We are fortunate in that there are two garden centres on the outskirts of our city (one of which we went on Saturday) are just legal to visit!
You see, you've now got me worried about scenarios that don't even affect me yet! I'm now thinking that our local garden centre is just past the boundary between Cambridge and South Cambs...
@Piglet - you could be lucky in that essential maintenance is being carried out, for which you will not have to pay a share!
That's sort of what my solicitor said; he says the sellers' solicitor is a bit slow on it, but doesn't think it should be anything to worry about.
In other news, I've been asked for a job interview via MS Teams either tomorrow or Thursday. It's with a company called Robertson's, who appear to be a construction company* (according to their website, they built the new hospital in Orkney), but it looks as if the job might actually be in a hospital setting.
I'm in a right tizz now, as I've never used Teams, and have very little idea of how to set it up, although I think S. probably does, as she used it for work meetings.
I need the old "help!" smilie ...
* I know that makes me look awfully vague, but the e-mail had two different addresses on it, and I've applied for so many jobs they're beginning to get a bit blurred.
our local garden centre is just past the boundary between Cambridge and South Cambs...
Oh, I do miss that particular garden centre! Nothing on that scale, nor of that quality round here - or not that we have found yet
Our nearest one does sell knitting yarns of a recognised brand, which is saving me taking a bus into the city at the moment, and I'm buying my garden requisites online.
@Piglet very good luck with Teams, which seems to need a very strong Wi-Fi signal to work well. The CofS has been trying to use it for all sorts of virtual meetings, as they don't trust Zoom, and those of us who live far from the central belt have found it very difficult indeed. However if you are just interviewing, not trying to vote (!) it might be relatively straightforward. I do hope it goes well.
If opportunity offers @Piglet express your delight at having the opportunity to use an app of which you had heard much. Convey the impression of someone totally relaxed about changes in working methods since you were last employed, and positively eager to learn. While still emphasising the timeless virtues of efficiency, accuracy, attention to detail etc that you acquired in the pre-tech era.
I’ve only just started to use Teams for meetings (previously used a Skype for a Business) and haven’t experienced any problems. The uni won’t allow us to use Zoom for security reasons.
We are back home. The flight was uneventful and the airport still a ghost town. Every person on the plane had a row to themselves!
Now we go and collect the dogs, one just before lunchtime and one just before tea time. Then back to the usual routine tomorrow.
I’ve done plenty of ambling in Heidelberg in the forest and by the river, and intend to add an extra dog-walk to each day to keep up the healthy step count I’ve been building up.
Even my technically challenged manager has managed to get Teams to run with some handholding. My problems with it can all be traced to the fact that my work laptop was out of the Ark in technical terms.
I’ve done plenty of ambling in Heidelberg in the forest and by the river, and intend to add an extra dog-walk to each day to keep up the healthy step count I’ve been building up.
Welcome back!
My daughter gave me an old step-counter of hers at the weekend. Consequently I'm doing much leaping about, the odd burst of impromptu Zumba in the kitchen, taking the scenic route to the sitting room, that kind of thing.
I'm not sure how accurate it is, mind you - it reckons I take 45 steps to get from kitchen to front door - and Casa Nen isn't a mansion!
We are back home. The flight was uneventful and the airport still a ghost town. Every person on the plane had a row to themselves!
Now we go and collect the dogs, one just before lunchtime and one just before tea time. Then back to the usual routine tomorrow.
I’ve done plenty of ambling in Heidelberg in the forest and by the river, and intend to add an extra dog-walk to each day to keep up the healthy step count I’ve been building up.
Welcome back, Boogie - don't you need to quarantine for a fortnight?
Thanks for all the Teams advice - I'm having a practice session shortly to see how I get on (thanks @Doublethink). My laptop's only a few weeks old, so it should work, shouldn't it?
I was surprised, on a visit to hospital yesterday, to see the receptionist in my department using what looked suspiciously like Windows 7.
I am not: my trust was planning to change over to 10 this year, but events have delayed the roll-out. Things are complicated by needing to get certain systems working on the new framework, and by the fact that some PCs won't cope, but the budget to change them has disappeared.
Piglet, you should be fine on a brand new laptop.
Currently wondering when Dragonlet 3 is going to arrive. It's getting a bit of a joke with the head at school when I waddle up to the gate in the morning!
Thankfully the full guidance on the joy of being in tier 2 lockdown means that Mr Dragon's parents can still have 1 and 2 in a "childcare bubble" when I am in labou.
