Re: What's happening in your life?

by Fangirl Three Wed Oct 30, 2019 11:37 am

Is that my Sudbury? Will you be taking the railcar from Marks Tey?

by cosmictanya Wed Oct 30, 2019 7:06 pm

Nightjar wrote:It's a lovely sunny day and I'm off to lovely sunny Sudbury to see my Grandpa today.

The agenda is:

12:00pm - cup of tea and a chinwag
1:00pm - pub lunch (he always has ham, chips and eggwobbles)
2:00pm - we watch a movie together (usually a western of the revisionist type)
4:00pm - another cup of tea and further chinwag (usually about the War or his career as a biochemist or tittle tattle he's never told anyone else in the family)
5:30pm - I start to make noises about getting off home (conversation rambles on nonetheless, usually about about his various other f*ckless grandchildren)
6:00pm - I finally leave (after discussing when I'll next be over and various mutterings about the state of the front garden)

That sounds really lovely.

by Nightjar Wed Oct 30, 2019 11:07 pm

The agenda was broadly the same, but differed in the following respects:

12:45pm - I arrive and we have a chat (no cup of tea)
1:00pm - My Grandpa explains that he was doing some cutting back of garden stuff and that he was too worn out to cut them up into small bits and put them in the garden waste bin
1:05pm - My Grandpa asks me if I'd do it for him
1:06pm - My Grandpa tells me it will take me quite a lot of time to do it (at least an hour)
1:15pm - Having picked all the garden waste up and put it in the bin we go to the pub
1:30pm - Ham, egg and chips and a half of bitter shandy, a pizza and two pint of Punk IPA are ordered and eaten/drunk
2:45pm - We get back and proceed to watch the Andromeda Strain (1971) (one of my favourite fillums eva)
5:00pm - I say "did you like that Grandpa?" and he replies "not really, I didn't really know what was going on"
5:00-5:35pm - I try to explain what was going on
5:35pm - My Grandpa says he'll make a cup of tea (I sulk)
5:36pm - My Grandpa mentions that after he watched some VHS tapes the previous Sunday he couldn't make the video player turn off
5:37pm - I look at it and notice that the LED display is all weird so put a tape in which jams in the machine and when I try and unplug and re-plug it refuses to come on at all
5:38pm - My Grandpa starts fussing because the tape's stuck and I say that if he has a Philips head screwdriver I'll open the machine and get the tape out and proceed to unplug approximately 80 SCART leads etc from the back of the telly/video/DVD player/set top box spaghetti nightmare
5:50pm - My Grandpa, after faffing about in dr*wers and bureaus for ages gives me several sets of flat-head screwdrivers which I cannot open the video player with...

Oh, I just can't be bothered to carry on. bawl

by Fangirl Three Thu Oct 31, 2019 6:31 am

by cosmictanya Thu Oct 31, 2019 10:09 pm

I'm really very annoyed.

My mother and her friend have just left. They've been in a pub all afternoon after an electricity reader man touched my mother up and left her in terror after forcing himself all over her and brushing her hair after demanding she fetch a brush. She's sixty f***ing five years old and merely letting someone read the number.

We agreed that it's a shame my father is dead, and a mercy that my grandfather is. She's really more upset than I've seen her in quite a long time. Actually we had the very longest hug we've had in years. All three of us - confessions and anger all round.

The last time she was over here in tears like that, she'd been told by some little ponce half her age that the first class lav was blocked and could she please pick the tissues out by hand. Why he was unable to do it himself was left unsaid.

I have myself stormed over to Heathrow in the last year to have 'a word' with her ground manager who had declared she was 'sick' of my mothers bereavements, on top of being treated like a charlady - coupled with a mistake in writing over chicken v beef in the business section.

Even if I do say so myself, this little sh*t sh*t herself and has apparently been very lovely ever since. As I always say in these circumstances, I am my fathers daughter.

by cosmictanya Thu Oct 31, 2019 10:22 pm

by cosmictanya Sun Nov 03, 2019 1:23 pm

I'm discombobulated having dropped my car back at its garage this morning. I think the retired gent I rent the space from, and who drives me when a driver is required, has been moonlighting with my vehicle on an unagreed commercial basis - specifically for Russians.

This Russian newspaper was tightly wrapped around a Baccarat vase under the driving seat. Only a dropped lighter at the weekend while I was in the countryside led to the discovery.

He wasn't in this morning. I've placed the vase back under the seat, but left all the (now) torn newspaper on the back seat so he can see that I've seen it...

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As I don't need the car again this week, I've replaced the dust sheets so when he uncovers them, he will see that an explanation is owed. I have also left some polish on the front passenger seat as a hint that the chrome and paintwork needs a bit more elbow grease. Not an unreasonable assumption I'm sure you'll agree. I like my car to be like a sparkling mirror...

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As you can see from the dust on the door hand rest, I haven't sat in the back for a while but when I do I always sit on that side to be able to get out without opening the door into the road and having to walk round the car.

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Actually I'm not thrilled by the dust there either, so we will need to talk about the necessity of doing the interior as well as the outside. But I'm more concerned about why random valuable objects are shoved under the seat in Russian newspapers.

I don't necessarily mind him making some extra money for himself, but I have a right to know.

