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

During my first four years at this wonderful establishment, I was on the end of a cane, a metal ruler, a chalkboard eraser, a plimsole, a t square, chalk thrown at me, hair pulled, slapped around the head, elbowed, threatened and numerous detentions.
On my report, a snooty teacher of physics who clearly resented teaching someone from my background to be in his class. I will be glad to not be teaching this boy in my class next term/year. I got my O levels in chemistry and physics. Strange that?
But I was nowhere near the worst behaved.
I was actually awarded full school colours, mainly for sport but for my history paper I did. An A level in fifth year.
It all changed when in my fifth year, the school went comprehensive.
No more corporal punishment, no mortar board, no cloak, no snobs in charge. Quite a few of the elite kids left for other grammar schools that didn't come under local authorities.
It sounds like you experienced similar issues to Earl Spencer at his school @Lamont D. It is so sad that teachers in the past behaved like that.
 
She didn't enjoy or appreciate the process, but I am already seeing a reduction in scratching, so am assuming she is mire comfortable. Your sympathy should more properly be directed to the person with tooth and claw marks, who after all was only trying to help.
I do hope that the tooth and claw marks were not too severe. A shame that Kiki didn't realise that the person was only trying to help her.

Good that the scratching has reduced and Kiki is more comfortable.
 
5.6 this morning. Mr K is currently assembling 2 new chairs for the office. Luckily there is a video on how to assemble them.

He has been trying for ages to persuade me to get a new chair as my current chair is 26 years old and is showing its age.

When daughter was up for Easter she was shocked at how tatty my chair had become so I gave in and Mr K purchased two lovely high backed leather managers chairs for the office. They look so comfortable.

Today will be a much more relaxing day than yesterday. Have already done some relaxing and reading.
 
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5.6 this morning. Mr K is currently assembling 2 new chairs for the office. Luckily there is a video on how to assemble them.

He has been trying for ages to persuade me to get a new chair as my current chair is 26 years old and is showing its age.

When daughter was up for Easter she was shocked at how tatty my chair had become so I gave in and Mr K purchased two lovely high backed leather managers chairs for the office. They look so comfortable.

Today will back much more relaxing day than yesterday. Have already done some relaxing and reading.
Mr K keeps raising the bar so high that the rest of us need to learn how to pole vault.
 
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Well, I've found as much as I think I have that proves I own the house and croft, but there are no actual title deeds because what I own are the rights to make "improvements" to the croft of which I am a tenant, ie the house and the old house, now demolished. Someone once said "a croft is a piece of land surrounded by regulations" and that is absolutely correct. I must ask the solicitor who dealt with the transfer of the tenancy all those years ago, if there were ever any "title deeds" of any sort, and if they still have them, because I don't. Surely this government appointed body knows about the regulations regarding crofts and will have taken them into account.

It is possible to decroft the house and garden but it costs a fair bit to do and we would possibly not be able to decroft the whole garden. Then we would be able to actually own the land the house is on, and presumably register it with the Register of Sasines as owned by me. I don't have the several thousands it would cost to do that though.

Inheritance of a croft is fairly straightforward so, as long as it remains a croft/house Neil will automatically inherit from me and it will then be registered in his name but, unless he can raise the money to decroft it, it will never really be his any more than it will ever really be mine.

Looking at all the box files I've dragged out (had to because the shelves I had them on were falling away from the wall as Neil noticed - another urgent job for Neil), I'm wondering why I have bank statements and credit card bills back to the 60's. Do they really need to be kept? And that big box of cheques along with the box of cheque stubbs, again back to the 60's. Is there something about keeping such things for 6 years? And then, do I need to keep the records of the catering businesses I ran in the 90's (a building sit canteen and a baking business for the local arts centre)? How long do I need to keep them for? Can't I just destroy them all? It would certainly free up some shelf space and save the shelves falling off the wall because of the weight. I'm definitely destroying all my study notes from the OU, as well as all the study packs I put together for my students over the years. I'll never look at them again, so why keep them? Alistair has already dumped all his BSc notes which were in the loft and a pile of old school notebooks but has kept back his huge collection of National Geographics for taking to a charity shop. He would like to keep some of them for Em but just doesn't have the space any more than we do. Foolish to have held onto them for so long.
 
Fbg 6.5

I appear to have acquired yet another black cat in the night...

Black cat, Amy was in the bungalow being fed this morning. She still, after months and months will not allow me to touch her... She will not entertain the slow blink, but always gives me the death stare. But the last couple of months she has not showed any animosity towards me, so I took a chance yesterday morning and reached my hand towards her... big mistake... I now have bruises and puncture marks on my hand (she has the Midnight clout)... yet she will approach me and even rub her head against my hand, but I am not allowed to make any movement towards her. I think she must've had some trauma in the past. I must warn my daughter when she comes not to approach her....

