Salka

I CAN'T HANDLE THIS THREAD AHGHHHHH.

Okay I'll keep you updated on this exciting medical drama. Knowing me all the symptoms will probably now disappear that I've told people about it, so I look like an idiot. I have a fear of being a hypochondriac, oddly, so I usually don't tell people when I'm feeling unwell in case ( a ) it's only in my head and ( b ) they don't believe me and think I'm a hypochondriac. You wouldn't believe how long I can normally tell myself I'm just imagining it for. I once coughed so hard that I tore the muscle from my ribs (apparently a very common injury but holy crap did it hurt). It was only at the point I involuntarily curled up in a ball of agony at a Caribou gig that I realised maybe I should see a doctor, and when I did he told me I had bronchitis too and should have seen him weeks ago. I found this surprising as I had been telling myself quite confidently that I just had a bit of a tickle in my throat... and lungs. Which brings me nicely to this: I felt a lot better today. Breathing has been a lot easier (although I have yet to go to bed where generally the breathing thing becomes a lot more difficult...) and I only had one hive on my face all day. I haven't had any caffeine today either.... HMM ¬¬ But also it's been extremely hot here so I've lost my appetite completely, and therefore didn't really eat anything. I lose my appetite in the heat pretty badly, in fact I barely ate in Berlin while I was there because the heat was too unbearable. I'm Irish, I'm not used to it So maybe I'm allergic to too much food.

Nah just the meat.

I know, that's a discussion I was having with someone today. I feel uncomfortable assuming that something is more okay to eat than something else, just because I identify less well with the way it behaves. Would you rather eat Stephen Hawking or a drunken fool eating discarded chips from a pool of vomit on the street, at 2am on Saturday night?

OMG REAL DOCTOR. I have booked to see a doctor this week and I've been twice already. The symptoms have gotten worse quite quickly so every time I go I seem to have new thing to add. There hasn't been anything new for a while now. Well, a week, I've cut out gluten and caffeine to see how that goes but it's too early to see what kind of a reaction it's having. Are you sure stress doesn't cause lip swelling? Because one doctor told me that it does... which I wasn't sure I believed but they seemed very certain... every doctor has given me conflicting advice :-( There is no history of allergies in my family, or of stress reactions. There is a history of thyroid issues and apparently heart problems, although all of the heart problems seemed to occur to older male relatives who smoked and drank heavily throughout their reasonably sedentary lives, so I'm not so worried about that... I'd never experienced random swelling or numbness before the recent episodes. The swelling of my lip happened very very suddenly and was gone within 20 minutes of taking an antihistamine. It swelled on the right hand side of my face both times, the first time on the bottom and the second time on the top. Another doctor said these symptoms sounded like hayfever, but I'm not sniffly or sneezy or blocked up, and I don't know anybody with hayfever who suffers from the symptoms I have. Guess I'll have to wait to see what happens at the allergy clinic. Booooo. Thanks for taking the time to give advice, dude

I am in Brighton now, but I am Irish Man, decaf tea and coffee is super-manky. Eugh. I'll report back soon. GOOD WORK, TEAM HOUSE!

Awesome replies, thanks everyone! It's made me feel a lot better knowing that it could just be anxiety too. I noticed a couple of beetles and big ants in my house this morning and wondered if they'd come for me, but now I feel more confident that it their presence is just something to do with the heatwave... Subbes I'm Irish, it's Irish ingenuity I thought of one other detail... the symptoms did somewhat get worse (swelling, numbness) around the time I got my two summer jobs... both of which are office based so I'm drinking a helluva lot more coffee than I would have previously. Whether it's a slight intolerance to caffeine or maybe the caffeine is exacerbating stress... HMMM. All these things are plausible and it's much nicer to think about these scenarios than it is to remember that the beetles might be waiting for me. Thank you everyone!

Laxan, nope, I've tried different combinations of soaps/shampoos/detergents. And used all the same ones in Berlin anyway. THE BERLIN THING IS REALLY IRRITATING. Also though I was on holiday in Berlin, so it is conceivable that despite all the other stress (boyfriend in a wheelchair) I was less stressed than if I was working 7 days a week. I've spent a lot of time trying to think of connections and things, but nothing seems to quite add up. So far it could be: Allergies (but no luck yet figured out what they might be) Stress (but doesn't quite add up given the times when it's happened) Asthma maybe? Exacerbated by a slight allergy? A slight allergy exacerbated by stress? But nobody has thrown in any proper scary diseases yet, so that's good Setentia, it sometimes feels like I'm allergic to everything when I can't isolate a single cause. But I read that apparently reactions to food can come hours after ingestion, and some people with celiac disease claim that they can feel the effects of gluten ingestion days after it happens... so I don't know what to think any more.

