stringvest

I won't miss that man. I'm glad there's peace in NI but still remember being caught up in central london bombings and scares. Harrods, Hyde park .... my friend from Belfast would stop at the entrances of shops unnecessarily to be frisked by the security guards. If a convicted murderer learns the piano are they now a pianist and not a murderer anymore? I am still a bit surprised that Nelson Mandela is treated like a diety as HE WAS ACTUALLY IN A TERRORIST organisation that blew up school buees and wasn't jailed for no reason. I was speaking to some twenty somethings who thought he should have a plinth at trafalgar square, they were very shocked to hear about the ANC and thought he was locked up for being black .....?????

Glad there's going to be an election. Mrs May will then have her "mandate" that everyone keeps banging on about, like it's the most important thing ever, when it didn't seem so important that Gordon Brown didn't have one. We need strong leadership. The labour and lib-dens aren't doing too well because they are wishy-washy. I noticed the POUND GOT STRONGER with this news. Anyone with the initials JC in public life don't fair well, Jesus, Jeremy Clarkson ..... :) Perhaps a hard Brexit is the best thing instead of it dragging on forever being held to ransom one way and another, like a messy divorce!

In the 1970s I used to play in a disused river wharf, you could go down some wood and poles into old underground petrol storage tanks, there used to be loads of that corrugated asbestos stuff, we used to make little camps out of it when we weren't jumping on the stuff.

A cats tail is a very important communicator also. Theres the upright "hello" tail. The downwards depressed or ill tail. The spikey bottlebrush battle ready angry tail. Theres the swishy angry tail. The quivery rattlesnake excited tail. The little flick of the end content tail, like when being told nice things!

My cat is toooo intelligent. She watches the CCTV to know what's going on outside that she cannot see! We know because she can sit watching in the front room, spy a cat or bird in the front or back garden and run off to investigate, she knows whats happening and where, she knows its REAL and happening NOW. She too likes all the Planet Earth programmes, particularly big cats, birds, rodents and fish. She knows they are NOT real and therefore will not investigate showing intelligence. She also looks at what you point at and not just at your hand pointing another sign of intelligence. She hates the vets, only going once a year for jabs (hopefully), but we have to hide her little "passport" because if she sees it she hides away. We always leave the basket till last minute else she will hide, but now we have to leave everything "going to the vet related" till after she's in the basket including "passport", money keys and a particular pair of shoes my husband wears, that she appears to think are going to the vet shoes.??????

To the original poster. Yes, very annoying! However I would probably have swept it into the kerb and not posted a pic of it. Maybe you could put a flyer up asking people to pick up after their dog? People are disgusting and if they pick it up they will probably end up on your car out of spite. I have CCTV too! a) I have great pics of two mens tiny willys, arrive in shiny new porsche then receive themselves up my wall !! b) lady in car getting shopping from her boot, using my car bonnet behind for a table to put all her shopping on. c) man pulls up along side my car, opens car door swiftly and chips my wheel arch, then denies it when I go and confront him! d) Man manoeuvring, reverses (bang!) into my car, then says he couldn't see my car (its only a small range rover!) e) People selling drugs. f) pizza delivery scooter driving on pavement.......G) MAN STEALING CCTV CAMERA (image stored on hard-drive!) ITS A BLESSING AND A CURSE! Ignore what you can. Do not get involved in anything unless it affects YOU or is a diabolical crime! You will go mad and waste hours of your life looking for culprits, and where crisp packets come from if you are not careful!! I KNOW !! As for the dog has to go on the pavement because the front garden is paved over, makes NO SENSE. Was it supposed to go poop in someones garden?

And why do they die with their legs in the air?

My dog used to bark to alert us to something, like the front door, strangers, wanting to go out, other doges etc. He would HOWL endlessly when we left him for any length of time. We found leaving him radio 4 and a jumper helped for company. NOW MY CAT IS AMAZING, SHE HAS MANY MEOWS for different things. She says "MUM", "ALRIGHT", and "hello!" in a mewy way like she is trying to copy but can't manage! What she cannot say in meows, she uses SIGN LANGUAGE of her own invention, for instance ... "mum" and then touches my mouth with a paw to indicate she wants food. If you are nodding off, she says meow and then touches your eyes with a paw, because she wants you awake. Once I was chatting away on the phone ignoring her meows, so she gave my face a stern slap with a paw! She has a shouty long meow, if she needs help off the fence or getting around! She watches CCTV and television!

Not your fault. It could happen to anyone. It's possible to find a decent reliable and honest cleaner on a forum, they would come with written checkable references. You have just been unlucky.

