With best Wishes for the coming Year.

                     

Good evening I am not going to write an entry philosophising on the year’s passing as all the more competent writers have already done so suffice to say thank you all for visiting my journals and commenting, it gives me great pleasure reading your thoughts and advice. I do enjoy reading all your news and hope to do so in the coming year.

We have been out and about today it was very mild with a bit of rain later on but is was nice to get out for some air. Stuart seems to be a bit better today so hopefully his Sciatica has running out of steam.

Last night we sat down to watch ‘The Shadow in the North’ hoping it would be as good as ’ The Ruby in the Smoke.’ As the titles started to roll at the beginning I noticed that the author was Philip Pullman and I said to Stuart I thought that was the name of the author of ‘The Golden Compass’ the film of that book has been making great headlines this Christmas. I checked up today and I was right it is one and the same person. There are two more in the series so hopefully BBC will make them to as it is so refreshing to see something different on the box.

It seems strange not to be cleaning the house from top to bottom today but I gave up that custom a few years back when I had to work all day in the supermarket, I did a bit yesterday and will tidy round later what’s the point as there will be nobody coming and we will be in bed before the bells anyway. I’m afraid my days of staying up till midnight are long past. Changed days when we would have had a big crowd all night.

Hogmanay is not one of my favourite nights of the year I can get very depressed, and I feel that I am writing myself into a corner here so I will stop now and just wish you all A Happy New Year from Stuart and myself. Till next year. Love Joan.

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Passing time

                                      

Good Evening, it is still very quiet in J-land so I thought I would tell you what I do to pass some of the time on these dark and dismal days when it is hard to get out and about. Shopping is out of the question the shops are far to busy for us and Stuart’s shoulder/neck is still causing bother but a bit better than goodness.

Stuart has been a great fan of Sudoku for the past two years but I have never really sat down and tried until the last couple of weeks. With Stuart ailing and the weather awful I thought I would give it a go on AOL Leisure. They print three Sudokus every day easy medium and hard I am on the easy at the moment and having success Stuart (smarty pants) is on the hard. I am finding it quit addictive and can’t wait to do today’s puzzle. If you are interested just click leisure on the AOL welcome page then quiz the Sudoku comes up from there give it a go its great mental exercise.

Its been very quiet here over Christmas we did have Ellen yesterday as Richard and Lisa were at a funeral so we had her for a few hours. She loves to play ’Bejewelled’ online and likes to try Luxor too. She gets very excited and jumps about on the computer chair. I do not play games on my new laptop as I seem to get a bit of a problem sometimes when I am playing online games so I am trying to keep this PC good so to speak.

Have been feeling very down this week even with Christmas just can’t put my finger on what is wrong but I wish it would go away whatever it is that is bothering me. I think some of it is due to lack of sleep not sleeping well at all just now and oh it is such a long night you see every hour passing think I will have to try Horlicks or the likes to see if that will get me back into a pattern of sleeping.

Will be off now and see if there is something to watch on the telly least said about the festive programming the better. Till next time.

Love,

Joan.

Tags: Sudoku

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A Wee Christmas story.

                                    

Thought with it being such a sad time in J-land I would relate this tale of the happenings of a neighbour on Christmas Eve.

My neighbour across the roads daughter was due to deliver her second baby on the 23rd of December. Nothing happened on Sunday but in the early hours of Christmas Eve she went into labour. At about 11am on Monday, Christmas Eve she gave birth to a son. Now this being her second baby and a ‘normal birth’ mother and baby were fine she was sent home at 3pm that day.

Unfortunately nobody told the car it was it was making such an important journey and it did the unthinkable and broke down on the way home from the hospital. Now just to keep the story right for the time of year the breakdown happened right outside and Inn that is actually called an Inn. My neighbours daughter promptly called her and she told here to go to the Inn and ask to shelter there till the breakdown service arrived but I’m afraid just to spoil the story she would not be persuaded to go to the inn she thought every one there would think she was just joking. The breakdown service did make an great effort and were there in no time at all and delivered the three of them home safe and sound.

