RootsChat.Com

My surgery is very keen for me to get my Covid jab - I have had 2 text messages and an email from them over the past week!  Actually I booked my jab after receiving the first text, so I imagine something has gone wrong with their system up there. 

At one of the endless coffee (and cake, of course) mornings held in the village I learned that 4 of my acquaintances were in hospital for various reasons.  I'm afraid we're getting old and suffering age-related illnesses, but it's interesting that most of the societies supported by volunteers still rely on people in their late 70s or even 80s to serve on committees, host parties and so on.  I can understand that younger people are busy with their families and jobs, but where are the middle-aged ones to take over from us?

Many years ago we went to live in an old hall which had been uninhabited for some time.  We shared the house with my brother's family and worked hard at renovating it, but we soon found traces of mice, so used to set traps for them every night, each with a blob of Mars bar on it.  During the night we would hear these traps going off with a snap and every morning my son would remove the dead mice and throw them out into the surrounding woods.

Now we live at the other end of the country and the problem is rats, not in the house, I hasten to add, but they nest under sheds and visit the compost bin, so my husband has to put rat poison down from time to time.  It's a common thing nowadays - they say you are only a few yards from a rat whether you live in the country or in a town.  Viktoria, I'm like you, and don't like the bare tails of rats and mice, though I'm OK with hamsters and gerbils.

We are having the second day in a row of warm sunshine!  The temperature is set to drop a little later, but next week is forecast to be fine every day.  It's unbelievable!  The farmers are struggling with their crops in the sodden fields, though, and there is talk of veg prices rising.

I've just received my invitation to have a Spring booster Covid jab from the surgery and will have my annual review at the same time.  We oldies who have underlying conditions are reviewed every year to see that we are on the right medication and so on.  There are blood tests, too, height and weight and a few questions about our lifestyle.  We don't get to see a doctor, of course, just a nurse, though we would be summoned back when the test results come back if anything was of concern.

Thanks for the helpful hints 🙂

This week a group of us visited our local food bank, not to collect goods for ourselves, but to see how it is organised.  It is very impressive and does not only give out food, but attempts to aid those calling for the food to improve their situation, so there are links with Citizens' Advice, Social Services and others.  And it's not only food (and good advice) that they give out.  There are toiletries, nappies, cleaning products, toilet rolls and even tents and sleeping bags for rough sleepers. 

We were very impressed with the whole set-up and the care which goes into dealing with their customers.  I was surprised, however, that they try to limit their food distribution to 6 weeks per person.  This is apparently because they try to help people to improve their situation and find ways out of their food poverty.  They are working in part with the Salvation Army, who we know do a great deal to improve society, but also with other distributors, supermarkets and so on.  We all left a generous cash donation, which they can put towards the stuff which they actually buy in.   This includes apparently eggs, milk and spreads.  Local allotments donate fruit and veg, too.

They say that although the amount of food being donated has stayed roughly the same, the number of people applying for it has grown considerably, including some who are in paid work.  What a sad reflection on our society!

My brother was adopted through this agency.  When he married, my mother offered him the correspondence with the agency, but he turned it down, saying that our parents were the only parents he wanted.  Much later in life he regretted this and after our parents died he set about finding his heritage.  We had a great deal of help from various sources, including RootsChatters, and he was able to make contact with his birth mother's brother and various cousins. 
I was the miracle baby who was born to my parents later, after they had been told that they would never be able to have children.  One elderly aunt inquired whether my parents would be sending my brother back, now that they had one of their own!  We were a very close family and my brother was my hero.  I also became friends with my brothers cousins in those later years.