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

My PHotD is medication side effects. I have to have blood tests to check if my medication is causing any problems. I had one recently and the liver function test results were abnormal, so they repeated the test - still abnormal. I haven't seen the GP to discuss the results yet, but I talked to my specialist nurse. It seems that abnormal LFT results can be a side effect of my medication. I checked for other side effects and it seems that the vertigo/dizziness I've been experiencing recently is another side effect.

This leaves me with a quandary. Vertigo is a notifiable condition, and you have to inform the DVLA if you suffer from it. I don't know if this is just if the vertigo is due to a medical condition or whether medical side effects are included. For now I'm going to take the approach of not driving at all.

Paint that doesn't cover in one coat over pale colours.

PP.

I know what you mean, artsy-fartsy paint designers so obsessed with what they call 'transparency' that they can't grasp the necessity for opaque media with adequate '1 coat covering power'.

Whole new PH today: Misleading microwave food.

Not the pictures on the packet, they're always misleading. But the times given; "Ready in 3mins!"

And then you read the actual instructions; "Cook on full power for 2 minutes. Stir thoroughly and stand for 30 seconds. Cook on full power for 1 minute. Stand for 2 minutes. Stir thoroughly. Ensure product is piping hot before serving."

So, that 2 minutes, about another minute, another minute of cooking, another 2 of standing, and then stirring. So we're at about six and a half minutes. The packet said 3. I want to be shoving it into my mouth in 3 minutes. It's microwave food, not a gourmet meal!

Hubby and I only have one surviving parent - my mum. She told us years ago that she didn't want us to buy Christmas presents for her. At the time she was in her 70s, and she said she had everything she needed and she didn't want things like ornaments as they just gather dust. We'd buy her a bottle of wine and a large bunch of flowers when we visited on New Year's Eve. She was happy with that. For the las couple of years she's been in a nursing home, so there's even less we can get her.

The only people we buy presents for these days are ourselves. We know each other so well that there's little likelihood of getting it wrong. The problem this year is that we both know what has been bought, so we've agreed to give a small extra present that the other person doesn't expect. (We both hate knowing exactly what we're getting for Christmas.)

Paper napkins underneath food. Yesterday it was a napkin under an almond croissant.

Why?

PP.

Now there's a petty hate. I was writing that as a response to the unwanted Christmas present thread. It took a long time to post, so I put my tablet to sleep. When I came back to this site, I found my response had been posted to this thread. What the...?

Blame it on the .

Normally you try to post something and it doesn't let you but that's the first case of someone trying not to post and it does.

<BB<

Today's PH is the train service. Since our latest change of franchise. it's definitely gone downhill. Delays, cancellations, short trains. Promises of better things to come, but they've got their work cut out just to get the current timetable working...

Today's new PH: seeing the "Someone is typing a comment..." thing on a Facebook post you've just added something to, and then waiting for ages while they type, hoping it'll be something that makes it worth your wait, instead of the more likely nothing coming but Facebook as seen that they've clicked on the box and now thinks they're typing.

Same in Hangouts, and Skype too. Yes, it's annoying.

You don't travel by Southern, do you? I saw a Southern train actually providing a service on Saturday, but no-one believes me. (Since April Southern Rail have been on almost continuous strike as the company that runs them wants to stop the guards being in charge of closing the trains' doors and have the drivers do it instead. The guards are striking as they believe will result in their losing their jobs and reduced passenger safety, and the drivers' union are also striking too. Bring back the good old slamdoor trains when passengers not only closed the doors themselves but also had legroom!)

Things were definitely better when the trains and SeaLink ferries were all run by BR, so that if the Island Line train was 5 minutes later, the ferry would wait and the connecting train at Portsmouth would wait to, and by the time you'd arrived in London you'd probably made the time up. Now the ferry goes at its scheduled time so you have to spend an hour waiting for the next one. My favourite Hitler Rant is still the one with Hitler trying to plan a train journey from Brading to Portsmouth.

<BB<

I'm 'served' by Govia Great Northern.
Minor bonus with new Winter timetable that I no longer have to change platforms as I used to have to do for one of the evening trains.

Current PH: aches that occur for no obvious reason. Earlier this evening my left shoulder started to ache. The pain got so bad that I had to stop knitting. That went away and my right hand started to hurt. After a while my left hip joined in. That's an ongoing problem, so no surprise there. My hand isn't hurting so much, but my right shoulder is twinging.

I've taken a couple of Ibuprofen and I'm off to bed in a little while. Hopefully I'll be better in the morning, better being a relative term.

Unusual pains, especially in the left arm and shoulder, can be symptomatic of heart trouble.

You should report this to your doctor.

Take good care of yourself!

Sounds like my arthritis

My current pet hate is checking my mother's meds box when I am there and finding the previous night's carer has started a new blister pack of Warfarin even though there was enough tablets in an old blister sleeve to supply that day's dose.

I have, in the past, cut the remaining tablets out of the almost-dead blister sleeve, and put them back in the pack. Although I can't do that now as I was once left a note by a carer saying words to the effect "please don't cut the blister sleeve as the edges are so sharp we could cut ourselves".

Yes, I have tried emptying a full pack into an empty, clean medicine bottle and labelling it "Warfarin" but one night a carer rang me saying she couldn't find the Warfarin. Yep, she was looking for the Warfarin pack and completely ignored the brown bottle labelled "Warfarin" because "nobody else does that"

Given their brilliance in overdosing the poor lady, this hate is more than petty. Could you hide the new pack until it is needed?

I only ever put one pack in the meds box, it contains 1 blister of 14 Warfarin. When the packs are delivered they contain 28 tablets each, 2xstrips of 14. I would never put a full pack in the meds box because each carer just pulls out a strip and ejects two tablets, no matter than there's an almost-finished strip containing two tablets. I am not there every day so I have to ensure that each night carer has enough supply to last until my next appearance.

New PH: Small Vessel Disease.

My mother has been diagnosed with this, apparently it's extensive. It's the cause of vascular dementia, can't be reversed, can only be slowed. So she's never going to get better, only worse but hopefully at controlled rates.