Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

feelbritish,
What you say here makes a lot of sense,
Timing is so important, everyone has to pick there own time to come home, all our circumstances are so different from each other, but we all share the same desire to come back home to our roots, our home, this special place where it all started, where we were born and where we have all our memories of growing up,
When we are in our adoptive countries living our life, and the years seem to go by so quickly and suddenly we see ourselves getting older,
With me I woke up one morning and I was in the bathroom shaving and I looked at my face and realized I was now 64, well I came to the U.S. when I was 29 and I thought about that Paul McCartney song (will you still need me will you still feed me when Im 64) well I dont know why but at that moment I decided to come home to England, I still had some family left in UK, none in the US,
I wanted to come home and spend some time with my Mum she is 93 now,
but I needed to wait one more year until I became 65 because I did not want to come home if I had to join the masses of unemployed in trying to find a Job, too many hardships and problems, especially when your older, I wanted to come home and be retired from then on,
So I had a year to plan my move, I did though later regret waiting that year as after I came home only two months went by and my Sister passed away of lung cancer, exactly one month after her 69th birthday, but altough she was living in a different part of U.K. I was able to see her a few times, im thankful for that,

(WELCOME to the new people cardienscarf and beth1979)

I wish you both lots of luck in your preparations to come home, there is a lot to do, and a lot we have to think about, the best way and what I did and many others have done is make a list of EVERYTHING that has to be done before you can leave to come back home, and tick each thing off one at a time as you go through the list, I found my hardest chore and most time consuming was declutering!!!! sorting through all the stuff that we all have collected through all those years,
put everything in 3 piles, one pile to keep and take with you, this should indeed be the shortest pile possible, you have to be quite ruthless in what you keep and chuck,
then the 2nd pile for all the clothes and stuff you want to donate, and finally the 3rd pile for stuff that you may want to try and sale or give away to friends,
and then whatever is left over and you feel is just a whole lot of junk that you have had for years that means nothing to you, well I had a lot and just tossed it all!!!!

But there are a lot of things to do, and you will find that your (to do) list gets even bigger as you think of other things,
you see its such a permanent move that you just cant afford to forget anything, cause when you finally get on that plane and wave good bye to a place that was indeed your home for a very long time ---- your mind needs to be clear, and you are confident that you can now look forward to the long flight being over ----- and as you look down at the lovely green green grass of home, the U.K. countryside as you come closer and closer to land and you think WOW Im actually home, and home for good this time ----- not just for a holiday :) no more tearful goodbyes, your home for good!!! oh what a feeling that is, and you really dont get that feeling until your plane touches down on British Soil :D

I felt it was important for me to apply for American Citizenship before I came home, funny really, waiting till I decide to come home to do it, I mean I waited 36 years, kind of makes you think that although you regarded it as your home and all those years you were reasonably happy but still stayed in a green card status, so maybe back in our minds we always knew it really wasn't our home at all, just somewhere where we hung our hat for a good part of our lives ;) anyway I just think that we all need to keep that option open, where we can always come back anytime, after we give it our best shot and if it just dont work out here in U.K.
cause you never know do you, nothing is ever forged in stone, things happen, we may change our minds no matter how sure we are when we get on that plane,
So for that reason I feel it is important also to not burn any bridges, and I keep an American bank account open,

and also I still keep my U.S. drivers licence re-newed,

and also to have a really good friend in U.S. to agree for you using there address as your U.S. mailing address,

and keep filing your U.S. taxes every year, even if like me you owe nothing, you can do that free on line from the main U.S. IRS site,

And before you leave make sure you go into your Bank in U.S. and talk to a supervisor and tell them you are going to be living overseas for a while, then make sure they enter that info into there system, otherwise if you dont do that when you try and use your debit card in U.K. you will find that your account will be blocked for your own protection, a problem you will not want to deal with as soon as you come back home.

and when you sell your car make sure you dont forget to take your licence plates back to DMV and show them proof of the sale of car to prove you no longer own it, all this has to be logged into there system, and make sure they do it!!!!

