPG tank like us. Thankfully we got a fill up 800+ ltrs before it went up 14p a ltr. That will do us until after Christmas with us going away until early December.
Goodness knows how some will manage, old houses many with nothing but a coal fire and there are some still with single glazing.
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We aren’t too worried about flooding TG but just rain as we are heading up to Western Scotland for much of September, just as the weather changes from dry to wet and unsettled. Oh well, let’s hope it’s not wet every day!!! We are looking forward to getting away, due to family commitments and dog sitting our last trip was in early June, unusual for us to have so long at home in summer. Fingers crossed for you on your trip to France and Spain I hope all goes well for you, you will be warmer than us anyway!
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We have been home since mid July, so looking forward to heading off again, for our last trip of the year, in 3-4 weeks........if we finally get something booked! We have booked a few days near North Berwick, but still have 14 nights to fill before we end up at Elie in Fife for 4 nights, after which DD and family will take over the van.
Meantime, I am still finishing door hanging at DD's house, and bathroom floor laying here, plus having an extremely frustrating time with the tenants in DD's flat in the West End.
She has owned this flat since she was a student, stayed there for almost 10 years and rented it out now for the last 9 years, present tenants have been there for 7 years, an Italian family with 2 (now) teenagers. The parents' command of English is poor, and they are very bad at reporting any problems in a timely manner, and when they do, they expect things to be fixed immediately.......or even faster. And agreeing an appointment to do anything takes ages as they do not reply promptly, plus they expect everyone else to fit in with their agenda.
The other week they reported seeing a mouse, which apparently freaked them out. DD gave them the contact details for the council, who will attend even private homes free, but, getting no call back within 24 hours, they called out a private company, without any discussion with DD, which charged them £220 for goodness knows what, and then they demanded DD pay for it.
Then they spent £165 at B&Q on mousetraps, and materials to glue over even the smallest of gaps, which they also expected DD to pay for. And then informed her that they had recently paid an undisclosed sum to have the flat redecorated, again without any discussion or permission, and now wanted her to re-imburse them.
And finally they sent her a photo showing that the integrated fridge/freezer had somehow fallen through the bottom of the cupboard it was housed in, and intimated that it was not working very well!
I was sent off down there to get to the bottom of the mystery, and see if things could be fixed. Apparently, the FF had been "sinking" for a few months, but they had said nothing, just disconnected the cupboard doors so the FF doors could be closed, until the thing finally crashed to the floor, crushing the plinth and ripping the base and shelf out of the housing unit. Meantime, with no cupboard doors attached, meaning no handles, they have damaged the door seals while opening and closing the doors.
Looks like the screw fixings holding the cupboard together had started giving way and bending, allowing the base to eventually fall down, taking the FF and shelf above with it. I managed to repair the unit and get the FF back in place, but next they claimed it does not work properly, so a third visit today.
Seems they have not defrosted the freezer in ages, claimed they did not know it needs to be defrosted occasionally, and the water drain in the fridge is gunged up, so they are to defrost it and see how it goes. I may need to make a fourth visit to take the appliance out again and see if the water drain can be cleaned. And it may be that DD will have to buy a new FF in the end.
No doubt getting that delivered, installed, and the old one removed would be another huge problem to them.
Before all this came up, DD had already decided to sell the flat as soon as possible, to reduce the size of her own mortgage now that interest rates are increasing, so that will not go down well either. They are paying well below the market rent as she has not increased it in 7 years, so will find it very difficult to find a new flat anywhere nearby at a similar rent.
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I briefly worked for a friend who owned a portfolio of rental properties K. Some of the things that tenants expected getting funded for, and wanted, beggared belief to be honest. I told my friend at the time she ought to just cut the hassle out of her life (a lot older than me) and enjoy her twilight years with the money they raised rather than have the stress and upset on an almost daily basis. There are some very good tenants, but there are some very bad ones as well. And some change from good to bad. It’s a lottery. It’s hard to have any empathy with folks like this.
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And then there is the other side of the coin. Our daughter is in rented accommodation, she keeps it nice, although it gets mouldy. Each winter she paints it with mould proof paint, the landlord won’t pay for the paint. If anything breaks, like the shower, it’s weeks before it’s seen to, if at all. The carpets are worn out but she’s been told they will have to last a while yet. So she just keeps trying to clean them. She’s constantly worried about complaining about anything, in case they give her notice. No social housing here to speak of and very few private rented properties now as they have all been turned into holiday homes, airb&b. Many local families here in hostels as no homes for them. The other side of a lots of holiday homes area.
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