The Lockdown Gang - 🦞 Lobstars Unlocked 🦞

Thank you all. You’re the best 💕

Here with loving cwtches for you Doodle ♥️

Doodle I do hope things turn out better than expected - sometimes they do.

Mamissimo Kia ora (literally 'may you have good health') is said as it looks but run together quickly "kyorah"

I'm not sure about the Niuean words because I know very little vagahau Niue but there are sites online with audio to help with that.

Most Pasifika languages sound every vowel but, in Maori at least, long usage means we often run them together (as in the English 'Goodbye' which used to be 'God be with ye'.)

I am absolutley delighted with the beautiful photo - dear wee Spud looks bemused

Just popped in to send positive vibes to Doodle and hope, really do hope that all is well. XX

Thanks all. A bad day today, DH has yet another infection and now need more IV antibiotics. He has been out of it most of the day. Sorry I can’t write more but if I have more positive news I’ll be back. Love to all x

I too am thinking of you Doodle and sending hugs.

I have been doing quiet indoor activities today so Ixion I am excited, probably over excited! - check your inbox in GN!

Tomorrow I am going to the country store for new wellies. Some chain link and a bucket 🙂

Me too Nfk and I know we all feel the same.
If the hospital staff are saying there is no effective way of healing Doodle's DH - we're not at the end of that road yet.

I know of several situations of people healed with alternative medicine after being told to "live with it" or "there's nothing we can do" and that second excuse is because they dismiss a whole raft of things which are effective but outside their usual pharmaceutical scope Bible.

Other ethnic medical solutions have been working for 100s of years and modern science is only now beginning to discover why and how.
Even here, the effectiveness of Maori rongoa has recently been accepted and added to the government's health insurance service after extensive scientific research.

It's something I feel so strongly about and have seen time and time again (and had personal experience of.)

What other profession will deliberately deny access and allow people to suffer because "it's not in the way we do it"?
They even have an Oath, pledging to do everything they can to help and heal.
Hippocrates meant everything.
And he wasn't employed by Big Pharma!


I'll get off me high horse now.

I'm still hopeful.

You'll be so tired Doodle if not totally exhausted. I hope DH can throw off the infection and come home with you. We are all still hopeful. 🤞

Here are the first snowdrops in my garden.

I had a long chat to NZ son yesterday which has me excited and nervous about the long voyage 12 days away. Am I ready? No.

I've made an appointment with an osteopath next week who has helped me in the past though I wasn't so arthritic old then.

Mamissimo and ixion. I wonder what discoveries are being made. Are we allowed to know?

Thanks for the picture of Spud listening to Trevor. Wonderful 😄

I hope these antibiotics zap this new infection Doodle 🤞. I hope too that you're managing to get some rest and quality sleep.

Only 12 days away Grammaretto .. that seems to have come around quickly. Yes, I'm sure it is getting very exciting for you now 😁
Thanks for the photo of the snowdrops, such sweet delicate looking flowers. I'm never entirely sure if they're a depth of Winter flower or the first sign of Spring but they are pretty.

How is it without my neighbour you ask Kaimoana 🤔. One word - quiet. Late evening on xmas eve we thought she'd come back because we heard noises. We then thought perhaps it was her ex checking on the house but there was no car outside. Seemed there wasn't an explanation ... perhaps a poltergeist had moved in 😱 ... no, it's been quiet ever since 😁.

DH been a bit better today. DH will be in till Monday at earliest to hear what the docs advise for his care after their meeting Monday. He may go home after that.
DS1 and DIl been in today which was nice. I am heading off a bit earlier tonight, lots going on today but only 1 nurse and 2 HCAs to look after 12 patients. Poor girl has been run off her feet.
Hope you’re all ok. Thinking of you all.x

That sounds promising Doodle, and I hope that will continue and Mr D will have improved even more by the time the Drs have their meeting on Monday. I bet seeing your DS1 and DIL today helped his spirits a lot. That's a shockingly low level of staffing, poor nurse.
I hope you get some rest this evening as I'm sure you need it X

So pleased to hear Mr D is likely to be coming home on Monday. What a relief! Hopefully you can relax a little over the weekend. One poor nurse on duty is indeed shocking. Goodness knows what the answer is to it.

