The Lockdown Diaries

[Cal Alamein]

WHEW!!! Balderdasha and S. aures. So glad you are up and posting - could have been a lot worse.

[Cal Alamein]

And scratchmonkey, your postings really bring it home to the two of us who can actually get out. I so look forward to when you and your family can get out worry-free.

[scratchmonkey]

Your daughter eats butter on its own?

It was news to us as well.

[imp]

I once ate a stick of butter for a bet, while drunk (I'm assuming that scratchmonkey's daughter was sober, though). I was young. I've had prouder moments, but at least I won the bet.

It's Saturday. The drilling started at 7.55am. It's so loud it penetrates all the way through to our bedroom on the other side of the flat, and this is a flat that's pretty well sound-proofed. I'm not sure how we're going to handle this while we're all stuck at home, and that's without thinking about the next 18 months...

Balders, I hope your finger's starting to heal. Over the coming weeks you will find out just how often that one tiny surface of your body comes into contact with other surfaces and objects. Your one-handed typing skills must be pretty good, though.

[Sporting]

I had to look up exactly why a stick of butter. Is this packaging method US only?

[White No Sugar]

Day 28.
The cats been sneezing for about a week now, any ideas? Watched six episodes of series 3 of In The Thick Of It, gonna start series 1 tomorrow. Commenced lock down 1000 piece jigsaw, “completed” 99% of the edges with a the few remains not fitting at all. Fuck fuck fuck.
Went for a walk as pulled calf prevents me jogging at the moment, gonna drop back to Wk1 of the Couch To 5k app when I restart.
It’s eerie along high street and square with all the shops shut and displaying C19 related closure signs. I got to thinking maybe someone should photograph em as a historical document or art project. No doubt someone already is. It may become part of my exercise walk.

[ursus arctos]

I had to look up exactly why a stick of butter. Is this packaging method US only?

Yes

[Fussbudget]

You can get sticks of butter in other countries but they'd normally be in metric increments rather than fl.oz or tablespoons or whatever bizarre unit Americans use.

[Balderdasha]

S.aureus, that put my day into perspective! What an ordeal. I hope that none of you have picked anything up from the hospital and that the wrist heals quickly and cleanly.

[ursus arctos]

Did someone say bizarre units?

[imp]

The one I ate was in Italy, winter 1988. I'm pretty sure it was a stick, but it may have been a block sliced in to two pieces.

[Balderdasha]

My daughter likes to eat butter by itself (though usually just one of the little sachets that you sometimes get given alongside a jacket potato). My mother-in-law says that a popular children's treat when she was young in Palestine was lumps of fresh butter rolled in sugar.

[imp]

Update on the building work - perhaps word got around how pissed off we are, but today there's a box of chocolates and a hand-written note in our post-box from the owners of the building, apologising for the noise and saying that tearing the roof off should be done by Tuesday and after that it won't be so bad. I'm a sucker for courtesy and chocolates, so I am duly appeased (sent them a thank-you text as they provided a number). Plus, they knocked off at 2pm for the weekend, the sun's out, and I'm off the cooking roster tonight for the first time all week. Time for a big fat fucking G&T on the balcony.

[ursus arctos]

The standard Italian packaging is a 250g block, but you can find 125g blocks that look rather like sticks (particularly for higher end brands).

[Fussbudget]

lol, 5 1/3 tablespoons = 1/3 cup, so easy to remember

[ursus arctos]

Don't get me started

[Eggchaser]

So far this week I have opened a cupboard, out of which fell a cafetiere which smashed on the worktop, snapped the seat post clamp on my daughter's bike by overtightening the nut and run the electric lawnmower over its cable, cutting the wire in two.

[imp]

So far this week I have opened a cupboard, out of which fell a cafetiere which smashed on the worktop, snapped the seat post clamp on my daughter's bike by overtightening the nut and run the electric lawnmower over its cable, cutting the wire in two.

