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These trying times - 2020

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C

cba

master brummie
Radiorails said:
The large supermarkets, seem to be overwhelmed and unable to cope. They say they are looking out for the old and vulnerable. Admittedly key and NHS workers are, it seems, getting on the radar but many older people, like me, are not in their sights. Thank heavens for the smaller Co-Ops and small stores who are there for us and keep well stocked it seems.
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We have not shopped at large supermarkets for years. We are lucky to have a Co-op in our village plus a very good pharmacy and a newsagents. Between the three they have been providing a very good service. There are restrictions on the number of customers at a time and closures to restock shelves after deliveries but we have managed to get all of what we need and most of what we want. We are very grateful for the shop workers, pharmacists and delivery drivers who keep everyone, particularly those who are elderly and/or do not drive, stocked up with essentials.
 
Bob Davis

Bob Davis

Bob Davis
You know this theme has shown what is important about BHF it is a community, made up of people from all four corners of the earth, who have just one thing in common, a love in the city they were born, raised brought up, still live in. Thirty five pages of day to day life, hobbies, meals, snow in Colarado, rain in Crete, Pete scaring the pants of everyone with some dodgy cooking, plenty of humour, lots of handy suggestions, all because of a surreal situation over which none of us have any control over. I have been working from home through the magic of modern technology, ring the business number, I answer it in my dining room. Want information from the works computer and it is at my finger tips. I have also discovered that you can still get the food the supermakets can offer you at the local Spaŕ, Costcutter or local garage forecourt and not greatly dearer. Cheapest wine, Home Bargains of B and M. I am sorry OM you cannot come down to Woolacombe this Easter, it is going to be a weird Easter, no grockles blocking our roads, but it will be over soon, so stay safe, enjoy your Easter eggs, use modern technology to converse with your loved ones

Bob davis
 
mw0njm.

mw0njm.

Brummie Dude
Bob Davis said:
You know this theme has shown what is important about BHF it is a community, made up of people from all four corners of the earth, who have just one thing in common, a love in the city they were born, raised brought up, still live in. Thirty five pages of day to day life, hobbies, meals, snow in Colarado, rain in Crete, Pete scaring the pants of everyone with some dodgy cooking, plenty of humour, lots of handy suggestions, all because of a surreal situation over which none of us have any control over. I have been working from home through the magic of modern technology, ring the business number, I answer it in my dining room. Want information from the works computer and it is at my finger tips. I have also discovered that you can still get the food the supermakets can offer you at the local Spaŕ, Costcutter or local garage forecourt and not greatly dearer. Cheapest wine, Home Bargains of B and M. I am sorry OM you cannot come down to Woolacombe this Easter, it is going to be a weird Easter, no grockles blocking our roads, but it will be over soon, so stay safe, enjoy your Easter eggs, use modern technology to converse with your loved ones

Bob davis
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great post 1586405600743.png
 
Astoness

Astoness

TRUE BRUMMIE MODERATOR
Staff member
Bob Davis said:
You know this theme has shown what is important about BHF it is a community, made up of people from all four corners of the earth, who have just one thing in common, a love in the city they were born, raised brought up, still live in. Thirty five pages of day to day life, hobbies, meals, snow in Colarado, rain in Crete, Pete scaring the pants of everyone with some dodgy cooking, plenty of humour, lots of handy suggestions, all because of a surreal situation over which none of us have any control over. I have been working from home through the magic of modern technology, ring the business number, I answer it in my dining room. Want information from the works computer and it is at my finger tips. I have also discovered that you can still get the food the supermakets can offer you at the local Spaŕ, Costcutter or local garage forecourt and not greatly dearer. Cheapest wine, Home Bargains of B and M. I am sorry OM you cannot come down to Woolacombe this Easter, it is going to be a weird Easter, no grockles blocking our roads, but it will be over soon, so stay safe, enjoy your Easter eggs, use modern technology to converse with your loved ones

