The totally off-topic thread

[anat0l]

Feel sorry for a colleague of a former superior who I am helping out.

She is from the US coming to CH this weekend. Trouble is, the consulate have stuffed around with returning her passport and long story short, they have not sent it back yet, despite chase ups and blame games. It now needs to be priority couriered to have a chance of reaching her before she jets off on the weekend.

Don't know what you can do in these situations except beg the consulate to do its best. Possibly re-arm the travel insurance in the event the flight over must be rescheduled.

 

[QF WP]

Just moving my mum into residential care on Friday. It's quite a performance. Goodness knows how aged people without family cope with it all.

Just had to help a client put her husband into residential care a month ago. Working out the Refundable Accommodation Deposit (RAD) that she could afford to pay, whilst still retaining sufficient capital to generate income to meet the Daily Accomodation Payment (DAP) as well as her own lifestyle needs was a challenge - thank god for one particular fund manager for their Aged Care Calculator and technical staff.

It is indeed. I'm not sure if we are being helicopter parents but while we had some major health issues when we were married in our twenties I reckon that we didn't have our parents involved like "kids" do now.

And at the other end people are living longer. But I simply can't see that it's better. Just longer. And I don't want it for me.

And as for the medical resources it's taking up - can Australia afford it with a reducing tax payer base? It ain't going to get cheaper!

Sometimes they are living longer but with little or no quality of life - I saw my grandmother survive 2.5 years in a near vegetative state. That made me believe in not prolonging life and I have put in place an Advanced Health Directive to ensure that my wishes are known...no lifesaving measures.

 

[Pushka]

Nursing home fees are awful. Mum is on full pension and will be Govt subsidised for the Bond. Pension payments gone in the daily maintenance. Then there's "the bond". Govt will pay a subsidy and from her savings she will be out of pocket each year for around $6000. That reduces as her savings disappear each year. Just as well because she will have run out of money if she lives to be 100.

I know the focus is all about keeping the aged in their home and there's a lot of money and resources being put into that. But the ONE thing that can't provide is company and social interaction except for maybe a couple of hours a week. And I don't know what can be done about that.

Thanks all. It's a phase that I don't like for her and it makes me think about my plans. Blech.

 

[JohnM]

Just had to help a client put her husband into residential care a month ago. Working out the Refundable Accommodation Deposit (RAD) that she could afford to pay, whilst still retaining sufficient capital to generate income to meet the Daily Accomodation Payment (DAP) as well as her own lifestyle needs was a challenge - thank god for one particular fund manager for their Aged Care Calculator and technical staff.


Sometimes they are living longer but with little or no quality of life - I saw my grandmother survive 2.5 years in a near vegetative state. That made me believe in not prolonging life and I have put in place an Advanced Health Directive to ensure that my wishes are known...no lifesaving measures.

I've also done an AHD (thanks, cove, for the suggestion). Just wondering, QF WP, these replies on the general issue of coping with aging might ignite a bit of traffic - worth a separate thread do you think?

 

[cove]

If you are over 50 get a shingles shot (if you have had chicken pox). Another friend is in some difficulty with the doctor saying it was the worst he had seen. It seems to strike when you are run down or experiencing high levels of anxiety. I believe the shot is available now in Australia.

 

[erkpod]

Just moving my mum into residential care on Friday. It's quite a performance. Goodness knows how aged people without family cope with it all.

It's not a fantastic room but it's going to be upgraded in 6 months. But she is very happy. She will have company, activities, someone preparing her meals and someone checking on her 24/7. I knew she was frail after the stroke in July and while recovering from that somewhat I can see she has weakened considerably.

Even 6 months ago she would have baulked at it. But now she's excited.

I hope there's a magic bullet by the time I get there.

Hope it all works out OK for everyone.

I'm hoping not to have to go through this at my end. I haven't flown since my Melbourne trip in August but tonight on Twitter, VA tell me they miss me. I'm 140 SC short of WP requal (May 2015 review date). Not sure when/where I'm flying again.

Anyone helping to look after ill parents in their advancing years have hearts of gold - I know it's not easy & lot of people are in awful situations.

 

[Pushka]

Mum had an advanced health directive. The thing is, that she called the ambulance and they didn't need to resuscitate as she remained conscious. She did have an incident during the night and they knew not to apply the paddles but she recovered anyway.

Her recovery is reasonable (but she's frail) but it could have had more significant disabilities for her and her AHD would still not need to have been acted on.

I'm thinking we need something more directive in place rather than just "not do anything".

 

[Katie]

Sometimes they are living longer but with little or no quality of life - I saw my grandmother survive 2.5 years in a near vegetative state. That made me believe in not prolonging life and I have put in place an Advanced Health Directive to ensure that my wishes are known...no lifesaving measures.

Sounds somewhat similar to my maternal grandfather, who lived for over 9yrs after a debilitating stroke (all in nursing homes with no ability to walk, etc).

When I had to witness and understand my Father's AHD re no lifesaving measures, he kept commenting on his former father-in-law's quality of life in those last 9 years. He seemed tobe completely unaware or forgetful of the fact that no lifesaving measures were taken on my grandfather. The family chose not to starve him, but otherwise were not taking particular measures to prolong or save his life.

Sorry QF WP, a bit of a sore point with me where someone close uses a half-understanding of a situation and it doesn't quite apply.

