Nice People Thread Number 11 - A Treasury of Nice People

PasturesNew

Couple of interesting things at Lidl this coming Thursday. I need a vacuum and they're selling one, so might as well get that as pontificate longer. There's also an interesting looking storage cupboard..... £35. Might be good as an interim clothes storage cupboard, or even office stuff, or hobby stuff .... perchance to consider it ending up in the shed at some future point. Might check that out.

http://www.lidl.co.uk/catalogmedia/uk/article/94713/94713_01_f.jpg
H111cm x W69cm x D36cm

Height adjustable shelves ... looks like a useful/affordable piece of kit.

PasturesNew

Spirit wrote: »

...sucked my energy and motivation away .... agrophobic/ created social anxieties..well disguised as I made it to work, however had all sorts of ways of avoiding many other situations/excursions.

I am like that ... but it'd be difficult to separate that from my other speshulness. I've read that aspies are often mis-diagnosed as depressed as the two conditions share these common traits. Indeed, in the past I've been diagnosed as depressed, but didn't feel depressed at the time .... and now I think it was just an aspie misdiagnosis (as this was the early 80s and it wasn't known about).

That diagnosis has hounded me throughout life as the diganosis itself has made me feel less able/motivated/engaged with things as there was a real stigma to being depressed back then (perception = loony). It makes me sad to this day and unable to ever let anybody know I had that diagnosis 30 years ago as it really "brings me down" when I even think about it.

Indeed - back then, if you were diagnosed with depression twice in 2 years (I think) it was said you automatically were booked into a loony bin .... so I never did go back to the Doctor because of that....

Doozergirl

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I didn't know you could freeze them. My Mama makes endless marmalade in January, and the whole house smells gloriously of oranges and lemons for weeks, but that's her lot, she uses them all fresh. I just asked her, she makes 250lb to 300lb a year.

What?! Who's eating it! Does she sell it?

lostinrates

I am going to see if my test results are back today.

If i do have surgery chances are, despite there being absolutely no suggestion whatsoever of malignancy, I get a dose of radiotherapy. The stuff the consultant has sent us to read suggests this is not standard but is reasonably likely. Its been interesting to read everyone responding to Gen about it.

Gen, I chatted to you about chronic pain, so you might be able to prep me for radio! Share and share alike, huh! The thing we're testing for hasn't previously showed up on mri's or anything, so its either new or just....hasn't shown up on even the recent MRI a couple of years ago. Apparently that happens too.

The interesting thing is......this also leaves me feeling tilted, washed out and often like I don't give a damn! One of the things that's been notable in more recent months is how much I am struggling. I am really tearful, a lot. I don't feel 'depressed' in that I feel sad necessarily, just 'tearful'. Tbh, with bipolar in the family I had felt maybe I was leaning that way. I am quite confusing to me package of pragmatic but prone taut and eccentric, but never felt 'not in control' even in quite difficult emotional circumstances. Have felt 'emotional' and been a crier, but not quite like this.

Funnily enough, when i explained this fear to the consultant that I felt finally I had given way to pressures and would need mental health support now he said...well, you might, because its a lot, but I don't think do yet, let's see because this what you are explaining this, tearfulness this sort of emotional fluttering, that's a symptom of what's going wrong. My response was to cry. That was when i started to realise what he was going to test for! I wasn't sad, but surprised, and I cried! I also nervous laugh a lot now. Its very odd.


In more interesting conversation DH wants to try growing mecanopsis. I've never succeeded, and it seems doomed but why not try, eh? So area we cleared this weekend is next year possibly going to be a mecanopsis bed. Its going to need about a tonne, maybe two, of horticultural grit I think. Damp it is, well drained however, it is not.

I think, in case we succeed I should only sow blue and maybe pink annuals there this year , it would be a shame to succeed and have a frightful clash!

lostinrates

Doozergirl wrote: »

What?! Who's eating it! Does she sell it?

I love marmalade, but this is what I mean about jam !!!!!,

Mostly I think of thick, coarse cut dark butter marmalade. With some whiskey or plain. My sibling makes great marmalade. But I also love light, bright sweet fine lime marmalade. And grapefruit marmalade. Then bright lighter less coarse orange marmalade for less bitter mornings.

I haven't made marmalade since we moved. I might this year. I have made small batches of jam, but.....( shame) I think I had a sterilisation fail in two batches.

( sigh, its not even like I eat much any more, DH is rarely here and ro eats it but shouldn't..... Two shelves of our fridge is jars of stuff, savoury and sweet,.....I don't think that's how other people's fridges are)

silvercar

PasturesNew wrote: »

Couple of interesting things at Lidl this coming Thursday. I need a vacuum and they're selling one, so might as well get that as pontificate longer. There's also an interesting looking storage cupboard..... £35. Might be good as an interim clothes storage cupboard, or even office stuff, or hobby stuff .... perchance to consider it ending up in the shed at some future point. Might check that out.

http://www.lidl.co.uk/catalogmedia/uk/article/94713/94713_01_f.jpg
H111cm x W69cm x D36cm

Height adjustable shelves ... looks like a useful/affordable piece of kit.

