Come on in, chat thread

[BlackeyedSusan]

Good morning. Come and chat. Somewhere to escape to if the rest of life is too overwhelming..or just to relax.
Help yourself to

I hope that everyone who has viruses atm are doing okay. I hope ofwarrens littlies are okay too.

hello lovely people, been so tired of late and not up to posting - please give all your pusscats a hug and a headsniff from me.

My epilepsy tablets are a bugger for weight gain, along with one of the heart tablets I take, so I try and stick with low-ish carb, lots of veg, and also the ubiquitous Mumsnet massive salads (is there a recipe?) evil grin.

When I looked out this morning, this was what I saw (apologies for crap photo) - USNS Paxutent (a supply ship) and the tugs CMS Boxer, Wrestler and Warrior - the tugs are reversing the ship to its mooring for refuelling, etc.

Hello all
I see I'm not the only one wanting organisation tips.

Today has been dull. Still feverish and achy and had a sleep this afternoon. The cold has reached the point of blocking my ears. Ugh.

I have done some reading but screen glare is a bit bright.

I am in awe of people who can do 5:2 and low carb!

LilyRed SHIPPING PORN KLAXON !!! 😍
Is that Plymouth, perchance? I'm not too far from you, and also in a good spot for ship spotting.

@crackofdoom - noo, I'm up in Scotland We get a lot of naval shipping up here because Faslane is just up the Clyde about 15miles as the crow flies. Occasionally see the subs around Arran.

My Grandma and maternal great grandparents came from Old Plympton however - My Grt-Grandfather was in the Royal Marines - and then they all moved to Portsmouth where many years later my parents met (Dad in Navy) so I have a bit of a thing for shipping too.

I love the tugs, the power they exert is stupendous - I think these are the ones that stopped a huge drill rig ship escaping its moorings just along from us in a force 10 storm over the winter!

Have you seen those new super tugs? There's one been bimbling around down here called the ALP Defender...it's very sexy looking and space age!

But our resident tugs down at the port lack the strength to deal with some serious incidents, and it turns out there are no big strong super tugs stationed anywhere in the SW any more. This we discovered when the Russian ship Kuzma Minim ran around on our local beach a few years ago (crew hadn't been paid for ages and weren't keeping a watch, even in an onshore gale 😬), and every tug in the area was desperately trying to pull her off and only juuuust succeeded.....

How's everybody?

I worked at home today and I'm knackered, even though my cold is mostly gone, thank goodness.

Hope ofwarren and family are recovering.

Hope Barrow is getting on well with Saxenda. I confess I bought some treat food today. Haven't done that for ages but never lose weight anyway so thought I might as well.

I have found the gas meter at the back of the cupboard. Need to send the reading off now.

Next job is finding the key so I can check the electric meter.

@BlackeyedSusan

I have found the gas meter at the back of the cupboard. Need to send the reading off now.

Next job is finding the key so I can check the electric meter.

Tis thanks to MN I did this.

I may have broken the door of my meter cupboard today trying to open it with the socket attachment on my cordless drill. In my defence, I'm convinced I was never given a key 😬

I could not remember which meter was mine. tracing the pipes in the direction of the four flats... does not seem to match up with the meters.

I don't think I have had my meter changed to a super duper updated one. but the meter that seems to be attached to the pipe that goes to my flat is labelled with next doors number. but you can not see all the bloody pipes as they disappear behind stuff.

anyway, we have had a meter reading fairly recently so it'll be fine.

sadly we have a yearly tariff - cheapest I could find, so ours went up and practically doubled in January - aargh!

Doesn't help that DP or MIL refuse to dress properly for the winter and just turn the heating up - MILs rooms are generally at 26c because otherwise we get woken up at night because she is cold... my answer would be use your bloody electric blanket then as it would save us a lot of money, but DP panders to it - grrr! I was brought up in old, cold houses so instinctively have a collection of woolly jumpers and cardis for this weather.

I have been using the instant pot jobby to cook a lot as it saves a lot of money too

At least my spring bulbs have started to come out so it looks warmer than it is outside - I will post a photo anon; some of the tulips are bloody weird colours I am sure I didn't buy! I wonder if they got mixed up in the boxes at the garden nursery?

