h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I like codeine. Bless mom for blessing me with codeine.

So...I've been coding a new website..my latest trick is superpimposing divs on each other ooOOooOOoo . Problem is, it looks like CR*P. Yeesh. And not just in the usual Lanna self-deprecatory manner - it seriously does look sehr crappig. And I don't know why.... Speaking of webby things, f*cking endore hasn't had our site up for like a week. Has dude just not noticed? So all those reams of email I know you've all been sending me , alas, have not arrived. Reams...email. Funny.

Also...work is such an interesting study in white-trash psychology. My favorite so far is the lady from the sticks who came in with a basket of like 40 cds to sell (yes..we buy used CDs ) that someone had left in her barn (barn?!?!). I take one look at the raggie collection and remind her gently that we only take CDs that have all their original cover art, cases in good condition, and unscratched CDs. In their basket were CDs without cover art - marginally understandable, but they also had CDs in thing plastic covers, and even cases with cover art - with no CDs in them!! I'm really hoping they had just not bothered to look rather than really expected us to buy an empty case. Anyway, they set themselves to sorting them. After about 15 minutes they were ready and I resorted them. If you know me, you know I can't stand having dusty fingers. Well, for this woman's music melange, I had to go to the sink and get wet paper towels to clean the barn muck off her CD cases! Out of all those CDs, maybe 10 were passable enough to look up in the computer. Of those, which were terribly obscure and I had to search extensively for each separately (..incidentally, this only happens when the store is hopping - I think they can smell when you're busy and aggravated) only one was in the system, for which we could give her....$1.00!!!! She thought that was a bunch of crap, and decided not to sell it after all. For *her* trouble, I offered her a free movie rental (american trash loves to be soothed with freebies), but she said she wouldn't be in..I certainly hope she didn't drive in all the way from the boondocks just to make some CD profit. This all took about..oh..45 minutes.

Frequently we have snobby teenagers as well. They'll be the ones who call 15 minutes before we're open - at which time I'll answer sweetly 'Hastings Security', i.e. not f*cking open and able to help you - and she'll babble something about 'yeah, could you tell me if you have Jessica Simpson's CD in? Omigod, totally' to which I'll say that if she would call after we're open someone will be happy to help her, to which she replies 'you can't help me now?' . Omigod. I wish I could say things like 'I'm so totally sorry - but our b*tch translator doesn't come on shift 'till 10. Could you, like, call back then?'

The people who generally answer the phones are the people working the registers, and we all say this line - 'Thank you for calling HAstings, this is , how can I *direct* your call?' People invariably will start rattling immediately (remember we're liking in the middle of something) 'yeah I need to you look up my account my name is karen mosey, m-o-s-e...' to which I'm mentally throwing my hands up for her to hold on. Christ, I'm not a soothsayer, and as my computer is busy with a customer who bothered to drag his *ss down here in person, I can't really tell you how much you have in late fees at this precise moment. And these are the people who just can't abide with being put on hold. . On the other hand, my very favorite people are those who call, and pleasantly ask to be transferred to the book department. Ah...they deserve an exra jewel in their crown in heaven.

Then other times people are just plain wierd. Like this guy dressed smartly in a business suit one day. I ask how he is, he answers 'spectacular! without a hint of sarcasm, then returns the question. I say something about not spectacular, but certainly ok. He gives a mystical, knowing sort of look and says 'you *could* be, you know.' I quirk an eyebrow and say 'yeah, mind of matter or something, I suppose.' He raises a finger and says 'mind over *mind*.' He must be a motivational speaker or something. Or just...odd. But at least he was pleasant..and didn't make me wipe barn muck off of anything.

Probably one of Hubbard's lot. You should've asked him to explain and had a laugh

Incidently, what the blazes is codeine?

So, you are doing a Gosho type job then? Enjoyable on the whole, save for the manky people?

I was wondering who would be responsible for a thread titled thusly...

Kerr, codeine is (I believe) a painkiller, often combined with paracetamol...

Ah, a paracetamol/ibuprofen cross type, like Anadin Extra?

No, it's a drug in its own right. A quick search threw up http://codeine.50g.com/info/codeine.html

Ahh, I see, thanks Wonder why I've never heard of it. Do we have it over here?

