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…

Wait, Brit, so in the US, you actually have boys chucking newspapers onto the drive, just like in The Simpsons (and countless other shows)?

The next thing, you'll be telling us you have a white picket fence! 😀

Foolish newspaper boy! Your favourite ways of spending a day out with your friend are pretty much mine too, @Britinme

Slight Monday downer. In to have a new pump but my potassium levels are too low. I'm waiting for the results of this morning's blood test to see if it's better/worse and then a potassium infusion which will take a couple of hours . I haven't brought a book or anything with me because I thought I'd be in and out this morning.

On the plus side I slept very badly last night so I'll just have myself a nice nap. Oh and fingers crossed I get to stay in the cancer unit with my reclining chair and not on the emergency floor!

@duc748 - no picket fence - too much maintenance! But yes, that's what the paper boy does. If it's wet or snowy the paper is in a plastic bag.

Snow!

Okay, so it’s just a very few teeny, tiny flakes that stand no chance of settling and it’s due to change to rain soon anyway. But still, snow!

It's alternating between settling and melting here. So annoying!

I had an image in my head of a blond boy on a bike, chucking newspapers onto people's drives, which way pre-dated the Simpsons or David Lynch, and eventually remembered it was the US series Dennis The Menace (not Dennis and Gnasher), which I must have seen as a very young child. In fact, it's probably the earliest TV show I can remember, even before The Lone Ranger! Screened in the US 1959-63, maybe a bit later in the UK?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JayNorth#/media/File:Dennis_the_Menace_North_Anderson_Henry_1959.jpg

Poor dog being tangled up in the fence for two weeks! Very glad it was found.

Actually one of the things that seemed weird to me when I first came over here was the frequent absence of fences, even between next door neighbours. We have a fence at the side and a fence at the back (we are on a corner lot) between us and the neighbours, but no fence between us and the sidewalk (pavement over here means the road surface and people get very confused if you say pavement when you mean sidewalk).

In our previous house, which had a very large lot (one and a half acres) there was no fence between us and the neighbour on either side - we just all knew where the boundaries were.

The lack of obvious boundaries does sound strange, but then I wonder if fences and walls everywhere may seem weird to people who aren't from the UK.

The temperature here has suddenly plummeted and I see people are having snow. Anyone got snow yet?

Snow here this evening. It stopped snowing this afternoon and doesn’t look like it’s going to start again. I wanted to take Kasper out in it but alas he was asleep.

Here on the North East Kent coast (aka Thanet, innit) we've had a weird day of intermittent flurries of something almost-but-not-quite-entirely-unlike-snow. It wasn't snow, but it wasn't hard enough to be hail or wet enough to be sleet and it didn't settle for more than a couple of minutes at a time. The wind was blasting in from the East - all in all, nasty and pointless.

Fairly nasty here too, but after the last couple of months any day that it isn't raining is a bonus.

Yesterday I had my first people for a meal since Covid - nice neighbours (the people who sent me the turkey and ham) who came to help me take the Christmas decorations down. It worked out well - a pleasant couple of hours round the lunch table followed by a much more efficient takedown than I'd have been able to manage even in three times the time. I've promised them that I'll reciprocate when they need something done.

Today I got all the boxes stowed away in their cupboards and ate the lunch leftovers. Menu was Jerusalem artichoke soup, smoked salmon pate, marinaded pork with mushrooms and cherry tomatoes, and lemon posset, so the remains were easy to spread over the day. I also offered a cheese board and fruit bowl, but no takers! I was nervous beforehand about managing the timing, but feel very encouraged.

The only bad bit was silly Rosy going all panic cat again - I didn't even expect her to be in the room with strange people this time (put both cats in the bedroom for the duration), but she still hid for hours after they'd gone and refused to eat her dinner. Silly wee beast. I hope if I have a few more visitors in future she'll eventually realise that they are not a threat to little cats.

The back of DH's truck is actually the flat surface underneath that bank of snow.

