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It was Freddie’s birthday today. Not sure if you would class it as an essential journey, but I made the trip over to Kenilworth, called into the balloon shop and stood on the path outside Paul and Harriet’s to offer Freddie a birthday balloon and his birthday gift. I might have been testing my eyesight and doing what every Grandmother would do to look after their family. So it was an essential journey to me.

The outcome of the journey filled my heart enough to help me get through the next few weeks without the family face-to-face. There were bucketfuls of love and pleasure and excitement as I watched Freddie open his presents and skip about with the balloon. What do you reckon, folks?

John wasn’t up and about this morning so didn’t come with me, as it was a fairly early visit. The Kenilworth Sleaths were taking Freddie out for the day over to Warwick, so needed to head off by about half-past ten. And, in fact, John wasn’t up when I got back either. He’d fallen fast back to sleep after I left and didn’t get up until lunchtime. I think he felt better for having had a good sleep though.

Meantime, I simply pottered about at home with this ‘n that. Wrapped a couple of gifts ready to post on Monday; looked into printing off the labels from the computer to send the Christmas cards – but found I couldn’t do it; filled the washing machine, then the tumble dryer; emptied the washing machine, then the tumble dryer; looked with horror at the pile of ironing I’d generated, hid the basket in the dining room and shut the door.

I also did a bit of ordering online in an attempt to get something for friends/relatives at Christmas, and, on a whim, decided to order myself a second pair of jeans. The first pair I ordered from Next were such a brilliant fit and exactly what I wanted that I thought I’d get another pair to replace the other threadbare trousers I have hanging in the wardrobe.

The only trouble with the order was that it was ‘click and collect’ only. Shall we brave it? OK, we’ll brave it. So we nipped into Touchwood in Solihull. John stayed in the car and waited, engine running, while I ran down to the shop. Hmmm….. I thought we were Tier 3? Honestly, it was rammed. People were milling about, wandering into the shops as if there was no crisis at all. It made me anxious just walking to the shop, in and out, and back again. But there were people without masks strolling about and certainly very little distancing in evidence. There were crowds, and it was a struggle to get past people or stay clear of them. I am definitely not doing that again.

I have puzzled as to why the numbers of infections have been going up despite the measures the government have put in place. Now I know. Nobody is taking the blindest bit of notice as to whether we are in Tier 3 or Tier 2 or anything really. I suppose, if you are healthy, the threat of catching the virus doesn’t seem very serious.

And, indeed, I saw Lily today when I dropped Freddie’s gift off. She waved at me from the lounge. I called to her, “How are you?” She nodded, and called back that she was better. But she had had a migraine last week for the first time in her life, which may have been a COVID-related thing – or not, we don’t really know. But she’s bounced back beautifully from the virus, and I am very grateful for that.

Anyway, in other news, I was just on the computer doing some ordering, when my phone rang. “Hello?” said a voice on the other end of the line, “Can I speak to the next of kin?” Erm…. I wasn’t sure how to answer that. Next of kin to whom? My tummy turned over. But it was nothing untoward at all – it was about me mother. “We’d like to book your Mum in for the Corona virus vaccine.” Oh….ahh…..I see. Do you know, I hadn’t clocked that they were going to deal with my Mum first? Of course I know she’s over 90 and in the priority group, but it just hadn’t registered.

It’s made me smile though today, in a wry sort of way. The vaccine will prevent Mum from becoming very ill with the virus. Yippee! It might add other ten years to her life. The vaccine will not prevent her passing the virus on to us, however, if she’s been exposed to it and is asymptomatic. Yippee! She could kill us with a laugh. As you were, then folks, as you were. Masks ON!

After our little trip into town, John thought he’d try and mend our shower door and surrounding cubicle. It has been leaking water everywhere for years, so you paddle through oceans of it to get to the sink or the loo after you’ve had a shower. But today was the day. Not sure how successful he’s been yet – it’s still work in progress……but it seems he’s managed to do some of it. The rest tomorrow? Fingers crossed.

