General Chat

lol thankyou DET son is clearing the latest snow fall and frog is coming over for a few hours ,
so that is motivating me lol as i am now making some soup for lunch

Good evening. I’m back. Pleased to be back as well. Frothing at the mouth after an enforced six days without a computer. And yes I missed you all.

Have just spent a while reading through the thread and catching up on all your news. It seems to be predominated by the weather. Understandable given the TV footage showing the British Isles struggling under a blanket of the white stuff with more heavy snowfalls, wind, rain and sub zero temperatures forecast.

Not wishing to interrupt the flow of your conversation I thought I might continue in the same vein.


My Holiday – by Aunty Sherlock – in which Aunty, OH and Spot have a hot, hot time.

When Aunty, her OH and Spot the striped sabre-tooth tiger were last heard from they were about to depart on their holiday. The intrepid threesome were driving to a small coastal town 321 miles in a westerly direction from home. Prior to departing on the journey the Bureau of Meteorology released the weather forecast for the week. 34, 36, 39, 41, 41, 41 degrees celsius. Hmm that will make things interesting. Caravan packed, nibbles, thermos and Spot’s gear stored in vehicle. Aunty and OH shared the driving.

Left home at 5.30 am and arrived at destination at 1.00 pm. Quick tour around the town. No quick, is too slow. Lightning tour around the town. One hotel, one “super” market, one café/deli/fish ‘n’ chippery, one arty crafty shop and a caravan park. Unhitched, unpacked, set up, now what do we do.

Walk along the beach in a northerly direction. Spot goes for a swim which means Aunty has to dry him off.
Walk along the beach in a southerly direction. Spot goes for a swim which means Aunty has to dry him off.
Walk along the beach in an easterly dir….. splutter, glub, glub , cough cough! Not that direction, stupid too much water that way. And yes, Spot goes for a swim which means Aunty has to dry him off.

Spot susses out all the dead, drying and decayed fish on the beach for “rolling in” purposes later on. OH is wise to this tactic which earns Spot a stern word or two.


Each day the temperature increased steadily. It is too hot to venture out in the mid day sun and as any Britisher knows only mad dogs and Englishmen do so. OH managed to book himself a fishing charter. Very successful, freezer is now full of fresh fish. OH is covered in sand flea bites. Spot swears he had nothing to do with it. His fleas don’t bite!!

Why do people keep harping on about this relaxing, going on holiday, sitting outside with a good book, or just sitting around contemplating one’s navel, like it was interesting, fulfilling and worthwhile. The actions that is, not the navel. Sorry!! It is dull, boring and for someone for whom the word relax is almost a four letter word, not the ideal way to exist. Not to mention it is now 40 degrees outside and the van has no airconditioning.

Being a resourceful little fairy, and having been on “holidays” before I am aware of this problem. So I packed
(1)all my BDM certificates, which are now all sorted, catalogued and stored in a folder
(2)my recently acquired photos of my grandparents and parents, which are now sorted and in an album, well almost all of them.
(3)copious amounts of work, work, which is now written up, calculated and awaiting input onto its computer program, on my return to work. Now that is a good use of holiday time.


Then I ran out of things to do. I had to resort to reading a book, which took half a day, and then horror or horrors, I “borrowed” a couple of mass media women’s magazines and did the crossword puzzles. I’m ashamed to say I read some of the articles. So exciting all that info about the lives of the rich and famous movie stars and celebrities.

By now the ambient temperature of our surroundings was becoming alarming. OH discussed the problems we would have driving home in the hot weather and decided we would leave about 6 ish in the evening and drive at night, so escaping the heat of the day. The plan was to wake up, get up late, have a leisurely breakfast, rest up for the drive, home start packing late in the afternoon.

Well we started out OK, the wake up bit worked fine. By 7.00 am we were up, dressed, had breakfast and had started with the “what the h*** are we going to do till this evening”. I had serious qualms about driving home late at night. First the prevalence of wild life which likes sitting on Australian roads at night. Thump, thump, bump, bump. Secondly, the need to stay awake when I should be asleep was also concerning.

Now being a bright sort of an individual, never slow off the mark, OH asks, “would you like to go home now, instead of waiting for tonight.” Let me see!! Decisions, decisions. We were packed and on our way by 10.15 am. It was about 35 degrees. Now something else in which my OH excels is getting the priorities in the right order. First priority, the machinery, second priority, human persons, including the dog. The logic goes, if you look after the vehicle it will always get you home. In our 25 year old vehicle, in 43 degrees heat and towing a caravan, it is not wise to run the airconditioner to cool the humans. Such practice may result in said vehicle breaking down out in the noon day sun. So, no aircon.


