Month: October 2020

It had all been going so well. Sort of. I had been worried about John being a bit of a ‘Puffing Billy’ for the last few days, and I had asked him to get the nurses to check there was nothing untoward. Every day, they’d take his temperature, blood pressure and oxygen levels. Generally be surprised at how low his blood pressure was, but temperature and oxygen levels were in the ‘acceptable’ camp. Even this morning it seemed OK.

But, you know, the day goes on and the ol’ man does a bit of manual work and his body probably hasn’t got the capacity for it, what with having an infection an’ all. So it wasn’t really a surprise when I got back from Mum’s this afternoon to find he’d taken himself to bed, to get over having moved the trailer from one side of the drive to the other, and having had to do a fair bit of pushing and pulling.

“OK,” I said, “I’ll cook tea in a bit and let you know when it’s ready.” It was ready at seven o’clock and I went to wake/get John up. Only to find he was pretty delirious with a very high temperature – and he was wheezing well. Hmmm.

“I’ll phone the Triage nurse on Ward 19, but whatever, I’m taking you to hospital.” I declared, as I whizzed round the room grabbing all the bits and pieces to pack into the suitcase to take with him. John felt too ill to care. And I couldn’t get through to anyone on the Triage team so, having hung on for twenty-three minutes, I decided just to bundle him into the car and set off for Heartlands A&E.

I was a bit anxious as to whether I was doing the right thing. The last time John was struggling to breath, the Triage nurse had advised that I should call an ambulance. The problem with that, though, is they take him to either Walsgrave or Warwick, and neither hospital really knows his case well enough.

Anyway, we got to the hospital, and John stumbled in. They could see he wasn’t well, so took him immediately to the high-dependency emergency room. They let me explain the situation before they ordered me out. But not before they said that, given the symptoms, they would have to treat it as a possible COVID infection and would be moving him again to different unit. Oh, and I would have to self-isolate for fourteen days.

Great. Bang goes the holiday we had planned for next week in Devon with Michael and Danielle. And if I am self-isolating, how am I going to make sure John’s dressing gown and phone charger get to him now? Both of which I’d forgotten to pack in the rush. Slowly dawning on me that I can’t go out until further notice. Crumbs.

So, please excuse me if I don’t natter on about how the day went otherwise or exclaim about how the COVID infection and death rates are rising. (15,166 infections today, 81 deaths in community and 34 in hospitals on 8 & 9 October). My mind is full of the events from seven o’clock onwards and feeling bothered about the current state of play with John. More news tomorrow.

In the meantime, take care and God bless.

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A rude awakening this morning. The alarm went off at six-thirty as normal, but I snoozed it and the next thing I knew was that the front doorbell was clanging away and echoing around the house. Startled, I leapt out of bed, stuttering to John that it was the nurse arrived, as I struggled to pull on a pair trousers before hurtling downstairs to let her in. Not, however, before she had rung the doorbell twice more though, and was a-hammerin’ on the door when I got downstairs. Crikey! And it wasn’t yet seven o’clock.

I unlocked Fort Knox and, on opening the door, I said, “John’s still in bed, just getting up. He’ll be down in a minute.” I might also have made mention of the fact that she was early. She looked at her watch. Honestly, it was five to seven by then – but, I suppose, what’s five minutes between a patient and a medic? She was a bit terse, and replied, “Well, the appointment is at seven o’clock isn’t it? Is John coming?” All I could do was nod and repeat that he was on his way. Too early for an argument…… but I so wanted one.

After John had had his treatment, I dozed on for an hour or so and listened to some meditation and prayers, and John settled for a bit more sleep. Once I was up, though, I was fannying around. I couldn’t concentrate as I was still discombobulated from being woken up and from the nurse’s rather abrupt tones – despite the meditation and prayers.

I had a little plan of things to do before I was due to Zoom-chat to Sue W, all the way up in the Lake District, at eleven o’clock. I had planned to pop the washing in, put clean cushion covers on, pay Mum’s bills, get meat out for tea and clean the downstairs cloakroom. None of which got done at that time. I ate a leisurely breakfast instead, listening to Classic FM and browsing the Lakeland and Traidcraft catalogues that had come in the post. Before long, the time had passed and there was no time to do those little chores.

Had a great chat to Sue though. Absolutely brilliant. It was so lovely to see her and to chew the cud a bit. I think we both had thought we might natter for maybe three-quarters of an hour or even an hour, but one and three-quarter hours later we thought we’d better abandon our chin-wagging and get on with prepping our lunches in our respective homes. A great interlude in the day. Mwah!

