I've had a funny old day with the boiler men today as they needed to put thermostats on each radiator in the house. They also had to brick up the old vent where the old boiler used to be so they had a cable going from my kitchen past my front room to the outside to power what ever it was they needed to power outside (I don't know why or what) but it meant that I had to have sandwiches in my front room on the same table as where I normally do my work with client files on the desk - and also at present (because I normally have my computer in the room which has to be emptied because the bolier has gone in the airing cupboard in that room) I have my computer equipment on the same table.

My front room is at present just a little bit cramped

And at one point this morning I was dealing with the boiler men, the roof man who had paid a surprise visit and a phone call from a client all at the same time. It's just as well I've got a split personality so that I can deal with them all at the same time. It's also just as well I've got a sense of humour.

Oh, and the boiler men have decided that today isn't their last day - they are going to come Wednesday next week to do a power pump clean of the heating system to get it really clean. So that will be a total of 6 day's work for replacing a boiler!

 I'll be out with my friend in the morning but I will be on hand with tea and sympathy in the afternoon.

Joyron, I may seek refuge in here, if it is more difficult than they expect.

El Loro, I applaud your stoic attitude to your renovations. It will all be worth it in the end.

Middle son says he hopes you are not paying the heating men by the hour, as six days to fit a boiler seems excessive.

El Loro you will deserve a medal by the end of this week   Night all, catch up tomorrow - I'm back in 'our' bedroom tonight

 Goodnight Squiggle, speak to you tomorrow.

Good morning everyone.
My Crohn's is playing up today, so I won't be able to go out with my friend.
It does mean I will be on hand with soothing words and tea and sympathy when my sons are assembling the greenhouse.
Squiggle, how was your first night in your newly decorated room?
Joyron, I hope your posting problems are sorted today. Have you seen Lori's notice at the top of the main page? LiveCloud won't be available for 2-5 hours today, as they are doing maintenance to the site. I think it is from 4pm, our time.

Good morning to you as well Yes we'll be without Gagajoyjoy from about 4pm to betwwen 6pm to 9pm here in the UK for what they call a system upgrade.

Yogi, I should be OK with the boiler cost as I had a quote rather than an estimate and it makes no mention of hours or days. The only extras are an extra radiator and the power pump clean which I reckon will add about £500 to £600 - that will still be £1000 less than what British Gas would have charged. The reason why its taking 6 days is that the new boiler is going upstairs where the airing cupboard was, so new gas pipes have had to be installed. Also the old system had a motorised valve under the floorboards in the small fron bedroon which controlled the flow of the hot water throughout the radiators. This needed to be removed and the pipes in that area re-routed (this was known before the price was given and so is built in). There's other more technical things that were needed which would be meaningless to anyone other than a heating engineer. The important thing is it works

And the roofman arrived at 7.30 this morning and he has already confirmed that the decking below the old flat roof surface is sound (which is what I had expected) so this should be a straight forward job.

I'm glad to hear it, and that it is working well. You'll be all set if we have another freezing cold winter.
Good news from the roof man, too.

Morning everyone, Yogi it was great to be sleeping in our bedroom again and it does look lovely, worth all the work. So sorry to hear your Crohns is playing up, how do you manage to soothe it again?   Glad its all going great El Loro, catch up with you later Joyron, its a beautiful morning here so I hope it will prove a good day for everyone

Hi Squiggle
When the Crohn's is playing up, I try to avoid foods which can aggravate it e.g. dairy products, fruit and vegetables, wholemeal bread etc., and keep taking my medication. If it doesn't settle down after a week or so, I can get steroid treatment to calm it down.
I think I may have set it off by eating Fruit and Fibre and wholemeal bread on the same day.

Yogi, I sympathise with you - Crohns is nasty. Although my mother didn't have that she had IBS where there are similarities. I think you could be right in that it was set off by a combination of Fruit & Fibre and wholemeal bread. Do you keep a diary of your meals each day to see if you can work out particular food combinations which make things worse?

Good afternoon to all my lovely Freddie friends.    It's a lovely sunny day here and due to stay the same for several days I'm told.

Yogi, I am so sorry to hear you are feeling poorly.  I hope the medicine works and that you feel much better before too long.  Hope the greenhouse is going up okay without any major problems.

Squiggle, it's great to hear you had a good night in your newly refurbished bedroom.  I'm sure it was worth every penny getting it done up just how you wanted it.

El Loro, you are coping remarkably well with all the work going on around you.

I'm not sure what the problem is for me and posting.  Perhaps this latest update will help.  It seems to be worse first thing in the morning and in the early evening.  I can get the posting box up and type but it just won't go into the system.

Will try and catch up again later.  Love you all. 

I did keep a food diary in the early years (I've had Crohn's for ten years) so I tend to be aware of the foods which set me off -  I should have known better than to eat Fruit and Fibre and wholemeal bread on the same day.
Some doctors think stress can be a factor, others disagree. I do find it tends to be worse if I am stressed - unfortunately I am a worrier.
At other times, it kicks off with no apparent reason.  Thank you for your concern. 

Yogi, I miss Figtree every day.  I checked out her personal site a while back and 18th April was the last time she visited the site.  I fear we will never know what has happened to her.  I really don't want to think the worst but on the other hand I'm sure she would be here with us if she could.  We can only live in the hope that she will turn up one day and tell us what happened to her, God willing.

I'm pleased to hear the greenhouse is going up okay.  I bet you cannot wait to get started on the planting out. 

Have you ever tried Aloe Vera syrup (from Holland and barrett)? My husband suffers with diverticulitis (i know not the same) but he finds it really settles him down.

I refuse to give up hope that one day she will return and ask us all if "we be ticketty boo".

