The Bluestocking - Raiders of the Lost Sparp

[lcakethereforeIam]

Welcome everyone. Wipe your feet, it's been wet out.

Don't forget to namechange before posting if necessary.

I gave up on the archers some time ago, with the result that now I have to turn off the radio when it’s on as there are all sorts of people I don’t know in it.

I gave up when Nigel fell off the roof.

It's a bit like that at the moment even for long term listeners. Some of us are hanging out for massive multiple fatality accident (some of the regulars are going on their holliers and hope springs eternal).

Many years ago I worked for someone who though the Archers was an accurate portrayal of rural life.

I was young at the time and did a bit of a Maxine Croxall with my facial expression.

I don't think it's improved. I listened to an episode a few years ago, I forget why, and someone was off 'helping X with the potato harvest.' Or, as I'd phrase it, 'He's lifting spuds with X.' A bit like the Radio 4 drama I once heard, which had very new lambs bleating madly in July.

Brit, I'm sorry you're unwell. I've been out or vv busy most of the day, or would have wished you well much sooner. I hope you get better very soon.

Otoh at least I learned from The Archers that if you see a sheep on her back she needs help. We were once walking across a causeway through a salt marsh with our dog, and found a lamb in our path bleating and not running away which was odd. Looked around and saw the ewe so I told DH to go and flip her which he did and the lamb rejoined her. Brave lambkin!

The gerbils threw away the box. Is two lines positive or negative?

One of my grandfathers had a farm, when he was a young man long before I was born, but thanks to Irish inheritance laws it was one of those tiny farms that's just one or two fields and some pigs.

One winter, I'm told, the river burst its banks and he had to go down and carry the pigs out on his back.

I think that decided him that farming was not the life for him, so I missed out on learning the fine points of wrangling an upset pig while up til your oxters in river water.

Gilda will be posting on AIBU when she gets home!

She's currently hoping she's taken a covid test by accident!

And unsurprisingly Gary has already flown home to Luton!

And the number he gave her doesn't work.

Poor Gilda.

Guadelupe Grecil Gaspara Gitana Galicia Guilermina and Gezana are such pretty names . . . .

I'd call Gary a love-rat, but I feel that would be disrespectful to rats. He's certainly a piece of work!

If only Gilda had paid attention during The Talk

and gone surfing with the others.

Gem! Do we have a Gem?

Sorry Android. I didn't look too closely at the missing trousers because I was a bit worried about the scissors.

Actually there's a fair chance those pigs belonged to a breed that's now extinct, thanks to the Ulster Unionist government in the 1940s having a rare lapse into technocracy and deciding the traditional local pigs weren't economically efficient.

There are societies these days that are set up to conserve rare breeds, but it's a bit sobering to think that a locally dominant breed could disappear within about 15 years.

Large White Ulster pig - Wikipedia

We've got some called Gemma But no Gem.

Please tell me Colin isn't really investigating a crocodile.

Gazania for a girl? Gravel for a boy?

ETA: I knew that Gary was a wrong 'un as soon as I saw him, but I didn't like to say anything.

I do hope it was a Covid test. Gary is not exactly a prince among men.

Gary had swaggered back from his lads’ gerbil trip sunburnt, smug, and full of stories he’d already told twice. Luton felt smaller now — the walls closer, the sofa lumpier, the washing piles taller than his sense of responsibility. Gnell, meanwhile, hadn’t stopped moving since he left: feeding, folding, soothing, scrubbing. Even the baby’s hiccups seemed tired.

Now, Gary sat in his corner kingdom, paws glued to his PlayStation controller, pretending the washing mountain didn’t exist. He’d promised to “catch up on a bit of rest” after his “stressful travel.” Gnell, holding a wailing infant and a toddler who’d just learned the word no, wasn’t impressed.

She stood in the chaos — a queen among baskets of laundry — glaring at her oblivious husband while trying to stop the toddler from using a sock as a dummy. The air was thick with domestic fury and fabric softener. Gary muttered something about “just finishing this level.”

It was the kind of silence that made even the baby stop crying for a second — the moment before Gnell decided whether she’d shout, cry, or laugh. Probably all three, in that order.

Woolly Hugs - things we can join in with! Their Christmas Craft Sale starts tomorrow. And they want 6" x 1" strips of red/green/white/gold/silver fabric for a children's project.

May I draw your attention to Item 274 in the Woolly Hugs sale? It’s a representation of Maud, in bauble form.

No not a real one
Just a toy
🐊

But K&P has bagsed her, hasn't she? I don't know if anyone's allowed to bid now.

K&P really deserves it for all that she does, so we should just go to that page to admire Maud.

Thanks for good wishes Stockingers. I’ve been moved up to the giddy heights of the fifth floor and a rather lovely room that to my NHS-accustomed eyes feels like luxury. I CBA to retype all of this one-fingered on my iPad so I’ve copied some from a post on another thread.

Other than stuff with my PCP (like your GP) this is my first prolonged exposure to the American medical system. I’m on Medicare (for over-65s) which covers 80% of everything, and luckily I have a supplemental Medigap policy that covers the rest, plus a drug policy. Medicare authorised my hospital admission so this won’t bankrupt me, though the policies cost me about $500 a month altogether.

I can see why people as lucky as me don’t want their health care messed with. My single room measures about 20 feet by 13 plus a bathroom with a toilet, sink and shower. My bed goes through any combo of angles I care to ask of it. There’s a comfy armchair and places to charge my phone and iPad. I have cable TV. The paint is fresh and the wood doors are nice. I have a view from the 5th floor over the city. There’s a decent food menu I choose from though the food is not great but not bad either and includes fresh fruit and veg if I want, plus a yummy hummus and tabbouleh dish I had for dinner. I had my blood oxygen levels monitored constantly today, plus oxygen through a nasal cannula, today, though not now, and the respiratory therapist has seen me four times today. I had a chest X Ray (nasty picture of fuzzy grey lungs with white streaks), blood tests and an EKG. It’s like a very nice hotel with health care and indifferent but not awful food.