Early Risers.

[Barry O]

Dick

 

I have a new Sister Drac to visit next week, lets see what she says about when to take metalforming. Old Sister Drac said try and eat with or just after a meal. 

 

Need to it the pit as I still haven't caught up with getting back home from Southampton Show at 1:00 am this morning.

 

Sleep well everyone!

 

Baz

[Tony_S]

...

I've had to promise to get more exercise and eat less cholesterol-stuff like butter. Hmm. I'll do my best. Also a tip on Metformin, which is to take it 20 minutes after eating.

 

...

I asked Aditi if she had been given any advice when to take Metformin advice and she doesn't recall, but she didn't have a fun time with metformin and was prescribed the slow release version and bowel problems disappeared.

I have another fasting blood glucose test on Wednesday. They aren't repeating lipids so I assume they are OK!

Edited February 1, 2016 by Tony_S

[Tony_S]

I should add that being married to a Hobbit does mean meals seem to be every 20 minutes anyway.

[Smiffy2]

The new mini-needles are a success!

[laurenceb]

Condolences Matt

[brianthesnail96]

Cheers for the thoughts folks.

 

Bedtime now- g'night all!

[BSW01]

Evening everyone. A warm (14C) sunny, but a little blustery today. Sheila's at Zumba this morning so I was left in charge, so a trip to the tip was the order of the day. The old fence and a large collection of odds and ends from the cellar were disposed of at the same time. I left going until around 9 o'clock and had a clear run. Amazingly, all the lights on route were on green and the whole trip took less than 30 minutes! This was followed by a quick cuppa before tackling the rest of the hedge, which is now all planted up. So it's job done and all before lunch too!

 

Rested for the remainder of the afternoon, and after all the activities this morning I was feeling a little tired so a gave the gym a miss tonight.

 

Simon G. On the subject of absurdities, it always amuses me when I receive in the post, an application form that I'm required to fill in. The first 2 questions always make me laugh. Name, Address, they sent me the damned thing!

 

Smiffy2 & 45156. I can understand your trepidation out the diabetic nurse, Sheila was diagnosed as type 2 diabetic about 15 years ago. She was told in no uncertain terms what might happen if she carried on the way she was. As a result she is controlling her diabetes with diet alone has lost over 4 stone and dropped 6 dress sizes. Costing me a bl###ing fortune in clothing, but I'm very proud of her achievements.

 

RAR. I also find that daytime often rectifies the silly ideas had during the previous night.

 

Matt sorry to hear about your grandad.

 

I'm knackered so it's off to bed now, back to work tomorrow, for the rest!

 

Goodnight all.

[Smiffy2]

My condolences, Matt.

[PhilJ W]

Good evening from Estuary-Land. Saturday evening I went to visit the chap from the model road transport association to view his 'man cave' with a view to using it for area meetings. And what a man cave it is, about 20' X 20' fitted out with comfy chairs, worktops and a bar and a massive 8 foot wide TV screen on one wall, I'm green with envy. It would certainly make an ideal meeting place so I'm now going forward to setting up a local group. Time for an early night so goodnight all. Sorry Matt, I nearly forgot condolences as well.

Edited February 1, 2016 by PhilJ W

[emt_911]

Condolences Matt.

 

Night all

[Donw]

Evenin' all,

 

Best wishes to all that ail.

 

Successful sun seeking mission today...coffee at Ellesmere, lunch at The Boat Erbistock, a trip through the Berwyn mountains to Llanharan D. C. and an hour in Oswestry....

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Enjoy what you do

 

Dave

 

Lovely Photos Dave. Last time we visited Ellesmere I left Marion sitting on the seat nearest the crane looking after the dogs while I nipped into Tesco to get something for lunch. Came back to find one of the Narrow Boaters chatting her up. It is a grand part of the country round there.

Don

[Donw]

Thanks for all your 'supportive's. First words out of Miss DooWoP's mouth "Are you any better? ".

 

I think I managed to convince her that my attitude was not hostility but utter frustration at their inability to understand that I am in severe pain and can do without their carp.

 

I almost laughed when she suggested that I may need to attend a IT course as all ESA will soon be done online. I refrained from telling her that I have shoes older than her or that I was programming computers before she was born.

 

So I'm left having to fill in more forms and waiting to see how long they can lose them for.

 

I've decided that for tonight I shall give up abstinence and get p*ssed. Pass the Guinness padre....

