Today I shall be Mainly...

[Sue]

Have a lie down. I haven’t got up yet

Yes I think the humidity perhaps gave me the headache yesterday, and the fatigue today. It was a warm night. Yesterday was warm but grey and damp all day

[Sue]

I hope your headache improves quickly Sue, and I look forward to seeing pictures of the chocolate carrot cake!

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[Big Kev]

I like that

[Wendyf]

Wunnerful!!

[Sue]

And Erin says it's going to be sunny tomorrow because it's Daddy’s birthday. Aren’t young kids lovely, birthdays are so special to them

[Stanley]

"Have a lie down. I haven’t got up yet "
Well at least I was giving appropriate advice! Migraines can be such a pain. By the way, daughter Susan and her specialist seem to have found the right drug for her migraine (touch wood!).
I never got in the shed, just didn't feel like it! I'll see how it grabs me today.

[Sue]

Hope all is still good with you all. All ok here, life goes on it's usual round of gardening eating sleeping. It was a hot night and the moon was so bright through the roof light it felt like day light. It reached 28 degrees yesterday, hard going in the garden, especially as I was digging trying to release the raspberry canes from the encroaching field around. More of that today. Bob is going to cut the fir tree hedge and we shall put the cuttings around the fruit plants to keep the grass down. We have run out of other storage places for cuttings.

Yesterday I managed to find a dressmaking pattern on Amazon that they would post to France. I also contacted my favourite fabric supplier and explained my predicament. They opened my account so that I could buy from Europe, and closed it again after buying. Pattern and fabric should arrive next week.

I still have a slight headache, definitely the weather, which is more of the same today.

Think positive, stay cheerful, keep busy, stay safe and have as good a day as you can

[Stanley]

I've been in the shed and am having breakfast. Wendy has cheered me up considerably, look at the Covid19 thread..... I hope your head doesn't spoil the day for you Sue.

[Sue]

Interesting but I would like to read the scientific article to follow the biological reasoning Yes covid 19 and TB are microorganisms that both infect the lungs and that js where similarity ends unless there is some genetic coding match or for some immunological response based on protein similarities. One is a bacteria and one a virus. Very very different. Big jump. Perhaps I need to read the article more carefully.

The antimalarial drug is in dispute. France is trialling it, against advice. Trump is pushing it in the States but he has a stake in the company making it. The Health expert on the TV the other night explained that a big problem in antibody testing is that corona viruses are common and most of us have had them. If the test is not absolutely specific for covid 19 it will throw up loads of false positives

My lovely neighbour here has just got herself 6 months work on the production line for the screening test.

Headache gone today Stanley, thanks. Its 30 degrees in the garden at the moment but a nice refreshing wind has just whipped up

[Tizer]

Sue, there's nothing specific about BCG and covid-19, it's simply that BCG gives a general boost to the immune system like some of the other things being tested. Of course they need to test carefully because over-stimulation of the immune system can be as dangerous as the virus itself.

[plaques]

Of course they need to test carefully because over-stimulation of the immune system can be as dangerous as the virus itself.

As Mrs P found out when she developed Guillain-Barré syndrome while recovering from a stomach bug. Her immune system went into overdrive making the nerve sheaths leaky with gradual total paralysis. Spent a few very anxious days in Intensive care but after some months gradually recovered. But like Covid-19 not something you want to be doing when you're in the twilight years.

[Wendyf]

Leaving the ponies out tonight for the first time since the end of October. I don't know why I get so anxious about it but I do! They have been in for some tea, and Dennis has had his drugs, the worst that can happen is that the sheep take the electric fence down and they get into next door' s field. They will survive, I'll try not to worry....

[Wendyf]

Well, I forgot that people are now letting off fireworks at 8pm on a Thursday!! Someone please explain how this helps anyone?

[Stanley]

Aiming for vacuuming, shed and a bit of very light early shopping. Kath delivers meat later.
"Headache gone today Stanley, thanks." Not directly down to me Sue, but I'm glad to hear it.
Fireworks? Totally selfish and ignorant behaviour!

[Cathy]

I hope all went well with your ponies Wendy.

[Wendyf]

I hope so Cathy, it's too misty for me to see them down the field but I can just see one white shape!
It took 20 minutes for them to settle after the fireworks went off at eight last night. Dennis was galloping up and down the field like an idiot, they might have been able to hear the applause coming up from Kelbrook and Earby as well. I must remember to keep them in next Thursday until it's over.

