September 2025

[porqoui]

Hey all...what a day, one email after another, they just didn't stop. Most of them were from the boss. Haha

Lav..the teachers voted no to the contract offer and the plan is to strike on Monday unless some amazing agreement can be made before then, doubt that will happen. Nothing happens to me as far as work goes. I have created registration programs for all day care during the strike and the cc director has organized her staff to be available. We were waiting to here from the government and they blame the teachers for not accepting. I received your PM this afternoon and when I got home I tried to reply to you. With all my computer skills you'd think I'd be able to figure it out. I did submit a reply but it's not in my sent folder, I don't know where it is. I will check it out and let you know what I think or if I have any questions for you.

Mick...glad a good time was had at Oldham. That's great that you have no regrets moving, pretty soon it'll feel like you've always lived in the new place. I'll definitely look at as I don't really post on facebook and I only used messenger to chat with you guys. I'll let you know when I get it all figured out.

Off to find Bill's pic. LOL Have a good night....PPQP

[Lavande]

Greetings friends,

Kinda quiet around here today but that’s just fine with me. Sooner or later I have to get into my workshop to do a couple of pillows for people.

PQ, if a strike happens - what happens to you? Will you still be expected to go to work as usual?
I’m going to try to send you a link for WhatsApp in a message here since I’m still locked out of Messenger. Download it & see what you think. I can always put together a group chat like I did on Messenger a while back. I find it very easy to use & post pics too.

Mick, so glad you enjoyed your friend time today, sounds nice. Now that we’ve been here for 22 years I rarely think about the 3 previous houses. I do remember all the upgrades we did on them though, lots of work but we were younger, haha!

Hello to Pie & Cyn, hope you are both well.
Have a great day all!

[Mick]

Hiya all.how are we doing today then?I've just got back from Oldham. Went to Daisy nook and met up with my friends. We had a good laugh..worth it for the travelling. Just going out to cut the grass in the back garden.
hiya ppqp how are you doing?yep I had a lovely morning down at Oldham. Had a look at my old house...no feelings for it at all...in fact I definitely have no regrets moving. Yes what's app is pretty good,but it's up to the individual. Hope you have a good day

Hiya lav...how is the renovation work going?..that was a cracking pic Bill took at the market ..take care an have a great day

Hiya teegee and pie hope you are both doing good

[porqoui]

Evening all...for a quiet day it sure went by fast. LOL It was about 24C but very windy. We will be dropping down to normal 15C starting tomorrow, some rain in the forecast and they're talking the F word. The teachers voted this weekend and we're supposed to hear the outcome shortly. I think they voted no and will be on strike next Monday if not locked out before then.

Lav...main thing is to get that hearth done for the wood stove, everything else can come later, right? I'm not sure how WhatsApp works. Can you send an invite so I know how to find you and Mick? If it's just going to be the 3 of us chatting here I'm will to do the chatting there. LOL

Mick...when I read about Bonnie the saying "That's why we can't have nice things" came to mind. LOL I'll give WhatsApp a try and see what it's all about. Is that the one that deletes posts after 24hrs? Hope you had a good day at Oldham.

Have a good night...PPQP

[Lavande]

Afternoon friends,
We are in a warm spell with plenty of clouds overhead but no rain in the forecast. Took my dog in for a nail trim a little while ago, something I can no longer do. She gets so anxious the vet office has offered a tranquilizer before her next visit & I said OK, Lol
Not much else happening. We are in the process of redoing the entire lower level of the house. Needs new carpet, some cracked tiles replaced, paint, etc. but first the brick guy is going to build a new hearth for the new wood stove. There’s something wrong with the flue where the old wood stove sat - don’t ask me, i can’t explain these things Lol. So there will be lost of work & mess in my future.

Mick, I really hope you enjoy your visit with your friends tomorrow. Sounds like a good day!

Hello to the rest of the group & hope everyone has had a good day.

[Mick]

mae all...how are we doing today? woke up here to a really foggy morning ,but the sun has got its hat on now....thanks for the rain Lav yesterday ..in actual fac it was timed well ..I had just put some plants in the day before!Im going to Oldham tomorrow to see a couple of friends ,will leave about 6 am ...beat the crowds on the motorway with luck.just let Bonnie out ,,,,she is digging ...never used to but has discovered that new laid turf is great to rip up.apart from that not a lot going on .hope everyone has a good day .

