WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[chinatyke]

[Stanley]

I've always liked that quotation China. Describes my feelings exactly!

[Stanley]

I suspect my new HSS 7BA taps will arrive. I thought I'd improve my chances of good tapping on this new engine!
£41 for the set of 3 small taps. I've always said the cabinet of drawers that holds all my taps and dies from 1/16" to 1/2" in just about every thread you can think of would cast thousands to refill. I think that at today's prices we can say 'many thousands'!

[Tizer]

Perhaps we should compromise and shift the clocks permanently by 30 minutes. Edward VII had the clocks at Sandringham advanced by 30 minutes because it gave more daylight time for his shooting activities!

Silly twit couldn't set out 30 minutes earlier to get the same result!

I think he might also be the one who had a mistress in a country house outside Dublin and built a new road from the city to the house so he could get to her faster when he visited Ireland! No delayed satisfaction for him!

[Stanley]

A visit from my support bubble. They brought fish and chips for tea and took away a beam engine, a slew of Pratchett for the Charity Shop and other items surplus to requirements. Lots of room on the kitchen table now!
We have arranged a plan for dealing with the new bed base when it arrives. BTW. Susan tells me I got an excellent deal. Well done the support network!

[Tizer]

Here's a happy lad!...
`Boy, 10, rears rare-breed pigs at home in Dorset' LINK

[Stanley]

Pigs are very intelligent and rewarding animals. I always enjoyed having a few about!



Susan sent me this pic of the hand over of the engine. Now I have to make one for Margaret!



She also sent me this pic of Kahara wearing the jacket she has knitted for him. This is a happy lad (and he's walking now).

[Tripps]

Great pictures - everyone looking good. Joyful I'd say.

Can someone explain 'support bubbles' to me ? As I understand it - I could have my son and his family as my bubble, and I could visit them , and they could visit me. However he told me yesterday

"We were told last week that the girls had been in the same room as someone who had a positive test later in the week - so we are probably a risk. "

Including the fact that many infectious people are asymptomatic. It's not hard to imagine a scenario in which I get infected. Adding this to the cautious conversation I had with my GP yesterday - I'm going nowhere, and no one is coming here. Am I over reacting?

[Tizer]

We were in a similar situation with my cousin and her younger daughter who was sent home from school due to members of her class testing +ve for covid-19. We haven't gone into their house or them come into ours although we've met at the front door (2+ metres apart!). As you said, they could be infected but asymptomatic. The daughter has just come to the end of isolating. It can be very tricky. The cousin has her mother (in her 80s) in a flat nearby and needs to visit her frequently. As well as the problem of asymptomatic people, infected individuals begin to spread the virus immediately after infection and before showing symptoms. Tests have shown that the covid-19 virus works differently from influenza; it enters cells in the nasal cavity immediately, reproduces fast in those cells, the progeny are released and then breathed out or sneezed out. So infection can pass from person to person very quickly.

I'm writing that not to worry you but, I hope, to keep you up to date and able to protect yourself. The good news is that an antiviral is being developed which I think could be sprayed into the nose to kill the virus if you knew you might have been exposed to infection. You've probably seen or heard the phrase `ACE-2 receptor' used to describe the point on the human cell where the virus binds and gains entry. The chemical in the spray binds to the receptor and prevents the virus getting into the cell. Fortunately the chemical is sphingosine which is well-known, is a natural component of our body cells and has been used in other therapeutic ways....

`Could a sphingosine nasal spray prevent COVID-19? According to a study, the lipid sphingosine can inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection and could potentially be delivered in a nasal spray to prevent COVID-19 infections.' LINK

NB. Sphingosine takes me back to my lipid research days! It's found in food and particularly milk, in the form of sphingolipids which have themselves been considered as potential anti-carcinogens. It's another reason to drink whole milk - being a lipid it stays in the fat fraction, so semi-skimmed milk has less and skimmed milk may have none. If this post were on Facebook or Twitter we'd see the sales of whole-fat milk rocket with people squirting it up their noses!

[Stanley]

David, Like you I am not an expert on support bubbles. Mine is Mick and Susan who are my only visitors when I need something and are both registered carers and get tested fro antibodies every week. I don't visit their home. They only come here in case of need. So, whether that conforms to the regulations or not, it seems sensible to me. I recommend you do the same!
Yesterday got exciting at 14:00 when, with no warning, two men and a divan base turned up in the back yard. Good job I was in!



I sent this pic to Susan who happened to be in Skipton with Mick having her birthday lunch. They called in on the way back took the old divan base out into the bathroom, vacuumed 25 years of bed fluff from the floor and installed the new base which is not sprung. It's fine, I slept like a log last night and don't need a new mattress. They are going to book a slot at the waste facility and once they have it will take my old base down there. They tell me you have to book now.....
So the new base is in and is a success. Lovely. Thanks to M&S for looking after me!

[Wendyf]

Unless the rules for visiting the recycling centres have changed again very recently you only have to book if you are taking a van or a trailer.

