*Lisa*

My 10 year old tabby has always been nervy and is even less fond of change than is normal for cats. If we go away my neighbours always feed both my cats for us. We went away for a week and she was fine before we went, but when we got back on Tuesday, she'd got some crusty weepy scabs on her head and round her eyes. She's had it before and the vet said it was "scabby cat syndrome" and has a number of causes which can't always be isolated. She's never had it this bad though and I'm going to take her to the vets tomorrow as the skin round her eyes looks quite sore, poor thing (vet gave her a steroid injection last time). I just wondered if it was the upset of us being away? It's not ringworm and she doesn't have fleas, and her food hasn't been changed, so I can't think what else could have caused it.

I've worked at the same NHS hospital for 3 years. In the first year my sickness level was high as I have a history of mental illness (depression and borderline PD) and found it hard to adjust to working again after a long time on sick benefit. My line manager spoke to me on a few occasions about her concerns and I eventually told her (via a letter) that I was seeing a therapist. She later told me that she had told my immediate supervisor I was seeing a therapist as she "had to", but I don't think she had to tell her. I told her in confidence and I didn't want it made public knowledge, as my supervisor tells her deputy everything, which means at least 3 people know, when I only intended one person to know.

This was about a year ago, but last week I was rejected for a different post I had applied for, and the reason I was given was that my manager was dissatisfied with my sickness levels, when I have only had one day sick in the last 6 months.

I sliced my thumb very badly at work today chopping an onion and not concentrating on what I was doing. Too busy chatting!! It's a clean cut and I washed it thoroughly but it's quite deep and there's a big "flap" which gapes a bit and despite having a dressing on it all day it's still bleeding and I'm worried about catching the flap on something and making it bleed again. Plus it hurts like a bi*ch and I've got to work tomorrow. My husband has gone out to get me some steri strips to put on it to keep the flap stuck down till it heals up, and I'll put a dressing on top of them to keep the wound clean.

Has anyone used wound closure strips, and how long should they be left on for? Will they come off if I accidentally get them wet? And how will I get them off once it's healed up? Do they just soak off? Thanks for any advice as i've never used these things before.

Most of us have access to the internet, be it at home or through libraries etc. So people who are suffering in some way with physical or mental health problems, or who want advice, support or just to meet others who are in a similar predicament to themselves, can usually find a "support group" online. But are support groups always a good thing? Or does it just encourage the supportee to associate only with others like themselves and thereby make them less likely to strive to overcome their problems and associate with the rest of the world on an equal footing?

For instance, there are groups for people with eating disorders. Finally, somebody understands how you feel. But does it become harmful when you start swapping tips for further weight loss and encouraging each other to get thinner?

I'm not bashing people with eating disorders BTW. There are support groups for all kinds of problems and illnesses and I've been in a few myself before I realised that they actually made me worse.

Anyone had dealings with this private car park company? Are they the sort who will come and break my legs if I ignore their demand for money, or shall I tell them to p*ss off? We parked in an ALDI car park for 2 1/2 hours while we went for a curry the other week. It was in the evening, so the ALDI wasn't even open! So we weren't inconveniencing any shoppers by parking there, and we've parked there before in the evening. The ironic thing is we could've parked for free in one of the town centre car parks in the evening :(

We just never thought about it, seeing as we'd parked there before, and ParkingEye have sent us a demand for £70 for parking there for more than 90 minutes. It's turned out to be an expensive curry.

I work in an NHS hospital kitchen, and it's always been an unofficial perk that we can take leftovers home. But our new boss has just put up a notice saying that all food has to be paid for and a receipt obtained, and if the "theft" continues she is going to bring in the fraud squad. We're not talking about anyone stealing expensive items, as none of us do that. We might take a sandwich home now and again, or a piece of cake, or some left overs from lunch which is going to be thrown away anyway, and we think it's a bit Draconian that such a fuss is being made. Anyway, I've had the idea to replace the notice with one of my own and see how long it takes the powers that be to spot the difference.

Can anyone help? I was thinking "all employees will be weighed on entering and leaving the building to ensure no food has been eaten"

Any other ideas?

I have 2 cats of my own, but they go right down the end of the garden to do their poos, and mine have dry food so their poos are solid and easily cleared up. But there is a cat living round here somewhere who comes into my garden every day and sh*ts on my lawn. I have never seen it doing it so I don't know which cat it is. It used to do it on my rose bed, but since I've started watering the rose bed with Jeyes Fluid to keep black spot away, it's moved to the lawn. I'm sick of cleaning up runny cat sh*t. It stinks and it's killing the grass. I only cleared up a load of it 2 days ago and now there's another 3 lots out there.

