I am not sure how to entitle my daily diary now. I am no longer chronicling John’s leukaemia, his treatment, his recovery, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the stay-at-home requirement or the shielding, as such. I am simply observing our activities from day-to-day. Admittedly, each of the day’s summaries includes all of the above but, at present, it’s not a specific blog. All I know is, that I am still counting the days since the beginning of lockdown in March.
And today, being Day 155 and a Monday, it felt just right to take the bull by the horns and walk up to the shops. I went to collect my prescription. A week ago, the pharmacy had notified me that it was ready but, instead of telephoning them to ask if they’d deliver, I spent all week plucking up courage to make the hop and a skip up the road. All good. I even called into Tesco Express to collect a box of eggs. I am expecting plaudits and a bravery award shortly.
Otherwise, we just spent the day at home, drifting about. The morning was taken up with a super, smashing Skype chat to Graham and Gail, for over two hours. We think we set a new record – Graham was referee and record verifier, refusing to let Gail nip to the loo until we’d reached over-the-two-hours cut-off point. Tee-hee.
Fabulous chit-chat, relaxed and happy to see each other but oh, damn it, forgot to ask Graham to write to Mum. Ah, well next time, maybe. Despite the stories of the virus spreading in Victoria, which Graham and Gail remind us is a very long way way from where they live, they are very well, getting out and about with friends, going out for meals and so on, as New South Wales is pretty free of the virus. Not only that, they seem to have a track and trace system in place. Great news and we are not jealous at all.
Shocker of the day was Gail sending us a photograph of her brother’s (who is younger than us) great-grandson. Crumbs, it made us feel very old. We’re still only just on the third generation, let alone the fourth.
Lunchtime came and went, and I have no idea what we did this afternoon. John spent some time on the computer ordering bits for the beloved Lotus, or chasing up bits that have not yet arrived. Where are they? In the post? Surely they should be here by now? Impatient? John? No…………. And me? I did nothing but addle my brain by watching day-time television.
I did, however, look into the situation with Mum’s carers. I checked the contract with the company before firing off what was going to be a pithy email, only to find, *red face*, that the attendance we agreed is 45 minutes, not an hour. However, there was still a shortfall in time paid for and time attended, so I did question that. But the email wasn’t quite so pithy as the one I had already drafted in my head…..
On another note: in a moment of madness, when I was researching ‘healthy foods’ for John’s diet, I had once bought a pack of dried seaweed, so I fished it out of the cupboard and re-hydrated some of it to put into our evening meal. The idea of it quite appealed. That is, until I poured the boiling hot water over it and a very strong seaside aroma reached my nostrils. I baulked. Whaddya reckon, John? Fancy the seaweed? Neither of us were sure, so in the end I only put a smattering of it into the casserole. Wasn’t too bad, actually. But I have got a lot of re-hydrated seaweed left. Anyone? Well, maybe John has chucked it out now. Fingers crossed. And I can’t for the life of me remember what the ‘health’ properties of the bloomin’ stuff is now, of course!!
Not a lot else to report, other than the brain-addling continued into this evening by watching lots more TV, and we watched three episodes of Line of Duty. Enjoying it but, watching three programmes back-to-back like that shows up the repeated behaviour of the characters, which seems to include an awful lot of eye-rolling, eye-swivelling and furtive glances at each other. It gave me eye-ache just watching it.
With regards to the virus here in England, the government has reported just three deaths, with its new system of calculating the COVID-19 related deaths, and 713 newly confirmed cases of infection today. The NHS is also on the bandwagon of revising its reporting, and I understand that there was still one death on Friday. Saturday, Sunday and today’s figures are yet to be published, I think. The reporting system now states that: ‘The Daily file contains only deaths from the latest reporting period, 4pm 2 days prior to publication until 4pm the day before publication.‘ Got that? Hmmm…..me too!
Ah, well, with smoke and mirrors, I am sure we’re all reassured, aren’t we? Anyone re-read Animal Farm lately?
Take care everyone, and peace be with you all in all you say and do.