General Chat

Good evening all

Hope you soon feel better Gill and keeping warm do take it easy.

Being diabetic I only eat a couple of squares of the Lindt dark chocolate , as my granddaughters say a moment on the lips a lifetime on the hips.

Jane. fat quarters are squares of different patterned materials, one of my friends has them for quilting. She has made lots of quilts of all sizes.

I loved reading about your school days AnnG it's amazing how things have changed now listening to Abbie and Becky, I wouldn't want to be a teacher now.
I did enjoy sport at school being tall I was good at net ball but my favourite was hockey, not too keen on Tennis and I could tolerate the gym.

Reading about both the other Anns' pension schemes I have a similar one from the Berkshire County Council again a very generous one but the downside is I'm taxed on it with a K code. I paid into this from 1978 when I started work as assistant accountant at the Arts Centre .

I missed out on O levels passed the mocks but got very poorly and missed going back to school. I had contacted whooping cough which led to pleurisy and bronchial pneumonia so was ill for quite sometime. I would loved to have gone to university, my brother who is 7 years younger than me went to Leicester and has BA in modern languages and a PHD in Art History and has always worked in the Arts.

I was lucky with school trips the two I remember most were to the Festival of Britain
and a week in Paris, that one I came back with Scarlet Fever.

I had a full house for the Sunday roast today, the usual six. Paul and Richard have gone to Ice Hockey so it's just Ruby and me .

Frank sorry to hear you are still under the weather as the others have said you should go back to the doctor maybe you need a tonic if you are not eating much at the moment.

I was watching Country File earlier and part of it was the Norfolk Broads we had many happy family holidays there, Dad use to hire a cruiser and it was like a caravan inside and sometimes there was dingy to tow with it this had sails so that was fun.

Hi everyone, I feel rotten today, worse than yesterday so I've been asleep on and off all day. I don't know what it is, it's a bit like a mixture of a cold and flu with a cough and sore throat, not very nice at all.

I noticed poor Frank hasn't had a good nights sleep again. Your meds don't seem to agree with you Frank, maybe it's time to go and see the doctor again. Poor Ros must of been terrified, but I'm sure she understood. Never the less I would go and speak with your doctor, lack of sleep really isn't good for you.

What a palaver at OH's appointment with the car park and chemist Ann, I hope you get his meds okay tomorrow.

That's strange that you can't get your picture on here Jane, even when you click on save at the bottom of the page, maybe it is Genes and it'll be sorted soon.

How are you feeling after eating all those chocolates now Mel. Maybe you should only have a couple next time. Hope you're not feeling sick anymore.

So you've got another project Mandy, making draw string bags for the girls. I'd love to see a pic when you've finished them. Will the girls be helping you?

Interesting read bout your school days AnnG. I had to walk to school every day, it wasn't until I left school that I biked to work. I remember walking to school one day in thick fog, I bumped into a lamp post and apologised to it thinking it was a person lol. The fog was so thick you couldn't see you hand in front of your face. Another time there was thick snow and I couldn't tell if I was walking on the road or not as you couldn't see what was path and what was road. Pretty scary I can tell you.

Ann, when I returned to the MOD it was to work with the RAF. I worked in Personnel most of the time and at first I was working in Civilian Personnel so worked mainly with civilians. when we moved here I transferred and worked still in personnel but among uniformed RAF personnel. They were mainly lovely but our civilian grades were meant to equate to theirs. They would never accept that. The only time it worked was when we went away to other units, as an EO I had to stay in the Officers' mess. Uniformed personnel can be very uptight about the hierarchy, but they are not the worst. The worst can be the wives!!! I loved it though.

Jane, to avoid giving you mental indigestion I will leave a gap before another chapter. But I will look one out for you. :-D

That's true AnnG. So many people complain in the news about our civil service inflation proofed pensions once we get them, yet at the time we joined most wanted and went for the better paid jobs. I always laughed at the perception of us drinking coffee all day too. We never even had coffee breaks! When I joined, we had lots of ex military type, older men that had joined after the war, Lots of moustaches and self importance as they strode about, very conscious of their 'grade'. You were completely under their radar if you were of a lower grade and not really spoken to or even acknowledged as they passed by.

Jane you obviously had buckets more confidence than I had as a child and gained lots of experience in the work you did. I wouldn't have dared go abroad on my own and could never have been a nurse either. Your headteacher with the Roller sounded quite a character! OH has been glued to the Rugby too.