Yeah you know, that seems to be the most plausible thing. I'm working seven days a week and have been since the beginning of May, and on top of that have two commissioned art projects, and then trying to fit in as much band stuff as possible... I can see that there is maybe some stress, but I don't feel particularly anxious or stressed out. I work weekends in a different job from my main one, which breaks things up a bit and stops them getting monotonous. Besides, I quite enjoy both jobs. One time one of the attacks happened a few minutes after I read some crap news. Other than that they've all occurred when I've been chilled out and relaxing at home, or concentrating at work. I would just expect panic attacks, from my experience, to be a reaction to some sort of immediate stress...

Yeah, in fairness I'd only had the lip swelling, hives, and breathlessness then. She did refer me to an allergy clinic but also actively tried to discourage me by repeatedly saying 'it's probably nothing' and 'they probably won't find out what it is that's causing it.' She also told me that it might be best to wait a few weeks and monitor the situation, as though that isn't exactly what I'd done before I went to the doctor about it ¬¬ Bonus facts: I'm otherwise healthy and active and the only allergy I have (that I know of) is penicillin. I think this extends to some types of other moulds too. Once I ate a blue cheese that made my mouth tingle, and one time I got the bright-red body rash after accidentally eating parmesan which turned out to have slight spots of blue mould on it. I'm not allergic to all mould, because as a self-test I purposely moulded up some food and rubbed/licked it, and nothing happened. Which is why I was particularly annoyed that the doctor recommended continuing to monitor it ¬¬ clearly I had gone to the doctor as a last resort... Right now breathing is super easy, which is nice. Every time I think of something that could be a potential cause, such as gluten intolerance, I then think of something that makes it almost impossible... for instance, in Berlin I mostly ate bread and drank beer, and yet had no ill effects. Frustrating.

Erkki if I was going to eat an animal it would probably be either fish, or chicken. I've had loads of chickens, they don't have a clue. From experience I'd say it's probably easier to raise and slaughter chickens without causing them distress than it is to raise cows/horses/pigs. Pigs know what's going on. Chickens can't tell their arse from their elbow. EDIT: I haven't ever slaughtered animals, I'm only going on having watched them and many other types of animal interact with each other and the world for many years, to draw that conclusion. Based on the coherency of my own posts sometimes I probably wouldn't suffer much emotional distress from being eaten either, so who knows.

I wholeheartedly agree with that.

There was a guy at my uni who would always go on and on and on about how selfish people are for giving in to the desire to have children, but strangely didn't think that he was selfish for giving in to the desire to continue living, which logically seems like it should be similarly obnoxious in his eyes. I don't think there's anything that HAS to be selfish about raising a child or two, something that every living thing on the earth does in one way or another and seems to be the closest thing that we can see to life having any kind of a point at all. There are ways people can go about it to not be dicks about it, but with religious people being told to pump them out as much as possible and women in many places in the world without access to education, contraception or anything resembling equal rights, that's obviously going to be quite a challenge, not to mention that we live in a hugely consumerist, shallow-as-fuck world where people love iPhones because they're SHINY and INSTABUY!!!`111one, and so preventing your one or two children from becoming a consumerist monster is in itself going to quite a task, because everything is affordable and shiny and instabuy these days. Let alone if you have 7 children because you're Catholic, or 10 children because you've got literally nothing better to do in Saudi Arabia, because you're a woman and your job is to have children. But I don't think STOP HAVING KIDS EVERYONE is the necessarily the best answer to these things. I think EVERYONE STOP BEING SUCH A DICK is a good place to start.

Looks like we both did!!!

My recycling thing was a joke too, geez! You thought that was seriously serious? Maybe organic is cheaper when combined with being locally produced, I don't know. It also cuts out the middle man as the farms sell it directly to the shop, which is itself an independent local retailer. Also it's all just loose and on display openly instead of packaged away by machines, which probably cuts out some of the cost (and reflects well on me).

http://www.ucsusa.or...reality-of.html While a little cynicism is healthy, I wouldn't be so sure that horrible things don't end up in your milk/food. Remember BSE? Remember swine flu? Both were a result of horrific farming practices that you would like to think don't actually happen. Also: organic produce is not just about bragging. The farming practices used are far less harmful to the environment as fewer chemicals are used, etc. I buy a lot of organic vegetables from a store that sources local and seasonal produce. I don't buy them to brag or to to prevent cancer or supplement my magic homeopathic spells or whatever else people suppose you do with organic vegetables. I buy them because it's environmentally friendly, cheap and supports local farms. Also, they tend not to come wrapped in several layers of non-recycle-able plastic like most vegetables in supermarkets do in the UK. That annoys me because then I can't recycle all the surplus plastic, which makes me feel less qualified to brag to all my friends about how good I am at recycling which, let's face it, is the only reason anyone ever recycles anything. Erkki, in the UK there are quite strict rules that have to be adhered to in order to call something 'organic'. You can generally assume it means fewer chemicals pumped into the environment and more diverse eco-systems being supported on organic farms. In the UK at least, organic labels on meat also guarantees a certain standard of life for the animal (which as far as I'm aware is far higher than RSPCA-certified meat).

