It was getting tough in 2006 and the workhouse still threatens us in 2011

mambury

Big zen HUGS to all that need them (oh and Redlady.... you will fly the retakes!)

Can I have a moan please?? I started lifting the rest of my potatoes, and the bloomin' slugs have had them all, and I mean all..... each and every one from 10 plants that I dug up are literally hollow shells..... I can't be bothered now to dig the rest... grrrr. Its not going to be a massive problem if I leave them is it?? I wanted to move my greenhouses to the area they have grown in as it gets better sun than the position they are in at the moment.

Right off to pick some more blackberries, and there are some righht beauts in the hedge this year.....

Love and peace (except if you are a slug or a snail..... Might have to borrow next doors ducks for a few hours!! )


Mambury

GreyQueen

ginnyknit wrote: »

GQ I have heard so many times people struggling with ME ( I had it many years ago, or was it a bug???) and the story is still the same now , doctors just don't understand it so pooh pooh the idea it exists. But its hell for you sufferers and so many seem to be women??

Hi ginny, there are reckoned to be about 250,000 diagnosed ME sufferers in the UK and probably several times more un-diagnosed. There isn't a gender bias towwards females and it affects people of all ages and levels of education (was once known as Yuppie Flu as it was thought to disprortionally affect high-flyers. Well, not in my case, obviously ).

I've had the diagnosis confirmed by one of the few centres who deal with ME and it's basically a case that they rule out anything else that it could possibly be and ME is the default. I had it by the classic route; got glandular fever (diagnosis confirmed by blood test) and was never well again.

I've had it for 25 years and the state of play has gone from It's all in your mind to the current state of Gawd knows what causes it.

I'm very far from being the worst afflicted and at my weakest, would spend all of a day's energy getting myself up, washed and dressed and then would sit there, stultified with exhaustion, brain in total fog. I could always walk, unlike some poor poor souls who end up bedbound and in wheelchairs, so I count my blessings.

ME is such a bl00dy boring illness as the seems to be no end to it and I've wasted time and money which I couldn't spare on the fashionable cures of the day. My conclusion is that I'll eat my greens and go to bed when I'm tired. You go thru the self-pitying stage such as Why me? and then come out the other side philosophical Why not me? It's character forming if nothing else.

Still, when you've seen friends in constant pain from arthritus or known people to die on the transplant list, you can't feel too sorry for yourself; worst things happen at sea.

I work half-a-job and have about half-a-life but I enjoy the bits I am awake for!:rotfl:

Hey, Mardatha, I've been known to take 6 goes to dial a 6 digit number as I transpose numbers when overtired. For that reason alone I don't do online banking. Gawd knows who'd end up with my dosh if I started moving money around myself. I've also forgotten my own landline after having the same number for 14 years.:eek: And I once had a friend return one of my emails to me as she had no clue what it was about; re-read it and couldn't figure it out either; must've been having a very bad afternoon that day.

Anyway, the workday c'est fini and the sun is shining, so all's well wit this little camper.

Kittie re pumpkinish squash, I have a vague recollection that Americans store them in root cellars and it is considered best to hang them in nets (or old tights?) to stop them coming into contact with the shelf or whatever as they rot from the bottom up.

Re butterbuts, I looked at the ones in the shops and they are Eqyptian ones, so maybe ours are just going to take a lot longer. I am a total squash newbie so am feeling my way around the issues. We can mutually-puzzle it out over the interweb.

Later GQ x

ETA Here's a website re butternut cultivation. Should be Ok outside until the first hard frost, so we have a little time for the babies to grow up; http://www.nvsuk.org.uk/growing_show_vegetables_1/butternut-squash.php

Hobsons_Choice

Today the sun was shining and I had to make a choice between doing the ironing or going into the country for a bit of a walk.
So.....I picked loads of blackberries on my walk. See...much more productive than ironing!
I don't have ME, but a friend's daughter has had it for years. Doc has now put her on thyroxine and that seems to have made a difference (although other docs pooh pooh the idea).
I have an overactive thyroid and get very tired easily - actually, reading everything you folk seem to get done during a day :T makes me very tired indeed (and not a little guilty).

dreamyd

Hi there - thought I'd de-lurk.
Three loads of washing out today, drying nicely. I thought I'd attack the cooker with my Sonic scrubber and some soda crystals. The brushes were fab, the pads less so. I managed to kill the pad holder so that it no longer rotates at the right speed(grr) , so I might take it back to Lakeland and complain, expecially as I've got about 50 unused scrubbing pads left (bought for 49p a packet in the sale). Failing that, I'll pester the manufacturer.
I also seem to have scrubbed off the heat marking on the oven knob... I've replaced them roughly with an indelible marker, but at least they're not coated in grease now.. I still need to rinse down the hob as it has white tidemarks on it, and then I'm going to slather my hands in lotion and watch something suitably gormless until DH and EH get home. I tihnk I've deserved it!

redlady_1

Well, I survived work as I think the two trouts have forgotten results are today.

