Dusty's Frugal Fortnights Return!

pollyanna_26

I began to lose track of what day it is early in to the pandemic not the normal fibro fog confusion but the fact routine was disrupted. Youngest ordered to stay indoors by Superdoc was talking to him via a screen rather than across his desk. We and he were obeying the rules however much BJ was telling everyone to get out and hug people we weren't about to follow advice from someone wandering here there and everywhere in to hospitals and workplaces dressed like a member of the workforce when the NHS were run off their feet trying to save lives.

He caught Covid and was in hospital himself  then caught it again .So we followed the rules weren;'t following our normaal routine and  began losing track of what day it was.

At least once a day I would check what day it was on the laptop. Extra bank holidays made things more confusing so it's not just you dusty thinking it's a differnt day to what it actually is my son is a senior mainline train driver at Crewe and some days would message me What day is it mum not sure if I should be on my way to work? I used to say let me check because I wasn't sure either.

I was convinced today was Monday until I looked at the newspaper  front pages for today on the BBC website and they were Saturday..

I think things will become even more confusing the Omicron figures are risiing again and with flu season upon us the NHS are begging all those who qualify to get their booter jab and flu one.. Our surgery arranged the flu ones about six weeks ago and our vaccination hub the boosters.

I'm glad you're happy with your coat Beanie it should help keep you warm if snowy Scotland lives up to it's name.

pollyx

dustydigger

I came across an interesting post by Frugal Queen in France. In France the govt are warning folks about the likelihood of power cuts,even though they have completely filled their storage tanks for the winter ahead.Lots of advice to help the people. So why do we have a govt that refuses to warn people,or give them advice. Pure right wing ideology,small government,no interference or involvement,people should pull themselves up by their bootstraps etc etc etc. All proclaimed by people already in very comfortable circumstances who havent a clue how the general run of people live. Words fail me........

i have sent away for a little gas cooker,just one burner but if the electric is off we can warm something up or have a cuppa.

In her post on YouTube Jane points out the sense of having some kinds of meals in tins or packets that can be heated up,so you can have hot food if the electric is off. Our govt is insisting we have plenty of fuel,there are no problems. Sorry to say I can put little reliance in such dodgy promises.Even in normal winters we lose power probably at least twice in our area,some pesky tree is forever falling and knocking down the power cables. Last winter was especially bad,with storm Arwen(not sure if that name is correct),and lots of people in the rural areas were cut off for 6 days or more.

Standing there lying in a confident would- be reassuring manner doesnt actually soothe me at all.

dustydigger

Glad to see water companies are to be penalzed for dumping sewage in the sea. Northumbrian Water has to pay back £20 million to customers next April. This happened a few years ago too,and our water bills went down by about £5 a month. Its gradually crept up again of course.

Long ago in the time of the pits masses of coal was dumped in the sea,and our sands were BLACK,yes literally black. In the film Get Carter the famous sniper scene at the end is set on one of the notorious beaches.an +d one of the alien films used such a beach as an alien landscape! My town had no less three mines,and they ceaselessly poured coal in the sea,and sewage through pipes.The rocks on the beach turned rusty red.

 Then environmentalists started cleaning it all up,took decades,and we won awards for how clean our beaches became. Pleasant clifftop paths  with seating dotted along the way for people to enjoy the ever changing sea and clean yellow sands.. In 2015 Liz Truss became Environmental secretary of state and slashed £235m off the budget for the Environment Agency,and doubled the amount of sewage allowed to be dumped. Of course the water companies just about tripled the effluage in reality,and now 20 years work is down the drain,and beaches prohibit kids going in the filthy water.

dustydigger

No visitors yesterday and I hoped to watch some of my YouTube videos on my TV,but for some unknown reason nothing appeared,just black screen. They were available however on the laptop and phone,so who knows what was wrong with the TV. I hope it doesnt presage You Tube being removed from our Freesat. Last week ITV Hub was removed. And a couple of years ago All4 was taken off,and a host of music video channels.I hope Freesat isnt failing! I dont enjoy watching  on demand TV dramas on the laptop,hate hovering over the screen,and the sound quality is so tinny.Cant watch a whole programme in one go,does in my back,whereas if I watch i-player,or ITV Hub,I can sit in the comfy armchair,tuck a cushion behind my back and just relax and enjoy

Mind you,Mr D came down for his football results and stayed the rest of the evening in the comfy chair in front of the telly,and I had to put up with Saturday night TV for what seemed an eternity. Strictly Dancing DID feel like an eternity,two solid hours long. Whaaat? Sorry,Mrs Grumpy am I,I cant stand popular TV shows,or soaps,or game shows etc etc etc.Mr Dusty loves all of those except soaps. The only programme that we can really share is nature documentaries. We both are loving David Attenborough's latest series,Frozen Planet.

This morning is of course devoted to watching Match of the Day and the EFL Show,over 3 hours of boredom for me. I have been on forever trying to do this post in snatches while being roped in watching men chasing a ball,or showing Mr D how to put on bets online. I explain it all one day,he forgets and I tell him again the next day. Groundhog Day....

dustydigger

Nice getting back into monitoring my energy usage. I have consistently used at least 200 KWh less a month the whole of this year so far.Last month only used 745 units compared with 1035 in 2021.

October 2021 I used 1567 units in all,so far I have used 260 units in 8 days. Going up obviously,weather is definitely colder the radiators ae on more often,and lights are going on earlier,but I am aiming for less than 1100 units for the whole month. I'll keep you posted

dustydigger

Morning all.10C in NE this morning,dry but the wind is getting up. But it has to be sunny all day,which is good news for my B12 jab this afternoon.I have a variety of things to do today.:

+after jab,ask about any covid booster shots to be done. Mr D got a booster a few months ago as an over 80 yr old,which I didnt get Possibly also flu jab,although our surgery has always been good at informing us about such things

+ Drop off a bag of books to the free book shelves in the shopping centre.

