Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 16 October 2022

Hello all. Sorry to learn that one or two of you have Covid at present. Hopefully you will soon be feeling a lot better.
Lindybird - Despite your journey have a lovely time and break over there.
Diane - Thanks for the start off. Safe journey home from the big city, I expect it will be a bit of a wrench from the dog sitting. Hope Indiana stays fire free.

It amazes me what they come up with to describe the weather. Surely they can keep it simple by saying either a storm or windy weather is going to hit instead of an "event". Keep it simple I say.
What a situation we are in on the political scene, it really is farcical.

Had an appointment at the chest clinic last Friday - moderate sleep apnea seems to be the diagnosis and they are going to provide me with a CPAP machine but with the buds going in the nose and not a full mask, afraid I find those claustrofobic. Had my two jabs on Sat and so far there have been no side effects.

Like the pics from Portugal.

Good Morning. View from our balcony: pleasant for most of the day but late afternoon,  it's a furnace as the sun hits us directly. To the left of this pic, the main part of the hotel but we are not too overlooked. Other, similar rooms to ours are below us. All a little bigger & with perks like free white robes & slippers, some extra toiletries & yesterday, a complimentary bottle of wine!

Food seems very good although others are complaining about the service. We've not found it wanting and so are happy, maybe some just like to whinge a little...

Rusty, you need to be kind to yourself for a little longer, this virus can knock the stuffing out of you. Yes, we had a big queue for security at the airport but it was dealt with very efficiently. I guess they've learnt some lessons from past chaos. Bad queues & waiting when we arrived in Spain as the luggage didn't appear for ages & my OH had to find me a seat whilst he dealt with it. I was horrified that some people were cheerfully allowing very small children to run about amongst the massive crowds building up as more flights landed & the numbers of people increased. Thankfully I had bought a bottle of water on the plane to keep us going - it was a long haul from there on a bus, & I was so tired and I had not slept at all that night knowing that we would have to rise so early -- never again!

I hope that Clare, Limpy & Helen are now beginning to be on the better side.

Lindybird said:

I hope that Clare, Limpy & Helen are now beginning to be on the better side.

Thanks, Lindy - and that's a yes.  Helen is now feeling well enough to work from home - we collected her computer and other stuff yesterday and she was visibly much happier.  I suspect one of her problems has been sheer boredom!  She's also getting over her feelings of guilt at having infected her father - I've been trying to point out to her that it was inevitable we would get Covid sooner or later, and (thankfully) he didn't catch it until he'd had the updated booster.  He's been ill but nothing like as much as I once feared.  He's feeling better than he did, though it's left him absolutely knackered.    My head's feeling a little less heavy today and I hope that continues - I'll need to go shopping soon and I badly need my symptoms to clear up.

Fingers crossed that Rusty will soon be testing negative!

Thank you, Rusty - we feel we are both recovered now after a few siestas and 2 good nights sleep. Its very very quiet here at night, and the hotel is in the main, very restful. No children running around, as I'm ashamed to say that we like it as its adults only! Much as we loved being parents & are now grandparents, we like peace & quiet when we can find it.

Been for a short walk in the other direction today, and hoping my knees will strengthen if I take some exercise each day.

Glad you're all alright, Clare, and you're absolutely right, best that if you're going to join the throngs of us having covid at some point, that you do it after all the jabs available.

A pretty, and healthy looking cat we met this morning. (I love cats) She glowered at us, though, and twitched her tail as if to say "Don't touch me!"

A quite different cat further along: very friendly & Ioved his stripey lemur like tail.

Well, I managed a walk of 2,5 miles this morning and, at last, felt that the covid “brain fog” was lifting.

I thought we would have another little trip to Portugal. We left the Lisbon area and headed north calling in first at the charming small fortified town of Obidos. It was completely surrounded by ramparts and the houses were kept beautifully. My friend and I just strolled around for about an hour and branched off down little side streets to explore.

We then continued to Coimbra which is called the Oxford of Portugal as it has a huge university. We had a good lunch sitting outside there and then had an adventure finding the Post Office. (We both still like sending postcards) We were very upset to find that, now we have left the EU, the postage for the UK is more expensive. We communicated to the lady that we were very sad about leaving. Anyway we made it down to the river and saw the convent on the opposite bank which had been moved up there at some stage as the old one had got flooded out.

Rusty:  Thank you for the pix.  I look at those quaint old villages and wonder if life isn't a little simpler in less high-profile countries.  I see Liz has reneged on another campaign promise re cost of living increases for pensions...  How long can she possibly last.

Lindybird:  Nothing like a siesta or two to recharge the batteries!

The guy who was supposed to come by early this morning to suggest downsizing garden work failed to show.  He's a neighbor so not sure what's going on.  I sent him a text asking if he was running late or if Harry and Meghan had suddenly decided to redo their vast Montecito backyard....