Covid-19 Shielding Diary
A blow by blow account, Month 9 continues from month 8
| Day | Date | Action |
| 276 | 16/12 | A fairly quiet day, staying in. Did some research on Arduino interrupts and answered some questions on the two tier PE membership proposals. M was busy sewing up her cardigan project so I did the dinner, chicken and leek pie (Waitrose), with bubble and squeak, broccoli and cabbage with butter and herbs. In the evening M had a lecture which was odd so she abandoned and then we watched Masterchef semifinal. |
| 275 | 15/12 | Made a round white loaf in the morning using a white bread mix. Wrote to regions regarding the value proposition for a recreational member tier. Our walk today was round the Gravesend Fort gardens and along the prom in nice sunshine about 12 degrees but no breeze. Then to the club to check the drainpipe size and to take pictures of some of the mural panels I was missing. Started work on creating a tidies up, ordered group of pictures. |
| 274 | 14/12 | A Monday morning spent doing a very thorough clean. Then we had sunshine at midday so went for our exercise round the Greenhithe station circuit. After lunch did some PE admin on the database and calendar. M’s hair appointment was cancelled due to her hairdresser having to get a Covid test. She made a very good Chilli instead! In the evening checked in with CNN for coverage of the Electoral College and final proof that Biden is the President elect despite the antics of Trump. |
| 273 | 13/12 | Made website and membership system changes following the go ahead for two new regions. Had a small excursion to M&S to get a paper and no glitter ball liqueur! Watched another great performance by Exeter RFC winning 42-0. Made an interesting duck pasta for dinner. |
| 272 | 12/12 | In the morning a shower and then the Petanque England Board meeting by VC. A budget was agreed for 2021 for a programme that is unlikely to occur. Agreed to start work on a domestic programme and budget that could be expected to take place against a background of Covid vaccination that would enthuse the membership. . We managed a big grocery shop at the JL Foodhall (notoo busy for comfort) and watched a variety of european club rugby games. In the evening the conclusion of the Icelandic Valhalla Murders. |
| 271 | 11/12 | M was busy today with art by video conference, while I worked on an alternative counting loop for my digit as suggested on the forum. Now starting to plan how to control counting remotely using a microbit. Did some preparation of the PE Board meeting tomorrow. Made a short trip to Bluewater to enable an exercise walk for M and to pick up a few bits in Lakeland. Distancing and mask observation was high and not very busy so seemed safe enough. |
| 270 | 10/12 | My VC on the Membership value was cancelled but M’s art group went ahead this morning. Posted my led code to FastLED group looking for suggestions on how to make it better. Made an interesting lamb meat ball curry minced up some lean leg steaks for a low fat version. Made an accompaniment of tempura cauliflower florets using a spicy curry batter, could have been a bit hotter but very tasty. In the evening we did an online christmas quiz with the Valley Hospital charity.Our best round was 10/10 our worst 2/10! Didn’t win. |
| 269 | 9/12 | An excursion to Sainsbury for essential supplies and a few bits that M delivered to her mum.My left eye has deteriorated so a test today. Confirmed that I need new glasses. Joined the FastLED group on Reddit which looks a constructive forum. |
| 268 | 8/12 | Excitement all over the media as the first dose of vaccine was administered to someone not on a clinical trial. For future quizzers it was Margaret Keenan. Exercise today was the walk to ASDA, a good 30 minutes for the knee! Did the minutes from the previous day’s meeting and sent them out. Adopted a simple approach for the display project so that the test digit cycles through the numbers 0-9. |
| 267 | 7/12 | Went out to Swanscombe for a very short haircut at my local barbers (Iraqi Kurds) then to the coop for bread paper and plain flour. In the evening held the Events Group VC, Baz was tired so I took the chair and got it done in 40 minutes. |
| 266 | 6/12 | Today’s exercise was a walk to ASDA to get a paper, secired the last Observer! We finished wrapping presents and watched England v France which the home side scraped home with a penalty scored in the second period of extra time. France were sparkling while England were their predictable over kicking game. Eddie needs to up their variety if he wants success. He also needs to consider that as 100% goal kicker Owen Farrel is worth a place but if he’s not bringing that then he is lacking. Contrast with Marcus Smith for Harlequins on the same day. Not making much progress with programming the digit project, very frustrating. |
| 265 | 5/12 | Saturday morning shopping for groceries at JL Foodhall. A short walk partway round BW for inside exercise. Not too busy. Watched Exeter deal with Leicester tigers who had an interesting tactic of over aggressive defence which eventually ran out of steam. |
| 264 | 4/12 | Made a nice loaf of multigrain for lunch then we went for an excursion, first to the PO to send out cards on their way and thence to M’s sister to deliver s present. Home to my lamb hotpot that I had spent part of the morning preparing. The back up presnet for M arrived and kept secret! |
