Today I shall be Mainly...

[Marilyn]

Not everyone gets along with their mother~in~ law, Stanley. My Febby can not stand his!

[Nolic]

I've had to get along with mine as she has more or less been living with us for a week and a half as Cath's dad has had a stroke and is in hospital. Pam has Alzheimers and cannot be left alone for any length of time. Cath is having to stay the night at her house as we tried her sleeping here and she is wandering during the night and we feared she may fall down the stairs. Hard work and a lot of pressure for Cath. Nolic

[Stanley]

I once heard a joke about a conversation between two bats hanging from the ceiling of a cave. One asked the other what his greatest fear was in old age. He replied "Incontinence".
I think I might be in a majority when I say that if I have a fear, it is dementia in some form or another. It must be terrible to have to care for someone who is not the person you knew all your life and who often doesn't remember the carer. Commiserations Comrade and please give my love to Cath.

[EileenDavid]

I got on with my mother in law better than Dave got on with her. He thought his mother in law was wonderful I loved her as well. Today we will be doing bits ready for when we leave next week. Eileen

[Wendyf]

Trust you to suss that one out Maz It is much less stressful all round if I go by myself. Col will come with me if it's absolutely necessary and there is job he can get on with. Even then Mum wont leave him to get on with it, she will fuss around telling him to be careful etc etc. They have never been able to cope with each other.

Sorry to hear about your in-laws Nolic, sounds like a tough situation.

[Marilyn]

I'm sorry to hear about your in-law worries too, Nolic.
( gosh...aren't some of us going through some stuff at the moment?)
Thankfully, my mother lives over 8 hours drive away, so we don't have a huge involvement in each other's lives, and I don't feel the least bit guilty about that. We do correspond by letter and she seems in good health and has most of the marbles she started off with. It is a running joke in our family that she offered Febby a thousand dollars to marry me ( I kid you not and I was terribly offended !). AND she has never paid up!! We often laugh that she owes us money...

[Nolic]

We are more worried that when Bernard gets home they will again refuse any outside help. He ignored Pam's deteriorating mental state for years and would not listen to us and 18 months ago was still insistent on telling everyone she was fine. Perhaps it will be a blessing if he does not fully recover and realises that he cannot go on caring for her.

The site is a bit like our little street at the moment where every family has had a serious illness or a bereavement in the past few weeks. Nolic

[Stanley]

Comrade, overall incidence perhaps no higher but the thing about the site is that we talk to each other. So many desperate situations are masked because people don't communicate. Those of us with only minor worries read, commiserate and thank God we are spared. I go on about my minor problems with my eyes and then read Eileen's posts.... I always remember my dad telling me about walking down the street with no boots and meeting a bloke with no feet. Apocryphal of course but it illustrates the point.
Today I shall be working on the LTP files getting them ready for loading on the new site.

[Stanley]

Getting me new teeth and working on the LTP.

[EileenDavid]

Good luck with the new teeth, today we will be starting the clean on the van ready for us coming home on Sunday. Got rentals in the van end of July so has to be spot on. Had a few viewings for selling but no takers as yet. Eileen

[Wendyf]

Starting to clean the house ready for visitors at the weekend.

[Tizer]

All these stories from the likes of Nolic and Wendy sound so familiar. I wonder what it'll be like when more of the computer-literate era begin losing our marbles and doing daft things on the Internet and causing troubles for our relatives and carers!

[Stanley]

It's happening now Tiz.... Look at some of the posts on the site!
Today I shall be doing more work on the LTP.....

[Sue]

On the ferry to France, beautiful evening and a lovely drive down. The Tour de France passes through La Gacilly and Carentoir on the 9th. We will be there. Then off to Carcasonne for a few days. Weather forecast is brilliant. New summer dresses are in the suit case, ( the products of my sewing labour) I may even wear them!

[Stanley]

You're not going to believe this..... working on the LTP reload!

[Nolic]

Heading to deepest Cheshire in a very old and battered Peugot to help get a residential school out of special measures. Nollic

[Tizer]

Nolic, they won't let you into Cheshire in "a very old and battered Peugot", you'll need a brand new beamer or merc at least!

[Marilyn]

Heading to deepest Cheshire in a very old and battered Peugot to help get a residential school out of special measures. Nollic

Not sure of what "special measures" means...but do you have the outfit to complete the image? i am thinking that shoes that need the soles re-gluing and possibly pockets hanging out would do justice to a slightly unravelled, multi-coloured cardigan, that had completely 'gone' at the wrist and waist bands? A much recycled paper bag carrying an odorous curried egg sarnie and a very brown banana to complete the ensemble....oh...and skip the shave and deodorant as well.
( please advise if I have got the wrong impression of your mission)

[Nolic]

The school has been deemed to be inadequate by Ofsted the education regulator. Its not a bad school just faced a barrage of unfortunate circumstances with senior staff illness and kids inappropriately placed. Battered Peugot is her dads car and I'm using it to allow Cath to use our car for taking her mum to visit dad in hospital. My dress was quite respectable - trousers, shirt but NO TIE. Lunch was a light buffet whilst the kids tucked into home made chicken burgers. Now all I have to do is get all my thoughts and notes into a report for them. They've also commissioned me to do some training for the staff. Nolic

[PanBiker]

For about an hour, fitting new tyres to my mountain bike. These to replace the virtual tractor tyres fitted as standard. The new Schwalbe CX Comp tyres are are slightly narrower with a much lighter, hybrid use tread pattern. The bike should be much quieter now and by all the reviews should give increased speed for the same effort.

[Stanley]

Comrade, so much for a leisured retirement. You're like an old firehorse that here's the alarm bell!
I shall be checking my LTP files before I load them....

[Sue]

I will spend the morning gardening here in Brittany, but after then it will be far too hot, time to retreat into the shade.

Arrived yesterday to herbs the size of bushes and veggie plants disappearing under the weeds. Some order has been restored and I have discovered lettuce, beans, healthy leek, corn and courgette plants. I have cauliflowers and cabbages ready to pick

There are pounds of huge strawberries. These plants are years old. I just split the crowns, plant runners and feed with horse manure(dried in bags from the supermarket) twice yearly. DELICIOUS!

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[Stanley]

You've made my mouth water Sue! It all looks very fecund....

[Wendyf]

It looks wonderful Sue...especially the strawberries. It's a lovely sunny morning here, but there is a quite a stiff breeze still. A morning in the Heritage Room down in Earby where we are still preparing for the Ranch Exhibition at the end of the month, then I need to get the mower out this aft.
Col has nearly finished work in the utility room and it's looking wonderful. I spent ages yesterday trying to arrange the lovely coloured tiles we bought for the splashback into an acceptable pattern ready for tiling to go ahead this morning. Must remember to work out a pattern before buying the tiles next time!

[Sue]

When Bob did Claire's multi coloured tiles in her kitchen she wanted them random so I applied the scientific approach. We numbered all the boxes and used random number tables to select the tiles. It worked beautifully.