Our New Life in Devon

 I received a Halloween party invitation from one of the neighbours through the door this week. It's unusual as we are normally at our daughter's home for Halloween, but staying home this year. The invitation was odd to say the least. The date was 30th October which is the day before Halloween and time was 12pm - 8pm. It was also only addressed to me. I knew the neighbour quite well so decided to pop in around 2pm mainly to see if it was the right date, time, and if it was OK to bring OH and son who is back here for the next fortnight on his annual leave. Also if they wanted anything for the table as we used to do with our parties back in South Gloucestershire. The neighbour greeted me warmly, giving me a booklet, and explained it was a skincare and makeup party. It was all displayed nicely all over the living room. I left, saying I would return later when I'd explained to OH and son, taking the booklet with me. I did buy a couple of small things for Christmas presents when...

 Had a call from Mark, our son, on Friday saying he'd like to come and stay for the weekend. Due to high winds some ships have been unable to travel to the UK so he's off work until Monday. I'm never lonely here for long lol. It was a nice few days having him here, and he's quite helpful around the house which is a bonus. He's back on Thursday for a week on annual leave. We aren't going to daughter's home for Halloween this year so have bought plenty of sweets for the trick or treat children when they call. I finally decided to make the French Apple Cake today. It turned out very nice and we all had some after dinner. It's made by melting the butter instead of creaming which is something I haven't tried before.                   French Apple Cake  Lily, our daughter, rang for a chat this afternoon. She's really busy this week so won't be visiting. It's unusual as most school holidays she comes with our granddaughter for a holiday By...

 The UK seems to have become very patriotic lately with Union Jack or England flags appearing everywhere. My problem is I wouldn't know which flag to put up! One side of my family were French immigrants and moved to England to marry and start a new life. I think they eloped. The other side were Welsh and English. So I had one parent with duel nationality as they were born in England, and the other parent half Welsh and half English. Now when it comes to religion I had Catholic, Church of England, Jewish, and Presbyterian in my immediate family so it's definitely a good mixture. I wasn't brought up religious, but father did want the 'last rights' from a Catholic priest and a Catholic funeral when he died. I don't speak Welsh at all, and my French is limited to what I learned at school alongside German and Latin. I wasn't very interested in any of them at the time sadly. Just to add to the mix 2 of my friends are Pagan. I believe that people are individuals fi...

 Went to the Doctors on Friday as my breathing was deteriorating with this cough as I have COPD. My GP is very good as I rang at 10am and was seen at 4pm. I'm back on antibiotics and steroids again so it's bye bye hair in 6 weeks time. Hair thinning is a known side effect of steroids but it does grow again in a few months. I've done a covid test and was negative same as OH. I didn't get the sore throat or temperature though, just a bad cough and cold with a chest infection. Today I've managed to strip my spare bed, finish unpacking my bag, do 2 loads of washing and generally tidy up the bedrooms. That's a good achievement atm for me, as my breathing is starting to improve now. I won't bother with moving into the spare bedroom again as it was a waste of time anyway - as it didn't stop me catching his germs lol. Granddaughter did very well in her science tests so daughter took her to McDonald's for a treat. She's a bright child but quite young for ...

 OH was completely recovered by last weekend which is just as well as we had a Murder Mystery trip booked with the U3A on Buckfastleigh steam train. It was quite good and something different to do.  Saturday we left to visit family and stayed with our daughter and granddaughter in South Gloucestershire. Things rapidly went downhill from there. Sunday morning I woke up with the same symptoms OH has had, so despite moving into a different bed, opening windows and doors when he was in the room, and avoiding him as much as possible I've still caught it. The covid tests arrived before we left and he'd tested negative so it's not that. It's like a cross between a bad cold and flu, with a hacking cough. Daughter's home was definitely not a great place to be when I'm ill as granddaughter is prone to teenage tantrums despite being only 11! Sunday night's was dramatic (she's good at drama) with stamping of feet up the stairs a few times, followed by lots of tears ...

 OH has spent almost all day in bed asleep   I've been mainly keeping the dogs company, watching TV and generally having a quiet day. He came downstairs mid-morning, for half an hour, to take his regular tablets and have coffee with me, then back to bed. Came down again at 5pm, had a tin of soup and back upstairs again. Down again at midnight for coffee for 10 minutes. I did keep checking if he's still alive up there every few hours lol. This is typical of OH. If he's ill he wants to be alone ie totally alone. I decided last night to move to the spare bed in the office room as he's coughing quite a lot, plus I don't want to catch it if it's Covid. I went online and I've ordered a pack of 10 Covid tests. It was a good deal - 10 for £9.99 with free delivery. The chemist here was charging £10 for a pack of 5 tests!! Cooked myself cheese omlette and chips for tea as OH didn't want anything more to eat. I found a recipe online for French Apple Cake yesterday ...

 We drove to B&Q last week to return the bath panels OH bought but didn't fit. About 6 months ago I slipped in the bath (didn't hurt myself) and the jolt caused a leak so the panels had to come off for the plumber to fix it. The panels didn't go back properly, as the plastic had deteriorated and corner pieces kept falling off. B&Q just had one size which definitely won't fit around our bath. I'm hoping OH will make a wooden surround in tongue and groove timber, as he did in our last house. It looked really nice painted white. While in Newton Abbot we had a look around the shops and I managed to get my shampoo and shower gel in Savers, at half the price it is in our nearest supermarket. Picked up 3 tins of shortcake biscuits for my 3 children for Xmas so I've officially started Xmas shopping now!  OH and I were invited to have Lung Cancer Screening which involved a telephone conversation and going to a supermarket car park for the appointment. I had to he...