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lucy sweet's avatar

I wonder whether the GP remembers your bottom? 😂

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

I'm sure it's indelibly printed on his mind 😩

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lucy sweet's avatar

Hahaha

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Rafael Concepcion's avatar

Good morning, luv, from snowy, bleak Western New York. (It was sunny but freezing with zero precipitation yesterday so I decided to go to the post office, the bank and the grocery store. I wanted fresh fruit but somehow a New York style cheesecake jumped into my shopping cart when my back was turned.). Our neighbors live less than three meters away on either side of our house, and we’re glad of that. They’ve been a tremendous help during my wife’s recent illness, surgery and recovery, sending over meals and helping us keep the sidewalk and our car cleared of snow. Just one look at us and you can see that either one of us might have to go to Urgent Care or the emergency room at any moment, and it helps to have the car ready to go at all times. I remember The Good Life, with Felicity Kendal and Penelope Keith! It was on around the same time as Fawlty Towers. Great shows. I don’t think you and your kid’s hair looks bad at all. 98% of the time my hair looks like I combed it with a hand grenade, and the rest of the time it looks like I used something even more explosive. Thanks for the very funny piece. It sounds like you and your boy toy Jimmy would be happy no matter where you put down roots. I think I’ve kept you from your work long enough. Nitey nite, luv!

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

Ha - that pic is me and my mum Rafael, in something like 1967! I'm sorry you and your wife have had such a tough time lately. Great neighbours are priceless. As are cheesecakes who insist on coming home with you. Hope the snow thaws soon!

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Rafael Concepcion's avatar

That picture looks so innocent, looking for seeds! In 1967 I was ten and my friend Clutch Rojas and I stole a pair of Playboy magazines from a local shop. You are the spitting image of your mum. Sorry for the confusion. And thanks a lot (not really) for the info on birds and apple seeds. You know I can never eat an apple again, luv, without yakking it right back up!

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Sarah Honeyman's avatar

I love the pictures, you with your birds nest hair 🥰. I love the country but not sure I’d want to live there, in Perth we’re only about 10 mins from open spaces 👍

Made me laugh as always x

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

Yes, a city that's easily to get out of - perhaps that's the ideal! Glasgow is too - less than an hour to Loch Lomond. So best of all really x

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Gina Ferrari's avatar

I had to laugh… I am born and brought up in London and love the city but for the past 35 years we have lived in rural Cambridgeshire. Village life is great but I remember the intense embarrassment of sitting next to one of our GPs at a birthday dinner party literally days after him giving me a close up examination for recurring thrush! Excruciating… the thrush and the embarrassment!

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

Oh I do sympathise - you know the GP has seen EVERYTHING but it's still mortifying to be thrown together in a different (non medical) context x

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Wendy Varley's avatar

Lovely read, Fi.

I went from ruralish, to London, to proper rural. Love hearing a kerfuffle, open the window to find it’s just two puffed up male pheasants having a territorial standoff. Breathe in the country air and get a whiff of rotting brassicas from the cauliflower harvesting up the lane. Shut the window again as the house is freezing because the oil delivery lorry can’t be arsed to find your obscure hamlet. Ah, this is the life!

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

Thanks Wendy! I'd forgotten about the country whiffs - oh yes, fertiliser spreading time! x

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Annie Tempest's avatar

I remember that flipping rock tumbler! Days and days of draining expensive electricity - but truthfully - I was as excited as the kids to make treasure! Could have bought better results at local craft shop for pennies but that wasn’t the point, was it?!

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Fiona Gibson's avatar

No it wasn't - and I loved that my mum had this gadget. In fact I'd bought it for her for her 70th birthday - so I am also responsible for climate change... x

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