All clear!

[blackberry444]

Hurrah!

John went for his painful and degrading tests today and came home fuming because they failed to find anything wrong with him and it had cost him £3.60 in hospital car parking fees to find out, as well as a certain amount of discomfort and loss of dignity.

Personally, I am very pleased that there's nothing wrong with him, but I can't get him to see it my way.

Things are going from bad to worse on the writing group front but I'm so fed up with it all and so depressed about it that I CBA to even think about it at the moment let alone write down all the juvenilia I've been reading and hearing.  Suffice it to say that I can't see an outcome anywhere close to what I've been hoping for, so I shall probably have to find something else to do with my Thursday mornings after this week, buggrit.

Comments

[hooloovoo_42]

I agree with you about John. I'm glad it all went well. Shame the same thing can't be said about the writing group. It sounds to me like there are a lot of silly things being said and done, which are not helping the matter at all.

And tell John I sympathise on the car park fees. £2.20 for less than half an hour is a complete rip off. And I have to go back *again* in 3 weeks :-(

[blackberry44.livejournal.com]

£2.20 for less than half an hour?
You're right! That is a rip-off!

I shall tell John in the morning as his £3.60 was for over 2 hours. Obviously things are worse where you are than here. What hospital was it?

[hooloovoo_42]

It's 2.20 for the first 3 hours, regardless of how long you're there. It may be good value for 3 hours, but if you're just there for a check up, it's a pain in the whatsit!

It's Northampton General. I think 3-6 hours is £4.20 and anything over that up to 24 hours is £10.

[oldbloke.livejournal.com]

At Rochdale, there's only very rarely any space in the hossy carpark, so we end up on a street half a mile away. Free, but there's always broken car-window glass lying about. When there _is_ space, it's actually not too expensive. Something like 50p/hr, I think.

[k425.livejournal.com]

Glad John's okay. Sorry to hear all the problems with the writing group.

[cat63.livejournal.com]

Personally, I am very pleased that there's nothing wrong with him, but I can't get him to see it my way.

Yes. I'd much rather find there was nothing wrong, even if it involved not-very-pleasant tests. I'm glad John is OK.

Hospital parking is horribly exorbitant though, I agree.

Best of luck with the writing group.

[blackberry44.livejournal.com]

I'm very relieved, but we were discussing it this morning over a mocha and bacon roll in Morrison's cafe, and he informs me that he had exactly the same procedure done at the General Hospital in Winchester when we lived in Hampshire. I can't for the life of me remember anything about it! What a bad wife I must be!

As for the writing group, it seems beyond saving from my point of view, so I shall just trot along on Thursday and resign from the committee, go to any further classes that G gives and then not attend next term. I've mentally written it off, because I'm so displeased with the way the Chair, who wasn't even at the last meeting, has treated it. She agrees with me that G is probably ill, but says that the rest of the comittee, some of whom have a right to be upset with her, aren't prepared to humour her or try to sort out what can be done to help her or indeed work with her any more.

I only signed up for the group, (which I can barely afford) because G was taking it, so I haven't really any interest in anything else, unless it was extremely cheap and my old friends from the group were prepared to attend as well. We'll see. I've definitely decided not to let it upset me any more.

What is it with middle aged women and committees?

[g8bur.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear that John is OK, and I hope that you can all put your worries behind you.

Those hospital car park charges are a gross rip-off, aren't they? They really ought to give patients and visitors a token of some sort to let them out of the car park free of charge. That'd deter people who weren't visiting the hospital from parking there, and stop the exploitation of genuine hospital users, who can often ill afford the ridiculous cost of parking.

My sympathies, too, about the writing group situation. I've just decided not to renew my membership of the local amateur radio club; at the weekly meetings, there are two cliques^Wgroups, one of which sits at each of the two big tables in the meeting room, and neither of which welcomes any intrusion - and a third group, which dives for the radio room, shuts the door, and monopolises the equipment. Unless there's a lecture or similar event, others are lucky if they get to speak to anyone else, either over the air or face-to-face. The £25 subscription will now go towards something nice to eat and drink.

[blackberry44.livejournal.com]

Yes, the money saved will be welcome to spend on other things. £270 a year is not that much, I realise, but it'll be enough for a few treats, and added to that, there's the Posh Coffee I treat myself to every week, which I've just worked out costs over £100 over the course of the three terms!

Gosh, isn't it easy to waste money?

[g8bur.livejournal.com]

I've never been into a Posh Coffee Shop, but I'd heard they were quite pricy. One of these days, when income returns, I might just try one out.

I'd never look on such pleasures as a waste of money, though. I think it's important, as far as money allows, to have events, outings, treats, or what you will, of that kind, even if more in terms of quantity of goods could be had for the same money. Geoff and I still, for the time being, treat ourselves to a monthly sit-down curry at my favourite Indian restaurant, as we did last Friday, instead of having yet another evening meal at home.

