AS: Cool Britannia (sort of): the British thread 2019

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  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    {{{Nenya}}}

    Very tired + sleeping badly = nasty combination. Have you tried all the usual remedies - hot milky drink; lavender scented bath and/or pillowcase; bowl of cereal with milk half an hour before bed?

    (IANAD, YMMV etc.)
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    Thanks, Piglet. The idea of milk before bed makes my stomach churn but someone gave me some lavender oil a while ago (poor sleep is nothing new for me, it's just particularly bad at present) so I could try that. One thing I haven't tried is the no screen time for an hour before bed. I do tend to watch TV or tiddle around on the iPad until last thing. Maybe I need to change my habits.

    I've got a nice day ahead - a Zumba class, seeing friends, and an evening in to myself as Mr Nen is going out. :smiley:
  • Milk contains amino acids and hormones which might help with sleep but I’m not sure a bowl of cereal would help much as your nervous system would be busy digesting that instead of sleeping (let alone the potential for indigestion). I’d try the lavender and reduce screen time. The exercise class might help too.
    One of the worse things for keeping me awake is a glass of red wine.
    Off to yoga this morning then a quiet afternoon.
  • It is the carbs in the cereal which helps sleep. I have not done this for quite a while but used to find a couple of pieces of toast with peanut butter was a help if I woke during the night.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    The thing which stops me sleeping is my buzzing mind. I cure this by listening to inane podcasts - strictly nothing interesting, just frivolous chatter on a loop. If I wake for a wee they are still talking and I go off to sleep again - my mind is calmed.

    This has worked brilliantly for me for over two years now.

    I did try the special audio books written for helping sleep - they are rubbish, the ‘calming’ voices are maddening and a constant reminder that they are trying to get you to sleep! Whereas ordinary voices chatting really works for me.

    :mrgreen:
  • I listen to audio books if my mind is buzzing and I can't get to sleep.
    It has to be something I am very familiar with, so that I don't actually listen to it, and I just relax and drift off to sleep.
    I have several favourites, but at the moment it is Alan Bennett (whose voice I find very soothing) reading his book "The Uncommon Reader" - only ever disc one, as I never manage to hear it all the way through, and have to start at the beginning each time. :)

  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    Boogie wrote: »
    .

    I did try the special audio books written for helping sleep - they are rubbish, the ‘calming’ voices are maddening and a constant reminder that they are trying to get you to sleep! Whereas ordinary voices chatting really works for me.

    :mrgreen:

    When I was pregnant we tried a relaxation tape. The horrible mouth noises the man doing the talking made me totally stressed out, so that didn't work at all. When I can't sleep I usually get up and read for a while.

    Thursday must be exercise day round here. I'm off to my Zumba and Pilates classes soon, followed by a knit and a natter with some friends from the classes.

  • HeavenlyannieHeavenlyannie Shipmate
    edited April 2019
    Audio books (normal ones not ‘special’) are a great idea for winding down.
    When I have insomnia I get up and have a cup of tea and read.
  • Thursday is not an exercise day for us - though it used to be until the teacher changed at my wife's Aquafit class.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    Sarasa wrote: »
    Boogie wrote: »
    .

    I did try the special audio books written for helping sleep - they are rubbish, the ‘calming’ voices are maddening and a constant reminder that they are trying to get you to sleep! Whereas ordinary voices chatting really works for me.

    :mrgreen:

    When I was pregnant we tried a relaxation tape. The horrible mouth noises the man doing the talking made me totally stressed out, so that didn't work at all. When I can't sleep I usually get up and read for a while.

    Thursday must be exercise day round here. I'm off to my Zumba and Pilates classes soon, followed by a knit and a natter with some friends from the classes.

    I agree - there’s nothing worse than people trying to make their voices relaxing!

    The people on my podcasts talk normally - some quite quickly, but they still my mind nonetheless. Reading doesn’t work because I have my eyes open - then if I do go to sleep the dropping of the book has me awake again. This way I’m asleep within a minute, whether at bed time or after a trip to the loo.

    :smile:

  • I've probably said this before - but audio of anything read by Garrison Keillor used to work for me. That was before the cassette died.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Retrieving some of my cough-fractured sleep in the form of a nap just now when Mr F woke me up to ask where the tea towel was?

    Just as Ed Milliband was telling me about his new job in Albany.
  • Is that "The Friendly Farmer" near Newark? Certainly different from other service areas - I'd go there!

    No, it's Gloucester (Sounthbound) on the M5. I expect northbound is the same. It's more expensive than most but, if you pardon the expression, that keeps the riff-raff out. A bit like Waitrose-on-the-motorway.

    Newark is too close to the start of our journey.

    ION, there is sn*w in South Wales. Not in Newport, just rain, rain, rain, but up the road in Caerphilly and Cwmbran it has sn*wed.
  • Fredegund wrote: »
    I've probably said this before - but audio of anything read by Garrison Keillor used to work for me. That was before the cassette died.

