Thread 17 - TalkLair: "Okay, first of all, what's with the outfit? Live in the now, okay? You look like DeBarge."

[RasaSayangEh]

(Previous thread 16).

Spring is springing, daffodils blooming all over our LairGarden, which have not all been picked by a neighbour's kid...

In the TalkLair, the hearth is glowing, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, cosy rugs are down on the floors looking a bit stained by cat hairball regurgitation. 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 over there in the corner of the cave…

I hope MrRasa has an entirely uneventful trip.

As do we all, I'm sure. I didn't even risk a trip to Dewsbury on Saturday! 😁

He arrived safely in San Diego yesterday. His luggage is still in Schiphol

Conference started the afternoon of his arrival, so he attended the welcome session in a 'Yoda Best Dad' T-shirt which was the change of clothes he had in his hand luggage 🤣

Schipohl is funny, if I have a long turnaround, they often lose my luggage. Less than an hour, never!

At least it's in Schiphol. About 35 years ago my ex- and I went to the Maldives and Sri Lanka. We took one check-in bag between us and two pieces of hand-luggage. The check-in desk labelled our case for Madras (MAA) instead of Male (MLE). Madras duly lost it, so it never turned up. No big deal, we just bought what we needed in Colombo.

When we finally got the case back - in London, late February - the taxi driver who brought it from the airport said "I dunno what you've got in there, mate, but it smells like a corpse." Readers, he had not thought to mention to me that he'd put a whole Stilton (a gift for his friend at the embassy in Colombo) in a checked-in case.

Brilliant!

I have generally been fortunate with luggage but did spent three days (out of a one week holiday) in a very small town on the Amalfi coast with only the clothes I’d been wearing to travel.

Fingers crossed but my luggage has never gone missing. It sounds like a nightmare and seems to be quite common.

@Gonners A whole Stilton! 😂

We've only ever lost luggage a handful of times. And IIRC all of those times were transiting via Schiphol, transit times irrelevant

Our previous family trip to Malaysia, our EK flight out of Manchester was severely delayed due to bad weather. We'd only had a short connection time in Dubai to begin with, so I was very concerned that we would miss our connecting flight. I asked a flight attendant and she confidently replied, "If it's also EK, you will make it." When we landed, we had maybe 30 minutes to make our connection - they had airport staff stationed at intervals all along the route, a separate security queue just for our group of passengers, and we had to run. They closed the plane doors as we dashed on board. And our luggage also made the connection.

Ha! Virgin in Miami were utterly brilliant when our connecting flight on Air Mañana from Mexico was operating on flexible Mexican time. Obviously there was no such thing as transit, because it's so much more efficient to make people enter the bloody US through the immigration scrum and then exit again. A smiling woman checked us in, ushered us to the front of the emigration line, then took us to their Clubhouse Lounge, poured us gin & tonics, collected us 10 minutes later and escorted us to the plane. Our luggage also made it!

Afternoon all. Today has been full on. Due to GP's new prescription ordering thing and my own opinion that I had more slow released morphine than I did. I didn't have any this morning. Talked about it with the carers, and we could get it by the end of the day for my night time dose and I could just keep pain at bay with my liquid morphine.

But no. Apparently they'll take me to the hospice to manage pain because: THERE'S A BED! I hardly had a chance to get a few essentials - but not a charger but I'm sure I'll get a spare here - together when the ambulance came to pick me up. I'm currently on my bed in my ensuite room, back fully glass door open onto our garden and my part of it with benches and a large parasol. And a waterfall. This place is amazing.

I've had simple soup and white bread and butter. Tomorrow for lunch I've chosen a smoked salmon and asparagus tartlette! I'm in heaven and watching tennis.

I'm so lucky that the stars aligned this morning and I'm so delighted to be here. And dogs can visit and we can all have a nice sit down. As soon as my wheelchair arrives I'm off to art classes and all that sort of stuff. This is a spa break!

Dog visits as well? Sound perfect.

Gosh, that was fast. I hope it's everything you need it to be for however long you are there. Thank you for sharing your journey, FMB.

Echoing what the others said @FagsMagsandBags, your place sounds absolutely wonderful and thank you for bringing us along in your story

Oh my, it sounds wonderful - in the circumstances. It excellent that dogs can visit, too. I wish you peace and every comfort possible.

Dog visits are the perfect finishing touch!

So glad the hospice came through; it sounds like exactly the right place in the circumstances. And dog visits! And there is sunshine which is a bonus.

@FagsMagsandBags how brilliant that they had a bed for you today, it sounds absolutely amazing. And dogs too, it doesn't get much better than that.

That sounds everything a hospice should be, Fags. Thanks for the update.

That sounds great, FMG. It's good to know such places are around.

I just came to say, have you all seen the Terf Bunny One shorts from the bunny rescue thread? Both parts are here:

nitter.net/ZoeNope

Boiled egg this morning and I thought I'd missed breakfast but I got it at 10.30 so I think it's rolling!

I was unaware that Boy George was at war with JKR. He will lose!

Help! I just rescued this little bird from Mochi. What species does the thread think it is and what should I do? I’m guessing it’s a juvenile something…

I have put it in a small box for now.

Annoyed bird.

Definitely juvenile (which makes it tricky to identify). Robin? Although it looks a little large for that unless you have small hands. The beak doesn't look finchy, which rules out a few options.

I'd put a little dish of water in the box with a bit of soaked seed (or muesli) and some soaked mealworms if you have them. If not, virtually all birds will eat damp breadcrumbs or cooked rice as an interim option. It's reasonably feathery so can hopefully feed itself rather than you having to stuff its beak.

In the first few minutes I thought the little critter was going to expire on me, but it has perked up slightly - sort of sitting up now. DDs are slowly feeding it droplets of sugar water with a pipette. Mochi is still prowling around in search of avian entertainment, so I really can't release it yet, not that it is looking ready for action anyway.

I'm all out of mealworms but I have rice and birdseed.

Aargh! No liquids, please! You can drown them. If you can grind some porridge, or mealworms down fine and feed it with a Calpol syringe, it would be best.

It's a blackbird fledgling. Should have a tail and be able to fly properly in 3 weeks.