I did do a few chores after our chat, and also sorted out some bits and bobs to take to Mums. John had been pottering in the garage when he came in for a spot of lunch, “What are your plans for the afternoon?” he asked, as he plonked himself on the sofa. I pulled a bit of a face. “Got to take that stuff over to Mum’s. Can’t decide whether to go now and catch up on the tennis later, or watch the tennis and go tomorrow.” In the end, I decided that I’d check on the tennis. If they’d started playing, I’d watch. If they hadn’t, I’d go to Mum’s. Ooooh, guess what? Had a lovely afternoon watching the tennis.

John spent the afternoon putting the final mending touches to the trailer which he’s planning to put up for sale, and then pottering in the garage and doing bits on the car. Consequently, he came in late and I was still engrossed in the French Open, so we didn’t sort out anything to eat for a while. In the end, I hadn’t got any meat out for tea, so it was up to John to sort out re-heated take-aways from the freezer. He’s an expert at that.

Before we sat to eat though, I took a lovely phone call from Catherine. They were at their home in Norfolk for a week and had just arrived, pleased see a bottle of gin on the table waiting for them when they got there. Had a great chat and I was pleased to hear all her exciting news. I was touched to hear that she’d been up to Coventry recently, too, to scatter Aunty Mollie’s ashes and to hear her say that her Mum and Dad are together now. May they rest in peace.

So, we were running late what with one thing an another. Neither of us had looked at the clock and I was just about to get myself a Magnum as a dessert, when the house phone rang. It was Dawn, wondering if we were OK. Gosh! Is that the time?? Yes, yes, we’re OK. Just hadn’t realised it was eight o’clock. It’s not – it’s a quarter past. Oh. We were supposed to be Skyping at eight. Sorry. sorry.

We ran upstairs to log on to Skype in the computer room – well, I ran, John puffed his way up and looked blue when he got there. Thought it’d be quick and easy upstairs as we hadn’t set John’s laptop up in the lounge. Ha! Quick and easy? No, it wasn’t. I don’t think we have previously Skyped Pete and Dawn from that computer, so it was a proper set up job. I panicked as usual, “I don’t know how to do it. I’m not sure I can get the link. It’s not working.” etc. But we did get it to work and what a lovely evening we had.

I know I am a soppy old soul, but I do so love my friends. Our evening was so comfortable and friendly and easy. No edge. Just being us. With laughter and sharing and comfort. Another mwah!!

And so to COVID. What now? In the last twenty-four hours, 13,864 people have been confirmed as infected. 87 people have died in the community. 38 people have died in hospitals on 7 & 8 October. The infection rate is doubling in some areas every week. One in 240 people have COVID (apparently). Lockdowns are a-coming. There’s going to be a North-South divide. That’ll cheer us all up, won’t it? Ah, well, HS2 will soon sort out the North-South divide I’m sure…….. and there’s no panic here, folks. Keep calm and carry on. (Never thought I’d say that.)

My daily diary: written with love and hope. Peace be with you all. Take care.

I decided to take myself seriously today and at least try to get back on track with a bit of healthy exercise. Although we’d had another disturbed night, we were, of course, up with the lark awaiting the nurse’s arrival at seven o’clock. But, instead of going back to bed and pulling the covers over my head, I thought I’d follow the plan I had set out for myself yesterday.

The plan was to do a bit of yoga since I had missed class on Tuesday, and then take myself a walk to see if the fresh air would chase away the blues. I did feel better for having done both of those two things, and I even came back home and had a little go on my swing in the back garden. John, in the meantime, took himself back to bed and slept on for a while. It is he who has the disturbed nights – always very restless – and we never know how to ensure he gets the requisite amount of sleep, no matter what we try. His restlessness spills over onto me too, so both of us wake up bleary-eyed most days.

However, we both faced the day with relative enthusiasm and John was in the garage for much of the day faffing about with his car. He put the doors on the other day, to much fanfare, but when I asked him what he’d been doing today, he said, “Taking the doors off again.” We both giggled. Life’s often like that, isn’t? You just think you’ve got it all sorted when you realise there’s an essential something missing, and you have to start all over again.

One thing I have to start all over again is a haircut. I was due to go to the hairdressers today and I was very much looking forward to it. A little punctuation to my day, so I thought. Only to find that I was an hour out, and the hairdresser phoned me to say I’d missed my appointment, and no, sorry, she couldn’t squeeze me in today, or any day before we go away on Monday. I wasn’t half cross with myself!!!

