What was your fasting blood glucose? (full on chat)

[ianpspurs]

Morning all on Winter Solstice 2024 (attached for all you Druids) and boy has the weather decided to go all in on dressing the part. All Stygian gloom with a like totally meh man, vibe. It is also St Thomas the apostle day when aforetimes these traditions were known. As is often observed, for all the fancy set design and toys we moderns have we've not actually made much useful progress as a species. @dunelm thank you for sharing the artwork- lyrics : @gennepher thank you for sharing the video (Thor looks a big 'un), kaleidoscope and seemingly ghost story, (and you @Lamont D ) which I believe was once a seasonal tradition. @alf_Josiah hug for whatever it is that may require such severe action as needing to learn to utilise a remote control - as if. @Annb hug for the yo-yoing bg. @jjraak it is hard to know how to react to that situation. First thoughts are that like the truism about rats one is never far away from dangerously disturbed/damaged people. Lack of/cheap and cheerful care in the community hang your head in shame. Living off grid sounds even more attractive by the day. Distance, good fences and gates, sturdy doors, bolts and shutters make good neighbours. Winner for how you diffused the situation and prayers for a positive resolution. Here is a sonnet based on the day's Antiphon and written by a man emerging from a period of depression. Seems to me there are two themes very much reflected in the posts I have read. I really hope any light at the end of a few tunnels here isn't the 8.20 express towards y'all. Laters Dudes.
Edited to add:
Hope is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons . . . It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.
Vaclav Havel

 

[Krystyna23040]

5.7 this morning.
We decided to avoid the park this morning as it is so wet and muddy. We are so lucky that we have some lovely walks on grass lined
tarmac paths away from traffic
around our village.

 

[gennepher]

A rather stressful evening / early morning .

Next door neighbour took a grudge to a leak from the neighbours below ours, flat

They've gone away for the Christmas .

She was Banging on our downstairs door around 9pm

Left a note they're not happy with leak

Contacted neighbours not long after who are arranging to get the letting agency around to check what leak is and effect repairs

Neighbour from hell came back around 2am with baseball bat, smashed all the windows in downstairs front door.

Reaching in, let herself in then proceeded to knock on doors until she got to ours

Lauren didn't want me going out to her, but I needed to get her away from Lauren, so I went out to talk to her .

All passive aggressive, something with my job I've been very used to over the years, so not too bothered, however fully aware I'm not best placed to defend myself like I once could.

So while I engaged and tried to deescalate the situation, I made sure to be just out of range or too close to be hit ....ready but not wanting to take the kind of action to damage or put her down

Thankfully police arrived and took over the situation

End result they took her away, may charge her with criminal damage, & possible breaking & entering ..will find out more tomorrow

I SO don't need a neighbour dispute

We spent early hours of this morning dealing with her, talking to the police, cleaning up all the broken glass & boarding up the door.

Wendy all fingers & thumbs come diy & me with a gammy hand, a dodgy shoulder & one good leg.
Exhausted, tired & aching to high heaven, but I just couldn't leave anything to chance given she's such an unpredictable quantity

Daylights arrived, so I feel safer leaving Lauren alone chatting to everyone she knows it seems, while I drag myself off to bed

Ladies clearly not right

Suggestion is police neighbourhood teams get involved and we sit down and have some mediation meeting.

I'm hoping that clears the air, but not holding my breathe as yet.

It all came out of the blue.
Note on door at 9pm

Banging on door early morning,
Smashing windows not long after

And in-between she popped a Xmas card through tte door with
"Merry xmas, I smashed your windows" written in it ..I kid you not

Which I discover when police are inspecting the door damage and all the broken glass

So it's mediation and we're all be like little fonzies .
Or
Await the next moment and escalate to pressing charges.

Piddle poor choices, so I pick A

Wish me luck

OMG that's really terrible @jjraak
I am glad that police turned up in time so you didn't have to do anything that might damage your body. You do not need any extra injuries now.

I hope you get some decent rest today....

