Group 7-day waking average?

Morning

6.2 today, hoping I go back to the 5s soon. Only work and weigh day today, going to try and do some yoga this evening.

Happy Birthday @Robin - hope you and your other half start to feel better soon and can have a belated birthday celebration.
 
@Robin Happy birthday!

To celebrate the day I scored a 6.0
 
I'm with Dez on the 5.6 step on this bitterly cold Berkshire morning. No frost but there are still some patches of yesterday's light dusting of snow around, though I suspect it's turned to ice now. On the plus side it's nice and sunny and dry, with lots of blue sky.

Newly-plastered dining room ceiling seems to have completely dried but I'll give it a couple more days before painting. Ceilings aren't my favourite paint job and in this case I have to apply a mist coat first, which is always a bit of a messy business. Still, has to be done. At least the Artex has gone.

Tuesday, so swim before lunch, and we have a full house again as my wife has decided to WFH instead of going into the office as usual on a Tuesday. We have a second plasterer coming to give us a quote for doing our hall, stairs and landing and she wants to be here when he comes. Our eldest's girlfriend is still with us so he's WFH again too, which means she is as well.

Happy Birthday @Robin - shame you and your OH aren't well. Hope you're both better soon.

Whatever your plans, have a good day.
 
Finally weakened and went to the doctor about my shoulders and he thinks it is arthritis and has ordered x-rays. I'm not wholly convinced but we will see. If it is there seems not a lot that can be done. He gave me some stronger (than paracetamol) painkillers to try Nefopam which apparently can make your wee pink. I took one last night and it may have made a bit of difference.
Bitterly cold day but no snow.
 
A Len Goodman for me this morning and a washing line graph overnight. I am up to 98% TIR for the last 7 days so looks like I have got things mostly back under control after the festive season, which is a relief!

Many Happy Returns @Robin I assume you are not fit enough to go for a ride on your birthday either. :( Hope you both feel better soon and can have some belated celebrations.
 
Morning all and it was a 9.2 for me although only 7.2 on the finger before breakfast. New sensor starting up, we'll see if that one's any better.

A bit chilly out. Definitely time for the big coat I think.

Have a good day everyone.
 
ColinUK said:
Colin’s Cultural Corner

Hansel and Gretel - Humperdinck
6th January 2024

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden


My first Corner of the new year if you don’t count Saltburn as culture and I don’t. If it wasn’t for the nudity in that film I doubt anyone would pay it scant attention.

So, opera. Hansel and Gretel. In English. By Humperdinck. Honestly I’m still confused if it is the same Engelbert Humperdinck that represented the UK in Eurovision or not. I know he’s old but could he have been as old as necessary to write this? I dunno.

Clearly this production was marketed as being a family friendly opera. Hence the audience consisting of mainly families with children from the ages of maybe 5 or 6 upwards. I’m sure they’re all familiar with the basic story before seeing this and that’s going to have helped.

The orchestra strikes up the overture, the scrim that’s filling a false proscenium arch, crested by an ornate cuckoo clock, is displaying a typical Swiss mountain scene. Green fields, timber houses, mountains in the distance etc.

As the orchestra plays on, woefully lacking either cowbells or mountain horns, the lights come up to reveal the interior of a wooden house. A family of four are eating well and all is good. Lights dim. Cuckoo clock goes on huge fast forward… lights up. Same interior but it’s emptier. There’s no food. The family are hungry.

Lights dim and come up again as the scrim flies up to reveal the interior fully for the first time. Boy and girl (Hansel and Gretel) are singing to each other that they’re hungry and don’t want to do their chores. They play a bit. They dance a bit. They moan a bit.

Gretel (the elder of the two) torments her younger brother about a massive secret she is keeping. He sings that he doesn’t care about it and so she tells it to him.

She has secured a jug of cream!

They have no other food in the house but clearly neither of the kids have watched Junior Bake-off or anything of the sort as Hansel is overjoyed because it means that their mother can make custard. They have no eggs and no sugar. They also don’t have firewood. Unless there’s a version on Deliveroo operating locally that delivers custard he’s going to be disappointed.

Anyway as they’re both dancing around in the mistaken joy of the possibility of custard Gretel realises that they’ve not completed their chores for the day. In an unexpected plot twist that’s the precise moment that the mother returns home.