I had proposed to call in on Paul after I’d been to the hairdresser today. He was ‘wfh’ today. Wfh? Working from home…… I decided to go anyway, despite the fact that the visit to the hairdressers was no longer viable, and cheer myself up by looking at his lovely face. I had a little gift for Freddie that I wanted to drop in. John came with me too, and we had a lovely little interlude over in Kenilworth for fifteen minutes or so.

On our return, I had to find an excuse to sit down and watch the tennis at Roland Garros again, so the knitting came in handy for that, and John went back to wrestle with his car doors before our evening meal.

I think the doors were just as much as he could handle, however, as the ol’ man came in, puffing rather well. We’re not sure what’s going on with his chest, although it’s clear that the infection is healing up as he isn’t coughing so badly now. Yay!!

After our meal, we trawled the TV for anything decent to watch and plumped on the film ‘Just Mercy’, which is based on a true story about a lawyer fighting for a black man wrongly convicted of murder, and the attempts to get him off death row. It was very tense and a horrible reminder of how black people continue to be treated in America – and probably here too. I felt exhausted after I’d watched it. Heaven knows how they all feel, or felt, going through it.

What with one thing and another today, I didn’t watch the news. However, I did overhear the shocking number of 17,540 people having been confirmed as infected the with virus today. I heard the number and had to double-check, nay, triple-check as to whether I’d heard right. It is.

Locally, in the Solihull area, we are at the ‘R’ rate of 1.4, and there are now 6 cases in Balsall Common. 77 people have died nationally in the community in the last twenty-four hours and 32 in hospitals, on 6 & & October.

The virus now seems to be rampant again and the government is looking at a three-tier system of classifying the risks. Our area is already high risk……. help!! Mind you, if you listen to Trump, the virus is ‘a blessing from God’. Nearly choked over me cup of tea when I heard that!!! The fact that he’s got over the virus so easily is the worst of all scenarios in my view – heaven help us and save us from lunatics.

WYH. KYD. WYM. OK?

All new abbreviations filtering into our conscious…. Wash Your Hands. Keep Your Distance. Wear Your Mask.

Wilco – over and out! Stay safe everyone. God bless.

Punctuation. Life needs punctuation. If it doesn’t have any, it’s flippy and floppy and sloppy.

That’s how we’re feeling today – flippy, floppy, sloppy. “What shall we do today?” we say, first thing. “I dunno. Whaddya wanna do?” And, like the vultures on a branch in The Jungle Book, shoulders shrug, feet shift and bleak eyes stare out at the rainy season.

Punctuation adds meaning doesn’t it? I mean, if you don’t get the punctuation right in a sentence, it can be gobbledegook. Our lives are actually punctuated with great things mostly, but there are some times when they’re not. And today was one of those days. Just the nurses calling in and mealtimes was all we had planned today, so it was another case of shoulder shrugging and deep sighing.

In the end, we looked at our lists of ‘things to do’ and thought we’d better tackle some of those. John took the opportunity of the sunshine this afternoon to get outside for five minutes and ‘weed and feed’ the bit of lawn that is growing an abundance of weeds. He was disappointed that he was unable to seed the area though. That’s going to have to wait until the springtime apparently. The instructions on the lawn treatment tell him to leave any seeding the area for at least six weeks. We’ll be well into cold weather by then I should imagine, so no go.

Me, I sorted out John’s tablets and took a stroll up to the pharmacy to ask if we can have them delivered in blister packs. It’ll save a job every couple of weeks and the panic of running out of anything. John was going to come with me, but we just got to the bus stop when we both realised we’d come out without our masks. As we turned back to get them, John was out of puff and he realised, with the nurses coming soon, that he wouldn’t be able to rush, so he decided he’d go back home. Success at the pharmacy though.

I also did a lot of appointment cancelling. Unexpectedly, and rather thrillingly, Michael has booked next week off work, so Danielle suggested we hire a caravan each in Devon for the week. John is exceptionally keen to get away, being bored of our four walls, so we said yes, what a good idea. Obviously, John would have preferred jetting off to some winter sun – he’s been on about that ever since we got back from Norfolk – but beggars can’t be choosers, can they? Fingers crossed the weather will be kind to us – and John will be well.

In addition to his foray into the garden today, John spent some time in the garage with his beloved car. It’s a while since he did anything on it and I think he had a happy hour or two in there pottering about. While he was doing that, I found an excuse to watch more tennis. I did the ironing in front of the TV and then carried on trying to sort out the square of knitting I started the other day. Very sedentary, but I enjoyed it.

