Early Risers.

[Flanged Wheel]

Regarding news coverage, I ceased looking at any in the summer of 2022 when my professional obligation to stay abreast of current affairs ended. I realised that I was continually aggravated by both the underlying stories and the way in which they were reported. As I don’t use social media, I now exist in a world of blissful ignorance and can highly recommend it. I occasionally glance at a copy of the Economist, just so that I don’t get caught out by major financial shifts and obviously am vaguely aware of the major news stories. But otherwise, my world is dominated by the people that I meet every day who, contrary to the horrific image of the world that is presented through the media, are almost universally kind, interesting and decent.

[zarniwhoop]

5 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 but not taking statins for the sake of it - which is what they tell me they 'recommend' now, for all diabetics to take them as a matter of course - really?  The term bolleaux come to mind.

Yeah, as a Type 1 it has been like that for years (well, for over 50s). As you say, bolleaux.

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Went out and finished off the Christmas food shopping this morning. As I went out I noticed that they hadn't collected the recycling sacks so I swiftly put mine out for collection. It was still there when I came back but half an hour later it was emptied so I quickly retrieved it before it blew away. I must have been seeing things when I said that the tyre on my car was deflating as upon checking it appeared to be normal. Just as well as the sciatica is starting again, all I did was reach for the remote, co-codamol has been taken.

[Coombe Barton]

... Bit breezy here – neighbours bins gone walkies down the road ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2023/12/21/sounds-of-the-season-2023-19-covid-doubled-in-december-affecting-age-groups-disproportionately-macho-and-egotistical-climate-in-downing-street/

[zarniwhoop]

8 minutes ago, zarniwhoop said:

Yeah, as a Type 1 it has been like that for years (well, for over 50s). As you say, bolleaux.

Forgot to add that I tried them, experienced my bad leg starting to fold up while in the supermarket - fortunately I was able to steady myself on a shelf. After discussion with my GP I reduced the amount, then stopped them and raised an adverse reaction report with the nhs. Ther were was another side effect which I have forgotten about, maybe the statins were what started by ongoing sleep problems, not sure. I will not be taking any again. That would be 17 or 18 years ago. But my diabetes consultant again mentioned them when I saw him earlier this year.

[New Haven Neil]

5 minutes ago, zarniwhoop said:

Forgot to add that I tried them, experienced my bad leg starting to fold up while in the supermarket - fortunately I was able to steady myself on a shelf. After discussion with my GP I reduced the amount, then stopped them and raised an adverse reaction report with the nhs. Ther were was another side effect which I have forgotten about, maybe the statins were what started by ongoing sleep problems, not sure. I will not be taking any again. That would be 17 or 18 years ago. But my diabetes consultant again mentioned them when I saw him earlier this year.

 

A close friend reported much the same, with subsequent muscle damage.  I need to improve my cholesterol a little, but it's not silly high.  I will do this by diet (edit - and more exercise), not statins.

 

PS - well over 50, and halfway over 60!

Edited December 21, 2023 by New Haven Neil

[Tony_S]

I am fortunate. I was put on the statin that is first choice for heart related conditions. It works very well and I am fortunate not to have any the unpleasant side effects. A near neighbour had his heart problems at the same time as me and had very serious statin side effects. One good result was that when investigations about muscle weakness and falling over were started they also found he had a cancerous tumour on a kidney. He is fine now, walking about and working!

[jamie92208]

Good eve I g from Lincoln.  No time to go through 5 pages of posts I'm afraid.  May have stumbled onto part of the same phenomen that @jjb1970reported on.  Various things happened on the journey.  First of all we dropped off the edge of the known world at the border with Belgium as the Tom Tom seems tbe incapable ofo

 Joining maps together.    I had to stop and change a lot of setting gs to get the Benelux ones to work. 

 

Last night the North sea had plenty of large potholes and I wasn't goi g to pay And O £15per head for WiFi. We had to wait over an hour to disembark due to strong winds. 

 

Ttfn. 

 

Jamie

[DaveF]

I took statins for a short time and stopped because of nasty adverse reactions - couldn't sleep, muscle pain and memory loss.  I will never take them again.

 

On  a happier note...

