What are you all up to

Regarding Osteoporosis my Mother-in-Law took bone density tablet once a day for 5 years having been proscribed them by consultant at a Specialist unit in Oswestry. She was then taken off them after 5 years as they were deemed to have been as effective as they could and would do more harm than good if continued. She takes Paracetamol to offset any pain nowadays.

Boy, you should never consider moving Nellie, not with the service you get from doctors and dentists etc.

Looks like Mrs.M might not be able to do any washing up or drying or dog walking or driving or cooking or..... Hoovering might be the least of your problems M. Hope for both of your sakes she heals quickly.

Waiting on a call from British Gas who are supposed to visit this afternoon. Put a casserole in the oven on low as it's forgiving if he/she calls at the wrong time.

Hi TDA yes they do use dogs and pigs especially in this area and on a roundabout in Lalbenque our small local town there is a metal sculpture of a lady and a pig looking for truffles and you can at this time of year have a demonstration of how they do it. Our second Springer would have been good at it more of a snuffler than the first one.

OH has moved a smaller electric radiator from our hall as we never use it there and now in the lounge area having taken a bigger one out as we now have a slightly bigger tv and tv unit the radiator would have been a bit close hence the change, I have been painting over the wall where the radiator was and some more tomorrow in the hall.

Had a call today to say that the compost bin we ordered  a month ago now available at our local dechetterie so will collect tomorrow morning it is our local waste company who issue them and we already have 2 and they are very well made and cheaper than ones in the local shops and all recycled plastic as well and come with a small green bin with handle to use in the house.

What a surprise. No Gas person turned up, or bothered with a call.

Had to make an automated appointment for tomorrow as nobody could be bothered answering a phone. Thought I'd try a "live chat" usually with a bot but the live chat link that was advertised as being in the bottom right hand corner wasn't. Might have to resort to Trust pilot if I get a re-run tomorrow.

David - that's exactly what I was saying Ros is now taking a calcium tablet every day plus an Alendronic Acid tab once per week. That's a bit of a pain for her because you have to down a pint of water with it and then stand up for at least an hour afterwards (don't ask me why!) and you can't eat anything until that's done. It is possible to have a once-a-year injection instead but I suspect that's a much more expensive option. Anyway - she's going for a bone density scan next week - so we'll find out whether or not she needs to continue - but I suspect she will.

Very interesting about the truffle season.  I was in Tescos yesterday and they are now selling products which contain truffle and I did wonder what it was like and would you actually be able to tast the truffle that is in it. I am afraid that I am a cynic and suspect that the amount of truffle which the products contain, is so little, that you would not even know that it is an actual ingredient. Sadly, in many ways, Christmas has now become a way for many supermarkets to sell what is very often, expensive rubbish!

"We don't think we will be using the van before the service early next March, unless there is a hint of a mini winter heatwave at some point in January/February"

Almost ditto but we have family arriving next week and we will use the caravan as a 3rd bedroom, gone soft in our old age and the thought of wakening up to a caravan covered in frost/snow is no longer appealing.

So still this morning, white over with frost and some fog around, no bike riding until the sun comes up, at least the grass has stopped growing, hope all those that are entitled had a pleasant surprise in their bank accounts this morning, but why they send out a £10 xmas bonus is beyond me, the admin effort that must go into this must be considerable and what is £10 in the real world, a person in the newsagents yesterday bought a newspaper and 20 ciggies, £16.75, i nearly fell over, glad i packed it in.

Snow here overnight, one lane on main roads has been cleared, very cold.

Should get our extra £10 each on Monday, OH got her winter fuel payment yesterday, mine came last week.   Both  in savings account till we need them for topping up our fuel DD.  Will not be long if it stays this cold!

Re the pensioner £10 bonus. It was introduced in 1972, interestingly by Ted Heath, and continued ever since. According to the Bank of England inflation tracker had it kept pace with inflation it would be worth just over £100 now. Whilst I agree that logically it seems hardly worth continuing with, you can just see the storm of protest from certain segments of the media if it were discontinued? 

David

Yo……premium bond day here, and it’s been a good one for us all🥳 Get that central heating fired up….. -4c here at the moment. Car locks frozen, gate locks frozen, plants whimpering in the greenhouse, hound refusing to get out of his basket, OH has that many layers on, his usually athletic frame is swaddled up like an over woolly sheep. Beautiful sunny day though. I am awaiting a gas engineer/ plumber to call at Mum’s. Taking an old gas fire out, replacing with a radiator in same space. Only a quote today.

Up to a tropical -2 here in MK at 11.00am! We have our heating set in various segments over a 24 hour period. Overnight it's set at 17 degrees moving at to 18 at 8.00am. Noticed that the last few nights it has kicked in between 6 and 8.00 in the morning. Warmer temperatures forecast for next week but wet!

David