It is indefinite. Current guidance is that we can hold funerals, but probably restrict them, possibly to only immediate family and undertakers. Which makes sense. A couple of weeks ago I told someone that I could imagine that before this is over we will have to be burying and cremating with no one present, and at the end, whenever that comes, hold a big memorial service in the village.
I'm sort of going through the process of postponing - I'm currently consulting with the family to see what they think, but it's looking very unlikely. In theory we could still go up and scatter David's ashes, but I'd prefer if we had the memorial service at the same time, and there isn't the urgency of a funeral.
As my sister and D's brother-in-law are "vulnerable" (type 2 diabetic), and one of my nieces is pregnant, I think postponing is really the only sensible option.
Re solitary funerals, @Cathscats makes a useful suggestion about holding some sort of big memorial service when this becomes possible.
We already have an annual Memorial Service at Our Place, usually around All Saints/All Souls in November, arranged with two local funeral directors for the families they have dealt with during the past year.
Clearly, there is scope for extending this to any who have lost friends or relatives to the virus.
<votives> for @Piglet, and anyone else who s having to postpone funerals, memorial services, etc.
Now for something completely different: does anyone here know the definition of a "peelie-jack"? My brother-in-law in the north east asked if I knew, surmising that it means something like a quack doctor - pill doctor, perhaps - but Auntie Google doesn't seem to know. I don't think I'd heard it before, though my sister says she heard our father use it, so it's likely a west coast word.
‘Peelie’ is a familiar word. Here’s the Dictionary of the Scots Language entry. ‘Peelie jack’ rings a faint bell (in which case I probably heard it in Banffshire), but nothing comes to mind.
Laughed at my mental picture of you from that one, BF! Needed a laugh after spending most of the week trying to get the local volunteers organised. Just about there now.
when it’s actually up and running once the leaflets are out, and @North East Quine has sent me helpful hints for that, then it will be simpler. Just now I am getting lots of helpful suggestions, but I can’t keep changing the way we are going to run it! Or we will spend so long organising that it won’t happen. So I am being fairly directive outwardly, while feeling a bit quakey inwardly.
BF - "shilpit" sent me in a completely different direction. When I saw it I wondered whether it was somehow connected to Afrikaans "soutpiel", with which I'm familiar (and have, inaccurately, been called one). It's not. At all.
"Peelie-jack" is a new one on me. I use "peelly-wally" - English doesn't seem to have words that exactly replace "peelly-wally" or "jist hingin' like the dreep that never drapt" Plus the difference between "nae affa weel" and "affa nae weel"
I imagine that "affa nae weel" would be several degrees worse than "nae affa weel"!
I once complimented an Aberdonian friend on making the transition back to nae affa weel from affa nae weel after her cancer surgery. She laughed so much she pulled some stitches, and I got hell for it.
BF - "shilpit" sent me in a completely different direction. When I saw it I wondered whether it was somehow connected to Afrikaans "soutpiel", with which I'm familiar (and have, inaccurately, been called one). It's not. At all.
Quite. But if I have one foot on the Ark, and the other on the bank, it might apply to me...
I have ambled, and very nice it was too. I didn't even need to worry about social distancing* - the only person I saw was a bloke with a couple of dogs, and he was on the other side of the road.
* I can't help thinking it should be called "anti-social distancing", although I get why we have to do it.
I don't absolutely hate it (roasted with garlic slivers stuck into the meat, it can be really nice), but I'd never choose it on a menu if there were lamb, beef, duck, venison ...
Am in deep mourning. I should be getting ready to leave for Scotland on Wednesday, but thanks to the plague will not be relaxing with Pete in the Spylaw on Thursday as planned, along with the friends from Juniper Green. It's close enough to Balerno, so perhaps Piglet could just nip over there on my behalf? Or will they be closed, no doubt like all the other pubs on my itinerary? Will it count as a virtual shipmeet if we all raise a socially distanced glass at an agreed hour?
All pubs are closed and I heard speculation that they might not be open till October! Scotland without her pubs....
This virus may make us all healthier. As I am coordinating people’s shopping I see that they seem to be reluctant to ask for the unhealthy stuff like chocolate or biscuits or booze! Now I know that some of those for whom shopping is done do in fact consume such things, most of us do; so either thy have great stores of them, or they are, so far, ashamed to ask.