Well today is April fools day, one of the most difficult days to navigate as an autistic person. Today I feel alienated from my twitter and Facebook feeds as I can't work out who is joking and who isn't and I darent comment on things in case people laugh at me

LilyRed I was so excited to go to the flower market in Amsterdam and buy all these beautiful tulip bulbs- white parrot, black ones etc. What a lovely souvenir, I thought. They all came up bog standard red (shakes fist at the Dutch) 😆

Today I am mostly feeling like a shit parent. I forgot DS2 had a non uniform day yesterday, and he was upset. Today apparently I forgot that DS1 had a non uniform day! (Although he IS in y7, so arguably should bear some of the responsibility of remembering himself 🙄). Then I forgot that I'd promised DS2 some money for the mother fucking tuckshop, and he only reminded me at the school gate where I didn't have any on me, so he promptly kicked off.

I kind of feel the school are setting me up to fail- we used to get nice clear paper newsletters, and it was a moment's work to transfer the dates to the calendar- now we get informed by email, which gets lost among all the other emails, or have to log into fucking Seesaw, which sorry not sorry I don't 🙄.

I used to have a really good memory (autistic, not ADHD)- to the point of never having to write anything down, but over the last couple of years it's just....gone. Extended burnout and overwhelm or perimenopause- or a bit of both- I just don't know, but I feel like I'm just....sliding ☹.

ofwarren the way things are, a lot of reality could be taken as a joke. How are you all?

crack I have no memory. I sometimes think I need to leave a piece of paper on the table telling me if it's a work day or not.

Lack of paper is a problem. I read the sample chapter of Stolen Focus (a very good chapter) and it's not just us!

Makes note to self to consider buying Stolen Focus. The paper version, obviously 😆

@EmmaH2020 We are doing OK thanks. Kids mainly back to normal but I'm still very positive on LFT and feel breathless with crap on my lungs. I don't feel achy and weak any more though, I just my chest.

Glad to hear your DC are nearly recovered, ofwarren - hope your symptoms start to ease off soon.

ofwarren glad you are okay, but hope you're fully okay soon.

crackofdoom normally I'd get the paper version. But actually a whole book on it probably isn't for me. So I got the sample chapter and it's very long for a sample chapter, but made me realise I'm not alone in finding that "everything online" spoils my concentration.

Hi everyone, hope you're all okay and recovering from the viruses 😃

I am happy today because I spotted two Common Shelducks whilst out dogwalking. First time I've ever seen this type of duck 😃

Glad you and your kids are recovering okay ofwarren. I remember the chest being uncomfortable during covid. Perhaps steam inhalation might ease things a bit? I hope you feel better soon.

Barrow we saw those in a park a couple of weeks ago and didn't know the name. Are they quite big?

Do you have knowledge of this kind of thing? Last year, I saw birds that look like great crested grebes, but with red heads instead of black or brown. And a sort of multi coloured collar. I showed a few people pics - no longer have them - but no one had seen them before.

Hi everyone im new posting in here i hope all are ok. Im currently down with covid also sending hugs to those poorly. My son also has it pretty bad atm its been a rather rubbish week xx

good to hear everyone is starting to feel better - @ofwarren I had the lurg with breathing problems, that is still not quite right.

My memory is atrocious ; part the epilepsy, which affects my memory, and part menopause. It was good when I had the children, as long as everyone gave me any notes from school on the day they got them, and I wrote everything religiously on my Dataday calendar in the kitchen. Eldest was the worst culprit for last minute stuff.

meanwhile DH totally totally ignored MIL's latest booster appt letter he had stuck to the fridge... until I reminded him - I am not his calendar, but he keeps expecting me to be so - grr!

@crackofdoom - oh I would love to go to the flower market, we pass it every time we go to the Rijksmuseum, but DP has been rather reticent as he knows I will buy stuff! So this year from the nursery and Peter Nyssen bulbs I bought tulips in co-ordinating oranges, dark pinks, maroons and black. Instead I have a weird pale peachy pink and yellow and white - - plus a lot of darkish pink ones, which is ok and lots more coming up, so I live in hope! Maybe I should just cut the oddities and put them in a vase indoors.