Hurrah! Made a despairing trawl round the supermarket websites - those that even let you near the Book a Delivery option showed 'unavailable' from here to eternity. And then suddenly there was a 'flexible' (ie sometime in 4 hours) at Tesco for tomorrow evening.
Tinned soups! Peanut butter! Loo roll! Argosies I tell you, argosies.
We put the plastic table cloth UNDER the good table cloth (where in theory it is invisible) to protect the good wooden table from plant waterstains. Like, from the Christmas tree.
You set your table with a Christmas tree? Fascinating.
Having snatched some spinach (it's green! It's there!) on a constrained visit to a local shop, I had the problem of what to do with it.
I commend the following -
Wilt/microwave spinach for 3 minutes. Slice and squeeze really hard to get out as much water as possible. Saute/microwave a chopped onion until soft. Fry pancetta or diced bacon until crisp. Mix the whole lot with 2 eggs beaten up in a quarter pint of milk and a handful of grated cheese. Add a pinch of cayenne. Pour into a pie dish and top with puff pastry and an egg glaze.
We put the plastic table cloth UNDER the good table cloth (where in theory it is invisible) to protect the good wooden table from plant waterstains. Like, from the Christmas tree.
You set your table with a Christmas tree? Fascinating.
I, too have been taking advantage of the sunny, breezy weather in Embra, and for the first time in my life I hung washing out this afternoon. In complete defiance of Murphy's Law, the weather stayed lovely, and I now have clean, dry, fresh bedlinen.
Feeling strangely down today. Nothing is a hardship for me, staying home with hubby, I am an introvert so this is fine. I go out each morning for a walk with the dog. I live in a beautiful rural area with nature and wild life all around. I can call in my grocery list and have it delivered to my car. I have wonderful neighbors who keep check on us. I am retired so no need to worry about loss of income. Yet this morning I woke up feeling tired, and melancholy for no reason at all. I just want to nap and do nothing at all. Sigh.
I had pelmeni for tea. Russian dumplings, filled with meat (and a touch of celery, and mustard, I think).
To be safe, I fried them to distraction in sunflower oil, but they came out a bit overdone. Next time, I'll follow the other suggestion, and boil water - you then take the water off the boil, and cook the dumplings for just 2 minutes. Doesn't seem long to me, but I guess the Russians know what they're doing.
BTW, does anyone else notice that they might be drinking more alcohol than usual during the lockdown/isolation?
I can understand why (said he, swigging yet another glass of WINE), but it's probably not a Good Thing, in the long run, at any rate.
Ah well. Nearly time to say Evening Prayer, in line (as it were, sort of) with FatherInCharge, who is saying his solitary Mass at 630pm.
The grim humour among my clergy friends at the moment is "AA or Weight Watchers first when we come off social distancing?"
Sainsburys stock the same brand in the Carribean bit of the world food aisle. I usually have some in the cupboard and would have classed this as basically polenta. Is there that much of a difference?
Sainsburys stock the same brand in the Carribean bit of the world food aisle. I usually have some in the cupboard and would have classed this as basically polenta. Is there that much of a difference?
Grits and polenta are generally made from different kinds of corn, and the cornmeal for polenta tends to be more coarse and grainy than the cornmeal for grits, which leads to texture differences when cooked.
That said, they can pretty much be swapped out for each other.
Feeling strangely down today. Nothing is a hardship for me, staying home with hubby, I am an introvert so this is fine. I go out each morning for a walk with the dog. I live in a beautiful rural area with nature and wild life all around. I can call in my grocery list and have it delivered to my car. I have wonderful neighbors who keep check on us. I am retired so no need to worry about loss of income. Yet this morning I woke up feeling tired, and melancholy for no reason at all. I just want to nap and do nothing at all. Sigh.
