Chatterbox LXXXVIII Ygraine

[cyprusmoira]

One result of Corovid19 is that the airlines are desperate. Easy Jet are offering a E35 each way Larnaca/ Gatwick in December. Deb was seriously looking at it for a spot of pre Christmas shopping. On checking the aircraft lands at 23 25, not ideal if you then have to travel to Central London, that idea is on hold

Moira

[suffolk]

Yes EM ... a friend's daughter M who works on a supermarket checkout was reduced to tears by a customer on Tuesday ... the customer was thrown out and banned but M was in bits and was taken home ... she spent yesterday morning having a panic attack so couldn't work ... last I heard she was hoping to return to work today ... her manager and colleagues have been marvellous but what sort of people do that to someone?!!!

[cyprusmoira]

[scullion]

[cyprusmoira]

We were discussing the weekend menus, we will be having strawberries. Strawberries should be cheap as our usual strawberry farm also supplies the big hotels, there will be big trays of malformed berries for sale. Deb is getting out the Strawberry Gin jar
I feel very sorry for the strawberry farm, Pastos Farm as they have also branched out into fancy salad leaves for the restaurant trade. Obviously it was all planted well before the problems started. They also have a taverna but that has always done a brisk take away trade

Moira

[earthmaiden]

Such a shame. We'd love strawberries and fresh salad leaves!

Someone on our local FB page went to a supermarket this morning and couldn't get any of the normally everyday things on her list. She said she broke down in tears. Thinking of the abuse to shop assistants and drivers, I suppose it is just another way of the disappointment manifesting itself. It also really shows as a nation how stressed people are and how lucky so many have been to be able to have the luxuries they desire for so long. I don't want anyone to suffer but hope this episode will give people a chance to destress and ponder over what's important.

My parcel's not coming today but another one is. (I ordered two things online on the same day while I could). I hope it comes soon or I'll have to do the exercise video again instead of a walk. My legs certainly knew they'd been forced to do a small number of lunges when I got up this morning, my knee has recovered. I probably should do more ....!

They were just saying on Radio 1 that quite a few people who have been asked to work from home have taken their comfortable office chair with them as well as the laptop and things you'd expect. Some places have had to put signs up asking them not to (presumably they don't go home on public transport!).

[suffolk]

There were times when we had to work from home ... the problem was that at work I had a desk and chair which had been assessed by an OT and provided in order to meet my needs so as not to exacerbate neck and shoulder pain. At home the dining table and chair were fine for dining but they weren't ok for using a laptop at ... sitting on the sofa with a laptop didn't provide me with the desk space I needed in order to do my work ... I frequently ended up with pain that lasted for days after just one day working from home. I can quite understand people taking their adjustable office chairs home to use, if they have been assessed and adjusted to suit them... we weren't designed to sit at desks

[smitch]

I'm working from home and have my work chair with me. I went down to the office last night and collected the chair, my monitor and keyboard along with a couple of bits out of the fridge. We won't be allowed in after tomorrow so thought I'd better act quickly.

[dennispc]

Grandson works at a small village pub. Obviously concerned about his job, but owner has started doing take away meals, delivered for the elderly and also a small basic shop. What’s so lovely he’s not trying to rip people off (probably back fire on him later if he did) but 50p for 500g carrots, toilet rolls 30p each and hand sanitiser at a £1 is more than decent. All the food basics, flour, eggs etc.

A member of Waitrose staff was trying to explain why they didn't have pints of milk today, before she got far I said, "I don't shoot messengers" she smiled, and said no, there are none in the store room until a delivery later this morning. Hope it helped her believe some customers are decent. We used to run a shop, the great British public are not always as great as they think they are.

[dennispc]

Email from Waitrose. Going to restrict first hour for elderly and vulnerable. Too late for me this morning

[Pepper Pig]

They're also going to close their cafes and get rid of the free coffee dennis. Hope the free newspaper doesn't go. I need something to line the cat litter tray.