The children hide but Mother isn’t happy or stupid and sees them both. She berates them and calls them lazy and ungrateful etc. She breaks the jug of cream.

As punishment and in order to have something for dinner she sends the children off in to the forest to forage for strawberries. She tells them to not bother coming home until they’ve filled the bucket she gives them. Off they dutifully trot.

Papa comes home a little drunk after selling out of his handmade brooms. He’s bought lots of delicious foods to restock the cupboards and make sure they all feast tonight. He notices the children aren’t around. Mother tells him initially that she doesn’t know where they are. He then threatens to beat her with a broom. Under threat of violence Mother reveals that she packed the kids off to get strawberries.

Papa is apoplectic because of The Witch. Mother, who apparently grew up in the same area as Papa knows nothing of The Witch or that she lives in the forest and feasts on lost children.

They head off into the forest to find the children.

Meanwhile H&G have picked enough strawberries and can head home. But no they can’t! They’re lost!

They fall asleep and dream of angels and assorted fairy tale characters in a blatant attempt to cross sell merchandise.

They wake, sing a bit about the dream they each had last night and then decide that they’re actually cuckoos and use that as an excuse to scoff all the strawberries they’ve picked.

They stay lost a bit more and fall asleep again only to wake and find A Mysterious Cottage has appeared in the clearing.

Given that this is Hansel and Gretel you’d think that the cottage would be bedecked with sweets and icing and would be clearly made of gingerbread. I’m not quite sure who at the ROH signed off on the concept design for the house but it was really rather dull. Mainly in flat brown colours with only the tiniest hint of anything recognisable as a “sweet” it seemed to be a sugar-free house that wouldn’t have tempted any child more than maybe a trip to the dentist would.

Still, given the fact that there’s a plot, Hansel and Gretel run up to the cottage and lick various parts of it to discover that it’s made of chocolate, vanilla, sugar and other delicious things.

Enter The Witch. Dressed like a panto dame and about as menacing she introduces herself and sings that she is a baker extraordinaire. The kids love that bit. They don’t hear her also sing that she eats little children.

For some reason Hansel, under a spell, is tied to a chair in order to be force fed cake. Gretel is under a spell where she has to obey The Witch. Neither seem to be particularly good spells so I’m doubting that The Witch is really all that evil and might actually just be a slightly insane artisanal baker who’s overjoyed at getting customers.

As soon as The Witch is out of sight, going off to fire up the oven, Hansel and Gretel decide they’re going to kill her and escape. They’re doing this whilst under spells hence my questioning how powerful a witch The Witch is.

To cut a long story short Gretel shoves The Witch into (in this version) a large mixing bowl full of chocolate and she drowns. Hansel and Gretel are free! Hurrah!

They also free all of the other children that The Witch held hostage but didn’t eat even though her whole shtick is that she eats children.

Mother and Papa appear and everyone lives happily ever after.

Critically I’d say that the whole thing was off somehow. There was nothing wrong really with any part (other than the sweet less house) but it just didn’t hang together for me. It was lacking magic.

View attachment 28820View attachment 28821
Click to expand...
This has made my day! Thank you @ColinUK
 
6.3 this morning which I'm very pleased with. We went to a Pickleball Taster Session last night over in Lazonby - bit of a trek but it was definitely worth it. Mum came (age 84) and was by far the best player in the room (from 6-84 but mostly 25-60 year olds) - which clearly made her day! I'm putting a few photos to put @eggyg 's mind at ease that we're not in fact throwing pickled onions/eggs around the room :rofl: . @Robin Happy Birthday and glad you're feeling better and get out for a belated birthday meal once you feel you won't drown out the other diners' conversations. @Eternal422 where are you off to? sounds exciting. I've got my friend coming round at lunchtime who is a podiatrist - she's doing me first and then I'm letting her loose on hubby's feet (he's a fell runner so she will really have her work cut out for her!). I never thought when I moved up here that I'd be letting one of our new neighbours get quite so intimate with us - but she's great and so lovely. She's also a practice nurse so just a really lovely person. Off food shopping after that and a trip to the Post Office to return all the things the children left behind when they came home for Christmas and a couple of things I'd ordered that didn't fit etc. Have a great day everyone xxx
 

