General Chat

Morning all,

Its a really cold wind out there this morning and dull and dreary again today after a nice day yesterday with sunshine.

Got up late this mroning and I had'nt shut the chicjkens in so they were out early but I need to give them some more food.

I have to drop Phyl's ring off today and at the mo the Christmas tree is sitting in the middle of the kitchen waiting to be spaced out so I can dress it. This will take me most of the day.

Glad you liked the little fits Mandy. I thought of the children when I saw them and thought they may like them for Christmas. The girls will have to fight over which one they want but I thought black for Jake being older and the blue for Lewis which is why I put their names on those ones. I was worried they had had them before.
Hope your cold gets better soon and sending love. <3

Morning all,

Very foggy here with frost , my poor heads thumping this morning so I won't be doing very much still coughing ,I was in bed st just after eight last night kept waking about every hour so I feel so tired .

Mel thanks for your parcel the children will love them :-D

Right I'm off might see if I can get five minutes sleep .

Good morning all

It’s foggy here this morning so it looks very dreary out. It is cooler than it has been lately . I haven’t any plans for the day but I suppose I ought to do some housework. I ought to try and go for a walk and get some exercise as well but It’s going to have to brighten up a bit before I venture outside.

I'm another one who knew nothing about the code.
I'll stand alongside Vera as another B o B (Bewildered of Britain )

Any tests we have had, have been from the pharmacist, just picked up when we collected a made up prescription. I think at first they asked why we wanted them, eg. for work requirements, but that soon stopped.
Daughter tests fairly frequently, if she is going to a different place for her job, as asked by her employer.
In the past, I have tested from the same box, at the same time and she has reported both results at the same time, hers always negative, mine sometimes positive, which was followed within hours with a PCR which always came back negative. ( you may recall that I had a thread about all the positive lateral flow tests that I kept getting back last summer)

These I guess have all been 'old' tests from what you write.

We continue to social distance and are very limited in our contact with people.
We never stopped wearing masks in shops and many other places, so the newer rules haven't really affected us much.

I think it’s fairly recent and not well publicised. A friend told me when she went into a pharmacy to pick up a couple of kits and was asked for her number which she knew nothing about. As I said before I got mine at the library without showing my collect code. It just seems to be a bit of a shambles.

How long have we had to have a collect code. I have not seen anything about it in the media.

Ann, I have not only totally lost track but I think I am slowly losing the will to live, lol. You read something in one place and then something totally different elsewhere and I am only sticking to government or NHS sites. I was told I needed a number but when I picked my kit up at the library they didn’t even want to see it. A friend picked a kit up at a pharmacy and they asked to see her number but didn’t record it. I didn’t receive an email or text with my code. I printed it out from the website. I discovered OH did report his result yesterday and there’s another stupid thing. There are 7 tests in a kit and all the members of the household can use the same kit but apparently you can only report one result so how will they get accurate figures of how much is out there in the population. Just call me Bewildered of Britain.

By the way I think there are old and new kits in circulation. The old ones do the job OK but the new ones are definitely easier to use.

Still on Covid, our local paper said today that our small area has the highest rate of Covid in Suffolk - which equates to almost 1,000 per 100,000. What? Where are all these people with Covid? Everyone locally is amazed by this and finding it very hard to believe. If it is true then nearly all the cases must be in the schools. There are 2 smallish primary schools and one large comprehensive that serves all the outlying villages as well.

Let’s forget Covid for a while. We had an enjoyable time with our friends and a few good laughs. They stayed till about 5.30 pm.

Mel, it’s good that you’ve heard from Frank and Ros. I did send a Christmas card and I’ve got a birthday card to send Frank so I had better make sure that gets in the post tomorrow.

I think I am going to submit this before I lose it. I’ve had the error message a few times recently.

Evening All,

It's been dull all day here. I didn't sleep well so had a lie in while OH was on a zoom meeting.