Looks small. Reminds me of when a friend bought what she thought was a bargain dining table off ebay. She was the only bidder and won it at £4.99. The clue was when the seller said they had posted it; it turned out to be for a doll's house.

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

...DH wants to try growing mecanopsis. .... possibly going to be a mecanopsis bed.

*googles*

Oh pretties

I love blue.

PasturesNew

silvercar wrote: »

Looks small.

You're right.... until about 10 minutes after I'd posted it I thought it was a full sized item. I can't visualise cm at all. So then I was off to Google to find out that 111cm is about 3' 7" high.

silvercar wrote: »

Reminds me of when a friend bought what she thought was a bargain dining table off ebay. She was the only bidder and won it at £4.99. The clue was when the seller said they had posted it; it turned out to be for a doll's house.

LOL/doll's house

neverdespairgirl

Generali wrote: »

It tastes great! Just err on the not too much side of things unless you want it to smell of old ladies.

I don't htink lavender is old lady smell - I have lavender bags in our clean towels-and-sheets stash, and I love the faint smell all the time of it on clean linen.

Doozergirl wrote: »

What?! Who's eating it! Does she sell it?

Yes! Her close relatives don't manage to get through 1lb of it a day over the whole year (-:

She also does Christmas presents for neighbours, with a mix of marmalade, jelly, jam, chutney and sloe gin.

She has a round in Kent of people who buy it, and some goes to school & church sales.

lostinrates wrote: »

I love marmalade, but this is what I mean about jam !!!!!,

Mostly I think of thick, coarse cut dark butter marmalade. With some whiskey or plain. My sibling makes great marmalade. But I also love light, bright sweet fine lime marmalade. And grapefruit marmalade. Then bright lighter less coarse orange marmalade for less bitter mornings.

I haven't made marmalade since we moved. I might this year. I have made small batches of jam, but.....( shame) I think I had a sterilisation fail in two batches.

My mother's marmalade is quite thick and fruity, it's lovely. Her jams tend to be lighter and supply alternatives.

Generali

vivatifosi wrote: »

Have fun Gen!

Can you reward yourself through nice cookery or something for the giving up drink? It would be nice if there is a present to yourself involved in exchange.

Interestingly enough this is also covered in the Behavioural Economics course - it is easier to give something up if you give yourself periodic rewards for doing so - something you enjoy. Eg some chocolates or a film night once a week... Don't know if you caught that bit. It's common sense though I guess.

Leon rather got in the way of the course. I plan to redo it.

I was thinking I might use the money to buy stuff for the bike, something like that.

The show was great fun. We watched the stunt horse riding, there was syncronised Ute driving and motorbike tricks.

The Generalissimos got to walk alpacas (and refused to do so!) and petted loads of dogs and horses and a snake. We went on the toy train and on the horse carousel and in the inflatable 3D cinema and had a dance in the silent disco. We went round the Woolies (Tesco) Fresh Food Tent and did all the taste tests we could find. We ate fairy floss (candy floss) and hot chips (chips) and Vegemite sandwiches.

We looked at the prize winning cakes and pickles and jams and amazed at the back yard pumpkin loser which was about the weight of both Generalissimos put together.

The Royal Easter Show is an amazing thing: it's a cross between a rural English country show and a large American rural carnival but it's set in suburban Sydney and not an outer one that's been built around either: it's where the Olympics were held. Oh and the prices are inspired by a monopolist crack dealer.

Jeez the prices! $4.50 for a bottle of water . The rides are 5-10 tickets each. 20 tickets cost $22 (let's say a tenner). That made the little $11 train ride the kids had rather more expensive per minute than flying Virgin Upper Class to the UK. I reckon on a per mile basis it was considerably more expensive than getting Branson himself to fly the plane!

Then there are the Show Bags. These seem to be uniquely Australian: you buy a plastic bag full of sweets or very low quality toys or perhaps both at far more than you'd be able to buy the individual items for. The crazy thing is that this tat is covered in brands which have been crafted very expensively and carefully: Coke, Cadbury's, assorted Disney and Pixar franchises, Skylanders (a video game) and so on. There is no way that I would ever allow my brand to be associated with this crud. Disney = cheap toys you construct yourself which fall apart within moments. No way!

It was a great day out although I reckon to really do it justice I should have budgeted $500 rather than $200 for it. I'd like to do it as the full-on crazy consumer festival that it is one year while the kids are still young enough to fail to appreciate that we're weeing 3 weeks' supermarket budget up the wall! Next year.