turps | (no subject)

Thank you

ephemera for the Halloween illooms, I never got a pumpkin this year so I have them blown up and arranged around the living room right now, and they're kinda great, and thank you

frausorge for the card and message. You're both fabulous ♥

mini_wrimo starts today. Usually, I enjoy that comm but I've been dithering about joining this year, then dithered so long I figured I'd missed the deadline to join. Then I saw it was open to the 10th due to the late opening sign up post so I'm back to more dithering. I mean, on one hand, I miss writing, on the other, still pretty brain dead. And on the third unexpected zombie hand, lockdown from Thursday so what else can I do? I'll need to start writing today though, so maybe a 100-word target and see how it goes. ETA: And I've just signed up for 100 words a day.

James reached the end of his isolation period at the end of the week so we went grocery shopping yesterday. To the Re.Fuse cafe/surplus shopping place first. The choice was a bit limited but for £2 a bag each, we got fruit, bread, posh ready meals, mac and cheese and as a bonus, they had some good quality meat in, though they did ask for an extra donation if you got that. It was one meat product a household and while James did look at the oxtail for a bit, he went for steak mince in the end, so mince and dumplings for tea for him I think.

From there we were going to go to Company but when we got there the huge tent they use for surplus stock had blown away so the place was in chaos with bits of tent pole everywhere and the actual canvas nowhere in sight. So, suspecting a lockdown was looming, we made the decision to go to Costco to stock up on cat litter. For the first time in months, we had to queue to get in, but once inside it wasn't too bad and we came out with the cat litter and a huge bag of clementines, which isn't bad for spontaneous purchases in that place.

Today is going to be a house day as while we're both feeling better, we were both really tired by the time we got home. So I need to remind myself, no matter if I do feel better, I'm not actually fully better yet.

Milo was back at the vet's on Friday and he's now on steroids for his ears. Thankfully the tablets can be crushed so I just add them to his food. I suspect he won't be getting the full dose but the vet agreed that anything is better than nothing, especially as he's now on them for life. At least he doesn't actually have to go back, the vet says just to phone every Friday so she's sure he's tolerating the tablets okay and fingers crossed, in a while, he'll be able to drop to a tablet every other day.

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I heard you were back under Lockdown too. We're both members of the same club, I'm afraid. At least you'll have every reason to stay inside and rest. I agree with your reminder, you are not fully better yet and you must allow yourself the time to rest and rest some more...

Take care of yourself *hugs*

I knew a lockdown was coming, but it doesn't make it any easier. This year has sucked so much in many ways, and I wish this was all over. But of course it'll be a while before that happens, so all we can do is be patient. Not that it'll stop me grumbling at times.

But yes, I'll be resting, and at least will have time to catch up on a lot of fic, including yours!

I figured with the being ill, you might not have had time / energy / opportunity to decorate as much as usual, and I hope they made you smile ;) (I was wandering around yesterday with a batty-bun.) Stocking up, and then hunkering down to rest sounds like a good plan - all the resting!

I figured with the being ill, you might not have had time / energy / opportunity to decorate as much as usual, and I hope they made you smile ;)

They did make me smile, and you were right about not being able to decorate. Having all those glowing orange faces everywhere made up for not being able to have a pumpkin.

A batty-bun sounds fun :D

I'm glad you managed to get some good bits and pieces (and bloody well done with costco!) - we're not even officially going into lockdown (yet) and one can't book a shopping slot for love nor money, and the shopping I'm getting today (booked ages ago) has early-pandemic levels of substitutions, although at least nothing was completely out (no loo roll or pasta for me this week, though. so that might be it!).

Definitely remember to keep minding your spoons so you can heal up, not that there's a whole lot else to do right now I suppose!

Poor wee Milo, hopefully that's him settled now, and into just his "ordinary"

I will be cheering you on with miniwrimo - I'm working on the general principle that any words are better than none, and 2020...

