What are you all up to
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Glad you are feeling better Bakers2. Happy anniversary Millie. Good to read everyone's news... Hope you had a good 'birthday party', HelenandTrevor., and that Heddlo enjoyed the Scotland trip. We'll do a trip up to the Outer Hebrides (without the caravan) hopefully sometime in the summer to visit our eldest daughter.... just wondering whether to book a cottage, or to risk sleeping in their newly aquired 'glamping horse box'!! Enjoy the 'crafting and creating', Takethedogalong. Carol is into making bits of jewellry etc at the moment and has taken part in a couple of local craft fayres. She's not as far on as to open an Etsy store, but she did invest in one of those card reader devices.. 🙂
I'll pop back in to have a look a litle later on.... in the meantime, I think I need to go and hoover the car before the rain sets in again!
David
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My some of you guys have been busy this weekend, hope that you all enjoyed yourselves, apart from the funeral attendance of course. To those who are poorly or are waiting for hospital procedures I wish you well. Caring for elderly relatives and daily visiting them in hospital can take its toll, I know from previous experience with my own Dad, so try to take time for yourselves as well, easier said than done I know.
Thank you for your concerns with our caravan and the floods, to be honest we don’t bother about it too much, we trust the floats will work. We are insured new for old should it be bad. Although if it’s damaged but repairable we would probably loose a season while the insurance sorted it. My worry is flooding while we are there and having to dash off. I did once, after a sleepless night, get up at 5am pack and then empty the fridge, then wade in and out in wellies to pack the car. Not so bad for those that live nearer and can just return after a few days but a long unexpected journey home for us. I have learnt that I could not live in a house that is near a river my stress levels would be too high, I feel so very sorry for people who’s homes flood.
We haven’t been far as we have difficulty getting anywhere at present as major roadwork disruption between us and almost anywhere. There have always been local traffic problems for 40 years in rush hours mostly caused by one roundabout. It would sometimes take me an hour or more to do 4 miles to work, Terry Wogan used to keep me company though. The Councils final answer is to put a pedestrian set of traffic lights on one road a short distance away from the roundabout to slow the traffic from one side. Locals considered maybe this may work. Then we were told as they started work that this would take 5months!!! First morning total and utter chaos! The whole area came to a complete standstill with 4 way traffic lights on the roundabout and one road partly closed. Uproar ensued from residents for miles around. The Highways Cllr suggesting, ‘take another route’ you can tell he is 70 miles away and has probably never been here as there are no other routes without getting caught in it! At present the traffic lights are now having to be manually controlled between 6.30am and 6.30pm. And it’s not much better. OH said never mind we’ll get off to the caravan soon, then we can get about. Last week we got a message to say that major roadworks were starting on the Warwick rd from now until August, right outside the site entrance. This will mean we can only turn left to drive into Stratford but will have to go round the sun and the moon to get back to the site! You couldn’t make it up.
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We have a similar roundabout situation here at present, been going on since October and not due to finish until end of April.
Normally it flows quite freely, but the council decided that the 5 shops on one side of the very big roundabout needed more parking spaces, so they are reducing it in size and extending the pavement and road space at the shops........2 estate agents, a computer repair place, a hairdresser and a nail boutique.
And as if that is not bad enough they decided we need pedestrian crossing lights on all 5 entrances/exits to the roundabout, so these have been closed off for ages at various times.
You never see anyone trying to cross any of these roads, and most of the time this has been going on you rarely see any work actually being done!
Lengthy diversions have been signposted, but we locals know the back roads to use, so now the local householders are complaining about the increased traffic.
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Traffic planners, particularly at local level, seem to inhabit a little World all of their own. Some appalling decisions been made in our town, that has resulted in utter chaos sometimes, and huge sums of money wasted when they have been forced to capitulate and alter things. We currently have millions being spent on putting in cycle lanes. Hurrah you might think, as a keen cyclist, but no, they haven’t consulted with any of the local cycling clubs, no public consultation with cycling commuters or indeed folks who it affects. So far, all I can see is that the Takeaways are using the cycling lane for extra parking, as of course, there are no traffic enforcement officers to stop them doing this 🤷♀️
Everyone driving has to be aware that visitors won’t have a clue how to get anywhere, as lanes on roads peter out, roads suddenly go from two to three lanes then back to two again suddenly. One particular right turn crossroads had 45 separate crashes within the first three months. And then we have the M1 smart sections that have resulted in deaths…..☹️0 -
Indeed, they have gone mad in the city putting in cycle lanes, and widening pavements for cafes to use as outside seating during/since Covid, reducing vehicle traffic to a crawl. The wet weather in west of Scotland means generally little use of both cycles and outside seating, but "the Greens" have to be kept happy!