I hope you are able to have an earlier night Doodle. Jeeves will attend, I'm sure.

Let's hope DH continues to throw off the infection and he can come home soon
Poor nurse!
That's a lot of patients to see to.

My df called unexpectedly and we had a good catch-up. Her dad died just before Christmas but she wasn't too sad. He was tired and had had a long life, well lived.
She's Irish so the funeral has happened already.

I realised I was feeling sorry for myself. This time of year, despite the signs of Spring, is depressing. I think we should hibernate. It would save energy.

DS's tortoise, Hamish, is happily in the salad tray of their fridge sleeping until February.

Thanks for the red wine Jeeves. It's rather good

All behind here but popping in to check on Doodle's latest. I cannot believe that Mr. D has picked up another (hospital acquired?) infection. I hope that this time, a decent and acceptable game plan can be put into place next week.

I will return tomorrow, suitably refreshed, to catch up, especially with Mamissimo, who is firing on all cylinders with my emigrés .

A bientôt.

Cherry, DH desperate to go home. Hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday.
DS 2 came in at lunchtime which cheered him up.
Staffing here at very low levels this weekend. They are all very nice but run off their feet.
Nfk DH will hopefully be allowed home for a while but there are some decisions to be made as to his treatment from here in in which may result in him being back in hospital at some point,
Grammaretto, thanks I did get a good nights sleep. Only had one phone call from DH who woke up with a damp sheet to the side of him. Seems they put a drip in him at night without waking him up and somehow it leaked. Pleased you had a good catch up with your friend.
This time of year is so bleak and miserable I agree it’s depressing.
I’m hoping Hamish doesn’t eat all the salad veg
ixion I really can’t figure it out either. It’s not as though he’s been out partying in the other wards. 🤣
Take care all x

I'm keeping my fingers crossed 🤞 for Mr D to be able to come home asap Doodle. I'm pleased that the visit from DS2 today cheered him up 😊.
That leaky drip was so unfair. I can understand why it was done without waking Mr D up, less so why it leaked and even less so why the staff didn't discover it had before he did - I realise that they're short staffed but at night the ward should be quieter. I hope nothing like that happens again. I hope too that neither of you have a disturbed night's sleep tonight 🤞

A case of a touch of S.A.D Grammaretto 🤔 🌻🌻🌻. I don't mind a winter when the skies are clear and so is the air but grey skies, blustery winds and rain, rain and more rain is so repetitively dreary - hibernation seems tempting. I'm pleased that you had a good catch up with your df.

Feeling rather cold, and yes a bit miserable myself today after losing another tooth I cheered myself up by making my first batch of cawl this winter. Very comforting even if it didn't make up for the lost tooth . It made up for standing on a cold terrace cheering our team, as we drew our FA cup game with a team a division lower than us 🤦. There's more cawl in the fridge 🙂.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202401/medium-508645-img-20240107-160246778.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202401/medium-881370-img-20240107-143917192.jpg

I'm watching the pottery Throwdown on catch-up. It's been a better day but very cold. Brr.
I joined the Taizé singers this afternoon. Clear skies and frost made the drive very beautiful.
Two very photogenic bulls were in the field by the church.

My df came for supper. It was nice to have company to share my cooking efforts and wine

So sorry about your tooth Cherry. 😥

I am relieved that you had some sleep Doodle but what a shame about the leaky drip. Let's hope DH gets home tomorrow or Tuesday.

Ooh yummy cawl My lunch (at 3.30 was tofu, avocado and tomato.

Dentist was able to save my tooth on Monday but while my lip was numb I bit it several times eejit.

Grammaretto every time you post a photo I think this should be in a competition - or framed
You really do have a wonderful photographic 'eye'.

Our team seems to be on a roll have I just junked it?

Had my foot zapped again this morning <sigh> so it hurts but won't tomorrow.

Karen was very chirpy and full of how she and her daughter looked at (it seemed) several thousand dresses, whilst sipping very good champagne provided by the high class wedding service.
Of course these were samples; the dress will be tailor made.

The bride has chosen a plain, fitted gown, long veil and tiara boom-de-ay

Gosh Doodle, Mr D must have been quite alarmed to find a random damp patch beside him. Scary!