I lived next to a dairy farmer and he fed his cows a constant stream of penicillin to prevent their udders from becoming infected, or something. I'm allergic to it so I was surprised that this seems to be a routine preventative measure. So I don't know how widespread it is but the one farmer I ever knew did it.

Vimes: your point about using technology that's been made in 3rd work sweatshops etc is entirely valid, but just because that is the case with a lot of the stuff we consume, I still think that's not an excuse for people to give up on trying. I do try to make conscientious purchases and when people raise my awareness about things I hadn't previously been aware of, I take that on board and don't just whine about how WELL IT CAN'T BE HELPED BECAUSE I LOVE WEARING NIKE TRAINERS or whatever. I think that's an attitude that more people should take on board. Avoiding the vast majority of factory farmed meat is extremely easy. Brighton is pretty good for people being conscientious about things generally, and there isn't a single one of my friends that I know of who eats meat and doesn't make an effort to get free-range. But still there'll be slip-ups here and there... you don't think when you buy mayonnaise made with battery eggs, or fail to ask in a restaurant if the chicken is free-range. That sort of thing, but that's obviously far less obnoxious than people who knowingly and willingly purchase battery-farmed chicken breasts. I think everyone should make more of an effort to think about where everything comes from, from food to electronics and everything else, and we should all fucking discuss things and pass on information and debate these things and call each other out, because otherwise we'll end up just being a bunch of giant complacent pricks stomping all over other people and living creatures in order to cheaply live the easy lives that we feel entitled to. But still, there is only one viable excuse that I can think of for people who knowingly buy battery-farmed, unethical meat: Dickhead. Having said that someone said that apparently meat is cheaper in the US than vegetables... is this correct??? EDIT: apologies for hastily written post, I'm at work (as always, it seems...)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/22/stewart-lee-olympic-games-twitter Unbelievable.

How old are you, Twig?

Yeah, I'm vegetarian but I (save for the exceptions I'm about to mention) don't mind people eating meat. The things that bug me are: firstly, how greedy some people can be... three meals a day with meat? At least THREE LIVES for each day that you gorge yourself to a bloated, cancerous death which will not just a drain on the NHS and society when it happens, but also a kick in the teeth for the environment in the meantime. Also: how the 'animals aren't even sentient anyway probably!' argument is used in conjunction with people not giving a shit where their meat comes from. If you're going to eat meat, the least you can do is ensure as best you can that the animal has led the best life possible before its demise. There is really absolutely no excuse for not doing this... Oh except that in my world, animals don't HAVE feelings! Probably. Despite all the evidence to the contrary. Which is convenient because I plan to consume them in the most abhorrent way possible. Now that we're on this topic, I bet people who have been trafficked for sex probably love it too. And also I bet I have a million pounds in the bank, because thinking it probably makes it true after all!

This whole 'animals aren't sentient beings' thing is a very dodgy attitude seemingly based on wishful thinking and/or ignorance. Having grown up knowing more animals than I did people until I was about 15, I can assure you that even cows, who you seem to regard as non-sentient beef-machines, are perfectly capable of experiencing a range of feelings and emotions, including fear and pain. It's extremely dangerous thinking to assume that because you don't understand and cannot communicate with something, it isn't as 'good' or 'valuable' as you and therefore doesn't deserve respect. It's an abhorrent and disgustingly selfish and/or misinformed attitude that is too often used as an excuse for gluttony and the tolerance of extreme cruelty. I don't care if you eat meat but justifying it with 'animals aren't sentient and I don't care' is not only a dick move, but also a badly misinformed one. There is now a race between, I think, two different big companies to produce the first viable lab-grown meat, which is an exciting development. I think that it will probably be pretty hard to produce an authentic steak immediately, but I see no reason why lab-grown meat couldn't quickly replace a lot of the cheaper/processed stuff in peoples diets.

http://vimeo.com/27871846 This guy just makes me want to give up ever trying to make music again.

I'm in Berlin for a week. I've already been here three times before because I love it so much. What should I do? Never mind tourist stuff, I want to find awesome bars, clubs, games rooms, cafés etc. I love German beers (especially a good Dunkel although I know that's not really a specialty of Berlin) so anywhere that has an awesome selection would be nice. Art is also good, and I'd really love to catch some live music but have no idea about music venues... I've previously just stumbled across places by luck. Anyone have any recommendations?

Okay I have a load of hot tips, which I'll write up later, but the most important one I shall share with you now. Everyone who goes to Berlin has to go to Cassiopeia. There is a beautiful beer garden, a climbing wall built on the side of an old bunker, an awesome venue where I heard some amazing freeform jazz, lots of little cosy bars and cafés, an outdoor cinema, that awesome big blue paddling pool that you always wanted as a child - you know, the most expensive one in the Argos catalogue. There's a skate park built inside an old warehouse that I believe they used to use to fix trains. There's also more, but I can't even begin to describe the awesomeness of it all and the great atmosphere. So everyone should go and do that right now. From a review on Yelp: