The Untied Kingdom? - the British thread 2021

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  • DooneDoone Shipmate
    Oh, so sorry @Boogie, what a worry on top of everything else. I hope you can find ways of stabilising and managing it asap 🕯
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    I'm sorry to hear your news @Boogie and hope there's a good way forward with treatment and management.

    It's a beautiful day here and I'm hoping Mr Nen and I will be able to go out for a long walk later.
  • TheOrganistTheOrganist Shipmate
    @Boogie congrats on the good news and sympathy on the spinal woes: hope you manage to find a physio/ exercise regime that gives some relief.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    Thank you all. I don’t have much neck pain - no more than my everyday arthritis. The real nuisance is numb hands and weak fingers and arms. I can’t even turn a pepper mill!

    I’ve been referred to a neurosurgeon so we’ll see what they say.

    No more pups for the time being. You need to be able to pick them up when toilet training and lift them into the car, no jumping in until six months old. When they need a widdle it’s no use just saying ‘come with me’! That’s a recipe for many wet floors. :lol:

    I’m going to see if Echo passes Big School. If he doesn’t I’ll have him back and train him as a Pets as Therapy dog. He’s a wonderful gentle giant who loves to sit by people and be fussed. If he does go on to qualify I’ll adopt a withdrawn pup and do the same. Tatze wouldn’t make a therapy dog - she has too much bounce and would knock the patient over!

    Today is our Grayson’s art club at Manchester gallery day. That’s definitely cheering us up. Taxi, train, walk. :mrgreen:
  • PriscillaPriscilla Shipmate
    So sorry to hear about your neck and spine problems Boogie, and particularly about your hand problems.
    Training a therapy dog sounds exciting.
  • Enjoy the trip to the gallery, Boogie.
    A light day for me so far, I went for a walk then checked up on my students who are submitting final assignments today. This afternoon I need to work on a research ethics submission.
    Not see my 16 year old yet this morning, he had a mock exam yesterday so I assume he is taking the morning off!
  • LandlubberLandlubber Shipmate
    ((Boogie)) I hope the appointment comes soon and is helpful when you get there
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Circus Host, 8th Day Host
    Spring has finally sprung! A warm sunny day, and about time too.

    I would quite like to get on with the dinner but Captain Pyjamas is refusing to go to sleep, so here I am, surfing the ship and hoping that if I don't make a noise he might get the message. If ever he does decide to Go To Sleep Already, lamb rogan josh is in the offing. I made an excess of naan last week and put it in the freezer, and we also have cubed lamb and tomatoes that need using.
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    Hope you find something that helps with the numbness and pain @Boogie. Training therapy dogs sounds a very good thing.
    We are still marooned in Travel Lodge land. The executor of the house we are buying has allowed us to park in the drive so we went off for a mooch round a local National Trust property and popped the car there on the way back. It felt so right, such a shame we couldn't open the door and get on with sorting stuff out. I saw loads of plants for sale in the National Trust house that I wanted to buy to start my plan to turn the end of the garden into a bit of a shrubbery. I had to content myself with pulling up a weed or two from the pretty immaculate drive! We'll maybe complete tomorrow, but I don't think it's likely so I've booked us in to the hotel until Tuesday.
  • PendragonPendragon Shipmate
    If you do complete, then you have some time to do cleaning etc before you have to unpack and live in the house.
  • ZoeZoe Shipmate
    Just popping in to say - eek. I have hit a plastic pipe in the ground with my garden fork and pierced said pipe in ground. The wisdom of the interwebs seems to suggest it is not likely to be a utility pipe - it's not marked as such or surrounded by the type of materials which water and drainage pipes should be surrounded by (sand, etc). Given how many part breeze-blocks, bricks, other miscellaneous building leftovers I have dug out of the garden so far, it's reasonable to guess this might be another buried gift from the builders (house is not quite new-build, but constructed within the past few years). On the other hand, it did seem to be lodged very firmly in the ground in a very horizontal position and lined up with a couple of drainage outlets from the house. Agh. Am going to go and nervously and extremely gently dig along / around and see what I find.
  • I don't suppose you have anything so useful as a plan from the builders, do you?
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    That sounds worrying, Zoe - maybe time to call in a professional!