+return a parcel to asd@.set up my Asd@ rewards app there. You have to activate it at a shop,but I think after that I believe my online buys will be eligible to get a few pennies too.

+check in the new Her*ns branch to see if old favourites are once more available.But DONT end up buying a huge bag full of stuff. I walk with a stick,so only one hand for carrying bags,sorting bus pass etc.

That is quite a bit of activity for me. At least if it is sunny and dry I can have numerous rests. Last time at the doc's it was a miserable day,I ended going nowhere,came out of the surgery and headed for the bus stop,and the store was only a short distance away,in plain sight,but I just felt too rotten to go and shop,and then hump a heavy bag the 150 yards from the drop off bus stop to actually getting home. Bus stop going from home to the town centre is only 20 yards away,but the return stop is a bit of a slog .

Dear me,I remember years ago,limping badly of course with my stupid knees,but not using a stick back then,20 years ago,I would have six bags of groceries. I would walk into town,30 mins walk,so my legs would be killing me even before shopping. I could only afford the bus fare to come home,and only once a week.I had a veggie seller who came to the door,so all fruit and veg were fortunately not part my weekly shop,but I carried everything else. The bus station was just across from the shop,but that 150 yard trek returning home was a killer. Was so happy once I had a computer in 2010 to order on line. I now had a bus pass,so although I ordered all the tinned and heavy stuff to be delivered,I went on different days to get stuff from particular shops that I preferred to asd@.  From 2013 my health started to deteriorate,and gradually i gave up on shopping at those places.

Anyhoo,lets see what I achieve this afternoon.

pollyanna_26

Dusty I'm glad you're finally getting your B12 jab, Hopefully that will help. I have no idea about the NE but here in the NW everyone 50 and over is now eligible for  the new booster also those living with a vulnerable person.

The NHS are worried there will be a perfect storm with both the Omicron varient causing figures to rise again and flu season upon us our surgery have been dong the flu jabs and the vaccination hub.are doing the boosters.

Although I have a pensioners bus pass it's years since we travelled by bus. We discovered long before Covid travelling by bus often ended with flu or some other bug as they're quite confined spaces and people would be coughing and sneezing many not covering their mouth. Some would wipe their noses with their hands the hold all the rails on their way to the front of the bus when they reached their stop.-

I was lucky to spot an anti viral anti bacterial spray foam in our local Boots and have that always in my bag whether in the surgery and other waiting rooms and in shops.

We've never tested positive for Covid and I think the spray and restricting going out has been the reason.

If you ever do need to go somewhere by taxi find out which local firm is contracted by your local hospital. Early in the pandemic I discovered one firm who'd been here for years were under contract to the local hospital and a lot of the drivers would be delivering bloods, test results and things like a transit wheelchair the hospital had lent to a patient being discharged to the hospital.

All those drivers were double jabbed before we were as many of their passengers were vulnerable. I found that very reassuring.

Sometimes I've had to call another firm when the workload with the good one became heavier at the hospital grew. I've been masked throughout despite what BJ was saying and luckily it seems to have kept us safe as does limiting how often I go shopping . No more town shops and supermarkets I shop locally rather than fighting my way through crowds.

I hope all goes well today and you manage to find some purse friendly bargains.

Something I've noticed is I'm spending far less shopping locally than when I shopped in town and bought things not on my list on impulse.

The weather here is cold, wet and windy again. Seems to be a theme. I did manage to see the Wolf moon with Jupiter above it last night when I put the empty milk bottle out  for my milkkmans delivery this morning., Those moons have been a joy over the last few years,We're just tiny specks in a big universe but those moons watch over us silent and eternal and I find that very comforting.

pollyx

Floss

Dusty, I tried to watch YouTube on TV yesterday & it kept failing, very odd.

dustydigger

Floss said:

Dusty, I tried to watch YouTube on TV yesterday & it kept failing, very odd.

Nice to know it wasnt just my telly going wonky! Its been quite normal today.

dustydigger

@pollyanna_26

Yay! a fellow moon watcher. August and September moons were that lovely harvest moon golden shade,but this month its back to really cold silver.

I have always know this months moon as a Hunter's Moon,I thought Wolf Moon was in January.

Awesome.I regularly just look at the skies from my bedroom window,in the dark. I love it when Orion marches across the sky. I only know a handful of constellations ( Ursa Major,Cassiopeia,and Orion) but in winter I always look out for Mars with its red tinge,and Venus,such a sharp pure bluish silver.

When I lived in Africa it was beautiful. Very few streetlights or big city glare,late at night the skies were spectacular. Being almost on the equator we saw the Milky Way really shining brightly,a broad swathe,an arch across the sky. Mr Dusty's mother 's name was ''Matama'' which means Milky Way!

Oh-oh,I feel a poem coming on,as i do,just ignore me,I'm harmless

When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer

By Walt Whitman

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,

When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,

When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,

How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,

Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,

In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,

Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars......

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Yeats’s ‘He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven’

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

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Silver

Walter de la Mare

 Slowly, silently, now the moon

Walks the night in her silver shoon;

This way, and that, she peers, and sees

Silver fruit upon silver trees;

One by one the casements catch

Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;

Couched in his kennel, like a log,

With paws of silver sleeps the dog;

From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep

Of doves in a silver-feathered sleep;

A harvest mouse goes scampering by,

With silver claws and a silver eye;

And moveless fish in the water gleam

By silver reeds in a silver stream.

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I had a mixed bag of an afternoon. Supper to serve - chicken curry - and I am tired,so I'll see you all tomorrow