The lawnmower thing - I did that once as a teenager. It was my one job. My mum was thoroughly pissed off with me, but it got me out of cutting the lawn for weeks until she had it repaired. There was this tiny rectangle of grass still to cut when the tragic incident occurred, prodding my conscience every time I looked out my bedroom window until the rest of the grass caught up with it.

[Balderdasha]

Our ecobrick now weighs 182 grams.

[S. aureus]

Went to the drugstore this morning, mostly since I used the last of the children's ibuprofen on my son yesterday evening and was down to the last half bottle of children's acetaminophen, and also to pick up a professionally made arm-cover for my son's cast so he can bathe without getting it wet.
Went fairly early (a little after 8) and, at least when I arrived, it was just me and the check out person in the store. A couple of other people drifted in while I was moseying around the aisles to see if there was anything else I wanted while I was there.
They were entirely out of toilet paper, and only had three 8-packs of the portable kleenex left, the latter likely to be more of a problem for me than the former in the near future. They had plenty of children's analgesics, but were getting low (but not out) of adult ones, which I found a little surprising as I was expecting them to be out. No masks available (as I'd expected), but I was able to pick up some fragrance-free laundry detergent which will at least postpone the day when I have to start using the one I mistakenly bought a while back that stinks to high heaven. I was also able to pick up some Easter chocolates, so the Easter bunny will be visiting our garden next week after all. The place had plenty of snack foods, so I also got some of those (nuts, crisps, that kind of stuff).
Lastly I got to try out my improvised mask (oversized hanky folded up held on by two of my daughter's scrunchies), which, while probably not terribly effective, I got used to having on my face remarkably quickly. I did have to tuck it under my glasses to stop them fogging up every time I breathed out.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Lie-in today (9am) then out for a run - seemed to be more people than usual out walking today (the weather isn't particularly good either).

Then to Asda where most people were well behaved, the different rhythms of swerving people, stopping a safe distance away from those in front when they stop, and not pissing about too much when making selections, all seem to be settling into people's mindsets. Still the occasional mobile phone using aisle blocker. The fresh pizza counter was back up and running. I took daughter to get her out of the house (she has really developed a siege mentality this week), but played by the rules and left her in the car rather than take her inside - which meant she took the novel approach of texting me her impulse buys from the car.

Decent tea planned tonight, then online poker again with friends (got to the last two in a decent position last night and blew it).

Tomorrow I'll be aiming to finish the decorating I need to do, and to mow the lawn for the first time this year. And getting washing on the line too. High octane weekend, should maybe have saved some of this for Easter weekend.

[Furtho]

Out in the fields this afternoon. Lovely. Many more people than normal out for a walk, but there's plenty of space. Ran into some friends walking their dog literally in the middle of a field, which enabled a cheery conversation while retaining social distancing.

[scratchmonkey]

Hope your son's wrist heals quickly, S. aureus. I haven't been able to figure out the mask/glasses thing myself, at least with the earloop masks I had left over from a bad cold several years ago. My fellow-glassed friend who spends a lot of time in clean rooms says that there's really no way around it.

[Balderdasha]

Day 16. Saturday 4th April.

A much quieter day. Everyone stayed in their pyjamas. Played lots of Animal Crossing. Made the chocolate beetroot cake. Coloured in Easter egg pictures. Tried setting Disney plus up for a seven day free trial; couldn't get it to work. Watched the rest of Kung Fu Panda 2. Got an Indian takeaway. Talked to mother-in-law on WhatsApp. Had an afternoon nap. Only went out to the back garden to return next door's football (next door is a house of multiple occupation, lots of teenagers in care with a rotating cast of carers, they're very polite whenever they want their ball back, a couple of times a day).

[Sporting]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ws-police-warn

"The Derbyshire police and crime commissioner, Hardyal Dhindsa, said “isolation fatigue” could set in and pose a genuine threat to the lockdown, especially after the likely decision to extend the measures beyond the current three-week period."

I mean, sorry, but wtf? There's no full lockdown in any country in the world as far as I know but the British version isn't exactly the curfew to end all curfews, is it?