The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

zagubov

Spirit wrote: »

There was a restriction on the deeds of our last house so we were unable to keep a Hovercraft.

Was never a real problem for us.

I believe way back in the early space age those restrictions were very common obviously due to pressure from the autogyro and jetpack industries to protect their future customer base.;)

Welcome back, Spirit!:beer:

Pyxis

SingleSue wrote: »

I am so going to use that saying, it's brilliant!

LydiaJ wrote: »

"Going flopbot" was one of the afflictions of one Tricki Woo, a canine patient of James Herriot's, as described by his overindulgent owner, a Mrs Pumphrey. :j

Well done! Yes, it was.
Very succinct, I thought, so I've been using it ever since! For things both animate and inanimate!

Pyxis

Cakeguts wrote: »

If I lived near you I would have done it for free apart from one teensy weensy problemette. I am banned by everyone I know from going up ladders of any sort. The last time I did that I ended up in a knee splint for around 5 months and it still isn't back to normal 3 years later. Hence the ban they don't want me to do the other one in.


Latest thing is I am trying to buy 2nd hand music stands on ebay my usual supplier because they are cheaper and if they break I can just bin them and buy another. Recycling and all that. Anyway it is important to always erect a music stand correctly because if you don't you put strain on the rivets in the middle of the top of the stand and if these break because of the design the ledge that you put the music on drops down and basically you have a broken stand. So one of the ways to ensure that the rivets in the middle of the stand have a much reduced life span is to put the stand up so that instead of the top being oblong it is a sort of forced triangle shape with bits left over next the music ledge which by this time are bent that should actually be at the corners of the top of the oblong shape that it should be.



There I am looking on ebay and there were at least 6 music stands being advertised for sale with the pictures showing this strange triangle shape of the top. There were also pictures of lots of other examples of music stands that had been erected correctly. I am then contacting all the sellers of the now bent and potentially broken music stands to tell them that they have broken them putting the up hopefully so that someone doesn't buy one of these with the now suspect rivets.


So the moral of this is be very sure about what you are buying on ebay before you bid. If I didn't know how to put up a music stand I might well have bought one of these now broken stands. It also shows up pretty well that some sellers do not know how something they are selling works and can in fact break it in the process of photographing it to put on ebay.

I gave up on those flimsy music stands, and bought a more expensive but durable orchestral stand, you know...one with a solid bit for the music to go on. Not quite so portable, though, I'll grant you that, but no risk of it going flopbot.

SingleSue

Dad was not quite so well yesterday, he managed to scare the physio and several nurses and has developed a chest infection.

That said, he was quite determined he was leaving yesterday, he had his bag packed by 8.30am and (in his mind) was good to go until he scared the physio. He is refusing pain killing medication in the mistaken belief that it proves he is alright to leave and is completely ignoring everyone's instructions to not move around without someone with him (hence scaring the nurses and his fellow patients!)


He is still confident that he is coming home today, he wants his glass of Merlot and to be out of hospital and our fear is that he will just answer no problems and hide issues when talking to a doctor and they will release him (he is quite convincing) when in fact, he is no way ready or well enough just yet. If he does convince a doctor, it is going to be a nightmare of a weekend as mum would just not cope and he is far too naughty to listen to any going home advice.

PasturesNew

SingleSue wrote: »

....determined....refusing....completely ignoring ....will just answer no problems and hide issues when ... (he is quite convincing)... mum would just not cope....

I'm afraid this is "par for the course" with a lot of people; many will "refuse" things that are good for them as they "know best" .... unfortunately you can't change their mind over it.

It's not good though is it - as you know that he's "putting on" all the others and making massive calls on their abilities/time/effort just because he dug his heels in.

"quite convincing" is another issue; as a family member you KNOW when they're pulling the wool over the eyes of professionals and it can be another (unwanted, tiring) battle to convince the professionals that "you know best/he's lying" ... when they have to then dither between what the adult/patient told them and what the whittering family are saying. Not an easy call for them.... especially with pressure of beds looming behind them every hour of the day.

You get to the point where you almost WISH for them to "collapse" forcing them to stay where they're "best off".

*sighs*

Parents - who'd have them, eh!

PasturesNew

Spirit wrote: »

There was a restriction on the deeds of our last house so we were unable to keep a Hovercraft.

Was never a real problem for us.

Nice to see you!!

I think you should get a hovercraft now .... seize the day and all that. A bit of belligerent law breaking can be quite freeing when you're old and start to wear purple.

hjd

SingleSue wrote: »

Dad was not quite so well yesterday, he managed to scare the physio and several nurses and has developed a chest infection.

That said, he was quite determined he was leaving yesterday, he had his bag packed by 8.30am and (in his mind) was good to go until he scared the physio. He is refusing pain killing medication in the mistaken belief that it proves he is alright to leave and is completely ignoring everyone's instructions to not move around without someone with him (hence scaring the nurses and his fellow patients!)


He is still confident that he is coming home today, he wants his glass of Merlot and to be out of hospital and our fear is that he will just answer no problems and hide issues when talking to a doctor and they will release him (he is quite convincing) when in fact, he is no way ready or well enough just yet. If he does convince a doctor, it is going to be a nightmare of a weekend as mum would just not cope and he is far too naughty to listen to any going home advice.

In your position I think I would make sure that you/your mum spoke to the doctor and the ward staff privately to tell them this. They will need to assess his home circumstances before agreeing to let him home and they need to know the truth, that your mum won't be able to cope. Get in before the doctor sees him.

(You could probably bring him in a glass of Merlot anyway)

SingleSue

Mum has already spoken to the hospital this morning as she was really worried about him after our visit yesterday and despite expressing that concern and agreeing with me last night, is now "Well he will be better off at home"

They can get so bloody frustrating at times! Mum will go along with whatever dad wants (it's not a control thing, more a mum hates him being away and her being in the house alone thing). I'm at work all weekend so I can't do much to help if he does come home...this is another reason mum is going along with the charade, I can't do the hospital driving after today, she won't do the drive and my siblings have been pretty absent so if he stays, it's going to be a nightmare getting her there and back with the added problem of if they release over the weekend, getting him home.

Re home circumstances, he's already told the physio that a toilet is available within a few steps of the front room with no stairs or steps....the toilet is off the conservatory which is more than a few steps and with a big step down and an equally big step up, plus he will only use that for a wee, for anything else it is a whole flight of stairs to the loo!

Arrgggghhhhhh!

PasturesNew

One thing about Hospital discharges that I learnt was when I was going away and a sibling was arriving to take over.... the Doctors are the only ones who can discharge somebody - and they like to take the weekend off, so if it's not done on a Friday then it can quite often be Monday before any further discharges occur.

This will, of course, be down to local Hospital operational habits. But, in the main, the staff required to authorise and complete a discharge were not available at weekends.

Crazy, I know .... but you might find that this happens to you too.

They don't tell you that of course, at the time.... when it's Friday and you're panicking about an imminent discharge and coping ... but, after the event, you can sometimes pick this fact up in an unguarded conversational moment when you're discussing something else with Hospital folks.

SingleSue

They def discharge at the weekend on the unit he is on, it's a specialised unit and they appear to have their own rules which are quite different to all the other wards in the hospital. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing (it's not so great when it comes to visiting compared to other wards)