Early Risers.

[Coombe Barton]

Finally, finally got the caravan back to storage - someone had nicked out slot and it's taken two weeks to sort out.

 

Now to remove the weeds from the drive that have taken advantage of the large immovable object above them.

 

But before that a little bit of stock making from the remains of the chicken that was last night's supper - and for that I have a furry audience.

Edited September 27, 2015 by Coombe Barton

[edcayton]

Could Chrisf's steak help Ashcombe's black eye?

 

Dave-will that chippy be open today, it being Sunday? Certainly around here the "proper" chippies are shut, so we have to make do with McD's, BK and KFC. Health food, bah.

 

Ed

[Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71]

Could Chrisf's steak help Ashcombe's black eye?

 

Dave-will that chippy be open today, it being Sunday? Certainly around here the "proper" chippies are shut, so we have to make do with McD's, BK and KFC. Health food, bah.

 

Ed

 

....certainly Tuesday. Thursday, Friday and Saturday Ed but other days tend to mean heading into Ashbourne for the next best fish & chips.

 

Dave

[southern42]

Sherry is probably relieved that she no longer teaches. Staff going in to school with cuts and bruises often had to put up with amusing comments from students. One Monday my IT group noticed my badly grazed knuckles. I made the mistake of telling them the truth that I had walked into a door. This immediately raised their suspicions!

 

Years ago, I went out at lunchtime with two colleagues.  I fell and we ended up in A&E.  Fortunately, I had only sprained my wrist, but I whisked off the arm sling before I got to the school gate!  Back then, it wasn't mickey taking I was afraid of but the excessive amount of sympathy I would have received from the class for such a minor injury!

[iL Dottore]

Afternoon all,

 

I've been a bit remiss with my ER duties as of late, but a number of things have been complicating my life (gives loud, histrionic sigh...) First off is I get terribly fatigued very easily, (or, as I quipped to an acquaintance. I can barely make it through a bottle of single malt without nodding off... ), but that I hope will pass; Secondly thanks to the dog walker who walked the wolfpack when I was hors de combat, Lucy's behaviour has improved considerably (our dog walker is by no means a rocket scientist but she is utterly amazing with dogs) - Lucy is more self-confident, I am more self-confident about walking her, which means she is more self-confident &tc., &tc. I have got some very useful feedback and help about how to keep Lucy feeling "safe and protected" (the absence of which was the cause of much of her fear and anxiety which led to her snapping at strangers). So more dog duties despite the dodgy knee... Mrs iD has also "tasks" for me - the coming week I have to organise and catalogue the household supplies. Finally, I still have to do my regular round of job hunting. It's all a bit of a farce, really. At my age the likelihood of finding work in my field (or a similar field) is slim to none. It's not that there aren't jobs out there, it's that HR don't want to hire experienced, older people as they are perceived as "expensive", whilst managers don't want to hire experienced, older people as the managers either are afraid that [a] we can do the job better than they can (experience, see...) and/or we want to take the manager's job (in my case: [a] yes and no).

 

Anyhoo... there are more positives, after not touching my axe for about a decade, I dug some of my guitars out of storage and had a plink-plunk. Well to make long story short, my dog walker is a keen guitarist and has the same ecletic taste in music as me. So a concert beckons in the not too distant future. Ideally, it will feature one song for each of my guitars (back when I was both a DINKY and really into guitars I sorta indulged in myself...). The first guitar I reached for was the Epiphone Sheraton (with Seymour Duncan Jazz pickups) so a refresher on Muddy Waters' Mannish Boy and John Lee Hooker's One Bourbon, One Scotch One Beer is on the cards. And call me mad, if you will, but the juxtaposition of unearthing my SG and my rediscovery of AC/DC has put Whole Lotta Rosie and Thunderstruck on the "must learn" list (maybe Trisonic has a thought or two).

 

I must say I do envy Debs' newly slimmed down persona (I should be so lucky to loose 37Kg), but I really don't envy her misfortunes over the past months that led to the weight loss. Still, good to have Debs back amongst us.

 

I sympathise with Gordon S about the frustration in dealing with trolls and other c+ckwombles. I once had a run in with someone (doesn't matter on what forum) who rubbished my statement about "X" (and which was based on published scientific data) by saying that they had been doing "X" for 30 years and I didn't know what I was talking about (and threw in some ad-hominem attacks for good measure). I felt like saying "my butcher has been disjointing carcasses for 30 years, but it still doesn't make him a surgeon..." I think, Gordon, you can comfortably feel superior and smug as you are actually building hand made track, unlike some the trolls (many of whom, in the thread, come across as "I'm an expert as I read it in a book somewhare...")

