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So over getting older

I've had too many samples of old age recently and it is really grating my carrot. A molar broke - just broke! - and then I was deaf for a while, sheesh that's the pits, back to normal now. Then my eyes started blurring and I had to get specs and now my leg starts hurting when I walk my dog, will whoever is ill-wishng me just cut it the hell out, okay?

very mad

Someone, I think Bette Davis, said old age isn't for sissies. Another said after 60 it's just patch patch patch. I've never felt old before but yup as fast as one symptom gets patched up starts another. Off to the clinic, I'll be getting frequent flyer discount at this rate.

I'm a sissy. Take me now.
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Probably a stupid question but -

what do non-smokers do after making love?



popcorn

America is no longer offering liberty and justice for all.

I watched some, not all, of a highly emotional video although I REALLY hate videos which try to manipulate my emotions which is why I didn’t watch it all and haven’t linked it.

It was a tale of abortion refused, and the year that followed. Stripped of emotional throbbing-voice content, the facts are pretty simple.

The couple had five children already. They had previous drugs and drink issues. Four – FOUR – of the children had already been taken by the state as they were judged unfit parents. She tried to get number six aborted for a very real health issue but was refused. Strike one.

That health issue - she’d fallen pregnant again when her earlier child was three months old. The embryo was embedded in the C-section scar from her last pregnancy which meant chances of carrying to term were non-existent. Chances of life-threatening complications, extreme. Not good enough reason for an abortion. Strike two.

Complications indeed but both mother and child survived emergency premature birth and the child went straight into an incubator. The closest hospital with suitable facilities was an hour away. Mother America dug deep to pay the mother the life-changing $14 a week paid to mums whose kids are in hospital at a distance, to spend as she wished.

The baby was discharged, still needing a feeding tube and specialized care, and did I mention quite severely retarded? on the first birthday of its older sister, presenting serious care issues. Too young and too disabled to be put into day-care facility, but here’s a little problem, both parents work, neither parent eligible for European-style parental leave or support. In fact, it seems the states refusing abortion ironically offer the least support to mothers of newborns. Some American logic for you. Strike three.

Well, I gave up on the video at that point. Even the American who had posted it didn’t seem to realize how shatteringly badly it reflects on you as a supposedly advanced country, it was posted as a heartwarming tale of courage in the face of adversity, to tug at the heartstrings. Aw.

jaw drop

I drew some conclusions, then deleted them. What's the point. Add your own if you feel a need. I do find that my interest in your Big Issues, now I've seen your ignored ones, is diddly squat.

There’s a blog at the moment mocking the way Europe tries to look after its own and hoping America doesn’t go that way. I deleted my comments on that too.
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Speed dating

So I found out about a speed-dating thing about a half hour drive away and for all nationalities, not just Spanish (the organiser is Dutch) and the first had about a dozen pitch up and the second had twenty and the third is coming up. All are 'mature singles' and numbers are kept approximately even.

I should go, right? Time and petrol and a small fee ... and the theory is we all know within minutes of meeting someone whether there's a spark or not, that's got to be better than facing a whole date and planning how to escape as quickly and politely as possible.

Has anyone done it, pros and cons?
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LVP - Luxury vinyl planking aka sticky planks

Anyone tried this, used this, have any tips to offer on this? I have hideous tiles in my kitchen / living room and decided after some research* that LVP was a good interim measure (right now I can't afford the kind of tiles I'd like) and I've got half the kitchen done (the easy half) and am beginning to think I bit off more than I chew. My usual expert for the tricky bits is ill, I've an enthusiastic husband (not my own) offering to help with the finishing (if DIY guy is still sick next week) (there's a deadline of 20th March, no pressure eh?) but he said cheerfully he knows nothing at all about LVP but how hard can it be uh oh

So while I am taking a break and trying to stop my fingers sticking to the keyboard, I wondered if anyone has done it for real because it doesn't seem quite as straightforward as the videos with experienced DIY guys / girls made it look. They were gaily enthusiastic but there are breaks in the recordings which I am now eyeing with suspicion.

*I'd never heard of it before, I was looking at laminate click-together flooring and that led to vinyl click-together and then to the self-adhesive type. Shorter life but easier maintenance / repair / replace bits, and "So Easy To Lay". I am quoting.