So, in celebration I am going to make mince pies, bread and shove some tomatoes on some filled pasta I have found lurking in the back of the cupboard

Although the temptation to go and buy a kebab and a family six pack of crisps is strong!!!!

ceridwen

squeaky wrote: »

I reckon this is a mis-interpretation of the standards that would normally be met.

Back in the day when I worked for Servis (just after the dinosaurs disappeared) the design life of a machine was 2,000 washes.

So if you did four washes a week they'd expect the majority of machines to last ten years.

Two washes a week - twenty years.

Eight washes a week - five years.

There was no expectation that there was a set average number of washes per week.

Ah! That means mine is supposed to last 20 years...hmmm...hey..GreyQueen you've got first dibs on that washing machine of mine...but it looks as if I'll outlast it....:rotfl:- as I'm expecting I'll probably live more than 20 years....

ceridwen

Rosanna79 wrote: »

As for the NHS having spent over 40 years nursing in it I have to say a large part of that time was spent fighting patients/ clients corners & challenging dismissive drs. Best care we found in NHS is the teaching hospitals & my oldest friend found that after FIFTEEN years of being told her symptoms were all in her head she was suddenly referred by her dentist of all people to a teaching hospital 40 miles away. Suddenly she had a diagnosis! I once lost a practice nurse job because I couldnt process elderly patients at 6 minutes a head! Nor have I ever been prepared to treat patients like that-seems in the NHS it's so variable. Must agree with Ceridwen on private healthcare-used to do agency nursing in a BUPA hospital. Feet would be in blisters at the end of a shift but I would feel like I'd been able to do the job properly like it had been done in the early days of my career. Trouble is nowadays staff shortages etc etc plus 12 hour shifts no meal breaks endless unpaid overtime plus the constant threat of violence do little to encourage h/staff to be very userfriendly. Those of us who gave it our all , listened etc finally ended up in burnout on the professional scrapheap. Now on a lower fixed income life is much more peaceful. The only thing I miss is fighting corners! When I look at the 96 lb plus of onions we've harvested drying in the garage I'm glad to be living a simpler life

...and its such a shame that the staff who really care often do seem to end up in burnout or falling out with the "management levels". I think its awful - as medical type jobs are ones that often attract people of a more "caring" type temperament and they should be allowed to get on and "care" - as that would be a win/win situation (ie happy patients and job satisfaction to the "carer" type of person).

**********************************

REDLADY
Re the two "trouts" at work - blow them...some people just take pleasure from pulling others down (or trying to anyrate.....) and what does THAT say about them personally? (ie not a lot...).

Sometimes we have to accept that we are "human" (darn it!!!!!.....) and that we will have a few hours of "darn the lot of them ...and I shall eat cake...drink too much...and do darn all...." before we get back to "normal". Life happens.....

GREYQUEEN
I do hope that you - and others - with this ME find a way soon to "come out the other end" as it sounds like a bl**dy awful illness to have from what I've read about it. Re the glandular fever hypothesis as to what is the "root cause" of it - thats been around for a LONG time now - as I can recall MANY years ago hearing a lodger I had in commenting that they had had glandular fever before now and thinking "EEK EEK EEK - I've heard that can re-occur in the person who has it - and lead on to M.E. and its INFECTIOUS....EEK....EEK...EEK! AGH!" Fortunately for both of us - they never had a reoccurrence whilst living with me - whew.....

silvasava

Hi all - ionly just caught up on the last couple of pages

Redlady - PLEASE don't beat yourself up - so you failed your exams, you know what to expect next time. At least you have tried which is more than the other ***** in your office have done.

I took some professional exams years ago - I was only going to do the first part of the sylabus 'til the office b*tch said she thought the second part was beyond my capabilities! Motivation or what - passed the exams & left for a higher paid job So you just show them Redlady - we're all behind you.

Went for a walk yesterday with DH & picked a couple of pounds of blackberries - the bushes here are loaded. Does that indicate another hard winter? Getting lots of lovely green beans but my tomatoes are STILL green - whats that all about?

Just looked out the window & there is a stunning sunset all purple orange & red - so maybe no rain after all tomorrow & I can work in the garden

ps - Just took a photo of the sunset - can someone tell me how I upload to the forum?

Thanks
xx

kidcat

Nipping in quickly to send hugs to redlady - look at this from a positive angle its given you the kick you needed to re- order your life slightly and maybe have a little more time - and that cant be bad can it?? Take care and rest before throwing yourself into any more exam work.

grandma247

an interesting article on sprouting beans here