2023 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

MrsCD

@thriftwizard Your blue yarn is gorgeous! It's turning into a beautiful shawl. 
@Laura_Elsewhere I sympathize with making a huge batch of baking. That's what happens with me, too, then I end up munching my way through the excess!
I've been wading my way through all of Dad's cupboards with our DDs. It's amazing how much stuff you can accumulate in 80+ years! The charity shops are doing well so far. I feel like I've hardly set foot in my own house but in between clearing stuff, phoning people, cancelling subscriptions, numerous emails, arranging the funeral and afterwards, trying to keep on top of my own home, etc, etc, etc........my head is spinning. I had an evening off tonight and did a little shopping with my older DD. Tomorrow is another day. Thank goodness for my lists!😉

Cherryfudge

It's a tough time, @MrsCD. I hope you find some good memories.

PipneyJane

@Laura_Elsewhere mmmm…. Anzac biscuits.  Very yummy and the only biscuits I remember being taught in Home Economics.  Hope your friend heals up well.

@MrsCD - big hugs.  Hope you find some treasures to keep, too.  Don’t second guess yourself:  if the teapot brings back great family memories, keep it.  You will later regret giving it away.

So…. What’s been happening in my world?  I had a dizzy spell 10 days ago (Wednesday evening), followed by two during the next day, when I was in the office.  Couldn’t figure out why.   Felt quite bloated but no real pain, just very tired.  Saturday, my poo turned black and I had an answer:  I have a stomach ulcer. I went to the GP on Tuesday, ended up spending 11+ hours in A&E and had my self-diagnosis confirmed.  Got sent home with drugs and I’m waiting for an outpatient appointment for an endoscopy.  

Cause? Unknown, although @Liverpool_Anne  I’m certain my football team hasn’t helped.   Seriously, I’m already feeling a lot better.  I can only think that the having to cover two jobs at work for the last 3 months hasn’t helped, but the biggest stressor for the second job left in March and I will be handing it over shortly to someone-else.

- Pip

thriftwizard

Oooh, @PipneyJane, take good care of yourself & heal swiftly! @MrsCD, you also need to take care - it's such a strange time, when someone close has died, & it's very easy to overdo things keeping busy whilst trying to keep your head together, IYKWIM... 

Laura_Elsewhere

Oh @PipneyJane, thank heavens for your nursiness telling you to go to the GP! Hope the meds help, hope some other treatment helps, and above all, I hope your employer realises how lucky they are and puts some effort into giving you a decent working environment... 

@MrsCD, I can't imagine... I am glad you managed to scrape a bit of 'time off'. Do go gently on yourself... it comes to us all, and I dread the day my niece and I have to clear out a three-storey, six-bedroom house full to the gunwales...
Mr E and I are off up in a fortnight to start some decontamination work, getting rid of the worst-contaminated mouse and moth-larvae stuff, and work out what of ours to keep, to bring here, to get rid of by selling or donating... 

It's been a medical-y week here as Mr E's legs turned different sizes last Sunday - nothing else, no redness, no pain, no heat, no stiffness, no dizziness, no nausea, no [insert other symptom here] - as I said to a swimming companion, if he only had the one leg we'd never have noticed, as it's only by comparison! 
We've been measuring in three set places since Sunday and both legs have slowly got larger - one thigh is about 4cm bigger around than the other, but both gradually enlarging, so we had to brave the nightmare that is the local GP appt service... in less than 48 hours we managed to get an appt with a practice nurse, who promptly referred him to hospital for scanning - hurrah it isn't a DVT, phew! It also isn't all kinds of other things...  
We've to go back to the oncology nurse (well, actually the hosp said back to the GP but that will take weeks) and she can advise. From the Prostatecancer.uk website, which is excellent, we've found out what nobody has yet mentioned - that men who have pelvic radiotherapy can develop lymphoedema, most commonly in the legs, months or years after the treatment ends...! 
So we think that's probably it but ohhh what a mess our GP-appts system is... no wonder our A&E is creaking so badly. Every single time we've phoned over the last few years it's been minimum of 45 minutes just to get to a switchboard operator and then you have to wait to speak to someone else about an appt or a ringback, etc. Basically you need around one and a half hours on the phone. The receptionists at the GPs are very nice, but they are not allowed to make GP appts, not even urgent ones... but we've found out now that if you turn up before 8am, they have just a couple of that-day appts they keep back... so we shall do that in future... 
God knows how anyone copes who either can't go along before 8am and then go back later at the appointed time, or can't spend an hour and a half on the phone - well, I do know how they cope, they present at A&E with non-urgent signs and symptoms, and A&E end up in the worst-three-in-the-UK because they are drowning in non-urgent patients and can't see the urgent ones... 
Roll on the day after the war when that ncie Mr Attlee will bring in a National Health Service! 