| 263 | 3/12 | So yesterday the power tripped out, cause a blown heater element in the oven. Dinner was nearly cooked but finished by switching to the bottom element and no fan. Immediatley went onto espares and ordered a replacement that arrived today and in less than an hour it was installed and working. Parcels were picked up by Hermes so that worked. |
| 262 | 2/12 | Today we came out of National lock down and into Tier 3 restrictions. Maybe a lifeline for a retail. 1st vaccine, the Biontec rNA one approved today. Morning activity was a trip to Sainsbury. Afternoon wrapped and addressed our parcels to be picked up tomorrow. Started reading “The world according to Physics” by Jim Al-Khalili. |
| 261 | 1/12 | A big session programming for the digit. Now able to light segments of 6 leds simultaneously. VC on the budget made progress through focus on the balance between disciplines. Sent out agenda for Events Group. |
| 260 | 30/11 | Morning exercise, a big clean. Christmas cards written and ready to go. Changed program approach for the digit to use the FastLED library. Got the demo working happily. Finished reading Proxima by Stephen Baxter. |
| 259 | 29/11 | Morning excursion to do a big shop in the JL Food hall. Forgot to get the main ingredient for tonight’s dinner so I had a pie and M a repeat of her beef cobbler. Evening of TV, His Dark Materials still engaging but just beginning to feel a bit drawn out. Fired off a proposal for rebalancing the PE budget to the group so that Tuesday’s meeting can be focussed on what is important. |
| 258 | 28/11 | Worked up a proposal for a Development loan scheme to help clubs develop their infrastructure. Then in the afternoon to the TV for Wales v England at Parc y Scarlets viewed on Amazon Prime video, picture is not the best and sometimes get the spinning wheel of data catchup! Not a great match the England game plan seemed to be to grind the Welsh down with a sterile kicking game. W 13-24 E. |
| 257 | 27/11 | Early morning trip to KIMS for M’s Physio appt. at 8.30. Knee is working well but has some reaction to the steri strips which were removed. Grocery shopping on way home at the Maidstone out of town M&S.Updated web page with revised calendars and set up email address for youth section use. Evening rugby was a tedious match Newcastle-Sale. |
| 256 | 26/11 | In the morning a vc on the tiered membership and the concomitant value proposition. Afternoon programming the Arduino to work with the digit. Success when I got the resistor in the data line sized correctly at 10K ohm. Simple programme had a dot going round and back. Still working on whole segments. |
| 255 | 25/11 | Completed the wiring of the prototype large digit for display project. In the afternoon a long VC going through Petanque england budgets, progress very slow. |
| 254 | 24/11 | Went to JL Foodhall for a relatively large shop. Very quiet in there but got most of what we wanted. Towels washed and dried. Successfully did a label print run for the Christmas card and did some work on the PE budget spreadsheets. |
| 253 | 23/11 | Morning of a big vacuumimg. After lunch made a beef casserole from first principles with some beef cubes out of the freezer topped with Rosemary dumplings. M is progressing very well and has cut her pain meds down to one occassionally instead of two every few hours. Mo longer needs the walking frame just some slight steadying support from a crutch or furniture. |
| 252 | 22/11 | Looking after the convalescent one, a short trip to the JL food hall for a paper, bread and groceries. Started to look at the budget detail for PE. M well enough to eat a Mousaka for dinner. |
| 251 | 21/11 | Attended the Petanque England Board meeting by video conference while waiting for the call from M that she is ready to be discharged. In the end meeting concluded in time for me to get to KIMS by 2pm. She is able to walk slowly with a frame, but still feeling a bit post operatively icky so straight to bed. Impromptu dinner – fried egg on bubble and squeak with baked beans, |
| 250 | 20/11 | Early start, 5.10 am to get M to KIMS by 7.30 for her knee replacement op. Got back at 8.30 in time to hear David Spiegelhalter on R4. The message from M at 11.00 she was back in her room with her knee done already! Has had less sedation and opiods than last time so hopeful of a more rapid recovery. Start of the Premier rugby season Quins 3 Exeter 33. |
| 249 | 19/11 | Tried to help M’s art group but their VC failed due to no connectivity for the speaker! Cracked the countdown timer. I was mixing numeric variable types so simple integer had to be changed to unsigned long to allow comparison tests to work. Our trip today was to Strood to deliver JP’s birthday present and then to the post office. |
| 248 | 18/11 | Essential shopping today, groceries from Sainsbury and collect masking tape at Argos. A bit of sun so did some tidying in the garden. Afternoon taken up with Arduino programming. Have a countdown timer in seconds that displays in mins and secs on a 4 digit 7 segment display. Issue is that the control loop is failing so when count reaches 0:0 it doesn’t stop but goes negative! |
| 247 | 17/11 | An early start, up and out by 7.00 to get M to KIMS for her pre-op test. A bit confusing until er realised it was a drive through service! Home for a late breakfast and then to Gravesend for a dentist checkup on my implant surgery – all healing OK. Need to be careful for three months. Got the Arduino simple clock working. |