Clootie Dumpling

Today did not start well but it ended much better. I woke with a headache and felt quite nauseous. I took some paracetamol, put a cooling gel sheet on my forehead, and went back to sleep for a couple of hours. This did the trick and after a quick shower I felt brand new. Later on I decided to make a Clootie Dumpling using Grandma’s recipe, and assembled all of the ingredients before mixing them and putting them into a muslin cloth to boil for 4 hours. I’m glad to say that it turned out really well, it even had a nice skin on it, and James paid me the compliment of saying that it tasted just like Grandma’s. 

In the evening I watched a spooky film “You Should Have Left” which starred Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried. I watched it with Ally and Cat - James fell asleep within the first half hour so he sensibly took himself off to bed. Hmmm. Like many spooky films it seemed promising at first but the ending was a bit flat. 

In Covid news, Scotland has moved to a new 5 tier system of restrictions, rather confusingly numbered 0 to 4. *

Due to having the fastest growing number of cases in Scotland, South and North Lanarkshire were under threat this week of moving to the top level 4 which would mean almost complete lockdown again like in the spring, with non essential shops and services all closed, apart from the schools remaining open this time. We were already in level 3 which until this week meant that pubs and restaurants remained closed although under the new rules they are now allowed to open until 6 p.m. Yesterday however it was announced that we were allowed to remain in level 3 for the time being. All the councils in Scotland now have their own allocated level, for example Highland are currently level 1 and Dumfries & Galloway are level 2. It will be reviewed every week apart from the Lanarkshires which will be reviewed daily. There is much speculation on the media about the possibility of a month long national lockdown before Christmas. So that’s where we’re at just now.

* I saw on the internet a joke description of the 5 tier system based on the old “Oor Wullie” cartoon, with the levels in ascending order, “it’s aw braw”, “jings”, “crivvens”, “help ma boab” and finally level 4 “Get ben the hoose!”