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patsylabrador

Lockdown

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If anyone is struggling to get deliveries, I’ve discovered that Iceland is good. They release the slots in the afternoon each day so that’s the best time to lurk on their website. They only release about 3 days at a time, you may get a slot the next day and have to put your order in within the hour, but once you’ve done that you can change up to 11 pm the day before delivery. 

For Tesco you have to be a night owl and quick on the draw!  They release slots at midnight.   My sister was successful, the first time I wasn’t.  You need to go on the website about 11, at 1150ish you receive a message you’re in a queue.  My sister then got put on the slot booking page at 12.07 and successfully booked although not for 2 weeks.  I got on at 12.15, and couldn’t finalise booking a slot. It crashed at 12.30 - all slots gone!   It worked the second time I did it though.

My triumph of the day though was buying flour!   I got 16kg for 16.99 on Amazon. Not all for me.  I’m sharing with 3 neighbours. 

Not being able to get out is making me develop new skills!  

By the way, we oldies are now expecting to be here till October.  A second spike is forecast in September.  We’re writing 2020 off in terms of going away.  So in the garden it is.... 

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1 hour ago, Valkyrie said:

Ocado is doing fortnight slots for regular customers, but you can't go on until the 14th day after your last delivery. Not sure if you are a more recent customer - I guess they will send an email to them.  Or maybe everyone gets the same email!  

I saw that one too K. I had one delivery last week, but will just shop locally - a combination of queuing at the supermarket, smaller Co-ops and farm shops.

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Lockdown has been a bit of a wild ride for me. We went to Amsterdam for Rich's 40th birthday which, unfortunately, we ended up spending back at home because the country went in to lockdown. We arrived on the Saturday to discover that the big museums had been closed, which was fine, as there was still other stuff to do and some smaller places were open. On Sunday we woke up to discover that even the smaller places were closing so we wandered and saw a lot of small shops and cafes etc. and then went back to the hotel to get changed for dinner. In the 30 minutes it took us to get showered and changed, to cross the road to go to the place we wanted to eat, Netherlands government issued the order for everywhere except supermarkets to close. We bought some snacks and ate those in the hotel bar and decided to travel back home the following day under the assumption that other places would follow suit and as we were travelling back (on train), country after country was announcing they were going into lockdown or closing their borders. By the time we finally got back home, there was talk of the UK doing it and places were closing voluntarily. The following week Rich's business mandated working from home, and the week after my uni stopped face-to-face lessons and moved to online learning. And then the other week we moved into full lockdown!

Obviously I'm not working with clients right now, which is both sad for myself and the clients, but also frustrating because the uni expect us to turn in two pieces of work centred around client work. Fortunately everyone in our class challenged the university on this and they have given us some concessions as a result.

My mental health has been fluctuating quite a lot over the last few days. I'm starting to go a little bit stir crazy as I feel like I'm just living the same day over and over. And I've come to realise that 3 things I really miss are being outside, seeing other people, and touching my face! lol

Sadly, 3 of our friends have lost parents to this virus, which isn't great. And I'm quite concerned about my sister (the nurse) as she hasn't been given any protective gear at all because her patients aren't deemed to be at risk of getting it as they're home visits - even though she could, completely inadvertently, pass it on to them. It's all a bit daft really.

To try and keep myself sane, I've started a little blog with some instructions on how to make some homemade bath bombs and things like that. Other than that, I'm trying to distract myself with other projects like learning to bake sourdough bread etc.

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I'm sorry to hear that Andy - try to think of this period not as something to be endured, but as a time to keep ourselves and others safe.

It has downsides, but think of it as an opportunity to do things you don't normally get time to do (for me, that is working on projects at home that are normally far down the list, and actually taking time to think) and to take stock of oneself and your attitude t the situation. I was queuing outside the butcher yesterday, and the person who arrived to queue up behind me was someone who I hadn't seen in years, so we had a lovely 20 minute catch-up over that 6ft space :)

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The 6' space reminded me of a report on French news this morning. The Chinese have conducted tests and concluded that the virus can travel 4 metres, so the UK recommendation of 2 metres isn't enough and the French recommendation of 1 metre is hopelessly inadequate. Perhaps that's why the virus is still quite active here and figures haven't dropped as expected.

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Entirely possible. Plus (in my opinion) the Chinese state is one of almost totalitarian dictatorship, so the people will do as they are told and stay indoors. 

Perhaps (too) we are not getting a completely transparent understanding of their infection/death figures. Australia and NZ seem to be on top of it though.

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Andyroo...great to hear from you again but not so great about your Amsterdam trip. It's certainly a different way of life right now.  Can we have a linky to your blog, please? And, for breadmaking of all kinds, I do heartily recommend Bake with Jack - not sure of correct address but, if you Google, it will come up. OH made his own sourdough starter under Jack's online instructions and continues on the journey towards 'the perfect sourdough loaf'. It's been a bumpy ride with some potholes along the way, I can tell you, so good luck! But it is delicious and worth it! If you are feeling wobbly it's a very good thing to concentrate on. OH is now borderline obsessive!!!