If you just buy a new fitting and bulb, you could make a lovely one off shade from an old one and some galvanised mesh and attach flora and fauna to it. You can cut birds or butterflies from some wallpaper? I made one for an arty project years ago, and then Sarah Moore did it with moths on her programme the other day!!! (Grrs) I made another one with old costume jewellery that caught the light, one with dragonflies etc .... I do like the ikea ones shown above though.

Ive got a small patio with lots of pots, a large phormium, a bamboo and others, I've divided the patio off from the small garden with an argos wooden arbour, better half built a wooden cupboard under the arbour and put slabs on top. The hose and other handy things are kept in the cupboard. I grow various plants in pots on the slabs, a small clematis and sweet peas grow over it in summer. It makes a cosy private corner. The raised pots don't suffer slugs as much.

I really hate it when people fill up an empty non working fireplace with logs (it appears to be a silly trend). The logs have no purpose other than to house spiders and collect dust! It would make a good cupboard for storing bottles of drink. With solid shelves it would be useful for quantities of heavy items like tins. OR: it could be a cupboard used for storing potatoes, onions, shallots and ginger etc., that like a dry dark place. OR: grow some mushrooms ??LOL OR: it could be purely decorative with a suitable planter and boston fern, or a suitable bits of victoriana like apocathery jars? and kitchenailia like a churn?, or a very large hurricane lamp with LARGE CANDLES (NEVER teeny ones). OR: as long as the flue is blocked off, it could be the hidey house/litter tray a cat would like with the cupboard doors painted, like an old house and an access hole where the front door would be ...I've got carried away. Although ... my cat likes going in private and has an access "porthole" to its tray kept in the cupboard under the stairs, that way neither are on general display! GOOD LUCK.

We have an old, by todays technology, projector, as it has an expensive to replace BULB. we do not have a screen, it shows on a cream wall. Yes it must be dark for it to work. If you get a new projector Ive been told they do LED ones now. The novelty of the projector wore off as the size of our tv increased .... and the faffing about, perhaps that is just us though ... I was usually agitated or grumpy by the time the film started ..... LOL

Give them to the allotment people, they can string them together to deter the birds! Or give them to your local elderly or other social club or day centre?

I don't think theres anything you can do. I have had many cats with all sorts of ailments. Never went out looking for a cat, they just turned up on the doorstep in a bad way, skin and bone, worms, bald, wounds, toothless, abandoned!!. Obviously the first thing was a trip to the vets for health care and try to find an owner etc ... I think cats try to look after themselves in weird ways, I had put a fat cat on a diet and he would just go round the neighbours bullying their cats, in and out the cat flaps, he wouldn't bother to catch a mouse! You can't expect people not to leave food down for their own cats and shut their flaps. There was a friendly cat turn up everyday that would feed. I think its owners went out all day to work and it was just VERY lonely, it would curl up with our cat. Again I tried to find who it belonged to without success. Cats can be quite needy for friendship and as not as independent as many people think. So many cats are given kibbles, or diet food I think they may be completely peeved with their dinners and go and seek variety elsewhere. Who of us could live on a diet of jacobs crackers for ever and not sneak in the burger place? I wouldn't be pleased if people were feeding my cats, but they don't WANT to eat elsewhere, I would be grateful they were being kindly, as some people can be very nasty to cats. Good luck.

Hello. Had bad experience of ADT monitored alarm at neighbours in that it kept going off and was never fixed. They kept phoning my old parents on their list of key holders to go and investigate, or me "lone woman at 3am". What an 88 year old or I could do finding a burglar I hate to think. Had to get neighbours to take us off the list. My parents had Impulse alarm in both their business premises and at home. Some of my friends have impulse alarms. We have always got on very well with the company. They do a yearly maintenance check, but this is handy, replacing the battery etc, and complies with the insurance having a "maintained system". What you spend on your alarm can save on your insurance. Thanks

Interesting on Radio 4 Friday. Farmer voted leave. Can't remember word for word, Said the common agricultural policy is a complete joke. People/investors are allowed up fields and leave them set aside yet collect revenue? He is not allowed to grow things and has to leave land set aside. Maybe he couldn't grow courgettes in the recent shortage incase he offended a greek fisherman? If a free range hen is kept indoors 12 weeks of a year, it is no longer a free range bird, therefore all the packaging, descriptions etc have to be changed (a worry in the bird flu event). If a farmer lets his chickens run free for 3 weeks out of four, they are NOT FREE RANGE because Europe says so?? Hmmmm

Watering a large thistle thinking it was an echinops. Looking out the front window to see if its raining out the front, as it was raining at the back. Spraying underarms with hairspray. Put a clean cup in fridge instead of cupboard. FORGOT I HAD PUT LIMESCALE REMOVER IN LOO AND THEN ADDED BLEACH - THE FUMES WERE TOXIC !!! Gave my friend use the "reserved for spider catching glass". Thought there was a weirdy person looking in the window, it was my reflection !! Never mind .....

