Thread 13 - TalkLair: “I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.”

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 12).

Looks like spring has sprung! Tulips, apple blossom and early hay fever are upon us. In the TalkLair, we remain hunkered down keeping cosy and warm, because "something something 'til May is out". 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…

Vegemiteandhoneyontoast · Yesterday 11:31

SinnerBoy, tonsillitis isn't like a cold, surely your daughter will still be feeling unwell on Wednesday?

Well, quite. If she turns up ill and contagious with paracetamol...

Britinme · Yesterday 12:04

Green Gables is a reconstructed house furnished as it was during the period of the novel, with a visitor centre about the books and the author. There is a L M Montgomery birthplace museum nearby too. It is nothing like a theme park.

OK, dimwit here ... is it based on a real person?

@SinnerBoy - no, Anne of Green Gables and the sequels are classic children’s novels, written around 1908 but set maybe 20 years earlier about an orphan girl sent by mistake to a brother and sister on PEI who really wanted a boy to help on the farm. They are still charming and readable books, probably more appealing to girls than boys and aimed at readers maybe ten to twelve years old at first. They start with Anne as a young girl and follow her through to adulthood. They’re also kind of a love letter to PEI.

In Murdoch Mysteries , which occasionally weaves real people from turn of the century Canada in with its Station House 4 police crew, Constable George Crabtree meets L M Montgomery, and when, later, her book is published, is convinced that he is the inspiration for Anne!

Maybe not, George.

@DeanElderberry is he red haired and freckled?

He is not, and that is one of many objections raised by his colleagues! Orphan raised by strangers in a small community (in Newfoundland not PEI), imaginative and wanting to be a writer were, as I recall, the basis of his claim.

I've just started a MM marathon re-watch and am on season 5 but haven't got to that episode yet. It must be coming up fairly soon because George (who is lovely btw) hasn't yet embarked on several of his important personal developments.

Hello everyone I'd dropped off the thread in early May but hadn't realised so I missed a lot including Mouse's long time in hospital. I hope you're OK now MM. Lots of other conversations missed too.

MN could only suggest reloading the App, which worked for the other threads I got dropped from, but not this one. Heyho it's nice to be back.

Hey @PoppySeedBagelRedux ! Recovery is slow but it's happening. No walker today when I went to the chemo unit to have my PIC line flushed and re-dressed. So nice to be there for that and not treatment. So lovely to see some of the nurses I got to know so well in the first months of this year. One told me I was definitely putting on some weight (my face is fuller!) and looking well. I kept walking around the place and getting water from the cooler and saying to Snoop (who came with me) "Look at me, walking like a normal person and not being horribly dizzy or breathless." Looking like an almost normal person feels so good. I also felt good today in terms of how I looked which is the first time in bloody months. I got a lovely button-up to the neck Victorian looking blouse this week that fits me. I had that on under a pair of loose dungarees, the waist held by a big belt because otherwise they would be hanging off me and too big/long. To top it off I had a all round headband because my hair is not good and a Miss Selfridge strawberry patterned cardigan. Oh and Doc Martin bright green big old sandals. When I got hom I realised that if I'd suddenly been sent back in time to the 80s I wouldn't have looked out of place. I can't wait to wear the outfit again tomorrow! I love it! I did about five chores today as well. Breathless and tired after each one, and they were mostly small. Give the bottle part of the fridge a wash, wipe bird poo of Snoop's car's passenger door - the one I use 🙂These are big for me at the moment and it felt good to be able to do more of them than I usually would. I'm proud of myself and happy that I'm seeing real signs of getting better. It was nice spending time with Snoop on the terrace too. Francis joined us and is much more loving to Snoop than he was before he didn't have me for a month. He didn't pine for me and I love that he as so well looked after and loved by various people that while he was delighted to see me when I got home and is really a bit too clingy since I returned, he was also mostly perfectly happy when I wasn't here. Good lad!

I hope everyone is well. We've all be a bit quiet or maybe I'm missing updates. Love to each and every one of you!

That sounds like a very positive day @MouseMinge and you certainly achieved more than I did today!

Excellent Mouse.

I've probably mentioned it before but when I was telling my oncologist that I was still tired 2 years after my starting treatment, she said "well of course the treatment is the equivalent of a series of major operations", which no one had mentioned before. So be kind to yourself for a long time.

Home a day early owing to two husbands having sorted out a two-night stay while not consulting the wife whose home we were staying in and thus being unaware of a previous arrangement... However, no problem as it's only 150 or so miles from home, so here we are and the cats are glad to see us. At least, his cat is delighted and mine bit me to ensure I understood she was offended at our having gone away. We've unpacked the car, sorted the dirty laundry and got two loads in already. We had lunch en route so it's snack supper tonight and a good night's sleep in our own bed...zzzz

Did you get to the chocolate museum, though?

