I am back in England and Mr Boogs flew out to Germany yesterday to support my son and family. I came home a week early as we reckoned Mr Boogs wouldn’t get in if we left it any later.
I’m better staying here with the dogs and he’s better being there - he’s got a bike there and will be perfectly happy cycling by the river and in the forests when he isn’t on cooking and baby care duties.
I’m building up a routine and only watching the news once a day. The dogs have had nice long walks morning and afternoon. I take them separately as the puppy is only allowed 30 minutes at a time due to his growing bones.
He’s glad to see there’s still plenty of puppy food. 🐕
I'm beginning to wish for a complete lockdown here (yes! I know! Be careful!), if only to restrain FatherInCharge, who should be self-isolating, and withdrawing from public ministry, rather than still trying to carry on with services more-or-less as usual, except on Sundays.
Locked in, probably ...
We had a visit this afternoon from my niece's fiancé and Larry the Labradoodle; while we observed all the right protocols regarding human contact (no hugs, sitting as far away from each other as we could), the same couldn't be said of Larry, who was being delightfully affectionate.
Mum's care home is still open to visitors as long as they obey sensible rules so I went along this morning to help out with a poetry session, and assuming they are not on lock down will do the same on Saturday. I'd be a rubbish carer, but at least this is doing something towards keeping them all entertained.
Everything else I regularly do apart from my volunteering in a charity book shop has stopped, and all the nice things we'd got lined up, exhibitions, theatres, weekends away has been cancelled or postponed.
I think my house may end up a fraction tidier as well.
Mr F tends to treat clothes the way the Earth treats rocks - laying them down in strata until they are buried past knowledge. I finally snapped and re-organised the stack of IKEA drawers, the wicker kist, and his half of the communal wardrobe. Where I found a couple of skirts I've been missing the last decade or so.
Misfiled probably, especially if running out of space. I suspect that we will soon run out of coat hangers as the shirts won't be going back into rotation once washed.
I have rapidly realised I need only a fraction of the clothes in my wardrobe. Apart from seasonal items for extremes of heat or cold, I have Going Out of the House Clothes, Posh Event Clothes ( rarely worn) and Home Clothes. Home clothes it is, then.
My Going Out of the House Clothes are just newer, smarter versions of the Home Clothes too.
I have not had one moment of boredom yet, but am coming to the conclusion that I need a timetable. As a retired teacher this will not be a problem. I have a long list of a variety of things to occupy me, but I need a routine. Otherwise procrastination will be the order of the day.
I wish I could send you some coat hangers! There must be about 100 in my parents’ house. The clothes have gone into charity bags but there are various vintages of coat hanger clanking around in the wardrobes.
If we were laid off work I could carry on with the house clearance, but any council employees who can’t do their normal work and don’t have to self-isolate are being redeployed. I’ll probably have to do home care calls as the home carers are dropping like flies and I’m reasonably familiar with their procedures. I’d be happier about that if carers had been issued with masks, which they haven’t.
Enquiring minds need to know what your skirts were doing in his half of the wardrobe...
Yeah, I wonder. They have a life of their own. I'd put their disappearance down to the period in which I had agency cleaners coming in - which still leaves the amber necklace and the black stone one unaccounted. It would be nice if they turned up somewhere I hadn't looked but not counting on it.
I suspect that the people who bought the former Château Piglet might be wondering about the promiscuity of coat-hangers: when I was packing things up, I just pulled them off the hangers, folded them and chucked them in the packing-boxes.
If I'd put them in, I'd have needed another box ...
1. Going Out Clothes - jeans and pullovers, with casual shirts.
2. Home Clothes - jeans and pullovers, with casual shirts.
My lack of sartorial imagination is quite impressive. IYSWIM.
Your non-lack of satirical imagination is quite impressive too. Please keep it a-comin', ... between the various fits of coat-getting - which, when done regularly, is like working out at the gym!
And let's not forget the handwashing. It is like Pilates.
The Building Inspector has just been and approved the SIPs, including roof structure. All good, except he was due at 8am yesterday, not 9am today. Yesterday the crew could have started on the roof but now its raining
As it is we decided to break through between the extension and the main house, plus a few cosmetic bits and pieces elsewhere on-site so the time wasn't wasted entirely.
