No longer leukaemia…. but isolation, Day 39

At 94 years old (I suppose she’s allowed) Mum feels the cold. John and I had a great moment sitting in the warmth of the sunshine in the garden this afternoon, so I suggested I collect Mum to join us. She was cosy, watching ‘The Chase’ when I went in, and she definitely wasn’t keen to go outside. Literally whining as I winkled her out of the chair, which sort of tickled me, but, ‘Come on, Mum, you’ll enjoy it!’

Anticipating that she’d need cushions (I took two) and she might feel a draft for any (non-existent) breeze, I also took a blanket with us. We installed her in a nice, comfy chair and, for a moment, it was all lovely, then there was a little gust of wind and she shivered, “Oooh, it’s cold, isn’t it?”, so I wrapped her in the blanket before sending a picture of her to the family, to which Paul said she was like ‘Little Red Riding Hood’.

I popped back into the house after a while and glanced at the thermometer. Indoors: 22.9 degrees (don’t judge us). Outdoors: 23.7 degrees. The figures don’t mean anything to Mum, of course. We were roasting outside, but she felt cold and thought she’d be better off indoors, despite us telling her it was warmer outside. In the end, she did stay a while and drank a sherry as an aperitif before we escorted her into the lounge again. But it has made me think about how we view our physical and mental selves. If only we could put ourselves in others’ shoes, eh?

Anyway, in line with Jasper Carrot’s ‘watching wood warp’ scenario, and episode two of the cupboard cleaning story – I didn’t, regrettably, finish cleaning the darned things! The pesky cupboards are a lot more complicated than you imagine. And not only that, I managed to pull the front of one of them off, so spent a good 45 minutes trying to get the thing back on again. Had to get screwdrivers, pliers, hammers and the glue gun out to sort it out. Didn’t want to ask John to help, as he was struggling with his own pesky stuff on his ‘project’ in the garage……

As it turned out, the steering wheel he sent for and which subsequently arrived, should have fitted. What went wrong then? Well, it was the mole wrench wot done it! The grip of the mole wrench had flattened out the splines on the steering column of the car, so it struggled to accommodate the boss kit. 48 hours after the thrill of the steering wheel arriving, another parcel arrived containing needle files which enabled John to clean up the damaged splines, and…… ta-dah! The steering wheel is on!! (Well, more or less).

Knowing that John was having a fiddle with the car, Bryan dropped by to have a look at a safe distance. It was lovely to see him, and we didn’t have to shout too loud to make ourselves heard. Equally, I didn’t have to shout too loud when Sue C and David walked past the front of the house this evening on their way to deliver Sue’s hand-made scrubs. Again, so lovely to see them – and I celebrated internally, two points of ‘other-than-home’ human contact in one day. Nice.

Being outside in the warmth and beautiful sunshine, relaxing and chatting makes one think that you’re on holiday though doesn’t it? And, inevitably, a glass of something? Well, it would be rude not to. So I did – I opened a nice bottle of Prosecco and then, of course, chocolate followed…. oh, dear, oh, dear…..I shall cartainly waddle out of the door after lock down finishes!

Which, of course, is more than the 684 people who have died will be able to do, having succumbed to the virus. But here’s praying that every single one of the 5,386 people recorded as infected yesterday will recover and enjoy their favourite tipple in their garden or the pub soon. God bless.