Oh, and by the way, I did manage to print labels off for the Christmas card writing. But only thanks to dear George again, who came to the rescue. I honestly think he’s got some magic going on. I mean, he only has to think about the specific computer we’re talking about and it will start to behave. Rather like a naughty child, the computers know who they can play up and who they can’t. Thank you very much indeed, George.

And finally, what a wonderful surprise we had in the post today. I am sure we should have waited, but our curiosity was roused when an unexpected parcel arrived for us. Wow! How exciting to get the book by Andrew Cotter, ‘Olive, Mabel and Me’, from Michelle and Tim. Another heart-filling moment, thank you very much.

So here we are again, thinking about all those poor people who are poorly with COVID; seriously ill in intensive care, or who have died from the virus. For the majority, life goes on, but let’s spare a thought for all those suffering now.

• 21,502 people have been confirmed as infected with the virus today
• 10,482 people have been admitted to hospital with the virus in the last week
• 519 people have died in the community from the virus today
• 206 people have died in hospitals from the virus over the last couple of days
• It is Day 11 of our Tier 3 (whatever) since Lockdown 2 ended
• And we’re on Day 269 since we began the high alert and ‘stay-at-home’ routine in March

Do take care everyone. God bless.

Although I woke up early this morning, I really didn’t get going very well today. Everything seems to take me such a long time to do these days! And then, when I’ve done something, I have to have a bit of a sit down afterwards. Do you reckon it’s my age? Might have to start thinking of retiring….

Anyway, despite the feeling of life crawling at a snail’s pace, the days seem to whizz by and, goodness me, it’s Friday again already! It was only yesterday that it was Tuesday, wasn’t it? And there’s only a couple of weeks to go before Christmas – and I still haven’t sent my cards out or done the Christmas shopping. John keeps telling me to chill out and not to worry about it all, but he doesn’t have to get everything bought, wrapped up and distributed, does he? Ah, well, I am sure it’ll all turn out OK in the end.

After finalising the decorating, I found myself in a position to actually do a bit of tidying up today. Which, in actual fact, was quite nice. We can get into the dining room without fighting anything now – although, to be fair, some of the clutter in there has been (and still is) the grandchildren’s birthday/Christmas presents which take up an inordinate amount of space. Not only that, but I managed to clear all the work surfaces in the kitchen of the papers and bits ‘n bobs that were littering the place. I have yet to sort the papers, mind. That’s a job for another day…..

One thing that John and I were both focussed on today was a mission to try and get John’s eye drops delivered. He has a specialist product for his eyes which comes from Liverpool. Normally, a good couple of weeks before he runs out, either he, or the company that makes the product, gets in touch to confirm the drops are on their way. Unfortunately, John didn’t do the confirmation and neither did the manufacturer, and so he has run out. That’s not the best thing when your eyes are already sore, is it?

Well, we have made phone call after phone call to try and get the delivery sorted but we are no further forward. Just waiting on the consultant to do a prescription, but we don’t know if the consultant knows he’s got to do it…… We’ve left messages with his secretary so we’re keeping our fingers crossed. Maybe Monday? In the meantime, John is in for a torrid time of it, I think, until they arrive.

I left John at home at lunchtime while I went to the local garden centre to see if I could pick up a few gifts for Christmas and had a great time browsing. But then there’s the realisation that buying a heavy bulky gift for a friend is probably not a great option as it’s going to have to be sent through the post. Dang!! That’s annoying, going to have to think again about gifts.

When I got back home, John had been having a wonderful time playing poker on the computer – his new hobby. He tells me it’s not costing him anything yet….. and he carried on playing his game while I had a sit down on the sofa after my shopping jaunt.

That was when I got cross with myself because I thought I should be getting on with something. It didn’t stop me sitting for a bit longer though….

Other than that, we’ve not done a great deal this evening. John did a little repair job on a set of lamps we’ve got, replacing the switch; and I did a little repair job on the tarpaulin cover of Michael and Danielle’s gazebo. Then we have both watched TV in separate rooms. I am not quite sure why or how that happened, but I was ensconced on the sofa watching the tribute to Barbara Windsor, and John settled in the kitchen with a bottle of wine and a thriller to watch. And there we are. The day is done and now it’s the weekend.

