Countdown to Christmas 2020 - Lockdown: Peaked! (Thread 5)

[NoWordForFluffy]

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Morning. Welcome to our new thread.

We maybe have rain today. I really hope we do! I have no ides when we last had it.

I'm baking with the kids today plus potting some plants on. Exciting. No idea where they'll go, mind you!

Only 2 days left of furlough. Yaaay for the financial side and booooo otherwise! 😂

I'm definitely thinking about xmas a few months earlier this year, now summer is cancelled. I watched the Gavin & Stacey xmas special again a few days ago

No mrs I've been redeployed.

I love Bradley Walsh. I used to like him in law and order UK too.

Hope you're doing better today Crazy. Doris is very cute!

I started watching SW, then changed over to Waking the Dead. I like spotting all the different actors/actresses - aside from the main characters, I've seen Benedict Cumberbatch (SW), Angela Griffin (WtD), Annette Crosbie (WtD), and Lynda Bellingham, and I'm still in the first seasons .

I'm interested to see what the plan is for coming out of lockdown. I've had a letter from work that I'm furloughed for May as well. I wasn't furloughed until 6 April, so I only received £250 less last month, which we saved in fuel and other miscellaneous work expenses, and DS's classes that have been cancelled, so we're actually no worse off at the moment. We'll have to see how this month goes.

Morning (just about)
Went to Morrisons a bit earlier this morning, it was so quiet. DH has mowed the front lawn and cleaned the side path (bloody woodpigeon poo).
I've wiped/put the shopping away and generally faffed about for a bit, then noticed Charlie has a sore eye - it wasn't like that 1st thing! He can open it, but it's a bit red and puffy around the lower eyelid - he keeps washing/rubbing it. I've phone the vet and they're going to ring me back - no appointments for anything until tomorrow as there's only one working instead of the usual 3 or 4. He had something similar once before, so hopefully they can let me have some antibiotic drops and I might need to call at a chemist for some savlon/bandages for me
Got to go out again tomorrow as I forgot milk not like me at all!
Crazy I love Doris

Thank you for the Doris appreciation. I'm really pleased with how she turned out.

Feeling better today. Still crampy but I can't move which is nice!
DH is in work so I've been doing bits around the house.

I'm really upset. There was a blackbird nest under our shed stairs. We started the bird 2 weeks ago as didn't know it was there, realised she was on some eggs. I could hear a racket around 8 this morning and saw a magpie and what looked like 3 blackbirds trying to fight it off. It only lasted about 20 mins. I've been up to have a look (from a distance) and all 4 babies have been killed 😞

Wreck I hope today goes ok for you.

most I've checked ours too but I don't trust the stats - they aren't testing people with symptoms or if they pass away at home so lots of people aren't being counted.

MrsMad I hope your mum and Bob are ok and there is no drama today.

Firefly watching SW is like doing a who's who off soap stars before they were famous 😂

Fluffy are you ok with the amitriptyline hangover? I really struggled when I tried it, I couldn't open my eyes and come around for ages in the morning.

puss fingers crossed Charlie is ok 🤞🏼

Oh crazy that is so sad

I hate magpies Once they find a nest, they keep going back.
I chase them off if I catch them in the garden.
Our blackbirds have managed for a couple of yrs to have double broods, but he's getting older and there are more sodding magpies than ever.
I do worry about him - he sits on the fence while I talk to him and waits for me to give him his sultanas and mealworms.

Hello everyone! I’ve been on various Christmas threads over the years, but regularly name change.
I always feel the first twitches of “Christmassyness” in April but felt absolutely nothing this year. Oh no, I thought, I’ve become a grown up! No desire to think about it whatsoever, even in lockdown with an abundance of Christmas films at my finger tips.
Then today - bam! My DD asked to watch The Snowman and the Snowdog and now I am full of festive cheer. I think it’s the thought that all this might, just might, be over by then (sorry if this has already been discussed up thread, I’ve only just joined in)
Might watch Elf and have a cheeseboard this evening if I can persuade DH - he’s used to my Christmas obsession after 14 years together!

Oh Crazy that is so sad about the baby birds. I love the snowman as well.

First day of annual leave. Feel tired but not physically tired so much, more mentally tired. The phone lines have been horrendous and I did not want to go in yesterday, but it was an alright shift. Thank goodness for amazing colleagues. Discovered I only live two streets away from one of them which is excellent.

That's horrible crazy!

The job I was going to apply for has closed to applicants so that's that.

I'm just sitting in my car after work about to go and pick the dc up.

I don't think I'll even be able to look forward to Christmas if things carry on this way. The thing I love most about Christmas is soaking up the atmosphere and taking the dc to festive places but I can't see any of that happening this year.

