Gentle C hit Chat Thread on Sagazone

I have started this Blog to help people who come across the Gentle Thread to learn a little about its history and the people who post on it

Gentle Chit Chat - Any time of day and Linking not allowed!

I am sorry all you linking fans but I am blinking fed up with it.

Bring back chatting without linking, please - good topics and lighthearted banter are all that's needed in my humble opinion (like wireless radio before tv came along!).

Susie Q

09/03/2008 01:34:37 Its hard to think so much time has already passed and so many people have joined in our chat since this date.



Well that’s how Susie Q started it all, in an effort to get away from some of the stranger threads on the site & to make it easy for anyone to join in normal conversation through Sagazone,, despite the distance some of us are from each other, without any nastiness, rudeness where people can support each other joining in general conversation, where people could talk about the ups & downs in their lives without feeling threatened.

When I checked a little earlier today we had had over 56000 posts on this thread, so I think it’s a sign that people are enjoying it up to now.


Susie mentions Linking and many have asked what this is and are worried about inadvertently doing so on the thread
This refers to when people show a link in a post , you can see these on many threads on the site when they show a short piece of text usually blue underlined that has a web link to another area or site, it was felt on this thread that it was distracting and did not help with the flow of conversation.


The other issue that Susie raised was that of quoting, which is when people use the quote button to refer back to a previous post. This on the odd occasion can help people to see what a previous poster was talking about, but as you may of seen on other threads, to many quotes can totally lose the point of the conversation then make it hard to follow for the rest of us.

Early contributors included, Goingupcountry, Whitehall, Wait and see pudding, Cinderella Sue, Jeffreybbb, Veronika, Pennywt, sadly some have found other parts of the site more interesting and moved on but maybe one day they will call back in for a chat.

Common interests and topics for discussion seem to include
FOOD, our own or others pets, travel, family, MEN & their failings, drink, meetings, the weather,
this is not a comprehensive list & other topics can be added later by any of you

Below is a list of members, I am sorry if I have missed anyone out and if you join after this is posted please send me a PM with brief details and I will add you to the list.
Should you not want to be included I will happily remove you and your details from the list.

I have put words that come to mind when I see your names, and occasionally things that appear to be topics you discuss or points I have attributed to you, no offence is intended, its all in fun, this is only to encourage you to give me a couple of lines to replace mine and to help people know a little about you in terms of the thread, obviously if people want to know more they can look at your individual profiles




Veronika early riser dogs, meetings

Nobaggage France holidays OH, village

Samsnan Grandchildren

Bollie Budgie breeding, ironing, baths

Greendragon cats

Idanyelle Red rose

Maggie C Morgan cars

Jeffreybbb Grandchildren, giving unwanted advice, fantasy forums

Brendaja webcams, meetings Caravan, food

Minijune Cats, planes, cars,EX OH

Andtiggertoo Cats, London, meetings OH

Merlotjess Able to stand up at an angle, Scotland

Dolly j

Lindy lou Moving house

Coomara

Murriell Daughters, holidays, meetings

Myklebust Norway, snow, fish

Dee3

Skipton recently joined

Aggie Maggie Meetings, London

Wellie recently joined

Tigger too recently joined

Nippynana

Angie 027

Boudica recently joined

Yeaovileman

Ribrae

Maryrose


I have not written about all of you because so far it has taken three hours to get to this point, please PM me some info to be included about yourselves

An Update on Life In 2009

Hello all you readers I must apologise for the fact I have put nothing on the Blog for some time, but a series of things have prevented this

Firstly I am still having difficulty with sitting for long periods at the computer due to back pain which I am still waiting to be resolved, also RSI in hand & arm are making tyuping painful, plus I have had problems with my voice recognition software which, I need to sort out soon.