With the news being all doom and gloom in lots of ways, I think I may switch off and just focus on the good things this weekend. It’s Freddie’s birthday tomorrow and we’re going to go over and stand at the end of the path and wave at him in the morning. Can’t wait.

As we prepare to crash out of Europe with all that that entails, the figures on the COVID front don’t make pretty reading either:

• 21,672 people have been confirmed as infected with the virus today
• 424 people have died from the virus in the community today
• 192 people died from the virus in hospitals on 9 & 10 December
• Today is Day 10 of our Tier 3 since Lockdown 2 ended
• And today is Day 268 since we self-isolated in March.

It’s a long haul isn’t it? Is anyone feeling weary yet? Oh, I think that might be a rhetorical question.

Take care everyone. God bless.

I am feeling rather pleased with myself today. Why? Because I used the SnuGym this morning. And it worked extremely well, thank you.

Thursday is Yoga day, when Jaime streams her class via Zoom into our homes. Up until now, I have shifted furniture to find space for my mat in the lounge. Today, it was simply a matter of rolling my mat out, setting up the laptop and Bob’s your Uncle! There was plenty of space for me to wave my arms about and stretch out, so I was in business immediately.

There was only one drawback – and we already knew about it – and that was the howling great draft that whistles under the door leading to the garage. No problem at all when I was standing up and generally creating warmth through the activities. But, as soon as it was ‘lie down on the mat time’ at the end of the class, when we were doing our relaxation, it was a bit chilly. Mind you, I had a solution to that. I swiftly plugged in the heated over-blanket I had bought recently, and tucked myself under that. Cosy, cosy. I shall do that again next week. *Does a little dance*

After yoga, I fortified myself with some breakfast, having got up too late to have some before the class. And then pottered about doing a few little jobs and nipping up to the shops for a card for Freddie, whose birthday it is on Saturday. He’s going to be 5. Where did the years go? Surely it was only yesterday that he was just born?

After I’d done my few jobs, I sat down for a few minutes. And I am not quite sure how it happened, but the next thing I knew, it was half-past three. Crumbs! I’d been asleep for hours! I think this may be the third time that I have zonked out after yoga. Is it trying to tell me something?

Meantime, John has spent the day fighting the dishwasher. It has been very naughty and decided to conk out totally. “I’ll have a look at it,” John said, and promptly pulled the thing out into the middle of the kitchen. But, you know, things are never simple are they? The battery was flat on the multimeter, so he wasn’t able to check the flow of electricity to the machine. ‘I know,’ he thought, ‘I’ll message Anne while she’s at the shops to get a battery.’ Great idea, except I had forgotten to take my phone with me, despite telling him to phone me if he thought of anything he needed!

Anyway, suffice to say, despite the multimeter being up and running once a new battery was installed, it only showed that the dish-washing machine was dead and not to be resurrected. Time to buy a new one. And blimey!! Aren’t they expensive? John spent all afternoon trawling the internet to find a replacement that a)would be reliable b) didn’t cost thousands, and c) was in stock.

I woke up from my slumber just at the defining moment of ‘shall we get this one, or this one? Or this one that’s out of stock?’ You can imagine the contribution I made to the decision-making process, can’t you? Half compos-mentis, it all seemed a bit complicated to me. But, John thinks he’s ordered one. And it might come before Christmas. Or not. Watch this space.

I am not sure what I did then, but whatever it was, it was wonderfully interrupted by a video chat to William, who was keen to share with me a little note that he’d found in his money box from Grandma Hazel. It was lovely to see them all, and we had a laugh. The Sutton Sleaths often hanker after a bigger home, However, why do they need more space, when each and every one of them, including Chester, the dog, all want to crowd into one square metre together to be close and cosy? Whenever we video chat, that’s just what they do – squeeze in, squeeze in!!

We were still chatting when the doorbell rang, and who should be standing there, but darling Paul? He was calling to collect the birthday present that they’d had delivered to our house to keep it secret from Fred-Fred. Oh, it was so lovely to see him! We didn’t chat long, but just to see his beautiful face and hear his voice, there in our porch, is soul-filling. What a wonderful boost to the afternoon, seeing two of our three men.

