The Expected & the Unexpected

The birds were a-twittering very loudly this morning. I tried to ignore them but to no avail. I think they must have wheedled their way into John’s (un)consciousness too as, at 7.30, he suddenly leapt out of bed and asked me if I’d like a cuppa. Well, that would be very nice, thank you. So we were awake early to a glorious morning with the sun shining in a clear blue sky and on the glittering snow. The scene from our house across the garden and the houses opposite was magical – a real winter wonderland.

Having drunk my tea, I got out of bed. John wondered why. “Ah… Mark is coming to finalise the porch, isn’t he, this morning?” I like to make a show of being up and about even if I am bleary-eyed when the workmen rock up. As it turns out, the porch is not yet finished. Poor Mark was freezing working out there and his fingers were going numb. But it wasn’t his fingers that were stopping him, but sand. The sand, to make up the mortar for the pointing and filling up of the gaps, was a frozen block solid in the back of Mark’s van. There was no way he was going to tease that out to make decent mortar. See you on Friday then?

While Mark was working away in the porch, I busied myself moving what I think is the last of the books into my bookcase. It was very exciting. I came across books that I haven’t taken any notice of for ages, and felt interested enough to put them on the shelf of books to be read. Had to laugh at myself though – you always get a bit distracted with these things don’t you? Anyone remember Rinso? Well, I don’t particularly, but I came across a tiny little paperback book called ‘The Rinso Book of Knowledge’ – full of all sorts of interesting facts and figures. I doubt that many of the those facts and figures will be current, but it was interesting to browse through nonetheless.

Just before lunch, the doorbell rang and standing there were two rather burly-looking young men. “Mrs Sleath?” one of them enquired, very politely, “We’re from Thomas Hearn. Come to deliver your sofas.” Zipperdee-doo-da!! Oooh, I could hardly contain myself. They came in and inspected the old suite to be shifted out, then toddled back to the van to make room for it. I opened all the windows and patio doors in anticipation of their re-entry. I also laid out some dust sheets to absorb the clods of snow being brought in on their hob-nailed boots.

And, well, that was it really. They grunted and groaned and lifted and pulled and pushed; slotted seats together and plugged them in and there we were. New three piece suite in place. No sweat. Well, not for me anyway. I think they sweated a bit, despite the very cool air infiltrating the room.

After the delivery men had left, John and I thought we should try the seating out. We thought it would be rude not to. John sat in the corner seat and reclined it. I did the same on the sofa, and snuggled into a bee cushion. We had the TV on. It was soporific. I felt my eyes drooping. I heard John gently snoring. And there we stayed all afternoon. I perused me Rinso book of knowledge, played some e-scrabble and did an e-jigsaw or two, and John slept. It was delightful.

We didn’t do a great deal else later either. We ate, but were keen to stay snuggled in watching the box. After all, I thought, I deserved a rest and a bit of a treat after all my hard work, so why not? All good, all as expected and all rather satisfying.

However, the evening had hardly started, when I took a phone call from Dawn. Not sure how, but almost immediately that she said, ‘hello, how are you?’ I knew something was up. Well, it was exciting news. “I have a grandson,” said Dawn. Gosh! Wasn’t it only yesterday that I’d seen a rather lovely photo of Liz with nine weeks to go? Well, that was unexpected, wasn’t it?

Thrilled and excited, but obviously concerned because the baby has arrived rather early, I wholeheartedly offered congratulations and immediate healing thoughts over to the hospital for him and Liz. The baby is cocooned in an incubator for now, until he develops a bit more, so prayers or good thoughts, please, for the health and safety of mother and baby would be appreciated, if any of you are so inclined.

Healing thoughts are still needed for people falling ill with the virus too, of course, but happily, the infection rate is continuing to come down.

• 22,195 people tested positive for the virus today
• 592 people died in the community from the virus
• 324 people died in hospitals from it on 23 & 24 January
• Today is Day 20 of Lockdown 3 and Day 313 since we chose to hide away last March

So, there we have it. A day to remind us that we must always expect the unexpected. And a reminder that we must deal with that ‘unexpected’ the best way we can.

God bless. Take care and stay safe.