    Radio 4Extra is our friend. Most of the dramas are understated, so it's good background.

  • Quite. Though why they revive the worst of Radio 4 comedy beats me.
  • My late sister (an American, like me) suffered from depression and stress. Her local National Public Radio station switched to the BBC World Service at night. She found British voices soothing and apparently fell asleep listening to them.

    (And thus I've taken this from the insomnia discussion back to "Cool Britannia"!)
  • Wesley JWesley J Shipmate
    And you deserve our gratitude for it! :)
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host, 8th Day Host
    I have a selection of BBC radio comedy (mostly Radio 4, Radio 4 Extra and Radio Scotland) on my iPhone for that purpose. Interesting enough to engage and keep the busyness in my head at bay, and to keep me entertained if really sleepless - but not gripping so as to keep me awake.
  • I find the world Service quite helpful for getting to sleep - though I always seem to doze off quicker during the programmes which I though would actually be good to listen to.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I'm expecting to be rocked to sleep tonight - it's blowing quite a hoolie out there, and you can almost feel the house shaking. :flushed:

    At least some of yesterday's sn*w has gone. To misquote Simon and Garfunkel:

    Hello winter, my old friend
    You'd gone, but now you're back again ...
  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    We've been having hail storms - one yesterday and one the day before. Just rain today. The rain is noisy at night, especially if I have my window open. I find listening to theta waves relaxes my mind. Also ASMR youtube videos make me fall asleep.
  • Piglet wrote: »
    To misquote Simon and Garfunkel:

    Hello winter, my old friend
    You'd gone, but now you're back again ...
    Or they might just say (or sing): "And the sky is a hazy shade of winter."
    :wink:

  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Indeed.

    At least tomorrow it's supposed to get up to a potentially snow-melting 5° - bring it on!
  • April showers have been on form!
  • And rainbows - we had lovely rainbows yesterday
  • Britannia has certainly got cool here again - though we're too low for snow. Amazing to think that about 6 weeks ago, we were in a long queue at the ice-cream parlour ...
  • It’s certainly chilly here, but no repeat of Wednesday’s hail & snow.... yet. It was chilly enough to get me wondering exactly what month it is as I excavated 2 Christmas trees from the back of the garage, to be used in an Easter (yes!) holiday club based on The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe.
  • The sun came out.

    I hung out washing.

    The sun has now disappeared ...
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    edited April 2019
    I never hang out the washing unless it’s pretty certain to get dry. No point hanging it twice - once outside and then again inside. So, even on sunny days, if it’s cold the washing gets hung on the rack.

    :smile:
  • Fredegund wrote: »
    Quite. Though why they revive the worst of Radio 4 comedy beats me.

    There's a lot of radio comedy, and because it is difficult to do comedy well and some of it doesn't age well, a fair proportion should never have been "recovered" from lost episodes, or even series.

    It's amazing to thing that there were only three years between "The Men from the Ministry" (1977) and "Yes Minister (1980). You would think it more like 25!
  • Just been told I have the beginning of cataracts :grimace:

    And is if that wasn't bad enough, my optical prescription has changed so - 1 pair sunglasses, 1 pair playing glasses (focal point for music desk distance), plus a pair for every day and a spare came to north of £1,000. Its going to be spam and beans for the next few months.
  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    edited April 2019
    Ouch - so much for a Health Service "free at the point of use"! Why don't eyes (and, to a lesser degree, teeth) not count? I have "complex" glasses; but the special allowance for that complexity is only a tiny fraction of the total cost.
  • Ouch indeed! :grimace:

    I can recall the days when Spex were free on the NHS (mind you, I looked like a youthful Alf Garnett).

    @TheOrganist, I daresay you've thought of this, but might you be able to get a less expensive quote elsewhere?

    Sympathies re the incipient cataracts, though, especially given your profession....
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    Sorry to hear that @TheOrganist :cry:

    My glasses used to cost £500 a pair due to my crazy complicated prescription, and they needed changing every year as my eyes were deteriorating so quickly.

    I was lasered 10 years ago, it cost £7000 - but I’m now quids in and my vision is still pin sharp.

    I was very lucky my conditions were curable ny laser.

  • Believe me, TheOrganist, when I had the cataract in my left eye done, it was really like a miracle. I haven't had such good sight in that eye since I was 12.

    Sorry about the cost of glasses though - now I am down to one contact lens and reading glasses from the pound shop...

    Mrs. S, still giving thanks
  • When I was an eye nurse I used to examine patients in cataract clinic. I loved taking off the eye patch after cataract surgery. This was a few years ago, and we used to do them much later in those days - the patients were amazed with their new vision after surgery.
  • I've had cataract surgery in both eyes. My only regret was that I couldn't have had it done sooner. The procedure has become much easier in recent years, the recovery time is minimal, and vision afterwards is so much better!
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    edited April 2019
    Having had surgery for congenital cataracts, I can corroborate what Heavenlyannie said - the feeling when the patch comes off (or in my case, when the contact lens was fitted) is Something Else.

