Be Excellent To Each Other

Thank you to everyone for your kind thoughts. Amazed myself by getting through the day at work yesterday. Today not so good so have had to stay off as got myself in a bit of a state through lack of sleep last night. Have had a bad morning with some horrible person sticking the intercom buzzer down with a piece of gum (thanks for that) which I really don't have time for right now. Feeling pretty low and was moping around the house when I picked up my phone to call the person I always call when I'm not in work and need to feel some love and affection. My broken brain fired just enough thoughts before I actually dialled my Nan's number, but that moment and realisation I can't ever speak to her again has made me cry like a five year old.

I have a leaking roof.

Bugger.

Flood alerts in place for round here, just waiting for the approaching high tide to see how bad it's going to get.

This was last month with a lower tide:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnsUxyij4p8&



Really can't be arsed with getting flooded, it looks fucking miserable.

But lots of bottled water, and move unreplacable stuff (paperwork, photos, data) upstairs if you are in a bad area.

And fit a snorkel to your 4x4

Loads of flood warnings for the IOM today, they're closing promenades across the island at 11am and there are warnings that there will be flooding. Not maybe, will be.

Apparently it's going to be worse than 2002 and that was the highest tides for fifty years (nearly lost a car to that one!).

I'll be keeping an eye on several IOM webcams.....

http://www.visitisleofman.com/webcam/webcam.aspx

http://www.visitisleofman.com/webcam/we ... ?webcam=11

The wind seems to have swung a bit now, more southerly, which is probably good news here I reckon. Still another hour and a half before high tide, though.

Are you at home, or at work?

Is there any chance of it reaching your house?

I'm working from home. The last time it flooded here was 77 I think (I actually remember going to the shops in a zodiac inflatable, it was ace fun as a kid) and since then they built a new sea wall, however they are now going to start rebuilding that as it has been deemed inadequate, hopefully it will be adequate today. I think it should be ok this time.

Still 50 minutes before high tide and there's some massively high waves, they're still mostly being blown along rather than over the wall, though.

Serious hailstorm in Oxford this morning, huge buggers, car alarms going crazy!

Driving up the A34 was strange - it was normal (if a little rainy) until Chieveley then the sky turned black and it was like a monsoon (although its brighter and reasonably normal looking outside now)

Have you acquired any superpowers?

Ramsey town centre today.....

The insurance estimates from around the island are sounding seriously scary.

Good to see the organisers of the TT are experimenting with new ideas, anyway.

Anything either side of a SW fucks us here.

Round the corner where the BBC always film.



Ardrossan Harbour.


Pics fae https://twitter.com/BBCJamesCook

... and across the water we have Lamlash Pier.


& some boats meant to be on hardstanding.

Pics fae https://twitter.com/snoweider

Nice.

I went up on the sea wall at lunchtime, got soaked:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOCAT3juMV8

Ran away from that first location because that wave that got me had some pretty sizeable pebbles in it.

What do you film with?

A GoPro, in its dive case. There was some doofus there with a soaked SLR though, bragging about how last time he got some pics on the local TV news.

Here's my reporter on the scene effort.

NSFW - Loud noise and bad language warning if you're in the office or have children around and stuff.

http://youtu.be/0ZbcWpR5AV8

I walked to Tesco at 6. I seriously overheated, should've left my jumper at home.

Put the recycling out at 7, should've put a jacket on because it was a bit drizzly so my t-shirt got damp.

It looks and sounds a bit breezy now and the forecast says 3C tonight! 3C!

it was above 6C yesterday afternoon too.

What the actual fuck.

There's a spooky gay kraken touching up the British Isles!




Explaination. http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/%28Gh%29/g ... ofdef.rxml & http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/%28Gh%29/g ... fc/lw.rxml


EDIT: You can click that picture for a link to the Met Office's surface pressure page. It's a pain in the arse linking fae images now that the url button has been tampered with.

