December Chatty, hohoho!

Patience · Post by **Patience** » Sat Dec 16, 2023 10:46 am

Postie arrived with my delivery of tea this morning. I like Earl Grey tea but I find most companies have changed the flavouring to a cheaper ingredient. I now buy from a company called Eteaket (Edinburgh Tea Company). Most of the time I’m able to get this from a local farm shop where I have a Capps and cake every fortnight. For the last 2 Christmas periods they have stopped selling Eteakat. This year it reappeared in late spring.

Unfortunately I’d managed to order tea leaves instead of tea bags

Fortunately I had treated myself to an advent calendar of different teas. I only ordered last week and this will take me right through from now until I return to with on the 8th Jan.

eccles · Post by **eccles** » Sat Dec 16, 2023 11:26 am

To all Patience's friends, she wants a tea strainer for Christmas.

I popped into chat yesterday evening just after 9:30, hung around for a few minutes waiting for someone to turn up then left.

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Sat Dec 16, 2023 11:44 am

I went into Chat when the show jumping from the London Arena finished around 10:10 pm. Tom, Diana and Mimosa were there IIRC.

Furby · Post by **Furby** » Sun Dec 17, 2023 5:37 am

Life is too short to be using loose tea leaves. Just chuck them and manage with the calendar until shops sell teabags again. Wasn't there a worldwide shortage of earl grey ingredients so maybe it's not solvable and patience will have to learn to like another posh teabag.

Who decided long skirts were a good idea. And for hundreds of years women put up with this how lucky we are to live now. I think this when watching old films of women walking over muddy fields in long frocks why didn't someone think of slightly shorter skirts sooner or even trousers. You can get slippers now with hard wearing soles could wear them instead of tennis shoes.

Patience · Post by **Patience** » Sun Dec 17, 2023 11:22 am

I’m not chucking >£50 worth of tea! I bought in bulk. I meant to buy 3 bags of 45 tea bags each which would have cost £45. In the end I bought 3 of 250g of loose tea! Yes it’s pricey, but the bergamot is right.

Today, I’m having the first cup from the advent calendar. It’s Chocolate Abyss. It smells chocolatey and it lingers in your nose. The taste isn’t anything to write home about.

asymphototropic · Post by **asymphototropic** » Sun Dec 17, 2023 2:34 pm

OC, we have troubles with field mice eating the insulation off the wires on our tractor and wood mill engines, and sometimes even the car engines. So I'm wondering if your cat has discovered bioplastics in the packing materials? And that is why they are gnawing on the large package envelopes. Just a thought. [and we need a cat emoji in our smilie section...]

Patience · Post by **Patience** » Sun Dec 17, 2023 4:15 pm

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Sun Dec 17, 2023 5:18 pm

Midge gnaws at his litter sack as well, so those live in an upstairs room that I keep locked. It's only Midge, Mina doesn't do that.

Furby · Post by **Furby** » Mon Dec 18, 2023 8:38 am

Is bio plastic edible I though all plastic was poisonous.

Furby · Post by **Furby** » Tue Dec 19, 2023 5:37 am

There's been another undercover news about royal mail letters being kept back in favour of parcels. It never gets sorted because the official answer is oh no they don't and the data shows 90% of letters are delivered so that's the end of it until next time. Meanwhile no one I know ever gets these 90% of letters delivered every day.

Teabags dont seem as good these days either. I only have boring ordinary tea but I have noticed it struggles sometimes to make a second cup (I put the tea bag in a tea pot). I can't stock up on tea bags now without resorting to other solutions using tupperware because they arent in shrink wrapped silver plastic anymore. And now there's no earl grey for posh people it really is end of world as we know it once tea gets messed with.

Post by **merry** » Fri Dec 22, 2023 10:58 pm

I'm back!

I'll catch up tomorrow

eccles · Post by **eccles** » Sat Dec 23, 2023 6:30 pm

WB Merry.

Post by **merry** » Sun Dec 24, 2023 9:11 am

Eccles

are you better yourself?

I wonder if you'll be so pleased to see me now

I just can't resist posting the annual pic of Douglas, the singing fir!

Furby · Post by **Furby** » Sun Dec 24, 2023 9:45 am

Happy Christmas Eve whoever likes Xmas. I find it all a bit much and there's not even anything except Xmas Xmas Xmas on the TV so it's either fake ho ho ho or poor sad charity causes.

I got my little turkey pieces (Tesco sent mince instead last year and I had to make do with chicken) so I will have turkey and roast potatoes in mini oven and vegetables in slow cooker. I don't think it's possible to get a new cooker without drastic building work but I seen to be managing well enough without anyway.

Merrys tree looks scary. What does it sing. I have a snowman that sings frosty that work gave me when we divided up the decorations when we shut place down forever and a music box playing jingle bells i got for for Xmas in 1970. That's all my decorations that way I dont need all the work putting up and down.

Wildrover · Post by **Wildrover** » Sun Dec 24, 2023 12:08 pm

My best Christmas present this year was going to the dentiist on Friday - he finally got to the root (no pun intented) of the problem that's been plaguing me for 2 months and found decay under my gum line in my very back tooth. It was a bit painful yesterday but today is the first day for months that I've woken up with no pain - it's joyous. What is not joyous is that MYF and her mum had a big fight last night and my solution was to say I wasn't putting up with it and went home with MYF in tow - her mum is quite domineering and I don't think she's used to being told she and her daughter are behaving like spoilt brats so we might be eating Christmas dinner out of a tin. Hey ho...

eccles · Post by **eccles** » Sun Dec 24, 2023 4:02 pm

Thanks Merry, much better.
Good luck WR. I hope it doesn't come to this:

Patience · Post by **Patience** » Sun Dec 24, 2023 6:40 pm

Oh dear @WR. Arguments before Christmas are a pain. I hope whatever the eventual outcome is, you and YYF have a lovely day.

I’m with @Furbs in not really into New Year. I’m out at a hotel for dinner and will be back asap.

@Merry, I’m glad you are on the mend.

Furby · Post by **Furby** » Sun Dec 24, 2023 8:04 pm

Hope everyone is settled for Xmas. The weather forecast is mad isn't it. Unless I imagined it we were promised three feet of snow and minus 12 now they are saying will be hottest Xmas day ever. Doesn't inspire much confidence in forecasts.

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Sun Dec 24, 2023 10:51 pm

I have noticed that quite often the more sensationalist tabloids squeak that the weather is going to be freezing boiling etc far enough in the future for most of their readership to have forgotten all about it when the not-as-bad-as-it-was-going-to-be weather finally turns up.

Having said that, apparently today it only missed being the warmest Christmas Eve since records began by 0.2 Celsius.

Furby · Post by **Furby** » Mon Dec 25, 2023 7:21 am

Happy Xmas everyone.

I have been watching quiz show family fortunes and top answer for something to do in snow was make snow angels which I never even heard of. I looked up and it's children lying in the snow kicking making angel shapes which probably explains why i missed out as a child because last thing we needed was any avoidable wet clothes taking weeks to dry cluttering up the Xmas house. I haven't seen any modern children do it either though so maybe is a rich person thing where they have lots of spare clothes and servants for laundry and lots of space to dry washing. I did immediately guess top answer to something in a stocking though which no one on TV got it's small orange I always had that every year. Fresh fruit was luxury at Xmas time before supermarkets with entire sections of it.

I am having my dinner in an hour because I can so there. Black forest Cake for pudding and white wine to drink. My cream was sour even dated 2 Jan so I can't do Irish coffee. Apart from the cream its a nice day.