General Chat

We all seem to be in the same boat with this dratted virus. We are just curtailing our activities a little bit at the moment but I am not going to get scared or panicky. Worrying about it won’t stop us getting it or help us to recover if we do so we will just take each day as it comes. I am a bit angry at people stockpiling so much, particularly younger people. I wanted a bit of fresh air and exercise this morning so decided to walk to our local co-op, which isn’t usually busy at all. Today it was packed with a queue halfway round the shop to the checkout and half the shelves were empty. All I wanted was a tin of pineapple rings and a couple of lemons so I decided not to bother. Across the road and up a side turning is a tiny little East of England co-op. It has 3 staff and they normally outnumber the customers 3 to 1. Even that was busy but I did get my pineapple and lemons in there. I do have an order from Tesco’s being delivered tomorrow but this is a normal 4-6 weekly order that I have done for the last 10 years. I expect by the time they pack it in the morning half the stuff I ordered will no longer be available. I did have a little giggle to myself in both the co-ops this morning as about the only thing not in short supply was alcohol. So if we have no food, and we can’t keep our house clean, we can at least drown our sorrows.

It will be fun if most of us on here are in isolation for several weeks won’t it? I don’t do crafts to occupy me so I guess it will have to be spring cleaning, not before time lol. You never know I might even get around to writing up about our Russian holiday and printing out some of the photos. I’ve been promising myself I would do it since we got back in September 2017. We’ll be relying on Tesco and Amazon for deliveries as all our neighbours in this little Close and virtually all our local friends are the same age as us and we have no family near enough to help. Well, ladies and Frank, I may be on here chatting to you all to keep me sane.

Jane, I have a dental appointment on Tuesday as well. They will probably ring tomorrow to confirm it and I did wonder whether to cancel, but my appointment is to repair a broken tooth and I am wondering how I will manage if it starts to get painful and we are in isolation, so I think I will probably go.

I also have a hair appointment in about 10 days so I might ring and see if my hairdresser can fit me in earlier. Like you AnnG, my hair is short, but thick and wiry. The thought of not getting it cut for several months fills me with horror. Perhaps I had better lay in a supply of hair grips. You are lucky to have an OH who cleans carpets without being asked. Mine will do any job I ask him but he never thinks of these things for himself and I feel if I am nagging if I’m constantly asking him to do things.


I hope Frank is safely back now and has had a good time. I expect he’ll be glad to be in his own bed again tonight. I’m a bit concerned that we haven’t heard from Gill for a few days. I hope she is OK. Perhaps she is having problems with her internet connection. I hope it’s nothing worse than that.

Well, I am now going to have a little lounge in the bath as a change from showering and then have a read of all the bits that come with the Sunday paper.

I have my hair cut too Ann every 5 weeks.I am having to leave it 8 weeks as Nigel is going to America t ose his daughter. But I just realise he wont be going now as he Trump has banned us too now.We will all look like hippies soon :-D :-D

Mel it is my last chemo for havng the 2 different drugs,but i wll still have to go in every 3 weeks to have Herceptin by drip.At least it wont be a 7 hour thing.I think it will take about 30- 60 minutes. But if I have ot have the Magnesium again then it will be another 5 hours :-S.

Ann I have a jug with a good spout for pouring into the big bottle :-D :-D

Lol Ann We have a tin of lentils in the cupboard too. Not sure why I bought them, must have been for a recipe that I didn't actually make.

I have played with watercolour before but I am not very good. I thought I might try and copy a flower photo. I don't sare try drawing one myself. what paint do you use? Oil?

I haven't opened them today as I need to be in the mood but I wanted them here for when the opportunity and mood strikes. The paints are not very big and were not very expensive as it is an experiment.
Our hair is due cutting next week, mine is so thick and wiry it has to be cut every 5 weeks. Goodness knows what it will be like after 4 months.

Did you see In Italy (I think it was Italy) where everyone has been told not to go out they are flying drones with microphones in the streets and people that are seen in the streets are being told to go home.

