General Chat

Florence -
yes, some people locally have no power, but mine is OK, thank goodness.

It's gone off in a very random way
In this village, some houses have power and some don't - and not in groups, but just odd houses here and there, randomly on or off.

Apparently it's a local transformer fault.

I haven't gone out to look for damage, but haven't heard any crashing or banging, so hope everything's still where it should be! I'll have a look tomorrow in daylight.

It has been VERY, VERY windy here and we are obeying instructions and staying indoors. There are no trains, buses or ferries, the schools are all closed, the surgery is only partly staffed, for emergencies only and there are only a handful of cars on the road, which looks a bit like a lake.

When I got up at about 8am it was high tide and the sight was magnificent. The waves were breaking right up over the road and the spray was reaching half-way up our drive. It is now beginning to calm down - slightly! OH had one of the "red alerts" on his phone yesterday and again this morning. This is apparently the first time it has been used in Scotland and it was sent to 4.5million people in the Central Belt.

I was going to post this earlier but we had a power cut just after I finished getting lunch and it very kindly came back on as I was about to get tea!

The only visible damage is minor, but we haven't ventured outside to look at the roof yet. There is no sign of chimney pots on the ground, or slates, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. It was apparently the strongest wind ever recorded in the UK.

Keep safe, everyone. :-)

ArgyllGran, i checked on the power map to see if you had power and some are off in that area.

Gwyn, with over 30 years of living here, Im always prepared lol

Joan , hope you are safe and well. Can you message us if you have power?

off to make early tea tonight.

Florence in the hebrides

It hasn’t been too bad here, although it is very windy. My sister is staying for a couple of nights, so I took her to Esme’s school bakery this morning. That is an experience which she won’t forget :-)

We then drive into town to have lunch in a cafe. They have just set off to drive to Leeds, only half an hour as it is their youngest granddaughters birthday, they will be back this evening.

I hope everyone in Scotland is OK, it looks bad up there according to the news reports.

I hope it doesn't get too bad for you in the north.
Hoping too that Joan doesn't lose power, as she is in rather an exposed location I think.

Conditions have eased here and we actually saw the sun for a brief time, but we have been warned that things will get wild again later :-|

Well done on being well prepared Florence. :-D

Keep safe everyone <3

it is 10 degrees here, dry and sunny with a brisk but not horrendous wind.Think it is supposed to get worse overnight.

Same here, Florence.

It was windier about 10am than it is now.
Maybe it's the calm before the storm!


ADDED -
Half an hour later:
It's windier now!
The lights keep flickering slightly, so fingers crossed the power stays on.

Afternoon all
Hope everyone is safe and well.

Very windy here at 7am and thought storm had come early but....it died down until last 10 mins and its now picking up. Think it will be worse for us late afternoon.

Its actually quite mild outside as I went for a small walk around and out to the bins.

Have filled flasks and tea all prepped to have about 4.30pm anyway so as always well prepared.

Stay safe all

Florence in the hebrides

Afternoon all
My nurse finally came at 4.45!!! However my left calf has reduced by 6cm and my ankles 3cm so she was very pleased with me. So now she has ordered new stocking in smaller sizes which takes about 2-3 weeks and revisit me to see which onw fits the best.

Over all a good result!

Now the "storm" coming tomorrow is looking pretty awful for those in the central belt including Glasgow, Northern Ireland etc and further south. We are still set for a bashing as per.

So I hope everyone secures their items outside and is prepared if you are in the path of Eowyn. Fill a flask etc is all you can do really and stay safe.

Flat calm again here just now and a pleasant day. I noticed yesterday I have a yellow crocus in full bloom, rose buds, still have leaves on my geranium too, which is a bit barmy!!

Off to have some lunch now

Florence in the hebrides

I hope they your nurse finally turned up Florence.
It is really cold here, I went to my slimming class, but am glad to be back home.

My sister and brother in law are arriving this afternoon and staying for two nights. It is their granddaughter’s birthday on Friday, so they are going to do a birthday tea for her. Their daughter only lives half an hours drive from us and as there is no room for them to stay, they come to us instead of having to pay for a hotel.
We had all ready booked two nights in Birmingham for Saturday and Sunday to meet up with our son as it is his birthday next week, so we will have to leave fairly early on Saturday morning. My sister can stay longer and just lock up and put the key through the letter box if they don’t want to go when we do. I hope the storm on Friday has died down by Saturday morning, so it will be OK to drive

Good morning!
Early start here as we got a quick Tesco slot but..... the delivery is 9-5pm lol so they could come very soon or much later!

My nurse was coming at 9 and now that's going to be mid to late afternoon grrrr Oh my that's 3 times the time has changed.

