Oh dear, what have I done

[nowty]

Any in car video?

I only thought about that the next day and I only had 10 mins video footage saved from before parking up at the services so it missed the incident by a few minutes so I don't have any footage. The new software display is a right pain as the obvious button to press to retain recent footage has disappeared.

I used a supercharger twice this week, the inclement weather certainly reduced my range on the way up north and it was looking touch and go whether I would make it to my parents without charging so I literally did a 5 min pitstop charge at 120kW and added about 10% SOC. Just as well I did as the M6 was completely closed northbound and I was stuck for an hour, then had an extra 10 mile cross country detour and arrived with 8% SOC.

Returning south today I booted it a bit more so I knew I was going to need a stop at Warwick services. Plugged in and it was a nice 120kW again, but after a couple of mins someone else plugged in next to me and the rate dropped to 60kW, that really makes a big difference even though its still pretty fast.

One thing I love about the Tesla Superchargers is no faff, easy to position the car, just reverse till you hit the raised stopper, no cards, no apps, just plug in, then unplug and go when you want.

Went through a camera speedtrap at 77mph on the A34, but that's usually OK.

[Mr Gus]

Again it highlights my concern of the "screen change around" (missed several events as a result) & the "will it won't it" record ? compared to a dashcam that does from the ignition onwards.

[Tinbum]

Covid is not my friend, had a chest X-ray yesterday and more bloods planned for mid Jan, as this flippin long Covid from early October won't p..s off. But I'm catching up on all the books I wanted to read.

I'm still suffering and it been 2 years since I had it. One thing that I think has helped is 25mg of Zinc per day and an extra 800mu of Vit. D. About a week after taking it my near constant headaches relented and I started to feel more normal. I don't think it's a placebo effect as nothing else has worked. I'm still not right but life is certainly much more bearable.

[Tinbum]

nowty, That's a bummer. I nearly placed an order for a new car and then realised how much i like being able to drive or park my current one anywhere and not worry about it.

[Mart]

Covid is not my friend, had a chest X-ray yesterday and more bloods planned for mid Jan, as this flippin long Covid from early October won't p..s off. But I'm catching up on all the books I wanted to read.

I'm still suffering and it been 2 years since I had it. One thing that I think has helped is 25mg of Zinc per day and an extra 800mu of Vit. D. About a week after taking it my near constant headaches relented and I started to feel more normal. I don't think it's a placebo effect as nothing else has worked. I'm still not right but life is certainly much more bearable.

Many thanks, and sorry to hear how you are suffering. I do feel very lucky to have been double jabbed before catching it. Latest bloods and Xrays are all fine, and scans of swellings and lumps all confirm lymph system, so nothing sinister, so just have to get on with it now. I have been taking extra vitamins, especially D, but didn't know about zinc, thanks. My main problem is each time I get a cold (roughly one week on, one week off) it causes massive muscle and back pain, so I'm trying to do the maths and guestimate if I'll have a nice (or naughty) drive to get the TMY in two weeks ..... talk about first world problems.

[Joeboy]

Sorry to hear about the car bump Nowty, glad its only equipment and not personnel damage. Regarding cold bugs, when I worked in the North Sea I took about 4000mg of Vit C in tablet form every morning and without fail Colds that were sweeping the ship did not land on me. If i did an extended trip and ran out of Vit C i'd catch something. Noticed that pattern in year 2 and then always took extra with me. I continue to take 1000mg per day of Vit C, 2,000mg of Cod liver oil, running up to 4,000mg if i've stressed my joints and a single Centrum over 50's multi tab. Works well for me and I feel great!

[nowty]

Drove to London and back on Friday, set off a little too early as can only park outside my daughters place after 6.30pm so decided to stop at Fleet services on the M3 for a cheeky burger. Only ate half of it because it was so greasy, no different than normal but my taste in food has obviously changed as not had one in years.

On the way back to the motorway I noticed the price of diesel at the services was 189.9p a litre.
Made me smile as I floored the TM3 back onto the motorway as I pay around the equivalent of 15p.

