A new 'tougher' thread... and so it continues

Frugalista

shegar wrote: »

A new one for us all YB = yellow ball...:T:rotfl:

Or we could just type one extra letter and call it the SUN :cool:. Yellow ball always sounds so twee and childish - like we're all still in playgroup .

(My black dog has really sunk his teeth in!) :(:(

Byatt

Frugalista wrote: »

Or we could just type one extra letter and call it the SUN :cool:. Yellow ball always sounds so twee and childish - like we're all still in playgroup .

(My black dog has really sunk his teeth in!) :(:(

((((((((((Frugalista))))))))))))))

mama67

D&DD wrote: »

VJ's mum I'm getting seriously addicted to the mcdonalds breakfast muffins in there not any good for a dinner suggestion but do try them when you get a chance,glad to hear you can get to see your Dad hope the visit goes well XX

ooh GQ Duran Duran when I first met my husband he had hair like them...now its like Yul Bryner :rotfl:

I was a punk so didn't really do the New Romantics stuff..those were the days..

Haven't looked at this book yet, but I've been doing a version of a m c muffin for years, they freeze well and are easy to nuke for breakfast or lunch.
I try to remember to get them from the freezer the ight before but if not just use defrost mode for a couple of minutes before heating on full power for 1½ - 2 minutes.

ginnyknit

Just made cranberry muffins with added bran - secret ingredient in my war with one of OH's problems - they taste good but look very insipid :rotfl:

As for putting names in the freezer, I am afraid you are not solving a problem just 'putting it on ice till later' Thats how you keep your problems for another day - sorry guys.

Rosanna79

In my last job before I retired we had such an awful manager she was nicknamed 'The Ayatollah' . Morale among my colleagues was so low that some could only manage to come into work on antidepressants and counselling. It would have been understandable if someone had made a wax image etc!

I joined a creative writing course at my local Link and found a great outlet in writing one particular short story in which a sort of composite NHS manager got her comeuppance....!

Creative writing proved to better than therapy! I really can recommend it. Keeping a diary of events plus hard copy of all email communication also proved extremely useful when the Union got involved. I think these kind of people are often just power mad with little in their personal lives

Thinking of all who are dealing with knotted guts and stress in the workplace at present- hugs to you all ((( )))

Rosannna

Softstuff

Hey all :j

I'm still alive and today is a good day so I'm posting (if you don't see me for another week it's because the meds wore off!). I had an injection yesterday afternoon that's made me feel like a caffeinated teenager, it'd be lovely if the feeling would last, but it's likely just for a day or two. I'm a bit ill right now, but have a lovely doctor who is working on it, so should be 100% in a few months if all goes well. He's a lovely chap, with a determination to get to the bottom of everything. I'd tell you what I have, but at the moment we're just working through a list of ruling out what I don't have, aside from ridiculously low levels of B12 (it looks like I can't digest it right now - but it isn't pernicious anaemia) Unfortunately I've recently been feeling like a dying slug, but with good cause at least (it always helps when there's a nice quantifiable test to tell you you're not a hypochondriac or a wuss). My black dog has been sat on my head and been pooping in my ear.

I'm sorry to all those whose problems I've missed, but send out hugs so grab one if you need it. I drop in and out to read, but reached the stage last week where I couldn't follow a page downwards and would just read the same bit a dozen times until I gave up, so forgive my apparent lack of interest.

I still managed to bake a batch of muffins though, so I'm not dead yet.

It's been raining here constantly for a fortnight, with flooding all around. All I have to say is "Sunshine coast my !!!!". Even the Aussies can't defend weather this bad.

Going out to look at electric carving knives. You never know when one might come in handy.

Rosanna79

Hi Softstuff
So sorry to hear of your current health problems but equally glad you've got a good doctor who sounds really conscientious. Decent doctors are worth their weight in gold .

Wishing you a speedy recovery
Rosanna

BitterAndTwisted

Creative writing sounds like a tiny bit too much effort to me, so I'm still with the wax-effigy method releasing that horrible and destructive rage.

I know this isn't the Official Career Guidance Thread but I've been managed in the past by the most appalling people and I've also been a manager myself. One of the many things I have learned is that some managers get promoted because they've been in their current roles for longer than is sensible or healthy. They can know the work backwards as well as the organisation, and these are often important abilities. The tragedy is that so few ever get any actual management training so inevitably fail in not the work itself but the managing of people and their relationships with others. In my experience that is nearly always at the root of the problem with bad or ineffectual managers. Although one or two I have reported to in the past have been died-in-the-wool authentic !!!!!!.