Today we have first fix plumbing and electrics going on and, we hope, windows going in. Thank God I chose to spend the extra for a weatherproof tent/cover so work could continue underneath: it means the brickies can get on with the outer skin.
That sounds like excellent progress, @TheOrganist - good luck with the next stage!
After some soul-searching and consultation with the family, we've decided to postpone the memorial service we'd been planning for David in Orkney in April. It may be that all unnecessary travel will not be happening by then anyway, but as we've a couple of "at risk" people (including one of my nieces, who's pregnant), we think putting it off is the most sensible option.
I'm disappointed; I was really looking forward to the whole mob getting together and seeing friends in Orkney, even aside from the "closure" aspect of scattering D's ashes.
Oh well - it's a postponement, not a cancellation, and I hope we'll be able to rearrange things in the not-too-distant future.
I am astonished. I’ve been in The Gambia (helping with construction work and repairing sewing machines) since Monday last week, and although we were seeing news and knew the situation was worsening, I missed most of the more detailed side of it. On Tuesday the local team organiser (a German National) got a text message from the German embassy saying we need to get out that night or risk being stuck there for at least a month (with no guarantee of course that we could get out or be allowed back to the UK even then) and, after much persistent chasing by the UK office, the team had 4 seats on a plane that meant we had 10 mins to pack and start off for the airport. At one point there were only 2 seats and my need to return was less than for 2 of the others, so that was interesting. We got there in time to be able to get our suitcases loaded which was a huge relief - before we checked in there was a distinct possibility that they’d have to be sent later - mine included washing I’d only done that evening, so it would have been a festering, mouldy, disgusting state weeks/months later. The journey meant a quick change at Lisbon, and landing at Manchester so I had to get myself to Heathrow to collect my car - travelling on the London Underground was not my idea of fun (actually, none of maths journey was - too many people in close proximity!) but needs must and all that.
Thank goodness we heard from the German embassy because we heard nothing from ours, and thank goodness it all kicked off when it did because tomorrow we were due to go further inland, out of internet access and phone signal, before flying home next Sunday.
To be honest, I felt safer from the virus in Gambia than I felt I would back in the UK, but they live so close to the edge there that there are other types of safety to consider and I am glad to be here (so is the cat - lap time is important to her!). But I feel saddened that I didn’t complete what I went for, so maybe I’ll have the chance to return some time soon.
On the way from Heathrow I dropped in on Mr Sainsbury and Mr Waitrose, just to get fruit, veg and eggs and was horrified at the emptiness of the shelves and the grim faces of the shoppers. At Mr Waitrose I even saw a rush for the loo-roll aisle when a new delivery came in.
Of course, all gatherings have been cancelled, but tomorrow the orchestra that I play in is trying a rehearsal via Zoom, which will be interesting.
I think my social distancing / personal lockdown will be similar to when I broke my leg a couple of years ago - I have a long to-do list and lots of good intentions for things that float around in the background, and hope I’ll not fritter the time too much on my iPad.
Welcome back to Bor*s Island, @daisydaisy (IYSWIM)! Point taken about The Gambia, but, as you say, there are different issues of safety in other places.
Yes, it's been a shock for all of us, especially the large number of Totally Incontinent people, now frantically buying anything made of soft paper.
One feels that they should have been to see their GP long before now...
At Mr Waitrose I even saw a rush for the loo-roll aisle when a new delivery came in.
Oh - they are still making them, then? It's so long since I actually saw a pack of toilet rolls on a shop shelf I thought they'd gone out of fashion. On my 6am foray to Tesco's this morning I did manage to purchase a bag of pasta. As I commented to the person next to me who was doing the same, "You don't see many of those about these days, do you?"
Mr Nen had his home group virtually yesterday evening via Skype and this afternoon I'm attending my small group via WhatsApp. This could be interesting as the other people in it are even less technologically able than I am and are looking to me to facilitate.
Glad you are back safely, Daisydaisy, that must have been a nightmare journey for you.
