Day 11

Day two of full lock-down has not been overly successful - the Greek Language App that I have signed up to has had me repeating items from a supermarket over and over - I am wondering if this is in preparation for panic buying???  If so I am not sure how many cauliflowers ( κουνουπίδι ) I am going to want to buy particularly as I am not overly fond of them.  I cannot move on until tomorrow but fear that that will simply be consolidating what I have learned today.

The weather forecast for the weekend isn't too good so I decided I would spend the next couple of days stripping down the second hand rocking chair that John's Mum had bought me when she was here last.

It had been painted blue - in fact several different shades of blue and been given some oversized cushions which I didn't like so the plan was to scrape off the paint and treat the wood leaving it uncovered and make new cushions.

I started yesterday and was doing really well so was looking forward to getting the bulk of it off today so that we could tackle any stubborn areas with John's whizzy attachment on his drill.  It was all going swimmingly until I discovered a strange hole which I thought might have been where a screw had gone in and which had been 'plugged' before painting - it was about the size of a pea and went in a long way.  Then I found several more - John said that had there been something living in there previously it was probably long gone and so I continued...

...I tipped up the chair to tackle the rockers and my little scraper went much further into the wood than it should have done and to my horror I could see that it was completely rotten and there were burrow marks.  In fact the whole of this piece of wood was like balsa and on closer inspection it would appear that other areas were equally as badly affected.

I loved that rocker and had such plans for it but as John said it was dangerous (a) because it was likely to have collapsed when someone sat on it and (b) we didn't want whatever was, or had been, living inside anywhere near all our wood.  We reluctantly made the decision that we couldn't save the chair and it needed to be dismantled and disposed of.

I was gutted - but better to be safe than sorry and hopefully something similar might pitch up in the future.  I won't buy anything that has already been 'upcycled' because you have no way of knowing whether there was, or is, something going on inside that has been covered over.

Mum had issues today with her TV box this afternoon and I know what a lifeline it is for her at the moment so I went back to my working days and sat on the phone providing her with some IT support to get to the bottom of the issue.  She certainly got her fair share of exercise running from the sun room where the TV and Box is located into the lounge to check the router but we sorted it and afterwards Mum wrote down some troubleshooting tips in case it happens again.

I also helped out our neighbours Ollie and Trish who were trying to get their heads around the new requirements if you want to go out.  If you leave your house for an 'essential' trip you have to either send a text message with your request and then await approval and once granted go, with your ID, and taken a 'reasonable' amount of time to complete what you have gone for or fill in a form each time you go out and take that with you.  They had misunderstood the requirements and thought you needed to text and get approval once and then go out with the form for any subsequent trips.  Trish and I stood at a distance in the estate whilst I explained the system and I left her some forms so that she had everything she needed when they do have to go out.

I will have to test the system tomorrow as I have agreed to do a shop for the new people who live opposite Iris and who are in the 'vulnerable' group due to health issues.  Isabel is texting me her shopping list - I have told her to be precise so as to avoid any confusion!!