The Tougher Thread continues.....

Kimsmum

Evening everyone,
Was busy yesterday going through the spare room looking for things to put on eb*y found lots and lots. So photos all taken and have started to put some in today and some for tomorrow as its free this weekend.

Its been dull dark and damp here all day so made some lovely HM chicken soup and HM bread very yummy.

Little girl from next door was showing me her doll this morning which her nanna bought but she said it had no clothes and was cold. So tonight I will sit and knit some clothes and cut a blanket out of some nice pink fleece for her doll.Have some odd wool and needles. We cant have her dolly being cold now can we. Dad lost his job about 7 months ago and they are really struggling.Even if i dont have much to give them at least dolly wont go cold.

Hope everyone as a nice evening.:)

mishmogs

Sorry that this message is going back over an old thread but my mum died very suddenly and we had often talked about what to do with respect to funerals, etc and her wishes were to donate organs if anyone wanted them. Corneleas were donated, they didnt want her heart and her kidneys were donated (this saved 4 peoples lives, two off dialysis and two more on to dialysis).

I was told a brief profile of the people who had the kidneys but it would have been good to know if they had a long life afterwards.

Defo. something to do.

westcoastscot

Thanks HJ, hope your family arrived home safely.
Smileyt would love that on my next after this trip???? I'm meeting my partner - haven't seen him in a while and we both have days off. Usually when I'm down he works part of the time so would be great then - i'll pm you and Ginnyknit when i'm next down for longer. I can't do a long day either, but we could meet for coffee and cake and then hit the craft/charity shops - even for a look????

WCS

Northern_Lassy

ceridwen wrote: »

Pink Winged

I have a theory (from my various reading) FWIW that people often "know" within the few days just "before"....and will admit to reading a bit of stuff on describing the "physical process" (eg going ICY cold from the feet up). Though I'm not the most "psychic" of people - I have noticed the odd "unusual" thing before - so think I would probably notice my "greeters" hanging around waiting to take me with them.


I think you are right about this. I spent time with my Grandma the day before she passed away and I am convinced she knew it was her time. She kept looking towards the distance and smiling and kept saying how she loved her family and was proud of every one of them (this was totally out of character for her.) We were not terribly close but it felt a bit like a deathbed confessional session. It was very precious to spend that time with her but it did feel like she was in an inbetween state...makes you wonder.

I would like to think someone will come and see me over safely (though hopefully not anytime soon!!) :A

shelley_crow

Northern_Lassy wrote: »

ceridwen wrote: »

Pink Winged

I have a theory (from my various reading) FWIW that people often "know" within the few days just "before"....and will admit to reading a bit of stuff on describing the "physical process" (eg going ICY cold from the feet up). Though I'm not the most "psychic" of people - I have noticed the odd "unusual" thing before - so think I would probably notice my "greeters" hanging around waiting to take me with them.


I think you are right about this. I spent time with my Grandma the day before she passed away and I am convinced she knew it was her time. She kept looking towards the distance and smiling and kept saying how she loved her family and was proud of every one of them (this was totally out of character for her.) We were not terribly close but it felt a bit like a deathbed confessional session. It was very precious to spend that time with her but it did feel like she was in an inbetween state...makes you wonder.

I would like to think someone will come and see me over safely (though hopefully not anytime soon!!) :A

My grandad came to Britain from abroad after WWII, he had lost all of his family in the concentration camps and was completely alone in the world. My aunt said that when he was dying of cancer, he kept looking into the corner of the room, smiling and talking excitedly, although this is very hard to do with advanced cancer. No-one in the family could speak his native language fluently but found out that he was talking to his parents and his brother, whom he hadn't seen for 50 years. The end was quick and peaceful later on that same day. My aunt also said that she sat with him for most of the day and these episodes of him talking to thin air co-incided with a drop in temperature in the room.

I don't want to make anyone sad with this story but it gives me hope that when my time comes, I won't be on my own.

morag1202

Softstuff wrote: »

No, they're your own bits and entirely yours to do with as you please .

I think the stories of peoples organs being taken prematurely are just a bit of an urban horror story though, which is a shame, as it puts people off donating. There are so many checks made by multiple people before it happens. I know that I'm unusual in having no emotional attachment whatsoever to my bits, once I'm brain dead I have no concern at all what happens to me

I agree with this but would also like to add why I registered to be a doner. I kind of figured that if I was willing to accept an organ if I ever needed one then I must also be willing to supply mine

On the subject of funerals, I'm firmly in the "funerals are for the living not the dead" camp. My DH and DM both died in separate accidents and neither had left instructions and we (DD, DS and I) found that planning their funerals took our minds off the horror and comforted us as we remembered the good things whilst choosing the readings, music and writing the Eulogies.