I'm relieved we got Costco out of the way and got the cat litter. Last time it was really hard to get hold of, and I really didn't want to be spending £12 a bag for the mega expensive stuff just because that was all that was left.

Pretty much every person at Costco had huge bundles of toilet roll, but thankfully they still had a load to sell, so wasn't as bad as last lock down. I just hope people don't go crazy again and stock pile needlessly.

That's true about not having much to do. I can hold onto one positive.

Yeah, Milo's adapted well to his tablets, especially as I've been crushing them in tuna, and the weekly phone call means no more expensive visits.

I'm working on the general principle that any words are better than none, and 2020...

I'm with you there, and yes, more words, no matter how few, are great.

I just looked up Illooms and they look so cool!

I send you good luck vibes! I feel the same about joining such things

That’s impressive! But oh no! I hope the tent got sorted for them

Aww poor Milo, I hope that works

I've never had an illoom before but they work really well. No sign of deflating yet so the living room still looks very Halloween'ey.

Thank you!

The tent was gone when we went to Company today. James was talking to a staff member and apparently one of the ladies that work there was hurt as she was caught by the tent being whipped away by the wind :(

Oh yay that sounds great! Do you have a pic?

Oh no! I hope she’s oki

I just took a pic for you. They're still up which is impressive after so long.

Ohh I love it! And yay baby Groot!

I'd not heard of illooms - they sound pretty fantastic. enjoy the holiday decorations!

your Costco stop makes sense, given the lockdown. gotta have cat litter! I'm trying to stock up a bit with each week's shopping - want to have several extra jugs of litter, just in case. even if we don't go into full lockdown (which could happen) winter weather or manufacturing issues could disrupt the supply chain, as famously happened with TP and cleansers last spring/summer

The illooms look great, and are lasting for a really long time. They have a special sticker ring for where the knot is and it actually seems to work well in terms of keeping them inflated.

I really can't do without cat litter. In our last lock down it was hard to get hold of the litter we use, so this time I thought I'd get it while I can.

Thankfully, despite locking down from Thursday stocks of toilet roll and pasta haven't been wiped out like earlier in the year. That was weird to see.

I'm so glad to hear you're feeling better, even if not all the way yet! And that the card reached you - that's faster than I thought it might take. I'm glad you got some good stocks of supplies and hope you can really rest and build your strength back up.

May the words flow freely!

Also also best wishes to Milo and his poor ears, my goodness.

Thank you so much, for the card again and the comment. I'm feeling better day by day, I just need to remind myself that doesn't mean going full out and trying to do everything I've missed at once.

Well, I've managed words for both days so far, so a good start.

I thought I'd have issues with Milo's tablets, but he's eating them nicely with some tuna up to now. Though he may be lulling me into a false sense of security.

Good luck with mini wrimo! *\o/*

Good luck with mini wrimo! *\o/*

Thank you. It's going okay so far.

Do take care not to push yourself too hard too soon. COVID aftermath can have a long 'tail'. But it's good to see you and James are up and about!

Do take care not to push yourself too hard too soon

Yeah, I learned that lesson. I felt so much better I went and did too much too soon. The lingering tiredness is a very real thing.

I hope both you and James are taking things easy and letting yourself get back in shape before trying to carry on as usual. From everything I've heard it can take quite some time to recover properly. *sends you both lots of healthy and strengthening thoughts*

I see from comments that Milo's happyy to consume his tables as long as he gets them with tuna. He's going to become so spoilt ;-) I'll keep my fingers crossed they'll work as intended!

From everything I've heard it can take quite some time to recover properly. *sends you both lots of healthy and strengthening thoughts*

I have to admit, we did overdo it a bit when we started to feel better. So, have pulled back on what we were doing. Though, being in lock down again does help with that.

Milo's quite happy to take his tablet in tuna, but I'm going to phone the vet again later as he's getting nauseous on them. So, I suspect the dose will have to be lowered.