Today we drove home. OH and I shared the driving. The temperature of the area through which we drove ranged from 37 to 44 degrees celsius. Those are the temperatures outside the vehicle. The highest temperature reading inside the car during the 7½ hour drive was 55.5C. I'll do the conversion for you 131.9F. The coolest temperature was about 46.7C. I spent a good part of the trip giving Spot sponge baths on the back seat of the car. Consequently I have probably ruined the white blouse with which I washed his furry body, right now I slosh from all the water I have ingested, and I am slightly wacked, I think it’s called heat exhaustion. My arms are also sunburnt from exposure to the sunshine through the windows.

OH has just informed me that next year we would be doing the “holiday” differently. Next year we would go in April or May when it wasn’t quite so hot, or in other words, our winter. Damn there goes my dream of a tropical cruise with full computer and internet access

Welcome back Aunty!!!! Sounds like you had a 'whale' of a time!! You have been missed!!!!

Please could you bottle up some of your heat and send it over to here just so we can feel our feet again!!

hello everyone Welcome back Aunty i have pinced the catapult have a snow ball or two lol
my frog has gone home early because of snow storm forcast but it was lovely to see him mmm!!

Mmmmm!!! Norty Maz!!

no not norty lol lovely to see him it has taken an hour and half to get home though .
hello YG how are you ?

I'm not bad thanks Maz. Got my shopping done after all, as the sun came out and started a slight thaw so the main roads were fine by lunchtime. The side roads are still horrendous and I gave up trying to to get to Steptoe's. It was too risky for me as I can't afford to have the car off the road if there are any mishaps!!!!

it is hard we are getting more and more snow here

Nice to have you back Aunty, if we'd known you were so hot we could have sent you some of our snow. We'll swap you some of it for some of your heat.

LG, I live in the North East, we had heavy snow falls again last night. We've had quite a few today as well but not as bad as last night. Hope you didn't do too much damage to yourself when you fell.

I'm all aches and pains through shovelling the snow every day, don't know why I bother, it just keeps coming back!

son did ours earlier but its covered again now ,it is my way of relieving the cabin fever lol

I haven't got a shovel lol!!! Or a pair of wellies!!

i have snow boots which i bought in the aldi years ago ,i use the spade which has been useful ..

I must get some as soon as I can. If ever I need to walk to work or the shops I will need them. Normal boots are no good for this weather!

You must have a shovel somewhere !!!

You have a garden, don't you? With a shovel for digging it up - use that.

No I haven't got a shovel RMS!! Got a garden, got a garden fork, got a hose pipe, got a rake, got an edging tool, got a sweeping brush, got some screwdrivers, got a tape measure and some pliers >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

BUT I HAVEN'T GOT A SPADE OR SHOVEL !!!!!!

Morning all, or evening. Unpacking and tidying day here today. Oh look it's going to be 41 degrees again.

Would you not think that with the technology of today the scientists could learn how to even out the world's climates. Of course you are quite welcome to some of our heat and yes fling those snowballs over here. Although I must say they "won't have a snowballs chance in hell" of getting here.

By the way I have wellies, a spade and a shovel. Wellies for walking in mud after it has rained and OH uses the other garden implements.

By the way YG. You will be drummed out of the air and sea rescue service if you don't have a shovel. How are you going to build sand castles on the beach?

Are your authorities learning from the problems all this snow is causing. Do you think they will have measures put in place to help next time. Wait, wait, don't answer that!!! The phrase "snowball's chance in hell" comes to mind doesn't it??

You have hit the nail on the head there Aunty!!! I am sure that if we suffer the same fate next year there will still not be enough grit and salt and gas supplies will still be restricted to the corporate sector so that domestic demand can be met. That is, of course, provided that there is any gas left at all!!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.. Evening all ,hope everybody is well.

OK, I GUESS YOU DON'T HAVE A SHOVEL, MY MISTAKE !!!!!!!!!

Its okay, my brother has the job of finding more gas, actually its oil, he's looking for but if you find oil, you find gas as well.

So never fear Robert is here.

Glad you had a good time Aunty.