I have been feeling tired out with all the effort getting to & from work as well as the fact that the work load has recently increased, but sadly or not I have made the decision to give up work in April and try to do some of the things I have been putting off which will be much easier when I have more energy

As those of you will know from my previous Blog, thanks to Saga I have been travelling about the country meeting people from their site, making new friends & enjoying a range of places & food

The big thing is that Debbie & I are still happily getting on together & are in regular touch, meeting often, which at times was difficult due to the problems using the train whilst engineering works were in progress, we still have not yet got to the Eiffel Tower but hope to get there soon

I have been involved in the latest fundraising concert for the Bury Shopmobility scheme which was really good with excellant performers but sadly a very small audience

Well will close for now & hope to post more often again in the future

An update on the last 12 Months in My Life

Some thoughts about the last 12 months in my life and about the 12 months

It has been a strange 12 months I achieved some positives but failed some of the other things I hoped to have done

I feel that Sagazone has definitely had an impact on my life in the last year, at this point in 2008, I was feeling lonely and isolated unsure about what lay ahead, also having problems with my health.

There were a number of things I hoped would happen, such as another trip to The Isle of Man, to see the things I had not managed to visit on my last trip, to travel to a number of viaducts and take photos of their stunning beauty, I also wanted to have more social contact with people rather than just stay at home all the time.

What in fact happened was initially I became more involved in the fantasy forums on Sagazone, I doesn't result started to meet new people at the gatherings, gaining friends as I went along, if you follow my blog you will of read mine & Debbie’s story which seems to of progressed very well and has brought me great happiness so far and a whole new range of happy experiences, the best which was the lovely thoughtful Christmas presents I received from her.

I have been to Spain twice this year once with my friend Brian for another of our photo expeditions & one on my own as detailed earlier, this last one reminded me of how lonely I felt on my own & texts were the big thing that kept me going at that time.

I have now also been to a number of meetings involving Saga and enjoyed meeting a whole range of lovely people at various places, who I would never normally of come across, also through Saga I have got chatting to a range of people on one of the forums, reading of their exploits on a daily basis & the ups & downs in their lives, in fact one of my dilemmas is how addictive it has become, even more so as people open up more and others join the group.


One of the things I have missed is being part of the Blogging community on Saga & reading the exploits of Honeycook Funky Farmer & others, as well as on here, also the strange pleasure of telling the tale of incidents in my life to an interested audience, maybe that should be one of my resolutions for next year to start up again.

One of the loveliest things that happened this year apart from meeting Debbie was to actually meet my long distance friend Sofi briefly in Birmingham for a few short hours before she had to return home again

Regarding my health I have now been extensively checked for a number of things no thanks to the NHS but still do not have any firm answers about how to become pain free at present, I started treatment with Gail a physio & have nothing but thanks for how she has helped me with the physical health problems I have, but what a strange set of exercises I have had to do to assist me on the path

I have been unable to do some of the things I hoped for last year, such as trying to do something constructive in relation to the people in the town in Zambia I wanted to visit, or to go on a safari

I did not manage to get to Penang to meet Hamster my friend & his wife, I have to accept it was partly my fault but then he came over here working anyway, so maybe we will finally meet up again.

Nor did I go on my travels round the world as I hoped to do, not sure why really I suppose a combination of health & being to busy enjoying myself doing other things so the time passed for it to happen, plus I struggled in coming to terms with giving up work & managing .

One of the other things that I enjoyed were the meetings with Brian Andy & Stewart on our outings into the local shopping centre, discussing important things such as how scary the new Master was in Dr Who and similar important topics to long & boring for you the reader to have to put up with, but which provided a pleasant interlude in our lives

Well what about the new year, firstly, at present I am trying to organise a once in a lifetime trip to Disney for myself & the family in the summer, I thought it would be so easy, but the hardest is trying to plan for a party of six, and get my head round all that needs doing for it to happen.

I am off on a special holiday in March for a week with Debbie, which I hope will be all that we wish for

Possibly at some time Brian will get another passport & we could be off on our travels again to who knows where, surely not Scarborough & the dragons again

If I can plan it I would still like to visit the Isle of Man & finally get to those viaducts in various parts of Britain, its just setting the dates I feel that prevents it.

