Chandler's Ford Today

coronavirus

The Christmas Jigsaw Tradition

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One of my childhood family’s traditional Christmas holiday pastimes was to complete a jigsaw puzzle (or two).  Christmas presents generally included at least one puzzle.  This year’s Covid-19 restrictions on travel and socialising made it a good time to resurrect the tradition with my adult family.

There is something incredibly relaxing and therapeutic about tacking a jigsaw puzzle.  You can’t rush a jigsaw; it takes as long as it takes.  They are addictive too – once you’ve started you have to keep going.  One evening, Mrs Chippy and I had to remind ourselves that it was 11.30 pm and we really should be going to bed.  I have been known to stay up into the early hours in order to finish a puzzle. [Read more…] about The Christmas Jigsaw Tradition

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Keeping us Cheerful – the Windmills of my Mind

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On April Fools’ Day 2019, I had the following letter published in the Daily Telegraph:

Sir,

Every lawn in my road has been devastated by crows frantically digging for chafer grubs. The day they started on my lawn I ordered two hundred and fifty children’s windmills and placed them over the entire grassed area of my front garden. That was five months ago and not one crow has ventured into our garden and our grass has flourished. These colourful windmills are a great source of entertainment for families walking up and down the street – one or two have even spread into neighbouring gardens.

Having had success, I decided to harness the potential of each windmill by modifying them to become miniature wind turbines, interconnecting them and linking them to the National Grid. The power that is generated reduces the cost of my electricity bill by approximately 25%.

In these challenging Brexit times when we all have to become more self- sufficient, I offer this simple, yet effective scheme to save your readers money – and to fend off crows.

Sincerely,

We have given away literally hundreds of windmills to little – and not so little – children.
“I ordered two hundred and fifty children’s windmills and placed them over the entire grassed area of my front garden.”

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What to do in Lockdown

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A Happy New Year to all Chandler’s Ford Today readers. Is there anything to be happy about? The only good news is that I have had the first of my vaccination jabs against COVID-19 (the Pfizer-BioN Tech for the techies, I can even tell you the Batch number if you like). The next one is due on Jan 9th. Then, at the end of January, I shall be free, protected, like a modern-day knight in armour. The vaccine is 95% effective. Does that mean that, if I get COVID, it will only be 5% as bad as expected? Or does it mean one in 20 of us might get COVID? More important is, although I am protected, could I spread the virus to others?

More important still is that the AstraZenaca vaccine is now approved and is more robust in that it is easier to store and distribute.

Vaccine Image via Kaboompics
Vaccine Image via Kaboompics

Party Outdoors

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Lockdown Effects on Writing

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I must admit the one thing the lockdown has done which I hadn’t expected has been to reduce my reading! You would expect the opposite, would you not?

I’ve found writing to be no problem at all but it is as if my subconscious is saying “you can do one creative activity, Madam, but you’re not doing two”.

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How to make the daily exercise more interesting

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Taking our COVID-19 permitted daily period of exercise is good for our health, but the restrictions on “keeping it local” can make it  bit monotonous.  So why not add a bit of variety and adventure to your walk by finding a route where you can spell out a word or phrase with the first letter of street names.

In true Blue Peter fashion, here is one I made earlier. [Read more…] about How to make the daily exercise more interesting

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What could the Covid-19 legacies be?

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While queuing outside Tesco, I thought that the tape marking the 2-metre social distancing spaces should be replaced with brass (a bit like the brass studs that mark the boundary of properties in shopping streets). They can then remain as a legacy after the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.

Social Distancing Markers
Social Distancing Markers outside Tesco, Eastleigh. Photo by Chippy Minton

Why?  So that in 20 years’ time when our grandchildren ask what they are there for we can tell them about the great lockdown of 2020.

So, what other legacies might the crisis give us? [Read more…] about What could the Covid-19 legacies be?

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Life under Lockdown

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How are we all doing with social distancing and self-isolation?  It’s something that cats have been doing for years.Social Distancing and cleaning yourself? That's a cat's life

Here are a few tips about what’s changed in daily life.  Apologies if it is reiterating what you know already, but hopefully there are a couple of new pieces of information.  And there’s a quiz (nothing to do with lockdown, COVID-19 or shopping) at the end [Read more…] about Life under Lockdown

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