 

AndyID - your Burns adventure, are you required to deliver it in the correct accent and dialect?

 

Stewart, it's interesting that you have an alcohol restriction due to the Tramadol. In the hospital I was on quite a few analgesics including oral morphine and yet I was allowed alcohol (a glass of wine with meals), After being discharged I was on a number of analgesics, including Tramadol, and received no instructions to be "alcohol free" and have safely drunk beer whilst on my post-op, post analgesia analgesia (but then again I do know not to ingest so much alcohol that it has a significant interaction with the opioid). Yes, there can be serious side effects mixing the two (including respiratory depression, depression, drowsiness, etc.), but like with all drugs, factors such as drug dosage and body weight play a role in how someone responds to pharmaceutical treatment (a lot of drugs are given as mg/kg [or even ug/kg]). Perhaps any volume of strong beer is contraindicated for you given the dose of tramadol you are taking and given your body weight.

 

I am "reet chuffed" to read that Jock's news regarding his grandson just gets better and better. Jock, I had mentioned a colleague who had had a heart valve replacement, what I hadn't mentioned is that he was a damn site fitter and sportier than I have ever been, so it does look good...

 

Well enough rubbish from me. I'm off to look for some AC/DC patch settings for my Line 6 M13 Pedalboard (God, I love being a gear head)

Edited September 27, 2015 by iL Dottore

[Tony_S]

Years ago, I went out at lunchtime with two colleagues.  I fell and we ended up in A&E.  Fortunately, I had only sprained my wrist, but I whisked off the arm sling before I got to the school gate!  Back then, it wasn't mickey taking I was afraid of but the excessive amount of sympathy I would have received from the class for such a minor injury!

The class who wouldn't accept my innocent excuse for grazed knuckles were actually being sympathetic. These were 17 and 18 year old East London lads on a vocational course. The sort who if ever I arrived at their lesson in a less than jolly mood would enquire if I wished whomsoever had annoyed me to be "sorted". I assumed they were joking as it was usually the vice principal! They were a great class, and although many of them hadn't excelled academically before,they really began to.

[roundhouse]

You must be staying at The Premier Inn on the famous Rugeley bypass? I used to live just up the road from there at Little Haywood.

Yes that's the one. We ended up shrinking in the pub next door as Wethers was packed solid with people watching the rugby.

Edited September 27, 2015 by roundhouse

[Ian Abel]

Cripes! Not me I hope. Must be Ian or Pete then.

Oi!!!

 

Wasn't me guv, honest

[Tony_S]

I went off to Waitrose today to collect Aditi's John Lewis shopping. One of the boxes was supposed to contain a roasting dish and a Le Creuset pie dish. However something went wrong and instead of a pie dish it contained a pack of child sized underpants with owl motifs! Aditi phoned up John Lewis and although she was having an attack of the giggles she said the customer services chap was so professional. They are despatching another pie dish and we can return the mystery pants to Waitrose.

 

Tony

[Ohmisterporter]

Afternoon all. Chatting to Stewart and his wife earlier when they were out for a walk. Nice to see him managing an two crutches and soon hopefully down to one. The real test will come when Lily takes him walkies, she is a strong doggie.

It has been a nice day here but I haven't taken advantage of it in the garden because I am out of breath so quickly. Hard to believe we were walking in Snowdonia with no trouble a few days before my inhaler was changed. Hope to get back onto the old meds this week. 

 

Stay safe all.

[Happy Hippo]

But before that a little bit of stock making from the remains of the chicken that was last night's supper 

 I usually make my stock from timber, with white metal axle boxes and all steel wheels.

[Tony_S]

.. The real test will come when Lily takes him walkies, she is a strong doggie.

...

I thought about Stewart this afternoon when I noticed a Sussex Spaniel is this month's cover dog on Country Life magazine (noticed on the magazine rack in Waitrose)

[45156]

Stewart, it's interesting that you have an alcohol restriction due to the Tramadol. In the hospital I was on quite a few analgesics including oral morphine and yet I was allowed alcohol (a glass of wine with meals), After being discharged I was on a number of analgesics, including Tramadol, and received no instructions to be "alcohol free" and have safely drunk beer whilst on my post-op, post analgesia analgesia (but then again I do know not to ingest so much alcohol that it has a significant interaction with the opioid). Yes, there can be serious side effects mixing the two (including respiratory depression, depression, drowsiness, etc.), but like with all drugs, factors such as drug dosage and body weight play a role in how someone responds to pharmaceutical treatment (a lot of drugs are given as mg/kg [or even ug/kg]). Perhaps any volume of strong beer is contraindicated for you given the dose of tramadol you are taking and given your body weight.