@DeanElderberry Menu was Jerusalem artichoke soup, smoked salmon pate, marinaded pork with mushrooms and cherry tomatoes, and lemon posset ...

Bloody hell, can I come and eat at your place? No need to bother with the main course.

That seems a very good exchange for help with the xmas decs.

No snow here. MaBint sent photos of a few flakes, but barely enough to settle. Certainly nothing like Brit's snowpile!

Evening all. What a day!

First. It snowed! Huzzah! I'm unsure how much it snowed but Snoop did send me a short video of it snowing in her garden and that was lovely. I'm not sure, because. What a day.

So, got to the hospital at 9:30. Told pretty quickly that there was a problem with my potassium so that would have to be sorted and no portable chemo jar for me today. Another blood test to see if anything had changed since Saturday and then left to wait on what the doctor(s) wanted. I had a nice nap in my lovely recliner. At 12 I get taken to the emergency floor, thankfully not a&e but an ambulatory care area. Or something. An uncomfortable waiting room for only 15 minutes but I was a bit pissed off by then. Then through to a smaller area and then about an hour and a half later a three hour infusion of magnesium followed by a four hour infusion of potassium. That was supposed to finish just before 9pm with the unit closing at 8pm when the lovely nurses were leaving and frankly a harridan came to take over. Rosie, my nurse told her that all that needed doing was for PICC line to be undone, flushed and a blood gas done to make sure potassium levels had increased. Harridan said "Well they'll (whoever they were) will have to do that because I'm not." Okay then, cuntholio. Rosie decided to do my blood gas straight away - it's about 8.15 now - while we both looked at each other like "Who pissed on her chips!". She then sped up the last bit of the titration so that it finished quicker. Rosie stayed until 8.30pm just to help me not have to deal with a deeply unpleasant woman.

I have to back there tomorrow for a blood test to see if I can now have the chemo jar. Is it okay to bring in some chocolates for Rosie? She also kept me in cuppa soups all day because I was bloody starving. I got up late, no time for mango sorbet so hunger was making me more of a bitch than I otherwise would have been, but thankfully mostly in my head.

Wow Mouse, what a hard day and what a bitch of a nurse (not Rosie obv). I hope you have a good night's sleep.

Chocolates are absolutely fine as a gift - and take a few laxative ones for the harridan.

Well thank goodness for Rosie! That sounds like quite a day. Fingers crossed for tomorrow’s blood test showing the right levels.

The snow here was teeny tiny flakes and no settling to speak of. I would like Brit’s snow please.

I'm glad chocolates are okay. I don't like to overstep with that sort of thing but she went above and beyond and deserves it.

The other good gift is a note of thanks, with specifics of good practice, than can be included in her annual review.

Hooray for Rosie and that other one should find another job - H M Revenue & Customs are always recruiting. What a horrible day for you apart from Lovely Rosie, and the nap.

Sounds like she wandered in from Border Force by mistake.

Chocolates is a lovely idea - I don't know how strict your hospital is about covid these days, but the Marsden still specifies that anything intended for sharing should be individually wrapped - so, Roses or Celebrations rather than Maltesers. And a thank you note is also a brilliant idea.

Yes, this! I was extremely unwell with lithium toxicity one time, became very confused and couldn't coordinate my limbs or see straight, slurring words etc. Managed to phone an ambulance after about 2397649794 failed attempts at getting my fingers to dial 999. It was was bloody terrifying. I can't remember how the paramedic managed to get in, I think I must've managed to crawl to the door, but he picked me up and kept soothing me telling me it was going to be fine, that he had a friend with bipolar disorder who'd had lithium toxicity several times and it was all going to be ok. I don't know if anyone else was there, I just remember that all I could see was him and how kind and reassuring he was to me when I felt so horribly vulnerable. Everything goes blank after that including the subsequent days in hospital, but I never forgot his kindness so wrote a letter of thanks. Apparently he was really pleased and got some sort of official acknowledgement for his good practice.