Pooh and Cheeese!
For those who didn't know, yesterday, 18th January, was National Winnie-The-Pooh day. A time to celebrate the Bear of Very Little Brain, his loyal if somewhat fearful friend Piglet and all the other wonderful creations of A. A. Milne. If you haven't already got the books*, Dear Reader, go get 'em. They've been in print since the mid 1920s so there are bound to be copies available, in varying degrees of (de)compostition, to suit your pocket.
For those suffering Lockdown, Covid-related Restrictions, or just general News Overload**, they make a perfect antidote. What's more, they are a celebration of Friendship, Pulling Together, Helping Each Other, Bravery, Ingenuity, Acceptance, Diversity***, and various other things we should be doing/encouraging right now.
Did we celebrate? Did H and I have a small party? Did we eat bread and honey? Did we eat our peas with honey? Did we just eat hunny? No.
Actually we forgot. We're of that age now that our short-term memories are getting Very Unreliable.
What we did do was to go for a walk - as part of our (anti-)Stoutness Exercises.
BiL also went for a walk up to a place with a rather pretty bridge over a small river and (yes) played Pooh Sticks - with himself as, although he's had his first vaccination last week (Yay!), he's still self-isolating. We are told it takes up to three weeks from getting the first jab before you are actually immune - during which time you can still catch Covid, and, whether or not you know you have it, spread it to others. Who might die, even if you don't.
Where should we walk, being Responsible people and not wanting to either spread or catch new SuperInfectious Covid? And could we combine our walk with a spot of shopping, as we'd run out of cheese? Current Restrictions suggest we should limit our outings to one per day, after all.
We'd heard good things about Lidl's cheese counter. The range, the selection, the excellence of some of the cheeses. So we decided that our (anti-)Stoutness Exercises would comprise a walk to, round and back from the local branch. Which we did.
I started shopping at the local branch of Lidl around the time D was born, thirty plus years ago. At that time our local Co-op was being redeveloped, which effectively meant 'downgraded'. Before then they'd had a food hall on one side of the road with a big department store opposite, which was very useful for someone with a Small Person needing exercise on days when the weather just wasn't suitable for a trip to the local playground.
S (then two, three, rising four) and I would take a trip around the toy and other departments, before repairing to the cafe for refreshments. Having had D, I had a small (largely sleepless) baby and a four-year-old, with winter drawing on. Maybe the absence of the Co-op contributed to my post-natal Depression?
Anyhew, off we went to buy some cheeese. Lidl has improved markedly since we were last round there. They've extended the building, put in bigger chiller and freezer cabinets and adjusted the shelving so that it now looks a lot less like a warehouse (H's description.)
It turns out that even going the shorter route - up over the railway footbridge and round, was rather longer than my sadly unexercised legs were prepared to go in one. Fortunately a nearby garage has a low wall, ideal for the older woman with uncooperative knees to sit on and recuperate! It's not an ideal situation, being on the side of one of the busier roads in the city, but my knees were Very Insistent. I really must take up swimming again, meanwhile, until Restrictions are lifted, maybe I'd just better concentrate on doing a 'Couch to 5K', walking. Crumbs, given 5K I could get down to the Front and back, which might carry less risk of infection than going via the buses I usually catch!
In the end we got some French Brie, Vintage Gouda, 'Salad Cheese' (like Feta, but unauthentic so they can't call it that), and two slabs of half-fat Cheddar (score!); because with all that cheese, and Restrictions, you've got to try to keep the weight off somehow. Besides which, half-fat Cheddar isn't bad. These days I think I prefer it to the full-fat variety. But yes, Lidl's cheese counter is pretty good, for all they come pre-cut and plastic-wrapped.
We also managed to acquire several other foodstuffs, so it was just as well that they had, as one of their Blink-And-You'll-Miss-It Special Offers, a Black & Decker sack trolley. This came in extremely useful for bringing all that cheese (plus) home again. It will also come in extremely useful for when we finally get to move. I was wondering quite how we might move the Very Large Pots which contain most of our Garden. Now we will be able to shift them without a) giving anyone a hernia, or b) discovering that the (plastic) pots have become Fragile with time, to Very Messy effect. (Score again!)
We celebrate these small things, because Bigger Things are in pretty short supply at present. Even our anti-Covid jabs aren't likely to be done before March at the Very Earliest. H qualifies before me, because Underlying Conditions, so we might be immune by, oooh, our Ruby Wedding Anniversary.
Y'all have a good day now!
*Yes, Winnie The Pooh first appeared in book form. Followed by The House At Pooh Corner, When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six (not necessarily in that order.) The films came much later. Pooh, Piglet and friends really speak with the impeccable, possibly 'cut glass', English accents prevalent in the class that employed Nannies for their children back in the 1920s.
Other recommended Reading - Christopher Milne's autobiography. Forget the title, but he did indeed grow up.
Recommended viewing - "Goodbye, Christopher Robin" which is kinda the back-story to the books, and a bit about the Milne family (plus toys.)