It's Manchester though; obviously that means there should be some sort of water coming out of the sky but it should be 50-50 chance of hail/sleet, and it should be below zero 24 hours a day.

Ok, this is a minor nay compared to some of the others on this thread but it's really been causing me issues since August so I'm posting it here.

You might remember that over the summer and autumn I would occasionally post messages about a falling out with a close friend. After being so distressed, hurt, and upset over it all I had to seek professional help. I've my final appointment tomorrow, and I've finally come to terms with the fact that the friendship is over, that nothing I can do or say is going to bring about a reconciliation, and I should not let others' actions affect my own wellbeing.

I still don't really know why it happened and still think that one simple call months ago would probably have resolved everything, but he rejected every offer (and to be fair, I don't think my efforts to get him to talk were anything other than counterproductive). Yet, deep down, I still wanted to hope that things would get better, no matter how much pain it's caused me, and I still worried about him as it all started just when he was undergoing personal problems. He was a very close friend, and the five years I knew him were excellent, including the invite to stay with him and his family in the US in 2012 which really helped me a lot. But, he's gone from my life, and I've realised I have plenty of other good friends who mean far more to me than him.

Leaves and kings, all things must fall.

It sounds good that you've come to terms with it.

Eventually you'll forget you even worried about it.

I'm sorry to hear of your troubles Kern. Friends come and go, unfortunately that is life and I've gone through a fair few people who I thought would be around forever.

Don't fret though, you've got plenty of friends on the forum!

Much appreciated. His loss, not mine.

Sorry to hear that, Kern. I can empathise as I felt keenly hurt by the senseless loss of a friend that I couldn't fathom, though many years ago now. I was lucky in that I eventually find out why they turned their back on me, and it turned out that they were 100% in the wrong. In one sense this was positive as it have me closure, but in another way it did me harm in that I now find it too easy to let go, or at least I did. When a friend I care for cut me off for a number of months last year I missed him dearly, and again had this sense of unfathomed loss that I could not fix as I did not know where it came from.

What I'm trying to say is that I'm glad that losing this friend (temporarily, I am glad to say) hurt me. It made me realise how much a good strong friendship could and should mean.

We can all see how much this has hurt and affected you, and much as we all hurt to see a friend who is upset and distressed it is in a way positive to know that you do care so much and still feel the strength of feeling for a lost close friendship.

I hope that your sessions and being able to talk through what has happened has helped, and that you take solace in your other friends and wonderful family

I'm sorry kern, I hope you start to feel better about it all
it's a horrible situation



I broke a molar yesterday, biting on a lollypop
I am terrified of the dentist
appointment this afternoon...

Sounds nasty. Hope the dentistry goes well.

Hmm. I don't normally do this. Let's see how we get on.

Most of you probably know that I have pretty severe Psoriasis. It's been well under control for around seven years now, due to a marvellous cocktail of medications and the wonderful support of the NHS. Every six weeks I sit in a chair and have magic drugs pumped into my arm. It's awesome. They're somewhat dangerous drugs - a different dose of the same things that are used in chaemotherapy - so I have blood tests each and every time to keep an eye on certain things, particularly my liver function. Back in mid-October, one of the tests came back with some pretty wacky readings for one of the liver enzyme functions. Doctors were concerned, and immediately sent me for some specific liver tests and stopped all the medication. Now at this point I'm thinking Cott4ge->21 Smirnoff Ice->Liver fucked->oops Three weeks of tests, and they finally have an answer - I've managed to contract Hepatits E at some point. Probably due to badly cooked pork. Naturally I assured them that pork and I have an understanding and it would never betray me like that, but they were unconvinced. It was then a process of repeated blood tests and waiting until the Hep E had cleared out of my system before they could restart the medication.