[Stanley]

I think Mick will be able to handle whatever the regulations are. He said that you had to make an appointment....

[Big Kev]

If it's going to the Barlick recycling centre, no need to book but you can only take one type of waste (this is so you only have to use one of the skips). There was a requirement to book when it first reopened, it wasn't very successful with a wait of up to two weeks for some.

[plaques]

Went to Barlick a few weeks ago. No booking. As Kev says, one type of waste, No walking about, Wait until your type of waste skip is free and then dump.

[Tripps]

both registered carers and get tested for antibodies every week

Now I'm puzzled. Surely of they have had the virus and recovered, they should have antibodies. I don't think anyone knows exactly for how long.That doesn't fully remove the possibility of them being infectious though does it?

[Big Kev]

both registered carers and get tested for antibodies every week

Now I'm puzzled. Surely of they have had the virus and recovered, they should have antibodies. I don't think anyone knows exactly for how long.That doesn't fully remove the possibility of them being infectious though does it?

I think Stanley means weekly swab testing, the antibody test won't show if you've got it...

[Tripps]

I think Stanley means weekly swab testing,

Yes - so do I. I wanted to give him a chance to correct what he wrote.

Now the natural follow up questions - does a swab test have any value in someone who has been infected, and recovered from the virus, and does that mean that they can't be infectious?

[Big Kev]

I think Stanley means weekly swab testing,

Yes - so do I. I wanted to give him a chance to correct what he wrote.

Now the natural follow up questions - does a swab test have any value in someone who has been infected, and recovered from the virus, and does that mean that they can't be infectious?

I would presume, once recovered, you would no longer be infectious but could still be at risk of re-infection. I believe there are documented cases of catching it again.

[Tripps]

I believe there are documented cases of catching it again.

Yes - I've read of that, and it seems to be a another unknown feature of this virus. Being ultra cautious - in view of the highly asymmetrical consequences - perhaps it's possible that a second infection would be milder, or even without symptoms.

Is all that too cautious and hypothetical? - Probably - certainly my kids would say so, but no one in my bubble would be working in the care sector. My attitude is informed by the ease with which I got the Norovirus, from a brief no contact visit to my home by a care worker.

[Big Kev]

The Muppet, oops, Boris Show is on at 4pm today.

[Stanley]

I'm not a medic. As carers they both have to be tested every week to make sure they are safe to be with clients. I have an idea that they have also been tested for antibodies.
I don't know what the arrangements are at the tip, all I know is that Susan mailed me yesterday to say they are coming to pick up the old base at 13:30. I don't think they would be doing that if they hadn't a way of disposing of it.
The fact that I am sleeping even better than I was before now I have the new base. It's much firmer and more stable having a solid top and no springs. I wondered whether it would mean I would have to go back to using a pillow but no, a bath towel folded once across the width of the bed is fine. 100% success I reckon!

[Tizer]

The Muppet, oops, Boris Show is on at 4pm today.

The butler who winds Boris's watch must have failed in his job. Cominic Dummings will have him sacked!

[Whyperion]

I believe there are documented cases of catching it again.

Yes - I've read of that, and it seems to be a another unknown feature of this virus. Being ultra cautious - in view of the highly asymmetrical consequences - perhaps it's possible that a second infection would be milder, or even without symptoms.

So far they have been no different in 'strength' than a first infection of the 'strain' that is doing the 2nd infection, the difference appears to be arising in the protiens that bind, stick, evade or cell modify, (etc) it seems that one variation can evade immunity from cells that have learnt from a different, earlier variation. There is also some worry (not seen evidence) that vaccine immunity can actually raise reactions when there is real infection (from same or modified?) this has been observed in lab and real world studies in other virus (air, water and body fluid borne) infections.

Tests have shown that the covid-19 virus works differently from influenza; it enters cells in the nasal cavity immediately, reproduces fast in those cells, the progeny are released and then breathed out or sneezed out. So infection can pass from person to person very quickly.

Can someone please tell the half wearing mask wearers that not over the nose negates just about all the effort of putting a mask on. - and probably explains part of the continued rise in covid cases across europe despite the adverts.

[Whyperion]

`Could a sphingosine nasal spray prevent COVID-19? According to a study, the lipid sphingosine can inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection and could potentially be delivered in a nasal spray to prevent COVID-19 infections.' LINK

following the link amino alcohol with an unsaturated hydrocarbon chain , and apparently it it is an alkyl .
So is the presence effectively the bleach up the nose that Trump was thinking of, and it is acting on the outside of the viral cell to break it up.
also what is in those vicks' sprays that are used to relieve cold symptoms, and was any of this discovered at the one time common cold research centre?

[Big Kev]

Can someone please tell the half wearing mask wearers that not over the nose negates just about all the effort of putting a mask on. - and probably explains part of the continued rise in covid cases across europe despite the adverts.

Flogging a dead horse there, they're either too selfish, to be concerned about the health of others, or just thick.