Diary > Wednesday, 1st April

[Lydart]

Hope Trystan doesn't mind .... I've started todays !


Can I confess that 'wot i rote' the other day was absolute rubbish ?   I  DO NOT slop around all day in battered slippers and a jumper full of holes .... but who would care if I did ?

Today so far I have showered, porridged, put the rubbish out as I heard the bin-lorry approaching, and gave the bin men a thumbs up.   

Still reading last Saturdays paper ... I normally throw out the money, sports, travel, glam living sections, but decided as I'd paid for it, I ought to read all of it .... don't think I'll bother again.

What to do for the rest of today ??   Wash the porridge pot ??   Aha ...... Who knows this ?

Scouring out the porridge pot
Round and round and round!

Out with all the scraith and scoopery,
Lift the eely ooly droopery,
Chase the glubbery slubbery gloopery
Round and round and round!

Out with all the doleful dithery,
Ladle out the slimy slithery,
Hunt and catch the hithery thithery,
Round and round and round!

Out with all the obbly gubbly,
On the stove it burns so bubbly,
Use the spoon and use it doubly,
Round and round and round.

[Ruskie]

Woke up at about 7:30, Twinings Assam tea and Kelloggs Crunchy Nut Cornflakes for breakfast.

Read the news and checked emails and rootschat on my iPad mini.

OH and I went to Costco, loads of traffic on the major roads. Slightly concerned due to it being busier than expected and several people getting too close for comfort. Purchased everything we wanted including toilet paper for daughter #2.

Home in time for lunch and a sandwich and a Costco muffin. Yum.

Messed around on the iPad till daughter #1 arrived to pick up her Costco groceries. Took dog for a walk.

Got taken in my Michael in Cumbria’s April Fool’s post. What a meany he is. 

I am a few hours ahead of UK .... Late dinner of Costco chicken and salad.

Good night to all except Michael. 

[trystan]

Not a bad morning, a bit overcast, perhaps a bit warmer than yesterday. 

I hadn't especially noticed any birdsong this morning when I woke at 6:30.

Porridge, too much milk this morning. I was fishing round in my bowl for the oats.

Cup of tea

Read most of my digital newspaper. Couldn't spot an April Fool story unless it was the one about turning carbon dioxide into vodka. I'll drink to that.

Fast forward to 10:30. Quiet again. Many of the neighbours' curtains still shut. It's as if they are mourning a loss, but then I think it's good if they can have a soft-start into their day.

I see the elderly pipe-smoker shuffling past with his daily newspaper. I see Lee from the garage going for his daily cigarettes, pastie and crisps. I miss having a natter with him, putting the world in order. I wonder what his diabetes is like now. 

I painted the cold frame. Couldn't find the masking tape so I'll have to do the fiddly bits tomorrow. Pleased with it so far.

Audrey, from across the road (in her 80s) rang, wanting Sarah to pop across and fix her blind. She has curtains anyhow, and Sarah had to explain that she can't have any friends or family into her home now during the lockdown.

Audrey asked if we'd seen the windowless ambulance yet, as she had spotted it a few times.

She didn't believe that we'd talked to someone yesterday who's neighbour's husband had died of Coronavirus. "She's making it up, must have dementia or something". Windowless ambulance - imagine that. It really is the plague.

Made potato and carrot soup for lunch. It was alright. We survived it.

Enjoyed our walk. We couldn't see the sheep in their usual field. Later, we saw them in an upper field.

Saw a lamp post that had a tree grown right around it.

Sarah has started planting some of the spuds. Polished my shoes. Started reading 'The Chimp Paradox'.

Over to you.

[IgorStrav]

Quite a busy day

video consultation with my hand surgeon - via my iPhone - regarding some pain in my left hand, and the recovery of my broken right wrist.  He said he agreed with me that my left hand was painful because it had been 'taking the strain' whilst my right was incapacitated.

He was able to check my wrist which is due to reach its 42 days since broken on Friday - that's the usual length of time it takes to heal - and agreed I could take off the (removable) plaster then, and start to use it.  He was also able to write to the Trauma clinic to say he'd approved removal and cancel my follow-up appointment on 9th April which is great because I don't want to risk the people at the hospital by visiting if I don't need to.

Otherwise, following up on some DNA match research where I'm fairly certain my match's grandfather was fathered by a 2nd cousin of mine, although the evidence for this is largely guesswork, proximity, and the fact that another mutual match suggests the link may be in my maternal grandmother's Dutch ancestry.  Don't suppose we'll ever be able to pin it down exactly as it will have happened just after WWII in bomb-stricken East London.