That's good news you have had a card from Frank Mel. He doesn't usually send cards does he, so maybe it was easier for him ths year. I have a couple of cards to open tomorrow, one looks like Shirl's. Your knee must be healing nicely if it is itchy. Have you finished the ring as well now? That's a nuisance your OH forgetting the bin. Now you will be adding all the Christmas stuff. Was is the waste bin?

I've lost track of who was tested in the past when they went in hospital now. Some would be asymptomatic anyway, but came in hospital with the virus. That's interesting they have changed the tests Vera and I don't remember seeing anything about it. It sounds a bit better than having the throat to do as well.

This is how to get your collect code, but it isn't clear whether you can pick the tests up without it? Maybe they reserve them for you if you get a code?

1. Get a collect code
Before you go to the pharmacy, use this service to get a collect code. This is a code that you need to show when you collect your test packs. You can create an account so it’s quicker next time.

You can also get a collect code by calling 119 (free from landlines and mobiles). Lines are open from 7am to 11pm.

We’ll send your collect code by email or text. You can print your code.

You can collect test packs for your household or another household. You must get a collect code for each household.

2. Collect your tests
Take your collect code to the pharmacy. Someone will record your code and give you the tests.

You need to get a new collect code for each collection.

3. Do the test
After you’ve done the test, you should report your test result. We’ll tell you how to report your result when we send your collect code. You can also find this information in the test instructions.

How long will you be at your daughter's for AnnG? I expect you will be seeing the baby which will be nice.

I hope your cold soon gets better Mandy and that the logs are all stashed away now.

No one offers them to you Mel. You have to seek them out for yourself but they have been around since the early days of the pandemic.

We,ve never been offered test kits.

Did mus flowers this morning and am just going to finish off Phyl's ring for tomorrow.

I had a Christmas card from Frank and Ros today. <3 <3 <3

thanks for that. I think what I saw was in response to the fact that people have been unable to get tests and have run out. e.g. daughter has run out and not able to find any. hopefully supplies will be replenished but a pharmacy on TV last night said they were not getting the numbers they need.

enjoy your afternoon with your friends

Morning all

It's a grey day again. It's fairly mild still, though not as warm as the last couple of days.

Mandy, take care of that cold. You will want to be well rid of it by Christmas, though I reckon you'll be sweating it out if you are outside moving logs today.

I think you're right AnnG in that figures have got inflated but I don't think it's done deliberately to panic us. I think it's down to the way Covid cases are counted and different places using different methods of collecting data. Like T, my brother caught Covid in hospital but he was already on end-of-life care and the Covid didn't hasten his death at all, but because he died within 28 days of a positive test, by law, Covid had to go on his death certificate as a third cause of death which it wasn't.

Yes, the swabs in the new rapid flow test kits are different. They are about the size of a cotton bud. I checked when to take a test and this is what both the NHS and government say - they are both very similar but I've pasted both here.

When to do rapid tests (from NHS site)

Do rapid tests on days when you're more likely to catch or spread COVID-19. For example, do a test before you:
• mix with people in crowded indoor places
• visit someone who is at higher risk of getting seriously ill from COVID-19
You should also do daily rapid tests (1 a day for 7 days) if you've been in contact with someone with COVID-19 and are either:
• fully vaccinated
• under 18 years and 6 months old


When to take a rapid lateral flow test (from Government site)

In England, you should take a rapid lateral flow test:
• if you will be in a high risk situation that day
• before you visit people who are at higher risk of severe illness if they get COVID-19
• if you have been told that you are a contact of someone who has COVID-19 but you do not have to self-isolate - how long for depends on if you live with the person or they live in a different household
You are at higher risk of catching or passing on COVID-19 when:
• in crowded and enclosed spaces
• there is limited fresh air

Now I really must get going as our friends M & V are coming for a cup of tea and a mince pie this afternoon and the lounge is in dire need of a dust and hoover. Kitchen sink could do with a clean as well. Why is OH always doing something else when I want help?

