Stormy Weather

[salymap]

Morning marthe and all Stormy Weather friends.

It's been a stormy Christmas for me so far, but hope it will get better from now on. Favourite young cousin coming with partner later which should cheer me. Happy New Year if we don't speak again before that.
Does anyone make NY resolutions? I gave them up yonks ago.

[Serial_Apologist]

Does anyone make NY resolutions? I gave them up yonks ago.

Every year the same one.........

[Anna]

Every year the same one.........

And which one is that S-A ?

Nigella said something along the lines of "If you can make good gravy then people will forgive your flaws"

[Serial_Apologist]

And which one is that S-A ?

Nigella said something along the lines of "If you can make good gravy then people will forgive your flaws"

The giving up smoking one, Anna.

[marthe]

Many thanks for all the good wishes especially from Mahlerei, Brassbandmaestro, and saly!! It's a grey mildish, damp day here. I've had to spend part of the morning on the phone to the bank getting my Visa check card sorted out. It was declined on Christmas Eve day (first time ever) for no apparent reason. The banks have been closed since Friday so I had to wait til today to sort this out. Bank put me on to the Fraud Watch people who said that someone had used my card number fraudulently to book a hotel in Georgia, a place I've never been. Bank is issuing a new card, but I'll have to wait 7-10 business days to get it. This is a bit of a nuisance.

Now I have to get the spare room tidied up for brother, and sister-in-law who are driving down from Maine tomorrow. This means kicking the cats off the guest bed and doing some strenuous dusting and vacuuming to get rid of cat hairs!

Saly, New Year's resolutions always run along the same lines: reducing clutter, being better organized, etc. At least, thanks to Mrs. Beeton's cookery book (not Nigella), I can make good gravy!

[salymap]

Morning marthe and friends. Was given a lovely little bedside radio yesterday with batteries, wind-up or solar power, which will be useful. I've also picked up a bad cold from someone, so now have to keep warm and get rid of it.

Time for a clear up of the wrapping paper and rubbish and thinking again about getting repairs to the house done. Have a good day.

[Serial_Apologist]

Went out to the local shop earlier to get next week's Radio Times; it felt almost like spring had arrived.

The ******s have put the price up again, as always after Christmas. Of Radio Times, that is.

[Anna]

The giving up smoking one, Anna.

Well, in 100 days time you'll have to buy your ciggies under the counter in supermarkets in plain brown paper wrapping as displays of them will be banned!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16342906

[salymap]

Went out to the local shop earlier to get next week's Radio Times; it felt almost like spring had arrived.




The ******s have put the price up again, as always after Christmas. Of Radio Times, that is.

I hear it's gone up 20p to £1.40 S-A. That's far too much but expect I will still get it.

[mercia]

wisely or unwisely I have taken advantage of that card stuck in the Christmas edition of RT to take out a discounted 6-monthly subscription. every (tiny) little helps I suppose ......... and it will be delivered.

[marthe]

Cloudy with bright intervals here. Temps still warmer than usual for late December. I expect in January we'll get a week of deep freeze when the night-time temps go down to single digits farenheit. That's when we have to watch out for frozen pipes in certain parts of the house!

Time to clean up the guest room for brother and sister-in-law, then appointment with hairdresser.

Saly, I hope you're cold gets better soon. Enjoy your bedside radio!

As for cigarettes (and I'm not a smoker) and the Radio Times, all the little pleasures in life are now forbidden or expensive.

[Anna]

wisely or unwisely I have taken advantage of that card stuck in the Christmas edition of RT to take out a discounted 6-monthly subscription. every (tiny) little helps I suppose ......... and it will be delivered.

I had thought of doing that but I only started buying RT again (having got it down to just the double Christmas issue) when the Proms started this year. I have the new copy but somehow, I just find it so disappointing with the amount of space devoted to radio and lack of interesting articles about what's on R3 and R4, plus lack of detailed playlists. It's too soapy and slebby. Crossword's ok I suppose and film reviews. No idea how it compares with TV Times for radio coverage?

[mangerton]

I had thought of doing that but I only started buying RT again (having got it down to just the double Christmas issue) when the Proms started this year. I have the new copy but somehow, I just find it so disappointing with the amount of space devoted to radio and lack of interesting articles about what's on R3 and R4, plus lack of detailed playlists. It's too soapy and slebby. Crossword's ok I suppose and film reviews. No idea how it compares with TV Times for radio coverage?

Anna, I stopped buying it about fifteen years ago for those very reasons. I felt sad about it, as it was a magazine that had read from my earliest years.

I've no idea either how it compares with TV Times for radio coverage, but I can't imagine that TV Times will go to any great lengths to promote the "opposition".

[Anna]

Anna, I stopped buying it about fifteen years ago for those very reasons. I felt sad about it, as it was a magazine that had read from my earliest years.

Some years ago I moved into a Victorian 2 up 2 down which hadn't been touched for years and years upstairs. When the impossibly filthy and threadbare carpet in the bedroom was pulled up - the underlay consisted of old Radio Times and copies of The Listener!! Fascinating reading, probably worth money, but they had to be jettisoned. Thinking back, if they had been kept, I could have donated them to FoR3!

[PatrickOD]

As for cigarettes (and I'm not a smoker) and the Radio Times, all the little pleasures in life are now forbidden or expensive.

marthe, thanks for that. It is so refreshing not to have to listen to the breast beating of the righteous over the abominible sins of their weaker brethren who enjoy a fag -( titter ye not, ye at the back!).

As for RT, I agree with Anna and mangerton about the general content, and was determined to stop buying it also about 15 years ago, but I didn't do it. Misplaced loyalty I guess. I might stop this year. Even the double Christmas numbers have well begun to lose their appeal for me. I'm looking at the one for 1975/6, price 20p, remember it? It's got a robin surrounded by bells and brass instruments, with holly mistletoe and ivy - original artwork, discreet and fairly low key, not so brash and vulgar as imo later on. I've got the Christmas numbers from then up until the present, plus a few other issues that I kept for one reason or another. If, as Anna suggested, they would be of interest to FoR3, I would be happy to part with them. Any notions I had of puttng them to some constructive use have long dissipated.

To keep on topic, the weather here is foul - windy, wet and cold, bridges restricted, air travel dodgy. I'm at home with a big turf fire going, looking at the cards we got today for our golden wedding anniversary. 1961 was sunny and cold with a sprinkling of snow, if I remember rightly.