I didn't know that EL, that's interesting.

I can see you now trying it out on some of the pictures which have been posted here - Bramble at full page view

Good morning all Aw some beautiful pictures squiggle the poem was lovely too, and very fitting do you tend to feel better after the anniversary has passed? That was the case for me for several years after my dad passed away. Had a interesting day off yesterday; SIL no1 called to say she had swapped her day off and wanted to take some of her dogs to the beach, they had never been. So we got in the car and did a lovely walk, the dogs enjoyed it too In the evening we went to see Dirty Dancing at theatre, 4 of us went. I saw the show in London several years ago, but the girls hadn't. Poor SIL no2 though was unfortunate to be seated next to 2 drunk girls who were talking all the way through the show, singing loudly, dancing and pre-empting the script. After having the first half spoiled and the girls being more drunk after the interval she eventually asked them to keep it down, an argument followed, and eventually a scuffle! One drunk girl ran off to get security, and claimed my SIL was using violence against her.. The girl had grabbed SIL's arm, to which she shoved the girl off her. Anyway, long story short, security threw out both drunk girls and SIL got to see the final act undisturbed. Is there any need to be drunk in a theatre?!

Summer, what a pity about the drunk girls spoiling things. I'm surprised the manager didn't throw them out earlier as they must have been annoying everyone near them.

I agree EL, how annoying

 

I wouldn't really describe it as feeling better once the anniversary is over, it's difficult to put into words.  I can only describe it as like toothache which gets much much worse at that time and settles down again afterwards, but always there.  It will sound silly but I will say it anyway, I don't feel like me without him, simple as that.

I understand what you mean squiggle you were clearly happy together and still love him very much How did you meet?

He was a friend of my brother.  My father was very strict and I was not allowed to go the local dance hall (I can't believe that we were so obedient when girls nowadays - like those in the theatre that you mention - seem to do what they want).  I can still see in my mind's eye my first glimpse of him - yes like the old cliche across a crowded room and I remember thinking 'Wow my brother's friends don't normally look like that!'  He was a very handsome guy.

Aw I can just picture the scene did he like you when he first saw you too?!

I don't think he noticed me! But later on when we went to a village dance (accompanied by my sister and brother-in-law so all respectable) I was wearing a full skirted dress and he remembers another boy was trying to lift the hem of my dress with his foot - I must have been standing in front of where he was sitting - my future hubby stopped him.  I think he noticed me when I went blonde really I remained blonde thereafter, I wonder why?

Good morning everyone

 

Rain overnight but dry now though cloudy. More rain forecast for tonight and expected to be fairly wet for the next few days here. Forecast for my area is less bad than for squiggle's area where there are warnings for the next 4 days. I hope it doesn't cause you and family problems, squiggle

 

Workwise, it's chaos here as the owners of the company that I am currently working on are looking to get a loan for a property they want to personally buy. First I knew of this was a week ago when the accountant for whom I do the accounts through rang me saying he had received an accountants reference from the lenders. I told him that my work was not sufficiently advanced for me to give any reliable figures so he phrased the reply to the reference in a fairly vague way. Yesterday afternoon I heard that the lenders were not satisfied with the reply and wanted accounts. I've said that I was not able to give reliable figures and didn't expect to much before the end of this month.

 

The problem is that the accounts staff at the company are so under pressure that they are firefighting the whole time and that can therefore lead to errors so I have to do my work carefully and methodically rather than rush things. The company is not a manufacturer of widgets or a retailer where it would be fairly easy to come up with estimated accounts fairly quickly as you would know what the turnover was, what rate of gross porfit was made and what level of overheads were incurred. It's a construction company dealing with larger contracts which can vary in length from a week to a couple of years. The value of work done on contracts by the year end is critical to the accounts and its value does vary hugely from year to year. No work has yet been done on that by the client so that makes it impossible for me to come up with sensible accounts. There are other things such as the level of maintenance provision which is required which again varies and can have a large impact on the profit.

