Barely autumn and come down with norovirus for the second time in two years. Day 4 now, have finally moved onto dry toast this morning. Think I picked it up from a petrol station (either the pump handle or the metal PIN keypad. Shouldn't have bought the wine-gums and eaten them with my bare hands.
Afternoon spent with spray bottle of bleach and sponge hitting every surface in the house I might have touched, though from the way other people are behaving I might as well have the plague and ebola combined.
Can recommend it for weight loss - down 2kg in four days, half of which came out in a display which could give the fountains at the Bellagio a run for their money. Only problem is I haven't really got 2kg to lose, dropped below 9.5 stones. Can see all my ribs. :-(
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Lesson 1) Don't lick the pump handle.
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>> Lesson 1) Don't lick the pump handle.
>>
I used to keep a champagne glass in the glovebox for the 4-star but I drink diesel straight from the tap.
Also written off a week of leave from work, too.
Last edited by: Fursty Ferret on Thu 8 Oct 15 at 18:29
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>>I drink diesel straight from the tap.
You're such a slob. Why do you think petrol stations often give away free glasses?
...and 9 1/2 stone? Jeez, did one of your legs fall off? How tall are you?
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>> ...and 9 1/2 stone? Jeez, did one of your legs fall off? How tall are
>> you?
>>
5' 10''. I run a lot. And climb. And ride.
(9.5 stones AFTER losing 2kg...)
Last edited by: Fursty Ferret on Thu 8 Oct 15 at 19:57
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Well you must be hellishly fit because I'm about 3" taller than you and almost 3 1/2 stone heavier. And fit, I thought.
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>> Well you must be hellishly fit because I'm about 3" taller than you and almost
>> 3 1/2 stone heavier. And fit, I thought.
I'm in same ball park as FF - 5' 8" and around 8.75 to 9.00 stones. No that different at 55 to where I was at 19. But muscles letting go means my waist is now 34 rather than 28
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Thu 8 Oct 15 at 20:30
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My waist is 33. Within an inch of 35 years ago. And to be honest I was underfed in those days.
I am the shortest of my 40 odd male cousins.
What is the UK average height these days? Oh, and while I think about it because I was asked, do the UK Police still have minimum heights?
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>> Oh, and while I think about it
>> because I was asked, do the UK Police still have minimum heights?
>>
No
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Can you remember when they were taken away and why?
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>> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_enforcement_in_the_United_Kingdom#Height_of_officers
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>> (Long answer)
>>
The police used to be obsessed with recording heights.
In about 1965 my mother acted as a referee for a friend who was applying for a clerical job in a police station. There was a space on the form for "Height of Referee".
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I'm so disappointed it wasn't heightism.
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Short armed (I said armed :-) ) PC Emily Miller in the article below is the daughter of my Sunday night drinking buddy (and close friend).
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1250213/Meet-Emily-4ft-10ins-policewoman-rifle-big-is.html
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>>
>> What is the UK average height these days? Oh, and while I think about it
>> because I was asked, do the UK Police still have minimum heights?
>>
Another deviation from the subject;
Does anyone else find that service station urinals seem to be getting lower and lower?
I do carefully avoid the special low ones for children, but even so, it's hard to read the adverts and concentrate one's aim.
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Maybe something else is just getting shorter... :-)
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I do carefully avoid the special low ones for children...
So that puddle on the floor is yours - and you do it on purpose?
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>>Also written off a week of leave from work, too.
Can't you get it recharacterised?
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>>www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4264
"When prearranged statutory holiday coincides with sick leave, employees should let their employer know as soon as reasonably practical. Employees are allowed to take their holiday at another time. If they remain sick until the end of that holiday-leave year, they can reschedule their holiday in the following year. If an employee turns holiday leave to sick leave, they should expect to receive sick pay only, because they are unfit to do the job during that period."
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>> >>www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4264
>>
>> "When prearranged statutory holiday coincides with sick leave, employees should let their employer know as
>> soon as reasonably practical. Employees are allowed to take their holiday at another time. If
>> they remain sick until the end of that holiday-leave year, they can reschedule their holiday
>> in the following year. If an employee turns holiday leave to sick leave, they should
>> expect to receive sick pay only, because they are unfit to do the job during
>> that period."
>>
Needs a sick note from the doctor.
The conversation went a little like this...
Me: "Hi, erm, I think I may have norovirus--"
Them: "STAY AWAY. DON'T COME NEAR THE MEDICAL CENTRE."
Me: "Yes, I know that but I need a sick not--"
Them: "Are you actually dying? [paraphrased]"
Me: "Hopefully not today."
