OneGuyFromBarlick

The rain has now set in for the rest of the week. No more gardening. The rivers are in flood. Today I shall cook and prepare for our soirée tomorrow evening. Then I shall do some painting, art that is , not decorating.

This family history.....meant to do work on Birtwistles on Monday but got sidetracked with Wainmans! So it is Birtwistles today - I have them back to 1160, there are a couple of books on them, the original one has quite a few errors which we have sorted out -it is a world wide family with a co-ordinator in USA, so there is more work to do as different things come on line.

You make me feel guilty Moh! I'm just sat here reading.......

Market day, lunch out, friends round for Christmas aperitifs at tea time

Another library day for research hopefully enough information to collate whilst the library is closed 03.01.2013. Eileen

Well we had a good evening and I decided to wear appropriate head gear!

They must be stuck on well if they stay on while you are lying down....
I shall be comfortable in my mind knowing that I have set in progress my exit from Orange and my new service from Talk Talk. Can't tell you what a pain Orange have been. That's all over now and before anyone says it, I know they are all tarred with the same brush but TT couldn't be worse than Orange have been,

Cheating Stanley, they are on a headband. My sister said, funny hats are the rule for our Christmas Day with her. having got the required headgear, I thought I would trial it here!!

Like the head gear Sue, Stanley with regards to IT I have been assured by several of the younger generation that o2 my supplier are one of the most reliable. I pay for my landline from BT and as long as I top my mobile phone up £10 every 3 months I pay £9.50 for my broadband. Not sure about Talk Talk didn't stay with them long enough. Most of the people I know thats with them say it's OK as long as it's straight forward but the phone calls to India are murder.

Today we are hoping to do a food shop without too much trauma of packed shops you would think they were never opening again, followed by having my hair done. It was said that the average Christmas dinner costs £170 for 4 people. What do you think of that? Eileen

Finished all my Christmas food shopping apart from the turkey which we will collect on Monday morning.

Cleaning, washing and visiting an elderly neighbour in hospital. She fell down the stairs and broke both arms, her collarbone and worse than that, her back! She looked a lot better than I expected. I never thought I would have to put my French into action, sick visiting in hospital.

Ferry home tomorrow.

Hell's Bells Sue, how far did she fall!?

She got up in the middle of the night in the dark, to go to the toilet. On the way back instead of turning into the bedroom, she turned into the stairs.the stairs twists and as far as we can gather she fell over the banister rail. Roland thought she was dead. They are such a lovely couple it is a tragedy to see them like this.

How sad Sue I wish them well. Today I will be visiting one of my brothers then 2 of the grandchildren. Eileen

Bob says she did fall down the stairs but because of the way they twist she will have bounced off the rails and the stairs. Chantal in 82 and Roland is 84. Last year she was in hospital for about 4 months. She had a reaction to some medication which manifested itself like a stroke, and she became unstable on her feet. She fell down the stairs then as well and has walked with a stick most of the time since. They have taken us under their wing and been extremely kind to us. Our French has improved dramatically because of them .they speak no English so French is the only way we can communicate but we spend many happy hours in their company.

Thanking my lucky stars I don't have to go anywhere!
I think I'll have my annual performance of the Messiah from Huddersfield Town Hall. The old recording conducted by Malcolm Sargent.

After the visiting yesterday, when we arrived home we had more visitors my boy with Harry (home from Uni) and Beth whose hoping to go to St Andrew's to study physics in 18months time. Today it should be quiet but who knows. Eileen

Don't bet on it Eileen!
Slight change of plan, I'm sat here listening to the Marriner 1743 Messiah. They went back to the original score and it goes at a hell of a pace! Lasts less than an hour and a half....

Doing a bit more cleaning, getting beds ready for visitors and decorating the Xmas tree. Col is still doing insulation and draught proofing, but is now working in the passage between the house & barn, so most of the mess is outside the house...but it does have a tendency to come in with him. There are bits of Rockwool, flakes of old limewash and blobs of expanding foam filler trailing through the kitchen. Hey Ho!

I'm having a quiet day before the onslaught of festivities!!

Home!

Last minute Xmas shopping, I need some parsnips and fruit!

Cleaning all done so a restful afternoon.

A bit of food shopping for tonight. A trip to the hairdressers. This evening I am making a Chinese banquet and I number two daughter is joining us .Tomorrow we are at my sisters, so no turkey etc to cook.

Everything done. Rib of beef cooking slowly since 22:00 last night and I've put a loaf in which will be out and cooling by 08:30. So all I have to do is walk Jack, run the vacuum over the carpets and cook the parsnips to have in our beef butty Xmas dinner.