[earthmaiden]

A few pubs in villages round here are offering that sort of thing too dennispc. I think it's lovely in a smallish community.

I can understand why people would want their office chair but I don't think employers were expecting it!

In our local paper there is a picture of a dog which has had a litter of 20 puppies . They didn't all survive.

[cyprusmoira]

Good Morning Wild Ones, we are venturing out to the big supermarket later on, it has wide aisles so we should be able to avoid to much contact. I wonder if their coffee shop will be open? Lidl is taking the lead only allowing and elderly and disabled customers in before 10 00.

I know why people like their office chairs, the support you properly.

Moira

[icelesley]

I ventured out yesterday to the supermarket to buy some compost but it was all gone so I went in to buy some veg, although the car park bbc was full, the shop was not over full . It was 8.30am by the time I went to the checkouts . It was heaving, although ten tills were open the queue at each was reaching the back of the shop. There was very little on the shelves. I did get my veg, a loaf, eggs, and a chicken when I was waiting in the queue, a couple of staff were looking along the lines of people and anyone who was aged was whisked through and they didn't have to pay for their bits of shopping which I thought was a lovely gesture, well Done Morrison's

[dennispc]

[earthmaiden]

Morning all! . I like the newspaper for the crossword. Sometimes I don't read the rest

I am planning to venture out today to top up stocks. It sounds as though the supermarkets have put in sensible controls - funnily enough, all except Lidl who are appealing to people to play fairly. They may be doing the morning hour thing though.

It's a gorgeous day.

[Seatallan]

Gorgeous here too. We're going for a fell walk (perfect activity to be far away from other people ).

EM, good luck with your shopping. Shopping is fast becoming a full-time occupation even in these parts. How my friends who are still working/living in the south are coping with it I dare to think. Best friend is a senior NHS manager (poor girl) and she's practically working 24/7 so her food shopping opportunities are few. I shall be venturing into town again tomorrow (whilst trying to keep a recommended distance from others). At least it's a small town.

A particularly lovely village initiative was announced today. We're all encouraged to put up our external Christmas lights and/or erect bright and happy scarecrows in our gardens/put up rainbow posters in our front windows for the benefit the local children who can't currently play with their friends and to generally cheer everyone up.

[cyprusmoira]

Back from the big supermarket, we were issued with disposable gloves on entering. No sign of panic buying except for cat food!, shelves full of loo rolls, all the usual stock in place. The only difference was in the bakery, the rolls were packed in bags of two instead of being loose. There were no spinach/ cheese/ other pies, probably because the young men pop into the bakery at lunch time for their snacks and they are not working.

On the way back we diverted to look at the Kouris Dam which is overflowing. On our return we diverted onto a side road, it was properly surfaced and lead to some sort of facility at the base of the dam wall. There is a splendid "temporary" waterfall, about 10 metres high where the water from the spillway falls into the old river bed. Lots of swallows and martins flying over the river. It was an unexpected sight.

Moira

[suffolk]

Whoops! I thought I'd posted this morning ....

Good morning all your swallow waterfall sounds lovely Moira

This morning the forecast of a fine day had been changed to 'rain any minute' so I gave the Under Gardener the day off .... of course the threatened rain hasn't materialised and he's at work tomorrow ... although whether he'll have any work after tomorrow goodness knows, so he'll probably have plenty of time for gardening in the coming weeks .........

I've got a batch of Oat and Raisin Cookies cooling on the racks and a loaf of wholemeal bread in the oven ... hopefully Morrisons will be delivering our order this evening so we won't starve for a little while anyway ...

[aero280]

Just had a quick look at the Kouris Dam on Google. It's interesting how different parts of the world look at things. The river bed on Google Earth looks dry. In the UK and most of Northern Europe the dam would have to have controlled outlet to give a base flow in the river so that the fish and other wildlife could survive.

