Christmas is coming….

……. but not as we know it.

We have made the excruciating decision this evening, en famille, that we will keep ourselves to ourselves this year. Well, that’s going to be different, isn’t it? But sensible. No point isolating and keeping our distance all this time only to blow it at the end of the year.

For a while, we had been hoping that everyone could perhaps self-isolate for a couple of weeks before Christmas so that we could all spend it together. But it’s really not possible. Paul and Harriet have their girls to think about and bring home for Christmas and, as are Michael and Andrew and Christiana, they’re working right up to Christmas. So, there we have it. A family conference confirmed this evening what we thought would be the case, and we now have plans for a remote celebration instead. Ah, well, maybe it’ll be the full family do next year.

Other than that momentous decision, we have had a typical sort of day. Despite the fact that I had had a couple of glasses of wine last night when we were doing the quiz, I felt bright enough to take part in the Zoom yoga class, offered by Jaime, this morning. I was surprised and chuffed that I was fit enough to do all the poses she was suggesting, so felt good afterwards.

Funnily enough, I felt tired though. So I sat on the sofa to recuperate and caught up on some telly watching. It wasn’t long before it was lunchtime and I hadn’t actually got up off my backside. John said he’d prepare the lunch, which was very nice thank you, and then we took a trip into Birmingham to collect the prescription, which was now ready, for some eye drops. It was a bit of a jaunt, through filthy weather, and a slow journey. The M6 was full of slow-moving traffic, down to 40 miles an hour in places.

When we got back, I popped up to the local pharmacy to collect the remainder of John’s prescription. This was today’s haul – just a few more eye drops…..

For the last day or two, I have been promising myself that I’d do the wallpapering in the snug, and today was no exception, but by the time we got back from the hospital it was dark and I was weary. Maybe tomorrow.

Instead of wallpapering, I decided to decorate the Christmas tree. Freddie and I had got as far as putting the fairy on it but that was all. I spent a happy hour doing that, but listlessly sifted through the remaining decorations and decided I’d perhaps streamline the house decorations this year. Now that I know we won’t be having guests, I think I might just concentrate on finishing painting and decorating the snug and the lounge instead of putting Christmas trinkets out.

There’s not much else to report today. So, just the stats, then….. with the incidence of COVID cases slowing, is the lockdown/tier strategy working?

• 14,879 people were confirmed as having contracted the virus today
• 414 people died in the commnity from the effects of COVID today
• 189 people died in hospitals from the ffects of COVID in the last couple fo days.
• And we are out of Lockdown 2 now, into the Tier system
• But it’s Day 260 since we first isolated in March.

Take care everyone. God bless.