A Bit of This and That

You know some days are odds and sods days, aren’t they? Today was a bit like that. Didn’t quite get to do some of the things on my ‘to do’ list, because I did other things instead.

First up, we were out and about early, making a journey across to Heartlands for John’s appointment with the immunoglobulin nurses at 9 o’clock. Good journey, with not a great deal of traffic, although a bit more than I expected, given that it’s still lockdown. Normally, we allow about forty-five minutes to get to the hospital. Today though, we were there in about 25 minutes. Not bad.

Instead of going straight home, I called in on the Sutton Sleaths to gather up some of their washing. The washing basket had exploded and, like the story of the magic porridge pot, it kept on going until the whole house was covered in never-ending piles of clothes to be washed.

I remember those days. When the baby has three or four changes of clothes in one day, because they’ve crawled through something nasty or dribbled something down their fronts. And the toddler has played in mud up to his knees and elbows, or come back from nursery with paint on the first set of clothing you sent him in, and tomato ketchup down the ‘spare’ set. Not to mention your own clothes where one or other child has dribbled all down you and the dog has jumped up and left muddy paw prints on your best jumper.

Yep, I remember those days very well and don’t envy all those going through this at the moment. It’s very hard going, like walking through treacle. So I brought a few bits back with me to see if I could lighten the load for them. The only thing is, once I’ve done these few bits and taken them back, they’ll have to put them away. That’s always a difficult part of the washing cycle. You’ve either got piles of dirty washing, or piles of clean washing when you’ve got a young family, as far as I can tell!

I collected John at mid-day from the hospital but it hadn’t been the best experience for him this time. First of all, the nurse put the catheter in his right hand, but it didn’t go into the vein, so when she started pumping the immunoglobulin in, his hand started to blow up like a balloon. Ah. Let’s try the other arm. That was OK for a while, but twenty minutes or so before the end, the needle had wriggled out of the vein and another balloon manifested itself – this time in the left arm. Oh. Let’s put it in the back of your left hand instead. Oh, and by the way, Paneesha wants some blood samples, so can we have a go at your right arm again please? Poor John. He was battered and bruised when he eventually came out and could hardly make his way to the car, he was so exhausted.

No peace for the wicked though. Once we were home John thought he might rest and have a sleep. But for once, he didn’t fall asleep. And then he had to fill in his tax return. Eeesh…..

Meanwhile, I offered to set the quiz for this evening as it was our turn to be Quiz Master. To be honest, I was a bit nervous of doing it because the quizzes I set previously were pretty poor really. However, I contacted Janet and Trevor who are quizzers extraordinaire, to see if they had anything that might help. Janet very kindly sent me three of the quizzes that Trevor had set in 2012. They were very useful and I used some of the questions – but not before I had been tutored by Trevor on how his quiz worked and how the questions linked together. In the end, I didn’t put the links in – they had gone over my head…….

John cooked our evening meal again tonight and it was absolutely delicious. We had veggie burgers on paleo bread rolls, topped with vegan cheese and a side of salsa. Yum!

And then it was Quiz Night. And it went OK. John even managed to see it through to the end. And we had a laugh. At one point, Nigel misheard a comment from Malcolm which had us all giggling in the aisles. My sides and cheeks were aching with all the laughing I did. Such good fun. So very grateful for the gift of friends and shared laughter.

The numbers of people contracting the coronavirus is coming down, which has lifted my spirits today. It looks like the lockdown measures are beginning to work. The deaths of course, are not reducing in number though, are they? But…. hopefully this week will see the peak and then they’ll start coming down again. Fingers crossed, anyway.

As a result of the data, Mr Johnson announced that we’re to stay in lockdown until at least March 8th. Oh, gawd. That’s a horrible, horrible feeling. It leaves me feeling hollow and bereft. Oh, my. Don’t what else to say.

• 25,308 people tested positive for the virus today
• 1,725 people lost their lives in the community to the virus in the last 24 hours
• 461 people lost their lives in hospitals to the virus on 25 & 26 January
• On a positive note, immediate friends and family are being called in for their first dose of the vaccine, including Linda, who was phoned at 4.45 and told that, if she could make before 5.30, the vaccine team would oblige.

Today is Day 22 of Lockdown 3, with lots more to come. We’re also on Day 315 since our withdrawal from the mainstream last March. At least, I think that’s the right figure…. beginning to lose count now.

But, baby Arthur is out of intensive care and being monitored in the high dependency unit, so he’s doing OK. Alleluia! That’s all I can say.

Take care everyone. God bless.