Them: "Tough titties [err, paraphrased again]".
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>> The conversation went a little like this...
>>
>> Me: "Hi, erm, I think I may have norovirus--"
>> Them: "STAY AWAY. DON'T COME NEAR THE MEDICAL CENTRE."
>> Me: "Yes, I know that but I need a sick not--"
>> Them: "Are you actually dying? [paraphrased]"
>> Me: "Hopefully not today."
>> Them: "Tough titties [err, paraphrased again]".
>>
It needed to continue, something along these lines:
"Let's cut to the chase, we both need something, you want me to stay away and I want a sick note, how are we going to achieve this"?
If they put it in the post it'd only be a day late.
A refusal from them to co-operate would be an insistence from you for an appointment.
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I would never go on a Cruise - too risky - imagine 300+ passengers & crew looking for their pals Hughie, Bert & Ralph - its quite common for the same cruise ship to have repeated occurences.
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>> I would never go on a Cruise - too risky - imagine 300+ passengers &
>> crew looking for their pals Hughie, Bert & Ralph - its quite common for the
>> same cruise ship to have repeated occurences.
Went on a cruise. They were obsessed with cleanliness, hand gel dispensers used by all passengers on entering the boat, and entering any eating areas. No-one got noro virus
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snipquote!
>> Went on a cruise. They were obsessed with cleanliness, hand gel dispensers used by all
>> passengers on entering the boat, and entering any eating areas. No-one got noro virus
>>
Likewise. The few people who refused to wash their hands were refused entry to the dining rooms.
However, alcohol handwash is not particularly effective against norovirus - which is why it spreads - and you need to nuke it with bleach to be sure. From orbit, preferably.
Last edited by: VxFan on Fri 9 Oct 15 at 23:28
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>> However, alcohol handwash is not particularly effective against norovirus - which is why it spreads
>> - and you need to nuke it with bleach to be sure. From orbit, preferably.
>>
Yes a few places I've been that have been, 'economically less developed' have had very strict handwashing procedures in force. Very successful it was. Alcohol handwashes were very much a case if there's nothing else, use it. Warm water and soap were very much the 'gold standard'.
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>> I run a lot. And climb. And ride.
Maybe you do too much guv'nor, and thereby weaken your immune system ... just a thought.
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I'll at least give you some sympathy, having been stuck in a lavatory for hours with a bout of (suspected) food poisoning from an iffy pork pie.
I was about an hour from home, but refused to risk the drive until I was at least ninety minutes between explosions!
I guess we can all think ourselves lucky you don't fly long haul?
Last edited by: bathtub tom on Thu 8 Oct 15 at 23:28
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>> >> I run a lot. And climb. And ride.
>>
>> Maybe you do too much guv'nor, and thereby weaken your immune system ... just a
>> thought.
>>
>>
An interesting question and something I've given some thought to in the past.
In the long run, I suspect not. However, the only time I've ever been seriously ill (bordering on pneumonia) was about 8 years ago when I jumped on a bike and rode hard for five hours in cold and wet conditions without sufficient food.
Close to hypothermic when I finished and the cold which had been tickling my throat at the start of the day became the worst thing I've ever experienced.
So, yes, exercise can influence a cold but no, I doubt it did in this case re gastroenteritis.
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My son, the cameraman/sound recordist, suffers the combined characteristics of eating habits that he learned from our Labrador with massive international travelling.
Last year, when he arrived in Turkey for a job, feeling peckish, he set about food left after a wedding buffet at the hotel; he was hospitalised for two days. Earlier this year, returning from a jungle-job in Myanmar, he flew Mandalay/Bangkok/Doha/Heathrow. He ate a dodgy dish at Mandalay that incubated through to Doha, and exploded on the final flight to Heathrow. My wife then realised that smuggling a ruby for a wedding anniversary ring was not going to be as easy as she thought.
He's currently filming a lady flying a biplane to Sydney via 23 countries, so the possibilities for food poisoning are endless.
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Some people are unfortunately more susceptible to bouts of those sorts of things.
I get problems just going to France. So a trip to India is never going to happen.
You live with it....and take heed of the warnings, you ignore the first rumble at your peril.
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>>I get problems just going to France.
You should try eating in the Amazon or in parts of Africa!!
Its water that gets most people wherever they go. Not that it is necessarily bad, although it can be, it can just be different to what your used to.
And that's not just drinking water, its water used......
- for brushing your teeth
- for ice
- to wash fruit, vegetables and salad
- to wash plates, cups, cutlery etc.
- in drinks or food
- in the shower
etc.
