Today I shall be Mainly...

[Sue]

Maz, in general Bob and I clean between us, although we also have a cleaner once a week who does the rooms we use most of the time. It was a luxury we decided to have a few years ago after I slipped a disc and could hardly walk for 9 months and at the same time Bob had a hernia operation and was told not to lift anything heavy, push shopping trolleys, vacuum cleaners or lawnmowers ( not that we have a lawn...got rid of it years ago because its so wet here). I usually do the bathroom before my morning shower. In France I do all the cleaning, its a big house but is easy to clean. Bob cooks here I cook in France. We do our household and food shopping online and have it delivered for the same reason as having a cleaner. Also neither of us likes the trudge round the shops, loading and unloading shopping into the car, although we have to in France but we have the space to store bulk buys over there and a freezer full of home grown fruit and veg.

A friend once came over for coffee with Bob , he said he wanted to get out of the house because his wife was cleaning. I said that it wouldn’t be a problem here as I don’t clean

[Sue]

Actually Stanley in France I do have a robot, one of those robot floor sweepers, great fun and ideal for constantly dusty floors. She is not called Bob but is called Gertie...Dirty Gertie. A nice litlle rhyme. We tried to explain the name to our french friends but didn’t get vey far! Gertie does a good sweep round most morings.

[Sue]

PS we don’t sit down in this house except at meal times or cup of tea time ( and the latter for as long as it takes to drink) . We do collapse in the evening and are great Tv and iPad lovers. Its a good job we are both hyperactive. Of course that is after I get back from art,pilates, yoga, and Bob from his model engineers meetings.

[Stanley]

Impressive Sue.... Is U3A still going? You make me feel lazy.
Today is shopping, butcher's first then veggies. Always a busy day and made worse today by the fact I was an hour late up (I know, but 4AM is late for me....). I shall take a view on the shed later. I never feel guilty about my afternoon sleep, by the time I go up for it I have done about 8 hours of honest endeavour and I deserve a rest! This regime seems to suit me.

[Sue]

Yes it is Stanley Todmorden U3A has reached 524 members as of yesterday, its the tenth anniversary this year and I think we joined in the second year. Quite a few of my activities are at the U3A, writing, craft, french, one of my art classes, wine tasting and lunch club. Its a great society to belong to. We pay £15 a year for membership and have a reciprocal membership with Burnley and a few others whereby you can go to their activities without further payment. Of course there may be a room hire charge for individual groups depending on where you meet.

Today is U3A art followed by our weekly extended lunch with our friends that have recently moved house. Its a nice way to round off a busy week. We go every week simply because we can!

[Sue]

Ps Stanley, as for your sleep I am not surprised , you are up with sun or earlier most mornings. I must admit if we go anywhere in the car in the afternoon and Bob is driving I promptly fall asleep for anything up to an hour and we don’t get up till about 8.30, having spent a leisurely hour awake with a cup of tea and an iPad

[Stanley]

Glad U3A is doing well! (I used the footspa only last week.....)
I'm convinced we are designed for two periods of sleep, at night and in the middle of the day after a meal, hence the Mediterranean siesta.

[Marilyn]

Oh Gawd...I could never be in bed after 7am at the very latest, and I have usually had a coffee and watched the News (twice) by then!
I avoid afternoon naps, unless we have had a busy few days and it is really unavoidable.
Mind you, I turn into a pumpkin after 9.30pm at night and am not in the mood to discuss important subjects ( such as finances or politics). By then, I am in countdown mode for bed. My eyes glaze over and I can only manage one word answers.
I am a morning person. All cogs blazing and turning at sunrise. I literally jump out of bed ready to "rock" in the mornings. ( it always annoyed my son, who was not a morning person) we still laugh about how he struggled with a fully charged mother in the mornings....

[Sue]

I can wake any time after 6.15 a.m, but Bob wakes at 7.15 every morning precisely, promptly gets up to make a cup of tea. I don’t get up when I wake as I don’t like to disturb him. We drink the tea have a chat, look at the news etc online, then Bob showers whilst I make the bed, put the washer on etc. I shower whilst he makes the breakfast . One or both of us are usually out by 9.00 am for whatever we are doing. We may be out all day or back at lunch time. This evening Bob is out, i have done the ironing, shortened two pairs of shorts and am now watching TV. feet up.

