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Fresh air (and a change of scenery) goes a long way.
I spent a few days in the highlands and it was properly nice just being in a place I haven’t been in a bit.
If you can, I’d encourage you to get away from your local area for a day or two just to see different stuff. Makes an enormous difference.
Staying house bound is probably the worst thing you could do at the moment.
What sort of hobbies did you have pre covid? Are any of them even remotely feasible at the moment?
I had a spell where I didn't sleep for 5 days about a year ago and I would happily have killed myself.
All good advice, but COVID has sucked the fun out of absolutely everything and I don't know how to get that back.
I've had about 4 hours a night, sometimes less for 15 months now and mostly that's been falling asleep in a chair. It takes its toll.Originally Posted by randomlegend
I feel your pain to an extent Yev. I am in a bit of a funk at the moment that whenever I get a bit of time to myself I end up doing nothing because I don't fancy doing anything, then regret it. Read somewhere it can be a side effect of stress.
The screen time can't be helping with your sleep. I'd try cutting that in half for a start.
randomlegend has killed himself... HERE WE GO! #insomnia #suicide
This is my suicide note. Done deal confirmed. Can no longer bear to live. Overdosed on what I swiped from the hospital.
Magic and Taz would be on here hearse-tracking.
I was only off for five weeks last year but the lack of routine was a fucker at the start, making sure I at least went for a walk or something every day and kept a vaguely sensible sleep schedule made a big difference.
Left to my own devices for a year and more I would probably have been trying to manipulate global betting markets from the hot tub too.
My job's looking at a screen and there's not much else to do outside of work bar look at screens. I guess I could start reading again.
Read before bed instead of looking at your phone. I started doing it and it helps. Square everything away on your phone for bed (I turn my vibrate off), then just read for half an hour and turn in.
Write an episode of Doing Stuff A Bit.
I'm a twit
The first thing to do is exercise your right leg loads (take long walks with a fanny bag and regatta shoes if needs be) and get it limber enough to give yourself a good kick up the hole. Then give yourself a good shake and stop being such a fucking blanket. It’s been a few restrictions for a while, pain in the hole but not world war 3. Straighten yourself up, you’re a grown adult man, not one of these Twitter fannys looking for a reason not to work.
Look at the manlets giving it large.
Alright, that's the real Giggles.
See if his IP says Hatfield.
Problems with sleep and general health? Sauna. Thank me later.
And when I do go to bed at a reasonable time I wake up at 7am. Wide awake. And it's raining. On the 10th of July. Unbelievable.
It's Saturday. Get back to bed.
Surprisingly it says bottom Ireland.
Wide awake. As soon as I have 8 hours I'm done.
Nobody should need more than 8 hours anyway. I’m at my least tired if I get around 7 hours. Over 8 and I’ll have headaches all day.
Yeah, I don't tend to break 8 unless I'm jetlagged.
On a similar theme to what Foe has said - are you going outside, Yev? Since making it routine to get 10 minutes sunlight in the morning my sleep has improved, and it contributed to a routine in the various lockdowns. The morning light is meant to shut down melatonin production, making it work better later (when you want to sleep). I get at least two hours outside every day and feel rough if I don't get out at all. I think it's normal and human, we're not meant to be in a box all day.
Hey Reg.
So a week of sleeping properly, spending time in the garden (mostly looking for rat corpses admittedly) and drinking plenty of water has fixed me a bit. The brain fog has cleared up and I can function again.
AZ2 seems to have been far better than 1 as well, albeit it has made me tired again.
Yeah, Yev, in the pits of last year I found that a change of scenery was incredibly helpful. Did a day trip out into wine country (really the ‘where’ didn’t matter) and it completely changed my mood.
Even just getting in the car for a long drive somewhere - giving yourself a goal and something to look forward to to replace the monotony - could be helpful.
How are you killing the rats Yev?
Standard baits/poison or something more exotic?
In general he just talks about football/covid to them.
Drowning them in his hot tub.
This is a much better answer than mine.
I was hoping he'd come in and post up a pic of him in full Rambo/Sniper mode, but Bam's idea is just as good.
I'm not, a chap I'm paying is.
Problem is, they're coming from next door, which is an HMO (nice people, pretty quiet) with a dreadful landlord. Their garden, which I saw on Tuesday properly for the first time is half full of space for them and half full of his crap and has a shed they can't get into. I saw my first while at the kitchen window a few months ago and thought nothing of it, but on Saturday I had my Mum over and one was about a metre away from my stepdad walking across the garden wall before hiding in a tree for a bit and coming back out again. Said wall is about 2 metres from my kitchen so I thought fuck this and put a letter through next door's box to ask if they'd seen any and that I'd get it sorted. It transpires they first noticed the little cunts last year, told their landlord repeatedly and he did nothing. He's now on my shitlist.
Some of you may remember when the broom and I had them in a flat we shared back in 2008, caused by poor cavity use in modern builds and some idiots downstairs emptying unwanted noodles into a bush outside their kitchen window. I want to say it was Fox who helped establish they were rats, on the back of yet another legendary thread I'd started at the time. Either way, being a farmer's son and that experience has helped me become accustomed to their ways - seeing them in daylight is not good, but that close to people and in daylight? It means you have families of the cunts.
So, I phoned a local firm on Monday, who had a surprisingly good receptionist (I may go back to her for tips on wellbeing as she seemed very chipper for someone 16 months into a pandemic) and they sent Jack out on Tuesday. Jack was ex-retail so we bonded immediately and I could tell he knew he wasn't dealing with a mere civilian when it came to vermin. I explained the situation and liked the cut of his jib, so I accepted his proposal to do some work. Normally this would have seen me back in the house and onto another spreadsheet, but oh no, Jack wanted to walk the grounds with me and explain his tactics.
