First of all, I’d like to wish my sister-in-law, Gail, a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! All the way over there in OZ, we aren’t able to get to see Graham and Gail for real now and celebrate with them, but we always manage to touch base on high days and holidays if nothing else! Hope you have a great day, Gail.
For me, though, it’s been a funny old day, today. Got up at a reasonable time but couldn’t get going. Looked out on the inviting day outside and then chose to do all the indoor jobs instead. Weird. John, bless him, kept trying to encourage me out. “Come on, it’s such a lovely day out there.” I know, but…..I just want to get some of the jobs on my list ticked off. “You want to be outside in the garden today.” I know, I know, but things are whittling away at me and I want to do them. “OK, I’ll leave you alone.” Thank you.
The jobs I wanted to do were very exciting things like order paint online, sort out a couple of bank accounts, and polish the kitchen cupboards in an attempt to make the kitchen look like it’s nearly finished. And in between, of course, there was cooking and tidying and looking after Mum, so the jobs seemed to take forever, and polishing the kitchen cupboards will now continue into tomorrow.
Best bits of the day are checking in with friends and family and today was no exception. Envy reared its ugly head though on two counts: firstly, Freddie treated us to a nice, rational conversation and told us he was excited to be going on a bike ride with Daddy. I’d have loved to have gone with them but a) my bike is in Cambridge and b) oh, we’re in isolation. And secondly, William had a new paddling pool in his back yard, in the full sunshine, full of dinosaurs and slides and rings and balls to throw. Oooh, it did look good, and I’d have liked to have been in there with him – although to be fair, there might not have been quite enough room for an adult, but I’d have had a go!!
Then this evening, a short and sweet catch-up and trial run on Zoom with the ‘Ragdale Six’. After halting chats on WhatsApp and by email it was lovely to see my friends with smiling faces. Although, because it was the first time we had done a communication this way, there were a lot of anxious faces initially – not least because we couldn’t zoom in on Sue D (see what I did there?) and she was frozen out for a while. I felt a bit short-changed though, I must say, because we all wanted to ‘Clap for the NHS’ at 8 o’clock and so we’d barely done the rounds of, ‘Everyone alright at your house?’ before it was time to go.
The rest of the household i.e. John, Mum and the cats, mostly had a good day. John did more pottering (and hobbling) about, tidying bits and bobs to put out on the front for free, but he had a disappointing moment when he found that the plastic bits he’d sent for to finalise the ‘man-shed’, didn’t fit. Darn it, they’d sent the wrong ones. Ah, well, probably a good thing he wasn’t climbing on the shed again, given that his hip is giving him jip.
Mum managed a toddle in garden again today, enjoying the recently mown lawn and exclaiming at plants that her father used to grow, bringing back lovely memories for her. We picked a posy of flowers, just before we came back in before tea, to bring Spring into the house for her to look at when she can’t, or doesn’t want to, go out. Fresh flowers always cheer you up, don’t they? And the cats? I think they slept most of the day……
So, it being Thursday, we clapped our hearts out for the NHS this evening, and I think we were all thinking of not just those in the NHS, but of every single person in service industries who are looking after us and making sure that society does still function – and it made us clap even harder. Then, as always, a funny joke from John to those who were near enough to hear, before a wave goodbye to the neighbours up and down the road.
Despite all the doctors’ and nurses’ efforts of course, people are still getting sick and still dying. 4,583 people infected yesterday and 616 dead. But the first trial started today for a vaccine. Brave human guinea pigs trying it out. Fingers crossed it is effective, there’s no going back to the drawing board and no adverse effects on those taking part in the trial – please God.
Take care everyone – look after yourselves and your loved ones. Let’s make the most of what we’ve got now lest it change tomorrow.