When I was told this story on Monday night I was rolling about laughing as I could just have imagined the mother and baby going to the Inn for shelter on Christmas Eve. Glad to say Mum and baby are doing well and as we say all well that ends well. Till next time, Love

                                              Joan.

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Christmas Eve. (Early)

                     

Good Morning, yet another early entry from yours truly this could get to be a habit. So here we are Christmas Eve all the bustle will be in the food shops today like they were going to close for at least a week. I have been finding it very distressing this year especially with all the talk of how much we are spending or not spending, more like this Christmas. What is going on we watched A Christmas Carol the one with Patrick Stewart and it really got me thinking about the amount we spend over the festive period. In days of old even in my lifetime it seems to have gone all out of proportion. You feel so sorry for the people who just don’t have it to spend and how they feel when they can’t buy all those gift for their families. When I was a girl Christmas was so much simpler it did not start at the beginning of September nobody told you you have not been spending enough, and the country will go into recession, shops did not open all night and then to crown it all the sale adverts of furniture started last night with a vengeance it would make you sick. Rant over. (What a great place our journals are to have a rant.) Don’t know if we will be going out and about or not Stuart is still in a great deal of pain we have been trying Ibuleve gel and that seems to give a bit of rest bite along with the tablets and the hot water bottles.

We have been having a lot of bother these last few day with the laptop wifi signal it has been coming and going all the time. We had to phone AOL again and they thought it was our router but I was not convinced it was that. Where we stay we have dreadful TV reception we are ok as we had a Satellite dish but in the kitchen I have a wireless connection sort of an infra red thingy it works very well usually. These last couple of weeks I have been getting awful lot interference and last week I discovered that I could change the channel on the little boxes that sends the signal from the main telly (hope you are still with me) this seemed to work and the interference stopped I think it is all the flashing Christmas lights round and about our street (it looking great very cheery) so I will have to wait till all the festivities are over to see if thatwas the problem and I can go back to the setting I used before as believe it or not that is what was causing the problem what the laptop so now we know what the problem was we can correct it by keeping the kitchen TV off when the laptop is on very complicated but it works, and it took this elderly lady to work it out. Well done me. Off for my shower Stuart has surfaced and come down so I am back in the normal world. Hope to be back later in the day. Love Joan.

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The Winter Soltice

                      

Good afternoon, After one of the worst week weather wise and pain wise for Stuart we have arrived at Saturday. today is the shortest day of the year the Winter Solstice.
I was pottering about the kitchen this morning making the breakfast and I was singing my favourite carol which is "In the Bleak Midwinter." I have always loved this carol but could I remember the second line once past that I was fine it was just the second line I could not recall call it a senior moment. I popped on the PC for a moment and typed in the first line and found out what I needed but was so surprised to learn the music was written by none other than Gustav Holst (Planet Suite) and the words are from a poem by Christina Rossette. The net never ceases to amaze me you just have to type in what you want to know and up it comes. That it for now will be back later but its lunch time and I'm starving and the leek and tatty soup will be ready.

 

1. In the bleak mid-winter
  Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
  Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
  Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
  Long ago.

Love Joan.

 

                 
                     

 

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Good Morning.

               

Good Morning, I can really say that this morning as it is on 7-30am early for me, but as I was a bit restless I thought I could do this now as I don’t think I will have much time later on.

You will maybe remember me telling you about Stuart’s pain in his shoulder/neck well over the weekend it became much worse and at last I managed to persuade him to go to the doctor. He managed to get an appointment on Monday morning and he has Sciatica in his neck. My Stuart never gets normal things he has to be different in the spring it was shingles with no rash now this, everybody else gets Sciatica in the hip not Stuart he gets it in his neck. He has been a great deal of pain but the tablets he was prescribed seem to be keeping things bearable at least.

