Thread 7 - TalkLair: “In fact it’s an oblate spheroid”

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of previous threads (thread 6).
The new lair of JTT escapees is all cosy and homey; we have truly settled here. Outside, the garden is blooming with spring flowers. Inside, the hearth is glowing, pictures are up on the walls, rugs are down on the floors (and assorted pets curled up on them).

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

Bubo was extremely attentive today and followed me everywhere, which was rather lovely, though I did end up covered in cat hair.

Bubo is lovely!

Django eventually came in last night, the dirty stop out. I decided to have a snack because I couldn't sleep and lo and behold food got stuck in my throat. Two hours of it. Which was nice. It happened again this evening, about an hour this time. I'm really not happy about it and feel like I never want to eat again although, of course, I will.

The only plus side is that I have had moderate to raging toothache since last weekend and the whole heaving and spitting and heaving and ... has seemed to have eased the toothache. I'd have been to a dentist already if there were any NHS dentists anywhere within x number of miles but there isn't. I did call a dentist in Leek while I was in the Peak District - they were listed as an emergency NHS dentist. They couldn't help me but the very lovely receptionist told me that if I called 111 they should be able to find me an emergency dentist who can help.

The whole lack of affordable dentistry in this country is a huge fucking crisis.

I love Bubo's socks!

I have finished my book - A Terrible Kindness - and wept for the first 50 and the last 100 pages. The middle 250 were non-weepy. I really loved it, and recommend it.

Also recommend Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, which I read last summer, had to ration myself to avoid racing through it in one sitting.

And in the time it took me to read it, the apple blossom has gone from nothing to about 15% in a day and a half.

Three-post ment: my sister’s dream has come true, one of her sons has just been offered a 12-hours a week job at Waitrose, one evening after school and all day Sunday, and if he sticks it out for 3 months he gets a Waitrose discount card…

…with a second Waitrose discount card for a person (mother) of his choice!!!!!

I don't think I could read that book, @MavisMcMinty. That was the only time I ever saw my father cry, from a combination of distress and exhaustion, when he came home after spending 48 hours sorting out the logistics of getting every Welsh soldier on a then-large army base excused from duty and transported to Aberfan, with the appropriate kit for their skills. They all wanted to go - frankly, they would just have gone AWOL otherwise. His home town was about 50 miles from Aberfan.

The evening before he died, 20 years later and off his face with painkillers in the Macmillan ward at the Royal Marsden, I sat with him while he wrote notes to me about who needed to do what on the communications front. It was about Aberfan.

Oh Gonners. x

It’s more about the 19-year old embalmer’s distress at the disaster and how it affected him over the years, but the first 50 pages are very harrowing as his work in Aberfan is detailed.

Even though my Rhondda miner grandfather was living and working in Coventry by then, it affected him and my Nana as though it had happened to them.

I for one admire your sister's hard-nosed approach towards her workforce! 😀

And those Aberfan stories, I couldn't read that. Why does that word still hold such a charge, even now? I Googled, and I was 13 at the time, and I remember how affected everyone was at the time.

Yep. It's greatly to my dad's credit that he sat down with me (aged 15) a week or so later to explain his part in it and why it had upset him. But his brain harking back to it as he was dying sticks in my mind.

He was a terrific dad. Whenever I asked him for advice, he'd listen carefully and then say "Well, never mind what I think, what do you think you should do? And why?" Very effective!

I was one when it happened so have no memory of it but even years later if it was discussed on television my mum would tell me how awful it was, and how much it impacted everyone at the time. It's something that feels as though it's been a part of our national psyche.

I remember it well and how awful it was watching the footage on the news.

Anyway, sorry to drop a heavy bomb on everyone but it's all that's on my mind today. I shared a photo here during the week. I was taking a lot of photos on my trip which I don't usually do but my friend in the US, we called each other wife because we were more than friends but could never be lovers because we didn't fancy each other, wanted to see some beautiful countryside. We weren't sisters either, sort of soulmates I guess. I almost certainly talked about her in the old place. Well, we Skyped last weekend and it was full of love like always and I was getting the photos ready to send to her today. I was going to do it yesterday but as you saw above I was having a bit of a digestive system mare. Today was going to be photos and telling her about my easy walk that turned out to be climbing over fucking rocks and over not one but two mental stepping stones/rocks. And we were going to laugh and she was going to be proud of me and tell me that I was beautiful and I'd tell her to fuck off and that she was beautiful and on it would go. We'd try to get the cats to talk to each other and they wouldn't and we'd laugh and talk about my Georgie and her Chico who actually did talk to each other and Chico used to do falling down just for me because he loved me.

You can guess what's coming because it's all in the past tense. I found out last night that she died on Wednesday. She was found on Friday. She killed herself. I understand why she did it. We'd talked about it recently. I didn't want her to but I loved her and understood why she wanted to do it. I thought the crisis had passed for now. We talked about me maybe coming over to see her again and she really wanted to come here to Worthing. Of course, the crisis wasn't over, it seemed like it was because the decision had been made. She knew she was going to do it. I understand why but I hate that she's not in the world anymore and that I'll never get to speak to her again but I'm so grateful that I had her in my life for fifteen years.

Oh that's so awful, @MouseMinge , so sorry for you and your soulmate.

Oh no! What an awful shock and how devastating to lose a dear friend in that way. Im so sorry for your loss @MouseMinge . She was clearly a splendid person and will be very much missed in your life. Virtual hugs and sympathies from me.

Oh Grace, I'm so sorry. I do remember you talking about her at the old place. I always thought how wonderful it was that you kept such a close relationship despite the distance.

Thank you all.

I'm so very sorry for you and your friend, MM. Please don't dwell on what you could have said or done differently, we can never change what's done, nor know their state of mind and motivations.

My cousin commited suicide and more recently, a friend of long standing. I understand how much of a blow it is, for those left behind.

Oh, I’m so sorry @MouseMinge - that’s so sad about your friend. The way you talk about her is so beautiful.

@MouseMinge I'm so so sorry about your dear friend. What a terrible shock, just heartbreaking

(((MM)))

Hope you find some lasting peace in your love for and memories of your dear friend. x

I’m so sorry. How terrible, MM. .

MM, that's really sad, so sorry to hear you've lost your friend this way.

I'm so sorry MM, lots and lots of sympathy from me too.

Time. There's never enough, is there? angelica and I have been married for 31 years; I can reasonably expect to live another 10 or so, and when I cast my mind back to the last 10 years it has gone by without us even noticing. Children, mostly, work, families. We are more in love than we have ever been, the time goes so quickly, and the sky is a hazy shade of winter.