Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey Topics), 12 June 2016

Heather,    Oh dear,   That unbleached calico bias binding sounds horrendous!

I have the flu jab when it is offered to me because I know I would be annoyed if I didn't, and then got flu. I think it is a good thing for the NHS to offer it.

Having said that, I also had the pneumonia vaccine, and a few months later had pneumonia. When I later queried this, the Practice Nurse told me that they can only cover the most common strains. I don't know what strain I had, but I was very unwell. Like you, I had never  had a chest infection before, and am not on any medication.  It came completely 'out of the blue'

Knowing what I do now, I probably would not have had it, but hindsight is a great thing.

One more thing on the sewing theme. When the girls were (for some of us) enduring needlework, the boys were gardening (later called Rural Studies) or doing metalwork. I didn't fancy the metalwork, but would have loved the gardening.

No chance for us girls in those days, though.

Morning all:  Just back from walk. Can hardly believe it's already Saturday. Wasn't  it just a couple of days ago that Diane wrote to say she'd be "back later to start the new thread"??!  ANd in the same vein, wasn't it just a couple of months ago that Tim Peake left for the ISS?

Heather: No coverage of fire probably due to fact that no houses burning. The local authorities have set up a special "hotline" (e-mail address) in this case for farmers and ranchers. Our new people are also covering bigger fires in New Mexico and Arizona, plus the Russian Olympics ban.  I think my OH is related to yours when it comes to domestic skills. Before we were married he took his shirts to the laundry where they ironed them all (now they're all mostly non-iron and just need a little smoothing out in the front at the very most). Had to laugh at the "falling off the ironing boards" excuse.   I'm the button person around here.  Re vaccines, I've had the flu vaccine the last two years - also the pneumonia one (there's a new multiple-strain version called Prevnar 13, which I haven't had). I always remember my mother saying that pneumonia was "the old person's friend."  But then again she would say that somebody died "from shortness of breath."  I've just read that drinking very hot liquids may cause pancreatic cancer, which is disconcerting as another of my mother's sayings - in this instance about food and drinks - was "cold things cold and hot things hot." And in our house, that meant very hot tea among other things. You can't win with all these medical findings - they're like the weather; wait five minutes and things will change.

Rosy: See my post to Heather about Prevnar 13 and pneumonia.

dibnlib: Now that's my kind of meal! Strawberry tart doesn't count - it's fruit.

OG: I noticed the "housewife" with the cooking gear, but thought it must be a strong canvas-type fabric hold-all of sorts for spatulas, spoons etc.  I'm not surprised that it lasted so long, what with you being so clever at home stuff and all.   :-)

Hot here today - and very still.  Stronger winds expected tonight and tomorrow night, but quiet days gives the fire crews opportunity to get ahead of things..

Dibnlib   Forgot to say, that meal sounded wonderful. My kind of thing.

This morning I popped out to fill the bird feeders, whilst my OH was busy painting.  I heard a scuffle behind me in the garden, and Bonnie had a full sized pigeon in her mouth.  I chased her around for a while: it was still alive.  But once she has something, there's nothing on this earth which will make her give it up.  Then I tried other tactics, like digging in the flowerbed as if I had something interesting, to try and lure her, but nothing worked so we just had to shut all the doors and leave the poor thing to its fate.  Later, my OH went out and recovered the body: there were an awful lot of feathers everywhere, which the smaller birds immediately came down and claimed as some still have babies in their nests.

This afternoon, we did more decorating (nearly finished) and my OH took Bonnie out for a walk by the allotments. I did some nice relaxed gardening, planting and pruning whilst they were gone:  it was bliss not to have my tools and gloves stolen!  He came back and shouted "shut all the doors to the house!"  --  Bonnie had a baby squirrel, but it was already dead.  He knew he could not get it off her, so we just left her in the garden with it again until she abandoned it, and then it joined the pigeon in the dustbin :-(

I am so weary of this.

As I just started preparing dinner, she came into the house with a whole mouthful of broken plastic as she had "stolen" the empty containers from my bedding plants and ripped them up.  She was put out into the garden again.

LINDY - She is a 'gun dog' by breed, or so my OH says. It is her instinct, to catch and kill. Just like a sparrowhawk. I'm not a country woman but could probably cope with the kill instinct. However, in the house, domestic trauma, I would struggle. Sending hugs from here.

Heather: This is an honest question, not a flippant response. Why wouldn't you have the pneumococcal vaccine? I know that pneumonia is caused by bacteria and can also develop from viral flu and colds and some fungal diseases.

But aren't all the vaccines -- both pneumonia and flu -- made of killed/dead/inactive organisms? (Well, except for nasal spray vaccines.) So vaccines can't make you ill? 

Plus, some of the bacteria today are antibiotic-resistant serotypes. So you run the risk of contracting a type of pneumonia that you may not be able to effectively treat? Are you saying that the vaccine may degrade your own immunity response?

I have had the pneumonia vaccination.  I understand it's a one-off.  As I am prone to bronchitis which on a couple of occasions has been close to becoming pneumonia, I thought it was a wise move.  I have had the flu jab each year as well.  I still get the odd sore throat/laryngitis, but nothing more serious.

DIANE and PAT - the answer is, not sure at the moment. Just instinct, which of course is not a very clever answer! Leave it with me, I am of course, not an expert. I respect your thoughts DIANE as you are an experienced medical researcher.

Thinking about it, DIANE. Probably the vaccine would do me no harm and probably wouldn't decrease my own immune response. I just prefer to live a natural life and take things as they come since my health history would suggest that my immune system is working very well. My OH is registered with a different GP practice and hasn't been offered the vaccine.

I got another letter from my GP practice today, telling me that I have been selected,randomly, to take part in some health research being conducted by Aberdeen University. Interesting!!