I went out this morning to feed black and white cat, Jade. But she was not on the swing. In her place was a young black cat. How did Amy get to the swing so quickly? So I went back into bungalow and there is Amy feeding. Back to the swing and there's this black cat still sitting there on Jade's fur blanket. The black cat shot off as soon as I went out there.... but came back immediately as soon as I put Jade's food down for her, and had come in...

My swing appears to be a sanctuary for stray or lost cats. The badger wants that sanctuary as well....

Wildlife nighttime video
Cat Jade got a surprise from Badger but cat Jade got back on the swing - Badger covets the cloths Cat sits on!
33 secs


Creative is another one line drawing from my car outside the shops...

Have the best day you can.

Time for a cuppa


View attachment 67050
Ouch, ooch, ouch, pass the Detol. Nice sketch - hope the scratches and puncture marks don’t prevent a bit of art each day.
 
Wonderful! The company which seems to have a Scottish Government contract to organise the grants towards the new heating system has just phoned to say they need proof of identity AND they need to see the house deeds (which I have stashed away in the big clear-up and I'll have to find them now - such as they are for this is a croft and the ownership is different to either feu or freehold. Why on earth have they left it this far into the process before needing to know who owns the property? Seems a tad incompetent to me. Better go and look for the "deeds". NO. Breakfast first, then look for them.
The cogs of beauracracy. I blame the French for letting government officials sit at desks. Sigh and smile. Or better still, dig out the bag of old Germanic and Scandinavian words.
 
Morning all on an April showers day here in the Exotic (steady autocorrerct) East. Start of the county championship cricket season and super salmon salad day. The more serious local cricket leagues start around JKP's birthday - 20th - which could cause some issues back in the day. Old romantic that I am I never asked her to make teas on her birthday (I never quite had the courage). Some early games had to be shortened due to the cold. I remember one where I wore a thermal vest, white rugby shirt and four sweaters. Hot drinks were brought out a few times and blue hands were badly bruised. @gennepher and @dunelm thank you both for sharing your art and @gennepher hug for the injuries. @Annb hug for the stress, let's hope all goes well from now on and the stress is worth it. @jjraak there is no such thing as perfect adherence to Elsie’s peculiar ways and you have shared your slip. My Easter treats have been a small piece of roast potato, 15 gms of Hot cross Bunattone, a 9 gms celebration chocolate and 100 gms of baked beans but on separate days. Go well today folks.
Thank you @ianpspurs. There are some things in life best avoided. Such as the sentence, “Happy Birthday, can you make a celebration tea for 11 people”.
 
Morning from California. 4.5 on Friday morning. TGIF, well I am retired so every day is Friday for me. Have a nice day everyone
Excellent readings. You could go all French if a public holiday falls on Tuesday or Thursday and font le pont, for the Monday or Friday which means that you can have several four-day weekends throughout the year. What a treat.
 
Morning all on an April showers day here in the Exotic (steady autocorrerct) East. Start of the county championship cricket season and super salmon salad day. The more serious local cricket leagues start around JKP's birthday - 20th - which could cause some issues back in the day. Old romantic that I am I never asked her to make teas on her birthday (I never quite had the courage). Some early games had to be shortened due to the cold. I remember one where I wore a thermal vest, white rugby shirt and four sweaters. Hot drinks were brought out a few times and blue hands were badly bruised. @gennepher and @dunelm thank you both for sharing your art and @gennepher hug for the injuries. @Annb hug for the stress, let's hope all goes well from now on and the stress is worth it. @jjraak there is no such thing as perfect adherence to Elsie’s peculiar ways and you have shared your slip. My Easter treats have been a small piece of roast potato, 15 gms of Hot cross Bunattone, a 9 gms celebration chocolate and 100 gms of baked beans but on separate days. Go well today folks.
Thank you Ian
 
I've just ordered some paint brushes from Amazon - having no suitable shop here that sells them. I just hope they are of reasonable quality. Not that it matters much, I'm just preparing to try to remember skills which I never developed in painting. My drawing was fine, but I think my art teacher was too rigid in her approach and criticised anything vaguely innacurate or unlike nature so I got rather disheartened and felt that I ruined anything I tried to paint. It was no fun. Feeling a bit frustrated by all today's shenanigans so I decided to, at least, get the brushes though I won't be able to use them until all this building is over. Paints I have and paper (bought in a stock for Em but she now has her own in her own "art room" in the loft so doesn't use them here).

