A Tax rose is but a rose by any other name

[SheWolf]

Message deleted. I can take a hint.

[Sajehar]

Whooh. Ohh, OH!

Bit hyperbolic, but my bro’s blood tests from his NICE trial he’s on are brill. He had 1 million of this virus per whatever parts of blood when he started it. It’s now down to 200. How amazing is that?

It won’t help his lungs, which have been massively scarred by previous Interferon treatment – nothing will help that bar a lung transplant – but it will help with his immune system. So, maybe he won’t be so prone to pneumonia in future?
And he’s now up to just over nine stone. He’s still skinny, but no longer Belsan skinny. At one point his thighs were no thicker than my forearms, and I’m small. It broke my heart.

The weird thing with trying to help people gain weight is that it’s exponential. It takes what seems like ages to get them to eat, and nothing happens. But, stick at it, and it begins to happen….. and then takes off.

I whinged to my pharmacist about how my bro hated Ensure Plus. As did my mother, but my dad loved them when on them. I think Ensure Plus are a bit like Marmite, Guinness and garlic…. You either hate them, or love them.

Anyway, this pharmacist slipped me a box of something called Amyes. It’s a powder you mix with full fat milk, and my bro loved it.

I just wish I’d known about this Amyes stuff when my mum was on them…. I’m sure she would have liked them. I did.

I don’t think I’m being arrogant when I say that.

But my biggest victory (if it can be called that) was my split green pea soup and ham in a pressure cooker.

I did this for me, not my bro, because I like it so much.

But he gobbled the lot?


Good for him….. I was so pleased:

I was so grateful he gobbled the food…..

[Sajehar]

SheWolf

When I told SM that I didn’t know what SCD meant, and the Carers Forum had to tell me, he looked at me as though I were insane and exclaimed, “Good grief woman, even I knew that, and I don’t even watch the show…. What planet have you been living on?”

SW, I told him that you’d said something similar. Clearly, acronyms are not my strong point! For example, or e.g. in acronym speak.

Me: I just don’t understand why loads of people start their sentences with a bank, when banks have nothing to do with their reply. Am I missing something? You were in finance and stuff. Maybe you can explain the bank connection. Here, have a decko.

Intrigued, he came over to look at my laptop.

SM: (Once he’d stopped laughing.) You’re definitely missing something (more laughter.)

Me: What’s so funny….. and what am I missing?

SM: You little twit; you’ve mistaken being honest with a bank.

Me: EH!

SM: TBH means To Be Honest; TSB means Trustees Savings Bank (more laughter.)

Me: No wonder you called me a twit. Only a twit would mistake banks for being honest.

SM: You have a point there.

Another classic acronym mix up.

Me: What the hell has text messages got to do with this…. It doesn’t make any sense.

SM: Let me see…. I don’t believe this. You’ve mixed up MSM with SMS….

I already knew that SMS meant Short Message Service (I.E. a text message) but only because I’d emailed a previous provider asking what it actually meant. However, I had no idea that MSM meant Main Stream Media…. I’d gotten the letters mixed up. No wonder I was confused.

Me: (In my defence) An easy enough mistake to make.

SM: Well, thank god you weren’t in the army… they live and die by acronyms.

I’ve just realised that I’ve used two acronyms – EG and ID – that I think I know what they mean - Eg is For Example. And I always thought IE meant That is.

But why? So I looked them up on the internet. They are Latin. I’ve been using Latin all these years, without even knowing it.

EG is Exempli Gratis = For example.

ID is Id Est = That is.

But In English ID also means Identification?

Me: I think I’ve just got ID mixed up with IE… Oh, not again????

[SheWolf]

Great to hear your brother is on the mend, Sajehar. That must be a relief for you.

As for modern acronyms, it is confusing trying to keep up with all the latest textspeak terms, but there are websites which list all the common ones. These days many people CBA to type full words, but it can grate when they start using terms like OMG in RL. OTOH maybe I should GWTP and start using them too, because YOLO and TBH life is too short. (ROFL at Sajehar scratching her head in puzzlement at test set for her.)

[Sajehar]

SheWolf

Anachronisms can be so annoying (but I except they can have there place.) What does YOLO mean?
It reminds of being a kid and having the mass said in Latin. But nobody knew what the hell they were saying. In the end we just ignored the priests, knowing they could not stop us, because we'd just pretend to know we didn't know what they knew that we didn't know...Huh!

The fave anachronism from the website about text speak I visited was GWOT

If you tell me what YOLO means, I'll tell you what GWOT means

[susieq]

YOLO = You Only Live Once

(the only GWOT I can find is 'Global War on Terror' and I don't think that's the one you mean ?)

[SheWolf]

SheWolf

Anachronisms can be so annoying (but I except they can have there place.) What does YOLO mean?
It reminds of being a kid and having the mass said in Latin.

Sajehar - you're getting anachronisms confused with acronyms. Might be an idea to get a decent dictionary if you're going to be SM's admin assistant on the campaign trail.

Latin is a bit anachronistic, but has its uses in medicine and botany, being something of a universal language for medics and gardeners.

