You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
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Watcha Doin' - 2017.1 edition

Take Burial Rites for sure Rusalka. I thought it was fantastic. No idea about the others though.


Margo, the swim sounds relaxing. I ended up parking on the couch all day yesterday reading instead of sewing. Sometimes, that's the ticket too when you're stressed.


Sounds reasonable to me. :)




It's so difficult to know when to go to the dr and when it's normal aches, pains, and illnesses, especially as you get older. My mom wanted me to go to urgent care for my stomach bug and I was certain they couldn't do anything for me. Fortunately, I'm feeling better today, but she was worried.



Just reading and relaxing today. I go back to work tomorrow, after being off for the last 10 weeks.


My spouse had a heart attack almost 7 years ago now, and recovered very well, knock wood. It was a very scary time.

Just reading and relaxing today. I go back to work tomorrow, after being off for the last 10 weeks."
Did I read that right? Off for the last 10 weeks? That's some vacation.

So sorry to hear that about your Uncle, Travis. I'm terrible with doctors too, and I should know better with my family history. I just don't want to put them out or inconvenience them. I woke myself up from a dream this morning thinking "major heart failure!", as my arm and chest felt weird. I think (okay didn't go to a doctor, so not 100% sure) I slept on my arm in a weird, crunchy position, so my arm and chest were all sore. As soon as I was up and moving, and distracted, it went away and I'm still here. But funny what goes on in your head. But agree. Maybe listen to when your wife says goes to the doctor a little more, and I will do it too :D
Glad you enjoyed the Mexican. I love good Mexican,
Glad you're feeling better, Kristie!

Oh nice, Saar. My partner's Dad was a mental health nurse for years at a hospital, and he has some great stories. Takes amazing people to work in those environments. Hope you get some good sleep. Is that not illegal? Here is Aus you legally have to have 8 hours (from memory, it's an amount of hours) between shifts.

Enjoy! Hope the back to work transition is good. At least you know at least day 1 will be emails.

Here I am thinking, how dare the car hire company give her a lemon! Why aren't they fixing the car? Surely they have a deal with a repairer? 3 hours is ridiculous, they better not be charging for this!
...
I then realised you do not live in Australia. And you probably drove your own car to Norway, and also around Norway, and then back home. And this also blew my mind and I haven't been able to articulate this for several days.
ROFL and then I read this post to Lexx (stating at the beginning you live in the Netherlands and went to Norway), and he was all "Yeah! Jerks! What are they doing? Complain!" He's now a little confused you could drive your own car there... We literally cannot experience this ever in another country, and it is mind boggling from our lived experience.

I remember from when we were in Australia we also had a lot of those experiences that would have never been possible here. Like driving 800 km and only coming across a few curves in the road and other cars. Or passing 50m road trains.

Rusalka - Our employment laws here in the US aren't very good. (And I don't see them getting better any time soon.) At my other position, we could be scheduled up to 19 hours straight awake time. If you had a position with a 4 hour sleep shift, you could be scheduled up to 24 hours straight. Plus, if they were low staffed you could choose to pick up an additional shift and work even longer. I worked many times over 24 hours straight at that job. Also, you may get 8 hours off between shifts, but you need to travel home & back, shower, eat, etc so it doesn't always leave much time for sleep, especially if you also have kids to care for.

Oh you went to the NT? I haven't even dealt with road trains. I'm such a East Coast girl.

Travis it doesn't sound good. There's a fine line between going to the doctor with every ache and pain and not going when you should.

Seems I'm in a minority of 1 on the merrits of Burial Rites as a holiday read lol

That is just ridiculous and dangerous, for both you and the people you are working with (staff and in this case, patients). I'm guessing you don't have good workers compensation laws either, it relies on you suing employers, which costs money not everyone has.
I think Saar said she was in Europe, so hopefully she has a better system for her at the moment. I just went back in the comments, and can't believe I missed you live in Brugge, Saar. I visited Brugge and loved it. Beautiful city.

