EH - Essex > Hebrides...the next step of the adventure?

redofromstart

EssexHebridean said:

Sun_Addict said:

Have you had the email from BBC Good Food? £24.99 a year or £4.49 a month. I won’t be subscribing. 

Wow - ouch! No, I should think most people won’t at that cost! 😂😂

How much!?! That is definitely me out.  

EssexHebridean

I honestly can’t see too many folk will be wanting to subscribe to it for that amount, I assume they’re hoping to suck people in via the free trial and will assume that enough will then forget to cancel to make it worthwhile.

savingholmes

Sorry you are still unwell.

You've reminded me I need to do meter readings for the same reason

Herbyme

EssexHebridean said:

Rosa aren't those lovely! The little footprints are a lovely touch - brilliant!  The tide wheels are excellent - for anyone else interested they are called "Quicktide" and are extremely easy and practical to carry and use. 

Anyone else just had the email from BBC Good Food telling them the excellent app is going over to a subscription model? I'll hold off until I see what the costs are but I think it's unlikely I'll be paying for it. It's a shame, it's my go-to for recipes, as I know it is for a lot of others on here too. I must start to think about printing off the ones I use routinely as well...bread sauce springs to mind! 

Thanks for the heads up about BBC Good Food starting to charge. I used to use it a lot but have got so irritated by all the ads and click bait it carries. I’ve started using BBC Food instead and actually prefer it. My meal planner list has links to several of their recipes for easy shopping list writing

btw how can you tell when cheap rate electricity ends in the morning? We don’t have an indoor gizmo 😏

boxofpaws

I understand you not wanting to go down the hysterectomy route, I was the same for a long time. Mine was only in June so recovery was quite recent but it’s such a relief. Not a moment of regret. I didn’t realise how much my uterus controlled my life. My iron and energy levels still needs building back up but the pain and mess and fear of being out in public are all gone. It’s so freeing! 

EssexHebridean

carolinerunner said:

EssexHebridean said:

Rosa aren't those lovely! The little footprints are a lovely touch - brilliant!  The tide wheels are excellent - for anyone else interested they are called "Quicktide" and are extremely easy and practical to carry and use. 

Anyone else just had the email from BBC Good Food telling them the excellent app is going over to a subscription model? I'll hold off until I see what the costs are but I think it's unlikely I'll be paying for it. It's a shame, it's my go-to for recipes, as I know it is for a lot of others on here too. I must start to think about printing off the ones I use routinely as well...bread sauce springs to mind! 

Thanks for the heads up about BBC Good Food starting to charge. I used to use it a lot but have got so irritated by all the ads and click bait it carries. I’ve started using BBC Food instead and actually prefer it. My meal planner list has links to several of their recipes for easy shopping list writing

btw how can you tell when cheap rate electricity ends in the morning? We don’t have an indoor gizmo 😏

I need to properly look at the BBC Food site....and also bookmark some favourite recipes as it appears anything we have saved in Good Food will be accessible still online. 

The electricity - there's two things with ours - the audible cue is a physical "click" from the switch-box that changes the rate that the meter picks up on. Currently, in our case,. happening at precisely 0713 each morning - and the corresponding point at the opposite end but I rarely hear that at this time of year! The visual cue is that the LEDs in the switched spurs for the storage heaters either start glowing or stop glowing - depending on start/end of day. The one for the immersion heater would, too, but I rarely see that one. Ours is set up so that the NSH's are on a circuit which ONLY gets power at cheap rate, and the immersion is on a twin feed so there is an option there for a "boost" on day rate if needed. Everything else is on the regular circuits but those get charged at the cheap rate overnight as well.

boxofpaws said:

I understand you not wanting to go down the hysterectomy route, I was the same for a long time. Mine was only in June so recovery was quite recent but it’s such a relief. Not a moment of regret. I didn’t realise how much my uterus controlled my life. My iron and energy levels still needs building back up but the pain and mess and fear of being out in public are all gone. It’s so freeing! 

Oh lord the being out in public thing - hell yes. And only wearing dark coloured clothing for at least half of every month "just in case"... I'm there. I was lucky in one way by ending up in hospital because it was deemed as an emergency so I just got hooked up to blood. And then some more...By the time two units had gone in I was back to feeling as I had prior to the week before being taken in, and by the time we got to the end of unit 5 I honestly felt I could take on the world - I was SO full of beans I was annoying even myself! It was quite bizarre thinking back though - it was literally as though - three days in hospital and someone had just changed my batteries! I've been on iron tablets since, and am still on a maintenance dose of twice daily for those, plus I have TXA & Mefenemic acid for "when needed" which basically makes everything just stop - or at least slow down to a manageable point. So that manages the excessive iron loss and the Ferrous Sulphate means the reserves stay where they should. I still have a week each month where I feel utterly down on energy but that's fine, I can cope with that! The hope is that because I'm already some way into perimenopause I can continue to manage things as I am until it naturally concludes anyway - fingers crossed! 

