Quick daily posts

[rcperryls]

Nicola, Congratulations. Mabel, Wendy, and Garnet, thank you for the stories.. My father served mostly in Germany and I think Belgium during and immediately after WWII ended. He almost never spoke about anything related to war time activities other than a few stories about the men he served with. And stories about basic training before he was sent overseas. He was involved with big artillery. We have a few photos of him which he sent to my grandparents, but not very much.

Carole

[rcperryls]

Here's another one of those YouTube short videos that I get in my daily CNN newsletter which always ends with positive, hopeful or just fascinating items.
This is an example of Time-lapse/Artology. Drawing Detective Pikachu with colored pencils. 8 hours of work in 3:20. It's not just the speeded up time it takes, but the results are amazing. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Carole

[Serinde]

Wow. And it has so much in common with silk shading, too. Fascinating.

[wendywombat]

I just have to share this!

We heard yesterday that the sale of our house in France will complete next month!
After months of uncertainty what with the B* word and Covid it's going to happen.
Break out the Bubbly!!
I will arrange a party in the S&G once everything is finalised.

[Garnet]

Woo - hoo!

That is good news Wendy, I'm so pleased for you.

[Serinde]

That really is excellent news!!

[Mabel Figworthy]

Wonderful news!

[rcperryls]

Fantastic news!!!

Carole

[fccs]

Wonderful news!

[Serinde]

Into Tier 4 goes Stirlingshire. Hey ho. Just as well the plan was to go to a "big" store today, for which my list has become slightly longer. It won't make much difference to me (us), but it will to the little businesses, so we'll have to revert to Plan A and support them as much as possible. People's lives must come first, although it's clearly not a strict binary choice. Well, how long have we been complaining about the commercialisation of Christmas in the UK? Guess this is the year it could be different.

[Mabel Figworthy]

Our Christmas meal looks likely to be duck breasts for two, depending on what the Government decides. Oh well.

Talking of shared meals, we're in themiddle of building a new church but of course fundraising is a bit tricky at the moment. So one bright lady (very musical, and with a husband who creates information/education videos for charities) has come up with the following idea: As many people as possible from our fellowship record a musical video (singing, playing an instrument) or other entertainment (reciting something, a short sketch), they put it together into a professional 2-hour video, and people sign up for "an evening of musical entertainment". Cook (or order in) a nice meal, dress up, and listen to the music and other acts via a special Youtube link.

My contribution is a Dutch song sung in harmony with myself which I recorded a few years ago; unfortunately I had that as audio only, so we recorded two videos, one of me lip-synching on the right of the fire place in black & silver evening dress, one with me lip-synching on the left of the fire place in a blue ball gown. It'll be interesting to see what they are goingto edit that into....

[richardandtracy]

This is in response to Serinde's post above Mabel's.

We are under lockdown in England, however schools & universities are open, and many companies are working normally. In the borough where I live (Swale, North Kent) the infection rate has climbed since the start at 270 per 100,000 to 590 per 100,000 yesterday. Every school has at least one year group closed, and the biggest secondary school is closed after having 22 infections diagnosed in one day.

The local hospital declared a critical incident because it was full.

This 'Lockdown light' is going very badly here. On the plus side, there have only been 4 extra deaths since June, but I'm sure that's going to change rapidly. We know/knew 8 people who have died of it since March. Not nice at all.

Tracy & I have our summer holiday booked in a cottage in the grounds of Kent's Leeds Castle starting mid December. I am hoping that we can get there, but it's not looking hopeful at the moment.

Regards,

Richard.

[richardandtracy]

I'm finishing work on 11 December, so that with any luck I can get to see my dad after Christmas. That way I'll have - in effect - completed an isolation period before getting to see him. He's 89 and getting increasingly frail & I do want to see him, but not at the risk of killing him. As I have leave left untaken, it seems a reasonable way of trying to safely arrange to see him. We will be seeing my MIL & FIL on Christmas (regulations permitting), but that'll be on day 14 of our self imposed isolation, which should be safe enough. We hope.

Regards,

Richard.

[wendywombat]

I think that we are about to break all the rules!
We are in level 2 here in the Borders so pretty well free to get out, do shopping and go out for walks. No popping into the neighbours for a coffee and chat though.
BUT and here comes the rule problem.
We are obliged to go back to France to sign the final completion on the house there. It cannot be done by proxy and there are still some of our personal belongings in the house. We tried to get a combination of flights but the the airline cancelled one leg of the journey. The important one!
So we now have to drive. Right through England, catch a ferry and then right through France. In 2 days!
We have permission to do so in France, with the appropriate documentation as we have Legal Business to do. Just hope that the Gendarmes will understand that.
We have also be advised not the go into England by the Scottish government.
So if any of you UK members of this Forum see a little white van being driven by a couple with bags over their heads please just ignore us.
Thank you.

I hope that Richard gets to see his father because it's so important to give support to our elderly lonely and sometimes frightened relations.

[Mabel Figworthy]

Richard, your measures for seeing your father and in-laws safely sound very sensible - I hope that will all go smoothly.

As for the Wombat outlaws, well - I hope all goes smoothly there as well!

[Serinde]

@Richard. Your situation sounds horrible and I'm so sorry that you have to go through all these things just to see your father. I think that up here, the govt is being very cautious, understandably, since the population doesn't traditionally enjoy the best of health (partially self-inflicted, at least in the past) and it is also very scattered once you are outside the Central Belt. If you live in any of the villages outside of Lochinver (Sutherland) and get very sick, Raigmore Hospital is 100 miles away in Inverness and not a motorway to be seen... air ambulance is your best bet. At the moment our national rate is 142.4/100k (7-day average). My council area has jumped to 204.9/100k due mostly to Stirling University (students! eh!), my Elder Son lives in Glasgow City and he's now 267.9/100K, but the high was over 319/100K on 5 November. So it's heading in the right direction there. The sooner those kids go home, the better our numbers will be. I'd say that was also true of Glasgow, except that most of the universities' students are either from the Strathclyde area or China, so no one much is going anywhere, I guess.

@WW: a Wombat's gotta do what a Wombat's gotta do. We'll not klype on ye. And then another fortnight self-isolation should just about bring you nicely up to the holidays!

[fccs]

Richard, your plans to see your father and your in laws is well thought out and very responsible and loving.

WendyWombat...best of luck in your stealthy endeavors. You have conjured up a mental image that makes me giggle.

[rcperryls]

Richard, I can't believe you can be any more cautious than what you have described. And I am sure your Father will be so delighted to see you. And I hope you and Tracey are able to get your vacation in. So many things have been postponed for so many people.

Wendy, be careful when driving with bags over your heads. You might want to disguise them as masks?

I apologize for any typos I may make in my posts this week. Saturday I got stung on the index finger of my right hand, which swelled up and made doing a lot of things more difficult. Getting back to normal. I had killed the wasp (it was in the house and bouncing around on the ceiling trying to get out I guess, and I sprayed it and it dropped to the floor dead. But when I picked it up to toss away, the stinger must have gotten through the several layers of paper towels I was using. I haven't had anything hurt that much since I was stung on the side of my foot by a stingray 12 or 15 years ago. This has been a much easier recovery though. I have been managing to type reasonably now (thank goodness for the delete key). My finger is now only twice its size so making progress. And it doesn't hurt which is the best part.

Carole

[Serinde]

Consider that there's something for you behind the bar at the S&G.

[Mabel Figworthy]

Ouch Carole! St Cross Stitcher's and then the Stash & Grab, I reckon.