[Mr Gus]

Hope you kept the receipt for the innards slicking burger, get a refund, insist on a refund, not a voucher (for more of the same)

Even as a youth I had to be really desperate to stop for a motorway burger, then one poisoned my gut & Its never been the same.
Avoid.

[nowty]

Well I've had a bit of a nightmare day.

Friday I drove to London to pick up Daughter + her fiancé + 5 month old grandson and bring them to Nowty Towers. Long drive but was worth it, Zen totally impressed the daughter and fiancé, the comfort, the quietness, the performance, the autosteering, etc. We had a nice take away meal when we arrived back, and then a drive and a walk on Saturday though the New Forest were we had close up encounters with donkeys, horses and a wild pig. Followed by a nice outdoor beer garden sample of the local apple juice and a home made root vegetable soup.

Returned to Nowty Towers and I looked forward to cooking a nice family meal of,

Salad of Watercress, Cherry Tomatoes, Feta cheese and red pepper.
Followed by Salmon and Scallops which I had bought from a high quality fishman with basmati and wild rice.
Followed by a desert of mixed fruit tart and vanilla ice cream.
All washed down with lashings of prosecco.

What could possibly go wrong ?

About an hour after we arrived back from the New Forest my daughter's fiancé feels a bit tired and goes for a lie down. Now they are totally paranoid about Covid. They work from home, all their food groceries are delivered and they don't socialise and they are both triple jabbed. However the fiancé has had to return occasionally to the office where there is social distancing, regular testing and he wears an FPP2 mask, he walks to work and even wears the FPP2 mask when groceries or take away food is delivered. They both also take additional Covid tests almost every day.

My daughter comes to see me and shows me two tests, her test which is definitely negative but her fiancés test looks negative but there is the faintest of lines almost imperceptible. He does 3 more tests, each one completely negative and he does not feel too bad. But he quarantines himself in one room and my daughter with baby decides to also quarantine in another room and they both put on their FPP2 masks. So the meal went ahead but in 3 separate rooms. We tried to persuade daughter to eat with us but she refused.

The next day on Sunday SWMBO was supposed to drive them back to London and stay overnight as she has taken Monday off. Sunday morning the fiancé tests 100% positive, no doubt about it. Also daughter's test has a very faint line and she has a runny nose. What do we now do ?, do they isolate with us but SWMBO is in the extremely vulnerable category. They cannot travel by public transport and we dare not be in the same car as them.

So the fiancé who does not feel too bad, drives SWMBO's car with daughter and baby to London followed by myself and SWMBO in the TM3. Then SWMBO sanitises her car and drives back home following me in then TM3. My TM3 can make the return journey no problem, but the BMW i3 cannot so we agree to stop somewhere at a fast charger. Zen decides to make a very obscure return journey south of the the river and down the A3 instead of the M4 and M3. I decide to go with it cos Zen usually knows best but it was a nightmare and SWMBO nearly lost sight of me several times. I found a shell garage with about 8 x 150kW chargers but they were not the Shell ones, might have been Gridserve. Absolute nightmare 2 were broken, all were in use and when each one became free they all failed on the i3. We gave up and SWMBO had to use the range extender but that limits the speed to about 50mph. We stopped at a BP service station, no charger, eventually found another Shell service station which did have a single working one. Then the App which is supposed to give me a discount did not work, but at least it took a contactless card.

So eventually got home, and started deep clean sanitisation of just about everything. We still feel fine and have tested negative but in the next couple of days, who knows.

[Stinsy]

Well I've had a bit of a nightmare day.

Friday I drove to London to pick up Daughter + her fiancé + 5 month old grandson and bring them to Nowty Towers. Long drive but was worth it, Zen totally impressed the daughter and fiancé, the comfort, the quietness, the performance, the autosteering, etc. We had a nice take away meal when we arrived back, and then a drive and a walk on Saturday though the New Forest were we had close up encounters with donkeys, horses and a wild pig. Followed by a nice outdoor beer garden sample of the local apple juice and a home made root vegetable soup.