 

I may be able to claim to be one of the earliest to do any programming among us. I was shown how to do programing with patch cords on an IBM adding/subtracting machine when I was about 6 or 7. I can remember the kindness of the young girl who kept an eye on me while dad was busy (he being her senior boss). Roll on 10 years and I was helping in the holidays with computerisation of old records. The young chap who rather fancied himself was gobsmacked when the same girl now a gorgeous  woman stopped by the desk and said Hello Don how are you doing.

Don

[Donw]

Boing!

 

Caught up at last, seems to have taken most of the evening but I'm pleased to note that there's been plenty of opportunity to use the "like" and "funny" buttons. Particularly glad to hear that Jock is starting to feel more like himself again. Oldddudders meanwhile appears to be living in the French version of Emmerdale!

 

Mixed weekend here- was at the Brizzle "0" gauge show, helping set up a test track or two and the club stand Saturday afternoon and then generally getting in the way on the Sunday. The club (sort of- our host's wife actually paid for it so I'm told!) has acquired a small circular test track which is great for those of us with little engines- since I only have a 12ft end to end it was a good opportunity to run in one of the more reluctant of the "home fleet" in between running visitor's locos. Most visitor's locos went on the main track so we had an easy time of it really on the little one. Brought a few bits to display on the club stand too which I'm told were well received. Was well behaved and didn't spend too much money either. Sorry to talk about trains... The sad news was that my Granddad was rushed into hospital early Saturday with what transpired to be a bleed on the brain. He finally passed away this afternoon but by all accounts was essentially gone from Saturday morning, it was just a matter of waiting for his body to catch up with events. Sad to not have the opportunity to say goodbye but pleased that- so far as he was concerned at least- it was quick and relatively painless; I must admit I'm fairly pragmatic about such things, he'd not had a bad innings all things considered and unfortunately these things happen once you reach a certain time of life. Tough on my Aunt who has lived with my grandparents all her life, especially since we've lost them both in quick succession.

 

Three funerals in four months is going to be a bit dismal though, my suit is starting to feel overworked.

 

First day back in my new (old) job today, back at my old desk too but with two monitors now, woo! Unfortunately I'm not hidden in the corner so will have to be more subtle when dropping into ERs with the morning brew. My new (old!) boss is on holiday for ten days so it's just as well I'm vaguely familiar with what I'm doing, although it's not the same as I was doing before. Waiting on a machining job* and then I have a test rig to reassemble, which I'm mostly looking forward to and partially dreading as I took it apart with someone quite familiar with it and will be putting it back together myself- pass the spanners, and the GA drawing...

 

Enjoy what's left of the evening all. Now I've caught up after a busy weekend I should be able to drop in with my morning coffee tomorrow.

 

*In a brilliant display of corporate joined up thinking they send a load of us youngsters on a basic machining course and then promptly banned everyone from the machine shop on our return except for a small number of experienced machinists- not sure how they are expecting to have new ones without giving us the chance to gain experience under the wing of the older chaps but there you are, grumble grumble...

 

Would you be a member of the Gloucester 0 Gauge Group. One of the best things I did was to join the group. Sadly I live too far away now.

Don

[skipepsi]

Evening all, I have decided to try the blood sugar diet when I feel a little better, it looks like an intense 8 week diet the aim being to shed a lot of weight in a short time and strip your pancreas of any fat thus restoring blood sugar balance. I am reluctant to take metaformin as I understand it makes you fatter. It also fits in with being fitter and thinner by the time I turn 60 in September.

 

I suspect your prediction will be correct Duncan I will be better before diagnosis. sorry to hear about your grandfathers death Matt.

[Jock67B]

Morning all,

Bit of a nuisance that the headache is making something of a comeback, but I've only been taking the new medication since late Thursday so should be patient. The oncologist will be at my radiotherapy planning event on Friday so I should be able to check things out then!