I have tried the Aloe Vera tablets from H&B Soozy. They did help when the disease wasn't too active but not when it is in full-blown attack mode.

That's interesting soozy, I know I have diverticulosis (found out when I had a colonoscopy) and that can give similar problems to what Yogi is describing.  I have to be very aware of how much fibre I have, too much and I have problems, not enough and there are also problems.  I wonder how it works for your hubby?  Its amazing how these problems with the digestive system can wreak havoc with your life.  Glad to hear all is going well with the greenhouse Yogi, you must have very clever sons.  I miss Figgers too, I hope its not serious illness keeping her away .

It really is, Squiggle. When I was first diagnosed, I hadn't even heard of Crohn's and was just relieved that I didn't have bowel cancer (which was what my GP suspected). So, when the consultant described it as a serious and debilitating disease, I had no idea what he meant. I do now.
There was a news item on BBC Scotland recently, where a consultant was saying there were many more patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease and related illnesses than ever before. He was asking for research funding to be increased.

Aloe Vera juice is a godsend for any kind of digestive problem.

Good evening We're back in Gagajoyjoy land.

Hello El Loro. I'm glad to be back, I was getting withdrawal symptoms.

Evening everyone.  Just popped in to say goodnight.  Will catch up with you all tomorrow, forum permitting!! 

Goodnight Joyron, hope to see you tomorrow.

Hello everyone, im sorry to hear  you have  not felt to well squiggs, hope you ok now.
yogi my friend has crohns, shes 25 and is always in and out of hospital with hers, and on steriods with her really bad bouts, they want her to have a bag but shes refusing too.
me im totally the other way, im lucky if i go once aweek. im not a fruit and veg eater, ( but am trying to eat an apple and banana a day as i have low potasium. i take fibregel everyday but nothings seems to help. im usually in pain for a few days a week.
what a topic to talk about
anyway you lovely people we will all be excited next week ready for our final bb, lets hope its a good one,
take care all of you.

Oooops, rescued us from Page 2. Good morning everyone.

Justa, lovely to see you. 
I understand only too well what your friend is going through. I hope the doctors manage to get things under control for her very soon.
I'm sorry you are having the opposite problem. I know it can cause pain and bloating, and be very uncomfortable.
I am looking forward to BB, although I am a bit sad because it is the last one. I hope the producers have made good choices with the HMs this year.

Good morning everyone, nice to hear from you Han but so sorry to hear about your friend.  It must be difficult for you too, that does sound uncomfortable.  Finding the right balance is really difficult isn't it, and as I said yesterday it can play havoc with just getting on with your life.  Yogi we need to hear about progress on the greenhouse front, I feel we Freddsters will be with you every step of the way planting out your greenhouse, can you imagine "no, not there, it would be better over there".  I bet you're glad we're not with you

Good morning Squiggle.
The work on the greenhouse continued until well into the evening. Apparently, the plans are rubbish and ended up in the bin. There was an incident with the final panel, which has been cracked and will need to be replaced, but otherwise all went well.
Eldest son is coming over this afternoon to finish it off and then the plants can go in.

Good morning to all my lovely Freddie friends.    The sun is shining again and it's a lovely day.  My hairdresser has just left.  Hair has been cut and coloured and looks really good.  Only 3 more appointments before our cruise!!

Yogi, I'm glad to hear the greenhouse has gone up without too many problems.  One cracked pane of glass is quite good going I think.  I agree with Squiggle that you are probably glad we are not about to tell you where to plant everything!!

Squiggle, I hope you slept well in your new bedroom.  It must be nice being back in familiar surroundings, albeit that they look a lot different now.

Hope to catch up with you all later. 

It is lovely thanks Joyron.  Our bed is one of those link together adjustable beds that split into two 3' singles but its nice to have them both back linked together.  Of course I am conscious of the empty other half but I could not have faced that six months ago so I am making progress.

Squiggle, I know it has been a really painful time for you in recent months, but you are doing remarkably well.

Joyron, I've heard of counting the days, counting the nights, even counting "sleeps" - but I've never heard of a countdown involving hairdressing appointments.

The Aloe Vera works a treat for him ....also with regard to the fibre issue - he was told to eat more bran - initially it made him worse until I discovered (on the net) that oat bran is an irritant - wheat bran is better. He eats a bowl of 'Fruitful' for breakfast and that keeps the condition relatively stable. Not sure if there's a difference in the treatment for diverticulitis and diverticulosis but .........maybe it's worth a try.

Thanks for that soozy, diverticulosis is the underlying condition (weakened places in the bowel) diverticulitis is when those places get inflamed (which we all try to avoid).  Might be worth a try with the Aloe Vera then.

Afternoon everyone.   Squiggle, we have linked beds too!!  What you need to do is buy one of those mattress toppers so it covers the join and then you can sleep in the middle and have loads of room.  I agree with Yogi that you have made tremendous steps in the last six months. You are one very brave lady 

Yogi, I know I'm daft but I really enjoy the "countdown" to trips away.  Once your holiday starts it seems to be over with in a flash and the anticipation is great.

Hope to get back later. 

Joyron I smiled when I read your earlier post because I feel exactly the same way!  I love looking forward to anything like that, I hope it will be just the way you want it to be   Tell me more about mattress toppers

You are not daft but your hairdressing countdown did tickle me. 
I know what you mean about the anticipation being great, I'm like that with Christmas.

Hello
Do you notice anything different about me - I've taken up the temporary offer of free VIP membership, purely so that I can wear the blue badge This is my first posting as a very slightly important parrot (but really just the same as before)

* curtseys in the presence of a Very Important Parrot *
You look very smart in your new badge.