So all this time my Psoriasis is getting worse and worse. From around mid-November onwards, it's been really bad. My hands and arms are basically raw - you've probably noticed I have gloves on in any recent photos - and I've been in constant excruciating pain. I've hardly slept since then, because even slight movements in your sleep means your arms are rubbing against something and the pain wakes you up. A lot. Being in pain all the damned time makes everything else more difficult - you put all your effort into ignoring pain, and even little things just really, really get you down so easily. Self esteem pretty much disappears when you look like you've just escaped from the set of a b-movie horror film, and when you can't go anywhere without leaving a trail of flaking skin and grease marks from having to constantly coat yourself in moisturiser.

So, come most of the way through December, they finally agreed to restart the medication - and do so on an accelerated schedule to get me back into a reasonable state. Unfortunately, there's very specific timing involved, which meant that Christmas day, which was supposed to be spent with friends, was instead spent sat on an IV in the Chelsea and Westminster hospital for six hours, then coming home and throwing up a lot. First time I've spent Christmas on my own in 35 years, and it was damned tough, much worse than I was expecting. Then had the third of my IV sessions. Needle went in, and I immediately blacked out. Blood pressure dropped to 'barely alive', and they immediately stopped the IV. And I'm back off the meds again while they try and decide what to do with me. So finally heard yesterday that they're stopping that medication entirely. Next week they'll be trying something new. I've pretty much had most of the optimism beaten out of me by this point, so I guess we'll just see what happens. Getting bored of this now.

TL:DR - modern medicine is amazing, until it breaks.

Eugh. Sorry about that uncharacteristic emo-splurge. I think I need a shower. You'll now be returned to your regularly scheduled programming.

You're well within your rights to have an 'emo splurge' about all this. It sounds like you have it really bad (my mate Ben has psoriasis but just on his hands) Hopefully they can find an alternative treatment for you soon mate.

I am so, so sorry.

Come and see us, yeah?

I had no idea you were struggling with it so much. I hope they find an alternative for you soon. Is there anything else you can be trying in the meantime that helps even a little bit? There's been a lot in the news last week about silk undergarments and such. I expect it's a case by case thing though and you've already tried most things.

Big hugs to you and echoing Russ, if you want to get away for a bit you are always welcome.

Oh well now that's in my head.

That's not the news, Joans has just switched all the TV channels around.

Didn't you wonder why all the newsreaders were slapping their own arses and trying to convince you to phone the number at the bottom of the screen so you could talk to them?

Newsreaders get lonely too.

You have my sympathies Cras, these conditions really are awful.

My mother-in-law has psoriasis, mostly kept in check with various medications but still causes her a lot of bother when it's bad. AE Jnr has severe eczema which is a constant cause of strife for us as a family, trying to use 'enough' steroids without using too much and knackering her skin, and we never go anywhere without a pump dispenser of a heavy moisturiser.

Sounds like you're properly going through the mill with it at the moment, having witnessed first-hand with AE Jnr how utterly crap this sort of thing can be, I can only hope they get some new meds sorted out for you sharpish.

Thanks all, appreciate the comments. Having a moan is not usually my style, but there's a certain catharsis in writing shit down.

shit

Pfft, lies.

Don't you feel better for it, though?

I think there's definitely a catharsis in having a shit. Dunno about this talking about feelings and that.

Sorry to read this, Craster. I can't imagine how scared you've been, and how frustrated you must feel that something that has worked for you for so long is suddenly not there to help. If we can do anything, please say. I can make a mean veggie chilli. Mean. But nice.

Christmas alone is horrible, and you'll probably always remember it as horrible, but it will make all the following ones feel all the more amazing xxx

I get a bit itchy sometimes too, but I don't moan about it.

That'll teach you to shag my mum. Wait, that's not right.

Unless you come to mine. On boxing day I drive you to ilkley moor, kick you out of the car and make you walk back.

Chin up, Craster. The docs will figure out a treatment that will work.

Please tell me you don't smoke.

It's probably your pubes attempting to erupt.