My own sister has been isolating for a week, and now that the 7 days are up and her sore throat is gone, she has laid in stores of chocolate, ice cream and biscuits. She said she had plenty to eat, but her diet was beginning to feel a bit worthy.
My mind is boggled. I love lamb, beef, venison and other meats, but pork—pork chops, pork loin, bacon (British, American, Canadian), ham (especially country ham), sausage, salami, prosciutto, porchetta, jamón ibérico and so many other delicious foods, most especially barbecue—is the most wonderful of all meats.
I'm always up for raising a glass with Shipmates; at a distance at an agreed hour included.
Let's try it. We're five hours behind here, so if I treat myself to a late lunchtime ale at, say 1:00 on Thursday when I should have been in the same country as you, I'll hope to encourage a few bent elbows in Scotland at 6:00 pm, and we can silently commune (or burst out into sea shanties).
I have had the lines from one version of the Scotland the What theme song running through my head of late.
" I can mind the typhoid epidemic at its worst
We never washed wur hands unless we did the lavvy first!"
Scotland the What - widely available on you Tube. Aberdeen's answer to Morecambe and Wise and some of it still hilariously funny. Check out any of the sketches in which "Sandy Thomson" phones Balmoral. If I have time I will post a link later.
Funny how things coincide - my mum grew up calling corned beef "typhoid meat". The mother-out-law knows exactly why because she was in Aberdeen for the epidemic.
Comments
I think you will have to postpone, sadly.
As my sister and D's brother-in-law are "vulnerable" (type 2 diabetic), and one of my nieces is pregnant, I think postponing is really the only sensible option.
We already have an annual Memorial Service at Our Place, usually around All Saints/All Souls in November, arranged with two local funeral directors for the families they have dealt with during the past year.
Clearly, there is scope for extending this to any who have lost friends or relatives to the virus.
<votives> for @Piglet, and anyone else who s having to postpone funerals, memorial services, etc.
Banffshire is in NE Alba, but 'jack' (or the 'jacks') seems to be an Irish slang word for the loo...(also 'jakes', IIRC).
Like you, I'm familiar with "peely-wally", but I've never heard of "peelie jack".
Sorry. I'll get my hazmat suit.
Breaking for lunch, after which I will start on the smaller items and, if I have any puff left, the grass. Maybe.
Quite. But if I have one foot on the Ark, and the other on the bank, it might apply to me...
Surely a gentle Amble in the sunshine (keeping clear of other peeps, of course) would do you no harm, but rather some good.
Enjoy (both the Amble, and the Supper)!
* I can't help thinking it should be called "anti-social distancing", although I get why we have to do it.
Meanwhile, after 5 hours gardening, I'm making roast pork with lemon and thyme roasties and apple rings fried in butter. With Cava.
Mmmmm, sounds very yummy!
O...
I don't absolutely hate it (roasted with garlic slivers stuck into the meat, it can be really nice), but I'd never choose it on a menu if there were lamb, beef, duck, venison ...
This virus may make us all healthier. As I am coordinating people’s shopping I see that they seem to be reluctant to ask for the unhealthy stuff like chocolate or biscuits or booze! Now I know that some of those for whom shopping is done do in fact consume such things, most of us do; so either thy have great stores of them, or they are, so far, ashamed to ask.
My own sister has been isolating for a week, and now that the 7 days are up and her sore throat is gone, she has laid in stores of chocolate, ice cream and biscuits. She said she had plenty to eat, but her diet was beginning to feel a bit worthy.
Absolutely!
Let's try it. We're five hours behind here, so if I treat myself to a late lunchtime ale at, say 1:00 on Thursday when I should have been in the same country as you, I'll hope to encourage a few bent elbows in Scotland at 6:00 pm, and we can silently commune (or burst out into sea shanties).
" I can mind the typhoid epidemic at its worst
We never washed wur hands unless we did the lavvy first!"
Scotland the What - widely available on you Tube. Aberdeen's answer to Morecambe and Wise and some of it still hilariously funny. Check out any of the sketches in which "Sandy Thomson" phones Balmoral. If I have time I will post a link later.
A free shot of a bar of municipal soap was one of the first benefits of the epidemic.
"At's a lot of toilet paper ye hiv there - a'abody fine?"
What? Charles Haddon of that ilk? Or did you think his middle name was haddock...?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Spurgeon
AG
I read this as 'my three great-uncles' which made me wonder if he put up a fight.
(figuratively speaking, obviously, in these strange days)
Correct apart from the Haddock