AS: Tea and biscuits and GIN, the British thread

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  • Only problem with that is that traffic levels may ramp up significantly once school starts.
  • sionisaissionisais Shipmate
    edited August 2018
    You mean they have weather in England?

    Of course we/they have weather in England. There is no climate to speak of. IIRC, if you forecast for tomorrow what you had today you get 85% correct!

    Congratulations piglet on landing that job!
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Thanks all.

    I don't think we'll need a dry run, as it's not all that far, but until proven otherwise, I'll assume that we need longer than we think - or at least longer than D. thinks. It's all very well him saying "don't worry, I'll get you there in time" when every traffic-light is red and I'm getting more panic-stricken by the minute.
  • Piglet, that’s a scary thought, but hopefully the lights will all be green on Wednesday.

    Back home now from the tin tent weekend to a happy moggy and session one of physio which was a lot like the pre-ski exercises that I used to do before sliding down the white stuff on my rear.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Good luck with the fizzy therapy, Daisydaisy!

    Quite a busy day chez Piglet - it was a hot one (top temp 29°), so a good day for doing indoor things. Bread made, laundry done (including sheets, which I hate doing) and later when it was a little cooler, grass cut (mostly by D., but partly by me).

    Time to tootle off to bed, methinks - last day of staying up late ... :sleeping:
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    Good luck with the new routine, Piglet, and I hope you thoroughly enjoy the job.
  • Yes indeed, Piglet - we're all root(l)ing for you!

    In other news, Mr.S starts at the Citizens Advice Bureau at the end of September <spinning smilie> The thing he misses most from our last home is 'his' food bank, so I really hope this works out as a replacement!

    Mrs. S, contenting herself with more domestic duties :smile:
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    Hehehe - loving the idea of rootling for Piglet! :smiley:

    I hope Mr S finds satisfaction and fulfilment with the CAB - really worthwhile. Mr Nen does a lot of charity work these days, with just a little paid work, mostly from home. He still seems inordinately busy. If and when I finish going out to work I intend to employ the "I'm not taking anything on at all for six months, ask me again then" method.
  • O yes - virtual truffles (ready covered in CHOCOLATE) to be sent to Ukland a.s.a.p., please!

    BTW, best wishes for your new venture into The World Of W*rk, piglet. I'm only thankful that I'm now Too Old For Such Larks.

    IJ



  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited August 2018
    ION, some Magic Waterproof Paint has been applied today to the apparently leaky parts of the Palace roof.

    Please God it will prove efficacious, as I prefer to sleep in dry bedding....
    :flushed:

    IJ
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    edited August 2018
    Thanks again, everyone. I'm now not starting tomorrow - I've to go in for a meeting with the Associate Dean, who wasn't able to be at the meeting on Friday, but the office manager, who was there, assures me that I'll like him, and I should "meet him with the same confidence and enthusiasm you showed us".

    Well, she got it half-right ... :worried:
  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    I hope it all goes well, Piglet. Sounds like you’ve made a very good impression on them. :smile:
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Thanks, Fineline - I'm not sure how I did, as I can't say I was feeling very confident!

    Oh well, onwards and upwards!
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    Good luck today Piglet.
  • Yes, all trotters crossed! <votive>
  • Do please keep us posted, piglet.
    :smiley:

    IJ
  • Nenya wrote: »
    If and when I finish going out to work I intend to employ the "I'm not taking anything on at all for six months, ask me again then" method.

    Well, you can always try, @Nenya !

    Mrs. S, wishing you luck :smile:
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Thanks, all.

    I think it went off OK: he seems like a very nice bloke, and the job certainly sounds interesting. It involves rather more responsibility than I might have expected - sifting through applications and making judgements I might feel a bit underqualified to make, but he did say that the ultimate responsibility is his, so maybe I shouldn't worry too much.

    Now I have to wait until the Dean has cleared my appointment with the financial boffins, but they seem to want me to start as soon as possible, as the Associate Dean has been doing his job and my potential one as well for three months, so he's keen to get a little helper ...

    In other news, it's still v. hot, close and muggy, and we've got a Severe Thunderstorm warning, rumblements of which have been happening for some time.

    Maybe this one will clear the air ...
  • Excellent news, Piglet. Congratulations :smile:
  • Sounds really good, Piglet.
  • great news, Piglet -
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    Congratulations Piglet 🎉 Good news.

    We are back from Heidelberg. My son surprised us with news. He’s bought a flat in Zeigelhausen with his lovely girlfriend. She’s from Georgia (not the US state) and also a nurse.

    He made up an excuse for us to stay on the bus to his stop then got out the keys and took us in! It’s just one bus stop form the flat we stay in when we visit.

    It’s fabulous with a large balcony and uninterrupted view of the forest.

    We are thrilled for them, they move in in October but have they keys now so they can decorate/furnish etc.
  • Yay for new houses and jobs!
  • 🎉🎉🙃🎉🎉 for Piglet and Boogie!
  • Yay indeed - and yet more Yay for the 'one coat instant waterproof paint*', which seems to Do What It Says On The Tin, and is keeping the worst of the rain out of the interior of the Palace...
    :grimace:

    I hope.