And thus passed another day. Tomorrow, we’ll no doubt start the day with the same question, ‘what we gonna do today?’ but I have no doubt we’ll find something. One thing I know, is that it will be punctuated tomorrow. I have a hairdressing appointment to get my haircut at lunchtime…….

In the meantime, I can hardly look at the stats for the latest virus infections and certainly don’t want to watch the news to see what the clowns have been doing now. Oh, sorry, did I say clowns? Silly me, slip of the tongue.

I did, of course, steel myself to check the virus figures today. 14,162 people confirmed as infected and 70 people have died in the last twenty-four hours. 26 people have died in hospitals on the 5 and 6 October. The NHS figures really don’t add up and are not consistent from day to day, so I am not sure how accurate that is. And 5 cases in Balsall Common now.

Please take care everyone. The invisible is attacking the visible, and it ain’t nice. God bless and peace be with you.

A quick one today. The reason? Sat watching the tennis into the early hours accompanied by a nice glass of brandy. This means that it’s very late and I may be impaired.

After very hectic night’s sleep last night, I managed to oversleep this morning, so missed my yoga class, much to my disappointment. Instead, I got up late and had a bath rather than a shower and washed my hair in defiance. I then crept back into bed for a short while to natter to John.

We finally winkled ourselves out of bed about eleven o’clock. A little potter about in the kitchen, and John spent some time scrolling through stuff on the internet before we had our lunch.

I ate my lunch while talking to youngest son, having already texted him to seek advice about paleo pasta made with chestnut flour. Great advice and a recipe forthwith, so we’ll see how it turns out once I get round to doing it.

After lunch and the chat, a little more Roland Garros, before we decided to go back to Melbick’s garden centre to see if there were any attachments for my hose and anything else exciting there. I was hoping for candles, but nothing doing. At least, they did have candles but only large, fat ones. I am looking for tall, elegant ones.

Once we were back, we had a quick cuppa and a cream cake – whoo-hoo! – before we had to set off for the hospital. This time, it was for a scan on John’s back. I parked up, while John went in to the scanning room, and then I sat outside waiting. For an hour. Dozed a bit…..

Finally, he was done and we trundled back home to get our evening meal as another TV dinner. TV viewing was The Blitz – a great documentary – and, of course, ‘Bake Off’. Then, as were we flicking from recordings to the main event, what should come up but more Roland Garros. This time, it’s Nadal versus a new, 19-year old player on the circuit, so naturally, I had to stay up and watch it didn’t I? A bizarre scenario though. They commenced playing around eleven-thirty at night and the match finished at around two in the morning (French time, I hastily add!). I mean, how mad is that?? I always knew the French were crazy, but still….. even for them that’s a bit far, in my opinion. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it.

We didn’t watch a great deal of news today, but still noted, for what it’s worth, that it’s just the 14,542 (!!!) people who have been confirmed as positive for the virus today; and there have been just the 76 families devastated by virus-related deaths in the community; and 25 more people died a COVID-related death in hospitals on Sunday and Monday.

Not great is it? And 3 new cases in the last seven days in Balsall Common.

I’m washing my hands. How about you? Stay safe everyone. God bless.

Lovely day today, one way and another. First of all, despite the early start with the medics arriving at seven o’clock again, we had a good rest before we set off to meet William, Thomas and Danielle at the Sheldon Country Park. A park that has been recommended to me frequently over the years, but one where we have never been.

Had a great walk – about two miles all told, there and back, so John did well. We had great fun playing Pooh Sticks, throwing stones into the stream, paddling in puddles, watching the aeroplanes take off and land, as well as the trains rumbling by. The weather was mild and very pleasant indeed and we were lucky that it only started to rain as we got back to the car.

Of course, I had as much of William as I could get, a little bit of Thomas and smashing company from Danielle, who is so easy to spend time with. I am so very blessed with my daughters-in-law. Honestly, I couldn’t ask for better. Love them both to bits.

We had a bite to eat when we got back and once it was prepared, I took my lunch into the lounge to eat on my lap while I watched some of Roland Garros. John decided to eat his at the breakfast bar, as it was a knife and fork job. He had hardly had a mouthful when the doorbell rang and it was the nurse come to administer his afternoon meds. Only she didn’t. Nothing untoward, in fact, but I overheard her say to John, “Joy is coming as well. She’ll be here in a minute.” It transpired that the cannular needed changing again, as the one John had got in was a temporary one. The nurse who’d arrive wasn’t qualified. Joy is the ‘Queen of Cannulars’ apparently, and she did arrive, but it was a good fifteen, or even twenty, minutes later. All in all, John was nearly an hour being faffed about with, with his lunch still sitting on the breakfast bar and his tummy rumbling.