I am hoping very much that I have enough of the basics of life to last me until the delivery and production channels have got going again, and that Supermarkets all have the sense to limit each customer to two or three of the same item. I see Tesco and Aldi are already doing so, and that applies to online deliveries too, as I found I was limited to one pack of leeks!
Gosh, Daisy, that was eventful.
My home group is meeting up to pray together using Zoom tonight, as we have a regular joint prayer meeting with other other NF churches booked. I’m not up to it though and my husband will be doing his usual Friday work social online.
Day 4 of quarantine.
No 2 son still has persistent cough, especially in the morning. No fever or affect on his asthma. As mentioned before, several of his friends are also off with coughs but otherwise well. Apparently 13% of the kids at school were off on Wednesday.
I still have a sore throat but now have a more developed cough. Still no fever. Definitely feel rough though.
As I’m not really due back from Gambia until Monday I’m making the most of some unallocated days, and I am really pleased with what I’ve achieved so far.
First I made a red flag to hang over where the data cable comes from the path into my garden so that when work being on upgrading the path to a cycle way the workers will have no excuse if they cut through the cable (as experienced by a neighbour when they got as far as her home).
Then I tidied my back garden (looking so different to when I left only 11 days ago) and cut back all the dead growth that I’d left for over-wintering creatures - it’s not a large garden so didn’t take long, but it looks ready for spring. The bluebells are looking promising, even though they aren’t due for a couple more months.
And just now I dug out all 4 of my advent arches and made sure they work - you may have seen the suggestion by Churches Together in England to light a candle in the window each Sunday at 7pm. I’ve decided to have an advent arch in a window instead of a candle - I’ve got mine on a timer that means it’s lit from 7 to 10 every evening so that it covers Compline at Nine (a new Farcebonk group) and I’m hoping the neighbours understand the significance (they can always ask.... from a distance of course).
Now for lunch - hummus that I made yesterday from my accidental chick pea hoard.
@daisydaisy , glad you are safe back, though that sounds like journey and a half. @Heavenlyannie , I hope you feel better soon.
I had the first of my 'virtual' writing classes today. Our tutor set us a couple of tasks and then we emailed each other the finished work. Not the same as meeting in person, but better than nothing.
I'm just back from a nice little amble - it's 7° and sunny here - good ambling conditions!
In accordance with instructions from my sister, I forebore from entering any retail establishments, even though we probably could have done with some fresh veggies, if such a thing were to be had.
My niece and Larry came round earlier, and they've gone off for a longer, muddier amble with my sister. I didn't get round to looking for wellies before things started closing down, and I really don't enjoy ambling when I think I'm likely to go base over apex!
Last month I held a quiz to raise funds for the project in Gambia that I was with. It included a chick pea tagine and I over-estimated how many tins I’d need. I’m very happy with that!
Nipped round to the local butcher first thing - they're doing a roaring trade and seem to have plenty of stock. (Yesterday I bought the ingredients for Gong Bao Chicken. Apart from the chicken). Then to a corner shop, which had a few gaps, but still had 90% of the things I wanted.
Mooched round the garden for an hour or so, surprised to see so many bulbs had survived (though the tulips are coming up a bit mangled).
Thriftily turned some ageing bread into a savoury bake for lunch.
Will now go back to crocheting up some lurid items from the Stash Basket (Bright Clothes for Dark Days!).
And I will fall asleep because I have been awake since 5.
But then the Gong Bao hen! - for which there appears to be several thousand largely divergent recipes. But as long as it goes with the Gewürztraminer.
Then, because we're party animals, Mr F and I may watch a DVD of television from the 1960s.
We had a (potential) disaster. The plumber came to change some taps. About an hour after he'd left, my wife came into the bathroom and found A LEAK ... which had doused the cupboards underneath including THREE TOILET ROLLS! I turned the water off and he's been back to fix it ... and, when shopping, I was able to replace said Essentials.
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I’m better staying here with the dogs and he’s better being there - he’s got a bike there and will be perfectly happy cycling by the river and in the forests when he isn’t on cooking and baby care duties.
I’m building up a routine and only watching the news once a day. The dogs have had nice long walks morning and afternoon. I take them separately as the puppy is only allowed 30 minutes at a time due to his growing bones.
