The Daily Echo: Our Shielding Story Day 171

Well, hello, Wednesday! What a great day. Love, laughter, friendships and general all-round thankfulness for the gift of life. For a start, the sun was shining in this morning, and smiling on us. That, for me, was in itself a good beginning to the day, so I got up and set about getting things ready for Jack coming mid-morning to valet the car.

It is such a long time since Jack has been round – I miss the days when we did the gardening together and we’d sit for our elevenses and have a cuppa and a biscuit. I think the last time he came was over a year ago and it was another car valeting job then too. Our gardening together days are over.

John is still feeling the effects of the physical effort he’s been putting in recently, so he dozed on this morning while Jack did the car and I labelled all of the photos I’d put into the ‘Lockdown 2020’ album. Jack did a wonderful job of vacuuming and washing the car, so it’s all set for its holiday next week. Just need to check the tyres, screen wash, oil etc – and buy the chocolate Minstrels to sit in the glove compartment ready for the journey – and we’re good to go.

No sooner had Jack left than Michelle and Tim arrived. What joy! It is more than year since we’ve met up (might even be two?) and so I was delighted to greet them. Sad not to be able to give them the biggest, squeeziest hugs though….

We settled ourselves outside and lit the chiminea – although to be truthful it wasn’t that cold – and Michelle handed me a bottle of Prosecco. Ah….. couldn’t resist of course, so we cracked the bottle open to accompany our chicken sandwiches. Haute cuisine or what?

The warmth of blazing wood in the chiminea was keeping us all warm except John. He was huddled in his chair, wrapped in a blanket, yet still feeling a bit chilly. We persevered, however, for most of the visit, and nattered away, sharing stories and generally catching up with each other’s news. There were a few drops of rain, but nothing too bad so we stuck it out.

Towards the end of the visit, however, the rain started falling a little bit too hard to be sat outside. John had dismantled the gazebo the other week in deference to the storm that threatened any unstable structure, and he hadn’t had the time, nor the inclination to re-instate it. We knew there were going to be showers today but we were hoping to dodge them. But no. Oh, dear, what shall we do? I didn’t want to be out in the wet, nor did I want John to feel any chillier than he already did.

We thought about it for a bit then John suggested that we might step indoors – with the Broadribbs at one end of the lounge and us at the other. And it was a case of, “Don’t touch anything,” then, “Put your masks on,” and finally, “Sanitise your hands,” I’d also like to have said, ‘hold your breath’, but I thought that would be a bit unfair and they might turn blue with trying.

So, we braved it. I got the collywobbles a bit, but we were very well distanced, and they didn’t stay very long, so it didn’t detract from the pleasure of their company. And they didn’t touch anything, they sanitised their hands and talked to us through their masks so, fingers crossed, none of us regret the ‘indoor’ socialising ……. I went round with the bleach afterwards though, of course.

John was still chilly after they had left, so we turned the heating up to ‘a lot’ degrees, and he stayed wrapped in his blanket to watch TV for the rest of the afternoon.

I spent a little while looking at some ‘Interval’ quiz questions that Nigel had sent us and printed a copy off for John to have a go at later. They were hard. As Linda said, they’re the sort of questions you used to get when you did your Eleven Plus. My brain has atrophied so much that I don’t think I’d pass my Eleven Plus now.

After our evening meal, it was Quiz Time. Malcolm and Caroline had accepted an invitation to visit Dorset where their son lives and didn’t join in this week, so we were depleted. He had sent his answers to the ‘Interval’ questions through though. I loved some of his answers. Question One: Can’t be a***d to work it out. Question Ten: Not a foggiest. Despite our struggles, between us, we got all of the questions right for that round, to which we did a big whoop, whoop!! And our percentage for getting questions right across the whole quiz worked out at 83%. We were cock-a-hoop at our own cleverness.

What a wonderful day. To see Jack and to benefit from his generosity in cleaning the car for us (although I did pay him in sweets); to spend time among dear friends whom we haven’t seen for ages; and then to spend time with dear friends who make us laugh each week at quiz time. Bliss. A blessed day.

In the meantime, while we have been enjoying our day, there are others who haven’t been enjoying theirs and who have been fighting the COVID-19 virus. Numbers of those infected seem to be rising, with 1,508 reported today and 10 deaths. Ten people have died with the new counting system, but in the old system this would have been 101 people today. Which is a bigger number than we’d like. Just one death reported, however, in a hospital setting yesterday.

Taking care as to how we behave is a must now that the autumn is upon us. God bless you all and peace be with you.