The afternoon passed nicely with a bit of tennis, a bit of computer work – John was looking at cars, and I was looking patio table covers – and a bit of a potter about.

I am not really sure what we watched on TV this evening, other than a Panorama programme about the fires in Australia last year – a horrible reminder of how very frightening it was and how devastating, not just for the people who have lost their homes and their livelihoods in some cases, but also the thousands upon thousands of animals who perished.

The reason I don’t really recall what we were watching, is that I decided to try and finalised the one knitting square I have left here at home that is to go into a blanket for people in Malawi. Mum had done a couple of rows on it very successfully when she stayed with us earlier in the year, but when it came to reducing the stitches on the rows to make the square, she got very muddled and it became a bit of a hotchpotch. So I spent the evening unpicking it as far as the diagonal ready to begin again. Had to concentrate very hard, so TV was just background noise really.

Knitting is not something I enjoy, but I thought I’d commit myself to knitting a few squares last year, only to find that knitting doesn’t actually agree with my arthritic hands. So I’ve got a good excuse not to do any more, but I really want to get this last one out of the door. In the meantime, I shall have to think of another way I can help our twinned diocese in Malawi. I’m sure I’ll come up with something.

As the evening wore on, I started to feel tired so thought I might make a start on my daily diary earlier than normal, only to be reminded that we were waiting in/up for a shopping delivery between half past eight and half past nine. Ah. Yes. Had forgotten that. Best stay here the in the lounge then.

The delivery finally arrived dead on half past nine. The driver was very apologetic at being late – he’d had a busy night, he explained. No worries we said, cheerfully, gritting our teeth. We transplanted the shopping into the kitchen and John was doing a good impression of Puffin’ Billy again, so I said I’d manage and he could go and sit down. “I know when I’m not wanted,” he said, as he took me up on the offer.

John had hardly sat down, when the doorbell rang again. See a pattern here? It was the nurses back again. I left them to it and carried on disgorging the shopping into the cupboards. We’d done a big shop and there was a lot of stuff. Fingers crossed it’ll keep us going for a bit.

And that was us today. Another late night, but hey-ho, I am sure I can have a nap sometime tomorrow……

We did watch some of the news today and caught up on the various stories making the headlines, including the Trump story in which he declared he felt wonderful and twenty years younger. Clearly, he’s recommending catching COVID for its youth-enhancing properties…… the man is mad.

In our own country, there have been 12,954 cases of the coronavirus reported today and 19 deaths in the community. The NHS tells us that there were 10 deaths in hospitals between 1 October and 3 October, which is 23 fewer than they reported a couple of days ago and 13 fewer than they reported yesterday. Yes, those figures really add up don’t they? Jeez…..(am I allowed to say that?). Heaven knows what the real figure is.

Locally, there have now been four reported cases in the last seven days in Balsall Common. I thought it might catch up with us….. disappointed it has. Alert! Alert!

Stay safe everyone, and God bless.

After our late night and hectic-ness with John’s medical treatment last night, we were both tired this morning and chose to sleep on after John had had his antibiotic dose this morning. The medical intervention wasn’t as easy as we’d have liked, but certainly not such a kerfuffle as we were expecting.

The nurse came at seven o’clock as expected and, also as expected, took one look at the fact that John didn’t have a cannular in and promptly said she wasn’t qualified to fit one, so she’d have to send off for someone who was. The ‘someone who was qualified’ turned up about ten o’clock, so John flopped back into bed to catch up on his sleep as soon as she’d gone. I also stayed abed for a little while longer and didn’t get up until it was nearly lunchtime.

I decided to make banana pancakes for brunch and was soon preparing those, smothered in raspberries, blueberries and pecan nuts, all drizzled with maple syrup. Delicious.

After we’d eaten, we spoke to Michael on a video call. He’d phoned early this morning then again at lunchtime, at which neither time were we available. We also seemed to miss everyone else’s calls today too, as John said Paul had called and Richard left us a message on the landline. Not sure what we have been doing to miss the calls – perhaps we might both be a bit ‘Mutt ‘n Jeff’. Maybe catch up with them tomorrow?

Neither of us were keen to be busy again today, so we planned more sedentary options, like eating, drinking, watching TV, chatting and dozing.

Much of the afternoon was taken up with tennis again, which I thoroughly enjoyed. There were some really exciting matches. John took some time to be bidding on eBay for a gear lever for his beloved car and, as the afternoon wore on, he leapt up more and more frequently to check the bidding. I prepped an evening meal and when it was ready, it was a case of, “Can’t eat it yet. Five minutes. Got to watch the bids.”