    IJ

    *It's wonderfully gloopy stuff, acrylic-based, I think, with lots of lovely fibres to block up the horrid pinholes....
  • Brilliant news about the job, piglet. And good news that the paint is holding out, Bishop's Finger - it's had a fair amount of testing today, hasn't it?

    I have a new doorbell, third appointment lucky. It had to be replaced, again, after idiot neighbour downstairs leant on it, again, and this time broke the wires so much that I couldn't fix it. I was very slow fixing it last time he broke it. Originally the builders fitting a new door damaged it, which meant it was there, but not brilliant, not capable of withstanding him ringing the bell at all times of the night and day, and keeping going until he gets an answer. What made me fix it a few months back was that he found that he could twist the wires together and leave it buzzing if I wouldn't answer him. That wasn't an easy fix; there wasn't a lot of wire left to connect to anything. Since then the recently broken off wire meant no repair without pulling the wire through which I wasn't doing. Same idiot neighbour pulled off the next door neighbour's bell in a fit of rage, the one currently held on remand, so I got that fixed too.

    Idiot neighbour won't take "no, I'm not coming down" as an answer. This last time it was a very hot night in July, during term time, so I was off out to work very early next morning and had got ready for bed, not wearing a lot, was definitely not prepared to get dressed to go and deal with him. I did tell him, fish wife stylee, out the window, that I wasn't coming down, which he ignored, so I then told him to p off and he still kept going.
  • I am convinced that there will be/are already faulty doorbells in Hell....
    :grimace:

    As regards waterproof paint, today's downpour has at least revealed that the said Gloop has not been quite 100% efficacious, but I now know where to apply yet more Gloop. So, slightly diluted Yay!
    :frowning:

    IJ
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    CK, you seem to have the Neighbours From Hell - if they're not throwing things over you, they're driving you up the wall by leaning on your doorbell! :anguished:
  • It's called housing association accommodation and single parenthood. It was suggested today I might get a better neighbour to replace the current one (eviction hearing next week, I have to appear as a witness, bugger, bugger, bugger), but the previous one was the one who died in a flat fire ...
  • SmudgieSmudgie Shipmate
    Good afternoon, folks. I'll just drop this cake on the table and run, with a shout over my shoulder to say that if anyone was still thinking of going to Greenbelt for Bank Holiday Weekend and has not yet bought a ticket, I have one looking for a new owner. At the second-wave cost of £155 (sounds a lot, I know, but covers four days of festival with some amazing acts, speakers and activities), it is an adult ticket which also covers camping. And as a bonus, there'll be loads of shipmates and former shipmates there...... and the chance to meet Smudgie over a cup of coffee in the Tiny Tea Tent Too. PM or email me if you are interested - we are incredibly keen to sell the ticket which was purchased in error.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Hello Smudgie - hope you find a buyer for your ticket and have a great weekend!
  • On my return from a hospital visit in London today, I was weary, and my poor legs were aching summink orrid.

    The kind guard-lady on the train, seeing my walking stick, asked me where I was getting off, and whether I'd be OK. I said I would be, but, on alighting, found it hard to get down the step onto the platform. A kind young man assisted me (the guard-lady being elsewhere at the time).

    Blessings be on both of them. Their names are written in The Lamb's Book Of Life for showing compassion to a poor old man.
    :smile:

    IJ

  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Glad to hear that kindness is alive and well (and I hope the Aching has Gone Away).

    We had the last in the summer concert series today - a folk duo - and IMHO they were a bit rubbish. Their timing was off - it seemed as if they were playing quite separately from each other - and when one half of the duo sang, she didn't do it in tune.

    Oh well - back to D. next week - and he's going to play the Vaughan Williams Tallis Fantasia. If I get offered this job, I hope I can take my lunch break at the right time, as it gives me goose-bumps. :smiley:
  • Yay! For the Downtown shopping outlet outside Grantham. As a typical English male I detest shopping but we are visiting Mrs Ss sister and she wanted to go with her daughter so we all trolled along. I have returned with a boring but serviceable suit for solemn occasions and three decent pairs of shoes for less than £150! Sometimes I have struggled to find one pair for that money!
  • Hello
    I used to post here a few years ago as heavenly anarchist and thought I’d pop back in. My name is Annie, I live in a Cambridge and I teach a health and social care degree with the Open University.
    I look forward to chatting again.
    Annie
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Great to see you back, Heavenlyannie! :)

    As it was Perfect Ambling Temperature (23°) and not too humid I went for a nice little amble over the bridge and back, pausing on the way back to pass the time of day with one of the squirrels on the Cathedral green - what a nice way to get a little exercise!