[blackberry44.livejournal.com]

I was semi-joking when I said it was a waste of money. I thoroughly enjoy my weekly Mocha Grande from Starbucks, to take out, and I quite often treat myself to an almond croissant as well. Just this morning John treated me to a bacon roll and a mocha coffee at Morrison's.

I doubt whether I shall be going to Starbucks very often from now on, though, because I won't go into the city centre just for that. I keep meaning to find out how to make a Mocha, but so far I've been too idle to do so.

We also like our curry, and have one about once a month, but we'd all rather have a takeaway delivered, as we prefer to slob out at the kitchen table in comfy clothes rather than sit up straight in a restaurant.

[g8bur.livejournal.com]

Just this morning John treated me to a bacon roll and a mocha coffee at Morrison's.

Perhaps I'll have a look in the local Morrison's cafe and try one of their coffees - it ought to be cheaper than one of the coffee chains, for a start.

Yesterday, I opened my last pack of Emmett's Suffolk black cured bacon, and had two delicious bacon sandwiches on Asda's Oatmeal bread for lunch, with a pint of Assam tea. 'Value' bacon will be the rule when the good stuff is gone.

I keep meaning to find out how to make a Mocha, but so far I've been too idle to do so.

Mother used to mix instant coffee and drinking chocolate in the same mug, and call it mocha, but I don't think that was quite right. I'll crank up Gwgl and see what I can find out; it's about time I fired up the coffee machine again, anyway, instead of just spooning granules into a mug.

We also like our curry, and have one about once a month, but we'd all rather have a takeaway delivered, as we prefer to slob out at the kitchen table in comfy clothes rather than sit up straight in a restaurant.

For a Chinese nosh, we almost always nip out and get a takeaway, as there are three very good ones within two miles of home.

The Mohan Tandoori don't mind comfy clothes at all, and the atmosphere there is very relaxed and friendly indeed; we do however go early, around seven o'clock, as our curry day is the last Friday in every month, and if we're there after about nine o'clock or so, the loud-mouthed drunks start to infest the place and make an obnoxious exhibition of themselves. We get served more quickly, too; we're normally finished by half past eight, without hurrying, and then we go to Asda or Tesco on the way home, to save going out again on Saturday and using more fuel.

[blackberry44.livejournal.com]

Although we are nearly permanently broke I can't bring myself to buy "value" bacon; I would rather have the good stuff but less of it.

What a really good idea, to go for an Indian meal before going shopping! I bet it saves you a lot of money on stuff you don't need but which looks tempting if you haven't already eaten.

[g8bur.livejournal.com]

...I can't bring myself to buy "value" bacon; I would rather have the good stuff but less of it.

I find it varies enormously. I normally buy Asda's smoked back, which seems at the moment to be the best of that grade of bacon. Good dry-cured bacon isn't easy to find in this neck of the woods. I may yet succumb, and order some more of Emmett's bacon by mail order or via their website.

I think you're right about the effect of going shopping after the meal. Done then, it feels more like a chore, to be got out of the way before going home and relaxing for the rest of the evening. I certainly get it done much more quickly at that time, getting just the things I know I need, instead of taking my time strolling around the aisles, as I do when I go daytime shopping during the week.

[incognitas.livejournal.com]

Glad that John's tests turned out to be nothing to worry about...But I'm truly sorry about your writing group..I know it gave you a lot of pleasure and was something you really looked forward to each week..

I just hope that it's a case of one door closing while another one opens..Maybe you can find another writing circle or get your art work going again..

Maybe you and a few like minded souls can have a stab at having a smaller writing group meeting in each others houses?

Or a photography group?That's another good skill that you have..

[blackberry44.livejournal.com]

I'm glad there's nothing wrong with John, too, although he has been sufering with gout again for the last week or so. It seems to be dying down a little now.

I shall certainly try to find another group, or maybe even try to start one with some of the other like-minded women in the group. The Committee are planning to keep the group going without G, taking it in turn to be "teacher", but I'm afraid I'm so disillusioned with the way a couple of them having been speaking and writing about G that I don't care to have anything to do with them any more. There! You've never heard me say anything like that before, have you?

We'll see how it goes. I might just spend the money on going to poetry days with other poets which I haven't been able to afford while doing this group, or the one before it. In any case, now the better weather isn't far off, I shall be spending time at the Lit & Phil again.

I have loved being in groups which G has run because she's a proper poet, which you can't say about many of the people who run similar things. My friend Jeanne says she's the only real poet she's ever met and she's been at it a lot longer than me. G is an inspirational tutor; she has taught me so much and given me confidence in my own poetry, my own "voice". She hardly ever criticises people's work, or not until she has toughened them up so that they can take it, but even then it's usually in the form of encouragement and suggestion rather than outright hard-faced criticism.

Oh well! Everything comes to an end and I'm conscious that she's had a difficult couple of years on a personal level, which may have made her a little fragile and influenced her decision.

I'll survive; something else will come along. It always does!