[Stanley]

Shortened shorts? Have fashions changed or are you getting adventurous in your advancing years?
Everyone has their own sleep patterns which suit them and the nice thing is that we have freedom to do what we want. I like the early mornings, I can get things done which would interfere with normal daily activities. This morning I have voted in the Co-op Annual Meeting and set my energy tariffs for the next two years. Now I can do the enjoyable things like talking to you lot and getting on with the day......

[Sue]

You should have seen the shorts Stanley, I think they were made for someone 6 feet tall, they were below the knee, they are now just above my knee, walking shorts I think they are called.

[Stanley]

Do you remember the sketch that Morecambe and Wise did where Eric had the enormous shorts on with wires in the bottom of the legs? Ernie asked him if he had the scrolls and Eric said no, he always walked like that.
I shall continue with my high risk milling, taking lumps off the perfectly shaped and finished carronade. One slip and I shall spoil it.....

[Sue]

A little packing this morning ready for our french trip. This afternoon we are going to see Erin in a show put on by her dance school. Its at Middleton Civic hall and is quite a professional production. I think Erin features in three routines.

Despite the weather forecast we had no rain or thunderstorms yesterday. Unfortunately the forecast has changed to rain in France, we were initially expecting a dry warm week . However if its changed once it can change again!

[Stanley]

That'll be right Sue..... Never boring!
I never got in the shed yesterday for a number of reasons but I'll be in there this morning......

[Sue]

What a lovely show, it was a very enjoyable afternoon. My goodness those dancers have energy.

We are off to Portsmouth today, the crossing should be calm.

I had a facebook message yesterday from one of our ex french neighbours. They were our first neighbours there, very inclusive and great fun. They moved after about 5 years but I have kept in touch with the Mum, Corinne through facebook. It was her burthday this week so I sent my birthday wishes. Sadly this instigated the message from the daughter ( who was only 8 when we knew them and is now 21) to say her Mum had died from a brain aneurysm. Apparently it could be inherited and she is to have a brain scan in June. I feel very sad about this. She was such a lovely helpful lady who resolved many of our early problems. She leaves a husband, 12 year old daughter and a17 year old son. Tiphaine works as a nursing auxillary and lives locally so she says she will call in to see us whilst we are over there.

[Stanley]

It's unfair that the young have all that energy. Here I am knowing exactly what to do with it and feeling tired.
That's the problem with birthdays and Xmas Card lists as you get older.... You get those sad little messages back 'Sorry to have to tell you......'. The bad news Sue is that it gets worse!
I hope to get a bit of time in the shed pondering before walking Jack and going for my 10AM appointment with Dracula at the surgery. They tell me they need it because of an aberrant Sodium level in my last bloods and it may indicate kidney problems. But then again it may not.... Nice to know they are looking at the results but I can do without it. The miracle is that at my age I have the results that I have for all the other values.....

[Sue]

Arrived safely after a calm crossing except mid channel in the middle of the night. All is well apart from tbe rampant grass and weeds. Nice sunny day.

[Wendyf]

I'm just back from Ilkley and a lunch time meeting with an old friend who I haven't seen for nearly 50 years. We grew up next door to each other on either side of a semi in Leeds, and practically lived together from being 5 years old to 18 when we went our separate ways. One knock on the party wall meant "pick up the phone" for a chat, (it was a party line), and two knocks on our adjoining bedroom wall meant "lean out of the window, I've got something to tell you!"
So lovely to see her again, we recognised each other straight away across the car park.

[Sue]

I like that Wendy.

A few years ago I met up with an old school friend. We were visiting Kew and she lived in Richmond. I hadn’t seen her since the day I told her I was expecting Julia which was about 39 years previously. She looked just the same but much thinner, too thin....we started chatting and giggling like it was just a day since we had seen each other. She lives in some remote part of Sweden now, we probably won’t meet up again. But if we do I am sure it will be just the same. I think that is a sign of true friendship. We met in first form grammar school in the North east and we remained constant friends till we both graduated me from Salford and Kathleen from Sheffield, but then she moved to London and I stayed in Manchester. Our paths no longer crossed unless I had a meeting in London which I did occasionally,such as the time in Knightsbridge when I told her I was pregnant.

[Wendyf]

It was a really special experience Sue. It took me a while to track her down...'she didn't have an obvious presence on Facebook so I used my family history search experience to locate a marriage and then children for her. I found a possible son working for a company in Leeds and wrote to him explaining who I was and that I would love to contact his mother. It worked and Judith got in touch with me a couple of weeks ago, she and her husband have been living in Spain for nearly 20 years but have a mobile home not far from Harewood where they are staying at the moment. It turns out that for a few years they lived about ten miles away from us in Scotland.

