Woke up to glorious sunshine this morning and it got me out of bed early for a little constitutional. Met no-one en route at all. Home again, I breakfasted at the table on the patio and then spent an hour doing a bit of gardening before tackling the rest of today’s chores.
I took both hubby and Mum a cuppa at 9.30. John was tired and still only thinking about getting up when he suddenly remembered that he had to be at the Hampton surgery for some treatment. That galvanised him and he had to get out of bed pronto to find out exactly what time they were expecting him. Mum, on the other hand, was planning to stay in bed for as long as she could. However, she was up and getting dressed at the second time of asking today, so she was downstairs by 11.30. Basically, my technique today was simply to stand by her bed until she actually got out of it.
I am hoping that Mum’s dopiness is going to be improved by an increase in the dose of her thyroid tablets, but we’ll see when we have a telephone consultation with the doctor tomorrow afternoon.
Some of the morning was spent wrestling with packing up a parcel for Andrew. A while ago we’d bought him a KitchenAid, but it had stopped working and needed to go back for repair. As I’d bought it, the courier would collect it from our house. I tell you what, though – those appliances aren’t half heavy!! Anyway, it’s as snug as a bug in a rug now that I’ve packed it with layers and layers of bubble wrap, and it’s ready to go.
Indoor chores over, John and I spent a lovely afternoon in the garden having a jolly good clear up. The main aim was to clear the side path so that Pete and Dawn can come for a ‘garden visit’ tomorrow, but it turned out to be tidying all sorts, from shrubs and hedging, plant pots and watering cans through to the cement mixer and barbecue and, of course, stuff in the ‘man shed’. Good fun but tiring.
The pheasants started their day at the top end of the garden, but by mid-afternoon had made it down to the raised flower bed. Mum had a little wander out to look at all the new planting and then sat on the patio by the patio doors looking out on the ‘Estate’. As we looked out, we thought that the pheasants were keen to come a bit further up the lawn, so I duly fetched them and settled them in a new spot. Clearly, they are happy as they lit up beautifully this evening.
As we sat on the patio just taking in a few moments of the sunshine, Michael phoned. “Do you want to tell Grandma where we’ve been, William?” he said as I took the call. “We’ve just been to take Mummy to the hospital” William proclaimed. Ooooh……. and….? Well, one or two twinges today suggested that the baby might be getting ready to be born. In the event though, it was a false alarm and she was soon home again, although the medics were pleased that she’d gone in to be checked over. All our fingers crossed that the baby waits until D-Day now and that the arrival all goes to plan.
We were both a little weary this evening, so we had our evening meal on our laps sat in the lounge watching TV. The TV which, this afternoon, looked like it might be on the blink. All the faces of people had turned bright orange. No matter what we did, we couldn’t change it. It didn’t seem to be a problem with Sky or any specific channel, so we thought it must be the TV. I’ll find the receipt, I said. When did we buy it? And where did we buy it from? Erm…… our brains are so shot that neither of us could remember. John thought we’d bought it four or five years ago; I thought it wasn’t very long ago – just before Christmas – was that last year, or the year before? We still don’t know because I haven’t found the receipt yet…… I’m sure it’s here somewhere……
The TV must have righted itself though, because we sat and watched a couple of episodes of The A Word all evening and neither of us commented on anyone’s bright orange faces. We had clearly forgotten all about it between times.
Lock down has had an effect on us in quite a few ways, and our brains atrophying seems to be one of them. Another is indecision – shall we do this? Or perhaps we should wait? And then there is the: ‘do we go out?’ question. I have taken to having a short walk and we have been catching up with family and a couple of friends in the garden, but we are still anxious about going out. I laughingly tell people that I am now agoraphobic, which is not true of course, but there is an element of reluctance to leave the cosiness and security of our four walls just in case. Those very walls that we have been railing against over the last few months – doesn’t make sense does it?
However, the government – or at least, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Jenny Harries – tells us today that it’s going to be OK to meet six other people from outside our home from 6th July, outdoors. Garden parties are going to be de rigueur this year, aren’t they? I’ll get my waterproof mac and galoshes ready……
The government report today tells us that there were less than a thousand confirmed case of people infected with the virus up to five o’clock on Sunday, 21 June, and 15 deaths in all settings. The NHS figures indicate three deaths in hospitals for the same time frame and 18 confirmed for the day before (20 June 2020).
So, all positive then. Praying for the downward trend to continue. God bless. Look after yourselves.