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Post by mossie on Jun 16, 2019 19:11:30 GMT
I had a piece of skin taken off the back of one ear and previously had had bits singed off my face in odd places, but more seriously had a big black area appear on the bottom lip which after some time started to send tentacles down my chin. I always laugh about that little operation because the surgeon had a trainee with him who was demonstrating how to avoid cutting nerves and how to make tiny flaps of skin which had to be sewn back to finish off. The two had an argument about which flap went where which was not very amusing. The lot is done under a local anaesthetic so one is fully aware of what is going on. I had one of the men who worked under me die of cancer of the mouth, caused because he had caught the revolting habit of chewing tobacco from the U.S servicemen who lived locally, my black spot on the lip I suspect came because I smoked cigarettes.
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Post by mossie on Jun 16, 2019 19:12:55 GMT
My skin cancers I think had been caused by too much Muddle East sunshine and the fact that we had never heard of sun cream.
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Post by whatagain on Jun 16, 2019 19:45:53 GMT
I will survive !!!!
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Post by questa on Jun 17, 2019 0:28:51 GMT
Skin cancers are a given in Oz. Those born with Anglo-Saxon-Celtic skin will be having bits frozen off by the time they are 30. Red hair and freckles DNA is the worst. As my former red haired husband used to say, "I'd get burnt in a full moon". I have fair skin and hair and have been checked annually for about 50 years.So far I have had 11 'nasty' bits surgically removed and analysed and dozens of pre-cancerous lesions removed with cryosurgery. My main areas are right side of face, neck, arm and back of hand...all from the sun on them while driving. People in USA get get their damage on their left side. Just a note...some medications increase your chance of skin cancer, including a popular antibiotic which is also used as an anti-malarial. One of my Parkinson's drugs is also "keep out of direct sunlight" rated.
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Post by lagatta on Jun 17, 2019 0:46:06 GMT
I imagine that this is one of the few advantages the Indigenous peoples have there (depending on how much they've been mixed with ginger Celts). It's a menace here, especially for farmers, builders and truckers, but nothing like the Aussie sun.
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Post by whatagain on Jun 17, 2019 9:10:14 GMT
I didn't get the reference to right side of the face then realised aussies must be driving oin left side. I'll get to see my dermato about every 3 months a start. No big deal she works 10 min from home I can go on bike. And she is a friend.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 17, 2019 10:13:30 GMT
How's this for petty? I passed my hand over the front of my t-shirt as I walked down the street, and there was a strange lump. So I put my hand inside and moved it around. No lump. Was it my imagination? Then about two minutes later, something big was crawling over the back of my neck. I slapped it off, and it was some kind of huge tropical bug, bigger than anything that lives in Paris. Well, now it lives inside the Hema shop.
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Post by questa on Jun 18, 2019 5:03:50 GMT
Did it have a CITES licence? Big fine and prison for sneaking your pet bug into the country. Or could it be the forerunner of the Great Invasion from a Galaxy not too far, far away
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 18, 2019 5:19:25 GMT
Perhaps it had burrowed out of my chest.
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Post by questa on Jun 18, 2019 7:57:16 GMT
Do you have a hairy chest? Maybe there is a nest hatching.
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Post by lagatta on Jun 18, 2019 12:57:11 GMT
There are HEMAs in Paris, but are you now in the Low Countries?
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 18, 2019 13:46:34 GMT
No, definitely in Paris, where there is a Hema on just about every street corner these days, at least in the centre of the city. There are no fewer than 5 of them at Les Halles, 3 of them in the shopping mall.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 18, 2019 14:29:38 GMT
I learned about Hema in Paris, where Kerouac showed me one, correctly assessing my love of variety and economy. Kerouac, was the insect possibly a june bug? They're large and bumbling and roundish. Hmmm. Just looked them up. You might remember the swarms of them around lights at night during your Mississippi childhood, but if it was a june buggish creature that landed on you in Paris, it might have been one of these.
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Post by bjd on Jun 18, 2019 14:37:49 GMT
Not just in Mississippi -- I remember June bugs in Toronto when I was a kid. They didn't swarm around lights but would be all over the ground for a week or two in summertime. Then they would disappear.