Mel, I hate it when you realise too late that too many choccies have passed your lips! They are banned here now I have to try and cut down, but like AnnG I allow myself the odd square of the 90% dark chocolate. There's no fear of over indulging in that as it's bitter like medicine but is good for you. :-S

More Chapters then AnnG please :-D
My time in Athens was an experience . I was just 18. I could write a book . When I have a bit more time I will tell a few snippets :-D I have to say I loved it but there were moments when it was not good. I am glad I did it though. I left my first real love behind too :-( He was called Stelios .

thanks Jane my OH grew up not that far down the road from you at Buckfastleigh, went to school in Totnes. But that would have been before your time.Grandson's wife grew up in South Brent. I love reading people's stories and found yours interesting. You actually did better than me in school exams and you certainly do better than me in life experience. It must have been good experience working in Athens. (Well as long as you were working for a nice family). that was just one chapter out of the 22 in my Life Story.

What are Fat Quarters Mandy?? Bags for socks sound brilliant idea for the children. There must be so many pairs of socks in that household :-D :-D.. I have enough trouble just with Chris and James's socks. :-S. There are so many alike I never know who the belong to.I just pair them all up and they get their own.

Ann, I did miss your posts but have now read them all .Thanks for doing this. We have needed someone elses memories as we ran out of ours yonks ago .It was such an interesting read. Many similarities to my younger school days .It seems many things didn't change much until the late 60s . How sad that your friend died at such a young age :-(. Cross country and running around the school field was probably my worst nightmare.I did always manage somehow not to do the whole of the Cross Country and just arriving at the end pretending to be puffed out :-D

Both you and Annx would have definitely been university candidates and it is a pity you never got there.But haven't you done well putting yourself through all those exams .
I had to get the bus home from the age of 4.Then the bus conductor would see me off the bus and across a very busy main road when I would walk the rest of the way. I would be given the bus fare (I think it was 3d) but sometimes I would buy an icecream from the van outside school and then tell the bus conductor I had lost my fare :-D.
I moved to Wembury when I was 9 and started at the Old School where there we just 2 or 3 classrooms . Ruth Wood (my dear old friend who passed away the other week aged 99) was a teacher there. Miss Hunt was another teacher and she wore a big boot/shoe on one footand had a dreadful limp. I wonder if she might have had Polio .The Headmaster was Mr Ellison and he was the one who put me off maths for life by shaming me once for getting something simple wrong.He made me stand on a chalk X on the floor in front of all the class. He emigrated to Tasmania just afer we moved to the new school that was built just further up the road. Then Mr Eaglestone became Headmaster and i am still in regular touch wth him :-D. I think he s 87 now.
I went to Plymstock Comprehensive .It was the first year of it becoming Comprehensive.The Headmaster was Mr Busby and he had a big waxed moustache and drove a Rolls Royce. He was quite a formidable character and was ofen seen flexing the cane :-S. The Head Mistress was Miss Tucker who was always falling asleep. Thinking about it now I think she must have suffered from narcolepsy. Mr Cornish was Deputy Head and he was quite a nice man as far as I can remember.
My best friend was Anne and my Mum and Dad always said she was a bad influence.
I think she probably was as she loved mucking around in class and I just went along with her. We got up to all sorts of mischief and had repercussions such as the ruler or detention.That meant not being able to get the school bus home. I can't remember now how I did get home. Anne and I among others were once threatened of being banned from using the school bus. Again I can't remember what we must have done . But is was a case of being hauled up infront of Mr Busby (with the waxed tache) He threatened to tell our parents.Oh boy that was enough to make sure we behaved(at least for a while :-D) He could have always given us a lift home in his Roller :-D :-D
I left school with just 2 O levels and 10 GCSEs.I think I got grade 1 in 3 GCSEs which was eqivilent to a pass in an O Level .( not sure if that is correct) I wasted my time at at school and know I could have 'done better' as was said many a time in my school reports. I do have some brains and eventually did something with them and became a Nurse after working in Athens as a Nanny ,being a driver for a Vet and then a Nanny again for a very well to do family . It wasn't until I was about 22 when I finally did something worthwhile and did my Nursing Training. Good job I did as that is when I met Chris.I was a Renal Nurse then and he had come to the unit for an interview . He got the job of a 3 year medical rotation and his first 3 months were on the Renal unit .
We married in 1981 :-D

I think I have gone on enough now . Chris is glues to the Rugby. 44-8 to us st the moment !!!!. James is going to have a bath and I am going to crack on with dinner.

sunny here at the moment. I have roast pork this evening for our meal. Not cooked that for ages so feel like a new cook. Other meals I know off by heart, luckily this one the timings are on the wrapper.

