Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 19 January 2020

We heard the sad news of the loss of 3 men in the firefighting, AQ. They were so good to travel to try and help out.

Still damp and clouded over, here, but I can see the fields now so perhaps my OH has had a reasonable morning. He often sees buzzards and pheasants wandering around on the golf course, as its right out in the countryside. But right in the path of the controversial HS2 train, if it ever gets built!

Have been trying to put together a bit of a poem for AQ, after her heroic stint as Babysitter in Chief!! Keep getting interrupted though, so it might not appear today.

Another chaotic day yesterday – both J and I said we felt we had the NHS coming out of our ears from phonecalls etc! Anyway, I’ll start from wherever I had got to on page 4 on Tuesday.

HEATHER – I find the same with leftover jars in the fridge, because apart from Jonathan eating Mayo and Cranberry Sauce, and OH putting Soy Sauce on virtually everything, I am the only one who likes several Relishes and accompaniments such as Olives, so they always lurk beyond their date. Temporary specs for J on their way – more later.

LINDA – I have to be insistent about replacing spices and herbs because OH thinks it is wasteful – I say it would be less wasteful if he remembered to use them all! Good to know Vick is still available – J uses Olbas Oil, but I find it makes me sneeze or cough! Thanks for recommending Monty Don’s American Gardens – we have been recording it, so now I know it will be worth watching. My distant “Uncle” – the one born in a Berkshire village, emigrated to the US, fought in France with the Canadians, was buried in an Australian cemetery there – worked in one of the estate gardens (now a public park, I think) in Long Island! Pleased your OH was signed off from skin specialist – I am sure she would have inspected him if she felt it might be necessary – but if anything new appears, do make sure he doesn’t ignore it! Little and often for rearranging your drawers does sound a good way to tackle it – especially with some things in the wrong room(s). So enjoy your pottering today!

AQ – good to know you can take a step back and be proud of your times with the twins who, I am sure, will have benefited from Nanny-care! So glad at least some of your Tomatoes and the Courgette plant survived to maturity this year – well done. Terrible about the crash of the water-bomber plane, as if enough people hadn’t died already.

PAT – how good that you kept a journal on your world trip and can now relive the experience. How is your church magazine this month? Ours is tiny as people just haven’t submitted articles – I have had to resort to extra Bible quotes to fill some pages. Also, we are in a silly situation with a new Minister “coming soon” but can’t announce his arrival due to admin issues.

ANNETTE – I think many of us here and there are feeling depressed about various political and other situations – your orange peril, our stupid thing they call brexit and the disappearance ( not necessarily a bad thing) of part of our royal family - not to mention the issue of Independence for Scotland, which will not go away however hard BoJo tries to ignore it. Good that you could think of a birthday present this year – and it sounds like a great idea.

ROSY – so pleased you have a good view of the water birds on the Thames; heronries are always interesting to watch – especially when the young ones are able to start moving about. It is also amazing what small branches such heavy birds can use in the tree-tops – they can be quite elegant. I am lucky in that I am not at all enthused by family heirlooms, but it does mean I am not very tolerant of a musical bier stein which OH thinks of as an inheritance from his father – I regard it as “kitch” and the tune is “O mein papa”, which was an English composition anyway!

LYNETTE – pleased to see the water did not cause bad damage to the ceiling underneath. Optician was very helpful – they are making J a simple pair of spectacles with the prescription he needs as things are at present, and they gave us a huge discount (all three of us are regular patients) so he can have them changed after the swelling will have gone, his eyes will be used to working together again and he will have been discharged by the eye clinic (appointment Feb 3rd). At the same time, his GP has made his sick note to last through that same date!

I had to move my next bloods appt as it clashed with the eye check-up for J – got it earlier on the same day. Also had to sort podiatry as Louise will be starting back in March after her maternity leave, so I have managed to get two appointments into the diary – Sophie late Feb and Louise in very early April. And I think that’s the ned of all the medical phonecalls for this week – it’s been a nightmare!