    IIRC my first contact lenses came courtesy of the NHS (spectacles wouldn't be suitable), but it wasn't until quite some time later that I discovered that you could get help paying for specialist lenses by being referred by your GP.

    It's a glorious day here, which is helping shift Wednesday's snow; it was even nice enough that I risked my new shoes. Although they're quite a formal Mary Jane style, they've got very good traction on the soles, and I'm delighted to report that they're very comfortable indeed.

    Have I mentioned my shoe fetish before ...? :blush:
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    I've had cataracts in both eyes treated @TheOrganist and my sight is now pretty OK which is just as well as my hearing is pretty dire. Ouch about the price of the glasses in the meantime.
    I poured out my various woes to my writing class this morning and the suggested remedy was red wine, which I'm now enjoying!
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    That sounds like a very sensible remedy! :smiley:
  • My twin brother was born with congenital cataracts (and secondary issues ), no intra-ocular lenses in those days and he’s registered partially sighted; he attended a boarding school for visually impaired children and still wears thick bottle glasses. He’s the reason I became an eye nurse, I was guiding him when I was a toddler.
  • @Sarasa excellent remedy!
  • I got a very good deal: 50% off varifocals and 50% off the second pair of frames, otherwise I was looking at a lot more. On the plus side, I found some nice frames and for once they weren't expensive.

    I'm lucky that the cataracts are growing in from the edges (as it were) so won't need to be done for a while, and one eye is worse than the other so I'll be able to space it out when it comes to surgery.

    In good news, I took out my frustration by getting to grips with some slash-and-burn in the garden - nothing beats a good bonfire to chase away the blues!
  • Absolutely. Bonfires are such FUN (especially with Effigies on top.....).

    Re cataracts, the success rate is very high these days, and they generally tend to remove one at a time, IYSWIM, so, as you say, the surgery can be spaced out.

    My Old Mum had both eyes done (several months apart, and over 20 years ago), and the only 'problem' she had was hanging around at the Hospital waiting for her turn under the knife!
    :grin:

    ION, a grey, cool, east-windy day here in Ukland's bottom right-hand corner, but the air is full of bird-song, so it must be Spring.

    Finest Lancashire Hot-Pot for lunch in a little while, courtesy of Tessie Cohen's Corner Shop.

    Hobbling around said Corner Shop was a bit of a struggle earlier today. I conducted Stations Of The Cross at Our Place last evening, and the effort of walking around our great barn of a church was to be felt when I got up this morning! Still, we had a very good attendance, and Father NewPriest ended the evening with a short service of Compline (said, but we did sing the Im 'Before the ending of the day' to a plainsong tune. A capella.)
    :wink:
  • I have 2 eye appointments looming, not cataracts but at the cataract clinic. It’s just one eye (always has one issue or another) which is so long-sighted that trouble has always been brewing and the aim is to sort it out before it becomes an emergency. I spent a lot of my childhood in the company of eye surgeons and it’s been lovely to have had a long time away from them, so I’m not particularly relishing the prospect of returning.

    ION, a meeting this morning to produce a Safeguarding policy went well and I can relax with a cat on my lap without feeling I need to be working on it.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    daisydaisy wrote: »
    ... a meeting this morning to produce a Safeguarding policy went well and I can relax with a cat on my lap without feeling I need to be working on it.
    Working on the cat or the safeguarding policy? :mrgreen:

    After waking up to snow that looked as if it had fairly evil intentions, by lunchtime (beans on toast, since you ask) what had fallen had melted, and when we went in to D's office to pick up some stuff for a choral workshop he's doing next month, it was really quite pleasant and mild (8°). However, we've got another Special Weather Statement offering us up to 6" of snow on Monday night, which will be a bloody nuisance if it happens, as we've got to sing/play for a funeral on Tuesday morning, and having to dig our way out to get there will be a royal pain.

    In other news, though, there's a pair of mourning doves snogging on the rail of the deck. :heart:

  • Some sun and warmth this morning - enough to get me outside to cut up the heap of clematis prunings that have been hanging around for the last three months. I also tore up a load of cardboard, which has been awaiting my attention for a similar length of time.
    Both will be used to add the carbon element to the nitrogenous matter that Mr RoS will be regularly tipping into the compost box once the grass-cutting season really gets under way.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    The only advantage of all this sn*w is that we can't find the grass, let alone needing to cut it.

    Every cloud has a silver lining ...
  • Games afternoon at church today, where geeky adults spend the afternoon playing strategy games (and I sit in the corner doing my crochet while my husband and sons play).
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Day 2 by the looks of it of Haar. Grey, damp, gloomy and totally unSpring.
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