You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
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Watcha Doin'? 2024
Thats great your dad is out of hospital Janice. Hopefully hell settle in quickly.That was such a lovely story about the bolt of your dad's for your oil refiner Rusalka. Made me smile.
Sorry to hear your news Fiona.
@Peggy I have indeed been wearing the light glasses. Missed a couple days when working in Bournemouth. So far, I've noticed that I am waking up before my alarm by about 15 minutes and feeling awake and ready to get out of bed. So less grumpiness as a result. My mood has lifted. Things have been better for me in recent months but i had got grumpy the lead up to shortest day and struggled to get out of bed. So things have definitely shifted. Also noticed I'm getting more REM sleep, well, not every day, laet night i got very little, but generally I am. So I think they are a success. So thank you for the recommendation.
I am a bit stressed this week as this Friday, I have an ADHD assessment which I've been waiting a year for. I will be pleased when it's done.
That's great to hear Sarah! Good luck with the assessment.Almost 24 hours here and still nothing either. I also installed the app and it wasn't working perfectly, plus stats are only limited if you have the free membership. We'll see. I also don't want to track all my books on 2 seperate websites.. I guess I'm stuck with GR for life ;-)
Luckily we are so awesome to make up for the website's problems :D
Great to hear those glasses are helping, Sarah. Still super interested in them.And good luck for the assessment. We've been having wait times similar over here for adult assessments at the moment. A lot of friends have been waiting a long time.
Rusalka wrote: "Great to hear those glasses are helping, Sarah. Still super interested in them.And good luck for the assessment. We've been having wait times similar over here for adult assessments at the moment..."
Thank you! The NHS wait time was actually 6 years! So I went through the 'right to choose' option which uses a private company but it's funded by the NHS and the wait times were stated as 6 months but has taken longer for me. Still, it's better than 6 years which is absolutely ridiculous!
6 years! That's outrageous! Glad it didn't take that long, Sarah.
You'd want to see some of our puplic hospital hospital waiting lists. Most of us have been forced into the private system which means that we pay through the nose for health insurance AND pay again at point of access! We can claim about 70% of that back on our policy but it's still not good enough.I'm Ireland and UK we have staff shortages in puplic hospitals which accounts for long waiting lists. Same with GPs.
Dentists are pretty bad right now too. Mine kept cancelling my appointments. I went the whole of pandemic without a dental qppointment and then when everything opened up properly it continued. When i moved off the boat, i decided to go private as i was guaranteed an appointment, plus not many dental practices were taking new NHS patients. I have a dental plan which helps but it's stupid i have to go private when i pay taxes for the NHS services.
Storygraph update: my GR stuff is imported. I haven't looked into the stats much yet, also not sure how useful they are as I've not always been too exact with selecting the exact edition I'm reading on GR as the app doesn't let you change it. I did find an option to help you select your next book. You can choose moods, genres, page numbers etc and the app will give you a list of books from your to-read pile. So I could say I want to read something dark and something fantasy, and it will give me a list of my books that have been labeled dark and fantasy. I tried with 'dark historical fiction' and 'lighthearted historical fiction' and it gave different lists which seemed accurate on first glance. I really like that feature as I own so many books that I feel lost sometimes for my next read, and usually stick with recent buys or paper books as those are the ones I'm aware of.
Oh, that's a fun option, Peggy.
I'm so sorry to hear that, Christine. I'm sending some hugs to you and your loved ones.
Sorry to hear, Christine. Lots of love to you and your family. Look after yourself.
Thanks everyone and I will Rusalka
I'm so sorry for your loss, Christine.
It has been cold here in the UK this week. But dry. So had some lovely walks. I went to Ham Wall which is a bird reserve near me and there are a lot of starlings which roost there so guaranteed to see murmurations this time of year. We did see them. Millions of them but they didnt come over head and were a little way away so not the best view. I will go again and find a better spot and hopefully get a better view.I had my ADHD assessment on Friday and they diagnosed me with combined type. Explains some of my focus issues historically but aleo how stresses affects it, which it was massively as a result of the pandemic and everything that i went through. I have lots of strategies in place now and hopefully with the diagnosis, i can continue that and go a little easier on myself.
I'm sorry about your uncle Christine.Glad your assessment went well Sarah. I can imagine it's helpful to get a diagnosis and additional insights.
During the Christmas holidays we bought a VR headset. I had been using one for work (helping a colleague out on a research project using vr to enhance quality of life in people with dementia) and I got to learn more about all the possibilities. It's one that you can use without plugging it into a PC, so you just put it on your head and you're ready to go. You can use it for gaming which is what Rob is mostly doing, but I'm not much of a gamer althoughI did find a really cool Alice in Wonderland game.
I like the virtual travelling, but I've also been using it for exercise, doing Les Mills Body Combat. I never had this much fun exercising, I actually enjoy it! And a few days ago I started making an oil painting in VR, which is great fun to do. Apparently according to experts it's basically like making a real painting, except for the cost and the mess ;-)
That's cool Peggy! I have used VR once, at the Klimpt exhibition I went to in Madrid a couple years ago. It was amazing. I'm not sure how I'd fair with computer games etc though, I get the impression I might feel motion sick. I never thought about the exercise aspect of it. That's great that it is making it more fun for you.
I've tried two games now but they allow you to sit in your chair and you can let game characters move with your controller but you don't actually feel like you are moving. I like that as there's no chance of motion sickness. Rob is playing different games and he's never had motion sickness before, but he did have it now. It was funny, he was so surprised that happened to him. You can build a tolerance for it though, so it's much better now.