Forgot to say I made a resolution to lose weight this year, but people have been tempting & feeding me to much food so far, this year, but I really must make an effort from this week
I saw the consultant this week & he feels giving up work is the right thing to do, also that they will try to give me injections in spine in the hope that this time they will work, but if not maybe at long last the operation will be carried out but not before I have been on my special trips

As a result I have now spoken to my boss & committed myself to finishing work at the end of March or early April, which is a little bit scary but we will see

Finally giving up work at this point in life seems to make sense, because in reality I should of finished back in 2000, but have now done another 8 years which have taken their toll of my physical health & been quite stressful more & more as the type of work I have been doing has become more complex & stressful and possibly it is time for other younger people to take on the battles so that I can have some quality time for myself

Having said that I have a feeling I will continue with some sort of voluntary work in fact the next activity is the annual concert to try to resolve in the next few weeks, which I will give you an update on when hopefully it is a greater success than the approx £5 we made last year

Finally I hope you enjoyed the read & will continue, sorry forgot to say to those of you who have followed my Blogs I really will try to do better in this coming year

Hello Fellow Bloggers

Hello fellow Bloggers & readers, sorry I have not been about for such a long time but its been a very strange year 2008

I had such plans at the start of the year I was going to go up in a hot air balloon, go to the Isle of Man visiting friends, travel to Penang & Australia as well as lots of other things

Well I joined in the various forums on Saga both the serious as well as the fantasy & setting up & running them is quite hard work, I have just checked then found the tearoom has now reached nearly 8000 posts and the village pond is also doing well.

Also through Saga I started meeting a whole range of people in different parts of the country and actually met my friend Sofi the other week in Birmingham who had travelled a long long way to meet people from Saga, all of which has also taken up time,

I will not go into any detail about myself and Debbie other than we are still running the tearoom and are enjoying each others company in the real world

I have just returned from a fortnights holiday in Spain so feel it’s a good start to resume my Blogging & tell you a little of what went on, wait for the next blog to begin

What on Earth Is The Cuckoos Arms Pub on SagaZone

Some time ago I wrote a blog about Owls the forum I had joined on SagaZone, since then a small group of us created a new daytime and evening forum, Cuckoos Arms, which basically is a fantasy pub, run by ICE the manager, with a mixture of the strangest staff & customers you could ever meet in life.

Well for example I am the waiter, not very good & keep disappearing but, totally in love with Debbie who also works at the pub.

Well what can I say about “My Debbie” she is the lovely person who calls in each morning to make sure the heat is on, do the cleaning, serving as well as help to test the quality of the gin by drinking pints of it, at a time.

There do seem to be one or two strange things about this sweet innocent person, like why did she not mention these 3 sisters, who by mistake she said were her daughters, on more than one occasion and why does she have the need to tell everyone when she has been drinking that she does not wear underclothes & why does she keep telling people about some of the things I would prefer to remain quiet about the two of us.

But after all she is such a lovely person to me & all the others in the pub & is very tolerant to that Sue.

Yes now what about Sue, a flirtatious person, who is constantly looking for the next man, I feel really she is just looking for that special person, but the constantly going fishing for the person, I feel must be a little off putting to the men, whop come to the pub.

I also think her constant change of allegiance to various men is also confusing for everyone, including the days target, but I also feel sadly there is a degree of jealousy in relation to me & my Debbie which brings out all sorts of negative statements to us both

Now what does Sue do in the pub, well she goes “fishing” but what about serving cooking or cleaning in the pub I am still waiting to see her pour a pint other than maybe one for herself or the man of the day.

What to say about ICE our manager, well first I have to remember she is the boss & I need the job, so that will affect the things I say ever so slightly (well actually a lot but don’t tell her), she doesn’t seem to spend very much time at the pub, but often I do wonder why not given the quality of the staff & the behaviour of the customers, she seems to be particularly drawn to the male customers for some reason & frequently wants quiet chats with them in her office whilst they drink large quantities of alcohol.