EssexHebridean

Right - I have decided that I would come into the office today but when my boss turns up I'll say I'm absolutely fine with it if he wants to dispatch me off home again. With having Thursday booked off though I really felt as though I needed to make the effort! In fairness I wouldn't blame him if he did send me away - I am still coughing a fair amount - the snottiness has subsided a lot though and so far today I've only sneezed once!  decided that today was NOT a cycling day - I walked from the car this morning and will either walk or bus back later depending on how lively I feel at that stage - and what the wind/rain is doing as we're forecast to get some of each later I believe. 

Update:
Prolific: £11.95 paid/50p pending
OnePoll: 1230
Both slowing down but still creeping forwards... 

Small win this morning was getting in the shower and washing my hair before the night rate clicked off. 

Tea is planned for tonight - it will be a slightly unseasonable tuna salad as we got copious quantities of mixed leaves and spring onions in the veg box, plus still had half a cucumber which is still OK now but won't last much longer. That'll see off the last two avocados as well. I must remember later to get the pulled pork and sauce out of the freezer for tomorrow too - that is being done with stir fried veg and rice - and will help us deal with some of the veg box spring greens, and probably the second bunch of spring onions too. 

I was really pleased with the little odd jobs I got done yesterday and will be aiming to continue that later in the week. I need to identify other areas that can be made an impact on in a very short space of time now. I've won MrEH over to the idea of tackling things like this by getting him to just find 20 items on his (home) work desk that could be thrown away - I literally said I didn't care what they were - it could be 20 used post it notes with his scrawl over them, but it needs sorting - aside from anything else if anything on there at the moment IS needed he'll never find it! I definitely want the spare room to look a bit more respectable before we both pack up work for christmas - not though we'll be there to look at it but how disheartening to return to?! 

The only job for tonight will be to put the remainder of a load in the washing machine and run that through overnight - I think MrEH did the dishwasher last night so he'll hopefully empty that today. 

Scottiedog_3

 I still have a week each month where I feel utterly down on energy but that's fine, I can cope with that! The hope is that because I'm already some way into perimenopause I can continue to manage things as I am until it naturally concludes anyway - fingers crossed! 

I had similar problems in my early fifties. An operation to remove the fibroids - supposedly guaranteed to work 100%- had no effect.  My then GP gave me a strong steer to see a consultant gynaecologist privately. He prescribed a series of six pills to be taken monthly, which worked after about two months.  Menopause brought on. No more blood. (I had been bleeding heavily on average 23 days each month). The GP practice made a point of telling me how expensive the prescription was- £200 a pill at that point.  I didn’t care. It worked and I was a useful citizen again.

EssexHebridean

Scottie I'm so glad you got sorted - but gah to the GP surgery telling you how expensive things were - last time I looked the NHS wasn't PAYG! 

I sort of fall into the point where I'm too close to menopause point to be considered for anything like that, and really, also at my age the only surgical method they'll "bother" looking at for me is the full whip-the-lot-out which is a major procedure I'm really unwilling to go through other than as an absolutely last resort. I've been there on the 23-days thing too - it's dire so I can sympathise.

Something that I personally have found has made a difference is Green Tea Extract - there is a small but pretty solid trial been done on it, and a fair amount of anecdotal "it works" evidence also out there. My experience is that it has certainly made a pretty sizeable difference in where I'm at on a monthly basis - shorter, lighter and generally only 2 days now where leaving the house is immensely stressful. I've even had a couple of months in the 6 months of so I've been taking it that I would have described as "normal" - as in "old pre fibroids normal" too - I'm hoping the benefits may continue. 

Cheery_Daff

So glad some of you are managing to sort out your gynaecological issues. Pah to the surgery telling costs of medicines though - that is completely out of order and makes me SO cross! It's basically a form of rationing, knowing full well some people will automatically feel 'guilty about costing money (which they absolutely should NOT). Gah!

I've managed to successfully sort out my own issues in the last couple of months as well, nowhere near as serious as many of yours. I've always suffered with period pain, but hate taking hormonal contraception. Had a copper coil for years, but the pain has been ridiculous the last 18 months or so, every time I end up in the bath in the middle of the night when the pain kicks in before I'm awake to take painkillers. Not too bad with working at home, but rather disruptive now I'm back at work. Thought I might have to give in and switch to a hormonal coil, but the lovely GP has just prescribed better painkillers, 12 hour ones that I can take before bed so the pain doesn't wake me up when it first starts. An absolute miracle - why on earth didn't I ask before?? 

Anyway, if anyone else is suffering, they're Naproxine, and you can get them over the counter for period pain (but not for gout, which is the other thing they're prescribed for). Who knew?!