 

[gennepher]

Lovely kaleidoscope and hope that your letters bear some fruit. My mother carries stamped postcards in her bag - notes of any complaint sent in plain sight and very quickly after such events as you had.

I like your mother's idea @dunelm
Thank you for the kaleidoscope compliment....

 

[gennepher]

Good morning everyone on a whistle down the wind start to the day here in the dark and dangerous north. 5.2, eyes of blue this a.m. Granddaughters video chat early evening - last day at school excitedly reported and check out my new dance school hoodie from not so Little Miss Pamplemouse who, at 10 years old is as tall as her mum. Non-uniform day, treats, disco, what is falafel made of - it’s dead cosmopolitan in Birmingham. Veterans Christmas lunch today and apart from the distressing palate feel from the offspring of Bernard Matthews it should be a grand occasion. Mrs Miggins seems to have more Christmas jumpers than Karl Lagerfeld‘s offerings at a Paris fashion show. I have but one and only wear it on leap weeks. Art bit - I saw three ships. Hope your today is a Saturday and you do enough to satisfy the day. I best make koffy.

I like your three ships painting @dunelm

 

[gennepher]

Morning all on Winter Solstice 2024 and boy has the weather decided to go all in on dressing the part. All Stygian gloom with a like totally meh man vibe. It is also St Thomas the apostle day when aforetimes these traditions were known. As is often observed, for all the fancy set design and toys we have we've not actually made much progress as a species. @dunelm thank you for sharing the artwork- lyrics : @gennepher thank you for sharing the video (Thor looks a big 'un), kaleidoscope and seemingly ghost story, and you @Lamont D which I believe was a seasonal tradition. @alf_Josiah hug for whatever it is that may require such severe action as needing to learn to utilise a remote control - as if. @Annb hug for the yo-yoing bg. @jjraak it is hard to know how to react to that situation. First thoughts are that like the truism about rats one is never far away from dangerously disturbed/damaged people. Lack of/cheap and cheerful care in the community hang your head in shame. Living off grid sounds even more attractive by the day. Winner for how you diffused the situation and prayers for a positive resolution. Here is a sonnet based on the day's Antiphon and written by a man emerging from a period of depression. Seems to me there are two themes very much reflected in the posts I have read. I really hope any light at the end of a few tunnels here isn't the 8.20 express towards y'all. Laters Dudes.

Thank you @ianpspurs

 

[Annb]

Alistair told me today that the only main Post Office on the Island, in Stornoway, has been closed down. That leaves us with only a few sub-post offices in different parts of the Island. We have one in the local shop but a lot of services the Post Office used to do were taken away from them. Apparently 8 main Post Offices across Scotland have been closed down - one in Inverness. The main post offices used to be the only place you could deal with car tax in person and the only place you could deal with passport renewal as well as the only place people could get their pensions or benefits. It's another way of excluding the old or infirm from the services they have relied on because we don't all have mobile phones or computers and those groups are less likely than most to be able to use these internet services. Another retrograde step for ordinary people.

In a few years it might be appropriate - once all of us AP's have kicked the bucket. Our children's generation, mostly, have the ability to use the internet, even though they might not be able to afford it (but who cares about the poor?) Many of my generation, however, just can't use it, even if they can afford it (alright, I know, they should just sit at home, in the cold, go nowhere and shouldn't be driving anyway!)

The caring society. Oh I forgot, Mrs Thatcher abolished society, so there isn't one to care.

 

[Lamont D]

A rather stressful evening / early morning .

Next door neighbour took a grudge to a leak from the neighbours below ours, flat

They've gone away for the Christmas .

She was Banging on our downstairs door around 9pm

Left a note they're not happy with leak

Contacted neighbours not long after who are arranging to get the letting agency around to check what leak is and effect repairs

Neighbour from hell came back around 2am with baseball bat, smashed all the windows in downstairs front door.

Reaching in, let herself in then proceeded to knock on doors until she got to ours

Lauren didn't want me going out to her, but I needed to get her away from Lauren, so I went out to talk to her .

