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@ajn My sincere apologies for lack of reply on here. We had some pretty bad family news going on and, well, nothing else got done.
So, late as it may be, I reckon your feet issue certainly is not the thing that I’ve got. .
Good luck with getting it fixed
Great fan of Costa Adeje. We miss going there dreadfully – health insurance is over twice the cost of the holiday because of the impressive list of conditions which Mrs T and I have collected. Easygoing, laid back and relatively free of loud, aggressive Brits!
Particularly liked the “local” rough-and-ready fried chicken caff on seafront which has its own, unique, secret recipe. Grandma (the chef) is very proud of her spicy chicken bits and has sworn to kill anyone even thinking about nicking her recipe.
Forgive the cliche but, “I’ve got that.” In my case it is what is called “Venous Insufficiency” whereby veins in foot/leg restrict blood flow. No cure, I’m afraid. Medication is blood thinners (well dodgy) and you also get a set of “compression stockings”. These are quite effective at relieving discomfort but are a right sod to get on and off. I even bought this frame pulling thingey which handles of of them but now the other,
Must agree with everyone else – go see your GP. Important to get an accurate diagnosis.
Will be trying bird feeders this year, hoping that wind does not chuck most of it on the lawn (messy grass, happy dog).
Tits have been fairly busy here: Great, Blue, Coal and Long-tailed. Also seen Goldcrest fairly often and spotted a Blackcap last week.
Three-door Mini is a great car to drive. Most enjoyable. Whichever one you choose, make sure you get a good test drive in exactly the chosen model. I ordered a three-door (Cooper S) after a test in a five door (sales bloke said no 3-door available). Had to trade it back in after a few weeks: three-door suspension seems to use bricks as springs. Absolutely unbearable and painful with four busted vertebral discs!
To focus on the general side of the original post – Head or Heart? – I have to say that with the benefit of hindsight I will now try to choose with the Heart. This is largely based on the choice I had to make a couple of leases ago, between the Mini Cooper S and the Alfa Giulia. Both, curiously, about the same AP and I let my head convince me that the Mini was the better choice. Wrong. Had to do an early swap because the suspension made it unsuitable for us. Alfa had better, comfy suspension and was an extremely rewarding drive.
If choosing at the moment, would face extremely hard choice between the MX-5 and everything else. Quite aside from being an enjoyable shopping trolley (all we need) the Mazda is also the closest you can get to a pre-digital motor. I am told it has one small touchscreen which controls music (don’t use it) and aircon. Everything else (including aircon) has knobs, buttons and switches. Currently have a VW ID.3 and digital overload and interference in driving is not only annoying it is also dangerous – distracting attention from road to bloody screens and slamming brakes on to avoid leaf collision.
Seems most cars are being taken over by the digital demons and the MX-5 looks a really good deal for a proper motor car (and would be driveable by my wife who cannot handle all the digital touchscreen stuff).
@Footloose In my experience of these privately owned parking con-men, you don’t stand a chance, mate. I got a PCN in one for being 12 inches outside the bay marking line – had to do this because bay so narrow could not get out of car.
Was going to appeal but did some research and found that none of the appeals made ever lead to a cancellation of fine. This seems to apply to all of the different, private parking con-men across the country.
Research the management/staff/owners of “your” one. I bet you’ll find that the majority and got a criminal conviction tucked away somewhere; that they have been “directors” of at least six concerns which have gone into liquidation; that many of them have previously worked in “security application” aka club bouncers.
That is what I discovered about the firm issuing my PCN – they are a bunch of small-time villains who have discovered a perfectly legal way to rob you. They get the law to do it for them – if you appeal and take it to court, they WILL win. Moreover, they will tot up penalty factors and increase the amount they steal from you. In some cases a £60 fine has become £5-600 or more.
My advice, and it really sticks in my throat, pay the £60 and avoid all the angst, worries (and in some cases physical threats from the bouncers).
What a fantastic creature! Brilliant spot and snap by @DumfriesDik Always keen to hear of different flying things which need to be seen. This one’s a doozy!
Bad stuff: The broken NHS. Advice: don’t get sick. If you do, try to avoid going to A&E (at least in Worthing). Because whatever condition you rfeport with, they’ll kill you with something else.
Good stuff: Electoral system and independent judges. Almost impossible to get a Trump-like PM, there again, Der Fuhrer Nigel would love it and, if he got in, our constitution has the “orders in council” procedure which can be used in a dictatorial manner just like the Orange One’s proclamations.
ASDA Extra Special All Butter Chocolate Chip Shortbread are really very good. However, when I can manufacture a “special occasion” it has got to be M&S “Outrageously Chocolatey” range. Some have more chocolate than biscuit. Try to keep them away from guests – they go too quickly!
Normally get ours from local farm charity centre – not a lot of use for you, @Menorca Mike unless you live near Worthing. However, have in the past also bought online from YouGarden and quality has been pretty good. Be aware, though, that they do not send out until the baskets are well established and you may have a wait.
Having waited some 18 months for (non-urgent) operation to my hand, I finally got the op’ done at Southlands hospital – a satellite, “cottage hospital” of Worthing Hospital in Sussex. It was like going back in time some 40 years or more – to a place where the NHS and its staff were friendly, helpful, knew what they were doing and genuinely cared about patients. I didn’t have to ask for a wheelchair to get around in the hospital, it just arrived, all the staff were friendly and helpful. They even smiled!!
Even though the operation was a very minor affair, I had to be given the full operating theatre procedure, with six theatre staff looking after me, and my vital signs. All completely on the ball. After the procedure, a welcome, reviving cuppa arrived as if by magic. Brilliant, marvellous service.