This evening it was a Zoom-In with the College girls, and lovely it was too. So nice to see everyone and have a gentle chat to each other. I do love them. We were all bemused by the fact that Christmas ‘won’t be the same’ with some of us making plans to meet our families outdoors. But, better to be safe than sorry, eh?

And that has to be our mantra, surely? Because the figures of those who have been infected and died are shocking again. And it looks like the government will have to put several more areas of the country into Tier 3.

• 20,964 people have been confirmed as infected with the virus today
• 516 people have died from the virus today in the community
• 185 people died in hospitals on 8 & 9 December
• We are on Day 9 of our Tier 3 today since Lockdown 2 ended.
• And today is Day 267 since the beginning of our Lockdown 1

C’mon people!! This is madness now! We really need to take extra care. It’s not rocket science after all, is it? Ah well, horses and water…..

Take care everyone. Stay safe. Do all the stuff we’re supposed to. And God bless.

You know you’re stressed when you start shouting at other road users, don’t you? Well, that was me today.

We had got up early to toddle off to Heartlands for John’s treatment of immunoglobulin at 9 o’clock, so it wasn’t even rush hour on the way back. I’m pootling along quite nicely when the road narrows into one lane due to road works, and there’s a long line of those rather beautiful cones, in which I wish I had taken out shares. I am not going very fast – maybe 23 miles an hour, as the traffic has slowed – and I am just about a car length behind the car in front, but not such a gap that would invite anyone in, when another car comes screaming up on the narrowing outside lane, and pushes its way in front of me. I braked and felt irritated.

But not as irritated as I felt when he pipped his horn at me!! What? ‘Scuse me? How is that my fault, you donkey? I pipped my horn back. He leant on his horn, so I leant on mine…. etc etc. I might have shouted a few obscenities from the safety of my car, too. He eventually turned off, but not before he’d done that stupid thing of speeding up and then braking hard in front of me. Grrr……. Idiot.

I treated myself to a hot chocolate and a pain aux raisins when I got home to calm me nerves. I sat on the sofa and brooded about the incident, but then cheered myself up by watching last night’s Master Chef. I was about half-way through the programme when Harriet face-timed me, which was really lovely. It’s not often we do that, so I really appreciated it. We had a great natter and she made me laugh – especially as she was wearing a hat indoors. “Why are you wearing a hat, Harriet?” I wondered. “Ah, well, I didn’t have time to dry my hair last night,” she replied, “and it’s a bit of bed-hair day today, so I’m hiding it!”

Regrettably, we had to finish the call hurriedly though, as the hospital were phoning to let Harriet know that her Dad was going to be discharged tomorrow. Having said goodbye, I decided to keep the pause on my programme and get up off the sofa to see if I could lug the bed-settee, which has been residing in Andrew’s sitting room, down the stairs, on my own. Rather than pay for a new sofa, for which I might pay thousands (perhaps a slight exaggeration) I thought I’d finish off the library area with one of the many settees we have here, so that I actually have somewhere to sit in there.

Being a bed-settee, it conveniently comes apart, so I managed to bring one piece of the sofa down, but I couldn’t manage the other piece. It was far too heavy. I had a good look at it and realised I could take it apart a bit more, so readied myself to find a spanner to undo the nuts holding it together. By the time I got downstairs though, I thought I’d just finish off my programme and have a rest before I did any more. Just as I’d settled, John phoned. “Ready for collection.” he said. “OK, I’ll set off in a minute.” I replied. However, it was a good fifteen minutes later that I set off, by the time I’d watched the programme to the end, and then gathered up my bits and pieces. Poor John had stood out in the cold for a while waiting when I finally arrived….

Bless him. When we got home, he could see what I was doing with the settee and offered to help. Between us, we unbolted the second piece and trundled that downstairs, then man-handled the main bulk of it into situ, with much puffing and blowing. The library looks cosy though – ready for a bit of reading….. maybe tomorrow?

After lunch, I decided to take the bull by the horns and see if Danielle might be up for a bit of a walk round the park at the back of their house. I’m having withdrawal symptoms, and missing, not only my sons and grandchildren, but my daughters-in-law, too. After a bit of a chat on WhatsApp, in which Danielle said Thomas was having a mega-nap, and then a telephone chat, we did agree to meet up. Honestly, I was so excited! John came too, for his daily exercise, and then, a bit of a bonus, when we arrived, Michael said he’d join us as well.

