A little bit of variety

Well, what a day! Generally speaking, I would say it’s been a cracker – with variety being the spice of life. So much so, that we have enjoyed our day for the most part – and we’d like to say: ‘roll on some more!’

This morning it was more of the mundane, as per the Jungle Book – you know, sitting on a branch and saying ‘what d’ya wanna do then?’ with the response of: ‘I dunno, what d’ya wanna do?’ and a shrug or two of the shoulders.

My ‘dunno’ ended up with tackling admin jobs I’d got listed. John’s ‘dunno’ was similar. And each at our own computers – until John said, “Can you have a look at this item I’d like to buy? I can’t read the fine print.” So we ended up at the same computer poring over the items to scrutinise the fine print, before sacrificing any money. In the end, we were satisfied with our purchases in theory – it’ll be interesting to see what comes out the other end when they arrive. We have high hopes.

This afternoon, I left John to it at home while I swanned off to play badminton. It’s a small group of……well, what shall I say? Elderly ladies about my own age. However, when I arrived there were two new recruits, which brought the average age down to about 40. Regrettably, one of the newcomers was off to university within a day or two, so wouldn’t be coming again. Nevertheless, it was all good. Everyone had a game or two and everyone excelled themselves. I loved it. It doesn’t matter if you lose, or are rubbish. No-one minds. No, really.

When I got home, John was already out, having a jolly at the doctors. He’d phoned them a couple of weeks ago, sharing the gruesome sight of a skin discolouration. No worries, they’d said. Come on Thursday afternoon. Righty-ho! Only, when it came to it, today, we were puzzled. Isn’t the doctors’ surgery closed on a Thursday afternoon? “Ah, well,” John sighed, “I’ll go and see anyway. I can always come home again.”

Well, would you believe it? Not only was the surgery available, but it was open for minor procedures. The doctor dealt with the skin thing there and then. Zap! Zap! I know I wasn’t there, but that seemed easy – and John was quite happy.

I had a little run around before tea, getting the car washed, filling up with petrol and checking the tyre pressures because don’t you know? I am going on a yoga retreat tomorrow, for a day or two. Blogs may be sporadic or non-existent while I am away….

Then, this evening, we got ourselves ready to welcome Margaret and Chris, dear friends from church, who have supported us so well during the lockdowns, regularly bringing chocolate and wine and good cheer to our doorstep.

It is the first time that we have socialised within either of our homes, and we were really looking forward to it. It didn’t disappoint. What a brilliant evening we had. Margaret looked fabulous in a beautiful summer outfit, with personality to match – bright, cheerful, uplifting; and Chris bought his wry and dry sense of humour which, alongside Margaret’s levity, had us howling with laughter.

And, you know you can never arrive empty-handed to these sorts of evenings? Well, they really knew how to please. Just look at these:

Just beautiful, aren’t they? Along with several other flowers, gladioli are one of my favourites. I was delighted.

But, not only did they bring us flowers, but this is what they think about John – he is one of the…….. I think I agree.

A mid-week get-together is usually a sensible one, with work tomorrow, and so on….. hmmm…… but maybe the next time we meet up it’ll have to be a Saturday night. We were talking and talking and talking until late. Loved it.

It certainly took our minds off the doom and gloom everywhere else in the country with 38,013 people testing positive for the virus today. 167 people died in the community and 63 in hospitals on 7 & 8 September.

I continue to be amazed by the lack of awareness among the general public about the volumes of infections. In Sainsbury’s, paying for my petrol, the girl behind the counter thought things were ‘not so bad’. When I told her that this time last year there were 2,500 people infected with COVID each day, and were we worried then, but now there’s over 38k each day, she seemed surprised. “Each day? No!” she asked, shocked. Yup. Every day. The propaganda machine has done a good job, hasn’t it, don’t you think?

Take care everyone. Keep on with the mask-wearing (it does work), the hand-sanitising and social-distancing. These small actions will definitely mitigate against the worst case scenario. Don’t be fooled by the ‘let’s open up’ brigade, or be numbed by the numbers. Stay safe. God bless.