BTW, I've been lurking and very occasional posting on the "Tough" threads ever since Martin mentioned the second one in his weekly newsletter and I love the upbeat supportiveness

CRANKY40

suzid wrote: »

Mardatha anything I used to cook in a pressure cooker tasted like sewage. We parted company after I'd cooked beetroot in the darned thing and ended up with a purple speckled kitchen.

I've never had a pressure cooker - they frighten me! I can just imagine doing something wrong and that weight thingy going across the kitchen like a UFO. Slow cookers are much more suited to my temperament. I have two....a small one that Mr Cranky used when he was a "mature" student that I make soup in, and a larger one for batch cooking stews etc.

Why not just use a pan? Well our house has 5 storeys, and I tend to drift off and forget I've left things on the cooker. A slow cooker doesn't boil dry, and the cats can't get the lid off....

p.s. The only sense I ever got out of Mr Cranky about a funeral was that he wanted a Viking funeral. As the Mersey is a very busy shipping lane, I couldn't see anyone in their right minds agreeing to it. We had him cremated instead. I keep his ashes in my wardrobe so I can shout at him now and then when things go wrong. The house elf (my now 6 year old son) doesn't want to part with his daddy's ashes as he feels that would be like his daddy leaving him for good. We did however have some of the ashes placed in glass hearts for a very reasonable and smallish sum of money by a company called Bath Aqua Glass who have very sensitive and caring staff. As the elf said when we received them "Look mummy, daddy is always in my heart now".

7_week_wonder

Kittikins wrote: »

May I have the sourdough recipe pretty please........

I've just had a look at the original recipe that I wrote down from Kittie's post and compared it with what I do now and I reckon that they are sufficiently different that it's ok for me to post my recipe without treading on anyone's toes (but feel free to tell me if anyone thinks otherwise). So this is what I do (adapted from Kittie’s original recipe):

To make the first starter:
Take 250g of flour (I use rye flour) and 150ml warm water. Whisk them at top speed in a food mixer for 10 minutes. The put the starter into a Tupperware container (which can cope with upto four times the original volume) with a lid on and leave it somewhere warmish (I used the airing cupboard) for 24 hours. After 24 hours remove half the original starter and throw it away, then add 250g flour (rye) and 150 ml warm water (I just hand whisk it in and don’t bother with an electric mixer except for the first day) and put it back for another 24 hours.

On day three you can take it out of the airing cupboard (you should see quite a few large bubbles on the surface of the starter) and give it a permanent home (I leave mine on the kitchen counter). Now remove half and add another 250g of rye flour and 150 ml cold water. Keep repeating daily until you get to around day 7. Now you are ready to bake......

I use 200g starter, 400g (white) strong flour, 1 teaspoon salt, a tablespoon sunflower oil, a variety of seeds (pumpkin, sesame, sunflower, whatever I have) plus 160 ml water.
Put all the ingredients in the bread pan and then put the breadmaker (mine’s a Panasonic) on French loaf, dough only. It will finish after around 3 ½ hours. Then just leave it where it is for anything between 6 and 12 hours. Finally bake it using the “bake only” programme for 55 minutes. I tend to start mine in the evening, leave it overnight then bake it in the morning.

To keep the starter going I tend to take out what I need for my loaf, then leave the rest of the starter in its container and it seems fine for up to 3 or 4 days. Then 12-24 hours before I bake I add 250g flour and 150 ml water to the starter, then it’s ready to go the next day.

Hope that makes sense – let me know if anything isn’t clear. It really isn’t quite as mysterious as it is sometimes made out – but the results are yummy.

Draagonfly

CRANKY40 wrote: »

Why not just use a pan? Well our house has 5 storeys, and I tend to drift off and forget I've left things on the cooker. A slow cooker doesn't boil dry, and the cats can't get the lid off....

That's exactly why I cook my Xmas pudd in the slow cooker, I can put it on & forget about it in the chaos of the rest of the day ;):rotfl:

Draagonfly

7_week_wonder wrote: »

I've just had a look at the original recipe that I wrote down from Kittie's post and compared it with what I do now and I reckon that they are sufficiently different that it's ok for me to post my recipe without treading on anyone's toes (but feel free to tell me if anyone thinks otherwise). So this is what I do (adapted from Kittie’s original recipe):

You've credited Kittie as the original inspiration/source & made it clear you've adapted it so hopefully all should be OK