We had yet another early morning call yesterday when the carpet fitter came to lay the carpet on the top landing at 9am this is great just now everybody and everything we are waiting for comes first thing so you don’t waste the day hanging around. The upstairs is looking really good now and all springy to the step.

We are hoping to go to Perth today to finish the Christmas shopping not much to get just one or two odd and ends, that is if Stuart is not too bad, but getting out for a while does seems to help. Will try to get the food shopping done too and that should be it. We have to pick up Ellen at 4pm, her school finished last Friday and she has been at  Art Camp this week so well will see what she has made today.

Now I can see why Marie does her entries so early its so peaceful and quiet at this time you can hear yourself think it’s lovely.

Wonder what kind of day it will be today it is still pitch dark so I can’t tell yet. It has been very very cold this week -6c when we got up on Monday and did not get much warmer all day don’t think it will be like that today. Hope not.

Think that about it for no think I will head for the shower and then breakfast so till next time have a nice day.

Love Joan.

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Hi, we did manage our trip to Edinburgh on Tuesday it was a very cold frosty day the bus had been late due to someone taking ill but fortunately we have a park and ride so we can sit in the car till the bus appears. It was a quick run through as there are bus lanes on the motorway. after a quick coffee and toast we headed off to Princess Street Gardens. The frost was still on the ground as the sun does not get high enough at the time of year.  We walked along past the National gallery we did not visit as we will be going back in January for the Turner Exhibition.  We came to the German Market and had a look at all the lovely candles and decorations they had brought with them.  We carried on and looked done on the Ice rink that has been built for the festive season. I was very tempted but having had a lot of back pain lately I thought I would be sensible and give it a miss  as it is 45 years since I skated. I hate being sensible.
We then crossed the busy road and visited Jenners which have been Edinburgh's no 1 for ever. It was bought by House of the House of Fraser a few years ago but it has stayed unique. The Christmas light are always a sight to behold as you can see do put the pictures up to full size. Shortly after this I felt a bit unwell and we headed off to the bus station to catch a early bus home.  I must say I was a bit disappointed maybe I expected too much.  This is about the third time I have tried to write this so here's hoping.  Till next time.

 

                                          Love  Joan.

 

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Good afternoon, not a very nice day here in Tayside cold and wet. Sitting here half watching a film on the telly that's one thing I likeabout being down in the lounge I can do things at once just about.
we are going to put our tree up today once Stuart makes a trip up the loft he is watching the movie too and reading the paper think this does not say much for the movie.
Stuart and I were chatting last night on our way to bed about when we started working.  Stuart said he was paid the princely sum of £2-7/10 for a 46 hour week (£2-35) as an apprentice Lithographer not much when you think that's is only just over £100 per year. Stuart stayed his trade all his working life until he was made redundant at the age of 62 that's 46 years happy to say the wages did get better. Makes you think.
We are hoping to take a trip to Edinburgh this week to see the Christmas lights and the German Market that is in Princess Street gardens hope the weather will be kind and give us a good fair day.
That's about it for today so till next time,      Love,

                                                                                    Joan

Tags: Edinburgh Christmas Market.

Saturday.

                           

Good afternoon, not great here we were promised snow but got rain not so nice at all. Two sets of our neighbours have been busy in the pouring rain putting up outside Christmas lights, better them than me as it is very cold out or it was when we were out for our coffee this morning.
Really loving my new laptop it is so quick after old slow coach upstairs. This one is up and on the net in  about one minute flat where as the desktop took about 15 minutes sometimes. Sometimes you got so fed up you just gave up.
Am not a boxing fan but I just saw an advert for the boxing match in the States tonight it is going to be shown on Sky box office for £14-95 I think that absolutely ridiculous I think we pay enough as it is.  We don't have the full package but people that do are well over £30-00 a month and they still want more.  For the last two and a half weeks we have had the full package free of charge wow, we had a letter telling us we were getting this FOC. Never noticed before how few films you actually get for your money they just keep repeating again and again. Moan over.
Will have to try to get the rest of our Christmas shopping done in the next few days as the shops will be getting very busy and I am not the most patient person when it comes to queueing. Santa's not coming here as a new camera and a new laptop is plenty for us ho ho.
The Christmas lights have now been lit accross the road and look very festive. Will have to get Stuart to go up the loft and get our Christmas  box of goodies down and get the tree up. Thank you for all your good wishes regarding his shoulder which is a lot better the last couple of days so thank again. Hope you enjoy the rest of the day, wonder who will go at the dancing tonight? Till next time.   Love 

                                               




                            

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Friday.