That sounds so cool, Peggy! I've never tried something like that, but the painting option sounds interesting.Sarah, I'm glad you have a diagnostic. I have two boys with inattentive adhd. Knowing it's there is. a huge difference in how you will face it now.
I know everyone here knows about my obsession with the 1972 Uruguayan plane crash and the miracle of the survivors who spent 72 days in the Andes. I will not get started, I promise. I just wanted to say, I just watched The Society of the Snow on Netflix and really recommend it.
Sorry to hear about your uncle Christine.
I'm glad you know have some strategies in place to help Sarah!
That sounds interesting Peggy!
@Sarah, I'm glad to hear you got your assessment, now you can put some strategies in place to make your life a bit easier. That's very positive.@Peggy - I've played VR volley ball at an exhibition, great fun! The painting sounds fun. I had to abandon both oils and soft pastels due to allergies but I love my acrylics and water colours. I my book te mess is part of te fun ;-)
Damn, just noticed my H is playing up again!
@Christine, my condolences.@sarah, glad you had got your assessment. It is always easier to address situations when you know.
@ Peggy. I have been hoping to get a chance to try one of these for a while.
@Sarah: we've got swarms of starlings just around our corner. In Spring and Summer, when they preprare to go to sleep, they fly in huge swarms and then nest in the trees. They chatter alot in our garden. Its good that you have answers now and tools to use.@Peggy: VR sounds really cool, but like Rob, I think I would get motion sickness too.
A while ago, I think someone was talking of the Mordor Challenge? How does that work, because you've got the Game of Thrones version too. It's something with walking, riding...?
Are you talking about the Conqueror challenges Saar? You can use any physical activity for those challenges and you travel along a virtual map, and in the end you get a real medal.
Yes, that's the one. Nice, I saw some posts about it and remembered that we've talked about it here. Maybe I'll do that to get some excercise.
I'm sorry to hear your uncle has passed, Christine. Big hugs!
I did it for a few years, really enjoyed it! I think Kristie did it too.
Yes, I did quite a few of them. Started when we were in isolation here. I also really enjoyed it.
Thanks everyone!Ph yes, I remember you guys mentioning the conqueror challenge at the time. I was talking about it to my boyfriend at the weekend as he is a big LOTR fan. I think the medals are expensive?! I'm guessing there are free options too
I bought a cat wheel for my cat which I may end up regretting. Lol. Luckily I bought a second hand one. She can't go out and is over-preening and I've tried everything. I think she misses going out. So I bought the cat wheel in the hope it will give her something to do and expending some energy might stop her licking herself. But I have to train her. So far, it isn't going very well lol.
Truth be known, it was the Conqueror Challenges that inspired the 2024 annual challenge. They kept popping up on my Facebook feed.
@Sarah, I think Grace would likely give a cat wheel a wide berth. She'd be wary about it, and walk around it from a distance with her back arched (she's a scaredy cat), then get brave enough to smell it, but then walk away.
Janice wrote: "@Sarah, I think Grace would likely give a cat wheel a wide berth. She'd be wary about it, and walk around it from a distance with her back arched (she's a scaredy cat), then get brave enough to sme..."LOL. My dog was exactly like like that! It took him ages to accept new things in the house and if they moved unexpectedly or made noise, he was out of there! His sister, who was half his size, was the the brave one and would look at him in disgust and give a loud snort at his hasty retreat 😂
Janice wrote: "Truth be known, it was the Conqueror Challenges that inspired the 2024 annual challenge. They kept popping up on my Facebook feed."That's where I saw it too :) Funny that it inspired you for the challenge, Janice.
Sarah wrote: "Thanks everyone!Ph yes, I remember you guys mentioning the conqueror challenge at the time. I was talking about it to my boyfriend at the weekend as he is a big LOTR fan. I think the medals are e..."
You can get her used to the wheel maybe with some clicker training or with little food rewards for every step she takes? If you search Youtube on the name 'Jackson Galaxy', you might find some clips, as he used that in 'My cat from hell'.
Also, if she's obsessively licking herself or do that too much, you can redirected her attention with some toys: like a feather on a stick, a rope, a ball with food...Not too long, maybe 15 min. or so.
It's snowing since this morning. The snow arrived yesterday, but nothing Northern until now. Yesterday there was in the news that schools will be closing because of it. I mean, it's only a couple of centimeters and eveyone is panicking...Just enjoy!
Thanks Saar, I will check out YouTube for some ideas. I was going to use treats. Not heard of clicker training for cats. As for the over preening, she mainly does it at night when I'm not around, she sleeps most of the day lol. She does play with toys. And Janice, Kylo is also a scaredy cat so whenever the wheel moves, she's off lol. Hopefully, we'll make some progress.Hopefully it wont snow much more than that Janice. We've had snow here in the UK but none near me. Well, i saw a few flakes but that doesn't really count. It would be nice to see some before winter is out. It is very cold though. I've not been able to go in my cold water pod, i think it's supposed to warm up and start raining at the weekend so maybe I'll get a chance then.
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You'll love this one...!! A book club & more
Books mentioned in this topic
Room (other topics)In the Woods (other topics)
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (other topics)
Cloud Cuckoo Land (other topics)
The Underground Railroad (other topics)
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May do awesome stats (we will see) but seems unreliable.