We intend to be up really early to shop at Sainsbury's first thing (if anything is left!) including batteries for the Wii.Then I want to be in Grantham to take some things back to the retail park for when it opens at 9.30am. OH's car warning light came on again yesterday so I need to take my car, but he is coming with me. They are the last trips I need to do apart from give OH a lift home when his car is being fixed. If it turns out to be 4 months I was wondering how long my hair will be by then!! :-0 OH will be ok as I cut his.

Jane I forgot to say the cross stitch looks really nice and I love the colours. Hannah has some good ideas and is very thoughtful. Mandy does some lovely cross stitch, and I think you will enjoy it and it will be something new for you to try and you will be really chuffed when you complete it. It is something that I have never tried.....well not yet!

What a good idea to get some watercolour paints to try AnnG. I must say there are some good videos on Youtube to show you how to paint watercolour pictures. I haven't tried watercolour painting yet. That's good you have a neighbour offer to get bread and milk for you.

It does sound like ordinary flu they had Vera and it can be nasty and last a while. I hope their results won't be affected too much by it.

Mel I think I am going to see if I can pack things better in the freezer to get more in. I can take things out of their boxes and put them in freezer bags together with instructions and best before dates cut from the boxes.

Yes where is Gill? I hope she's ok and has heard from Sandra and has not had any more panic attacks.

Hubby is watching a match on tv now, and he made me laugh this morning. He opened the food cupboard and said ' I shall know things are getting bad when we are down to the tin of lentils.' He hates them lol :-D

Shampooing the conservatory carpet.

Sensible decisions Jane. We all have to make them but more important than most that you do. Poor James, I would have hated to have been amongst that crowd. I was bad enough going to Hobbycraft but there was plesnty of room to avoid others in there. I only went because of the thought of being incarcerated for up to 4 months, I would run short of supplies if I had not gone.

:-D Thinking of the delightful collection you have to take on Friday. Have you got a bucket?? :-D

Ooh Oh must be bored (no sport) I can hear some sort of cleaner, - hoover or carpet shampooer or mop. Have to go and see now!

Afternoon All

Just back from having a coffee over at Hannahs. As you can imagine most of the conversation was about the Virus and how we all all be self isolating . James went to Tesco for me and said it was manic and he was really quite concerned about actually being there.Said it was worse than Christmas. He got the last 2 packs of rice and Pasta.

Vera I do think it was probably the Flu that your Grandaughter and her friend had .'proper 'flu can last a good 2/3 weeks . I hope that they were able to complete their disertation and that they get top grade.

It has rained all morning here but now seems to be brightening up.
I think I will be cancelling my Dental appointment on Thursday and also Hannah an I are booked for some pampering beauty treatment (for Mothers Day) .That will be postponed too now. I am to go to the hospital on friday to have bloods done and to drop off a 24 hr Urine collection that I have to do.

It definitely looks like over 70's now will be told isolate from next week.Fitz is coming for lunch on Tuesday.That will have to be the last time for the foreseeable.

My crossstitch is arriving later today :-D

I do hope that Gill is ok as we have not seen her now for a few days. Frank and Ros wll probably be on their way home now. Fingers crossed bug free :-D

Time for a nice Hot Cross Bun :-D

We have just driven to Hobbycraft, OH stayed in the car and I went in, got what I wanted and came out again managing to avoid everyone in there and I wore latex disposable gloves. I also remembered something I saw the last time flu was around and recently saw it again. When you go up put vicks up your nose, it helps to stop bugs entering. As soon as I got in the car I took the gloves off ready to bin and used hand gel, then washed my hands as soon as I got in. We will all be paranoid soon (if we are not now).. It is chucking it down with rain here. And the roads were getting flooded so not a nice day to go out. Still seemed to be loads in Sainsburys and Aldi

We could possibly last a month except for bread and milk but Our neighbour has offered to get shopping for us if necessary. Hopefully on line shopping will be OK after the big panic is over. Don't know why younger ones are panicking though they are not likely to be completely incarcerated.