I do sympathize @Graven Image. Much of what you say applies to me, even though I live in a flat in the inner suburbs of an antipodean city. In my case, what I am most missing is having anything to look forward to. No Holy Week or Easter services with my church family, who are to me both friends and family. No overseas holiday to plan for or look forward to. I'm sleeping longer, fine days are becoming fewer and daylight hours shorter. My chief enjoyment comes from watching the leaves in the trees of the neighbouring garden changing into autumn dress and the birds frolicking among them.
There is some of the weight of the world kind of thinking that intrudes into my general optimistic way too. This is normal. I am safe at home, I'm not isolated at home.
Light a candle if that's your thing. Turn on a virtual mass or service. Participate. That's where we're going here.
Sorry @NOprophet_NØprofit - I may be safe at home, but I am isolated from all my friends and my church. For me there is no such thing as a virtual service: it is the physical presence that matters. I do not want to go "church-shopping" online any more than I would want to in real life. I pray at home as best I can (yes, with candles) using the printed materials I've been given. I can bow in front of my icons but it makes no sense to do so in front of a computer screen. And I badly miss my friends and our meal after the service, which has been for a long time my only social occasion in the week.
As you and Mr F raise your glasses, spare a thought for us here in South Africa where the sale of alcohol or cigarettes is prohibited for the duration of the lockdown. I'm surrounded by vineyards, wine estates, some of the most delicious sauvignon blancs or cabernets anywhere and can't buy a drop of the elixir.
Oddly though (or perhaps not), most people here don't mind the prohibition on alcohol as much as the shortage of cigarettes and the blackmarket is booming. I imagine we'll have nicotine speakeasies thriving in a month or so.
]
I do sympathize @Graven Image. Much of what you say applies to me, even though I live in a flat in the inner suburbs of an antipodean city. In my case, what I am most missing is having anything to look forward to. "
I think the looking forward part is right. If we had a date for this all to end it might feel somewhat better. As the day wore on my spirits lifted. Thankfully I have had a ongoing on line, and by mail association with the order of Julian of Norwich, along with my local church community, so saying the office each day I continue to feel connected with my Julian brothers and sisters around the world, just as before.
As for no wine, our local restaurant is open for take out only and that can include a bottle of wine at 1/2 price. I plan to take them up on that offer on Easter. Dinner for curb side pick up is only $20.00 per order without wine. As Mr Image and I are light eaters, one dinner should easily do the two of us, as the meal offered sounds large.
Sorry @NOprophet_NØprofit - I may be safe at home, but I am isolated from all my friends and my church. For me there is no such thing as a virtual service: it is the physical presence that matters. I do not want to go "church-shopping" online any more than I would want to in real life. I pray at home as best I can (yes, with candles) using the printed materials I've been given. I can bow in front of my icons but it makes no sense to do so in front of a computer screen. And I badly miss my friends and our meal after the service, which has been for a long time my only social occasion in the week.
Please don't apologize. I'm not trying to criticize either. Just sharing some things I thought might be worthwhile.
I've been through a few very difficult experiences. All I've learned is probably cliché. To accept things as they are. The way I think about it is captured in my thoughts as "catastrophic thinking". That all will be well in the end. That we can get through anything. (I may also be insufferable)
The North East family has been rigorous. We're lucky to have a garden, so I've been gardening rather than going out to exercise. When I've gone out to buy food, I've put my jacket, gloves and shopping bag straight into the washing machine afterwards, and everything gets wiped down before being put into the fridge/cupboard. I've cut my nails very short and the NE man has shaved off his beard.
Yesterday my Beloved Goddaughter came down with toothache. Her mother is waiting for a phone call as to what to do. If it was just me, I'd break my social distancing, and drive her to the dentist. But its not just me.
Beloved has been socially distancing, I think, but started later than us. She was at a concert with 9000 other people on Mar 15, the day before the "maximum 500" rule came in. And she was at school until 20 March and socialising with friends for a couple of days after that. Obviously, we're past the point where she might have caught it pre-lockdown. But she has to be out everyday walking her dog and I'm not convinced she's being particularly rigorous about not touching stuff.
