What are you all up to
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HelenandTrevor,
I bet you a thruppennybit that my town has gone down hill furthur and faster than yours
!!Cheshire East Council decided that the area round Crewe's Bus Station looked truly awful back in the early 2000's so went full tilt to " DO IT UP " but alas they then decided that they had no cash available just before the Pandemic. Therefore it is a now just a pile of bricks and brick-dust and likely to remain so even if it gets levelled up or down in the forseeable years now.
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Our last night of this trip, 9 weeks this time. Not sure when or where we will head to next but it won't be for a couple of weeks of so, as we have the usual appointments at home.
Stocked up with food today at both Lidl, which seemed short of supplies and was quiet, then Aldi, much bigger stock and much busier. Some items that we were wanting, but not desperate for, were missing from both. It has been a slightly better day weatherwise, and we managed a couple of hour or so walks without being rained upon.
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When we moved to Devon 40 years ago there was one smallish Co-op within 50 miles! It was such a shock. That is now being turned into flats. Now, within a 2 mile drive, we have a small M&S, 2 Aldi, 2 Lidl, Sainsbury, Asda and 2 Tesco and that’s in North Devon! I do prefer Tesco but often pop into Aldi for the things that I know are cheaper, I would find it difficult to do a big shop there though. Oh and I do occasionally use Home Bargains for big packs of toilet rolls, and a few other bits, which works out cheaper.
We also have an Iceland Warehouse. I read that chest freezers are not worth it and might be worth switching off altogether. However, ours pays for itself storing my batch cooking from the slow cooker. Also I find Iceland good value for money to stock it up now and again. And I have just realised it’s cheaper for oldies on a Tuesday, I’m a bit late with that one.
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After a reasonable weekend, we have now had a day of more or less continuous rain, and it is still raining now. Hope it is better tomorrow as we are on GP duty tomorrow and Thursday, and last Wednesday I got soaked going to pick up Callum and Nathan.
Just trying to think when was the last time we were in Glasgow city centre, must be a while as I cannot remember!
We did go in to see our solicitor at one point, possibly 2019, and walked up to John Lewis and the shopping centre they are in, but we heard recently that there are plans to demolish the centre, though not the JL store, and re-develop it. Seems crazy to me, there are other parts of the city that need attention first IMO.One of the 2 city centre M&S stores closed in April, and some other nearby stores have also closed in the last few years, so Sauchiehall Street is looking very run down these days.
With fewer people now working in city centre offices, and the cost of parking in the centre, there are far fewer people around in the centre than there used to be. Out of town centres with plentiful free parking are much more attractive for shopping.
Our 2 local village centres have also suffered and have a few empty retail units. I blame the council as they have imposed parking charges in the car parks they own, and these are virtually empty these days, this must be adversely affecting the smaller shops in the pedestrian precinct. It also pushes the parking problem into the nearby residential areas.
Bus services around here are not great, so unless you live close to the village centres, using a car is essential.
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A paperwork day.
We've been assessing what stock can go where when they come inside for winter, and which cows will be going on a one way trip via the auction and abbatoir.
On Thursday 8 beef calves (Aberdeen Angus Cross and British Blue Cross) are going to the local auction. The next trailer load will be older cows that we are selling "cast". There comes a time when they head off into the food chain.
Then on Friday we are selling five high quality Organic Pedigree Dairy Shorthorns at Penrith Auction. All in milk with good lactation records. They will go into other dairy herds.
So, I have plastic sleeves for each group with entry forms, passports, vaccination cerificates etc.
Meanwhile dinner is almost ready. Five of us today. Plus a dog.
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That is certainly part of a farming year Goldie.
Looking at the lovely spaniel, OH was out doing his fishing licences yesterday and in one office the lady said to him "got two left" he wondered what she talking about until she told him they had two springer/labrador puppies left and invited him to see them. He was sensible enough not to view as the last time that happened on a local farm he came back with a puppy, our much missed and long lived terrier...however I did phone someone up as I knew they might be interested!
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We don't have a Waitrose or Tescos. We now have 3 Aldi supermarkets in Tamworth, and one, the other way, in Atherstone. When we do a 'big' shop, we go to Aldi first, get what we can, and then we go to one of the others to finish off the list... We tend not to like salad or bread from Aldi... We tend not to use Lidl very often... not sure why.... tend to like some of their bakery items...
If we just have a handful of things to get, or if Carol sends me out to buy a 'something nice' 🤣🤣(.....chocolate, cake, etc, or for the odd bottle of wine), then it's the Co-Op...
Enjoy Spain, Tammygirl.
