
Marmora Man
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Everything posted by Marmora Man
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Daizie - Steveo was just being realistic. We had major problems with my father-in-law over hydration. My wife is a nurse and fully understood the need but unless we force fed him liquid he would just not drink. Even when it was patently obvious that he needed to - dry chapped lips, urinary infections, dark urine, difficulty in swallowing and so on. He would acknowledge the need but short term memory loss and mild dementia simply meant he forgot. Even the best 24/7 care will experience problems with this particular aspect. That said - it is a problem that shouldn't escalate to the point where hospital care is required.
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Santerme, Nor can I - however, tghere is a useful debate to be held on current and future options for our Armed Forces, and the extent to which they should be funded and to what purpose. I shall ponder and add something to this thread for a grown up discussion.
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While I agree with the "care at home" concept there comes a time when it is impractical. We did this for nearly four years, with support of care workers and other support services but eventually my father in law needed 24/7 care and no amount of local effort could create a seamless service necessary. My father in law spent the last 14 months of his life in a BUPA nursing home in Blackheath - Westcombe Park Nursing Home. The staff were very caring and supportive. It wasn't cheap, but seemed good value for money, We funded it through a combination of social service payment, father-in-law's pension and family contributions - it ran out at about ?2,400 a calendar month. He had an ensuite room, full nursing care, good - if somewhat institutional - food, regular entertainments, parties and outings - to which the family were always invited. As an always solitary man he often preferred to take his meals in his room and not join in the events - but this was OK, no forced jollity I'm glad to say. Vacancies occur approximately once a month as residents pass away - literally dead mens shoes.
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Most cuts to services, whether they be front line or back office, will be blamed on Government. This is to an extent true but misses the point that Gov't has given (passed) the decision making authority to local authorities. The cynic in me can see a perverted logic in a Labour run authority protecting its payroll staff at the expense of actual services. Tamanay Hall anyone?
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Apologies - suspicion of all government is a proper state of mind. Partisanship is not and I obviously read too much into your remarks. MM Narnia Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > > I was implying no such thing MM. The last lot sold > the gold reserves. If I was implying anything it > is just that whoever is in government will raise > funds whatever way they can and people need to > keep an eye on how exactly they go about it.
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The Sonos systems is well worth looking at too - we're very happy with ours. Good quality sound, internet radio and music (Spotify etc), plus it links to iTunes library to play everything there also.
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Nashoi, Altho' parts of the estate make a profit, other parts don't so there's a net cost to gov't. By selling off part of the estate they expect (hope?) to reduce or eliminate that net cost and raise a decent capital sum toward reducing the current gov't deficit.
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A sense of proportion might be in order here. Reading the actual government paper might also help - rather than the somewhat slanted media and alarmist pressure group articles. See Parliamentary Briefing Paper 69% of all Britain's forests are in private ownership. The government (public) own 18% or 285,000 hectares. The paper currently suggests selling off 40,000 hectares - or 14% of publicly owned forests, so hardly a major shift. There will still be 245,000 hectares in public ownership and operation. Additionally, much of the "sale" will not include the freehold - merely long leasehold, so the fundamental ownership remains public. If all 40,000 hectares are sold to private owners, and there is a big drive to encourage charities and social enterprises to buy, this would increase the proportion of Britain's forests held in private hands from 69% to 71.6%. This cannot be described as a privatisation of a national asset - merely a slight shift in ownership profile. It is likely that much of any sell off will be those forests with the most commercial value, which implies forests of pines and other fast growing species for wood pulp and other commercial purposes. So the good, open and ancient forests such as the New Forest and Forest of Dean, should remain public - and if the management of these two forests were passed to a charity / social enterprise it is quite possible we would see greater access and public use and lower costs to government. Add to this that only about half of the publicly owned forest is open to the public (much of it is commercial forests) Much of what is open are horrific Forestry Commission pine forests - which are essentially dead in terms of major biodiversity - I've walked through those on the England / Scotland border fairly often and they can be soul destroying: no bird song, no wildlife and no undergrowth - just dark, dank with ruler straight tracks and no views. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy walking through forests, cycling through forests and would not want a landscape bare of forests. I just don't think this government proposal is going to fundamentally alter the balance of any of these opportunities or the shape of the landscape. PS: For those believing this proposed sale is an example of Tory / Lib Dem Coalition "nastiness" as implied by Narnia (see below) should note that the initial thinking was developed under the previous administration. Edited to add the PS
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MrBen Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > I even own land at the Laphroig distillery (for > what > > it's worth)! > > (tu) > > For anyone with a passing interest - I have now > started to collect and have found one shop in > London selling (a few left!) a very rare bottling > of 36 year old (1970) cask strength from a > distillery that has been closed since the early > 1980's for the princely sum of ?200 - which is > interesting as a quick google reveals (from > multiple sources) that it's market value is be > ?550. I have bought some and yes I intend to drink > it! do tell!
