| lesley153
|
Ooh - nearly forgot! I was caught on the hop by someone I didn't really expect to see again. I was standing in the detergent aisle, away with the fairies, wondering where on earth my favourite brand of whatever-it-was had been moved to this time, when a jolly voice said "Hallo hallo hallooo!" and it was the woman whose reaction to my suggestion of catching up on coffee-lunch-natter, but would she please pick me up because I've been forbidden to drive, was that she'd rather wait till I'd had my op and was driving again.
She was all smiles and chat, and said she'd been meaning to get in touch with me for ages, but... she did think... I might have got in touch with her. So I explained why I hadn't. No treading on eggshells: no euphemisms. I had suggested that we could catch up if she was prepared to pick me up, and she wasn't.
Eventually the penny dropped that I had understood her to mean that she wasn't interested enough in me to come to my house. And she said "That's dreadful" and I just said "Yes."
Then she told me that she hates driving. If she's going out in the evening, she gets someone else to pick her up. (She could have told me that's why, in April. Or May. Or at any time really.) Oh and she doesn't know where my house is and would be scared to park there. (Stop digging?) I told her that most people park in my drive and cowards park in the side turning eight houses away. "So they park in the turning, and then walk all the way to your house?" Yes, that's about the size of it.
She said she's been travelling back and forth all summer holiday, and her shoulder hurts, "frozen" perhaps, and now school has started so she's teaching again. She'll send me a text and we can catch up and I didn't answer her. I just asked how her husband was.
And then she said she had to go because a friend had brought her, and was giving her a lift home, and she needed to phone her. She also said her vision isn't good - she has cataracts and is waiting for them to be ready for surgery. (That must be very recent, because I didn't know anything about her having cataracts.) And to prove it, she held her phone six inches from her face and frowned at it as she prodded the numbers.
I said "You need her on speed dial;" she said "She is on speed dial," and off she went, squinting at her phone, into the Sainsburys sunset.
Byeee. |
Reply #1561. Oct 04 10, 3:44 PM
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| lesley153
|
Oh David, I hope not. Just as I've got the car insured and taxed again. What a drag that would be. :(
Where are all the protests, and lorry driver blockades, about petrol prices? Rhetorical question? |
Reply #1562. Oct 04 10, 3:46 PM
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| lesley153
|
My No.2 niece has been suffering horribly since her gastric reduction surgery went wrong, and subsequent repair operations haven't made things any better.
She had the latest one this morning, and No.1 niece texted me to say she was back on the ward and awake. Relief.
This evening, one of my nephews said that the head of the department had taken the case himself, because he was "so fed up with the mistakes" that his underlings were making. I'd have thought that one op gone wrong was enough, but still, better late than never.
I've had my phone resuscitated. Remind me to have some colour-coded instructions printed for Vodafone. This is elbow, and that is aaaaarrrrgh. |
Reply #1563. Oct 05 10, 4:13 PM
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| Lochalsh
|
Remind me to have some colour-coded instructions printed for Vodafone. This is elbow, and that is aaaaarrrrgh.
__________
Strange thing, language. I know all the words you've used, except for the brand name, yet I have no idea what you just said. Context (this time of a cultural nature) is everything. (The fault lies in my brain, Lesley Lou, not yours.)
Reply #1564. Oct 05 10, 5:17 PM
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satguru 
|
Vodafone's the phone company, and I think Lesley was trying to say they didn't know their backside from their elbow without using the other word for backside. Am I there?
Reply #1565. Oct 05 10, 6:00 PM
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| lesley153
|
| David, you are right in the middle of there. Not like me to avoid vulgarity. Sorry. |
Reply #1566. Oct 05 10, 6:37 PM
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| Lochalsh
|
Thanks. I know nothing about words. :(
Reply #1567. Oct 05 10, 7:20 PM
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| Lochalsh
|
I thought Lesley needed instructions from Vodafone, but now I get her facetious remark....
Reply #1568. Oct 05 10, 7:21 PM
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| lesley153
|
Other way round. Like the man who was walking into the railway station for his usual daily journey to work, and saw rail staff handing out new timetables. When he was offered one, he declined, saying "No thank you, you need it more than I do."
