Re Halloween.... Read and sympathised with a lot of the not-so-nice issues raised here. When I lived in Acton in London I had bangers thrown at me one year, which was scary. I understand the poor bus driver being upset at the egg throwing too.
Noone came near us, which leaves more sweets for the adult boys. Then the next door neighbour decided to have a firework party. Did he think to warn us - we have 4 cats. Did he heckaslike!
@caroline444 - if no-one can advise you, take a selection of notes (£5s and £10s), plus the bucket of change!
IIRC, our local now-closed launderette's machines took 50ps and £1s in coins, but maybe these days it's £1s and £2s...
Re Halloween - I went to Church this morning, expecting to have to do some litter-picking after last night, but no, not a derelict party-popper or pumpkin to be seen!
I haven't had to use a launderette in quite a few years, but I remember that the ones in the U.S. had coin machines. But to be safe, I'd stock up on coins.
I didn't get round to stocking up with sweeties, as I've very rarely had guisers here, and I was going to be out from about 7 o'clock anyway, but there was a lovely wee girl who arrived at the door with her mum at about 6, and I was mortified that I didn't have anything to give her.
No sign of the counter-top blokes yet - as it was chucking down rain this morning I suppose they didn't want to risk getting the bits wet going from the truck to the house. Mind you, it isn't raining now - just blowing a hoolie. As I'm going out this afternoon, they'll probably turn up then.
I'd better go and check that the wheelie-bin hasn't gone walkies ...
When I’ve used a launderette this year - normal town centre one when we were on holiday - I needed £7 in change for the big machines and £5 for the smaller machines. £1 and £2 from recollection. And then lots of silver shrapnel for the tumble dryers.
As we’re a family of five including bedwetters and messy eating baby, it’s an expensive run!
I have also heard of the term Guisers in relation to actors elsewhere: there are the Winster Guisers in the Peak District, who perform a very old piece in the plough play tradition, but in the run up to Christmas.
The launderette we use on holiday is coin-only. There's a set charge for the washing machine, but the tumble drier needs to be fed another coin every 5 minutes or so. By recollection the washing machine takes pound coins and the tumble drier 20 or 50s.
I have been celebrating a round figure birthday. There has been food, and all my friends, and my parents, and more WINE than I care to admit. Husband en rouge had a whip-round of all my mates and I now have a very sparkly piece of jewellery with actual real stones and everything. Does this all make me a grownup? 🧐
Depends what the number before the round one is (and no, you absolutely don't have to answer that).
Many happy returns!
I've had an oddly leaky-eyed day today: random things setting off my tear-ducts, although receiving a copy of D's Daily Telegraph obituary from Mrs. S wasn’t one of them - many thanks to her!
Harry the Handyman phoned earlier to say he'll be round in the morning to finish off the counter-tops - so much for a nice long lie! Oh well, I'll be glad to get everything back to normal.
Hugs to ((Piglet))
Many happy returns to LVER, I had a round figure birthday this year but I suspect mine was a couple of decades more than yours. I am definitely not a grown up.
I must go for my morning walk before the gale picks up round here. Then I think I’ll spend the morning on my spinning wheel. I did have some well intentioned thoughts of studying but appear to have mislaid them. Perhaps I will read a book later.
I too am celebrating a round number Birthday with a trip to UK land. The focus of this was visiting friends around the south and going to a Big Big Train concert in Newport last night. It was fab and they played my most favourite song. We're now holed up in a hotel outside Bristol while MrD watches the rugby. He's a bit frustrated at the moment.
I tried the hyphens as discussed upthread, but I'm not sure they have done as they should.
O - has there been some sort of ball game going on (or off)?
I have a round number birthday to look forward to in 2021.
If I live.
And even if I do live that long, I still won't be grown up...
ION, a wild, wet, windy autumnal day here, with leaves being stripped off the trees by the million (and being dumped, of course, on the railway lines, where they will turn out to be the Wrong Sort of leaves).
You must be having the weather we had yesterday: it was still blowing a hoolie when I went to bed last night, but it's a glorious day now, although not very warm (3°). Considering it was 18° this time yesterday, I'm not surprised there was a bit of wind in between!
