Isolation Day 62

Oh, dear!! I have started to wag my finger at my dear Mum!! How on earth has that happened?

Well, after breakfast, I suggested that she might like to go upstairs to get dressed, so off she went. John and I went into the lounge to drink our tea, as well as me to do some ironing. After a goodly while, John said, “Where’s your Mum?” Grinning, I offered, “Upstairs getting dressed? But we’ll see when she comes down, won’t we?” Ten minutes later, she drifted down the stairs and into the lounge, still in her nightie and dressing gown. “What have you been doing, Mum”? I asked. “I don’t know” she said and went to sit down. “No, don’t sit down again, Mum, I think you were going to get dressed, weren’t you?”

She was reluctant to stay standing and made a determined effort to sit down. “Come on, let’s go and get you dressed.” I cajoled.  Very unwillingly, she dragged her feet like a toddler, as I led her back upstairs. That’s when the finger wagging started. “Now, then, make sure you change all your clothes when you get dressed won’t you? I shall be checking…..” I teased. But I realised how deadly serious I was when I noticed my finger wagging at her…… oh, dear!! I had to laugh that it’s come to this! Fortunately, she didn’t seem to mind……

Other than that, it’s been quite a good day.

John has thoroughly enjoyed mooching about in his ‘man shed’ and garage. The only annoying thing was that he planned to bolt on the fascia for his Lotus – only to find that the fixings he’d ordered were ‘bolts’, and not ‘set screws’….. to be honest, I didn’t know the difference, until he showed me!! But now I know! How about you….do you know the difference??

In addition to John’s mooching, there have been two exciting episodes today. Firstly, we had a bit of a conversation with Paul on WhatsApp, which offered two alternatives: a) we’ll come to your house to deliver the bits we’ve got for you; or b) you come to our house to collect the bits we’ve got for you. In the end, Paul came to us. Aaaahhhh, bliss!!

We sat on the patio, Paul sat on the lawn……and we chatted and chatted and chatted….. it was beautiful and sublime. Even Mum joined in for a bit, asking Paul how the family was going on (several times) and telling him how she was faring.

I didn’t want to let him go. I knew he had the family to get back to and we thought we said goodbye as soon as he felt it was time, but did we hang on to him too long? I don’t know, but we would have liked to hang on to him even longer!

Then, secondly, we had a family quiz this evening, organised by the ever-efficient Catherine, and we so enjoyed ourselves. We came last as expected (if only we knew anything about music which we don’t), but it didn’t matter to us as we did OK on some of the rounds.

In between the beautiful family moments, we drew on our own instants of satisfaction during the day. I nipped out into the garden to lift up some Montbretia from the front garden to transplant it into the raised beds at the back; and John, contentedly, tiddled about on his car. I also cooked the traditional Sunday Roast, which was absolutely delicious, and we had a fabulous rhubarb crumble for afters as well, to which we all went back for seconds. Yummy, yum, yum!!

To accompany the rather delicious roast, I opened a beautiful bottle of Pouilly Fumé that Paul had gifted me the other week. Oh, my! It was nectar. I had said to him that I hadn’t yet opened it because it was such a nice one and he said, “Mum, just enjoy it.” So…….. we did!!

And so, to the tally…..3,534 infectees, 147 deaths in hospitals, 170 deaths in all settings, attributed to COVID-19, according to the government figures yesterday; but, more up-to-date and more accurately, just 33 deaths, as reported by the NHS.

The figures are coming down……..Let’s hope they stay that way. God bless.