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Tell me truly, is it me?

Friend A – conversational bridge – always a competition. Worse, better, always the need to take the trick. Example – idle comment – “I’ve just done (insert neutral topic here) it was okay. Response - I did that once, it was rubbish / fantastic. Long involved details follow. You win.

Friend B - attention span issues. Example – Yesterday I tried adding lime pepper to my pasta andooh I saw something on cooking the other day, let me show you, and out comes the phone tap tap tap here see that. Well okay but what I meant wasdid I tell you about the shoes I just bought? I took a photo, tap tap tap, look. So I give up but friend is waiting expectantly for the next topic to interrupt . . .

Friend C – the persistent grouch. I walked the dog for over an hour, I’m absolutely knackered. That must be nice. It’s hard for me to walk since the pain started in my foot. Have you seen a doctor about that yet? What’s the point there’s nothing they can do just a waste of time and money doctors are so expensive and all they do is give you the pills the pharma companies want them to promote

Friend D – the partner fixation – what did you think of the (insert situation here) I’ll have to come back to you on that, partner has not yet told me how we feel about that.

I think I need a few new friends, I've used these ones up. But if it's me ... sigh
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We need help. Add suggestions for an orderly future

How about a new social media called something like Chatter which will allow you to select the categories in which you have an interest, and will automatically join you to everyone else in that category. This will instantly give everyone several million interest-sharing friends. Loneliness efficiently banished ... uh oh

I suspect CS is now far too serious a place to be weird and whacky but hey. It's Sunday and the sun is shining, worth a try.

There's sport and politics (the dream teams), and food and income and travel, all need some outside-the-box thinking. Fill your boots.
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Insulin for weight-loss

I'd never heard of this before - insulin for non-diabetics, as a way to lose weight. A man in his early 70s that I know has recently started it, because his overweight daughter did. I looked it up, and seems there's quite a trend, mainly in the US. They are not in the US but their doctor is providing the stuff and monitoring quantities and, presumably, their health.

Changing the body's chemical make-up - AND knowing that diabetics struggle to rid themselves of stored bellyfat when they start on insulin - is surely not a great idea, but father and daughter are both very happy so far with reduced appetite and steady weightloss, don't mind the occasional attack of biliousness. Both are pretty large.

Anyone know more pros and cons - literally asking for a friend, since his wife (a naturally skinny wench who therefore Doesn't Understand How Hard It Is To Lose Weight) is absolutely appalled.
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From the horse's mouth ONLY

I can't be the only one bored to tears over the stupid pointless lies being told about Trump, some of them rolled out again and again. So annoying when they are corrected on one blog and the OP simply starts another with the same blatant misinformation. frustrated

So here's a challenge. His own words ONLY. Tweets, videos, anything you like. A brief covering comment (for those who can't be arsed to follow links) and then the link or Tweet. Let the man speak for himself.

I'm kicking off with his views on wikileaks. Starts with a comment in 2019, but clips go back to that much-watched debate with Ms Clinton in 2016. Does he know nothing about it (2019) or does he love it? Let him tell you himself, from 2016.



This should be a nice quiet blog, everyone prefers to drone on with their own interpretations but this is ONLY what he says himself, that's the deal. I don't, by the way, care either way, so links that make him shine are also fine. I'm just sick of whiney regurgitated massaged cherry-picked gum-bumping and those are the ONLY comments I will probably delete when I'm next in.

Oh, and anything that accuses me of being a Biden-lover. Nuh-UH. The only person in American politics who is more dreary than Trump is Biden yawn (so if you want a Biden equivalent blog, start it yourself.)

roll eyes
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Your habits will kill you – eventually. HOW many smokers died over 100??

