The Bluestocking: Next stop, Christmas!

[ifIwerenotanandroid]

Join us as we open our slightly wonky advent calendar. 🌲

(copies available behind the bar £12.50 each, no refunds)

Come on in, @ErrolTheDragon , the water's lovely!

I had to go for a bone density screening test last week and I got the results yesterday, which are highly confusing. They measure bone density with a scan on your hips and forearm and score it with something called a T score. According to the details I got, my T score on my forearm is 1.2 and on my hips 0.75. It also says osteopenia is calculated at scores between 1 and 2.5, and over 2.5 is called osteoporosis. My risk of a forearm fracture is given at 8.75% and hip fracture 1.1%. None of this seems terribly alarming to me, but I got a note from the nurse practitioner at my PCP (primary care practice, like a GP) to say I should be taking calcium and vitamin D. The vitamin D I'm already taking at a higher level than she suggested, and I wonder if I really need to take calcium as well. I've sent a note back through our "My Chart" system but haven't heard back yet.

I've just read the bumpf that came with the letter. I'm going to be having a biopsy 😬 Fortunately I'm not afraid of needles but even so!

Also, the letter with the initial appointment was all female this, female the other (although after Upton fuck knows what that means in the NHS). Nothing similar this time around.

Even if I'd fled the house to try to make the 2 pm appointment, I've just learned the train lines are flooded and a bunch of services have been cancelled. So I wouldn't have made it.

Our breast care clinic ( separate building to everything else) doesn't even allow men through the front door. I suppose that handily prevents TIMs getting in- can't be having a screening, can't accompany someone else.

Ours had a really nice waiting room where partners could wait with us, but the business end was patients only. It was a huge room but the layout of the seating/pillars/large potted plants meant that there were lots of nooks & crannies big enough for two, if you wanted that.

I had a male consultant for the biopsy, with loads of female nurses in the room.

Thanks for the beautiful bauble, Android!

I’m travelling back inland soon. Just for two nights. I don’t want to, but I have things I need to do there. Coming back to the sea on Saturday. It’s better for me by the sea (what with being a pirate and all).

Hope all goes well, Cake. Not a great time of year for something like that to pop up.

I was called at 10am by the hospital department that I'm visiting tomorrow, to say they had a cancellation and could I come in at noon.

If only it wasn't 2.5 hours away...

So I'm still driving there tomorrow. Last big drive in this car.

So sorry for others with invasive appointments upcoming. I'm pleased other big journeys are safely underway.

I bought some Christmas things yesterday that arrived such that the Walrus couldn't guess what's in them but I forgot to actually buy him a card. Fortunately while I was out today I did buy him a card. One of his presents is a Thai cooking course but I can't print the details because we have no printer. My plan was to write the details in a card. So now I have to buy another card for him as his card.

It's odd when you merge traditions. In his family they buy each other individual Christmas cards which was never a thing in my family. So I'm not surprised I thought about buying him a card but didn't actually add it to my online basket. Maybe new/merged traditions are more difficult to remember.

Bar gerbil, my compliments and could I order hot chocolate bowsers all round, to celebrate the fact that I have finished teaching for the year (alas, calendar, not academic)!

I’ve just finished my last ever (zoom) group meeting.

That will be very welcome, Magpie. Being as how we live in the back of beyond, I've done every scrap of my Christmas shopping online this year, finishing today with various e-gift cards scheduled for Christmas Day delivery. After a big family get-together here last year, this year we won't be seeing any of the family to exchange presents. It will be just DH and me for the first time ever in more than 50 years of marriage and our two very busy offspring can enjoy their own family Christmases, with no travelling cross-country.

I have to say that I do love the internet. I gave up sending physical cards a few years ago, and these days I send a Christmas family news letter to people who I know will be interested, and an ecard to everyone else. I included a picture in our family newsletter this year as our 'card' of our lovely 6 year old youngest DGD very proud of herself in the role of Mary in her school's nativity play (for which she apparently remembered all her lines) clutching the baby Jesus and beaming with a gap-toothed grin where she's lost her two front teeth. Not sure whether it would be considered inappropriate or too outing to post it here but I will do if not, or send it via PM.