 

The instruction to avoid alcohol is possibly a misuderstanding of mine from a badly worded data sheet, and I wonder if what is meant is that I should not swallow Tramadol and washing it down with a beer.  The dispensary label also clearly states "avoid alcohol".  However, as I am on crutches, I think that the possiblity of light headedness if I do have a beer on top of the drug would be best avoided as I really don't want to lose my balance while I'm hobbling around.  It gives me something to look forward to when I'm a little fitter.

Edited September 27, 2015 by 45156

[45156]

I thought about Stewart this afternoon when I noticed a Sussex Spaniel is this month's cover dog on Country Life magazine (noticed on the magazine rack in Waitrose)

Yes indeed Tony - that's Lily's mum!!!

 

We got a copy of Country Life for that very reason and I was pleased to read the article about the Lost Spaniels, and to see that one of the main contributors was Sheila who bred Lily, and that her mum was in several of the pics - pretty girl, her mum, and our Lil takes right after her.  The article also covered the amazing work of one Mrs McGloon in Oregon, who has trained her Sussex to work as SAR dogs in mountain rescue work - and the one featured was from another litter by the same breeder, and born and raised at the same time as Lil, and whom I cuddled at about seven weeks old before he was exported.

 

Also, it was nice to get out and to bump into and chat with Geoff and Kath, but his place is still about the limit of my mobility.  And yes, a dog walk is probably some weeks away still. 

Edited September 27, 2015 by 45156

[Tony_S]

I think Robbie would only be good at search and rescue if the missing person had a biscuit in their pocket. I have also learnt not to follow the spaniel when walking in boggy areas!

[AndyID]

However something went wrong and instead of a pie dish it contained a pack of child sized underpants with owl motifs! 

 

I resisted the temptation to post something along the lines of "What a hoot!".....................oh dear.

[Tony_S]

Robbie has decided to have a snooze after our walk. He really needs brushing but I will do it later. At least he isn't wet!

[AndyID]

Thanks everyone for the supportive comments re. my forthcoming thespian activities. Lorna and I both grew up in Paisley and we have never lost our accents since we moved here 33 years ago, although they probably morphed into something more like Mid-Atlantic Paisley. As previously mentioned I went to school with "Brillo" Neil who also had a very similar accent to mine at the time, but you might not notice it now

[edcayton]

Robbie has decided to have a snooze after our walk. He really needs brushing but I will do it later. At least he isn't wet!

IMG_20150927_174924.jpg

Err, which end is the front?

 

Ed

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Looking forward to seeing the lunar eclipse tonight weather forecast is good, hope the little bit of cloud expected stays away at the crucial time, about 1 o'clock. At least most of the country will have clear skies tonight.

[Tony_S]

Err, which end is the front?

 

Ed

His nose is pointing south.

[gordon s]

As this seems like a doggie moment….Here's one little fella doing his impression of a drunk.

 

Archie slowly getting up and about…:-)

 

Considering where he was a week ago, this is a miracle.

 

Edited September 27, 2015 by gordon s

[Judge Dread]

The instruction to avoid alcohol is possibly a misuderstanding of mine from a badly worded data sheet, and I wonder if what is meant is that I should not swallow Tramadol and washing it down with a beer.  The dispensary label also clearly states "avoid alcohol".  However, as I am on crutches, I think that the possiblity of light headedness if I do have a beer on top of the drug would be best avoided as I really don't want to lose my balance while I'm hobbling around.  It gives me something to look forward to when I'm a little fitter.

I refer the honourable gentleman to my earlier comments on the perils(for me) of taking Tramadol.

I wish you a speedy recovery.

[pH]

Yes that's the one. We ended up shrinking in the pub next door as Wethers was packed solid with people watching the rugby.

Having shrunk, could you then go into Wethers?

[pH]

I'm sure you'll do full justice to the immortal memory, unlike a Glaswegian member of our Uni cross-country team who used to insist, after a few pints, on "entertaining" us with a rendering of "Tam o' Shanter". We could have forgiven him for forgetting the odd word; the problem was that he plugged each gap with an expletive, leaving some of his audience surprised that Burns's works contained so many sweerie words...

Have you never read any of the 'Merry Muses'? http://www.robertburns.org.uk/merrymuses.htm (Warning - may alter existing opinions!)