Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 8 March 2020

OG - what a pity that the meal was so disappointing. Thank you for telling us ; I was thinking about ordering but will wait until you have tested more before I make a decision. I sometimes buy ready meals but can't say that there are any traditional type meals that I have found to be anything other than mediocre. I've had better luck with curries and Chinese type meals.

Thank you for the meal review OG. How disappointing. It looked as if you had found something really good.
As Heather says, most ready-made meals are mediocre. They are just very useful sometimes. I sometimes buy pies from M&S. OH likes the beef one and I have the mushroom. We cannot usually eat all the pastry, though.
Perhaps the other ones you try will be an improvement.

HEATHER and ROSY - will keep you informed re the meals, unless I get banned for putting it on here!

Didn't seem to do much today - weather turned to showers and sunny intervals, and has gone really cold again. I don't like it so variable.

We've had a bit of everything today - bright sunshine, cold wind, hail, light rain, heavy rain … fortunately most of it before and after my 140 mile journey. Lovely time with Charlie yesterday. At almost four, he is at the stage of never stopping talking! But it's almost a conversation now, which is great. And he has so much energy … even gets his great-aunt playing football!!!

ANNETTE – Shops are still panic-ridden here. Dau was very cross she had to try three supermarkets before she could buy any flour this week. She bakes healthy food for school lunches & snacks; much cheaper than school canteen. She reminded me when the girls were at school, I allowed them canteen food as treat once a term and the occasional 20c for a superdooper (whatever than was, ice block?). As for your new travel bans, we have had them for some time for certain countries. I believe passports are checked for previous locations. One girl arrived in Aussieland to join a cruise. Alas, she had spent ¾ hour in transit in Singapore, so no cruise.

AQ:  I think I must've been the only person in Costco this morning who didn't need toilet paper! We've given up on the news entirely.  It was bad enough when all it focused on was politics; now we have the corona virus and politics.  We just watched a MASH episode instead.  The worst thing is that the 'good' TV programs have all finished and that our PBS station is filling time with reruns of ancient music, etc. specials that were okay back in - oh - 1982?   In an effort to distract myself, I got two books from the library this morning, then OH went up there later and picked up a copy of the Independent (not the UK newspaper, but an informative freebie magazine that's published in and for many individual cities around the country).  This week's issue focused on Grief and End of Life Issues.  Oh why don't I just go jump off the cliff right now........  

Annette: Our government is far more concerned about the plunging stock market than about the lives of our people. The Fed is handing $1.5 trillion to Wall Street to "calm investors' worries," according to The Washington Post.

Here's my question. Early studies indicate that warm weather may not slow the spread of COVID-19 in many regions, including the U.K. and the Midwestern/Northeastern U.S. See HERE and HERE. So, does Trump have the power to suspend or cancel the upcoming election? Can he suspend or cancel the conventions this summer?

Also, you know that Trump and Pence were both exposed in close proximity to COVID-19 last weekend?! See HERE.

Annette: I posted that before I read your last post. Sorry. LOL

The virus has pushed the bushfire & its recovery off the news DownUnder. We rely too much on ephemeral things like tourism to keep economy going. More businesses in trouble (we import so much from China), more sporting events cancelled, more hygiene instructions, more morbid statistics from across the world, so much doom & gloom.