Wreck You'll just have to design and build your very own grotto. Plenty of fairy lights, tree, music, fake snow, gingerbread men (mulled and cranberry vodka)...don't be so defeatist!!
You can do this, but you need to sort the cranberries and vodka out first

why Ah, that's nice, finding a new neighbour I hope the weather warms up for the rest of your week off, it's gone really windy n cold here. You can recharge the batteries at least, but it would be nicer to do it in the sun.

Enjoy your time off why :)

Am hoping things will be better by Christmas Wreck

Veg box has arrived so have finalised Sainsburys shop :)

Nice kettle

Most that veg box looks absolutely wonderful the veg looks so fresh! l have red kettle love too Boot
Crazy that is nature for you it's bloody cruel. I just hope they will be able to have another lot of babies bless them
Wreck you never know m'dear things may sort themselves out mch quicker once they get all the data in . Have they offered you to do your training by the Apprenticeship scheme? l know it takes 4 years but you do it while on the job sts .Search for another job in the meantime and keep applying don't let this get you down
Why hope you enjoy this rest now and know that you are doing a great job m'dear well done

Mrs there aren't any apprenticeships available to me. I don't want to do nursing.

I had a nice dinner of mango and chilli chicken with roasted cauliflower and chickpeas. Could eat it again tbh.

Most that veg box looks great!

Mango and chilli chicken sounds amazing Wreck
Mrs I noticed also that most has a matching toaster...mine don't have I broken a MN rule, do you think?

Boots it was ready made from Asda just chucked it in the oven. I have a matching toaster and kettle too

If I get to Asda, I'll try that!

I'm not sure I can live with the shame about the non-matching toaster/kettle combo, though

I have a matching toaster and kettle - the kitchen is about the only room in my house that doesn't look like student digs (or feels that way to me - we've been saving for an extension so haven't done much since we moved in 6 years ago, apart from new kitchen. Extension plans were put on hold last year due to me being ill, spent months negotiating with the council and tweaking the plans with the architect, finally in a position to apply and bam - lockdown with potential redundancy).

I wanted black appliances to match my oven and our toaster was only 2 slices anyway. Bought snazzy Russell Hobbs ones. The cheap toaster was far better - my toast is either anaemic or French if I put it back in!

I've a feeling there will be lots of adapted festivities this year, Wreck. Not the same, but hopefully still enough to get us in the mood. We could arrange a Zoom Christmas carolling session

Boot I don't have a matching kettle & toaster either
Wreck ahhh right l didn't realise you didn't want to go into Nursing . Keep applying though there are bound to be loads of jobs coming up on NHS jobs
Fire l love the sound of that Can we have the 12 days of Christmas & The Carol of the bells , l love those 2

Hello all. Found you - you chatty bunch!

I've been a wee bit miserable as my other shoulder is freezing. However thanks to some encouragement by Fluffy I have phoned the doctor and there is hopefully a prescription for some proper painkillers waiting for me tomorrow.

I've got my first Christmas present arriving soon - a pair of Queen themed socks for DS. The band not our beloved Monarch 🤣

I had a parcel of sweets from A Quarter Of arrive today and I'm very impressed - as was the family! I'm definitely going to order from them again. I think they'd be great for putting in Christmas stockings.

We get through kettles like nobody's business! They're not an item which lasts in this house. So they never match the toaster which has outlasted a number of them!

Are your veg boxes expensive, Most? The ones here are. I want to live near Woolly et al as the boxes she found are a bargain!

Crazy, how awful re the baby birds. Nature is horrible sometimes, isn't it?

We have starling nests in the loft. The chicks are VERY loud right now. And the parent birds keep shitting on the washing, ungrateful bastards, given that we've given them a safe home.

Boots, I have a nice cranberry vodka recipe. For future reference!

I forgot you were on a/l, Why! I win the crap sister award today. 😂

I spent my lunch break potting tomatoes and sweetcorn on. Then I've spent more time after the kids' bedtime potting on more sweetcorn (mini ones this time) and the runner beans. I am quickly running out of pots! The greenhouse is now rammed, it has to be said. I must've potted 80+ plants on today. Bloody weather turning cold this weekend! They were meant to go outside, not into bigger pots.

I went to the allotment to water this evening too. I have more potatoes through. Yay! And loads more mares tail. Boo!

Argghh. I missed people and was very slow typing!

I'm glad you rang the GP, Woolly. Hurrah for good painkillers.

Are we good singers? Would our Zoom carol service be tuneful?!

I used to be in the school choir 30+ years ago. We won the a choral competition in Liverpool in 1985/86 or thereabouts. I can still remember all the words to Ave Maria. 😇