[Sue]

I think the fireworks are another indication that some people think this is some sort of a holiday. I praise the work of the NHS in very difficult times, but also all those shop assistants exposed daily to 100s of people . I think I am getting to the point where I wouldn’t go out even if I could . We were discussing the prospects of returning home on April 23 rd, the date of our ferry . It is becoming increasingly unlikely as French numbers continue to raise. Although like the UK there does appear to be a little flattening of the curve. It is likely that on Monday Macron will announce a further two weeks lockdown, making 6. We listen to the meeting and update of the UK on BBC each night and feel that so many of tge questions asked by journalists make it sound like 3 weeks is quite long enough and lets back to normal life. They ask questions that have already been answered and are very accusatory in their approach. Comparing the two countries , The UK seems less harsh, with far more preparation of developing the health services available, but so much moaning. There also seems to be more support for the individual. I know we are not in the cities but when we do get the newspaper ( once a week when we shop) we see less of this moaning . There was an excellent science programme on TV last night,(BBC2 I think) that explained so much of the reasoning of the modelling, the problems with testing, vaccines etc. I think a few doubters should have watched.

More gardening etc today to try and uncover the fruit canes. It was so hot yesterday, and during the night. Its been very hard work but should pay off later in the year. Its been a pleasure enjoying the Spring this year. We don’t normally see all the lovely stages here, as our visits are usually short and not frequent. It is a bit like a holiday feeling provided we don’t think of the daunting prospect, indeed frightening of either of us being ill in french hospitals, 30 miles from here, with little or no medical french and not knowing how their system works. I tried to explain this to my brothers the other day but it fell on deaf ears.

Well I shan’t dwell on that story

Think positive, stay cheerful , keep busy, stay safe and have as good a day as you can.

[Stanley]

There is so much pressure building Sue for some normalisation and it could well be that transport is one of the first areas to move. That being the case, you might get a chance to get back to Rochdale sooner rather than later. Believe me you're better off there than here at the moment, an air of desperation is creeping in here as the realisation dawns how bad the economics are. (The same is happening in the US as well. Optimistic gung-ho speeches simply don't cut it. Both Johnson and Trump are having to face up to this.
I#ll be in trouble with Wendy but I just popped into the Co-op to top up on some essentials and while I was in there I made another massive leap forward into the 21st century. I enlisted the help and support of a nice lady who guided me through my first successful use of a cash machine. Nowt to it of course but it was nice to have support, we had a good laugh about old dogs and new tricks....

[Sue]

There is so much pressure building Sue for some normalisation and it could well be that transport is one of the first areas to move. That being the case, you might get a chance to get back to Rochdale sooner rather than later. Believe me you're better off there than here at the moment, an air of desperation is creeping in here as the realisation dawns how bad the economics are. (The same is happening in the US as well. Optimistic gung-ho speeches simply don't cut it. Both Johnson and Trump are having to face up to this.
I#ll be in trouble with Wendy but I just popped into the Co-op to top up on some essentials and while I was in there I made another massive leap forward into the 21st century. I enlisted the help and support of a nice lady who guided me through my first successful use of a cash machine. Nowt to it of course but it was nice to have support, we had a good laugh about old dogs and new tricks....

The economics here are just as depressing and seems to be the main topic of conversation in the news, what we see of it. In Brittany normally unemployment is much much more than the UK. We have rarely had neighbours that have had a job. So much of the industry locally is agriculture which is more or less coming to a halt. France in general is actually in a mess. The Gilet Jaunes had good cause to be militant. That was before all of this. Transport may be the first to move, but I need to see a reduction in the disease before I move, in either country.

[Stanley]

Sounds like a sensible attitude Sue. Sounds like my attitude, I want to avoid meeting Covid19 for as long as possible. Preferably after a vaccine has been administered.

[Sue]

Good idea Stanley ! Trouble is we have already extended our house insurance once to cover a longer stay.

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For you Wendy. Asparagus omelette for lunch

[Wendyf]

Yummy!! I have purple sprouting broccoli at the moment which is almost as delicious!

[Tizer]

while I was in there I made another massive leap forward into the 21st century. I enlisted the help and support of a nice lady who guided me through my first successful use of a cash machine. Nowt to it of course but it was nice to have support, we had a good laugh about old dogs and new tricks....

Do you mean a cash dispensing machine (ATM) or an automatic checkout, Stanley? I'd have thought you'd have used `cash machines' in the 1980s.

[Cathy]

Do you mean you have started paying using your debit card with EFTPOS Stanley?

[Sue]

Yummy!! I have purple sprouting broccoli at the moment which is almost as delicious!

I have never had success with that Wendy