 

Since I got back from church I have sorted out about 70% of the images I am working on. the basic work should get finished after tea.  I also cleaned the cutlery, it may sound strange but I use silver cutlery all the time - it was originally my grandparents and I think they had it because my great uncle and two great aunts were in the antiques trade.  Despite being a mix of Victorian and Georgian it is robust and doesn't take too much much looking after.  The knives though are quite modern stainless with plated handles.  The old ones were terrible as the bone handles were in bad condition.  As it is not a matched set it isn't worth very much.

 

The wind is at last starting to subside, so far all the nearby roofs are intact so it can't have been too strong - my town is known for strong winds and roof damage.

 

The evening will be sorting photos, music and TV.

 

David

Edited December 21, 2023 by DaveF

[Hroth]

6 hours ago, southern42 said:

 

Love the way the flute plays itself!

 

When not hamming it up for ToTP, Ian Anderson could play a mean flute...

 

 

Quote

This flute-dominated instrumental, based on Bach's 'Suite in E Minor for Lute', was a track on Jethro Tull's excellent 'Stand Up' (1969). Personnel: Ian Anderson (flute, vocals), Martin Barre (guitars), Glenn Cornick (bass), Clive Bunker (drums) Composer: J.S. Bach (arr. Ian Anderson)

 

[Barry O]

Stattins are loved by NICE, The drug companies and.. the acolytes. They can have weird side affects and are not as good as they are made out to be. None for me thank you!

 

Baz

Edited December 21, 2023 by Barry O

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl,

After our bins tried to go for a walk, they immediately tripped over, and went no further. Any sickness they had will now be in Denmark. 

 

The Christmas dinner went well, especially as it had been wangled that the company paid for half of it including drinks.

The company news is there has been another palace revolution, the factory is now under the European division's control, and the engineering design and calibration section is under 1 manager not half a dozen Americans. Surprisingly some work has been transferred from Europe to the UK.

5 changes in management in 4 years 

 

Coming back a lexus pulled up indicating left, alongside me indicating right at a round about., it proceeded to go round the round about and turned right....

Also on the way back the navigator threw a wobbly and asked me to turn right down a gated emergency only road, then later it tried to have me drive down a green lane.

 

On arrival at home it was obvious the bins had decided not to go for further walks in the 48mph winds.

 

I had minor problems with statins due to muscle pain, but that went away by eating a banana each time. Now it's not often I need a banana.

 

Me thinks it's time for an eyelid inspection.

 

 

 

 

[Ian Abel]

BIN day.

Late evening getting the BINs out.

 

Yesterday the "British Arrow Awards" didn't disappoint, my better than last year and very enjoyable.

We had dinner at the restaurant on the museum premises ahead of the show. Nice enough place but the menu was very sparse and food somewhat disappointing.

Won't be adding that to the list of places to frequent!

 

Today, work is nuts again, auditors need to be locked in small dark places and verbally abused! 

Later, pre-rehearsal happy hour, rehearsal, last "panic" before the Christmas day services. We're told there will be a short gathering/celebration post choir, but no other details offered.

-1c at BIN time, cloudy and 4c the expected high, Overnight lows next couple of days to remain above zero, and highs between 8-13c through Sunday!

 

Onward.

[iL Dottore]

Statins aren't a homogeneous class of drugs. There are 8 different types of statins on the market, each with a slightly different chemical structure, the newer (and more expensive) versions tend to have fewer adverse events associated with them. One of the worst for side effects is also one of the cheapest (and guess which ones NICE and the NHS favour???)

 

Additionally, there are new cholesterol lowering drugs with different mechanisms of action (and thus different adverse events) such as the PCSK9 inhibitors, (e.g. alirocumab and evolocumab), but they are relatively new and expensive injectables. They are now available on prescription and clinical trials show that they can lower LDL by up to 50-60%. The problem will be getting the local health wallahs to approve the expenditure.

 

As with any drug you have to consider the risk-benefit ratio before prescribing - and for some patients the risk of statin related AEs is outweighed by the reduction (and consequent clinical benefit) of reducing sky high LDL levels.

Edited December 21, 2023 by iL Dottore

[The Lurker]

7 hours ago, DaveF said:

Still windy here, it was hard working getting to and from the car.  The wreath had blown off the church door.