It didn’t seem like five minutes later because he was soon back. He sat down eat and announced that he was thrilled to have won the auction. Well, that was very satisfying and some good news for once. Hoorah!

Rona had suggested the BBC TV programme ‘Life’ – a series of six episodes – so for our TV viewing this evening we thought we’d look at the first episode at least. In the end, we binge-watched the lot. All six episodes in one sitting. Great little programme for the older viewer I would say, and we really enjoyed it.

Of course, having binge-watched a whole series we found that the evening had disappeared and was away from us before we knew it. The doorbell rang and it was the nurses again for the night-time feed – sorry, sorry, dose of medicine.

So that’s the lot, folks. really nothing much to see here today. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll be more on our game.

Apart from John winning the eBay auction, the only other amazing thing today has been the coronavirus figures. Did you catch them on the news? If not, brace yourselves even more than you did yesterday…… Ready? 22,961 people have been reported as infected with the virus in the last 24 hours. 33 deaths in the community and 23 in hospitals on the 1st and 2nd October which, if you’ve been paying attention, is ten fewer than they reported for exactly the same timescale yesterday. You can do anything with numbers can’t you? And who knows what’s right and what’s wrong?

Talking of what’s right and what’s wrong, how many of you saw Trump, apparently exceedingly well, posting a video online and doing a drive-by for his supporters? Doesn’t seem to be much wrong with him, I thought. That’s the cynic in me. Certainly not ill compared to what we saw with Boris Johnson when he was hospitalised. Is it a ruse? Please don’t say it’s a ruse.

Take care everyone. God bless.

A slight improvement in mood today – not quite so lethargic and meh. I even managed to pop out to the shops and visit Mum today so can’t be too bad. Although the weather hasn’t helped, has it? I mean, I couldn’t decide if morning had actually arrived as it was so dark when I woke up just before seven.

But morning had arrived and John eased himself out of bed ready for the morning visit. He even brought me a cup of tea in bed. That’s two days on the trot now. How lucky am I?

I did a little pottering about before I decided I would risk going to the Co-op. The car park was slightly less full than it had been the other day, but interestingly, there weren’t that many people in the shop when I got there. Presumably people had parked and were doing errands elsewhere before filling up their baskets at the Co-op. I managed to get most of the things I was after, and only had to wait until two people went ahead of me in the queue. Anxiety levels therefore, were not too heightened.

After the ‘shopping washing’ I did a little more pottering about and sat down to watch an hour of tennis before steeling myself to go over to Mum’s. Just as I was doing that, John appeared, so I thought I’d go over later. We had lunch – well , brunch in John’s case – while I was still glued to the TV.

Before long, however, I couldn’t delay the inevitable any longer and so I set off with a bag of clean washing and a few groceries for Mum. She was in the loo when I arrived, so I was able to put everything away before she re-appeared. I knew I’d have half an hour if she was in the bathroom – she certainly takes her time! I had coo-eed when I arrived, but I don’t think she heard me, so after about fifteen minutes I coo-eed again and she finally called out, “Is someone there?” I replied, “Yes, it’s me.” to which she responded that she’d be out ‘in a minute’. Fifteen minutes later she emerged.

She was on good form again, no hint of criticism at any point this afternoon and we had a pleasant enough time. She hums a lot though. The minute the conversation stalls, she starts to hum the tune to Lee Marvin’s ‘Wandering Star’. We must have had at least six renditions of it this afternoon.

Mum wasn’t able to tell me what she’d been doing all week, but thought she’d watched a bit of telly. On about the fourth rendition of ‘Wandering Star’, I asked her which TV programmes she’d been watching. Only to be told that she hadn’t watched any telly this week. Now I don’t know what to believe – but it made me chuckle anyway.

She’s a little devil though, for tissues. When she was living with us she was a little devil for hankies. Millions of the blooming things floating about. Now it’s tissues – millions of them floating about now. I asked why she’d given up on her hankies and she blithely told me she hadn’t got any. Only a drawerful stuffed with them…….. “Oh? I didn’t know I’d got those.” Would she like to have one or two by her now? No, thanks, tissues’ll do.

We had a little sort out of some of her papers, going back to 1993, which she wouldn’t let me throw away. I was allowed to chuck out empty envelopes though…… and in the spirit of looking at papers, she found some Christmas cards and Orders of Service for one or two funerals she’d attended – none of which did she want to put in the bin either. But she enjoyed sifting through her history, so that was nice.

