Month: July 2021

While John was in hospital, very many friends and relatives sent their good wishes and contacted John by text or email or phone. Many passed their good wishes on to him via me, too. It is good to have so many thinking of us and sharing positive vibes for the ol’ man’s recovery. Thank you very much one and all. It has made a great difference to us to know that people are rooting for us. It is very much appreciated. Now onwards and upwards!

In the spirit of ‘onwards and upwards’ John has been putting up the cupboards today. I couldn’t stop him. Here’s the man at work…..

He has spent pretty much all day at it one way or another – doing a bit, resting a bit – until it’s almost done. I did help a little bit when he needed a bit more muscle, but I didn’t provide any of the intellectual input, however – like what was needed when we found it didn’t fit…..he did all of that. I do hope there’s no ill-effects tomorrow……

Although it’s been a successful day in the end, it didn’t start very auspiciously really. We had set off early this morning and in good time to get to the QE Hospital for John to do a lung function and walking test. We arrived in good time, too. There was barely any traffic, which we put down to the Clean Air Zone that Birmingham has in place now. Hardly anyone going through the centre of Birmingham, at all.

As the test was due to be a two-hour stint, however, John suggested I might like leave him to it and come back later rather than sitting in a stuffy corridor for much of the morning. I agreed.

I settled myself on a bench outside the hospital and prepared to enjoy a good book for a couple of hours. Fifteen minutes later, John phoned. “Where are you?” he asked. “Why?” I wondered. Well, it transpired that they can’t do the test within eight weeks of someone having been in hospital. Oh. That knocked that on the head then. So we came home again.

I spent the afternoon in the company of the tennis players at Wimbledon again, of course, and thoroughly enjoyed the matches. I still can’t get over how none of the spectators are wearing masks, though, and how many of them there are watching the games. Seems madness. I wonder how Dido Harding’s £37m is doing on the testing and tracing of the Wimbledon attendees? It’ll be ‘successful’, I expect.

Exhausted from the cupboard-building this afternoon, John snoozed most of the evening away; and I watched more TV – clearly exhausted from hitting every ball in every game this afternoon.

I am pleased to report that the cheeky monkey, Thomas, is definitely a lot better today; and Paul is out of self-isolation with no ill-effects. However, no sooner is Paul free, but Lily is now in self-isolation, as one of her cohort at school has contracted the virus. Swings and roundabouts……

Talking of the virus, are you interested in the figures today? If not, skip this bit (as if you don’t already!).

Take care everyone. God bless.

It’s good to have the ol’ man home again. He’s delighted with the new work surfaces, which have brought a smile to his face, so that’s nice.

“What are you going to do today, then?” he asked this morning. “Not a lot,” I replied, “Yoga this morning, watch tennis this afternoon and chat to the college crew this evening. What about you?” He said he thought he’d fit the large cupboards that we’d had to take down to accommodate the work surfaces in the kitchen. I thought it might be a bit much, the day after coming out of hospital, but he was keen.

Well, he was keen this morning. However, as the day wore on the idea of doing that particular job receded into the distance. I was pleased about that on the one hand – I don’t want him to overdo it too soon, but disappointed on the other – I’d like to get cupboard back together again and I am not sure I know what to do.

Instead, John listened to a story in bed this morning; then he watched a bit of TV across lunchtime; then he inspected the back of his eyelids for a while this afternoon, before he realised it was now tea-time. He did go out and fill up the green bin with some of the moss that had been raked from the lawn, ready for collection tomorrow, but that was it. Good. Don’t want him to be unwell again just yet, thank you very much.

I don’t know whether it’s the anti-climax effect of John now being home, but I have felt like a wet week all day. No energy whatsoever, and nothing much done at all. I was glad the tennis was on – it gave me an excuse to sit on my bum all afternoon and avoid all the chores begging to be done. I couldn’t even be bothered to think what to prepare for our evening meal and ended up with fish fingers from the freezer. A great paleo meal, that……I don’t think.

Never mind, no doubt I’ll have found some energy from somewhere tomorrow. Let’s hope anyway. I need to find some energy from somewhere, to start thinking creatively again, as we are definitely not opening up on the 19 July in our household.

