Off for a bath, goodnight Summer.

Aaaaah thanks yogi, I get it, my m had RSI several years ago and couldn't work for a few years. She had to go get assessed each year

Enjoy yogi have a great sleep

Good morning everyone

 

Sunny but cold outside here. No snow here.

 

My brother brought some cakes for the week-end. Some Mr Kipling angel slices and some Freetrade chocolate cakes. These chocolate cakes are passable but my brother won't be buying them again.

Good morning everyone. Very frosty start to the day. Brrrrrrr! I do like Mr Kipling's Angel Slices Shame the chocolate cakes weren't great, El. Have a good day everyone, whatever you're up to

Good morning everyone, very cold here like everywhere else.  I hope you are all keeping toasty warm

 

 

Chocolate cake is one of the luxuries of life, what a shame yours were a slight disappointment EL I hope you and your brother enjoy the Angel slices.

 

I do hope your friend got on OK with Atos Skylark, tell them not to get their hopes up and get ready to appeal, they seem to turn everyone down

Morning all x

Sorry couldnt get back on yesterday.
The ATOS appointment was awful. A rather intimidating woman who called herself a nurse bombarded my friend with one question after another whilst typing frantically. She had no time to answer properly and frankly the "nurse" looked like she couldnt care less, a very cold person i found. The questions ranged from how she fed herself, got shopping in, cleaned the house etc. The one that mystified me was "Which TV programmes do you watch?"  I asked politely if she could slow down slightly as i was taking notes, i got a blank stare as an answer. (yes squiggle i took notepad and pen). She then asked my friend to bend and touch her toes, as she has a spine problem i told her not to, she then asked her to squat, i said no again, as did my friend. She then took her blood pressure , which was high, not surprising i said! The "nurse" then said, thats it you will hear from us in a few weeks and we were out in the corridor before we knew where we were. Absolutely horrendous way to treat anyone. We will await the outcome before putting in an official complaint. It will be interesting to see what information she was typing in.

Have a good day all, will try to get back later. I have a pumpkin to carve for a small party we are having tomorrow. That should take me all day !! 

 

My sympathies Skylark for your friend.  I have, as they say, been there, done that and got the T shirt.  She will get turned down, that's a given.  Get ready to slap in an appeal straight away, tell your friend it's par for the course.  If she gets her MP involved the appeal will come sooner rather than later.  Get all the help you can, and advice too. 

 

Did you see that great pumpkins that Cind's hubby (I think it was him) carved?  It's in the Halloween thread.

Skylark, that sounds like an nightmare of an interview, which seems par for the course for ATOS If need be, I hope your friend fights them all the way Squiggle, I saw your posts in Pirate thread on this subject and couldn't get my head round the way ATOS treat people.

Yogi my daughter and I were so trusting and naive when we first went to her interview.  She had, as you will have seen, been signed off work by her doctor, she was in a very depressed state and there was no way she could have attended a job interview, still can't really.  There is no other way to describe the interview in which the 'nurse' assesses you it is callous in the extreme.  They just want you to go away.  She is trying now to help as many people as possible.  I think the rate of success on appeals is something like 85%, they just want you to give up.  The trick is, as we learned, thank goodness for the internet, be prepared.

 

It is something for which I am grateful this weekend   My sky dish seems to have gone on strike and I have absolutely no signal, so no Strictly, no Downton, etc etc.  Luckily I have 2 or 3 good films to watch on my DVD and the last series of Lark Rise which I have still to watch.  I should have been a boy scout

Good evening! I'm here at last! I'm home from work, bathed and in my pj's It snowed here this morning, Bramble kept getting it on her nose hehe Skylark your poor friend and it can't have been very good for your own blood pressure either it's disgraceful how they treated her and I hope she does get her case approved- squiggles advice sounds good Shame about El's cakes, I'm disappointed just thinking about it!

Squiggle- can you catch up on your missed shows with iplayer? And Downton is reappeared next Sunday avo, so hopefully you will be up & running again by then and able to record the episode *crosses fingers*

Hi Summer, yes I can either watch or tape Strictly next Sunday, I think Downton is repeated too, I will have to look into it.  I will tuck myself up in bed early and read my book, thank goodness for reading.  I hope the snow doesn't settle.