She also keeps recruiting new members of staff, again a lot of men but they only seem to last a day or two after she has had them in her office to help her with her spreadsheet, which seems strange because she never asks me to help out with it & she doesn’t seem to look to deeply into their backgrounds before employing them.

If ever there was someone who flirts well ICE deserves medals for it, as she wanders round the men in the pub, but there again in the nicest possible way she also seems to do the same with the lady customers also, which I suppose helps the staff customer relations, I am very happy that she does not flirt with me because what would my Debbie think.

What I cannot understand is that we appear to be constantly running out of staff, food & at times alcohol, plus many of the people do not seem to pay for their drink, in particular if they are invited into ICE’s office, I do worry if she does not spend more time sorting out the pub we will be closed down.

Now how many of the other staff should I mention, in the short time we have been open I have been so confused at the number that have come & gone so I must apologise at not mentioning you all.

I do remember EMLM who actually seemed to be very conscientious, but one day just disappeared, there is Violet who I think is some sort of bar person, or customer, I do worry about the lack of clothes & her suggestive remarks to the male customers, but she seems a nice person, now I think Chukkie was employed as entertainments manager, but where has she got to & what about organising some entertainment other than the fact that the male customers seemed to like her pole dancing.

Now is my friend phizz a customer or a member of staff, we do know she will do anything apparently for a pork pie whether it is cooking serving or spending time entertaining the male customers, but she is a lovely friend to everybody if only she could find someone of her own to share a pork pie with.

What about John at 105, I am still unsure if its his age address or some other link he has not told us, what the relevance is of the 105, again not sure which category he fits in with, seems very nice until he has had, well a “few” drinks then stand back if there are any women about in the pub, I don’t know where he gets the energy from.

Now I have to say I feel very let down by David From Scotland, when we first met he seemed such a nice sort of person & I am sure he will not mind me saying a fellow TOGG, but what has happened now, between the drinking, womanising & abusive remarks to me well I don’t know at all what to say without being sued for libel.

GUC or My Pauly, well the handyman I believe, well he does live round the corner & he is good with provision of our music but most the time he is off flirting with any women or is doing the same at the pub with any of our female customers, though they do seem to like it, when it spends time chatting them up

Now the mysterious Dan, yesterday there was a hint of who he really is, I have always wondered how he could find a plane for a trip at short notice for us to go on holiday & so smooth & debonair, but so nice & kind to us all, but he seems to just drift in & out, with a fairly low profile, maybe the only normal person that comes to the pub, but I have noticed a slight flirtation with the beautiful ICE on occasions & wonder is there something there or is it all part of the illusion, they seem to speak when most of us are gone, maybe I should stay late one night & check it out

There are the customers as well, who seem to spend, so much time chasing each other or drinking huge quantities of alcohol & often not paying for it, I wouldn’t mind if Ididn’t have to clean up after them every day

There are some interesting people who have recently joined like Shoney who is lovely & seems to have something like Debbie’s magic bag (I wonder what it is) must ask some time, then there is JR, Blondie or whatever her real name is, now again, she has like Dan inferred that she is linked to the secret service, how exciting, but what an actress, she seemed a really nice person when she first appeared, but quickly seemed to spend all her time getting drunk apparently & chasing any man who dared to appear in the pub, as I have said to her what an actress she must be, but how does she cope with all the alcohol, when hiding her personality & is something going on in the pub that we don’t know about.

Well folks where do we go from here, we must be doing something right it has already had over 9000 hits from people in the short time it has been running, it seems to have a following of people who watch our antics I am told & a mixture of strange & wonderful people popping in on an occasional basis, Hi Clabby & FF, & all the others I have missed, in the blog

An Update on My Thoughts on SagaZone

I am writing this blog to balance things from my first one about manners and attitudes on this site, possibly I was being unfair to people, although I was only going off my own experiences at the time and it was a new site, arranged differently, with a mixture of reasons for people to join.