Cooked myself an excellent curry, adding vegetables and salmon cooked in the oven to a ready-made spinach daal.  Plenty enough for tomorrow.

My usual gardener came round to re-fix some fence panels and it was nice to be able to talk to someone face to face, rather than virtually, albeit with him on one side of the garden and me on the other.

[Roobarb]

Usual start to the day -two large mugs of tea. Watched This Morning, they spoke to Chris Pakham about what is happening again in China. Furious.

Logged on to Rootschat earlier than usual. Put some washing on using the Speed Perfect option on my washing machine thanks to a Rootschatter's information.

A good friend brought me a load of grocery shopping, I am so grateful to her, she was encouraging me to add things to my list. One of the things I find really hard to deal with in all this is my loss of independence, I never like to ask people to do things for me but she was happy to do it, she doesn't want me to take any risks. The only thing she couldn't get was frozen peas, strangely enough. She phoned to let me know she was outside then wiped the carrier bags and left them outside my door while I waved at her through the window. Wearing latex gloves I took them through to the kitchen, washed all of the packaging with soapy water then repackaged some things and threw the original packing away. I'm well set up now, complete with fresh veg. Transferred the money to her bank account.

Lunch.

Wasn't particularly looking forward to my usual walk, despite the milder forecast it was chilly and grey but I enjoyed it once I got going. Returned home and had a long phone chat with a friend. Looking forward to the day I can meet my friends and give them a hug.

My prescription was delivered without my preventative inhaler. I'm okay for the moment so trying not to worry about it but I had read in the news today that people have been having problems with getting them.

Fish for tea. Telly and more Rootschat. 

[Lydart]

Oops .... sorry Trystan ..... I started one earlier !

[trystan]

Oops .... sorry Trystan ..... I started one earlier !

Thanks, that's exactly what I want to happen so I don't have to worry about starting off the diary on here every day. I've merged the diary now.

[Manchester Rambler]

Pretty much our usual routine for most of the day - tea and toast for brekkie, then housework while OH worked. Knitting and a bit of tv this afternoon, while one of the cats decided to participate in OH's video call...

It's our wedding anniversary (no jokes about the date please!), so I dug the last of the Christmas turkey out of the freezer and made our favourite curried rice recipe to go with it, plus ice cream for desert.

No choir practice this evening for obvious reasons, but that meant I could watch the whole of Top Chef (French equivalent of Masterchef) while chatting about it on Messenger with my daughters who are locked down in Strasbourg 2 hours away. At the same time, we broke out the last bottle of bubbly left over from our oldest son's wedding last summer to mark our 31st anniversary.

We'll celebrate properly when lockdown is over. 

 

[Caw1]

Got up about 9am after having quick look at emails and news on my iPad. OH Already up and having another cry over the stock market... don't know why he's putting himself through this agony every day!

Breakfast was the usual museli, granola, fruit yogurt, finished up the last of our apples which I just cook lightly and use juice too on my cereal.

Had a chat with a friend on the phone both deciding we were missing seeing our grandsons.

Weather dull, cloudy and quite chilly but OH was out in the garden so put on my old togs and joined him, finished digging final flower bed and put compost on it. The little Robin was sitting on the back of the compost bin as I was digging it out to put in the wheel barrow, he flew down into the bin when he spotted a worm and almost got impaired by the garden fork he was so near to it! He then followed me down the garden and was flitting about in the flower bed as OH was throwing compost on ... he nearly got buried by it... so tame and lovely to watch.

Went in for lunch usual sandwich, sat in the conservatory and watched our friend the Robin tossing the compost onto the grass as he was looking for more worms.

Next doors son turned up to do some pruning and wood chopping.. tree that came down in last lot of winds that had been lying across the fence... his dad, our neighbour nearly 90 is not a gardener and over the 30+ years we've been in the house his garden has become more like a woodland with ivy strangling every tree... wellhis sons now dealing with it all and it's opened up the garden?

Last job outside was to turn compost over into empty one while OzH mowed the top lawn.

Cooked supper, watched some tv and did some knitting... another day passed.
Finally message from our daughter to check we're still ok, and saying she was looking forward to w/e as schooling the boys and trying to work was difficult  and she was exhausted so they were having to do it after boys in bed!

Night all, stay safe

Caroline