Soop's kitchen for kind and caring folk

Good afternoon everyone. So lovely to hear all the funny stories, we need to smile in these uncertain times.
My eldest daughter and family are self isolating. 11 year old granddaughter has been unwell with a throat infection and a cough. She also suffers with asthma. The 8 year old is distraught as she will miss her football and friends. My daughter is trying to think of things to do with an 11, 8 and 4 year old for the next 14 days.
My daughters and I have set up a WhatsApp group to give each other moral support.
My best wishes to you all. Keep safe and keep on carrying on xx

dragonfly Your new hair will be even more luxuriant after the passage of time. I'm expecting to hear that my appointment with the cancer clinic in Balloch may be postponed. MacSporran's leukaemia may also mean that he'll need to wait in the car park should the appointment go ahead. It's all change. We have no choice but to go with the flow.

Out in the car dropping off some supplies to a few relatives who either live on their own or have health issues.
I'm taking care not to be too close to people as we go about our business.
I put mums card in the post while I can.
mbmb ... good idea, test out a new hair do without frightening the horses!! I'm going to do that, perhaps in a week or two!

Virtual hugs to everyone, I'll pop back if I have something amusing to say,
I'm well aware of feeling a bit wobbly and dont want to infect anyone here!!

mbmb I love going braless after six o'clock. As I've had one breast removed (cancer) I look very lop-sided. However, it is blissful to be free from the prosthesis which is marvellous under clothing but can feel a tad itchy after a few hours.

Thank you GG and Urmston for the laugh.
I am not sure how I would cope with DH in a confined space.

Had a call from DS this morning to say his contract will not be renewed at the end of the month but at least he has saved enough to live on for a few months.

On the upside I have no need of a hair cut as I have no hair so hoping my will grow over the next few months and then I can go out with a full head!!!

Welcome to all the newbies here - it is good to see you in the kitchen as this is a real safe haven.
I love your birthday card Maw - something to be treasured.

TOYA

Nannytopsy and Susan Please keep us updated regarding your family. Eldest son's 21 year old son has symptoms and is self isolating. His Mum has chronic asthma and has been stowed away in the upper part of the home that they share. Dad has elected to work from home. They live in Leicester.

Youngest son's partner has been self-isolating for nigh on two weeks. They live in London.

Grandmafrench Virtual hugs. x

Granygravy urmstongran ....I'm in the same boat!

Hair dye, of course.

GG and Urmstongran - thanks for the funny stories!
I have sorted out my Isolation Wardrobe this morning, largely consisting of old joggers, beat up t shirts and worn out hoodies, all things which are very comfortable and won't need ironing. And the most important thing of all - no bra!

I am really glad I had my hair cut a couple of weeks ago and I thought when it gets to the really awful stage I might order some strikingly coloured hair day from Amazon. Purple or orange hair might cheer me up and at least there'll be no one but me to see it.

Maw Your birthday card is perfect. I have a treasure box containing such precious items. The contents mean more to me than all my worldy possessions.

Dec46 Cassie is a canny feline.

Sparklefizz What is the name of your "bonkers" cat? How I wish that our beloved Rory still had episodes of bonkerness. One minute he was his usual cool, calm and collected "elderly self"...and then, occasionally, he took it into his head to race around the house like a carefree kitten.

ann Your final sentence makes perfect sense.

Good afternoon, dear you lovely lot. Thank goodness that the virus cannot enter our kitchen. For as long as we remain healthy, we can continue to support and befriend each other.

GrannyGravy and Urmstongran Please keep us chuckling. Over the next few weeks/months you could, between you, write a book on life behind closed doors.

N&G There is much to be grateful for. The kindness of neighbours and strangers deserve our gratitude.

Greyduster Tyke!

Welcome halfgran and Jacq10. I am running late and have much catching up to do. This lot are super-charged. Lovely with it!

Nannyt and Susan sending you warm wishes for your family's speedy recovery , take care of yourselves too
Welcome Jacq, there are lovely people here, pull up a chair and have some ? and a
Maw what a wonderful card from your DGC .
Charleygirl, no problem, I know your ❤️ is in the right place. I completely understand where you were coming from, how could you or anyone here possibly know my back history. Thank you for your genuine concerns .
Great posts GrannyGravy and Urmstongran especially under the circumstances.
I'll pop back in later for a , hopefully.
TOYA for now

I have just cancelled the dentist and my mobile hairdresser.
I have had her coming to the house for probably 15 years.
She couldn't understand why I didn't want her coming.
I am very old and probably vulnerable, she could have been to 3/4/5 other clients before me, she didn't seem to get it.
I may be looking for a new hairdresser when / if this is all over.
TOYA today in our new and changed life.

Love your posts GG13 and Urm.
Good to be able to have a laugh. I live alone and only have a bonkers cat for company.
Keep the stories coming !!

Good morning to all and a special hug to all who are in lock down ,feeling poorly or have family members who are ill.

My lovely young hairdresser came this morning and I asked for a shorter cut than usual. I thought it will be easier to manage and not many people will be seeing me anyway so a good time to experiment. I actually like it. Hairdresser also told me to phone her if I need any help as she lives near me.