Annx at least your OH will be able to get the shopping but that is dicey in case he brings it home to you. I reckon they are using the over 70s to show the rest how it is done because we are the ones with strong resolve.
I actually bought a small set of watercolours this morning, not tubes just the old fashioned cakes in a tin. I thought if I am going to be stuck in I might want to try something different. I checked out my existing paints and a lot had been used up but I did find some oil pastels. Any tips on using those? And some more ordinary pencils. I do have watercolour paper. Will have to see if I kept any 'how to' books.

Vera that does sound like a bad dose of flu but it is difficult to know without knowing what her symptoms were. Any way, whatever it was I am pleased they both recovered.
So did you go to Wetherspoons yesterday? that is the last place we would go at the moment, too many of the potentially great unwashed in ours and the old men who don't look as if they know what a bar of soup looks like let alone use it for 20 seconds.

Hope frank gets home OK today, if it is as wet where they are as it is here it won't be a nice journey.

. Not sure how they are going to work this over 70s stay home bit though. Will we be arrested if we are seen out? Gestapo comes to mind. Rosemary raised a point about her car battery after 4 months we would have the same problem. We have left a car for a month before when in Tenerife but not either of the cars we have now.

It is all very confusing. I see he is still saying 'up to' 4 months, but not yet as it would not be sustainable. A bit puzzled about that, if it is not sustainable now how will it be later?

Good here innit, wish I was a dormouse I would be asleep now!

Afternoon all,

Dull and grey here this mroning as I think it has been raining a bit.

Things are not looking good for us older folk are they? I need to go and get chickens food and think I should get double at least if we are all to self isolate. as to food shopping I think I need to clear the freezer out so I can get more up to date stuff in there. I must admit its all a bit frightening.

Jane the cross stitch looks good and interesting and should be ok for you to start on. Love the giraffs. Is it this week your last chemo session?

Got up late today so I must get on.

Morning All,

Showery here this morning, but the sun's out now.

I see the latest news this morning is that the over 70s definitely will be asked to self isolate in coming weeks and it said for a long time. I think we will need to do a bit more shopping for things that keep. OH said that he has come into his own being a toyboy, although I think he is best to stay in as much as possible too. He thinks as quite a few school governors are in their 70s, that the schools will stop the meetings then if not before. Our neighbours who are in their 70s too are away, so I hope they were stocked up with food as they were away and only home for a few days before going away again. OH thinks funerals will be on line when gatherings over 10 are likely stopped after the talks tomorrow, but he had decided not to go anyway in case he brought it home. I shall see what comes out of the talks tomorrow, but it looks like my hospital appointment would be cancelled anyway with me being in my 70s.

Vera I use anything that says it kills viruses but am using the dettol one too at the moment. I was wondering what to use on our hands if we ran out of hand gel and couldn't get any more and might get another bottle of Dettol in as we could use a cloth soaked in it diluted to take out with us. OH took a tissue with him to wrap round the basket handle when he fetched the papers and some milk this morning.

I hope Frank enjoyed the do if he went and that he stays well on his return.

Better go and put the veg on now!

Thanks Ann. I will have a look for that though at the moment our shops seem to be out of most cleaning and hygiene products.

Good morning, wet here today. I will answer the posts later but just wanted to say Vera there is a dettol antiseptic spray which states on the label antibacterial and anto virus. It does mention Coronavirus but I gess that could mean pre Covid19 but it does say viruses as well.

Good morning

Dry but dull and still a bit windy today. Thanks for the cleaning advice Mel. I don’t have the Dettol surface spray but I have others. I do have Dettol antiseptic and if necessary will use that but it does make the house smell like a hospital. The trouble is that a lot of these products are good on killing bacteria but not so effective against viruses. Still I suppose anything is better than nothing.

Flu can definitely last 3 weeks Mel. I’ve only had it twice in my life and hope never to have it again. The first time I was in my teens and I remember feeling very ill but I expect I got over it fairly quickly. Then OH and I both had it two years ago and it really knocked us out. It was 3 weeks before we felt we were getting over it but we were quite weak and tired for another 3 weeks after that. The annoying thing is I had the flu jab, OH didn’t, but we got it equally badly.