[Lavande]

Happy sunny Sunday all!
It was supposed to rain all day but apparently it went to Mick’s place ~ sorry!
Yep, I am happy about yesterday’s craft fair. It certainly was a good one & probably the most relaxed one I’ve ever been to, no kidding. The local cable company set up a free temporary wifi for all of us to use which made using our phones the Square terminals, etc. much easier & faster, nice.

PQ, glad your weather is decent, enjoy!
I am 100% with Mick’s thinking. We have become more than online acquaintances over all these years & I do appreciate everyone’s daily postings. Makes me feel better to know our little group is doing OK. If we need support at some point we know where we can get the support & understanding almost instantly.
I know my being thrown off FB & Messenger messed things up but we have found another & even safer way to stay in touch with one another.

Hello to Cyn & Pie, please check in soon, we miss you both.

Have a great day everyone.

[Mick]

mae all ...a rainy Sunday morning here.....supposed to brighten up later on ....we shall see ...not convinced .hope all is well.did some more work onmy little wildlife garden yesterday ....the birds are starting to come in ,there is a little robin who has taken over that area ..tiny but the heart of a lion .also had in great tits blue tits coal tits dunnock ,hedge sparrow tree sparrow ,blackcap ,wren,magpie reed warbler and blackbird ..and this is the worst month because there is migration tons of natures food etc .Probably going down ? to Oldham on Tuesday meet up with friends .

hiya Lav ,glad the craft fair went well and the rain stayed away .its landed here .Planting up bulbs today ,ready for hopefully a spring show ..have a good day .

hiya ppqp ..I get you ...you can spend all day on the phone laptop etc ...especially working ..for me its about the ethos of why we are here .this whole thing was about a bunch of folk scattered to the 4 winds who had an issue ..in particular booze ...now hopefully we helped and still do to a certain extent...and from that developed a friendship...and its case of trying to keep that together...or thats my interpretation of it all...others may not agree.I could woffle on for ages but Ill shutup .hope you have a good day tomorrow.

big hello to eveyone else .

[porqoui]

Lav...glad the weather held up for you, sounds like a huge success. Well done. Yup, boss can deal with her, I'm done. We're enjoying a soft transfer into fall, cool mornings and warm days. Got the major grocery shopping done so tomorrow is me time. Sorry, but I am not going to do WhatsApp. I'm only on Facebook (and here) which I hardly every post on and am thinking of shutting that down. It's just gotten to be too much. I spend a lot of my time at work deleting spam/fishing/junk emails and come home to do the same in my personal email account. Have a good night and will chat tomorrow....PQ

[Lavande]

Hey everyone!
Craft fair done it went very well, sold lots of stuff, haha. The weather held out for us, rain expected later tis evening, nice. This was a brand new event & iy was surprising well run. That makes things SO much easier for the vendors, much appreciated. It was a good day!

Mick, sure hope the headache has resolved. I have to look & see if we can get the Merlin app, don’t know.
Take it easy on yourself, make sure you’re not driving your BP up if you know what I mean.

PQ, it’s in the boss’s hands now, let him deal with her, right? No need to get yourself worked up over someone obviously incompetent.
You deserve a peaceful weekend, try to enjoy the whole thing.

PIe & Cyn, thinking of you both.

BTW: WhatsApp is working beautifully between me & Mick. It’s safe & private, easy to use. We can put together another group chat there in a few seconds.

Have a good night all!

[porqoui]

Hey guys...sorry for not posting yesterday but I was wiped when I got home. I had been at work for 2hrs and was ready to throttle the cc director. When the boss came in he always says "how are you doing?" i walked into his office and said "it's not even 9:30am and I'm so done!" He was not surprised and said "let me get payroll out and we'll talk" Won't go into all the details but basically boss said it's time to push it back on her. She's had long enough to figure it out and maybe it's time to let her fail even if it reflects on us. Either she can do it or she can't. You have gone above and beyond supporting her and enough is enough. He said to me if this were a job interview I would say one of the downfalls I have is I care too much. He says I get it, I'm the same. We both think everyone should care as much as us and they don't. So that's removed a lot of pressure and I feel I can actually get back to doing my own work. They have hired an assistant childcare director so as far as I'm concerned the director can train the assistant director, that ought to be interesting. LOL

Mick...maybe you overdid it on Friday? I know when you start feeling better you want to go, go, go. I did check messenger to see if Pie & TG were still posting and was able to chat with them, but nothing has been posted since. Pie is still deciding about posting here and I get it, it took me a long time to move to messenger. I'm sure we'll see them both when they're ready. I wish I knew about the Merlin app when I was living with my sister in Saskatchewan. They had so many birds all with different sounds and I wondered what they were. No plans this weekend other than phone off. Hope you're headache has eased off.