Attachments

  • IMG_8033.jpeg
    IMG_8033.jpeg
    56.2 KB · Views: 17
  • IMG_8031.jpeg
    IMG_8031.jpeg
    56 KB · Views: 17
  • IMG_8029.jpeg
    IMG_8029.jpeg
    53.1 KB · Views: 17
rebrascora said:
looks like I have got things mostly back under control after the festive season, which is a relief!
Click to expand...
Me too. Instead of my usual 5s & 6s I was getting lots of 6s & 7s during December but so far this month it's back to 5s & 6s, and even a couple of 4s. Serves me right for being unable to walk past the bowls of Celebrations and Cadbury's Heroes without a 'just the one, then'.
 
zippyjojo said:
6.3 this morning which I'm very pleased with. We went to a Pickleball Taster Session last night over in Lazonby - bit of a trek but it was definitely worth it. Mum came (age 84) and was by far the best player in the room (from 6-84 but mostly 25-60 year olds) - which clearly made her day! I'm putting a few photos to put @eggyg 's mind at ease that we're not in fact throwing pickled onions/eggs around the room :rofl: . @Robin Happy Birthday and glad you're feeling better and get out for a belated birthday meal once you feel you won't drown out the other diners' conversations. @Eternal422 where are you off to? sounds exciting. I've got my friend coming round at lunchtime who is a podiatrist - she's doing me first and then I'm letting her loose on hubby's feet (he's a fell runner so she will really have her work cut out for her!). I never thought when I moved up here that I'd be letting one of our new neighbours get quite so intimate with us - but she's great and so lovely. She's also a practice nurse so just a really lovely person. Off food shopping after that and a trip to the Post Office to return all the things the children left behind when they came home for Christmas and a couple of things I'd ordered that didn't fit etc. Have a great day everyone xxx
Click to expand...
I’m no wiser I’m afraid! I know that no pickles were hurt during this game but that’s it! Is the ball soft or hard, I think I can see the bat is hard so I’m thinking it’s like the game we play on the beach when we go to Greece. Still got the bats and hard ball in the shed if it is, we just call it Greek bat and ball. :rofl:
 
Forgot to mention that the hygienist appointment yesterday went well. She said I’d obviously been a good boy!
 
A very Happy Birthday to @Robin 🙂

Dez
 
zippyjojo said:
@Eternal422 where are you off to?
Click to expand...
To celebrate the start of our retirement we are going to Australia, via San Francisco and back via Singapore. The majority of the time will be in Australia, touring around with a mix of driving and flights. Really starting to look forward to it now!
 
And a very late 5.5 for me on waking to another very chilly but very sunny morning.

Now waiting for a call from a nurse to confirm my appointment and check my medication before
my angiogram on the 16th of January, not looking forward to it at all.

Have a good rest of the day folks....
.
 
eggyg said:
I’m no wiser I’m afraid! I know that no pickles were hurt during this game but that’s it! Is the ball soft or hard, I think I can see the bat is hard so I’m thinking it’s like the game we play on the beach when we go to Greece. Still got the bats and hard ball in the shed if it is, we just call it Greek bat and ball. :rofl:
Click to expand...
Yes, the bats are called paddles and made of graphite and the ball is plastic with holes in which I suppose slows it down in the air or something - it's great fun! Goodness only knows why it's called Pickle Ball ...
 
Eternal422 said:
To celebrate the start of our retirement we are going to Australia, via San Francisco and back via Singapore. The majority of the time will be in Australia, touring around with a mix of driving and flights. Really starting to look forward to it now!
Click to expand...
Sounds great - can't wait to go vicariously with you 🙂
 
MikeyBikey said:
Libre 2 playing games as continuous SIGNAL LOSS but OK if I scan! Really irritating!
Click to expand...
I had that all day yesterday! Finally resorted to turning my phone off then on and it seems to have resolved it.
rebrascora said:
I am up to 98% TIR for the last 7 days
Click to expand...
Fantastic TIR! Well done!

Eternal422 said:
To celebrate the start of our retirement we are going to Australia, via San Francisco
Click to expand...
Wow, i've always wanted to go to San Francisco and drive (well...hubby drive) down the Pacific Coast Highway. I shall be looking forward to lots of photos. I'm very jealous...retirement AND San Francisco.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top