Mixed emotions, Errol? You have so much to look forward to, but as you say, leaving so much history behind..
Time to make plans, e.g. cruising in the Caribbean, a drink in one hand and a cigar in the other

Sorry that you've be upgraded to a biopsy, Cake😞 I must confess that I heard
Maureen Lipman's voice saying 'An opsy! she's going to have an opsy' and I
hope it's OK telling you that because you know it doesn't mean I'm making little of it

Britinme, your scores look on the OK side.... if I'm understanding them right!
I hope you are happy with them overall. Are there downsides to taking calcium?

I don't think you should post the photo of your DGD, and I don't think you can send photos via PM, sadly, But your wordpicture of the word-prefect Madonna of the Missing Teeth is lovely

Swash, you're going to be 'as wing-clipt sea-gull for the sea' till Saturday, aren't you? Go well, till you get back to your sea💙

Sending good thoughts and an individual care-gerbil [carebil?] to everybody who needs one - which is rather a lot of us, I think we need a luxurious convalescence home attached to the Bluey, staffed by highly-trained gerbils under the medical direction of Dr Badger.
I suggest we name it 'St Broc's'

G'night all, sleep well 🌛

You may think so, Errol. Perhaps it’s your last work zoom group meeting.

I belong to two groups related to my non-outing main hobby. We used to meet in person, went online during Covid and continue to meet online now. It’s a great benefit to me, as my health now means I don’t get out much but can still talk to those friends online twice a week. It also means the two people who went back to the USA (visa problems, not her choice) and Australia still join us although the time differences aren’t helpful.

The groups still meet in person, but now just once a month.

I hope today goes well. 🎉🥳👏🎊 (I’m not sure what that last icon is meant to be), but it looks cheerful)

You must all be very proud Britinme. Mary is THE role to play. Nobody in my family - even extended family - has ever had the honour. Mary in my son's Nativity was very clearly the most mature, sensible and well-spoken child in the whole year group.

That’s my experience, too. It’s a great honour, even when Mary has no lines to speak.

G'night all, sleep well 🌛

Same to you, Marie, and anyone else still awake to read this.

I wasn't awake, but I am now!
Good morning to everyone, and in the voice of Noddy Holder, " It's Friiiiiiiiiiiday".

Thank you for all the good wishes everyone.

I came across this which cheered me up no end

https://youtube.com/shorts/wzjcEvW2HbI?si=icDlcmB_vryl26Qo

The little details; the tobacco tin table, the bottle cap pie tin 😍

That's lovely, Cake!
Wonderful little knitted jumpers too.

Good luck for the biopsy, fingers crossed for you.

I'm hoping that I won't need a biopsy, it's just there because it's a standard booklet that comes with the letter. I'm prepared for anything though.

That's beautiful, Cake - and so well done, it's terrific animation. But mostly it's aaawwwww
And it's nice to meet some more of the Knitted family - cousins of yours, presume, Slothie?

Good luck today, Errol - will there be A Do?🍾

Big Drive in half an hour. The Walrus is sorting breakfast.

Traffic today is expected to be the "busiest getaway period since the AA's records began".

The car is warm. I have audiobooks and podcasts. The weather is fine. It may be long, but it will be comfortable.

I have a two hour break between scans so I might pop in later this afternoon before the Return of the Big Drive.

Monday is my official last ‘working’ day though I shouldn’t have much if anything to do. Most of the team is in the US so if they’re having a party to celebrate me going they’ve not said😆

Trying to sleep off the lurgy while also trying to clear up outstanding work before the holidays - not an easy balancing act...

Skimming through my Thorpe trial material, I discover that John Le Mesurier was known to his neighbours in Bridgend as "John the Carpet". This pleases me.

There used to be a lad in Belfast who sold fireplaces and traded as Alexander the Grate. He'd have done well in Wales.

It's starting to feel very Christmassy here. My parents have started packing for visiting us. They're not coming until Sunday, but they don't pack light! There will barely be enough room for my sister in the car with them.

Good luck for everyone's journeys and appointments.

I've reached the (redacted) Christmas! stage.

We don't have a tree yet. I can't find the single duvet for the spare bed - I know we have one because I was sleeping under it earlier in the year after surgery. I have to find somewhere to hide the stuff that isn't going to be sold/got rid of before Christmas. I haven't finished the cards yet despite cutting down on numbers. I know all this is mostly my fault. I need a drink.

Good luck and bon courage to all those facing far worse than my piffling, if annoying, problems.