After a lazy day yesterday, we feel much improved. Well, I say ‘we’ – John struggled with his breathing this afternoon, but otherwise OK.
In fact, I felt so much improved that I decided to put on my pink overalls this morning and finally attempt to finish painting the utility room. I thought I may have to go and buy more paint, but I just had enough. There is one last bit to do behind the radiator, which isn’t easy, and possibly needs one more coat over it. It’s the size of a pocket handkerchief so the last dregs of paint in the tin will do the trick. It’ll soon all be finished…. yay!! *Does a little dance*
This morning John cleared away the Scalectrix (sob!) that we had got out for the grandchildren the other day, so that there was a clear way through for a repair man to come and sort out one of the sofas that had gone kaputt over the weekend. The seat had got stuck in the fully reclined position and no amount of coaxing enabled it to be in the upright.
I phoned the shop we’d bought it from, Thomas Hearn, and asked them to sort it out. At first, the girl thought she’d get onto G-Plan, the manufacturer, and she’d phone me, ‘….next week. On Monday? Will that be OK?’ Erm…..no. The darned thing was sticking out into the middle of the room and was a hazard. She phoned back and said someone would be out today. And…. guess what? They actually came. Not only that, but they came when they said they would. And repaired it.
I was delighted of course, because I’d been looking at the worst case scenario thinking we might have to live with it like that for weeks to come. But no!! The engineer came, saw what the fault was, had a spare part in the van and was able to sort it out, no bother. Thank you, sofa gods.
After the repair man had been, we took a trip over to see the Sutton Sleaths for an hour or two this afternoon. Thomas is still a bit unwell, but we suspect it’s a teething problem rather than anything else. Anyway, I had the delight of taking him for a walk in his buggy to give the family some respite and to see if he would have a nap. He was awake all the way round until the last ten minutes…… but immediately woke up as we came home when he heard the neighbours’ dogs yapping. Grrr….. Ah, well. at least they half an hour arms free of the ‘Cling-On’.
Grandpa had the delight of entertaining William – and he was a willing subject. Especially when William said, “I want to watch a programme on telly. Can we watch ‘Ring of Fire’, please?’ Grandpa had no idea what that might be, but he was attracted by the idea of settling on the sofa with William in the crook of his arm. His idea of bliss.
I haven’t watched a great deal of the news today, but what I did see was still very focussed on the situation in Afghanistan with many observers and commentators in tears, for fear of what may happen to those left behind. Our own politicians seem to have been asleep to the threat of the Taliban taking control, and I was amused by Susie Dent’s ‘Word of the Day’, which is commentary in itself without a single word to suggest that it is so. Her word is ‘imprescience’ from the 19th century, meaning a total lack of foresight and foreknowledge. Apt, eh? ‘We had no idea…….’ say the politicians. Harrumph!
We still have our eyes on the COVID situation but there seems to be a complacence about the numbers now – or is that just me surmising that? Anyway, 26,852 people tested positive for the virus today; 170 people died with it in the community and 127 people died in hospitals over the last four days. 773 people were admitted to hospital today. 0.1% of the adult population was added to the ‘first vaccination’ list overnight and 0.2% to the ‘double-jabbed’ list – so not much change to the figures I reported yesterday.
Every day I try to find inspiration from somewhere to keep me going. I don’t often share the nuggets with you, but I enjoyed this one from Finnish author, novelist, painter and illustrator, Tove Jansson, when she was asked what kept her going. It has helped me enormously in the last year, so thought I’d offer it up to you all, in the hope that you may take inspiration from it too.
“Do not tire, never lose interest, never grow indifferent – (do not) lose your invaluable curiosity and let yourself die. It’s as simple as that”
Take care everyone. God bless.