Early Risers.

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[laurenceb]

For some reason it loaded Mr Bears Sunday funny's!

Night awl

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[Two_sugars]

Darlo show on Saturday . . .good to be there.

 

Gateshead toy fair Sunday morning . . . .Highlight of the day was nephews comment about someone lacking in Hygiene . .

"I know it's two years, but I'm sure I smelt him last time . . . . "

 

Goodnight all . . Sleep well.

 

John

 

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from the Charent. Up early with nature's  alarm clock then checked the fire. As it's getting a bit cool we litbit last night. It was still going so some logs have been added.  The room and most of the house are nice and wzrm.

 

Some work got done in the garden yesterday.  Two Pyracanthius bushes were pruned.  These were smothered by Ivy and briar 3 years ago and we thought they were dead.  They have come back to life very well to our surprise.  The last of the grass was cut and assorted other jobs got done.

 

A tip trip today then hopefully some shed time.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[chrisf]

Greetings

 

There are some events of note in the week ahead.  Tomorrow I am due to have my flu jab at 9.42 am - such precision! - followed in the evening by the AGM of the Bedford branch of the LCGB.  On Wednesday the Chilterns Area Group will have its quarterly lunch in Harpenden.  It would be wise to put some petrol in the car before then.  Apart from that it should be pretty much the old routine.

 

Some good news came yesterday.  My young friend who is enslaved by Amazon is on holiday in Stockholm.  I hope his break does not wear off too quickly when he returns.  He is allowed five weeks' leave a year and I suspect that he has not been able to take all of it.  I recall that when I retired, upwards of 15 years ago,  my benevolent employers had to pay me for five and a half weeks' leave for a similar reason.  I'm not knocking dedication to duty, far from it in fact, but there is a difference between working to live and living to work which I hope my friend understands.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[iL Dottore]

15 hours ago, polybear said:

…Puppers? Cynical?  Oh yes....

Nah! He’s a rank amateur, actually Bear. Captain Cynical

(but he shows promise ) 

12 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

….so I resorted to Voltarol cream which seems to have done the trick.

Voltarol (aka Voltaren) is a diclofenac (NSAID) cream developed by Novartis. In terms of analgesic properties I find diclofenac more effective than other NSAIDs (I take a 50mg slow release tablet when my joints really decide to play silly bu99ers). Unfortunately, 50mg diclofenac is prescription only - so I have to stock up whenever I visit the “boy doctor”.

10 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Casualty may have been changed…

It certainly has. I remember when it started (in the 80s) and it was a passable medical drama (but not as good as St Elsewhere). Now Casualty is just another tedious British soap opera. Unwatchable - like much of the BBC’s output nowadays (from Kenneth Clarke’s Civilisation to Strictly come prancing… My, how the mighty have fallen!)

 

And whilst on the subject of medical “drama”, I’m on day two of a three day low residue diet in preparation for a colonoscopy on Wednesday. It’s all rather tedious and I still have various bowel motility and peristalsis enhancers to look forward to. As always seems to be the case, the colonoscopy is a procedure I am very familiar with - but not from the wrong end. Serious drugs have been promised pre- and peri-procedure, so should be “interesting”.

 

And on that GI note (not to be confused with GU!) I bid you a great start to the week!
 

iD

Edited October 18, 2021 by iL Dottore
Typo

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, from a dark and 13c rock, someone forgot to turn the lights on.

 

Mrs H away to work still on the high of beating Mysogo-man at archery yesterday.  NHN less enthused about the pile of washing that Mondays bring!

 

This week's diary has lots of things in it, and some shuffling of things will be needed to accomplish everything - retirement wasn't meant to be so busy.

[polybear]

10 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

Yahoo, the decorating in the living room is finished,

 

 

Feels great, doesn't it?  

 

10 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

.....our kitchen will be next when I can find a round toit.

 

 

Bear feels your pain already......

 

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Some work got done in the garden yesterday.  Two Pyracanthius bushes were pruned. 

 

How long were you in A&E for?  Nasty little bleeders...but great for keeping scrotes out

 

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

It’s all rather tedious and I still have various bowel motility and peristalsis enhancers to look forward to.

 

Are those big words for Moviprep by any chance?  Bear found it to be "kinda fun" - in a weird sort of way; if only it didn't taste so f. distgusting - and seems to get worse the more you drink (which is a lot)

 

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

As always seems to be the case, the colonoscopy is a procedure I am very familiar with - but not from the wrong end. Serious drugs have been promised pre- and peri-procedure, so should be “interesting”.

