What are you all up to
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I must admit I do not understand why he is taking risks right now as this Omicron mutation is spreading like wildfire and we have all been asked to cut back on mixing right now. Most likely he will be OK, but he has the 2 little ones to think of, Callum in particular will be very upset if he cannot see Granny and Grandad, and Gran and Papa over Christmas.
We are not talking about what I would class as "young people"........SIL is 37, his BIL is 55, and his Dad is 70 and recovering from cancer, having been in hospital for several weeks over the summer.
The irony is that he is a terrible worrier over his health and makes himself ill just worrying that he might get ill, for example by eating something that is past its " best before" date, despite the fact that it is perfectly fine. We are talking here about things like fruit and veg, and bread.
As a teacher in a large secondary school, he already has significant exposure to infection, and seems to go between being ultra cautious one week and the complete opposite the next week!
We can only hope it ends well.
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Kj. Our teacher daughter, who I call "young" compared to us and her colleagues have been exposed to so much Covid that we have to go carefully when suggesting anything about avoiding it. We get "short shrift" when discussing it! At present they are just staggering on til the term ends. Let's hope we can have some sort of family Christmas but for some it might not happen whatever precautions they try to take. Some of us, due to distances don't see our families as often as we'd like so it's hard for everyone.
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I think I've always been a bit of a worrier. OK as long as I have a plan. Living on a farm with no neighbours (except from my son's family across the yard) we don't have daily contact with a lot of people. That suits me. I don't like crowds and avoid busy places as much as possible. It's my Birthday next week and we booked a table at a pub/restaurant a few miles away. I was looking forward to a night off cooking, but this morning I have cancelled it. My husband has suggested we nip into town to pick up Fish and Chips (call and collect), and open a bottle of Fizz. A plan I can cope with.
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Our pub is still doing take aways, we've only had one indoor meal there recently so for us it will probably be back to the take away menu. OH went out for a Christmas meal last night. Five chaps around a table in a separate area with the window open. OH has a cold and has been testing just in case.
Hope you enjoy your birthday Goldie. 🍹
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I think the hospitality sector would be very small if everyone was like us!!
We are not big on eating out, not because we are unsociable, but rather as we frequently find it disappointing, so have not particularly cut back on it due to Covid. I think we have eaten out about 10 times this year, one dinner on my birthday, and the rest lunch out when on holiday.
Going to the pub has never been something we have done. There were no pubs in Norway when I grew up, so it was quite a cultural shock coming to Glasgow in the 60s as a student! With money being tight back then, going to the pub was not something I could afford often, and OH was of the same mind, so it is something we have very rarely done. Now that most pubs serve food, we have had a few pub lunches while on holiday, but just going out for a drink is not part of our normal life.
When permitted, we have carried on much as normal with holidays, having about 9-10 weeks away this year, as Easter was cancelled, we stopped going abroad in 2018.
Apart from one home delivery right at the start, we have done our own food shopping, and even shopped for DD when she was pregnant. Visits to other shops have been slightly curtailed due to things being closed previously, but otherwise we have tried to carry on much as normal, observing the rules and being careful. In fact our children have worried more about us (pre vaccinations) than we have!
We have carried on providing childcare when permitted, and have also spent a lot of time at DD's doing woodwork etc for her, so no "hiding away" or just sitting around at home. We have seen less of our son and family due first to travel restrictions and then us/them being on holiday at different times, but other than that, life goes on.
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Good news! Well, I think so anyway!
After a week of having to rely on my not very good 4G signal we have a new router up and running and very impressive it is too (so far). A "free" upgrade from Supanet though whether it's hiding a soon-to-come price hike remains to be seen. What I have found surprising is how Internet is one of those things you come to rely on - we don't do any streaming, really only use it for browsing, emails, shopping and booking holidays but it's seemed odd without it! 
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Tell me about it M. We spent a week up in very rural Northumberland with archaic speed and connectivity. We are spoilt here, Virgin Media super fast fibre, so downloading of anything is very easy. Such a shock when we go elsewhere, but we preload stuff, and grit our teeth for anything else. Mind, seeing all the storm damage up there, that might well have been part of the issue as well. We did lose all power briefly one night.
Currently getting exasperated with iOS 15.1 on Safari😡 needs a bug fix!
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I agree KJ the hospitality sector is under a lot of pressure just now. A friend of mine owns two pubs and is finding it difficulty but he just has to carry on. We like you tend to visit pubs more often when away in the van as we do enjoy a pub lunch also I may sit with a pint in a pub while SWMBO is wandering around shops I do this more often if our son joins us when away which he does quite often work permitting
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"Younger people are out and about"
Made my day brue, went to see the mass bands of the Royal Marines at Portsmouth Guildhall last night, i guess nearly 2000 people, was not overly keen to attend but it had been planned as a 90th birthday present for a friend, so felt I had to make the effort.
