A meditative day

Instead of being busy, busy, busy, I chose to sit and reflect today. I have a long list of things to do, but something triggered this morning and I remembered my yoga guru, Jaime, reminding us that we are ‘human beings, not human doings’. So I thought I’d just be for a while instead of do, do, do. Although don’t get me wrong, I still did things but just at a soft pace.

I deliberately snoozed the alarm this morning and thought, ‘I’ll get up when I re-awaken’ with the expectation that an hour later I’d be up and about. In the event, it was nearly 11 o’clock before I surfaced. Dear John brought me a cuppa and I sat up, enjoyed the view from the window for a while, and then did e-puzzles, e-jigsaws and read my book for an hour before I got out of bed. Such a lazy, lazy morning. It felt like a holiday.

John, meanwhile, was downstairs, surrounded by his medical bits, tending his eyes, tending his lungs and also gazing out of the window. The snow was still in evidence and it was still a delightful view out the back. Disappointingly, we haven’t seen any birds at the bird table I bought John for Christmas, other than the pesky, and very greedy pigeons, who seem to monopolise the thing. I mean, the pigeons are as fat as flawn already and hardly need feeding up!! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the other birds will soon find their way to the yummy food on our table.

Once I’d arrived downstairs, I started to muse on what to eat. John had had his breakfast hours ago and was ready for a light lunch, so in the end, I brunched and John lunched before John shot off to the garage to pore over his car, and I meandered into the lounge to decide what to do next.

There was a final coat of paint round the doorway to do. There were a couple of pictures to hang. There was a final, final sort-out of the library. And the mending of the handle on John’s desk. I chose the least important thing and decided to fiddle with the handle on John’s desk. It has irritated me for all the years we’ve had the desk, so I was determined to tidy it up. Of course, in the end, John had to help me, bless him. As if he hasn’t got enough of his own stuff to do!

I hung the pictures and I sorted out the last bits of papers and pamphlets in the library before sitting in it and reading a different book to the one I was reading upstairs. As I sat, I could see out of the window to the front of the house. I could watch people walking by. So I did that for a bit too. It was exceedingly pleasurable. I love a bit of people watching.

We are not sure that we recognise ourselves in the lounge though. We are delighted with it, but it feels a bit like a hotel lobby. We’re expecting to have to collect our bags and go up to our room any minute, where we can flop, and just be ourselves. And not only that, but we have had a passing thought that maybe we should discipline ourselves and eat in the kitchen or even the dining room, so that we don’t drop food and drink on the sofa. Ha! Not sure how long that will last!!

John has come to the conclusion that he must remove the body of the Lotus and inspect the chassis in every detail from above rather than underneath. There are tales being told on the forum of brand new chassis (not from Lotus, but from another supplier) being fitted, only to find they are out of true, being sent back and another one fitted with exactly the same problem. We are beginning to wonder if this might be the case here, because John believes it to be a new chassis, not a re-claimed one. We’ll see. However, suffice to say, he’s unbolted a lot of the body and he might soon be ready for me to be helping with the lift.

In other news, I have, of course, been a little anxious as to how Liz and the baby are today. As it turned out, Dawn texted me just as I was about to text her! She says that baby Arthur is responding well to treatment and Liz seems better after the shock of it all yesterday. That was very good news.

Also via the social media button, we heard that an offer on a house that Paul and Harriet had been looking at, had been accepted. Goodness me, that was unexpected but such exciting news. The house looks lovely and the garden isn’t too big – just right for a few border plants and a game of football. So, it sounds like there’s a move on the horizon!! Not only will we not recognise ourselves at home, but we won’t recognise ourselves when we go to Paul’s next, either.

We watched a short burst of the news today and I am relieved to hear that the rate of infection continues to fall. Obviously, not so happy to hear that the rate of deaths is still going up but, given the government strategy of ‘Let’s have Christmas off’, it’s really not surprising at all.

• 20,089 people tested positive for the virus today
• 1,631 people died in the community
• 422 people died in hospitals on 24 & 25 January
• That’s over 2,000 people in one day
• And we have hit a horrible milestone, of 100k people dying from COVID over the last year.

Can we have a new strategy, please? One in which lots of people continue their lives instead of losing them unexpectedly? Too many people affected – and surely, it could have been avoided? We are now the worst affected country, with 155 people dying for each 100k of the population. It’s time for weeping isn’t it?

That’s all today. Not a bad day – nice and gentle. And, if only we didn’t have to think about the COVID situation, we’d be hunky-dory.

Take care everyone. God bless.