Here is the series of letters which I have written over the last nine weeks to my Knitting Group which has been isolated over the last nine weeks by the Social Distancing rule imposed by the State Government. It has been my way of keeping contact with the group until the Social Distancing rule is rescinded. I will post them independently complete with the Limerick as I do not know how long this is going to go on for and the document is getting too long.
(1)Hi everyone
Hoping that you are all keeping healthy. Take your temperature and
if all else fails one of the first indications of infection is that you lose
your sense of taste and smell.
I have been knitting wrist warmers but have only 32 stitches to knit to
complete a pair ( not counting sewing up) and will start on another beanie
tomorrow. I have plenty of yarn to keep me going for the next few months
and maybe, one day in the passage of time I will be able to buy toilet paper
again (no, I don't need any)
Keep well
(2) Hi All
I hope that you are all well, washing your hands
and slathering yourselves with perfume as well as taking your temperature if
you have a thermometer. If you can't smell the perfume then go and get
tested; it is an early sign.
My plans to thoroughly clean my apartment keep
getting side-tracked as I go online and listen to the news and play computer
games - but slowly I am getting there and from the latest news
reports I have about six months to clean and tidy before I am allowed to show
off my good works.
There has been a strange smell wafting in at about
8.30 every night. The first time I thought that it was a gas leak but now
think that Management is detoxing the shopping centre every night. So it
is probably more virus-free early each day to do your shopping. But most
of the shops are now shut.
I went down to pick up some meat and veg this
morning and was able to buy a box of tissues (Coles brand) and there is now
plenty of milk, meat and vegetables but still no toilet paper, eggs and butter;
Farmer Jack has better supplies of those things. I look whenever I am in
Coles just as a matter of interest but can't believe that the toilet paper
hoarders are still hoarding so I think that maybe we have to ask for it at the
counter and are handed one packet.
I have finished a pair of wrist warmers (not sewn
up, of course) and am at the top of a beanie but it is black wool and I am
going to need a good light to do the four-needle bit.
(3) Hi Knitters
I am still in lockdown but did break out today to take an empty train to Cottesloe to get a flu vaccination and a new referral to see my ophthalmologist. I had heard that the Lions Institute was cancelling appointments but so far mine hasn't been cancelled so I will be braving the empty bus in my mask and disposable latex gloves - which, if anyone is interested are back in Coles along with the Covid-19 Gold - toilet paper.
Incidentally, if anyone wants to make their own masks the quickest and easiest one I have found is:
https://www.nytimes.com/article/how-to-make-face-mask-coronavirus.html
I sized it using an A4 sheet of paper - it is a good size and readily available. My only problem was that I tried to sew it up in a bad light and was unable to thread the needle of my sewing machine and had to wait until this morning. I used an old flour bag from when Cottesloe had a flour mill way back when. For ties I used a couple of pink bootlaces (super long).
I have, after much frustration, managed to load Skype onto my I-Pad. It needed a fingerprint which it steadfastly refuses to recognise so I went to google and asked. The three suggestions I received were:- use a toe print, use a cat's paw or (gag) use a nipple. My I-Pad knows me and has all my details so it was just being B-minded and I ended up thumping the icon of my right index finger hard and very fast and suddenly I was in - so I have been skyping my kids.
I am still knitting - finished the beanie and am onto my second pair of wrist warmers and I have started spinning again but limit it to an hour per day to save my thumbs.
I hope that you are all keeping healthy and entertained.
(4) I
hope that you are all well and are bearing up under isolation or too, too close
proximity. Hopefully we will be able to start getting out and about
soon. Personally, if I can't get my hair cut soon I am tempted to bribe
my hairdresser to cut it anyway. I can cope with the fringe but the back
flops forward into my breakfast if I am not careful.
The good news for the week is that my daughter, D2, who is an emergency physician at RPH said that her shift last Friday
was very slow - only two people in ICU (both off cruise ships) and
only 17 people turned up to emergency.
Also good news - the Cat Haven has all
but emptied as people look for a feline companion and from the news from USA
(and probably here as well) the dog rescue places are also emptying. I
just hope that people bond with their new pets and do not abandon them when the
panic is over.
If you are looking for crafty stuff The Fox
Collection has a sale on; 10% off everything and only $1 postage but
ending tonight at 7.00pm - only 12 hours sale time. I suspect that
this sale may be repeated at a later date.
SweaterBabe has 20% off 'through Sunday' for
knitting patterns.
I have been knitting and listening to MSNBC and
have finished another pair of wrist warmers in an urky brown which was a colour
I found very hard to knit. I still have to sew them up but maybe someone will
love them; they will be warm and not show the dirt.
No news Chez Moi and I am sort of spring cleaning
but am staggered at the amount of cat hair, considering that the cats are
brushed twice per day and my Dyson Stick needs frequent re-charging. At
least I know that I will not run out of time or cat hair.
Please all keep well and hopefully I will see you
all again soon.
(5) Hi Everyone
We are supposed to be free at last, certainly there
was more traffic on Stirling Highway and Hungry Jack is doing a roaring trade.
It has been nice while its nightly closing lasted; it has been turning off its
horrid bar of red light which shines straight up into my bedroom but I suspect
that it will be back on again tonight.
I am still knitting wrist warmers and I still
haven't sewn up the last pair I knitted and am onto the second of the current
pair. Meanwhile, the cats and I are slowly going stir crazy. Parsifal has
been roaring around the apartment and trying to find a way into the TV to meet
and greet the people in there.
Last night I got so desperate that I set out to
unearth my Miniscule DVDs because he used to love the ants and in my search I
came across four CDs of "Music for Cats". I put the first one
on to play and both cats settled down as close as they could get to the CD
player and listened. It is weird stuff and not unpleasant so we will
stick with that.