Had my meeting this evening with those older members of the family that were available, eldest girl by 'Facebook' and No1 Son on 'face-time' link. The purpose was to ensure that, after what I consider to be a wake up call health wise, we could open a discussion on their thoughts on my 'end of life scenario'. When my condition inevitably gets worse, I wanted to make sure that they understood that as far as I'm concerned, what Joanna would like has to take precedence, and she has made it clear that she doesn't want me to be cared for anywhere other than at home. Nursing sister daughter has assured us that this can be arranged, and that assistance is also available from the MacMillan Nurses. This topic was discussed in depth and all agreed that they would work to meet mum's wishes. The girls in particular were keen to know what my feelings were about a funeral celebration. As a life long atheist, I'm certain that I won't know what is going on, and so any such event should be centred on what pleases them, but I've now been charged with producing a disc to contain what the piper should play at the crematorium, then a couple of my favourite pieces of classical music. They also wanted to know a couple of favourite pieces of poetry. The one thing I stressed, was that I wanted no religious input and they are happy to have words spoken by family members. I suggested that it would be a good idea to retire to a conveniently close and well run venue for a Scottish style 'wake' afterwards! This all might seem to be a bit macabre, but we have attended so many funerals lately, and noted that the preparation was most difficult for those relatives where no-one seemed to know the wishes of the deceased. My main purpose is to see that Joanna has the least possible distress at such a time. Naturally, I hope the actual event will be some way off yet, but health problems of the last couple of weeks have reminded me that I'll soon have had eighteen months more time than my original prognosis, and I would certainly welcome comments, especially from those who have attended some of the more farcical events. I must re-iterate that I've written clear instructions for nursing sister daughter to access 'early risers' on iPad or PC to let my digital friends know. Please don't look on this as me in any way 'throwing in the towel', but more the engineer and scientist's approach as I have been adjusted to what my condition means since the start and I'm going to keep on fighting. As I've said on many occasions, I'm more upset by the effect it is having on the many I have who love me, for I have had a mainly wonderful life. I certainly intend to enjoy every day that remains of it to the full!

Dick, I made a note to hope that the diabetic nurse didn't give you too hard a time, but I read in your later post that you have indeed had a positive meeting that has made life easier for you. Good news my friend - it's down to you now on the 'diet' side!

AndyB, thanks for the advice mate, but if you don't mind, I think I might just stick to my tried and tested system - very kind of you to think of me though!

Dave(r-a-r), that 'PN' you have sounds very nasty indeed - is there absolutely no possibility that the condition can be reversed? I have such numbness only in my left heel, following a bed sore there whilst recovering from my major operation in 2014, and I find it a real nuisance so I can only guess how awkward it makes your life day to day.

Dave(TG), another superb set of images (especially the pub!), I hope 'Is' enjoyed the diversion?

Matt, very sorry to hear about the loss of your grandad. I'm pleased he didn't seem to suffer towards the end, but it is such a wrench to lose someone you have known all your life. Commiserations to you and your family.

Neil(NHN), your mention of the oft missed issue of shiny check rails happens to be something that has amused me for years, especially when it occurs on some fine award winning layouts. My guess is that it results from taking the easy way when track cleaning, but what do you see as a solution? It would be a bit tedious to repaint them after every cleaning session! That should start something rolling if you threw it into the mix somewhere like the Peco thread?

Time for some much needed sleep now, so once again, best wishes for improvement to our resident sufferers and a hope that the week progresses as planned for the rest. Thank you for lending me your ears in regards to the start of this post, and although it caused some tears, all involved seemed happy that I brought the subject to light!

Kind regards,

Jock.

G'night all (and Pete if you're listening)!

PS I've managed once again to press whatever removes all the links below posts, and I've managed to the lose the instructions I copied last time. Do any of our kind IT specialists know of a 'dummies fix' please? J.

[Gwiwer]

Jock

 

"Like" - and indeed anything else at our immediate disposal - just comes nowhere near being enough sentiment to acknowledge that post.

 

I'm not sure I have words to sensibly express my respect and admiration for the public discussion of something so inherently private.  Yes we all reach the buffers at some point and some more comfortably than others.  But to be able to think coherently, to pre-plan and to then share your family's very private affairs among friends here shows courage, fortitude, trust, strength and probably many other things escaping my mind right now.

 

I don't know where this came from but I saved it at some point in case of need.  If you can substitute our RMW logo for Mr. Zuckerberg's I think you'll get the idea.

 

[Two_sugars]

The wind today has been particularly vicious!!! But . . I survived.

 

Jock, I've had the same conversation with my daughters, and they were  . . .relieved, I think is the word, that I had approached the subject. .There's no 'sentence' hanging over me, but with my health problems I can't see me becoming a centenarian.

 

Good night everyone. . . . Sleep well.

 

 

 

John

[emt_911]

Morning all. Another windy day which is likely to cause chaos.

 

Jock - As usual, a realistic, pragmatic and practical approach. Rick has certainly put my thoughts on this subject better than I ever could.

 

Have a good day everyone and stay safe

[NGT6 1315]

Mawnin' awl. Need to restock coffee later… Split shift is on, first part from 8.27 am till 11.53, second from 3.33 pm till 7.57.

 

Sorry to hear about your grandpa, Matt   . Hasn't been too gentle a start to 2016 indeed with so many people departing within just a few weeks…

 

Later…

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

Despite my most fervent hopes I still do not know the name of my new GP.  The prescription that I collected yesterday still bears the name of my old one but the signature is not his.  The board outside the surgery still bears his name and it is still to be found on the appointment slips.  Fingers crossed that I will not need to know for a while yet.  Soon one of the remaining doctors will have to do my annual meds review so we shall see - or will we?