It turned into a splendid and i must say what felt like a relatively safe event. Everybody had to have a covid pass and in our particular area only 3 people without face masks and they were displaying exempt badges, so all in all a splendid evening. Have just done a LFT and negative, will do another one tomorrow as we are going to SIL for the weekend, only 6 of us for dinner Saturday night with a sleep over so should be ok.
Our overseas visitors have started arriving, 1 from Aus on Monday got his negative PCR result just in time for last nights concert, more arriving next week, just hope no more borders are closed once people arrive or we could have a very busy bungalow and caravan for the unforseeable future
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That’s because the World wants their manufactured goods JV, it shouldn’t annoy you, I reckon you’ll have Chinese manufactured & supplied items too👍🏻.
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From reports mthey are on a spending spree when the think the country they are "helping?" Is vulnerable to what they want In the area
Just check out the countries where they have been and left when they have got what they needed
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They’ll be cranking up the output from their coal fired power stations to meet all this demand.
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Out of interest JVB and anyone else who might consider these things. Two weeks ago I decided I would look for UK made clothes. I plumped for socks as I need some. I found a handful of companies that guaranteed nearly 100% (we can't grow cotton here etc.) I bought one pair of socks from a company in Derbys.....£14 as a Christmas treat for myself, OH asked if they were gold plated...
I'd be interested to hear if anyone else takes up a similar challenge for any type of goods. Meanwhile if we depend on China or anywhere else they will also depend on us, so it works both ways......
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We depend? on China not because of their quality but because of their poor working conditions and wages, they are very cheap to buy from, ,although the mark up on some of the goods on sale here and world wide is where many companies make big profits,
If they, and other cheap manufacturing countries had the same working conditions and wages as most western countries then would we buy from those cheap countries?
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As I said JVB, it works both ways at present and it might well change at some point? But that's it from me, hope I will enjoy my UK made socks!
Have spent today tidying up, a lot has gone to the charity shops recently. Since Covid struck we haven't bothered much with our home except to get some jobs done etc but now we are hoping some of our family will be staying here next week and it's suddenly all go. If they don't make it at least we have got ourselves ship shape.
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Well that was a nice couple of days spent trying out our new bikes whilst enjoying the peace and quiet of a CL. The Peak District has looked lovely in the sun these last 2 days.
The bike riding has gone better than expected, even the sore bums aren't as bad as first feared after not getting on a bike since the end of September.
We are forecast Mist for the morning and early evening for tomorrow so will wait and see what the day brings. There's a walk we can do not far away on dryish ground.
The wifi is a bit hit and miss but apart from that am quite enjoying the break, reading a lot and listening to some nice music. Home on Saturday.
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Good to read that the bikes are coming to up to scratch, and that you are having decent weather. Cloudy and grey up here but at least the last couple of days have been dry.
Perhaps you might be trying a bit of this WN. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GG0cpyrkXjg
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IMO, Sweden made a big mistake allowing ownership of Volvo to leave the country. A lot of the cars are still made in Sweden, but how long will that continue?
Having driven only Volvos for 45 years, we decided we would rather buy a car that was at least made by a European owned company.
We have a neighbour, an Indian lady, who refuses to buy anything made in China because of their treatment of Tibet. I think she must find it very difficult to stick to her principles these days.
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Indeed it was. Used it to take the MH for a run and exercise the moving bits. The roads were dry so it didn’t get splattered. At least now it’s had a run it will reduce the period to the next, if there are any further restrictions imposed after Christmas.
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We have 3 days at home coming up as DD is starting her Christmas baking tomorrow, so OH is muttering about a tidy up before Christmas. We too have a load of stuff that will go to charity shops, but first we need our children to come and take away what they want as it is mainly stuff that belonged to their grandmother.
Since I broke my arm, no progress has or can be made on our bathroom, so the house is still in uproar and we are still sleeping upstairs in the "granny flat". We had hoped to get a new CH boiler fitted by now, but there is too much stuff stashed in various places and no space left to empty the area the plumber would need to access.
The granny flat bathroom was scheduled for a refit in February/March, but that will also have to wait for a while, so we will need to work out a new timetable.
Our CH boiler works fine, but is old and inefficient, and having just checked what our gas and electricity is going to cost us in a month or so, and almost recovered from the shock, I think we will need to prioritise the boiler rather than the bathroom.
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It’s in everyone’s plan JV, good value for money goods. Was it in Japan’s plan back in the 80’s when everything was ‘tat’ as folk called it. I had a Datsun & a Mitsubishi. . .Excellent cars. They gave us what others couldn’t(reliability) & I was happy. They are now renown for their superb goods, China is the new Japan👍🏻. I care not about all the inter Country bickering & sabre rattling.
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As JVB observed, China seems to have had a "cunning plan". The pandemic has given them a totally new marketing outlet with the PPE and LFT kits. Both lots of LFT kits I obtained have come from two different Chinese companies.
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