    @Sarasa - you'll need the services of Roger the Shrubber. :mrgreen:

    It's definitely getting summery in Embra - it was 16° today, sunny and rather pleasant.

    Supper chez Piglet was reheated frozen spag. bog. from a batch I made a couple of weeks ago.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    Hope you get in soon @Sarasa!

    Oh heck @Zoe - hope you get to the bottom of the pipe mystery.

    The Grayson’s Art Club exhibition at Manchester art gallery was marvellous and we followed it up with a light lunch and coffee. New trains too - no more Pacer trains at long last, hurrah!

    After going nowhere for - how long? I can’t remember - it was a real treat. I had to rest with a heat pack on my neck for two hours afterwards but it really was well worth it.
  • Tea here was a mushroom, bacon and wild garlic risotto followed by a bought tiramisu, eaten in the garden.
  • What a week - followed up on yesterday's garden expotition by taking TIG#2 to our local mini railway for the morning. We are all three exhausted but he just loved it and so did we :smiley:

    Tomorrow is likely to be laziness interspersed with writing intercessionary prayers for Sunday. And we'll need to be up early on Saturday as Mr S has ordered a second ton of gravel for the courtyard - last time they delivered it at twenty to eight in the morning <aaarrrrggghhh>
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    It much be such fun being a grandmother @The Intrepid Mrs S , all those jolly things to do, and then you hand them back. I doubt that I'll ever be a grandmother, I'm angling for great-aunthood.
    Hope the pipe situation resolved itself @Zoe, and it was nothing important.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    Obviously not gas, as there would have been escaping hisses.
  • Penny S wrote: »
    Obviously not gas, as there would have been escaping hisses.

    Service pipes are usually colour coded, see https://www.cornerstoneprojects.co.uk/blog/underground-utility-colour-codes/. The pressure in a domestic gas pipe is probably not enough to make it hiss, but the smell would be the instant giveaway (as when city employees tried to install a new Stop sign along the road from here...)
  • What can you tell us about the construction of this "pipe"? It's unlikely that you'd accidentally push a fork through a piece of schedule 40 PVC, for example. If this was in the US, my leading guess would be thin corrugated plastic for a sump discharge line, leading from the house to a soakaway. I suppose one could do the same thing with the downpipe from the guttering - divert the water under the ground to a soakaway some distance from the house.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    ... laziness interspersed with writing intercessionary prayers for Sunday ...

    When it was my turn to read the prayers, I always used the Prayer for the Church Militant - it covers everything and everyone who needs to be prayed for, you can't improve on Cranmer's matchless prose, and I always got nice comments about how lovely it was. :)

    In other news, it's a rather nice day here, although it's clouded over a bit now, and I'm hoping it isn't limbering up to chuck rain as I'm waiting for the bus.
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    Yippee we’ve completed and we’re waiting for the executor to turn up with the keys.
  • PuzzlerPuzzler Shipmate
    My 16 year old granddaughter has officially left school today! It seems only five minutes since she started there in Year 7. She does intend to go into the Sixth Form ( do they still call it that, in years 12-13?) in the same establishment, but that means no uniform and a different regime.
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    Yay @Sarasa , that's excellent news!

    Mr Nen and I had a lovely walk in some bluebell woods yesterday in the gorgeous springlike weather. Today there is rain again - I got wet sitting outside with friends this morning under a canopy as I was sitting at the edge and kept getting drips down one shoulder and arm. This afternoon I had a walk with friends and sat in a garden with coffee and cake and got wet again on the walk home.

    Online wine drinking very soon and curry for tea. :smile:
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    Sarasa wrote: »
    Yippee we’ve completed and we’re waiting for the executor to turn up with the keys.

    Hurrah! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

  • kingsfoldkingsfold Shipmate
    Sarasa wrote: »
    Yippee we’ve completed and we’re waiting for the executor to turn up with the keys.

    Excellent news indeed @Sarasa, and I'm glad the uncertainty & accompanying anxiety are now over for you. :mrgreen:
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Friend undertook long and bumpy bus ride from the Borders to bring me a fuchsia and the welcome chance to talk to someone I've known for 50 years in the way you can only do after 50 years.
  • HelixHelix Shipmate
    Congratulations Sarasa - that's amazing.