There is so much more you have to do before leaving, and a lot of these things can only really be done in the last few weeks or even days before you leave the country, and because of that it all can feel very mind boggling even though you are ticking everything off your list as you go, you think to yourself what if I forgot something important to take care of? and then the emotions start to kick in as you think about what it all will be like when you come home, life can be very hectic in the last few weeks or days before you make your carefully planned departure.

But hey when you are home and you start settling in to your new life you will find that all the work you did to make this all possible was certainly worth it all, and you will feel free :) and as you slowly get into your life over here you will I think, as I did, feel a deep sigh of relief that (YOU REALLY DID IT) ---- and you will feel very happy and contented as I do,
I am just coming up to my anniversary, next month will be my first two years at home, I think I will take Mum out for a nice dinner somewhere nice and celebrate :thumbsup: :D
Good luck everyone!!!!
Rodney. :)
PS and yes as feelbritish says you really do need to get your finances sorted out, it is very important to really think and work out the minimum amount of money you will need to get established here, i.e. if you have to find a flat or house to rent, how much will you need to have, even finding a place temporarily to live in the area that you want to settle in, rent isn't cheap here, and if you have no income and need to find work, you will need a good 6 months at least of rent money, remember finding a job here is just as hard as finding a job in the U.S.
life here would be real tough with no money in your bank account, especially if you have no friends or family here, and you are entirely on your own, you and your partner, yes there is a safety net here provided by the UK government, but if you have no money saved you will feel a lot more lonely here, and you will be unhappy with no security,
Dont get me wrong anybody, Im not saying that everyone needs £100k to come home with but if you dont have family over here to put you up for a while until you get on your feet and you are compleatly on your own then I feel that you would need at least £5,000,much better if possible to have £10,000, Ihad a place to live where I did not have to worry about rent ---- so I was very lucky but I still had $5,000 to come back with, about £3,000 or so,

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Hi Beth and Cardienscarf and welcome!

I do think it's a good idea to save up a little back-up money as it's very hard to come home and start again when you have nothing. That said, I also think its important not to wait too long if you don't have to.

Life has a way of throwing surprises at you and I think Trotty, who started this thread, is a good example of that. I hope she doesn't mind me talking about her, but after waiting and waiting to come home, and then putting her house on the market and it not selling for years, and then finally dropping the price and selling it, she fell ill and still hasn't been able to leave.

Also I know our good friend Fish was about to leave America when his parents got ill and he was forced to stay. He also hasn't been able to leave yet.

Finally, my SIL who is 50 suddenly became ill with a rare brain disease. She went from being a busy mother and career woman to being invalided at home with all kinds of physical problems. One day she was healthy, the next her life had changed forever.

These stories spurred me and my husband on and made us determined to get home as fast as we could once the decisions was made. We did save up some back-up money first - I wanted to save more but I just didn't feel we had the luxury of time.

So I don't really know what I'm saying except don't make plans thinking that life goes on forever just as it is today. If you know you want to come home, see what you can do to make that a reality sooner rather than later (for example, if you can work overtime, or take a second job, or marry a millionaire (:lol:) do it!)

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Hello Beth,
There has been a transition period for us settling back into UK after being away a long time.
Some things here have not matched up to what we experienced abroad but we avoid comparing.
It is what it is here and we have learned to focus on the positive and disregard the negative. After a while now we begin to accept or not see the negative we saw when we first came back.
This is just the same as our approach to living abroad.
There is a lot here to be enjoyed.

John

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Hi Tina,

do you drive in France? The area that I am in doesn't really have a lot of traffice, relatively speaking. The closest town has one traffic light! I need to get used to the scale of the road & cars. Passing on two lane roads is one of my least favourite things to do, but I am getting better at it and I am also managing a decent speed on the country roads. Dreading the day when I have to hit a pheasant rather than cause an accident. I wish they had more road sense!:)

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

The two year plan was more my OH's desire than mine, but I didn't want to push to move sooner as I thought it would be best for us to feel that we are doing this together rather than one pushing the other. I know him too well and waiting has certainly made the transition for us easier, but that may not be the case for others. During that two year period, we set up an HSBC bank account and started transferring some of our savings into Sterling. We wanted to take advantage of the favourable exchange rate, that until recent years had never worked in our favour.

