Covid-19 Shielding Diary

A blow by blow account, Month 8 continues from month 7

DayDateAction
24616/11Finished the Events group budget and sent it in to the treasurer. Made some progress with learning the C language for my Arduino project.
24515/11A good Sunday breakfast and then the accounts! After lunch the sun was shining so a trip out for a walk along Gillingham Strand. Interesting and pleasant until all of sudden the sun was gone and a dark sky threatened. Just made it back to the car as the rain started to hammer down. Watched to final stages of the Masters, no surprises at the top as Johnson continued his error free progress. A big surprise was Tiger Woods scoring 10 on the par 3 12th, twice in the water! In the evening enjoyed watching the continuing His Dark Materials,
24414/11The rugby continues with a predictable win by England over Georgia 40-0 at a rainy Twickenham, the entertaining match I watched was England v France Ladies which was evenly matched at 10 all until England pulled away to win comfortably 33-10 (Scotland beat Italy 28-17) Dustin Johnson leads the Masters.
24313/11A new Arduino book arrived just waiting for bits from Hobby Components to start testing concepts for my display project. Finished the costing of an idea for log books for all our petanque clubs and sent out the latest version of the calendar. The first rugby Nations Cup match had Wales visiting Ireland with no improvement in their 6 Nations performance except a more dogged defence.
24212/11Completed reading ‘The massacre of Mankind’ by Stephen Baxter, a sequel to War of the Worlds by HG Wells. Found it unsatisfactory, maybe the style? Did my income tax self assessment and also applied to be removed from this annual chore which nets neither of us very much each year.
24111/11Remembrance day marked by a nice ceremony around the tomb of unknown soldier. Then a grocery shop with distancing. Now we are in restrictions we shopped for more days than normal. Primed the board for the garden art project. Decided I need to up my knowledge of Arduino programming and have ordered a book as well as joining the Arduino hub.
24010/11Had to embark on a major tidy of my office and sorting through of bits and pieces until I found my Arduino Uno. Also found a 4 digit display so was able to start investigating how to program a countdown timer. Completed my 7 day course of antibiotics (amoxicillin) following last week’s dental surgery.
2399/11After breakfast sorted out the conservatory so that we could have the easel, I found in the garage, set up for the next painting project. Went for a walk on Gravesend promenade where it was so warm and balmy I had to have an ice cream – cherry bakewell flavour. Is it really November?
2388/11A click and collect at M&S – not busy and a few bits bought. Then to the club for the final varnishing of the text panel followed by the anti-graffiti coating on all the untreated panels. The project is finished.
2377/11A fine warm (17 C) day so to the club to tidy up the writing on panel 1 of the mural. Looked at some text that has faded but the anti-grafiti treatment prevented it. On the 5th day of watching CNN the counter of Pennsylvania finally had counted enough ballots to be sure that Joe Biden is declared President elect. Relief for the US and the world.
2366/11Took M to the hospital for her pre-op assessment for scheduled knee replacement in two weeks. All systems go! The design for Christmas cards ordered and expected today but only the envelopes turned up! Also delivered were two sheets of marine ply for our lockdown art project, a japenese style painting for the garden.
2355/11Morning spent getting car MOT done at Claremont. Being 1st day of new lockdown there was no waiting so B bus home and collected later. All good. Called in at the JL Food Hall for milk and a paper very sparsely populated.
2344/11Taking it easy with judicious nibbly eating. soup for lunch and shepherds pie for dinner. Wasting too much time watching no progress in the US count!
2333/11Started thinking about projects for the lockdown due to start on Thursday. The main event was dental surgery to remove two damaged molars and to have implant posts inserted.
2322/11The day started early 3.30am when our alarm went off because the electricity was off and it thought it was being tampered with! Managed to quieten it by disconnecting the battery. Reported it by calling 105, who said we had been disconnected due to police action in Capability Way!Turned out later that they had discovered a Cannabis farm in the stables back of the Abbey. Power restored just as we got to sleep so the alarm went off again because it thought it was being tampered with. Reconnected the battery and all quiet. Did our normal grocery shop but clear many at Bluewater doing their Christmas shopping.
