As of 1 minute past midnight this morning, 23rd October, our area has been put into Tier 3 and we are back to more restrictions.

Here’s an interesting thing I heard the other day: Because in Tier 3 pubs that don’t sell food must close, they are getting together with mobile caterers, who have lost all of their summer festival trade, to sell food on the pub premises allowing the pub to stay open and the mobile caterer to recoup some of his/her losses. I don’t know how true this is but it’s a great idea.

So, what have we been up to? May is knitting a jacket, Agnes is on the second cardigan sleeve for the new baby in the family, Krysia M has knitted a gorgeous hat, scarf and mittens set for her grandson – just waiting to do a pompom on the hat.

We chatted today about holiday refunds and the delaying tactics that some well-established companies are using just so that they can hang on to customers’ cash a little bit longer. Also about current restrictions (a regular topic of conversation), yarn, yarn shopping, babies, weddings, recent wedding photos in our park, brides sheltering under umbrellas, brides at pedestrian crossings in Las Vegas, gambling………… and more!

There wasn’t time for breakout rooms today; too much chatting! There were nine of us zooming and one listening in on a phone.

The quiz, as usual, revealed gaps in our knowledge. Here are two of the questions:

Q7 Which acrobatic garden bird has the Latin name Parus caeruleus?

a) Swallow b) Thrush c) Blue Tit d) Sparrow

Q11 How many symphonies did Beethoven complete?

a) Nine b) Five c) Twelve d) Six

Answers are Blue Tit and Nine.

Next week we’ll have a Halloween themed quiz which Agnes will put together for us. I might suggest that we dress up for our meeting. Or, is that too childish?

PS Another of this week’s quiz questions was: in which was did the Battle of Sedan take place? a) Crimean War b) The Hundred Years War c) Franco-Prussian War d) The First World War

We had visions of ranks of sedan chairs, like chariots, facing each other across a vast battlefield,,,,,,,

The answer is c) The Franco-Prussian War. What interested me though is that it was the First Battle of Sedan that took place in the Franco-Prussian War; there was a Second Battle of Sedan which took place in 1940 during WW2. Sedan is in France, situated on the east bank of the Meuse River south of the Ardennes.

Now, if the question had been more specific more of us would have got this question right!

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