All passive aggressive, something with my job I've been very used to over the years, so not too bothered, however fully aware I'm not best placed to defend myself like I once could.

So while I engaged and tried to deescalate the situation, I made sure to be just out of range or too close to be hit ....ready but not wanting to take the kind of action to damage or put her down

Thankfully police arrived and took over the situation

End result they took her away, may charge her with criminal damage, & possible breaking & entering ..will find out more tomorrow

I SO don't need a neighbour dispute

We spent early hours of this morning dealing with her, talking to the police, cleaning up all the broken glass & boarding up the door.

Wendy all fingers & thumbs come diy & me with a gammy hand, a dodgy shoulder & one good leg.
Exhausted, tired & aching to high heaven, but I just couldn't leave anything to chance given she's such an unpredictable quantity

Daylights arrived, so I feel safer leaving Lauren alone chatting to everyone she knows it seems, while I drag myself off to bed

Ladies clearly not right

Suggestion is police neighbourhood teams get involved and we sit down and have some mediation meeting.

I'm hoping that clears the air, but not holding my breathe as yet.

It all came out of the blue.
Note on door at 9pm

Banging on door early morning,
Smashing windows not long after

And in-between she popped a Xmas card through tte door with
"Merry xmas, I smashed your windows" written in it ..I kid you not

Which I discover when police are inspecting the door damage and all the broken glass

So it's mediation and we're all be like little fonzies .
Or
Await the next moment and escalate to pressing charges.

Piddle poor choices, so I pick A

Wish me luck

Wow!
Totally off the wall mate.
I always thought, it was goodwill to all men at chrimbo?
Are you sure it wasn't a fishwife of a harridan.
The threat of further action from the police should be enough.
But as you say, we shall see.
You will need to take it easy, and try and ignore the goings on between your neighbours.
I would put the police on speed dial or get an officers number, that was involved in the after effects.
Stay safe mate.

 

[Lamont D]

Seasons solstice celebrations. (Say it fast)
And a 6.1 to applaud, but not the weather.
And a boo to follow my team getting battered once again.

If you notice my picture, it is #7 artful rendition of the upcoming festivities.
It is brilliant. It is the true essence of what Christmas means to kids.
The school has reproduced the original into a proper greetings card.
And this masterpiece was chosen as the best in her class.
And her name, (spelt wrong) is on the back.
Of course charity involved.

I also went to the local supermarkets, searching fresh vegetables. All of these are the local types of supermarket. Not one of them had a swede (vegetable) not a viking. And again not one of them had ordinary non brewed pickling vinegar! My gast has been flabbered.

Mrs L has been better today (so far)

 

[jjraak]

Brilliant pic, @Lamont D

 

[gennepher]

@lindisfel Hi! Nice to see you reading posts.

 

[gennepher]

Alistair told me today that the only main Post Office on the Island, in Stornoway, has been closed down. That leaves us with only a few sub-post offices in different parts of the Island. We have one in the local shop but a lot of services the Post Office used to do were taken away from them. Apparently 8 main Post Offices across Scotland have been closed down - one in Inverness. The main post offices used to be the only place you could deal with car tax in person and the only place you could deal with passport renewal as well as the only place people could get their pensions or benefits. It's another way of excluding the old or infirm from the services they have relied on because we don't all have mobile phones or computers and those groups are less likely than most to be able to use these internet services. Another retrograde step for ordinary people.

In a few years it might be appropriate - once all of us AP's have kicked the bucket. Our children's generation, mostly, have the ability to use the internet, even though they might not be able to afford it (but who cares about the poor?) Many of my generation, however, just can't use it, even if they can afford it (alright, I know, they should just sit at home, in the cold, go nowhere and shouldn't be driving anyway!)

The caring society. Oh I forgot, Mrs Thatcher abolished society, so there isn't one to care.

I used to rely on post office services a lot @Annb
But they got taken away over the years and more so recently.
I do not have the best of Internet connections. It is often Intermittent. Not everyone has a brilliant decent Internet connection and if I am doing official forms like driving license or passport et cetera online, because of my Internet being intermittent, the site shuts down on me saying it is not secure, but that's only because itis Intermittent. I can spend days trying to connect it with something official, government et cetera.