Only you can decide how long you want to wait and although 2 years seems like a long time, it did fly by. I can't believe that I am actually living in the UK, as it seems like yesterday when we decided to make the move. It is difficult to decide when to go and giving up a good job/income is a tough decision to make. As others have said, having some money behind you will certainly help the transition.:)

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Hi Beth1979, welcome. I think settling in will be different for all of us, depending on our circumstances. We have moved to an area new to us, so we don't have family and friends to help us with the transition so I have felt a little displaced at times. Having said that, if I had moved back to my home town most of my friends and family have moved away anyway.

We have been very fortunate in that the locals have made us feel very welcome and have included us in local activities, so my social life is busier than ever. I am enjoying rediscovering the things I took for granted and today we have been enjoying glorious sunshine and the autumn colours.

Best of luck with your move.:)

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Hello Sally,

I've been reading and catching up on your blog for the last couple of weeks - nice to 'meet' you now! I love the area you are in - not that I know it very well. My son has a good friend from uni who lives outside Harrogate and we stopped overnight there last year driving from Scotland to Essex. I fell in love with the landscape.

I definitely don't want to wait for a crisis on either side of the pond to make me stay or go. My eldest son's bother-in-law was killed in the Aurora Theatre shooting in July and, before I knew he was involved, I thought - right Matthew, we are out of here. Then, when I called him to make sure he was safe I found out Alex was missing, things took a different turn.

I can't say that was a good experience, but it certainly made me think about family and belonging. I spent a lot of time with the in-laws in the following weeks and I came to feel more at home with them than I have in the last 5 years living here. They are lovely people but, while they've always treated me like family, it's not the same as my own. They are Matthew's family though and now I know how well he gets on with them, and how much they love him, I can rest easy knowing that they will be there for him when I leave and in the future. He'll never replace the son they've lost and I don't think there's even any thought of that but I know how much they like having him around. He and Megan might decide to come over to England, but I can't see that happening for at least a couple of years now. To be honest, I don't really see Megan leaving her parents.

I've felt so empty here for so long now. I have some lovely friends and I live in a beautiful place but I look at the mountains and think - I want green rolling hills. And the sea!!! While my boys were still at school, I just got on with things but they're 24 and 26 now and living their own lives which is as it should be, so it's time for me to live mine.

Spring next year seems about right to me. I have a house to sell and I'm confident it will sell quickly which will give me a deposit for a little place in England. I don't want to whittle that away while I look for a job, so I can happily scrimp and scrape now to have some extra cash then. I've also stopped contributing so much to my 401K as I don't want to touch that until 59-1/2. I've cut back my contributions to meet the company's matching criteria so that will boost my ready cash. And I've stopped making extra mortgage payments each month as I now know I won't be staying here long enough to pay off the mortgage.

I won't be sorry to leave my job. I am a sales rep for a company that distributes fabric, books, patterns and notions to quilt stores. I am so not a sales person! The only reason I've been successful I think is because I love fabric and (most of) the store owners I visit. It's been good to me and I've seen parts of the country not many people get to see but I am all done with driving 800-1000 miles a week and staying in hotels. I can keep at it for a few more months but it will be a happy day when I pass my samples on to someone else! I also teach machine quilting classes at a couple of the stores near me so I can probably add a few more classes which will add to the coffers. I won't be arriving broke but I won't have an endless supply of readies. Now, if I could just find that millionaire :D

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Thank you for the welcome and - what a lovely post! I am so glad you have found your home. You sound so contented and peaceful.

And thank you for the tips on how much money to come back with. I won't have 100K in either currency, but I have put a plan in place to make sure I'm not broke either. I can stay with my mother while I get sorted but that won't be a long term situation!

