Canny lass

You're never too old to learn, they say. That's the first time I've heard of sewer gas lamps! What a brilliant idea!

Here's a corona challenge for you Eggy: Tuesday night is 'Stand - Up Comedy Night*. One joke every Tuesday night for the duration of the lockdown. Get crackin! We could all do with a good laugh. Good idea!

Well done lads1 I'll have to make these a bit harder! 1. Who was the mother of Queen Elizabeth 1? 2. Which guitarist is nicknamed ‘Slow hand’? 3. In general terms, what kind of food is bisque? 4. Which English cathedral is also a college chapel? 5. How many noughts are there in 9 billion? 6. Who directed the 1989 film The War of the Roses? 7. Who did Maddy Prior sing with? 8. What is James Bond’s favourite tipple? 9. Which Prime Minister made Queen Victoria Empress of India? 10. Which football club chairman once called his fans ‘scum’ and offered to forfeit a match? 11. How many legs does a queen bee have? 12. In the 1962 TV series ’The Saint’, what was the registration number of the Saint’s car, a 1962 Volvo P1800? (Bonus point if you know the original registration number when newly purchased). I’ll bet you didn’t know … The liver of the polar bear is so rich in vitamin A that it’s poisonous to humans!

Pleased to see you're putting the lockdown to good use, Andy! the site is fine by me. The only thing missing is meals on wheels. You couldn't arrange that could you?

Answers to last Friday's quiz: 1. Wimbledon 2. Egypt 3. The USA and Canada 4. Somerset 5. 66 feet 6. Sarah Brightman 7. A, B, AB, O 8. Bald Eagle 9. Australia 10. 1901 11. Percy Sugden 12. Galileo Galilei New quiz tomorrow.

Take a few minutes to think of something other than the corona virus. Challenge a friend or relative - from a safe distance of course. Answers next Thursday. 1. On which Common would you find the Wombles? 2. Cleopatra was the queen of which country? 3. The Niagara Falls are situated on the border between which two countries? 4. In which English county can you find the Mendip Hills? 5. How long is a Gunter’s chain? 6. With whom did Cliff Richard have a UK top ten hit called All I Ask of You in 1986? 7. What are the four blood groups called? 8. What is the National bird of the USA? 9. Where are budgerigars found in their natural habitat? 10. When were Nobel Prizes first awarded? 11. Which character, played by Bill Waddington, left Coronation Street in 1997? 12. Who was sent to prison for claiming that the sun, and not the earth, was the centre of the universe? I’ll bet you didn’t know … Every continent in the world has a city called Rome!

Andy Millne, pleased to see that you've checked in!

Good to hear from you Pete. Don,t worry about the long hair. The in-look this year is pony tails! How's the situation in your area?

Good work! I was just about to get a pigeon away!

Answers to last Friday's quiz: 1. Rawhide 2. A bird 3. British Thermal Unit 4. Mark Phillips 5. Chartwell 6. David 7. Polio 8. Jules verne 9. John Curry 10. Disraeli 11. Empire Day 12. Geometry New quiz tomorrow.

Has anybody heard from Eggy? He's usually a very frequent and welcome contrubutor but hasn't been around for quite a while. Last visit he mentioned having difficulties getting out of bed. I've tried e-mailing but there's no reply. Same thing with Pete. Please let us know that you are safe and well.

Have you looked in the Gallery, Steve? Try 'Historic Bedlington: Bedlington and Netherton Old Photos. There's a few photos of Humford and one in particular on side 2 of the album that could be from the sixties (of clothing to judge).

Good to hear from you HPW and know that you are well! Sorry to hear about your 'young lady' though. I can really understand how difficult it has been for you tha past weeks. But, now we have to look forward to better times and hope that they are not too far away. Sounds like you've got plenty of interests to help you while away the hours in isolation. Maybe we could all make an effort to 'check in' to the site once a week?