Better go and have some breakfast I suppose and start the day. Have a nice day whatever you are doing.

Iv'e been using Detol multi surface cleaner on my door handles. Some are brass but have got some kind of varnish on them but some has been worn off. Some are alliminium. I am using Carex anti bacc hand wash and I wash my hands a lot. Also in the car I have the little bottles of anti bacc which I use before and after shopping.

Vera it sound s like your grandaughter may have had the virus and her friend if it lasted three weeks. Flu dos'nt usually last that long does it?

I hope Frank is enjoying himself if he did go to his party, and is not spending the time worrying about what might happen. It’s hard to draw the line between being sensible and panicking. OH and I decided that we will take precautions such as lots of hand washing etc but beyond that we are living as normal a life as possible. We met our friends for coffee as usual in Wetherspoons and will go to our club on Monday evening but will be avoiding theatre or cinema visits where we will be in close contact with a lot of strangers.

It is possible that my granddaughter in Cambridge may have had Coronavirus or it may have been flu. She was pretty poorly for 3 weeks but wasn't tested as she didn’t need to go to hospital. The young Lithuanian boy she works with a lot also had it but hopefully it was flu as it doesn’t seem to have spread round the college much. It was bad timing for her as she and the boy were working together on their dissertation for their finals. Part of it is a practical, and they were doing a film. They have had phone or email discussions but have really only had a few days since they came out of isolation to work together on it. It had to be shown yesterday morning so fingers crossed that the university bods liked it enough to give it a good grade.

Now a question: what are you using to clean or disinfect things like door handles? Ours are ordinary chrome plated handles but there is conflicting advice on the best thing to use. I haven’t worried much while it is just the two of us. If one of us gets it we’re going to infect the other one anyway but I would like to be sure things are clean enough for the sake of anyone else who comes in.

You’ll have to show us your cross stitch when it is done Jane. You might turn out to be good at it. I seem to remember you saying you had an adult colouring book and had done some of that so you might be quite artistic and “crafty”.

Sparky’s Magic Piano - that was a blast from the past. I remember it used to be played very regularly on Children’s Favourites. Did any of you listen to Children’s Hour on the radio? I used to like Jennings and his friend Darbyshire and May We Recommend which was a programme about books.

I haven’t done anything too energetic today but have done some cooking and got tomorrow’s dinner all prepared. It will be a lamb casserole and I’ve prepared plenty of meat and veg so there will be enough for Monday as well and that will save me a bit of time. I’ve also done a bit of general tidying up and putting away. OH says his neck is OK now and he will do a bit of bathroom cleaning for me in the morning so I might even manage to hoover round and, if it's dry, do a bit in the garden. I think I’ll do as you suggested Ann and just start with 15 or 20 minutes rather than go mad and end up with back pain again.

I hope Gill is alright. We haven’t heard from her for a day or two have we?

I’m going to have a look at the crossword and then maybe go to bed early with my book. Hope you all sleep well.

It looks like it's spreading everywhere now Mandy and very quickly too. I keep nearly touching my face and then remembering! I need one of those lampshades on like they put on cats and dogs after surgery to stop them biting at stitches. :-D

Could be a cherry tree, a flowering one and then you will get all the petals as well as the leaves.

On our local news , 3 cases of the virus in the Queen Elizabeth hospital Kings Lynn ,i spoke to soon .

That is good you have a seperate entrance to the chemo department. You should get on ok with cross stitch. What have you ordered to do? You could have a go at making cards too Jane. Not something you could take with you for treatment though. You can buy blank cards with their envelopes and you can just decorate them with cut out of others cards or bought scraps.

I have been having a paint of some of the things I made. I do have to be carefull though as time runs away with me once I start. I have varnished a few bits too and done more painting on the journel dragons eye front I made. Not sure if I like it or not.

It has started to rain here that horrid fine stuff and the sky is grey.

Ah, I used to love Sparky.

Good that he is trained to change his shoes then ann.

Wonder what that tree is?

No gill for a couple of days, do hope all is OK.