General Chat

Not done a lot today, but sat with younger daughter, while she watched the Nations Rugby matches on TV. She used to enjoy watching with her dad, so once in a while I sit down to watch with her. She is watching the England / Scotland match at the moment, but I am only half watching.
I spend more free time with elder daughter, as she is often off work in some of the school holidays, whereas younger daughter is working then. Yesterday I met the elder one for light lunch and a look around a local town, so it's only fair to share some one to one time with her sister too.

Mel, I would echo what the others have said, You are not giving your foot the best chance of healing, when you work in the garden. It must be very frustrating, when you really want to get on with something, but time spent resting now should help the bones to heal quicker. Walking on uneven ground could set you back and mean the healing takes longer.

Pleasantly mild today, after a very wet night. It was good to open the window and get some fresh air indoors without freezing. A friend and I are hoping to find a dry day this coming week, so that we can go to look at the snowdrop display at a local country park. School starts back on Monday, so may be we can plan a visit round our various other activities.... and that will be another month gone.

I think Vera asked recently about where I planned to meet my friends for our reunion.We are looking at Cardiff, where we all first met all those years ago. It will be lovely to all be together again, although I have seen one of them in 2022 and another about 2019, with my daughters, when we were travelling near their home towns and arranged to meet for a short while.

Sorry AnnG, I must have missed you this morning.

Slapped wrist for you Mel. You MUST look after that foot.

I was on here first thing Vera and, I haven't checked but I thought I had mentioned I intended going in to town. Which I did, got back around 1pm and couldn't get on line as the Wefi was playing up. I sat downstairs ad read the paper, or rather bits of it. I like the mail TV paper and Saturday is the only day I have an actual paper to read.

Not sure how long the Wifi was down but I came up to check about 4.30 and it was back on.

Mel half an hour in the garden is not resting your foot!!!!

Hope that bang didn't cause any damage Ann, awful when potholes are 'hidden' in water. I could have checked in M&S this morning but I am sure they must do alcohol free wine. They do nice boxes of chocolate!!

Iv'e done a good half an hour in the garden htis afternoon and filled my wheelbarrow so That was a good job done not quite finished but I was out there without a coat on and got a bit chilly so I have come in and made my self a COC.

Good afternoon everyone

It’s not quite as warm as yesterday but it is sunny and less windy so quite pleasant out. I planned to do quite a lot in the house today but don’t seem to have got very far at all. I scrubbed out a kitchen bin that I thought was a bit whiffy. We always use a bin liner but I think OH had put some fish skins and bits in without wrapping them and they had made the whole bin smell. Now the whole kitchen smells of Dettol so I think I may have overdone the disinfectant a bit.

Mel, I hope your foot has been a bit easier today. Rest up as much as you can. When I broke 3 metatarsals I had a heavy black sandal type thing for my foot. It sounds similar to the one Annx had. The toe was completely squared off and it was raised 2” off the ground from the toe towards the heel.. It was all quite rigid and there is no way I could have driven in it. In fact I struggled to walk in it because I was lopsided and it was causing pain in my back. In the end I found a pair of shoes in the cupboard with a 2” heel and wore one of those on my right foot to even me up. The only problem was that the shoe was black patent with a bow on the front. What a sight I must have been with one foot wearing a “posh” evening shoe and the other in this clumpy thing. Mel, please don’t even consider driving unless the doctor says it is OK. You don’t want to risk having an accident because your foot isn’t flexible enough for a rapid emergency stop.

Annx, I hope that pothole hasn’t caused any damage to your car. It’s good that OH is doing a little bit of walking now. You are of course right that any co-codamol above 8/500 is only available on prescription but I had been trying to explain in the long post I lost how our surgery deals with the danger of taking too many and possible addiction. I have had them on repeat prescription for 22 years now. Everything else on my script is on an automatic system so I don’t ever have to order them. A 28 day supply is available for me every 4 weeks. The co-codamol comes in a box of 100 and I have to put in a specific request for it. That way the doctors can see how often you are ordering them and judge how many you are taking. I never have a problem because I only order them about twice a year but if the doctors aren’t happy for any reason they won’t issue any more till they have talked to you. I wondered whether Mel’s surgery have a similar checking system with issuing 200 paracetamol at a time as paracetamol can cause all sorts of damage, particularly to the liver, if too many are taken.

I wonder what AnnG, Mandy and Gwyn are up to today. Whatever you’re all doing I hope the weather is being kind to you and you are enjoying your day.

Afternoon Everyone,

We have sunshine and it's reached 12 degrees now, so no heating on for a change. We went to the shop after laying in for a while and decided to try another short walk on the way back. I thought about the little spinney by the canal where I used to live, then remembered the road is closed while they do work on the railway bridge and under it to help stop all the floods they keep getting there. So we went towards the quarry and trail instead, although OH thought it would be busy and nowhere to park in the little pull off. Well no-one had parked there, so I turned off the road and into what I thought was a puddle, but a loud scrape under my car as it dropped at the front meant it was a large pothole full of water. Looking up the trail behind the gate it was like a bog, muddy and full of puddles/potholes, so I reversed out and we went home. As I was moving slowly I don't think any damage was done and the car drove ok afterwards. OH went for a 15 minute walk from home instead.

