Thread 9 - TalkLair: “Russell's teapot goes on being round”

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of previous threads (thread 8).

The new lair of JTT escapees is all cosy and homey; we have truly settled here. Outside, the garden is blooming with summer flowers - should bloody well be, what with all that rain. 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…

Fred (when not on valerian).

Quite an elderly gentleman by the time that photo was taken.

Oh wow, how striking in his bandit’s mask!

Badger is at the Dentastix and breakfast-refusing stage of the local in-season bitch’s season, and today I again found myself saying to him: “Just because she shows you her arse doesn’t mean she wants you to fuck her”, about the cat. Although maybe she does, she’s a very sweet solicitous kinda gal and they are great friends, much more so than any of the other cat/dog combinations in the house.

Soon it’ll all be over again until spring. And fucking hell, isn’t it getting dark early? It’s the equinox next week! How depressing.

Oh, Fred is lovely!

And fucking hell, isn’t it getting dark early?
Isn't it just! On the bright side, at least it's no longer getting light at 4:30 in the morning here (East Kent) but I think we need to get ourselves towed down closer to the Equator.

Fred is such a dude.

No luck yet with dental care but hoping for something tomorrow night. Or Friday. I'm also hoping that fentanyl will help with the pain, if the pain is there, tomorrow.

@MavisMcMinty I've been taking codeine as I'm prescribed it for arthritic pain and it's touching it but because it's co-codamol I'm in danger of overdosing on paracetamol. I remember getting just plain codeine back in the good old days and it was great. You could just take as much as you needed and not need to worry about fucking up your liver.

Anyway, given that I've spent a lot of the day in a not great mood I cheered myself up - immensely - by booking a ticket to go to the Chanel exhibition at the V&A. I'm going at the beginning of January because we all need cheering up in January and it's costing me precisely nothing because - and I love them so much for this - they have free tickets for people on benefits. Once I did that I felt more like doing work so I got on with the whole making belts out of the bottom of cotton robes for a friend.

We spent today driving almost 400 miles to NJ, much of which was through torrential rainstorms. It was not fun, but we’re here now . They have a pool and it was lovely to see the grandchildren playing in it. The five year old is now really confident in the water, albeit at a doggy paddle level.

I hate driving in heavy rain. Glad you've made it and can now relax.

I'm finding it interesting reading these 2 threads in parallel:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4894979-roman-empire-female-equivalent?

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4895448-constant-internal-dialogue-is-this-normal

I was taken aback by the men and the Roman empire thing. I've since been thinking about what is it I think about. I think I go through phases. Sometimes serial killers take up too much space but that's definitely lessened in recent decades. Hollywood history/films and fashion history (now with added "I want to make that!") have been big ones for most of my life. When it comes to Adrian and Edith Head they overlap beautifully. Interiors are often part of the mix too.

I asked DH the Roman Empire question and he looked bemused and said "maybe once a year". An outlier maybe?

I must ask MrBint. I suspect it's not infrequent, but probably less than fictional futuristic empires (although that's work, so may not count).

This is my latest lottery win house. Not that I'm ever going to buy a lottery ticket...

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/139920674?

That's gorgeous. I wouldn't mind a nose round the similar neighbouring house as well.

The staff you'd need, though!

Headingly is a nice area of Leeds too.

Must get pretty busy around there on match days.

That's a very nice house - I wonder is there any regulatory reason for not turning the smallest upstairs bedroom into a second bathroom? I always covet places with a laundry room.

I have spent the last several hours clearing out the corner cupboard of doom beside the cooker. In my defence, the upper shelf is level with my eyebrows so hard to monitor, and all the (legible) use-by dates were in the 21st century.

Still, many things have gone down the sink / into the garden (spiders and compostable foodstuffs) / into the bin / into the bag for the bottlebank. Some foolishly optimistic habots have been identified. Shelves and turntable doohdahs have been: swept; wiped; sluiced with bleach; dried.

Horrid hints from yesteryear prompted me to put some mouse bait in the back corner and resolve never to buy ginger etc in squeezy tubes ever again. And to enclose anything nibble-able in a glass jar.

Have taken a break - am utterly knackered. Another hour should see it done.

I like the parquet in Kuc's house.

I too have been on cupboard duty, and new handles have transformed, I tell you, my kitchen! 😀
For a modest outlay. Nickel plated brass. The scabby old chrome ones can be seen on the side.

Very smart!

The new handles look really good, duc.

Funny start to the day today. I was at the main place of work and looked up to see a young man coming around the side of the house into the garden. Gave him that brief jerk of the chin that says 'What do you want?' and it turned out he was a shepherd and had come to check on the sheep but when he got out of his vehicle to open the gate, his dog had locked the car from the inside. He borrowed my phone but couldn't get hold of anyone to bring spare keys so, after he'd finished laughing at him, Mr Tric drove him back to the farm to get the spare key. I love the way that Mr Tric laughs, it's completely un-self-conscious and so loud. He sounds like Emilio Estevez in 'Repo Man'. I've mentioned his laugh to him before and he often doesn't seem to even realise he's doing it.

Don’t want to tempt fate, but there’s a whole parliament of owls hooting their heads off outside, and although occasionally the dogs rush to the (firmly closed) front door, there’s been no furious barking!

Wish I knew why they hate owls so much, they can’t have ever seen one.

How delightful to have a parliament of owls outside your house! We should have them as our actual parliament and get rid of the clowns who are currently there.

I got to Bloody Guildford in plenty of time and was given pethidine instead of fentanyl which was nice. I didn't come to during the procedure which is always a bonus. On the slightly less positive side, there was no dilatation because they were met with a polypoidal tumour so I'm still not able to swallow well. Still, looking at the photos included with my notes it's hardly any surprise I'm not swallowing well. I'm amazed anything can get down there.

On the positive side, the nurses were lovely and while at one of the stations, waiting for a connecting train, I met a couple of dogs who were a mix of cocker spaniels and Cavalier King Charles spaniels and they were just adorable. They licked all the stress out of my nose and chin. Also, the weather was good for faffing about between trains and buses.

Oh, that's a bugger, Mouse. Any idea of next steps yet - were they able to grab a biopsy while they were there or do they have to go back to do that?

Hurrah for well timed spaniels, though. They sound just the thing.