Sweden, as of yesterday's report, has 9685 confirmed cases and 870 deaths. County numbers ( 1.7 million inhabitants and including the second largest city) are 902 confirmed cases (365 this week) and 49 deaths.. The nearest cases are 45 km away. Many people here were more than well prepared for isolation thanks largely to a government leaflet telling us how to survive in the event of war or crisis. This was updated for the first time since WW2 and sent out to all households some time ago. The ensuing rampage in the supermarkets to stock up with non-perishable goods means that most can manage a month in isolation now. It hasn’t, however, stopped people stockpiling once again because of this pandemic so many should manage two months without a problem. For the Scandinavian nations being alone is no great problem as long as they can be alone outdoors! Many, like us, live relatively isolated in the forests or by a lakeside and most town dwellers own or rent a summer house. These are very small places, just a few square metres, with room for sleeping or shelter from the rain and with facilities for simple cooking. In a summer house you should get near to nature so just about everything is done outdoors. Many town dwellers have now moved to these already because of the virus. Being surrounded by forest also means being surrounded by 'food' - wild boar, deer, elk, mushrooms and berries. Many people also stock up on these and own several freezers - we have four large freezers full of food. Believe me, an elk takes up a lot of space in a freezer even after it’s been butchered! We've always made our own bread so I've always got flour, and yeast cultures at home so no problem there either. Really the only things I shop weekly for are fruit, veg and dairy products. We stocked up with fresh milk in the freezer, butter and margarine which I now have in a reserve fridge in the garage, potatoes, root vegetables and hard white cabbage all of which keep for ages. We haven’t met a soul for 25 days now, but like Ex, Bedlingtonian we’ve good garden space and empty forest trails for exercise (not to mention all the gardening and housework that’s getting done). Water temperature in the lakes is around 8 degrees now and at 13 degrees we can start swimming. As I said to Maggie recently, If my parents could survive a five year war in Bedlington and Netherton with 10 children and no mod cons then this should be a doddle for us - two people living in the comparative luxury of today. We read a lot about Sweden’s strategy for dealing with this virus. It’s certainly different to any other method we’ve read about and opinions are divided here, not least among the political parties. Like most places, the health service here is undermanned and under-budgeted to deal with this crisis. The idea here is to avoid any sudden, very high peak in the number of cases which would be beyond the present capacity of the health service to deal with. Instead they are aiming for a lower peak, but one which will last considerably longer, for which there is health service capacity available. The Swedes have a few things in their favour. Firstly, as I mentioned above, isolation is not a big problem for many. Secondly, also one which aids isolation, more than half of Sweden's residents live in one-person households because at 18yo you are entitled to separate living from your parents if you so wish (and most do), so a lot of council housing is single person accommodation. The third thing in our favour is that working from home is nothing new for many people. It's been common practice here as long as I've been here. It's the same with working hours. Flexi-time is the most common of all so journeys to and from work usually don't have rush hours on the same scale as England. Schools are still open for compulsory education (up to 16 years). The idea being that adults will still be able to work and keep the country going. However, many work places have been forced to close, particularly in the industrial sector, because they cannot get raw materials from other parts of the world. So far many of the newly unemployed have been found work in other fields that have now become more important. For example, most air hostesses for Swedish companies are undergoing additional health care training so that they can assist in care institutions and many factory workers are being dispatched to help in postal companies such as pharmaceutical companies which are under pressure just now. In principle, the whole thing sounds logical but only time will tell. The Swedes are a nation of people who rely on their government to do the right thing in an emergency. 'Recommendations' rather than 'rules' have always been the norm here and that seems to work so there is no 'official' lockdown but in effect that is what we have. It's just that it's voluntary and the Swedes appear to think that the present government is doing a good job as the prime minister's ratings have soared the past few weeks.

Wow! That's very close. Take care!

Now that we're stuck at home and taxing our bodies to their limits with extra cleaning, DIY projects, snow shovelling and bin polishing, I thought the old grey cells might need a bit of a workout as well. So Friday night is quiz night! Not all questions are my own. Many are taken from various books but the rules are simple: Participate Googling permitted The judges decision is final I am the judge No bribing the judge ... well, I might be able to turn a blind eye to that last one Answers on Thursday the following week Ready, steady GO! 1. In which 1950’s and 60’s TV western drama series did Clint Eastwood play a scout? 2. What sort of creature is a kite? 3. Which unit of energy is represented by the initials btu? 4. What was Princess Anne’s first husband called? 5. What was Winston Churchill’s home in Kent called? 6. Which saint’s day is celebrated 1 March? 7. Against which disease was the Salk vaccine developed? 8. Who wrote Journey to the Centre of the Earth? 9. Which British skater won Olympic, European and World titles in 1976? 10. Which British prime minister wrote Vivian Grey? 11. What was Commonwealth Day called before 1958? 12. In which field of science would you encounter the Pons Asinorum? I’ll bet you didn’t know … When Massai tribesmen meet they spit at each other, it’s considered polite!

Good to know you're OK!

Forgot to mention: I will Survive is the first song on the programme. Great choice, given the situation we're in just now.

Thanks for that Symptoms. I've wondered what might be the difference between a Public House and a Beer House. That could well be it but most of those I mentioned above were public houses where the landlords occupation was given as innkeeper plus one other occupation. Maybe the beer houses were taking away their trade.

It would be nice to hear from a few others how you're all getting along in these strange times. Italy, I understand is very hard hit. How's things with you 3g and Ex Bedlingtonian? Bryan, how are you coping way down under? And Eggy are you able to get out of bed yet? HPW, aa hevn't hord nowt from ye for ages. Hoo ye deein? Generally speaking how is the Bedlington/Northumberland area for cases of COVID-19? We are informed of the numbers country by country but a bit more local info would be appreciated. Also, sorry to hear your visits to Dot have been put on hold, Vic but it's for the best. Better to be apart for a short while rather than forever.

Online Ceilidh sounds interesting! Wednesday evening is online choir night here, rock & pop - there are many strings to my fiddle! It's a bit surrealistic with a 7000 strong choir all singing at home alone. It's a full choir practice with a physical warm upp to get the adrenalin going then breathing and abdominal exercises followed by singing and rehearsing for the show we will have in the capital city sometime later in the year - virus permitting, of course. It'll be a bit different from the twice a year concert in the school hall or the occasional flash mob in the shopping centre.with a choir of forty but necessity is the mother of invention so they say. Otherwise, I'm still keeping out of mischief. Polished the wheely bin today and polishing off a bottle of wine as I write (comiserating celebrating 31 years of marriage).

For those who may still be confused, this may - or may not - help. personally, I think it's more relevant to social isolation than social distancing:

Home quarantine, days 6-10: Keeping the home-fires burning in 2022. There are two more behind me. #Winning at social isolation!

That's it! But, as I remember it, it wasn't a powder, more a block of - something rather like a soap. You wet the toothbrush and worked up a sort of 'lather' on the block and then brushed your teeth with it. Tasted vile!

Hell's bells Malcolm .... I didn't think you were that old!