I know that some restrictions on self isolation
have been lifted but I want to see if there is a flareup before I come out of
purdah because cats can carry the virus. I can Skype my two oldest
daughters and have internet, an e-reader, shelves of books and an I-Pad but it
would be nice to be able to go downstairs and sit in the sun with the smokers
in the Town Square.
WARNING: This is clever but don't click on
the link if you have Republican leanings
(6) Has anyone else been doing battle with
technology in the last few days? I have - and give me knitting over
electronics every time. I have now finished three pairs of wrist warmers
and a beanie and am tossing up whether to knit more wrist warmers or another
beanie. I have some fancy knitting needles which are supposed to replace
having to use four needles to knit the top of the beanies in the round.
But - at least I have finally sewn up all the wrist warmers and
they are waiting to be collected by D2 if/when she emerges from her
self-isolation.
I spent two days trying to put my grandson's
account into my bank's list of payees as he has a new bank account but with no
success. Eventually I phoned the bank's help line and found that in the
"name" field only 18 characters are allowed and that includes
punctuation and spaces. There is nothing on the form to tell you this so
that is now sorted after shortening his name.
And my printer decided to re-invent itself and told
me that it needed new drivers which I installed only to find that it no longer
printed so I had to go to system recovery to get it working again. My
son-in-law lost his C Drive which is far more serious than a recalcitrant
printer. There is something weird going on with electronics at the
moment.
My daughter D3 has a heap more knitting yarn
from her client who gave us the last lot so there should be plenty to go around
when I see her and when we can all get together again
My boy cat threw up all over my bed this morning so
I am in the middle of an orgy of washing sheets, duvet cover and pillow cases.
In the days of isolation when there is no team
sport being played a sports commentator posted this clip. I stole it from
MSNBC so it comes with some explanatory comments.
(7) Despite more people wondering around the shopping centre, less masks
and more toilet paper available I still seem to find myself in semi-isolation.
My daughters spaced Mothers' Day over two days; one on Saturday and one
on Sunday. It was actually great because I did'nt have to worry about
son-in-law and grandkids so I had D3 to myself on Saturday and D2 on
Sunday.
But I am still having problems with my electronics and my printer
refuses to scan. I think that I am going to have to upgrade at some stage
but have just put four new ink cartridges into it so - not yet.
The NBN is finally coming to the Claremont Quarter and more
problems. The group being connected to iinet seem to comprise about eight
shops and me. And my address was given as 23 St Quentin Avenue which is
the address for the whole complex - shops and two apartment
blocks. It caused me a whole heap of problems when I first moved in as,
understandably, no-one could find me. So I contacted iinet and had to
send them photographic proof of my address. Since my printer will not
scan I had to photograph an account showing the address and had to use my I-Pad
and had to be talked through the process. Where was Sally when I needed
her?
And the lift broke down on Sunday so we all had to get in and out
through the back door. More electronic glitches!
But I am reading, knitting, doing my yoga and Oriental cats are very
talkative so I do not lack for intellectual conversation.
I will try to attach a video clip of Randy Rainbow with his take on a
song from Guys and Dolls. But don't hold your breath . . .
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I had
coffee with a friend downstairs in the Centre and we sat at a social distance
in the Town Square. She has suggested that we expand to a threesome by
inviting a lonely and rather obsessive acquaintance whom neither of us felt
like tackling alone. I have left my friend M.S. to organise it.
Then on
Friday morning early I got up and went to the loo and then found myself lying
on the floor with my left shoulder in the cats' water bowl. I was wet and
cold but in my dazed state I couldn't work out how to get up off the floor so I
think that I went back to sleep. Woke up, got up and after removing my
soaking wet nightie I went back to bed and back to sleep.
So
yesterday was a day of fasting for a blood test and then fasting again for a CT
Scan.
Today I
had a man from Metronet examining my apartment for cracks and gaps in case I
want to sue them for damage from earthworks due to start on the Claremont
Station in the very near future.
And the
lift is broken again!
I have
almost finished knitting a watermelon pink beanie in horrible acrylic
because I bought and wanted to try out some rather odd double-pointed flexible
needles, supposedly the latest thing for knitting small and circular.
Still not sure what I am supposed to knit with, or how, but will not be
too upset if I abandon the beanie; it is a bit gross.
Sadly I
don't think that the knitters group will be getting together again just yet:
(9) I delayed this email by a day because I had
an appointment with a haematologist this afternoon as a follow-up to my CT scan
and blood test.
The
outcome is that I either have Mgus (look it up) or myeloma and I am off to have
a bone marrow biopsy tomorrow morning to see if I just need monitoring or if I
need more aggressive treatment.
Meanwhile
I have been doing battle with the NBN, iinet and with my scanner which thinks
that it is something else and is pretty surly about being made to scan
documents.
My problem
with iinet is that we are about to be connected to the NBN but iinet, which has
been my internet provider since the days of Mrs Malone's garage, is
refusing to believe that I live where I do and keep asking for more and more
documents showing my name and address.
I finally,
yesterday sent them a Telstra account and a custom Strata account and hopefully
they will finally believe that I do not live at 23 St Quentin Avenue although,
to complicate things, the node which NBN has to connect to is at 23 St Quentin
Avenue which is the whole Claremont Quarter.
Nothing
else of any moment has happened to me mostly due to the weather. We were
asked to clear our balconies but someone neglected to do so and his/her
barbecue lid ended up in our swimming pool. This weekend is winding up to
be anther stormy one . . . and then we will have winter.
Hopefully
everybody is keeping well and your hands haven't been excoriated by hand
sanitiser.