See LINDA came in with a double post while I was writing my marathon in various interrupted sessions! Mist seems to have increased here since early morning - and now it's lunchtime.

Agree, mow blow and go sums up my 'gardener' ! Pruning shrubs consists of using a hedge trimming machine. My OH must be cursing from above...
ANNETTE - great that you will have someone who has some expertise !
AQ - so sad to hear about the air crew who died. Also and on a happier note - I can't believe that it is so long since the twins were born. You have been marvellous.
LINDY - My views on some docs are well known but just like any profession there will be excellent ones and abysmally bad ones. It isn't a great job to be in, I know for sure.

Also there are good patients and poor ones! My Welsh friend has multiple physical issues including diabetes and she is 78. A friend phoned her on Monday asking for a lift to the bank and Tesco, because said friend was suffering from what she described as a bad cold.So my pal duly drove and did the deed. ( Her pal has family living nearby). The next day, her friend was admitted to hospital with a nasty flu - a strain that wasn't covered by this year's vaccine. So what did my friend do last night? Yes, went to hospital to visit. I give up. I'd already suggested that she could help more by doing shopping etc when her friend was non infectious and yet might be weak from post viral stuff. I know that I am ranting - sorry !

Our posts crossed, OG! I'm just about to read yours properly

OG -- You've made me feel better about not tackling the rearranging jobs head on! - I'm still recuperating, and have several new symptoms of my cold which I won't bore you with. So I'm doing things in spurts.

Good to hear that J will soon get his temporary specs, and that that you've managed to juggle your appointments.

My OH said "Don't ask!" when questioned about the quality of his golf this morning. He did see two large buzzards on the fairway, just walking around and looking for prey. Today he is going to put in a glass shelf in one of the 'cubes' of the new bookcase unit, for smaller books, now that I've popped most of the big ones in. Still seem to have a surplus! We had more books than I thought once we assembled them all.

Heather, it's hard not to be cross with people who don't think about the later ramifications of not taking care of their own health. I was once dragooned into driving my late m.in law to visit an old friend who had been transferred into a care home. We got no further than the front door, as m in law promptly fell backwards on the slope, as I left her elbow to open the door! An ambulance trip and a long day with her in hospital followed, as she had struck her head when falling. She was alright, but both of my sister in laws said that she must have asked me to drive her, as she knew they would have told her that she was too frail to go!

I hope your friend doesn't get the flu, which could be nasty.

My OH found the doc to be excellent in every other respect, and very reassuring and practical, so perhaps she was putting the responsibility on him to notice anything unusual. Mind you, she was also exceptionally young & pretty, and he's always been a sucker for a pretty face ;-) LOL!

OG - Printed the February magazine this morning (starting at 7.00am, the only time I have this week … why is life so manic???) It's very skinny, just twenty-four pages. Fortunately our minister was feeling verbose, as was one other regular contributor. Sadly the man who used to write our Nature Notes died, so one page was a tribute to him - I'm pleased his wife is going to continue to write the Notes, probably the most popular item in the magazine. Which may account for me sitting in meetings when things are mentioned and someone pipes up, 'I didn't know about that' - when it has clearly been in the magazine. Sometimes I wonder why I bother - I spend hours preparing and printing the magazine - and I wonder just how many people actually read it! I have threatened to put something quite subversive in one month and seeing if anyone notices! End of rant … I was up too early this morning!

PAT - mine is much smaller than yours - we are a very small church - but what you say resonates with me! But it's good that the widow will continue the Nature Notes - and it will be good for her to have it to do; (of course, you may find that she was doing it anyway, I've known that before!)

OG - You are right. She had been writing the Notes since her husband became ill. When he was still responsive she would read them to him and he would make the odd comment. However, for the last two years he has not been able to do that, so she has been doing them - but still insisting his name was printed first. She is a very busy lady, but really wants to keep it going, which I'm pleased about on two counts. Our congregation really appreciates the Notes - and it would indeed be a loss for her to give them up.