Re: Diary summary week ending 21st December 2025

[louisa maud]

I won't  last the day, I was òut at 07.30 to get my usual shopping,  hardly anyone in the shop, usually, I am told it is do it yourself at the till but they opened a till for me to go through the usual checkout,  then went off to the nearest town, once again not many people about, I have a home delivery between 10 and 11 if I can keep awake, it's all go and I am not cooking Christmas dinner,

LM

[Viktoria]

That is quite a hard schedule L.M. and you have been so busy of late.
I am being more sensible than usual ,it is all over in a day really .
A friend used to laugh at me - a Spring clean before Christmas!
She did it after ,when all decorations cleared away when there seemed more time and no deadline!.
Houses are easier to clean nowadays and things don’t get so dirty without coal fires and less air pollution.

But old habits die hard .

A shop tomorrow, oldest son will come to help me as second son not yet back.
Well cheerio , take care .
Viktoria.

[Caw1]

Goodness me LM I’m tired just thinking about being out by 7.30am!
As my OH would say.. what time do you call that!
We’re retired we don’t have to get up early… says the man who gets up at 6.30 once a week to play golf!
This week it was still dark when they teed off and they couldn’t see their balls… daft idiots.
I’ve never understood spring cleaning before Christmas… it needs doing afterwards!
Well I’m not cooking Christmas dinner either but I might just as well be with all the things my daughter keeps adding to my list..
Meal for the 6 of us on Christmas Eve… easy lasagne!
Cooking the ham… sausage rolls, cauliflower cheese.. lemon dessert as alternative to Christmas pudding.
I’ve made 2 jars lemon curd, 3 jars cranberry sauce, two tubs of red cabbage, gingerbread biscuits..

Hospital appointment today for nerve test on the arm I landed on in my fall in April… in and out in 20 minutes the hospital was very quiet..
Result no nerve damage to that arm but the other one she said I need a carpel tunnel op as it’s in poor state… I knew that over 30 yrs ago when I had the right hand done but never got round to it..
I said that after all that time and at my age I didn’t think I’d bother!
I don’t know you go in for one thing and come out with something else!!
It gave us time afterwards to do last bits of shopping not as disastrous as we thought.. thankfully.
Hope that’s it now other than bit of fresh veg and I might be up early as greengrocers opens at 6am… but maybe not quite that early 😂😂.

Jeff I love your card rack idea.. might be difficult to dry your washing though!

Caroline

[Jebber]

Yesterday was quite  eventful. It turned out very wet, as forecast, with localised flooding in some areas. Not here thank goodness.  Just as I settled down after lunch to watch something on T V the power went off. With no sign of it coming on again, after an hour I dug out an old battery radio and sat and listened to Classic FM and read a library book  I had already downloaded on the iPad.

It started getting dark so I put torches, candles and matches at the ready.  Luckily, I had plenty of cheese and crackers to feast on and with a gas hob was able to boil water for a hot drinks. Annoyingly I had to miss a Family History Society Christmas Zoom meeting.    

With no Internet, my mobile  battery running low and my landline and lifeline dead, the house was starting to get cold so I went up to bed at nine, at least the stairlift battery meant I was able to get up stairs. When I drew the curtains I could see the workmen digging up the road. I settled down in bed to read some more but dozed off quite quickly. I  was sleeping well for once when I was woken at twenty to two by  the lights coming on and the landline phone ringing with a recorded message telling  me the power was back on and what number to ring if it wasn’t. 

I don’t know how I stand the excitement.

[Viktoria]

Oh Jebber- excitement of that sort we can do without ——so glad things are getting better .It is really very scary when such things happen ,but so much all at once.!

Lost my bus pass today!A quick trip to our little town centre - needed turnips - there is every Saturday a big stall onour market ,good fresh stuff but the stallholder adds up in his head and you have no idea what you are paying for, he us quite surly and so I don’t ask prices !
However he was not there today - many people were quite bewildered ,he would have been very busy  .

Got home and tipped my handbag out and there was my pass- not in its little wallet as it usually is .
Had to pay £2 each way !

Managed to get two cancellations at the hairdressers ,a trim on Christmas Eve then a blow dry New Year’s Eve !
No idea what to have done!
A fourpenny all off!

