General Chat

Good photos Mel, pretty wreaths. And lovely sunset. My favourites are the long takles tits.

Tree is still naked apart from the top as I have been doing other things. Still its all lit up and will be nice tonight to watch the telly without the big lights on.

I delivered Phyllis's wreath and took a look at the shop and they seem to have sold one of my arrangements but the bigger one is still there if that dos'nt sell I shall take it down the church as they are having a Christmas day service.

I put mums flowers on her gravestone and there's people in the big house so I had to walk to the church over the grass away from the house. I usually go past the side of the house and under the yew trees in the back way.

Just remembered I did'nt send the pics of the advent ring in the church with its candles in so will do that. I also took the sunset today as when I came back from the church and down our road it was just going down and was beautiful and very gold.

Will do it now before I forget.

thanks for that Ann I will check that out next time I do an order. Good to see that happy chappie as your avatar.

Vera will be back for a new series on 9th January 2022.

Your daughter will get you back on track with your food while you are away then AnnG. Some ready meals are worse than others for salt, so I check the labels now and you can avoid the worst ones then. We keep some ready meals on standby as they are so quick and convenient. You use Tesco.........have a google of Tesco low salt ready meals.

i have to say I have missed my tree this year and envy you all yours. However it would have been silly to get it down and not have the benefit of it and I know daughter has one. she is now in Winchester so that is one journey over for them.

Yes high BP is a nuisance, I have no doubt he will put me back on the 10mg and I do have some but don't dare do it without his say so. I am sure the reason is for several reasons, Covid and the general pressures and worries about is Christmas going to be ok, not so much exercise as when all the gardening was being done and a poor diet with a lot of ready meals which, I believe are high in salt. so I have to take myself in hand if I want to get it back down. High BP could explain the occasional 'eye' headaches I have had the past 3 or 4 weeks. I always have a good diet at daughters as she is very strict with what she eats because of her Diabetes type 2 so that should be an improvement.

Afternoon All,

More 'dull' here and now it's started to get foggy. :-| I don't think OH will be going to any matches tonight or tomorrow, as the ones he had planned have called off due to covid in the players.

What a blow getting a cold just now Mandy, but better than next weekend I suppose. I hope the headache soon goes. Just keep warm and drink plenty.

I rather like the Christmas dinners that some are having and were mentioned on Morning Live. Steak and chips is not one I would choose, but pizza, or pasta would be ok. It takes the pressure off the day and makes it more relaxing and a Christmas dinner a couple of weeks later would be even more enjoyable then when you aren't full of choccies and mince pies. :-) OH didn't look too impressed.........but he doesn't do the cooking or serving. :-S

We shot off to the farm shop first thing for when they would open, but did a quick U turn and left when we saw the queue that had built up and all the cars that were parking. I shall add things to my food drop on Sunday instead now. As we set off from home, Mrs O was outside cleaning the front door and the sill with gusto again. It was only the other day that she was doing it!! This afternoon she had a relative visit that comes quite often. (we know it is a relative as all the family have personalised numberplates ending with the surname letter). All the time through the pandemic she has had family come inside, no social distancing and whatever the rules at the time. This time she stood talking at the door, didn't ask them in and was wearing a mask.

We set to and finished cleaning under everything in the lounge when we got back and had a good dust of everything and hoover. I cleaned the window too. Some protest from OH as usual saying things were good enough, but he soon got reminded it hasn't been done properly for many months with my knees unable to stand for long. He then put batteries in what needs them and set things out and it looks quite Christmassy now.

Thank you for all your cards if I missed anyone. They are all lovely and make a nice cheery group together. :-) I had a card from my old schoolfriend today, the one that has the New Forest ponies. She said her stables burned down last May, but luckily none of the ponies were inside! Her field and stables are down a lonely lane, but goodness knows what happened, she didn't say. She has never smoked, so I hope it wasn't done deliberately. The timber buildings were insured so will be rebuilt in the New Year.

Not the news you expected at the surgery AnnG, nor the pain! OH has had to keep readings like that before, and wear one of those Holter monitors for 24 hours. His goes up as soon as he steps into the surgery, but is usually normal if done at home. Packing day tomorrow then. I expect it might be a degree or two cooler further north and breezier near the coast.

Oh, thanks for letting me know Mel. I think the same size should fit me as well then, so I'll have another look! It's a good idea to do the tree top beforehand so you don't need to climb. I used to always put my star on top first as it needed wiring, but never thought to add a few baubles.

Ann aprons arrived and it fits fine .

Tree is in position and now sall I have to do is put all the baubles on. I put the fairy on the top first so I dos'nt have to climb on the steps and a few small baubles on the top too.

good afternoon all, 10 degrees here but no wind and a bit brighter than it has been but still no sun. Had appointment with the nurse this morning to have BP checked etc for my prescription. After many years of BP being low it was fairly high today so I have to take it twice a day for a week Shall have to talk to daughter about that as no point with taking it over Christmas with being so out of routine. Has blood test as well and, I have had many blood tests over the years, this is the first time that it has hurt and she really did hurt me. good job I have a fairly high pain threshold.

hope you can snatch a bit of sleep Mandy and hope you feel better soon. I expect you caught that cold in the supermarket.

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