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Louisiana - Talisker was also my first love - I visited the distillery as a young and fresh faced 19 year old midshipman - I had been climbing in the Cuillins with a mixed Navy & Royal Marine group. The weather clamped in and we decided to visit the local distillery. My only regret was that I was ordered to shave off my very first, and somewhat fluffy, beard by the hardened RM captain in charge of the expedition, but the whisky was worth it. Our tastes in whisky are very similar - I have a partial bottle of most of those you've mentioned in the sideboard. David Carnell - I don't see it as snobbery at all. It's all about taking joy in diversity of flavours, aroma and techniques. Sure some people can get right up their own a*** on the subject - me I just enjoy and proselytise to visitors and friends.
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former East Dulwich councillor - how can I help?
Marmora Man replied to James Barber's topic in General ED Issues / Gossip
Peckham Rose: Simple business theory may be behind the rise in garage rents. It seems counter intuitive but although the usual response to falling profits is to slash prices to attract custom it can make more sense to do the reverse. Maths: a. Take 1,000 garage spaces currently rented out at ?50.00 a month. = Max income of ?50,000. If current vacancy rate is 15% then actual income is ?42,500. b. Increase rent by 50% to ?75.00 per month per garage = max income of ?75,000. If current vacancy rate doubles to 30% actual income is ?60,000 - an overall increase in revenue of ?17,500 or 41%. Plus if you are conspiracy minded you have 300 vacant garages which, if consolidated in one area / space could potentially represent a land sale opportunity of several hundred thousands of pounds!! -
Hassle them. Hassle them. Hassle them. A solicitor's letter might also help.
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Mick Mac Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I find anything cask strength is to be avoided as > it is too strong The trick is to take it slowly - savour the aroma first, then a very small sip of undiluted whisky, then add drops of water until you achieve the desired taste. Adding water generally brings out a new swathe of flavour and aroma. The pleasure for me also lies in the fact that thee bottles of say, Highland Park, will all have a basic similarity but still be very individual and separate from each other. It's possible to compare say, a 12 year old "branded" Highland Park at 40% strength with 18 year old and 28 year old cask strength versions and revel in the differences in colour, flavour and aroma. The older they are the lower in strength also - but also higher in price. > > > > Marmora Man Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Off to open my new bottle of Highland Park - > cask > > strength single malt. Whoopee
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many workplaces provide showers and changing rooms - I used to enjoy rolling out of bed, into cycling kit (old shorts, T shirt and sweater - no lycra) and then showering at work at 8.15, clambering into suit & tie, tucking into a breakfast and starting the day with a healthy feeling of virtue.
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Bike is the answer. I used to cycle from Marmora to Tavistock Sq - average was about 35 / 40 minutes each way. You get the added bonus of increased fitness and reduced travel costs - except for occasional stolen bike, factor in a loss about every three years - no matter how good your locks are. Last time the security staff presented me with a great 9 second video of my bik being stolen!