My family and friends are mostly in Essex but it's not my favourite part of the world. I do love Suffolk though so I might look around there - still close enough. I also love Edinburgh and could see myself up there. I lived in Sussex before I came to the States but, while I love it there I think going back there would feel like going back and I want to move forward.

Family, friends, a bit of countryside, the sea, a job that doesn't sap me dry, a good local pub. Sounds lovely to me :)

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Well Cardi, that just about sums it up dont it :)
Your be alright, I like your attitude ;)

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Cardi, we were in Essex on holiday in May this year, staying in the countryside near Halstead and loved it. Our family is based there but of course closer to London and tbh that was the Essex I remember (almost an extension of London) and I never did like it but once we stayed in countryside and our gps sent us on some wonderful trips around the small villages like Finchingfield and some others that my OH had never heard of, we thought it was really nice. Beauty of Essex is that it has a huge variety of houses and prices and good connections to London and other larger cities for jobs plus the beaches are also close by.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

I grew up in Colchester and it's where most of my family and friends are. I'm not fond of the town but you don't have to go far to find lovely places. I went to school in Halstead for one year when I was 11 but haven't been there for years. Went to Braintree college for my A levels but haven't been there for years either. Went to Harwich for the day in September - rather liked it there. Got my eye on the Woodbridge area too. There are so many beautiful places to live....

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Hi fb, Wondered what kind of scanner you used for your photos? I have a scanner but the thought of doing them one by one is a bit much. I was thinking of looking for a photo scanner that will take a stack at a time.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

I don't drive in France--we live in the middle of a city, so I don't need to usually, and when we do go on trips, my husband drives, because the company car is a manual! And in the States all those years I only drove an automatic.

This sounds wimpy, I do realise. But I learnt to drive later in life--in my thirties-- and was never that confident.

Sounds as if you're doing great!

Tina

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Bandrui, I used my regular copier/printer/scanner, but only for my really precious black & white family photos. It took a long time, so for the photos from 80's onwards, I sent them out to be scanned. This was less than buying the sort of machine you mentioned, but prices may have come down since I last looked.:)

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Doesn't sound wimpy at all. I am an automatic girl too and thankfully they are more popular in the UK these days, so I have managed to find a second hand car that I feel more comfortable driving.:)

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Bandrui - Check your photo editing software if you have one to see if you can scan photos from within the program itself. There are programs available that will allow you to "batch scan" multiple photos and will separate each photo, assign individual file names and straighten the photos if necessary. Adobe Photoshop Elements is one such program - here's a link that walks you through the process:

http://millie.furman.edu/mll/tutoria...ipleimages.pdf

If you don't have that program and want it you can always download a 30-day trial. This saves heaps of time!

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Finally got out and about and took some photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/islandw...7631528688765/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/islandw...7631810897924/

:)

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Lovely pics :)

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Oh how awful. I'm so sorry.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

I have been taking digital photos of them and generally tidying up computer photos of which we must have about 4000 or so on Finepix lol and putting them into categories, keeping the best ones only especially of our lives here in Canada, we have some lovely ones

I don't think I can part with some of my old albums from my childhood, will just have to pack that!

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

About scanning...there are portable hand scanners that you just move over your photos or documents or anything you want to have an image of. You can just lay everything out on a desk or table and just scan them easily and then upload them to your computer. You can even scan pictures in frames hanging on the wall or in albums, i believe without taking them out. One is call VuPoint Magic Wand and you can find it on Amazon for $63.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

If1, curleytops, feelbritish and sile,

Thank you for all the great info on photo scanning. Some good options there.

At the moment, I am going through books (I have hundreds, if not thousands :o, mostly non-fiction). I thought it was going to be really hard. I love my books. So far I have boxed up seven boxes. Of these, I have chosen the best to go to our local book shop. On Thursday mornings they will go through up to 2 boxes and give a very fair price for those they take. Last Thursday they bought some of my books and to tell you the truth, I can't even tell which they bought. Only have my bookcases of herbalism, textiles and cookbooks to go through, then I start on cds and photos.
The next step is to have a book sale at my house, hopefully before the Island's giant book sale in November where everyone will fill their book quota and more.
After that they get saved for a Spring garage sale and the left overs get donated.
The most difficult part of the job is coming across great books I really want to read and getting sidetracked.
The best part of the job is realising that I CAN part with some of my books and enjoying the decluttering process... but I am definitely bringing books with me.