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Similar in the city we lived in before moving.
During covid they put lanes in, with bollards,on a once 2way but for years 1 way road. Buses could stop at all the stops and traffic still flow. You've guessed it. Same on at least one more road. In fact when we drove down to the estate agent on the day we moved I found it almost impossible to throw OH out of the car to do the job. It's always been my shopping town so 60 years and I was stumped. I started my working life in that area too so I would have said I knew it well......
We've heard that it's all being removed and original reinstated as it hasn't worked and caused traffic chaos. It wasn't great before! Such a huge waste of money, but it doesn't hit their pockets does it? 🤐
Since living within walking distance of the city I'd had little need to drive there, but had seen the changes. Only realising the implications when we needed to hand over keys. A stressful, emotional day on top if the planning and sorting move. Didn't make for a calm start to our onward journey 😕
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Heddlo, sounds like your Scotland trip was very busy, glad you had a good time.
Actually had a day without any rain today, 🙂 lull before the storm apparently ! Not much happening at work, prepping the Vat return 🙄
Had a trip down to our retail park, OH picked up a couple of shirts for only £8. I wasn't as lucky, couldn't find anything.🙁
DEBSC hope you can soon get to your caravan, our river has gone down but with all the rain forecast for tomorrow it may flood again.
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Last evening's red sky promised a better day and it certainly turned out that way. Dry and clear, quite a strong wind though. Walked along the Gloucester & Sharpness canal from Slimbridge to Frampton on Severn, starting from the caravan site at Tudor Patch (one of the first sites we stayed at in a caravan some 30 odd years ago!) Great views over to Sugar Loaf. Along the towpath was this waymarker indicating the distance between Bristol and Gloucester cathedrals as 47 miles! The church at Frampton is mainly 14th century but has a 12th century lead font, one of 6 identical ones at local churches according to the notes in the church.
Tomorrow looks like being a washout in the morning, but hopefully better in the afternoon when we will be back to a full complement!
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Moulesy is Berkeley Castle open as it would make an excellent place to escape the rain? There's also Dr.Jenners museum/house adjacent if you have time.
An excellent meeting with Physios today to see how MiL progressing. The main Physio was off on holiday last week and he was surprised at how much improvement there had been. Her scan showed a significant reduction in brain swelling and her vision and walking both improved. It looks like she will be given "Parole" soon and may even get away without having to wear an ankle bracelet, although her next of kin carers might insist on one.
We had a pleasant walk this morning but heavy rain this afternoon.
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Busy day for us, with a morning visit to the dentist for both a 1/2 yearly checkup and our quarterly hygienist cleanup. A bit of shopping on the way home before lunch then we took the caravan into the dealers for the replacement microwave to be fitted tomorrow.
Good to hear of the improvement in your MIL, WN. fingers crossed that if won't be long before they allow (send
) her home.Certainly sounds as if many on here have had a busy weekend.
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We rarely go into the city centre, but if we do we use our bus passes. DD lives on a good bus route, so we drive to her place then get the bus. Buses where we are take ages to get into town.
There are several good shopping centres around the outskirts, most are undercover and with free parking, much nicer than in town with all the traffic, so we only venture in if absolutely necessary.
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We are lucky in MK as the cycleway system was built at the same time as the road system so there tends not to be any conflict. Being built on a Grid System (more correctly a lazy grid!) it is easy to get around and if one road is blocked there are easy alternatives. I still like the buzz of the City Centre and fortunately parking is relatively easy except perhaps at Christmas and weekends, we tend to avoid the latter. We also have also have access to a regular bus service about 150 metres from our house.
Now contrast that to our weekend visit to Southampton where we had to cross from the west side to the east side, driving through the City. Complete nightmare to what we are used to. Nose to tail traffic most of the way. I suppose you get used to anything but MK is much easier and less stressful!