The NE Man has said that he does not want to end up catching it because I've taken someone from a different household to the dentist. The North East Loon is also against it.
Can't she get a bus? I don't know where your Goddaughter lives but the busses here are running around more or less empty. Of course they are not running around very often, so they are not always convenient, but....
Have you checked the dentist is open? Locally the dentists are only open for emergency appointments.
Personally I wouldn't take her. There's a good chance she's asymptomatic, which doesn't mean she's not infectious. And if you've managed to avoid COVID 19 to now you don't really want to play Russian roulette with it now.
We went to a concert on 14 March, small, couple of hundred people, used hand sanitiser on the way in and out, my daughter masked up for the tube journey and washed hands when we got in. We didn't take up the tickets for a similar concert on 15 March as we weren't convinced it was safe and didn't want to risk a second tube journey in. I also worked with young people until the week before the schools closed (Guides, a couple of sessions of after school club), and I live in the commuter belt around London, so many of the young people I saw have parents working in London.
My daughter had what looked like COVID 19 - feverish, cough, followed by very nasty breathing difficulties for a couple of days 10-11 days after the first symptoms. These days that should have meant hospitalisation here, because that's now being recommended to go in, but not when she had them at the end of March. I've had very mild symptoms that may or may not be COVID 19, but have still had flu like exhaustion.
Yes, we did self-isolate for the full 14 days from the start of my daughter's symptoms, and more than 7 days after the start of anything I had that could be construed as symptoms. I had to shop on the day after we came out of self-isolation as we'd run out of some foods, but haven't been shopping since. The home delivery we booked when my daughter became ill arrived yesterday - 3 weeks after we booked the first possible slot - and the unhelpful substitutions mean I will have to shop again today.
Really, on what planet are 8 individual dark chocolate puddings a reasonable substitution for either GF flour or long life soya milk?
The buses are once every two hours, so she could get a bus, but might have to do a lot of waiting around.
Her mother thinks she needs an emergency extraction; although I think that if there is an infection, she'd get a course of antibiotics first. If she just gets antibiotics she could get the bus back. I'm concerned about the possibility of an emergency extraction.
I cycled home after having my wisdom teeth extracted at not much older than your goddaughter. At a regular check up the conversation went:
"Those wisdom teeth need to come out."
I make grunts of agreement around the fingers in my mouth, while thinking this would mean a later appointment.
Dentist gets ready to remove the teeth there and then.
I think ruefully about the sprats in my fridge that need eating for supper and might not be so easy to eat later.
They weren't. Sprats don't take well to sucking off the bones.
I only had two wisdom teeth, iirc on the top, none on the bottom, so they were going to cause me problems if left.
Immediate problem over! A prescription for antibiotics is going to our pharmacy, which she can walk to. I gather the dentist didn't need to see her in person- the facial swelling indicates infection.
@Graven Image - I can totally sympathise with your lack of get-up-and-go - I feel that mine has got up and gone. I'm regularly staying in bed far too late (and then staying up far too late as well), and even napping when I probably don't need to.
I think it's the general feeling of ennui that we're all experiencing at the moment, combined with the fact that there's bugger-all we can do about it.
I also feel for @cgichard re having nothing to look forward to: I should have been going up to Orkney this weekend for a memorial service for David, but obviously that's not happening, and despite the reason for it, I was looking forward to seeing old friends and the whole family being together.
However, it's a beautiful day here, so I'm trying to feel as positive as I can, and will go out for a little amble shortly, which should help.
My waking hours seem to be getting shorter by the day, despite the lighter mornings/evenings, and the sunshine (though today is a bit cloudier, albeit warmish).
The other morning I was munching my muesli when I noticed something very hard between my teeth. It was the crown from a rear molar that had decided now was the time to come out. An email to my (closed) dentist and very quickly I got a reply that it would be OK to just leave it out and when they re-open post-lockdown they can put it back in. All I need to do is keep it somewhere safe so I can take it in with me in whenever.