 

 

Bear made do with hoovering up some sort of gas as required during the actual fun - which was all rather interesting really cos' I got to watch it on telly.  It was a hell of a lot more interesting that "Come Dancing", I can tell you.

The worst bit?  Dreading it'll be 'orrible beforehand - and of course hoping beyond hope that you don't have a sudden urge for yet another No. 2 between home and hospital....

 

In other news:

Yet another "MIUAIGA" day - which the Outlook Calendar reminders function has just informed me is to include searching for Car Insurance quotes for the next year.  Oh joy.

 

And finally......

Bear would like to issue an "As Muchvirtual LDC As You Can Eat For Life" Award to the Swiss Chemist Heinrich Keberle for inventing the drug "Baclofen" - which once again appears 

to have knobbled Bear's latest episode of the dreaded "Big H**"; as you can imagine Bear doesn't dish out such awards lightly (in fact I can't recall the last time - if ever).  Wiki tells me all this happened back in 1962 though, so actually claiming the award could be dubious....

(Apparently he was working for Ciba-Geigy, the manufacturers of a well-known sticky stuff).

 

** At their very worst they have been known to hit 28/minute - for 18 hours.  Work out what 28 x 60 x 18 comes to.....

Edited October 18, 2021 by polybear

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Not a lot of fuss from Arthur Itis and Si Attica but still feeling cream crackered so visiting two events back to back might be out in future as will anything over a certain distance. One of the traders at the swapmeet yesterday was absent due to his having covid. As the previous meet was only three weeks ago having a test might be a good idea. 

[TheSignalEngineer]

19 hours ago, polybear said:

Would anyone like to hazard a guess as to why there's a lack of council houses?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-58933011

But you have to commit to living in Wolverhampton for 25 years to qualify.

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

Loadsapaperworh to catch up on today..pah!

 

Her indoors is off darntarn looking for calendars and other "stuff" I shall stay at home.

Large mugatea 1 consumed..next up.. breakfast.

 

Stay safe!

 

Baz

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

A rather dull, but dry start to the day, but looking out of the back door window earlier, it looks like we had some rain overnight, but that has long since stopped falling. 

 

Today will be mostly pottering about in the cellar, although I do need to retrieve a (part) roll of cable for Vickie and Ian’s house, so that they can alter/add sockets in what will become Ava’s new bedroom. Other than that, there is nothing definite planned, so another day of model making may well be on the cards. 

 

Back later. 

 

Brian 

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Moviprep by any chance?  Bear found it to be "kinda fun" - in a weird sort of way; if only it didn't taste so f. distgusting - and seems to get worse the more you drink (which is a lot)

I can assure you that of all the preparations Moviprep has the least awful taste and you are required to drink about twice as much with the alternative. My last one used Moviprep. It will be repeated next month but this time with the nastier , bigger volume to drink product. 

[Tony_S]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Serious drugs have been promised pre- and peri-procedure, so should be “interesting”.

 Conscious but pain free seems to be the best choice from my extensive experience of such procedures.  One gets sent home here  with a letter stating that you must not drive a car or sign legal documents for 24 hours afterwards. 

[TheSignalEngineer]

11 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

 

A good evening from the Doghouse Upon the Hill of Strawberries.  

 

I find it amazing how women can turn any member of their gender into the 'enemy' with such ease. 'Nuff said on that subject.

 

Yesterday was a bit of a non-event. I had a bit of a reaction from Saturday's jab, much more than with the first two. Fortunately the effects wore off as the day progressed but the planned painting was postponed until today. The other planned action was an early trip for some photographing of moving machinery at Sheepsrear but it was decided that the inclement weather at the time would make the effort futile and not fun. In the event it gave some time for sorting old photos and recording some details of them in a more easily identifiable form. 

Enough for now, I have a ceiling to paint. I may be back later.

[TheSignalEngineer]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Unfortunately, 50mg diclofenac is prescription only

A lot of readily available old preparations seem to have disappeared in recent years. I suppose it is due to either risks associated or potential misuse.

My mother was secretary to a group of doctors about 60 years ago. I had a sports injury that was giving me pain so one of them produced a small bottle of dark liquid and administered about 10ml of it. He said now lie down as soon as possible. I fell asleep a short while later and slept until next morning. When I spoke to him a while later he explained that it was a mixture he learned when training. He spent time working in what would now be called A&E by the London docks then shortly after qualifying he joined the Army Medical Corps and was sent to the Dardanelles. He said it was very useful for putting wounded men to sleep when treating them. I think it contained enough Class A substances per pint to finish a large horse. 

