ADs predict wine and rioting before 6.30pm (but only if the sun's out)

[Dowser]

Over here peeps.

Not much sun today..so plenty of wine it is

@Shodan

Did EVERYBODY read Virginia Andrews?

Yep And the Wideacre books. Both made me feel kinda grubby.
Lots of Victoria Holt/Jean Plaidy/Phillippa Carr (Eleanor Hibbert was such a prolific writer!) which I might revisit now.
Currently rereading all the Miss Read books- I find them so gentle and
easy to read.

I went to Screwfix (got the wrong thing again ffs). All easy enough, except for the woman serving the other customer. They have big perspex screens in front of the tills, so each employee is standing behind a till, behind a perspex screen, behind the counter. She barked at the poor unfortunate who dared to step a small pace from the yellow box marked on the floor to show her his tablet with his order on. So she then had to ask him his name, which he gave. But she couldn't spell it, so she raised her voice again to get him to spell it. Then she couldn't understand him so demanded his order number.

And I wondered a couple of things, while rolling my eyes so hard I gave myself a headache- what germs did she think he was going to transmit to her, through the perspex screen, by showing her his tablet?

If the world is populated by people who think that someone holding a tablet out, at arm's length, behind a perspex screen, is going to KILL THEM, what hope do we have of getting back to normal?

I'm not convinced it's actually virus fear for all of them, I think some people just really enjoy telling others what to do.

Lovely to see you Jourdain, hopefully round two will be easier.

GS goes to school for one hour this week in a bubble of 3. One of them is his friend who he has not seen since March. DIL made overtures of a get together outdoors which were rejected by mum. Ironically mum goes back to work next month in a nursery where she will be covered in spit, snot or sick from dawn to dusk. Folk are strange.

I'm not convinced it's actually virus fear for all of them, I think some people just really enjoy telling others what to do

Yup. Reliving their ‘playground monitor’ days.

@Drivingdownthe101

I'm not convinced it's actually virus fear for all of them, I think some people just really enjoy telling others what to do

Yup. Reliving their ‘playground monitor’ days.

I favoured librarian, partly the love of books and partly as a reason not to go out at lunch/ break

@Nihiloxica

Hi Jourdain, nice to see you back.

Most people here seem very happy to send their kids back in September full time.

I really hope it happens.

The numbers going back at the junior school seem to be rising steadily (they've been very flexible about taking anyone in who might have the need and I think are up to 2 year 6 part-time bubbles, were on 3 key worker bubbles and I think another bubble's just started today judging from the new faces at the school gate, well DD1's "crush")

The infants are point blank, "nope, full, go away" and not even setting work now. I'm furious at how that school have treated the kids not in school and I'm actually ashamed to be a governor (I was going to resign anyway as my time as a parent is at an end so shouldn't really be clinging onto a parent gov spot).

One of my friends twit husbands (who tags his wife in everything so I see all the shite he posts) who was full on "this little bairn isn't gonna be a guinea pig to go back to school" and "parents sending their kids back shouldn't have had them cos they need to stay at home" is now flooding the internet with school uniform and "good to see this little lad back where he belongs" shit.

I hate people.

Yeah, mum is pissed.

Ho hum.

I was a playground monitor - we got to hang around inside the school building, letting all our mates come in and fart about and keeping everyone else we didn't like out during playtimes. I have numerous dodgy photographs of us being very mean to a huge statue of Jesus (convent school).

Domina the infants really have been shafted here in Wales as well.

not boring old shite about brothers and sisters shagging.

This made me laugh out loud. I'm ashamed to say I loved Virginia Andrews. I read it with my eyes nearly popping out of my head. I am going to go away and have a think about my standards now.

Also love Philippa Gregory but agree the writing is pretty rubbish.

I might try a dry July just to reset myself. It would do me good even though I don't drink much.

Sorry to flip around a lot between topics (and skip what I'm about to write if you're having a bad day or find it too much reading stories of children being harmed).....

but I heard something really really sad about one consequence of the virus/lockdown today and I wasn't sure whether to share it here or not because it is devastating. But then I think we should be talking about these things because there are real people out there are having to live with them and they matter. And people are so full of crap on some threads about schools and children not being harmed by this. My friend is involved in child protection. She is involved in a horrible case involving a child having been harmed by her father (I won't actually write it here as it is distressing but I'm sure you can use your imaginations). The child is 8 and the court case had to be postponed because of the virus. The child is being further traumatised by having to wait for it to be heard. I am sure other social workers are well aware of other cases like this but we aren't hearing from them in the media are we? How life-changing and traumatic to be going through that kind of court case anyway and to have gone through examinations and interviews, only to be left in limbo over when the case will be heard. At the age of eight. It's hideous. I'm sure there will be a backlog in the courts in the way there is in the NHS.