Em is actually very good at creative things. Her drawing is coming on well as is her painting but her main activity at the moment is making face masks for herself and friends - various animals but mostly some kind of dog and she makes a pretty good job of the various breeds (dogs are her other main interest). Unfortunately a couple of days ago she made a clay model which she wanted to give to her teacher after the holiday (the kind of clay you can finish in an oven). She brought it down and left it on a work surface ready to bake but one of the dogs found it and chewed it up. She was fairly upset over that, but she should have known that those big dogs can reach pretty well anything they find interesting.
 
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Well, I've found as much as I think I have that proves I own the house and croft, but there are no actual title deeds because what I own are the rights to make "improvements" to the croft of which I am a tenant, ie the house and the old house, now demolished. Someone once said "a croft is a piece of land surrounded by regulations" and that is absolutely correct. I must ask the solicitor who dealt with the transfer of the tenancy all those years ago, if there were ever any "title deeds" of any sort, and if they still have them, because I don't. Surely this government appointed body knows about the regulations regarding crofts and will have taken them into account.

It is possible to decroft the house and garden but it costs a fair bit to do and we would possibly not be able to decroft the whole garden. Then we would be able to actually own the land the house is on, and presumably register it with the Register of Sasines as owned by me. I don't have the several thousands it would cost to do that though.

Inheritance of a croft is fairly straightforward so, as long as it remains a croft/house Neil will automatically inherit from me and it will then be registered in his name but, unless he can raise the money to decroft it, it will never really be his any more than it will ever really be mine.

Looking at all the box files I've dragged out (had to because the shelves I had them on were falling away from the wall as Neil noticed - another urgent job for Neil), I'm wondering why I have bank statements and credit card bills back to the 60's. Do they really need to be kept? And that big box of cheques along with the box of cheque stubbs, again back to the 60's. Is there something about keeping such things for 6 years? And then, do I need to keep the records of the catering businesses I ran in the 90's (a building sit canteen and a baking business for the local arts centre)? How long do I need to keep them for? Can't I just destroy them all? It would certainly free up some shelf space and save the shelves falling off the wall because of the weight. I'm definitely destroying all my study notes from the OU, as well as all the study packs I put together for my students over the years. I'll never look at them again, so why keep them? Alistair has already dumped all his BSc notes which were in the loft and a pile of old school notebooks but has kept back his huge collection of National Geographics for taking to a charity shop. He would like to keep some of them for Em but just doesn't have the space any more than we do. Foolish to have held onto them for so long.
Well I hope that the documents that you have will satisfy. Mrs Miggins has a lump of land north of Aberdeen and a fancy bit of paper with big words on it about schedules, setting out paths and other bewildering strangeness. Documents and notes - we cleared out loads when we moved here a couple of years ago. I did keep a foolscap hard note book that I had to make precise notes and drawings in during my apprenticeship called ‘Valve Theory and Semiconductors’ - no practical use whatsoever nowadays. Also a book called ‘Vision: A Computational Investigation Into the Human Representation and Processing of Visual Information’, by David Marr from my PhD studies in vision psychology. The rest - shredded and burned as was all accounts from my business (one each year until the 5 years passed for each). Such a load - unlike my father who still has shed loads of old books, newspapers, reel to reel and cassette tapes, VHS tapes etc., going back to the days when coca-cola still had the drug in it.
 
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Copied and pasted from Annb
"Odd, though, that these intolerances don't seem to have shown themselves very much in the past. They were there, clearly, but not to the same extent and not understood and either ignored or misdiagnosed"

My belief is that these conditions did exist years ago. But medical science has moved on so that people with genetic diseases or intolerance live longer and sometimes have children of their own. Thus increasing the risk for further generations.
For example: Cystic Fybrosis: childrens life expectancy was up to ten years. Now( quick google) likely to be up to 50 years.

Nowadays Failure to Thrive refers to a child who is not gaining weight at the expected rate.
It used to be a recognised cause of infant death. The implication being the mother cared for the child properly, but it died anyway.
Am quite sure that without my doctor prescribing soya milk for my second son he night have been one of those babies.
Before that he was vomiting up most of every feed....
 
Having no means to play them, I dumped a whole lot of reel-to-reel tapes that Tom and I used to talk to each other when he was away on a ship. Better than letters, we thought, but the letters are still here (most of them) and the tapes were unusable and deteriorating. Same with our wedding film (before the days of video) but I found another huge reel from an old tape recorder from the late 50's this mornng. Again - no means to play it, so I suppose it will go out too. Boxes and boxes of slides, but I still do have the projector and screen, so those I will keep, but might sort through them since many are just views of different parts of ships and different ships. as well as attempts to photograph high seas and stormy weather, which somehow never seemed as impressive on a slide as in real life. I still do have our library of video tapes and actually still have the player, but no TV that will work with it. I was hoping that Neil would transfer them, one by one, to DVDs but so far, he hasn't got round to it. There are some films there that I never got a chance to watch. DVD's too of films and subjects I don't want to watch. I daresay the charity chop will take them. Does anyone use CD's these days? There are plenty of them too but not many of them the music that I want to listen to. I also came across a SCART cable which we used on our old, huge CRT TV to connect the video player and the DVD player. Don't suppose that's any use to anyone either.