    I also cordially ignored a group of Jehovah's Witnesses who had congregated at one end of the bridge; as they ignored me equally cordially, I take it they must have thought I looked beyond redemption* ... :innocent:

    * they'd have been right. :mrgreen:
  • Piglet wrote: »
    Oh well - back to D. next week - and he's going to play the Vaughan Williams Tallis Fantasia. If I get offered this job, I hope I can take my lunch break at the right time, as it gives me goose-bumps. :smiley:

    Perhaps the nice organist will allow you to sit in on a rehearsal?
    :wink:
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    .Blessings be on both of them. Their names are written in The Lamb's Book Of Life for showing compassion to a poor old man.
    :smile:

    That's heartwarming but despite the smiley I feel sad to hear you describe yourself thus. I hope it is not how you truly feel - at least, not all the time. {{BF}}

    Good to see you, Heavenlyannie.

    Piglet, I thought the job was in the bag. Have I missed something?.

  • Piglet, I first heard the Tallis Fantasia on a summer evening in York Minster, when I was a student. You can imagine the effect it had on me...

    Mrs. S, numbering it among her deathbed memories
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    Hello
    I used to post here a few years ago as heavenly anarchist and thought I’d pop back in. My name is Annie, I live in a Cambridge and I teach a health and social care degree with the Open University.
    I look forward to chatting again.
    Annie

    Hey hey - welcome back :smile:



  • Piglet wrote: »
    As it was Perfect Ambling Temperature (23°) and not too humid I went for a nice little amble over the bridge and back, pausing on the way back to pass the time of day with one of the squirrels on the Cathedral green - what a nice way to get a little exercise!

    Better than my day. I am pressure washing 90 square metres of patterned concrete and patio slabs.

    At least getting soaked through keeps me cool in the heat.

  • Good to see you Heavenlyannie - I remember you well! I used to be Nicodemia - but I doubt you remember me as I didn't - and still don't - post much. But I loiter on the Boards! ;)
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    Good to see you back @Heavenlyannie.
  • Thanks for the welcome, I do indeed recognise you, Thomasina, your new name even strikes a cord as it is one familiar to me in my hobby of re-enactment (I know a Tudor Thomasina).
    We got back from the Peak District yesterday, it was good walking weather, not too hot and almost no rain but today I’m resting my legs and doing light reading/crochet.
  • Indeed. May your Posting Finger flourish, IYSWIM.
    Nenya wrote: »
    .Blessings be on both of them. Their names are written in The Lamb's Book Of Life for showing compassion to a poor old man.
    :smile:

    That's heartwarming but despite the smiley I feel sad to hear you describe yourself thus. I hope it is not how you truly feel - at least, not all the time. {{BF}}

    Well, I certainly felt (and behaved) like a Poor Old Man yesterday! At just 67, and in reasonable health until late 2015, I don't see myself as Old, but increasing frailty and disability (I hate that word) mean that I am having to do less, and take life more easily and slowly, than heretofore.

    Thanks for the thought, though. And the {{hug}}. Much appreciated.

    I shall take a leaf from The Book Of Piglet, and concentrate on Gentle Ambling (sounds like a village in the Cotswolds, no?).

    IJ
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    I am finding running a little hard on the knees, but I’m about to go and do some Vigorous Striding with the pooch.

    :)
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited August 2018
    Vigorous Striding also sounds like a Cotswolds village (as well as a Good Idea, of course)!

    So do Much Snoring, and Little Doing - my programme for the rest of the afternoon....

    Enjoy!
    :sweat_smile:

    IJ
  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    Bishops Finger, when you are taking the train, you can phone 24 hours or more beforehand and ask for assistance if you have difficulty getting on and off the trains. It doesn’t make you a poor old man - just that you have a particular need and they can help you, which makes it easier.

    I say this because I am younger than you and I recently discovered I could ask for assistance getting from one platform to the other on a big busy station, because of having no sense of direction and finding crowds and escalators difficult - and it was very helpful, and makes me more confident if I have to take a train in future. Disability isn’t such a horrible word if you look at it from the social model and see it as more about being disabled by obstacles in society, but if you get assistance, then you are enabled, and you can still take the train.
  • Disabled passenger assistance is something that is supposed to be universally provided on trains, but some train companies are better at it than others. And finding out how to organise it in advance varies to say the least. There is one company that we've found to be universally poor and boycott if given the choice. That company only provides the bare minimum of support for wheelchairs, and that not well if you follow certain Twitter accounts, and refuse to accept anything else as a disability.
  • Thank you, both, and points taken.

    I did wonder about the possibility of asking for wheelchair assistance on my return home yesterday, but thought (mistakenly, perhaps) that I was OK to manage. I was reasonably mobile (well, one foot in front of the other, repeat as required) once I got started!

    My walking problem is intermittent - some days are very much better than others - and it's often not until I get up/start moving around that I know what sort of day it is (or is likely to be).

    Osteopathy is helping, but it may be that some of the pains are due to medication side-effects, which I hope to discuss with the Neuro-Oncology Consultant next week...

    OTOH, anecdotal evidence from various on-line groups and forums (fora?) tend to confirm that one never really recovers 100% from brain surgery, but that one has to accept the reduced mobility/fatigue/pain etc. which simply goes with the territory.

    The trick is, of course, to adapt one's life-style in a positive way accordingly, if necessary.

    IJ
This discussion has been closed.