SwanR

You could add their delivery addresses to your account and do their shopping online for them that way.

As soon as the sun comes out onto the back of our house I keep getting ladybirds 🐞 inside my office. I have a phobia of them and need rescuing every time! 😂

Jay I love that. Thank you for sharing it. I’m going to pass it on.

Great to hear they are using the Cliffs. Been there some many times.

I've never worn high heels in my life ... but similar to this, I wonder how much sales of makeup have dropped since we all switched to home working. And the kinds of clothes we wear will have changed as well. I don't have to dress to go into an office so I can be much more relaxed at home.

I thought this was as good a topic as any to flag another channel that I have come across that I really like. I have been in touch with the people behind it and they are happy for me to give it a mention here. Some of the videos are the Broads, some aren't, so take your pick. I believe that they moved from Yorkshire down to Norfolk 18 months ago so are still getting to know the area, the same as I am. Here's one of their videos and that will lead you to their channel if interested.

Beautiful photos Chris. According to the forecast I have seen this is the coldest part of the day. Temperatures should rise through the day and again through the night with rain to come. I like the snow when it first arrives but not once we get these treacherous pavements with compacted ice.

And my post wasn't aimed at you personally Ian. I know that you have had a very tough time. I understand that it must be such a relief for those in the more vulnerable categories to be getting their vaccinations. I just wanted to remind those people that while you are rightly jubilant, please don't forget about those of us still waiting.

Joke or not, my concern is that those of us a long way down the list may have to live this life of retreat for longer while others start to ignore the rules and go out. I agree with the priorities that have been set with good reason. But those of you who have had your first jab, please don’t forget that there’s a lot of us still feeling completely at risk as we have no protection at all yet.

Morrison’s are my saviours and have been for a long while. They seemed to manage to get their delivery slots ramped up well ahead of other supermarkets back in Essex. And I’m finding them much better for availability than other supermarkets here as well. The food has been good and very few substitutions or items missing.

Paul I think you're probably sadly right about some of the supermarkets. I was ok with the restrictions last year, especially when the one way signs were in place in the stores and they were counting people in and out. But once I could get shopping delivery slots we switched to mostly having everything delivered, and have continued to do so. However this week one of the larger names let us down massively. Early Wednesday morning I got an email that my delivery for that day was cancelled and not to worry as they wouldn't have taken any money from my account. Excuse me? Cancelled? How? Why? All I could do was wait until 8am to get on the phone to customer services. Sure enough that fulfillment store had apparently cancelled all their orders because of the weather. Hmmm ... maybe the roads were bad across the other side of Norwich, I don't know. Maybe the side roads and people's paths were icy. And yes, ok, safety of employees etc. ... I'm sure they must have had good reason. But what a time to let us down. And with absolutely no explanation on their email. That was almost the worst part of all. Appalling customer service. I had almost run out of everything. It was a large stocking up order worth over £100. No chance of booking anything else until Sunday. And for that I have switched back to another large name but one that has not let me down and has been extremely good. There was no choice but for my husband to take his chances on the icy paths and walk down to Roy's for a few essentials. Or he could have driven to Tesco's. But the other point is that we have been avoiding going into any shops since well before Christmas. This did therefore lead to some anxiety and a certain amount of upset and incredulity when we realised that the order really wasn't going to come. Must have been a lot of other people left in the same situation, left to take their own chances against the ice and snow and Covid!

What beautiful photos. We’ve moored there a number of times for a coffee stop but only once for overnight as far as I can recall. There was an event going on in the grounds of the big house I think. They had an auction we could hear from the boat.

Could be that it’s the same staff driving the gritters overnight as drive the bin lorries?

That’s not a garden that’s a country estate!

I am fortunate having our own static caravan that we can get to once restrictions lift enough to allow overnight stays, whenever that might be. If our planned few days afloat has to be cancelled then we aren't going to book anything else. Once we can move around we have family that will be our priority to visit in other parts of the country. We can turn those into short breaks away. And then hope to get a couple of dayboats at some point during the year.

It’s days like this that I am thankful for working from home. It has snowed a bit overnight but it’s blowing around and looks really cold. No decision to be made as to whether to take the car out, wait for the bus or walk, as would have been the case in the past.

Good to hear that your daughters have been taken care of as frontline NHS workers. In my view they should have been front of the queue given what they face every day and have done for a year now. We all owe so much to those who have battled against the onslaught of Covid. It doesn't matter whether we have been affected personally or not, we should still recognise all those who have literally put their own lives on the line. They have my full respect.

Have you had both jabs already Peter?

Thanks Paul. I guess I didn’t think about anyone having a life planned ... says the person with a boat booked and paid for in early March. It’s not cancelled until I get that call from Richardson’s to give me back my money!

That doesn't sound like a 12 week wait for the second appointment? Or maybe my Maths isn't good. I still wonder whether the first vaccinations are going to have to come to a bit of a standstill while the follow-up appointments happen.

Must be a look of Triumph on your face .....

Did anyone else go out and clap for Tom at 6pm this evening? We did but there was no-one else out in our street. Might have been one or two out in adjacent roads, I thought I could hear something in the distance. But it was a shame not to see more people out ... although it was a bit chilly and very dark. What an inspiration he was. Never to be forgotten I would think.

We have had deliveries from the Chinese in Horning for a small charge. Really good food, very friendly service ... you just have to make sure that you've got cash to pay them. They are still there and open more days than a lot of other places doing food at the moment. I think what you can get in terms of takeaways may depend how open the pubs and restaurants are come May. Places like the King's Arms in Ludham, the White Horse in Neatishead and the Hotel Wroxham are all doing takeaway some days of the week at the moment. I've not used them as we're staying local and I would need to drive to get there ... which isn't really essential travel right now when I've got plenty of food in my fridge!

Pink jobs and blue jobs. Or in our case quite a bit of role reversal. I work full time and hubby is retired. That means he mostly does the housework although I mostly still cook the dinner. He does the ironing midweek and I do it at the weekend. But here’s the best bit ... he knows how the vacuum cleaner works and I don’t!! Being ex-forces he’s always been the one who likes things kept tidy.

The business I work for has just been sold so I start under a new employer today. But I’ve seen the same messaging around having to take a certain amount of leave before a certain date. I’m undecided about what I will do but I’ll probably take my week off in March regardless. Hope the sewing goes well. Shame the stained glass making had to stop, I always enjoyed seeing what you and Graham had done.