The North East family has been rigorous. We're lucky to have a garden, so I've been gardening rather than going out to exercise. When I've gone out to buy food, I've put my jacket, gloves and shopping bag straight into the washing machine afterwards, and everything gets wiped down before being put into the fridge/cupboard. I've cut my nails very short and the NE man has shaved off his beard.
Yesterday my Beloved Goddaughter came down with toothache. Her mother is waiting for a phone call as to what to do. If it was just me, I'd break my social distancing, and drive her to the dentist. But its not just me.
Beloved has been socially distancing, I think, but started later than us. She was at a concert with 9000 other people on Mar 15, the day before the "maximum 500" rule came in. And she was at school until 20 March and socialising with friends for a couple of days after that. Obviously, we're past the point where she might have caught it pre-lockdown. But she has to be out everyday walking her dog and I'm not convinced she's being particularly rigorous about not touching stuff.
The NE Man has said that he does not want to end up catching it because I've taken someone from a different household to the dentist. The North East Loon is also against it.
What would other Shipmates do?
The problem is that you don't know and need to make the best decision, which could affect life and death. Thus: the goddaughter mustn't go to the dentist without asking the dental office about what to do, though in some places there is a health line that you are to call and then follow their instructions. And we must all follow instructions to the letter.
The protocol here: call health line who would probably test goddaughter, and they would then give instructions or a public health order of what she must do. They may also contact the dental office. And also direct her re physician who may prescribe pain meds and antibiotic while she waits for COVI-19 testing to report.
I broke a tooth on holiday once on some peanut brittle. My very good, but very expensive dentist 3D printed a lovely new crown for me. It cost more than the holiday!
Glad your goddaughter got antibiotics sorted, I hope a plan can be found for when she needs to get the tooth seen to.
...I only had two wisdom teeth, iirc on the top, none on the bottom, so they were going to cause me problems if left.
Ah, you were like the Mater, you lucky thing. Hers were also missing from the lower level; one of those on the upper level moved in to replace a molar that had to be replaced.
(The Mater had only two wisdom teeth - the Pater always said, "She's higher on the evolutionary scale than the rest of us" - in a small jaw; the Pater had four wisdom teeth in a normal jaw. Naturally, I ended up with four wisdom teeth in a small jaw, and an impaction about which my oral surgeon was able to publish an article in a nationally recognized oral surgery journal. This was at the same time that I discovered my intolerance of codeine.)
One of my front teeth broke off while I was away on a re-enactment weekend. I was eating a venison sandwich at the time, so the whole group called it Bambi's Revenge! Fortunately, it didn't hurt, so I was able to wait until I got home to call the dentist, and I managed to keep the tooth in a little bag.
I have found two half-full packets of mustard and cress seeds, best before Dec 2008. Nothing ventured, nothing gained - I'm trying to grow them on my kitchen window sill. I've also dug out my seed sprouter and half a packet of alfafa sprouting seeds , best before Dec 2010. Time will tell.
Must pitch in my story. I ate a meat pie from the chip shop opposite The Red Lion pub (always known as The Beast - perhaps NEQ knows it?) on the Spital in Old Aberdeen, and broke a wisdom tooth on the cast-iron pastry. It was during the June degree exams and there wasn't time to get to a dentist for several days. It hurt. The cold-hearted examiners were entirely unsympathetic.
I once broke a tooth on a slice of pizza. The tooth was broken so badly that the stump had to be removed surgically under twilight-sleep anesthesia.
The dentist wanted to replace it with an implant, but I told him that the Order of the Toothless Old Geezer is an ancient and noble one, whose ranks I would be privileged to join.
An idea: Offer a coupon good for one free package of toilet paper, and one free package of paper towels, on their next shopping excursion, to any grocery store customer who does NOT buy either toilet paper or paper towels on any given trip.
Minimum expenditure: say, $40.00 to prevent families from sending in members to pick up only a few things while head of family does the normal weekly shopping.
