2019-01-03

turps: (bite me)
2019-01-03 09:19 am

(no subject)

My MiL ended up being taken to hospital in an ambulance yesterday. I suspected it was coming, we'd been there earlier in the day to take some black bags of rubbish to the dump for my SiL and my MiL's breathing was terrible. The problem is, she's so incredibly stubborn and said she'd go to the doctor today when she plainly wasn't well at all. My SiL and her partner both said they'd call for an ambulance if she got worse, so that was the best we could leave it at.

We went to the dump, had a phone call to say our new car was at the garage getting adapted, so drove past there so James could take some photos of it and get to know Clem a little, if only from the outside. Which is when Kayleigh phoned to say she'd been signed off from work for a fortnight - which I also knew was coming. Went home and I packed away all the Christmas stuff, got James off to work, hoovered the fake pine needles that were everywhere and cleaned the windows of fake snow. Then settled down for some online time with the house pleasingly clean and tidy. Then my SiL's partner phoned saying they'd called an ambulance for my MiL as she'd deteriorated big time.

Obviously James was at work by then so I sent him a message and settled down to wait for more news. Which is when I read and fed the bandom holidays works, which was an excellent distraction. Long story short, I told James and his work allowed him to come home, he picked me up and we went to the hospital where for the people waiting in triage it was an 8 hour wait, but thankfully not as long for my MiL, though she did end up lying on a trolley in a corridor for three hours waiting for a room. But, at least she was warm, had meds and oxygen.

She's where she needs to be now -- though I remain frustrated that if she'd gone to the doctor when she first started to feel ill this could have been nipped in the bud. I'm also frustrated that she pretty much lives in squalor and won't allow anyone to help with that. My in laws have had no lights in the kitchen for years but won't get it fixed, using a lamp instead. But more seriously, the thermostat on their heating has been broken for nearly two years, so they just don't use it, and in fact where talking about getting the gas cut off as they don't use any gas. My FiL keeps saying it'll be a £100 fix, but they won't arrange the fix or let anyone else pay for it. Instead sitting under blankets in a damp freezing house when they both have health issues. I swear, I could bash my head off the nearest wall at times when I think about their living situation.

We'll be going to the hospital later, but for now I'm going to catch up online, drink many cups of coffee and be grateful for my SiLs partner who ignored my MiL and phoned for an ambulance, otherwise the outcome could have been so much different.
turps: (MagicMike1 -- turlough)
2019-01-03 02:19 pm

Snowflake Challenge Day 3

Day 3

In your own space, share a favorite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favorite interview, a book, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


I looked at the challenge for today and ran through a few different tv shows I love, but in the end decided to go back to what could probably be said to be my very first fannish beginnings, before I knew what fandom and fic was, even.

I was a huge Hardy Boys fan. I collected all of the books and had a big thing for Joe Hardy. Not an attraction thing as such as I was young at the time, but I thought he was amazing. And okay, I admit it, since then, when I arrived in fandom, I have looked up Hardy Boys slash fic, and I have read Hardy Boys slash fic. I have no shame about this in the slightest. I may have also written what would be my first ever fic totally ripping off the Hardy Boys in my first year senior school English lit class. Not that I knew what fic was then, I just knew they wanted a story and something about characters called Frank and Joe being kidnapped would fit the bill beautifully.

But back to when I was a young Terri. My nanna used to take me to Newcastle every Christmas and birthday to buy a new Hardy Boys book, and I also started to collect them second hand myself. Not-so interesting fact. I have all the books, and the follow up case files stores in my spare bedroom, except for one book I could never find because back in those days the internet didn't exist so I couldn't get my hands on a copy.

Going back to the challenge. The Hardy Boys pretty much formed my h/c love. Frank and Joe were always getting knocked out and bashed up and I ate that up with a spoon, and then there was this. passage behind here, cut for length )

You don't want to know how many times I read that scene, so often that the book used to flop open at those pages. In fact, it says everything that I've just been able to look the book up online -- the Shore Road Mystery for those that are interested -- download a copy and then pick out that passage within five minutes.

What can I say. Joe Hardy and a head injury was like catnip to the bb!me.

So yes, I blame the Hardy Boys for sparking my h/c obsession. Stupid brothers and their need to investigate mysteries and always get themselves hurt.