Tony_S

Morning all. Our trip to and from Enfield yesterday was uneventful. We thought we may have had a slow journey home but the delays due to traffic incidents all cleared during the journey. MiL was having financial anxieties yesterday. I think the money being spent on care costs worries her. She said she misses doing her own finances, and checking bills. I explained and reassured her about her finances . I have done this so many times but of course she forgets. Aditi and I have no part in MiL’s financial arrangements but I suspect we are better at explaining them. I watched the cricket from Trinidad last night. I watched the last few overs on my iPad while sitting in bed. I didn’t bother with the post match analysis mainly because I had the sound off . I have been tracking our turkey delivery, from despatch yesterday from the farm in Danbury (near Chelmsford), it arrived in Basildon early this morning and is now on a FedEx.van and due to arrive between 8.40 and 12.40. I will be looking out as while it would be unlikely to be stolen from our front step I can’t be so,sure about the local fox population. Tony

I am fortunate. I was put on the statin that is first choice for heart related conditions. It works very well and I am fortunate not to have any the unpleasant side effects. A near neighbour had his heart problems at the same time as me and had very serious statin side effects. One good result was that when investigations about muscle weakness and falling over were started they also found he had a cancerous tumour on a kidney. He is fine now, walking about and working!

Replacing headlamp bulbs on some cars really require someone with tiny hands and long skinny arms. Or as you say, taking the front off.

“do you do?” or “”long is a piece of string?”

I have no idea If it rained or was windy last night. Slept very well after our meal at the Golden Prawn (or shrimp, not totally sure of my translation). We are off to Enfield soon so hopefully the weather there isn’t too bad. We can usually park right outside MiL’s residence. There is an underground garage but we would have to go up and get her entry fob so it usually easier to walk a bit. Tony

Isn’t Mrs Bob on record as saying she doesn’t want you getting annoyed later about missing special offers and just buy it.

Typing Roy Cazaly into Google UK gives pages of results …

We have managed to acquire a visiting slot in MiL’s social calendar and will go over tomorrow. However she said she is very tired and doesn’t feel like getting up. Aditi said she doesn’t expect her Mum to provide food and entertainment. I know MiL always responds well to visits from Aditi though when Aditi’s sister was away on holiday it didn’t take long for Aditi to,be cast as “the bossy daughter” when she needed her Mum to do something. I didn’t think there was enough petrol in my car for a trip out tomorrow, so filled its tank up. For those who are interested it was £1.38 a litre. I don’t follow prices closely, I think it may have been more when I last filled up but that was some time ago. We will be venturing out after dark this evening. We will be meeting some friends at a restaurant down near the station. There isn’t any parking at the restaurant but one of the friends lives nearby so we can park on her drive. We could go on the bus I suppose but we won’t be! I am happy to be designated driver. The restaurant is Italian, I think its name translates as “The Golden Prawn’, once upon a time it was a seafood stall. I would have gone to,one of the three nearby pubs but they all have entertainment this week. There is no indication online that the restaurant had any Christmas theme to the menu. We will see. Tony

Instead of TT it could be HO HO HO scale….

Same here, except black should be added to your list. I have to look for other clues in car parks for mine to distinguish it from other black 4x4 boxes. It has two shark fin aerials on the roof but that isn’t a great help. There is a “find my car” phone option but I can usually rely on Aditi. Must be her training as a geographer.

We were at a Renault dealer once looking at sensible family cars when Aditi noticed one of the the Megane cabriolets in bright yellow. She announced something like “oh look at that lovely custard car”. The salesman said “ it is called sunflower yellow”. Aditi told him they would probably sell more if were called custard yellow”. We bought a Scenic, it was red.

@BR60103 Happy 77th Birthday. Have a great day. Tony

The artwork on a local postbox is the nearest we are going to get to a white Christmas here.

I have no excuse for consuming the cake Aditi purchased after visiting the hairdresser. It was called a Christmas bun. It was like a Chelsea bun but with some sort of seasonal spices.

