Friday's Fave Five 1/7/22

It's Friday already so time to look back on the week and share our blessings - this is hosted by Susanne here.

1)  My birthday!  (Last Sunday) I survived another year.  

2)  A meal out on Saturday evening - we tried out an Indian restaurant that's just at the end of our road.  We'd had takeaway from there before so we knew the food was good but it was nice to eat in and there was a good atmosphere in the restaurant.  Food and service were good too.

3)  Family time on Sunday - it was a day of two halves as Granddaughter Ella is only just getting over a virus and Grandson Rory was a bit under the weather the day before so the families agreed not to mix here.  This meant we had my younger son and his family here in the morning until just after lunch and then my daughter and her family came in the afternoon.  My original plan had been for them all to be here for an afternoon tea with sandwiches and cakes plus scones with clotted cream and jam so they both had that and Nick and I just grazed on food all day!

4)  A catch up with my best friend.  We've meaning to get together for weeks but it just hadn't happened so it was lovely to finally meet up.

5)  Hubby's laptop has also been upgraded this week and he now has a working mousepad on it - he'd previously spilt tea on it so the mousepad wasn't working very well.  It didn't bother him too much as he usually plugs in a mouse anyway but I am so used to not working with a mouse that if I use his laptop I prefer to use the pad so glad it's working now and of course it's much faster too.

Those are the highlights of my week.  Haven't done as much walking this week as it's been quite showery but that's saved me the job of watering my flower pots every night!  Have a good weekend all.

Are we standing still or going backwards?

6 years ago I wrote a post following the UK's decision (by a referendum) to leave the European Union.  It was quite a lengthy post and some might deem it political.  (If you want to read it go here.)  

At the time we were still in shock and no one really knew how leaving the EU would work or be achieved.  Firstly we had to have a new Prime Minister because David Cameron, who had stated in his previous election campaign that he would offer a referendum on Europe never expected the UK people would vote to leave.  But they did and he chose to fall on his sword and resign.  

His successor, Theresa May, was actually a remainer but she did her best to get Brexit done.  Unfortunately she failed and also subsequently resigned in 2019 which was when Boris Johnson was elected and, in a way, he got Brexit done.

Revisiting my post today when it came up on my Facebook memories I noted that some of the questions I raised at the time still need answers.

We do know who is leading the Conservative Party and who succeeded Jeremy Corbyn as the leader of the Labour Party.  (Keir Starmer.) 

I also asked if Scotland would move to have another Independence Referendum in a bid to remain in the EU?  Well now they would be looking to return to the EU and I'm not sure how favourable the terms would be but only this week, Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland has announced a new attempt at securing another Independence Referendum to be held in 2023.  The UK Government has to approve the holding of a referendum and Boris Johnson is against it but it seems Sturgeon is prepared to involve the courts in the matter so who knows where it will end.  Having seen the difficulties in separating ourselves from Europe I cannot see how splitting Scotland from the rest of the UK will benefit any of us.

Another sticking point for leaving the EU was the issue with Northern Ireland (part of the UK) and Ireland having a border but neither side wanting it to be a manned border as it were.  The wrangling over how checks on goods moving from the UK to Europe and vice versa will happen goes on despite there being a process in place for how checks are done.  Our Government voted this week (or maybe last) to tear up the agreement reached as part of the Brexit deal and implement our own way of dealing with the issue which will probably be against international law.

This will no doubt reopen issues about the division of Ireland.

The final question I original posed was "How long will it take for Immigrants to feel safe and wanted in this country following some of the awful incidents this week?"  (Immediately after the referendum there were some nasty incidents where Europeans living in the UK were targeted.)

I think, given that people arriving in the UK as illegal refugees are now going to be sent to Rwanda in Africa I think the answer to that question is never.

Yep, we're definitely moving backwards!

Friday's Fave Five 24/6/22

And......it's Friday again!  Joining in with Susanne and looking back over my week to find the things I'm grateful for.  Join in here.

1)  Firstly I'm glad to have my laptop working again.  I managed to find a local chap who had good recommendations on Facebook to look at it.  The bad news was that the hard drive had failed but the good news was that he was able to fit a new, more up to date hard drive and service the whole machine and now it's working much faster.  I have lost some files - note to self KEEP THINGS BACKED UP! but nothing that was vital or precious.  (At least I don't think so lol)

2)  Granddaughter Ella has been much better this week.  Still not eating as well or sleeping too well but she hasn't been feverish and poorly like she was last week.

3)  Time with family last weekend - Eldest son and his family were here and we babysat the grandsons while he and his wife went to Harry Potter World.  We also had our youngest son and his family here and (apart from our youngest son) they all stayed overnight Saturday to Sunday.  It was hectic but the grandsons do love seeing one another and Nathan was able to join them for a while on Sunday.  Didn't take many pics but my daughter snapped these two.

Three little monkeys!

"Helping" refill the bird feeders!

4)  I'm grateful for patience and perseverance.  While setting out this post I discovered that the photos on my iphone were not automatically uploading to my laptop.  It took me ages to work out how to get that working again!  Technology can be very challenging at times lol.

5)  A lovely evening walk tonight around the lake.

This is the park area to the East of the forest.

The lake

Hard to see but there are at least 2 baby coots in the nest.

The swan family - the goslings are getting so big!

One of the crossing points across the River Ching which runs to the side of the lake.  There is another crossing further north that has no handrails and until today was missing 2 planks!

My landmark for turning towards home.

Once I spot the fallen tree I know I have to bear left

This is the entrance into the forest.

And looking to the right as you emerge is the road that I live on - takes about 5 minutes to get home.

Phew done!  And only slightly into Saturday!

Have a good weekend all.
 

Friday's Fave Five - 17/6/22

Time to join in with Susanne and friends as we look back on the week and find our favourite things to be grateful for.  Join in here.

1)  Firstly I am grateful that Hubby's laptop is still working.  Mine has got itself stuck in a never ending start up loop so it is not booting up at all.  I will try and get it looked at but it will probably give us the kickstart we need to source new laptops for both of us.  We promised ourselves new ones for our Christmas present but haven't bought them yet.  I can feel a shopping tripping coming on for Monday!  Hopefully we'll get sorted quickly as Hubby uses his laptop a lot so I'm grabbing a chance to use it now while he's gone out.

2)  Summer weather.  We're having a heatwave right now - temps up in the low 30s.  It's not set to last past the weekend and actually it's too warm for me but it definitely is summertime.

3)  Ice in the freezer.  I usually drink a lot of tea but at the moment I'm drinking a lot more water because of the heat so to have ice to add to it is a blessing.

4)  Being free to help out with the grandchildren.  Granddaughter Ella hasn't been well this week so yesterday I got a call asking if I could get Nathan to school and then we also collected him and took him to his tennis lesson.  I know our kids are glad we are retired too!

5)  A visit from one of Hubby's sisters on Wednesday.  Felt like ages since we seen her so it was good to catch up.

And a bonus one - YouTube tutorials - I'm sure there's one for every thing you could possibly think of but I made use of some knitting ones today.

Oh and one more bonus:

I love this photo because Ella can often be a bit cool towards me, especially if her Mummies are around.  She's usually fine with me if I'm on our own looking after her but on Monday, despite Mummy being in the room she actually came to me asking to be picked up and snuggled in.  Thankfully Mummy managed to grab a photo and of course Nathan had to join in too.

Right that's me done.  I hope to catch up with your posts on my phone but leaving comments still seems to be a bit hit and miss with Blogger & Google.  It often tells me to sign in to my account to leave a comment but when I try it says I can't.

Have a lovely weekend all - we'll be busy with family.