Just seen this in the DM. I have been saying this all along, ever since T caught it in hospital.

Health service statistics show there were 5,697 beds taken up by people who had tested positive for the virus on December 7, the latest date available.
But 4,214 of them (74 per cent) were primarily being treated for the virus, with the remaining suffering from other illnesses or injuries. These could include a fall, broken leg, or even new mothers who tested positive after giving birth
And older people, who are more at risk from the virus, made up a smaller proportion of the patients in hospitals because of the success of the country's vaccination drive, figures also showed.
Campaigners today called on the NHS to stop inflating Covid admissions by including patients who were initially brought in for something else such as an accident, saying they should 'obviously' be removed from the figures so that they can't be skewed upwards


I am sure the numbers are inflated to panic us into obeying the rules.

Mandy, no not until Monday so won't pack until Saturday, daughter arriving Sunday and that is the room I normally pack in so has to be out of the way by then. But it is the organising what to take this time of year, not knowing what the weather will be like.

Morning Anng and all,

A little brighter here this morning to what it has been during the week and I can spy a tiny bit of blue sky to the north, something we hav'nt seen for a week. It is only small but its there and thats what counts.

Oh missed the bin men this morning so that will have to stay here for a fortnight. I hope he's put it in the big garage up the top.

My knee is driving me mad. Its itching like anything and I keep wanting to scratch it and do gentley around the scab.

Morning all ,

Lovely sunshine here but very misty too, I seem to have picked up a cold been coughing in the night and have a blocked nose ,I didn't feel right last night so I did a test and that was negative so that was good ,goodness knows where I've picked it up from ,we haven't seen family for a while so it's not from them .

We have a load of logs coming this morning so I'll be out in the air stacking that away.

Anng is it tomorrow your going away ,safe journey to your daughters if it is .

good morning all grey again here and 10 degrees. slept well last night, bed stripped but not showered yet.

Vera do the swabs look different then on the new tests? I still have a box of the old to use :-( Not had need of them yet. and now they have run out But I am sure I saw on TV an instruction to only test if you have symptoms or been in contact with somebody with positive result.

Not doing anything today so will probably be sorting things out for packing.

Good evening everyone

Gosh Ann, I feel exhausted just hearing about your Mrs O. It does sound as though she has a problem. Thank you for your lovely card which came today.

We did our rapid flow tests today and were clearly negative so off we went on our visit to Southend. We had a lovely few hours with our friend and came home with Xmas presents for us, a box of presents to go to my daughter, a box of photos which were connected with my brother for me to go through and keep or dump and some books that were my brothers to pass on to my son

I’ve spent a couple of hours going through the photos and most of them were connected with various youth and theatre groups my brother was involved with, so they will go but there were just a few that I will keep as they involved family members, including one of my brother aged 2, holding my hand and paddling in the sea at Clacton. I was 8 and wearing a horrible costume that I remember was pale blue cotton but the whole thing had been sewn with shirting elastic in a sort of diamond pattern. To complete the outfit I am wearing a very fetching white rubber swimming cap. My goodness that photo brought back some memories.

Regarding the number you need now for the rapid flow tests - I am not at all sure that you HAVE to have a number. You are asked to report your results and I think the number is so the NHS can tie the results to your details. I must admit I haven’t reported ours. I don’t know if any of you have used these new tests but they are much easier to use than the old ones. There’s none of this digging around at the back of your throat. You just have to swab your nose.

Like the rest of you I sent Gill a card. It would be good to hear from her and from Frank that they are OK.

I’m going to contact my son now to tell him about the books I have for him and then I might try to get an early night.

EDIT. I see the autocorrect has been at its games again. For shirting elastic above please read shirring elastic.

Had a card from Shirl today too. Justmy kind of thing with an old fashioned scene of a sl;eigh full of holly and two boys and a girl colecting holly and a tree. The girl in sitting on a tree stump covered in snow with her hands in a muff. I hope she dos'nt get piles.