          

 

Oh well here we are at Friday again its been a funny sort of week for us not our usual days at all, Monday was normal Tuesday we picked our new carpet and  had a hospital appointment for me Stuart had his appointment at the hospital cancelled because of illness of Doctor and has now been rescheduled for February. Wednesday the weather was terrible so no visit to Perth shopping just a quick outing to pick up Ellen. Yesterday the man came to measure up for our carpet, I did manage to get all our cards written and in the evening we had Ellen's concert which was very good and we did enjoy it. I could not remember going last year so I looked back my journal and discovered I did  go but was unwell all evening with an upset tummy so it just shows at my age how important a journal is if you are trying to recall some event or another. Going to have a trip down our village this afternoon and will get my cards posted off this is really early for me but am really pleased as I did not have to rush like I normally do.
Its a bit brighter here today cold but nearly sunny after the last three days it's very welcome. That's about it for today so until next time.    Love  

                     

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Rainy Wednesday.

              

Good evening, had another really busy day, weather has been bad as I think it has been all over today. Have been busy typing all my labels for the  envelopes of our Christmas cards its a job I love doing every year which is just as well as the programme I use on the desktop does not save the project. This year I have done them in Word so hopefully they will be on my laptop next year I can just change the decoration.
We picked Ellen up from school today she is getting very excited as her Christmas concert at school is tomorrow night.  Looking forward to seeing her as she is a narrator.  Stuart and I will be out tomorrow night a great occasion for us as we don't go out much at night these days. Stuart is having a lot of bother with his shoulder again and has been in a lot of pain for the last few days am trying to get him to go see the Doctor but that is a hard job.  That's about it for today so until next time bye bye.

                                                                                  Love,
                                                                            Joan.

 

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What a day.

               

Good Afternoon, what a day it has been today heavy drizzle and dark all day. Yesterday was the very opposite cloudless blue skies very cold but lovely just the same. we did our usual trip to St Andrews and took some pictures to try out the new camera.  Living here in the wilds of Scotland we do not see many Celebes but yesterday while in St Andrews who should drive by but the very large Bobbie Coltain (Hagrid in the Harry Potter movies) it was Stuart that spotted the very large Lincoln American car just big enough for him. Did not get the chance to take a picture he was gone in a flash.
Today has been all go we had to go to Perth this morning to choose the new carpet to replace the one that had the flood on it then I had to go the the hospital to get new tubing on my  hearing aids so I can hear a dream again. Next off toTesco's the big one in Perth we usually just go to the normal size one its big enough for week to week but I was looking for one or two special items for Christmas.We had a bite to eat a chip butty naughty naughty but it went down a treat. We had that to sustain us during the shopping then home frozen and tired then remembered that I have an appointment at the surgery with the Hypertension clinic at 5-30 tonight so can't relax yet. I think that's about it for now looking forward to sitting down after tea and putting my feet up so to speak. Till next time. Love Joan.

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I am such a happy bunny I have managed to write this entry on my new laptop and I am really chuffed as I am not a whizz on the PC. I have also managed to work out how to read my emails from this PC so I am all set now I hope.

I have had a lovely birthday with lots of visitors gifts and cards I have had a lovely day altogether. It has been so busy am really feeling exausted now so am going to sit back with a DVD and a box of Ferrero Rocher mmmmmmmmm. Till next time. Love,

                                                   Joan.

 

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