It were lovely and cheered me up no end. Made me chuckle as well, too. Grandpa pushed the pram and Thomas did nothing but grin at him. Michael sauntered alongside, with Chester, the dog, and Danielle and I set off at a pace. Danielle always does that ……. I remember when we kept losing her on our weekend away in Amsterdam….. Anyway, the chuckle was that Danielle and I lapped John and Michael twice! Tee-hee-hee! Missed seeing William though, who was at nursery. Next time, William. Next time!!

And tonight was Quiz Night. Yay! Always, always fun. And tonight was no exception – although parts of it seemed like a marathon, and we spent ages and ages disagreeing, or not listening to each other over Zoom, until the Quiz Master had to intervene and ask “So, have you got an answer for that one? Or not? Are you ready for the next question? Or not?”

With the day over, I’ve had a look at the stats. I make no comment other than to note that the volume of people being infected doesn’t seem to be coming down much or quickly, despite the current measures in place.

• 16,578 people have succumbed to infection of COVID-19 today
• 533 people have died from the virus today
• 169 people have died in hospitals on 7 & 8 December
• Today is Day 8 of our Tier 3 since Lockdown 2 ended
• And we are now on Day 266 since Lockdown 1 started and we hunkered down for what we thought might be 12 to 16 weeks.

Take care everyone. Do your very best to stay safe. God bless.

Doesn’t time fly when you’re enjoying yourself? As with most other years, I start thinking about Christmas in October, but then, by this time of the year I find I am still lagging behind. Every year it’s the same, so I don’t know why I thought this year would be any different. So it’s Tuesday already this week when I’m still thinking it’s last week. If you see what I mean….. Help! Must get on with all those Christmassy things.

The thing is, I am still digging the house out. It’s going to take me three days to get through all the paperwork that I’ve neglected and is floating about, let alone anything else. Ah, well – good job there isn’t a deadline, eh? Or people coming to stay?

When I wonder what I do with my time I have a day like today. For example, I spent an hour or so sorting out the mountain of drugs that John had been issued with the other day. Then it was another visit to Mum to get her sign the Christmas card whizzing its way to Australia; and then after that, it was another trip over to Heartlands with John – this time for an appointment at the respiratory clinic.

No wonder the time flies – I’m clearly enjoying myself too much!!

After the respiratory clinic we did enjoy ourselves though. I might have commented before that all my jeans are threadbare, so I looked online and found a pair at Next that might do the trick. I ordered them as a ‘click and collect’ over at The Fort Shopping Centre in Birmingham, and we opted to collect them after we’d been to the hospital. It was late by the time we got there – nearly six o’clock, and we’d been pondering what to have for tea. “Oh, look, John. MacDonald’s. Shall we treat ourselves to a burger for tea?” Well, he didn’t need asking twice. These are on the naughty list…. and it was very nice, thank you.

Once we were home, John asked me what I was going to be doing. I thought about my long list and reeled off a couple of the jobs on there. And then said, “I think I’ll sit down with my cup of tea for ten minutes first.” John followed me through to the lounge, whereupon, I told him I had gone tired and wouldn’t be doing the jobs after all. And promptly fell asleep. So I’m going to bed early now …..

In other news, we are wondering whether we have done the right thing in setting up a Virgin account. John was trying to get into the account today, filling the air blue again. He ended up phoning them and, after about an hour, he finally got through to a very nice young man who sent him an email, advising him to click the link. Which he did, only to find he’d set up the account again. He had to phone them up again and get them to delete the duplicate account. Honestly, it seems that it’s more trouble than it’s worth. Watch this space.

Being tired, I am signing off for the day and leave you with the stats as usual.

• 12,282 people were confirmed as infected with the virus today
• 616 people, the highest figure since April, died from the virus today
• 194 people died form the virus in hospitals over the last couple of days.
• It’s a week, now Day 7, since we were put into Tier 3 since Lockdown 2
• And it’s 265 days since we first snuggled in and lock the world out in March

Take care everyone. God bless.

