Natalie

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

Well there were only three options - and only one of these interests Bear, namely "The Wind in the Willows".  And that resulted in Bear remembering a TV show from many moons ago, entitled "Tales of the Riverbank".  Anyone else remember it too?

I do indeed. It featured guinea pigs, gerbils, hamsters and frogs playing the main roles. They seemed to spend their time either in a boat floating randomly on some water (on Wootton Creek on the Isle of Wight I read) or charging about in what looked like an Action Man or Barbie/Ken Jeep type vehicle at high speed over some very lumpy earth with the car not spending much time on four wheels. Their wiki page also that they also used an air plane and a diving bell!!. I don't remember any kind of Beary type creature featuring though.

Either way they were an improvement on the 'actors' that feature in the soaps. Maybe the cast of 'Tales of the Riverbank' felt that soaps were beneath them which of course they were. When you have been Hammy the Hamster or Wise Old Frog then you have reached the top of your profession.

A heartfelt post Rick. Your pain and frustration is clear.

I would love to talk to you Rick and help you put the world to rights. If you would like my phone number then send me a message.

I don't think we have ever met in person but I have always enjoyed reading your posts. I'm just an opinionated, stroppy, argumentative, gobby cow.

Am currently absolutely livid about the ambulance response time to a friend with a potentially limb threatening injury. It seems that they think 5 1\2 hours is an appropriate response time.

We have to stop the politicians destroying our NHS right in front of us- otherwise we are going to lose it.

(I was bullied out of my job as a Senior Staff Nurse in A&E and Medical Admissions for expressing the same view in 2011)

I really could do with some cake right now (maybe something lemony will calm me down...)

Just a quick visit. Have finally caught up with all the posts.

Thoughts are with those in troubled circumstances or bereavements. I hope that you can get the support and love that you need.

I'm generally fine, the black dog (not our real black Patterdale Minnie..) is generally behaving but I continue to live with my usual problems, issues, anxieties and pain as I have little choice essentially. No attempts so far at doing myself in this month so that is something positive. I had a birthday last week but don't bother with them at all. I have no interest in them.

Met up with Kelly (and Poppy too!) twice which really did me the world of good. Ideally I need to do it more often. Otherwise I continue to live in the past (mid to late 1950s would do me for the music and Spurs being a great side too though not the misogyny) and take very little notice of the current evil and corrupt world only emerging to watch Spurs testing mental resolve even more... The world and its people continue to both scare and confuse me hence why I prefer to hide away and isolate myself from it all.

Something positive is that I have some writing and book reviews to do for the next issue of DEMU UPDate in the next day or so so that Editor Kelly (yes the same one ☺️ ) can get this issue to print. Once I get started it is something that I enjoy doing and I really need to make a concerted effort to do more.

On that note I shall end my possibly bizarre message by offering love and best wishes to all who reside in here and not forgetting their magnificent doggies on whom we all dote.

Nat

xx

I am not an Early Riser this morning as such as I've not yet been down (as it were)  and I don't know whether I'll actually bother. I have been awake all night- no big deal for me and I don't normally have problems sleeping. It is staying awake that tends to be the hardest thing.. I had Bracken the Dog sit with me earlier (0300) for 90 minutes which was nice before she retired to her own quarters. The last few days has seen me up all night and then dozing all day. I can even sleep all night and then all day as well much to Mother's irritation. I blame the podcasts I listen to - mainly football/ Spurs, music history and socialism. Who needs sleeping pills when there are podcasts that do the job more efficiently and safely? Its not that they are boring I just seem to find the voices soothing and relaxing.

I think I shall stay up and continue to poke through my stuff on my device aided with tea drinking. Nothing much else to report really. I need to check with Mother regarding the food situation as there are a few things I can she that she needs. I no longer have access to a vehicle so have to utilise the local omnibus and Mother's trolley which makes things so much easier. Normally Mother has a lift with her friend on a Monday to shop but didn't go as she felt a bit off. Trouble is that Mother is most reluctant to let me go instead as it involves having to go outside amongst yuman beans which I find considerably anxiety inducing. As the authorities are not prepared to clear the town and supermarket of others then I have to endure it and take steps myself to ease my anxiety. Sometimes you can't avoid such situations and have to cope with them as best you can but Mother would rather struggle on the bus herself than let me go instead. She says it is her job to go not mine and generally has a hard time in letting me help. I can understand it to one extent but I am choosing/ offering to help not being forced. I have a hard time in trying to get Mother to rest properly and not overdo things. The last thing I want her to do is to fall and sustain a #NOF. We'll see what transpires..

All is quiet at present, in a couple of hours Bracken will be up for her breakfast and bd insulin. Minnie the black Patterdale, who absolutely loves her bed (and who can blame her?) may or may not saunter down for her biscuits soon after.