Lots of people have tested positive for the virus today: 32,551 – this means that in the last seven days, the numbers are up by 35%; 35 people have died in the last 24 hours and this contributes to a total which is up by 52% in the last seven days; the latest data on hospitals admissions was on 4 July, when 456 people were admitted to hospital – an increase of 50% over the last week. The figures in two weeks’ time are going to be interesting aren’t they?

However, the good news is that 86.6% of the adult population have had their first dose of the vaccine and almost 65% have had both doses.

In other news, all my friends from college were on top form this evening, including Linda, who had been unwell with the virus last week. Lovely to see everyone – although we were reminded from our various comments and actions that we are now aging fast….. I mean, who can work technology these days? Not us, it seems.

Also in other news, Thomas is much better than he was; Paul is still holding out and his lateral-flow tests are still proving negative; and Gail, if I’ve got it right, is on the last few stints of chemo and mostly feeling not too bad. At times like these, you want to just be with your loved ones, don’t you? Ah, well, WhatsApp and Skype will have to be good substitutes for now.

Take care everyone. God bless.

I don’t know about football coming home, but I do know that John is home at long last. They finally did some blood tests and agreed he could be released with a suitcaseful of drugs and strict instructions to watch what he eats and drinks.

He is delighted to be home of course, but anxious about what to do next. “We can’t keep going on like this,” he said. I wasn’t sure how to answer, really. Not sure what we can do to change things up. I think suggestions on a postcard might be in order.

So John’s day was one of waiting and hoping; and mine was one of lounging about. I had a rubbish night’s sleep. No idea why, but it felt like I slept very lightly all night and was aware of my surroundings for hours and hours. Irritated that I awoke tired, I resolutely stayed in bed until eleven o’clock instead of getting up and getting on. Once I was up, I did a few chores, and then decided to watch tennis for the afternoon. Thus my day passed.

I spent a little bit of time chatting to the ol’ man during the day and hoping that it would all come good sometime this afternoon. As it turned out, it was almost seven o’clock before he said, ‘Come and get me’. Well, that was a relief – at least it wasn’t eight o’clock. And so we were home in time to nip to the ‘Offie’ to buy some beers and watch the footie – which put us both on edge. Our nerves could hardly take it.

Regarding the state of play in the country, we are still watching with bated breath how high the number of people infected with the virus will go. After the crowds at Wembley – sky-high, I should think. And today’s figures suggest it’s not exactly under control.

32,458 people with the virus today; 33 deaths in the community; 12 deaths in hospitals on 5 &6 July; 386 people admitted to hospital in the last 24 hours; 86.5% of the adult population inoculated with the first dose of the vaccination, and 64.5% have had both doses.

And in other news….. here’s a happy man!! 2-1. Get In!!

Take care everyone – enjoy the footie on Sunday? Hope so. God bless.

This morning, I had planned to go to yoga, but I got chatting to John for ages on end so I didn’t make it. The upshot of our conversation was, could he have more clothes if he was staying in hospital? But, hang on a bit, just in case, we’ll wait and see what the doctor says.

Regrettably, the doctor said John will be staying in hospital for a few more days. They are monitoring his kidney function which is down to 36% and they are not keen to send him home when it is not yet stable. Oh, and here you go, another drip for you, Mr Sleath. Hmmm, lovely.

So, this afternoon I toddled over to Heartlands laden with a bag of clothes and some drugs that are no longer needed and which needed to be handed in. John is now allowed to go for a little walk to the shop and buy a paper, so he decided he’d walk all the way down to the entrance and meet me there.

We slipped past the guards, having told them I was returning drugs, and made our way upstairs towards John’s ward. Of course, most of the chairs that you used to be able to sit on have been removed to prevent people lingering, so there was no chance of sitting in the corridor for a chat. John had been out in a little garden area, but you had to wait for a member of staff to let you out and let you in, and we waited a while but nothing was doing, so we couldn’t sit there.

