Today I've mostly bin...

[giraffe]

My mum once said that when she gets incapable of looking after herself she would move in here so I told her I would buy her a bungalow round the corner as we would kill each other within a week. She agreed that would be a better solution.

[Laura]

Bunny, losing 9lb without trying to is probably a desirable thing for many people. I certainly wouldn't mind. I seem to have ferocious hunger with every illness, including the last time I had a stomach bug. I don't know how.

[Bunnylump]

I wouldn't like to say I'm better (sound like I smoke 100 a day) and cleaning the kitchen earlier just about killed me. But at least I can stand upright without going dizzy now. Earlier in the week I couldn't get up at all and felt delirious on and off. And I'm normally like that, Laura, can eat for Britain at all times. But this week no appetite whatsoever. Unheard-of!

[LAT]

Bunny, losing 9lb without trying to is probably a desirable thing for many people.

Yes, I agree - it's one of the hidden advantages of all the stress in my life at the mo.

But I've been thinking. We're told so much about what to and what not to eat and drink, and how much exercise we should get etc. But why? So we can live longer! I think I would far rather live for 5 years and enjoy it than live for another 20 (or more? - even worse!) and forgo the things I enjoy. So I think I am going to give up worrying about what I eat and drink. And if I go for a walk it will be because I want to and not because I think I should get some exercise.
Any flaws in that way of thinking? Seems to me the logical conclusion.

[Laura]

Well, going back to my earlier post, I can tell you that getting to 91 and falling and breaking your hip and arm is not much fun.

My grandma used to worry that I'll have no-one to look after me when I'm old, like I looked after her, and I told her not to worry, I'm going to get to a certain age, as yet undecided, and then just live on chips, cheese and chocolate until I have a heart attack. It seems like as good a way as any to go, if you ask me!

[LAT]

I think I'd agree with that! I could quite happily live on chips cheese and chocolate.

[giraffe]

There was something in the news earlier this week about the life expectancy falling in a statistically significant way in certain parts of England. The previous week they were fussing about people living longer and their pensions running out and the cost to the health service of people living longer. In that context the fall in life expectancy seemed like a good thing.

[Bunnylump]

My view, for what it's worth, is that I'll do what I want. Fortunately (I suppose) I naturally enjoy reasonably healthy food and actively enjoy walking. But the thought of going to a gym "because I need to get fit" is utterly alien to me. And coming to that, eating food (or not eating food) "because it's healthy" is just absurd. Life's too short for that. Everything in moderation (with one or two notable exceptions which I'm not putting in writing here ) is my motto.

[Looby]

My aunt drives me mad!
She's nearly 96 and doesn't want to leave her home as she'd have to get rid of 'stuff'. She goes around at night and turns off all the electric switches because someone on TV said if there is a red light they're using power - but she turns off the fridge, freezer etc and then forgets to turn them on again.
She won't give me power of attorney in case I run off with all her money. She won't have anyone in to help because she doesn't want anyone telling her what to do.
She regularly leaves the gas on unlit because she's turned off the power to the spark. I got her a gas detector alarm but she turns off the power to that as well.
She lives on cakes, biscuits and porridge.
She's as deaf as a post but half the time she doesn't wear her hearing aids because she can't find them. She complains she can't see, but when she had her eyes tested she can read the bottom line of the print.
Aghhhhh!

Rant over - for now!

When I'm stressed I eat and put on weight.

My son has decided that he doesn't want to be with his partner, who had his baby last year. She needs somewhere to live as she gave up her council house to move in with him, but she can't get back on the council list in this area (where her other daughter is at school) and can't afford to rent privately (approx £750/mth for a 1 bedroom flat). Any suggestions!

[Bunnylump]

Oh dear! That sounds like a tricky situation. Surely the council would have to offer her housing if she is declared homeless? What about trying the housing associations? Or one of those part rent part buy schemes?

Or maybe you should move her in with your aunt...

[LAT]

Or maybe you should move her in with your aunt...

Great thought!

I suppose it wouldn't work Looby, if you went round your aunt's house with her and stuck tape over the plugs she must not turn off? Even adding a little notice saying DO NOT SWITCH OFF to the more crucial ones?
This all adds weight to my theory that there is now point in trying to prolong life by living healthily. Getting old just seems so miserable.

In a small queue of traffic today someone went into the back of me. No real harm done other than a slight scratch on my rear bumper but it's a measure of how overwrought I am that I burst into tears.
Luckily I had paused far enough from the car in front so I wasn't shunted into him.

[giraffe]

Last time someone drove into the back of me they were dressed really strangely. I ended up in the middle of the road, getting cross with Alice in Wonderland! I wondered if she had been to a fancy dress party the night before and stayed up all night, hence the not stopping at a red light. It was only later that I realised it was National Book day and she was probably a teacher on her way to work.

[giraffe]

I have just had to find an upstanding member of the community to write a character reference for Fernando.

[Looby]

Oh dear! That sounds like a tricky situation. Surely the council would have to offer her housing if she is declared homeless? What about trying the housing associations? Or one of those part rent part buy schemes?

She might be offered B&B in Slough with the possibility of a home much later in Reading. Not easy for getting Jorja to school in Fleet.

[gill216]

and can't afford to rent privately (approx £750/mth for a 1 bedroom flat).

Does she work Looby? Has she investigated how much housing benefit she would get if she privately rented 2 bed accommodation. She must be entitled to 2 bed as she has children. There are online calculators that will tell her how much help towards rent and council tax she can get. Off the top of my head I think the maximum anyone can claim is something like £500 per week!

[Bunnylump]

Glad to hear there wasn't too much damage, at least, LAT. But it still shakes you up, doesn't it?

I decided to go mad and go out last night (thought I was feeling a lot better.) My friend's cousin was running a quiz night somewhere out in a church hall somewhere in the middle of Epping Forest, raising funds for treatment for her sick daughter. As my friend needed a team, I thought we'd go. My friend was driving, and their SATNAV won't allow postcodes to be put in, so they could only key in the road. So naturally we spent about half an hour driving around the forest in the dark trying to find it.

The quiz night was OK, this was the Eric round...!

The Eric who was passed by Sheffield Wednesday and eventually signed for Leeds football team in 1991.
The Eric who was famous for starring in The Plank
The Eric who was involved in organising Miss World
The Eric who sang "I'd go the whole wide world" in 1977
The Eric who was born John Eric Bartholomew in 1926
The well-endowed woman who ran in across the pitch at Twickenham in 1982

But I was COMPLETELY shattered by the time we got home. I've only just got up. Work tomorrow could be challenging...

[giraffe]

...to Warwick Castle with our American visitor. We had a lovely day, bright sunshine, but very cold. There was a roaring fire in the great hall which was very nice (if rather smokey). Driving home though there was an absolute blizzard on the motorway. Quite a contrast.

[LAT]

I don't understand any of the Eric questions.

We went to Warwick many years ago and I remember being very impressed with the castle. No blizzards here but it has been very cold today.

I've been wondering where I am going wrong. I thought I would have the company of both my kids for most of January at least but K left on Jan 5th and L is moving out tomorrow (while I will be at work).

[clvrlad]

I don't understand any of the Eric questions.

i can get three of them
one cause im from leeds
the other two are comedians...

[Looby]

The only Eric I don't know is the first (football!) - could look him up I suppose.