Crikey! It was foggy today wasn’t it? I got up to the palest of days this morning and was glad I didn’t have to go out in it. Then remembered that we were planning to pop over to Heartlands today to collect John’s prescription, after our abortive attempt on Saturday. Ah. OK. Well, I’ll wait until the rush hour has died down then. And I might wait a bit more.

In the end, John decided to come with me for another ‘trip out’. So we waited a little bit more again before we set off. By then, the fog had lifted a bit and it wasn’t too bad a journey at all. On our way there, John began to wonder just how many times we have done that particular journey. “Thousands of times,” I suggested. And it might indeed be thousands. When I’ve got nothing better to do, I might try and do a guesstimate of how many times we’ve trundled from here to there.

At the moment, though, I have got better things to do. I am now digging the house out after my ‘little go’ at decorating, in readiness for the ‘big go’ at decorating the lounge. Which to be honest, is unlikely to be done before Christmas now. I mean, I still haven’t started on the Christmas card-writing or present-buying yet. And then there’s Mum’s stuff to do as well. Ah, well, maybe next year.

So, I spent some of the day dressing the newly-decorated former office, which we are now calling the ‘SnuGym’. Pronounce that however you like! There’s The Snug one end…..

And there’s The Gym, the other….

After sorting out the SnuGym, it was a matter of clearing all the trash away as best I could. That particular job is not yet finished though, as I decided that cooking the evening meal was a bit more pressing, and then the ironing, which had grown into mountainous proportions and was calling rather vehemently.

In between times, John has spent much of the day asleep, only waking and brightening up late on this afternoon. Startlingly, he fell asleep in the car. After we’d called at the hospital, I thought I’d nip into Tesco to see if they’d got any jeans. All of mine are now pretty threadbare. But no, sadly, nothing that was quite right. However, when I got back to the car, there was John – a-snoozing. I’d only been gone ten minutes…. and he continued to snooze for the whole journey back, and then, once we were home, he simply transplanted himself from a cosy warm car seat to a cosy warm sofa and slept some more.

Once he woke up though, he’s been on the go. He has very kindly drilled some holes in the walls in the lounge for me, so that I can attach tie-backs for the curtains and he’s been busy on the computer what with one thing and another. The one thing he did was trying to get into the newly opened bank account we took out with Virgin. Eeeeh, the air was blue. Anyway, I think he’s done it now….. phew!

Nothing much else to report today, so here are the stats:

• 14,718 people were confirmed as having been infected the the coronavirus today
• 189 people have died from the virus in the community today
• 122 people died int he last couple of days in hospitals from it
• We are on Day 6 of Tier 3, since Lockdown 2 ended
• And it’s Day 264 since the beginning of our ‘shielding’ in March

Take care everyone. God bless.

…… I went to church. I wasn’t sure that I was going to get there after the cocktails last night, but I was awake in time and so I got up and went. The theme for the day? The Wilderness…… made me smile. Okay, Okay, I get it! We’re in the wilderness where we find stuff out about ourselves….. all is not lost, and from the emptiness there are new beginnings. Right. Thank you. I won’t despair then. I’ll just be patient and wait for different times.

Once I was back from church, John was getting up so we had nice little elevenses together at the breakfast bar. Then, it was time to get on. I was on the final straight on the sprucing up of the annexe room. A lick of paint on the door and a tidy up of the emulsion at the bottom of the wall and……voilà! There we are, all done. Just got to sort out the furniture in there now.

When I’d finished the bit of painting it was lunchtime, so I sat down for a rest before setting off to Mum’s. I left John watching the final of the rugby. He was, of course, rooting for England, but he wasn’t sure that they’d win. The French are always a tricky side and unpredictable. In the end, England did triumph, but only after extra time. John wasn’t so sure they deserved it but, as they say, a win’s a win no matter what.

Mum was very well today, but her memory is shocking. I thought I’d get her thinking about sending a few Christmas cards and went through her address book to see which labels I needed to print out. “Do you want to send a card to Judith?” I asked. She had no idea who it was I was talking about. I went through the relationships of how she knew Judith. Nope. Not a memory of any of the people to whom she was related. We decided to send the card anyway. But that was the pattern throughout.

