7 degrees of chilly drizzle here. Brr! I'm still trying to get moving after dancing too much last night! A swing dancing friend put on a charity bash in aid of a local suicide prevention charity. A very good cause.

There was a live band and an invasion of swing dancers and the raffle raised nearly £500. A great night all round!

Thanks for the coffee, Rumps and congrats on your team's success!

Enjoy your rehearsal, Larry!

Cynthia, I got a whole tin box full of Earl Grey from a friend and I don't drink anything but herbal teas. Trying to figure out who I can give it to without my friend finding out. Not a lot of people drink tea. My bestie friend from Scotland has never liked tea.

A delightful thing happened, I went out to dinner with husband for anniversary and we were shocked that two women at a nearby table paid for our dinner according to our server. We really only said happy anniversary to each other in a very quiet voice.....how nice. I think we have a "pay it forward".


Elizabeth, I completely understand your dilemma! Passing things on you don't eat/drink/use to others who will appreciate them can only be a good thing. But how to do that without offending the original giver? Not easy!

And how lovely! Such a nice gesture from those ladies. Hope you had a lovely meal and belated Happy Anniversary!

I'll have a lemon and ginger tea before bedtime here.

Thank you, Cynthia, for your kind words, it is a real relief the antibiotics are working. He's still very tired and low on energy and gets winded easily, even the two flights of stairs to our floor knock him back a bit. He has been making noises about going out to the store, which is quite close by but far enough that he isn't up for it. I told him if he tried it I would hide all his shoes. Anything that is needed, I can get.

Your Christmas beading projects sound interesting, are you doing needle beading, or frame beading or another technique?

Enjoy the play, Larry, glad to hear your weather should be all right.

So glad to here the antibiotics are kicking on and Himself is feeling better. Hide those shoes before he does too much! Wishing him a smooth recovery. :) I will read your latest story very soon.

I just do needle beading so basically sewing. Easy to pick up and put down and just fit in whenever I can!

I'm sure the Sunday School children had such a treat with you making up Scamp stories live for them, Sara!

Hope the play rehearsals are going well, Larry!

I need a pot of Early Grey tea to wake me up today!

Gypsy, so glad Himself is starting to mend a little. Glad the antibiotics are helping.

Larry, hope poor wee Victor is feeling better soon, bless him!

Scott, I'm the other way around as I'm a bit short of writing ideas at the mo, after a creative spell. Am cracking on with my Christmas beading instead (themed earrings, Christmas decorations etc) until I get the next burst of inspiration!

Sara, I'm having a sleepy start today too. Coffee to get me going would be great!

I did see that challenge. I am not sure I can come up with anything. It's been stressful and I can't seem to think of a single good idea.

It was so nice to see the Nationals win the World Series. For a few days, the lead on the local news wasn't a political one. It will be fun to see a parade here again. It's nice to have a feel-good story for a change.

I need to catch up on some reading. I have been on meds that made my brain a bit fuzzy so I could not concentrate on much. My concentration should improve from here on.

I'll have a ginger-ale and curl up under a warm blanket and listen to an audiobook.

I hope everyone is well or recovering or mending.

Cheers!

Gill!! How lovely to hear from you! (hugs) I do hope you are recovering.

Next door's kids came by trick or treating. Well, showing off their skeleton Halloween costumes anyway. They were so pleased with themselves! Luckily, I had some brownies in the freezer to give to them. :)

Enjoy your quiet day, Sara! Coffee to get me going here would do rightly. :)

Aw, cute Victor!

Our clocks go back in the last weekend of October.

Some coffee to get me going this morning sounds good!

Been busy few days here, so just catching up with everyone's news on the thread. Hope you're feeling better Sara! And hope Gypsy's OH is recovering too.

Getting colder and darker here now the clocks have gone back. I'll have a lemon and ginger tea to keep the chills out, please. :)

This week has been so hectic with one thing and another, I haven't had a chance to pop on here, so it's lovely to catch up with everyone's news! Plus the autumn leaves and Victor pics!

Scott, you are absolutely right. Cold is relative! My cousin from Ontario had a place to study at St. Andrew's University in Scotland many years ago. He dismissed everyone's warnings about the cold. I mean, he was an Ontario kid and used to those freezing winter temperatures and all that snow. How cold could it be?

One winter later, he found out that raw damp, raw, bitterly cold wind straight off the Russian Steppes (or somewhere!) was a completely different ball game from the crisp dry cold of Canadian winter! There are different types of cold, after all!