There is a Hema in Toulouse too but I never went in there. I prefer little shops run by Arabs or Chinese with all kinds of cheap junk in which you occasionally find something useful. There is also a chain in Paris called Troisfoisrien where I found some fur-lined leather gloves for 9€ this February.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 18, 2019 14:49:19 GMT
I agree about those little shops -- the thrill of the hunt! I really scored in Bologna at one of those. I needed a second suitcase and wanted the kind that slipped over the handle of my carryon spinner to set on top. I had seen a Samsonite version in a luggage store on sale for 45€, but too small and more than I wanted to pay. Lo and behold, I got exactly what I wanted in a Chinese shop for 15€. I was waiting for it to fall apart on the trip home, but it seems fine. It even has the perfect pocket for my little laptop.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 18, 2019 15:25:59 GMT
I bought a hand potato masher at Hema for 5 euros. I was amazed that I didn't already own one. This one is pretty massive, because I suppose they think you are mashing potatoes for at least 4 people.
The bug was more the size of a Deep South cockroach, but it was jet black and had bendy segments.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 18, 2019 15:33:27 GMT
It was your spirit animal.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 18, 2019 15:46:17 GMT
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 18, 2019 19:48:27 GMT
I'm pretty sure that my patronus would be a dalek... Today, whilst out walking the dog I fell over AGAIN...there is a low rail around a playing field that we cut through sometimes, I usually release the clip on Django's extendable lead, he jumps over the railing (it's about 2 ft high) and I gracefully step over. HHHHHHwell. Today the clip didn't release properly and as young Django frolicked away he pulled me, I lost my balance and fell over, banging my leg on the post and rail and ending up face first in the grass....thank the good lord harry there was nobody about. Little Django was very concerned so he stood on my back as I lay there in shock Thank goodness for arnica...got a huge bruise on my thigh and a stiff back...I'm so clumsy....
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 18, 2019 20:02:15 GMT
Because you are sleek, balance balls on your nose, and clap your hands when happy? Naturally I hopped right on that site. My patronus is a Siberian Cat. *preen* Not clumsy, Cheery, just tripped up by an unforeseen glitch in the system. Glad it wasn't worse! I guess all the rain has made the ground softer than it might have been.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 18, 2019 20:08:13 GMT
But Bixa...I bounced....
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 18, 2019 22:37:13 GMT
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Post by questa on Jun 19, 2019 0:32:18 GMT
My Doctor says she likes a good layer of fat on her older women...it provides cushioning when they have their inevitable falls. I love her!
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 19, 2019 1:39:07 GMT
Good theory, except we all know that whatever sharp pointy bits we have will get cracked, regardless.
Meanwhile, chez Bixa ~ the gas gave out while I was cooking verde de Oaxaca, a fairly complicated dish. Luckily I have a one burner electric element for this exact crisis, but I'm cooking in clay and am convinced a flame gives a better flavor.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jun 19, 2019 17:20:41 GMT
So Bixa...cooking in clay. Do you use your clay pots the same way as you would a metal pan?
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 19, 2019 17:31:55 GMT
I would have trouble trusting a clay pot on an electric plate, just as I don't trust Pyrex. But I am probably wrong.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 19, 2019 18:05:56 GMT
Cheery, yes -- after all, clay cooking pots must have been the original cooking pots.
I know what you mean, Kerouac, but it was fine. I put a flame spreader on the electric element before putting the pot on it. Also, since I'd already been cooking, the pot was hot, so less likely to be shocked.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 19, 2019 18:06:45 GMT
I collected another (tiny) mouse yesterday in one of my traps. It's normal because I was on the verge of saying "it's been six months since I had a mouse -- has the scourge finally ended?" Every time I think that the mouse problem is finally finished, the mice prove me wrong. At least it is only in the upstairs room, but I really wonder where they come from. I thought that with the new roof, all points of passage would be blocked by the new insulation but apparently not. I still can't imagine how they survive. What are they eating besides the peanut butter in my traps?
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 19, 2019 21:14:00 GMT
I don't know and I feel no sympathy for you. Get it done professionally!
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 24, 2019 6:02:58 GMT
My new toothpaste is so blue that I feel as though it came from a joke shop. It's like brushing my teeth with ink.
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