I'm not sure what the buildings at the base do. As there's normally no flow downstream, it can't be generating electricity, and there are no signs of any cables leaving the site. It's probably a valve house to control the outflow. It has to send drinking water out. Google says it feeds as far as SE Cyprus. I suspect it's raw water from Kouris at treatment for drinking is done more locally.

I did a lot a work on the dams around London. Only two had overflow spillways. All the others were filled as needed by pumping.

[uschi]

Guten Tag!
We had a couple of gorgeous days and I enjoyed short breaks on the balcony, but now it is rather dim outside.
When we did our shopping yesterday the shops were medium full. People queued mostly sensible and while pasta and loo paper were still rare we did manage to get kitchen paper (one batch only).

In German we call panic buying "hamster buying" and stockpiling "Hamstern". We did do a dwarf hamster buy, as we don't want to go out that often anymore. But no real stockpiling.

The local pet shop had a sign saying that hamster buying was morally wrong - except at their shop.
I guess when all this is over the eagle will no longer be the German national animal - it will be a hamster instead. I will be at the forefront with new designs for the parliament, coins and so on.

[cyprusmoira]

[aero280]

I found a map of the Cyprus water pipe. It includes the feed tunnel into the Kounis Dam from the north west.

Click on the map inset here to see it larger. It's all in Greek, but a map is a map!

http://www.cyprus.gov.cy/moa/wdd/wdd.ns ... enDocument

[earthmaiden]

I found a picture of the overflow on YouTube, I can imagine how pretty it was with the birds as well. It's easy to see how they might forget to clear the river bed if it doesn't overflow often!

I've been to Sainsburys and a garden centre. Sainsburys car park was jam packed but the shop wasn't. I wonder where everyone was? Still no flour or eggs to be had but there's enough food for everyone to have something - and a huge amount of fresh broccolli. People mostly are being very considerate about not getting too close. The garden centre was empty and nice to walk round and enjoy inside and out on the first day of Spring. I wanted a gro bag but they didn't have any. All the compost etc was at reduced price.I bought a back of ericacious for the blueberries and a bag of compost for other things. I'm not sure if a grow bag is just a bag of compost or if it is a different mix. I also managed to get milk for the man next door which pleased him.

I'm going to try to install software now - I may be sometime. Wish me luck!

[cyprusmoira]

Got that, thanks Aero, and in English too, I use that site to check the level of dams. I must now find that You Tube video

Edited to add, I found the You Tube video without difficulty, thanks. The waterfall at the start was the one we were watching although the flow has diminished a bit since that was recorded

[suffolk]

Morrisons just phoned ... a delivery driver has called in sick ... can we go and collect our order?
Well, we were trying to stay away from crowded supermarkets but ... hey ho ... don’t really have any choice do we?

They were very apologetic. OH has said we'll go this evening ... I drive down there and he'll nip in and get it while wearing gloves and not breathing ...

Did have the idea of ringing them back and suggesting they put it in a taxi ... it's only an £8 trip away ... but their phone is ringing off the hook ...

[cyprusmoira]

Good Morning Wild Ones, Suffs, did you ever get your graceries?

Moira

[suffolk]

Good morning all

Yes Moira we went and got them ... they wheeled them out to the car for us ... but a lot of fresh stuff was missing ... think we’ll be heading out to a farm shop tomorrow or Monday. Of course, driving to get the shopping meant we missed the first Gardeners’ World of the season ... I shall have to catch up on iPlayer.

This morning is bright and sunny ... OH will be heading to work in a bit ... we’re sort of expecting that he’ll probably be laid off for a while ... as he’s technically on a minimum hours contract he’s not sure if he’ll get any money ... and of course both my offsprung are self employed ...

[icelesley]

Good Morning wild ones. I hope you are all well. It's a tad overcast at the moment, but we have sunshine forecast for later. I have started my veg seeds, they are in the greenhouse nice and snug. I hope they take.