[pH]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

And finally......

Bear would like to issue an "As Muchvirtual LDC As You Can Eat For Life" Award to the Swiss Chemist Heinrich Keberle for inventing the drug "Baclofen" - which once again appears 

to have knobbled Bear's latest episode of the dreaded "Big H**" …

I don’t get them often, and you have my sympathy. When I do, I find drinking out of the far side of a glass works to stop them every time. The contortion of the upper body needed to do that apparently affects the diaphragm and stops the spasms.

[iL Dottore]

28 minutes ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

A lot of readily available old preparations seem to have disappeared in recent years. I suppose it is due to either risks associated or potential misuse...

One of the most effective pain killing concoctions ever devised was the “Brompton Cocktail”. A mixture of morphine or diacetylmorphine (heroin), cocaine, highly-pure ethyl alcohol (some recipes specify gin), and sometimes with chlorpromazine (Thorazine) to counteract nausea, it was given to terminally-ill individuals (especially cancer patients), it was developed (well refined, actually) by the Royal Brompton Hospital in London - hence the name. It’s rarely used now, but some oncologists still swear by it

I remember oncologist colleagues in the late 70s prescribing Brompton Cocktails for end-stage patients with bone, brain and liver metastases. (It is claimed that the worst pain any patient can suffer is from bone metastases or a dissecting aortic aneurysm. As one colleague once said “there are two kinds of severe pain: one where you’re afraid to die, the other when you hope to die”)

 

What angers me is how many docs refuse to prescribe narcotics because of “the risk of addiction or dependency”. Let’s face it, addiction would be the last thing I’d be worried about if I had end stage cancer with bone mets. There are many good reasons for being cautious about prescribing narcotics - dependency in end-stage cancer patients ain’t one of them.

 

Edited October 18, 2021 by iL Dottore

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Red sky earlier and it was very overcast but now there is a glimmer of something bright through the clouds.  Rain is forecast but it's quite mild at 14°C.

Late on parade this morning as I got side-tracked.

First task was to unblock and wash the filter on the little Vax vacuum cleaner that I use in The Shed and yes I did get down there yesterday for a couple of hours.  (After that I watched Saracens massacre Bath)

I've also just spent some time online booking a little break away for a couple of days in the not too distant future.

Some Shark wielding has been done but no decorating yet.  Saving that for tomorrow.....

Lots of noise from our friend's house next door as they have decided to have a bathroom refurb and doing the same as us replacing the bath with a large walk in shower.  Mind you they haven't got the same problems as we had as they have a second shower room in their loft extension.

Time for more coffee.

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

[tigerburnie]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Feels great, doesn't it?  

 

 

Bear feels your pain already......

 

 

How long were you in A&E for?  Nasty little bleeders...but great for keeping scrotes out

 

 

Are those big words for Moviprep by any chance?  Bear found it to be "kinda fun" - in a weird sort of way; if only it didn't taste so f. distgusting - and seems to get worse the more you drink (which is a lot)

 

 

Bear made do with hoovering up some sort of gas as required during the actual fun - which was all rather interesting really cos' I got to watch it on telly.  It was a hell of a lot more interesting that "Come Dancing", I can tell you.

The worst bit?  Dreading it'll be 'orrible beforehand - and of course hoping beyond hope that you don't have a sudden urge for yet another No. 2 between home and hospital....

 

In other news:

Yet another "MIUAIGA" day - which the Outlook Calendar reminders function has just informed me is to include searching for Car Insurance quotes for the next year.  Oh joy.

 

And finally......

Bear would like to issue an "As Muchvirtual LDC As You Can Eat For Life" Award to the Swiss Chemist Heinrich Keberle for inventing the drug "Baclofen" - which once again appears 

to have knobbled Bear's latest episode of the dreaded "Big H**"; as you can imagine Bear doesn't dish out such awards lightly (in fact I can't recall the last time - if ever).  Wiki tells me all this happened back in 1962 though, so actually claiming the award could be dubious....

(Apparently he was working for Ciba-Geigy, the manufacturers of a well-known sticky stuff).

 

** At their very worst they have been known to hit 28/minute - for 18 hours.  Work out what 28 x 60 x 18 comes to.....

Kitchen seems to have developed a wobbly floor, think the tongue and groove has failed, need to lift the vinyl and have a look, then decorating and finally new set of doors for all the cupboards, the carcasses look sound.

Re your car insurance quote I had a word with the large Welsh Opera singers mob, saved me money, got the cover I wanted and I get a free £250 excess should I ever have to claim, they got me with a reputable company too.

[tigerburnie]

2 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

But you have to commit to living in Wolverhampton for 25 years to qualify.

Good grief, doesn't that break the Geneva convention or if not, it should..................................

[PhilJ W]

29 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

One of the most effective pain-killing concoctions ever devised was the “Brompton Cocktail”. A mixture of morphine or diacetylmorphine (heroin), cocaine, highly-pure ethyl alcohol (some recipes specify gin), and sometimes with chlorpromazine (Thorazine) to counteract nausea, it was given to terminally-ill individuals (especially cancer patients), it was developed (well refined, actually) by the Royal Brompton Hospital in London - hence the name. It’s rarely used now, but some oncologists still swear by it.

I'm pretty sure thats what they gave my dad in his last hours. He had an unusual form of cancer*, it appeared literally overnight as a pea sized lump in the chest cavity. At first it was thought to be angina but a chest x-ray revealed what it was. At the time (1990) it was incurable but he was warned that it would increase in size over time but not gradually but like it started suddenly swelling then stopping and then suddenly increasing size again. Eventually it increased in size to such an extent that his airways were obstructed and I had to call an ambulance and he died twelve hours later. I'm pretty sure that what he was given not only knocked him out but may have even helped him on his way.

*I can't now remember the name of the cancer and I don't have his death certificate to hand.

[TheSignalEngineer]

41 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

1 hour ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

A lot of readily available old preparations seem to have disappeared in recent years. I suppose it is due to either risks associated or potential misuse...

One of the most effective pain killing concoctions ever devised was the “Brompton Cocktail”. 

My MiL was given that by her GP to ease her way through her last hours when terminally ill. 

[PupCam]

Clear Prop!

 

23 hours ago, polybear said:

Bear is somewhat p1ssed off as the dreaded "Big H" have un-explicably returned  - I've not been plagued by them for probably 6-9 months.  The meds were whacked up last night - hopefully a day or so should see them off, and in a couple of days I'll drop the meds back down again.  Turdycurses. 

 

Hmm, that's not good!   I hope it's just a quick visit while passing-by.

 

5 hours ago, chrisf said:

I'm not knocking dedication to duty, far from it in fact, but there is a difference between working to live and living to work which I hope my friend understands.

 

I am fortunate that I actually enjoyed quite a lot of my working life, particularly in the early days.    I quite enjoyed the technical aspects of a lot of my later working life too, it was just the BS and the associated pedallers of same that used to get me down.  

 

I never ever lost sight of the fact that I always worked to live though.

 

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Nah! He’s a rank amateur, actually Bear. Captain Cynical

(but he shows promise )

 

See previous comment    I'll have you know I was a professional cynic for 45 years!

 

3 hours ago, polybear said:

Bear would like to issue an "As Muchvirtual LDC As You Can Eat For Life" Award to the Swiss Chemist Heinrich Keberle for inventing the drug "Baclofen" - which once again appears 

to have knobbled Bear's latest episode of the dreaded "Big H**"; as you can imagine Bear doesn't dish out such awards lightly (in fact I can't recall the last time - if ever).  Wiki tells me all this happened back in 1962 though, so actually claiming the award could be dubious....

(Apparently he was working for Ciba-Geigy, the manufacturers of a well-known sticky stuff).

 

** At their very worst they have been known to hit 28/minute - for 18 hours.  Work out what 28 x 60 x 18 comes to.....

 

I can understand why you might wish to make such an unusual award.

 

20 minutes ago, tigerburnie said:

Re your car insurance quote I had a word with the large Welsh Opera singers mob, saved me money, got the cover I wanted and I get a free £250 excess should I ever have to claim, they got me with a reputable company too.

 

@polybear - don't forget what I said about my recent renewal (not with the large Welsh Opera Singer).     Just playing with the Online Tool prior to hitting the Go! button revealed that selecting a £0, £50, £150 or £250 excess made absolutely no difference to the already very good premium I was quoted which was ~35% of the premium requested by my previous supplier for my loyalty ( 3 years IIRC).     What a stinking racket that business is!

 

In other news:

 

More door lagging, maybe some woodwork painting and possibly a quick whizz out on the old AJ before the rain comes.

 

Have a good on.

 

Alan