In the end, I whispered, “Let’s go and sit on the stairs behind those doors, John. There’ll be less human traffic and we can sit down.” So that’s what we did. We had an illicit and clandestine hospital visit. The stairwell wasn’t busy – only one or two people came past – and we sat there, all cosy-like, for about forty minutes. It was lush.

Eventually, we reluctantly said our goodbyes and John went into the ward with his heavy bag of stuff and I came home in the absolute downpour of rain that was being thrown across the roads between Birmingham and Coventry.

And that, more or less, was the day. I had had a chat to Michael earlier in the day and learned that Thomas was still a poorly boy. The GP has prescribed antibiotics and steroids for him, as he is proper coughing and clearly got a throat infection of some kind. Fingers crossed that the medication does the trick quickly for him so that the Sutton Sleaths can get some sleep tonight.

I am still feeling cross about the planned lifting of restrictions willy-nilly in the middle of July, but not so cross that I can’t report the figures to you today.

28,773 new cases of the virus; 37 deaths in the community and 29 in hospitals in the last three days; 406 people admitted to hospital in the last 24 hours; 86% of the adult population having received their first inoculation and 64% having had both injections.

I am worn out with it all. How about you? Take care everyone, God bless.

Oh – and an addendum, courtesy of that wordsmith Susie Dent:

Word of the day is ‘pish-monger’, 17th century: one who treats others with scornful contempt (as if constantly uttering a dismissive ‘pish!’).

Oooh, I was looking forward to today! We had planned to go over to Cambridge to see Andrew. John, still being imprisoned, was unable to make it, but he suggested that I go anyway. So I did. And it was the most pleasant day.

I spoke to John before I set off, but wasn’t really able to cheer him up. “How are you?” I asked. He looked round the room and counted, “One, two, three, four…. yes, still four walls and a ceiling,” he replied. Oh, dear. Not only that, but he’d been up for three hours already….. we were both stuck for words. The jovial: ‘only a couple more days’ doesn’t hack it I’m afraid, and I had no real suggestions as to how he might occupy his time. In the end, he said briskly, “Anyway, go and dry your hair and get ready to go.”

I set off in plenty of time and had a very good journey along the A14 – what bliss since all the roadworks have been finished. No more queuing or sitting in a traffic jam – all plain sailing this morning – although we were following an abnormal load for about ten minutes, which slowed the traffic up a bit.

Andrew had arranged to see a flat, and I went with him. He was almost ready when I arrived, having just got out of the shower, and we walked the few hundred yards from where he currently lives to the one he wanted to view. It was quite a nice flat, with a good-sized bedroom and living room/diner, separate kitchen and a bathroom. Just what a single man might need.

After the viewing we went for lunch. Well, that was easier said than done! Lots of places were closed down. Lots were closed temporarily, and one or two were fully booked. We finally settled on Browns Bistro opposite the FitzWilliam Museum, and had a good meal there. We didn’t have time for a gander round the museum though – Andrew had to take his bike in for a service at 5 o’clock, and we’d spent so long chatting that time had run away with us. We had had a lovely time.

The journey back was as smooth as the journey there and I was grateful for all the new roads that take you on a flyover, or a go-around, so that you’re not sitting at traffic lights, or on roundabouts for ever.

Once I was home, I gave John a ring to see how he was. He hadn’t had a brilliant day but he had taken himself a walk to the little shop and he’d bought a paper. So that was a positive. He’d also had the excitement of having his kidneys scanned again. The latest doctor (the 6th in 7 days…) thought that it wasn’t a chest infection that had brought John to hospital, but something else. We don’t know what the something else is yet, though. And John is now hooked up to a drip, so he’s not holding his hopes out for a return to the fold tomorrow. Oh, Lordy……

I spoke to Michael too, this evening. Bless him, he’s exhausted. Thomas is unwell and has been sick – and possibly has a sore throat too, so it’s all hands on deck there. All at the same time as Michael is trying to tidy up his thesis for one last time. Very, very tough times – and given the current climate, we are unable to help, which severely goes against the grain.

In the meantime, I find I can’t bring myself to report on the COVID situation for fear I will write something very rude. So that’s all for now folks. God bless.

