Cracking the whip

My alarm went off and I actually got up, there and then, determined to get on with the decorating. An internal crack of the whip so that I can at least get some of the painting finished before the new suite arrives on Tuesday.

First job planned? Paint the ceiling in the main part of the room with its first coat. Thwarted. As I went to get the painting tray, I remembered it still had the grey wall paint in it. Ah… that’ll be a second coat on the wall in the extended part of the lounge then first …….. and afterwards, of course, before I could even consider starting on the ceiling, I realised that a bit more prep was needed. That is, wall and ceiling washing, furniture moving and dust sheets tastefully arranged. Hmm, the ceiling had to wait until this afternoon.

The trouble with painting and decorating is that it is tiring. All that bending about and reaching out, as well as up and down stepladders – it wears you out. By the time I came to painting the ceiling I was already weary so, in the end, I just got two-thirds of it done and collapsed, exhausted, into a nice hot bath at the end of the day with an application of warming tiger balm on my very stiff neck. I plan to do more of the same tomorrow, although hoping that I don’t do the collapsing, exhausted bit.

John spent the morning in bed, summoning his energy for a bit more poker playing and generally having a day just relaxing today. He needs a day like that every so often and deserves it. He pushes himself hard most of the time, so a little TLC was in order. I was grateful that he cooked the evening meal though, and he patiently made me hundreds of cups of tea throughout the day – most of which went unfinished as I ploughed on with me roller brush.

What is amazing though, is just how big our lounge really is. We normally have so much clutter in the room that we don’t see, and have clearly forgotten, its size. However, with the furniture shifted out of the way, it’s massive! As we sat down this evening to watch telly, we sort of waved at each other from either end of the room, which seemed a long way away. Not to worry though, I’ll soon clutter it up again….

As was the case yesterday, the infection rates for COVID are still coming down but the hospital admissions and death rates are still going up. There’s hope that taking care can, and does, do the trick though. The news seems to be full of ‘shock horror’ and fear-fuelling stories however, and so I am glad I didn’t concentrate on any of it today. The USA is on the alert for armed protests with barricades in the capital, and here in the UK, a whole pile of data about criminals and DNA has been wiped from the computer in a housekeeping error. I’d like to see some good news for a change – although I suppose Joe Root’s double century in the cricket is something to celebrate.

Anyway, here we are, another day done and the hope that it’s a step nearer to being physically with our loved ones again.

• 41,346 people tested positive for the virus today
• 1,295 people died in the community from the virus in the last 24 hours
• 454 people died in hospitals from the virus in the last couple of days
• We have just done Day 11 of Lockdown 3, and Day 304 since the March shut-in started.

No more, now, please.

Take care everyone. God bless.