Returned to Nowty Towers and I looked forward to cooking a nice family meal of,

Salad of Watercress, Cherry Tomatoes, Feta cheese and red pepper.
Followed by Salmon and Scallops which I had bought from a high quality fishman with basmati and wild rice.
Followed by a desert of mixed fruit tart and vanilla ice cream.
All washed down with lashings of prosecco.

What could possibly go wrong ?

About an hour after we arrived back from the New Forest my daughter's fiancé feels a bit tired and goes for a lie down. Now they are totally paranoid about Covid. They work from home, all their food groceries are delivered and they don't socialise and they are both triple jabbed. However the fiancé has had to return occasionally to the office where there is social distancing, regular testing and he wears an FPP2 mask, he walks to work and even wears the FPP2 mask when groceries or take away food is delivered. They both also take additional Covid tests almost every day.

My daughter comes to see me and shows me two tests, her test which is definitely negative but her fiancés test looks negative but there is the faintest of lines almost imperceptible. He does 3 more tests, each one completely negative and he does not feel too bad. But he quarantines himself in one room and my daughter with baby decides to also quarantine in another room and they both put on their FPP2 masks. So the meal went ahead but in 3 separate rooms. We tried to persuade daughter to eat with us but she refused.

The next day on Sunday SWMBO was supposed to drive them back to London and stay overnight as she has taken Monday off. Sunday morning the fiancé tests 100% positive, no doubt about it. Also daughter's test has a very faint line and she has a runny nose. What do we now do ?, do they isolate with us but SWMBO is in the extremely vulnerable category. They cannot travel by public transport and we dare not be in the same car as them.

So the fiancé who does not feel too bad, drives SWMBO's car with daughter and baby to London followed by myself and SWMBO in the TM3. Then SWMBO sanitises her car and drives back home following me in then TM3. My TM3 can make the return journey no problem, but the BMW i3 cannot so we agree to stop somewhere at a fast charger. Zen decides to make a very obscure return journey south of the the river and down the A3 instead of the M4 and M3. I decide to go with it cos Zen usually knows best but it was a nightmare and SWMBO nearly lost sight of me several times. I found a shell garage with about 8 x 150kW chargers but they were not the Shell ones, might have been Gridserve. Absolute nightmare 2 were broken, all were in use and when each one became free they all failed on the i3. We gave up and SWMBO had to use the range extender but that limits the speed to about 50mph. We stopped at a BP service station, no charger, eventually found another Shell service station which did have a single working one. Then the App which is supposed to give me a discount did not work, but at least it took a contactless card.

So eventually got home, and started deep clean sanitisation of just about everything. We still feel fine and have tested negative but in the next couple of days, who knows.

It is a nightmare this is still going on 2 years later! It seems that those who’ve been most careful to-date are getting it now (eg your daughter and family). It’ll get everyone eventually!

There seems to be a significant random element to transmission. My 8 year-old has had COVID twice (caught at school both times) he didn’t give it to anyone else in the family even though we carried on as a family unit as normal. I was very clear that attempting to isolate within the same household failed my risk-benefit test. Zero benefit because it would be impossible to prevent transmission within the household, maximum risk because stress/inconvenience of trying to prevent transmission is guaranteed to be emotionally harmful for a child. So he sat with us on the sofa, came into our bed in the mornings, etc., like normal. And like I say none of us got it (Whole family PCR twice over a week and daily lateral flows).

I caught it xmas day from the MiL. She visited an elderly relative xmas-eve and tested negative before leaving the house, came to ours xmas day and tested negative before setting off, she then tested positive Boxing Day. I tested before we visited an elderly relative a week later and it was positive. Symptoms were consistent with a normal cold. I took Vit-d, Vit-c, and Paracetamol. Got on with painting the hallway while I wasn’t leaving the house…

There is a good chance you and your better half won’t catch it even though you’ve spent time with your daughter and family who have it. If you do catch it the chances are symptoms will be mild. My advice would be to keep spirits up and have something you can be getting on with to stop you going crazy if you do get it and are trapped inside and have mid/no symptoms. But have easy-to-prepare food on hand and no pressing chores, incase you are laid up. The stress of it all seems to be the biggest factor for those of such a disposition, try to help your daughter / better half see the funny side!