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…

We seem to be a community of songbird rescuers, don't we?

We do. Very right and proper!

This is adorable - https://twitter.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1738896069319098658

This never happens! (It's usually closer to being a Diwali cactus.)

Lovely little clip of the parrot, Vegemite, I've sent it on to various people who'll appreciate it.

Lovely parrot!

And good to see you @DeanElderberry but sorry you’ve been having a rubbish time.

Hope everyone’s Christmas has been peaceful and involved some delicious food.

The parrot clip was sent to me by my brother, SinnerBoy. Good to know it's now doing the rounds.

Lovely peaceful day here yesterday, just me and Mr Veg. The duck confit was delicious and so were all the trimmings.

We had suckling pig.

Never had that. What was it like?

I'm sorry that there have been shit times @DeanElderberry . I hope there are going to be lots of not shit times coming to make up for it.

My Christmas puree was: roast carrots, roast swede, roast parsnips, roast potatoes, red cabbage, brussel sprouts, lots of peas, bread sauce and gravy to add more liquid and flavour. 10/10 would recommend to others with a case of the swallowing difficulties. It was a good day in a village that couldn't be more picture perfect. They used to film lots of Midsummer Murders there, so... etc. I also got presents I was not expecting at all, one being a pure cashmere scarf. I was a little overwhelmed. And then, tonight, while I was snuggled up with Todd, after looking at me lovingly (it's difficult to see the difference between lovingly and murderous but what came next indicated the former) for a short while, he sat up and rubbed his nose against mine. It was a little moment of bliss.

Vegemiteandhoneyontoast Yesterday 09:16

Never had that. What was it like?

It's roast pork, this one was stuffed with seasoned Bulgar wheat and dates, basted with some sort of apple concoction.

Here are some pics:

Yum! It was dessert central yesterday and today we finished off the trifle (highly recommended for those with swallowing issues @Mouse). Just the rest of the pecan pie and mincemeat pie and rum and raisin ice cream to go!

I'm glad to hear from you @DeanElderberry, but sorry to hear of your bad times.

Everybody's Christmas dinners sound lovely!

I can report that our slow-cooker brisket was a great success. We cooked it for 8 hours on Christmas Eve, put it in the fridge overnight, then just reheated the cooking liquid for a couple of hours on the day until it reduced into a beautiful intensely rich gravy. The meat was gorgeously flavoured and fall-apart tender.

We also did the roast potatoes the day before and reheated them. Parsnips and pigs-in-blankets got air-fried. Also, for the first time ever, it occurred to me that I could cook the Christmas pudding in the slow cooker, which was actually way less work than microwaving it!

Feeling quite proud of ourselves that we achieved Christmas dinner without a big oven. DH has declared that if we ever afford to re-do the kitchen, we won't bother with a big oven - just have 2 or 3 mini-oven air-fryers!

Also, had our first ever same-present cross-over situation!

We'd seen this product advertised online (thanks Instagram!) and thought "oh, that's a great idea for {branch of family}" so we ordered several, one for each member of that branch. All wrapped up a couple of weeks ago and sent off for present exchange - the usual family method being to leave a big sack of presents for each branch at FiL's place because everybody passes through there at some point in Nov/Dec., thus ensuring that every branch get their presents under the tree in time.

So last week, DH brought back our sack of presents from {branch} and began stacking them under the tree. At which point, I noticed that one had the very characteristic shape of, yes, the same thing that we had bought multiples of for them.

Oh dear!

You’re going to have to tell us what it is now!

That looks amazing, SinnerBoy!

I'm curious to know what the cross-over was too. Over the years in this house it's been a regular to get duplicate gifts. It's nearly always books and one year I was given three copies of 'In Pursuit of Paradise' by Jane Brown. This year it was two copies of 'Femina' by Janina Ramirez. I'm going to swap it for Tolkien's 'The Father Christmas Letters'. My dad used to do that for us, though the letters weren't' as grand as Tolkien's. It all fell flat the year the family dog disappeared, in the days when dogs used go out on their own. Jack was old and rather senile and one day he got out and we never saw him again. In my dad's Christmas letter that year, he wrote that Jack had gone to visit Father Christmas and Mrs Christmas said she liked him so much that he could stay forever. It was passed around the family and everyone who read it immediately burst into tears.

That's heartbreaking!

Oh that's sad!

A couple of years ago I gave my DDIL Michelle Obama's book for Christmas. She reminded me that I had also given it to her the previous Christmas. Oh dear...

Very late evening all.

My first chemo yesterday and what a very, very long day it was. I had to be there at 08:45, woke up with the whole of my chest so painful I realised I wouldn't manage the 15 minute walk so ordered a cab and got a female cab driver - huzzah! The first thing on the list was to have a PICC line inserted. I waited until just after 10 for this to start. Gah! The nurse was absolutely lovely despite her using "yourself" and "myself" a LOT. Seeing that I was in pain and wobbly, she got me a wheelchair. I was a bit worried about possible pain, but apart from the local anaesthetic and as we all know that stings quite a bit, there was nothing. I'd worried because I'd looked it up and saw that the line went all the way up my arm and over to near my heart. Whoa! But of course, there are no nerves in the veins. D'oh!

Then to the chemo ward and comfy chairs and lovely nurses. Got there at about 11:30, first thing is two hours of pre-hydration. It started at 13:00. There were two important things they needed to know from my consultant and she was unavailable until then. That was followed pretty quickly by the chemo itself, then the pump at home chemo was put on to my PICC line and I left just after 17:00 a bit knackered! The next infusion will be quicker because I won't have to have such a long time with the PICC line, just a new pump put on. Today I'm tired but that's all so far. Apparently it will be tomorrow or Sunday when the other side effects will come on, if they're coming on. One can but hope I'm lucky. I have anti sickness tablets and three days of steroids which will all help. I won't be so scared next time either as I know what to expect. I did an awful lot of napping while I was there and my t-shirt "Fuck You Cancer" was admired by one and all. We were all cancer patients after all and of the same opinion. We also get a cute little bag to hold our pump and a goody bag full of nice things to make us feel a bit better about ourselves.

10/10 would not recommend. 10/10 not as awful as you might think.

That sounds gruelling, but definitely a 'could be worse' experience. Glad it hurt less than expected.

Am now going to picture all your little cancer cells doing this.

Fingers crossed for maximum effectiveness @Mouse.

Glad you've got the first one out of the way, Mouse. A vote for maximum effectiveness from me too.

Joining in the good wishes @MouseMinge!