Yeah, that’s rough. Especially since, by the sound of it, everybody did things right… Best wishes, Roger. Dang.
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My partner wanted to get our COVID booster shots before our eldest daughter’s birthday this coming Saturday. Fortunately, we managed to find 2 appointments available at a nearby pharmacy last night. So we booked the appointments, invited my in-laws over to watch the kids and heading out to the pharmacy.
On our way there, we both get emails saying that our appointments have been cancelled (and then we both got texts saying to arrive early and check in before the scheduled time). So, we’re almost there anyway, so we just keep going, hoping maybe it’s a computer glitch.
Nope. The pharmacist says that he hasn’t had any vaccine supply all day and that we will need to book online again for tomorrow. We’d love to… but there are no appointments available in our area until the second week of December, according to all of the searching we’ve done – at all, at any of the pharmacies, or Walmart, or state/county run vaccination centers.
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That’s annoying.
No one is running a drop in clinic? I got my booster yesterday at a local hospital, that’s got a clinic. I made an appointment, but all that did was let me skip the registration line. (When I went, that saved no time, when I took my daughter on Vonnegut’s birthday, it was 30 minutes to get registered, 10 to get the jab,)
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My partner stopped by a couple of places today while running errands and couldn’t find anything available. For whatever reason, places are just struggling to get vaccine supply here.
So we’re scheduling for mid-December.
My partner just got notified from the local covid app that his “vaccinated status” ran out because we cannot get a booster until January apparently now we’re (me in a couple of weeks) no longer vaccinated and thus in a de facto lockdown. I am MAD. MAD at all the people who refuse to get a vaccine so the plague is rolling through the country like a wildfire. MAD that the booster campaign is as unorganized as it is. I had no idea that I would have to FIGHT for another dose.
[removed an even longer rant about vaccinations, sry about that]
Ah well, we already canceled our dinner event for the coming Friday, not because of missing vaccine status. But because I wouldn’t have felt safe anyway.
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Its 5 years today since my brother died after drinking himself to death. So sad.
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On the bright side, looks like we will get open borders here in NZ on the end of April 2022.
Looking forward to at last book a flight to Spain to see friends and family after nearly 4 years. I knew when we made the move that these trips would space out in time, but the pandemic throwing a spanner in the works has really fuelled our frustration. Fingers crossed, we will be back there in May for three weeks.
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Finally saw my students off to Thanksgiving break yesterday. Went to Encanto with my own kids today, and got some solo XWing in, as well as some fresh air with my wife. It did me a world of good after the constant strain of the last few weeks. I know not everyone gets a holiday at the moment, but I’m sending good vibes everyone’s way, now that I’ve got some to spare.
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I know it’s up against some stiff competition, but this may be the most depressing Facebook notification I’ve ever received.
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So today is Thanksgiving and because it is obviously not a holiday in Germany, we always celebrate it on the Saturday afterwards with our closest friends. We call it Friendsgiving. A great way to bring this American tradition here.
In preparation for this event, my wife spends 4 days in the kitchen. I suggested to her to design a menu this time.
She is always going overboard with this thing, but it is a huge joy to her and our friends are enjoying it a lot too!
My wife does the biggest part of the workload, but I am busy enough with cleaning and preparing the place for the visitors. I am looking forward to it but I am also kinda glad, when it is over again 
One friend tested positive today though. I hope the others will test negative… (we demanded everybody has to be tested beforehand). I will get tested tomorrow, I hope it will be negative, it is my biggest worry right now that we have to cancel the whole thing.
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Canadian Thanksgiving is several weeks ago (mid-October-ish). Around 2004 or 2005 I started hosting Friendsgivings as well, because:
- I love turkey, but
- I didn’t much care for my family and so having to spend time with them basically ruined the one time of year I would eat turkey.
As a result I decided to have a “pre-thanksgiving” dinner with people I actually liked. I scheduled the event weeks in advance, invited about 5 friends over, made bacon-wrapped turkey (not as good as brining, which is what I do now, but a simple solution to dry turkey) and a few sides (specifically mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, and… probably a dessert. Apple pie or crumble? Something like that).
Turns out that my pre-thanksgiving dinner was actually two weeks after thanksgiving (I had been using an American calendar), but for several years we just called it Pre-Post-Thanksgiving. Also my stove at the time didn’t have a functional top-burner, so the oven worked at a fraction of the temperature it was supposed to be at, but once I realized that I was able to salvage the turkey (it took 5 hours instead of 3, but it worked out eventually).
In the following years the name shifted to Friendsgiving, but the idea has always stayed the same. I always make a turkey, a leg of lamb (for friends who don’t like turkey), mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts, and freshly baked bread, and then usually rely on friends for salads, desserts, and other elements.
2019 and 2020 I had to cancel, but we held it this year. Much smaller crowd, but it was a nice little celebration. I look forward to having a much larger one next year.
Anyway! I love the look of your menu! I hope the event goes ahead without a hitch!
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I like the idea of friendsgiving. While we do not celebrate Erntedankfest (in mid October) much outside of churches and Kindergarten, I like the idea of having a friend holiday outside of the Christmas holiday rush. Right now we are seeing if we can manage a small private Christmas market style meetup in December but that has been difficult for years with job’s having Christmas parties and schools as well and so much going on in December it is “the busiest time of the year”. Covid doesn’t change that maybe? Or it does?
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Well, today we got more bad news. There was a corona case in the day-care center our friends’ daughter visits and nowthey have to stay in quarantine with their little daughter till they get more information. It is the weekend though and nobody will call them tomorrow.
Another friend got her shot yesterday, so it is not clear she is feeling well enough to come. Edit: She is not feeling well enough of course and canceled.
There is way too much food, even though we fill a lot of tupperware for all the people not coming 
@yashima It was all my wife’s idea and everybody loves it. We organize it as a kind of Thanksgiving replacement of course which is not the best time wise but if you don’t feel bound to that, I would suggest something earlier indeed.
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Yesterday I got a booster jab (Pfizer this time) so now I’m enjoying some lovely vaccine side effects…
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Ditto. My body aches and fatigue than either previous shot
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It’s funny, I had barely any side effects from either Pfizer, the flu jab I had the other week? Absolutely knocked me out. So tired.
I went to my first gig in 21 months a week or so ago. Had two more lined up for the end of this year. One of those has now been cancelled outright because of the Omicron/Europe-situation. I know it’s sensible, but I’m sad nonetheless.
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Eldest hellspawn tested positive. Turns out her teacher has been off die to having it and the year 5 and 6s in her school are quarantined from the rest of the school. Guess it was inevitable
All the family are booked in for PCR tomorrow and I’m exempt so carry on as normal. Certainly doesn’t feel right.
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So, we had a lovely Friendsgiving yesterday even though we missed the friends who couldn’t make it of course.
First some pictures of the appetizers:
Then the main courses:
And for the end, the 3 pies:
And now we are leaving, driving food to the ones being quarantined, so they get at least some Friendsgiving joy 
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Looks lovely! And I think food-sharing is a great way to say “we haven’t left you out even though you’re unclean”.
(For those who were worried: my wife is recovering, and I am still plague-free.)
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