The Daily Echo: Our shielding story, Day 168

Awake at seven o’clock again this morning but snoozed on until eight. Didn’t quite spring into action immediately but soon enough to get myself ready to go to church, for the first time since lock down, at nine-thirty. I had been hoping to meet up with the Kenilworth Sleaths there, as it was a service to bless the schoolbags ready for the ‘back to school’ run next week. However, they didn’t make it, but I was glad I went.

The arrangements in church were very carefully thought out with everyone wearing a mask, and no-one touched anything, so my nerves were unfounded, and it went off without a hitch. I was touched that so many people were pleased to see me and welcomed me back. I was in trouble though. I had parked my car too near the path by the side of the church and waiting for me as I emerged, were two of the congregation ready to point out my misdemeanour. I was crushed. There’s always something, isn’t there? Ah, well, lesson learned.

Back home, I comforted myself with a couple of freshly-baked croissants, and a freshly-made brew. Felt a bit better then and got on with a few jobs, before having a little sit-down on the sofa. John made another cuppa, which I promptly ignored as I fell asleep. Whaaat? No idea what is going on. It was only one o’clock in the afternoon. It wasn’t as if I’d even been working very hard.

I woke up in time to watch the Grand Prix this afternoon, which wasn’t awfully exciting as it was a bit of a procession. Half-way through, I thought I’d better busy myself and get ready to go round to Mum’s to take her shopping.

Mum was very well and thrilled that I had taken round a photo album of the family that I’d had printed, called ‘Lockdown 2020 – March to May’. She was delighted to look at the pictures of everyone, especially of the great-grandchildren and herself. “I don’t take a bad photo, do I?” she said. Well, she doesn’t. All the photos of her in the album look good. So, she had a second look through the album to feast her eyes once more. She was even more delighted when I told her that the album was hers to keep.

It was a pleasant hour or two with Mum – she was in a good mood and, apart from commenting on me wearing a mask, she wasn’t critical at all. She thought she hadn’t seen me for ages though and had I been on holiday? Erm, no, just been busy. We sorted through her clothing and fished out a load that she thought probably needed washing, so I brought those home with me. I also brought home a bag of ironing. She couldn’t remember who had done her washing for her this week, but it had been tumble dried and the creases were embedded in – no amount of folding and laying flat was going to undo them. I soon fixed that this evening and her clothes are ready to be returned.

When I got home, John had belatedly started watching the T20 cricket on telly. I do like a bit of cricket and the twenty-over cricket format is great for a nail-biting finish. For a while, England looked like they were making slow progress, but then the pace picked up and we thought it might be easy-peasy. That was before a few wickets tumbled all at once. But they made it to the finish line and won the day. Exciting stuff.

John had planned to go out and do a bit more stone-shifting, but the cricket lured him in and he watched to the end of the match before starting the work. That meant that he delayed his tea-time by about an hour or so. I went out at seven o’clock to let him know that it was ready, and I was going to eat mine. He was on a roll however and wanted to get the last little bit done. He had to re-fresh his chips in the chip pan when he finally came in…..

By the time John made it into the lounge, I had started watching a film about Barbara Windsor. I thought it was just a documentary and, it probably not being John’s cup of tea, I decided I’d view it while he was out labouring. However, it was a really well constructed piece of theatre and I thoroughly enjoyed it. John came in half-way through and even he enjoyed too.

The ol’ man made me laugh this evening though. I came up to write my diary and, after the night-time ritual of locking the house up, he wheezed his way upstairs, plonked himself on the chair beside me and said, very breathlessly, “I think I’ll have to review how much I think I can get done in a day….” No…. you don’t say?? He’s nearly seventy years old, with a variety of ailments and he’s only just thinking now about reviewing the situation?? Chuckle, chuckle, chuckle. You gotta love him.

I constantly think about how I shield John in the current circumstances as I am not keen for him to become a statistic of COVID-19. Despite there only being one reported death in the community using the new counting method, shockingly, there have been 1,715 people confirmed as infected today. I am hoping it wasn’t a mistake to go to church this morning……fingers crossed. It seems we still need to be shielding.

Take care everyone. God bless.