[Stanley]

Three of my mates from school days and cycling met up for a 50th anniversary in a hotel at Buxton some years ago. It was hilarious, we stayed 3 days and the management congratulated us on elevating the bar takings to record levels..... Two kept in touch but one died suddenly so only one is left in Oz. We're still talking to each other. His father was Jack Iddon the cricketer at Lancashire.....
Quietly forwards with the Carronade.

[Marilyn]

Getting back to normal living. Waved the kids and the dog off this morning after dog-sitting for 12 days.
It's so quiet here! It is wonderful...
We have been ever so busy these past 6 weeks and it is nice to see the calendar empty for next week. The week after that is another thing entirely, but at least we can chill for a whole week.
We have now bought a new stove, so it is back to the kitchen fitter with dimensions and to get a final price.

[Sue]

It was a really special experience Sue. It took me a while to track her down...'she didn't have an obvious presence on Facebook so I used my family history search experience to locate a marriage and then children for her. I found a possible son working for a company in Leeds and wrote to him explaining who I was and that I would love to contact his mother. It worked and Judith got in touch with me a couple of weeks ago, she and her husband have been living in Spain for nearly 20 years but have a mobile home not far from Harewood where they are staying at the moment. It turns out that for a few years they lived about ten miles away from us in Scotland.

I did something similar, but finally found her through FRIENDS REUNITED. She had been looking for me too and put her name on there when it first started. I believe it has now closed down but not sure about that. I found three close school friends through that but Kathleen was the most important one.

Using my genealogy I also managed to track down a long lost cousin. My aunty had memory problems and forgot to pass on my messages to him or lost them. I found him eventually via the electoral roll although he no longer lived at the house his ex wife did and saved my letter until she saw him again. He is a DJ in Ibiza and in Sheffield. Anyway we made contact a month before my Aunty died. If we hadn’t done so I would not have known she had died.At her funeral I was introduced to cousins on my Mums side that I had never met or knew about, I found my missing link to my Mums family.

Its damp this morning as expected but hopefully I can tackle the veggie plots . They have been covered with ground sheets all winter but need weeding and rotavating with some fertiliser. Normally we use our compost but we had a bulk bag of fertiliser at home that had been in Bobs Dads greenhouse. There was far too much for our small garden at home so decided to bring it here. I will then recover with biodegradable weed suppressant membrane. I have to plant through that as otherwise the plots return to field!

Our willow plants that will form the basis of the living tunnel on the railway track have at last taken. The damp winter seems to have done them good. Its taken three years to get established but there is a long way to go yet.

[Stanley]

So no relaxing in the deck chair on a mild day?



Moving quietly forward in the shed...... (and listening to 'Secrets' on R4 at 09:30. Yesterday was brilliant!)

[Sue]

So no relaxing in the deck chair on a mild day

First we need to find a lawn to put one on Stanley!

No at this time of year we come to do garden jobs, relaxation comes in the summe visits . Today i hope to get the veggie plots ready for planting. We brought courgettes, butternut squash and pumpkin plants and need the ground ready to put them in. I have already planted some runner beans. They are called patio beans so have planted them in the pots next to the supporting posts of the wooden pergola. The nice weather breaks tomorrow, then we are expecting rain. However the market on saturday will probably be selling plants too, so despite the rain planting will continue.

Then we will work inside. Bob is busy doing an ensuite to the master bedroom and I a have a final coat of paint to do in rhe small toilet.

Yesterday I picked rhubarb, masses of rhubarb and delivered small bags to our neignbours. We have a new neighbour in the hamlet and it was an opportunity to meet them and have a chat. Two other families popped round to see us when we arrived which was nice. We haven’t felt so included for years. Roland has always been a good friend. He came over for apéritives on tuesday night and we went there last night. His wife died over a year ago now and its nice to see he has a new lady friend, Nicole, who is also widowed. She us very interesting to talk to and is keen to learn a little English. I think they met at the social club where he goes each week. Latticea and all the family also popped over and brought us some eggs and stayed for a coffee. We keep in touch through facebook which is when that website really comes into its own.

Today promises to be dry and sunny but not too hot. I shall finish my cup of tea and get moving, there is a lot to do if I want to beat the rain.