It doesn't help the local numbers that one of the universities is doing asymptomatic testing. I just hope it's worth it in terms of research data as to how many tests create 1000+ cases.
Brilliant @piglet. One of my nieces got a job that we didn't think she had a chance of landing when they told her twenty minutes before the interview that they'd switched platforms to Teams. She had to download it and get it set up. We reckon the fact she showed how comfortable she was with technology helped swing it. Having had a practice you should be fine.
Hope Dragonlet 3 makes an appearance soon @Pendragon
Welcome back, Boogie - don't you need to quarantine for a fortnight?
No, Germany isn’t on the list.
When we go in November we’ll have to get a test at Frankfurt, but we’ve seen the testing station and it’s very quiet. You wait for the results (45 minutes) then you can go on your way. It’s a free service.
I checked: 10 days quarantine (longer if symptoms develop).
Yes, we’d have to go straight to the flat, do not pass go and do not collect £200. But we are lucky, a lovely place to stay, and good friends and family close by so we’d be well looked after with food deliveries.
Fingers crossed indeed - glad you had a good time with the family.
The new measures here mean I won't get to see any of the smaller, cuter members of the clan for a while, which is, as the late Sir Terry Pratchett would have put it, an embuggerance.
Oh dear people viewing this house isn't good for the waistline. We had a viewing for 5.30. Intention was to go for a walk to get out of the estate agent way, but it was pouring. So we headed to the nearest pub for a couple of glasses of wine and a vegan burger each instead
It's another dreich day in Embra, but as it doesn't appear to be Actually Raining at the moment, I think I'll go and have an amble - I've been sat in front of the laptop for what feels like hours filling in job applications, on the principle that I shouldn't count my chickens regarding the interview ...
I must say I prefer Zoom, but I guess it is what you are used to.
My laptop is showing its age, in that virtual backgrounds in both Zoom and Teams (which I have to use for school governors stuff) don't work. So people have to put up with my messy study.
At one local church leaders' Zoom meeting, the Salvation Army Major had a beautiful Greek island as his backdrop (he hails from Greece - and started off in the Orthodox Church!).
At the following week's meeting, his backdrop was that of his SA Hall's interior. Bit of a come-down this week, he said drily...
ION, I had my flu jab today, being a Poor Old Pensioner, at 1233pm PRECISELY, they said. At 1234pm PRECISELY, I emerged from the stabbing room clinic, and hobbled to the car.
Talk about well-organised - most impressive. In and out like a dose of the proverbials, and I hardly felt the needle going in. I still needed PIE and CHIPs for lunch, though.
My sister had a flu jab the other day. They used a football field and asked people to drive if they could ... she just rolled down the window, rolled up her arm and hey presto! She was most impressed.
Glad to hear your Salvation Army is still there. He used to be a colleague in West London - a very interesting theological combination of Sally Army and Orthodoxy!
Ah yes - Major X is a lovely man, and very highly regarded by our local churches.
I believe he was due to retire (or move on) a while back, but happily he is still in action here!
My flu jab was at our village GP surgery, where parking is a bit difficult sometimes, but I was fortunate enough to get into the Disabled bay on the street, right by the door...
I managed to get mine courtesy of the hospital Antenatal clinic drop off last week, as the doctor was giving me a date by which I wouldn't be eligible. There was a little bit of paperwork to go with it, so not as quick as Bishops Finger's GP. The Dragonlets have had theirs organised for school/GP as appropriate. The school form actually got done in July when the link was emailed home!
We had a telephone parents' consultation with Dragonlet 1's teacher today, as there is no in person session this term. No surprises in what she had to say.
I had my flu jab last week at a well known high street store - they emailed me a while back inviting me in as I’m eligible (asthma) and I’m glad I took them up on that as the surgery hasn’t got through to inviting my category yet.
This afternoon I squished my grape harvest - I’ve not quite got my head around treading them, so squishing by hand does the job. The squishiness will be ready to begin fermenting tomorrow.
I have never had a flu jab. Mr Puzzler has and had an adverse reaction. He has various health problems and has discussed it with his GP in the past and agreed that it is not in his best interest.
As we are pretty much staying in the house, not mixing with people, especially now that cases of Covid have risen hugely in our area, I am of the opinion that the steps we are taking to avoid Covid should also mean that we should avoid the flu. No guarantees of course. We are no longer going to church, just to local shops at quiet times. Nothing else.