We certainly do! Used to be able to get big bottles (100? 200? tablets) of paracetamol & codeine...

I dunno if you have it over there or not, but it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay good stuff. I had to take loads of it when I was expecting Shorty+ because at the time I had pneumonia, pleurosy, and asthma ... *serious* pain, and it was a serious painkiller.

Oh, it's also a cough suppressant, so it was possible for me to get a little sleep occasionally without the wracking coughs associated with all that sickness.

*sorry for taking over your journal Nyssa *

Oh, I must have just been walking around with my eyes shut, as usual

Codiene is a fine painkiller - a weak opioid that's particularly good at dulling sharp pains (excellent for toothache/abcesses, etc.)

Even in lowish doses (a couple of 15mg tablets over a day), I *have* found it rather trippy, especially in terms of providing bizzare semilucid dreams. I particularly remember the last time some years ago, when the combination with the tail-end of a short but severe cold/flu (which gets me tripping a bit anyway) and a little red wine gave me a scary few hours.

I've never had to take it for more than a day or two, but once when I used it for a day to take away the stabbing pain of still-healing blisters that I had to walk on, I felt quite normal and managed to keep up with the guys I was with, but the *next* day when I didn't take any, I got some kind of rebound effect and was buzzing all day (like a permanent sugar/caffeine high), and ended up zooming ahead of everyone else.

Ah, clearly since I have a fairly tenous* hold on reality at the best of times anyway, my nearest and dearest have made sure I haven't found out about this particular painkiller.


*look, if you think I'm opening a dictionary at this time of night you've got another think coming

This *is* an active thread isn't it?

We do have codiene over here, but it's only available neat on prescription.
You can get it more easily mixed with other things, like Paracodol? where it's mixed with paracetemol, but I think there's only about 4mg per tablet, so for severe toothace you run up against the 8 paracetemol/day limit trying to get sufficient codeine to take the toothache away.

My experience of it comes from caving expedition first aid kits - we used to get a private prescription for 15mg tablets from a college GP.

They do say in *some* first aid books that it's not much good on its own, but that it is useful to add to other things like paracetemol or aspirin, but I'm not sure I'd buy that.
Aspirin is fine for sprains and stopping swelling, paracetemol for muscular aches, but for definitely *short-term* use for sharp pain I'd go for codeine every time if I had the choice.

It's probably something I've been given for climbing/drunken cock-ups, but I often don't pay attention. I do recall some "err, this is supposed to be prescription but it'll sort that ankle" stuff being given to me last year, but I really wasn't interested in what it was at that point

It's definitely only available by prescription over here.

And it does work better when in combination with the acetaminophin (what you call paracetamol) - I remember when I was in the hospital with that pneumonia, they were giving me straight codeine (I have no idea what the dosage was, but remember I was pregnant at the time so I doubt it was all that high), and wasn't getting all that much relief with just the codeine... but then they gave me some tylenol too - and it made a big difference.

As far as how long you can take it, I know I took this stuff for a couple of months because even though the pneumonia was pretty much gone after a few weeks, the pleurosy and asthma continued for most of the rest of the pregnancy and I developed the pneumonia at around 4-1/2 months.

If *anyone* ever catches me looking wistfullky at brats, they are to slap me very hard *immediately* and remind me I have a perfectly good mutt

It's pretty addictive stuff though. Good for a high, but try not to guzzle the stuff too much.

codeine's wonderful stuff. Boots sell it as 'cocodamol' (over but behind the counter; you usually have to ask for it) for about 1.50/16 caplets, last time I bought any. generally it's 50mg codeine with 250mg of ibuprofen and 250mg of paracetamol or so.

It's metabolised into morphini by your liver at a rate of about 9% from what I remember; so you end up with about 4mg of morphine in you from one caplet. Good stuff. .. (although it is very addictive, as saturnine says)..

Yeah..I was most impressed that we could pop into boots and get some proper pain killer. . I stocked up before leaving London .

Oh, and nice to see you all

What of course my beautiful wife means is, I stocked up at the Kensington Boots, and then she stole my stash

Hey! Judge Judy would call it a !