Weekend Chatterbox

A Boost, a Boost, a Biscuit Boost!

I feel decidedly second hand this morning. Unreasonably hungover.

Unseasonably hungover possibly, but not unreasonably. The older you get, the harder and longer the recovery... It could be worse, you could be Joe Root, who's had a cricket ball crushing his box into his bollocks TWICE this morning.*


*And lost his wicket on the last ball of the day. When he struggled 'manfully' to his feet with three overs to go I was shouting at the radio "Get off the pitch, an ice pack on it and send a night watchman in, you silly bastard!"...  In a pissing contest with damaged tackle vs the Aussie quickies, odds on he'd get out like that.

Morning.

The Lad has been given an electric scooter for Xmas, he's as happy as Larry. A vision in his blue polyester tracksuit as he rides unsteadily down the pavement looking like a complete twat.

Classic scubar

I have done 6h of chores, so far today...  some of them I've been able to watch some TV... enjoying The Good Doctor - developed by David Shore (House M.D.). Up to S2, E1 of NCIS - dated but still good, and S6, E2 The Expanse. 

They all have dysfunctional characters in them and my tears were jerked quite a bit, making said chores difficult to see at times. Probably because I am dysfunctional and at heart a soft hearted berk*.  Thank the Prime force (not Jeff, but the Big Bang) for games, which keep me from complete insanity.

*and headed at times ...

I'd love a go on one of those Scooters.
I could probably reduce my commute by at least 20 mins, more like 30 mins. Not having to walk or get a bus to the
train station.

What's that? I could half my commute by learning to drive and getting a car? Fuck that noise.

Tell that to your GP.

Unfortunately I'm still on the ground of Plague Island.

For various reasons I cannot bring the flight forward. One is that I learnt on Friday that my prescription request had been ballsed up and that I won't be able to collect medication that I need for a month in Germany until tomorrow afternoon.

Last night my brother phoned me to tell me about the bad news. Apparently the health secretaries of the federal states are the ones who were insisting on the UK's new classification as a virus variant area.

I have spent several days reading German small print. My original plan was to stay in a nice hotel in Hamburg, drinking Glühwein and eating Franzbrötchen on Christmas markets and spending time with my brother and his PM. My brother and I were then planning to make the 3 hour train journey to my mum's secret volcano island lair together on Christmas Eve.

We were both planning to test ourselves regularly in advance because my mum is 83 years old and still completely unvaccinated. She's not against it or anything, it's just that her GP is a useless cnut.

As a German citizen I should still be able to travel under the new regulations but I will have to go into quarantine for 14 days regardless of vaccination status. Luckily it turns out that the German authorities are a bit more lenient than the British ones and won't force me into an overpriced quarantine hotel at Munich airport. My understanding is that the rules are

Go straight to jailyour mum's. Do not pass GOyour brother's place. Do not collect $200Franzbrötchen.

This obviously less safe for my unvaccinated mother than the original plan, quite apart from the fact that they are forcing me, a potential health hazard, to traverse the whole length of Germany in one day. All I can do is wear my trusty FFP2 mask, keep my distance, and bring enough home test kits for the first days until I feel safe that I haven't picked up an infection on the way. My mum is completely housebound and I won't be able to do any shopping for her until after January 3rd when the quarantine comes to an end. At the same time she will have one more mouth (mine) to feed. There's no online grocery shopping, either.

I will probably get a lot of gaming done.

Another reason why I couldn't bring the flight forward is that I have been very naïve about the "fit to fly" test. I looked at the government website that has a veritable phone book of test providers with lots of them looking very sketchy. It also said that the travel company might provide the necessary test. On the topic of testing the German website was also a tad obscure. So I thought that I could take a test at the airport before the flight.

That assumption was, of course, completely wrong. Yes, there are testing centres at the airport, but you need to make an appointment in advance and everything's booked out. So I spent some hours late last night on the hunt for a rapid PCR test in Birmingham. I found a pharmacy eventually that still had appointments tomorrow and that promises to get the results to me the same day. Of course they are charging an arm and a leg, but I still have another arm and another leg, so that's okay.

TL;DR: Pray for Tent Hen.

I probably won't be posting much over the next days.

Good luck.

Hope you get there without too much drama.
I expect you'll have plenty of time to post during the journey.