[earthmaiden]

Morning all! . It's a really lovely day here. Rather disappointed that the other of the two things I ordered online is supposed to come today instead of Monday so I'd better stay in rather than go in the garden or for a walk . I don't want them knocking on neighbour's doors in the present climate.

I mentioned on another thread that I plan to make a Dan Lepard cake from a recipe I have been meaning to try for over 10 years. I have discovered this morning that the opened bag of ground almonds in the cupboard is so old that even I am not happy to use it . I think I should turn the cupboard out today.

[suffolk]

Yes ... I find ground almonds don’t keep indefinitely ... the high oil content goes rancid

[dennispc]

Government said they are helping the unemployed.

[StokeySue]

I keep ground almonds in the freezer, as I do use them but infrequently. They keep long past the best by date.

[suffolk]

OH has returned from work ... he said that he has chosen to use up some A/L (as we've cancelled our holiday) and then may be on unpaid leave or maybe with a proportion of his pay when his employers can sort out what the government is offering. Two of his colleagues are self-isolating anyway as one has asthma and the other has a vulnerable family member. The manager and asst manager will be doing their normal hours and as trade has slowed they'll cope ... if it gets busy they may phone OH as we live nearby. The manager stressed that OH is a valued employee and is definitely not being 'laid off' and the company feels it's in quite a good position to bounce back as soon as all this settles down.

For now he's tidying the terrace and sorting out the little leanto greenhouse so we can get on with the garden. I'm letting him get on with it as the wind is so cold and blustery it was making my head hurt and I still have my cough (a dry cough I've had since Dec/January Hmmmm ???)

[Chinchilla_lady]

I was wondering about your trip Suffs We came out of isolation this morning for a coast walk, very um bracing!

[dennispc]

[suffolk]

[scullion]

[Prettykiwicrazy]

We’re in Devon and a few people have commented how they’re concern a lot of “second homers” are coming down in droves to Devon which will put a strain on already stretched resources

[Pepper Pig]

I believe that is one of the problems in Spain. Many people in the cities have evacuated to their coastal second homes, hence the more than rapid spread.

[suffolk]

[StokeySue]

Friend had booked a trip to Italy with Exodus, fully ABTA and ATOL protected of course
It’s been cancelled
The company are refusing to return a penny, saying they will allow the money to be used on future holidays in the next two years

[earthmaiden]

That's interesting Sue, DD has a holiday booked in September with them and is a little anxious. It would be interesting to see what the ABTA and ATOL stance will be as this drama unfolds further.

[cyprusmoira]

Deb had a phone call from Elaine, she does our pedicures and other things. Elaine is coming here on Tuesday morning and will be doing modified treatments, so no nail colour etc , it suits us I know that Elaine has a couple of elderly clients that she visits at home. Now will Valentina, our hairdresser do something similar?

Chicken & Leek Pie for supper using yesterdays Roast Chicken. The sauce using the pan juices and the end of a pack of cream is delicious, the shortcrust pastry is chilling in the fridge. To be followed by strawberries then will watch a performance of the ballet, Mayerling saved BBC4 last Sunday evening

Moira

[Seatallan]

[Busybee]

And Wales........

We have had a second home, in fact it’s the one we live in permanently now, I don’t really get the mindset, I would want to be at home, near my own doctors especially as this could last months. Plus my main home has everything, it’s better stocked store cupboard, documents, papers and the comfy sofa!

BB

[earthmaiden]

I had relatives with a flat in London, where they worked, and a house on the coast for weekends and holidays. If you had asked them where they lived they'd have said the coast and the store cupboard, documents and comforts reflected that. Maybe there's others like that. It is sad to read how such people will deplete essential local services at a time of need.

[miss mouse]

[earthmaiden]

Had I realised their age sooner I might have done!

Shocked to see they're gritting the roads tonight and the forecast says -1 .

[dennispc]

We've had our ground almonds a fair while in a air tight plastic box. I'll check tomorrow. What about pine nuts?