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Off to open my new bottle of Highland Park - cask strength single malt. Whoopee
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I received the following message from friends in Brisbane - an interesting example of a community getting together to help each other out. "I have been so impressed with the clean up after the floods that I thought that I would write and describe it to you all. On the Thursday and Friday after the flood there was an appeal for volunteers to help with clean up on Saturday 16th Jan, the volunteers were to go to a central location where they could park and leave their cars. They then had to go and register and were allocated a house, building or area to clean and then they were taken to that location by bus. People not involved in the work were asked not to drive so that the streets were clear for the buses to get around and ensure that they were not held up in traffic. Volunteers came from miles around, people even came up from Sydney, they actually had more people than they needed. They spent Saturday taking all the mud, damaged carpets, furniture, washing machines etc. out of the houses and piled everything up on the pavement outside. On the Sunday they asked for volunteers with pick up trucks and lorries to go and register and be allocated a stretch of pavement to go and clear and take all the stuff to a land fill site. Again everyone else was asked to keep the streets clear so that the lorries could get around. So in just two days most of the debris was cleared although the poor people still have a lot to do to get their houses back to normal. Everyone here was very proud both of the response to the appeal for help and also of how well it was all organised."
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Malt whisky is fine and I drink a lot of it. Sometimes tho' a Grouse & water, or a Bells just hits the spot. I can be elitist about malt - after all I am a long standing member of the Scottish Malt Whisky Society so have spent too much on cask strength, single cask malts - but I say again sometimes just a Grouse is what I need.
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Last year we held a small "sort of" Burns supper for 12 - haggis only featured as a starter. Essentials are: Some haggis somewhere Addressing the Haggis (we made guests put the various verses in the right order to start with) Someone in a kilt Whisky, more whisky and perhaps just another wee snifter of that single malt you've been hiding away. Scottish dancing is optional - but fun.
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Points: 1. IVF rates - the NHS has already in many areas reduced the number of NHS funded IVF cycles to just one (from three). In the future cash constraints are likely to make publicly funded IVF very rare. 2. Adoption agencies seem to have some form of Platonic ideal of parenthood against which they judge potential adoptees. It is not just their obsession with matching ethnicity - age, housing, once divorced, being a smoker etc can all be grounds for rejection. 3. Most parents and families are a messy combination of love, care, financial problems, lost homework, support, help, kindness, dietary fads & fancies, pushiness, tiredness, enthusiasm, pride, relative cleanliness, good to poor housing, stress, relatives, arguments, acceptance, guilt and I could go on. Greater acceptance of this reality by adoption agencies might allow more adoptions to go ahead. If "natural" parenthood can occur at, say 45 or to a couple that smoke or have a slightly messy home, why forbid potentially loving and kind adoptive parents of the same the opportunity to adopt?
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tin tacks
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I have been told by a nurologist that the human brain can handle up to 7 separate srands of thought at any one time. Problem is that the brain gives them all the same priority. So if you have sevem ideas in your mind as you walk upstairs for your glasses and, on the way, notice a wonky picture, or a mark on the carpet one of the 7 ideas may be replaced by that latest thought - leading to those senior moments of arriving in a room and thinking "what the hell did I come up here for.
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Three years ago I went to a specialist broker who put me in touch with a specialist insurer that was happy to accept a huilding surveyor's report that our house was not at risk of subsidence following underpinning works. Premiums did go down - it's still expensive but better than being "locked" to one insurer. I also read at the weekend that most families underestimate the value of their contents significantly - sometimes by as much as 50%. I ran thru' a checklist on the AA website and found that we had undervalued our contents by about 20%, not too bad but could be a real problem if we lost house and contents to say a fire. Am in discussions about increasing value of contents and impact on premiums. Worth checking I assure you - it was little things we had forgotten to take into account, DVDs - only a couple of 100, but that's almost ?2,000 to replace, books - many many more books - even if 50% are paperback they have a value - 500 books to be replaced comes in at around ?5,000, 25+ pairs of assorted women's shoes - I daren't ask what they cost or what the replacement value is, pictures, ornaments, inherited items of jewellery from Granny, Dad's old watch, . ..... and so on and so on - it was an illuminating exercise.
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Thanks everyone - general consensu seems to be that I should leave it be and I think I agree having had tie to consider. My only caveat is that I'm pretty sure that if it had been me, a middle aged businessman, stopped by the police I would have been treated more courteously and that my son was somewhat "bullied" by police just because they could get away with it given his inexpereince of life in general and police in particular. Consider this thread closed. Thanks again.
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