He’s glad to see there’s still plenty of puppy food. 🐕
https://photos.app.goo.gl/xFLknZ7ya1rWShVZ6
O...wait...
I'm beginning to wish for a complete lockdown here (yes! I know! Be careful!), if only to restrain FatherInCharge, who should be self-isolating, and withdrawing from public ministry, rather than still trying to carry on with services more-or-less as usual, except on Sundays.
I have ratted on him to our Diocesan.
Locked in, probably ...
We had a visit this afternoon from my niece's fiancé and Larry the Labradoodle; while we observed all the right protocols regarding human contact (no hugs, sitting as far away from each other as we could), the same couldn't be said of Larry, who was being delightfully affectionate.
He really is one very adorable wee dog.
SOUP has been manufactured - do help yourselves!
Everything else I regularly do apart from my volunteering in a charity book shop has stopped, and all the nice things we'd got lined up, exhibitions, theatres, weekends away has been cancelled or postponed.
Mr F tends to treat clothes the way the Earth treats rocks - laying them down in strata until they are buried past knowledge. I finally snapped and re-organised the stack of IKEA drawers, the wicker kist, and his half of the communal wardrobe. Where I found a couple of skirts I've been missing the last decade or so.
We do probably have too many clothes.
1. Going Out Clothes - jeans and pullovers, with casual shirts.
2. Home Clothes - jeans and pullovers, with casual shirts.
My lack of sartorial imagination is quite impressive. IYSWIM.
I have not had one moment of boredom yet, but am coming to the conclusion that I need a timetable. As a retired teacher this will not be a problem. I have a long list of a variety of things to occupy me, but I need a routine. Otherwise procrastination will be the order of the day.
Yeah, I wonder. They have a life of their own. I'd put their disappearance down to the period in which I had agency cleaners coming in - which still leaves the amber necklace and the black stone one unaccounted. It would be nice if they turned up somewhere I hadn't looked but not counting on it.
If I'd put them in, I'd have needed another box ...
* possibly half-on, half-off.
And let's not forget the handwashing. It is like Pilates.
Yes! - I even have a friend whom I support with gifts of aforementioned items every now and then!
That explains a lot! 🤣🤣
As it is we decided to break through between the extension and the main house, plus a few cosmetic bits and pieces elsewhere on-site so the time wasn't wasted entirely.
Today we have first fix plumbing and electrics going on and, we hope, windows going in. Thank God I chose to spend the extra for a weatherproof tent/cover so work could continue underneath: it means the brickies can get on with the outer skin.
Yes, just the same, with added Fleecy Thing, and Cap.
After some soul-searching and consultation with the family, we've decided to postpone the memorial service we'd been planning for David in Orkney in April. It may be that all unnecessary travel will not be happening by then anyway, but as we've a couple of "at risk" people (including one of my nieces, who's pregnant), we think putting it off is the most sensible option.
I'm disappointed; I was really looking forward to the whole mob getting together and seeing friends in Orkney, even aside from the "closure" aspect of scattering D's ashes.
Oh well - it's a postponement, not a cancellation, and I hope we'll be able to rearrange things in the not-too-distant future.
Thank goodness we heard from the German embassy because we heard nothing from ours, and thank goodness it all kicked off when it did because tomorrow we were due to go further inland, out of internet access and phone signal, before flying home next Sunday.
To be honest, I felt safer from the virus in Gambia than I felt I would back in the UK, but they live so close to the edge there that there are other types of safety to consider and I am glad to be here (so is the cat - lap time is important to her!). But I feel saddened that I didn’t complete what I went for, so maybe I’ll have the chance to return some time soon.
On the way from Heathrow I dropped in on Mr Sainsbury and Mr Waitrose, just to get fruit, veg and eggs and was horrified at the emptiness of the shelves and the grim faces of the shoppers. At Mr Waitrose I even saw a rush for the loo-roll aisle when a new delivery came in.
Of course, all gatherings have been cancelled, but tomorrow the orchestra that I play in is trying a rehearsal via Zoom, which will be interesting.
I think my social distancing / personal lockdown will be similar to when I broke my leg a couple of years ago - I have a long to-do list and lots of good intentions for things that float around in the background, and hope I’ll not fritter the time too much on my iPad.