Unfortunately since joining, the site has had problems regarding access and all sorts of things have been added and taken away, and by the look of it, some of the people who used to use the site, whether this is a good thing or a bad thing we have yet to see.

I have to start on a positive note and say I have met some really lovely people whilst on this site, who've been patient, guided me through the strange layout of the site, supported me in my initial contacts, both in relation to my blogs, but also when I have gone into the various chat rooms and forums, trying to find my way round, as well as integrate in the SagaZone community.

One of my most interesting and enjoyable finds was the Owl's, I don't know how to describe this group, apart from saying what a bunch of kind friendly supportive yet wacky set of people, (wacky may be the wrong word), if any of the owls read this please give me your own suggestions so long as their not rude.

The only difficulty with the Owls, is that they only come out late at night, when most people have gone to bed, to make it worse they actually live in a large tree which appears to be quite cold and draughty at the moment, so how they maintain their humour I'm not really sure of, but they have welcomed me as a mere fledgling, my dilemma, is that keeping them company is quite addictive, despite the fact that often they carry on until early in the morning.

I feel I have to mention certain people who belong to the Owls, first of all Sue who first introduced me to this group, Brenny, who has supported and advised me as well as Clabby who has quietly been there for me, should I mention people such as Dan, ICE or TBL, well now I've done that, gosh I nearly forgot Tipples or should I say Tips who has advised me on all manner of things (ironing was the most useful).

Moving onto my blog and others, because people have been kind enough to read my blog and pass comment, it seemed only fair to go and have a look at theirs, well that was the best thing I could have done, from the unpredictable of HoneyCook and her various adventures, to WilfulWoodpecker and Mallu and their fascinating stories, to the newly found blog of Janet Humphreys, which is so very touching, it is unfair not to mention all the blogs I have read and their authors, but it would take forever to list them all and why they have been so enjoyable.

So how to sum up where we've reached now, well are some lovely kind considerate people on this site, who will go out of their way to help and support others, with a sense of humour, despite some of the difficulties they experience themselves in their day to day life, but very sadly I have personally come across a small number of people who seem to have very strange, not very nice agendas, and in fact can be quite rude, but even worse as I have flitted about the site, and read some of the statements people have made about each other, I feel there are people on the site who use it as a weapon to attack others who do not agree with their thoughts and opinions, my hope is that there are enough of us nice people out there to balance out them others.

Well now it's time to shut up, I hope you enjoyed the read, comments both positive and negative are welcome.

For any of my new found friends that read this, thank you for your support over the last couple of months.

Happy Christmas to you all

My Adventures On Sagazone

Well Readers, I have been spreading my wings & exploring the delights of the web site for us over 50s, I quickly signed up & started to explore.



Quite soon after joining after reading a couple of the posts I decided maybe I should change my photo from Merlin to one of me when I was a little(well a lot younger), well a couple of people contacted me, including a lady, well thought I surely this is a good sign & promptly replied to her, well as usual nothing goes as we want, I am still waiting for a response from her.



Well I have explored different parts of the site now, had a look at the forums, where actually people seem to chat, some seem quite friendly, but I do have to say there are also sadly some people on there as on all sites who are not so pleasant in fact they seem bent on being unpleasant, to each other.



But now the good news, there are some really really nice people on the site & I have to name a few of them in the hope that those of you who I may of tempted to join will go & have a look at their profiles & then blogs, so here goes

Daisiepo Rose58 Honeycook V Goty Funkyfarmer Wilfulwoodpecker



I have just realised I need to say their blogs are an interesting mixture & well worth a visit.



The site does not have the facility yet if ever to upload photos to the blog or create interesting templates, but you can find some wide ranging subjects quite easily as well as follow others involvement in forums you have joined, but also announce your latest blog.

PS just to say this is another photo from my collegue at work



Well thats all for now folks will keep you updated on my adventures in Sagaland