Thread 11 - TalkLair: “The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles.”

[Kucinghitam]

Whoops, missed the filling up of the previous thread! (thread 10).

Although the nights are gradually drawing in, the new lair of JTT escapees is all cosy and homey inside. The hearth is glowing, the walls covered in dubious artwork, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, 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…

Britinme · Today 13:44

And happy Mumsnet birthday to us!

(My daughter made it in the summer...)

I've caught Mr Veg's lurgy and am at home feeling crap. Lit the fire and then found a strip of cherry bark so put it on the fire and was impressed and pleased to see the bark instantly curled up into a tight spiral. A new pleasure!

Goodness, a year already!

It really is great here, best of both worlds sort of thing. The thing I liked about the Old Place was that cosy everybody-knows-everybody feeling, but we get that on these threads (and to an extent, on FWR). For everything else, the sheer size of MN means endless expertise and entertainment and points of view.

I like the smaller with added hugeness stuff we have here. I can get lost in some threads or just pop in and pop out again.

I had a couple of friends around today for a two-hour, get nearly all the last bits of why are there still some boxes unpacked after nearly a year in your "new" flat, Mouse, you twat, session. I now have a small pile of things to find a home for, a need for my bed to be moved - we're going to haul in the husband of one of the women to help us (them, I can't do heavy lifting) move that. Then I need to buy some lovely storage baskets/boxes and voila! Oh and get the carpet cleaned because it's not in the best state which is not down to me, it's how it was when I got here; have some shelving put up in the kitchen, I'm going to put up some small ones myself; and finally, find a slim sectional sofa so that I have something for friends to sit on that aren't not very comfortable rattan dining chairs when they come to visit. It has to be slim and sectional because the stairs and then the turn to get to my front door, are narrow as anything.

All in all a good day. I shall be topping it off in a moment with some Baxter's lobster bisque.

Oh, if anyone fancies something funny but very gory to watch on television, The Boat on BBC1 is like nothing I've seen before and a bit bloody excellent.

My unexpected televisual enjoyment recently has been Clarkson’s Farm on Prime. Normally I think Clarkson is a bit of a twat, though an entertaining one, but I have really enjoyed this series.

Apparently, Vinnie Jones has got a similar type of programme too, more nature based, no farming.

Haven't actually read it yet so maybe it isn't literally about what it says, but the title is enough to make me boggle at some people's apparent obtuseness.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4947404-i-just-learnt-that-black-pepper-is-not-made-from-the-dried-seeds-of-bell-peppers

The weather here is miserable, strong wind and heavy drizzle, with a short flurry of sleet. I cleverly wore my fleece, to walk the dog, instead of a waterproof jacket. I've had a horrible cold and felt loads better today and feel like I'm having a relapse now!

Re the black pepper thread, I'm mainly laughing at the pompous little git who thinks she knows everything but can't spell Al-Qaeda. Repeatedly.

(Incidentally the edit was to add the word "repeatedly", not to correct a mis-spelling ... though that would have been amusing.)

My allergies are out of this world at the moment. Yesterday I went out for a walk and when I returned I started sneezing. And sneezing. And sneezing. I couldn’t even see, my eyes were tearing so badly. I took cetirizine and a second dose of fexofenadine, plus extra Dymista spray (steroid+antihistamine) and I still couldn’t get it under control. Today I’m a bit better, raided my allergy first aid kit first thing, but feel totally wiped out and still sneezing periodically.

Apparently I’ve got another 40 weeks before ENT can see me. Of course I might drop dead before then since I’m constantly ODing on antihistamines.

I'm mainly laughing at the pompous little git who thinks she knows everything but can't spell Al-Qaeda. Repeatedly.

i’ve been similarly entertained by people who can’t spell Israel.

A few years ago my GP let me know I could take around ten loratadine a day if necessary and be absolutely fine which was a big relief. My allergies are not awful like yours @VictorianBigot but when they decide to have a flare I need to eat the antihistamines to get it under control. Fingers crossed for cancellations that speed up your consultation.