 

[gennepher]

Seasons solstice celebrations. (Say it fast)
And a 6.1 to applaud, but not the weather.
And a boo to follow my team getting battered once again.

If you notice my picture, it is #7 artful rendition of the upcoming festivities.
It is brilliant. It is the true essence of what Christmas means to kids.
The school has reproduced the original into a proper greetings card.
And this masterpiece was chosen as the best in her class.
And her name, (spelt wrong) is on the back.
Of course charity involved.

I also went to the local supermarkets, searching fresh vegetables. All of these are the local types of supermarket. Not one of them had a swede (vegetable) not a viking. And again not one of them had ordinary non brewed pickling vinegar! My gast has been flabbered.

Mrs L has been better today (so far)

Beautiful picture @Lamont D

 

[ianpspurs]

Where are all those so adamant that farmers need to be supported when there were photo opportunities over the inheritance tax now supermarkets are giving away vegetables? We went into Aldi to see if they had any lobster left and ended up buying, amongst other things, vegetables for a pittance. JKP likes gammon and that was also too cheap to be the real cost. Where are Clarkson and Nige protesting this?

One supermarket insider said that the discount frenzy devalued the image of vegetables: “It is a race to the bottom and no one is really benefiting. Anyone selling a bag of carrots for 17p is making a thumping loss.” They were 8p.

You couldn't grow them from seed for that price, at least treble factoring in water, feed/manure , cot of land, opportunity cost not growing high value/high nutrition crops and any time, never mind the pigs - for the gammon. Full article here - no mention of pigs. Oh, no lobster ( that @Krystyna23040 has been spreading the word ) but we bought a few bits and bobs and cut £80 from our delivery for Monday according to JKP, not all saved. Mostly things either too carby for me or that I would never have eaten anyhow. Didn't buy sprouts from there, we've never found them up to par, (probably just me) nor potatoes: no King Edwards Off out to board the Santa Special with #3 son and grandchildren (would have been 2 others but now they've gone to Winchester to see #2 son) at 10.00 a.m. tomorrow This has become very grand since we first took our boys 34? years ago. Nice easy route, A11, A14, A1, some Starbucks en route - its only coffee guys, not tea, you can't tell the difference - relax . Have a great Sunday.

 

[gennepher]

Where are all those so adamant that farmers need to be supported when there were photo opportunities over the inheritance tax now supermarkets are giving away vegetables? We went into Aldi to see if they had any lobster left and ended up buying, amongst other things, vegetables for a pittance. JKP likes gammon and that was also too cheap to be the real cost. Where are Clarkson and Nige protesting this?

One supermarket insider said that the discount frenzy devalued the image of vegetables: “It is a race to the bottom and no one is really benefiting. Anyone selling a bag of carrots for 17p is making a thumping loss.” They were 8p.

You couldn't grow them from seed for that price, at least treble factoring in water, feed/manure , cot of land, opportunity cost not growing high value/high nutrition crops and any time, never mind the pigs - for the gammon. Full article here - no mention of pigs. Oh, no lobster ( that @Krystyna23040 has been spreading the word ) but we bought a few bits and bobs and cut £80 from our delivery for Monday according to JKP, not all saved. Mostly things either too carby for me or that I would never have eaten anyhow. Didn't buy sprouts from there, we've never found them up to par, (probably just me) nor potatoes: no King Edwards Off out to board the Santa Special with #3 son and grandchildren (would have been 2 others but now they've gone to Winchester to see #2 son) at 10.00 a.m. tomorrow This has become very grand since we first took our boys 34? years ago. Nice easy route, A11, A14, A1, some Starbucks en route - its only coffee guys, not tea, you can't tell the difference - relax . Have a great Sunday.

If you are paying an extraordinarily low price for veg @ianpspurs I wish I could be buying them at that place. There was very little veg in the shops here this morning, it was abysmal, and it most certainly was not cheap...

