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Pinch Punch First Of The Month

Suzeanna you aren't being disloyal at all - they are different dogs and in noticing the differences you are remembering Rosie and that can't be a bad thing ((hugs)) Sounds as though you and Candy needed each other.

Feeling chuffed I hadn't driven in the dark for almost 2 years because of my bad eye but got a call at 9:30 pm from a close friend who'd had a bit of an upset so I shoved some clothes on (I was already in my pj's) and drove over to see & her got back about 30 mins ago. Vision was absolutely fine, lots of traffic about on my way over there next to none on my way back and theres a very nasty bend around the end of the airport runway which isn't lit at all and I went round it there and back without any stress. It's great to be able to be out in the evening again and not be worrying about driving in the dark.

Oh Suzeanna I'm thrilled for you does she have a name yet?

We have a photo of his name on the Theipval memorial and a copy of the certificate of memorial.

As a result of the family tree research we did we "found" Rob's Great Uncle Percy who was killed on the Somme at 20 years old, I say we "found" him actually no one has he's one of the tens of thousands who were killed but his remains were never identified. He was killed at High Wood we suspect he was buried in the London Cemetery close by but as the majority of the graves there are unknown soldiers we will probably not ever know for sure. We do know he is commemorated on the Theipval Memorial but we have been unable to find him on any war memorial in Wales. The family have always known he died in the first world war but none of them knew where or when etc. We have also been able to obtain his will from the national archives so were able to find out where he was living before he joined up and we have been emailing and visiting all the churches, and villages trying to see if he's commemorated anywhere though sadly it doesn't look like he is. However Rob has been determined to honor him in some way. This Thursday 8th Sept it will be the 100th anniversary of his death and we have arranged with the Vicar of the church closest to where his family were living at the time to meet with Rob, myself and Rob's mum to say prayers in his name and bless a Somme wreath which Rob will then lay in the Church in an act of remembrance.

Really sorry to see you are still having problems with that bay Alex - you really haven't had a lot of luck with roofers have you. I'm here, have been a bit quiet lately mainly because I wanted to take a break from ranting about the neighbours which I seemed to be doing a lot of though thats because you lot have always been a good sounding board for me. Anyway they have been away for a few days and whilst the builder is still there working he has been pretty low profile but we're on tenterhools as we know the problem lot are due back imminently. Arggg see there I go again lol

Suzeanna so sorry to hear of your loss and Philips eye problems hope all goes well in the morning ((hugs))

Alex I've had that happen a couple of times always just turned out to be a cackhanded nurse who scraped too hard and got blood in the sample so they couldn't use it, I had mine repeated about 3 times once. I was lucky with my most recent one as they did it whilst I was in surgery for sid - that came back all clear even though it was way over due by some years.

He wouldn't win that case Blackmagic - the hedge was there long before he bought the property and does not block any light to the existing structure if he decides to build a new structure which extends in front of the trees with all glass windows thats his problem not ours. I already checked that when he was building the wall to the right of the hedge - said wall btw is 7' tall and 2" across OUR boundary so if he wants to start silly bugger games then he'll reap what he sows. Moreover if he plans coming up to and onto the boundary for the "orangery" which it sounded like he does then he'll need party wall act permissions AND he'll need our permission to come into our garden to build it not sure he realises that yet. If he is going for all glass then we will most definitely want our privacy as they'll be able to look straight into the back of our garden and the house itself, the current conservatory has frosted glass on this side but I have no idea if the new one will.

I told Rob and he accused me of consorting with the enemy owever he did say that it does mean we do now have a way of communicating with them. TBH the more I have reflected on the whole thing yesterday the more and more I am convinced we are going to have nothing but aggro with them. For starters when I was telling them about the builders deliberately fanning smoke over into our garden (which we have on video) I caught her smiling and giggling - she immediately said "I know I shouldn't laugh but that sounds like the boys being boys they shouldn't have done it but I can see them doing it..." They said they hadn't been around for the first 4 months as "they couldn't stand all the noise and mess" to which I retorted yeah well try living next to it ...and its been 7 months not 4! Then when they said that the builders were coming back they said they are going to be knocking the conservatory down and building an orangery (ffs its a fecking ordinary little bungalow!) I asked about their plans to fence the rest of the garden alongside the "orangery" and then they tell me they are going to be cutting out all our tree roots to the boundary line and that means the trees will die - these are my 14' high leylandii planted by my father! There is absolutely nothing I can do to stop them I've been on garden law and they are legally allowed to cut back to the boundary and I now know they hate the trees as they think it will block light to their new "orangery" so I suspect they are going to deliberately kill the trees one way or another. They said they also like to entertain and will "try" not to be too noisy. I also found out they have been talking to the neighbours in the close about us though they commented that they had been told we were lovely people and good neighbours to everyone and it was strange that they were having a problem with us ...