More tennis when I got home and more tennis as we ate our evening meal. By the time we’d eaten, I’d had enough of tennis though, so we scrolled through a few programmes until we plumped on one about Borneo which was brilliant and uplifting until the end, when we realised what a hash we humans are making of our world.

John then selected a film to watch but, to be honest, it was a bit harsh for me, so I thought I’d do my blog early. As I sat thinking about what I might write, I realised it was half past ten and no nurse had been. John said he’d wait a bit longer before we started phoning anyone and, sure enough, ten minutes later the nurses arrived.

The visit wasn’t a great success though, as the nurse found the cannular was blocked and no flush or drugs could get through into the vein. Unfortunately, the nurse wasn’t qualified to insert a new cannular. This has happened before. We know the ropes now. Nurse phones the ambulance service. We wait. Ambulance arrives and paramedics do all the observations again, then insert a cannular. Nurse administers the antibiotic. Paramedic removes the cannular. No, sorry, we can’t leave it in. You’ll have to have another one tomorrow morning. Well, we know that that is likely to cause a kerfuffle, but we’ll see.

We were lucky this time, though, the paramedics were on board with the idea of cannulating and didn’t argue about it. Last time, there was a great debate for well over an hour before they agreed to do the procedure. This time, no debate and they were efficient and very friendly, completing the job in about an hour. Midnight – and I’m now doing my blog late.

We had to laugh though. At one point, we had seven people in the house…… well, put it this way, we hope we are laughing about it but only time will tell, won’t it?

And…. brace yourselves for today’s COVID-19 figures. Due to a technical issue – blah, blah, blah – the numbers weren’t being collated correctly recently, and so today’s figures (and those in the coming days) are inflated with those that weren’t previously included. Ready? 12, 872 people have been reported as infected today. Obviously not everyone was infected today, but still, that’s a lot of people, don’t you think? 49 deaths in the community and 33 in hospitals on the 1st & 2nd October.

There have been no cases in Balsall Common, but there have been quite a few round and about locally, in Meriden, Hampton-in-Arden and Knowle. Is it a matter of time before it hits our village? Fingers crossed it doesn’t.

Take care everyone. Keep up with the hand-washing etc. God bless.

A very flat day today. We have done very little and there really is nothing much to report.

I had a bit of a walk this morning, which was very refreshing even though it was drizzling. I was initially following up a message from Pete and had walked up to the Crosses house to move the green bin back onto the drive as requested, and then thought I’d perambulate just a bit further. I didn’t go far, but it was nice to breath in a bit of fresh air.

A bit later on, I thought I’d nip to the shops to buy one or two bits and pieces as the on-line shop isn’t going to arrive until Monday evening, but I took one look at the busyness of the car park and decided against it. It was rammed. It was nearly lunchtime, so I suppose that’s why it was busy.

And that’s more or less the extent to which I have done any activity today at all. I haven’t been keen to do more chores round the house. I am fed up of those. I felt equally un-keen to chat to anyone either, so opted out of going to my prayer group this afternoon, too.

John stayed in bed this morning, played on the computer this afternoon before shooting off to Shepherds to buy a piece of wood, and that was the extent of his activity. We have had a really lazy day.

As I hadn’t bought anything from the shops, we did that Friday night thing of ordering a take-away again and ate a curry sitting in front of the TV this evening. We chose to try a different curry house but, to be honest, I didn’t think it was great.

The day has been interrupted at regular intervals to keep us on our toes, of course, by visits from the nurses three times today, but apart from that, we have slouched around. I have watched lots of tennis, in between the rain showers, and then we watched a short film this evening called ‘The Hundred-foot Journey’ with Helen Mirren. But either we weren’t in the right mood or it wasn’t very good, but either way, we looked at one another afterwards and wondered what it was all about.

Maybe an early night and a good night’s sleep will give us a boost and we’ll be up and at ’em tomorrow, but we certainly weren’t today.

We have watched the news today – probably about three times, morning, noon and night, and listened to the various views on the Trump’s COVID infection. Is it a ruse? That’s what some people are wondering. Heaven alone knows what the truth is. I imagine it’s true, but because truth has been a casualty of the Trump administration you do start to doubt it, don’t you? Whatever the truth is, I just hope that a more honest, humane and morally-principled America comes out of the election in November. As much as I’d like the same for our own country.