How about https://www.s-r-s.org.uk/html/gwb/S706.htm If you are looking for any photos online for research you need to make sure you are looking at the Great Western branch not the Colonel Stephens line.

Is this seasonal traffic or “security checks”. On our last trip (2019) from Austria there were considerable delays as Austrian border security were checking every vehicle. All the Germans we met insisted it was nothing to do with them. No one seemed to know why it was happening but it was for a few weeks at least.

According to the song that would be the carpenter following on from the gas person.

Aditi went to Brentwood to get her hair cut this afternoon. The cash only car park she usually uses was full so she had to go to the nearby multi storey, which has a “scan this notice QR code” system for payment. She returned home with some cakes though she said she had a silent “ow much” moment as two cakes from Gail’s Bakery came to £8. More expensive than Bettys in Yorkshire! We shared one and will have the other one tomorrow. We may not be seeing MiL before Christmas. This weekend it seems she has a busy social schedule that doesn’t leave much opportunity for us to visit. Tony

When we were first married we took advantage of the six months free credit offers available then. We knew we would have the income but didn’t have the cash to buy a cooker and a refrigerator. Aditi has inherited her family reluctance to pay interest. It isn’t a prohibition like Islamic belief, just a reluctance. Fortunately it didn’t seem to apply to mortgages. We did try to buy to last. We did save up for our first lounge furniture and it moved with us to this house. It was quite worn out but we were not going to replace until we found something we both liked. I do like repairing things. But now I tend to only do so when the item has been scheduled for replacement. Then I don’t feel bad if my repair breaks the item beyond help. I was especially pleased with the Kenwood Chef (over 40years old remotoring ). That was a useful use of the internet and my toolbox. Without the internet and search engines I would never have found a company that made a conversion kit to put a new Kenwood motor and speed control into an old model. One thing I don’t mind not doing myself now are car repairs. I have over the years spent quite enough time in horrid weather fixing vehicles that we needed for work. Now I like a car that starts when it is supposed to, and someone else services. At one time I thought when I retired would like an older car to tinker with. Having a few years of cars that needed fixing soon changed that. Model railways deal with any tendency to have something to sort out.

Not long after he arrived in Calgary, Matthew and some friends went for a hike one weekend on the trails near Lake Louise. They were going to return the following the following weekend but the trail they wanted to walk on was closed. A bear had killed and eaten a dog (small terrier) that was off lead and irritating it. To protect the bears the path was closed. We visited Lake Louise with Matthew at the following Easter during a snowstorm. I think all the bears were asleep then. You did have to be aware of horse drawn sleighs on the lake path though. The chateau hotel was very welcoming at the end for a meal and drinks.

I assume the change of order acknowledgments don’t go to her phone!

Morning all. It is raining here. We have venture out across the estuarial waters to Canvey today. Bit of an exaggeration really , it is a fairly short bridge over the creek. The clinic shares a car park with a Sainsbury but I don’t think I will be sent off to do any shopping. TONY

I wasn’t at all offended. As it turns out advice on protective headwear may be very useful. We have had port visits on cruises cancelled due to rough sea conditions. Iceland could be rough land instead.

We won’t be venturing too far. I took Aditi for her shingles vaccine today. It didn’t take long, they don’t have to interrogate you to see if you can have the more expensive version now, everyone gets it. She gets to be taken to Canvey for another medical examination tomorrow. I will drive so we don’t have to look for a parking space. She is off out in the afternoon for a hair cut. My chauffeur skills will not be required. Then I think it will be my turn (it usually is) to be designated driver when we meet some friends at a restaurant in Benfleet on Wednesday. We tried to find a pub for the meal but they all have events on this week which wouldn’t make it easy to chat. Then “at home “ until we go and see MiL at the weekend. Tony

We drove north in glorious sunshine. There was still snow about when we went but the sky was so clear. When we drove south a week later it was snowing heavily, poor visibility, windy, not at all nice. I am glad we stopped for photos on the way north.