Mags1

Marty, sounds good for you to have a weekend of self care…. Could you get rid of the coffee pot, to a charity shop or something. There are so many different types of coffee pots that won’t cause any bad memories of your deceased father perhaps.

Bim, I’ve not heard from the surgeon yet. I know the three hospitals in the trust in our area are chock a block catching up, most urgent first I guess. (Not to mention covid patients.)

Robbie, terrible about the local going’s on around you. I hope the atmosphere calms down.

saoutchik

Three hours I queued outside the petrol station today. I only wanted a Kit Kat.

That is troubling news Robbie. Cigarettes are so expensive now that even fairly small quantities of them tempt some ne'er-do-wells. I'm glad I quit a long time ago. I was daft to ever start.

That sounds like good news on the hand/wrist Mags.

I think the bear should stay Kaily. A guard bear.

The multicoloured intro always makes me think i'm introducing some 1960s pop art to the thread.

My weekend might be starting now, we are having our anti-viral, skyward, malware upgraded but I don't think it is going according to plan. What a shame.

MLD51

You don't sound terribly disappointed in the software upgrade malfunction, Sao...

Robbie64

^
I hope it does too because at the moment there is a lot of anger and at the momeni t's not a nice atmosphere around where I live. I forgot to mention that the people who were arrested fled to the same street where my late father's flat is situated. I went there last week to check on the flat and the police wouldn't let anyone onto the walkway as the police were conducting a search of a property which is just a few doors away from my father's flat. Two of the four people who were arrested are women whih somehow makes it sound worse. One was arrested on suspicion of burglary while the other was arrested on suspicion of manslaugher along with two men.

(reply was to Mags post, Sao you're right, they are over £10 these days for a packet of 20 but only £7 or £8 "from a man in the pub").

MLD51

(can you tell I'm avoiding actually diving into my work today?)

Free2bme888

Hello all, Friday here.

Would love to here others recipes for sobriety please.

Tomorrow making high altitude Challah, maybe some other times. Baking is something I really enjoy. No being Julia Childs though. Wouldn’t make it to the end of the recipe……

Robbie64

More dramatic developments! It turns out the police weren't in the estate in connection with what happened last week. A man was led to an ambulance in handcuffs and taken away. The police went to 4 houses, not sure what that was all about. One house is the house where the guy lives. The police also went to his next door neighbours and two other houses in the same street. Now we've just had the police helicopter hovering overhead. I thought it was going to land on my roof at one stage!

I honestly believe that since lockdown was lifted a few months ago there are some people who seem to have gone a bit crazy.

Mags1

I hope the work day finishes soon for you Saou and Marty.

Robbie, the police don’t mess about in your area it seems! Straight in. When our neighbour's home was broke into whilst they were away (just after they’d left actually) I rang the police but they didn’t catch them.

I can’t believe the Sun’s still shining. Lovely to see in October.

biminiblue

The reason why I didn't go into detail is because I don't understand the question!!


I didn't struggle to quit. I didn't relapse multiple times in a row. I just made a decision one day that it was time. I don't know how to verbalize what happened...I was just tired of being drunk. I woke up one hungover morning and landed on my knees and cried out, "Help me." I never had a drink after that. A few AA meetings, lots of time here - but it wasn't that much of a struggle for me to actually make The Decision.

Now the aftereffects and the healing? That was hard, way harder than I had thought it would be, physically.

Kaily

Oh Robbie, it's all go down your street. Poor guy, trying to make a £ and paid with his life. I am beginning to despair of our country.
When I smoked I had a friend that was an air steward, he got them really cheap for me from all over the world. Goodness knows what I was really smoking.

Ha ha Sao, Have a break, have a Kit Kat, if you can get one!

I don't think changing your coffee pot will make much difference MLD.

Free my recipe consisted of
A lot of desperation
Some steely determination
A huge amount of walking
A lot of pacing
A big portion of SR
A touch of screaming
Same again of crying
Big amounts of chocolate
Same again of cake
A big dollop of cream
Dusted off with early nights

Robbie64

The police certainly don't mess around here. That said, they have closed the local police station to the public and this is in a town with a population of 70,000. It's ridiculous we have to travel 5 miles away to Sunderland if we need to visit the police.

It's been a lovely day today. I think rain is forecast for tomorrow but from Sunday we are going to have a lovely 5 days of warm sunshine. It reminds me of October 1985, the month I moved to London. The whole month was glorious with sunshine almost every day and temperatures in the 20s for most of the month. I remember going to work without a coat on many times during that month. Of course we didn't have any rain that month unlike this October where we have a deluge a few days ago that took out the phone system for a day in part of the town as well as the internet going down (BT of course, take down the phones and the broadband connection goes down too).

Kaily

Just to add, my recipe was for getting sober. I don't eat chocolate anymore. I got addicted.

Robbie64

More fun and games! My local police force, Northumbria Police, have just introduced a dispersal zone with a southern boundary of just 500 metres north of where I live. It is in place from 4pm today until Sunday at 4pm. As well as causing problems with buses, there's gangs of youths throwing bricks at people's windows and apparently attacking people. What on earth is going on? Is this post-lockdown madness?

For those who don't know what a dispersal zone is: https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q839.htm

In addition the local bus company have stopped buses running through the area covered by this dispersal zone for the second time in a week. This includes the main bus station in the area. Apparently some idiots have been throwing bricks at bus windows as well as gangs of youths doing drugs behind one of the pubs. The area has always had a bit of a reputation but over the past week or two it has got seriously out of hand with people being assaulted.

I feel like I'm living in a war zone at the moment! Thank goodness all is quiet in the vicinity of my house.

Caramel

Hope it stays quiet for you, Robbie - it all sounds a bit desperate not far away!

Stay safe.

MLD51

OH my, Robbie! That's not far from you at all. Glad things are calm right where you are at the moment.

biminiblue

So much excitement, Robbie. Our whole country went berserk back during the whole BLM/police thing. I was scared for a while there. I kept saying, "Everyone has done lost their minds; the people, the police, everyone."

Not sure it's all that much better now.


Except I just took a two hour walk in the fall foliage and in one group of trees there was a bird convention of some sort. So much bird talking! I stopped and wondered what was going on and I saw a whole bunch of robins, some wrens, some juncos, a Stellers Blue jay, a Flicker, a Downy Woodpecker, a Kingfisher, and a hummingbird, all in one spot in about two minutes time. It was awesome.

Beautiful day, no police helicopters and all's well.

Be careful out there.

least

i'm so glad i don't drink anymore

Cityboy

Robbie, I hope it settles down peacefully.

Bimini, those Stellers jays are really cool and I always look for them when we go out west.

saoutchik

Good to see you least!

https://youtu.be/v22LdFl4Sa8

biminiblue

I only recently realized that they are voice mimics, sort of like mockingbirds you have down in Florida. I kept hearing a hawk, and found a Stellers. Then one day I heard what I thought was a raven which have very distinctive calls - and that was a Stellers, too. I've been hearing a pair of Great Horned Owls in the dawn hours lately. I'm gonna be mad if it's that danged Stellers again.




We have several mature Oak trees on property and the Stellers love the acorns...along with all kinds of other wildlife. Love this time of year when they all come to visit.
The Stellers are big birds, too.
**Steller's jay is about 30–34 cm (12–13 in) long and weighs about 100–140 g (3.5–4.9 oz).