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Hello, Elle!
I'm from the Rosses, a remote part of Donegal, on the edge of the Atlantic, everyone knows everyone and their families, for miles.
So, a card arriving from someone in New Jersey, say, or Toronto, will have everyone talking about them, and their family still in Donegal.
Often there will be photos attached to the card, and a brief note of how their doing.
It's a very sociable activity!
Who needs FaceBook when you have an Irish pub and Christmas cards!
Yes, it is "noose".
I hope I can explain my parse !
It is "O" for Oscar, "coated" by something that can be hooked, "nose".
Coated meaning on the outside of "O".
A "noose" at one time was a "hanger" when the death penalty was in force, I suppose.
What d'ye reckon?

Hello Elle, Rusty and everyone!

I am back home after yet another 3-day stay in hospital.
Third artery had a good check but no stent needed this time; it is
just a very small one superimposed over another equally small one
and initially it did look as though there was a problem - Glad to say
there was not!
Nonetheless, the cardiologist took all his time to rummage around
with his little camera and checked on the work he had performed
previously, as well as doing a scan of the whole area - all seems
fine now and he does not want to see me again for almost a year.

I am very pleased with the result, but of course tired after yesterday's session. Came back this afternoon and had rain all
the way from Orleans to here where it still rained up to an hour
ago! Week-end forecast not good and windy but..... they may
be wrong!

How about you? How are you and have you been up to anything
interesting?

PS - Back still hurts! less so though, but it does seem to take a long
time to heal!

Glad to hear that you are progressing, pigale.

We've had a new mattress for about a week, and it seems to have improved my back!

Yes Chris, a good mattress is all important and I probably need a new
one too! I have just ordered a special cushion for my back for the
chair I sit on when using the computer - hope it will help as well!

Hi, Rusty!
I think the Christmas card idea is great!
And speaking of cards...I am fast running out of them .....I shall need to buy some more!
Obviously I could not count......
Oh, I was so very nearly there with the parse for 22d, wasn't I?
I had it all, barring the "coat" part.....
It just did not occur to me to see "coat" as a covering/ wrapping!
Very good, Rusty! Well done indeed for getting that!
It was my turn to mess up with the recorder today!
I had it set for "Fifteen to One"..... but it didn't happen!



Hello, Pigale!
Great to see you back!
And such good news to hear that you didn't need a stent fitted after all.
Plus you must be feeling much reassured by your Consultant giving you a thorough "overhauling"!
But don't be doing too much, now that you are home again.
Take it easy.......

Good evening, Pigale!
It is good to hear you are in recovery mode!
Best take it easy, perhaps, for a few days.
Hope you have some DVDs or books to occupy yourself!

Good evening, Elle!
The Christmas cards are a great idea, and it brings more folk into the pub, too, and becomes a social event, catching up on the news of the folk they know, from around the world.
It was the "coat" part that threw me, too.
I wondered if there was a "coat hanger" called a "noose"!
I watched an interesting programme earlier about the Tower of London.
There is a series about it running on the National Geographic Channel.
I felt really sorry for Lady Jane Grey.
She was only 16 when she was executed.
The historian on the programme said Jane was the rightful Queen, not Mary.

Hi rusty
Mary surely had a greater claim, as daughter of the previous King. Lady Jane Grey's advantage was that she was Protestant.
I saw a programme about the 9 days a few weeks ago. To start with, Grey was in a powerful position, but it was astonishing how rapidly Mary got a "snowball rolling downhill" of support.

Hello, Chris,
I think they said Mary was illegitimate, but I don't know if that was true, or not, or if it would prevent her becoming Queen, or not.
Edward VI proclaimed Jane to be his successor, on his deathbed.
The historian had his written will to show us (there were many things scored out and changed in it, though!).
And was the "proclamation" the correct way to decide the next monarch, anyway?
I think Lady Jane was used, and it was tragic what happened to a sixteen year old girl.