30 up The tea room afloat

[UniS]

Welcome aboard.

The first rule of the tea room is - No fisticuffs.
The second rule is - Put the kettle on and lets have a or open a bottle of if its that time of day. Pull a sofa and relax. Parents of one, more (or less) children are welcome to hop on board and chat about anything and nothing. Introduce yourself if new and if you name change give us clue please.

Agree entirely, amber - it IS very useful and interesting to know how your brain and the faceblindness works - I'd far rather you explained it 10 times than were left feeling confused and unhappy. [hsmile]

Serp - well done on your outstanding bits! all round. [hgrin]

Very lovely, Maud - were their Duchinesses in?

We are going to Sydney Aquarium tomorrow for a Sydney MN meet up - can't wait! It's been put off twice already but it's definitely happening tomorrow. [hsmile]

How on earth could I forget to congratulate Unserp! ( any excuse!!!)

Amber - your explanations always make so much sense and it is really helpful to try to understand more.

I am not very good at recognising faces. Once I know who someone is I can generally recall everything that I have ever known about them (places we've been to, things they've said, children's names, work etc.) but it's just recognising them in the first place! New haircuts, clothes, age, weight gain/loss really throw me.

DH, on the other hand, can recognise people instantly. He's the person who sees an actor on television and says "that person was the best-friend's neighbour in such-and-such a programme 15 years ago". It's very annoying.

Since it's getting on for lunchtime can I interest anyone in tomato and paprika soup with some boat-shaped rolls? (with or without ?!? )

Name badges help a lot, yes. But most of the time I just have to guess based on context, clothing, the way people walk etc. Even for family and close friends! Still can't identify which one is my son in a rugby team, because they're all dressed the same and tall and with shortish hair.
Awkward when it's waiters in restaurants - I never know which one is our one as they dress the same too.
Can't even tell if people are from a different ethnic background a lot of the time: "You mean X is Indian? Never realised!" etc.

Makes watching films very confusing, because I've not a clue who people are unless they look very distinctive indeed.

But if I know I'm going to meet person X, and a person turns up and says Hi I'm Person X, that's easy enough. Then I memorise what they're wearing.

Serp, hurrah re your oustandingness!!!!!!!!!

I'd love some soup with boat shaped rolls please. Oooo look, mine's in the shape of the Titanic!

gah, it's isn't it. Wrong message board shortcut!!

Boat-shaped rolls sound fab. In RL I'm having a "children's menu" meal of sausages, chips and peas. Sad, I know.

at "Dredgers Biannually"

Fascinating!

Oh, yes please!

Cheers!

Hey

Masterchef final is on in a few mins

Should be booking things that I really actually want to book but I can't be bothered. There is an amazing childrens theatre festival on next week and I want to go to loads.

::Knocks it back in one::

It's been that kind of day.

Didn't you go to a very pretty gardens today Maud?

I have two presentations to write, and no enthusiasm for either. Sigh. I may bribe myself with chocolate tomorrow.

Doesn't look like I have to schlep my parents at the weekend - my brother isn't returning mums calls asking if its ok to come. They just want to see their grandson for a hour fgs

Ach, CMOT, your brother sounds like a knob. On the other hand, avoiding 24 repetitions of the same conversation... maybe not a bad thing. But still... how hard is it to arrange for GPs to visit their new grandbaby?

I'll apologize right now if calling your brother a knob is not a done thing. Anyone is welcome to call my sister and my half-sister all kinds of names, I won't break a sweat defending them :o but some families call each other allsorts and instantly get all [angry[ when someone else does.

Speaking of half-siblings, although I'd much rather not - Her Highness my half-sister who lives in Germany with my father and his second wife, has announced, via email to DH, not even to me which would be because she's had a crush on him since she first met him in 2008 and doesn't particularly like me that she would like to visit, next spring, between x and y dates and hopes that works for us. faces

That, apparently, was the wrong door.

Do we not have a priest hole on this barge?

::Proffers a fluffy white bathrobe::

(Does the barge have a fireplace?)

Ok, that was refreshing.

Now, what's really bothering me, and the half-sister announcing her intention of honouring us with an audience a visit is only the icing on the cake, is tha I had an appointment with an orthopaedic surgeon for my left knee on Tuesday. He was lovely, took all the time in the world to review my MRI, history and exam, and finally said that he thinks I have a tear in the lateral meniscus (cartilage) of the knee. And that the only way to be sure what's going on is to do an arthroscopic exam under anaesthaesia and depending on what's found, repair it.

I knew that I was likely looking at surgery for the knee, and thought I was ok with it, but am now finding the thought of more pain, recovery from surgery, crutches, and the entire pain-in-the-arse process a little bit depressing. :( Looking on the bright side, I should have full use of my knee again after. Right now I can't kneel on it without pain, and it clicks and cracks and doesn't feel very good occasionally. The thing that is really making me apprehensive is that there is a small (20%) chance that the entire meniscus could be unstable. Ortho doesn't think so, but it could be. In which case the surgery is a bigger procedure and I will be on crutches, completely non-weightbearing, for 6 weeks. :(:(:( Not a happy thought at all. He stressed, over and over again, that the symptomatology doesn't support this finding, but also explained that he had been unpleasantly surprised in the past once he actually got into the knee and saw what was what, so had to inform me of the possibility.

I know it's likely to be just a small tear, with a week or two off work and a relatively fast recovery time, but a small part of me feels like I have really had enough ops in the last few years. Yes, this is entirely elective, but really, I don't have full use of my knee, so to me it feels like it isn't.

Anyway, I will do my level best to stay positive. Could really use some hand-holding though.

JM, my brother is a knob, and has been for many years. I had hoped that marriage might help him behave more honourably to our parents, but not so.
Tell your half sister to bog off and it isn't convenient. You don't want her there, and you aren't obliged to host someone who will cause you more stress in your life.

Bad news on the knee. As you know, dh is facing knee surgery again (his bone spurs are v impressive !), but he had his entire meniscus removed last surgery and was on crutches for as few weeks but weight bearing throughout.