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My No.2 niece is awake after her umpteenth operation, but in too much pain to move, or to speak much, doesn't particularly want visitors and definitely doesn't want questions. She's getting morphine every two hours. No.1 niece said the head of dept hadn't insisted on taking over: she'd insisted on having him.
She also told me that my niece is not the only person the original surgeon made a mess of: and he is no longer employed by the hospital. I shall keep an eye on the GMC "Fitness to Practise" panels, in case I see someone the hospital used to employ.
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The woman we dubbed "Erstwhile Friend" when she abandoned me months ago said that she would be in touch. I don't think she will be. I made it clear enough to her how bad her remarks had made me feel, and I probably made her feel bad as a result. People don't like being made to feel guilty, so I imagine that she will avoid the source of her guilt. If she doesn't feel the tiniest bit bad, there is no hope for her.
I'd have been more impressed if she'd thought of a story and stuck to it. Five months ago, she was worried about rushing me, as if I could have tried to keep up with her! although any normal, considerate person might have thought of slowing down to my pace: and now she hates driving and her vision is too bad to drive.
I'm really not that bothered, though. I appear to have managed to survive without her! And her holiday photos. :(
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Years ago, my uncle gave me a suede coat with an acrylic furry lining. It had belonged to his wife, who died in 1976. It's simple and cosy and easy to wear, and I thought I'd get it out and dust it off, ready for when the weather starts getting cooler. It looked OK till the cats noticed it, and it now has a jagged tear about three inches long, near the hem.
Do I ignore the tear, stick a bit of sticky tape behind it, or get it mended professionally?
I phoned a local dry-cleaning shop to ask. Yes, they can get it repaired, they'd have to send it away, and the repairers insist that it be cleaned first. Cleaning costs £48.95. Repairs start at £30.
Where did I leave the sellotape?
|
Reply #1569. Oct 06 10, 12:32 PM
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| lesley153
|
Cardiology tomorrow morning at the local hospital means a frighteningly early night. My diary is bursting with medical appointments, but they won't last for ever, and I shall replace them with things like lunches and concerts.
Tomorrow evening is Bedford Music Club's first concert of the season. It's a string quartet - we like string quartets - and I shall go if I can.
Meanwhile... goodnight. :) |
Reply #1570. Oct 06 10, 6:32 PM
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satguru
|
Re the other entry in my blog you'd probably envy me- years of watching the Endellion, St Martin in the Fields etc, and the Netherland Wind Ensemble with my parents on holiday at music school every year and being bored stiff nearly the whole way through. As we payed for an all in ticket all the concerts were included and till I was about 14 was expected to turn up to at least some of them, which were every night. Unfortunately those sort of regimes, especially when you find the music tedious is guaranteed to put you off. Now if they'd had Hank Marvin and the Shadows, the Beach Boys and maybe even Elvis I wouldn't have needed tracking down and dragging there as often happened.
Reply #1571. Oct 06 10, 8:02 PM
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| lesley153
|
I'd envy you now, but probably not at 14, when I had discovered Brian Hyland and Chubby Checker, and the Beatles were popping up everywhere. I was learning to play Bach and Chopin on the piano, and listening to my mother playing all sorts of piano music properly, but listening to pop the rest of the time.
Forcing people do do things invariably backfires sooner or later. Ruth Lawrence and Vanessa-Mae are good examples. We all want to do things differently from our parents, but these were well-publicised hothouse relationships which broke down, and now the "children" have little or nothing to do with their hothousing parents.
My parents did the opposite of yours: they were passionate about their music but never thought to share it with their children. So - no input for us, and the other extreme for you. Whatever happened to happy medium?
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The visit to Cardiology this morning was not as straightforward as I had hoped. I had an ECG and an echo, and then talked to the consultant.
Apparently I have an atrial flutter, which is somewhere on the same spectrum as arrhythmia and atrial fibrillation, and appears as a "sawtooth" wave on the ECG. I didn't have the flutter a month ago, when I was assessed for cardiac rehab, so it may be something that has just started, or comes and goes, and it may be mild. He said it may be possible to treat it with an electric shock, but then it might come back again.
