Spring?

I woke up with the lark this morning. Or was it a blackbird? Or a sparrow? I don’t know, but whatever it was, it was jolly noisy. But delightful. It sounded lovely and reminded me of spring. I pulled back the curtains to greet the day, only to find that, actually, it was rather grey and raining. Oh….. shame.

Never mind, I was up then, so I might as well stay up. The priority was to gather things together to take over to John. I put together a little container full of goodies – fresh fruit, chocolate bars and dried mango – and then thought I’d add a packet of cashews because he likes those. I popped his book about poker into the bag as well, fished out some of his eyedrops from the freezer, wrote a little label of the bag’s contents, tied the handles of the bag together and was ready to go.

Oh…. hang on!! He said he needed PJs too. I pushed his clothes into another carrier bag and set off. All good. I confidently marched into the reception at the hospital and made my way towards the volunteers handling incoming and outgoing goods, and handed over the bags. I explained what was in them, (it’s a bit the like a gestapo interrogation, to be honest) and said I would wait for John’s washing to be sent down from the ward.

It was at that point that the Cashew Nut Policewoman (CNPW) came over. “Did you say nuts? I don’t think you can send nuts in.” Well, they were cashew nuts, not peanuts, so they’d be alright, surely? The CNPW stalked over to the girls behind reception, and asked one of them to phone to ward to check. Nuts? Whatever are you sending them in for?

Before the receptionists had time to make the call, however, the CNPW scanned a list pinned to the wall for ‘FORBIDDEN ITEMS’. She turned to me triumphantly, and said, “There! See? Nuts. No nuts.” Oh….ummm… cowed, I dipped into the bag and retrieved the offending item. I had to text John then, ‘Don’t get excited. It says I’ve packed cashew nuts, but they’re not allowed in, so I’ve taken them out….’

Despite the disappointment of no nuts, John was very happy with what I had sent in. In reply to my text, though, he said, ‘Blimey! This weighs a lot. Hope you didn’t overdo it carrying it in!’ No, no, darling it’s all fine, she says, staggering back to the car, whip marks from the gestapo beating still visible…..

By the time I got home, the weather was improving. The clouds were thinning and the sun was trying to peek through. I took a wander round the garden and inspected the pond. I was hoping to see frogspawn but I think it might be a bit early for that, as there was none. But my!! The birds were in their element and creating a real chorus of song. It was delightful.

John had been asleep when his parcel arrived, and we had a bit of desultory WhatsApp conversation, but nothing much. He wasn’t feeling too bad, but he was having a busy morning with tablets, breakfast, drips, cups of tea, doctors’ visits and then the parcel arriving. I let him sleep.

One promise I had made to myself recently was to phone people up so, yesterday, I phoned John’s cousin, John. Unfortunately, he wasn’t in, but he phoned me back this morning. Probably for the first time in about a year, we had a long and lovely chat. Each Christmas we promise that we’ll get together and sometimes we have, but mostly we haven’t. Anyway, it was nice. And, just so you know and for clarification purposes: John’s cousin, John, is married to Anne. Not me. Another Anne. So we send Christmas cards to each other: ‘To John and Anne. With love from John and Anne.‘ Tee-hee.

This afternoon, it was time to put a second coat of paint on the windowsill and sort out the washing that John had sent home. But, on the advice of several of my friends and family, I treated myself to a bunch of flowers and relaxed. I sat on the sofa and watched the activity in the garden and enjoyed the feel of spring in the air.

After tea, John phoned and we had a nice long chat. He feels a bit better I think, but we had a chuckle as we were both struggling to remember what’s going on. In fact, John only asked me three times what I was doing this evening. And who IS the Prime Minister, again….?

A few more days in hospital is promised, so we are not sure when John will be released. They are treating him for a chest infection with antibiotics, but they have also found a fungal infection. Actually, he’s had that for nearly a year, but medical opinion is divided on whether to treat it or not. The doctor he saw today said that he was deviating from his colleagues’ opinion and planned to treat it. So antivirals, antibiotics and antifungals…… owt else?

This evening, just in case John has forgotten, I have been attempting to sort out papers in the computer room. They are strewn all over the bed because I couldn’t be bothered to file the darned things. Anyway, some headway has been made, but I was thankful for a mini-break in the form a telephone call from Fran. Really enjoyed talking to her and, by the time we’d finished chatting, it was too late to carry on with papers, wasn’t it? Shame. Maybe tomorrow.

• 10,641 people tested positive for the virus today
• 178 people died in the community with COVID
• 109 people died in hospitals on 20 & 21 February

With the numbers coming down, the Prime Minister has announced the Government’s ‘roadmap’ and exit plan out of the lockdown for the coming weeks. Unfortunately for us, it looks like it’ll all be too late for us to take our family holiday in Dorset at Easter. I could weep.

I am still counting the days.

• Days into Lockdown 3? 47
• Days into official Lockdown 1? 335
• Days since our unofficial Lockdown? 343

Take care everyone. God bless.