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but with a just cause!
But we'll get back to that. If someone had suggested even just a couple of weeks ago that we in the UK would be living in Stulag GB anytime soon they'd have been laughed out of the room. But of course that is now the case and it looks like we may have to endure this 'lockdown' for some considerable time - we are talking several months at the very least. Apart from the weather (which has decided to be very nice, it was 20c here earlier), the only ray of sunshine in all this is that we are allowed to go out for exercise, currently unrestricted in time and method, so atm I am still allowed to go out on my bike.
And so, like many others, on Tuesday I set off to enjoy the fresh air with a loop around North Somerset. The local bike path was rammed with bikes and runners, I was glad to leave it and get on the not deserted but definitely quieter roads. Down into the Mendips then across to Cheddar, finally stopping for my sandwiches at Axbridge. Then my route took a sub coastal route back northwards to return to a ghost town Brizzle, this time I avoided that busy cycle track.
I'll be out again tomorrow and continue to do so unless further restrictions are brought in.
It might not always appear so but I'm quite pragmatic about this stuff and all the panic buying and hoarding has had me quite riled. This might seem a bit sad but a couple of weeks ago I bought mince and onions and tomatoes etc to make a pasta sauce, expecting to pick up the pasta later. But the hoarders stripped the shelves bare, I looked pretty much every day but any new stock had been raped before I got to the stores (sometimes I've been to 4 or 5 in a day!). Finally today, my local Aldi had the pasta I so craved as well as enough LP to sink a battleship - not that I needed any.
That's my Covid 19 stories for this post!
So to writing. My good excuse for the tardiness of this post is that I was writing the penultimate piece of Gaby Book 25! I will be writing the final lump tomorrow/Friday so with a following wind, the complete book will be released on Sunday! I had hoped to be a bit further ahead with it but concentrating on writing has come second to keeping food in the cupboard and up to date with restrictions.
Still with new scribblings, I've got not one but two stand alones I want to get written, each with what I think are fairly unique storylines - I won't say what as I've had ideas hijacked in the past which have resulted in me not writing the stories I wanted to.
And finally today, chapter three of Summer Loving, CentrO Line is now up for you to read, I hope you enjoy it.
That's it for today, stay well and i'll be back with more news on Sunday!
tschussie
Madeline Anafrid
Comments
Gabby #25
As you may recall, I am waiting with baited breath for the new book. As for the COVID-19, I agree that it is a burden. Fortunately, outdoor exercise, etc., has not been banned here, either. We are able to continue working as our work has been deemed necessary and my Love is out on a call at this time. Store shopping truly is a disaster but things should level off. The hoarders will have enough (if there is such a thing) and we will be able to find pasta, too.
Maddy, we all appreciate the updates and empathize. We no longer have bikes here but I love the ride descriptions. I have never been to your part of the world so the descriptions are great!
Please keep us posted and I will be watching Amazon for your new book.
HUGS
Senior Shopping Hours
Many of the stores in my area that sell food (grocery stores and big box stores) have started reserving the first hour or so of shopping for those considered "seniors" (how ever they define it). The advantage is that you can get first call on newly stocked shelves if they stocked overnight.
Michelle B
Senior shopping hours
The Safeway stores here (SF Bay Area) supposedly reserve 7 AM to 9 AM Tuesdays and Thursdays for seniors and others at heightened risk. I have been unable to buy facial tissue (e.g. Kleenex), toilet paper, or paper towels in my last two Monday shopping trips, so my wife went early (7:30 AM) yesterday morning to a large Safeway here in Oakland, to find it also had bare shelves in the paper goods department. So, the early hours for seniors aren't working too well.
On the plus side, they seem to have enough pasta, but we have plenty of that already.
Looking forward to seeing......
Book 25 Hon!
Hang in there. I am stuck in quarantine as my spouse was exposed to someone with Covid-19 last week, so we are stuck until 3/31. If we don’t get sick by then, we are free to go about our business.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
we are allowed to go out for exercise...
I think that you are right Maddy on a number of levels...it won't be long before exercise gets defined in precise terms..and that can't be good if we all have to be the same.
But with The Peak shutting its doors the pressure just transfers to the rest of the countryside. We live in a tiny village in South Notts, and the whole of the East Midlands must have descended here yesterday to walk along the Trent. I don't begrudge anyone their freshish air, but please play nice everyone...
And as for hoarders...yes we'll I suppose that they have to stockpile things to give them that superiority back..oh I have a pack of dried pasta, I'm on the way up. We have a lot of elderly neighbours, so I'm doing a food order for most of them on the computer.. maybe being a virtual shop assistant is the way forward?
Anyway, my rant over. Glad that your writing again Mads.
Stay Safe. Lucy xxx
"Lately it occurs to me..
what a long strange trip its been."
Crowds
We live 5 minutes bike ride from Newcastle city centre, which is eerily empty. The beaches at Tynemouth and Whitley Bay are heaving.
Speaker
San Francisco
Bicycling is permitted here without any new restrictions here in the San Francisco Bay Area. (They still have to stay off freeways, and stay on bike trails if those run parallel to roadways, unless the roads themselves are closed to car traffic. Golden Gate Park closes its main road to cars on Sundays, and there's some pressure to extend that to every day for the duration, since it's not an essential road to anything except its own buildings, which are non-essential and therefore closed.)
The story was that the authorites were going to treat it as a form of transportation and limit it like cars to essential trips like groceries and hospitals, but were persuaded that it was a form of exercise and therefore legitimate. There's no indication that's going to change.
(Doesn't affect me -- I refuse to ride on any piece of equipment that won't stand up on its own (g). Probably has something to do with the handlebars coming off into my hands at age six during a turn, about two weeks after they took the training wheels off my bike.)
Eric
Empty Shelves
I wonder how much the empty shelves are caused by people hoarding and how much is a feature of just in time supply chains ? If people are moving from shopping, say, twice a week to once a week and the shops only have 4 days stock in store, then they will run out, at least until the supply adjusts to demand.
New book soon!
Form an orderly queue across the car park please. That's what our local supermarkets are doing as well, to limit the numbers in the aisles; one out, one in.. Almost everything that we wanted was in stock at our usual Asda, including bread and TP, though the remaining TP stock was coconut oil treated, and I can smell the unopened pack in the bathroom from outside the door.
Also went out for a ride, just a local loop but should have worn socks, the nor'easterly breeze was not warm. 7pm here and already down to 6 degrees C.
"Reach for the sun."
looks can be deceiving
I decided to lose the thermal jacket and just had the thermal longs without shorts under and it was just about right for the 15c top temp @ here. pretty sure there were a few cold bods though - first sign of sunshine and its straight to beachwear! It seemed noticeably quieter today than Tuesday, I think the novelty effect is already wearing thin!
One thing to watch though is the driving of 'country folk' and HGV's who already seem to think speed limits and safe driving no longer apply.
I wasn't feeling very enthused today so it was only a short ride of 100km!
Mads
Madeline Anafrid Bell