The news reports tell us that there are 6,968 people confirmed as infected today with 66 deaths in the community. The NHS reports that 9 people died yesterday in hospitals. We have also learned that the University of Northumbria has 770 students who have tested positive for the virus with 78 of them showing symptoms. Well, who could possibly have predicted that that would happen?

Take care everyone in these continuing uncertain times. God bless.

Beautiful sunshine and a delightful day weather-wise today. An absolutely gorgeous sunrise, with the sun peeping through the trees and the sky all colours. It is likely to be true, though, isn’t it – the saying about red sky in the morning, shepherds warning? We enjoyed the gentle weather today, but we’re bracing ourselves for the grotty weather to come tomorrow and over the weekend, of course. Storm Alex is on it’s way…..

We were up early again this morning to let the District Nurse in, with the alarm going off at half-past six. I chivvied John out of bed just after seven o’clock, only for the nurse to arrive a bit later than expected just before eight. Never mind, it gave us chance to do a few jobs before breakfast to get the day started.

I still have a long list of jobs to do and thought I’d try and tackle some of them at least. One or two of them were computer-related so I ensconced myself in the computer room to unravel the mysteries of the internet this morning.

One of the jobs was to try and access the building society on-line. I had had a go at getting on line with it nearly a year ago, but found myself tied up in red tape then, so left it. Thought I’d have another go today – which actually worked out alright in the end, but crikey, I wouldn’t have managed without someone from the building society talking me through it. Four passwords and then a ‘one-time only’ password and I am finally in…..

I sometimes wonder, like everyone else who is retired, how I managed to do a day’s work. My time management ain’t what it used to be. I was shocked to see that it was already noon by the time I’d sorted out me bits and pieces on the computer. Where’d the time go?

We had an unexpected visitor this afternoon, for a few minutes, just after lunch. The doorbell rang and, as I made my way to the door, expecting it to be the nurse, I called to John, “That’ll be for you!” It wasn’t, it was Caroline. She was just passing through the village and thought she’d just knock on the front door to see how we are. We had a lovely doorstep chat and it was so lovely to see her in the flesh. Lifted my spirits and I hope it lifted hers too. She’s still standing after the ‘big move’, I am pleased to say.

After lunch and my doorstep chat with Caroline I watched a bit of tennis again, but this time I made myself useful at the same time by doing the ironing. Much of what we own generally doesn’t get ironed, but there are one or two things like shirts or certain tops that just won’t take ‘no’ for an answer.

In the spirit of being useful while watching TV, I did a ridiculous thing this afternoon. I decided to watch the Harold Shipman story that had been recently aired (that wasn’t the ridiculous bit), and whilst doing so, I folded my carrier bags into one bag ready for Ocado to take them away next time they come. That seemed a bit crazy, folding and ramming plastic bags together but they are plastic so re-cycling is needed. I have been hanging on to them all lockdown ready to re-cycle, so I’m definitely doing it now that Ocado is offering to take them back.

John was busy trying to fit a cupboard door in front of the boiler for much of the day today. To be clear, we used to have a door there before, but it was very unwieldy and had to be removed entirely when the boiler broke down and the plumber couldn’t get at it with the door on. The door has been sat for a while waiting to be re-instated. The thing is, John has had to fashion new hinges/a new way of hanging the door so that it’s neither unwieldy nor impossible to get past. Not as easy as it sounds, and so it’s not finished yet. Maybe tomorrow?

A bit later on, we took a video call from the Sutton Sleaths as they were finishing their tea. Not to make us jealous or anything, but they were eating bread and butter pudding with ice cream. William was a-smacking his lips, clearly enjoying it and thrilled at sharing his experience with us. Thomas was also alert to the luxuries of such a dessert and looked like he’d like to have joined in too. Seeing them all was another little uplift to the day.

Because I had been folding my plastic bags – I’ve got hundreds of them – we ate a belated evening meal. In fact, it was so belated that John went to prepare it in the end. We finished eating very late – another case of, “Where’d the time go?” and it was then that I realised it was Zoom time with the girls from college. I joined in fifteen minutes late. Making a habit of that this week…..

The evening natter was good. Enjoyed seeing everyone who could make it, but sorry that Linda and Sue didn’t, due to illness and a bereavement.

We had a little debate as to whether we wanted to continue chatting for two forty minute sessions, or whether we should just go for one session in future. After tonight’s experience, I think the consensus was that we should stick with two sessions. What chatterboxes we are!! And how thankful I am to have such good friends.

The virus is still enjoying its journey among the population, by the way, and it infiltrated 6,914 people today, killing off 59 in the community and 28 in hospitals on the last two days of September.

Faith, not fear. God bless.