 

The clouds I saw this morning are apparently called iridescent clouds, caused by ice crystals or water droplets when the sun strikes them at the correct angle.  

 

 

 

David

Superb!

 

there are similar pictures on the BBC where they are referred to as Mother-of-Pearl clouds

[PupCam]

Evening All

 

Main thing to report is that I've managed to track down a certain Bear, who has been rather low profile of late,  to his lair.     

 

Unfortunately that big black dog has been baring its teeth and growling a lot but hopefully he'll have the better of it once the next few days are past.    

In the meantime I'll keep an eye out 👍

 

I hope @tigerburnie and other ER's who have been MIA for a while now are all OK 🤞

 

ION

 

I attended a most interesting lecture at the Shuttleworth Collection today given by Dodge Bailey, formerly the Collection's Chief Pilot.     It fell to him to get the beautiful DH88 Comet flying from Old Warden after the initial first flight from and back into OW some years previously ended in a minor disaster when the "not-very-strong" starboard undercarriage collapsed on landing.   The DH88 was designed for one thing and one thing only; to win the 1934 MacRobertson Air Race to Australia and minor details such as  getting off of and back onto the ground safely were largely ignored.  As Dodge said; "That little detail was left for the pilot to sort out".     The lecture provided an interesting insight into some of the technicalities & characteristics of the aeroplane, some of the analytical work done by a couple of PhD students at Cranfield on the undercarriage and the aeroplane's aerodynamics and some of the practicalities of operating it safely accompanied by some nice pilot's eye view cockpit videos of all of the critical stages of flight (that's most of it then!)

 

A superbly efficient aeroplane, tricky to get on and off the ground and one that is ready to bite and bite hard if you get anywhere close to the edge of its envelope.   Oh yes and utterly beautiful from all angles whether it's on the ground or in the air.

 

 

 

The 1.5 hour lecture was free to attend and was absolutely packed.     It was great to experience some of the "old Shuttleworth atmosphere" (which would have been helped greatly by not having to pay ~£20 just to pass the entry gate) now sanity has returned to the admission policy.       An interesting way to spend an hour or so on a wet & windy Thursday morning was I thought worthy of a reasonably large donation of the folding stuff into the SVAS* collection bucket.   I do hope many of the other 80-100 attendees thought so too.

 

*  Shuttleworth Veteran Aeroplane Society ....... effectively the Collection's "Friends of" organisation that primarily raises funds to support the Collection.

 

TTFN

 

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by PupCam

[jjb1970]

6 hours ago, Flanged Wheel said:

But otherwise, my world is dominated by the people that I meet every day who, contrary to the horrific image of the world that is presented through the media, are almost universally kind, interesting and decent.

 

When people actually meet they tend to react to eachother as human beings and leave tribal stuff at the door. And indeed, psychopathic nutjobs are very much the exception. Yet the media and politicians love to inflate differences, made much worse by search engine and social media algorithms that use search and browsing history to prioritise results and lead us into an echo-chamber of confirmation bias. Many really believe they hate large swathes of humankind never having met or interacted with any of those they hate. 

 

Another thing politicians and the media are terrible for is creating an idea that many people are stupid. There's a culture now that if people don't share views on political or social issues they are either stupid or evil. Just as few are evil so I find very few people I meet to be stupid. They may not have impressive credentials, may struggle to articulate ideas and such like but people are generally pretty perceptive and have well developed senses to identify bovine excrement.,

[Winslow Boy]

7 minutes ago, PupCam said:

Evening All

 

Main thing to report is that I've managed to track down a certain Bear, who has been rather low profile of late,  to his lair.     

 

Unfortunately that big black dog has been baring its teeth and growling a lot but hopefully he'll have the better of it once the next few days are past.    

In the meantime I'll keep an eye out 👍

 

I hope @tigerburnie and other ER's who have been MIA for a while now are all OK 🤞

 

ION

 

I attended a most interesting lecture at the Shuttleworth Collection today given by Dodge Bailey, formerly the Collection's Chief Pilot.     It fell to him to get the beautiful DH88 Comet flying from Old Warden after the initial first flight from and back into OW some years previously ended in a minor disaster when the "not-very-strong" starboard undercarriage collapsed on landing.   The DH88 was designed for one thing and one thing only; to win the 1934 MacRobertson Air Race to Australia and minor details such as  getting off of and back onto the ground safely were largely ignored.  As Dodge said; "That little detail was left for the pilot to sort out".     The lecture provided an interesting insight into some of the technicalities & characteristics of the aeroplane, some of the analytical work done by a couple of PhD students at Cranfield on the undercarriage and the aeroplane's aerodynamics and some of the practicalities of operating it safely accompanied by some nice pilot's eye view cockpit videos of all of the critical stages of flight (that's most of it then!)

 

A superbly efficient aeroplane, tricky to get on and off the ground and one that is ready to bite and bite hard if you get anywhere close to the edge of its envelope.   Oh yes and utterly beautiful from all angles whether it's on the ground or in the air.

 

 

The 1.5 hour lecture was free to attend and was absolutely packed.     It was great to experience some of the "old Shuttleworth atmosphere" (which would have been helped greatly by not having to pay ~£20 just to pass the entry gate) now sanity has returned to the admission policy.       An interesting way to spend an hour or so on a wet & windy Thursday morning was I thought worthy of a reasonably large donation of the folding stuff into the SVAS* collection bucket.   I do hope many of the other 80-100 attendees thought so too.

 

*  Shuttleworth Veteran Aeroplane Society ....... effectively the Collection's "Friends of" organisation that primarily raises funds to support the Collection.

 

TTFN

 

 

 

Good to hear about PB. As a fellow suffer of the BD I was concerned when he went of piste as I know it can be a tenacious beastie to get back in it's kennel. Will keep thinking positive thoughts and thanks for making the effort to  get in touch with him.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I was happily getting on with a few things this afternoon and then the sciatica kicked in and I do mean kicked. I had to struggle upstairs to lay stretched out on the bed for the rest of the afternoon. Hopefully that and the co-codamol will sort it out.

[tigerburnie]

Thanks puppers for the note, up to my arms in pre Christmas, nothing to report really, no muddling done, my health is pretty good except for the anti biotic regime for three months and the prospect of an alcohol free festive season, no doubt I shall catch up eventually, the whisky will not go off and funnily enough it seems to be one of the few items with no use by date😊

[Gwiwer]

Whoop.

 

I received a phone call during the afternoon.  I have a hospital appointment next Friday at 09.00.  That's a 45 - 60 minute drive away too.  Only an "initial outpatient referral" so potentially in and out in five minutes with noting achieved but it's a step in the right direction.  

 

Now to find a tooth-wrangler this side of Hampshire able to take on a patient in need of treatment and prepared to go private under sufferance.  Because there seems to be no NHS option at all.  

[southern42]

*C* cake made, fruit having soaked overnight in my usual spiced ginger and blackcurrant & blueberry tea mix, the remnant juice diluted with boiling water to make a (nicely fruit sweetened) fruit tea for me and Mr Suvvern after the cake went into the oven.

The process.

The tin was first lined inside with greaseproof baking paper and outside with brown wrapping paper. Then, a long spell creaming the dark brown sugar and butter. That done, after two mugsadecaf made and drunk, another long spell mixing half a dozen eggs little by little (a third of an egg at time) into the mixture. Then, after two more mugsadecaf made and drunk, there followed the mixing in of half the flour and half the fruit, then the other half of flour and fruit. The oven was warming while I filled up the cake tin. 4 1/4 hours later (10pm) the cake was out looking good. The best bit? The fruity spicy smell wafting from the oven during the last couple of hours, getting stronger all the time.

Tomorrow, all being well, it will be covered in marzipan.

 

And I even managed a 20 minute toot on the flute while it was cooking.

A long day, but worth it.

[southern42]

' night all and nos da.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Well, that’s all the shopping done for Christmas, anything that we haven’t got now, will have to wait until after C@#£&*()s. once home, I checked the NHS app for my blood test results, once again my PSA has risen, it’s gone from 11.5 to 15.6. I’d predicted 11.5, so which wasn’t far out. 
 

This afternoon James called round to drop off our presents and ended up staying for tea, has the Barton high level bridge was closed due to a lorry having been blown over. He didn’t leave until almost 10 o’clock, but it was really nice catching up with him. Considering this was the second time we’ve seen him in a week, we still found lots to chat about.