Today I've mostly bin...

[LAT]

I am trying to work out the relevance of the offer to wash your kitchen floor to any of the other comments.

I did a bit of gardening this afternoon and at one point noticed a small dot of blood on my arm a couple of inches above the wrist. Now I have a hard round bump there (which is par for the course for me) but intriguingly I also have a thin red line from the area of the bump going up my arm to a couple of inches above the elbow. What with the burn on my other wrist and various scratches, my arms are looking particularly fetching tonight

[Bunnylump]

Seriously, LAT get that checked out!! It sounds horribly like an infected sting to me!! My sister in law had a similar thing last year and ended up in hospital for 2 days because she didn't get it looked at.

[strep98]

Been typing minutes from the Parish Meeting, that ended with the local coroner being given a duster and wet j cloth to clean up the dust he had been moaning about. Priceless expression on his face as I don't think nanny had taught him to use anything like that before, Gill I'll send him up to do your floor now he has been trained

[LAT]

That's wonderful strep!

[gill216]

but intriguingly I also have a thin red line from the area of the bump going up my arm to a couple of inches above the elbow.

Laura, I'm with Bunny on this one. Thats needs to be seen urgently. Not tomorrow or whenever you have time. Like right now!!! How long is it since you had a tetanus jab?

And as for the kitchen floor then that was a remark I deliberately misunderstood I just thought I'd show how easy it is for that to happen.

Gill: Ha- Looks like the kitchen floor isn't going to get cleaned today either.

Anon.: You know I'm always happy to help .

Gill: Wow, you are going to come and wash my kitchen floor?

[LAT]

Aah, thanks for the explanation Gill

and the red line is now fading although the swollen area round the bite is a bit larger, but I'm used to that happening.

March 2002.

[giraffe]

I'm allergic to bites too. I had two on my arm last year and it was red from shoulder to elbow.

[Bunnylump]

I asked anon if anon had made you pee yourself with laughing, Gill...

I have awful trouble with bites as well. Last year I got a mosquito bite on my foot. My foot swelled up so much I couldn't get any shoes on. It was all shiny and looked like I had elephantiasis. It's the red line which is concerning me though, LAT. That is a sign that the grot is progressing up a vein. Seriously, if it's still bad tomorrow you must go and get it seen to. Otherwise I'm coming down to drag you kicking and screaming to the doctor...

[Scurra]

I asked anon if anon had made you pee yourself with laughing, Gill...

Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness you know, Bunny...

[Bunnylump]

Now I DO talk to myself all the time. But I didn't imagine that conversation. OR DID I??? Do de doodoo...queue eerie alien music...

[MBH]

This was Friday evening rather than today, but as part of The Late Shows season I visited the Victoria Tunnel that runs under Newcastle.

Unfortunatly only 700 yards of the 2.5 miles tunnel is accessible, but an interesting place with TWO distict histories. As a way of getting coal down to the ships that would transport it in the 1840s and as a deep shelter in the 1940s.

The clever engineers managed to get a consistent slope for the 200 foot drop over the 2.5 miles so the containers rolled down under gravity and were then winched back up to the top again. I'm still trying to picture the drum that contained 2.5 miles of hemp rope that was dragged out behind the carriages.

At the end we put our torches out and in the darkness had a sound effect of a load of coal going past. Very interesting. [and I'm not a history buff, but I've got to admire the engineering].

http://www.victoriatunnel.info/Introduction.html

[Bunnylump]

That sounds really interesting MBH. Although I would really struggle to make myself go down what looks like a claustrophobic tunnel like that!! Like you say, just from an engineering point of view it is fascinating.

(Yesterday) I went out to my friend's house for a really nice meal. I was on pudding detail. It was one of those times when the first thing I made APPEARED to go horribly wrong. It was supposed to be a chocolate and cola cake. When it came out of the oven, the middle wasn't cooked and the outside was crisp. When I tried to remove it from the tin, it disintegrated all over the place.
So I squidged it all together in a big mush and made a chocolate and cola frosting goo stuff and spread it on the top. So, I decided to make another pudding (raspberry and nougat semifreddo with raspberries and raspberry sauce). But when I came to leave, I decided to take the "disaster pudding" anyway. And so we had TWO puddings. Guess what? The cake was WONDERFUL.

I'm going out in a couple of hours AGAIN for my friend's 50th. This time we're off to St Michael's Manor in St Albans (very posh) for afternoon tea. Better go and find a dress, I suppose. Oh, and then an iron. (What is it you're supposed to do with them again??)

[eirian]

must admit Bunny, that first cake does sound nice, even if it was a bit too squidgy for appearances..

yesterday I met up with a load of ladies I've known for years online, but never met in real life. (hmm... sounds familiar somehow). We met at a hotel's restaurant in the middle of Birmingham and I really felt sorry for the waiters - how do you get the attention of 14 really chatty ladies? We just talked solidly for the 5 hours we were there. I may say though, that lot make us here look positively quiet. The main thread on the forum is around 2 1/2 years old now I think and has well over 11,000 posts on it.

[Bunnylump]

Are they all like me then? (That's something to give Scurra nightmares, isn't it?? )

[Laura]

So, this morning I became a Godmother for the first time. Apparently one of my duties is to help her look forward to her confirmation. Well, it's happening in 3 1/2 hours, so it shouldn't take much doing! Busy day!!!!

[Bunnylump]

Blimey, that's quick work!!

Well, I've been for my posh tea. Crikey, four sandwiches, two scones with clotted cream and FOUR cakes? I'm all over the shop, fuelled with sugar. That's far more dangerous for me than alcohol!! My husband couldn't believe it. I just got back (8pm) and we'd left here at 3 15.

"Where on Earth have you been?" he asked.

"At St Michael's Manor having afternoon tea, of course. Why?"

"So you've been there for FIVE HOURS???" "What on Earth have you been doing?"

"Eating cakes and chatting, of course."

"But we spent all yesterday evening with them. What ever do you find to talk about?"

Now there, my friends, is a very interesting question. I have NO IDEA. But it was fun, all the same.

[Laura]

Why do people assume you have to talk ABOUT something? With a good friend, the topics of conversation are never ending, completely interchangeable, and often totally unintelligible to everyone else around. That's why it's so much fun!!!

[MBH]

Odd thread this - I'm never posting on it then I'm here twice in a weekend.

This afternoon I've had a great couple of hours doing a bit of music. Attended a class for "Steel Pans for Beginners".. Yeah - a bit of Trinidad here at the Sage Gateshead.

About 15 of us spread out around the four styles of pans - a bit like the 4 vocal voices but all the names are different

For the first tune she asked for those that had some musical knowledge - so I ended up on one of the top sounding pans doing the melody for "Coconut Woman" [which I MUST check for on Youtube - as I hadn't heard of it].

Then it was 'all change' and I ended up on the set of 6 base pans (think full-sized oil drums). The notes were far easier, but the sound was fantastic

The notes were marked as their letters, but there didn't seem much reason or logic behind the layout. The different toned pans also each had different layouts. Very strange.

The teacher was very enthusiastic and encouraging, and she got a good sound out of all of us. There are classes on during the week, and it is very tempting to join and see what it is like.... we'll see.

[Bunnylump]

Wow MBH, have you promised yourself that you're going to lead a more exciting leisure time or something? I've always fancied trying steel pans. I like the nice mellow sound they make.

[MBH]

Just coincidence that things happen at once To combine things I now need to get a set of pans into the Victoria Tunnel - there is a section that has been 'lined' with about 6-inches of of concrete making it into a tube and the sound quality was amazing [aparently they had a group of singers down there once].

I found the first tune we played, and listening to it I'm thinking it would be better on the cookery thread rather than the music thread

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqrfDho4Ucg