The Daily Drop-in

[Gemini]

It's a shame you have another hospital visit WG, and OH a few more hospital days..
Enjoy your alone time x
Difficult visit with mum.
I will write on the dementia thread about it all later.
Friday night telly and bottle of wine to relax now.
Mind you it's a very stressful week on both Emmerdale and Corrie!

[Enfys]

You’ll need that wine with Emmerdale Gem! Think I’ll have a sherry, wonder if she’ll get away with it?

[Gemini]

Enfys, I will go over the the Soaps thread. She had better not get away with it!!!

[Daisy]

Daisy, I use mixed fruit, if I looked here I could get it all together really, what do the Dutch live without? They are very much cream cake lovers but not really pastry, they have treacle but nothing comes anywhere near Golden Syrup! (DS1). Jellies etc, they have the but not the same at all, breakfast cereals, not much choice really, we are getting to see more the last few years. DS1 loves his Shreddies. Joints of meat, very rare here. I wouldn't know where to go to find lard. Not many pickles etc.

Oxo cubes, Bisto gravy, meat pies, strong tea, mincemeat or pies, things like Jeyes fluid I would never find here, not to forget the crumpets.

We have more choice than there was a few years ago and with the Lidl having their British weeks we can get a few things then.

Lizzie - It's funny what we miss when we're in a different country, isn't it. On holiday I think it's great to 'eat local' and try new things. Sometimes even items we get here are very different - I love Cuban bananas, quite different from what we get in the UK and American pancakes, ours don't taste the same. I don't think anywhere does tea like Britain and I tend not to drink it abroad. An English friend living in France always wants Yorkshire tea, Rich Tea biscuits and Oxo cubes. A British born Canadian friend loves our bacon, sausages and dark chocolate.

For me no Mayonnaise on earth beats the homemade version a French friend's mother used to make.

[Oma]

Brian's aunt's late husband loved OXO cubes so when we went over we would take big tin full for him

[WeeGranny]

Lizzie when we were in Holland, we used to go occasionally to the English butcher in Den Haag if we really fancied a joint for roasting or sausages . But to be honest, I was quite happy with the meat we got from the local butcher, always good quality. DS was most upset when we came back to this country because none of the shops gave the little ones a treat! A plakje worst or an appeltje or even a snoopje! We also went to the British pub in Den Haag run by Alf and Millie. They had three sizes of Sunday roasts. Man size had 16 roasties, ladies had 8 and children's had 4! Usually followed by a good English stodgie pudding! They also did proper fish and chips, but only on a Friday!

We used to stock up on stuff when we were back and freeze it all. DD misses the frite sauce and pinda sauce and paprika chips and the chocolate letters at Christmas.The ones we get here aren't quite the same. I miss the Raisin bread with the marzipan in the middle and the speculaas biscuits at Christmas especially the ones filled with marzipan! DS used to have a list of stuff to take back for his friends or for us to take out for them. Don't suppose we can do that now!

I remember taking bacon/ sausages etc to Qatar one Christmas. We got through customs and as OH was loading our cases into the car he asked if we'd been stopped? We hadn't, but on our cases was a chalked cross, I hadn't noticed it and just put the cases onto our trolley and walked out. Seemingly it was a sign for the cases to be checked! Phew, it would have been a miserable Christmas dinner if we'd been stopped!

Isn't it funny the things we miss from living elsewhere or even from visiting other countries?

Got bed clothes washed and out earlier, but it started to rain so I had to bring them in sharpish! They were pretty well dried though so I must have got there just in time.

Enjoy your evening ladies xx

[Nanto2girls]

Thats our last gardening shift done at the bungalow.
Absolutely shattered now.
No doubt hubby will go down to do some inside jobs.
It will be lovely to get back to normal days.

Hopefully,will catch up with all the posts tomorrow.

[Lizzie48]

WeeGranny, my nieces and nephews always loved the chocolate letters. The raisin bread with marzipan is in the shops now that is one thing I am not keen on. I have brought some strange things back over the years, my father used to say the boat would sink!

