Breaking Through, Travelling On

Karmacat

Hello CBC thank you for the welcome! I know exactly what you mean, never fear How are you doing, yourself? You do such a lot, I know.

I did have a ball, you're right. There were difficult things too, of course - hospital appointments and prescription pickups being the main ones, but even there I was able to offer support that made a lot of difference to how things went.

Finance news!
- four kale plants brought back south, lovingly packed by my brother, now repotted into nice big plantpots with nice new compost, so they can grow a bit more.
- French tax bill arrived, I was a bit worried it would become due while I was away, but its not due till 17th October, which is good.
- more later, when I've opened all the post

muddywhitechicken

:wave: welcome back!

Karmacat wrote: »

Extremely, wonderfully, overwhelmingly good news on the health front: whereas I only expected to regain my health by, say, next spring, I'm already 90% of the way there :j:j:j I'm still likely to be the one that tires first, but I haven't had to hold back from anything anyone else has done :j

So I can already say that retiring was the best decision I've made in a long, long time :j

Excellent news :T

MWCx

Karmacat

Thanks MWC - I'm amazed at it, to be honest, I didn't expect the bounceback to be so immediate.

I've spent all morning reading diaries, and still not read all I want to, including yours but my sister's hedgetrimmer, which she's kindly loaned me, is making beckoning gestures to me - I have to fill the bin tomorrow!

Plus I just found out that U3A has dozens of groups locally and is a subscription of only £14 p.a., plus a few pennies if the group meets in a hall. Thats going to do wonders for a *part* of my new life - just the Ancient Civilisations group alone makes it a good replacement for my Egyptian Society membership. French conversation. Digital photography. A theatre visiting group. A monthly walking group. Excellent

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[Deleted User]

Karmacat wrote: »

Plus I just found out that U3A has dozens of groups locally and is a subscription of only £14 p.a., plus a few pennies if the group meets in a hall. Thats going to do wonders for a *part* of my new life - just the Ancient Civilisations group alone makes it a good replacement for my Egyptian Society membership. French conversation. Digital photography. A theatre visiting group. A monthly walking group. Excellent

Save

Green with envy about that, KC:o,. So many brilliant ways to spend your retirement, meet new people and stretch your mind:T

This is a cultural backwater (and every other kind of backwater come to that). The land that time forgot.

Rural life isn't anything like it's cracked up to be:(.

Karmacat

Oh what a shame, CBC! My little town only has 30,000 people or so, and a lot of that is because there's been a lot of housebuilding in the last few years - are you sure there's nothing?

I can't believe its that cheap, actually - for that £14, you can join as many groups as you want. While things are currently tough, its an ideal way for me to follow my interests and make local contacts - I don't know anyone at all in this town, which isn't a situation I can allow to continue.

There's a U3A online, CBC, if that would be any help for you, specifically for isolated people.

There are also Spanish classes, Gally watch out, I'm travelling next year, got my sunnies already :cool:

Right. Hedge trimming.

Cheery_Daff

Welcome back! :hello:

Good to hear about your health! :j :j and great about the U3A too! Can't wait to hear what you end up doing with it :j

Watty1

Welcome back from hols. U3A sounds fabulous value!

EatingTheElephant

Welcome back, fantastic news on the health front!

gallygirl

Karmacat wrote: »

:wave::wave::wave: I'm back!

Hello all - old friends, returning friends, and new friends too :j

We had a lovely time in Norfolk, thanks all, we even had my brother staying over the first night and the last night, as he brought my mum down. And our Norfolk rellies had a Yorkshire rellie staying with them, so it was a larger crowd than usual

Trip between Norfolk and Merseyside took twice as long as it should have - anyone remember those huge storms that rolled in a fortnight ago? But my brother's a *really* good driver, so no problems. He's also a good forager - crab apples and rosehips, though the rose hip syrup was horrendously sugary for all of us, I've insisted on using it up over my porridge there must be micronutrients in there as well :cool:

Extremely, wonderfully, overwhelmingly good news on the health front: whereas I only expected to regain my health by, say, next spring, I'm already 90% of the way there :j:j:j I'm still likely to be the one that tires first, but I haven't had to hold back from anything anyone else has done :j

So I can already say that retiring was the best decision I've made in a long, long time :j

And here I am, ready to join the fray again (fight those brambles! open that account! go on that day trip! make that fortune!)

First though, and this is standard - catching up with the diaries.

Karmacat wrote: »

Thanks MWC - I'm amazed at it, to be honest, I didn't expect the bounceback to be so immediate.

I've spent all morning reading diaries, and still not read all I want to, including yours but my sister's hedgetrimmer, which she's kindly loaned me, is making beckoning gestures to me - I have to fill the bin tomorrow!

Plus I just found out that U3A has dozens of groups locally and is a subscription of only £14 p.a., plus a few pennies if the group meets in a hall. Thats going to do wonders for a *part* of my new life - just the Ancient Civilisations group alone makes it a good replacement for my Egyptian Society membership. French conversation. Digital photography. A theatre visiting group. A monthly walking group. Excellent

Save

Wonderful news all round :j.

Karmacat wrote: »

There are also Spanish classes, Gally watch out, I'm travelling next year, got my sunnies already :cool:

:T:T:T

[Deleted User]

Karmacat wrote: »

Oh what a shame, CBC! My little town only has 30,000 people or so, and a lot of that is because there's been a lot of housebuilding in the last few years - are you sure there's nothing?

I can't believe its that cheap, actually - for that £14, you can join as many groups as you want. While things are currently tough, its an ideal way for me to follow my interests and make local contacts - I don't know anyone at all in this town, which isn't a situation I can allow to continue.

There's a U3A online, CBC, if that would be any help for you, specifically for isolated people.

Thanks for the tip about there being a U3A online:T. I'll be having a look at that although it defeats the object of getting out and meeting people.


I've seen various write-ups about U3A in my nearest sizeable town but as it is a round trip of about 35 miles by car I'm not sure I'd attend many evening events in the winter months. We've never seen a gritter on our narrow country lanes;).


My nearest town is 7 miles away but it is very small and there seems to be so little going on there, definitely no U3A. There's the local Am Dram theatre group but someone I used to work with tried it and said it was very cliquey so she dropped out after a few visits. There isn't even a book/reading group which I'd really love. I used to do occasional evening classes there in days gone by but the local council seems to have cut right back on non-vocational courses now. The only ones they have on offer this year are ones I've already done:(

I sound a real Moaning Minnie, I'm sorry:o. Having a bad day one way or another. I didn't mean to dampen the upbeat vibe of this thread:o