 

With a company like this the later the accounts are done after the year end the more reliable are the figures used for work in progress and maintenance provision as the contracts have become further advanced so you can get a better feel for what has happened profit-wise on those contracts.

 

Lenders just don't understand the complexity of construction business accounts and now far too cautious when it comes to taking risks. That's one of the main reasons why we have a recession. My colleague told me that he received a similar reference request last week for another client. He replied with a forecast for the latest year's accounts. The lenders aren't satisfied and require final accounts. Similar position to my client. His client has a year end of 30 September and they expect final accounts now

Good morning everyone.  It sounds like it's a very difficult job dealing with those accounts EL and coming up with reliable figures.  The economy, especially to do with the construction industry, is really difficult at the moment and although I am sure they want you to come up with a glowing account that would put you in a difficult situation when you have to see the figures in front of you, and not just theories about the profits they are earning.  Add to that the caution over lending which, as you say, is undermining the ability of the economy to bounce back and all in all it's a bit of a hot potato.

 

I don't know much about the construction industry myself but I do know of a dear Christian friend who ran a construction business and was forced into bankruptcy when a customer simply refused to settle his bill at the end of the contract. Although I am sure he didn't have a huge workforce it must have been awful for his workers as well as himself.  And of course being a Christian he was hardly the sort who could 'send the heavies in'.

Good morning Overcast and chilly here, I'm not sure what is forecast. Indeed el, the construction industry sounds very complicated and I think a lot of patience is required to deal with those accounts. Thank goodness you're not the kind of person to rush a job Squiggle, well they do say blondes have more fun I'm pleased mr squiggle did notice you because he clearly made you very happy

Squiggle, the sad thing is that if I had been made aware a month ago that accounts might be needed urgently I could have shifted my other client work around to have been able to make more progress. The actual legal deadline for these accounts isn't until the end of December so that's comfortably manageable.

 

I should say that accountants who give an incorrect reference to lenders face being sued themselves if the borrower defaults, so that's why I won't let myself be railroaded into preparing accounts in haste which I have little belief in their reliability. Accountants who knowingly give a false reference are likely to face a prison sentence if and when caught.

 

I'm sorry to hear of your friend's experiences though unfortunately they are too common in the construction industry. A contractor on a large job will have subcontactors who will use their own subcontractors who may well have their own subcontractors so a chain like that is not unusual. The lower down the chain a subcontractor is the less clout they have. It's normal for subcontactors to make applications on account during the period of the contract. The contractor will then certify what they consider to be an acceptable value and pay the subcontractor on that. Sometimes that is the amount applied for, but sometimes it's less. Also it's normal for a contractor to keep back a retention. The level of retention varies a lot, sometimes 2.5%, sometimes 10%. It can take a long time for the subcontractor to get paid the retention and it's common to only ever get some of it. On a contract with a low profit percentage, much of the profit can be that retention.

 

Just had someone ringing me up looking for an accountant which as you can guess I told her I was snowed under with work and couldn't take the work on. That's not wholly true as the work wouldn't need to be done immediately but a) her accent was so strong that it was diificult to understand what she was saying, b) she admitted they didn't have a clue about what to do in terms of record keeping, and c) they are in the process of setting up a bouncy castle business. When you consider that there are 15 businesses in Gloucester city doing this, they are going to have a hard time making a success of it in the current recession.

I'm always reluctant to take clients on where their accent makes it difficult to communicate with them as misunderstanding something which is said in my line of business is not good.

 

I'm pleased I'm not a builder!

You are far too creative to be a builder

Hi all, granddaughter on the mend, just catching up with stuff. Hopefully be back later to catch up with what you all have been up to 

Skylark, I'm glad your granddaughter is recovering

 

I found this clip on the BBC website posted today. Blue honey :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/scie...environment-19840555

 

Thanks El, she is still coughing like she has smoked a pipe for years, but GP says its just mucus , no antibiotic thank goodness.
Very odd with those bees.  I have to say i havent seen many bees here, apart from near me, a garden, has lots of lavender, and they seem to like buzzing around that. Havent seen many wasps either come to that.