I've cleaned the hob,hoovered the bathroom and the lounge rugs and cleaned the inside of the study window and windowsill. I thought the windowcleaner hadn't done a very good job when the sun was shining on it, but it was the inside of the window that needed cleaning. :-S I've started putting things back under the kitchen sink in the baskets I got, but keep finding duplicates of things and even triplicates! It's what happens when you can't see what's at the back of a shelf. Hopefully being able to pull the baskets forward will prevent it in future, although I like to have a spare of some things.

Those are some more good ideas AnnG, and I expect they sell alcohol free now as well. He hardly drinks anyway now, but, like me, he is now supposed to cut right back or avoid alcohol as it is a heart stimulant. He could certainly do with some more socks and could safely 'flash' those at a meeting ;-)

Mel, my shoe was one of the black ones. At least your more flashy one will stop people treading on your foot. Is the swelling going down at all now?

Better start on my filing drawers now and see what I can shred.

Morning Anng and all,

We have a bright sunny morning here and its 10 degrees and I just hope it last all days.

Its good you slsept well Anng and I hope the others have too. Yes I can take the "THING" off at night its just like an ugly sandley type shoe in blue material with a bright white sole. I'll send a pic later. Well I wore it from 2pm something yesterday and into the evening and it hurt my foot more than my flat baggy slippers did and Iv'e got to wear this thing for at least 2 weeks maybe 4. You are going to come across a very cross Mel at some point this week and next. The first one the nurse tried on me was all black sole and all which would'nt have been too bad but the one I got screams out "looks she's hurt her foot".I forgot to ask if I could drive in it too.

O well better get on as BIL is coming today to take me to the shop.

Good morning all a bit misty out there but 8 degrees although we also have a wind warning.
Not sure what I am doing today, slept really well last night. I had thought about going into town but saturdays are usually crowded so not sure, and I don't actually need anything so I will see later how I feel. Trouble is, it is so easy to just decide to do nothing. Normally I would potter around in the garden but it was so wet yesterday that everything out there will still be wet.

Ann, M&S sell some quite nice men’s smelliest.
Or there is always socks. Or, if you have M&S food bottles of wine

I hadn't thought of that Mandy!! lol :-D :-D Perhaps he'd better get a scarf instead. he's been saying he needs a new one, or a nice tie. He's just shown me 2 nice suits from the back of his wardrobe. He thinks he will be able to get into them again now he's a bit slimmer in the waist!!

Mel I can't use bleach down the plughole as it will ruin the chrome. Buster like Mandy has used might be better as it has very little bleach in it, so I've put some on the next food order in case I can't find the long brush thing.

Afternoon tea and cakes at yours for your birthday sounds nice Vera. Did you have anything nice for lunch today? I think the stronger co-codamol can only be issued on prescription, but the lower dose one is sold at pharmacies. I think it's why OH was discharged with just a few days of it, as it can be addictive, so the GP has to monitor what circs they issue it in.

Oh no Mel good job you had it checked out , it was nice of Em to take you ,my sister had one of those big boot things when she had her bunions done , you might find it a bit easier to walk with it on as its giving you a bit of support .

Ann best not to buy pants ,what will happen when he goes in for a meeting and they say show us what you bought with the voucher :-0 :-D :-D lol

Vera it was just the one question out of the fifty that he got wrong.
Sounds as if you had a good lunch today ,did you have something nice .

Well the plughole seems better the water seems to be flowing better so another good job done .

I have just done a long post and somehow lost it. I pressed Preview, read it through, went to press Submit and it had gone :-P It serves me right for not doing it in Word and then doing a C&P.

I haven't time to do it all again now but I was commenting on Mel's poor foot and sympathising. I hope it's more comfortable now Mel. I'm also surprised like AnnG at the 200 paracetamol and explaining what happens at our surgery as I get 100 x 30/500 Co-codamol at a time.

We had a lovely 80th birthday lunch for our friend. I've received several birthday cards and a couple of gifts myself but I am saving them till Monday. On Wednesday several of the ladies are coming here for afternoon tea and cakes to celebrate my birthday.

That's the gist of what I wrote in the post I lost. EE have texted OH to say they are working on broadband in this area tomorrow and apologizing for any disturbance to our service so if I am not on the thread tomorrow it will be because we've lost the internet.

Oh so you had broken a metatarsal by the sound of it Mel. I had to wear one of those black, thick soled sandal things when I had an operation on my foot years ago. I think I still have it somewhere in the loft! Not very flattering are they. :-) Your email shows how bruised your foot is too. So Em's having her days all thrown out now instead of you! She must have a lot on her plate with the two boys, but it sounds as if she doesn't have a job, so is often around in the day luckily. So have they told you to rest the foot now and how long will you have to wear the shoe?

I can't believe it either AnnG. We are only allowed 2 packs of 16 at a time from supermarkets.

Mandy, the gift thing was for M & S! I think he was rather hoping it was for Waterstones for some books. He was very pleased to receive it, but it looks like it will be for some pants instead! lol.