Bit of light relief is that I found out last night that Cassie,my cat, is a music critic. I decided to give her a rendition of ,I can sing a Rainbow,when we were in bed together.At the second verse she grabbed my hand and gave me a "play bite" to show her displeasure and to shut me up at the same time.Wondering what I should sing to her today?
Love to all from me to you xxx

Love it GG13!
I’m in a small apartment with Himself. It’s like living with Frank Spencer.
This morning he’s bumped his head on a cupboard, dropped a small bag of potatoes which rolled across the tiled floor and broken a fitting on the sliding patio door. He said it was wonky anyway. ‘It came off in me ‘and mum’.
Like you it makes me giggle!
?

Life is certainly going to be different for us all for the foreseeable future.

I do hope this will make you laugh.......so far this morning up till 9.15am GrandpaGravy has managed to break the toilet in our en-suite, pull the handle off of the bottom drawer of our freezer and when I pointed out to him that it was a "handle" and not a device to lever himself up on he then said "that's ridiculous I do not use it to get up from kneeling" whilst using the handle on the drawer above to get up from kneeling!!

I love him dearly but flipping heck 12 weeks self isolation and he will have single handedly destroyed our home

Morning all!

Well day 1 here . Yesterday there were lots of tears all round as we cancelled a long awaited visit from the little boys, cancelled Easter, Coopers birthday party and our holiday . Then Slimming World got cancelled and Knit and Natter. In fact life as we know it is cancelled here .

Having said that , we are off to the forest for some fresh air today . We won’t meet a soul so it will be safe .

I do feel a bit like I’m in prison but the food is better ( or so I understand) . I had a last ditch doughnut with my coffee last night , by the end of this there will be a few things I’ll be desperate for lol

But I’m grateful too. Grateful for the kindness of strangers in our village , grateful to our postman who will be collecting post as well as delivering . Grateful to my family for caring enough to tolerate a forced separation and grateful to all in the kitchen for their company .

This too shall pass xx

Morning Everyone. I went to Sainsbury's at 6.45 am this morning There was a crowd outside waiting for the doors to open, and an employee shouting "No toilet rolls, and some goods restricted to 2 items!"

Tanith I wore my blue gloves and also a mask and glasses.... well, I needed the glasses anyway.

Lots of empty shelves but as I have a number of food intolerances and allergies, not many people eat the sort of food I needed, so all was ok, apart from cat litter for Phoebe. After her rebellion at a substitute in the past, I have come home without any.

Carefully disposed of the gloves and mask in the litterbin in the car park, drove home and then disinfected everything as I came in the house, then washed my hands. I am using Zoflora disinfectant which is nice and flowery .... the house smells great.

From now on I shall be carrying gloves and mask in my bag as well as handgel.

Good luck with shopping everyone, and keep safe and happy. xx

Hello the kitchen! I am sitting in bed reading my “200 ways to make a tin of corned beef last three months”! It recommends licking the outside like a lolly for the first few days........ It doesn’t bode well?!

Maw that card gave me the first smile of the day. Bless them!

I am tossing up whether to get my hair cut this week. Last chance saloon! I know it will make me feel better going forward, but I know my beady eyed children will frown on me going to the salon. DH has offered to cut it for me, but looking at the results of his recent assault on the lawn, I have politely declined!!

I have had latex gloves in my bag for a couple of weeks now, and have worn them a few times when out shopping. The only person who gave me a strange look was the assistant at Marks and Spencer. Perhaps they don’t expect to have germs at Marks and Sparks! I have also told DH that he is to wear a pair when he goes to the bank this morning, then I will sterilise his cash when he comes home, the same as I did with the notes he gave to GS at the weekend for good exam results! Paranoid? Moi? Strange times call for sensible measures. He’s not keen but says he’ll do it. That’s the only good thing I can say about these new banknotes though; I hate them otherwise. They curl in all the wrong places and I have a strong urge to run the iron over them! This is not generally accepted to be a good idea, as it ruins the soleplate.

I need to do a stocktake of our provisioning this morning. I know we have a lot of strange looking pasta. Does anyone else see strange looking pasta, think it would be nice to try it and then never look at it again? No, I didn’t think so!
I will try and look in later. Hang in there, folks!

Maw that note is just adorable. Do you think Hattie could teach Tara how to sleep beyond 6 am each day, please?

Carillion if your H has physio, please make sure the physio washes his hands before he lays his healing hands on Mr. C? It would be a bonus if he washed them afterwards also!

Can I put the cat among the pigeons? If you do wear gloves when using trolleys- please do not touch your face.

Please look after yourselves.

Thanks for that info good idea to carry them if you do need to shop.

Just looked at DH box of blue gloves and has a shelf life of exactly 5 years, more to do with the durability and resistance to substances and puncture from info on box but should be fine for general protection. Might slip a couple of pair in my handbag now .

NannyT and Susan wishing your family's a speedy recovery.

Will catch up later

TOYA

ann I hope you managed to get some sleep last night. Xx

Charleygirl, thanks so much for your support regarding DH progress, very much appreciated.

Nannyt and Susan...sending love X X

Welcome Jacq10!!

Lockdown starts here in about three hours, very quiet already. We'll be allowed out for essential supplies. We're fine at the moment as I did our usual shop a few days ago.

My only concern is whether or not DH should continue with his three appointments per week with the physio. If we are told to stay at home for 15 days that's what we should do. Will phone the physio later today so that we do the right thing.

Strange times but sending special thoughts and moral to support to all dear kitcheners who live alone. XXXX

soop, what a great contact and offer from the Campbelltown Co-op, how thoughtful and kind.

Until next time everyone. TOYA xxxxx