Welcome to everyday Lets Talk

Good afternoon everyone - we seem to be up and running again, Broadband on at work and home, CCTV okay and the alarms so all quiet finally!

Hope you are all having a good and relaxing weekend and enjoying some sunshine (not in Cheshire today).

We went to see Planet Earth in Concert at the Bridgwater Hall in Manchester yesterday afternoon with my mum. Absolutely fantastic, a big screen with clips from the series and some wonderful music to go with it performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra and George Fenton who composed the music and conducted. Well worth it and next year they are doing the same for Frozen Planet. Worth keeping an eye out for it as it's on tour.

http://www.planetearthinconcert.com/

Lai

Hope everyone had a good weekend, the Concert sounded good Lai and it's good your connections are now up, and running. 5 Hrs on a sunday Doogs, at least I now I was'nt the only one working. The weather here was rubbish yesterday, mostly , but todays been .
WS

I spoke too soon WS. On and off again all day yesterday and today, BT are having a major problem and so are we

Bad luck at the Bingo Doogs - I am sure you'll have another good win soon. Sounds like you are keeping busy which is good. Not sure about the work bit though

Torrential rain today which is boring and very sad news of our resident kestrel who it seems has been hit on the road, we've had it here for a while now and it used to roost outside my office and leave charming little fur balls/pellets outside for me. Yet another beautiful creature lost, along with the polecat we saw squashed on the road last week. Honestly it is quite depressing how much road kill there is

On a bright note we've got the BBC here for 2 days this week and 4 days next week filming. I've never seen so many people and so much activity - I was asked if I was an extra and was almost tempted to offer.

Have a good day everyone and please sign the badger petition if you haven't already and please share it with anyone you can.

Lai

BT turned up today and said it was an ongoing fault from 3 years ago! They need a new line but can't afford to put it in can you believe it. We've got to contact our local councillor to put pressure on (this according to the engineer)

Can't remember what it is called Doogs - will look at the contract tomorrow, a comedy I think with Sue Perkins (Great British Bake off amongst other things ) and Dawn French and some others. I missed the food at lunchtime sadly but they had a big lorry and a chef. Maybe tomorrow?

Yes, sadly the road is busy and drivers come far too fast, we're always having the wall knocked down

Have a great evening everyone.

Lai

Your right Doogs working Sundays is OK if your getting double time sadly I'm .
Lai You tell that cheeky person who asked you if your an extra, that your a At least on here you are .
Cant understand BT saying they cant afford to put a new line in, and put pressure on the Local Council, surely the line is BT's line, and their problem not the Councils, and you have a contract with them to provide an acceptable service which it's obviously not at the moment
WS

Good evening everyone

Sorry there was no win at the Bingo Doogs but im sure you hd a good time with your friends and then again at the weekend and then time with your mum and dad.......a right social whirl was going on in Scotland

How annoying is that Lai with your line on and off all the time, surely they must owe you and others some compensation by now for all the hassle and I think the same as WS, if its a BT line then surey they are responsible and not your local council.....thats very odd.

Hopefully you will be able to check out the food van tomorrow, usually those location food vans have nice food......not that I have eaten from one but you see them on the TV and they always seem to serve nice food. How lovely that your place is being used for a programme/series.

So sad about the Kestral, I do hate hearing news like that and also the little polecat. It makes you so sad doesn't it. Road kills are just enormous these days, going to work is often so upsetting in the morning, you see birds, pheasants, rabbits Badgers (although these are often right at the road side or on the verge so I do have my suspisions as to how they got there!!!), field mice, squirrels, I often feel an emotional wreck by the time I arrive at work, its horrible, I do wish people would drive slower and also look more carefully. What a shame you have lost such beautiful bird.

Weathers been up and down here but even when the sun is out it is now feeling more like Autumn but so far it hasn't been to bad at all.

I had a lovely day on Saturday at Whipsnade Zoo, they do an overnight stay in the Zoo in little huts ( very nice huts actually) its a fantastic sounding experience but its all booked for this year so Emma, Tom and I are thinking of doing it next year with the kids, I think bookings start at the end of this month. The weather was lovely on Saturday, nice and sunny so it made for an even nicer day.

littlewid-x-

I agree about BT. Pete explained it again to me tonight, it seems the lines are done in 100s and 200s and its another 100 that needs replacing I have no idea what he is on about! Anyway, broadband mostly off today and driving me mad. We are blue in the face with reporting the phone lines and as for the council idea it seemed somewhat bizarre! We'll get there in the end.