NO! The bastards were only doing pre-booked tours and we couldn't wait for the next one to be available. We did go into the shop and buy some nice chocolates though :-)

News from my side of the pond - hot off the New York Times website:

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/05/30/nyregion/trump-trial-verdict

Donald J. Trump has been convicted of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal that threatened his ascent to the White House in 2016, part of a scheme that prosecutors described as a fraud on the American people. He is the first American president to be declared a felon, a stain he will carry as he seeks to regain the presidency.
Mr. Trump was convicted on all 34 counts of falsifying business records by a jury of 12 New Yorkers, who deliberated over two days to reach a decision in a case rife with descriptions of secret deals, tabloid scandal and an Oval Office pact with echoes of Watergate. The jury found that Mr. Trump had faked records to conceal the purpose of money given to his onetime fixer, Michael D. Cohen. The false records disguised the payments as ordinary legal expenses when in truth, Mr. Trump was reimbursing Mr. Cohen for a $130,000 hush-money deal the fixer struck with the porn star Stormy Daniels to silence her account of a sexual liaison with Mr. Trump.

I've just been sitting in front of my TV going "Oh. My. God." at the news. I didn't think they'd find him guilty, not because I thought he was innocent, the man is morally bankrupt, but I just thought he'd get off. Looking forward to the sentencing. Not long to go!

@PoppySeedBagelRedux I managed more today. To my local pharmacy and to my GP's surgery. Both of them are close to each other and both are close to me. Pharmacy closer, surgery about a five minute walk away, so not a huge distance but I managed it today by myself feeling safe, taking it slow and it felt amazing. I now know that I can easily get to my two closest supermarkets, slightly further away but not far away and I feel like I've concurred Everest or something🙂

I called Snoop when I got home to tell her all about it and then Whatsapped another couple of friends. By then, though, I was really tired. Sleep has been erractic all week so I'd had another not great night's sleep but better than previous nights, so there was that tiredness and then the tiredness of my brief adventures in the outdoors! As I was typing messages to them I kept nodding off, then I'd get back to the message and think "Where was I? The strawberry cardigan? I'll take it from there!" I decided I'd read through the messages again but not until tomorrow to see how much - if any - sense they make!

There's been a lot of progress this week and if feels good. I feel good. I've been out alone for the first time in weeks and weeks, possibly nearly two months if not more. As Snoop said to me today, with the outfit I've put together and the tiniest amount of make up I no longer like like an ill person. It makes me feel SO much better! I'm genuinely full of happy contentment at the moment and if feels good!

In other news today my neighbour E and I each sat at our front doors (opposite each other, our inside front doors) and nattered away because we haven't really spoken since I got home last week. She's such a lovely young woman and I love talking to her. She did most of the looking after Francis while I was in hospital and oh my giddy aunt, he adores her! It's so lovely to see. He loves going up to her, he pushes his head against her so she'll rub it. A lot. Then she's telling him how much she loves him and it's SO adorable. I love that they have such a lovely bond. It mean that he didn't pine for me at all while I wasn't here because he was getting so much love. He was still pleased to see me and my little fat boy fat is still a little too clingy since I've been home, but it was adorable seeing his love story with someone else today. Her boys, Todd and Gus (the rag dolls) didn't come down to say hello because they were too busy sleeping which was disappointing, but then again I got to see Francis, my little Fat boy Fat all loved up and you can't say fairer than that. 🙂

I made one mistake when I went out and it was animal-based. I bent down to fuss over two lovely Shelties. I then went to get up and realised that I was afeared of moving, needed to get my backpack off and crawl along the pavement to just past my gate where the wall was at a height where it could help me balance along with the help of the poor owner of the shelties who had asked for none of it.

Must not fuss small animals. Bigger dogs only so that I can lean on them when I need to get up!

Right. Bedtime!😴

I thought that Trump would probably be acquitted, as well. Glad though I am that he's been convicted, it's stirred his fanbase into a frenzy; his website has crashed, because of all the rubes trying to give him donations.

I also thought Trump would escape a guilty verdict no matter his deserved it is but the joy of him getting his just desserts is horribly offset by the wash he can manipulate it into helping his campaign. It’s also really depressing that the Republicans have bought into the cult of Trump wholesale.

The Guardian report that Trump will no longer be Mr Trump in the Telegraph. I’m aware that this is of no consequence to him but interesting nonetheless (not sure if the link will go to the right place).

I’m sure it’s just me being incompetent but it always takes me a few edits to make links work here. I really should preview posts!

I agree with @SinnerBoy and @artant - I'm utterly delighted that Trump has been convicted, but at the same time feeling terribly down about his dedicated cult of loons who will be driven to even more frenzied devotion.

Have a look at the multitude of articles in the Mail and the comments beneath. It's really quite disturbing.

That's delightfully bonkers of the Telegraph.

Great to hear you're making huge progress, Mouse. I thought independent shopping would be some way off after your recent adventures.

That's delightfully bonkers of the Telegraph.

I wouldn't say it's bonkers, I'd say it's reasonable enough, and actually pretty good practice. But what that short piece doesn't say, strangely, is whether the Guardian itself follows a similar rule, considering the Graun always set so much store by the own bloody Style Guides.

Removing a title if you think it gives prestige or dignity is, indeed, reasonable. It's the bit after the 'if' I find funny. Especially as they appear to have been calling him Mr up to this point rather than President (which I believe is a title former US presidents keep for life) - so he'd already been downgraded in contravention of their style guide.

I find the Guardian’s style guide really annoying. They write Nice instead of NICE for example. It makes me feel sick.