    Firenze - yes I totally understand. There is a wonderful ease about friends that have stood the test of time - for whom I am grateful.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I can relate to that - my bridesmaid and I (we grew up as nextdoor neighbours) have reconnected since I moved back to Scotland, and although there had been a gap of 20 years since we'd seen each other, we just took up where we left off.

    @Sarasa - huge congratulations, and health to enjoy your new house!
    Scampi and chips consumed, second glass of WINE in hand - let the weekend commence!
  • PendragonPendragon Shipmate
    Hooray for @Sarasa. At least you haven't had grumpy removal men waiting until late to get in the house.

    We had Inset day today, so I took the Dragonlets to a local National Trust place and we had a long walk and some time in the natural playground. Unfortunately the exercise has not tired them out. :disappointed: It was the first time in a very long time that I have driven that far, or actually gone at 70 mph, as Mr Dragon always drives if we're together. (Purely because he is hopeless at being a passenger.)
  • Hooray, Sarasa.
    My students have now finished their modules. I’ve got a little bit of admin and marking over the next week and then my work is done, give or take some admin and meetings over the summer (I am only employed term time).
  • RoseofsharonRoseofsharon Shipmate
    Puzzler wrote: »
    My 16 year old granddaughter has officially left school today!
    As has my second-eldest grandson.
    It has taken me by surprise, not having seen much of him in the last 18months. He will be going on to an FE college, as his school doesn't have a sixth form.

  • Three cheers for @Sarasa ! Every good wish for your new life :smiley:

    (I expect the executor is relieved also!)
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    Still a bit of cloud cover here, but it’s slowly brightening up.

    Today will be a day of pottering - clean out the fish pond filter, take the dog to the woods, a few chores then hopefully GIN in the garden.

    🐾🙂
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I'm getting my nails done early this afternoon, and I'll probably set some laundry going before I go out. I think a trip out to Sainz Breeze later would be a good idea, as I'm getting short of WINE, and it's easier to transport it back from there than from Tessie's.

    I really must look into those shopping trolleys - there was a lady on the bus the other day who had a very snazzy one with a polkadot design, which didn't look too old-ladyish.

  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    Thank you for all the good wishes. We unpacked the kitchen last night, taking a break for pasta and pesto and a glass or two of wine. We then had another glass sitting in various rooms and deciding what was going where.
    This morning we’ve already unpacked loads more and will shortly be going to the supermarket to stock up our large American style fridge freezer.
  • TheOrganistTheOrganist Shipmate
    @Sarasa Best of luck in your new home.
  • TheOrganistTheOrganist Shipmate
    It may have escaped general notice, but at the same time as other restrictions are being eased those for singing by amateur groups have been tightened. Since the first restrictions were eased it has been possible for suitably distanced and masked amateur choirs, with no limit on numbers, to sing. That has now been changed with a fixed maximum of six being allowed, regardless of bubbles, distancing, etc. Why six? The DCMS cannot give a reason, there is no scientific backup to support it, just an edict.

    This threatens an already beleagured group of people and it is feared many amateur groups, church choirs among them, will fold never to reconvene.

    There is a petition that can be found here. If you value singing, please go to the link and sign. Thank you.
  • kingsfoldkingsfold Shipmate
    edited May 29
    It may have escaped general notice, but at the same time as other restrictions are being eased those for singing by amateur groups have been tightened. Since the first restrictions were eased it has been possible for suitably distanced and masked amateur choirs, with no limit on numbers, to sing. That has now been changed with a fixed maximum of six being allowed, regardless of bubbles, distancing, etc. Why six? The DCMS cannot give a reason, there is no scientific backup to support it, just an edict.

    This threatens an already beleagured group of people and it is feared many amateur groups, church choirs among them, will fold never to reconvene.

    There is a petition that can be found here. If you value singing, please go to the link and sign. Thank you.

    But it's entirely permissible for 21,000 football fans to attend the FA cup final. And for 6,000 fans to gather in George Square for the Euro championship in Glasgow. Because football fans never crowd together, or sing.... (Though they are outdoors. )
  • ThunderBunkThunderBunk Shipmate
    Signed. It had not escaped my notice though. Every day without singing together is another day of drought.
  • JapesJapes Shipmate
    I had already signed it and have encouraged my small congregation to do so!