Hope that everyone else has a good day. I did notice the absence of some familiar names whilst catching up and hope that they too are well and might return.

Listening to these podcasts means I have no idea as to the day or date but am led to believe that today is December 31st which means only one thing- two terrified dogs at the stroke of midnight and for an hour or so because of those blasted fireworks that now seem to have become a 'thing' since we apparently celebrated the official heralding of the new millennium in 2000 at the the then Millennium Dome now Oxygen Arena. Seemed a lot of fuss over nothing at the time as in fact I believe that the new Millennium actually started in 2001 which passed by without anything.

To those who do celebrate or mark such an occasion as new year then I hope that it goes well for you and you have a suitably enjoyable event.

 Best wishes and love to all. 

Now to make some more tea...

3 hours ago, Barry O said:

Hope 2022 is good for you @Natalie, long time since we heard from @Kellyas well..hope she is OK too!

I have now caught up with reading so hopefully can keep up to date.

The best wishes of you all is much appreciated. It may not seem much of a gesture but for those of us who have been absent, whether through the black dog or otherwise, it is nice to receive the reactions and know that our presence has been missed. In the same gesture best wishes to Bear and hope that he gets any support he may require and that he is a valued part of this band of posters whom we hope to see back as soon as he is able to. His posts are never dull and always get me thinking. As for Kelly she is fine. I have been in regular contact, both in person and digitally. She says that her absence from ER is mainly down to forgetting to post here.

I hope that everybody who has been unwell is recovered/ recovering and that any in isolation can soon safely re-emerge fit and well.

I hope all those who celebrate Christmas or not had suitably enjoyable times and was everything that it was expected to be. I am in the not celebrating Christmas camp I am afraid as I am not a Christian but mainly because I am a miserable anti social cow....

It was good to read that Chrisf had managed to get a short trip away in knowing how important they are to him and hopefully he can grace a Pride event near you anytime soon. Glad that all seems to be well with his oncology visits.

It was nice to meet Roll the daschund, he looks a fine beast indeed. Glad to catch up with the activities of Sydney and Ben, not forgetting Lucy (hope that is recovering) and the rest of the pack (apologies for forgetting their pack name- just remembered after pressing send that they are The Wolfpack.)

I was pleased to read from Dave Hunt that Bob Essery had a suitable send off. I only met him a few times at the NEC when I was on the SRS stand and he (along with Graham Warburton and Mrs Essery and Mrs Warburton too) was on the LMS Society stand. He was always keen to chat and was great to talk to. He seemed fascinated that I had been a signalman in the Nuneaton/ Warwickshire and Leicestershire areas. He seemed pleased that I had read a lot of his works and agreed with his views on operating a model railway- ie as per the real thing. He could never remember my name but just called me "The Lady Signalman." It really was an honour to meet and chat with such an important and influential member of our great hobby. 

It has been interesting catching up on various conversations. With history I tend to be of the opinion that it should not be sanitised and should reflect all sides of the story was well as placing it into the context of its time. It is then perfectly acceptable to me to then say that nowadays such opinions or actions are not considered acceptable. We should be able to record what happened, good and bad and reflect on it but certainly not twist it or deny that certain things happen. Aren't we supposed to learn from the mistakes that we have made in the past? We can't do that if they have been whitewashed or erased.

The detail regarding slavery was very enlightening and equally disturbing. I was unaware of the majority of it and found it quite disgusting what humans are capable of doing to other humans. Why can't we just all get on and treat each other nicely?

Flavio also made an important point about the existence of modern day slavery and the need to do something about it. it is a travesty that we get upset by historical slavery (rightly) yet seem not to be as bothered by its continued existence.

I will admit that people as a whole baffle me and I just can't get my head around it all. I generally find life very difficult to deal with and tend to just avoid people as a rule and keep myself shut away in my room. My black dog tends to be an all year round presence.... What does help though is the unwavering and unconditional love from our two magnificent hounds, Bracken and Minnie (our real black dog). They really are a big help and comfort at all times and have saved my life on several occasions.

Anyways enough of my sufferings and apologies for the length of the post. I hadn't intended it to be so but I found the words flowed once I started.

Just a short note to say hello and I am still alive although struggling mentally at times. Today is generally a good day although the usual stiffness and pain persists..

I hope everyone is well.

I am in the process of catching up with what I have missed. Am currently on page 10416. I do know that Flavin's beloved Lucy has been unwell but is now recovered which is great news. I also hope that Bear has been able to acquire some of his much referred LDC.

Will comment further once finally caught up.

Love and good wishes to you all.

A rarity for me, a genuinely early visit although to be strictly correct I am not an early riser as such as I got up at 3pm yesterday and haven't been to bed yet.