All rather mysterious.

by cosmictanya Tue Nov 05, 2019 5:26 pm

I was in the countryside for a couple of days at the weekend. I was staying there with my financial advisor and his partner, with a purpose of pouring over accounts and projections and receipts to see if I can afford to retire and live abroad.

We estimated that I can probably afford to semi-retire and return here for work for certain periods of time, giving up the UK salary and taking freelance commission fees instead.

My best friend lives in Madrid and is thoroughly bored with housewife stuff. She did a car advert in China just to break the monotony and is spending more time in Marbella to build a more independent life. I really miss her. She has for a year or two been sending me particulars of apartments for sale at the Alhambra del Mar development...

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What's happening in your life? - Page 32 Alhambra-01

Architecturally and location wise, I like it a lot. Spacious apartments, private terraces, nice pool and gardens. We could have an interesting time together and perhaps collaborate on some projects. My son is of an age where perhaps he could viably stay with his gran or uncle for school and come down to me for weekends and holidays.

Something to discuss with them. Seville, Lisbon, Granada, Morocco all very accessible. It looks like someone has built happiness with me in mind.

by Nightjar Sat Nov 16, 2019 7:50 pm

I've just found out that a very very dear old friend of my Mum's (and partner of 40 years of one of my Mum's best friend's) has died.

George Cox.

Ladbroke Grove/West London fixture and fitting - Mangrove mandem - Trini'-born Gladiator.

Rocking steady since before time.

God bless you.

Go peaceful.

by Nightjar Sat Nov 16, 2019 7:53 pm

Jamaican I know, but it's the best I can come up with right now...

by Guest Sat Nov 16, 2019 8:03 pm

by cosmictanya Wed Nov 20, 2019 7:09 pm

Well that's my mother off the phone, too drunk to string a sentence together - just random abusive rantings and some words screamed so loudly you can't make them out for decibel distortions anyway.

She's going to her first mandatory reconciliation meeting with her downstairs neighbours. Apparently since they moved in, alongside the music, they thought major renovation work was going on at all hours above them.

It took them quite some time to realise that's just how she closes doors and cupboards. All of which are broken btw, having been slammed so hard and so often.

I always know when she has entered my building for instance (she has a key) despite being several floors up, because the front door crashes into the frame like a bomb going off and the front half of the building vibrates.

Once your heart rate normalizes you know she's arrived, and mere minutes separate you from either being gushed over or having abuse screamed an inch from your face. Sometimes both. Only my son doesn't get this - he can do no wrong in his grans eyes - a golden angel of perfection and innocence, in every circumstance.

I'm not sure how this reconciliation concept will go - she doesn't take kindly to constructive criticism. I hope they are prepared to be called c*nts, accused of bullying, threatened, told to get f*cked, be blamed for the inevitable storm of tears, and generally have tinnitus induced.

They might even be chased from the premises - that's far from unknown if she really decides she's had enough communication for now.

by cosmictanya Wed Nov 20, 2019 7:25 pm

I'm going down to Spain for a day and a night next week, to check out Alhambra del Mar in the winter as I think it's essential to see it off season, and to have dinner and drinks with my very best friend.

I can't wait to see her. She was going to bring her baby but we thought on balance that would be a distraction and an encumbrance so she's leaving it in Madrid. I dread the hangover I'll have on the flight back.

by cosmictanya Fri Nov 22, 2019 4:56 pm

I'm very worried about my mother. She's having X rays and various tests. She's 65 now. I really would like nothing more than for her to have a good 25/30 years of pleasure through her retirement because she's had a wretched time of it in many ways.

She was lucky enough to have looks and two loving parents, but life just kind of went sideways for her in so many respects. I suppose because she'd never needed to be tougher, earlier, things were worse than they might've been when adult life began doing its worst.

She'd be the first to admit her own decision making capacity is generally a chronicle of disaster, so that doesn't help. Hers make my own look like a textbook model of restrained and low key common sense.

I've decided to watch Call Me By My Name again this evening because I thought it was such a feast for the senses. I see it's set in 1983, and I came to care so much about the central character that among many thoughts and feelings it left me with, I long for him to make it out of the 20th century without catching anything horrible.

by Fangirl Three Thu Nov 28, 2019 6:05 pm

It's Thanksgiving apparently. I can tell because all my American net friends have gone quiet, and there's no US market news for me to appraise.

by Nightjar Wed Dec 04, 2019 4:45 pm

My Grandpa's been hit by a van.

Back in hospital again.

by **The Call of the Wendigo** Wed Dec 04, 2019 4:59 pm

by Nightjar Wed Dec 04, 2019 5:14 pm

Waiting to hear back from my Aunt about the scan to detect any potential internal injuries now.

Fingers crossed he's OK.

I can't go and see him tomorrow either as I've got a funeral to go to. oh no

by Nightjar Wed Dec 04, 2019 5:28 pm

Scan's back.

Not good news.

by Nightjar Wed Dec 04, 2019 6:20 pm

A broken bone in the neck.
Several broken ribs - one of which has punctured a lung.
Broken wrist.
Fractured hip.
Some potential bone matter from his hip in his bladder.

They're trying to arrange to get him moved to St. Mary's, which is near my Mum and Me (and my ex-wife).

I just don't know what the long-term verdict's going to be - he's 98 - how do you recover from all that at that age?

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