Irritants

[desperance]

I am the most mild and equable of men, as anyone will tell you. Occasionally, though - most occasionally - the world contrives to annoy me almost past bearing.

Yesterday? Twice.

First time, I was in the pharmacy buying over-the-counter remedies, under advisement (thank you, advisors!). Cold-and-flu capsules, to be specific. Marketed as LemSip Max, in boxes of 16. £1.19. Exactly next to those, boxes of LemSip Max Daytime, also in boxes of 16. £3.29. Puzzled and curious, I examined the two more closely, and - you're way ahead of me here, right? - they were exactly the same. Exactly. Same manufacturer, same ingredients, same quantities. Very nearly three times the price, because they had put the word 'Daytime' on the box. I was - enraged.

Second time, coming home late after performance of play (audience small but very enthusiastic, thank you - which is the keynote of the tour. I keep thinking foolish things like "there must be more than twenty theatre-lovers in the city of Sunderland, surely?"), I was hungry and made noodles. And went to add a dribble of my home-made chilli oil - and found that the rubber seal of the Kilner jar I kept it in had perished, to the point of liquefying. It had dribbled all orangely down into the oil, and made a sticky and inedible mess. Snarl.

"Chaz Brenchley's chilli oil: hot enough to melt rubber." It's a selling point, I guess...

Comments

[sbisson.livejournal.com]

That's why we've taken to buying many of our over the counter medications i the US, where the pharmacy own brand medicines have the same ingredients as the branded - and are a lot cheaper.

Ping us before we go there again, and we'll brig some back for you...

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that'd be really kind. There shall be pingage.

[julesjones]

And in fact, if you look in pharmacies in the UK, you can often find own brand stuff much cheaper as well. When I went to buy a basic medicines kit after the move, I found that the local Boots (which is a village pharmacy Boots rather than a giant city centre department store Boots) has quite an array of things like Exceedingly Cheap Aspirin.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I should have known that it was a waste of time sending you that link about weapons-grade chilli; all I had to do was wait, and a chilli-post would be along in a minute.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Absolutely not a waste of time, I was delighted to read it. (But you say it's LJ-syndicated? Where do I find this?)

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

theoldfoodie

PS

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Also, "waste of time" as in, why mail something when you can LJ it, not as in, Chaz won't be interested...

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

You know you're really very wrong to complain about the first one (I think!) since what has actually happened is that the LemSip Max Daytime are priced normally, but for some reason the LemSip Max (non-Daytime) are ridiculously cheaply priced compared to normal, so buy them now!

And you're right, the ingredients are identical (but not the same as LemSip Max Cold & Flu Nighttime)

E.g.
LemSip Max Cold & Flu Capsules £3.18/16
http://www.mypharmacy.co.uk/medicines/medicines/l/lemsip/lemsip_max_cf_capsules.htm

LemSip Max Daytime £3.29/16
http://www.mypharmacy.co.uk/medicines/medicines/l/lemsip/max_cf_day_caps.htm

[desperance.livejournal.com]

*scurries back to town*

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I don't know how the situation is in the UK, but makers of cold medicines in the US are working hard to remove pseudoephedrine (a decongestant that interferes with sleep, is bad for people with high blood pressure, and has been used as a raw material in making methamphetamine), and replace it with phenylephrine (a decongestant that doesn't work very well, that can be used equally well day or night, and is bad for people with high blood pressure.) They might have recently changed the formula for the daytime stuff, and the price hasn't adjusted yet.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Ah, pseudoephedrine, the stuff that makes me feel as though I'm having a heart attack. Why they ever thought that should be in a cold/flu medicine I cannot imagine.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

It really is an effective decongestant. I'm sorry you have problems with it. Does the phenylephrine work for you without the side effects? When they started sneaking it into cold medicines here (changing the formula without changing the name or advertising the change, so you didn't notice unless you read the fine print), I asked a pharmacist who said they had the same effects on blood pressure and anxiety. Maybe it's one of those things where two drugs each cause a bad side effect for 5% of people who take it, but it's a different 5% of people with each drug.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Upon reflection I see that it must have been effective. I couldn't tolerate it, though.

I don't take decongestants unless I can't avoid flying with a stuffy nose, so I don't know if I can tolerate the phenylephrine. I use Afrin nasal spray with no problems and it, too, is very effective.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Yesterday was perfectly foul for me. I nearly believed in astrology for awhile; something ineffable was seriously out of balance for me and almost everyone I dealt with yesterday.

[esmeraldus-neo.livejournal.com]

IS venison common in your environs? Can it be got in the summer?

Because one of the few things that I can cook is venison and black bean chili that has addicted dozens of people.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Venison is certainly available (and did you notice that - but for an intrusive 'r' - "venison" and "environs" would be anagrams of each other?)

Also, yum. Nom-nom-nom.