Isolation Day 94

I chose to sleep on this morning. Woke up early, peered a slightly bleary eye out of the window to confirm what I could hear – the rain. If it had been a bit of a drizzle, I would probably have braved it, but it was heavier than that, so I thought I’d wait a bit. Then a bit more….and then a bit more. Until it was nearly half past ten and all I’d done was read some of my book, scroll through social media, complete an e-jigsaw and do a few yoga stretches.

Downstairs, I popped the kettle on, made a cuppa and prepared a delicious ‘brunch’. John hadn’t got up yet, so he had the luxury of his coffee and brunch in bed. Afterwards, we did that pottering about thing that we are now adept at doing every day. A tidy up here and a tidy up there, before embarking on anything of any note.

In John’s case, he sparkled as he hummed his way through gluing material onto interior parts, and fiddled with pieces of trim, for the ‘project car’. He’s had a cracking day of progressing the Lotus. Disappointingly, there seems to be a fair bit of trim that he’ll be unable to do himself though. Some of it needs sewing together and we don’t have the appropriate sewing machine, skills or experience to be confident of completing such a job competently. But he’s doing the sections he is confident of getting right.

In my case, I made a conscious decision not to do anything that needed a great deal of effort. However, before I sat down to browse unseen programmes on TV or read a book, I sourced some material from the loft for re-upholstering the kitchen chairs, conscious that I still haven’t finalised every job in the kitchen’s refurbishment yet. I need some foam for the seats though, before I make a start with putting the new covers on, so that’s tomorrow’s research.

It may be twee, but I settled down to watch the Great British Sewing Bee this afternoon. I am in awe of these seamsters (or sewers, as they call them). They seem to able to tackle anything and everything. Then, for something a little punchier, I moved on to The Salisbury Poisonings. I watched all three episodes in one sitting and found the series fascinating. I was especially moved by the portrayal of the people involved and sometimes found myself in tears as the story unfolded.

I had sat with Mum all afternoon. We had chatted. Eaten our lunch. Had a cup of tea. Lit a fire to chase away the blues and had commentary about that. We had both sat in the lounge and watched and talked about the same programmes which she thoroughly enjoyed. I left her on her own watching The Chase for about half an hour while I got our evening meal ready, so I was surprised that she made a fuss when I reminded her that I was going to chat with my college friends this evening. To paraphrase the conversation, it was – ‘What, again? Talking to people again? What about me? I’m all on my own here and get lonely. And, what about John? What will he do while you’re busy?’. Oh, dear. I wasn’t perhaps as patient as I should have been, but I did say she could keep me company upstairs if she’d like to. Ah…no, she’d just have to stay on her own and watch TV, she sniffed. What can you do?

An evening then, filled with beautiful people who uplifted me as they do every week. Reminding me that there is hope and light and lovely things to be thankful for. And restating the blessings I forget when I feel down. How good to hear their stories whether they be exciting times like Sue, welcoming her daughter and granddaughter down for the weekend in a ‘bubble’ catch-up; or tragic times like the other Sue, who has lost a very dear friend to cancer and COVID-19 this week. How good to be able to celebrate or commiserate with my friends and uplift them as they uplift me.

John spent a very happy hour or two this evening, immersed in his car manual, working out his next steps. Contrary to Mum’s view, he knew exactly what to do while I was busy on my girly catch-up.

A bit more blah, blah, blah from the government briefing this afternoon in relation to the ‘Track and Trace’ policy, which had me falling about in the aisles with laughter – or was it tears – at their dismissal of it being central to tackling the spread of the virus. I can hardly wait for the next episode of this fairy story, folks. Or am I being too harsh? Jaded, perhaps you might think, by being mostly incarcerated in my own little world and hardly getting out of the front door?

135 people have died from the Corona Virus, as of 9 o’clock today. 1,218 people were confirmed as infected. Meanwhile, the NHS reports 13 deaths up until 5 o’clock yesterday (17 June 2020) and 35 confirmed for the day before.

We are still in a sticky situation despite its apparent easing, so please take care everyone. God bless you all.