Thank you @MouseMinge. My GP said I could take fexofenadine up to four times a day (helpfully they only give me 28 tabs at a time though, for 1x daily) but I wasn’t sure about cetirizine et al., so that’s a relief at least.

Hello new thread!

That struck me at the weekend. it's quite a thing. I never imagined I'd spend much time on MN. I don't miss it either.

I am having a second attempt at a cheesecake. Made one the other day, but from a very 'wholemealy' recipe book, all wholemeal flour and muscovado sugar and oats. Don't want to lose that entirely, but making small adjustments this time; mixture of plain white and wholemeal flour, caster sugar instead of muscovado.

On TV recommendations I'll put in a shout for Kleo on Netflix (German). It's a bit like Deutschland 83. But funnier.

Deutschland 83 but funnier sounds just my sort of thing. Our next German thing is meant to be part 3 of Dark, but we've left it too long since parts 1 & 2 to have the foggiest idea what's going on or who/when anyone one is.

I re-watched S1 and S2 before I watched Dark S3. It was worth it. Such a great show. Kleo is lots of fun! I did start a thread, and it turned out several other Mumsnetters had watched it, and they all loved it.

I was really into Deutschland 83, and Deutschland 86 to a lesser extent. By Deutschland 89 I didn’t have a clue what was going on anymore and gave up.

I’m going to get Netflix again so I can watch the real life Squid Game.

Yeah, I was the same. The first series was brilliant.

She is NBU.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4947590-or-is-cat-hating-new-neighbour-batshit-crazy?

Those neighbours are indeed demented!

Bless their little mentalist cotton socks. Batshit.

I had my exercise bike test thing today. I am at the healthy enough just about stage on one marker and healthy enough, doing quite well, on another. I'm being loaned an exercise bike so I can do half an hour a day between now and the operation to up my markers and make me healthier still. I want to be as fit as possible in order to get through the operation and not just survive but recover well. All in all very positive, including a fit of the giggles from myself and the doctor when I was masked up in some contraption and told him I felt as though I was at a fetish club. Schrodeigner's (sp?) cancer is actual cancer it just hasn't metastasized yet. So, there's that. I'm not particularly bothered because the tumour will be removed along with the whole oesophagus which should mean no cancer left. If there is I'll have radiotherapy and/or chemo, so that's for the future and all I'm focused on now is having the op and eating actual solid food again. I got a call from Guildford before I set off for the test today and have to see my consultant there tomorrow, which is a bit of a pain but I really like him and I'm hoping he has some good news for me. If he's going to tell me that I have cancer in my stomach and have to start on radiotherapy before the operation I will not be best pleased. One of the stitches that holds my jej triangular tube holder together has come undone so I can get that sorted while I'm there, so not a totally expensively annoying journey!

In other good news, I had a real craving for scrambled eggs so decided to go for it. Put a lot of lovely Kerrygold butter in the saucepan, melted that down, whisked a couple of eggs, put those in and then added full-fat milk and cooked the eggs, keeping them runnier than I usually would. Oh. My. Days! It was heavenly. It was like almost eating solid food and I seasoned it with just enough salt and pepper (a lot of both!) so that it was a little bit of heaven in my mouth. I'm going to have some more tomorrow and I'm already looking forward to it.

Blah, blah, blah. I'm now counting down the days until my surgery! Obviously, I don't know exactly when that will be but "the beginning of December" is what the consultant is after and that starts next week, so I'm hoping it won't be too long.

What a lot for you to deal with - but you sound positive. Scrambled eggs are great, with plenty of butter salt and pepper for me. Glad you have found something you enjoy. I imagine (maybe wrongly?) that it’s easier to find sweet food (jelly, custard, ice cream, mousse etc) that you can eat than savoury food and that must get a bit tiring after a while.

And our first anniversary. Fancy that.