 

By good fortune I will be meeting my twin aunts next week on their 92nd birthday.  Aunt Nottingham is being taken to stay with Aunt Bristol as she is no longer confident enough to travel by long-distance coach.  I will be on my way home after a visit to Radyr - no longer as Mike Stationmaster would remember it, sadly - and passing close to the end of the road.  A diversion at elevenses time will be just the job!  The last time that the three of us were in the same place at the same time was nearly two years ago for their official 90th birthday, held in the unlikely setting of Shirehampton golf club.  That was a crazy weekend for a number of reasons.

 

More mundanely, I must do another fodder run today, making sure before I do that there are no forgotten meals in the far corners of the fridge.  Then what?  There is a meeting this evening in which I will learn more about the Cromford and High Peak and boil it all down to less than 300 words for the Club bulletin.  Before that, the odd meal and perhaps some mucking-out?  Who knows, and more to the point, who cares?

 

To the poorly among us: hang on in there.  I will.

 

Chris

[Coombe Barton]

Somehow Jock never ceases to amaze.

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

We have another mild morning here.  It was quite blustery overnight, but we seem to have weathered the storm well.

 

Condolencies to you Matt.

 

2016 seems to have got off to a rocky start for many, and that makes one contemplate ones own mortality.  I am only 42 but I have lost several colleagues over course of January (no direct colleagues, but still people who work for the company), plus I have a friend, several years younger than me who is recovering from cancer and of course my online friends.

 

I have a great admiration for you discussing death with your family, Jock - and although it isn't an easy topic I would advise everyone to do the same with their loved ones.  We had a discussion workshop about death this past weekend at Church - not just the religious issues but also the practicalities, and that made me realise just how we avoid the subject.  Just letting those you love know your wishes, can make things easier for them when the time comes.

 

Anyway - I don't want to get morbid, but remember, apart from taxes it's the only sure thing in life!

 

Have a good day everyone...

[andyram]

Good morning all. I would like to add my condolences to Matt. Very sorry to read your news. To Jock I say keep fighting on sir, let's hope your plans do not have to be considered for some time to come.

It is blowing a bit out there this morning but it did not wake me early. I slept like a like a log last night, so much so that I did not even hear Amber join us in bed at some point. She was just there fast asleep between Sarah and I this morning. Cat number 4 (or should that now be three?) was also there. He has taken to joining us at night ever since Saffie left us. The end of the bed was always her domain, but Fudge seems to have taken over there. I think Sarah appreciates the nocturnal feline company even though it is not her beloved Burmese anymore.

Work started ok yesterday. Sadly the rest of the current term is going to have the added stress of travel problems. My main route to work, and a major road itself, is to be shut for the next two weeks for vital sewer works. To be fair last week the road was generously flooded and, once the water had subsided, it had clearly collapsed. However it does leave me with a massive detour that many more will also have to take. Things started well yesterday. All was quiet, but as I drove in I heard on the radio that the road was not to be shut until 9.30am so I could have taken the normal route! This morning will prove to be the real test! I did manage to avoid the jams last night on the journey home by taking a rather strange route. The result was I managed to keep moving and my journey time was only five minutes longer than normal.

 

Have a good day.

Edited February 2, 2016 by andyram

[DDolfelin]

Jock.

That's the way to do it.

I'm proud of you.

 

You ask for farcical experiences.

The latest was a 'piece of favourite music'

It turned out to be some Ecuadorian Bamboo Pipers which had folk shuffling their feet after five minutes and bewildered after ten.

SWMBO later confirmed it was by no means his favourite piece of music as she'd played for him a few times.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,
Rather a blustery night  and I was up at 4.45 as usual to take The Boss to work. Went back to bed but couldn't go back to sleep so got up again at 6.00.
Normal Tuesday here with two grandchildren coming for tea after school. I may be called upon to give hints about homework. Mind you last time Gemma asked for some help with her Maths I was completely stumped. The questions appeared to be written in Jabberwocky.
Dick- I think Joe's diabetic nurse at St.Helier is called Yvonne. If she's the same one he and his parents think she is an absolute star. He uses the 4mm needles - however he's a lot skinnier than you. If they were much longer they'd go right through him. 
Jock - as John said above you continue to amaze. There should be a new rule in life that whenever anyone is feeling sorry for themselves they should "Think Jock" - that should sort it out for all of us! 
Have a good one,
Bob.

Edited February 2, 2016 by grandadbob