Very difficult to avoid it all together, even if you're self-catering.
India, however, is particularly deadly. Don't think that popular and swish looking places are necessarily safer, eat in places where wealthy Indians go and where you can see into the kitchens.
Street places can be surprisingly safe provided that the food is cooked damned hot.
Or go to places catering for businessmen from Northern or Western Europe. They will have been told by their offices/assistants where to go.
Its tourists that get hit by these issues whichever country you are in, not locals and usually not travelling business people.
The lesson? Don't eat anywhere that tourists eat.
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">>I get problems just going to France.
You should try eating in the Amazon "
I did reasonably well, to my surprise, in the Amazon, though some years ago, on a 'twinning' trip to France with my wife and a load of her pupils, I suffered a terrible bout of the trots. As if things weren't bad enough, there was a misunderstanding between us and our hosts, and Michel had given me a powerful cure for constipation. I then endured the most uncomfortable and embarrassing 48hrs of my life.
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In my travelling days I always ate whatever the locals ate. It wasn't always very nice (although it was sometimes) but kept me going. Only poisoned once, by some beans in Nigeria.
I agree about water being a big risk. Drank some beautiful cool well water in the Sahara once, sharing it with locals from a soft, scratched blue-plastic bowl. Not trots but galloping runs, which made my flights back to London extremely disturbed and uncomfortable. No doubt the locals were all immune to whatever it was, but I wasn't. Yuck. It was ghastly.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Fri 9 Oct 15 at 14:51
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>> Yuck. It was ghastly.
... And involved a four-hour wait for connecting flight at Orly or that other place. Sheer misery.
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I just have to accept that there are some places I'm not going to.
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We only go to places of robust hygiene and stay in good hotels and eat in them too. We were in France thirty years ago and there was a street market, flies all over the meats and cheeses. Disgusting.
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>> My wife then realised that smuggling a ruby for a wedding anniversary ring was not
>> going to be as easy as she thought.
???
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>> We only go to places of robust hygiene and stay in good hotels and eat
>> in them too.
As do we, if they are deemed a bit iffy they'll be checked out to see if they are okay.
As for dicky stomachs, I find it hit and miss. I remember going to germany and austria and getting quite dodgy. Yet various third world countries I'm fine with all the food and drink.
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About 30 years ago a University Specialist in Tropical Medicine was asked on live television where he would potentially go for a holiday.
He was quite succinct -
Western Europe and preferably further North.
USA & Canada
Australia & New Zealand.
He knew the perils of much of the rest of the world.
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Tsk. What wimps people are these days.
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I seem to remember he was run over by a bus in Bognor Regis.
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Fri 9 Oct 15 at 19:59
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>>I seem to remember he was run over by a bus in Bognor Regis.
Made me smile.
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>> About 30 years ago a University Specialist in Tropical Medicine was asked on live television
>> where he would potentially go for a holiday.
>>
>> Western Europe and preferably further North.
>> USA & Canada
>> Australia & New Zealand.
>>
>> He knew the perils of much of the rest of the world.
If he had been asked "Where would you go on holiday assuming that you intended to pay no special attention to what or where you ate and have no care as to local conditions?"
Then he gave the right answer.
If He had been asked "Where would you goon holiday assuming that you were going to pay attention and take care as to what and where you ate, and bear in mind risks peculiar to that region?
Then he could have answered "Anywhere in the world".
The "perils of much of the rest of the road" mostly only require you to pay attention and take care.
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>> Some people are unfortunately more susceptible to bouts of those sorts of things.
>>
>> I get problems just going to France.
Eaten everything all over the world. Never had any gastric problems anywhere
I get bitten or stung by any and all of the local flora and fauna tho
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>> I get bitten or stung by any and all of the local flora and fauna
>> tho
>>
Don't try thà t in Australia, you would be a snack for a shark, or a poison tester for a jellyfish, spider, or snake. :-)
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>> Don't try thà t in Australia, you would be a snack for a shark, or a
>> poison tester for a jellyfish, spider, or snake. :-)
Been there, done that, got a scar on my hand from a redback
Last edited by: VxFan on Fri 9 Oct 15 at 23:29
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Delete DUP post
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 9 Oct 15 at 21:03
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>> Barely autumn and come down with norovirus for the second time in two years. Day
>> 4 now, have finally moved onto dry toast this morning.
>> Afternoon spent with spray bottle of bleach and sponge hitting every surface in the house
>> I might have touched, though from the way other people are behaving I might as
>> well have the plague and ebola combined.
Think you went back to work too soon
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34489774
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Norovirus - No FM2R
