It is difficult to keep a business afloat these days at the best of times, unless you are a part of a big chain sadly. Sad to see places like that close down.

We did see the Buckingham Palace and their infamous guards. :D You would love the HP studioes. I went nuts at the gift store. 👼 Was not a thing the first time I visited London either.

that's very true. During the pandemic lockdowns, the other independent fabric shop in town was making loads of sales - the local sewing groups were buying all the polycotton from them to make masks and scrubs for the local hospital & health centres. They had the advantage of being able to sell online, but what they mainly did was sell over the phone, then deliver to the doorstep as everyone was pretty local ;)

ROFL I think I'd probably end up buying way too much in the gift store! :P

Ooh loving today's outfit. The body mod works great :D And Blade is drooling. Hehe I can't blame her or anyone for not wanting to petsit a raptor :P lol it's the biting your arm off I'd be more worried about :D.

Good thing you didn't go back. I wouldn't trust them.

Nope he didn't. There's no mention of feeding any pet other than the owls giving them treats and the fudge flies for Scabbers. It's almost assumed the owls hunt on their own like Crookshanks and I suppose Scabbers was supposed to hunt too but he was very lazy so I doubt he would scavange. Though Book six does mention Ginny playing with Arnold the purple pygmy puff. I was always amused the book said they could bring an owl, toad or cat but a puff and a rat were brought so I'm guessing others brought some pets too. Though personally I wouldn't want just an owl as it would only be in the owlery rather than being a pet and all...

I'm on book six now, been rereading them

sorting through stuff is a good activity :D I'm about to do that myself with some scrapbooking things. Been busy with taking melody for the 7-9pm time. THen she goes to bed. Its been tough but still it's been good too. I also drove for the first time the other day. I am still under orders to do "basic" things but lol I still did the driving. It hurt a bit but was also really nice.

I have tons of scrapbooking stuff. I just wish I had the drive and energy to actually use it more. :( as it is an enjoyable hobby. I bet you guys have even more of it. lol It must be nice to get back into doing "normal" things like driving again. Just be careful not to overdo it. :)

That is what some local businesses did here as well, they would take phone orders deliver them to you. Or have curb-side pickup. :) For a while only essential businesses were allowed to even stay open, so it was online only.

I got two tshirts (A gryffindor one and one that turns into the Marauder's Map), a replica of Hermiones wand (of course <3 ), a Gryffindor mug, some candy and maybe some other things I can't recall right now. Now I also have HP pens and other stationary, socks and even pjs I ordered online. 👼 I am just a big kid. LOL As well as various HP things you gals have gifted me over the years.

I had a feeling Blade would approve ;) I got the background yesterday, so Niamh insisted on using it (and we've got another heatwave so she wanted to wear a swimming costume :P)

ROFL apparently that's not too challenging to control with magic.... providing you use the right spells of course ;)

I can almost imagine Scabbers scavenging by running down to the kitchens and just grabbing what he could find :P And that was something that confused me as well - if they could have an owl, cat or toad, how come Scabbers has been to Hogwarts at least twice (seeing as he was a 'hand-me-down pet'). And yeah, owls would be useful but you'd hardly ever see your owl if it spent all its time in the owlery!

That was the same for us with essential businesses only - some supermarkets even closed off sections of their stores for items they didn't feel were 'essential' (even though they were still allowed to sell whatever they normally had in there) o.O

ooo that Maurauder's Map t-shirt sounds really neat :D laughs I've got loads of HP socks, a hoodie that's too big (I won it, but didn't want to try altering it to make it fit), a movie poster (somewhere.... not too sure where that ended up!) a keyring & bookmark (plus the wand & other HP bits that Raven made :D) And being an adult is over-rated - being a big kid is much more fun!

-hugs- Like any hobby you do what you can/want when you can :) I'm doing my best not to over do it yes.

I imagine Scabbers waiting to be fed by his servant Ron LOL. yeah LOL I don't think everyone followed the pet rule -shrugs-

ooo I love the HA-less look today :D

laughs anything to save Scabbers needing to put any real effort in ;) It's almost like JKR forgot what she'd written in the letter, or didn't think that anyone would notice that rats weren't mentioned on the original list :P

It just makes me a bit bummed sometimes. But you are right. :hugs: I am going to focus on finally getting that sweater completed. lol Since it is like 1.5 + years or something since I got the yarn. lol

That does sound weird. o-o But I am guessing the stores did not had much choice and needed to follow the laws.

