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…

Oh that’s horrible @Vegemiteandhoneyontoast - lots of sympathy from me. My eyes often get swollen and scratchy from hay fever these days and I long for the time it just made me sneezy and runny nosed!

Lots of sympathy from me, @Vegemiteandhoneyontoast . Sounds deeply unpleasant.

I am not an early riser, but I have to be at the local airport in two hours so I'm catching up on emails while I drink my cup of tea in bed. I keep a small electric kettle in my bedroom and a box of teabags in my bedside drawer, and I take a cup and a small jug of milk up every night so I can make my morning tea without getting out of bed.

You can take the woman out of UK, but can't take the UK out of her...

Sympathies for the horrible conjunctivitis vege. Does the "viral" part indicate that it's due the a virus ie Covid?

Does the "viral" part indicate that it's due the a virus ie Covid?

So I've told, yes. It's not something I've experienced before, though. Just had a quick peek in a mirror and saw a Chinese temple demon looking back at me.

JK Rowling's just 'liked' one of my posts.

It's so horrible isn't it @Vegemiteandhoneyontoast. I remember waking up on xmas day one year, when I was a child, and the infection was so bad that my eyelids were glued shut. I really hope it clears up soon for you.

Ooh! Can I touch you?

<creepy>

I think I'd probably shit myself with joy and disbelief if JKR liked on of my tweets. May I ask if that's how you reacted @Vegemiteandhoneyontoast ?😁Sorry about the horrid conjunctivitus. It's a very sucky thing. That said - and I am a big old freak - I remember being a bit of a sufferer from "sleep" in my eyes, as my mum used to call it. Funnily enough, so did my brother although his was worse than mine. Anyway! If I woke up with my eyes glued together I used to really enjoy the work of gradually "breaking them open" and seeing how much hard gunk I could collect. It will come as no surprise to anyone that these days I enjoy watching pimple popping and ear wax removing videos. I'm a weirdo baby, so why don't you kill me. 🙂

I thought it was commonplace in childhood; I remember it well. My Mum used to bathe my eyes in boracic acid crystals solution. Which now reverts to boric acid in Google. But, same thing (not borax).

MrG has frequent outbreaks of really sore lower eyelids which only clear up with serious-shit prescription eyedrops. I mentioned this to the optometrist when he went for a check-up 2 weeks ago and Lo! He had a look, said it looks to him like "ingrowing lower eyelashes", referred him to the local NHS ophthalmology clinic and he had a letter within a week with an appointment for tomorrow.

The optometrist did say that he'd get a much quicker appointment with a referral from an optometrist than with one from a GP, which is worth knowing.

Very common in spaniels, that.

Um.

Can I just check how many legs MrG has?

@MouseMinge I'd shared one of her posts but wrote a few words of my own. JKR's 'like' is the only interaction the post has had so I'm surprised she even saw it, which makes it doubly strange. Anyway, I was very pleased and might even take a screen shot for posterity.

Still got gluey eyes but think the swelling and redness might have reduced a bit. I laid in bed this morning with a wet flannel over them and that was soothing.

I'm glad your eyes are improving, that's good news.

I was just on the phone to Snoop who told me that because she was very cross and angry today she went to a thing that one of her fellow Help The Aged volunteers recommended/goes to. Fight Club. About 25 women and 5 men. I bet the men were a bit scared! It was basically a bit of Thai boxing with made exercise stuff all done to very loud drum and bass. I'm so proud of her!

Tomorrow, all things being equal and me finding the right amount of morphine to help with current chronic pain, we're off to the cinema to see A Quiet Place: Day One. As well as L'upita Nyonga, who I bloody love, being in it, it also has a cat who is said to be magnificent. Add to that the fact that I love the Quiet Place films and it should be a decent night out.

@NoBinturongsHereMate - MrG has the usual number of legs (so boring!) but his very hairy ears suggest spaniel ancestry.