Bar-coded and scanned to prevent counterfeiting.
Reasonable expiration date, say one week from date of issue, to prevent hoarding.
An idea: Offer a coupon good for one free package of toilet paper, and one free package of paper towels, on their next shopping excursion, to any grocery store customer who does NOT buy either toilet paper or paper towels on any given trip.
Minimum expenditure: say, $40.00 to prevent families from sending in members to pick up only a few things while head of family does the normal weekly shopping.
Bar-coded and scanned to prevent counterfeiting.
Reasonable expiration date, say one week from date of issue, to prevent hoarding.
Comments
Tinned soups! Peanut butter! Loo roll! Argosies I tell you, argosies.
And I've got a collect slot for Thursday!!!
You set your table with a Christmas tree? Fascinating.
Here in UK Walmart own Asda. A search for "grits" on the Asda website turns up this: https://groceries.asda.com/product/cooking-ingredients/tropical-sun-cornmeal-coarse/910003145533
I commend the following -
Wilt/microwave spinach for 3 minutes. Slice and squeeze really hard to get out as much water as possible. Saute/microwave a chopped onion until soft. Fry pancetta or diced bacon until crisp. Mix the whole lot with 2 eggs beaten up in a quarter pint of milk and a handful of grated cheese. Add a pinch of cayenne. Pour into a pie dish and top with puff pastry and an egg glaze.
Surprisingly good.
Many parts are edible.
I, too have been taking advantage of the sunny, breezy weather in Embra, and for the first time in my life I hung washing out this afternoon. In complete defiance of Murphy's Law, the weather stayed lovely, and I now have clean, dry, fresh bedlinen.
I'd still prefer a tumble-dryer though ...
The grim humour among my clergy friends at the moment is "AA or Weight Watchers first when we come off social distancing?"
Sainsburys stock the same brand in the Carribean bit of the world food aisle. I usually have some in the cupboard and would have classed this as basically polenta. Is there that much of a difference?
That said, they can pretty much be swapped out for each other.
Light a candle if that's your thing. Turn on a virtual mass or service. Participate. That's where we're going here.
Please don't apologize. I'm not trying to criticize either. Just sharing some things I thought might be worthwhile.
I've been through a few very difficult experiences. All I've learned is probably cliché. To accept things as they are. The way I think about it is captured in my thoughts as "catastrophic thinking". That all will be well in the end. That we can get through anything. (I may also be insufferable)
Yesterday my Beloved Goddaughter came down with toothache. Her mother is waiting for a phone call as to what to do. If it was just me, I'd break my social distancing, and drive her to the dentist. But its not just me.
Beloved has been socially distancing, I think, but started later than us. She was at a concert with 9000 other people on Mar 15, the day before the "maximum 500" rule came in. And she was at school until 20 March and socialising with friends for a couple of days after that. Obviously, we're past the point where she might have caught it pre-lockdown. But she has to be out everyday walking her dog and I'm not convinced she's being particularly rigorous about not touching stuff.
The NE Man has said that he does not want to end up catching it because I've taken someone from a different household to the dentist. The North East Loon is also against it.
What would other Shipmates do?
Personally I wouldn't take her. There's a good chance she's asymptomatic, which doesn't mean she's not infectious. And if you've managed to avoid COVID 19 to now you don't really want to play Russian roulette with it now.
We went to a concert on 14 March, small, couple of hundred people, used hand sanitiser on the way in and out, my daughter masked up for the tube journey and washed hands when we got in. We didn't take up the tickets for a similar concert on 15 March as we weren't convinced it was safe and didn't want to risk a second tube journey in. I also worked with young people until the week before the schools closed (Guides, a couple of sessions of after school club), and I live in the commuter belt around London, so many of the young people I saw have parents working in London.