I wanted a tub of Haribo ,my son  hasn’t got a sweet tooth but he does like those .I had to get lots of little packets .
Got Guliyan chocolate shells for daughter in law, and marzipan fruits for eldest son ,I give money but like to give a little present too, they are very good to me.
Grandson phoned  today ,just a chat ,he is a really nice person .
Flash Harry and Kyra’s daddy .
Hope they are up soon .

Well time for tea, an exotic meal,of vegetarian sausages ,mashed potatoes and tinned peas, Bachelor’s finest emerald green ones .
I too do not know how I stand such excitement!

Keep well folks and take care.
Jebber I hope all really is well now.
Cheerio . Viktoria.

[Jebber]

Glad you found your bus pass Viktoria, thankfully it was in your bag and not completely lost,  you won’t have to apply for a replacement.

Everything is back to normal here, dare I say everything is working and the hose is warm, I hope it stays that way.🤞

I’m just watching the big freeze of 1962. I don’t know how my mother coped, just her and a friend in a ten room house with no central heating. No man around to deal with any problems. No wonder she decided to sell up after that.  My husband and I with our 17 month old son missed it all, we had just arrived at our positing in Malta  so only knew about it from letters from home.

[BumbleB]

1962 was horrendous.  We lived in a small village and most houses were frozen out.  Luckiy I was away from home during the week, but my lodgings too were frozen. I had to wash etc. at work every day, then go back to another frozen house.  Again, I was lucky in that my "aunt" was unfrozen, so I could have my weekly bath and hair wash.  Deep joys! 

[louisa maud]

I had just met my husband on holiday in Aug 1961 but didn't start going out with him till Jan 62, last  night I tried to recall the 1962 big freeze, the heating  we had at home was an oil fired heater you could move about , wouldn't be allowed now, esso blue dealer comes to mind, I think we were so used to being cold it didn't have much impact, not like it does now even with central heating,  having changed to a combi boiler our house is nowhere as warm as when we had a back boiler

I am up at silly o'clock not being able  to sleep and I need to be up at 7am .

LM

[BushInn1746]

Oh Caroline that is a classic

Just had such a belly laugh, I nearly pulled a chest muscle!

Goodness me LM I’m tired just thinking about being out by 7.30am!
As my OH would say.. what time do you call that!
We’re retired we don’t have to get up early… says the man who gets up at 6.30 once a week to play golf!
This week it was still dark when they teed off and they couldn’t see their balls… daft idiots.

Caroline, you must remember that Golf is like a Religion!


Yes, Jebber and BumbleB, we had a 3 storey Victorian/ Edwardian Town House with Sash Windows that kept the house well ventilated with plenty of draughts! But there was still frost on the inside of the windows when getting up in the morning and we were not the Servants.

The Servants below stairs would have had the Cooking Range lit and Upstairs all the bedrooms originally had fireplaces.

Added:
Searching the subscription sites, it had been the home of the Assistant Director of Education and family over 110 years ago and after that, the family earned their income by watching and analysing time!


Glad LM that you get a Till specially opened, I don't like those pesky cards either and still want to pay cash.

Perhaps really they open a Till because they think LM stands for Lady Majesty.


Glad you have a warm house Jebber, mine is warm too, but my Smart Meter has filled up the Red and also the Crimson and saying my Weekly "Budget Exceeded". I feel sorry for the Installer's family if he thinks he can heat, cook and light his house on the silly weekly amount he set.


Someone dressed as Viktoria was nearly getting free bus rides. Glad you found your pass and I do that too, everything is back on my person, or in my back pack and when I do a check back at home, I think oh I lost it, but usually find I've not put it back in my usual / always place.


Jeff, your family want you to avoid any lofty ideas going up the step ladder.


Gillg

"King George V did not help Tsar Nicholas II primarily because of the political dangers that hosting the deeply unpopular Romanovs would have" ...

"The decision was a complex political calculation involving the British government and the King's advisors" ...

"King George V's refusal to grant asylum to Tsar Nicholas II did not directly change the course or outcome of World War I. The key events that affected the war—the Russian Revolution and subsequent withdrawal from the conflict—had already been set in motion" ...


I don't think it made any difference to WW 1.


My Gt Grandfather was a Butler for an Aristocratic family who were friends of George V.


My late Grandfather discussed the matter at great length with me and to keep politics and this outside pressure out of a family decision.


All the best Mark