2311/11Attended the Kent Petanque Association doubles championships being played at GRFC. A bit rusty in the morning saw Pen and I qualify for the Silver which we got to the final but were second to Roly and Jason who really should have been contesting the Gold!
23031/10A rugby fest day, final day of the postponed 6 Nations. Thanks to a reasonable performance by France beating Ireland 35-7, we saw England’s bonus point win over Italy 34-5 give them the Championship. Wales downward trajectory continued losing at home to Scotland 10-14.
22930/10Morning to JL Foodhall for a few essentials and then on to the club to repair the two panels that had got damaged by the roofing sheets. A bit tricky to match the ble and green shirts. Later got started on a new book, a sequel to the War of the Worlds, by Stephen Baxter – The Martians return for another go! Looked into Long Covid treatments but it seems the NHS/NICE guidance is not due now until end of year.
22829/10An outing! B bus to Bluewater, 700 bus to Rochester to the Cheese Room for lunch with M’s sister and husband. Very compliance of Covid restrictions observed. Popped to the club for a petanque practice, good fun.
22728/10A bit of Christmassy shopping at John Lewis and then getting in supplies in the food hall. After lunch retrieved my trolley from the garage where it was undergoing emergency welding. Tried to find a waterproof board for a mural project in our own garden but nothing at B&Q and wickes confirmed that best would be marine ply.
22627/10To the dentist in Gravesend for a clean by the hygienist before implant surgery next week. It seems social distancing is not properly understood and Covid is on the rise.
22526/10Tidied up leaves and then took accumulated recycling to the Northflleet centre. Then on to Sainsbury for a grocery shop. In the afternoon cleaned up all the acrylic paint pots so that they all now shut properly and won;t dry out. Worked on some petanque documents.
22425/10M dropped me at the club then went to take her mum out. I varnished panel 18 but couldn’t finish the lettering because the pen I had bought was inadequate. Moved the damaged roof panels away from the mural and secured them with fence modules. This revealed some scratching to the mural that will need to be repaired. Walked from club up through Gravesend picking up a paper on way to bus, Cooked a very tasty dinner of marinated butterfly lamb, roasties and veg.
22324/10Did some grocery shopping in the morning and replaced a bulb in the downstairs toilet. Then into the rugby fest, Ireland v Italy – comfortable win for the Irish, then the big one Exeter v Wasps in the Premiership playoff final. As expected Exeter took charge with an early try but as the rain hammered down Wasps got stuck in and achieved parity but with the game being played mostly in the Wasps half exeter edged ahead to win 19-13. In the evening Wales v France friendly saw a more creative France win by a comfortable margin.
22223/10Re-organised the conservatory. Removed the oil filled radiator and set up our new Dimplex Studio G fan heater, its a tower, it turns and most importantly when it gets to temperature the fan turns off so it doesn’t create a draft (unlike our old one). Worked on venues and tiered membership for PE.
22122/10Finally able to do some work on the Organiser manual then after lunch to the club with M to finish the faces on the final panel then again in he evening to finish up the lettering.

22021/10The ceramic bulb holder in the bedroom ceiling light had broken and I had sourced some which turned out to be the right size bot the retaining screws were a different length so had to drill out the hole to countersink. In the end had to take the light down so turned into a 2 hour marathon! Managed to do the minutes from Monday’s meeting.
21920/10Off to Medway for a car service, a puncture was repaired and a new tyre needed otherwise in good knick. A new innovation was the service video thanks for a view of the under car! Collected the Home Nations trophy from the engravers after a grocery shop in Sainsbury.
21819/10Finally got out the agenda for this evenings Events Group meeting by VC, Did a few actions arising from the Board meeting. The evening meeting was well attended with quite good progress.
21718/10A bit of exercise walking to Asda to get a paper and a couple of G9 bulbs. Did a cleaning day while M visited her mum. Enjoyed the new TV drama Roadkill.
21617/10A long morning on a video conference the Petanque England Board meeting. A terrific rugby battle, Exeter v Racing with our english team just edging it by 4 points, although 3 of those were a penalty kick as the clock expired.