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…

I really sympathise, Kuc. My wife was 6 months pregnant when this happened. It's indescribable, but we persevered and now have an 11 year old hooligan.

Thanks for the Tommy's link @NoBinturongsHereMate, I will pass it on to DBro.

And ((((@SinnerBoy and family)))) I'm so sorry to have brought back your sad memories

Thanks, no bother. I saw your post soon after you wrote it and felt a bit crap about replying then. As I said, we have our daughter, it just took a bit of time. I was really knocked at the time, but my wife took it much better than me.

I'm so sorry to hear your sad news Kuc, and yours too Sinner.

It's me, Vegemite, using an old account I found as my other device has suffered a catastrophic malfunction and I've lost all my stuff.

SinnerBoy, that's awful, I'm so sorry to hear that happened!

Thanks, it was a long time ago now, but can still make me feel a bit cack. I'm perfectly fine, now.

Hi thread, wonder if you all remember me?

So sorry to hear about your family Kuc, and your story too Sinner. I remember back in the 90s getting the phone call in the early hours of the morning that my sister's little girl had been stillborn. My sister had asked me to come as we were quite close so I drove to the hospital to see them, she and her husband were in a room off the ward with the little girl in there with them. Probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do, coward that I am, walking down that hospital corridoor in the middle of the night. She was beautiful, the spitting image of her father, thirty years later and it still makes makes me sob to think of her, her brothers are now all grown with families of their own, sometimes me and my sister will talk about her and what might have been.

Pike!! How's it going?

Sorry to hear of another family tragedy.

Hello Pike, on parole?

And sorry to hear another tragic story in that vein.

Not parole Sinner, early release to make way for some Facebook crims.

😀

Hey Pike!

all these sad stories - my poor mother wasn't even let see my older sister, or to give her a name. Mourned her until she died, more than 60 years later.

Pike! I was thinking about you only the other day and trying to remember if I had your email address - update, I think I have but I'm too much of a lazy arsehole to have checked yet - because I missed you. It's so lovely to "see" you.

Food update news type of a thing. On Wednesday I thought about satsumas which I haven't eaten in over a year because it had become impossible. Yesterday I had to go to the hospital for a blood test and popped into the Trose on the way back. No Satsumas - I think Christmas is the time for them - but lovely big easy peel tangerines, Waitrose own so only £1.50 for six. I came home and had one. Oh. My Giddy. Aunt! It was so, so good. Snoop popped around for a vist a bit later and I gave her one and she declared it was the best she'd had in ages. I feel lucky to have bought the best of the best at a slightly bargain price. And yes, I ate it without any issues at all and it made me ridiculously happy. I'm not sure if they're on my list of allowed foods but whether they are or not they will be eaten from now on.

So many sad stories. It must be so hard to get past a loss like that.

And that’s excellent good news @MouseMinge - weirdly I scored some fancy satsumas from Ocado last week (Spanish but not the type we get in the run up to Christmas which are what I think of as proper satsumas). Not a bargain but they were very tasty.

Pike who? No, it's lovely to see you back.

And great tangerine news, even if it wasn't a satsuma. Clementines seem to have largely taken over the small orange market, and I very rarely find a satsuma.

I'm so sorry that so many have dealt with such a difficult tragedy. Pike I've never been in our position but I did go to the funeral of conjoined twins, the daughters of a friend. It was all such a horrible mess. One would have definitely not survived for longer than a few minutes and the other might have survived but then her survival - my friend's - fell into question and the pregnancy had to be terminated. On the morning of the funeral, which I'd helped with, she showed me a polarioid of the twins and they were holding each other. They were fully formed but not old enough to survived ther termination and so utterly beautiful. It's one of the saddest things I've ever seen.

Pregnancy is so much less stable than we allow ourselves to think but there is such a beauty in the love those of you not the parents and those of you the parents have shown to the wee soul who didn't get to live and those who suffered that loss. It's been sad reading these things but, as I said, somewhat beautiful too.

I'm not keen on clementines, they tend toward being less easy peely than satsumas, tangerines and mandarins. @artant I had an Ocado delivery yesterday if I'd bothered to have a look - to be fair I wasn't thinking of citrus fruite when I made the order - I'd have bought those. I might do another order next week!

Oh wow, hello @Dotellhimpike! Where have you been?

And I'm so pleased for your successful tangerine-eating @MouseMinge, it sounds like you're making a fabulous recovery. I confess I can never remember the difference between tangerines, satsumas, clementines, mandarins - they just all go in the mental category of "small orange-ish-coloured citrus."

My little nephew has been given a beautiful and simple Buddhist cremation, just DBro, SiL and the monks present.

Apologies again to everybody for bringing back memories of such sad times. As Mouse says, it is a sobering reminder that even in the 20th/21st centuries, pregnancy and birth are still such uncertain things.

So happy for your tangerine news @MouseMinge it must have tasted awesome. I've seen the faces of patients who after not being able to swallow any food for at least a year, being fed solely through a tube directly ino the stomach, finally get their first taste of Devon Custard. It never gets old seeing that level of joy.

Clementines are the ones that heaven been rebranded Easy Peelers (presumably as the only way to get people to buy them). Spherical, usually disappointing, the hardest to peel.

Satsumas are the quite flat ones that have a layer of air between skin and fruit so really are easy to peel. And the sweetest.

Tangerines are in between in shape, and tasty but not.quite as sweet as satsumas.

And mandarins come in tins.

A simple cremation with monks sounds calming - I hope it's brought them a little peace.

The ones I buy are called Cuties and are very small and not that easy to peel. They are nice and citrusy though.

I wonder when the practice finally changed so that mothers who deliver stillborn babies are allowed to hold them. I know my niece's first baby was stillborn about 34 years ago and she was not only allowed but encouraged to hold him and keep him with her for about a day before he was taken to be prepared for burial. I think that's a far more compassionate way of dealing with a harrowing event.

I think supermarkets now call all small citrus fruits easy peelers unless they’re actual satsumas in which case they’re properly labelled. Satsumas are delicious. Actual clementines (not just any old easy peelers, as only clementines will do) are excellent for cake.

In the town where I used to work there was an excellent greengrocer who had excellent satsumas when they were in season. I often picked the ones wrapped in paper for nostalgic reasons. I was very sad when the greengrocer retired and the business closed.

It always gives me an Eagles earworm, because seedless easy peeler fits perfectly into Peaceful Easy Feeling...

I love actual satsumas but hate easy peelers.