Talking of which, I might light the first fire of the winter in my grate tonight. :)

A cup of coffee to get me moving would be very welcome. Any of Larry's Java on the go?

I was just scrolling back through the last page and catching up on everyone's news. Scott, for a minute there I assumed 'Irish tea' must be a euphemism for a pint of Guinness!

Hope Gill and Larry's various house painting tasks go well. And good to see Sara back! (hugs)

It's definitely getting cooler here, but grey and drizzly rather than crisp and cold. A cup of Larry's java would just hit the spot to get me going thus morning.

]

SSDs (solid state drives) are the biggie. They use the same memory technology as in phones and thumb drives to create a smaller, lighter and, above all, FASTER hard drive than the old spinning magnetic platter. They are also quieter (no spinning platter) and allow for smaller form factors (my wife's "desktop" is smaller than a lot of laptops). We use them in everything at work now. So my one recommendation if you're going to replace that old Dell is get something with an SSD.

Likely Larry's left some around here. I'm putting the kettle for my morning cuppa.


That's really good to know, Scott. Thanks for the advice! Useful for when my Dell finally gives up the ghost (see how I got this back round to stories? <img src="/images/emoticons/evil6.gif" alt="evil4"> )

Coffee to get me up and running would be just the ticket!

At our local swimming pool, you can clearly perceive the pattern of the school year, especially during the holidays. It gets markedly busier at half terms and the Easter break and even at Christmas (if parents really don’t know what to do with their children on a bad day weather-wise, having steadily worked through all the seasonal movies in the nearby multiplex)! These are brief flurries...

Added 21 Sep 2019 | Category Musings | Votes 11 | Avg Score 5 | Views 197 | 12 Comments

“You’re planning on doing WHAT ?” Isabella exclaimed, her voice emerging higher and louder than she expected, but her startled outburst had little or no effect on her group of friends. The men of the party, Luke and Marius, who were normally so protective of their female companions, just grinned at Aelia and Zenobia, who looked pleased with themselves and quietly excited. “But one of...

Added 30 Dec 2018 | Category Young Adult | Votes 11 | Avg Score 5 | Views 382 | 9 Comments

John strode across the bustle of Piccadilly, the wide road alive with people even at this late hour. He was glad to turn his steps towards home and to disappear into the huddle of dark streets that was Soho. He felt more at ease here in the shadows than he did in the melee of the West End. There, flaming torches lit the way, gilding the streets with an orange glow leading towards the...

Added 20 Oct 2018 | Category Supernatural | Votes 9 | Avg Score 5 | Views 376 | 9 Comments

London, Spring 1816 He clearly remembered when he first became aware of a hint of unease; a sense of otherworldly darkness. Before then in his life, of course, he had moments of disquiet in terms of worry and fretting, but they were normal daylight concerns. He remembered as if from a great distance his medical training in the cool grey light of Edinburgh, his careful studies on...

Added 27 Sep 2018 | Category Supernatural | Votes 11 | Avg Score 5 | Views 337 | 10 Comments

Kate stumbled down the neatly raked path, her glasses steamed up with the heat of raw emotion and half-blinded by tears. She trusted she would find her way to her favourite spot in the Walled Garden if she were blindfolded, or even in the pitch dark. That was if the entrance hadn’t been barred by solid metal doors at nighttime. It was as though she was led by a homing device to her place...

Added 09 May 2018 | Category Romance | Votes 7 | Avg Score 5 | Views 334 | 9 Comments

Perched on a craggy outcrop, staring out to sea, the priest opened his mind and his heart to God. In such wild and lonely places, he felt closest to his Maker and His divine word. He was not a young man, and knew his role as a travelling preacher, bringing God’s message to those isolated enough to be those starved of it, would not last forever. Previously, he could put in a day’s march in...

Added 21 Feb 2018 | Category Young Adult | Votes 5 | Avg Score 5 | Views 406 | 5 Comments

Dancin’ the blues Is a complicated business; First, you focus on the rhythm, Then you try to feel How your partner moves, Fumbling to sway with his groove: Most of all, you strain to blend with All the glory of That music, In three or four pressurised minutes, When you concentrate intensely On all these elements.   If you can surrender To the beat, your partner, That music, ...

Added 05 Dec 2017 | Category Poetry | Votes 10 | Avg Score 5 | Views 467 | 9 Comments