David
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Early start this morning, had to be in Oxford for 8am. Chat, CT scan, dot tattoo's and now have radiotherapy dates. Going to be busy in December, 🤔 appointment times are all over the place but at least unless the dates change no weekend appointments 🙂 Found out I get free parking at the hospital during the treatment so that's a bonus.
Lovely dog, Goldie. 🙂
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brue I am so envious of your week behind the scenes at the V&A. Whenever I visit I always think I would love to work there. We watched the series on the V&A showing what goes on behind the scenes and I really admire the skill and patience of the conservators.
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Helen
Hope it all goes well for you.
Re the parking, when Margaret had her heart bypass at the JR she was in for a week. For the first 3/4 days we regularly spent about £7 on parking, half way through the stay one of the nurses told us we could have had a parking permit and a very much reduced price!!! No mention of it beforehand or in any of the paperwork as far as I could tell. Mind you I suppose we were all concentrating on the treatment rather than the parking!
David
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Disabled parking at our hospital is at the same rate as everyone else but there are designed bays near the lifts
on the road outside parking is free for unlimited times for disabled parking permit holders no guesses where we all park
DHL were going to text me when the expected parcel from Edinburgh was next on delivery route so I could meet driver. knock in door at 0830 as parcel had been delivered and site manager was there with parcel then received a text from DHL to say it has been delivered
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A bit choppy on the Dorset coast today but all the crowds gone and nice warm weather for November.
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Hope all goes well for you, Helen.
Looks a fine day on the coast, brue.
We were able to get home yesterday and the van unloaded in the dry, but I got rather wet during my two afternoon walks during the cloud bursts we had, but it did dry up for our last walk out, thankfully.
Today was much better with sunshine and a gentle breeze with just an odd spot of rain. OH was able to get some of her washing out and dried and I managed to clean the outside of the caravan. So far all our walks today have been dry too.
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Well, I'm billy-no-mates this morning.
OH has a dental appointment (1 hours worth😱) in Chester and MiL out gallivanting, meeting a friend for coffee and cake in town. No physio today as I have my regular 3 month consultation at hospital late this afternoon so OH will have to drive me. I have done some exercises this morning so will try sorting out some insurances that are due this month.
Right, I would appreciate recommendations for hoovers.We have a Dyson V6 and it's started malfunctioning. Had it for about 4-5 years. MiL finds it a bit heavy now so am looking for a lightweight, cordless, reliable one whilst Black "month" is still on. Thanks.
Enjoy your day folks.
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I'm the same WN, OH has gone 🎣.
He had the full works at the dentist this week, it's like being put through a car wash! I think they forget some people are getting older and prefer a gentler approach..
Hope your appointment goes well.
I'm looking at Christmas cake ingredients and they are looking back at me and no decisions to make contact yet!
As for hoovers I bought a cordless Shark awhile ago and have been pleased with it, reasonably light weight, good clean and good charge. It folds up neatly too so doesn't take up much storage room.
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Good luck with the vacuum WN. We have an old corded Dyson that limps on amidst a great deal of cursing and swearing, you need big muscles to wrestle with it, and invariable at some point or other I usually have to dismantle some part of it, as it’s incapable of dealing with anything larger than a speck of dust.
Sharks do look very good, but do I really want to spend close to £500 on a vacuum😬 We have a Labrador as well, a severe test for any vacuum. Anything that can deal with Labrador, a big house, two flights of stairs and is cordless, I need to know about.
One of those frustrating mornings here. Trying to deal with our Council over missed bin collection, trying to get priority Peter Kay tickets, trying to kick our local police force into action on an issue reported a good month ago. Hey ho, hospital calls shortly………
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We had a cordless Dyson V6 that was good to use but a pain to empty. We now have a cordless Samsung 75 (pet hair one) that is great, a bit heavier than the Dyson but easier to use all round. We also have a hardly used plug in Dyson DC41 (with the rear ball) which we really dislike as it’s like a wrestling match unless you only want to go in a straight line! We really should have returned it but kept thinking ‘we’ll get used to it’ we haven’t, and it weighs a ton!
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We have an iRobot for downstairs and a man and sweeping brush for upstairs.
We only have carpet in one room - the one that everyone walks into with mud, muck and straw on their wellies - and it copes with it. Press the button and it tours the enormous room, nipping between furniture and under tables until it decides it's done, and then returns to it's base. When we registered it, we had to give it a name - so it's referred to as Marvin. My son has one called R2D2.
The other floors are wood, parquet, quarry tiles or stone flags and a brush works fine.
I don't have a Henry Hoover, but a Henry Husband.
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That’s interesting brue. What model is it please?