**Or severe apprehension about what might happen tomorrow in DC, and in ensuing weeks.
***There's a bear, a pig, a tiger, a donkey, a rabbit, an owl, and two kangaroos who all Get Along Together. Sounds pretty Diverse to me.
For those suffering Lockdown, Covid-related Restrictions, or just general News Overload**, they make a perfect antidote. What's more, they are a celebration of Friendship, Pulling Together, Helping Each Other, Bravery, Ingenuity, Acceptance, Diversity***, and various other things we should be doing/encouraging right now.
Did we celebrate? Did H and I have a small party? Did we eat bread and honey? Did we eat our peas with honey? Did we just eat hunny? No.
Actually we forgot. We're of that age now that our short-term memories are getting Very Unreliable.
What we did do was to go for a walk - as part of our (anti-)Stoutness Exercises.
BiL also went for a walk up to a place with a rather pretty bridge over a small river and (yes) played Pooh Sticks - with himself as, although he's had his first vaccination last week (Yay!), he's still self-isolating. We are told it takes up to three weeks from getting the first jab before you are actually immune - during which time you can still catch Covid, and, whether or not you know you have it, spread it to others. Who might die, even if you don't.
Where should we walk, being Responsible people and not wanting to either spread or catch new SuperInfectious Covid? And could we combine our walk with a spot of shopping, as we'd run out of cheese? Current Restrictions suggest we should limit our outings to one per day, after all.
We'd heard good things about Lidl's cheese counter. The range, the selection, the excellence of some of the cheeses. So we decided that our (anti-)Stoutness Exercises would comprise a walk to, round and back from the local branch. Which we did.
I started shopping at the local branch of Lidl around the time D was born, thirty plus years ago. At that time our local Co-op was being redeveloped, which effectively meant 'downgraded'. Before then they'd had a food hall on one side of the road with a big department store opposite, which was very useful for someone with a Small Person needing exercise on days when the weather just wasn't suitable for a trip to the local playground.
S (then two, three, rising four) and I would take a trip around the toy and other departments, before repairing to the cafe for refreshments. Having had D, I had a small (largely sleepless) baby and a four-year-old, with winter drawing on. Maybe the absence of the Co-op contributed to my post-natal Depression?
Anyhew, off we went to buy some cheeese. Lidl has improved markedly since we were last round there. They've extended the building, put in bigger chiller and freezer cabinets and adjusted the shelving so that it now looks a lot less like a warehouse (H's description.)
It turns out that even going the shorter route - up over the railway footbridge and round, was rather longer than my sadly unexercised legs were prepared to go in one. Fortunately a nearby garage has a low wall, ideal for the older woman with uncooperative knees to sit on and recuperate! It's not an ideal situation, being on the side of one of the busier roads in the city, but my knees were Very Insistent. I really must take up swimming again, meanwhile, until Restrictions are lifted, maybe I'd just better concentrate on doing a 'Couch to 5K', walking. Crumbs, given 5K I could get down to the Front and back, which might carry less risk of infection than going via the buses I usually catch!
In the end we got some French Brie, Vintage Gouda, 'Salad Cheese' (like Feta, but unauthentic so they can't call it that), and two slabs of half-fat Cheddar (score!); because with all that cheese, and Restrictions, you've got to try to keep the weight off somehow. Besides which, half-fat Cheddar isn't bad. These days I think I prefer it to the full-fat variety. But yes, Lidl's cheese counter is pretty good, for all they come pre-cut and plastic-wrapped.
We also managed to acquire several other foodstuffs, so it was just as well that they had, as one of their Blink-And-You'll-Miss-It Special Offers, a Black & Decker sack trolley. This came in extremely useful for bringing all that cheese (plus) home again. It will also come in extremely useful for when we finally get to move. I was wondering quite how we might move the Very Large Pots which contain most of our Garden. Now we will be able to shift them without a) giving anyone a hernia, or b) discovering that the (plastic) pots have become Fragile with time, to Very Messy effect. (Score again!)
We celebrate these small things, because Bigger Things are in pretty short supply at present. Even our anti-Covid jabs aren't likely to be done before March at the Very Earliest. H qualifies before me, because Underlying Conditions, so we might be immune by, oooh, our Ruby Wedding Anniversary.
Y'all have a good day now!
*Yes, Winnie The Pooh first appeared in book form. Followed by The House At Pooh Corner, When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six (not necessarily in that order.) The films came much later. Pooh, Piglet and friends really speak with the impeccable, possibly 'cut glass', English accents prevalent in the class that employed Nannies for their children back in the 1920s.
Other recommended Reading - Christopher Milne's autobiography. Forget the title, but he did indeed grow up.
Recommended viewing - "Goodbye, Christopher Robin" which is kinda the back-story to the books, and a bit about the Milne family (plus toys.)
**Or severe apprehension about what might happen tomorrow in DC, and in ensuing weeks.
***There's a bear, a pig, a tiger, a donkey, a rabbit, an owl, and two kangaroos who all Get Along Together. Sounds pretty Diverse to me.