Nice work Summer with the wreaths  
I do feel for you squiggle understand what you mean. I wasnt with my husband as long as you were, but i do miss him, and it does get harder especially when you want to tell them stories and just generally just miss them. Its a hard time for you, but we are here for you 

Thanks Skylark, it's nice to know someone else feels the same

 

Ooh I wouldn't fancy that blue honey, it doesn't look wholesome really does it?

 

I could just slip into my cossie and take a dip now >>> here

 

Squiggle, i cant say how you feel, nor have i have the right to do so, i can only say that i am sure your hubby is with you, always  


Signing out, God bless all xxx 

Good morning everyone

 

Rain overnight. There was some mist here first thing this morning but it's lifted and it's now a nice sunny morning though not particularly warm outside.

 

Skylark, I think bees and wasps stayed in their hives this summer rather than flying around due to the bad weather. Also there was a parasite affecting bees

last year which would normally have been killed off during the winter but wasn't because the winter was mild.

 

Lovely blue water, squiggle

Good morning everyone Flying visit, as hotel wifi is a bit erratic. Hotel is lovely, food is good (traditional Greek style) and weather has been great. Will probably return home "milk bottle white" though, as sun-phobic Mr Yogi insists on us sitting in the shade. Hope everyone is well, back with you on Tuesday evening

Good morning everyone, and especially Yogi .  Better to sit in the shade than risk ruining your holiday with sunburn, been there, done that, don't want to do it again.  I am glad you are having a good time and especially getting some lovely sunshine even sitting in the shade - see you Tuesday

Good morning everyone

 

A reeasonably sunny morning here but cool outside.

 

Yogi, I'm please you are having a nice time on your break

 

As our church is having its Harvest Festival in church today here's some produce for you:

 

Tomorrow evening we will be having our harvest supper to raise money for charity. It's a simple supper with either cheese or ham followed by a home made pie (tends to be apple or apple & blackberry with cream or custard). You may remember my experience of the custard from a couple of years ago where I described it as warm yellow water.

 

Good morning everyone, a lovely harvest selection EL, our church's Harvest Festival is not until a fortnight's time, followed that evening by our Harvest Supper.  Definitely have the cream this time EL, unless they have learned how to make custard in the past year

 

Incidentally my friend in Canada, where they celebrate Thanksgiving as a huge holiday, in some cases bigger than Christmas, was enchanted to hear about the Harvest Festivals we have over here and thought it was beautiful.

hi I'm back from mr summers birthday mystery tour, just popping out though so will come back and catch up properly soon Pleased to see mini-lark is recovering and blue honey sounds very interesting!

Squiggle, I didn't know that Thanksgiving was big in Canada. I know it's colossal in the States where it seems to almost on the same level as Christmas judging from references to it in American television series.

 

The Harvest Festival service this morning was slightly different from normal. Instead of those people who had brought harvest items taking them to the front of the church to the altar during the service they all went to the back. There are seats on the left and seats on the right of the central aisle. The people at the back were put in two equal groups and the items were then handed one by one to someone sitting at the back to passs on to the person sitting next to them to pass to the person sitting next to them and so on. When the item reached the last person in the back row they passed it to the person sitting in front of them, and it carried on like that until it reached the front. That way everyone was involved in bringing the items up the church.

 

Besides the hymns you would expect - "All things bright & beautiful" and "We plough the fields" we had this. The first line is sung by the leader, and it is then repeated by everyone. Very little in the way of choices on Youtube and this was the best I could find:

 

and this which I have posted before.

Our rendition is better than any other version I've found on Youtube as everyone is standing up, lots of clapping in rhythm, and besides the organ playing, quite oa lot of the younger people had tambourines and maracas which results in something really exhilirating.

