Wednesday

‘Forget all the rules. Forget about being published. Write for yourself and celebrate writing.’ So says Melinda Haynes, American Novelist. So I am. Just writing for myself and hopefully sharing life’s ups and downs with any of you who are still interested. That’s where I’ve got to in my thinking, folks – and thanks to those of you who were kind enough to help me get there. I hope I shall stop angsting about it all now.

Anyway, today has been a productive day for me one way and another, but not so much for John.

We said we’d pop back to Michael and Danielle’s today to help sort out a few things that they needed a hand with but, in the end, John stayed at home to wait in for the Smart Meter Man – to be known from now on as the SMM. The scheduled arrival was from 8 until 6. I love that, don’t you? No idea when they’ll turn up but just hang about all day, why don’t you…..

So the SMM hadn’t arrived by one o’clock when I was ready to go out. That meant that John had to stay in. He said he didn’t mind, and I am sure he didn’t. It gave him a chance to have a tinker in the garage on the project car.

When I got back from my little trip over to Sutton Coldfield, John was in the garage still tinkering. “Did the SMM arrive?” I asked. “Yes, he did,” said John, “but he didn’t do anything. He said our equipment was too old for him to deal with, and we need another man to come and sort it out before we can have smart meter.” Oh……. back to the waiting game then.

I wondered how John had got on this afternoon with his car. “Well, I haven’t done much.” he said. “I’ve been in the garage for a couple of hours, but most of that was spent sorting the right tools and repairing them before I could repair the car….” I am sure you know how it is. I certainly do – my whole life seems to be like that. It’s always a case of, “I’ll just do this before I do that, so that I can do the other.” Heh-heh-heh!

This morning was a case in point. Yesterday, I had all but finished the painting in the utility room and I gleefully pulled off the masking tape – only to rip off some of the careful painting I’d done round the doorway. So, this morning I had to just clean that, then sand it, then paint it before I could finish painting behind the radiator …..honestly, it seems never-ending! And now there’s the equipment to clean up. Hmmm, not so keen on that bit, but it’s got to be done, I suppose. Sigh.

Other than that, John had a successful trip to Oakes’ Farm Shop this morning and came home laden with goodies, while I waited in for the SMM; and I did a load of clothes washing, tumbling and ironing before I went out this afternoon. Not a bad day’s work, to be honest.

Meanwhile, out in the big wide world, COVID is still doing its thing. We are due to see friends tomorrow, so lateral flow tests will be out in force to keep us all safe. Well, half-safe. We know they are only 50% indicators but that’s better than nothing isn’t it?

Apparently, there’s a new variant of the virus to start worrying about. A variant of a variant, it seems. Arrgghhh!!!!

However, here are the figures for fun – or not, if you are one of the ones currently infected with the virus, or it’s already taken its ultimate toll:

• 33,904 people tested positive for the virus today in England (pop. 55.98 million) Compare this with 39 people in New Zealand (pop. 4.68 million)……
• 111 people died in the community and 34 in hospitals on 16 & 17 August. Compare this with 26 in total in the New Zealand since their first case
• 773 people were admitted to hospital today with the virus. Compare this with 2 people currently in hospital in New Zealand.

I know, I know, it’s like comparing apples and pears…. but still, that made us giddy, didn’t it??

Keep yourselves safe as best you can, everyone. God bless.