Bob davis
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hi bob what a lovely post...it really is good to know that in some small way this thread is helping us all get through these tough times...i agree with you about BHF being a community..i feel that way too and to all new members we welcome you all into our community...:):)

looks like today will be another good one weather wise so i will be doing the last bit of tidying up in the back garden...stay well stay safe all

lyn
 
mbenne

mbenne

master brummie
Bob Davis said:
You know this theme has shown what is important about BHF it is a community, made up of people from all four corners of the earth, who have just one thing in common, a love in the city they were born, raised brought up, still live in. Thirty five pages of day to day life, hobbies, meals, snow in Colarado, rain in Crete, Pete scaring the pants of everyone with some dodgy cooking, plenty of humour, lots of handy suggestions, all because of a surreal situation over which none of us have any control over. I have been working from home through the magic of modern technology, ring the business number, I answer it in my dining room. Want information from the works computer and it is at my finger tips. I have also discovered that you can still get the food the supermakets can offer you at the local Spaŕ, Costcutter or local garage forecourt and not greatly dearer. Cheapest wine, Home Bargains of B and M. I am sorry OM you cannot come down to Woolacombe this Easter, it is going to be a weird Easter, no grockles blocking our roads, but it will be over soon, so stay safe, enjoy your Easter eggs, use modern technology to converse with your loved ones

Bob davis
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Although this site is about Birmingham History I echo Bob's sentiments about BHF also being a community. I've found this thread very reassuring, hearing how everyone is coping at this time. In fact you could say it is Birmingham History in the making. Hopefully, we and future generations will all look back at these posts and reminisce, about what we all did in the the great pandemic.

For our part my wife and I have avoided supermarkets, preferring to shop at the local Spar, she wears disposable gloves when going out and carries anti bacterial wipes to clean down any purchases before we arrive home. Anything that's brought in also gets put in the garage or the fridge for 72 hours before we use it. She's a little delicate at the moment, coping with the stress of losing her Mom over the weekend and the surreal process of making arrangements during a lock down. This coupled with having seen ambulances arriving in the street to take neighbours away that we have known for many years and a sobering message from our son yesterday informing his school pal has just lost his Dad to the virus. Whilst the measures we are taking at the moment are partly for our own safety we certainly don't want to be responsible for passing anything on to others.

I really admire the courage of anyone that is a front line worker at this time, particularly those that continue to serve in our local shops, without them things would be a lot harder to bare. Apologies if this is a downbeat message but I hope it is a reminder to stay safe for ourselves, our families and friends and people that we don't even know.

Take care!
 
Astoness

Astoness

TRUE BRUMMIE MODERATOR
Staff member
mbenne said:
Although this site is about Birmingham History I echo Bob's sentiments about BHF also being a community. I've found this thread very reassuring, hearing how everyone is coping at this time. In fact you could say it is Birmingham History in the making. Hopefully, we and future generations will all look back at these posts and reminisce, about what we all did in the the great pandemic.

For our part my wife and I have avoided supermarkets, preferring to shop at the local Spar, she wears disposable gloves when going out and carries anti bacterial wipes to clean down any purchases before we arrive home. Anything that's brought in also gets put in the garage or the fridge for 72 hours before we use it. She's a little delicate at the moment, coping with the stress of losing her Mom over the weekend and the surreal process of making arrangements during a lock down. This coupled with having seen ambulances arriving in the street to take neighbours away that we have known for many years and a sobering message from our son yesterday informing his school pal has just lost his Dad to the virus. Whilst the measures we are taking at the moment are partly for our own safety we certainly don't want to be responsible for passing anything on to others.

I really admire the courage of anyone that is a front line worker at this time, particularly those that continue to serve in our local shops, without them things would be a lot harder to bare. Apologies if this is a downbeat message but I hope it is a reminder to stay safe for ourselves, our families and friends and people that we don't even know.

Take care!
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no apologies needed you have made some good points..these are very trying times for everyone...please pass on our condolances to your wife for the loss of her mom...we lost a neighbour 3 weeks ago of natural causes the funeral is not until next week with of course limited people in attendance which is also very hard..

my daughter is still working every day at the care home doing 14 hour shifts and luckily all is well there with the residents...she does have sat and sun off to spend some much needed time with her hubby and 3 year old son...

i will be finishing off the tidy up in the back garden over the next few days...

take care and stay safe everyone

lyn
 
mw0njm.

mw0njm.

