afternoon This is my first sit down today, the back to school rush has indeed started! Everyone has been lovely though so I'm a happy person today El I'm pleased you got a machine organised, it's so disappointing when shops vanish like that

Summer, I would guess that the week before the children go back to school after the summer holidays would be the busiest of the year.

 

It was disappointing to find that the shop had closed but with so much buying being done over the internet, it's not totally surprising.

Good you got what you wanted El  Pity about the shop, but its a sign of the times isnt it. 
Not long now Summer, you can get home and get your feet up! x
Will look at the links later, comp on a go slow, again....xx 

Good luck with all the blood tests. I am due soon too, mine are monthly because of the medication i take x 

Got a text from sister, she is off on her holiday, saying "Met Martin Clunes he is lovely" . Knowing my sister she would be slightly OTT! Thought i would share that with you!
Have you got your new DVD player up and running El? 

 

Snap. Good luck with your tests, and El too.

I am so jealous of your sister, I love Martin Clunes. It's good to hear that he was lovely in RL.

 

El, I never think of looking on Amazon for electrical stuff (except laptop chargers), so I must keep it in mind, in future.

Glad your customers were nice ones, I know this is a really busy time for you.

Signing out early tonight, see you all tomorrow.

Yogi I hope you signed out of tv early too!!!! I switched off bb tonight When will you get your test results? Yoga class was good tonight, it helps loosen up my back after a busy day Christmas week is our busiest, every year, but this week comes a close second I hope everyone has had a good day

Good morning everyone. Weather is overcast and chilly. I think I must have slept awkwardly, as my back is aching this morning - I could do with your yoga class, Summer. Having visitors today so I probably won't be around much. Hope you all have a good day

Good morning everyone

 

Very overcast and the rain has started. Likely to be quite wet this morning.

 

Yogi, I hope your back eases now you are up and moving and habe a nice time with your visitors

 

Good morning Overcast and chilly here, it really feels autumnal! I'm working this morning, but only until lunch time Yogi I hope your back loosens up for you, maybe a hot water bottle would help..? Hope you have a lovely time with your visitors

Good morning everyone, we have loads of rain and I think it's due to rain for most of the day.  After that though we are promised dry weather for a few days

 

Horrible to wake up with a sore back Yogi, I hope it eases, painkillers and warmth is what usually work with me.  I have a heated pad which works wonders when you have twisted a muscle.

 

Glad your customers were all nice ones Summer, hope today is equally good.

Yogi could I have solved the mystery of where Harvey is trying to get to?

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...don-bound-train.html

Today's MAC cartoon

 

“Makes you proud to be British, doesn’t it? Look at that chap training hard for the Paralympics.”

at squiggle's last couple of posts.

 

Here's a link to the BBC article on what may have been thought of as the lion - video clip to watch:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-19397686

 

A quick hello, have a hospital appt this afternoon and running late. Catch you all later x

My new DVD recorder arrived at noon. I've unpacked it to make sure everything is there, but I won't get around to connecting it until later.

 

I've been to my annual checkup which was routine. I'll get the results of the blood tests when my doctor returns from holiday which is almost 4 weeks time.

 

Within a few minutes of getting back home, there was a knock at the door and it was someone wanting to check for loft insulation. He had ID and seemed OK. I told him I thought I had enough not to qualify but he still wanted to check. So I let him in, but kept an eye on him the whole time to make sure he didn't go into any rooms other than the hallway and landing. He did various measurements of the thickness of the insulation. The thickness varied in places between 6 and 8 inches but he confirmed what I already knew that I didn't qualify for any free upgrade. He had already seen I had cavity wall insulation so didn't ask about that.

 

So I've gone back to the important business of the day. I've connected the DVD recorder and did a quick check to make sure it seemed to work. So far so good. Apart from this model having a hard drive as well, there's no difference between the old one and this so I shouldn't have much difficulty in working it.

 

I am glad your checkup went well EL and I am sure your blood tests will be completely normal.

 

Sounds like a good choice of video recorder, it will be interesting for you to have the hard drive, easier to manage I would think.

I saw this on my local news website

 

GUINEA pig Kandy might be better renamed 'Superman', or perhaps Houdini.

His owners at St Augustine's farm are beginning to believe he might have super powers.

It's not clear yet what powers Kandy the guinea pig has, but it is a mystery how every day he manages to escape without a trace from a secure run and return later on without people seeing him.

Kandy the guinea pig lives at St Augustine's Farm in Arlingham, a children's visitor attraction with lots of friendly farm animals.

All of the guinea pigs are let out to run and graze each day in securely penned grass runs outside. All the other guinea pigs run up and down happily, but Kandy is not content with just the farmyard and each day he disappears and turns up again at the end of the day at the guinea pig house waiting to be lifted back up into the hutch.

"At first we thought he was burrowing under the runs through the grass," said Rob Jewell, who owns St Augustines with his wife Elaine.

"But there are no holes at all. Then we thought maybe he was strong enough to lift the run and climb under, so we pegged it down. But still he gets out.

"Kandy is not wearing a T-shirt with a big S on the front yet but I am beginning to believe that he must be bending the bars apart so he can go on his daily walks," added Rob.

"Where he got his super powers is a mystery but if all the visiting children keep watch, maybe we can discover how he does it."

His wife Elaine added, "We can't understand how he gets out, but people are always telling us 'one of your guinea pigs has escaped' and we always know which one."

I can see this is bigger than I first thought EL.  I thought that my article above together with Harvey meant this was confined to dogs but no it's spreading

I agree with you Whatever next?

Lol at Kandy the guinea pig! I guess houdinism is spreading El, that was a fast delivery! I hope you're having a good evening with the new machine Skylark I hope your appointment went well

Squiggle and El, it's an epidemic!