Mr RoS and I had our 'flu injections last month.
Done at the GP surgery, which is under 10mins walk away from home. They held a Saturday afternoon clinic for it, with two injection stations set up in the waiting area. You presented your invitation letter at the front door (after socially distanced waiting on the drive) went to the station indicated, had the injection and left by the side door, so no cross-pollination with anything infectious. Quick and easy.
I used to get the flu jab when I was a nurse but haven’t for years. My 16 year old son has treated asthma and I presume he will get called in this year (he hasn’t previously) but I’m going to enquire whether I should have it too because of my post-viral syndrome (my own asthma is too mild to qualify).
Mr RoS and I had our 'flu injections last month.
Done at the GP surgery, which is under 10mins walk away from home. They held a Saturday afternoon clinic for it, with two injection stations set up in the waiting area. You presented your invitation letter at the front door (after socially distanced waiting on the drive) went to the station indicated, had the injection and left by the side door, so no cross-pollination with anything infectious. Quick and easy.
Our local GP surgery does it in just the same way.
If we're all taking precautions to limit the spread of Covid, won't these limit the spread of flu as well?. Not a medic, so further explanation welcome.
Mess ups over our household flu jabs mean that I can feel a carbohydrate session coming on.
Made jam , various cakes and have taken to doorstep wedges of bread for the sandwiches recently!
In short we will be making Two round trips for our flu jabs
If we're all taking precautions to limit the spread of Covid, won't these limit the spread of flu as well?. Not a medic, so further explanation welcome.
Yes, it should do. The issue is that getting flu and coronavirus at the same time will worsen the severity of symptoms so they want to address that. Getting the flu jab also means fewer people in overcrowded hospitals with flu.
In my own case, getting flu while having post viral syndrome (from covid) will likely worsen my post viral syndrome. As I still have it 7 months after having covid, I don't want to go back to the beginning.
As far as I know, I've only had anything resembling flu twice - once shortly after we moved to Canada, where I assume it was a case of being exposed to new bugs and I spent a few days feeling as though I'd been kicked by a horse; and once just after my dad's funeral (I very suddenly started feeling extremely unwell that evening), when the horse was back and in fine kicking fettle. Nearly all of us had it in some form or other (apart from David, surprisingly, as he was quite possibly beginning to be ill by then although we didn't know it). I had a thoroughly miserable trip back to Canada, being pursued not only by the flu but also by the Beast from the East ...
I'm messing about on here trying (and failing) to calm my nerves before my interview, which is due to start via Teams in about 10 minutes' time.
After that, I think an amble would be a good idea (assuming it's still not raining), possibly followed by some WINE (for medicinal purposes, you understand).
Comments
You see, you've now got me worried about scenarios that don't even affect me yet! I'm now thinking that our local garden centre is just past the boundary between Cambridge and South Cambs...
I knew you weren't talking to me, just my mind wandering.
That's sort of what my solicitor said; he says the sellers' solicitor is a bit slow on it, but doesn't think it should be anything to worry about.
In other news, I've been asked for a job interview via MS Teams either tomorrow or Thursday. It's with a company called Robertson's, who appear to be a construction company* (according to their website, they built the new hospital in Orkney), but it looks as if the job might actually be in a hospital setting.
I'm in a right tizz now, as I've never used Teams, and have very little idea of how to set it up, although I think S. probably does, as she used it for work meetings.
I need the old "help!" smilie ...
* I know that makes me look awfully vague, but the e-mail had two different addresses on it, and I've applied for so many jobs they're beginning to get a bit blurred.
We are back home. The flight was uneventful and the airport still a ghost town. Every person on the plane had a row to themselves!
Now we go and collect the dogs, one just before lunchtime and one just before tea time. Then back to the usual routine tomorrow.
I’ve done plenty of ambling in Heidelberg in the forest and by the river, and intend to add an extra dog-walk to each day to keep up the healthy step count I’ve been building up.
Welcome back!
My daughter gave me an old step-counter of hers at the weekend. Consequently I'm doing much leaping about, the odd burst of impromptu Zumba in the kitchen, taking the scenic route to the sitting room, that kind of thing.
I'm not sure how accurate it is, mind you - it reckons I take 45 steps to get from kitchen to front door - and Casa Nen isn't a mansion!
Waves... Yup, Windows 7 here. In process of upgrade reached me yet....