Its a big Dyson DC41 that I wrestle with. Keep it cleaned out on a regular basis, but it’s a big old beastie at times, I certainly earn Fitbit exercise minutes using it🤣 OH loathes it. Mind he loathes Mr Dyson himself for moving production overseas, but that’s another story.
We have a 25 year old Henry as well. That’s on car, garage and dirty jobs duty mainly.
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Wherenext, we have my late mum's Miele, variable suction levels, which I find very good. I prefer a cylinder rather than upright for 'proper' clean. It replaced my Dyson DC05 which owed us nothing.
And a Bosch Flexxo cordless. Which I purchased about 12 months ago, very happy with it for quick whizz about. Chosen because the dust holder is in the middle meaning its easier on my wrists during use. With everything else on offer they were at the hand end adding to weight, Doesn't have a huge, but adequate, dust bucket. Can be used as hand held or upright.
If you have a John Lewis nearby they are happy for you to try out the various vacuums they sell. They even have a bag of dust/rubbish which they'll scatter for you on carpet and hard flooring, and near edges. Other stores may do the same, but I could walk to John Lewis from our last house.
Rather chilly breeze here again today despite the thermometer saying 14c. Started beautiful but greyed over about 1030.
Soffit/fascia/guttering work continues today and they hope to finish Monday. The house that keeps giving continues - rotten wood under the front fascia, now replaced, not sure caused by the climbing hydrangea as it's right at the end. Our guy reckons would have been like it when what they're removing went up, approximately 20 years ago. Didn't want to find extras but justified the cost of full works. Plenty of nesting materials being removed, but evicted birds have plenty if nesting places with our hedges and trees. We have about 50 sparrows every morning for breakfast and nearly as many starlings. If I notice number dropping I'll put up some nest boxes.
Had very effective reflexology yesterday, fabulous sleep and languid day.
Hoping all those needing medical assistance are getting on as best they can with recovery. OH was discharged from Broomfield, referred to Papworth for future monitoring - letter from Papworth saying he's been passed to Peterborough, so we await developments in the routine 🤞 check ups.
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We also have a very large Dyson, the type described earlier with the big ball, it weighs a tonne. OH rushed and bought it just before the law changed and they stopped selling them. When I first tried it I told him it would have to go back as I couldn’t manoeuvre it, he said, ‘I will do it’! And surprisingly he has ever since. I love that Dyson 😂 😂I do use a smaller rechargeable one upstairs.
On the subject of long dental appointments, it’s not the dentist I fear but the hygienist. It’s so painful now to have my teeth cleaned that she is thoughtful and only does one side at a time. Half done this month and back in Dec to have all the other side injected and cleaned🧹🧽.
Off out tonight for a curry with my cousin and our OHs. She has been my best friend for over 70 years, we still meet up very regularly, talk every week and never run out of conversation. Always best friends as kids and that has never changed.
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Should have added we're a bit like Goldie, mostly wood floors so I don't have lots of fitted carpet to do just rugs.
TDA I think ours is a 1Z201UK bought from the Shark web site as they seem to do offers etc
Our son passed his cordless Dyson onto us when he moved, after a year I didn't think it was very powerful so it's gone to car cleaning duties for my daughter....which is a very rare event!!
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Got a new mobile, which is a two year event for me and was dreading the experience as usually something goes missing, or won't work (last time I couldn't get any emails for a few days) but wow, it was quick and seamless, just backed up the old one with google-something just put the two phones side by side and it was done within 20 minutes (I have photos on it going back years), all I had to do with put in my logins and passwords again (CT was first of course) and even google wallet just needed the CVS numbers.
I am not a phone person so I was quite happy to get the newer equivalent model which would have been 'free' but for paying £30 as an upfront cost I got a £150 pre-paid Mastercard to use anywhere which will used to fund our next away trip in two weeks time. Also I now have 50Gb of data even though my monthly average is 1.2 Gb.
The monthly price plan has gone up by £1 - daylight robbery!
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Our 23 year old SEBO is still working but we find it quite heavy now. Not so bad if you don't have to lug it up and down stairs! Probably just over two years ago we started to look for something lighter. I have not always been keen on cordless cleaners because I was unsure if the battery would last long enough to clean the whole house. We did look at a Shark (corded I think?) because you could detach the workings as a smaller cleaner but it was far too heavy. Never been a fan of Dyson, not so much the appliances but more the man! In the end we went for a VAX which surprised me. Its cordless and you can configure it is several ways. I do endorse B2's suggestion of going to a shop where you can try them. Had we not done that we would have got the Shark which would have been totally unsuitable for our needs.
David
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