Ann, I know what you mean about money arriving not worked for. But it was worked for, as you said our pay was kept low to compensate for the good pension. I wish people would understand that.

It must be a continual worry about your OH's eyes. was it the original op that actually caused the problems or is it just coincidence?

Mel, naughty girl all those chocs. Luckily we have eaten all the Christmas chocs now and just allow ourselves two squares of dark chocolate every evening.

Had more hailstones and now the suns out again. Silly wether and its really cold out there.

Hope Gill is feeling better today and can get rid of that nasty cough and sore throat.

Oh is watching the back of his eyelids and I have just been naughty and eaten 5 chocolates. Feel sick now...................... wish I had'nt done it. :-S

I am going to corn the girls now and then make some sausage rolls for tea.

Frank I have told you before to ask your doctor if you can have OMEPRAZOLE capsules for your indigestion. Both oh and I take them and they are great. We don't get it anymore, well only occasionally with oh.

Yes he's had trouble with his eyes this past year AnnG. Started with cataracts removed, then he had retinal tears and lots of urgent laser treatment with theatre booked in readiness twice. He still has to have checkups every few weeks, so he doesn't need these additional problems! I joined DHSS first that became DSS, then moved to the Contributions Agency when they split it into that and the Benefits Agency, then they merged us with HMRC! Plenty of change and variety of work, but having the security of a pension at the end was important to me, even though our pay was adjusted and less to allow for the pension. I still can't believe money arrives in my bank account that I haven't had to go out and earn each month!

I suppose it can be a bit difficult with the grandchildren at times Mandy and expect they all want to be doing things as well if the others are. I wouldn't have thought of Aldi stocking things like fat quarters, it just shows how they are branching out with their stock! I shall be looking out for the Geraniums you told me about again this year! :-) I might pop there tomorrow and see what ours has as we couldn't get any dishwasher cleaner from the factory shop today.

Afternoon all,

It's been raining all the morning ,and just when you think its eased up it begins again so quite a miserable day .
We had Chelsea to stay last night ,again because Katie was staying with her friend Chelsea was a bit put out so she asked if she could come here ,i feel so tired now as i don't sleep the same as i keep listening out for her in the night .

Frank i think you should see the doctor and the sooner the better ,if it is the meds then they need sorting poor Ros must wake up wondering what the heck is going on ,it mus be making you so weary not getting the right sleep.

I was going to say did you click on save when you tried to change the photo Jane ,i didn't when i changed mine and it went back to the one i was trying to change ,i always have trouble trying to change it so i don't bother now

When i went to Aldi this week they had some Fat Quarters in there so i bought a pack ,i was showing the girls this morning and they want me to make draw string bags for them to put their socks in ,well really it was DIL who suggested it as she was saying they had to sort all their socks out so that's my next project .

Right now i'm going to read AnnG's school posts, well i will after making a cuppa

That was interesting as well Ann. Same as me then, Civil service (albeit it Admiralty and then MOD) worked well for me too and left me with a decent pension (considering I got nothing for the years I was bringing up our two children. Left full time work in 1961 and went back to full time in 1976.)

What a palaver with the hospital car park and then the chemist. Hope you get the medication ok tomorrow as I assume the sooner he starts it the sooner his eye will get better.

Morning All,

It's poured with rain all morning here but is dry and sunny now! Typical as we were off to eye casualty before 8.00am. After quite a wait OH was seen and it is Iritis he has. Then the fun began as the first pay machine to get out of the carpark was out of order so we had to walk to another and that had a notice saying the card reader wasn't working so coins only. We managed to find enough coins, but then it wouldn't take all of them. Eventually we spotted an attendant who had to get someone to unlock the machine and who said it kept jamming! We then needed to get OH the steroid drops they had prescribed as the hospital pharmacy wasn't open. We came home and saw that Lloyds in Sainsbury's down the road was open so we went there. Typical of Lloyds they hadn't got what he needed in stock, so it looks like another trip out to get them tomorrow. How on earth do people who can't drive carry on?

