A place to have a chat.

Got to be a cider for me, preferably Stowford Press.

Can say that I've been to many football games in my life. However, I am running an indoor rowing competition between 126 children from 8 primary schools in the morning!

Pass the ear defenders please! 🤣

"I'll have a pint of Stella and a whisky chaser, please barman!" 

Blimey mate , doesn’t sound like your day 🤦‍♀️.

You probably need more than a Stella and chaser… 🤣

Ask the barman , he’ll know what could help …. 🤪

Good one! 🤣

The competition went well. Other than for one of the schools, that couldn't come because a load of ceilings had collapsed due to flooding leading to the school being closed!😱

For those of you who might know concept 2 ergs, the fastest today was 532m in 2 minutes. Pretty incredible for a year 6 girl! (Or boy or any combination 😂)

I think getting kids involved in sport is great for their development. My 3 sons all played Rugby, and I got involved in coaching and then refereeing, so it was a pastime we were all involved in. We had family season tickets at Northampton Saints for years.

I think the camaraderie and team building that Rugby instilled in them was instrumental in their development into well rounded, responsible and hard working (I may be biased) young men. True to form with Rugby, they would go out and spend 80 minutes trying to hammer the opposition, just to get together with them in the clubhouse afterwards and enjoy the social aspect of the game (this got more interesting as they got older 😂)

Any sport or team based activity for youngsters, is far more beneficial than a computer game or TV in my humble opinion! 

That's nice Adrian. We have a Robin nesting somewhere in the garden, and as of this year a Wren has taken up residence! We had a Woodpecker visiting daily last year, but no sign so far this year. Must have got bored with our peanut supply......

Yes, trying to stay upbeat- fake it till you make it!

Yes the primary schools still do competitive sports- netball, football, tag rugby, all sorts.  There aren't many like me doing indoor rowing in primary schools. It seems to be more of a secondary thing - probably because British Rowing don't approve!  I noticed the National junior indoor rowing championship results from last week were online today. That y6 girl I trained who got 531m in 2 mins would have beaten all the y7 girls in a much larger competition!

Robins have been mentioned - doing Forest school with y1 and Y2 yesterday, with several robins keeping watch, waiting for the kids to dig up some worms. Lovely birds, great song!

In a previous Forest school session we were all sat around our base camp, discussing something, when the local robin decided to get a bit territorial. After flying on and off the overhead branches I've tied up to support a tarp in the rain, it eventually got so peeved that it took a s*** on the head of another member of staff! 🤣🤣

Can't say I really get on with football - sorry! Just seems to be overpaid foreigners playing in the sport nowadays.

Edited by member 06 Mar 2024 at 22:15  | Reason: Spelling

I would imagine teaching is something that could be very rewarding and you may even get to feel like you are making a difference. That kind of fulfillment is hard to come by. I can also imagine it being an absolute nightmare, in which case retire and do something else.

Morning Ian,

As you know mate, I made the same decision as you. Based on a biopsy that indicated I had low grade low volume disease. Financial matters weren't a factor, my reasoning was if it doesn't need fixing don't fix it. AS is what my first MDT recommended and I took their advice.

There is conclusive evidence that advisory bodies like NICE are now of the opinion that many with low grade disease are being over treated. I believe that only about 30% of those on AS go onto have to have radical treatment. The introduction of CPG classifications also makes AS a more viable proposition.

I was in the unlucky 30%, but based on the initial diagnosis given to me, I still think I made the right decision to just be monitored.

I recently read this, which seems to support our decisions https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2022/prostate-cancer-active-surveillance-increasing

It shows that in America active surveillance was 26.5% in 2014 and had risen to 59.6% in 2021.

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you mate. I've got a good feeling that you maybe in the majority group on AS that don't need radical treatment.

Edited by member 07 Mar 2024 at 09:09  | Reason: Additional text

I think England beating Ireland in the rugby is like expecting England to beat India at home in the cricket!! What a fiasco that has been. We can live in hope though!!

I hope your grandson is on the winning side anyway.

We are seeing Tim Vine tonight at Huntington Hall in Worcester. Really looking forward to it as a good laugh is very therapeutic🤣

Regarding the retirement chat: I was 62 when is was diagnosed and was in a bad place for a while and probable not 100% on it at work although everyone was great and they allowed me to leave early for my RT everyday. I have worked as a consultant/agency since 1978 and always thought i’d created enough little ‘secret ways’ that I was indispensable. Ha ha , what a laugh. Our boss came over from Germany and told us all we were safe and then 1 day later my English boss called me in and gave me 10 days notice. I was the oldest and with the cancer he thought i’d be the first to go anyway. Bit of a blow as I wasn’t ready, mentally or financially. We had a big house (too big after the kids left) and a rental property but I couldn’t really sustain the big house without a reasonable income. So we decided to sell up and move to the rental , which was only a 100m away anyway. Been here a couple of years and wished we’d done it earlier. The new house is much newer and smaller and so easy to live in. We bought a new place to rent out for an income as being Ltd company all my working life my pension wasn’t up to much. 

In retrospect I’m happy with how its worked out , although my wife went back to her old job part time as they conveniently asked her back. I don’t know how I did stuff whilst working full time.

With careful planning we can still have nice holidays and days out etc.  We do consider ourselves lucky in that regard. But I still worry about when I’m gone and my wife has to mange on her own without my state pension etc. So its a juggling act really between enjoying life now and making sure I leave enough behind.

So, if you are in any position to retire I would do it. I did love my job and miss the chaps and the coffee ! …. But its like a new stage of life being retired and I do still catch up with some of the guys. And as we all find out there’s only so many days in a life and we need to use them as best we can.

So got some jobs to do now. Shame the suns not out , bit miserable here, but at least its not raining.

Take care guys, ( AV 0 Spurs 4 😜)

Phil

Edited by member 11 Mar 2024 at 18:53  | Reason: Not specified

No matter how much we try to avoid it, we always end up discussing health issues and coming to the conclusion, that we're all clapped out wrecks.😃

So true 🤣🤣… 

One in eight is the number that are diagnosed in this country. A large scale piece of EU research showed that 50% of men in their 50s, 60% of men in their 60s and 70% of men in their 70s had some prostate cancer but most weren't diagnosed - presumably because they died of other causes. The data came from the post mortems of thousands of men of all ages - cause of death might have been a road accident, another cancer, flu .... but there was some cancer in their prostate. 

Hi mate

No, he has oesophageal cancer. Had surgery to remove the bottom of his oesophagus and the top of his stomach, plus 2 rounds of chemo. Hopefully ok now, but has been pretty rough. Mum isn't too bad cheers. She has terminal bowel cancer which is quite advanced, but she is doing ok all things considered. Add my late dad's prostate cancer and now mine into the mix, and its a bit of a family failing!

Still, on the positive side, mum is 86 next week, which we didn't think she'd make, and my brother is currently in remission, so things could be far worse 👍

I'll have a virtual pint of Adnams and a virtual packet of peanus please. 

Hopefully they'll install a viagra machine in the gents. 

Cheers!