@Vegemiteandhoneyontoast - I went along to the ophthalmology clinic appointment this morning and the very handsome and charming consultant had a thorough look at MrG's permanently gluey eyes and scarlet, swollen lower eyelids - both of which, naturally, had cleared up overnight (presumably entirely for the occasion) and were sparklingly bright and clear. He diagnosed probable blepharitis and basically recommended what it says on the NHS website about it.#=

He was quite extraordinarily nice about it. All he said (to me) was that if it comes back, I should take a photo. This had never occurred to me, chiefly because this was the first day in years they'd looked so healthy!

@MouseMinge that Fight Club sounds quite something!

@Gonners isn't it just typical that his eyes cleared up for the appointment. Glad he finally has a diagnosis after so long. I looked up blepharitis and it's not what I've got. There's no crustiness on my lashes and my eye lids aren't sore. It's mainly that my eyes are constantly red and runny. I'll keep using the eye wash and gently dabbing away the gunk and hope it gets better soon. It's an almighty bore.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5111669-its-general-election-day-for-the-playmobil-people-in-our-house

Some alternative election coverage

My son and granddaughters and I went out to watch the fireworks this evening, in Veterans Park near here. They were very spectacular but I felt so weird watching them raining scarlet and gold fire from the sky and everybody is having a good time, the music is patriotic, there’s the smell of funnel cake and fireworks in the air and vans are selling soft serve ice cream and lemonade, and I’m sitting there thinking about the children in Gaza with red and gold fire raining down on them in shells destroying their homes, and damn little food even if they have a roof. And the children in Ukraine having the same experience but without the starvation. And the children in Sudan with the starvation but not the shelling. It’s such a fucked up world.

I understand that reaction to the fireworks, it's something I've thought about quite a bit when there are a lot of them going off. When we lived in Amsterdam, our flat backed onto a huge quadrangle of gardens and because they were only allowed to let off fireworks on NYE the whole city went nuts. It was so loud and flashy I remember thinking 'This is like a war zone'. Never seen or heard anything like it.

When I went out to spoil my ballot today I ran into a couple of people who both knew about the conjunctivitis. On being asked how my eyes are, I raised my sunglasses and one said 'Oh dear!' and the other stepped back slightly and said 'Crikey!'. It is improving in that my eyes aren't running as much and my eye lids aren't as stuck together in the morning, but they're still alarmingly red.

I totally get the reaction to fireworks. It used to surprise me that fireworks remained a big thing after WWII because it must have been uspetting to a lot of people but still we do them. On the one hand I love them and find them uplifting, on the other what on earth are we thinking?!

I made it to the cinema last night and A Quiet Place: Day One is excellent nonsense. I love the franchise so much and the cat(s) in this film is an absolute dote.

Sorry to read of gummy eyes and ingrown lashes. I'm down South at my folks', stepmam is in hospital after breaking her femur, which is exceptionally crap.

She's doing well, managed to get into bed unaided a few times now. She's in a recovery unit, it's better than the hospital. Dad's taken her friend in to see her now and we'll go back after dinner.

I'm in the garden, surrounded by dinner scraps. There's been a little gang of starlings and two wood pigeons, one of which came right up to my feet; I slowly opened the phone on the camera and it waddled off behind a tub.

I saw a tree creeper, first time for about 30 years!

Hope she heals OK, Sinner. Femur's a big one to break.

I saw a tree creeper at a motorway service station recently - perhaps they're having a population boom.

I'm on a ferry at the moment. There are 2 people near me - he's around my age, not sure if they're mother & son or grandmother & grandson - who are clearly from Essex. He is pure Modern Estuary, and she sounds exactly like the Joyce Grenfell character who won a rabbit in a raffle.

Your poor mum, Sinner, I hope she heals well and quickly.

Poor step mum! I broke my femur when I was a teenager and it was extremely painful - sympathy to her.

Thanks, she's doing a lot better than the surgeon said, they expected her to have a shoulder height walking frame permanently, but she's onto an ordinary Zimmer. She's able to get herself into bed, also not possible, apparently.

Just warming the motorbike up to go back to theirs now.