The Lockdown Gang - not setting foot outside!

Good morning fellow , Lockees, how are we all faring this morning?
I bring some good news, which I have already shared on the GM thread.

I decided to clean it out the linen cupboard, which badly needed it, to see what treasures were hidden there, after I found the missing Easter stash
And treasure I found!.

Yesterday, I mentioned that I found a tub of Celebrations , but there were even more surprises!.
There were 2 tubs of Celebrations, 1 tub of Quality Street, I tub of Roses, 1 of heroes, 1 box of Turkish Delight, ( my favourite), 1 box of M&S chocolate fruit creams and 1 box of luxury choccie biscuits. ?
I am happy to share them with all of you in a virtual way!

Stay safe, don't let the wobbles get you down, wobbles are allowed, as long as we are not permanently wobbling.
I have a hankering for a stroll along the prom, with a bag of chips in hand. I shall hang onto that dream, for the time being.

Life is not so bad in , Cell Block Lockdown after all.?

@Marydoll - can you virtually come and rootle through my closets? I need to find a box of M&S chocolate liqueur cherries and that photo of my DH rounding the Fastnet lighthouse in 1974....?

Hello again cellmates. I'm afraid we'll be here a long time. Better get used to it.

Thanks to information gained? on here GN, I have been able to help/advise someone on the cancer fb site I'm on.
So there you go. We have our uses, us isolated DG. I will soon be wanted by SAGE.
Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, just incase you didn't know.

Along with COBR (Cabinet Office Briefing Room) are useful quiz questions.

I am running out of chocolate here too. Fling some my way Marydoll

The things I'm missing most besides those DGC are the Spring flowers in everyone's gardens. I have some but you know what I mean. Now I can't get sweet pea seeds, I'll miss those too. However we have to make sacrifices in here, even if it seems like false imprisonment

Thanks for the hot chocolate , the very comfy bed and the bedtime story Doodle. A lovely fairy tale ( well I'm hardly a beautiful princess) with a ring of truth to it ... ? ... This cell block is providing privileged seclusion ?.
I've helped myself to some quality street, thank you Marydoll. I have a confession to make though, I also nabbed some of the Turkish delight - sorry I couldn't resist.
Had a dratted seizure this morning after returning back to bed with a cup of coffee. I put the coffee on the bedside table, I think you might guess what happened ... Yep, full cup of coffee on the bedroom floor. Luckily not on me or the bedding though! ? . I'm going to let the carpet dry out and then inspect it, luckily I've got some good carpet cleaner. Having epilepsy always seems to create more jobs to do?, keeps me busy in lockdown though.

bradfordlass you made me smile too with the description of your marathon walk ?
I think, much as you miss him, your son is right to try and protect his wife. 10 weeks pregnant but how lovely to have something to look forward to in the end. A new family member ?

marydoll I am slightly puzzled about the size of your linen cupboard, that it could safely conceal such an array of goodies and also that you could forget having that much chocolate in the house. However, if you share your Turkish delight with me, I won’t mention it again ?
Until you mentioned chips, I hadn’t thought of them but now.... oooh the thought of a bag of chips, or better still fish and chips wrapped in newspaper, sitting by the sea on a bench with my mum and dad and tucking in. Lovely memories you’ve just brought back to me. The smell of the sea and the seagulls flying overhead just waiting for a chance to swoop down and steal a chip ?
mamissimo if you find the liqueur chocs, I like those too.
grammaretto yes we may be here some time but at least we’re sharing with each other. Glad you were able to pass on some tips to help others. I have heard mention that when the government start to lift restrictions that perhaps garden centres will be some of the places they may open so that people can get some gardening supplies. Can you not order seeds on line grammaretto? In the mean time, I can’t do much about spring flowers but I send you these instead ?????????

cherry so sorry you had another seizure. Good job you didn’t spill the coffee on yourself. Do you recover quickly from them? You seem to have had quite a few in the last few weeks (you mentioned it in the Kitchen thread). Is this lockdown making it worse or do you have to contend with this most of the time. Please do not answer any of these questions if you don’t want to. I do not mean to pry but it sounds that you have a great deal to cope with even apart from the lockdown. I hope you keep well. Take care

P.s. I can’t believe how much humour you have in your posts despite having to contend with your epilepsy. I think perhaps we should rename you cheery cherry ?

Good afternoon TLGs.
Can I join the Gang,please!
'Tis a beautiful sunny day here.
All the blackbirds, goldfinches, robins and tits are chattering away here!
I am on the vulnerable list, so my senses have shifted ,somewhat, and the birds provide a welcome release from this madness.
Today, I have made 'melt and pour' tea tree oil soaps...with lemon...I shall give them as gifts to family...at some point..a welcome diversion! Stay safe and have a lovely day.

Cherry, so sorry you are doing too well at the moment. .

Doodle, my linen cupboard is huge!
It used to house the hot water cylinder, before I changed to a combi boiler. It houses a hlarge, wicker, travelling hamper, (my late mother's) umpteen curver boxes, suitcases, my stashes and all the spare linen on shelves above it.

As I don't usually have the strength or energy, to lug everything out, I tend to open the door, throw everything in or up and worry about finding it later. My chronic fatique is so draining, well that's my excuse.
That's how the chocolate disappeared in the first place, it was all in a large box at the bottom of the pile!

PS, thank you for the poem, it brought a tear to my eye.

Sickofweddingcake, welcome too the gang!

Thank you for having me in your gang. This morning, I showered, washed and blowdried my hair and put on bright clothes and earrings and waited .....for my food delivery!! So exciting.

