Today I shall be Mainly...

[Stanley]

My mother made our cough medicine during the war..... Lemon, honey and glycerine.....
Today I shall put my chicken in the oven before I go in the shed. After second sleep I shall brown the chicken and then cook veggies. That might be enough honest endeavour for one day!

[Stanley]

I went in the shed early this morning and I am out early after only spending half an hour in there. I have a very busy day today and I know my limitations. My chicken is in the oven and I am ready for my breakfast and am early return to bed. But I can here you asking what the hell I have done in that half hour.... The answer is you are right, I am doing what I did yesterday but with the difference that I realised I wasn't thinking straight yesterday and could reduce my chunky con-rod to 5/16" which is more like it. My last pic gives a clue, 5/16" is the width of the slot in my crosshead. Once I had rectified this and polished the rod I cleaned Mrs Harrison up and here I am. I am quite satisfied with this morning, my rod is in better nick than it was yesterday. That makes it a good morning!
Later at 07:00. That's it, off to bed an hour early.....

[Sue]

My mother made our cough medicine during the war..... Lemon, honey and glycerine.....

My grandma made something for me once. Whiskey and blackcurrant. I was about 7….
I rarely use cough medicines, sickly sweet things or the other end of the spectrum obnoxious favours. My mum used to buy something called Liquefruita or something like that . It made you feel better straight away, just the thought of having to take it cured all.

I had a poor nights sleep with my nose dripping like a tap. I had the shivers badly yesterday evening but no fever. I spent the evening wrapped in a beautiful crocheted blanket that Claire made me for Christmas last year. I even used it as an extra cover on the bed. I have no cough and not even much of a sore throat, although my chest was tight when I came to bed. I used my ventolin inhaler to ease it. On the whole I feel ok, I have had much worse colds

Julia has said she wants us go for Christmas anyway…Christmas Eve will be my Day 5 and according to most literature the worst is over in terms of passing it on. Anyway she says for us to go as both She and Ed have been working with people with Covid all week. There is no necessity to stay off work now. Certainly mine and Bobs symptoms do not render us unable to work. In fact I am going to clean the house today.

I spent most of yesterday trying to reformat my WIDDUP book. I have decided to plod on with the writing as I actually do not have many more chapters to do. I think LULU self publishing has changed so that will need a bit of research in the future.

So thats me sorted for the day. Bob will be in his workshop like yesterday.

Have a good day all

[Stanley]

Morning Sue, you both sound to be dealing with the colds.... Julia is being particularly sensible about them.....
I am back up and dealing with my chicken after an hour and a half of second sleep. Once the chicken is dealt with the plan is to pop to the Co-op for a quart of milk and a few eating apples.... That makes my shopping complete. Then I can start cooking veggies.... It's going to be a full day!

[Stanley]

I'm back from the Co-op. All shopping finished now. I shall have a few minutes with a pot of tea and then start veggie cooking.....

[Tripps]

y mum used to buy something called Liquefruita

Mine too - and it's still available Liquifruta It ponged a bit though. . . .

I had a poor nights sleep with my nose dripping like a tap. I had the shivers badly yesterday evening but no fever. I spent the evening wrapped in a beautiful crocheted blanket that Claire made me for Christmas last year. I even used it as an extra cover on the bed. I have no cough and not even much of a sore throat, although my chest was tight when I came to bed. I used my ventolin inhaler to ease it. On the whole I feel ok, I have had much worse colds

There is no necessity to stay off work now

That may well be the quote of the year.

If I read things correctly two fully 'vaccinated' and boosted people have nevertheless conracted Covid, but it's no worse than a cold.

What was all the fuss about in 2020? Was it a different strain of the virus, which later changed to the less harmful Omicron and its derivatives, or did the whole nation simply overreact? The current enquiry will no doubt provide the answers to all that.

