Today I have had a day on the boat, not doing that much.
I felt quite angry and annoyed with all the Christmas changes from yesterday, but I have calmed down from that now.
I was also feeling a kind of emptiness and worry most of the day, I think as my plans were changed all so quickly and suddenly.
As soon as Honey came out of Discovery, she started playing the ‘Find Elf’ Game (see Day 262).
However, I think she knocked the biscuit off and then couldn’t find it.
She spent ages looking for the biscuit 😉
This morning, my friend Theo rang and we had a video call, so I gave him a full tour of Discovery 🙂
Then a couple of friends dropped by to say hello and see Discovery.
Last night, when I started writing the blog, I put my washing on. When I took Honey for her bedtime walk I remembered my washing was still in the washing machine, it was too late to put it in the tumble drier. So I hung it all up in the boat on the hope the fire would dry it, but this morning, it wasn’t quite dry. So after all my visits today, I noticed the tumble drier was not in use, so I put all my clothes in and they are now nice and dry.
It was then getting cold onboard, so I lit the fire and went to the shops to buy some food.
Then I headed for a walk, returning to a super hot boat – 41 degrees centigrade!! It’s finally cooled down as I write this, to a mere 15 degrees. Great to have such a warm boat in the daytime 🙂
Yesterday, Anna sent me this link about Jupiter and Saturn aligning each other at the moment – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-55364664
The article says that Jupiter and Saturn appear in the night sky to the naked eye as a “double planet”. There has been some suggestion that this occurred 2000 years ago, which became known as the ‘Star of Bethlehem’.
“As Prof Eric M Vanden Eykel, a professor of religion from Ferrum College in Virginia, pointed out in an online article the timing has led to a lot of speculation “about whether this could be the same astronomical event that the Bible reports led the wise men to Joseph, Mary and the newly born Jesus”.
The planets are moving closer together each night and will reach their closest tomorrow (21st December).
Clear skies are forecast tomorrow in the north of UK. These two largest and brightest planets in the solar system have not been so close to each other (known as a Conjunction) for 800 years.
You can view them in the South West, just as it gets dark on the horizon.
With all this information, I headed out with Honey for a walk this evening as the sun was beginning to set. Armed with a Compass App on my phone, I spent my time looking southwest, realising that the canal is flat and surrounded mainly by buildings.
I suddenly thought I spotted a really bright looking star in the sky, getting excited, but then realising it was a ‘Christmas Star’ decoration on the top of a church, chuckling to myself that I saw one of the many ‘fake’ stars that potentially grew from the conjunction 2000 years ago 😉
So tomorrow evening (if I remember) I may head to Arthur’s Seat for a more clearer view.
If you get to see it, let me know I can include in the blog!!
Also on our walk, I saw the boater that I took photos of yesterday (Day 271), I recognised her orange jacket that was in the photo and that she was standing next to a boat. She had just been out in the boat (on her own) again. She said that yesterday was lots of fun and they ended up with five people in the boat! I forgot to ask to take another photo of her today, for the blog 🙁
Lockdown Restrictions Corner
If you missed the blog yesterday or missed the news, there has been lots going on in the last 24 hours or so. Check out yesterdays blog (Day 271) for more details!
With a third of England’s population being plunged into Tier 4 today I thought I would look at what that actually means. That’s a total of 17.7 million people, that entered Tier 4 from midnight today, a new Tier that was only introduced to us all yesterday at about 4.30pm.
Here’s the official government website – https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tier-4-stay-at-home
The website is quite comprehensive, but I hope to provide a summary here.
The main message for Tier 4 is:
- Stay at home.
- Do not mix with others from different households, except your support bubble.
More details are:
- Inside – no household mixing (apart from support bubble).
- Outside – can meet one other person from another household in a public space.
- Work – work from home if you can. If you can’t you can still travel to work.
- Non-essential shops – closed.
- Personal care services (e.g. hairdressers) – closed.
- Indoor Gyms – closed.
- Leisure and Entertainment venues – closed.
- Hospitality venues – closed.
- Christmas Bubble – cannot be formed (apart from support bubble).
- Clinically Extremely Vulnerable – limit time outside of home and do not go to work.
- Travel – cannot travel abroad.
- Overnight Stay – cannot stay overnight away from home.
- Exercise – unlimited.
- Childcare – meeting for childcare can still continue.
All England’s Tier’s will be reviewed on 30th December, although Matt Hancock said today that these areas may remain in Tier 4 until the vaccine is rolled out, so could be a number of months.
Here is a list of all the areas in Tier 4:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/full-list-of-local-restriction-tiers-by-area
London
- All 32 London boroughs plus City of London.
South East
- Kent and Medway
- Buckinghamshire
- Berkshire (Bracknell Forest, Reading, Slough, Wokingham, Windsor and Maidenhead and West Berkshire)
- Surrey (excluding Waverley)
- Hastings and Rother
- Havant, Gosport and Portsmouth
East of England
- Hertfordshire
- Essex (excluding Tendring, Uttlesford and Colchester)
- Central Bedfordshire, Bedford, Milton Keynes and Luton
- Peterborough
Face-Mask Corner (Christmas)
Today we have a Christmas Jumper face-mask, it’s official name is Not So Ugly Christmas Sweater Reversible Face Mask.
You can get these from Etsy for £6.19.
They come in 3 sizes – small (child), medium and large. They are handmade from cotton, thread and elastic. They come with fully adjustable straps.
I kind of like these !!
Readers Corner
Another sharing from Anna.
Anna
Anna sent me another painting that she did with The Paint Republic, the last one was posted yesterday (Day 271). Paint Republic gives you paint along sessions for all ages and abilities. You can find out more about the Paint Republic from here – https://thepaintrepublic.com
She writes:
“Another The Paint Republic painting which I adapted and added the dogs and 5 Lynwood Owls. This has been printed as a card and given to all the staff at Lynwood Veterinary Group where Duncan and I work”.
Thanks for sharing Anna. I love this one 🙂
It Made Me Smile (Christmas)
Danny shared this with me and it made me smile.
Christmas Music Corner
Have you got any favourite Christmas tunes or albums? This is the place to share them!
I am starting to run out of things to include in here.
Today I have been listening to the radio station Magic FM all day, on the clock radio I got last year for Christmas!
They play “non-stop Christmas music”, so if you want to hear some Christmas tunes you can listen here. It is a London radio station, so it takes a while to get used to hearing London focused news!
I can’t find an embed code so here is the link –
https://planetradio.co.uk/magic
As I come to the end of this blog, I am feeling good – tomorrow, I start a two week holiday from QiGong 🙂
I’ve run Qigong sessions on Zoom every weekday morning from 2nd April 2020, with only 7 days off! So I am looking forward to a break and sometime in bed in the morning. Although, tomorrow I am picking up the hire car. I spent today wondering whether to keep the hire car I had booked to go and see my mum for Christmas, finally decided it would be good to have the luxury of a car for a week over Christmas!
It’s been good to chill on the boat and by the canal today, I find it calming and grounding.
The weather today has been quite chilly, a cold wind too – wearing a scarf and hat most of the day on Discovery, until the boat turned into a sauna!! Although not icy, it’s been a clear sky most of the day and no rain.
Hope you’ve had a Super Sunday.
Lots of Love
Jim xx