I just found out the glamorous Joanna Lumley smokes up to 40 cigs a day, at 77. THEN I found out research is very quietly being done to see if smoking, when of course it doesn’t kill you, makes you live longer. I did some research of my own. I have no idea how kosher this list is. The link is at the end of the main post, and I think the list will have to run into comments, it's LONG. I did some spot-checks and discarded a few obviously dodgy ones. Cheer up. It could be diet, or booze, or coffee. Nobody seems to know. But golly.

smoking Jeanne Calment, who died in France at the age of 122, was known for three things: her quick wit, her fondness for bicycling around the small city where she grew up - and the fact that she was a daily smoker. At 117 she quit smoking (because she was blind and was too proud to ask often for someone to light her cigarettes for her) but resumed smoking when she was 118 because, as she said, not smoking made her miserable and she was too old to be made miserable.

Marie-Louise Meilleur, of Canada, became the oldest living human being when Calment died. She had chain-smoked all her adult life but quit at 99. She died at 117. So the jury’s still out there.

smoking John McMorran of Lakeland, Florida smoked cigars, drank beer and ate greasy food. His eyesight failed in his final years, and people needed to shout for him to hear them, by the time he died at 113.

smoking The Queen Mother, mother of the late QE2, was a bon vivant who loved horse racing, gin cocktails, champagne and cigarettes. She died at 101. (For balance it should be noted the King died quite young of lung cancer and his daughter was violently anti-smoking as a result, as is the present King.)

smoking Hollywood director Billy Wilder, a heavy smoker, died at the age of 95. No wonder smoking is banned from the silver screen. Not even 100!

The above facts were cherrypicked from this link and more (and some non-clebs, but older) follow in the comments. This blog is obviously only for those downtrodden skulking puffing behind the bins as the non-smokers will instantly dismiss it as propaganda. Yup! Somewhere to point when people sneer that smokers are too stupid to realize they are killing themselves.

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This WEATHER!

Yes yes frightfully English to talk about the weather but how's yours in these unusual times?

Spain is hot. Very hot. Extremely hot. Hotter than usual hot. Breaking all previous records hot. No rain. But apart from agreeing with locals it is mucho calor it hasn't been an overworked topic.

This blog was inspired by last night's gusting wind, I was trying to make a voice recording and when I listened back there was talk talk talk whooooooosh bang (door slamming) talk talk whooosh crash (medley of shutters) talk talk whoooosh crash crash crash crash (pot plants relocating) and occasional mutters of oh bugger when I thought I'd paused the recording but hadn't. I haven't even tried again this morning because the hot gusts are ongoing. This morning there was a bright blue washing up bowl on my terrace. I have VERY high walls around my house. Never seen it before, certainly not mine. confused

BTW my Spanish continues to be a work in progress. I was walking the dog this morning and stopped to talk briefly to a friendly Spanish neighbour who looked puzzled when I remarked on the wind. What I should have said was 'muy ventoso hoy' (she'd probably noticed, but small talk is small talk and my Spanish small talk is miniscule.) What I said was muy ventana hoy. Not so much "very windy today" as "very window today" ...

Tomayto tomahto.

Tell me about rain, tell me about cool breezes, throw in some snow if you've got it, let me live vicariously.
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Dementia in close-up

Last night was my first real encounter with a person in an Alzheimer meltdown - strictly speaking in the form of LBD, Lewy body dementia, but I'd never heard of that before. A local friend brought her husband over (we live walking distance apart) for me to persuade him she really was his wife and not a dangerous intruder in their house. He's at the stage where he fluctuates between seemingly normal, if a little disconnected, all the way through to angry aggression, and back again. It took 20 minutes or more to convince him to give her back her phone and house keys.

Thing was, and why the blog, she's convinced his worst episodes are shortly after she's given him his sedation meds, twice a day, which are supposed to stop him stressing and fretting constantly. Does anyone here know much about the disease, have you any input? She is on groups and getting support and a few others on her groups have also noticed similar reactions but doctors insist it is not the medication but the nature of the illness. I wondered if anyone here was clued up on the topic.

They've been good friends to me but I had no idea how bad things occasionally are as up to now I've only seen him during his vague-but-friendly stages. Last night tipped once or twice towards scary. So weird that he knew me, and eventually trusted me to be telling the truth, but didn't know his wife of many years. So, another question, and yes we're not supposed to ask questions on blogs but this is more of a conversation - any advice on the best way to react, if (when?) it happens again - uh oh

Can't ask on any other social media as this is my only anonymous outlet.
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