What a brilliant fun idea that sounds Littlewid. You must definitely get the little hut booked for next year, what a great thing to be able to do. We'll look forward to lots of photos

I so agree about being an emotional wreck driving - it's distressing to see so many little creatures having met their fate in such a horrible way. I think we may have a juvenile kestrel around now so that is good news, I hope it takes to roosting outside my office (despite the mess).

Off to see Jonathan at the RGS in London tomorrow night for his talk on living with leopards - can't wait and will report back on how it went on Thursday.

Have a good evening everyone.

Lai

Good Evening Everyone

I have just looked at the link for Planet Earth Lai, how wonderful that must have been to have gone too, I wished I had known about it earlier but London was 16th September but I will surely look out for the frozen Planet one next year and if you come across it before me maybe you could give me the heads up, I think my mum and Bro-in-law would love to go and see it as well. Sorry I missed that bit of the conversation the other day

How was the talk with JS about the Leopards? am sure it was fantastic, looking forward to hearing all about it.

How lovely that you have a juvenile Kestrel, I do hope he hangs around and nests outside your office for you. I think its kind of lovely that although your original Kestrel sadly died, this young one has moved in.

Sounds like your in for a busy weekend again Doogs, shame you missed your Bingo night but the extra cash will be worth it. Fingers crossed the weather is good for the racing and I hope your Nephew enjoys his birthday party, how old will he be?

I went and had my haricut this evening and although my hairdresser and I do natter a lot whilst I am there and we have discussed animals before, tonight it really came out how much of an animal lover she is, she and her boyfriend have visited a lot of the places I have been to locally and she told me the last time I went that they were trying to befriend the squirrels in their garden by feeding them and now they will come and eat out of her hand, they love monkey nuts apparantly

It's turned really chilley here and tonight I have relented and put my heating on. We have had some nice sunny days but the early mornings and evenings are getting quite cold now....Autumn is here I believe.

Friday tomorrow and the weekend is nearly here, hope it's a good one for everyone

littlewid-x-

Hope the weather improves, and you get to see the racing. Shame you missed the Bingo, but at least you've earned some extra £s to have a bet . How great your hairdresser is feeding the squirrels by hand LW, I wonder if she's thought of saving some of the hair in the springtime to put out for Birds to use as nesting materials ?. Yep Friday's come round again already, and that means Work for me
WS

Good afternoon everyone.

Finally we seem to be okay at home with Broadband but we'll have to wait and see. BT had a couple of engineers out on the main road for several days messing around with the box and a million lines! Fingers crossed.

We had a brilliant time at the Royal Geographical Society last week with Jonathan Scott 'Living with Leopards' introduced by Kate Silverton who had her little daughter Clemency with her (baby sitting problem) she was def the star of the show! Jonathan talked about all the big cats, a lot about leopards and showed some of Angie's wonderful photos. It was all in support of Leopard Guardian which is an initiative in Sri Lanka to set up a professional association of nature guides, create an on-line leopard ID file, provide a predator watch/patrol vehicle and improve livestock management.

The book the Marsh Lions was being sold and signed by Jonathan with £5 from each sale going to Leopard Guardians. The evening raised over £10,000 which is wonderful.

Poor J & A had a car crash driving to Nairobi airport on Saturday, someone drove into the back of them so next day after the talk Angie was going for a scan to check she hadn't suffered too much - she's had such a hard time recently. It was a great evening and lovely to see them both again. Roll on Zambia

On Friday night Cheshire Wildlife Trust had an evening with Simon King. He is President of the Trust and Cheshire are celebrating 50 years so he was the guest speaker. What a fantastic evening. He spoke for at least two hours with some great photos and took questions. The talk was about Nature on your doorstep, whether that is at home, whilst travelling or anywhere in the world. He really is a brilliant speaker and very funny. Lots of questions asked and mine was the first - about the badger cull of course and what we can do to help. Keep the momentum going, write to our MP's, sign the petitions, keep talking and keep pressure on was the gist of the answer.

Another book signing afterwards - Cheshire WT had produced a lovely book to celebrate their 50 years so I just had to buy it! An opportunity for a quick catch up and then home much later than we had expected.

I hope you've all had a good week and weekend - and hope to catch up properly tomorrow if I am still on-line.

Still busy with the BBC - my word they do take over!

Lai

Glad you Broadband seems to be sorted Lai fingers X it now stays OK. Glad you had a great time at RGS sounds as though it was really good. Its brilliant the money from the Marsh Pride book is raising money for the Leopard Guardians, a case of Cats helping Cats. Simons night sounded great to, wish I could have been there to listen to him.
What a shame J&A had a car accident, thats the last thing Angie needed after her recent operation hope she's OK.
Did you get to the racing Doogs ?. The weather here was OK at the weekend, but today, its been
and then more and everywhere's flooded. It's also forcast more for tomorrow. Hope everyone's stayed safe in this weather.

WS

I spoke too soon WS. BT called to say problem can't be fixed now until gas works are completed on the main road, so no broadband at home and endless problems on going

Will have to catch up later.

Hope everyone else is okay and not suffering with floods, it hasn't stopped raining for days now!

Lai

Flippin eck Lai, your really suffering with the conection, you sure your not with British Rail, sounds like some of their excuses. If your off at home I'd be thinking compensation for down time. Still raining here to lots of floods yesterday. Hope everyone else's OK
WS

We can claim for compensation for the business which is home/business once the problem is sorted, but not until

At least I am currently on-line in my office.

Hope everyone is okay, just saw the lunchtime news and the awful floods.

Lai

Good Evening Everyone

It sounds as if you have had some really fantastic evenings Lai and also lots of money has been raised for such fantastic causes. I wished I either lived nearer to some of the talks or they had one on my home turf, I too would love to hear JS & SK talk and I am sure Zambia will come round very soon. Sorry to hear about J & A's car crash, fingers crossed Angie is ok.

What a pain about your Broadband but it's good you can get some compensation but not good that its till it's all sorted but then again it makes sense as you will then claim for the whole period it was off and all the disruption it caused in that time.

Hope you had a fantastic weekend with your friends Doogs and also at your Nephews party on Sunday, looking forward to hearing all about it.

Hows everyone else doing? hope you are all ok.

We too have had the dreadful downpours and the village was flooded again on Sunday but not the same part as before, its actualy stopped raining now but we have the winds and I think the rain is heading back for tonight. I hope everyone is ok an not suffering too much.

I am on Ferret duty again this week as my neighbours are away, looking after them is fine but letting them out in between the down pours is rather difficult, they are quite hardy little things but I would hate for them to get soaked and then potentialy get a cold.

Good news for little Kian last weekend, he played his second football match and won man of the match, he was so chuffed especially as he had been trodden on and winded in a tackle, the little man thought it was well worth it

Have a good rest of the week everyone

littlewid-x-

Hope you sleep better tonight Doogs and all the posts will still be here tomorrow. Good to have you back

littlewid-x-

Hello everyone

I hope you are all okay in different parts of the UK - the floods have been awful in some parts. We seem to be okay but the river is very high this morning, the dogs and I just went and had a look. I wouldn't want to be a kingfisher.

Doogs, fingers crossed you managed to get a good nights sleep and are feeling okay today, it's hard once your mind starts whirring and you can't switch off. Counting has never worked for me!

I'm not envious of you on ferret duty with this rain Littlewid, must be hard to get them in and out - I bet they are tougher than they look though. Good news re Kian and the football, man of the match is excellent, what a he is.

I agree about all these talks Littlewid. So many are in London but we were lucky with Simon K coming up here, it was only 15 mins away so no problem. Luckily Pete & I are able to travel up and down to London a lot so we use the opportunity to catch up with friends and go and listen to a talk or something.

Take care outside everyone.

Lai

Good evening Everyone

I bet your little Kingfisher has had trouble Lai with the rising water level, I hope he/she is ok and their little home has not been flooded.
We hav not had it too bad today, it's still poured down but not as awful as it was yesterday and when I got home the sun was shinning, that gave the Ferrets a good opportunity to have a good run around in the garden......and investigate Mark & Dai's veggie box I managed to entice them out with some cat milk though

Brilliant that SK's talk was only 15 mins away Lai, it would be great if he came and spoke nearer here or even our WWT, I would be there like a shot.

Fingers crossed you had a better night last night Doogs, nothing worse than not sleeping and then hearing that alarm in the morning, hope you have had a good day today.

Also keeping my fingers crossed the weather is better for everyone tomorrow.

littlewid-x-

Owl cuteness!!!! Nearly the weekend everyone

PPH - a really cute photo.

Morning everyone

More rain overnight here so no doubt all over the UK. Fingers crossed it stops soon and all the floods subside.

We're off to the DSWT dinner in London tonight with Dame Daphne and I really can't wait. No doubt I'll have to sit on my hands as there's an auction as well.

Glad you had a good time at the races Doogs and enjoyed Ayr and Glasgow. If you didn't lose that's brilliant.

I'll post news under the Badger cull thread re my chat with our MP last night.

Whatever you are all up to have a great weekend and stay dry.

Lai