 

[Lamont D]

Brilliant pic, @Lamont D

thanks @jjraak .

 

[Lamont D]

Beautiful picture @Lamont D

thanks @gennepher.

And if I'm not mistaken, and I could be putting my life on the line here, charities such as Age UK, helped me brilliantly, when I needed them. And I know, that they do have people with skills that can be used for form filling etc. They will have good internet connections.

 

[gennepher]

Fbg 7.1
Nighttime wildlife
Just Badger Willow this night - Cat Jade goes under the table to watch Willow.
I usually crop the picture to make the animals larger & I forgot, I was tired, sorry...

Instagram

gennepher on Instagram: "Just Badger Willow this night - Cat Jade goes under the table to watch Willow. #ukwildlife #onenight What you see in one video is the animals that appear in the area of the swing in the span of one night. Some nights the

11 likes, 2 comments - gennepher on December 21, 2024: "Just Badger Willow this night - Cat Jade goes under the table to watch Willow. #ukwildlife #onenight What you see in one video is the animals that appear in the area of the swing in the span of one night. Some nights there are more...

www.instagram.com

Same vid on TicTok

TikTok - Make Your Day

Creative...more patterns on my cushion in Laboscope kaleidoscope...

I had to go and get my glasses repaired this morning, and the lens had fallen out, but luckily I found it!

Night night from here.
Sweet dreams...

 

[Krystyna23040]

A rather stressful evening / early morning .

Next door neighbour took a grudge to a leak from the neighbours below ours, flat

They've gone away for the Christmas .

She was Banging on our downstairs door around 9pm

Left a note they're not happy with leak

Contacted neighbours not long after who are arranging to get the letting agency around to check what leak is and effect repairs

Neighbour from hell came back around 2am with baseball bat, smashed all the windows in downstairs front door.

Reaching in, let herself in then proceeded to knock on doors until she got to ours

Lauren didn't want me going out to her, but I needed to get her away from Lauren, so I went out to talk to her .

All passive aggressive, something with my job I've been very used to over the years, so not too bothered, however fully aware I'm not best placed to defend myself like I once could.

So while I engaged and tried to deescalate the situation, I made sure to be just out of range or too close to be hit ....ready but not wanting to take the kind of action to damage or put her down

Thankfully police arrived and took over the situation

End result they took her away, may charge her with criminal damage, & possible breaking & entering ..will find out more tomorrow

I SO don't need a neighbour dispute

We spent early hours of this morning dealing with her, talking to the police, cleaning up all the broken glass & boarding up the door.

Wendy all fingers & thumbs come diy & me with a gammy hand, a dodgy shoulder & one good leg.
Exhausted, tired & aching to high heaven, but I just couldn't leave anything to chance given she's such an unpredictable quantity

Daylights arrived, so I feel safer leaving Lauren alone chatting to everyone she knows it seems, while I drag myself off to bed

Ladies clearly not right

Suggestion is police neighbourhood teams get involved and we sit down and have some mediation meeting.

I'm hoping that clears the air, but not holding my breathe as yet.

It all came out of the blue.
Note on door at 9pm

Banging on door early morning,
Smashing windows not long after

And in-between she popped a Xmas card through tte door with
"Merry xmas, I smashed your windows" written in it ..I kid you not

Which I discover when police are inspecting the door damage and all the broken glass

So it's mediation and we're all be like little fonzies .
Or
Await the next moment and escalate to pressing charges.

Piddle poor choices, so I pick A

Wish me luck

Hopefully, as the police are involved, you won't have any more problems with that neighbour @jjraak. It is very disturbing behaviour.

 

[gennepher]

thanks @gennepher.

And if I'm not mistaken, and I could be putting my life on the line here, charities such as Age UK, helped me brilliantly, when I needed them. And I know, that they do have people with skills that can be used for form filling etc. They will have good internet connections.

Ah @Lamont D
I didn't know that.
There used to be one in the High Street, but that closed down during Covid and lockdowns, and never reopened. I would have to find out where another one is.....
Thanks for the info...