Summer, did you go anywhere nice on the mystery tour or land up outside your house ?

I especially liked the second one EL, very joyful.

 

I hope you and mr summer have had a great time Summer

Good morning ooooh it's nice to be home *stretches* I love going on mystery tours but I love coming home too lol especially to an affectionate puppy who loves us She behaved beautifully for MIL We did have a pleasant time but we also had a big disaster at dinner; First the wrong starter came out for mr summer, then I had to ask for a bread roll with my soup starter, then we waited ages for the main. I'd paid the dinner, bed & breakfast rate so obviously dinner was chosen from a set menu- but half the menu option had supplements, which ticked me off! The side veg was £2.85 per dish I told mr summer to get anything he wanted though because its his birthday he chose the fillet steak, and that had a whopping £6.50 supplement charge! So, we expected a beautiful cut of meat, cooked rare as requested.. Out came a very well done, tough as old boots steak.. And after going to cut it further in, it flipped open it was only a rump steak that had been folded in half and passed off as a fillet In a posh country house hotel, oooooh I was not happy! We called the restaurant manager over, who was gobsmacked, and apologised. She took it back to the kitchen and was horrified to discover that they still had plenty of fillet steak in stock! We very much believe that you can't send food back and get a replacement that hasn't been spat on or similar, so mr summer refused a replacement. I then told them to take my dinner too because I couldn't eat while he went without! We demanded a refund for the cost of dinner (I did get £50 back) and we returned to the room hungry I had packed a slice of birthday cake each so we at least had a snack.. *shakes head* I would have happily returned home at that point but we'd shared some champagne earlier so neither of us were under the limit to drive We also had no wifi (which we should have had free all the time) and no phone service! So I couldn't even google and call a takeaway to be delivered. We will laugh about it in future I'm sure but we'll never go back and today I'll be writing a complaint to the hotel manager, and the chain company who owns the hotel, and I'll be including a photo of the steak! I only wish I'd have videoed it too

Good morning everyone

 

Rain overnight, 100% cloud cover and forecast for more rain during the day.

 

Summer, that was a disastrous meal . I doubt if you will ever got there again.

Good morning everyone, just like you EL, we have complete cloud cover.  I shared your beautiful You Shall Go Out With Joy video on The Happiness Zone in the Have A Little Faith section and there were some appreciative comments so head there if you want to see them

 

Oh what a disappointment Summer, on Mr Summer's birthday trip too.  That is completely unacceptable and in fact unforgivable.  Will you leave a bad review on Trip Advisor?  Maybe you should name and shame somewhere on the forum too in case someone who lives near there is thinking of booking, it would at least alert people.

This made me laugh

 

Squiggle, thanks for letting me know of the comments made on the You Shall Go Out with Joy video. One day someone may think of making a video of our congregation singing that.

 

at your picture. "Who would have thought the old pillow would have had so much stuffing in it?" (apologies to Lady M )

 

Prototype no.2; I'm not happy with the position of the silver cones, but other than that I'm delighted and mr summer loves it. That's our final design so the Christmas one will look just like that

Well done, Summer - it looks great

I agree, well done Summer

Thank you both I love autumn, and harvest festival was always one of my favourite services- christingle being the top one. Thanks for the harvest fruits El Hope everyone has had a good day

Good morning everyone

 

Dry here, but like yesterday 100% cloud cover.

 

Nice harvest supper yesterday evening. The money raised is going to a local organisation called GARAS (Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers). There was a talk at the beginning from the wife of one of our retired clergy who was instrumental in GARAS's formation. It offers support to those seeking asylum in Gloucesershire in terms of welcoming them when they arrive, advocating for them in their daily struggles, supporting them if they face being sent back as well as helping them adjust to their long term future if they are recognised as refugees. It's not about illegal immigrants but about those who have had to leave their country because of fears for their future.