How is everyone in the current situation? General Chat

No, Juli, blood pressure monitors are not usually part of home first aid kits.

We have one because I went through a spell of high blood pressure and so wanted to keep an eye on it myself.

If you didn't have your own monitor, I'm pretty sure they would have taken it for you

That is what is happening to my English Chris - I keep forgetting the correct words, hence calling it a BP machine and not a monitor.

Same difference, Juli. It was obvious what you meant

I should have looked at the box [which is still sitting on the table]. Had I done so I would have seen that it is called an Electronic Arm Type Blood Pressure Monitor!

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I am really getting fed-up with this Groundhog Day life now. It is not that my life was so exciting before, but I just want to get further out of my home than just taking the rubbish to my wheelie bin on Tuesday and Saturday evenings [the binmen come very early Wednesdays and Sundays].

I keep telling myself how lucky I am, being able to sit by an open door to see out, not stuck in an apartment with just a tiny balcony, and not having to worry about getting food - but the whole situation just seems to be sucking all the life out of me.

Sorry for moaning but there just seems no end in sight.

I moan all the time. I think everyone is fed up with the situation, with no clear end in sight. At work we’ve noticed people coming in just for a few items, that don’t seem essential, just because they want to get out.

This week has been much better for me, maybe I’m just getting numb to it.. I did just notice a coworker within a foot of a customer while helping them. This is just stupid, which I’m not surprised from this person. I’ve described this person as uncomplicated, while another coworker was more blunt and called them an airhead. The problem with her being so close to the customers is that at work we often can’t social distance from each other so it’s important we do from the customers.

Breaks over back to work

I bet the teenagers aren't social distancing.
I wonder what excuses they give their parents?

There's been a few turfed out of Skegness today. There was the couple who travelled over a hundred miles for a bbq on the beach. In a nearby village a group who had pitched a tent on the beach intent on staying for the weekend.

A pub has been raided and closed down as it opened up for VE Day.

It's crazy. People are crazy. I despair - we are doomed

We are not doomed Chris but I think you are right about people being crazy. Well, some people that is. I was just looking through the online news and this all-of-a-sudden patriotism - most of the people pictured having their "socially distanced" NOT street parties just seemed like using VE day as an excuse for a booze-up. Or something. Getting their pictures in the papers maybe?

I dunno. I guess being a war baby and remembering things - Mother hanging out of the kitchen door to see if the planes were theirs or ours - the Morrison shelter under what was used as a dining table. It had a blue and white ticking mattress to sit on.

Of course it is good to remember but to celebrate something they never lived through while hundreds of people are still dying every day in the UK from COVID-19 just did not seem right to me.

Ach - just shut me up, I think I just have a bad case of the miseries at the moment.

The 'street parties' weren't so bad from what I hear, Juli. They were organised for people to sit outside in their own front gardens with their own picnics and drinks. One would put the stereo on full blast belting out war songs and they all sang along.

It didn't happen on our part of the street because there are a lot of very elderly and ailing people live this end of the street. However, I did sing along to all the war songs at about 10 am this morning while they were trying out the system.

By the way, for most it was just an excuse to have a bit of a socially distanced party I agree

I agree Juli, these celebrations did have an artificial feel. The 1945 celebrations were a spontaneous release of tension after the losses and anxieties of six years of war. Today seemed like role play, fuelled by six weeks of restrictions due to CV19. The big similarity is that both events will take the same 50 years to pay for. I don't think there will be the same degree of rationing and make do and mend this time round though.
We observed the silence at 11am, but didn't bother to join with the families that had tea on their driveways this afternoon, and at 6.30 were entertained by pop classics on somebody's sound system. There were lots of St. George and Union flags, and there was one Stars and Stripes round the corner, but the UK didn't win the war alone, perhaps we should have also acknowledged the sacrifices of other nations.The first hand testimonies of the veterans of WW11, shown on TV this week, have been so moving, and were a mile away from today's events.

Ever had one of those days? You know, when if something can go wrong it will and nothing seems to be able to sort it out. That day seems to be going on forever at the moment.

OK so my right arm is virtually useless now - both shoulders "went" a while back but even though my right [dominant] hand can still - mostly - manage using the keyboard I am having problems with moving my arm from the keyboard to the mouse as my elbow keeps slipping off Xanadu's arm and gets wedged between it and my body.

But it makes it difficult to do even basic things, and dropping a glass bottle of EVVO on the kitchen stone floor while trying to take the cap off made me I wonder why I sometimes bother to get up. But of course I do because of Tikki, and I know she is aware of how I feel as she is being rather cuddly at the moment in an attempt to cheer me up.

And I am still craving some ice-cream. And chocolate. And that is ridiculous because I do not like chocolate - and Israeli chocolate is lousy in any case.

Sorry for the moan.