Oooo errr I am in a pickle do I tell my hubby where I have been and who I have spoken with or don't I? This is HIS fault he knows damned well I cannot be rude to people and he left me in charge of the driveway so I have been in and out and in and out making the tea and not unexpectedly I have been out there when the neighbors have been out on their drive .... so, the wife was first this morning and said hello and I said hello and that was that however her hubby came home about an hour ago and spoke about the drive and I answered and one thing led to another and he got told exactly what our problem is/was with them and their builders. He said they had no idea about any of it and he was NOT pleased they'd gone after Rob up the street anyway I got invited round for a look at their back garden ... Rob is going to see this as a real stab in the back but if I don't tell him I guarantee one of the neighbors who were all flipping pretending NOT to watch will tell him for me. Bugger bugger bugger plus he is not going to like what I found out about the rest of their plans which include a return of those effing builders! Plus the fact that the bloke is a flipping mechanic who is eventually going to start fixing peoples cars up on the drive including welding! (On the other hand might be handy having a mechanic nextdoor ... maybe .... ermmm *eep

My builder is working like a Trojan, I was told he doesn't half shift and boy were they right, gawd knows how much heavy clay he's dug out all on his own! Now every things up the full extent of the clay and can be seen, its the whole of the drive nothing but blue clay, and when they delivered the skip this morning its on wheels so they kinda shoved it back with the crane hoisty thing and thats dug into the slate chippings on the other side of the drive and thats exposed that theres no membrane there either and the slate was just dumped onto the same clay. No sodding wonder its weed city out there non flipping stop, I go through gallons of weedkiller every year. Rob and I were just talking and I know mum spent an absolute fortune on the front and that the slate like the bricks was ever so expensive but its such hard work with all the weeding etc. we're seriously thinking of ripping that out too putting a liner down and buying new chippings.

After getting an out of the blue phone call tea time Friday from the hospital apologising for me being on the waiting list for the eye clinic for over 6 months I was offered an appointment for 4:30 yesterday despite it being a bit of a faff (I was working most of the day and had to get mil to take me as Rob wasn't available) I was determined to go as I had no vision in my left eye at all and hadn't had any useful sight in that eye for over a year. I expected the appointment to be a quick examination, confirmation that the issue was PCO (protein build up on my lens replacement) a referral for laser treatment and some kind of idea of how long I'd be waiting for that to happen. Arrived to find the clinic empty which is unheard of - I was the last patient of the day and most staff had gone home, so in I go to have the eye test and stingy drops and then straight in to see the consultant, he confirmed PCO and says yup it needs lasering so I asked how long the waiting list was and he said 2 mins? I almost fell off the chair he said there seemed little point in sending me home only to have to come back and go through all the preparation again, he had time, the laser room was available and he might as well get it done now. Soooooo tis done!!!! He was unable to give me back 100% clear vision and I now have floaters which will be there the rest of my life but omg the difference is amazing!! I can now see out of BOTH eyes! He also discharged me back to my optician for follow up so no need to have to faff about going back to the hospital. I'm delighted!! He said it will take 24 - 48 hours to fully settle but it seems pretty settled now tbh chuffed to bits!

I have had no option but to unfriend a couple of people today - to say I have been profoundly shocked by the level of sheer hatred in some of the comments I have read by people who voted to remain is an understatement. Thankfully those I unfriended were friends of friends that had kinda tagged along rather than genuine friends of mine but I cannot remember anything like the level of venom on my wall today.