Everyone will find what is truly valuable to them and this will be different for all of us.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Hi Bandrui,
My husband and I have several hundreds of books, if not thousands like you and we need to downsize fast in order to get the house on the market. Our public library has agreed to take them in increments and will donate to a charity of their choice any they don't keep.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Books, books and more loverly books!

I gave away a few boxes of books during one of my moves about 10 years ago and have always regretted it. Now I'm looking at my bookshelves and thinking I can't part with any of them. They all transport me to a time and place and hold a memory of where I was when I read them. I have goodness knows how many quilting and textile books and I love every one of them. There are maybe two or three I could part with. :p

And that takes me to my sewing room...... fabric stash, notions, thread. Overwhelmed just thinking about it. Think I need a nap.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Lovely!

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

I've wondered about that - the over 50's and their longing to go 'home'. I think it's more than a geographical location. For me, it's a return to self and my true nature.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Thank you. You never know what's coming your way so it's become even more important for me to live my life more purposefully.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

YES YES absolutely. This has often been said on this thread--one doesn't feel like one's true self living elsewhere, and the more so as time goes on.

Re books--I gave away/sold SO many when we down-sized. Agony. Every one does mean something, is like a stitch in one's life. A friend.

Tina

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

I used a diferent approach, to move all my photographs - just bought a portable hard drive, and loaded the whole drive onto it. Simple. All here! Don

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

More than a year ago before leaving Australia I gave away my books to a public library, family members and charity shops. It was all quite traumatic at the time, but now I don't miss them at all.

Decluttering should be an ongoing part of life, I now realise that the house was full of things I didn't need or use, yet I was loathe to get rid of anything. We become comfortable with so much around us, even empty boxes having some sort of significance for the future, believing that if anything is thrown away, we will need it the next day.

Apart from a few clothes, stainless steel pots and pans and a few trinkets which I mailed to myself, everything in my flat is new. It is astonishing that at my age of 74 this would happen, I expected to grow old with everything being long term familiar. It is wonderful to have new furniture, china, pictures and technology around me, and although I've experienced serious problems with my flat resulting in significant health issues, I've escaped languishing in the clutter of the past.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Gosh Aries, great to hear from you--sorry about your health problems.

But as you say, at least you've decluttered--and you are so right, decluttering should be ongoing, but I have never learnt this.....

I like to think I'm getting just a little better at it as the years go by...

Tina

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

So true. We went to see an exhibition by the artist David Hockney last weekend. He's from East Yorkshire but spent a large part of his life in LA. But as he grew older he found the pull of home strong and in his 60s, he moved back to Bridlington where he's from.

I bet he gets people saying to him 'why on earth would you leave LA and come back here???' but I understand.

In other news, I finally found a negative about the UK. The local pharmacy shuts at 1pm on a Saturday!! Not knowing this, I went to pick up a much-needed prescription at 2pm and found it shut down. What kind of business shuts at 1pm on a Saturday???

I know it's not much of a complaint, but I feel I never say anything negative so at least now I have :lol:

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Hi aries,
very nice to hear from you again, about , when I was getting rid of all my old stuff that has been in my life for years, just like everyone else it was a real chore, its hard to decide what to bring with you when you leave,
but I learned real fast that the only way to do it is to be very ruthless indeed,
after all I believe we are all coming home for the chance of a new life, so I really think its important to come home and surround our apartment/house with new furniture and everything, and to make the actual physical move so much more simple, and I have found that over here in UK there are so many charity thrift stores that sell (like new) quality furniture and everything else for the house and so inexpensive that it really wouldn't cost much at all to replace all the stuff you had in your place in your adopted country, and fresh new lovely things to surround you, certainly the replacement cost for everything would be a fraction of the cost to ship all your things back home,
and speaking for myself after I fully declutered all the furniture and a heap of other stuff, and shredded all the endless paperwork that you keep for decades etc etc I felt a wonderful sense of freedom, free of the past, and looking forward to the future (:
we havent heard from you for a while aries, how have you been doing?
take care,
Rodney.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

I too understand about David H. And I think he would have gone back home long before, were it not for his dogs. He was one of the main agitators for the pet passport system that exists now, I believe.