Is there anything I can buy (other than a dog!) which I can put on the garden to persuade the little sod to crap somewhere else? Because if I catch it, I'm going to strangle it! If anyone has tried anything which actually works, please let me know.

A few times now I have received e-mails from an unknown address - so presumably this qualifies as spam. But instead of a link to buy Viagra or an invitation to input my bank details there is just a passage from a novel, no hyperlinks or adverts. The one I received today had a passage from Middlemarch by George Eliot (had to google it to find that out).

What's it all about? And should I maybe be posting this question in philosophy, as it's driving me crazy wondering if there is a deeper meaning behind it?

Sadly I deleted the two I received a month or so back, so I'm not sure if it's they were all sent from the same e-mail address.

Why do many people categorise others based on initial impressions, and thereby feel entitled to insult them because they feel in some way superior?

For example, I work as a cook in a hospital. Today I was taking orders for breakfast from a staff member (an unqualified nursing assistant who would therefore be on the same pay scale as me). As I was writing down his order and putting his name at the top, he said in a very patronising tone "That's spelled D-E-A-N" (I had already written it down correctly BTW). Quite a few of the nurses where I work speak to the kitchen staff as if we are mentally defective, purely on the basis of us working in the kitchen instead of on the wards.

So why make value judgements like that? And are people who look down on others somehow trying to bolster their own feelings of insecurity? And should I just challenge him to a spelling competition next time?

Is it true that the "faults" we dislike most in others are actually because we have those faults ourselves, but are unable or unwilling to acknowledge them?

Does pure altruism really exist?

When we do something for somebody else, is there always an underlying motive of self-gratification, even if it's just that warm fuzzy feeling we get from having done something "nice" for somebody?

Retardex mouthwash supposedly contains the "CloSys" brand of stabilized chlorine dioxide. The ingredients are water, Trisodium Phosphate, Citric acid, Sodium bicarbonate, and sodium chlorite. No mention of chlorine dioxide.

A brand of water purification drops (Biox Aqua Drops) contains 2 bottles - one containing 2% chlorine dioxide and the other containing ortho phosphoric acid. You're supposed to mix 6 drops of each and add to a litre of water to make it fit to drink.

My question is for chemistry experts. What is "making " the chlorine dioxide in the mouthwash? Am I paying over the odds for what is essentially sterilized water, and could just make my own mouthwash by using the water purification drops?

It seems like when I get my hair done at the hairdresser's it always looks shinier and straighter than when I do it at home. I have ceramic straighteners (Nicky Clarke Frizz Control), but my stylist has GHD's and I'm wondering if it's that. She seems to straighten my hair with no effort. Has anyone gone from cheaper straighteners to GHD's and did you think they were worth the extra money?

My hair is thick and slightly wavy, but it's in cut a bob right now and looks better straight.

I have dark brown hair which is starting to go grey :o( I used to use permanent colours, but my hair is quite split at the ends despite regular trimming, so about 6 months ago I switched to using a semi-permanent colour close to my normal dark brown to let the damaged hair grow out. I'm doing it again tomorrow and I have heard that if you shampoo your hair beforehand with a fairly cheap shampoo to strip out any conditioner, straightening creme etc, you will get a better colour result. I use quite a lot of conditioner and straightening products as my hair is slightly wavy and tends to frizz.

Anyone else strip their hair in this way before colouring and does it help?

I see so many questions on YA saying things like "I had XYZ happen to me, so now I have PTSD" "I get angry easily, what disorder do I have" "I cut myself, so I must have borderline personality disorder" "I have ups and downs, I must be bipolar" "I get nervous meeting new people - do I have social anxiety disorder?"

Why is it not sufficient to say "I am unhappy/lonely/sad/angry/hurt/afraid?"

Emotions, both positive and negative, are a part of the human condition. Without emotions we would not really be alive. The list of "disorders" in the DSM gets longer every time a new edition is published.

How helpful is this division into smaller and smaller parts, and the attempt to categorise every emotional state into some sort of disorder? Do people derive comfort somehow from being told they are sick? Is it because being sick means the possibility of a cure and absolves the sufferer of responsibility over their own life?

Interested in peoples' views on this.