There were a lot of power cuts here yesterday - at its worst, I think there were about 30,000 people without power - but mercifully I wasn't one of them.
Harry the Handyman is clattering away merrily in the kitchen: I hope he can get it all done by the end of the day, as I'm getting a bit fed up of the place looking as though a bomb's hit it!
I've only had to put up with it for three days - how on earth do people having their entire kitchens replaced cope?
The short answer to that is Firm Teeth-Gritting, I guess! Hopefully, H the H will complete on time.
Thank you (not) for sending us your Weather. It's actually calmed down a bit now, though still windy, but it looks as though it might be OK for this evening's city-wide firework displays.
I shall ascend to the wheelhouse of the Episcopal Ark, to enjoy the pyrotechnics without, glass of WINE in hand.
Little Beaky just left for home and quite how we managed to get them all into the car I don't know. Two wailing children and wind and rain on the horizontal......
I am now on the sofa watching crap TV!
You must be having the weather we had yesterday: it was still blowing a hoolie when I went to bed last night, but it's a glorious day now, although not very warm (3°). Considering it was 18° this time yesterday, I'm not surprised there was a bit of wind in between!
There were a lot of power cuts here yesterday - at its worst, I think there were about 30,000 people without power - but mercifully I wasn't one of them.
Harry the Handyman is clattering away merrily in the kitchen: I hope he can get it all done by the end of the day, as I'm getting a bit fed up of the place looking as though a bomb's hit it!
I've only had to put up with it for three days - how on earth do people having their entire kitchens replaced cope?
We went on holiday to Norway for four weeks while they did it.
Hugs to ((Piglet))
Many happy returns to LVER, I had a round figure birthday this year but I suspect mine was a couple of decades more than yours. I am definitely not a grown up.
Only one decade actually I think. I shall take this as proof that I don't have to pretend to be a responsible adult yet. 😁
Indeed you don't. I'm racking my brains trying to remember what WW's tagline was - something along the lines of "youth may be brief, but immaturity can last a lifetime".
Counter-tops now installed, and apart from a couple of little niggly things that he's coming to put right on Monday (a loose tap and a broken drawer-runner), it's sorted.
The estate agent's coming out on Monday to see what's what, and says she'll have it on the market by Monday evening; and (also on Monday evening) someone's coming with a truck to help me shift the books.
For now though, I'm looking forward to an extra hour's sleep.
Games afternoon at church today; we have a monthly afternoon where geeks get together to play strategy games, currently organised by my husband. It starts after church at 2pm and goes on til nearly 7 so quite a long day. It’ll also feel strange today as my eldest (a big fan of strategy games) is away at uni for the first time and my youngest is staying home to revise for his mocks. I will hide in the corner with a book or my crochet.
I had a difficult day at church today. Up to now, I thought I'd been doing quite well: the music we'd sung hadn't activated my tear-ducts, but for some reason the words of some of the All Saints hymns just set me off, particularly the one set to the tune Dundee, in which the acting organist didn't use the long notes, thereby proving that he's a Heretick.
The choir were very understanding, assuring me it was quite normal. I can accept it being normal; I'd just rather it hadn't been quite so public.
Oh well, I'm invited out for a late-ish lunch which I understand is going to be roast lamb - that should make me feel better, as long as I try to forget that it was D's favourite thing!
I had a difficult day at church today. Up to now, I thought I'd been doing quite well: the music we'd sung hadn't activated my tear-ducts, but for some reason the words of some of the All Saints hymns just set me off, particularly the one set to the tune Dundee, in which the acting organist didn't use the long notes, thereby proving that he's a Heretick.
My husband died on the nineteenth of October many years ago. I did pretty well controlling my emotions in public until All Saints. When we sang "Ye holy angels bright", the second stanza shredded me completely.
Ye blessed souls at rest
Who ran this earthly race
And now from sin released
Behold your father's face
Quite so. We didn't have that one, but all the ones about saints at rest just set me off. I'd maybe better take the day off next year.
In happier news, I had a v. nice lunch (excellent roast lamb) with very good company, good wine and Irish coffee, and felt much better for it. However, my hosts gave me a copy of the New Brunswick Anglican with another really nice obituary, and when I got home I read it and the floodgates opened again.
Piglet, you are not a wuss at all. Please be kinder to yourself. It is such a short time and you expect too much. Tears are not a weakness but are an aid in dealing with grief. Just an aid, not a cure but a help. Know that you have many here praying for you and showing love in many ways. If tears come, it’s natural, let them.
Thanks, ladies - your thoughts (and especially your prayers) are very much appreciated.
I think Loth's right - I probably am expecting too much - maybe because people are telling me how well I'm doing. In some respects I am - getting the house ready for selling, getting legal things sorted out and that sort of thing - so I start thinking "hurrah for Coping Piglet", and then something out of the blue triggers me and I think I'm not really coping at all.
It's partly a fear of making an idiot of myself - if it happens at home when I'm on my own, I just hug a teddy-bear and have a good cry - but today it was so public.
After our mother died, my sister didn't want to go to church for quite a while, because "What if I cry?" I asked her if she couldn't cry in church (where she and Mom were both loved) where could she cry? Everyone would understand and be loving and supportive.
After our mother died, my sister didn't want to go to church for quite a while, because "What if I cry?" I asked her if she couldn't cry in church (where she and Mom were both loved) where could she cry? Everyone would understand and be loving and supportive.
Exactly , Pigwidgeon. I am a stiff upper lip type person but loosening up as years go by.
@Piglet when my father died, I did not really shed tears in the first little while afterwards. Perhaps I was preoccupied in helping sort out my mother's living arrangements. But six weeks later, when our theology student preached, as part of a parish mission, on his relationship with his father, that opened the floodgates big time in front of the whole congregation, who were marvellously understanding. Tears will come at the most unexpected moments, but they are a safety valve for our feelings, without which much emotional damage may ensue.
Piglet, please do not feel that you have to cope. After our son was stillborn, our main focus was on keeping life normal and happy for our children, then aged 5 and 3. It was only much, much later that I realised how much my own mental health took a hit from that determined effort to carry on regardless.
Our D's funeral (funeral service was held in our living room) was on a Friday, and as part of our attempt not to disrupt our kids' routine we were back in church two days later. The North East family was obviously at the front of the minister and congregation's minds, but I don't think anybody had expected us to be there. The hymns included "We cannot measure how you heal" with the bit about cradling children yet unborn and "Christ's is the world in which we move" which includes "Feel for the parents who've lost their child"
I've often wondered if the minister had a complete heart-sink when we walked in.
@Piglet it must have been six months after my father died that I was hit hard enough to cry: it was a favourite song of his and I still find it difficult to listen to it 29 years on.
Oh @Piglet you are coping, and doing it so well. I hope you soon feel free to let yourself cope in your own way, without worrying about other people. Right now it’s your time, to make the journey in your own way and at your own pace.
There are no boundaries of place or time to the bereavement journey. It goes in circles, steams ahead, comes to a halt, surprises us in private and in public. The things that we do - organise a funeral, take care of others or let them take care of us, deal with practicalities, hide away for a while - can help or hinder us and which it is, can change from day to day. The best people (caring people, loving people) are the ones who accept us as we are at that moment, be it dry-eyed or weeping uncontrollably. Any others shouldn't count. (Yes, I know they do bother us, but don't do as I do, do as I say!)
ION, I popped into my local GP today to arrange a flu jab. The reception-lady said the nurse had a spare slot at 1223pm (it was about 1150am when I walked in!), if I didn't mind waiting.
As it happened, some other patients didn't turn up in time, so I was called in at 1203pm, leaving the premises at 1206pm!
How's that for service? Good ol' NHS, at its best...
That's the sort of thing they ought to put on the side of a bus, BF!
Thanks everyone for your advice - I'll try very hard to pay heed to it the next time I have a tear-duct malfunction.
You're all absolutely right about how my friends reacted though - as soon as we were in the choir vestry, I was enveloped in the most enormous group hug, and it didn't seem to matter so much that my eyes were leaking like a fountain!
The château is now as ready as it's going to be for the estate agent; the kitchen drawers are all back in place, dusting and tidying have happened and bears have been relocated to appropriate habitats (bedrooms). It's also a beautiful day, so The View™ will look its best.*
* well, not quite - that was a couple of weeks ago when the trees were looking their most glorious, but we can't have everything.
Update: estate agent v. pleased with the look of everything, and is putting it on the market for $5,000 more than I might have expected, with the proviso that if there aren't any bites after two weeks she'll drop it a bit.
... Let’s hope you have swifter success here than you did your last place.
Yea and amen to that!
I've already had a viewing!!!
The estate agent had forgotten to pick up a lock-box when she came round to photograph the house, so she went back to get it, and one of her colleagues said she had a client who was interested, and could she take her round right away?
My agent offered me a lift to go and get light-bulbs, thereby getting me off-side so that her colleague could come in, and they had been and gone by the time we got back.
The practice here is that you have to get out of the way when an agent shows someone round your house. It wasn’t so bad in St. John's where we had a Tim Horton's just up the road, but there's nothing within walking distance of the château where I could go. This might not matter when the weather's nice - I suppose I could go for an amble - but I'm not keen on doing that if it's p*ssing with rain (or worse, sn*wing).
Comments
IIRC, our local now-closed launderette's machines took 50ps and £1s in coins, but maybe these days it's £1s and £2s...
Re Halloween - I went to Church this morning, expecting to have to do some litter-picking after last night, but no, not a derelict party-popper or pumpkin to be seen!
No sign of the counter-top blokes yet - as it was chucking down rain this morning I suppose they didn't want to risk getting the bits wet going from the truck to the house. Mind you, it isn't raining now - just blowing a hoolie. As I'm going out this afternoon, they'll probably turn up then.
I'd better go and check that the wheelie-bin hasn't gone walkies ...
As we’re a family of five including bedwetters and messy eating baby, it’s an expensive run!
Many happy returns!
I've had an oddly leaky-eyed day today: random things setting off my tear-ducts, although receiving a copy of D's Daily Telegraph obituary from Mrs. S wasn’t one of them - many thanks to her!
Harry the Handyman phoned earlier to say he'll be round in the morning to finish off the counter-tops - so much for a nice long lie! Oh well, I'll be glad to get everything back to normal.
Many happy returns to LVER, I had a round figure birthday this year but I suspect mine was a couple of decades more than yours. I am definitely not a grown up.
I must go for my morning walk before the gale picks up round here. Then I think I’ll spend the morning on my spinning wheel. I did have some well intentioned thoughts of studying but appear to have mislaid them. Perhaps I will read a book later.
I tried the hyphens as discussed upthread, but I'm not sure they have done as they should.
That is all.
(Yes I have been following the rugby)
I have a round number birthday to look forward to in 2021.
If I live.
And even if I do live that long, I still won't be grown up...
ION, a wild, wet, windy autumnal day here, with leaves being stripped off the trees by the million (and being dumped, of course, on the railway lines, where they will turn out to be the Wrong Sort of leaves).
There were a lot of power cuts here yesterday - at its worst, I think there were about 30,000 people without power - but mercifully I wasn't one of them.
Harry the Handyman is clattering away merrily in the kitchen: I hope he can get it all done by the end of the day, as I'm getting a bit fed up of the place looking as though a bomb's hit it!
I've only had to put up with it for three days - how on earth do people having their entire kitchens replaced cope?
Thank you (not) for sending us your Weather. It's actually calmed down a bit now, though still windy, but it looks as though it might be OK for this evening's city-wide firework displays.
I shall ascend to the wheelhouse of the Episcopal Ark, to enjoy the pyrotechnics without, glass of WINE in hand.
I am now on the sofa watching crap TV!
We went on holiday to Norway for four weeks while they did it.
