It’s Saturday…

🎶🎶 Saturday, Saturday! 🎶🎶 Thought I might have to get my dancing shoes on to keep warm today!

So, this morning I was having a lovely snooze. John had brought me a nice cup of tea and I was snuggled beautifully under the covers. But then I heard him cursing and blinding. Oh, dear, what is it? It was only the blooming boiler that had gone off, wasn’t it? Ah, I see, time for a shuffle and a wriggle to keep warm. Should I call the plumber? No, we’ll wait. See if it sorts itself out while it’s switched off. And, do you know? It did. Clever John. I didn’t have to do the shake, rattle and roll to keep warm, after all.

Shortly after the boiler had decided to behave itself, we got up. Firstly, the doorbell had rung with a delivery (another little project that John has got going on) which prompted me to run downstairs, half-dressed, to answer the door. And then, secondly, Paul texted to say he was coming into the village and were we going on our ‘regular’ walk to the park? Of course we were!

But by heck! It wasn’t half cold!

We were lucky and found a disabled parking spot – the very last spot in the car park – and got out to say a surprised ‘hello’ to Paul and Freddie. Freddie was jittering with the cold, as was John. John actually got back in the car to wait and keep warm while Freddie got his togs on before we set off.

The wind was bitter. Of course, I was very busy entertaining Freddie with ‘look at this frozen puddle/let’s break the ice/let’s find a bit of ice that looks like glass/let’s pull your gloves up’, so I felt warm enough. John, on the other hand, was standing watching. We walked on a bit and decided to shelter in the little woodland among the trees, which broke the wind’s force and was slightly warmer. “Do you want to play in the park, Freddie?” I asked. His eyes lit up, “Yes, please,” he said, and he charged, racing like a gazelle, towards the playground.

To be honest, I think I was excited as Freddie to be out playing. “Tig!” I said, patting him on the shoulder and running away. Well, that was it then. We ran around for the next half an hour so, tagging each other and Daddy, who came and joined in after John had decided he would forsake his walk, as it was too blooming cold to stay out, and he’d gone to sit back in the car. Round the swings we went, past the slide, hopping onto the see-saw, swizzling round and round on the spinney thing (which I didn’t try today), clambering over the now-defunct roundabout and leaping onto the swings. Off the ground, you couldn’t be caught. On it, you were fair game.

Oh, we had such fun. My heart was full and it was such a delight to have chanced upon them in the park. When Paul had texted I thought maybe that it would be simply a walk. But, of course, my heart did a fillip when I saw that Freddie was there too. So what else could I do, but play? More please…. more…..

And then, of course, this afternoon there was rugby to watch. The Six Nations always holds us in thrall, so we were glued to the England/Italy match before switching over to the Scotland/Wales match. The former wasn’t that exciting really, although England did play better than last week. However, the Wales/Scotland match was a stonker. But, I wonder, has the Welsh team cast a spell on the teams they play? Last week, Ireland had a man sent off, so Wales played against 14 men, and won. This week, Scotland had a man sent off, so Wales played against 14 men, and won. Interesting… watch this space… I reckon they’ve got potions. Well, being Welsh, you’d expect them to have something up their sleeve, wouldn’t you?

Clearly, nothing much got done again today. I did do the ironing while I watched rugby, however. But what a shocker! The sheet I had taken off the bed to wash proved to have a hole in it!! I am sure it’s not that long since I bought it – can’t be ten years surely? These sheets have a 10-year guarantee, but can I remember where I bought the dratted thing? No. Ah, well, Dunelm to the rescue, I hope.

Not only is there rugby for our pleasure during these winter months, but there’s cricket, which we watched in bed this morning, and also tennis. Whoo-hoo! Whoo-hoo! My favourite! Spent the evening watching the Australian Open highlights while John fiddled on his laptop, chuntering to himself about his gains and losses on the poker table.

Not bad, eh? All that sport to watch, family to see from a distance and a lovely warm house to boot. I mean, we chatted to Michael and William on a video call, as well, and watched William exulting in his new soft play tent/tunnel that Danielle had bought – plus Thomas later on. Lucky us. Lucky, lucky us.

On the COVID front, all the talk on our networking groups is ‘Have you had the jab yet?’ and, mostly, yes, everyone is having the jab. ‘Are you OK? Which one did you have? AZ or Pfizer? Did you have any side-effects? Hope you feel better soon’ and so on. It’s lovely to know everyone is interested and concerned for each other. I love my friends and family.

• 13,308 people have tested positive for the virus today
• 621 people have died in the community with the virus in the last 24 hours
• 254 people have died in hospitals on 11 & 12 February
• It’s Day 39 of Lockdown 3; Day 326 since Lockdown 1 was announced; and Day 334 since John and I hunkered down.

Stay safe everyone. Double-masking is now the thing, I hear. God bless.