I have gone veggie mad.....currently have 7 varieties jostling for germinating space on the two sunny windowsills with broccoli to plant in a month or so. Goodness knows where I'll find space or pots for it all but, like the breadmaking, it's something to focus on; I really do think that that is the key during these odd times! 

 

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4 hours ago, The Dogmother said:

Entirely possible. Plus (in my opinion) the Chinese state is one of almost totalitarian dictatorship, so the people will do as they are told and stay indoors. 

Perhaps (too) we are not getting a completely transparent understanding of their infection/death figures. Australia and NZ seem to be on top of it though.

Some of Rich's colleagues in China stated that they think the outbreak there was a lot worse than was let on - and they're also saying that it's obvious that people are still getting sick and dying, even though the government is saying otherwise. And they think there'll be a resurgence with the lockdown ending.

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3 hours ago, soapdragon said:

Andyroo...great to hear from you again but not so great about your Amsterdam trip. It's certainly a different way of life right now.  Can we have a linky to your blog, please? And, for breadmaking of all kinds, I do heartily recommend Bake with Jack - not sure of correct address but, if you Google, it will come up. OH made his own sourdough starter under Jack's online instructions and continues on the journey towards 'the perfect sourdough loaf'. It's been a bumpy ride with some potholes along the way, I can tell you, so good luck! But it is delicious and worth it! If you are feeling wobbly it's a very good thing to concentrate on. OH is now borderline obsessive!!!

I have gone veggie mad.....currently have 7 varieties jostling for germinating space on the two sunny windowsills with broccoli to plant in a month or so. Goodness knows where I'll find space or pots for it all but, like the breadmaking, it's something to focus on; I really do think that that is the key during these odd times! 

 

Hi SD, good to hear from you!

The blog is The Cosmetic Kitchen - although at the moment there are only two posts (bath bombs and whipped body butter) because I am waiting for ingredients to arrive. I've planned posts for bath jellies and hand lotion (from scratch); I'm also thinking of doing some on bubble bath bars and liquid soap. I'm also going to do some on quick soap making using melt and pour soap base; I thought about doing some the 'long way' - but I feel as though lockdown isn't really the time to start messing around with caustic chemicals. lol

I'll check out that bread blog. I only started my starter last week, so I've just taken it out of the fridge today and fed it so that I can make some overnight sourdough later on! I can make cakes and savoury items pretty well, but I've never been that lucky with bread!

I was just saying to Rich the other day: now would be the time to do all the grow your own stuff! I planted 3 fruit trees the year we moved in, so they've grown a reasonable amount over the last 3 years. I'm hoping to get pears, plums, and cherries! *crosses fingers*

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I think my greenhouse is getting too hot for all my seedlings. I have 4 types of tomatoes, 2 sweet peppers, thyme, cosmos, poppies, sunflowers and mesembryanthemums all in there as seedlings and runner and dwarf beans, peas and sweet peas all waiting to germinate. But even with damping down the temperature has been up in the mid to high 30s during the middle of the day!

In other news...got some bread flour in Sainsbury’s today 🙌🏻

In other, other news. Accidentally bought 3 feeder things for grow bags from amazon - thought I had bought grow bags 🙄

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That reminds me PL, I’ve been invited to an eruption by two volcanoes tomorrow!  We’re having a virtual get together on Zoom tomorrow.  Two sets of grandchildren have been making volcanoes all week.  Eruption is timed for 11 am tomorrow ( bicarbonate and vinegar!) followed by an Easter egg hunt!  Happy Easter everyone.

 

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Great to hear from you Andyroo, are you still in Bristol.? My son is now back in London got degree a d left your lovely city. 

Will have a look at your blog. 

Sorry to hear about Amsterdam.  Went there last year. Wonderful

 

I also suffer depression and have been up and down. Spending more time in garden , my plants have germinated in this heat. Isolating with YS and OH and I am blessed in having someone  to hug when feeling low. My son has anxiety and is on furlough so we rattle round house. I get out 3 days a week to work in GP surgery as a nurse. I find the volunteering I do rewarding , befriending 3 old ladies and shopping for one. Shes 96 really deaf so we shout at each other from 2m. Lol. I have asthma so decided going to work in hospital wouldn't be a good thing plus I think putting me near a ventilator with all the technology would cause meltdown. I feel I am doing my bit. Also weekly get a list of 8 or so elderly to ring see if they need help. 

It's a tough time I feel for those alone or with mental health problems.  

I told my cousin who is also on furlough to look at volunteering as she was struggling with time on her hands and OH at work on long hours she did and it helped her. It's not for everyone but can help and you feel useful.

Stay safe all apologies for ramble . ALI XX

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I am amazed at how ingenious we all are. Started my sour dough base today. Hoping might be in luck to get yeast sometime this year and bread flour🙄

I am fine Patsy odd blip but spent most of morning on phone to aunt, cousin and Lily the 96 year old. Shes such a sweetheart.  Gave her some tulips on thurs when I saw her. 

Did a quiz with friend on Zoom last night. Our cat was a real tart and kept showing his bum to everyone. He loves computers and lap tops. 

Take care all. Xx

 

That is hilarious Claire

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