Had to go back to Worthing to have stitches removed. All back to normal again… scowling, grumpy staff, just wanting to get boxes ticked and me out of the way. (Not the consultant/surgeon who was there to do a proper, helpful post-operation assessment – first time I have ever had one!)
@Phaedra and any other Space Patrol fans… One thing which punches home from the series is the free and easy approach to weapons of mass destruction. When some disastrous event threatens say, a city or an ocean and conventional solutions won’t work then Colonel Raeburn is quick to go to the Red Button. On a number of occasions he is heard to say, “Well, we’ll have to send in the nuclear missiles/rockets/bombs…”
Series made in 1962 and I thought they knew about fallout contamination then.
Thank you @Phaedra … Dart, Husky and Slim are my favourite spaceship crew. Like you, none of my friends have even heard of it. Was worried that I might be imagining it all! Love the oft repeated take-off sequence – so what do you think the YOBBA rays do then?
Mainly “cozy” mysteries/murders, like Midsomer, Death in Paradise, Marlow Murder Club, Brokenwood Mysteries, Mallorca Files etc., all totally undemanding piffle with a splosh of humour and a dash of wit. Don’t want entertainment which causes me to think; just want to relax. Particularly like the small batch of eccentric UK-made crime stuff like Annika and Whitstable Pearl. Still lightweight but with nice quirky bits.
Also, I scour the delightful Talking Pictures TV for old kids’ programmes which I may have seen when first broadcast back in the geological past. Like to observe how well they’ve aged. Supercar, Stingray, and the astounding Space Patrol. Amazing to see how much the SF ones completely discard the science of reality: astronauts space-walk from ship to ship without any protective gear, without any oxygen either, just breath pure vacuum. Of, and the Clangers is just brilliant.
Interplanetary journey times, too, are a scream. Earth to Venus in a few hours. Saturn and Jupiter take a week or two and are not gas giants but are covered in bright, bushy rainforest.
@Rhodgie Very surprised to hear the Ioniq 6 is double-glazed because the intrusion of road and traffic noise was pretty bad in the demonstrator. Can only imagine that that particular car had received some damage to driver’s door which was not seen to properly.
Nearly went for Ioniq 6 this time (Nov 24) but found it fidgety/nervous over our crap local roads; also more than a bit noisy inside and overladen with dire digitalia. Looked good though. New one looks even better – a proper saloon with designers brave enough to give it some individuality.
Has more than a hint of the old 1950s Citroen DS which still looks like a spaceship today! The modern DS Automobiles has just said they are going to launch a proper 50s DS style saloon. Looks brilliant but like so many other “new” DS projects, will probably disappear into the black hole of safe and average.
Love the Guerrilla Gardening idea. Well tempted to have a go or at least Mrs T does (I mow lawns and do some pruning, can’t do the kneeling down, planting bit without a lot of pain or really good pain-killers).
Back with your mystery seeds, if they start saying “Feed me,,,” in loud voice and answering to name of Audrey you should also take great care.
@ajn Have you seen Day of the Triffids? If it starts moving, be very afraid…
I have an Ohme charger with lekky from Brit Gas. Car is VW ID.3. I do a very low mileage and do not use the reduced-price “special” charging rate. I have set the max charge to 80%. I have not connected the app things. So, when charging is needed, I simply plug in the charger; it fills it up to 80%. When light goes from green to white, I unplug. No problems at all.
Sadly and ironically, I reckon the bings and bongs are more likely to threaten the safety of you or another driver. As soon as one goes bing or bong, you have to take eyes and attention off the road and scan your screens – up to three or more of them in different places. If they call for an adjustment of something then you may find yourself scrolling through and stabbing at the touchscreen(s) – diverting eyes and attention further and longer from the road.
Steak and kidney pudding from a chippie? How lucky is that! Never come across such a delight round here (Sussex) but would really like to, so long as the S&KP is a good quality. (I do make my own sometimes but am generally too lazy.)
Pies here are local firm Turners; very good quality and wide range of fillings/sizes. Even better is local butcher who makes his own which are brilliant quality. He’ll make them with any filling you care to name in a range of sizes.
Too many distractions? Bloody right! Not just beeps and bongs, either, Much more distracting and dangerous are those “safety” features which take over the steering and brakes when their computer says so. Well, the compu say-so is often well wrong. Recently had a proximity sensor (VW ID.3) detach from its mount which caused permanent, loud bleeping and emergency-stop brakes all the time. Also had emergency stop in ordinary traffic (VW T-Roc) for absolutely no apparent reason (wrong sort of leaves?). Lane-following another nightmare: taking over steering on simple single-carriageway.
So, have to spend around a minute turning off all those factors and a number of others before setting off. A right pain in the posterior but safer than being pushed into a collision by a computer that got it wrong.
@ajn Many thanks for your advice. (Apols for late reply: medical and medicine issues). Will very, very likely do as you say and leave it out of medicine equation. Shame. Works fine; better that anything else. Just seriously do not like it.
@wmcforum Many thanks for letting this one run. I seriously needed some informed, unbiased advice on the use of this stuff.Best mushy peas always seem to be those I get at the fish ‘n’ chip shop 😊
However, to head slightly off topic, does anybody indulge in pease pudding. Was fairly common in use when I were a nipper (50s) but most folks these days haven’t heard of it. Made of creamed split yellow peas, comes in tins. In my part of London “Saveloys and pease pudding” was alongside pie and mash as yummy street food.
Still use it meself with sav’s (if I can get decent ones) or, even better, with German bratwurst. Probably a prosecutable offence using German bangers, but worth it!