After feeling like a wet week yesterday, I stayed in bed all morning, only rousing when John phoned me just after eleven o’clock. He caught me still a-snoozing so I wasn’t at my best. “Having a long lie-in,” I confessed, yawning my head off. “Must get up now, though, as I’m off to see Dave & Chris for lunch.”

John nodded and told me to have a good time, but I know he was feeling it, not being able to come after it had been arranged for both of us originally. He still looked miserable, but he was putting a brave face on it.

I took the new car to Dave & Chris’s to show it off, and thought I’d have a go at getting the SatNav in the car to work. I set the destination before I set off, but clearly got it wrong as it kept trying to turn me round to go back home. I stopped on the way, and re-set it. But obviously didn’t set it properly again, as it wanted to send me off down some God-forsaken road in Kenilworth. I stopped again and had another go. This time I got it right, but it did mean that I arrived half an hour late to my destination.

Dave and Chris were very gracious about me being late and greeted me very warmly and with open arms, Oh, gosh, it was so lovely to see them in the flesh and to feel the depth of their love and friendship.

Chris said apologetically that she’d made a roast chicken dinner. She knew it was the summer but somehow it just seemed the right thing to do. Crikey! I’ll say! I was absolutely delighted to be having a ‘winner, winner, chicken dinner’ I can tell you! It was lush….see for your self.

I couldn’t help but send a photo of the delicious food that Chris had cooked to John. Although afterwards I thought that I had been a bit mean in doing so, as the hospital lunch may not have been comparable. John was gracious though, and didn’t seem to mind too much.

We had a great afternoon, nattering our heads off on all sorts of topics and finishing off with a game of Yahtzee – something I thought I hadn’t played before, but now I am wondering whether we did play it many moons ago. Thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Home again, I had a chat to John, who said he’d had a bit of a rubbish day, feeling exceedingly blue and wondering what the future holds. One day at a time, I told him, but I am not sure it helped. I am sincerely hoping that he will be home on Tuesday – although you never know, they might give him the ‘hurry up’ and let him out tomorrow. We’ll see.

Numbers. See if you can guess which category they refer to…..there’ll be a prize later.

24,248; 15; 358; 86%; and nearly 64%

All for now. Wishing everyone I know the best of everything – health, happiness and love. Above all, love. God bless.

Look who came to visit today!!

All rather unexpected to be honest, but Mum had a nice little trip to our house today.

I’d had my COVID test, waited the requisite half an hour, and then was waiting patiently at the door of Mum’s care home, to be let in for a visit. There were several people waiting, some of whom were taking their parent out for the day. The door was opened numerous times and inmates released one by one, when all of a sudden the door was opened and there was my Mum being ushered out, wearing her coat.

Erm….I wasn’t expecting that. “Well, we’ve got you down as taking her out” they said. Mum was delighted to be going out and delighted to see me. “Where are we going?” she asked. I thought hard, but not fast. I couldn’t think where to take her at such short notice, so I said, “Home, Mum. I’ll take you to our house.”

On the way home, I realised that, by the time we’d arrived home and had a cuppa, it would be lunchtime and probably too late to get Mum back to the care home for her lunch, so it was a bit of a nip into Tesco to buy a ready-meal so that I could at least feed her.

We had a lovely time. Mum didn’t remember our house really, and spent most of her time looking round and admiring the décor, the furniture and the ornaments. She did however, recognise the two winged back chairs that we’ve got. “They used to be at our house,” she said, meaning her parents’ house, forgetting that she had owned her own houses in the meantime. “Yes, they did, Mum.”

On further inspection, Mum thought she might have been to my house before – had she? Yes, I told her she had. I explained that she had even stayed at our house for a while. But she couldn’t remember any of that at all – even when she saw the photographic evidence in the Lockdown 2020 album.

Surprisingly, once I’d taken Mum back to her home, I felt absolutely drained. I have done nothing all day since, except watch the tennis and the football. Goal! Goal! Goal! Goal! Crikey, who expected that? Not me anyway. But pleased they won.

