With a yoga class that I was determined to go to, I got up relatively early this morning and took John his cuppa almost before he was awake. We have been a bit lax in recent months in adhering to the supplements that the dietician recommended, so the other day, I thought that if we started them up again there may be an improvement in John’s health. So, not only did he have a nice cuppa today, but also a great big bowlful of tablets too. He probably didn’t need breakfast after that!
I left John in bed and made my way to yoga, which I thoroughly enjoyed, having stationed myself near the open doors for the fresh air and wearing my mask throughout so as to avoid the dreaded lurgy. The only thing was, of course, is that I haven’t been keeping up with any exercise since March and found myself a little rusty. “Engage your core!” Jaime called out to us all cheerfully. Core? What core? Well, I found it when I tried to do the plank – only to find it was pretty non-existent. Not only that, the session included mini-planks, elbow-planks, standard planks and side planks. Nope. Definitely no core there to speak of. I collapsed in a bit of a heap and tottered home. Might struggle to get up in the morning.
Once home, I found that John was up and about. He’d been summoned to the front door by the delivery man putting some aluminium sheets into the porch. John’s plan is to cut them to size for a bespoke repair on his Lotus. Once up, he stayed up, and I found him browsing motorbikes on the computer when I came wandering into the lounge on my return from yoga. New project, I wonder?
We had planned to catch up with Pete and Dawn this afternoon now that we can meet in the garden, and had invited them here as we were waiting for the Sky repair man to call. In the end, the Sky man came across lunchtime and sorted us out quite quickly with a hard-wired link to the router and a booster box upstairs. We are now able to watch TV in three (yes, three) rooms. Pleased about that. His arrival early meant that we could make the trip up to Pete and Dawn’s instead of them coming to us. A change of scenery for us – how nice.
John did a bit of wood-chopping before we went out, and then we walked up the road. It’s not far, probably three hundred yards or so, but John is still out of breath and it’s a struggle to walk even that far without having to stop a couple of times. Anyway, we made it and had a lovely time in their back garden admiring their handiwork and newly-nestled plants to make it really nice. I was particularly jealous of a flaming Japanese Maple and a stunning fuchsia in white, pink and purple. It may be a fledgling garden now, but this time next year it’ll be really well established and it’s going to look glorious.
After we’d prepared and eaten our evening meal, it wasn’t yet time for Bake-Off to which I was looking forward to watching, so we watched ‘Who do you think you are?’ that I’d recorded yesterday. We think we are living through tough times now, but hearing the story of David Walliams’ great-grandfather’s life, as he suffered from shell-shock in the First World War and ended up in a lunatic asylum for forty-odd years, was heart-rending. Why are we humans so cruel as to impose war on each other? It has such a terrible cost.
Had a very very welcome phone call from Margaret M checking on how we are this evening. So very much appreciated to know that people are looking out for us. Then afterwards, we did watch Bake-Off and enjoyed it. Great light relief and some cracking bakes and skills on show.
Thereafter, of course, we watched the news. I really think I need to stop watching the news though. No-one is telling the truth as far as I can tell; politicians are playing with people’s emotional and mental health, as well as their income, promising this or that and then reneging on the deal. I was exhausted trying to make head and tail of the arguments raging backwards and forwards with the Manchester situation and, while recognising that the coffers are empty, found myself siding with the populists and wondering how Westminster can be so callous as to assume people on a low wage can live on a fiver a day. At the same time, I was wondering how it had got to this with Mancunians being offered up for ransom. “There’ll be anarchy,” I growled to John as we watched the stories unfolding. “Well,” he replied, “there’ll probably be civil disobedience at least.”
In the meantime, the virus is having a high old time infecting 21,331 people today and killing off 241 in the community. Hospitals are beginning to creak a little, we hear, in the Tier 3 areas and, overall, there were 63 deaths in hospitals on 18 & 19 October.
Let us pray for truth and trust to be restored in this topsy-turvy world and that everyone may work together in harmony and as one against the virus. That’s what we need now.
Take care everyone. God bless.
Footnote: Thought I’d better mention that it was Danielle’s birthday today. She had lovely day browsing Hobbycraft and going out for lunch. But, (and this is why it’s footnote) she posted a photo of her ankle this evening. A great big, fat sprain. Ouch! Potholes….. they’re the devil.
Lovely to see you both yesterday – although it does get nippy sitting in the garden even on a mild day. I think it will be a quick coffee and max 1 hour’s chat as the day’s get colder!!
(note – I am still planning to see you – just got to sort the ways and means 🙂 )