Brummie Dude
mbenne said:
Although this site is about Birmingham History I echo Bob's sentiments about BHF also being a community. I've found this thread very reassuring, hearing how everyone is coping at this time. In fact you could say it is Birmingham History in the making. Hopefully, we and future generations will all look back at these posts and reminisce, about what we all did in the the great pandemic.

For our part my wife and I have avoided supermarkets, preferring to shop at the local Spar, she wears disposable gloves when going out and carries anti bacterial wipes to clean down any purchases before we arrive home. Anything that's brought in also gets put in the garage or the fridge for 72 hours before we use it. She's a little delicate at the moment, coping with the stress of losing her Mom over the weekend and the surreal process of making arrangements during a lock down. This coupled with having seen ambulances arriving in the street to take neighbours away that we have known for many years and a sobering message from our son yesterday informing his school pal has just lost his Dad to the virus. Whilst the measures we are taking at the moment are partly for our own safety we certainly don't want to be responsible for passing anything on to others.

I really admire the courage of anyone that is a front line worker at this time, particularly those that continue to serve in our local shops, without them things would be a lot harder to bare. Apologies if this is a downbeat message but I hope it is a reminder to stay safe for ourselves, our families and friends and people that we don't even know.

Take care!
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condolences to your wife for the loss of her mom .
 
Bob Davis

Bob Davis

Bob Davis
:heart_eyes:Thank you all for your appreciates and replies, I was feeling low when I sat down and wrote that, my hip had been hurting quite badly and TUI had just advised that they had cancelled my holiday booking for early May, I can't have my money back, but I can rebook although there will be a price increase. Then this morning I open up the forum and when I read mbenne's post I wonder what I have got to be depressed about, then the first business call I receive is from my senior NVQ Assessor to say his mum (who had been ill for a long time) has just passed away and I realised that I am really a very lucky person, my children ring and check up on us regularly, my customers ring up for the 'crack' and to find out when we will be reopening and unlike all of you, judging from the time of your posts, I can stay in bed until 0830hrs (my wife gets up at 0630hrs), shower, leisurely breakfast out in the garden. The time of this post will tell you what time I started work. The weather is warm again so with my ability to frighten the horses and maiden aunts, I put my shorts on!!!!!
Take care all of you, loads of sunscreen if you're in the garden and I will let you know what the beach and coast is like after Easter, although there will be no ice cream with clotted cream this year.

:heart_eyes:
 
oldMohawk

oldMohawk

master brummie
Looking for something do in these strange times I happened to press the 'Health' app on my iPhone - first time I have ever done this.

It told me that I had only walked 415 steps yesterday whereas the day before I had walked 1015. It has been keeping an eye on me even though I had never used the app.

I now realise I have to keep the phone in my pocket to measure steps, so this morning I did 10 minutes on my treadmill at 104 steps per minute making 1040 steps. I then looked at the app and it reported that I had done 1038 steps on the treadmill - surprisingly accurate.

The app also reported I had walked up the stairs 4 times and a Google search shows that it possibly does this by measuring the slight change in barometric pressure !

I'm now wondering what else it knows about me ... :cool:
 
T

tim eborn

master brummie
rosie said:
Please be careful of letting cats catch rats. When I was little, our dog was bitten by a diseased rat and he had to be put down. There is enough to think about now without losing a beloved pet.
On a lighter note, I read of a good way to catch rats. (!) You have get a large bucket and a large stone. Put the stone in the bucket with a tasty treat on the stone. Put some water in the bucket and a "plank" for the rat to climb up. hopefully he will fall in and will cry out to his friends who will climb the plank to see and fall in. There should only be room for one rat on the stone and hence the others will drown!! Don't blame me! I read it in a very old book from a jumble sale!!
I'm told they don't like garlic and you should put Brillo pads in their holes as they don't like chewing it!
rosie.
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When we bought our old house we found the previous owner had fixed a lot of problems with old newspapers. We became interested in them and they went back to the late 1940s and we gave them to the little local museum.
He used them to block holes in the weatherboard walls with screwed up part pages. I was opening one up to read when I saw the teeth and realised it was a rat that must have died trying to make its escape !
 
