Friends

Thank goodness for friends. They enrich our lives in all sorts of ways, don’t they? And today was no exception.

We were up at a reasonable time again today – in my case because I was planning to be over at Mum’s flat to do more clearing, and in John’s case because he was planning to go out this afternoon to a ‘farewell’ meal with Nigel and some fellow-Masons.

Nigel has been a great friend for John, teaming up at the Masons, offering him a lift to meetings; being that friend who has called round to take him up to the pub; encouraging him to go for a walk and chew the cud. He’s been grand company, too, at our weekly quizzes, lifting John’s spirits with his wonderful sense of humour and bonhomie. John enjoyed his afternoon out today and is certainly going miss Nigel’s presence in the village when he moves away on Friday.

I toddled over to Mum’s flat this morning and found that clearing it out is taking more time than I thought it would. I may have previously pointed out that she has a lot of paper. There are letters, of course, and empty envelopes and invitations for parties long passed, with a little note saying ‘replied’; there are newspaper cuttings – seemingly hundreds of little, tiny slivers of paper declaring the recently hatched, matched or despatched individuals whom Mum knew; there are notepads galore, fancy writing paper pads and notelets; and poetry, scribbled on a scrap of paper ready to neatly write out into her volumes of exercise books; there are bills and statements and advertisements – absolutely every possible thing you could think of, I found it. Fascinating history, but very little of it for keeping.

John was a little scornful about the process I might adopt for doing the sorting at Mum’s flat, saying, “I bet you’ll go through every single item, won’t you?” Erm… yes, probably, well – likely, actually. So I was rather pleased that I had Anita on hand today. She has kept me on the straight and narrow all day. I am addled by the volume of things in the flat, and sentiment threatens to overwhelm me. Gently and without any judgement, Anita steered me through it all, bringing it into focus, especially when I said I was struggling to make a decision on whether to keep an item or throw it away. But I did feel slightly vindicated in going through every single item when I found my grandfather’s birth certificate nestling in amongst a load of tat!

The advantage of sifting through the flat’s contents with a friend is that you can share the wonder of things, like, “I wonder why Mum kept clothes tags?” and share the excitement of things found, “Look at this!” when I found a newspaper picture of myself in a play when I was 17 years old, or the one of John as a teacher at Barr’s Hill doing some project or other. And then it was nice to sit at the end of the day and have a cuppa together and just chat. Yep, very, very grateful for good friends.

John had eaten a meal at the Saracen’s Head at lunchtime with his friends, so he wasn’t worried about having an evening meal. Andrew phoned just as we were sat chatting at the breakfast bar in the kitchen, so I poured myself a glass of wine. What I think was intended to be a ‘quick chat’ turned into a long chat and, by the time Andrew rang off, I’d imbibed another glass of wine and was thinking of a third. We went through to the lounge to watch a bit of TV, where I promptly fell asleep on the sofa for an hour or so. Must’ve been the wine….

The news is full of the Dereck Chauvin court case and the verdict today that he has been found guilty of the murder of George Floyd in America. It is also full of what, in my opinion, is an absolutely ridiculous story of football, with the government threatening to get involved in scuppering a new European Super League. Looks like it might peter out, but really, I think everyone has lost their marbles and sight of what is really important in the world – especially when you hear that the fancy new daily briefing room, that cost £2.6m to re-decorate, is now to be simply used by the PM and his officials instead!! Rant over – must’ve been the wine…..

Anyway, the COVID figures are about the same – no-one is yet talking about the trend being anywhere other than steady, which is a relief.

• 2,524 people tested positive for the virus today
• 33 people died with the virus in the community in the last 24 hours
• 18 people died on 17 & 18 April with the virus in hospital

• It’s Day 23 since the lifting of Lockdown 3;
• Day 9 of our new, limited freedoms, where we can play in each other’s gardens;
• Day 393 since Lockdown 1; 
• Day 399 since our self-imposed Lockdown 1

Take care everyone. Hope your days ahead are filled with love and friendship. God bless.