We got to talking about whether she’d like to send gifts to people. “Well, yes, I’d like to send a present to the people who are important to me,” she said. OK. Which people are you thinking of? Who is important to you, Mum? She was stumped. No idea. I thought I’d kick-start her thought processes, and ask if I might be on the important list. She teased, and thought hard as to whether I was important enough for a present. But it didn’t kick-start any ideas at all. And really, she was sad that she couldn’t remember people. I told her it doesn’t matter, as long as she’s happy. And yes, she said she was. So that’s a bonus.

John thought I’d been a long time at Mum’s. I was a bit longer than usual as I didn’t want to hurry her and cause anxiety. I was only there a couple of hours, but I think it seemed longer to John. Anyway, he’d been thoroughly enjoying himself, first with the rugby and then the Grand Prix that was just starting. So much enjoying himself, that he offered to cook the tea. And he did a brilliant job – it was delicious.

Distressingly though, John is having a bit of a rough time of it. His eyes have been sore for a good few weeks now, so we were delighted when the consultant suggested some additional treatments which should make them easier. The consultant did warn John though, that one of them was ‘stingy and stinky’. We’re not so sure about the ‘stinky’ bit, but they sure are stingy. Poor John is having to put the drops in six times a day with the accompanying pain each time. It’s not an easy time just now. What with that and his chest still wheezing away like a concertina. I hadn’t asked, but prayers were said for him at church today. Hoping it’ll help…..

This evening, John whiled away the time by playing poker on the computer – a new hobby on the free games. Well, at least it’ll keep him off the streets! I spent an hour sorting out the office cabinet in the annexe room. Still one or two business-related items which are settled in there. Tidy, and staying put. Afterwards it was Strictly to find out who was getting the push today.

We haven’t watched much of the news today, but we know that the vaccine against COVID has arrived in the country; the Brexit talks are on a knife-edge and people are still getting COVID and dying from it. Stats below.

• 15,539 people were confirmed as infected with the virus today
• 397 people died from the virus in the community today
• 132 people died from the virus in hospitals over the last couple of days.
• Today is Day 5 of our Tier 3 since Lockdown 2 ended
• And we have spent 263 days ‘keeping safe’ since the first Lockdown started in March. We have been huddling at the back of our cave as much as we can.

Take care everyone. God bless.

That seems to be what we say whenever we have flitted about and generally not done a lot during a day. We’ve flipped and flopped. And, I mean, what can you do with a wasted journey?

I phoned the respiratory nurses yesterday to let them know that John’s prescription was coming to an end and more drugs were needed. “No worries,” she said, “I’ll do the prescription and put it ready for you in the pharmacy. You can collect it on Monday. Oh, actually, I think they are open tomorrow – either Monday or tomorrow for collection whichever suits you.” Great, lovely, thank you.

So, this afternoon we poddled over to Heartlands, only to find the pharmacy was closed. I was kicking myself. I had a niggling feeling that they might close at lunchtime and thought, too late, ‘should have made the trip in the morning.’ Ah, well, Monday will have to do.

John was grumpy that they were closed. He’d been nice and cosy at home watching the rugby when I said I was going to set off. He said he’d come with me – I think he perhaps felt obliged to. Anyway, he wasn’t best pleased to find it had been a wasted journey. I followed the advice that we’d had yesterday at the ‘Exploring Faith’ group and tried to live in the moment and enjoy what I could. It resulted in lots of inane comments all the way home…. ‘ooh, look, the sun’s shining’; ‘wow, look at that dark cloud over there’; ‘aah, listen to that music, isn’t it lovely?’ John stopped listening to me about a third of the way home. I don’t say I blame him really. After all, you can’t get away from the fact that it was a wasted journey…….

Other than that, I did manage to get the door painted in (what-we-are-now-calling) the annexe/granny room this morning. I won’t bore you with a photo though. It’s white on white, so nothing to see here. D’you know? One more coat and the room will be finished. Zipper-dee-doo-da! *Does a little dance*.

