Tiery Weary & Crackers!

[Bikingbear]

As a carry on from the last thread

@WaxOnFeckOff this sounds mad but porridge oats in a bath might help.

Hope the itching goes away soon Wax, I can recommend the oats in bath too.

Only a few working days left of 2020 for me. Let's see what fun next year brings.

I wasn't planning on going food shopping until Wednesday... I wonder if that's too late now?
School run was very quiet this morning.
I just can't get in the mood for Christmas.

If anyone wants a Christmassy rom com that's not too cheesy the series Home for Christmas on Netflix is good, it's Norwegian which sets it apart from the usual, with a bit of dark humour etc. Dies have a proper unlikely rom com ending though.

I think I need a Christmassy rom com or two...my mood is low today. Feel so worried about more school closures, the uncertainty of how long is the worst bit. I know in our authority the head teachers are discussing plans today. Maybe we'll get a better idea of the time scale soon

Today I'm going to buy beef for Christmas dinner. Any suggestions where I'll get something nice? Aldi did a really nice chateaubriand a couple of years ago but there was sod all when I was in on Friday. Assuming the place hasn't been stripped bare by panic buyers of course.

Aldi got their meat in on 19th. They might have some today.

They had sirloin for sure but I didn’t look at the other. They had a goose but was £45.00!!

MrsJay recommend a nice Califonrian white zinfandel if you're after rose, but if you want sweeter then I would choose mateus for Christmas.

wax can only sympathise with the itch and tell you to stop scratching. DH, DBro and DD1 are all sufferers and the itching and scratching always makes matters worse and drives me nuts. - chamomile tea might help either drunk (palatable cold) or dabbed on.

Thanks @FourSeasonsTotalLandscaping il have a read later

Just some calm news, WHO saying no evidence new strain behaves differently

twitter.com/anshul__k/status/1340954632978391040?s=21

That's good news!

I was in Sainsbury's early this morning. Felt like a weirdo prepper compared to all the Christmas shoppers, as I filled my trolley with tinned tomatoes, passatta and pasta. Listening to Grant Shapps saying everything's fine as 80% of freight is unaccompanied, gave me the fear.

That is good. Also JS has said they are hoping to stick to face to face teaching on the 18th. I think the concern about the new strain is spread in London amongst teens so that maybe explains extending the holidays

80% unaccompanied is a reassuring stat. Also worth noting most produce this time of year in Scottish supermarkets is locally sourced - so people talking about veg shortages in South East not necessarily that relevant here, unless you can't cope without lettuce for a couple of days (I can always cope without lettuce).

LochFynne Fisheries panicking last night about shipping langoustine to France. DH got his fingers crossed they don't decide to sell them cheap at home instead. I love seafood but he really doesn't.

Nick Boles got a column in the Times this morning. Just read a precis but looks to be suggesting same as me yesterday. If the new strain is indeed super spready then all the various general population suppression measures may be pretty pointless. Chink of light given who is saying it. Grant Shapps apparently seeking to reassure by saying all the recent "cases" he knows caught it really easily in one big cluster but were pretty much asymptomatic - again echoing my anecdata.

First news reports than France is reopening ports so I guess I won't be pigging out on fruit de mer after all.

Thankfully although we weren't meant to be doing Christmas at home, I'd already ordered a duck, some monkfish wrapped in prosciutto and some posh seafood starters just for shits and giggles. If Domino's is serving on Christmas day for DS, we're sorted.

I've actually come up with a cunning wheeze for Christmas Day. As you're allowed to travel across the country I'm going to go with DH and Ddog to my favourite Blackness Castle coastal walk before teenage DS gets up. I have been really missing it since the city limits restrictions came in.

Fluffy the new English tier 4 regs also make specific provision for students returning to campus so that is also hopeful.

Starting to wonder if the whole thing is an attempt by politicians to get ahead of everyone constantly demanding they clamp down more so that they start to get pressure building up to unwind as soon as people can see the vaccine programme having an impact.

Used to go there all the time with my flask of coffee when I lived in Linlithgow rookie. Good plan.

@Dinnafashyersel it won't be quite the same without a lobster lunch at The Lobster Pot, but I do love the views there.

I was about to post that I think schools will be back on 18th then my brother (secondary teacher) just told me they've been told it could be February. I hope he's winding me up.
I wonder when the guidance about who can attend during the week beginning 11th will be released.

I'd be surprised if they are back before half term. My sister seems convinced the economy can't take another lockdown and they'll only be shut a week.

super quiet on school run today, no work today so doing a house sort/clean for my own sanity as no visitors, obvs. secretly loving the idea of not bothering about a daily tidy in case someone pops round over the holiday, the chair of doom and the step of ‘take it upstairs’ will be untouched 🤣

wax itchy person here too, also react against meds and weirdly some multivitamin supplements make my skin so itchy. There’s an Australian brand Moo Goo, that I’d highly recommend, specifically for skin after reaction to medicines too. I’m not associated with them at all, but suffice to say they’ve saved me many times and my baby DC with a post antibiotic skin breakout.

Haven't caught up with the thread yet so sorry if this has been posted...

@KingGutterBaby on Instagram is talking about the science of the new strain on her stories - I think there's about 12 hours left before they go. instagram.com/kinggutterbaby

Basically it shouldn't be anything to worry about, and it also might not be spreading as rapidly as they think, but instead it might have been responsible for several superspreading events and has now become the dominant strain in that area. It makes more sense when she says it! She's a great resource for what's sensible advice and what's not.

If anyone in Edinburgh looking for food shopping the co- op in dalry which is a massive store was almost empty. Shelves very well stocked apart from lettuce 🤷‍♀️

I braved Sainsburys this morning, and it was absolutely fine... Busyish, with people standing in stupid places having chats with their shopping companions , but no queue outside or at the checkouts and everything I needed on the shelves (with some things handily on aisle ends, so I didn't have to go down the aisles).
Including lettuce. I was terrified at 9am when I was still not dressed that I'd left it too late, but I wanted to get there after 10 so I could buy booze without hanging around the cordoned off bits like a desperate woman. Though the taxi driver said it was absolutely heaving at about 6.30- 7am though (they opened at 6) so maybe for once my lax ways were actually of benefit.

There were surprisingly many primary or early secondary age pupils in there with parents/ grandparents. So it's obviously too dangerous for them to be in school (which break up tomorrow here. And they would obviously be local children, cos T3 travel ban) but its absolutely fine for them to be in a supermarket.

Interestingly, they've closed off the cafe, but looking through the windows I could see they are using it as a giant overflow stockroom, with huge pallet loads of toilet paper, dry pasta, tins of stuff and so on. Which is promising for the next few weeks I suppose.

Bizarrely, it's actually made me feel a little bit festive. Maybe that's all I needed... A trip to a supermarket 4 days before christmas in the middle of a GLOBAL PANDEMIC.