[Sue]

Nearly everyone has some degree of immunity now. Not antibodies but T cells if I understand this correctly. The virus has also mutated considerably. Viruses are parasites if parasites eventually kill all their hosts they too die out so what we have here is an example of natural selection. The less severe form survives as it doesn't kill its host. Well its one way of looking at it.
QUOTE FROM SCIENTIFIC PAPER

Protective immunity can be induced by vaccination or infection and is mediated by two arms of the adaptive immune system: humoral immunity mediated by antibodies and memory B cells, and cellular immunity that includes helper CD4+ T cells and cytotoxic CD8+ T cells. Antibodies block infection by binding virus and preventing viral entry into host cells and are correlates of protection for many vaccines. For severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), antibodies can prevent acquisition of infection if they are present at high enough concentrations, as demonstrated by immunoglobulin G (IgG) transfer studies in macaques (1).
Memory T cells can provide an important additional layer of protective immunity. Because T cells do not recognize infecting viruses until they have entered the host cell, the mechanisms of protection by T cells are different from those of antibodies. For example, T cells cannot prevent host cells from initially becoming infected, but they can respond rapidly once infection has occurred to limit virus replication and spread (see the figure). Thus, T cell immunity likely does not prevent acquisition of infection. However, emerging evidence supports a key role for SARS-CoV-2–specific T cell immunity in protection from severe disease.


AND

Making Memory B Cells
Memory B cells are a B cell sub-type that are formed following a primary infection. In the wake of the first (primary response) infection involving a particular antigen, the responding naïve cells (ones which have never been exposed to the antigen) proliferate to produce a colony of cells. Most of them differentiate into the plasma cells, also called effector B cells (which produce the antibodies) and clear away with the resolution of infection. The rest persist as the memory cells that can survive for years, or even a lifetime.

image
Figure: B memory cells: B lymphocytes are the cells of the immune system that make antibodies to invading pathogens like viruses. They form memory cells that remember the same pathogen for faster antibody production in future infections. The body’s immune system has a propensity to preferentially utilize immunological memory based on a previous infection when a second slightly different version of that foreign entity is encountered.

[Tripps]

Not quite sure what all that has to do directly with what I posted, and I think the virus mutatation bit actually agrees with it but -


I surrender. . . .

[Sue]

Not quite sure what all that has to do directly with what I posted, and I think the virus mutatation bit actually agrees with it but -


I surrender. . . .

I added a bit to the above. Our antibody cells die off but the other lymphocytes called memory t cells do not. They are produced in respose to the infection and stay lurking in low numbers in the body. They quickly are reactivated and increase in numbers when an ifected cell is detected

[Sue]

So the powers that be did not overreact to a situation where nobody had any immunity, but now most people have some immunological means of coping with a covid infection. It is therefore a different scenario now

[Stanley]

All very interesting and while you lot were sorting that out I cooked veggies. There you are, three hours honest endeavour. Nice to have it behind me. All cooking and shopping done I can sit back and laugh at the silly buggers shopping 'til they drop! I know, it's not very festive but remember I am a grumpy o0ld man living by himself....

[Sue]

All very interesting and while you lot were sorting that out I cooked veggies. There you are, three hours honest endeavour. Nice to have it behind me. All cooking and shopping done I can sit back and laugh at the silly buggers shopping 'til they drop! I know, it's not very festive but remember I am a grumpy o0ld man living by himself....

We will have our Tesco delivery as usual with a few extras for our contribution to the weekends food

[Big Kev]

We bought a small, frozen, stuffed turkey breast and two part baked crusty baguettes. These are for Christmas Eve tea, there's something about eating the Christmas dinner, the night before, after a few glasses of Cab Sav
Warm turkey sandwiches are the best

ps it's not really for Christmas dinner, we have a table reserved at the Barlick Raj on Christmas Day.

[Stanley]

I shall be in the shed as usual for an hour from 06:00 onwards. Nothing presses in on me later, all shopping and cooking is done so there is nothing driving me out into the rain.....
I have an idea that Susan might drop in for a cup of tea and a natter..... We'll see.

[Stanley]

Ticklish little job this morning, drill the end of the con rod to accept the 3/16" crosshead bolt and mill the flats on the end of the con rod that will allow it entry into the slot on the crosshead. The drilling went well, nice and central and then I got into the mill and milled two nice flats on the con rod end. Only problem was I milled them 90 degrees out from what they should be. A keen young engineer would have accepted the mistake and made another con rod but I am not keen and not young! I drilled the hole for the bolt again 90 degrees from the first and then massaged the end of the con rod until it fitted the crosshead. They'll never see it off the Ribble and it makes it easy to oil the joint!
I have been to the Co-op and got my stuffing....

