The Daily Echo: Our Shielding Story – Day 166

OK – so this is turning into a marathon. Almost everyone is bored of reading the The Daily Echo, with the days trundling by and me blarting out the same sort of stuff every day.

Regardless, encouraged by a few stalwarts, I am carrying on. And, you never know, this may be the stuff that my grandchildren alight on in many years to come, and they may wonder at the ‘nuttiness’ of the times we are living in. The ‘nuttiness’ being the pandemic (of course) and the English government’s madness just now. (Please don’t ask me to elaborate – it’ll have to be the newspaper cuttings that inform…. or social media?) At least, I hope that the grandkids’ll find this blurb/blog/diary interesting – even if they decide it was their Grandma who was mad….see below. But does any of it seem mad to you?

In reality, not a lot to report today. John decided he was going to do more ‘man-shed’ work over in Sutton, so he set off, mid-morning, to get on with it, leaving me at home to get on with…… oh, I don’t know …. stuff….

Firstly, my ‘stuff’ comprised sharing, far and wide, Michael’s request for participants in research for his PhD. (If you haven’t had any communication from me or John on this, please let me know). That took a while. And thank you to those who have already responded – mostly saying, “We don’t know anyone,” but, please even if you think you don’t know anyone please, please share. It may be a friend of a friend of a friend who knows someone who can help.

Then, I thought about improving both my mental and physical health, so scrolled through all of the yoga sessions Jaime had sent me, with a view to streaming one of them on YouTube. Grrr…… unavailable on my phone… how’s that happened then? Argh… I transferred the emails to a folder in my email account and the folders were empty. I know, I’ll check out how you ensure that the folders in your email account have content. Hmmm…….. It turns out, if you have a problem in this area, you have to delete your account on your phone and then re-install it. Oh, right, yeah…… as if I am going to do that without backup??? No worries, the lady from Apple re-assured me. You’ll get a phone call about 4.30 this afternoon to help you do that. Did I get the phone call? Did I? What do you think? Humph! And I never did get to do a yoga session today……

I seemed to spend hours on the research for what to do with my email account on the iPhone. Fortunately, Michael phoned from Jersey, which broke the spell, and I promised him that I’d go for a bit of a walk to prise me away from the computer – which I did – and then I called on Pete and Dawn to offer the very belated birthday gift I’d got for Dawn. They were well and feeling rather good, having been out for lunch with Lucy today. I was not jealous, as you can imagine.

I didn’t stay long at Pete and Dawn’s, anticipating the Apple phone call. And once I was home, I started preparing a nut roast. It’s one we particularly like, and it’s easy to make – just chop up a few nuts etc, sling in a few veggies, and add a couple of eggs. Ha! You think? It took me an hour to prepare. Admittedly, I had a bit of a wander round the garden gathering fresh sage and lemon balm, but still. I have no idea why it takes me so long to prepare this meal, but it always does, and I always think it’ll be quicker the next time, and it never is. Nevertheless, it tasted pretty good.

All the while that I was preparing the evening meal, I kept checking my phone for the anticipated phone call. Nothin’ doin’. Never did get the call. Will have to do a follow up tomorrow. Sigh…..

John arrived home just as I put the nut roast in the oven. Ah…..it’ll be a good forty-five minutes or more before it’s ready. Oh, and at seven o’clock I’m going to be chatting to my book club, so can you sort your own food out, please? Yes, no problem.

This evening, then, was book club, while John sorted out the food and watched a bit of TV. I, meanwhile, thoroughly enjoyed chatting to everyone about the book we’d read, “The Beekeeper of Aleppo” and planned the next book to read. I am so enjoying this book club. Firstly, the books chosen are interesting. Secondly, the people with whom I chat, are interesting. And thirdly, there’s no pressure. Nice.

After book club, I ventured downstairs, where John and I drank lots of red wine and watched trashy TV. I’d love to be able to say we watched ‘intellectually stimulating TV’ one day, but the truth is, we mostly don’t. This time, it was about a serial killer in America. And all I could think was, “Dear Lord, save their souls.” Unfortunately, the women’s bodies were not saved – all eleven of them – so it was distressing.

Meanwhile, people in the community are distressed that their loved ones have contracted COVID-19 and are worrying as to how it will all go. For nine people in the community it went badly today, with them dying from the virus, and three deaths in hospitals yesterday; and for another 1,276 there is the worry of the effects of the disease – whether they be acute or chronic.

Stay safe everyone – you don’t know where the pesky virus lurks. God bless.