 

[Pushka]

Yes Katie that's what I was saying too. Until we can be proactive and not simply "no heroic action" then the issue of prolonging a barely existent life remains.

 

[straitman]

A variation on the unpleasant theme.

Yesterday after flying back from HKG overnight I was on the train from Melbourne to Traralgon. At Dandenong a guy got on who seemed quite unsure of what he was doing and seemed to struggle with what was going on around him. He moved along the carriage a couple of times and it was always quite awkward. As he got closer I thought that he looked like a person who I knew through work about 10-15 years ago. He didn't look any older but seemed to really struggle with just being there.

After a while I went and asked if it was who I thought and yes it was. After a few minutes he worked out who I was and over the next hour we had a good though at times difficult chat. I am guessing that he is a couple of years younger than I am but this was a big solo adventure for him as he has medium range dementia. He is very aware of his problem and was still very with it a lot of the time but often had to stop and say he just could not get out what he was trying to say.

A very sad situation for a good guy who flew for various airlines and I knew him when he flew the ExxonMobil Citation corporate jet.

 

[rogerkambah]

Just saw in the online 'tiser that you lucky Radelaideians are currently paying an average of 128.8cpl for petrol and 119.7 at Costco. Wish we had petrol at that price. Its pretty much always 150.? where I buy in CBR, and more for fun cars that like 95 and 98 RON.

 

[Pushka]

Just saw in the online 'tiser that you lucky Radelaideians are currently paying an average of 128.8cpl for petrol and 119.7 at Costco. Wish we had petrol at that price. Its pretty much always 150.? where I buy in CBR, and more for fun cars that like 95 and 98 RON.

It's been a weird couple of weeks but not to worry. It's going back up to 150 right now.

 

[rogerkambah]

Just received a QFF survey, ostensibly being conducted by ipsos for QF. The email commences with "Since you are an important Qantas Frequent Flyer, Qantas would like to understand your opinions of airline alliances."

Anyone else had one?

 

[rogerkambah]

Just completed the survey - failed at the first question, which asked how many intercontinental business trips I had undertaken in the last year - answer 0.

As I had undertaken only 2 intercontinental pleasure trips in the last year my cred went from being an important QFF to zero, reference the response:

"Thank you very much for your time today. We need to speak to people who fit certain criteria, and on this occasion the remainder of the survey will not be relevant to you so we won’t take up any more of your time. Once again, thank you for your help."

 

[straitman]

Just completed the survey - failed at the first question, which asked how many intercontinental business trips I had undertaken in the last year - answer 0.

As I had undertaken only 2 intercontinental pleasure trips in the last year my cred went from being an important QFF to zero, reference the response:

"Thank you very much for your time today. We need to speak to people who fit certain criteria, and on this occasion the remainder of the survey will not be relevant to you so we won’t take up any more of your time. Once again, thank you for your help."

You are obviously not high enough up the DYKWIA scale :!:

(neither am I as I didn't even get the survey)

 

[jakplus1]

Hi Everyone...
We have today received notification that we are in the top 3 of this competition so if you could spare a moment to vote (each day, on different browsers/devices if I can be cheeky!!) I would really appreciate it! This would be a big boost to our business! No registration is required, simply follow the link and click on the button! Thanks in advance. Karen

VOTE NOW (PLEASE?)

Kochie's Business Builders are running a competition to help small businesses, and my Daughter Karen (Jakplus1), has had her business nominated to receive a $25,000 Digital Package including a brand new website.

If you could spare 30 seconds we would really appreciate a vote - no registration is necessary and you can give extra votes by clicking 'Like' and/or sharing the post. (Also, voting from different browsers does count as extra votes!!!!)

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VOTE NOW (PLEASE?)

 

[rogerkambah]

You are obviously not high enough up the DYKWIA scale :!:

(neither am I as I didn't even get the survey)

Just loved the way my importance evaporated - no such thing as a soft landing!


Before I joined AFF I didn't even know what a DYKWIA was.

 

[Danger]

Feel sorry for a colleague of a former superior who I am helping out.

She is from the US coming to CH this weekend. Trouble is, the consulate have stuffed around with returning her passport and long story short, they have not sent it back yet, despite chase ups and blame games. It now needs to be priority couriered to have a chance of reaching her before she jets off on the weekend.

Don't know what you can do in these situations except beg the consulate to do its best. Possibly re-arm the travel insurance in the event the flight over must be rescheduled.

Has the passport been held up by an Australian Embassy in the US? And "CH"?

 

[anat0l]

Has the passport been held up by an Australian Embassy in the US? And "CH"?

She's not Australian...my guess is that it is either an American or Russian passport, sent to the Swiss consulate.

CH = Switzerland (code derived from the Latin, Confoederatio Helvetica)

 

[Bundy Bear]

bumping an old post so I can find it in the next few days.


Kochie's Business Builders are running a competition to help small businesses, and my Daughter Karen (Jakplus1), has had her business nominated to receive a $25,000 Digital Package including a brand new website.

If you could spare 30 seconds we would really appreciate a vote - no registration is necessary and you can give extra votes by clicking 'Like' and/or sharing the post. (Also, voting from different browsers does count as extra votes!!!!)

Thanks heaps


VOTE NOW (PLEASE?)[/QUOTE]