Mr Google reminded me this morning that DD2 has been married nineteen years. This means that nineteen years ago we were in your neck of the woods Kaimoana, as DD2 and SiL decided to 'elope' while we were away and DS was working in Antarctica. They didn't go far, just told no one, only taking DD1 and SiL1 as witnesses. When we got home we and SiL's parents arranged a party (they hadn't been told until after the event either). They weren't going to get away without a Bit of a Do, albeit a small one! Time flies.

It is Very Chilly here today, still not really thawed out from the ⚽️ terraces yesterday. Sometimes, with a lousy performance, you wonder why you bother, but don't tell my ardent match buddy that. Is cawl OK for dodgy teeth, Cherry? Have just looked it up. When is cawl not a casserole?🤔 I hope you have no more dental wobblers lurking. I must get the vision of born in a caul out of my head.

I wonder what you think of the Pottery Showdown, Grammaretto? To plebs like me, I am full of wonderment, although I can recognise a wonky pot if I see one. I am, maybe, too practical to appreciate the aesthetics. 'You'd never get that through a dishwasher cycle in tact' I muse. 'Imagine trying to retrieve your ketchup from around the raised petals on that plate' - type thing. But it's like the Repair Shop - I do wish the participants wouldn't cry.

D-Day planning, Doodle? I hope putative plans for discharge will be formulated today. Don't accept anything you're not happy with. Make sure you've got everything in place before you are unceremoniously shown the door. I was saddened to read of the leaky drip, but at least they'd got round to administering the antibiotics in the first place. 'Small mercies be thankful for' ''n' all that. Is the junior doctors' strike impacting much on the ward? Mr.I has noted 'business as usual' at our end. And we should know

I bought myself a pack of thick trainer socks to keep my (large) feet uber-warm under jeans. They are men's - I was tickled by the design 😉
⬆️

DH very miserable. Not going home today or tomorrow as infection still not low enough and needs more IV antibiotics.
Doctors meeting didn’t take place due to junior doctors strike so none the wiser about what’s next. Both of us fed up and close to tears but plodding on as you do. Sorry not up to posting more tonight. Love to all x

So sorry to read this Doodle. Very sad for both of you. It's hard to keep the fight going when everything seems like the monopoly board of nightmares. Let the tears come - you'll feel better for releasing the tension.

We have both been to the dentist and are dribbling well. I shall cheer myself up by digging around in Ixion's royal connections!

Oh dear Doodle. That's just horrible 😭
And the doctor strike doesn't help you at all.
Good for you plodding on.

The weather has been awful, dark, dreary and cold so much so I hoped it was bedtime and I'm all ready for bed.
Then I remembered I have a zoom committee meeting tonight.

My TV and radio have stopped working but I think the laptop is still going.

Ooh Royalty in our midst ixion 👑 and
it's being found by our resident genealogist Can't wait to hear more.

* But will it make up for our team's bad performance? *

*Doodle” so sorry to hear Mr D wont be home just yet but although I’m sure he will be safer in hospital until they have got the infection under control. I know how it feels to be desperate to be at home again and I’m sure you want home home asap but take time to have a rest yourself so that you can spoil him once he’s home!
The meeting you should have had which was cancelled is another story. To have to wait to hear what the future plans are is unforgivable. Fingers crossed the Drs can find time to give you the information you need to hear.
Nfk my eldest daughter did exactly the same as your daughter except they went off to a favourite place in Scotland to get married. I was a bit disappointed but happy they did what they wanted and like you we had a party when they got back.
Cherry. I have to ask something.. What is “cawl”? Never heard of it! Like you I’m feelings fed up with winter already. At least the rain has stopped but it’s now so cold. It’s dark in the mornings - in fact it hardly gets properly light all day - and then by 5 o’clock all the curtains are closed and lights on! Roll on Spring. Oh the BBC weather lady has just forecast 2 days of sun! Still cold but hopefully she is correct and we get a brighter couple of days.
Grammaretto something else I’ve never heard of. A tortoise hibernating in a fridge! Unfortunately I wouldn’t fit in our fridge but hibernation sounds an excellent idea at the moment!
Love to all especially our Doodle who I hope receives some good news soon

Oh Doodle, that is bad luck - on more than one front. You both being fed up and teary is understandable, good on you for plodding on.