I even got most of the order right. However, my favourite tonic water didn't come and I managed to get the scale wrong on a couple of items, 3 childrens orange juices with straws instead of 3 x 1 litre boxes and a couple of very large bars of Cadbury's Fruit and Nut instead of the little bars that I keep in a 'secret' place for desperate times!

Since my husband has developed a liking for chocolate after detesting it for most of his life, he has got into the habit of buying expensive chocolates so that we can have one each together in the evening. I am sure that all chocolate lovers (and I see many on here) will appreciate my need for a secret 'stash'. However, giant bars aren't so easy to hide and challenge 'self control'.

Oh, and I put on earrings so the holes in my ears won't close up during lockdown. My hair is already covering my ears so they aren’t visible.

Oh dear, three little orange juices won’t go far, though the fruit and nut bars are a bonus I think?

I had my weekly order from the farm shop today and very good it is too. The item that intrigues me, because I never knew it existed is the ring pull can of vegetable stock. When I asked for veg stock I meant some cubes or a tub of powder,. This is a one- off use and looks like a can of beer??

Our farm shop has been keeping us going so far. They do sell some interesting things! We ran out of our usual tub of Anchor spreadable butter, but didn't remember whether or not they stocked it. So I tried to explain what it was but ended up with blocks of vegan spreadable 'margerine'. I expect it will make good pastry.

Sickofweddingcake welcome! X

Chezzy, hope you didn't scald yourself with the coffee. Thinking of you. ???

sickofweddingcake welcome indeed. Your soaps sound lovely. Nothing like a bit of birdsong to lift the spirits.
marydoll what else could you have in that cupboard? Some Christmas cake or a long lost bottle of brandy. Whatever, bring it in. ?. Glad you liked my poem ( it’s on Miss Marydoll’s maths class if anyone is interested.)
missedout I too have made mistakes with my orders which is why I am still eating my way through a large ( enormous) jar of beetroot 3 weeks after it was delivered !?
eglantine I have never heard of chicken stock coming in a can like that. Are you going to use it ?
cherry hope you are ok. ?. See you all before lights out

Hi to our new cellmates. It's quite hot and crowded in here.
How about a cool G&T?

I phone my order to the local community shop and they too sometimes get things slightly wrong.
The first week we had 2 enormous pumpkins, I hadn't asked for, and a kg bag of popcorn kernels. I was so busy being appreciative for all that they got right, I mentioned the popcorn, thinking it was somehow part of a vegetable box but was met with "oh that's where they got to, we wondered!"

I baked bread today and I am looking forward to a bedtime drink Doodle thanks.

I lifted this from another site:

The best thing I've heard is that you might be missing people now but better than when you do get together someone is missing.

Thank you all for the kind welcome.

I actually wrote a much longer post,but it just disappeared....
I will try again tomorrow.
Have a peaceful evening all.

Grammaretto
I hope everyone is self-distancing!

Hello and welcome, Sickofweddingcake
Don't be upset if I don't shake your hand
?

Gramamretto, I do like that quote.

I got a call from the LA, today, checking that I was OK and asking did I need anything, food parcels etc.

The lovely gentleman was taken aback when I said I was loving my confinement: no hospital appointments, no doctor's appointments, no blood appointments no childminding, ( I do love my DGD, really) being able to say "No", to all the demands, usually made on me, without my conscience bothering me.

After he realised that I had been employed by the same Authority, we talked about his usual job of record keeping and managing the archives in the Authority and he told me where the old maps and records were kept and how he loved when he was able to show them to schoolchildren.
I wish I had known that was possible when I was teaching. I would have loved to have taken my pupils.

He said he had really enjoyed the chat, when some of his calls are very difficult and was glad I was coping so well, especially when I told him about the Lockdown Gang.
What he did find upsetting was that many people he has contacted, feel isolated, lonely and scared with no support. Unable to use technology and having no family able to help, is making life very difficult and stressful for them.
It made me realise how very fortunate I am.

I'm off to try and set up an NHS video conferencing App on my tablet, the cardiac people want to check up on me tomorrow, to make sure I really am upbeat and not wobbling. After all, wobbling is not good for the? !
I am going to have to do something with my hair and put on some mascara. I look a fright!

Unfortunately, I can't remember what time we agreed. I have lost all sense of time. ?

marydoll I worry too about those who can’t make use of current technology. I am ok on the internet but DH and I do not use Facebook or twitter and it’s amazing how many times you read that information is on those websites. I know several people who do not use the internet at all and I worry about them missing out on information, contact with other groups etc. Ordering food online is difficult if you don’t use the internet. Almost impossible to get through to supermarkets and pharmacies by phone and even if you do they won’t take an order. I feel so sorry for the truly isolated, those with no means of contacting or being in touch with others except by a phone call now and then.
We are lucky to have Gransnet and each other. When I first joined GN I had no idea it was possible to make virtual friends. People that I really care about but have never met. It seems strange that you can worry so much about others traumas without ever having met them and with not much chance of ever doing so. I have been amazed at some of the wonderful and kind PMs I’ve received. It lifts my spirits to know that there are such caring people in the world. We are not alone as long as others hear our words and respond.
With that in mind, I would like to thank all of you for joining me in our gang. Without you it wouldn’t be much fun.
Take care all x

Doodle, thank you too. I too am very appreciative of the kind friends I have made on here!
It has made everything so much more bearable.

Oh now I'm getting all sentimental, back to strict Miss Marydoll mode. I have a class to organise and I need to gird my loins for tomorrow.

Oh oh!!

Please make it easier than today's, Miss

I may have to play truant