He's given me some meds, one for arrhythmia, and a beta-blocker, and I shall see him again in a fortnight.
He has also referred me to the anti-coagulation clinic, for Warfarin. If I'm taking Warfarin, I won't need to take aspirin. Whoopee.
I don't want to take Warfarin. The whole idea of having a tissue replacement, rather than a metal one, was so that I wouldn't need Warfarin, so I'm not pleased. Wait and see, I suppose.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
My surgeon suggested the tissue valve. He said that there are risks associated with Warfarin therapy, as there are with any therapy, and he suggested a tissue valve, because of my obvious aversion to the idea of taking Warfarin.
I'm seeing him at Papworth on the 18th. Doesn't time fly... Jonathan is coming with me. That'll be nice. :)
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Reply #1572. Oct 07 10, 9:14 AM
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| lesley153
|
| Forgot to mention - my new GP is my consultant's GP as well. Not a bad endorsement. :) |
Reply #1573. Oct 07 10, 12:10 PM
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| lesley153
|
Good concert last night - Bedford Music Club. An accomplished string quartet, they must have been good to make Bruckner enjoyable.
They played a piece by Ivan Moseley, who was in the audience, and spoke to us for a minute, and something by Beethoven.
I'm trying to remember if I saw any of their concerts in the 2009/2010 season. I can't remember the last time I went out that wasn't supermarket or hospitals. |
Reply #1574. Oct 08 10, 6:43 AM
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| Professer
|
Really pleased you had a good time Lesley
Reply #1575. Oct 08 10, 7:12 AM
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satguru
|
Great to hear you've branched out again, and sorry I couldn't make it for reasons given. You've really got your life back again.
Reply #1576. Oct 08 10, 7:25 AM
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| lesley153
|
| Thanks, you two. Getting there! |
Reply #1577. Oct 08 10, 7:43 AM
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| lesley153
|
I was in Boots three days ago, and thought I'd save time by asking where to find the product I wanted. I saw two members of staff in the entire shop, and they both had a string of people waiting to talk to them, so I found it myself. Directions would only have saved a minute or two.
Today I was there again, found the section I wanted, and this time I did find someone who was free. A passing customer started shouting questions at her.
"I'm with a customer."
She shouted a bit more.
"I'll be with you as soon as I've finished serving this customer."
"Is she a customer?"
"Yes, she's a customer."
Another woman appeared and started moaning to the first one. Soon they had a vigorous conversation going, all grumbles, and quite a lot louder than us.
We then walked to the next section, where she'd left herself signed in at one of the tills, sorted me out, and went back to brave the two women who had been shouting at her.
"That's nothing," she said. "The other day, someone threw something at me."
She had been talking to a customer, when another man who wanted help thought he was staff, and that it was therefore acceptable, not only to interrupt the conversation, but to emphasise the interruption with an unidentified missile.
"HE'S NOT A CUSTOMER!"
"Actually, I am."
"I've just made a bit of a fool of myself, haven't I?"
"Yes, I'd say you have."
Please remind me, when was it that we had a reputation for being the politest nation on earth? |
Reply #1578. Oct 08 10, 4:28 PM
|
Rowena8482
|
When I worked in the nursing home, we used to have to go and do "The Shopping" three times a week, in Aldi (cheap carp to feed the old dears as cheaply as possibly but that's a whole other rant!) and we were in our overalls. Even though said overalls bore no resemblance whatsoever to Aldi's staff T shirts/tabards, and we would say loudly "I don't work here" we still used to be stopped at least once each by customers who just assumed we were Aldi staff and could help them find/carry/produce out of thin air whatever it was they wanted :-|
Reply #1579. Oct 08 10, 4:52 PM
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| lesley153
|
Worse when your clothes do look like staff uniform. I learnt very quickly not to wear orange in Sainsburys.
You could have a rant about the cheap carp now. |
Reply #1580. Oct 08 10, 5:36 PM
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