Taking it easy…. or not

Well, my day was bliss. I took it easy. John’s day was difficult. He was not taking it easy.

For a nano-second, we thought we might drive over to Cambridge today and have a meal at Midsummer House, the restaurant Andrew works in. In the end, the tentative idea didn’t come off, so effectively, we had a free day. “What are your plans, today, John?” I asked. “If the drum for the washing machine turns up, I shall mend the washing machine,” he replied. “What about you?” I didn’t really know… I had prepared the utility room ready for painting, but with the washing machine’s innards all over the place in there, that idea was scuppered, so I thought I might just drift about sorting out bits and bobs.

I wandered past one or two items that needed to be returned to the Kenilworth Sleaths, so I had a bright idea. The weather was lovely. The Kenilworth Sleaths’ hot tub was obviously going to be standing idle. ‘Hi Harriet,’ I texted, ‘Are you busy today? Wondered if I could try out your hot tub….’ Her answer pinged back a minute later. ‘You’re more than welcome…….I’m just going to do a workout, then I’ll join you.’

I fairly skipped upstairs to tell John that there’d been a change of plan. I promptly grabbed my bathing costume and whizzed off down the road to hop into the hot tub. And there Harriet and I stayed all morning. Eventually, I looked at my fingers which were very, very wrinkled and suggested that, as we were beginning to look like walnuts, we perhaps ought to get out. We had been nattering so much that we forgot the time and Harriet had to change her plans to visit her Dad. Oh, heck! She didn’t think he’d mind, though.

I so enjoyed myself this morning. A few hours of pampering was absolute bliss and to spend the time with a lovely daughter-in-law was great. Aren’t I just a lucky one?

When I got home, John was sitting on the sofa, looking like he’d been dragged through a hedge backwards. The drum had arrived just after I left this morning and… ta-dah!…it was already installed in the washing machine. The ol’ man had worked his socks off all by himself this morning to get most of the repair done. He had a few war wounds to show for it, mind you, and plasters adorned his arms at various intervals.

We had lunch and then John did a bit more on the washing machine. I decided to watch a bit of tennis from Queens Club. Then I watched a bit more – and John worked a bit more. And that was how we whiled away the afternoon. John working; me just being a princess with my feet up.

“We’ll do a trial run on the machine.” John said, as he put the final parts into place. I nodded. “I’ll put some newspaper underneath, just in case…..” he continued. As it happened, no newspaper was damaged in the trialling of this washing machine. Isn’t he an amazing man? Despite the effort need to lift such a heavy item, and to fiddle with tiny parts, he did it. Mr Determined, that’s him. I am very grateful.

John staggered to the sofa and rewarded himself with an extra large glass of wine for all his efforts. He was weary, but it was Quiz Night, so he roused himself to join in with another cracking evening among friends. We enjoyed ourselves immensely, as usual, and found ourselves racking our brains on all sorts of topics. We also found ourselves debating the answers to some of them, which caused great amusement. I mean, what is the difference between the UK, Great Britain and the British Isles? No, no, please don’t answer me…. we’ve had that debate! But I really must learn about geography, about which I know nothing…….

On the COVID front, there is till a lot of squawking in the press about what we should, or shouldn’t be doing; what we did, or didn’t do; who lied, or lined pockets; and so on. But the sad fact is that cases are increasing again. Not so many deaths, but there are hospitalisations and people struggling with the aftermath of the disease as ‘Long COVID’ embeds itself in their lives, with no way of knowing if full recovery will ever be theirs.

• 9,055 people tested positive for the virus in the last 24 hours
• 9 people died in the community with it
• 173 people were hospitalised with it
• We’re seeing a 40% increase in hospitalisations in the last week.
• However, just one death in hospital on 15 June

Take care everyone. Look after yourselves and each other. God bless.