About the pharmacy, that is indeed ridiculous! Perhaps they are working along the lines of the Post Office, which has traditionally shut around noon on Saturday, I believe....still it's daft, when people work all week, and especially in UK when most shops don't stay open after 5:30...does the pharmacy (or perhaps you should say "chemist" now, as we always did before the word "pharmacy" crept back over to the UK!!) at least have some late weekday evening hours?

Tina

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Hello Louise! Long time no speak! Closing on a Saturday, for their half-day, used to be mostly by Jewish Traders. If it is a private shop, rather than, say Boots, then that could explain it.
Love Don

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Hello Rodney, I've recently been in hospital for a week suffering a serious lung infection caused by the massive damp mould discovered under the carpet in my bedroom. I'm still on big doses of steroids which have unpleasant side effects, but I've restarted to play table tennis and have begun a German course.

Hopefully the tanking has worked, the room is decorated, and I've been able to sleep in there after nearly 3 months sleeping on the floor of the lounge. However the bathroom is yet to be converted to a shower room, and until that has been done some bad mould memories will remain.

My big new (and expensive!) leather reclining chairs in the lounge are a joy, I can now stretch out and sleep in front of the TV when the need arises, my nights of late finishing at 4.00 in the morning because I can't get back to sleep. Early breakfasts and taking the steroids do of course mean that I'm ready for another breakfast by 10.00, and then nearly ready for lunch!! :ohmy: It reminds me of all my travels by ship between England and Australia in the 1960s and early 1970s, we lived from meal to meal and snack to snack, a marvellous time compared with the modern day rush and being squashed into small spaces of aircraft.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Nope - 9 to 5pm! I think I'll have to switch to Boots but that means a trip into town rather than the handy parade of shops nearer home.

On the plus side, I'm prescribed enough migraine pills to last a whole month now (I used to be allowed only 4 per month by my US insurance company) and I am also allowed the brand that works rather than the one my insurance company forced me to have. So now that I know the opening hours, I can work around the weirdness.

Aries, so sorry to hear you have been ill. Hope you continue to feel better. I too am loving having got rid of all our junk and being surrounded by new things. We did bring some furniture with us just to make things easy, but that will go once we buy a house as it's probably not going to fit.

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Our local library does the same thing. I'd think Saturday was the best day for many people who work all week, but they close at 1pm. It's not as if they stay open late during the week. I think they should be open on Saturday and closed on Monday, and open till 9pm one night a week.

Bev

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

I was in Truro, Cornwall shopping with my two SIL about 10 years ago. I was busy looking at clothes when a bank of lights went out. I thought, oh a problem with the lights. A few minutes later more lights went out. Then a third set. It had become very dark. I looked around to see what was going on. There was practically no one to be seen! My own light bulb went off then - OMG it's 5 o'clock and the shop is closing! I rushed out of there and found my two SIL outside on the pavement wondering where I was.

I didn't say anything about almost getting locked in - felt silly at forgetting that they didn't stay open until 9 p.m. :o

Re: OVER 50's & 60's Chit-Chat & Daily Catch-Up Thread
 

Cardienscarf - I gave my fabric/sewing stash to my next door neighbour, a lovely lady I've known for 40 years. I was a bit sad to be parting with it but she is a quilting fanatic and seeing the look on her face as she went through all the "goodies" was worth it. She was like a kid at Christmas. She delved right in and I even got to see a finished project she'd used some of my stuff in before I left. I guess it helps a lot if you can give your treasures to someone you love. :starsmile: