DropBy

A great website offering helpful hints and tips for the Summer season is NHS Summer health, you can learn the best way to treat stings, how to prevent hayfever and pick up some hints and tips on how to stay safe in the sun. See the NHS Summer health page here http://www.nhs.uk/LiveWell/Summerhealth/Pages/Summerhealthhome.aspx

These links below will take you directly to documents about supporting vulnerable people before and during a heatwave on the Department of Health website:

Looking after yourself and others during hot weather – (general public leaflet, key messages and top tips for keeping cool) http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/@ps/documents/digitalasset/dh_118307.pdf
Now also available in large print version: http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/documents/digitalasset/dh_116026.pdf 

Supporting vulnerable people before and during a heatwave (advice for health and social care professionals – updated) http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/documents/digitalasset/dh_134153.pdf

Supporting vulnerable people before and during a heatwave (advice for care home managers and staff – updated) http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/documents/digitalasset/dh_134156.pdf

The full heatwave plan and companion document Making the Case can be accessed via: Heatwave plan for England 2012 - (highlights public health messages and follow-up actions): http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/documents/digitalasset/dh_134155.pdf

Making the Case: - (much of the information previously in main Heatwave Plan and update information about likelihood of heatwaves and longer term planning): http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/documents/digitalasset/dh_134157.pdf

One evening a grandson was talking to his grandmother about current events.
The grandson asked his grandmother what she thought about the
shootings at schools, the computer age, and just things in general.

The Grandmother replied, "Well, let me think a minute, I was born before:

 - television
 - penicillin
 -  polio shots
 - frozen foods
 - Xerox
 - contact lenses
 - Frisbees and

 - the pill


There were no:
- credit cards
- laser beams or
- ball-point pens


Man had not yet invented:
- pantyhose
- air conditioners
- dishwashers
- clothes dryers
- and the clothes were hung out to dry in the fresh air and
- man hadn't yet walked on the moon


Your Grandfather and I got married first, and then lived together.


Every family had a father and a mother.
Until I was 25, I called every man older than me, "Sir."
And after I turned 25, I still called policemen and every man with a title, "Sir."

We were before gay-rights, computer-dating, dual careers, day care centres, and group therapy.
Our lives were governed by the Ten Commandments, good judgment, and common sense.
We were taught to know the difference between right and wrong and to stand up and take responsibility for our own actions.
Serving your country was a privilege; living in this country was a bigger privilege.
We thought fast food was what people ate during Lent.
Having a meaningful relationship meant getting along with your cousins.
Time-sharing meant time the family spent together in the evenings and weekends - not purchasing condominiums.


We never heard of FM radios, tape decks, CD's, electric typewriters, yogurt, or guys wearing earrings.
We listened to Big Bands, Jack Benny, and the Queen's speeches on our radios.
And I don't ever remember any kid blowing his brains out listening to Bill Haley.
If you saw anything with 'Made in Japan ' on it, it was junk.
The term 'making out' referred to how you did on your school exam.
Pizza Hut, McDonald's, and instant coffee were unheard of.
Ice-cream cones, phone calls, rides on a bus, and a Coke were all 5 old pennies.
And if you didn't want to splurge, you could spend your 5p on enough stamps to mail 1 letter and 2 postcards.
You could buy a new Ford Anglia for £600, but who could afford one?
Too bad, because petrol was 11p a gallon.



In my day:
- "grass" was mowed,
- "coke" was a cold drink,
- "pot" was something your mother cooked in and
- "rock music" was your grandmother's lullaby.
- "Aids" were helpers in the Principal's office,
- "chip" meant a piece of wood,
- "hardware" was found in a hardware store and
- "software" wasn't even a word.


And we were the last generation to actually believe that a lady needed a husband to have a baby.
No wonder people call us "old and confused" and say there is a generation gap.

Soo..... How old do you think I am?


I bet you have this real old lady in mind. You are in for a shock!
Read on to see -- pretty scary if you think about it and pretty sad at the same time.


Are you ready?????






This woman would be only 60 years old.
Born in 1952.



Just ready for DropBy!

Gives you something to think about.

Would the young believe it?

DropBy was saddened to learn that Saga Zone is to be shut down on the 26th February 2013.

Good Morning Everyone
Yesterday I received a comment on this site regarding my spelling,  It's true English is not a subject that I mastered  during my School days, perhapes it was because I was born a South Bristolian and we do tend to have a language of our own, putting it simply we spell the way we speak.

Since leaving School I developed a love of reading and must have read thousends of books and indeed own a reasonable libray containing a multiplicity of books on many subjects. This as lead me to envey those who
are educated and left me regreating not taking the opportunity to study and progress to University. Yet when I look back on my life so far, I dont think
I have done so bad, I managed to retire at 57 (something I wanted to do ever since I was 15) and enjoy every minute of my freedom to do as I please
and more importantly when I want to do it, whats more now i have all the time in the World I have not ruled out the possibility of one day achieving my ambition to go to University, if only to see if it is as good as
I thought it would be. However, my English will need some Improvement before I reach those dizzy hights.
It was the Author Anatole France ( hope his surname is
spelt correctly Colin) who said of education
"An education Isn't how much you have committed to memory,
or even how much you know. It's being able to differenciate
 between what you know and what you don't"

All change at Broomhill. Daughter & son-in-Law decided last night to take the twins down to the South to introduce them to his parents, & visit friends down there. It meant sudden bursts of activity - washing, hunting for stuff to take, packing etc. It was unexpected & Jean obviously didn’t feel it was being organised in the best way [!] but it is their plan - & I can’t wait! On the other tack, about midday Sunday Jean’s Cousin Pam came by on her way from Sky or Ulerpool or some such & called in on us with her dog Purdy. I’m definitely getting an idea about how an hotelier feels. Guests seem to change almost by the week. I would like some peace, just for a change! Jean, Pam & I took the twins out & walked them round the village, up the bank & round through Humbles Wood. A very pleasant 4 miles [even if it did rain once!] Today the ‘children’ & the twins departed South about 11am, leaving us to catch up on washing. It is a glorious day.

i woke to a lot of loud curses this morning.  it took me second to realise they were coming from me.

i have my usual style of waking from which i never deviate.  well i did this morning.

every other morning, i swim in the dark pools of sleep,  gradually gaining consciousness with a sweet smile and a sleepy afterglow.

its always the same when ive had a deep good sleep that washes yesterday away and i begin again a new creature for the day.

but this morning.  baaaaaaahhhhhh.....[and deleted cross words] aaaaggghhhh ......i sat straight up without any nod to formalities of previous days and tried to get my foot untwisted from its unfamiliar contortion.

my right foot had somehow become twisted round to the back and it took a good deal of swearing and cossetting to return it to normal.  that was when the other foot decided to surprise me with cramp in it.

i had to hobble round like a hen on a halter to get it back to normal.

what a start to the day.  its always the same when the weather changes to a warmth that denotes the coming of better weather.  just like a little before that i start getting painful sparks from my clothing and anything metal.

sometimes my doggies get a spark jump across the gap and it hits their wet little noses and they are not pleased.  me neither.

the reverse happens in the close of the year.  i start with getting sparks from everything and then end up with cramps.

can anyone give me a remedy?

I went down to Newcastle early today, arived at Eldon Sq Bus station & quite on a whim I got on a bus up through Dipton, Anfield Plain, Sandhough, Hampsterly, The Ox Inn, Oxhill & Stanley. In all these areas the residents still play-out the part of the "Down Trodden Poor", the "Working Class." It’s a little bit pathetic to see. It’s in their faces and their dress; there’s a sullen resentment, as though it were natural to be beaten. Out past Mary St. and “Brenda’s Fish & Chips” down Tyne Rd, Craghead Aged Miners Homes, through South Stanley, Avon Rd, and “The Charlow,” Thompson Buildings, Edmond Biers, Sacristan & so into Durham Bus Station around 12.30. I did some more pictures walking up over the bridge then went into the covered market for a repeat of the all-day-brunch I had there in 2004. Around 2.15 it was spitting snow again so I got a bus to bring me back by way of Framwell Gate & Pity Me, Chester-la-Street, [where the snow was getting steadier,] over by The Angle, through Gateshead & back into Eldon Sq. I was back in the house by 4.30. Totally shattering, but quite nice to know I went.

apropos of my previous list of foreign words, ive just looked up hello in gujarati, after all its a major language in this country now,
i just thought you might like to know its

KEM CHO pronounced like that it seems.

i shall never learn to speak one whole language apart from surreyese,
so, im just picking here and there little things to surprise folk who are of an exotic persuasion.

every street corner now has its indigenous asian shop keeper, me included and mine sells everything from incense sticks to slug bait.

i have listened to him talking to his family in the shop and others on the phone and wonder how you can get so much words in two seconds.

its a bit like spanish.  the speed one says it is phenomenal.  not so with ladylike french.

and the other two words i have picked up are in urdu.  bethi jar which means sit down i think, from memory and cuda hafiz which means goodbye.

i find it truly amazing that so many strange sounding things can mean the same word the world over.

i havent tackled chinese yet. give me time and a friend willing to teach me a word or two!

sayanara in japanese means of course, as everyone knows, goodbye or farewell.

so, im off now, so au revoir mes amis.

in english tara me old muckers!!!

Books are not lifeless lumps of paper, but minds alive
on shelves. From each of them goes out its own voice...
and just as a touch of a button on our set will fill the
room with music, so by taking down one of these
volumes and opening it one can call in to range the
voice of another far distant in time and space, and hear
him speaking to us, mind to mind, heart to heart.
Author Unkown.

29.] Meeting Richard the Rev on the green the other evening he warned me that Janet had co-opted me onto the Village Fete’ Committee. “Its nothing arduous Charles,” he assured me, “I have been a committee member for yonks & all they get me to do is open the event – you’ll be fine.” I was asked this week to attend the inaugural meeting for the year. I turned up at 7pm at the Vicarage & went in to join a gaggle of villagers in the drawing room. Mrs Sherwood was just bringing in a tray of cups; Janet was handing out lists, pencils & scrap paper. Richard cleared his throat, “Right-ho then people, shall we get started? This year we are open to suggestions for a theme, but otherwise we can follow the well-oiled system. Err – Janet?” They began with the stalls that were listed on our paper, confirming everyone had assistance & the right number of benches. Then the Dog Show, the T.A. demo, the baby show, & the Dancers. I may have nodded off between the first round of tea & biscuits & the sherry & fruit cake, but I don’t feel they really needed my in-put anyway. Suddenly though I was dragged into the ‘Here-&-Now’! “Charles dear, can you wake up for a mo?” It was Janet. “We thought, rather than the St. John’s Ambulance, this year we could set you up a small marquee where you could check blood pressure & advise on heart disease & fitness. What d’you say?” I huffed & puffed, looking knowledgeable - & carefully agreed. Janet continued, “We could tart-up the inside with scary bits of equipment & a terrifying medical examination table & a trolley!” “Janet dear, please!” this was Richard, “I don’t suppose Charles uses scary bits - & anyway he wouldn’t, as you say, “tart-up” anything,! You wouldn’t - would you Charles?” “Oh don’t you believe it Richard,” I said “I’ll do it, but I insist on the help of a good looking nurse in a skimpy uniform!”