@cattermole accent alive and well in my head. You gave your roots away earlier on when you described us all as having a right gob on. (We all have today though haven't we!) Knew you were Lancashire, didn't know you were Bolton. Are you too @Jourdain? Makes me sad on the rare occasion I have to go back these days. Trafford Centre well and truly did for Bolton town centre. My Saturday job was in Whittakers.

Well, you lot have put the kybosh on me ever drinking again. My wine bottles live in the cellar, thus elevating it from the dark, damp space full of things-we-might-need-but-don't-know-what-to-do-with, to a Wine Cellar. But it's been raining a lot and all your talk of slugs and frogs has warned me that I have no idea what might be lurking among all the piles of soggy junk Very Useful Stuff that I have to clamber over to reach the wine.

Well I have a cob on today so am going out to buy knickers and kill a few I daresay. The knicker elastic on so many pants has just given up. They told us to wash underwear in a hot wash back in March as soon as my undies felt the heat they just gave up the ghost one by one. Fine if you are wearing trousers but the other day I wore a dress and the John Wayne look hitching up my pants was not fun.

@wishingchair a friend in my book club is a lawyer in child protection. Poor woman is on her knees atm 12-13 hour days, caseload going through the roof and all the normal safe spaces for these kids ie school not there. Foster places hard to come by etc etc. Makes me so sad, and also bloody angry

Our wine is in the shed. We panic bought that while everyone else panic bought loo roll as the reality of being locked in with the kids trying to educate them began to loom.

@DominaShantotto

Our wine is in the shed. We panic bought that while everyone else panic bought loo roll as the reality of being locked in with the kids trying to educate them began to loom.

Wine is also the only thing we panic bought! Then our local independent posh wine shop started doing same day delivery so all was well again.

Re: children and women my friend is flat out trying to find accommodation for families at the moment. Housing assn. worker. They all want the man out, the man wants somewhere else to live within the housing association, you cannot just magic up accommodation at this time. It is a mess.

[quote Ibake]@wishingchair a friend in my book club is a lawyer in child protection. Poor woman is on her knees atm 12-13 hour days, caseload going through the roof and all the normal safe spaces for these kids ie school not there. Foster places hard to come by etc etc. Makes me so sad, and also bloody angry [/quote]
My best friend is a child protection social workers. She’s on her knees with exhaustion after the past few months. Referrals are down due to children not being at school/seeing extended family etc which is hugely worrying, and the children already under their care are in some awful situations.

@Cattermole I know he's not from Bolton, but I read that in Stuart Maconie's voice.

His books are a great read, for anyone looking for something different.

I needed to buy some new knickers, this morning, after chucking out a load of sainsburys ones with elastic I'm allergic to. Problem was, the escalator to the knicker floor in markses was knackered and I was blown if I was queuing for the lift. Might make a trip into Newcastle on Thursday, if it's still cool.

I swerved the wine aisle and picked up some sparkling water. Half of my good knickers are too tight and I need to do something about it. Less booze and no sugary shite usually does the job for me, though I did have a small slice of banana bread with my lunch. I need to get the freezer cleared out a bit, then I can go back to freezing the cakes for the boys so I can't tuck into it.

To help with our collective gob on's. I've just been sent a vid with the only sensible use for face masks.

Covid deaths.

England 19, Wales 3, NI 1, =23.

That is good news even if it is post weekend. Gawd knows what the figures in England will be later they usually lob in another 100 outside hospital settings.

I love Stuart Maconie's voice.

Just realised I forgot to listen to the Freak Zone last night.

I see the calls for the military to lock up the areas of Leicester that are a particular ethnic mix are continuing.

I think I would cry if I was told my booked haircut for 4th July couldn't take place and I had to wait another fortnight of being locked down right now - I feel so dreadful about the state my hair is in!

I don't really understand how local lockdowns will work if I'm completely honest.

Same with schools and what happens when someone tests positive. Do they imagine we can all just take two weeks off every month?

Or is that really unlikely to happen?

@Ibake puppies!! 😍