For myself, I never received any particular training either I was just thrown in at the deep end and left to my own devices. The very hardest part for me was dealing with employees and their damned personal problems which they insisted on bringing to work and leaving them on my desk to help deal with. Another, which was totally my fault was that I worked like a Trojan and put more hours in than anyone else because I just loved the work and the company. I had a complete blind-spot where the others were concerned and it drove me mental that they didn't share my total commitment. My other blind-spot was absenteeism which I have never understood because I was never a skiver myself. The brazenness of it sometimes took my breath away. Mistakes and errors could always be fixed if people were honest about how and why they occurred, so we could put plans and strategies in place to avoid them in future and then life would be grand. I loathe finger-pointing and blame-shifting. Still, I tried to be decent and fair, and as kind as I knew how to be even when I knew in my waters that it could be taken advantage of. Some of the people who once worked for me are still friends 20 years later so I can't have been that terrible. Awful at times yes, but not completely and irretrievably loathsome.

scrabbles_2

Softstuff wrote: »

...but at the moment we're just working through a list of ruling out what I don't have, aside from ridiculously low levels of B12 (it looks like I can't digest it right now - but it isn't pernicious anaemia

I have low B12 too. Of course I don't know anything about your other symptoms, but yep, I had to be tested for a million other things before they got to the bottom of mine. The doctors were disconcertingly vague at times. I felt like I was going mad or was maybe a hypochondriac. Then I had to go and do this radioactive scan thingy and it all fell into place overnight. Huge virtual (((hug))) to you, I hope you are all sorted soon. And try not to worry too much - of all the things it could be, at least it's not pernicious anaemia. If you don't mind me asking - is the doctor you are seeing a gastroenterologist?

Softstuff

scrabbles wrote: »

I have low B12 too. Of course I don't know anything about your other symptoms, but yep, I had to be tested for a million other things before they got to the bottom of mine. The doctors were disconcertingly vague at times. I felt like I was going mad or was maybe a hypochondriac. Then I had to go and do this radioactive scan thingy and it all fell into place overnight. Huge virtual (((hug))) to you, I hope you are all sorted soon. And try not to worry too much - of all the things it could be, at least it's not pernicious anaemia. If you don't mind me asking - is the doctor you are seeing a gastroenterologist?

Thanks for the hug, I'll be fine and dandy soon I know, it's just I'm tired and impatient, and some of the symptoms aren't fun.

Things work a bit differently here than in England, my GP is the centre of everything, it's very easy and quick to get most tests and it's from him I go here there and everywhere, but all results go back to him (even things from specialists and whatnot), so he remains very much knowledgeable of my overall health and wellbeing, and is able to connect the dots a bit more easily rather than treating each symptom as a separate thing. Here I have the option of seeing him in person on a regular basis at the time of my choosing too! If there's nothing else to be grateful for in Australia, that's very damned high on the list. I'm offered a standard 15 minute appointment for something quick, or I can have a half hour if I think I need it. He knows me by name and doesn't have to ask what I'm there for!

With the kind of care and attention I've had, it didn't take long for him to find my low B12 (which was silly low, but I've put symptoms down to other things), but it is taking a bit longer to find out why it got low in the first place. This is purely ruling out one thing after another really, working from the very obvious and moving along.

I'm off for a gastroscopy soon so see a gastroenterologist in february. I'm a little more worried about what that might reveal (possible stomach damage there), but on the other hand it could be excellent news and easy to deal with (a hefty dose of helicobacter pylori would be lovely really!). In the meantime, weekly b12 shots intramuscularly until all my symptoms go, since it's obvious for whatever reason I'm not able to absorb it from food. Over here they're a bit more understanding of the b12 issue and give higher doses of it than I've heard they do in England (here with pernicious anemia you get monthly shots at least, in England you're very restricted to 3 monthly regardless - my stepdad has it).

In any case, as I'm sure you understand, until my levels go up a bit the shots make me briefly good then I sink back to slugdom! A few more weeks before there's improvement there, then maybe a few months before some of my other symptoms go too.

I apologise for the great and mostly uninteresting post. But would just like to suggest to anyone feeling like a slug, get a b12 blood test just in case. A standard blood test doesn't always include b12.

I promise some recipes for baked goods will be forthcoming soon, I feel like I'm letting the side down. Heaven forbid any of you should start to lose weight :rotfl: I'm starting to doze off a bit though, so if I don't reply to anyone soon, I'm sorry.