Another Month Slips By......

 
Not the snowy weekend that other parts of the country have had, we had a couple of little flurries but nothing settled. Really cold though and our heating seems to be on constantly. However Monday morning's outside coffee morning still happened as it was really sunny, but still grateful for arctic layering, blankets and hot water bottle 😂

This was definitely light afternoon viewing which unfortunately didn't live up to the good cast who did their best with the very weak script. 

I was only a bit surprised when an email popped in from what looked like a government department. We've been told the vaccine invitations are coming from your own doctor's surgery, however I'm on the government vulnerable list. An alarm went off when I realised it didn't invite me by name or mention my NHS number. Further checking and clicking on the "from" address to see it in full showed it to be a fake. 

Looked genuine at first to me because I think I wanted it to be. 

I've since had the phone call direct from my GP surgery and booked in for my first jab this Thursday! My appointment at 6:15pm very efficient, quick and a good flow of people through all the time. I was given the Pfizer vaccine. We had to sit for 15 mins afterwards but to save a buildup in the waiting room after 5 mins they said to sit for a further 10 mins in my car before driving away. By bedtime Thursday I had no side effects, not even a painful arm. Friday my arm was achy but not too bad and a very small price to pay. I'll be contacted for my second jab which could be up to 12 weeks. 

Hubby was bored enough to spend ages washing his car even though it has hardly been anywhere. 

This is one of my cousin's, he's now in his 80s. He decided to host his first zoom singalong. I did join but had a few technical issues; I could only see four faces on screen at a time so had to keep scrolling back and forth, also there was a screen with the lyrics karaoke style which I had a brief glimps of at first but then couldn't find it again. And of course some of the participants do not understand the time lapse problem and tried singing together, whereas it's best to mute your self and sing to your hearts content. 

Definite applause for a great idea, and I loved seeing some family faces. 

We were really looking forward to this film on Netflix as it was based on a true account of this famous and priceless Anglo Saxon find that is quite local to us in Suffolk. It didn't disappoint. 

See you next Saturday, meanwhile stay safe and stay healthy.

. 

If At First You Don't Succeed......

 
As you may already know Hubby is a DIY man that needs to get things done and the new door fitting caused a very small chunk of plaster to fall off the wall. Bored because of lockdown he got excited to have a job to do. 

Straight on to Wicks to click-n-collect a bag of plaster. He looked online for the right colour paint to hopefully buy a matchpot but neither of us could remember if it was satin or silk. Car came out and the ladder went up in the garage to hunt through old paint tins in the loft space. He was thrilled to find a small tin and amazed it was nearly full. He applied pva first and dried, plastered and dried, sanded and vacuumed, then painted (it stinks). He said "it may need need a second coat", while also going round touching up the odd chipped spots throughout the hall stairs and landing. 

I said "so is it satin or silk?" He went to check on the tin......"buggar it's gloss"!

Then it snowed most of Saturday, and the gloss repair wouldn't dry! Sunday and the sun is out and so is the car so back up into the garage loft space and he found some leftover emulsion - Nevada Pink vinyl silk! Done ✔ 

Door fitter was coming Monday but a phone call to say emergency at home is delaying him till Tuesday. He came, changed the inside handle and lock to the white we'd ordered and he changed the letter box to the graphite we'd ordered but unfortunately the graphite matching handle they'd sent was the wrong size! Also Hubby had informed the office there was a leveling problem that he wasn't even told about! So he's coming back. 

Just before he left he mentioned payment, I think Hubby was about to offer a part payment until I called from the lounge "nothing more until it's finished". They both laughed and he left. 

Nothing else to report on this week really, good quiz night with an interesting round of "is it East or West of the meridian line?" making us really think and debate when asked about Edinburgh or cities in Portugal, Madrid, Morocco etc. We keep trawling trough all the TV channels too as all a bit boring at the moment so nothing to recommend.

However there are always highlights and the arrival of Christmas present part two from Daughter&co arrived. 

Keep extra safe and hope we all get vaccinated very soon.

. 

Gone But Not Forgotten........

 

Lost my mojo at the moment, my get up and go is hiding. I'll be here waiting under a blanket, playing Words With Friends, for when it comes back but there's no rush. 

Very sadly on Saturday Son's mother in law passed away after a long battle with cancer. She was such a lovely lady and I was so proud that she called me her friend. It was a relief to hear she was allowed home from the hospital Christmas week so her family could spend time with her. Son and fiancé live with her anyway so she had devoted 24 hour care. Much loved and will be so missed. 

Monday evening and an old school friend had just lost her very long cancer battle too. We had only reconnected a few years ago when I found her on Facebook, communicated but never actually met up.

Thankfully a balance with some positive news that both R and E have started paid traineeships in jobs they really want to do. That's their childhood gone hahaha!

Thursday we had our new front door installed. Obviously the time we had someone in to talk about it and order what we wanted was long before we knew there would be another covid wave and tiers and lockdown etc. This should have been installed quite some time ago too but the company had issues and it got delayed until now. As nobody was actually coming into the house we let it go ahead. So this is the old.......

And this is the new.......

There are a couple of furniture replacements as they've used the wrong letterbox and the wrong inside handle and lock, thankfully they are stock items so he's coming back Monday. And Hubby needs to repair the bit of plaster that fell off and try to find if we have any of this paint to patch it with. 

Today we woke up to snow. 