Funny someone should mention Christmas ... I started my Xmas shopping today, got 7 pressies already

How is it June?? Alex my super dooper barginous office chair came via ebay I'm afraid still find it hard to believe I got a 2k office chair for £30 and I am still loving it - its in daily use for lots of hours a day comfiest pc chair I have ever had! Its worth having a look for collection only office chairs local to you as thats how I got my hands on this one - most people don't want to collect and a lot of people can't be faffed with sending stuff by courier so its still possible to nab a real bargain if you can collect and transport it. Had I not stumbled across that baragin though I would have probably gone for a Goliath or Titan - I did a LOT of research when looking for a new chair, both those are rated for someone a lot heavier than me (the one I am sitting on is rated for up to 32 stone!) and the reason I looked for a heavy duty chair was I was fed up to the back teeth of chairs ending up useless and needing to be replaced purely because the gas lift thing stopped working and I figured the heavy duty ones would have better gas lifts and that seems to have been proved true with the one I have at least.

I'm here saw my GP today as my med cert from the hospital had run out - he's signed me off for another 4 weeks! I'm relieved tbh as I am still so flipping exhausted from doing next to nothing, most days I am fast asleep all afternoon and on some days I've been going back to bed at 10 in the morning! He said it takes more out of people than they expect and in my case he thinks that my blood pressure being low post op was down to fluid/blood loss and it takes time to build back up from that. Told to just keep on resting and listening to what my body is telling me. Hard to believe that its been 3 weeks since the surgery and aside from going to the surgery twice I haven't left the house for that entire time and I'm not the least bit stir crazy - yet. I am however going out for a meal tomorrow for Robs birthday staying very local but looking forward to it.

We're detatched Jazz doesn't stop the issues though sadly They don't need planning permission however strictly speaking there were legal steps they were supposed to go through - I have been reading up on the garden law forum and UK Gov website, if the wall is going to straddle the boundary then the party wall act applies and they were supposed to give us 30 days written notice which we would have the right to object to or demand our own surveyors etc. and there would have been strict legal conditions about damages etc. If the wall is inside their boundary then they were still required to give us 30 days written notice but we couldn't withold permission for it, but we could have imposed restrictions on access etc. (but couldn't have witheld it totally though they'd have had to go to court to enforce it). Turns out they ARE allowed to dig the footings under our side of the boundary but they aren't allowed to lay foundations under our side. One thing I am wondering about is the leylandii they have dug the footings right in front of the hedge which undoubtedly means they'll have disturbed the roots however those roots will have been on their side of the boundary and when they lay the foundations presumably they will be on top of the roots not sure how we will stand if at some point they try and claim any damage from the trees if they decided to build the wall right smack bang on top of them - even if they are our trees. The hedge has been there over 25 years!

Sounds a bit like an olive branch maybe Jayne? I've had a stressy 24 hours - I'm presuming my irritation today and temper last night are being hormonally influenced as I exploded with rage last night and it took me hours to calm down and stop shaking. Nextdoor have new builders in we noticed they were right up against our temporary brushwood fencing and were keeping an eye on them went to have our dinner and checked after and the fence was leaning right over so we went out and found they'd actually removed one of the metal stakes and rolled half the fence back and there were muddy boot prints all over our path behind the shed which proved they'd been trespassing. I kept my temper and called over to them to ask them what was going on, got told they "had" to remove our fence as they are building a new wall for the neighbour! I kept calm and said that did NOT give them the right to interfere with our fence nor to come into our garden without permission. Moreover we had not been informed of any building work let alone been asked if we minded the wall being built against the boundary line, builders seemed totally nonplussed (nice enough fellas) had no idea we weren't aware of what was going to happen. Told me that if we were willing to allow access they would be able to point the wall on our side to make it look nice for us, I explained I'm off work recovering from major surgery and that I'm happy to grant access when its needed BUT they would need to knock the front door first and let me know plus they have to ensure they re-secure the garden every time they leave so baddie cant get out. That was all fine. I asked what kind of wall its going to be and its going to be red brick and 6' high which was flipping great news as we'll get our privacy back! So all was well I thought .... until later that evening when we let Baddie out and went to make sure they'd put the fence back (they had-ish) found they have dug a humungous trench for the foundations which is right up to and across the boundary line and they have completely dug up and removed one of our 6' concrete fence posts which had been cemented into the ground inside our garden. The fence post encased in concrete is laying inside nextdoors garden I just saw red ... daft as it sounds all I could think about was that my father put that post in and how fecking dare they remove it without asking! I cannot remember the last time I lost my temper that fast or that intense, I was (and still am) furious. However, for the moment I'm biting my tongue - we have photographed it all and added to the documentary evidence we're keeping but am consoling myself with the fact that eventually there will be a 6' wall between us and I'll get my privacy and security back but it still rankles.