David
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I’m all for more cycle lanes, but they need to be safe, separate from other road traffic, not just a painted line. Alongside city roads aren’t good planning, too many negatives rather than positives. Then you have to hope that public awareness of cycle lanes is good, particularly if shared with pedestrians. Some places are good (Peterborough for example) but others are appalling. I’ve been knocked off my bike half a dozen times by pedestrians, despite letting them know I was there. Including going to the TdeF finish in Sheffield🤷♀️ Our town in terms of road and traffic planning is possibly where failed planners end up, and end now they are attempting cycle lanes……utter chaos with few positives. Cars can park over the lanes, and do, walkers insist on moving five abreast, and do, Children and dogs loose and all over. So you get back on the road and face abuse from motorists. Then there’s all the broken glass and other tyre snags that lurk in the dedicated cycle lanes. UK has a very long way to go to be cycling friendly, in lots of different ways.
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Great news on your MIL WN, hope things continue to go well for you all.
Etsy shop open, it’s a learning curve😁
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Thanks Ttda.
Lucky for us that I gave OH some free training last year on how to manage Stroke patients.
Had to let our free night booking go along with the rest of the nights we had planned to Wirral CP in mid March. I have a free afternoon as OH taking a friend of MiLs with her today. The weather is miserable though with rain and 40+ mph gusts so I'll be housebound.
Hope Bakers feeling a bit better. Not surprised she's a bit run down as she never seems to stop.
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After my trip south, the first long trip with the new car, I thought I would fill up with fuel to check the economy. 53 miles to the gallon in old money. I think that is pretty good and interestingly about the same as the computer in the car is saying. Don't think I have had such an economic car. It's a hybrid so self generated electrical is used as well.
David
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Mixed weather here today, rain this morning but we know have blue skies coming over from the west.
Oh how I wish we had a cycleway. It's more than 10 years since the campaign to get one linking us with the next village started. They have a cycleway all the way into Perth, it's not shared with traffic and is a pleasant ride into the city along the river Tay where it does get shared with pedestrians.
Our village to the next is just 3 miles but it's not a safe cycle by any means. The council have approved a cycleway across the countryside, however there is 1 farmer who continues to withhold permission😡😡 so 10 years on and many meetings, redrawing of plans, we are no further forward. One day there will be a fatality, maybe then we will get a cycleway.
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Dropped into Lidl today to pick up our "free bakery item", a sourdough crusty loaf, and while there got a call from the hospital to ask if I could come in on the 29th for my parathyroid op, so immediately agreed.
Some other things, like our caravan service will need to be rearranged, but at least it will be done in good time not to interfere with holiday plans.Now have confirmation by text of the timetable......Friday 23/02.....pre op at nearby hospital....Monday 26th...meeting with surgeon.....Thursday 29th ........be at hospital by 07.15!!
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"Oh how I wish we had a cycleway."
have to say, where we live we are blessed with very flat terrain and approx 20 miles of good cycle tracks which are mostly tarmac or very good shingle and i cycle almost every day, it can get a bit scary during peak summer periods as some of the cycle ways share the footpath and although most of it is very wide, it is very annoying when people walk 4 abreast, but i have fitted a very loud air horn to my bike, some people love it, others hate it but hey! it does what it says on the tin
my pet hate is people with dogs who think it is ok to have them on leads that snake out some 3 metres from them and hence they relinquich all control
what an aweful day it has been, rain rain and more rain, but all good off to the local for dinner have £95 worth of vouchers that family kindly bought me for my xmas present.
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As promised by Madame Kirkwood we had a period of wet weather first thing this morning - followed closely by a period of very wet weather!
Slightly better this afternoon, but it's been a matter of frequent short walks to keep the dogs happy. Fortunately there is a huge enclosed field just up the road so Ralph, anyway, can get a good run around and meet up with the locals.
WN - thanks for the suggestion of Berkeley Castle - I remember going there on a school trip - wonder if it's changed at all in the last 60 years?
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Good news about your MIL WN. Lovely to hear that she is making such good progress. Also pleased to hear that you have a date for your op KjellNN and that it won't impinge too much on your holiday plans. Great to hear that you had such a good time at your grand-daughter's 2nd birthday party HelenandTrevor. Gosh what a busy weekend David K. We find long journey tiring these days as well. Years ago when FIL was still alive we used to go up to Co Durham to see him for the day once a month. Up there, lunch out with him and a drive round The Dales and then drive back all in the day, and then get up and go to work on the Monday!!