It's repeated about 4.30 pm itv 1 squiggle Hope you have a lovely evening with your book, I just started the sweet shop one this week, after a little break from reading

Squiggle, do you think your Sky problem is related to the weather? Hope they sort it soon but until then, enjoy your book.

I hope things are a bit better for your daughter now, and good for her, helping others re the ATOS interviews.

Summer, is this Bramble's first experience of snow, does she like it? Keira absolutely loves it - the deeper, the better!

Yes yogi! She did the cute head tilt "what's going on?" Thing at the door.. Then she just kept sniffing erratically in the snow lol I can't wait til we have a foot or so of it so that she can hop and jump around in it

Get some pics when it happens.

I'll video her!!!!! I wanted a pic this morning but it was dark... At least we know more snow is likely Did your book arrive? Mine has

Ooh- yogi! Go look in my festive thread, see what I bought

I forgot to order it - thanks for reminding me. I'll order it tonight.

 

I'll go check out your Christmas thread. BRB.

Aww, the bauble is great, I love it!

Thank you hehehehe I couldn't resist, we'll keep it forever and think of her long after she's gone. I hope we have many happy Christmases before that though Do you get Kiera a gift?

Oh yes, we certainly do get Keira some pressies (and Harvey too).

She loves the unwrapping bit and gets all excited.

I'm going to wrap something for bramble too then I've just bought a gift for a friend

It has to be done.

You are doing well with your gift buying, I need to get a move on with mine.

Only 3 so far yogi... But I've got 2 more ideas!

That's three more than me.

Downton DVDs for my mum

Excellent choice. I bought the first series for my mum, last year or the year before, and she loved it.

Signing out now. Goodnight Summer, sweet dreams.

She's heard me and her friend talking about how much we love it and I think she would like to see what the fuss is about..! Sweet dreams yogi sleep well

Good morning everyone. Weather is chilly and wet this morning. My body clock didn't realise the clocks had gone back an hour, so I woke at 6am

Morning x
Its so cold here  
Sorry to hear of your daughter squiggle, its bad enough dealing with illness without being subjected to ATOS too. We will await the outcome and then appeal. We are also informing the Scottish Parliament about the terrible treatment she received at the interview. Apparently if you have 6 points or more you have a good chance. I havent heard of anyone getting the full 15.
I have finished my pumpkin, its not as good as Cinds tho!! Its easier than doing a turnip/swede, my hands used to ache after doing them.  
Have a good day all x 

Good morning everyone

 

Brief visit as my brother is still here.

 

Rain early morning, but dry now. Fairly cloudy but none of the frost that was on the cars this time yesterday.

 

I hope you've all changed the clocks in your house where needed (otherwise you could have had an extra hour in bed)

 

When I was coming out of hospital (almost 3 years ago) and was convalescing I didn't even bother trying to claim any benefits as I had realised that the changes in the system which had just come in were such that I didn't want to go through the stress involved. So I sympathise with everyone who is affected.

Good morning everyone, very cold here, as it is everywhere.  I think it's going to get milder over the next few days, I do hope so.

 

Yogi because where I live is quite exposed I think the high winds might have maybe broken a cable or shifted the dish, a fixing might have rusted.  I should find out tomorrow when the Sky engineer comes.  I have Sky Protect so I hope everything is covered.

 

I probably won't try to catch up with Strictly now, was it good though?

Good morning Milder here, but damp. I've just cleaned out my rabbit hutch and was pleased to choose a still day, it's so much easier without any wind I too woke early but enjoyed the extra hour in bed, watching trailers for Xmas movies Brb, I'm going to the bus stop..

I'm back that was an easy catch

Squiggle, strictly was very surprising last night- would you like me to tell you who danced well, poorly and who came where on the board?

Yes please Summer, very kind, draw me a picture

Just dropped my brother off at the railway station. Apart from it being rather damp, nothing as eventful as 4 weeks ago when someone was threatening to jump off the multi storey carpark near the station.

 

Squiggle, I hope your Sky problems get sorted out tomorrow when the engineer comes.