C

cba

master brummie
oldMohawk said:
Looking for something do in these strange times I happened to press the 'Health' app on my iPhone - first time I have ever done this.

It told me that I had only walked 415 steps yesterday whereas the day before I had walked 1015. It has been keeping an eye on me even though I had never used the app.

I now realise I have to keep the phone in my pocket to measure steps, so this morning I did 10 minutes on my treadmill at 104 steps per minute making 1040 steps. I then looked at the app and it reported that I had done 1038 steps on the treadmill - surprisingly accurate.

The app also reported I had walked up the stairs 4 times and a Google search shows that it possibly does this by measuring the slight change in barometric pressure !

I'm now wondering what else it knows about me ... :cool:

[/QUOTE
I wear a Fitbit that my son bought for me 3 years ago. It was the best present he has ever bought me. It monitors my daily steps, heart rate, mileage, calorie burn, sleep quality and exercise. It was just what I needed to keep me motivated. It also stops me sitting around for too long. Throughout the day I need to record 250 steps every hour. I get a weekly progress report so that I can compare week on week. Interesting thing on what it knows about me when I am doing my at least 10 minute exercise walk it does not register if I am in a shopping area!
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Bob Davis

Bob Davis

Bob Davis
oldMohawk said:
Looking for something do in these strange times I happened to press the 'Health' app on my iPhone - first time I have ever done this.

It told me that I had only walked 415 steps yesterday whereas the day before I had walked 1015. It has been keeping an eye on me even though I had never used the app.

I now realise I have to keep the phone in my pocket to measure steps, so this morning I did 10 minutes on my treadmill at 104 steps per minute making 1040 steps. I then looked at the app and it reported that I had done 1038 steps on the treadmill - surprisingly accurate.

The app also reported I had walked up the stairs 4 times and a Google search shows that it possibly does this by measuring the slight change in barometric pressure !

I'm now wondering what else it knows about me ... :cool:
Click to expand...
It knows exactly where you are amongst other things. I have a friend who now when he travels takes his sim card out of his phone and carries a burner bought from ASDA with a pay as you go set up, travels with the sim card separate, puts it in if he has an emergency and needs to make a call, then reverts to his smart phone when he gets to his destination. He realises he is being paranoid, but he has a history in IT and says that your phone and computer know more about you than you do yourself; hence the reasons why the Americans and Australians gave Huawei the elbow.

Bob
 
Radiorails

Radiorails

master brummie
Bob Davis said:
It knows exactly where you are amongst other things. I have a friend who now when he travels takes his sim card out of his phone and carries a burner bought from ASDA with a pay as you go set up, travels with the sim card separate, puts it in if he has an emergency and needs to make a call, then reverts to his smart phone when he gets to his destination. He realises he is being paranoid, but he has a history in IT and says that your phone and computer know more about you than you do yourself; hence the reasons why the Americans and Australians gave Huawei the elbow.

Bob
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The reason I only have a PAYG mobile phone and it is rarely switched on. The only nuisance with this is those businesses who think you:
A) have a mobile phone and want your number and
B) assume that if you have one it is always switched on.
Presumably these requirements are dreamt up by those who live 24/7 on a mobile phone. :D
 
mw0njm.

mw0njm.

Brummie Dude
Radiorails said:
The reason I only have a PAYG mobile phone and it is rarely switched on. The only nuisance with this is those businesses who think you:
A) have a mobile phone and want your number and
B) assume that if you have one it is always switched on.
Presumably these requirements are dreamt up by those who live 24/7 on a mobile phone. :D
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i hate businesses that only have a mobile no..Unless it a 999.101. i will not phone it. i have a PAYG. and i am a scrooge.
s
 
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