Originally published on Photoblog by Gethin Thomas NOVEMBER. 15, 2020
[102-365] 15th. November 2020- The day started quite normally today. Just like any other lockdown Sunday. We had a WhatsApp video call arranged with some friends back in the Midlands where we used to live. We passed the time of day, discussed the weather, like you do. They, like us didn't have a lot of news because what happens in lockdown? The weather was mild, bright and sunny. Ten minutes into the call it suddenly got very dark, then there were massive claps of thunder followed by lightning and a deluge of hailstones, so loud we had to stop talking as we couldn't hear them.
Outside it went from a mild Autumn morning to the middle of Winter in about two minutes. This was my Mediterranean herb bed in what looks like fresh snow.
So that cleared up as fast as it started and we finished our call and settled down to morning coffee. Then the phone went again and it was the PC man to say my PC was alive and well and out of it's coma. We are not sure if this is a permanent fix as he tested it and could find no fault after tweaking a few neurons and giving it a bypass or two. The diagnosis as it stands is, have it back, carry on using it and see what happens. If it goes again I'm looking at a new PC.
To cut a long story short (when have I ever done that?), PC man lives about sixteen miles away, a hop, skip and a jump from the garden centre, and guess what? Garden centres are allowed to open for "essential" items like, small Santas, wrapping paper, Christmas Crackers (more on those in a later post), plants, toy trains, snow globes and fairy lights. We had been planning a trip to the garden centre for some "essential" Christmas Crackers (as I say more on those later) so we decided to go there first on the way to PC man.
And that is why my 365 post today ended up being Not Quite Christmas, even though we almost saw snow, I could have bought a tree........
Ornaments to go on that tree..........
I could order my Christmas turkey................
But sadly, although I had to wear a mask to get into the garden centre, and I could have bought all of those "essential" items while I was in there.............
I could not buy an actual face mask as these were in the fashion section and were therefore deemed to be "non-essential". That is why they are taped off. I also could not buy any warm winter clothing. If anyone can see any sense to this, please send your answers on a post card, or leave in the comments section.
To round off the story, I collected my PC from PC man and I am posting this on it now, so far so good.
"Answers on a postcard" is a British English idiom. This idiom can be used to suggest that the answer to something is very obvious or that the person would really like to hear what people think. A brief, concise answer, reply, or opinion, especially one meant as a quick response to a general question.
I seem to remember it stems from TV shows years ago, pre internet when they threw in simple questions for a simple prize. The Post Card had the advantage that it was concise, cheap to post and if you received a lot, they were quick and easy to read too, no envelope to open. Competitions like this usually involved all the postcards with the correct answer going into a sack, where one would be picked out on the programme, probably live, and the winners name read out on air. Usually it was Emily from Minchinhampton. Simple innocent times.