Isolation Day 57

After living on the edge of our nerves over the weekend and having had a much better day yesterday, I think all of us felt a little bit flat today. I certainly did, having woken up from a weird dream which I haven’t seemed to be able to shake off all day. So I had another little lie-in, reluctant to face the world; but John was up and had started doing chores i.e. tidying the kitchen, before I joined him for a late, leisurely and luxury breakfast of smoked salmon, avocado and asparagus. My excuse for such a breakfast is that John’s diet dictates it……… Mum also had a long lie-in, until about 11.15, but by the time she managed to make it downstairs all dressed and looking smart, it was lunchtime, and she enjoyed an egg sandwich for brunch, instead.

After breakfast, it was lovely to see Steve, our milkman, who had come to mow the lawn. We clung to the doorway and shouted our conversation across to him as he stood, mower at the ready, mid-lawn. We put the world to rights as we always do and then, reluctantly, we let him get on with his task. Lawn looks nice and neat and tidy now. In fact, the garden is looking quite good.

With the lawn mown, we decided we really must order some more plants. Since lock down, we haven’t researched who would deliver what when, so today seemed to be the day to do it. It’ll be a ‘lucky bag’ of plants arriving I am quite sure, because I was like a kid in a sweetie shop, saying, “I’ll have one of those… and one of those…ooooh, and one of those!” Hope I’ll find the right places to plant them in.

In keeping with the idea of a rest day, I decided I would start watching the BBC3 series, ‘Normal People’, which seems to be all the rage. John had watched it on the tiny screen on his phone when he was in hospital and he recommended it, so just one episode, I thought? Well, six episodes later….. I am hooked and can’t wait to watch the rest. A binge-watch – first time I’ve done that! Mind you, there does seem to be a lot of sex in it, so I wondered how Mum might take to it – but she doesn’t seem to mind….and, of course, John was happy to watch it a second time around!

While I was binge-watching TV, John went and had a little look at his Lotus. He had a good look over the nice, new headlining (of which he’s got two sets….. long story) that is to be fitted to the roof of the car. I think it’s going to be a bit of a fiddly job, so it might take both of us to tackle it, but we’ll see. I am not sure what John was thinking, but I was thinking how good it is that he feels up to tinkering.

Feeling too lazy to cook the evening meal, John volunteered. He did a grand job of serving us a duck breast each and all the veg. The only excitement (there’s always excitement when John’s around) being a good swirl of smoke wafting through the house, setting off the smoke alarm. Duck fat always seems to do that, I find!! For Mum, however, an exquisite serving of fish fingers. It sounds like we’re holding back the ‘good stuff’ from Mum, doesn’t it? But, do you know what? Fish fingers is just what she likes. If she’d had the duck we’d certainly have been struggling from tea-time until midnight with it.

After our evening meal, I thought, “Just one more episode of ‘Normal People’ before The Great British Menu.” So I did more binging on TV this evening too. John was so knackered after doing the evening meal that he went and had a lie down in bed before the evening medication arrived.

All has gone well on the medication front today, thank goodness, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed that it stays that way until Friday when the last lot of intravenous antibiotics are due to be administered.

Whilst all this is going on, we are mindful that other people are living their lives too. Others, with their own triumphs and difficulties, are wondering quite how they will live in a new normal, which is atypical of our previous lives. I, too, am wondering the same thing, and feel we have been handed a prison sentence, some of it suspended but not yet……..do the time first, then we’ll see about the suspended bit.

For those with any life-threatening illness I say a prayer, daily, for them to find strength, kindness, support and calmness in the face of it. So I offer that same prayer for those who have been infected with COVID-19 or who have sadly died from it.

Government stats, which include the delay in reporting, are 3,403 infected and 627 deaths in all settings as at 9 o’clock today. However, as Malcolm points out, the stats reported daily by the NHS of deaths in hospitals, are more up-to-date and accurate, and they show a marked downturn in May, as the graph shows, which is GOOD news. So can we say Hallelujah yet?