I might have booked tickets to a HUGE Star Trek convention for the 50th Anniversary ....and I miiiiight have also booked to have my photo taken on the bridge of the Enterprise with WILLIAM SHATNER!!!!!!! *SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*

Neighbours yesterday decided to cut our hedge they must have thought I was out but I heard shears clipping and let Baddie out for a wee they stopped instantly but I could smell the fresh cut pine smell and Baddie gave the gap in the fence a VERY hard stare (not like him at all). Now in actual fact I have no objection to them trimming any part of the hedge thats over the boundary we can't get to the back of the hedge without trespassing into their garden so we can't do it for them however on the opposite side of their garden on the boundary between them and their other neighbour there had been an almost identical hedge owned by an elderly lady who had always resisted the funny old fella who died trying to cut it back yet its now gone completely! The entire hedge is in the new neighbours skip out the front she had to have given them permission to take it down so presumably she must be OK with whateverthehellitis they plan to do to secure their garden as right now it's unsecure on BOTH sides. Rob suspects that our leylandii are going to end up mysteriously so dead wants me to take photos of them every blinking day so we can prove any damage if it comes to it. As it is whatever they do plan to do there is absolutely no way whatsoever they can fence behind those trees without asking us for access as the old wall foundations were laid right on top of the boundary line and then the old guy built a conservatory so theres barely a 18 inch gap between that and our trees on their side. If WE wanted to fence that side we'd need to ask for access to their garden for the same reason.

Our new neighbours are fecking horrible and odd - not only have they never apologised for the crap their builders put us through or for any of the disruption, nor have they even bothered to say hello to us, they are now in the process of doing something to their back garden having knocked down all the sheds out there and left our garden unsecured a couple of weeks ago. Today I went out into our conservatory to get something bearing in mind our garden has always been 100% private and secluded I am wearing 2 sizes 2 big pj's for comfort over my stitches and of course moving like a pelham puppet all careful and bent over - its not the way I would want to appear in public at all - anyway I felt the hairs lift on the back of my neck and turned my head to find BOTH neighbours sitting in garden chairs lined up ON the boundary line of our gardens facing into OUR garden!! They were looking directly into the conservatory and watching my every move - I called Rob and he came in and looked and we made full eye contact with them and they didn't even look away just kept staring at us!! If they had shifted their chairs barely 2' left or right they would have been screened from our garden and back rooms of the house by 10' high hedges but instead they were deliberately sat in the gap they'd made. WTF?????? Rob went and got a camera and took their photos and STILL they sat there staring at us!! Its quite upset me its always been my sanctuary out the back here and now it feels like a complete invasion of privacy. Rob works from home out in the conservatory but has felt too uncomfortable to go out there this afternoon as they are just sat there watching! They can also see right into the bedroom and part of our lounge! I really didn't want to fall out with these people and had been trying very hard to play peacemaker with Rob to at least try and get on speaking terms with them and he's now gone ballistic - I just don't understand why on earth they would choose to sit there and look in our direction!

Crappy nights sleep for me too Alex ((hugs)) the noise from the rain on the conservatory roof was deafening in the lounge and every time I could feel myself dropping off I needed a wee and had to struggle out of the recliner and off to the bathroom which then woke me up again my throat is very dry and I keep constantly clearing it so ended up with a bit of a dry tickly cough probably as a result of being intubated so I'm not too bothered it'll get better in a couple of days I'm sure, but because its dry and because I need to keep everything moving I'm drinking litres of water which of course is why I ended up back and forth to the loo all night lol I have noticed that I now have incredibly icky oily face which is a 100% reversal of the very dry skin I previously had so just did a bit of googling and that is likely to be a side effect of me 'ormones so I've just ordered some facial blotting paper

I forgot our 33rd wedding anniversary today Rob on the other hand remembered and got me a card which made me cry lol I'm gonna blame me 'ormones for that had another comfy night in the chair miiiight try laying down later and see if I can sleep in my bed tonight, just don't want to squish anything sensitive and upset the good work so far.