Thread 8 - TalkLair: “Brewing Russell's teapot”

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of previous threads (thread 7).

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…

My last one was Sainsbury’s car park. The one before was Tesco. They like to keep me guessing! Once it was at what used to be a hospital but is now an out of hours hub. The tit torturing still took place in the car park.

My tit torturing took place in a car park of an extension of the hospital, two streets away, in a car park. The extension is a tit clinic but the torturing takes place outside because that makes sense. I got a letter although apparently I got one last year as well. I did not get a letter last year.

I have yet to experience tit torture. I've had plenty of foof torture though.

I'm entering the second day of a migraine (or possibly hangover of yesterday's) and feel horrendous. I had my mirena coil removed a couple of months ago (complete with foof torture) and since then my hormones have been bouncing about all over the place. Last period, and the run-up towards it was a total shitshow. Nausea, hot flushes, migraines, dizziness, sobbing... I've always struggled with cyclical hormonal changes and have been experiencing hot flushes and night sweats as part of the luteal phase since I was 22, but since the coil removal it's a free-for-all and my doctor has said that as I can't take the combined pill (due to migraines), I need to start HRT. I can't start it until gynae sign off on it though, so I'm just trying to hang on until then.

The stuff we have to go through for the crime of being a woman

Many sympathies @CyanCrystalViolet - all sounds deeply unpleasant.

Oh yes, how awful, @CyanCrystalViolet . Menopause has been a blessing really. Haven’t had a facial spot since 2010 when I had my last period, which was (or felt like) 10 months of uterine lining all coming out in one go. Like “OK, this is the last, so let’s make it one to remember”. And while I’ve never had migraines (apart from painless visual ones), I always got a headache the day before I came on. (Apols if TMI.)

Fingers crossed something works for you. x

Spoke to my SIL yesterday and as usual got off the phone and onto Amazon to buy these two books. We’d been talking about end-of-the-world post-apocalyptic novels and she recommended these, both the first part of trilogies, I think. Yay!

Ooh! I love post-apocalyptic novels! Thank you - titles duly noted.

You might like Nora Roberts' trilogy "The One".

So many trilogies! Thanks, I’ve made a note. x

Apparently I already own Station Eleven, which goes to show you how overcrowded my Kindle is.

Heh, as long as you haven’t read it and forgotten, Brit.

I used to love an apocalyptic novel, but I just can't stomach them any more. They feel too close to home, and I start weeping pathetically. I can about cope if they have an outlandish element, like aliens or some such, as they don't feel so real then.

Station Eleven is BRILLIANT. I love all of her stuff.

Added the other two to my list of books I might like.

Station Eleven is on my list of "For god's sake woman, you must read this! You know you'll love it. Pull your damn finger out!"

I'm pretty sure that I've read A Lovely Way to Burn but I went and read the blurb and now I'm not so sure. I think that maybe I've read No Dominion which is the third in the series. I really like Louise Welsh so I need to check and see what I've read and what I haven't read and put it right.

I spent the day with a couple of old school friends. One who I was in contact with for quite a few years after we left school and one who I saw for the first time in well over thirty years at our sixth form reunion in 2020. The first one, J, we're convinced that the universe keeps making sure that we find each other. When we started secondary school we used to be on the same bus some days. One day I said I'd give her my phone number and it turned out my phone number was the one that she and her family had had at her old home. We stayed in touch for six or seven years after school and then lost touch, but the universe introduced her to my friend, E and we were back in each other's lives again. I remain certain that if we fell out of touch again (not gonna happen) the universe would get us back together again.

The second friend, D. My god, I adored her at school and she is so bloody beautiful. Still! Anyway, we were together for over six hours, got to a restaurant too late for lunch because we'd lost track of time, then we were there for two hours because we lost track of time. We just talked and talked and talked and talked and I had the BEST time. I love those women!

Well clearly Station Eleven has to be next on my list...

That sounds wonderful, Mouse!

It really was. We've all changed and matured so much - thankfully, we'd be strangely weird and dull people if we hadn't matured past 18 years old - but at our core nothing has changed. The essence of us I guess. And we only vaguely slagged off one person giving a lie to the notion that all girls'schools are cesspits of bitching. I can't wait to do it again.

I've got Station Eleven, unread, on my bookcase. I love dystopian and post-apocalyptic novels so I think I'll pick it up next.

Looking forward to hearing what people think of Station Eleven.

'Station Eleven' looks like something I'd probably enjoy so will look out for it.

I'm currently nearing the end of 'Star's Reach' by John Michael Greer, which is set 400 years into the future in a world where being found to be using fossil fuels gets you executed on the spot. The main character is a 'ruinman', one of a guild who break up old buildings for useful materials. He is looking for a place called Star's Reach, where he might find some answers about what happened in the past.

It's one of Greer's early novels and the writing isn't great, but the ideas are very good. There are shades of 'Riddley Walker' to the style of language and descriptions of what that world is like.

Dressmaking was good today. There was a moment when I thought I'd murdered the sewing machine but it wasn't my fault and it was all sorted by our amazing tutor. After a lot of pattern cutting and pinning patterns to fabric and cutting fabric and, and, and... I think I feel confident enough to do a bit of the sewing here at home. So far, there's a pocket side on each of the four leg parts of the trousers I'm making. My intention is to use the pocket pattern to insert pockets into every piece of clothing I have, skirt, dress, and trousers, that doesn't already have pockets and then my life will be almost complete.

@MouseMinge My intention is to use the pocket pattern to insert pockets into every piece of clothing I have, skirt, dress, and trousers, that doesn't already have pockets and then my life will be almost complete.

Oh my goodness, MM, yes, yes, yes! You could probably turn that into a profitable business.

You never know! I really like the pockets for these trousers, not too wide but wide enough and with good depth. You'd almost think that they were men's pockets! I think I'll try something that I'm not too attached to first and if that works, it's all systems go.

I had some leggings and wanted a pocket for my phone so I cut out a breast pocket from an old shirt of my husband's - the kind of
pocket with a flap and a button - and sewed a button to the inside of the waistband so I could hang the pocket from it by the buttonhole. Worked quite well.

I have these 'work shorts' that I bought from Lidl. I have two pairs. They have big pockets, with Velcro flaps, can conveniently hold mobe, cards, keys etc. They may not be the most stylish, but they are bloody useful.