I wonder how they "charge" without details? I get rid of "SALES" and "SURVEYS" easily .... a) I tell them I am seventeen, they hang up because being under 18 I cannot enter into any agreement. b) Tell them I'm deaf and waste their time making them repeat all the questions over and over c) Put on a stupid "waynetta" voice and shout "I want an orange one! Can it work on the 24th floor?" d) tell them I have no need to save money having recently won several million on the lottery!

I am grateful to have a vote. I don't like any politicians much, they seem mostly self-interested. Thanks.

"I'm sure stringvest also believes that the strains on social care are all down to immigrants too." NOT AT ALL - Im not a racist bigot for mentioning the above problems exist, it creates a further strain on an already strained system, "anchor babies" etc. If it wasn't for "immigrants" working in the NHS and social care, visiting the elderly in their homes or in care, who would do the job? That being said, just because they are doing theses jobs, it's not to some wonderful standard all the time, some are wonderful, some diabolical! My mother was elderly and terminally ill at home being cared for by myself (to the point of exhaustion) with the help of visiting "carers" most of whom were immigrants. A lot of the time, there were communication difficulties. Mum couldn't understand what was being said to her in strong accents (that's not a racist statement, its just a fact). I was told to leave it to the "carers" for the sake of my own health. BUT I COULDN'T, I STILL HAD TO GO 7 DAYS A WEEK, despite having a max care package of 4 visits a day. Mum could be found in her own mess in the mornings, no meds given, food in a dirty CAT BOWL, no basic housework done, not washed or changed even, no milk for a cup of tea. She was constantly intruded upon. They put down they've been there 45 mins, when they had been for FIVE. One afternoon I arrived to find four carers arguing over shifts in the kitchen, and one who had come to "have a look at my mothers nice things" while mum sat in her wet nightie, crying and not knowing what to do. I complained several times to the provider and social services. She died. Dad was taken into care with severe Alzheimers, the home was very bad. It was dirty, the food was slops, he lost two stones and was admitted to hospital dangerously dehydrated with worryingly low blood pressure, when he returned to the home I asked how much he weighed and no-one could say? his weight loss had been going on for two months and he wasn't due to be weighed for FOUR WEEKS (even with weight issues)? I constantly phoned to enquire, but due to "language barriers" had to visit to speak to someone in person. Even then the nurse said he went to hospital for a HEAD ITCH?? And his room had been stripped of belongings due to A HEAD ITCH, not because they had been treating him with someones else's laxatives and starved him, because the nurse hadn't understood instructions, and hadn't recognised noro-virus (she was replaced shortly after). I moved dad urgently. Good news, Dad now being cared for by "international staff" at a different place, they are all very kind and do a very good in difficult circumstances, I am very grateful and made new friends.

1 a nurse, 1 a midwife. Midwife was fed up with the old people always being blamed for bed-blocking, as it was a regular and expected occurrence in the maternity dept. Pregnant person from somewhere in the world appears, gives birth and then will not leave, as nowhere to go. Child a citizen and needs looking after so social services involved. One took up a bed for over 3 weeks refusing "temporary accommodation" wanting a decorated flat with two bedrooms and new carpets. Nurse went to doctors to book appointment, couldn't get seen for over 2 weeks, as no "booked in advance appointments". Meanwhile couple from somewhere in the world, were being booked for a block of SIX appointments, so the language difficulties can be dealt with together with online/or telephone translator. Nurse was already fed up and overworked. Helping in cornea transplants, someone turned up a day late missing both the translator booked and the cornea available, they turned up next day but had a breakfast so couldn't be sedated, not understanding they shouldn't have eaten. Luckily other people were phoned and turned up urgently for their corneas, so they were not wasted. It costs ?700 just to get a cornea from a body to the site where needed, thats without surgeons, theatre staff and all else involved in op.

I heard Tony Blair Radio 4 Friday and was really annoyed at the bare faced cheek of him. I don't trust him at all. He is a total liar, two-faced narcissistic money grabbing ?$%^.... There must have been something in staying in for him, maybe a highly paid presidency with a chateaux or something? He should crawl back into the slime from which he emerged. WMD etc ......

Agree with Jaywalker. Parents in similar situation years ago. Next-door was being gutted/refurbished with 2 storey extension, stairs turned round open plan downstairs etc ... Had to involve solicitor and "party wall agreement" ....

Hello. Sorry Ive been ran off my feet and at hospitals "overnight". I did get message, spoken to other half, he said there's no point bothering the police etc, and spending further time filling out statements, as nothing will come of it as usual, the whole thing is depressing (as are other things at present). I just wanted to warn locals that these dogs are about and be vigilant if they have animals/ pets / kids in their gardens. Thank you for your help.