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Just finished The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, sequel to The Handmaid's Tale. Very good!

I suspect I live very close to MsMacBeth, and have also struggled with massive gaps/clumps of 52a buses. I waited with an elderly neighbour in Hillsborough recently for a 'lift up the hill'. She had shopping bags and it was cold and rainy. After almost 40 mins wait I persuaded her to let me carry her bags and we trudged slowly home. She was nearly in tears by the time we arrived, very upset at being decrepit and a burden 😔. She loved the old S6 service as it stopped outside her house, and she was able to use it to get out and about almost daily. No buses passed us in almost an hour. This was in the daytime, so shouldnt have been traffic related.

I'd rather my taxpayer £9 be spent giving someone with addiction problems a safe product, than that same £9 paying for a pack of paracetamol for someone who gets free scrips. Paracetamol and ibuprofen can be bought in a supermarket for as little as 16p.

According to the papers this morning, they were all non-swimmers. Dad and older son jumped in to save daughter who was in trouble. If that's the case, why on earth was she swimming on her own. Heartbreaking. Edit. According to the BBC, apparently the mother insists they could swim. It was another of her children who had told the authorities that they could not!

If there's no singing in it, I'm not watching! I don't think I'll ever get past Jeff Wayne's version.

He was a wonderful writer, one of those rare ones who manages to include nods to the classics, poetry or arts references you may not have heard of, but without making the reader feel like a Billy-thicko.

It's a beautiful poem Halibut. His writing really was fantastic.

Thanks both! Dozer, I'll look into that app, thanks.

Can anyone recommend their favourite restaurants which aren't noisy please? I'm going out with a group of friends, three of whom have hearing difficulties (I know, get new friends, eh? 😉) We struggle to find places which are not all wooden floors, hard surfaces or tall rooms which make conversations difficult. I'd love for us to be able to go somewhere where we can have a normal, non-shouty conversation while we eat. Any cuisine, any reasonable price range.

Agreed, Mel. After the hooha about people walking out because of the violence and subject matter, I was surprised it wasn't more frightening. The scary part for me was his unravelling, rather than the violence portrayed.

Well! I don't agree with that. Steam Yard for coffee and a bun though, now there is a winner 😊

Yes, Ambulo was like a creche yesterday. I'm a parent, so I cope reasonably well with kids, but the screaming and unsupervised running about quickly wears your nerves down!

Has Ambulo changed hands or is it just struggling? We went yesterday for lunch and were really disappointed. The food was tasty enough, but the portions were tiny for the price. We only saw one overrun waitress, and it took over 30 mins for our food to arrive, by which time our drinks were finished. It's a big high space, with hard chairs and tables, so nothing to dampen the noise, and although less than half full, it was deafening. The whole experience felt really unsatisfactory. Such a shame, as it was lovely when it first opened (apart from the noise!)

Botanical Gardens maybe? Friday to Sunday.

Not sure if the quoted low price is for very low prescriptions, there seemed to be a sliding scale when I was looking at various clinics. I had a very high prescription and a severe astigmatism, just a quarter point away from the limit for surgery. I can't remember exactly what mine cost, but it was around £4000 I think. I had all the extras to so I paid more for the anti-halo drops, wavefront, stronger painkillers, etc. 😁 I had mine done at the Vision Centre at the Hallamshire (years ago, see above!) because after consultations at Ultralase, vision express and the other nationwide one at the time, I had zero confidence in the others. Spin on 13 or so years, and I've never had any problems. I've got slightly short sighted again, but not even enough to bother with specs.