Shielding paused? Day 150

I am wondering whether to stop counting the days. I mean, our ‘shielding’ days in the very strictest sense seem to be behind us. We are ‘bubbling’ with the Sutton Sleaths and, weather permitting, garden partying with our friends and other family members (fingers crossed we see Andrew soon). And we are enjoying the socialisation. It has made a huge difference to both of us. We are lighter in spirit, even though we are not yet lighter in body weight. We are both looking forward to events in the future. For example, we are (ever hopeful) planning a week away next Easter with the family, if anyone can make it. I am even contemplating suggesting a socially-distanced picnic in a park with friends. It sounds to me like a quite a good little social life. A far cry from the days of chivvying Mum to get out of bed.

However, Day 150 it is. And we are still ‘washing the shopping’, wearing masks, sanitising or washing our hands at every contact with anyone else and standing well back from others. And other than me Mum, the Sutton Sleaths and little Freddie, we have had no-one inside the house. Oh, apart from the plumber early on and the District Nurses, of course. So, I am wondering how different that is from everyone else now. Being a ‘deltiologist’, (a new word that I learnt today – look it up, people) answers on a postcard, please.

It being Day 150, I slept some more. Those of you who read yesterday’s instalment will have noted that I whiled away a good few hours yesterday afternoon inspecting the back of my eyelids. This morning was no exception. I thought they deserved a little more inspection. I finally got out of bed, trundled to the bathroom, drank the (now cold) fruit tea John had lovingly placed by my bedside, picked up my phone, had a go at an e-jigsaw puzzle I am fond of doing and then looked at the time. Crikey!!! It was already 11.25 and we had promised to be over in Sutton by noon. I quickly got dressed and shot downstairs to see if John was ready for the trip. Nope. He was concentrating very hard on being Quiz Master and setting the questions for this evening. “It’s nearly twenty to twelve,” I told him. He looked up, startled. “Already? Best get going then.” We gathered our things pronto and set off.

Had a lovely afternoon with Danielle, William and Thomas. All were as good as gold. Even Danielle behaved……… tee-hee!! Michael wasn’t there, having had to actually go to work. Yes. I mean, physically, go to work. What a shocker. He was back by about three-ish with more work to do, of course, via Zoom and teleconferencing. But he did mention that he hadn’t been missing the two-hour commute every day…….. I wonder if we will change our ways of working, or whether we will forget very quickly that beautiful balance we found at one point during lock down?

John spent the afternoon on the roof of the ‘man shed’ and I spent the afternoon having a quick tidy round. One job I thought I could do to be helpful, was to tear up all of the cardboard boxes that had accumulated in the last week, and were nestling in the porch, and then slot them into the recycling bin. Oooh, it was so satisfying. All that tearing and trashing – brilliant. And not only that, at the end of it all, the porch was cleared. No more cardboard glowering at the residents on the way in or out of the house.

William and I played Pirates on Mummy and Daddy’s bed this afternoon, at the same time as Danielle and I folded all the children’s clothes and snuggled them away into their respective homes. I had a pillow for my steering wheel, and William had one too, for his control panel. There were sharks in the water and we had to be rescued more than once. We found treasure and leapt ashore onto dry land before the sharks got us. Great, great fun.

I dandled Thomas and rocked him in his pram and he smiled and gurgled at me. He was talking to me, making eye contact and telling me all about it. He is such a bonny boy.

Once home, we laughed at a video Paul had sent us, showing Freddie freezing, but determined to stay, in the paddling pool in their holiday garden. Freddie, being a ‘contrary Mary’ told Paul that the water was warm and why didn’t Daddy join him? Paul had a good excuse. He was overseeing the barbecue. Man’s work.

Honestly, these boys, Freddie, William and Thomas, are beautiful and have a great start in life.

This evening we quizzed. Despite the fact that John thought it might be a relatively ‘easy’ quiz, we puzzled over quite a few of the questions and decided it hadn’t been quite so easy after all. It was, as always though, exceedingly enjoyable and we spent a good while afterwards just chatting. Loved it. So grateful that we have this wonderful evening among friends.

This beautiful life – I’d like to live it without the virus lurking in the background, but we can’t, so we have to make the most of it. For 77 people in the community yesterday that wasn’t possible, as they lost their lives to COVID-19, and 1,009 were confirmed as infected. One person died in a hospital setting, too.

Counting people who have died due to the virus is now a game of ‘shove ha’penny’, it seems to me, as the rules are changing on who to count in, and who to count out. Overnight, we have lost 5,000 on the data tracking as these people had been recorded as COVID-19 infected more than 28 days ago. I do not know the rights and wrongs of the count, but it strikes me that the new figures seem to count out any death due to the effects of ‘long COVID’. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Whatever it is, look after yourselves and try not to be a statistic. Blessings to you all.