Frank it does sound like the medication you are taking needs looking at with these outbursts in the night. I would see the doc too. If you want to stop these bouts of indigestion, the answer is to not eat heavy or greasy meals in the evening. Your stomach produces more acid to deal with them and then lying down when you go to bed makes things worse. We would be just the same if we did it now, yet years ago we would get away with it. I'm sure you know this though but are a glutton for punishment!

That was very interesting AnnG and had some parallels with my schooldays. I was a titch, born at the end of the school year and went to 6 schools, partly due to my parents moving counties. I was expected to catch the bus at 5 years old after my mother made the trip with me the first few days. My junior school was in the next village, no bus service, so part of the daily walk was down a public footpath and across two fields and through a corner of the Cannock Chase. (I would run that bit as the evergreen pine trees made part of it quite dark! There were also lots of Adders in the area) I still went on my own even when the snow topped my wellies! I can't imagine any parent letting a child do that now! I did get strict instructions about keeping away from strangers and not talking to anyone. Being sensible was expected.That school had 2 classrooms, a blue brick playground and toilets with holes in wooden planks that got shovelled out from time to time. How great to get my first 2 wheeler bike with blocks on the pedals at 7 years old and be able to cycle to school........I did feel grown up! We didn't have berets when I started grammar school, we had sailor hats with the badge at the side between a bow! Our founder was Gabriel Newton who has statue at the city clock tower. The original school he founded was a school for poor boys in the city and he clothed them in decent uniforms to give them a good start in life. We had a Founder's Day service for him in the Cathedral every year. Our school motto on our uniform badge was 'Non sibi sed posteris', Not for ourselves but for those who come after us. The school was very old and we were there a year before moving to a brand new school outside the city. Little did we know playing in the old school playground that Richard 111 was only feet away from us and buried the other side of the wall. My lack of qualifications was mostly down to dad not believing it was worth educating girls, but I did pass all 9 GCE O levels at the first sitting. My teachers only talked of Oxford or Cambridge for my future, but dad said I could forget university so that was that and I had to leave at just 16. I never had the confidence or self belief to do anything later, but I did alright in the Civil Service and that brought me out of my shell.

Jane you did change your photo.....back to the blank one! As someone said, you may not have clicked on 'save' after you loaded the photo you want.........have another go!!

I hope Gill is feeling a bit brighter today and that her throat is less sore.

The old towels are bagged up for the dogs home now........next it's the turn of the sheets and bedding! :-)

We've got hailstones now!!!

O AnninG you do remember a lot about your school life. Thank you for putting that up as I read it while having my coffee.

I remember many of my teachers names in the secondary school. I know we had a Miss King who was our class teacher. She hit me on the head with one of those big bibles once, right on the top. Miss James who had a lovely voice and at end of term we would have a little consert and she would sing all kinds of songs. Miss Morrison took us for music and singing. Some of the songs we sang were folk songs like Molly Malone. She also had a good voice and would tell us when and where to breath and stand very straight and stick her chest out. Miss James used to fold her arms under her chest and when she did that you knew she was cross.

We had a Miss Greenhoush for maths and she did'nt have much hair and you could see her scalp through the bit of grey she did have.

For art which I loved and it was my best subject we had a Miss Adams who was tall and thin with blond hair and eyes that seemed to stick out of her head. She was good at drawing but was stricked too.

Miss Norbury took us for pottery another subject I loved and she was smashing because she was young and beatnick like. We made coil pots with her and mine was great going up and in to a narrow neck. We had to put them on shelves at the end of the lesson covered in polythene to keep them wet so we could carry on with them later. The next time we had pottery Miss Norbury was away and Miss Adams took the class. We all went for our pots from the shelves and everyone had there's except me. Mine was nowhere to be found and when I asked Miss Adams said it had gone mouldy so she threw it in the bin of used clay. I was so disappointed and when Miss Norbury came back she asked me where my pot was and I told her what Miss Adams said about it being mouldy so she threw it away and Miss Norbury said it did'nt matter if it had mould on it as it would have just wiped off. She told me it was so good she was probably jealous and thats why she threw it away.

Good morning all, sorry AFTERNOON.

I finally went to bed at 6.30 am I went straight to sleep and woke at 8.45 am dropped off again until 10.15. Ros has prepared dinner for later, and made me a COT. I don't feel too bad after the sleep, now I need to start eating properly. I have no appetite what so ever.

I said to Ros that the way I am feeling I must go and see the doctor. I don't know if there is something wrong with me that needs attention. Hopefully a blood test will help.