Anyway, it looks cold outside and its breezy. I need to go out to the bins with recycling so going to don a warm jacket and gloves and not hang about.

The storm warnings were on the news last night for Fri and not looking too good.

Have a good day all

Florence in the hebrides

AG, I never watch that man or listen to his speeches and certainly not today!!

I hope to manage to avoid looking at that man, or hearing his voice, for the next 4 years - or forever, if his threats about never having to vote again come true.

Can't stand the look or sound of him, nor his personality!

(Perhaps I shouldn't put that in writing on a public site?! Reprisals??)

The outdoor laundrettes are good because they usually have a large industrial sized machine as well as normal ones. Plus a large dryer.

I thought that I was going to have an easy afternoon, but it didn’t turn out that way. Esme had a hospital appointment this morning., so her dad took her. Then he said that he was starting with a migraine, so instead of taking her to school, he brought her home. Of course then she decided that she had a tummy ache and headache, so she didn’t go to school for the afternoon. As soon as she was told that she could stay home, she made a miraculous recovery . My daughter had an online meeting at 1.30, so she asked me if I could go down , which I did. Just after I got there, Eve texted to say that she had forgotten to take her PE kit for after school trampolining, so OH had to take that in. :-(
I played schools with Esme and we made some biscuits . OH has just set out to collect Eve from school, to save my daughter having to go. Her daddy couldn’t because of his migraine, although every time I saw him this afternoon, although every time I saw him , he looked perfectly fine to me :-|

I am listening to Trumps inaugural speech. Goodness what a worrying time this is.

wow would you believe it. We apparently have two in gloucester

Afternoon all
Yes the coop does have an outdoor launderette! i did find it somewhat unusual when it was first put there as never heard of it.

Linda, hope your arm is getting better. You were so lucky not to have blistered it.

Its now raining and the wind has got up, the fog is here too and so glad the bin lorry has been and gone.
The forecast for the end of the week looks dire!! Some very stormy weather heading our way called storm Eown...think that's the spelling.

Anyway my shelves are fully stocked etc and daughter getting milk in town later.

Thankfully i had a xmas present that was defective so managed to wrap it this morning and daughter was going to get it posted so thats a job off my list.

I have half stripped my bed so need to get that sorted.

Nurse just rang and is now coming at 9am tomorrow so shall have to be up very early for her.

my new washing machine is on order and hoping it will come this week but no phone call yet. Ordered locally as they deliver free of charge, connect it for me and take the old machine away for a small charge so a really good service all round.

Joan, hope if you are looking in, you are keeping warm and your water hasn't frozen up anymore. Have you gone back to doing your cross stitch yet?

Well a quick coffee and then finish off what i started lol

Have a good day all

Florence in the hebrides

I discovered one of the outdoor launderettes by chance early in December, when we visited a little town on Romney Marsh.
I thought then that it would be useful for washing a duvet, as I don't think my home machine would cope with the uneven placement of water.
When I enquired a few years ago at a service launderette in a town, the cost for a duvet was about the same as a new quilt at a sale price, so I didn't bother.

I see many of them are open 24/7 so I might make use of one some day.

I'd never heard of them either. The "nearest" one to me, according to Google is only 5 miles away - on the other side of the Clyde!! A mere 50 miles by road. The nearest one is actually about 25 miles, but somewhere I rarely go. There is also a launderette in the nearby town, which will do duvets if required.

That's very interesting - I'd never heard of outdoor launderettes.

However, I've now looked them up, and find that there are a couple only about 25 miles from here.

And even one at Stornoway Co-op, Florence!

The website for anyone else interested:
https://stores.revolution-laundry.com/en-uk/

Good morning everyone, welcome to a new week. It is overcast here and fairly chilly, so I will just stay in the warm. OH had his annual MOT at the doctors this morning, so he walked there, only 25 mins each way. That is why I take the car ??

I am still trying to get our duvet dry, I did get a lot of the water out in the tumble dryer, but as it was jammed in, some parts were still quite wet,so we had to use the summer duvet with a blanket last night.
In the last house we had a long landing with a bannister rail over the stairs. That was really useful for hanging duvets etc over to dry them. The stairs here go up the centre of the house, so there is no bannister, which is a nuisance. I spread the duvet over the dining table, so it was lifted up on the chairs and it is nearly dry this morning. My daughter told me that there is a large washing machine and industrial sized dryer outside the Morrisons store. She used them when her washing machine broke down. I was considering taking the duvet to the dryer there, but I think that it will be dry by this evening. I will remember about Morrisons next time I need to wash something large. There was a similar outdoor washer/ dryer area outside one of the petrol stations in Thirsk, so I think they must be quite widespread