Thanks all. Dh understandably not too keen on forking out for another wm right now .. but we'll see if it can be mended ...and if so, in what sort of time period ... . Not sure if a pump being blocked is a fatal injury or something fixable tbh. It's only about 7 or 8 years old but I know they have built-in obsolescence nowadays.
Just taking a breaking from the fecking home bleugh ... it's taking ages today ... the three of us being at home all the time including the dogs shedding everywhere ... is making the house a lot dirtier. Just cleaned all kitchen surfaces (girding my loins for floor) and it's taken much longer than usual owing to dh's bread making activities which seem to involve chucking rock salt over everything ... sticking flour and water over all kitchen appliances ...and producing huge amounts of crumbs that are somehow ground in to the floor. Yeugh.
Sorry, don't know what has happened to my language, it's deteriorated a lot since menopause... it's just a fecking bollocking sort of day today 
That's good about more variety on the walks Lane! And good work on the Kallax (sp?)!
Megiddo meant to say that I am totally with you in spirit with the weight loss even though I haven't quite managed to get a grip on it in real life 
. And sorry your breakfast was so disappointing! These things really matter at a time like this!
Wish I could decorate the kitchen Expletive, I hope it is going well/has gone well! 
Bravo to you and your dh for taking the plunge!
I wish we were doing the same but dh seems to be constantly in the kitchen, cooking or eating or just generally making a mess now his office is just a few steps away. I think he would actually die if I told him he had to miss one meal just once. Sounds awful but I actually had to tell him that the kitchen was closed between 8.30 (end of breakfast) and 12.30 (lunch time) today so that I could get in to tidy it all up in order to start to clean!
Added to which we didn't have our usual roast yesterday so no easy cold cuts with veg for dinner tonight (which usually makes things easier on home bleugh day). The only thing we seem to have in are sweet potatoes. So I need to start making a curry. Gah!
Hazel your garden plants are absolutely beautiful and the photos are very cheering! You obviously have a green finger!
Ta for links Lisette! Favourite holidays a difficult one because I suffered from awful travel sickness (still do to an extent) and our family holidays involved enormously long drives to Scotland, Northumberland, Ireland, and sometimes a ferry crossing too. ( I have puked beside most of the glens and lochs and munros of Scotland tbh!) So most memories are blighted by a blanket of nausea 
and my mother being quite cross (probably fed up of my constant puking in the car).
I cannot be more delighted that dd takes after dh and is a travelling trooper! 
Anyway, I do remember some lovely times doing quite serious hill-walking, deer-tracking, horse-riding (on beautiful highland and fell ponies). I particularly enjoyed making very complicated sand castles (more of an encampment really) on deserted Northumbrian beaches .. really elaborate ones with sea shell decorated turrets .. connected with mini canals ... and waiting for the sea to come in and fill the moats ... . Loved that!
Also remember a glorious summer on Holkham beach in Norfolk where there are pine trees. Remember running around the trees with db pretending to be mini dehydrated horses that could fit in to a suitcase... and then when we ran in to the sea we "reconstituted" ourselves in to life-size animals ... . One of those long, magical summer days as a child when you have complete freedom ... .
Missed Boris's statement yesterday but I think all the confusion and different strategies in various countries across Europe are testament to the fact that this virus is so new that no-one (not even the pointy heads) have enough info yet so govs are winging it really. And A-type personalities who tend to run countries (many of whom are white middle-aged men) aren't too good at standing in front of a camera and saying "We don't know what's for the best really".
I think this article about a 9 year old boy with symptoms who didn't transmit the virus despite attending three different ski schools is quite cheering.
Although, again, the fact that so much attention is being given to this one particular case makes me think that they know not a lot really ... .
Not until much more tracking and tracing info is collated anyway.
So that was a very rambling way of saying Fox's strategy of taking it a day at a time is a good one I think.
It's all a bit of a bummer isn't it really, to put it mildly ... .
Did you all see the Beeb programme fronted by a doctor who said that the NHS is still seeing the impact health-wise of the 2008 recession in patients today? So the question isn't really economy v health, it's health v health. Because if the economy fails, the impact on patient health and the health system will be devastating anyway, even without the virus adding to the death-rate.
Heigh ho. Sorry. That wasn't very cheery.
Had better go and sweet and mop kitchen floor and finish cleaning downstairs cloakroom. Don't think I am going to get upstairs bathroom done today either.
Then need to cook.
Tally-hooooo!
Be kind to yourselves everyone! [tea] 
And take small steps ... small steps... in my case ... small, rather crumped shuffles ... .