John is still languishing in hospital and feeling blue. Not even the excitement of the England win this evening brought him out of the doldrums. A couple more days… just hang on in there for a couple more days. I think he is getting better though, and the infection is more under control. This poem by Lemn Sissay seems apt:

 
 When storms surround me,
 And surround me they will
 I tell myself 'This too shall pass
 Hold on and Hold Still' 

• 24,885 people tested positive for the virus today
• 18 people died in the community. No data for hospitals at the weekend, of course
• 358 people admitted to hospital – over the last seven-day period it’s up by nearly 25%
• Nearly 86% of the adult population have had their first jabs and just over 63% have had both jabs
• Paul is having to self-isolate following a Test and Trace message to do so. He’d been to London on business on Tuesday and was amongst the mask-less football crowds on the train. Praying he isn’t infected.

Take extra care everyone. God bless.

Friday. Heralding the weekend. Yay! No more 9-5, or commute, or half-hour lunch…..oh, I don’t do that anyway! There is, however, still something encouraging about a Friday, even though I no longer need the weekend to recuperate from a heavy week. I have to confess though, it feels like it’s been a long week and I am pretty tired now, so roll on the weekend after all.

Anyway, back to today. John texted me: ‘No discernible cancer found in the bones’. Well, that’s good news, isn’t it? I think we were both anxious lest it be different, so we are both relieved. Despite our relief, though, John has had a ‘meh’ day today. Feeling low and suffering from the blues.

It’s not surprising really, though. He is stuck in a room and just gazes at the 4 walls, fiddles with his phone to see if there is anything exciting on there – books or games – and chats to me if he gets the chance. There ain’t a lot going on really and not a lot to do other than dwell on all the ills that ail him, and look back over his life to regret its passing.

Never mind, I reckon he’ll be out in a day or two. It seems that they are just doing a final few days of IV antibiotics before sending him home with an oral one. Fingers crossed for Monday at the latest….

In the meantime, I made the trip across to Heartlands to supply more PJs, a book, the ol’ man’s Amazon Fire and some eye drops. Sister on the ward said I could go up and exchange the clean clothes for the washing at the ward door, where John could do the handover.. Regrettably, despite telling the ‘Front of House’ people – security/receptionist/volunteers distributing the bags – that I was allowed, they refused to let me in. So I didn’t get to see him face-to-face after all.

I also went into Solihull to pick up my new glasses and have my hearing checked. Please note: I am not deaf. I don’t need hearing aids. If I don’t hear you, it’s because I’m not concentrating or actually listening to you. A problem associated with old age apparently…..

I did need new shoes though. My flip-flop type shoes that I use as slippers have gone home. My lace-ups have gone home, too….. not surprising really – I bought them when Graham and Gail were over from Australia for the first time, now over ten years ago.

Surprisingly, few shops had lace-ups, unless they were trainers – they are clearly no longer fashionable. However, I found a couple of nice pairs in the Clarke’s shop that I was interested in. One pair fitted, so I bought them. I bought the last pair of flip-flop type shoes in Ecco, and was disappointed not to be able to take advantage of another pair of shoes from there, as they had such snazzy colours.

The sun came out this afternoon here in Balsall Common and warmed up the garden beautifully. At last. Clouded over again this evening, and I don’t think the weather forecast is any good at all for the week ahead. Rain, rain and more rain by the looks of it. Oh, well, it’ll give me more opportunity to shred Mum’s papers….

• 27,125 people tested positive for the virus today
• 27 people died in the community
• 304 people were admitted to hospital
• People have stopped wearing masks…. did you see the people at Wimbledon today?
• Locally, in Tamworth, there has been a surge of the virus due to people going to the pub to watch the Euros – what a surprise
• 15 people have died in hospitals in the last three days
• Lots of people have been vaccinated
• But there are increasing reports of people who’ve been double-vaxxed catching the virus and initially thinking it’s just a summer cold before they have confirmation that they’ve been infected.

Take care everyone. If we remember the rules of masks and space and hand-washing, we won’t go far wrong. God bless.

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.