[Sue]

Morning

Well my nose continues to drip like an open tap and I am sneezing furiously.. its funny how this illness has manifested itself with different key symptoms in the two of us . I feel fine otherwise but am getting very frustrated with the constant nasal drip no matter what I take for it.

Bob got his phone call from the cancer team yesterday. It told us nothing except we have an appointment next Thursday with a consultant, when no doubt we will be informed of what happens next.

Bob is going out and about today . He is popping over to Bacup market for meat, and Burnley market for some patisseries. On the way back he is calling at Claires in laws to leave some presents for Erin that had been dropped off here. The in laws are at Claires for Christmas Day. I will stay at home nursing my drippy nose and hoping it will stop today. Bobs day 3 was his worst, by day 4 he felt perfectly normal. It’s my day 4 today so I am keeping my fingers crossed. I was unable to do much yesterday as I spent literally every minute blowing my nose or drinking to keep my fluid level up, or going to the loo because I had drunk so much…..Unless I was engaging with a scientifique discussion with Tripps

I think it is still going to rain today but I the wind may have died down a little.
Have a good day everyone

[Stanley]

Poor lass Sue! We posted at the same time and I must have beaten you by a nano-second.
Yes a dripping nose is a pain. I have one on and off but I think it's mainly old age.
So Bob waits yet again for next Thursday. Only consolation is that they can't have found anything that requires urgent treatment but beyond that..... Tell him about my cock-up. That'll cheer him up a bit. Always nice to see someone slip on a banana skin and reflect that it wasn't me.....
Notice I got the stuffing...... That might mean doing a bit more cooking to make some supercharged stuffing using mince beef as an addition.....

[Stanley]

I shall be in the shed at 06:00 as usual and then there is definitely no cooking or shopping to be done!

[Stanley]

More work on the con-rod and crank pin bearing. Lots of measuring and marking and then careful drilling and milling. As you can see I almost finished this stage and just had one side of the foot to mill to profile at knocking off time. I was tempted to do some overtime to get to a straight edge but then told myself not to be silly..... That's for tomorrow!

[Sue]

Morning

All good here. Bit of a thick head this morning having just woken up following an excellent nights sleep. The nose stopped yesterday, from 30 hankies on day 3, it was barely three yesterday on day 4. We are off to Coventry after breakfast ready for a not quite covid free Christmas. I shall look forward to getting out in the fresh air at some point over the weekend. I seem to have been inside for days and days.

Have a good day all

[Stanley]

Glad your nose is giving you a rest Sue. Have a good time in Coventry and I hope Covid misses you!

[Stanley]

The better the day the better the deed! I shall be in the shed at 06:00 as usual doing very careful milling operations on my con-rod. A cock-up at this point would be a disaster!
Then second sleep and after that very little. Normally I would be having a short walk and a sit but the weather forecast is lousy so I shall not bother. (More likely to have a third sleep, a dad-nap, at midday.)
A|s it's Xmas the radio programmes might be slightly better......
If not I shall resort to Joshua.

[Stanley]

This morning I spent getting the con-rod cut to mill to fit the bearing and fitting to the con rod. Then trying to fix to fit the bearing and the piston rod. I found it isn't fitting and I shall have to fit it tomorrow and at the moment it looks as though I shall have to make another connecting rod because this is too big. I shall have to have another try tomorrow....

[Sue]

Morning all

Have a wonderful day. We are having a lie in before walking from the hotel to Julias for breakfast. The grand daughters , being teenagers ( well one is 12) have announced that we mustn’t be too early….

All well here now in the Hayter household and looking forward to our day, enjoy yours

[Stanley]

Same to you and Bob Sue. I am off to bed now for a bonus sleep!
Later, at 09:00.... It was a waste of time. I am so disgusted with not having a fitting con rod that I couldn't sleep. I have got up and am going to go back in the shed to sort this out!