Isolation Day 77

After the vat of wine drinking yesterday, I decided to have a lie-in this morning, reading my book, snoozing and playing word games on my phone. It was lovely. I know the sun was shining. I know I should have been out there, but I really just fancied an hour or two to myself for a change. John got up and brought me a cup of tea, so why not?

I finally emerged at about 11.30, swanning down in search of the phone charger. Not much point staying in bed playing games on your phone when the battery has run out, is there? At that time in the morning it was brunch of course, so we indulged ourselves with smoked salmon, avocados, poached eggs and so on, sitting outside in the sunshine. Another lovely. We are so very lucky to be able to eat such wonderful food and enjoy it al fresco.

After brunch, and having eased Mum out of bed, also late, I decided it was time to tackle a job that I’ve been putting off – re-pot the bay tree. The tree is now seven years old, having been gifted to me for my sixtieth birthday, and it has only been potted on once before. It’s still a fine specimen, but it has been looking a bit poorly of late. I suspected it was pot-bound, and sure enough on inspection, that was found to be the case.

Initially, I had planned to pop the tree into another pot nearby, but disappointingly, the neighbouring pot was too small. Ah-ha! Never mind. I know, I’ll use another, larger pot that I’ve recently emptied, I thought. I lifted it up. Oh, no! Disaster! The newly intended pot had a big hole in the bottom. Don’t worry about it, John said. Just press the pieces back together, and once there’s soil in, it’ll be OK. Well that’s what I did, and it is. Fingers crossed that the trauma of extricating the tree from its existing abode into its new one won’t have done any lasting damage. There was a bit of tugging going on at one point…..

John feels a bit better and he felt able to tackle some more tidying today. One of the jobs: to make a decision about what to do with the covering for the patio table and chairs. We have had several covers in the past – all claiming to be UV proof, only to find they disintegrate within a year. This time, we are – well, John is – planning to use some waterproof material we have spare and make our own.

Unexpectedly, this involved working out what to do with the chairs. We have traditionally stacked them on top of the table, which has created a bit of difficulty in keeping a smooth surface for the coverings. But, lo and behold, John established that the chairs would fit under the table quite comfortably, so let’s keep them like that shall we? What a jolly good idea!! Now, to the sewing machine for the final flourish – ohhh……. tomorrow, maybe?

Naturally, I have been keeping my beady eye on John following his hospital stay last week, and because I hadn’t received the promised phone call from the respiratory nurses today, I phoned them. The advice remained, desist with the nebulised antibiotic as it appears not to agree with John, and just ‘wait and see’. If another infection lurks on the horizon, they will deal with it as and when. The cough? Oh, not to worry. A residual cough can go on for up to eight weeks…… crikey!!

Mum resisted getting herself dressed today until there was the bribe of a cup of tea. She got up late and was just making her bed, when I suggested she might like to get dressed before she went downstairs. The suggestion didn’t go down well, so she pointedly wafted into the lounge in her dressing gown. Her choice of brunch was an egg sandwich – her favourite – which she thoroughly enjoyed. As she sat, expectantly waiting for a cup of tea after her sandwich, I thought I’d try a new tack. “Cup of tea, Mum?” I asked. “Ooooh, yes please.” she said. “I tell you what, I’ll have it ready and waiting for you once you’re dressed.” And just like that, she went upstairs and got dressed.

We all sat outside this afternoon at about four o’clock to enjoy the sunshine. Mum had done her tour of the garden and commented on the various plants that she did, or didn’t, recognise, and then said she thought she ought to sit. We were fairly companionable for once, all three of us, but John and I were amused when Mum said, “They’ve done a good job of this garden, haven’t they?” clearly forgetting that it was our garden, and we’d done the slaving in it over the years! Ah well, we’ve got to get our amusement from somewhere, haven’t we??

This evening we decided to watch the TV. Inexplicably, we are not watching as much TV now, during lock down, as we normally do in ‘peace time’, having fallen out of love of it just a little bit. The exception being, of course, the series ‘Normal People’ which still stands out as a beacon of entertainment wonderfulness.

We flicked through the channels and paused on ‘Endeavour’. Shall we watch that? Will it suit Mum as well? We started to view but, after a very short space of time, it palled – it really is a very pedestrian programme. Mum was disappointed that we wanted to stop watching it – bottom lip at the ready. We scrolled through the films. How about Tolkein? Haven’t seen that yet. Mum wasn’t keen…. but if you want to watch it, she sniffed, and left the sentence hanging. Well, we do, Mum, so let’s try it. And we enjoyed it – including she who wasn’t keen at the start……

Another day when I didn’t want to focus on the news. Another day when I didn’t want to hear the idiots from the White House or Downing Street. Another day when I didn’t want to hear tragic stories unfolding. Riots in the USA and in Hong Kong; civil rights being eroded and misinformation, including in our own country if only we could but see; and deaths – just too many deaths. Super-sensitive right now.

But what to make of the way the government figures are presented? The number of those having been tested remains ‘unavailable’, having been so for a while; deaths in all settings: 111 – no longer separated out between hospital deaths and others; and how does that number accord with yesterday’s cumulative figures with no explanation as to the discrepancy? NHS figures tell us that there were just 13 deaths in hospitals yesterday, 31 May 2020, with 57 confirmed for the day before.

I think the writing’s on the wall, folks……. lies, lies and damned lies! What do you reckon?

In the meantime, God bless and peace be with you all. I wish you all well as you break out of lock down and see loved ones at a social distance this week. Take care. We will, of course, continue to isolate and be very careful – that pesky bug is still out there……