Lav...I hope the weather people were right and you're enjoying a sunny rain free day for the fair. Looking forward to hearing all about it.

Thinking of Pie & TG. Have a good day....PPQP

[Mick]

good morning all how are we doing today then?hope all is well.weekend here ,not doing too much today ..I say that every time...but not feeling brill today .splitting headache ,but not to worry .how is everyone doing ? Seems a shortage of folk on here ,so I guess people are still using messenger .too.
hiya Lav,hope the craft fair goes well for you and the weather stays dry....over cast here.dont know if you get an app called Merlin over there ? its a good one ..

hiya ppqp...hope the phone is off .the weekend is yours ..... relax and enjoy. have you any plans?

hiya pie and teegee hope you are both ok .

[Lavande]

Good afternoon all!

We actually have some sun today, go figure. The weather folks are saying rain will hold off until AFTER sunset tomorrow so there’s a chance we will have a dry craft fair, yay!
I’m putting together a shepherd’s pie right now so we’ll have something ready to eat when we get home tomorrow. I know from past experience that I’m am too tired & brain dead after these events to do any cooking, Lol

PQ, I sure hope you are collecting 2 paychecks! You do your job & someone else’s job every darn day, it’s ridiculous.
There’s no way I can lift anything over my head either, geez be careful. Hope today is super easy for you & you have a good weekend.

Mick, sounds like you are well on the road to recovery with all the work you are doing. Don’t go hurting yourself now.
I need a bird app on my phone as well. We have bird feeders outside & I don’t know what some of these visitors are actually. My two male cats are always after the birds, it makes me sad they have killed so many.

Hello to Pie & Cyn, hope you are both well!
Have a great day all.

[Mick]

And good afternoon all how are we doing today then? hope all is well.. the weekend is here. Pretty overcast here today I've still got my cough but everything else seems to be on the mend. I've been working on my bird hide and the garden as well it's starting to attract a few Birds at the moment yesterday I have an app which tells you what birds are in the vicinity and picked up 44 different kinds. I saw a crazy three-winged aeroplane this morning flying over it was a copy of a German first world war fighter plane if you have a look on my Facebook account pictures are there. Quiet weekend for us

Hiya lav how are things with you?hope all as well and that you are ready for the craft fair tomorrow hope the weather stays well for you and you have a good time. Yesterday was a busy day for me first thing in the morning I sawed off one of the trunks of the palm tree chopped it up and took it to the tip along with some more rubbish then I put the border in for my wildlife garden then I dug some of the ground over. In the afternoon I cut the grass on the banking and that was about it. Take care have a great weekend

Hiya ppqp you got that bang on the money if the CC director can't do the job then she needs replacing not half the job giving to you or anybody else not less she's willing to share her wages with you which I very much doubt! Think of yourself you actually said you're post your osteoporosis was hurting so I would suggest that comes first not doing the job of someone that's getting paid to do it. Hope you have a good weekend

Hiya pie I saw you have been posting on messenger as opposed to here hope things are okay with you have a good weekend

Hiya teegee how are you doing?what are you up to?

[porqoui]

Hi Lav...did I miss a Mick post? It was a good day and I left an hour early to boot. Maybe you'll get all the rain today and tomorrow and clear sunny skies on Saturday. That's what I'm pushing for. Yet another screw up by the CC Director. When I got an email from the Subsidy people I forwarded it on to the director and the boss. Said to the boss I knew what she (cc director) was doing didn't sound right to me and he said him either. From now on she's on her own. Either figure it out or we'll get someone who can, and it won't be Ann. LOL

It was a physical day for me with the building super not here I had a bit more setups to take down. The facility staff last night didn't take down the event from last night and I would have left it for the boss but a sportball program started this morning and I had to clear the room. The cc director did help me, but it took a lot out of me. With my osteoporosis I'm a bit bent over, it's hard to lift my head and reach up to stack chairs. Friday is an easy day with no setups to do.

That's my news for now. Have a good night....PQ