<gets off soapbox> sorry... it just gets to me! 

On a brighter note, hope everyone is enjoying a nice restful weekend if you can... 

I've left the Anzac biscuits in the tin on top of the cupboard where That Wretched Dog can't get it! 

Cherryfudge

Oh crumbs @PipneyJane and @Laura_Elsewhere, what a time you've had! I'm so glad progress has been made, and hope all's well soon.

Laura, it's awful that your GP services are so overstretched. I have to say I've had first class service through mine: they now have mental health nurses who've been helping me through some issues and I could hardly believe how easy it was to get appointments, then follow-ups. I've been able to see people in person where necessary though a lot is by phone nowadays. I do think we are in a privileged area, though, where they have the sense and ability to plan ahead.

I'm an Atlee fan too.  

And I've bought some things, but off-coupons as our local car boot sale was in full swing and obliged me by filling a couple of gaps in my wardrobe. There's a pack-away mac, two pairs of cropped trousers and a gilet now hanging on the line. I discovered a sun cream mark on the mac so I'm hoping to remove it without the fabric turning bright pink as my linen top did last year. There's also a mend required for a pocket lining but I think that will be straightforward.

Laura_Elsewhere

@Cherryfudge - oh, I think the GPs are excellent... it's just that it takes so long to actually speak to somebody who can arrange the appointment... it's typically same-day or within 48 hours, don't think we've ever had to wait more than two days for one. 
It's just the incredibly inefficient means to speak to someone to get the appointment...! A few years ago they moved every single GP service in the town to one phoneline. No, literally, one. Seriously, going by how slowly it counts down from "you are..... TWENTY-NINTH.... in the queue..." we are pretty sure there is actually one person dealing with every single phonecall from a town of 180,000...


I love Attlee - or Atlee, I never remember  

My Dad kind of met him in the late 1950s at university - he came down to speak at some student political debate, and the PA system was acting up so Dad spent the entire talk lying full length under the table on the stage, hidden by a long tablecloth, holding the cables together at full arm's length...! 

Cherryfudge

I've just looked it up: double 't'.  

What a strange thing to do to the phone lines. I've had the occasional long wait but recently it's been brief. A lot of things can be done online too, which helps people like me who remember they need something at odd hours.

I do like the story about your Dad - all that's missing is him re-enacting it for the old show 'What's my line?' I wonder if Mr Attlee was aware?

Laura_Elsewhere

@Cherryfudge, you won't be surprised to know that the only things we can do online are booking flu vaccinations and blood-pressure checks, and literally nothing else, argh!!! 

I have used coupons again! I was at that nice drapers, Messrs J. Sainsbury & Sons, and they had charming blue t-shirts, nice plain ones with a properly round neck instead of a plunging scoop-neckline, so I treated myself... 

Do we have a coupon-cost for t-shirts?

I found "Blouse, shirt, sports top, cardigan or jumper - 5 coupons" and there's another ones for a t-shirt purchased at the same time as a skirt for 8 coupons the suit, but nothing for a t-shirt. 
If it's 5 coupons, then it's 5 coupons, but it seems odd that a t-shirt and jumper and blouse would all be the same, given the t-shirt's less fabric and far less time to make. Let me know and I'll cheerfully alter my signature-list - happy to pay 5, but didn't know what it will be...?

Cherryfudge

Surely someone has bought a tee shirt? But I don't remember ever seeing one costed. Comparing with men's things the most similar seem to be between 4 and 5 coupons, or for complexity and amount of fabric, perhaps a woman's slip?

I struggle to imagine a world without tee shirts, so I googled. According to this site, they were inexistence well before the war and were originally an undergarment for men - so perhaps that's your reference point?