Thread 14 - TalkLair: “What The Hell Are We Supposed To Use, Man? Harsh Language?”

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 13).

Summer should be well under way, but the chilly wind, grey clouds and pouring rain beg to differ. Looks like 2024 continues to be a washout - on the bright side, the Tories got washed out too! In the TalkLair, we remain hunkered down keeping cosy and warm. 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…

<polishes halo>

I'm so happy for you Gonners! Enjoy! I always wanted to be Geraldine James.

And Charles Dance was so beautiful

I see that Alain Delon has died:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2n6y4g700o#:~:text=French%20film%20giant%20Alain%20Delon%20dies%20aged%2088&text=%22He%20passed%20away%20peacefully%20in,and%20become%20a%20virtual%20recluse.

"Delon also made headlines in February of this year when French police seized 72 firearms and 3,000 rounds of ammunition from his home. Prosecutors said he did not have a gun licence."

Arf! I hope I'm causing that much trouble at the age of 88.

Yes!

Has anyone seen the house viewing thread? I'll drop it here, for your delectation and education!

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5140500-worse-house-viewing?page=1

And this, too:

https://terriblerealestateagentphotos.com/

This is brilliant.

The Falkirk Wheel, the only fully rotating boat lift in the world.

https://x.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1825407345213534616

Vegemiteandhoneyontoast · Today 14:06

This is brilliant.

Isn't it? I think you'd need nerves of steel for your first go...

Magnificent!

A design like that is what the term 'elegant simplicity' is made for. I love it.

Love that boat lift!

I'm quite cowardly and phobic in lifts (it's the enclosed space thing - when MrG was incarcerated on the top floor of UCLH I used the stairs) but I'd absolutely love to go on that boat lift!

I used to design tipplers like this. Not as impressive, but a similar rotary principle. The one in the vid might even be one of mine, it's certainly a design of my old company.

We drove past the Falkirk Boat lift recently - it's MASSIVE. I mean, obviously it is but you don't really see how big in photos. It's also close to the Kelpies - enormous metal sculptures of horses' heads, which are stunning and, again, until you see them in the (metal) flesh, you can't really understand the scale.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kelpies

The Kelpies are fabulous - I walked around inside them and it's fascinating to see the way they are put together.

I love that boat lift, could watch videos of it forever!

Meanwhile, in elderly parents news: A couple of nights ago my dad "escaped"* from the apartment while mum was out food shopping, but he got home before she did and went straight to bed. Next morning mum got a shock when she saw him at the breakfast table - he had a huge swollen lump on his forehead and a horrendous swollen black eye. (The photos she sent us were really awful)

"What the hell happened last night?!!"

"Eh? What? Nothing?"

So they spent the whole day at the hospital getting him checked over, X-rayed, CT-scanned. Discharged with no apparent lasting effects, but a follow-up appointment because his vision seems off (although this could be unrelated to the head injury).

Nobody can quite work out whether he fell, walked into something, or was assaulted.

*He's not a prisoner BTW, just likes to roam whenever she goes out, with varying consequences.

Oh lor'

The friend I mentioned before who, with her family, has spent most of the year worrying about a deeply unco-operative elderly relative has been relieved, after a series of escapades of that sort left the deeply osteoporotic elder with a cracked vertebra and compromised (to put it mildly) ability to walk, by the medical profession stepping in en masse and insisting on their going into a nursing home. Elder not happy but conceding the necessity.

How upsetting, kuc! How does she know he escaped? could he not just have fallen over at home? Glad he found his way back in any case

We know he was injured while out, because they have CCTV (like a Ring camera type thing) on the front door - so she could see that he went out fine and then came back with his injuries.

Latest photo she sent this morning shows that as the swelling has gone down slightly on the bad eye, the bruised colour has now spread across to the other eye. Which IIRC is pretty normal with forehead injuries. So now he almost looks worse.

I do feel a bit frustrated that my mum still can't seem to grasp that he's like a big toddler, and can't be left unattended any more. But I also understand that she's frustrated because he's like a ball-and-chain when she just wants to get on with things. She's been asking whether she should just lock him in when she goes out - this doesn't seem like a good idea to me, I mean he could quite easily do himself an injury at home too (like a couple of years ago when he slipped in the bathroom and broke his wrist, and couldn't remember doing that either).

A classic is old blokes (possibly women too, it's been blokes I've heard of) climbing out widows then they've been locked in. If your APs have a balcony, don't assume he'll do a rational risk assessment if the drive is telling him to go walkabout.

How upsetting Kuc. I hope they can figure out how to deal with this before he does something even more serious.

Yeah, that would be bad. They live on the 16th floor 😱

I know. Hence the warning.

I was grateful every day that my father didn't wander. It was the first question the couple of times he went into respite or whenever a new care professional called by.

You should send your FIL over for a visit and the pair of them could fashion a rope-ladder, with perhaps a chute for going down.