A visit to Mum

Still feeling a bit under the weather, I couldn’t get going this morning, but John did, and he brought me a cup of tea in bed, for which I was very grateful. We both lazed in bed for a bit after that, and then I told John that I might have a bath before launching myself over to Coleshill to see Mum this afternoon.

In the end, I never did get my bath. I am easily distracted.

When I was at work, my friend, Simon, and I used to have ‘piles’ meetings. That is, we would sit with one of the secretaries and go through our ‘piles’ of papers, allocating the documents to various destinations. I could do with one of those meetings right now. Oh, Secretary Sue, where are you now? I have different piles of papers in the computer room still in the ‘to be dealt with’ tray.

I know there is a theory – at least, that was how one of the chaps at work operated – that you should only touch a document once and then deal with it. However, I must have handled these papers hundreds of times…… at any rate, I manage to get them all muddled up at a vast rate of knots and am unable to find anything very much when I need it.

Hence the distraction. Before I ran my bath, I just thought I’d see if I could find a voucher that John had bought us for a night away, and which I had kept very carefully on my desk for ages, only to move it recently, thinking ‘I know where I’ll have put that’. But I don’t, darn it. And can I find it? Harrumph. I must have put it somewhere safe. Oh, dear, I must do better.

What I did come across though, was a VISA statement that had a puzzle on it. A double entry payment. I got onto Amazon for whom the transaction applied. “Oh, yes, that transaction is for Amazon in France. You’ll have to ask them.’ Whaaat? I don’t think so. ‘Could it be fraud?’ I wondered. ‘Oh, Ok, we’ll put you onto the fraud team….’ Email might arrive tomorrow to start the ball rolling. We’ll see.

In the meantime, John was downstairs watching the TV, I think, oblivious to the fact that I wasn’t bathing in ewe’s milk and anointing myself in oils. When we finally caught up with each other, he was surprised I was still in my dressing gown. ‘It’s too late to have a bath now,’ I said, ‘I’ll have one later.’ But I never did. You know when you’re cosy in your skin and really don’t want to be shivered out of it? Well, I was like that all day. Maybe it’ll be a bath tomorrow.

Anyway, I nipped over to see mum this afternoon, half in trepidation really, as it’s almost four weeks since I went over and I wondered whether she’d have been pining. I had planned to visit a couple weeks after I last saw her but I was ailing with my tooth so I postponed the visit. Then, when I phoned up last week to get a visit date booked they had no availability until today.

Anyway, I needn’t have worried. Honestly, I swear, she gets better almost every time I see her. She looks the picture of health, as fit as a fiddle, and continues to be happy as a sandboy. No, she can’t remember who’s who and what’s what, but she doesn’t care and is just happy strolling through the day with whatever it sends.

Mind you, she has got a new song. Today it was ‘Que Sera, Sera’ at frequent intervals and sung with meaning. Made me smile every time. I suggested she sit on the bed while I visited, as this is what she normally likes to do. Yes, she wanted to do that but, instead of hopping onto the bed today, she hopped into it. In so doing, she found she had a nice, ready-made imaginary piano keyboard in front of her, so she had the perfect accompaniment to her new song. Wonderful – made us laugh.

We had a rather pleasant and unexpected Bonfire Night this evening. Paul had invited us over to watch their fireworks, but neither of us quite felt up to it, so instead we watched the neighbours’ fabulous display from within the confines of our own home and had a Friday night take-away. Couldn’t be better, could it?

Regrettably, I can’t furnish you all with the data on COVID today. The server that offers us the latest figures seems to be down, so perhaps they’ll be available tomorrow. I do know that figures are not as bad as they were and there are murmurings that the infection rate might be plateau-ing. I’d like to believe it. Watch this space.

However, I was interested in this graph that was published yesterday. Not so much the figures, although as they relate to deaths in children I find it distressing, but the incidence. Anyone notice any pattern here? Who says schools aren’t transmission hubs for the virus?

Take care everyone. God bless.

Here’s a blast from the past. Anyone recognise anyone? Bonus points if you guess the ages….