I let him know that I would show him what I'd seen, which he was very impressed by, but he sadly also pointed out many things I hadn't (hold that thought). This made my initial estimates of 'families of them' probably on the thin side. I may know about rats, but I'm no expert, I'm Yevrah. It's now I type this that I realise I neglected to offer Jack a hot beverage, it was a warm day, but some people believe that myth about a warm drink cooling you down, so I must address this when he comes back.
By this time it's clear that my garden is riddled with the fuckers and we move onto the garage. This is a bad garage that will be knocked down when I can a) get someone to remove the asbestos and b) timber (to replace it with) doesn't cost more than gold per cubic metre. However, I didn't think there were rats in there and Jack was impressed when I suggested that I wasn't sure we needed to treat it as a location of concern for fear it becomes one.
Done at mine we go next door and (let's call her) Amy, who tried to seduce me under the guise of being worried about me two months ago opens the door and let's us into the garden. Utter shitfest and the landlord should be ashamed. Half of it is full of bricks, blocks, scaffolding, tiles and other broken shit that started to make me think Bamster had been round and left a job unfinished. I tried to apologise to Amy and her two confused housemates (they were not expecting me, let alone Jack and his box of poison/contraptions) on behalf of TTH, but she assured me no rogue trader had been in her garden and that it was just her arsehole landlord using the space. Phew! The board's reputation is intact.
Still, Jack is now very worried and I don't know why. But, with him being the expert I calmly ask what the matter is and that's when he tells all four of us. This is a PERFECT over ground arrangement for rats and here is where we will find the source. So he starts digging around, moving shit, finding droppings and other evidence of rat movement and sure enough, by the side of this weirdly locked shed is a hole, a hole that rats have dug into their underground nest. Feeling pleased with them not living on my turf I'm quickly dis-abused of that notion when he asserts "oh, they're likely living under your decking too". With that news in hand I'm now keen to know what the plan is. Turns out I wasn't part of the next phase as I go back indoors and Jack sets to work. I'll admit I was disappointed, but also appreciate I am not qualified to handle traps or deadly poisons, so I leave him to it.
Half an hour later a respectful knock at the window is heard and he's done. There was no doubt in my mind he'd done a thorough job, but he wanted to show me. We go around my garden and there's boxes he's laid out (with poison) where they would likely run, he shows me the holes in the ground under the decking that he'd spotted earlier, which are now filled (with poison) and finally we visit the garage, where he's gone for conventional traps (rather than poison). I thought we'd previously agreed nothing was needed here, but he explains the traps won't encourage them, but will kill them should they wander in of their own accord. I close the garage door, which I shan't be opening until he comes back and we head next door. Same arrangement there except he's also chucked a fuckton of poison down the hole he found.
Will this work? I ask. He's confident it will, but explains rats are neophobic (I felt I'd let myself down by forgetting this, but may have just managed to blag that I hadn't) and it will take a while for them to touch anything, so the next visit should be scheduled for two weeks hence. We talk dates and he leaves, but not before telling me about his next job, which is dealing with a fox terrorising a school. We're now in an area of joint expertise and the energy that's generating is palpable. I ask if it's a cage he'll be using or does he prefer a shotgun (there's a chance he won't have a license, tricky), but true to the consummate professional he is he says (while acknowledging they're both sound choices) he'll have to weigh the situation up when he gets there.
Last edited by Yevrah; 16-07-2021 at 06:49 PM.
Is Amy going to be the new Broom?
Is it a school for chickens?
What a post.
Do you know what's in the shed?
Probably more rats.
I for one, can not wait for the next thrilling instalment in two weeks time.
We ended up with mice in our house a few years back because our old neighbours didn't look after their garden and it became a towering mass of brambles. Eventually someone complained and they cut it all back and disturbed the mice.
Unfortunately we had our back door open at the time and the cunts found their way in. Getting rid of them was a miserable experience.
"I've had to get a man out to draw an X on the front door. I've been told I have the plague but my more immediate concern is how to beat the Cavs in the playoffs."
I used to walk past a bag of rats on the way into work. I'd cut behind some of the restaurants and they were always getting at the rubbish bags/skip. One day a load of them burst out the bag. I erm ... haven't gone that way since.
Last edited by Shindig; 16-07-2021 at 07:47 PM.
IÂ’m surprised I havenÂ’t seen rats yet. Had a shrew in from the corn field next door but thatÂ’s it so far. One thing a lad told me was to give them a food source far away on the perimeter so I do throw grain around the back field when I can. And train the wife to close doors, which is harder.
That thread right there is what lured me into TTH for good.
The bag of crisps that looked like a rat.
Also, that's a top 10 post from Yev.
Good to hear, Yev. You know what they say - a rat corpse a day keeps the doctor away.
What's up with your apostrophes?
No idea, though it made me sign in after posting for some reason.
What.The bag of crisps that looked like a rat.
We had rats round here (I knew it was likely being neighbours to a train station plus I saw an old rat trap box when viewing the place).
A build killed one that sprinted into the garden once by impaling it with a stick, he then decided to leave it where it was to, as he said, scare off any others.
We ended up buying some rat poison boxes and filling them up (which will still do as a precaution) and at one point we called a man who said there weren't any rats around right now as he couldn't smell them. Which was clearly bullshit and I imagine he just didn't want the job as I think most of them had gone by that time.
I only saw one once. I came home one night, opened the gate and it was just staring at me, I then stamped my foot but he went under some black landscape fabric so I lobbed a rock at it and it ran of the property.
I remember cracking some excellent memes in that thread. You should get a dog Yev. Some little hunter bastard to get at them.
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