And news that another old friend had died last night. I had known her since youth club days and she married someone from club too. She'd had serious health issues for many years, fought so many battles and bravely fought on, and finally this horrid covid virus proved one fight too many. 

Please please follow all the guidelines and keep yourselves as safe as you can.

. 

2021 Is Just Getting Started......

 
What is next, we shall have to wait and see. 

For many many years my year starts with celebrating Daughter's birthday on the 2nd with a mother/daughter day, checking out the sales and lunch out, followed by everyone at home for birthday cake and a roast dinner, which of course this time we couldn't do as we are in very restricted tier 4. So a gift of money into her account, a WhatsApp message, a post on Facebook and a Moonpig card in the post, later followed by a video call. After lunch she needed to collect things from my freezer so a brief chat outside which was cold but lovely.

As all festivities are now over the decorations came down and packed away hoping they come out again in a safer December 2021.

I had a brilliant plan for putting away the icicle lights without them getting so tangled, they are a nightmare I so wanted to avoid. 

As they came down I fed the lights into a finger bandage tube. This seemed to work well but it was time consuming and the bandage got stuck quite often and it was really cold outside taking down just one hook at a time. 

So we brought the lights in slowly and draped them over the backs of the dining room chairs. I kept doing some and taking short breaks to do something else then coming back to do more. Meanwhile Hubby had taken down all the other trees, lights, baubles, ornaments and cards on ribbons and packed them all away, leaving one space in one box for the icicle lights. I was still only about half way with back ache and sore fingers. So with the help of Google and tweeking a couple of other ideas together I came up with another plan. Old sheets torn into long strips wider than the length of the longest icicle. Lay the lights along the sheet keeping everything untangled, then roll. So much quicker, boxed and put into the loft and so pleased with myself.... until I realised I hadn't taken a photo hahaha. 

And now 300 days after the first day of the first lockdown, we are in LOCKDOWN #3. Two vaccines now being used, Pfizer from the US and AstraZeneca from Oxford UK. Care home elderly and most vulnerable first, carers and NHS staff next and down a sensible priority list. Biggest problem seems to be enough people to administer the jabs without depleting the manpower in other vital areas. Keeping everything crossed this is the solution. 

Been a bit of a stressful week with various family issues, some that would have happened anyway and others definitely as a result of the virus and lockdown. Not sure my WhatsApp support helps very much but that is all I can do. 

Had my last treatment yesterday and so relieved that's over, and also so so grateful for the continued Urology care they've given while the whole hospital is overwhelmed with pandemic pressure. Thank you Ipswich Hospital. 

Please stay home and stay safe.

. 

I Happily Waved 2020 Goodbye.........

 
Our Christmas day.

After our Christmas Dinner for two Daughter, M, R, O, D and the dog arrived for our "in the garden, covid safe" gathering. 

It took a small patio heater, a fire pit, a gazebo, coats, hats, gloves, pillows to sit on, constant hot drinks, six hot water bottles and a large pile of blankets but we survived and had a great evening 🤣

So many lovely gifts today but I have to make special mention of this wonderful lino cut print Daughter did of our home! 

Boxing day as like most of the UK we are now in tier 4, so with only the two of us here to feed for the near future I processed all the leftovers for the freezer, although there's still plenty in the fridge. Some turkey and the ham was sliced and can be cold meat with salad or sandwich filings. However my favourite method is to chop all the Christmas dinner leftovers, mix and box, later this is thawed add gravy, top with mash and oven bake yummy!

Sunday 27th

We keep getting power cuts and Hubby thinks it's related to the cooker reaching temperature and tripping the box, so he's called our electrician friend to come next week (not urgent or dangerous) and today Hubby's on a mission to clean the whole thing inside, behind and under before anyone has to look at it!

27th was my dad's birthday so that has traditionally been our family get together day. I would normally have about 30-35ish of us here all bringing food and drink for the feast sharing table, filling the drive with cars and filling the house with loud happy noise. Today we tried it on zoom! 🤣 and with everyone talking at the same time, children coming and going and seven dogs making appearances it was just like the normal chaos that is our family. Don't be fooled by this sedate screenshot 🤣

Monday and the sun was out and so were we for the last neighbours' coffee morning of the year. Very cold and surrounded by wheelie bins as delayed from our normal Friday collection. 

Thursday and New Year's Eve, was a treatment day, so hospital in the morning and an uncomfortable afternoon but thankfully eased by the evening. Hubby and I decided to do the online quiz as we have every Thursday since March, even though our zoom team all had other plans. We managed a score of 39 out of 50 which certainly isn't our worst and not embarrassing hahaha. 

Hubby didn't last till midnight but I'm normally up long after that anyway and I always like to welcome in the new year, this year of course I wanted to wave goodbye to the old one! 

I have to mention Eastenders, not everyone's choice of entertainment but it is mine and yes the Christmas and New year stories are always very dark, but when they focus on just one actor for a whole programme that's when they are amazing. Tonight Danny Dyer as Mick Carter faced his darkest night ever and sought the help of the Samaritans and it was a great tribute to them along with great acting. I hope like me many people are moved to make a donation. 

Midnight and so many fireworks going off around me, so many families needing to celebrate and look forward. I spent quite some time moving from window to window with a smile on my face. 

I'm positive as always, we will get through this, but for a while yet we must stay safe, keep to all the rules and more than ever be kind to everyone especially ourselves.