It is pretty cool, since the front does have a "hidden" map. lol I almost doen't want to wear them much, since I don't want them to get ruined or washed out. :P I have funko pop, book set in a chest and magnets too. I would love a hoodie!

the government made it a load more complicated for the shops to understand (they didn't make a very good job of explaining what "essential" actually counted as!), but there were a lot of confused shoppers with what those supermarkets had said wasn't essential ;)

That's one reason why I didn't want to try altering that hoodie - I don't want to risk it getting ruined! 😊 I did wonder about trying to add in either some embroidery or some iron-on vinyl to a hoodie I make, so it turns into a look-a-like HP hoodie, but so far I've not had the patience to try that out ;)

For us it was a nightmare having the government change the rules almost at a daily basis for what the people were suppose to do. ;) For the shops not as much changes at least. And you could always order things online. The only good thing was that I saved a lot of money not being able to eat out etc. :P

I might have to search online for an adult sized HP hoodie. lol I know people have issues with Rowling these days for some of her views/tweets.. but I am still going to love the books and movies. ;)

that definitely wouldn't make it easy to know what you're allowed to do! It's surprising how much that can add up, even if it's just grabbing a coffee a couple from a coffee shop of times a week ;)

I try to see HP as being a universe in its own right, rather than it being JK Rowling's 'thing' (even though she created it) - then whatever she says doesn't impact on my view of HP in quite the same way ;)

Now life is back to normal. Stores still provide you with hand sanitizer a lot of the time, that is about it.

Same here. People are very quick these days to "cancel" people. even for stuff they did like 20 years ago! o-o I feel like it has been become a real problem, since how does free speak work if you are getting death threats for voicing your opinion on social media?

that's the same here - masks aren't essential (although some people are still wearing them) and the hand sanitizer is by the shop entrance, but again not everyone is using it.

Honestly it feels like it's safer if those people don't start voicing their opinions, which does seem wrong in itself!

It is the same here. Few people wear a mask these days. And we can attend big events like concerts. So far things seem to be going well. :fingers crossed:

When it comes to certain topics it can certainly be safer to keep them to yourself, which is a problem for a democracy with free speech. Trans- rights is a big thing right now- which I am sure Rowling knows very well. We can't have a society where only the people with the politically correct views are allowed to speak up.

we had the rates increase again, but they've also stopped free testing, so there's less data of what the actual rates are as well....

That's a good point - there's a lot of subjects where it's healthy to have opposing (or even just different) opinions on things. Certainly in school I loved one particular class as we had debates on a lot of subjects & it was a really good way to actually develop your thoughts and feelings about that topic ;)

Sorry guys, besieged by migraines. Today's was so bad that I've been laying down and sleeping pretty much the entire day. Could barely eat because of it as well. To top it off my surgical foot has been hurting. Not sure if it's because of the lack of the pain meds Im to be taking or what. I thought I could not take them so since Friday I've been without them but Dad picked them up from the pharmacy today. We'll see if that's an improvement or not.

Sorry to hear about your migraines dear. I hope they ease up soon and the hurting foot too. :hugs:

I am not sure how much testing they are doing here, compared to earlier. But I suspect it is less. It helps you develop critical thinking skills and being able to debate without resorting to anger and name calling. ;) It is okay that not everyone is going to agree on every topic. :)

aww well that definitely stinks :( Any idea what's causing them, or is that just something that tends to attack from time to time without any real cause? Hopefully the pain meds will help, and your foot will stop hurting at least squishes gently

nods it also came in useful when I was doing my English Literature exams, as I was able to argue my point quite well laughs I was surprised how many strong opinions there were in that class though, considering there was probably only about 10 or 12 of us in that class!

And yeah, learning that other people having differing opinions (and that it's ok if everyone doesn't agree about something) is definitely a great skill to learn!

I always hated writing those essays in school. As soon as we handed one in, we got a new assignment. o-o And I would struggle with the usual lack of motivation and writers block. .P I have always like a good debate. :D

It is a skill that is lacking in far too many people. And people will be too stubborn to admit they are wrong, even if you give them evidence. ;)

writer's block always seems to like to make an appearance when you've got an essay to write :P I'm sure it does it on purpose ;)

nods that's very true!! or even worse, they take the evidence then twist it so it's factually incorrect, but 'proves' their point ;)