OH had a hospital appt for a scan yesterday afternoon and as it coincided with my afternoon at the Cathedral he said he would go on is own (the first time he has been anywhere on his own for some months) and as parking is diabolical at our hospital he decided to go by bus. All went well so another little hurdle in is recovery done and dusted. The scan was because he had found a small painless lump in his neck some months ago but as he had so much else going on health wise it was put on the back burner. He went to see a GP a few weeks ago who thought it was probably just a slightly enlarged saliva gland but sent him for a scan to check it out. The guy who did the scan actually gave OH the result and agreed with the GP's diagnosis of a slightly enlarged saliva gland and said it was nothing to worry about so another worry crossed off our list thank goodness. We took ourselves off for some retail therapy today to The Springfield Centre near Spalding (outlet centre) where we made a few purchases and had a light lunch. So lovely to go somewhere that has no empty shops and you could actually look, feel and try on if you wanted to. It was pouring with rain first thing but stopped soon after we got there and has been grey and a bit drizzly for the rest of the day.
I hope everyone who has health problems or family members who have health problems gets good news soon.
PS my new avatar is showing on my PC now that I have cleared my cache but no such luck with my android phone so far.
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Hmm - this is our sky tonight - does it mean a better day tomorrow?
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Millie - are you using Samsung Internet on your android by any chance? If you are, try this. Open the home page and click on the menu (the three lines at the bottom right) then choose "settings" and then "personal browsing data". Choose "delete browsing data" and then delete "cached files & images". Should work!
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I thought we had a pretty sunset sky, but not as good as yours.
I'm hoping the same as you 🤞 as we have garden help. He doesn't mind working in the rain, monsoons excepted.
I'm beginning to come out the other side now, thankfully. Still taking it very easy so won't be assisting garden help. Hopefully the garden will allow pruning and I have plenty of tidying jobs from hard surfaces for him.....
Good to hear other folks have progress on health fronts.
Off to finish coking dinner. We had a tesco delivery between 1700-1800 which arrived 1635. Casserole planned to serve after receipt and putting away.
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All the best for your op KjN.
A busy few days here as we have at last got rid of a single Leylandi Conifer the branches were done last week and Monday OH got the chainsaw out to do the trunk took awhile but all done and taken to the skip yesterday morning and today I did some tidying up with the troughs by the front door and clear some leaves around some pots and OH tidied up his shed more to do and then sorted the cover on our above ground pool all done before rain and strong winds arrive tomorrow so back to inside chores.
Glad to hear your MIL is improving WN.
Had my e ticket arrive this afternoon so printed off and ready for RHS Malvern show in May it will be me going as OH not keen on garden shows so will stay at the cottage we are renting for a couple of weeks will seem strange no caravan with us but wanted a change and looking forward to it.
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Some good news knocking around for a change. Best wishes to all recipients of it.
Moulesy, as its 60 years since your visit to Berkeley Castle you honestly don't think you'll remember what it was like do you? All that water under, and most recently over, the bridge. All the many houses and castles that will have taken up space in your storage area.
Then again, I shouldn't judge you by how I would be.
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Thank you moulesy. That worked 😊.
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We visited Berkeley Castle as part of a lovely tour a few years ago, very interesting place, parts of Wolf Hall were filmed there. The claim to fame of it being the location were Edward II met his grisly pointed end has been revised in the last 60 years M! But the little room is still there🤣 Gloucester Cathedral, if you are anywhere close is simply stunning, lots to see there, and another well used filming location.
Nice afternoon out for us, dodged the damp at a local garden centre, looking for a few birthday presents for Mum.
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Glad to hear that your OH's scan proved his doctor was correct and it is nothing to worry about, Millie.
B2, pleased to read that you are beginning to feel better.
A couple of super photos, M, hope tomorrow is much dried for you and you all can get a good walk in.
Tda, fingers crossed that you are successful with your Esty adventure.
Very wet morning but the rain had passed by lunchtime and by mid afternoon the sun had come out. Caravan was ready for collection by 10:30 but we wait till this afternoon to pick it up. Tomorrow I will have to make sure that the replacement microwave is working properly.
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