Thanks for all the Teams advice - I'm having a practice session shortly to see how I get on (thanks @Doublethink). My laptop's only a few weeks old, so it should work, shouldn't it?
I am not: my trust was planning to change over to 10 this year, but events have delayed the roll-out. Things are complicated by needing to get certain systems working on the new framework, and by the fact that some PCs won't cope, but the budget to change them has disappeared.
Piglet, you should be fine on a brand new laptop.
Currently wondering when Dragonlet 3 is going to arrive. It's getting a bit of a joke with the head at school when I waddle up to the gate in the morning!
Thankfully the full guidance on the joy of being in tier 2 lockdown means that Mr Dragon's parents can still have 1 and 2 in a "childcare bubble" when I am in labou.
It doesn't help the local numbers that one of the universities is doing asymptomatic testing. I just hope it's worth it in terms of research data as to how many tests create 1000+ cases.
Pendragon, very best of luck with Dragonlet3!
Hope Dragonlet 3 makes an appearance soon @Pendragon
No, Germany isn’t on the list.
When we go in November we’ll have to get a test at Frankfurt, but we’ve seen the testing station and it’s very quiet. You wait for the results (45 minutes) then you can go on your way. It’s a free service.
(We faced a similar way of doing things at Jersey last month, but couldn't go in the end as the restrictions increased.)
I have no doubt that Germany will be well-organised (and polite) in such an unhappy event...
Yes, we’d have to go straight to the flat, do not pass go and do not collect £200. But we are lucky, a lovely place to stay, and good friends and family close by so we’d be well looked after with food deliveries.
Fingers crossed that doesn’t happen tho!! 🤞
The new measures here mean I won't get to see any of the smaller, cuter members of the clan for a while, which is, as the late Sir Terry Pratchett would have put it, an embuggerance.
Who says I'm paranoid?
My laptop is showing its age, in that virtual backgrounds in both Zoom and Teams (which I have to use for school governors stuff) don't work. So people have to put up with my messy study.
At the following week's meeting, his backdrop was that of his SA Hall's interior. Bit of a come-down this week, he said drily...
ION, I had my flu jab today, being a Poor Old Pensioner, at 1233pm PRECISELY, they said. At 1234pm PRECISELY, I emerged from the stabbing room clinic, and hobbled to the car.
Talk about well-organised - most impressive. In and out like a dose of the proverbials, and I hardly felt the needle going in. I still needed PIE and CHIPs for lunch, though.
Glad to hear your Salvation Army is still there. He used to be a colleague in West London - a very interesting theological combination of Sally Army and Orthodoxy!
I believe he was due to retire (or move on) a while back, but happily he is still in action here!
My flu jab was at our village GP surgery, where parking is a bit difficult sometimes, but I was fortunate enough to get into the Disabled bay on the street, right by the door...
We had a telephone parents' consultation with Dragonlet 1's teacher today, as there is no in person session this term. No surprises in what she had to say.
This afternoon I squished my grape harvest - I’ve not quite got my head around treading them, so squishing by hand does the job. The squishiness will be ready to begin fermenting tomorrow.
As we are pretty much staying in the house, not mixing with people, especially now that cases of Covid have risen hugely in our area, I am of the opinion that the steps we are taking to avoid Covid should also mean that we should avoid the flu. No guarantees of course. We are no longer going to church, just to local shops at quiet times. Nothing else.
Done at the GP surgery, which is under 10mins walk away from home. They held a Saturday afternoon clinic for it, with two injection stations set up in the waiting area. You presented your invitation letter at the front door (after socially distanced waiting on the drive) went to the station indicated, had the injection and left by the side door, so no cross-pollination with anything infectious. Quick and easy.
Our local GP surgery does it in just the same way.
Made jam , various cakes and have taken to doorstep wedges of bread for the sandwiches recently!
In short we will be making Two round trips for our flu jabs
Now then , where s that biscuit recipe gone......
Yes, it should do. The issue is that getting flu and coronavirus at the same time will worsen the severity of symptoms so they want to address that. Getting the flu jab also means fewer people in overcrowded hospitals with flu.
In my own case, getting flu while having post viral syndrome (from covid) will likely worsen my post viral syndrome. As I still have it 7 months after having covid, I don't want to go back to the beginning.
I'm messing about on here trying (and failing) to calm my nerves before my interview, which is due to start via Teams in about 10 minutes' time.
After that, I think an amble would be a good idea (assuming it's still not raining), possibly followed by some WINE (for medicinal purposes, you understand).