I decided to go shopping at 0300- just a 3 mile walk along main roads that our dear county council have deemed to not be as worthy of lighting as those touristy and theatrical areas in the south of the county which retain lit streets.

The walk I can normally do in an hour but my knees, feet and inability to breathe meant it took two hours which included a 30 minute break on a random bench as the light came up. Some time was spent staring at some object in the sky which had two lights but seemed to just hang there or move very slowly about but not really changing position. Maybe we are being watched by those who are "out there." The rest was very welcome and reminded me of when I used to work nights in the boxes and during the summer the rising of the sun was always a welcomed highlight. Working in an A&E Department later you tended not to have a clue what was going on outside...

Return was by bus and am now resting with a cup of tea,  slice o bread adorned with peanut butter whilst nosing at a programme about unmentionables. ..

Soon the heat and sun/uv light will ramp up and the stinging eyes will add to the sniffy nose, nausea and headache that accompany this awful (to me) hot weather. Just a side effect of being allergic to ultraviolet light (not sure which version). 

Trust that all (including those who are missing for whatever reason) are well and enjoy their day doing their chosen/allocated activity be it to locate and consume LDC, observe how not to build/ alter houses, a bit of boat work (how is it going to be taken to the water? Surely there is a film to be made about it), dealing with new companies who seem to have the IT knowledge and common sense of a slug or those simply just chilling and enjoying the company of those dear to them. Special thoughts to those concerned about loved ones undergoing medical procedures. I trust that they are well cared for and that the ddesired outcome is achieved without much distress to all concerned. 

Apologies to anyone that I have forgotten.

Time to go and shut the evil fiery gas globule out as it is starting to intrude. High time someone chucked a bucket of water over it- maybe those over possessed of monetary wealth from exploiting the name of rivers could do that instead of their vanity projects of trying to claim to be astronauts but without having  the knowledge and skill of the real deal..

Time to shut up now as I am getting near to building the metaphorical wall and that could get political...

Best wishes

Nat

17 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

I’ll have a look seen what I can find in my bottom drawer, I think I’ve got some Fortral suppositories that bear can have. (Did you see what I did there?)

Reminds me of a time many years ago when I was transporting quite a lot of ‘gear’ in the back of my van when I pulled into a car park. A couple of minutes later a bloke meandered upto the car next door and the car window opened and a small bag was exchanged for quite a few modelling tokens. I bet the ‘’sh!t’ in the back of my van would have made the dealer blush. Anyway didn’t want to get into a turf war.
 

Hi

 Fortral supps?  They sound good, could do with those if they are 'going spare' to help with the gyp this right shoulder of mine continues to give, in the absence of being able to obtain a face to face GP appointment (not my GP's doing btw)... ;-)

I had a similar incident whilst working in a Cat B HMP. I was in the process of moving a substantial quantity of both liquid and tablet formed CDs to my department when I was met by one of the Dog Handlers. As the Handler also had a radio (but not the dog although he did have photo ID around his neck...) they would have known what I was doing as all prison movements except for mine had been frozen. I obviously also had my uniform on. (A uniform that looked like a nurse uniform as it was, involved trousers and was designed so that the wearer was both comfortable and not regarded as eye candy or 'fair game' from elderly mysogynsts or pervs...)

I was asked would I mind if the accompanying dog who was in training gave me the 'once over' as a test for him. No problem as the dog (a spaniel) got to work. Hardest bit was just standing there and not being able to stroke him (the dog). That is classed as assault on an officer if an establishment guest was to.

The dog declared me to be free of which I told the handler that I was loaded both in my bag and on my person with enough CDs to earn a hefty sum of money in the wrong hands. The dog found his training extended...

Upset to hear about Ziggy. Can cope with human demise but not that of a cat or dog... Best wishes and comfort to Winslow Boy.

22 hours ago, polybear said:

 

 

 

 

Is that with oodles of buttercream and strawberry jam?

 

Unfortunately security considerations result in my being unable to divulge such sensitive information for fear of an unprovoked bear attack/ mission. I'm sure that you understand...

2 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

A Tweet appeared on my Twitter timeline asking people what was number one in the “Top Ten” on your 7th birthday. Clearly many people who responded were a lot younger than I . Mine was Cliff Richard and The Drifters performing “Living Doll”. 

Living Doll is interesting in that Hank didn't use the Antoria (this is all pre Strat 34346) but a borrowed semi acoustic which enabled him to replicate the sound of the tremelo arm manually. Not sure how good it was for the guitar.

My equivalent no 1 would be Feb 1974. No idea what it would have been but doubt it was rock'n'roll or rockabilly!

Edit- Seems it was 'Tiger Feet' by Mud, not as bad as I feared....