    We don't have a choir and we love our congregational singing. We're not a congregation that appreciates the idea of a soloist/small group of singers when we can't sing as it's such an essential of our worship. On sunny days, I do chase everyone out to sing in the car park whilst I play a hymn loudly in church as the best I can do... but it's just not the same. (And, public worship outside isn't a goer.)
  • TukaiTukai Shipmate
    Lancashire is famous for being wet and often cold. So it surprises me, as I follow the Giro d'Italia cycle race, which goes up and down mountains fro 3 weeks, that the contender from Lancashire, Simon Yates, rides most strongly when the weather is fine, and loses time on his rivals on days when the weather is wind-driven rain, turning to sleet or even snow at the mountain passes (which are altitudes over 2000 meters ).
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I've signed the petition too; although I haven't been singing since I moved back to Scotland, it's something I'd like to do when I get the chance, and I agree with most of my church musician friends that it's monstrously unfair (and illogical) that amateur singers are being treated like this.

    But then we haven't got the financial clout of sports people, do we?
    Nails have been adorned with a rather fetching navy blue paint (with a bit of sparkle on the ring-fingers), and Sainz Breeze has been patronised. As there's a branch of Argos in my local Sainsbury's, I patronised it as well, and bought a rather enormous, black shopping trolley, which I used to great effect in the transportation of vital supplies like WINE - I couldn't have carried three bottles plus flour, potatoes and other heavy things in a couple of carrier bags.

    I suppose this means I'm now officially Old. :grimace:
    Laundry has been half-done: I left it to wash when I went out, but when I went to put it in the communal tumble-dryer, I pressed all the buttons and nothing happened. To say there was swearing would be putting it mildly; I have very little in the way of places for drying things in the flat.

    Never mind - there's a steak marinating for supper, and some of the WINE will be consumed therewith.
  • We finally converted you to buying a trolley! You won’t regret it, though you may find you buy more shopping (including wine). I’ve had mine for 14 years so I must be very old.
    An afternoon of gardening then a trip to the garden centre. We will soon be having some burgers then playing family online games.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    ... you may find you buy more shopping ...
    I don't know - I have no intention of taking it to work, so it won't be used for Marks and Sparks shopping, which I'll try and restrict to the odd treat.

    If it's only used for Tessie's and Sainsbury's, maybe I'll get into the habit of doing a sensible weekly shop rather than faffing about after work. I've occasionally overestimated what I can comfortably carry in the little canvas shoulder-bag that I keep rolled up in my handbag, and ended up with aching shoulders by the time I get home.
  • JapesJapes Shipmate
    @Piglet - that's exactly the kind of shopping trolley I've been using for about the last 12 years!

    I have one which is known as the organist's trolley and I leave all the music/shoes/liturgy books as well as anything else I need to take to church in that one. Then, as I'm too lazy to unpack and re-pack all that when I need a trolley for other purposes, I have a second one for shopping/taking stuff to work when I've more than I can carry.

    Thank you for the link - it's reminded me it's time to replace one of them before it collapses on me.
  • Another pedestrian shopper here. I tend to do a taxi shop every few weeks, then there's no worry about large or breakable items or frozen stuff. It costs £3 more than a bus but saves a couple of extra shops and my back muscles.

    Went to the park with friend and Godsons today. Cricket was sort of played, ice cream was eaten, all is right with the world (though friend might be sunburned when she gets back)
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Circus Host, 8th Day Host
    I've told you before: a wheely trolley doesn't make you old. It makes you an honorary Parisian. They're ubiquitous about these parts because so few of us own a car (and even those who do mostly do their shopping on foot).

    I'm feeling a bit better today after the cold + Covid shot combination, although I had a nasty headache this afternoon. This evening I finished making a new red maxi dress, which I made because I felt like it and I had the fabric sitting about, and a New Red Dress makes life better. I shall wear it tomorrow.
  • cgichardcgichard Shipmate
    Just apply your own polka dots @Piglet: but be sure to make them from rain-proof material.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I don't have that sort of skill, I'm afraid! There was a polka-dot one in the catalogue, but I'd have had to wait until next week to get it, and I really wanted to do a "heavy things" shop, so I went for what was available.

    The only trouble with it is although it's described as "folding", the only bit that actually folds is the little stand bit: the frame is quite long, so it takes up a lot of space in your supermarket trolley. Just as well I don't need a whole trolley full of groceries.
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