Big H is here tonight, and I'm happy to tell you that there were no escapes today. I hope I can say the same tomorrow night.

 

Skylark, hope all went well at the hospital today.

El, four weeks is a long time to wait for your blood test results. I get mine within 4 or 5 days.

 

 

 

That is a long time! I wonder why- back log of work or complicated tests..? I'm turning in for the night yogi, pleased to hear big H behaved himself today sweet dreams

Good morning everyone

 

The weather here is sunny with a few clouds but noticeably cooler than recently. There may be a shower later but it looks as if the weather is settling down for the next few days.

 

Yogi, the reason for the delay in getting my blood test results is because my doctor is just about to go away on holiday and she'll ring me for a general chat later in September. As these are routine blood tests done eeach year there is no urgency about them.

 

Summer, I had paid a bit extra to Amazon so that the DVD recorder would be delivered by 1pm yesterday as I knew I would be out yesterday afternoon and I didn't want to be waiting for more than I needed to.

 

Good morning everyone.  Hope the setting up of the video recorder went smoothly EL.  I would be interested to hear how you get on with it and whether the hard drive is a boon.

 

Very windy here this morning and I have to go out to the hairdressers so the chances of getting home again with my hairdo intact are slim

Squiggle, the set up went smoothly. So far I've just tested a DVD to make sure it worked and played a VHS tape which I had recorded on the old recorder. I haven't yet tried to record anything but have worked out how to do this. Because the model is similar to the previous one apart from the hard drive, the procedure is very similar.

 

The only thing about using the hard drive on the recorder is that if the process is similar to that on a computer, after a period of time when I have recorded things then deleted them the drive could become rather fragmented which would impair later recordings. On a computer, you can defragment the hard drive to improve the hard drive process. At present I don't know if there is the equivalent on a DVD recorder. That of course is an issue for the future.

 

Good morning everyone. The sun is shining here (atm, anyway), but there has been a drop in temperature in recent days and there's a definite autumnal feel now.

Summer, I'm sorry I didn't say goodnight to you, I got distracted By CBB, which was on much later than usual.

I hope the wind subsides and you manage to get home without getting your hair messed up, Squiggle.

El, I'm sure someone from your practice would contact you, in your doctor's absence, if there were any concerns with your results - but your doctor is obviously quite sure that everything is okay.

Like Squiggle, I'd be very interested to know how you get on with your DVD recorder.

I hope you all have a good day.

I found this EL on a forum, which I hope helps.

 

"There is no need to defrag the HDD on the Panasonics"

 

This comment comes from Steve who seems to be a bit of an expert, who also says

 

Don't worry about it. The need to defrag is an artifact of Microsoft made file systems. Chances are they're using some Linux derivative or some home-grown code that handles the file systems in a way that doesn't need to be defragged.

-Steve

Thanks for that, squiggle Looking at other comments people have made it seems best to avoid editing recorded things, and if I do edit something, once I've seen it to then delete it before saving more things. It's unlikely I would be doing things like editing in any case.

 

Hi all x

Weather better today after yesterday. We had thunder and lightening and lashing rain. Broadband went down, good old BT ! 
Had my knee looked at again, hopefully they will decide to replace it this time. Not having to bandage it up every day would be heaven. 
Have a good day all xx 

I received this email this morning, I thought it was a bit special so I am posting it in here - enjoy!   The print is a little small, I hope you can read it.

 

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them. After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight. When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side. When he was close enough, he called out, 'Excuse me, where are we?' 'This is Heaven, sir,' the man answered. 'Wow! Would you happen to have some water?' the man asked. 'Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up.' The man gestured, and the gate began to open. 'Can my friend,' gesturing toward his dog, 'come in, too?' the traveler asked. 'I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets.' The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog. After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence.As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.... 'Excuse me!' he called to the man. 'Do you have any water?' 'Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in.' 'How about my friend here?' the traveler gestured to the dog. 'There should be a bowl by the pump.' They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree. 'What do you call this place?' the traveler asked. 'This is Heaven,' he answered. 'Well, that's confusing,' the traveler said. 'The man down the road said that was Heaven, too.' 'Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's hell.' 'Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?' 'No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.' So Now you see, sometimes, when we wonder why friends keep forwarding jokes to us without writing a word.Maybe this will explain it.   When you are very busy, but still want to keep in touch, guess what you do? You forward jokes. When you have nothing to say, but still want to keep contact, you forward jokes. When you have something to say, but don't know what, and don't know how... you forward jokes. A forwarded joke lets you know that you are still remembered, you are still important, you are still loved, you are still cared for. So, next time if you get a joke, don't think that you've been sent just another forwarded joke, but that you've been thought of today and your friend on the other end of your computer wanted to send you a smile. You are welcome at my water bowl anytime !

Squiggle, that's quite some story. Thank you

I hope they do decide to replace your knee this time.

I know you can't yet get Virgin cable but if you could it would sort out your regular broadband problems. Being cable rather than phone lines seems to reduce the risk of the weather affecting the connection.

Thanks El , hope so too x
Cant wait for Virgin, i see vans going around, so maybe something happening soon!

Thanks for posting that squiggle  

Skylark, I hope they do something soon with your knee. My mum has a similar problem with her knee and she's stopped driving because she feels like it gives way on her at times.

 

Squiggle, I love that story, where do you find these little gems?

Aww i feel for your mum. Mine goes like that at times, its a strange feeling . Shame she has had to stop driving, but best to be safe x

It doesn't stop her gallivanting, she just uses her bus pass, or gets my dad to drive.

My dodgy hip has given way a few times - I nearly landed on the back grass, last time it happened.

An article on the BBC website about some readers' stories of procrastination:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19396204

Ian Bain of Edinburgh you must have too much money.