Oma, Oxo’s are very popular.

[Daisy]

WeeGranny and Lizzie - you're making me feel hungry. I'd love to try all those goodies you mention.

Nanto - thank goodness the bungalow garden is done. You two deserve medals, you've worked so hard.

WeeGranny - going through Customs can be scary! We honeymooned in France (1967) when there were very strict regulations about what you could bring back to the UK. Alcohol was very minimal - a couple of bottles of wine or half a bottle of spirits, or something similar. My French friend's Dad was a wine merchant and a lovely, kind man. He gave us several cases of wine as a wedding present - all wines we'd enjoyed over there. We drove up from Provence drinking as much as we could - we couldn't afford the duty we'd have had to pay on the wine. (Pre drink-driving laws and largely empty roads!) But we ended up in Dover with a car still full of bottles. We went through "Red" fully expecting we'd have to hand over the rest of our wine. We told the Customs Officer the situation, but he noticed confetti in the back of the car and just waved us through, saying to OH "You've got enough trouble on your hands, sonny"! Outrageous comment, but I forgave him!!!

[Plantaholic]

Back from the National Trust group, very interesting talk by Bill Hamilton who was a BBC reporter you might remember him. He worked in a lot of war torn countries and all his fees and sales from books he has written goes to charities mainly to feed and educate the orphaned children.

WG, I presume OH is being discharged to the care home not home. It must be strange to have the house to yourself, feet up and enjoy your M&S meals.

Oma, must remember not to wear a bra if I get a mammogram booked, good advice.

[Oma]

Oh Daisy as if you were any trouble hahahaha I bet J wishes he had all that wine now

Plant sounds a good talk , was he talking long ? sometimes when you get a good speaker you don't want it to stop .

A few years ago we heard the lady from Calendar Girls who's husband died of Lymphoma and the film was made about talk .
Although her story was sad she was a brilliant speaker and had lots of funny snippets about her husband ,
Time seemed to wizz by and didn't feel like she had been speaking for a hour straight .

[Nanto2girls]

Good morning ladies.

Its a day out for us today.We are going to Holmfirth, for a change.
Hubby and his brother went through there a few weeks ago and said it looked lovely.
DS2 and his partner are going with us.
We did the supermarket yesterday,so thats taken care of.

[Gemini]

Good morning everyone.

Nan2, I am sure you are shattered with all the work you have done recently. Try to take it easy this weekend.
Enjoy your trip to Holmfirth, I have never been there.
The customs officer had a sense of humour at least Daisy!

Hairdresser for us this morning, at 9 am. I have no idea why she has to come at such unearthly hours. Sometimes it is even earlier I suppose it gets us up for the day.
No real plans today apart from going to spend the evening with our friends C and P.

Have a good Saturday ladies.

[Daisy]

Good Saturday morning, ladies. It's dull but dry here. I hope it doesn't rain as OH wants to finish off tidying up and splitting some logs for the woodburner. I need to start wrapping up some tender plants for the winter.

Nanto - have a lovely day out, and I hope the weather is good for you.

Gem - I've never understand why anything starts as early as 9 am! But you're right, it gets you up for the day and you do get more done when you have an early start.

Plant - that sounds like a very interesting talk, and I'm sure he donated his fee from the NT to his charitable causes - what a lovely man.

Oma - what an amazing lady. It takes a special person to do what she did.

[Oma]

Morning ladies ,

I always go for early appointments , earlier the better for us but we are early risers anyway ,

Nanto enjoy your day out you have earned it

Daisy hope it stays fine and you get the gardening jobs done ,
Its fine but grey looking here .

Gem enjoy your night with C&P are you having a meal out or a takeaway ?

UP with the sparrows cough this morning and I have Blitzed the downstairs , if it didn't move it got cleaned , washed polished and hoovered ,
I then tackled the stairs cleaned the stair lift down, under and behind

Then B hoovered the bedrooms and stair carpet for me ,
Just sitting down for 10 minutes our Martin & Clare are on their way to visit , they coming to us first then MIL's

will catch up later ladies xxx