My daughter had what looked like COVID 19 - feverish, cough, followed by very nasty breathing difficulties for a couple of days 10-11 days after the first symptoms. These days that should have meant hospitalisation here, because that's now being recommended to go in, but not when she had them at the end of March. I've had very mild symptoms that may or may not be COVID 19, but have still had flu like exhaustion.
Yes, we did self-isolate for the full 14 days from the start of my daughter's symptoms, and more than 7 days after the start of anything I had that could be construed as symptoms. I had to shop on the day after we came out of self-isolation as we'd run out of some foods, but haven't been shopping since. The home delivery we booked when my daughter became ill arrived yesterday - 3 weeks after we booked the first possible slot - and the unhelpful substitutions mean I will have to shop again today.
Really, on what planet are 8 individual dark chocolate puddings a reasonable substitution for either GF flour or long life soya milk?
Her mother thinks she needs an emergency extraction; although I think that if there is an infection, she'd get a course of antibiotics first. If she just gets antibiotics she could get the bus back. I'm concerned about the possibility of an emergency extraction.
"Those wisdom teeth need to come out."
I make grunts of agreement around the fingers in my mouth, while thinking this would mean a later appointment.
Dentist gets ready to remove the teeth there and then.
I think ruefully about the sprats in my fridge that need eating for supper and might not be so easy to eat later.
They weren't. Sprats don't take well to sucking off the bones.
I only had two wisdom teeth, iirc on the top, none on the bottom, so they were going to cause me problems if left.
Assuming she needs an appointment, are any local taxi services still working?
I think it's the general feeling of ennui that we're all experiencing at the moment, combined with the fact that there's bugger-all we can do about it.
I also feel for @cgichard re having nothing to look forward to: I should have been going up to Orkney this weekend for a memorial service for David, but obviously that's not happening, and despite the reason for it, I was looking forward to seeing old friends and the whole family being together.
However, it's a beautiful day here, so I'm trying to feel as positive as I can, and will go out for a little amble shortly, which should help.
My waking hours seem to be getting shorter by the day, despite the lighter mornings/evenings, and the sunshine (though today is a bit cloudier, albeit warmish).
A feeling of ennui describes it very well.
(Maybe in a ice cube tray - pour a little water over so it stays in place.)
It really is a huge advantage, my routine starts there and therefore bedtime is sensible. 🐕
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/04/07/dog-wine-grocery-delivery/
The problem is that you don't know and need to make the best decision, which could affect life and death. Thus: the goddaughter mustn't go to the dentist without asking the dental office about what to do, though in some places there is a health line that you are to call and then follow their instructions. And we must all follow instructions to the letter.
The protocol here: call health line who would probably test goddaughter, and they would then give instructions or a public health order of what she must do. They may also contact the dental office. And also direct her re physician who may prescribe pain meds and antibiotic while she waits for COVI-19 testing to report.
Boeuf bourguignon, with a very nice Limoux red.
And the Tesco delivery turned up 10 minutes early. Never have I been so pleased by the sight of tinned soup.
Glad your goddaughter got antibiotics sorted, I hope a plan can be found for when she needs to get the tooth seen to.
(The Mater had only two wisdom teeth - the Pater always said, "She's higher on the evolutionary scale than the rest of us" - in a small jaw; the Pater had four wisdom teeth in a normal jaw. Naturally, I ended up with four wisdom teeth in a small jaw, and an impaction about which my oral surgeon was able to publish an article in a nationally recognized oral surgery journal. This was at the same time that I discovered my intolerance of codeine.)
I'm not complaining though - I wouldn't wish the affliction David had after having his removed on my worst enemy.
The dentist wanted to replace it with an implant, but I told him that the Order of the Toothless Old Geezer is an ancient and noble one, whose ranks I would be privileged to join.
Minimum expenditure: say, $40.00 to prevent families from sending in members to pick up only a few things while head of family does the normal weekly shopping.
Bar-coded and scanned to prevent counterfeiting.
Reasonable expiration date, say one week from date of issue, to prevent hoarding.
Far too sensible an idea, Miss Amanda!