Only one decade actually I think. I shall take this as proof that I don't have to pretend to be a responsible adult yet. 😁
Counter-tops now installed, and apart from a couple of little niggly things that he's coming to put right on Monday (a loose tap and a broken drawer-runner), it's sorted.
The estate agent's coming out on Monday to see what's what, and says she'll have it on the market by Monday evening; and (also on Monday evening) someone's coming with a truck to help me shift the books.
For now though, I'm looking forward to an extra hour's sleep.
The choir were very understanding, assuring me it was quite normal. I can accept it being normal; I'd just rather it hadn't been quite so public.
Oh well, I'm invited out for a late-ish lunch which I understand is going to be roast lamb - that should make me feel better, as long as I try to forget that it was D's favourite thing!
My husband died on the nineteenth of October many years ago. I did pretty well controlling my emotions in public until All Saints. When we sang "Ye holy angels bright", the second stanza shredded me completely.
Ye blessed souls at rest
Who ran this earthly race
And now from sin released
Behold your father's face
In happier news, I had a v. nice lunch (excellent roast lamb) with very good company, good wine and Irish coffee, and felt much better for it. However, my hosts gave me a copy of the New Brunswick Anglican with another really nice obituary, and when I got home I read it and the floodgates opened again.
I really am an awful wuss ...
Next year won't be so bad, and the year after that will be even better--not good but better.
I think Loth's right - I probably am expecting too much - maybe because people are telling me how well I'm doing. In some respects I am - getting the house ready for selling, getting legal things sorted out and that sort of thing - so I start thinking "hurrah for Coping Piglet", and then something out of the blue triggers me and I think I'm not really coping at all.
It's partly a fear of making an idiot of myself - if it happens at home when I'm on my own, I just hug a teddy-bear and have a good cry - but today it was so public.
Exactly , Pigwidgeon. I am a stiff upper lip type person but loosening up as years go by.
Our D's funeral (funeral service was held in our living room) was on a Friday, and as part of our attempt not to disrupt our kids' routine we were back in church two days later. The North East family was obviously at the front of the minister and congregation's minds, but I don't think anybody had expected us to be there. The hymns included "We cannot measure how you heal" with the bit about cradling children yet unborn and "Christ's is the world in which we move" which includes "Feel for the parents who've lost their child"
I've often wondered if the minister had a complete heart-sink when we walked in.
As it happened, some other patients didn't turn up in time, so I was called in at 1203pm, leaving the premises at 1206pm!
How's that for service? Good ol' NHS, at its best...
Thanks everyone for your advice - I'll try very hard to pay heed to it the next time I have a tear-duct malfunction.
You're all absolutely right about how my friends reacted though - as soon as we were in the choir vestry, I was enveloped in the most enormous group hug, and it didn't seem to matter so much that my eyes were leaking like a fountain!
The château is now as ready as it's going to be for the estate agent; the kitchen drawers are all back in place, dusting and tidying have happened and bears have been relocated to appropriate habitats (bedrooms). It's also a beautiful day, so The View™ will look its best.*
* well, not quite - that was a couple of weeks ago when the trees were looking their most glorious, but we can't have everything.
Update: estate agent v. pleased with the look of everything, and is putting it on the market for $5,000 more than I might have expected, with the proviso that if there aren't any bites after two weeks she'll drop it a bit.
v. pleased piglet
Hurray for successful-ish estate agent visit. Let’s hope you have swifter success here than you did your last place.
I've already had a viewing!!!
The estate agent had forgotten to pick up a lock-box when she came round to photograph the house, so she went back to get it, and one of her colleagues said she had a client who was interested, and could she take her round right away?
My agent offered me a lift to go and get light-bulbs, thereby getting me off-side so that her colleague could come in, and they had been and gone by the time we got back.
The practice here is that you have to get out of the way when an agent shows someone round your house. It wasn’t so bad in St. John's where we had a Tim Horton's just up the road, but there's nothing within walking distance of the château where I could go. This might not matter when the weather's nice - I suppose I could go for an amble - but I'm not keen on doing that if it's p*ssing with rain (or worse, sn*wing).