Hi Flavio (initially but anyone else who is interested)

As a gent who I believe enjoys a challenge isn't a Telecaster whether Squire or Fender a bit well, mainstream?

How about a nice 1950s Antoria /Guyatone LG50?  Got a great ringin' n rockin' sound- listen to Cliff's first LP "Cliff" from February 1959 or Mean Streak, Never Mind or the Drifters' studio recordings of Jet Black and Driftin'.

Only drawbacks are apparently, according to Hank, are a tendency to go out of tune quickly, are awkward to reach the higher end of the fret board and no tremelo arm. Another problem with this guitar, however, was that the neck bowed away from the strings from the sixth or seventh fret to the twelfth.

For a good ringin' sound there was Roland Janes who played on a lot of Jerry Lee's SUN stuff or also at SUN was Don Gililland who played on Dick Penner stuff such as "Cindy Lou"

Or "Fine Little Baby"

"Your Honey Love"

Instead of a guitar change how about an amp (I'm biased in liking a good VOX AC15 or 30...) or echo box addition or something like that?

I have mainly been away from here because of being unwell for the past 12 or so days with a pyrexia of 39.9c (103.8F iirc) accompanied by rigors and tight breathing and generally made me feel totally unwell. At the time was no cause of infection but my right leg felt like it was bruised badly all over which was not visible. By the next day I was unable to even lower my leg let alone weight bear. On looking the whole of my lower leg was now engulfed in an angry, purple, hot, painful, orange peel like rash which I suspected as cellulitis. Photos despatched to GP who confirmed my provisional diagnose and has prescribed 2/52 Fluclox 500g qds PO. After about 6 day's use they have started to take effect and the rash is now reducing and I feel a lot better in my self. I am now starting to eat again after nearly a fortnight but still feel easily wallopsed.  I have looked after people with cellulitis before plenty of times and really had no appreciation of how I'll it can make you feel nor its painfulness. . But it is at least improving now and I will of course COMPLETE MY COURSE OF ABx. ..

Lastly I am aware I had words a few days ago about the forum, that is related to it being used to post details and discussions about that blasted virus. What didn't impress me was the comments that were being made as to what should happen to transgressors (I don't like the lockdowns, they have trashed my mental health to the extent that I don't care if I live or die anymore, but crucially I have followed the rules). Comments such as being left to die, having all possessions taken from them (I had this happen to me-including house- when I had my breakdown and without my mum would now be homeless or dead), facing firing squads, having heads put on spikes etc all seemed out of proportion particularly when no-one knows all the facts concerned. I believe that this thread should have been kept free of that blasted virus (and US politics too) as it was always going to be a highly emotive and divisive subject. There is a dedicated thread to talk about that sort of thing elsewhere if that is your want. You don't find debates, discussion on that blasted virus (which I am not a denier of, I know it is very real) in such august journals as Snooze or MRJ.

Additionally it was not me (although it has not been suggested it was I know) who reported Bill Bishop for anything, I tend to be an avoider if something upsets or annoys me and disappear and only return when I am strong enough to deal with it rationally.

As for LDC, isn't that Local Departmental Council (well what do you expect I am a raging leftie....). Trying to to get any attention from others (ie furry ones with paws and claws) my favourite c*&e has to be a Vic!%ria Sp@&e. I'm even told by Kelly that mine are very nice apparently.

Am glad that everyone else seems to be getting on. SimonT having also lost items through mental health issues then you have my thoughts. It may not be much consolation but there will be someone who can get you through what seems pretty dire circumstances at the time.  Mine and still is my mum.

Glad that Chris F's aunties seem to be hanging in too. Best wishes to them and him.

Lastly a word on the news about Mr Essery. I was really upset to read of his latest illness. He lives fairly near to me in a retirement village but one which had an attached nursing home on site. I hope that he has been able to get a place there and can at least be near to his wife. I did a shift there once and because I was qualified i was given a huge bunch of keys, not allowed to answer any buzzers and told that I was in charge.... 

Bob is one of my heroes and I share a lot of his views on model railway operation. I have met him (and his wife) on several occasions at the NEC when I have been doing the SRS stand and he was on the LMS Society stand (with Graham Warburton who would always kiss me on the hand!). Bob could never remember my name but seemed fascinated with the fact that I had been a signalman and always referred to me as 'the lady signalman. ' This isn't meant to be horrible but I really hope that he doesn't suffer too much (not that anyone should). He deserves more than that. 

Someone else I miss from shows apart from Graham Warburton is Bob Blood. A complete legend who seems determined to break the land speed record each time there is a show on. I really want to get back to shows!

Am looking at joining in on Sat if able to technically and emotionally- until then keep well and apologies for the length.