I know my body has been put through a lot recently, but I can't remember feeling a low as I do at the moment. My ribs still feel very tender to touch, and I get a lot of discomfort if I sit back in the armchair, I am wondering if a bit of strapping round that area might help.

Nice to see AnninGlos is putting in her pennies worth. I will sit and read your "SCHOOL DAYS" later.

Lots of rain last night, and everywhere is soak this morning. Eos was hoping to do a bit of tidying up around the beds (GARDEN) today, but it will have to wait.

Sorry for not getting involved in the thread at the Moment. but I will I promise.

Take care of yourselves, love to you all. xxxx

yes poor squashed spider. Are you sure that was an accident Mel?

Jane did you miss my tale of schooldays?

Morning all

I am still a man :-S. James has tried with a new pic but it is just now allowing me to change for some reason. He wonders if it is a problem GR end.

AnnG send OH here ,he is welcome to come and steam clean my bathroom floor too
:-D. In fact all my uncarpeted floors need a good going over.
Frank,what a night again. Poor Ros .It does sound like it could be your meds causing these nightmares and lashing out.It must be quite frightening for her . Have you tried googling side effects of whatever meds you are taking?

The sun is trying so hard here to get through.At least the rain has stopped now.We have had more rain in the last couple of days than we have had in ages.
I have a huge joint of Beef in roasting and it is just beginning to smell lovely.We will eat after the Rugby has finished later this afternoon. Chris has said he wants to watch it,which is quite unusual for him.

How is the sore throat today Gill? Hopefully not as bad as it was yesterday.
I slept well last night but feel tired which is daft.I feel like i could quite easily have a nod.

Poor squished Spider Mel :-S.. I bet you weren't really too upset were you. It is one less :-D

Hope that was not too much but I couldn't decide which bits to leave out.

and last part:
Sport was very important at Purbrook but I was no good at all at any sort of sport. Sports day was only interesting because your parents were allowed to visit and we had an afternoon off lessons. I had a friend, Ann Collins, who was excellent at running and I was very proud when she won the Victrix Ludorum in our last year. In ordinary athletics lessons I and a few friends became quite clever at hiding at the bottom of our very large sports field behind a large tree. If it snowed and we couldn’t get out on the field we were taken on long walks across Portsdown Hill, no hiding to get out of that. My friends at this school were Shirley Pickernell, Deanne Folland and, in the first three years, Dilys Nelson. Dilys lived in Bridgemary, she too was small and fairly timid, although with a wicked sense of humour. We became very close and I used to go and stay at her house. Unfortunately she had suffered from Rheumatic Fever as a young child which, unbeknown to her or her family, had left her with a weak heart. Our PE teachers were very strict and did not look lightly on anyone trying to avoid doing exercise, their version of which was to run round the field several times. Dilys complained of being exhausted and unable to run but was nevertheless made to complete a lap of the field. The next day she was away from school, she was taken to hospital suffering from an enlarged heart and some time later, 20th November 1954, she died in Portsmouth Royal Hospital. This, of course, was before the beginning of heart transplant surgery which was not until 1967. I found this really traumatic, my first brush with the death of a young person and the loss of a much loved friend. And, as all friendships were forged in the first year, I never really had a close friend at Purbrook after that.

Purbrook Park is no longer a High School, it is now a very large Comprehensive. I have been back there to meetings of ‘old Purbrookians of the fifties’. Everything these days looks so much smaller and they are chipping away at the sports fields, with planning permission being sought in 2005 for a housing estate. That is a shame, those fields were the best bit of the school!

We did not, in those days, go on many trips from school. One we did go on was to Haringey, with the Christian Fellowship, to hear the American Evangelist Billy Graham speak. This was a wonderful experience, he was an excellent and persuasive speaker and, at the age of 14, I was ‘converted’. The following year, on 15th December, I was baptised by full immersion as is the custom in the Baptist church. Reverend Eric Watson baptised me.
In my thirties I decided to do something about my lack of qualifications and returned to college firstly in Essex then, when we moved, in Gloucestershire to take ‘A’ level English with Literature. Encouraged by a pass with an A grade I then went on to take ‘O’ levels in Sociology and Accounts, passing both. After we moved to Bedfordshire I also took and passed ‘O’ level and ‘A’ level Law and GCSE Economics, thus I proved to myself that I did have a brain. I assume this was because, as an adult, I was more motivated to study.

Later, when I worked for the Ministry of Defence I attended many courses including one which gave me a B1 qualification to take lectures and training courses myself.