Neil has decided to put in a new part for the fan above the hob before the builders come and insulate the ceiling above it. He's working on that now, so not much progress today in getting furniture and boxes out to the container. Can anyone tell me why we need 3 good dining tables? Or 2 sets of 4 dining chairs plus 8 other assorted dining chairs? At least, now that the 3 piece suite has gone there's a bit more space for the remaining chaise long and the 2 seater with fold down arms (it has a name, but I'veforgotten it at the moment) and 3 arm chairs (plus the one in the kitchen):banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead:?
 
Copied and pasted from Annb
"Odd, though, that these intolerances don't seem to have shown themselves very much in the past. They were there, clearly, but not to the same extent and not understood and either ignored or misdiagnosed"

My belief is that these conditions did exist years ago. But medical science has moved on so that people with genetic diseases or intolerance live longer and sometimes have children of their own. Thus increasing the risk for further generations.
For example: Cystic Fybrosis: childrens life expectancy was up to ten years. Now( quick google) likely to be up to 50 years.

Nowadays Failure to Thrive refers to a child who is not gaining weight at the expected rate.
It used to be a recognised cause of infant death. The implication being the mother cared for the child properly, but it died anyway.
Am quite sure that without my doctor prescribing soya milk for my second son he night have been one of those babies.
Before that he was vomiting up most of every feed....
Of course, you are quite right, for example, Neil survived his first few months despite me having to give him raw cow's milk (on advice from a doctor because he already had an allergy to penicillin which, then, was found in much pasteurised milk). Now we know that it was also lactose he couldn't cope with but nobody seemed to be aware of that possibility (no other milks available then). In the past he would probably have died because I couldn't feed him. I also wonder if some of the present-day problems are caused by our modern way of living and eating - pollution, processed foods, food not always as fresh as straight out of the garden or field. Despite not tolerating the milk very well, Neil did thrive, so he must have gained some benefit from the milk and then the solid food he went on to before the recommended time. Alistair was completely different - he could take anything but maybe that also was setting the stage for his IBS. I don't think our modern way of living causes these allergies and intolerances but I do think it exacerbates them.
 
It sounds like you experienced similar issues to Earl Spencer at his school @Lamont D. It is so sad that teachers in the past behaved like that.
When 'Ripping Yarns' was first shown on the box.
The school depicted could have been mine.
There was a couple of decent teachers amongst them tho.

6.7 this frightening Friday.
I made a huge mistake this morning. I needed to be somewhere else, itchy feet, be an explorer, or go to a different shop. I was being adventurous.
Wot an idiot!
I proposed going to a shop that Mrs L enjoys visiting, not only for the huge variety of merchandise. But reasonably priced. For decent quality.
I needed some new kitchen stuff, utensils and look for freezer bargains.
I say bargains, but not saving money, as that is not logical.
how can you save when you are spending?
I am sidetracked.
So without pause, I asked Mrs L if she wanted a trip to there.
Obviously, thinking, that on recent events, Mrs L would refuse the opportunity.
bloody fool!
Half an hour later, she was shopping for England. As Mrs L put stuff in the trolley, yours truly was taking the stupid, the unnecessary, the expensive stuff back out.
Still spent a bit more than I had planned, but isn't that always?
The insanity of it all, did my head in. I was forever apologising as she blocked aisle after aisle with her walker, with my full attention on Mrs L, it was very stressful to actually do some shopping.
It was such a relief to get home.
A lot of fuss and nonsense, to put stuff away and tend to Mrs L at the same time.
Mrs L Having a nap now. I need respite.
Still more chores to do. And quite knackered.

Weather is a bit warmer but windier, with the odd shower. Heavy rain again overnight.

At least I got out and it's cured my itchy feet.

Cricket season is finally here and of course first day rained off.
And of course on some cricket venues across the North into Scotland, there has been snow falling.

amateur cricket, not so friendly in the league's as the story telling goes. I have seen some fiercesome action.
some pleasing memories of teas not eaten and sunny days of fielding in the deep, a slip of a lad, in silly mid off or as a deep mid off, at cow corner or fine leg.
And so cold at this time of year.

Fishy Friday and a nice piece of haddock.
Kitchen duties await.

My best wishes to you lot as always.
 
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