Lol I don't think anyone said it would be a fun or relaxing read, Margo!


Rusalka, a 3 hour drive is considered very long here. When we do a road trip holiday we always try to limit a driving day to 4 hours and not to drive much the day after.
Oh, and we were in all states (though only a little in WA. We want to come back for that some day)
Those working hours are insane Kristie. And also dangerous for both patients and staff I can imagine.

Travis, Sorry to hear about your uncle and cousin.
Lisa, I'm glad you have answers now and hope you can have some relief through treatments.
Kristie, I'm glad you're feeling better.
Peggy, glad you made it home safely even though you were delayed. I love your positive attitude!
Sarah, does hypnotism really help with phobias? I've heard that, but never known anyone who has done it. I would love to be able to get over my claustrophobia! It seems to be worse now than it was when I was younger.
Rusalka, I've never read any of those books, so I can't help. :( Picking books for travel is always hard. I never know what kind of book I'll be in the mood to read.


I'm glad everyone seems to be doing okay after being sick, having surgeries, having medical tests, being stranded post-vacation, etc.
@Rusalka, your book dilemma is one reason why I love my kindle so much. One little device, practically unlimited reading material.
My mini-vacation with two of my nieces to visit my husband in South Carolina went really well. The girls and I went to the beach one day and lazed in the sand and played in the waves. We also fit in going to a peach orchard, a boat ride to & tour of Fort Sumter (where the American Civil War started), doing an escape room, and eating some yummy foods. My husband's roommate also took the girls out for ice cream one night so we could have a little alone time. lol. All in all, it was a very fun weekend!

I was on an 8 week sabbatical plus 2 weeks of vacation.

My daughters have done the same thing to me, Kristie. I always say yes before they hit me with the details too.

Yes, my first day back was all about deleting all of the email that jumped into my in-box. (1716 unread messages). Most of them are notices for meetings, minutes, item and bom promotions, etc.


The BFG audio is great and Georges Marvelous Medicine

Mosquitoes love people who don't get bite very often. These develop a certain antidote in blood, which they (mosquitoes) don't like

The BFG audio is great and Georges Marvelous Medicine"
Thanks! I'll add those to my list. :)
Funny story. I told him we had to order the movie online because it would be hard to find it in stores because it is an older movie. He looks at me, dead serious, and asks, "Wait...is it in color?" Thanks, kid...lol

Rusalka - Ou..."
Rusalka wrote: "Saar wrote: "I work as a receptionist in a mental hospital."
Oh nice, Saar. My partner's Dad was a mental health nurse for years at a hospital, and he has some great stories. Takes amazing people ..."
@Kristie: I don't get many shifts with short sleep, but it's because of the summer holidays here. We're now short staffed. Also every week we have other days that we need to work, but it's a great job. Is that legal to work 24 hours? We can't do that here and it isn't healthy, I think.
@Rusalka: Bruges is indeed a very beautiful city. It's a really great job. The second best actually. My best job was to work as a librarian for a couple of years.

Peggy, hope you have something to take the itch out of those bites. When we go anywhere with my son, all the bugs go fir him! Most times noone else is bitten. He has developed a bit of a phobia as a result.
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So glad the surgery went well, Margo.
Sorry to hear about your uncle, Travis.
Glad the MRI went okay, Lisa, and you have some answers.
Feel better, Kristie!
All about mental health days, Jmom.
I'm frantic. We leave in 6 days. I have so much to do, both at work and here. We spent the whole weekend doing chores. Two of our chickens appear to be sick. It was -7C last night, and our heater literally blew up on Tuesday. I don't have a full length mirror so spent an hour parading summer wedding outfits with matching jewelry (or not) to Lexx for an hour when it was 1C in our house to work out what goes so I only pack what is needed.
And then there is the book issue.
This is my pile I made a month ago to whittle down. There has been no whittling. None. I need to. It's a paralysing bookworm issue. Any recs? Or should i take things I will dump? Or anything I should scrap as it's not good?