Nice People Thread Number 11 - A Treasury of Nice People

PasturesNew

Nikkster wrote: »

Thought I'd also share a pic of my infamous hanging baskets.

Proper grown up housey stuff.

I'd not have the patience, skills, desire for hanging baskets. Nice to look at, when somebody's got them running right and they're in bloom ..... I bet they're high maintenance the rest of the time

Nikkster

Generali wrote: »

I hope you like courgettes a lot. You'll get millions of them off a plant like that.

I once grew 4 plants and was taking a carrier bag stuffed full of them into work every day for my colleagues.

I LOVE courgettes. They are my favourite veg. I eat them with pretty much everything. I have 5 plants (4 exchanged for tomato plants with a friend at work, one from the seeds I planted). 1 is very small - probably because everything is waaay too close together (lesson learnt for next year) and the rest have flowe buds but look a little further behind. So I'm hoping I'll have a steady stream of courgettes. It will save me a small fortune. Even more so if I get so sick of them that I can't buy them for a few months after that!

silvercar wrote: »

Loving your garden Nikki, looks very homely.

Slightly concerned about the size of that enormous bee in the second picture.

Thanks silvercar Hopefully over the winter I'll start pottering around the house in a similar manner. Or even doing the housework (which would be an improvement on the current situation).

Yeah, lucky it was flying past just at the right time! I evicted a bee about that size from the living room a couple of nights ago.

PasturesNew wrote: »

Proper grown up housey stuff.

I bet they're high maintenance the rest of the time

I'm good at pretending to be a proper grown up sometimes

I'm really surprised at just how much I enjoy pottering around the garden.Which is a good job seeing as I ended up with a proper garden rather than a concrete back yard (which looked a lot more likely). I think that most of the plants I've chosen to grow might produce things I can eat helps a lot.

My hanging baskets aren't esp high maintenance - I bought all the bits and planted them up myself - since then it's just been watering. And trying to get them to 'face' the right way (I should have thought about it more when I planted them up).

Nikkster

PasturesNew wrote: »

So, michaels would be proud of me. I just used my Mr T voucher and a till spit!

Last time I went to Mr T I got a "£3 off when you spend £20" voucher - I usually ignore those as I don't spend £20.

I bought some of that wine mystictrev posted a link to earlier in the week. Used my AmEx and got £5 back too. Got one of those £3 off when you spend £20 till spits so drove to the other Tesco in town and managed to get more of the wine. :money:

Good job I find it quite nice!

PasturesNew wrote: »

Had another "bonus find"..... they had their "Indian meal for 2" cubed boxes at half price (£3.15), so that's today and tomorrow sorted for treat meals at £1.58 apiece!

Last weekend I got one of those from Morrisons (that was another moneysaving expedition...) - £1.25. I'd never normally go for korma (or chicken tikka for that matter), but with a bit of extra curry paste/ chilli sauce added they were fine. Couldn't make it for less that that.

vivatifosi

Generali wrote: »

That's very sad. I shouldn't have made light of it.

I hope the last months go well for him.

Don't be so bl**dy daft! Never stop being you. What are you supposed to do, read my mind? Thanks for the kind words.

silvercar wrote: »

Sorry to hear this. Is facetiming/ skyping an option?

Not really, its a bit too technical for both of them, however they speak on the phone most days (when he's not in hospital). The difficult bit is mum calls him, but doesn't know he's been taken into hospital until my cousin can let us know, and with sleep demands and her shift patterns as a nurse that can some times be 24 hours of worry on her part. He's in and out a lot at the moment.

Nikkster

PasturesNew wrote: »

"that's the last time you'll ever see each other!"

My mum visited her brothers and sisters (and nieces and nephews) a couple of years ago. She did a bit of a round the world trip to Australia (via S. America on the way - no family there, just for fun - and Asia on the way back). She's the youngest sibling of many, and has said that it's most likely the last time she'll see any of them.

PasturesNew

Nikkster wrote: »

.... visited her brothers and sisters (and nieces and nephews) a couple of years ago. She did a bit of a round the world trip to Australia (via S. America on the way - no family there, just for fun - and Asia on the way back). She's the youngest sibling of many, and has said that it's most likely the last time she'll see any of them.

People will always say "it's not that far away" when they leave. On the telly, Wanted Down Under, they are looking with "room for family when they come over" - and I always think "but they won't". Even the families choosing to emigrate, they are suddenly hit with the fact it's 24 hours sitting on a plane.

Most people won't have the time, spare holidays, or spare cash to go gallivanting round the world to visit people who've gone. It's all a pipe dream that family will be popping over 1-2x a year every year and you'll be returning similarly. When push comes to shove, time constraints, huge travel distance and huge costs mean people will only ever talk about it as if it IS possible.

To do it you need to have a flexible job, a huge income and be young and like travelling.

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

"room for family when they come over" - and I always think "but they won't". .

Fil is visiting fir in London this week, and used to nylon ( weekend London /weekdays NYC) . NYC place is small ish, two bedrooms. All the kids are adults now. One bedroom is a spare room come study, there is a much smaller study not used as spare room.

Sister in law ( his favourite child by far) went to stay a while ago. Now, one thing I'll say about her is she's very good about sharing. She was in spare room til smil's daughter came to stay too when she was shunted out into the sitting room. This upset her, not because she had to sleep in the sitting room but because she was so obviously second best now and that new sister was not prepared to share the space ( big enough to share apparently).

I said diplomatic things about it but didn't feel them. Its not terribly characteristic of me to do that.

lostinrates

So unbelievably hot. I feel I should shower with the hose in the garden like fir has, but then I'll be freezing. I dislike temperatures out of my comfort zone.

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

Cool in here .... not in direct sunlight and trees overshadow any light... if I were staying they'd need lopping in a big way .... glad to be gone so I don't have to worry about that/sort it out

It's deliciously pleasant in the house, but baking out doors, I think I'll have a bath and leave the water in the bath in the hope I can get some one out to morrow. I'd need to fill a bath for then any way.

GDB2222

PasturesNew wrote: »

It hadn't occurred to me... had some bad experiences with trying to get them to look at mum's smoke alarm in the past, which ended up as yet another faffy task on the list (that only happened to then occur when she was in Hospital and we happened to be next door to her house and saw them arrive without an appointment).

I know my escape routes. Even now, having the washing machine on and feeling confident nothing's going to go wrong I've: waited until a dry day, it's daylight, next door are in..... my front door chain is off, the hallway is clear of trip hazards, storage room door is closed, patio door's unlocked, bag is "packed" and ready to grab ... and "essential items/paperwork" are identified and by the patio door.

DW does around three loads of washing a day, as her particular anxiety is overloading the machine. I am not sure that we could cope with all your precautions every time she presses the start button. I do have everything essential backed up online AFAIK. I hope!