Afternoon Tea, anyone?

All planned: afternoon tea with friends. Would I make it? Was I going to be up to it? Yes, barring any disasters, I was!

However, before that, I fiffed and faffed about this morning, tinkering with this and that. And then I remembered: must phone Virgin to cancel the installation of their service and the contract. We had changed our minds.

Well, that was it then. An hour and a half on the phone to operators with incomprehensible accents in China/Asia or somewhere overseas…..

The upshot of the conversation was that, in order to cancel the contract, they must speak to the account holder. No, sorry, an email will not do. No, sorry, we know he’s in hospital but we have speak to him. Can you ask him to phone us? Er….. excuse me? No, I can’t and won’t.

In the end, I upped the ante and asked to speak to a supervisor, who agreed to cancel the installation. They would, however, want to speak to the account holder to cancel the contract when he’s out of hospital. Pffft…..

It was a bit of a dash then to get ready for my lovely afternoon out. A quick shower and I was ready to meet up with friends. We had a brilliant time, taking ourselves off for a little walk along a canal towpath first, to build up an appetite, where we were delighted by the sight of little ducklings chirruping away as they paddled furiously towards us, thinking there might be food. We delighted at the sight of a rather lovely carving, too, in the living trunk of a cherry tree. See what you think.

We were ready for our tea after our walk, which was served all socially-distanced and very daintily – with Prosecco, (well, it’d be churlish not to), little sandwiches, clotted cream, jam and scones, which I ate in two halves – one with jam, then cream; one with cream, then jam – just to please the pedant in me.

Home again, and it was time to talk to the ol’ man, who hasn’t felt great today. He isn’t sure what the diagnosis is, and he isn’t suffering fools very gladly just at the moment. Each time he has spoken to someone today they have said that they are waiting for the results of his bone scan to come back. John thought that the scan wasn’t anything to do with anything, but clearly they think otherwise. Fingers crossed we know some results tomorrow and what the next steps will be. I am hoping for good news. So prayers and healing thoughts would be very welcome if you are of a mind to send them John’s way, please.

Nearly 28,000 people tested positive for the virus today. And even one of my friends has caught it. She is double-jabbed and currently has cold/flu-like symptoms, so hopefully she’ll go on well and it won’t be too bad. She is also on my prayer list – as is anyone else who has succumbed to the bloomin’ thing.

Fortunately, people are not dying from the virus in the quantities that they once were. This has to be a hopeful sign, with everyone being vaccinated at a rate of knots now. Hospitalisations are on the increase, though, which creates a concern over the capability of the NHS to cope. Staff are already exhausted, without another influx of people, aren’t they? 259 people were admitted to hospital for those weary staff to care for today.

85% of the adult population have had their first jab, and nearly 63% have had both jabs and there is talk of boosters in the autumn. Hurrah for the scientists who developed the vaccines and another hurrah for all those medics who are working their socks off to get us all immunised.

Take extra care everyone – the virus is beginning to spiral and infect those who have taken their eye off the safety ball. God bless.