Yes, it's been a shock for all of us, especially the large number of Totally Incontinent people, now frantically buying anything made of soft paper.
One feels that they should have been to see their GP long before now...
Oh - they are still making them, then? It's so long since I actually saw a pack of toilet rolls on a shop shelf I thought they'd gone out of fashion. On my 6am foray to Tesco's this morning I did manage to purchase a bag of pasta. As I commented to the person next to me who was doing the same, "You don't see many of those about these days, do you?"
Mr Nen had his home group virtually yesterday evening via Skype and this afternoon I'm attending my small group via WhatsApp. This could be interesting as the other people in it are even less technologically able than I am and are looking to me to facilitate.
I am hoping very much that I have enough of the basics of life to last me until the delivery and production channels have got going again, and that Supermarkets all have the sense to limit each customer to two or three of the same item. I see Tesco and Aldi are already doing so, and that applies to online deliveries too, as I found I was limited to one pack of leeks!
How will it all end???
My home group is meeting up to pray together using Zoom tonight, as we have a regular joint prayer meeting with other other NF churches booked. I’m not up to it though and my husband will be doing his usual Friday work social online.
Day 4 of quarantine.
No 2 son still has persistent cough, especially in the morning. No fever or affect on his asthma. As mentioned before, several of his friends are also off with coughs but otherwise well. Apparently 13% of the kids at school were off on Wednesday.
I still have a sore throat but now have a more developed cough. Still no fever. Definitely feel rough though.
It looks like a really nice day here; having been cooped up in the house since Tuesday, I might attempt an amble.
As I’m not really due back from Gambia until Monday I’m making the most of some unallocated days, and I am really pleased with what I’ve achieved so far.
First I made a red flag to hang over where the data cable comes from the path into my garden so that when work being on upgrading the path to a cycle way the workers will have no excuse if they cut through the cable (as experienced by a neighbour when they got as far as her home).
Then I tidied my back garden (looking so different to when I left only 11 days ago) and cut back all the dead growth that I’d left for over-wintering creatures - it’s not a large garden so didn’t take long, but it looks ready for spring. The bluebells are looking promising, even though they aren’t due for a couple more months.
And just now I dug out all 4 of my advent arches and made sure they work - you may have seen the suggestion by Churches Together in England to light a candle in the window each Sunday at 7pm. I’ve decided to have an advent arch in a window instead of a candle - I’ve got mine on a timer that means it’s lit from 7 to 10 every evening so that it covers Compline at Nine (a new Farcebonk group) and I’m hoping the neighbours understand the significance (they can always ask.... from a distance of course).
Now for lunch - hummus that I made yesterday from my accidental chick pea hoard.
I had the first of my 'virtual' writing classes today. Our tutor set us a couple of tasks and then we emailed each other the finished work. Not the same as meeting in person, but better than nothing.
I'm just back from a nice little amble - it's 7° and sunny here - good ambling conditions!
In accordance with instructions from my sister, I forebore from entering any retail establishments, even though we probably could have done with some fresh veggies, if such a thing were to be had.
My niece and Larry came round earlier, and they've gone off for a longer, muddier amble with my sister. I didn't get round to looking for wellies before things started closing down, and I really don't enjoy ambling when I think I'm likely to go base over apex!
Mooched round the garden for an hour or so, surprised to see so many bulbs had survived (though the tulips are coming up a bit mangled).
Thriftily turned some ageing bread into a savoury bake for lunch.
Will now go back to crocheting up some lurid items from the Stash Basket (Bright Clothes for Dark Days!).
And I will fall asleep because I have been awake since 5.
But then the Gong Bao hen! - for which there appears to be several thousand largely divergent recipes. But as long as it goes with the Gewürztraminer.
Then, because we're party animals, Mr F and I may watch a DVD of television from the 1960s.
We had a (potential) disaster. The plumber came to change some taps. About an hour after he'd left, my wife came into the bathroom and found A LEAK ... which had doused the cupboards underneath including THREE TOILET ROLLS! I turned the water off and he's been back to fix it ... and, when shopping, I was able to replace said Essentials.