I have started going through more files of instructions for appliances etc, but there isn't much I could shred. Now I'm going through FH folders and might be able to add some to my FH from some things I found.

Oh dear Mel, but at least you have got it sorted and at least it should heel OK, Were there any instructions about how much you could walk on it? Is this shoe thing something that you can take off at night? Well done em she is good to you.

I really can't believe that your surgery just dishes out 200 paracetamol tablets. How on earth do they know that they can't fall into the wrong hands.

O and I also picked up my paracetamol form the surgery and they have given me 200.

Got back home at 2.46pm The paramedic looked at my foot at the surgery and said he thought I should go and get it x- rayed at Stratton which is just outside Bude. Anyway off we went to the x-ray dept there and we had to wait just over an hours I think perhaps not quite that long. The nurse showed me the x-ray after it was done and when she called me in she had two shoes things in her hand !! I thought oh no and yes you have guessed it I had broken a small bone on the side of the joint on my little toe which is about half way down my foot from my toes. Theres a pointy bit there and I have knock about a cm of bone off with a hairline crack. I now have a bl88dy great hard show thing to keep on for at least two weeks maybe four. Its like a sandle thing and I'll send a pic later but now I must eat something. Em took me and waited for me she's such a good girl I asked her if she would like to have lunch out as a treat but she wanted to get back to her boys. I did give her some money which she did'nt want to take but I said if I ever needed her like that again I would'nt mind asking as long as I can pay her something.

Right I need food............................................

Check out the government website for the learner drivers theory test. You certainly don’t need 100% to pass. Perhaps Jake didn’t complete it in time - it is tight. There are 50 multiple choice questions to answer in 57 minutes. It doesn’t give much time for thought. He’ll pass next time I’m sure. Good luck to him.

When I damaged my foot I only spoke to the GP on the phone but he referred me direct to X-Ray who rang me within an hour with an appointment that day. X-Rays were rushed to the GP and when he saw them he referred me to the fracture clinic who rang with an appointment the following morning. So a phone chat with the GP was enough to get everything moving. Maybe it will be the same for Mel. It could be that it’s swollen because you have been walking on it too much Mel and not resting enough.

I’ve done some ironing and a few other jobs and now I must go and get changed and titivated up a bit. Our table for the 80th birthday lunch is booked for 1 pm and I am being picked up at 12.30. It’s difficult to know what to wear. The temperature apparently is 14 degrees but feels like 7 and it is very windy. It was wet earlier but it’s not raining now and I’ve just seen a brief gleam of sun. I guess layers is the answer to what to wear.

EDIT. I see you have an appointment With the doc Mel. Good luck.

I spoke to a doctor and he has mde me an appointment for 12pm and said I may have to go to Stratton so Em is taking me to the docs and we will see what happens after that. She will take me to Bude if I have to have an x-ray. she had to get in touch with Ed to see if he could take the boys to Bideford and rearrange her day so she can take me. She's a lovely neighbour I call her the daughter I never had.

Will let you know how I get on later.

All of you with slow draining drains just do the soda crystal and bleak with boiling water and then after a while put more boiling water down and they should clear. Our shower used to get blocked up with fluff out of oh's belly button and hair but that always cleared it right out.

It's Buster plug hole cleaner, it does say leave overnight but I use that loo at night and if there's any fumes from the cleaner I didn't fancy leaving it over night so by doing it now I can leave a window open and close the door.
I remember our kitchen drain blocking and Colin used some stuff he got from the building merchants ,well he poured it down and within a minute it went off like a rocket ,such a bang it frightened me to death , cleared the drain though lol

Ann that was lovely of the school to send the voucher and card to OH ,that will get a couple of books :-D

Morning All,

It's 14 degrees here and very breezy. We didn't sleep well last night so decided to lie in this morning. A load of banging on the front door and study window, followed by dinging on the door bell when they eventually noticed it under their nose on the door frame soon put paid to that Idea, as I scrambled into jeans and top to answer the door. It was the post woman with a signed for small, thin envelope addressed to OH. It turned out to be a get well card wth a £20 gift voucher inside from one of OH's schools, so that was a nice surprise for him.

It sounds like using your foot as much yesterday wasn't a good idea Mel, but I don't see how a phone call will help, other than to perhaps say have it x-rayed. Maybe they will just say rest it and use a bag of frozen peas first though and see if the swelling goes down again.

Mandy that's tough if getting one answer wrong means a fail. I hope they told Jake which it was. I've got the same problem with the ensuite basin draining slowly. OH doesn't use it, only me with short hair. I've got a long thin brush I will try first. What with that and the toilet backing up if there's much paper, I'll be glad when we can get it all redone in there. I noticed the new small basins seem to have bigger plugholes now which would help.

Better get lunch prepared now. Some cod fillets with mash for OH and carrots, leeks, cabbage, peas and sweetcorn with a white sauce.

AnnG I hope you enjoy your trip out with Cynth. If it's to a garden centre, they are stocking up with more things now that christmas has been packed away. Our Range store always had tiny gangways so they could pack more things in.