Thread 16 - TalkLair: "Well, I'm not exactly quaking in my stylish-yet-affordable boots, but there's definitely something unnatural going on here."

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 15).

Another year over, a new one just begun...

In the TalkLair, the hearth is glowing, the walls festooned with tinsel, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, rugs are down on the floors, the tree is twinkling with fairy lights (and possibly being clambered on by cats). The denizens of the lair are a welcoming bunch though, always eager for general chit-chat on all manner of topics.

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey Christmas roast beast over there in the corner of the cave…

Are you in England/Wales? Because if so, the fuckers want reporting.

They do and I am. I'm unclear on what the law is, but thought hunting with dogs was illegal. Seeing that pack of dogs chase the terrified fox and deer over the fields enraged me and I wish I'd got a photo, but for some reason I didn't.

It's all a bit foggy in my head, but possibly drag hunting with hounds is still legal?

Drag hunting iwith dogs s legal. But not animals unless it fits one of the specified exemptions ( https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/37/schedule/1 ). Which they mght be able.to claim - deer for human consumption, fox to prevent damage to livestock/game birds.

Not a very effective law, really

Drag/trail hunting is all very well and good until an unfortunate animal comes into sight. But I think you're supposed to shoot them, not encourage the pack to chase them.

Thanks for the info. When I've seen them it's always been on Thursday afternoons in winter, so I'll make sure to get a photo/film clip next time.

Re hunting deer for human consumption, plenty of shooting goes on in the area so there's no need to hunt them with dogs. The dogs they use are huge and nothing like the pictures you used to see on place mats. The one time some of the dogs got into the garden I made sure to have something sharp with me, just in case.

Exactly @Gonners, I can just about (barely) get the argument that it is fun charging about on horses with hounds following a dragged scent, but it's the fucking countryside. What are the chances some poor animal gets flushed out by the commotion and then ends up being the prey? It's a ludicrous distinction.

It’s ridiculous. Hunting with dogs needs to be properly banned.

An ex- of mine from aeons ago - lovely man - inherited a decent-sized estate and allowed the hunt to cross his land on the strict condition that the hounds were under control, if necessary leashed or driven around it. The first time he saw them after a fox, he banned them. This rather put paid to his wife's ambition to become Master (Mistress? Lady Master?) of Fox Hounds.

The hunt rely on the pretence that they're a bit part of country life but an awful lot of farmers absolutely hate them, not so much because they care deeply for foxes but because the hunt don't give a damn about farmland and will ride over it causing all manner of damage because they're entitled arseholes who like murdering small animals in really disgusting ways. I remember it being banned - clearly not completely - and being overjoyed but the fuckers still exist and need serious telling.

In other news I had to spend Thursday night in hospital and far too much of Friday as well while I waited for a blood test and then for the results and then had to have another bag of potassium before I was allowed home. I missed The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills because of that! Thankfully I didn't miss The Real Housewives of New Jersey. I've become slightly addicted. The stay was due to being low in both potassium and magnesium. I was seriously pissed off. I have grown to really hate being in hospital. I had a bad night's sleep because no one was around to prescribe me some codeine and I was in a lot of pain - it got prescribed at about 10 on Friday - and the food was absolutely minging. All of my stays in hospital last year were food free because I couldn't eat it so yesterday was my first proper experience of hospital food in well over a decade. I had fish and chips and the fish was grey. GREY! Awful. Anyway, moan, moan, moan. I got home at just after 5pm yesterday which was a huge relief and my Francis was very pleased to see me.

Oh that’s rubbish, especially the being left in pain and served grey fish and chips! I suspect hospital food would make me very miserable.

From childhood visits, I remember my uncle going out with his gun occasionally if foxes were going for the hens but I think maybe fox hunting with dogs just wasn’t really a thing in west Wales.

Sorry to hear about you having an unwelcome hospital stay with lousy food @FagsMagsandBags :-(

I had a rather nice day today. I ran a workshop on the subject of line breaks at my house, for six other people from my poetry society. They were a lovely bunch, the poetry chat was great and there'd been a sale on Pepperidge Farm cookies at the supermarket a couple of days ago so many cookies were eaten.

Sorry to hear you were so unwell @FagsMagsandBags and the horrible hospital food making the experience even worse! I'm very glad you were able to go home quite quickly, must have been so lovely to be back in your own space with cat snuggles.

Your poetry workshop sounds excellent @Britinme (I'm useless at poetry but would have been top-notch at devouring cookies).

Sorry to hear that you've had to go back to hospital, Fag's, but glad you are sorted. My stepma got out 2 weeks ago, after a 3 week spell and she said the food was atrocious, too.

Vile and unappetising, always cold. My dad was taking food in for her. She had grey fish, with thick stodgy batter, as well.

Perhaps the NHS has a central nasty mush supplier?

I wonder if claiming to be vegetarian might result in better food, as it can do on airlines?

The worst hospital food I recall was after I had my appendix out in 2010. I hadn't eaten for two days and they brought me one dry cheese sandwich. It was disgusting. They also hadn't changed the 'Nil by mouth' sign on the door so I nearly didn't get a cup of tea in the morning and only did so because I howled at the tea trolley people.

The only time I've been in hospital for any length of time since I had my first baby in 1978 (when they made you stay in for a week even for a perfectly normal delivery) was in 2017 in Greece when I was stricken with diverticulitis o holiday and chucked off a cruise ship into hospital in Athens. Luckily we had excellent travel insurance and the company put DH up in a nearby hotel. I was on nil by mouth and a drip for ten days but the nurses kept offering him what would have been my food and he said it was very good. By the time I left I was allowed to eat and I can say the burgers were good.

I was also wondering whether the vegetarian food may be less awful but I’ve never been in hospital so I have no actual experience of hospital food (except the Costa in Moorfields when taking my mum for eye injections but that doesn’t count).

After nil by mouth for ten days, that burger must have tasted like the Food of the Gods, @Britinme !

I think if you have to be in hospital, it's worth a flight to Venice or Trieste and a train to Udine. Mr G had a heart valve replaced there and the food was excellent! Lots of veg and salads, good bread, fish, chicken and a permanently topped-up fruitbowl. Also, when he woke up in recovery, absolutely starving, the nurse spoon-fed him a bowl of chocolate pudding.

That sounds wonderful, Gonners. I can't match it but when I had to have the septum in my nose re-set, after the operation my nose wouldn't stop bleeding. The nurse at the time looked at me thoughtfully and said 'I think you should have some ice cream' and then brought me a big bowl of it.

Ice cream cures many things, I find.

It may or may not have been a result of the ice cream, but the bleeding did stop.