Oh, my heart…… it’s a while since we had Freddie over and I felt well enough to entertain him this afternoon, so he came and we had fun!
This morning we were up at a reasonable time for a change, because John was due to have his flu jab, so I got up and made him breakfast – only to take it to him for him to say, “I haven’t got time for that, I’ve got to go.” Well, there was 20 minutes before he needed to be at the surgery and it literally takes three or four minutes to get there, but he didn’t want to be late. So I ate it instead.
We both pottered about when he got back – he was mending a wardrobe door malfunction and I was tidying the kitchen and changing sheets. I was also prepping for when Freddie arrived…..
I had enough energy to get up into the loft and bring down the Halloween decorations, to rummage in the dressing up cupboard for garments to create ghosts and bat wings, and to get the ingredients ready for muffin-making with Halloween decorations. Oh, boy, I wasn’t half looking forward to Freddie coming!!
Equally, Freddie was thrilled to be at our house and to be sorting out the porch where we were to put the decorations. Although he made me laugh, because he arrived at lunchtime and declared he’d like a banana sandwich. Regrettably, I didn’t have any bananas. “No worries,” said Paul, “Harriet’s popped into the shops to get some.” Once Paul and Harriet had left, I suggested that Freddie have his lunch then we’d do the decorating. “No, let’s get the Halloween stuff out first and do the porch!” he said. OK. So we opened the box and had a good look at everything. Decisions needed to be made. Which way should we put the table? Where should we hang the black fringe? Shall we use the bird cage? After about twenty minutes, Freddie said, “Let’s have lunch now….” Bless him. The empty tummy overtook the excitement of the decorating.
After lunch, we did the decorating while John carried on fiddling about with the wardrobe door. Then we decided to pop up to the shops to see if there were any extra decorations that took our fancy. John came with us for the walk as far as the end of the road, where he had his eye on some sycamore seeds he wanted to gather to add to his collection of little oak trees he’s growing.
There wasn’t anything much left in the shops, so we bought a toffee apple and a light sabre and came home. After that, I was tired. I planned to have a sit-down. “I tell you what, Freddie, you sit and eat your toffee apple and we’ll put the telly on for half an hour.” He was very happy with that. As was Grandpa, who sat him on his lap and chuckled at ‘Grizzly and the Lemmings’, as we tucked into toasted teacakes.
Time to make the cakes. We had fun – not the cake-making, that was simply from a packet – but the decoration. I found some Royal Icing and we spent a great time modelling pumpkins, ghosts, spiders and wriggly worms/snakes. Even Grandpa joined in. It absorbed Freddie for ages. He was in his element, and so were we because he was such good company.
It was time to go home. Ah, we’d had such a lovely time. And we enjoyed the half an hour or so in which we saw Paul, Harriet and Lily, too. Lovely.
And then, more riches this evening! It was Zoom-time with the college crew. Oh, what bliss to have a natter to old friends. We even (almost) strayed into politics, a subject we usually leave well alone, but it just felt right to be chewing the cud together this evening.
Having been busy, I haven’t watched any of the news but the COVID report is: 39,842 people testing positive with the virus today; 165 people dying in the community and 55 in hospitals in the last 48 hours. Almost a 1,000 people admitted to hospital today – 962, which makes, in the last 7 days, a total of 6,999 people. 1,000 a day as near as dammit.
A YouGov poll, published on Wednesday, suggests the general public are in favour of stronger measures to prevent infection, masks in particular. The percentage of English people would support bringing back:
- Masks on transport: 81%
- Masks in shops: 76%
- Social distancing in pubs/restaurants: 67%
- 2m rule: 59%
- Rule of 6 indoors: 42%
- No large events: 42%
- No household mixing indoors: 30%
- Full lockdown: 20%
I wonder if it’ll happen?
Take care everyone. God bless.
Sounds like it saw a glorious day.
Cakes look yummy!! xx
Yes! It was lovely!