What is EVVO? Not an oil I hope! I do wish there was someone who could help you out with these little tasks. It must be infuriating!
I hope your arm gets back to normal soon. How about supporting it with some kind of a strap or sling to keep it at the right height for your pc?
You do so well with your disabilities. What's that they say about necessity being the mother of invention. Take care.

I mis-spelled it. EVOO - Extra Virgin Olive Oil. A one litre glass bottle of it. Do Not Ask.

The problem with my shoulders is two-fold. Firstly when I am on my sticks [elbow crutches but I dislike the word 'crutch'] I am taking all my weight, what there is of it now, on my shoulders. Secondly, because I have lost so much weight in the last 18 months I have no padding round my joints, and my muscles were not too good to start with.

I manage Carole - I have no choice, do I? The thing about my arm is that although Xanadu's armrests are the perfect height, plus are half length so I can get close up to the table, Xanadu is a normal adult size chair, ie the seat width is 40cm. My manual chair is a teenage size, the same height as an adult one but the seat width is only 34cm. Because even before I lost all this weight I was not very large. So sitting on Xanadu my elbows are angled slightly out from my shoulders and my forearms in towards my keyboard. The armrests on Xanadu are the correct height but being just that bit wider than my manual chair my right elbow tends to slip down and then I have to keep moving it up and out sideways to reach the mouse.

And of course being right handed everything is on the shelves to my right, which means I automatically reach out with my right hand, do an ouch, and end up having to reach over my body with my left arm. Difficult to explain really.

I have all sorts of gadgets to help me in the kitchen, but even so I still tend to be rather clumsy using my hands and have not been able to use a knife and fork for a very long time now - reverting back to babyhood using a spoon or my fingers to eat! Still, nobody sees so who cares - Tikki definitely does not!

But - the one thing I still can do is type. I was taught "once a touch-typist, always a touch-typist" and it is true. Providing my elbows and wrists are supported my fingers automatically know where to go with no thought or effort at all B"H - but I cannot hold a pen to write legibly - can just about scribble my signature on a cheque or form if necessary, and the odd thing I have to write down looks like a child who is still learning how to write.

And I am still here - rather grumpy and a bit depressed at times, but it is far better than the alternative!

Hmmmmm. Two months into lockdown and this morning I had a telephone call from a government organisation called The Centre for Senior Citizens. Never 'eard of it. It was on my landline, the number of which is obviously on all official thingies that require it, but it is unlisted. Always has been and this number has followed me, this bungalow being the fifth place where it is used, and the only non-official people who have the number are people that I know personally and have given it to. So I obviously queried where she got the number from, although as she used my full real name as on my ID card [mispronouncing it as usual] it must have been official.

According to her this organisation has nothing to do with The Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services, to give it its full name, and is "the branch of government charged with overseeing employment and ensuring the welfare of the public in Israel and oversee the supply of services." [Wording copied from Wiki] and from what I understood it is a new thing since the lockdown. Or something. So she definitely did not get it from the non-working, non-social, supposedly my social worker. Not that I ever wanted one but being disabled... blah blah blah... I have to have one. Various ones seen maybe every five or ten years... but had my current one bothered to call to check on me? Ummmm - No.

So - would I like her to tell my local Welfare Department about me? They already know. Would I like them to call me? Or a volunteer to call me for a chat? Someone to talk to? Actually I really do not want to be bothered with telephone calls or to make small talk with anyone because even though I have been moaning about things lately I really am quite happy in my own little bubble with Tikki.

However, it was rather nice to be acknowledged by someone in an official capacity, and I finally remembered to telephone Hai and ask him to please send over some ice-cream! I did not have a clue as to what he has so just asked for a small tub of something nice......and he sent over a tub of Ben and Jerry's Dulce De Leche, together with the soy milk, bananas and avocados I wanted, and a message saying that the ice-cream was a gift!

I don't think I would like 'a chat' either, but it is good that you have come to their attention - another number that you can contact when things get difficult.
How sweet of Hai, I hope you enjoyed your treat.

The treat is in the freezer and as yet unopened, and as it is a half litre tub I will make sure it lasts once I do open it!

Juli, would it help to put a pillow under your right arm when on Xanadu? Just thinking that at least if it fell off the armrest it wouldn't have far to fall and would be a soft landing .

We are dreading the weekend here. For the first time in a long time our country has no new cases. From tomorrow, in their wisdom, they have taken restrictions off travel within England which includes a day trip to the beach. That to me spells trouble with a capital T. I'm sure we will see the results of this folly in about 2-4 weeks time

Chris - my right arm does not fall off the side of Xanadu's arm rest - it could not because the control "hand" would stop it. It falls in between the arm rest and my body and then I have to hoik it out to move it to reach the mouse - [I knew I had not described it properly - my English is going to pot at the moment!]

I just checked https://ncov2019.live/data and it appears that you do have some new cases. But people will still not take any notice about social distancing and I do not think that restrictions should have been relaxed yet.