By the way, GWTP = get with the plan. HTH

[Sajehar]

Susieq

You're right, my GWOT does not mean global war on terror; it means Glorious waste of time. Here's the website I used:

http://www.netlingo.com/acronyms.php

Another good one is WOMBAT. I've often used that expression, as in, "Don't be such a dozy wombat."
Now I know what it means: Waste of money, brains and Time.
But my fave, fave is BHIMBGO = Bloody hell I must be getting old. Exactly how I feel about these texty acronyms (not anachronisms)

SheWolf, thank you for pointing out my mistake
Not the most embarrassing spelling mistake I've made. I once wrote a report, sent out to about 100 people, about another report, and wrote that it was impotent. I meant to say that it was important.
The ironic thing is that my mistake was more accurate, by mistake. I was praised to high heaven afterwards for my 'fearless honesty'. I never did confess that it was a simple spelling mistake, even though that was actually what I thought... I thought I was being diplomatic by calling it important. I really wanted to call it a load of bollocks. Perhaps my subconscious intervened? Nah! It was just a spelling mistake

[david c]

I was going to point out your mistake ,but i am a gentleman .

[Sajehar]

I've been out the game a bit since Tuesday. Put simply I was kind of, sort of, involved in a hit and run. I can't remember much before, about or after the h & r other than my left eye ball is bright dark red, I have a developing shiner that Mike Tyson would've been proud to inflict, and a gash on my forehead that has twelve stiches in it.

According to SM I got nattering to an elderly woman which delayed me from using the zebra crossing. I still don't know who she was from his description, but I must have known her or else why would I be chatting to her?
I crossed on green, an was about halfway across when this red car came haring around the corner, missed my back by inches, I fell forward like a log (with my shopping flying everywhere) and was knocked out.
The car sped off, but I wasn't actually hit... thank god!

I can't remember much about being in A&E apart from trying to stop the doctor from sticking nedles in my head. I made a tremendous fuss, and SM had to practically hold me down on the table, and telling the doc he had really pretty green eyes (he did too.) I also remember wanting to know what those really pretty things were in the ceiling (ventilation fans apparently.)
According to SM, I don't remember this, I then fell fast asleep.

I also remember being scanned in this big round metal thing with plastic clamps on my head.
I also r ember being called in by the doc and him telling me and SM that the scan was clear - no blood pools or whatever they were looking for - but he was only prepared to release me if I could stay with other people for at least 48 hours.
I tried arguing with the doc (you can't keep me here against my will kind of thing... I was desperate to get home and go to sleep, and wasn't sure why I was there in the first place.)

I remember at that point that SM stepped into the room (maybe he was listening outside) and reassuring the doc that, after 22 years in the army, he knew a lot about concussion, and would look after me.

I don't remember anything after that other than waking up, in my PJ's, with a seriously sore head in the middle of a massive storm.
But I liked listening to the wind and driving rain. The wind didn't whistle like normal; it positively roared at times. For some reason, I found that very reassuring, and it helped me relax.

He was a combination of very sweet, and very Sargent majorish. For instance, I insisted that SM played me some music from the internet. I couldn't remember the name of the music, but I could remember the name of the composer : Semetener, or something. He did his best to find it.

SM: It would help if you could remember the name of this music, and maybe spell the composers name right... maybe?.... I think I've found the composer at least.

Me: That's not it.... I want the wind music.

SM: Is that what it's called?

Me: I don't think so... but that's what it reminds me of if that helps.

SM: No, that REALLY, REALLY does not help (after several nope goes).... is this it?

Me: YES, that's it. But it's too quiet..... can you turn the volume up?

SM: NO... It's utube..... take it or leave it.

SM: You're right, the music does sound like the music.

Me: Told you so... even if it is too quiet.

I then offered to help him with a ton of paperwork to be a Councillor.

SM: Later... You just rest now and get over you're head injury.

Me: But I haven't got one I feel...

SM: You have a dozen stitches in your head and a massive black eye.... that's a head injury in anybodies book... NOW REST.

Me: But your election thingy is coming up in May and....

SM: Not till 2018 in my Ward... Oh, and by the way, when the medics were asking you what day, month and year it was, you got them all wrong....

Me: You're kidding me?

SM: No... so rest, recuperate and recover.

Me: That's three R's... is that like the three D's my dad always went on about?

SM: I dread to think what these 3D's where... let's listen to the music.

Me: They were distract, disable then destroy.

SM: Let's here the music then dance.

And we did.

I love dancing, but fell fast asleep afterwards; but also felt much better when I woke up.

SM: How's your head.

Me: Itchy as hell.

SM: Stop scratching your stitches... Itchy is a good sign of healing.

Me: Could've fooled me.... it feels worse... Can I have some paracetamol?

SM: Not till mid-day.

Despite our arguments (he's gone off on one of his daft fad diets again) I like him. He looked after me during my so-called concussion, and I shall look after him during his fad diets... as best I can.

His latest one is the Military Diet. I promised to stick with it for three days (easy enough to do as I wasn't hungry and, by god, you have to be hungry to stick to this diet.)
Yet, ironically, I broke this diet in so many ways, WITHOUT any exercise, and I lost 8 pounds in three days, and he only lost just over 4 pounds.

And this is what I don't understand. He's twice my size, so assuming we lived on the same stuff, he'd need twice as much?

But I ate more than he did - veggies, meat and gravy mainly - he exercised more than I did - but I lost more weight than he did.

How does that make any sense???

It doesn't.

Perhaps he cheated? I don't think so as it's not his style. It's more my style as I cheated like crazy... quite openly, so I don't know if that classes as cheating.

Either way, we're both confused as to why I lost twice as much weight as him, when it should have been the other way round.

Answers on a pin head please?

Here's the too quiet music I loved so much:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiiPb0h3CRs

Too quite, but still moving... love it!