Having said that, of course, we still haven’t decided on the function of the room. Now that we have decided to stay at home and not have any visitors at Christmas, the idea that I had of Mum staying there, is now scuppered. So we no longer need to hulk the bed downstairs and set it up, after all. So far, we have one office cabinet and one cross-trainer in there. Not that cosy really, yet….. hmmmm…..

However, this evening was a bit more exciting. We had a cocktail evening. I was cooking our evening meal and thought, “I know, I’ll have a Brazen Hussy.” This is one of my favourite cocktails and has absolutely nothing to do with how I behave, of course. John is an expert cocktail maker, so he willingly got out all the ingredients and the cocktail shaker, and all the accoutrements until it was done. Ooooh, it was delicious. So yummy in fact, that I had to have another one….

I am not quite sure what John was drinking – he couldn’t remember the name of his cocktail – but I do know that it had dry ginger in it. Whatever it was, I think he enjoyed his concoction, too. The only thing is, I am wondering whether I will actually make it to church in the morning now……

Also this evening we did telly-watching. All my chosen programmes. Strictly, of course. But after that, there wasn’t much that we fancied. I ended up flicking through channels then plumping on a catch-up of the programmes on Channel 5 about the The Great Plague, just to cheer myself up. John went to bed. Ah. Not a programme to your taste then, dear?

We haven’t watched a great deal of news today but we are aware that the Brexit talks are still a bit iffy. And, of course, the COVID stats are about the same as they were.

• 15,539 people have been confirmed as infected with the virus today
• 397 people have died as a result of contracting the virus in the community
• 207 people have died from the virus in hospitals over the last couple of days
• Today is Day 4 of Tier 3, after Lockdown 2
• And it’s Day 262 since we chose to stay home and be circumspect around others last March

It’s still a case of being cautious and masking up, keeping our distance and washing our hands, isn’t it? Take care everyone. God bless.

The certainty of our lives has changed over the last year, leaving us all feeling that we’re wandering about in the wilderness just a little bit now. We are often confused by the advice from government members who have, for a while now, stopped claiming to ‘follow the science’. But we are following the science, and said scientists are definitely recommending that we do not get together this Christmas. So we’re not. The upshot of which left me feeling even more in the wilderness, once we’d made the decision yesterday.

That is, mind you, until I went to the church hall this afternoon for a meet-up with the little Bible study group I belong to. Guess what the topic was? The Wilderness. Couldn’t have been more apt. And the discussions were so helpful, from such lovely, thoughtful friends. They may be clichés, but to understand that: ‘it’s OK not to feel OK’; to ‘be mindful of, and appreciate, the now’; and ‘you’re never too old to learn’, was brilliant, because the ideas tossed around just peeled another layer from my sadness and self-centredness, making me feel such a lot better.

We may still be in the wilderness, still not knowing what is going to happen and having to face a future with less certainty than we had, but it’s good to know that we’re not on our own.

I was already is a relatively good mood when I got to church this afternoon because, this morning, I had got up and got on with the wallpapering in the old office. I was very glad that John was up and about when I started the job, too, because he was my rock and support all the way through. I kept nipping out to him to ask him how to do this, how to do that and, “Can you just come and have a look at this bit and tell me what I should do here, please?” The main sticking point was, would there be enough wallpaper? And there wasn’t. Oh, groan. No matter, John to the rescue. “If we cut it like this, and put that bit there, it should be OK.” So…. what do you think, folks? Can’t see the join, can you? Well, I can’t anyway!

So, despite the fact that I thought I might not put many Christmas trinkets out this year, one of our favourite things to do is to string fairy lights over the arch in the lounge that takes you from the old part of the house to the new. Time had taken its toll on some of our lights, so I used the ones we normally put up there on the the tree. “Shall we nip to the garden centre and buy some new lights, John?” I suggested about four o’clock. He was cosy in the lounge watching TV, but thought a spot of fresh air would do him good, so we did. We got the lights….. aaand, a couple of other impulse buys later and we were on our way home. Any idea what the impulse buys might be? Mmmmm….. chocolate, of course!

So, that was our day, really. Uplifts from our own endeavours, church friends and the family today, who WhatsApped us – including a video of Thomas listening to Jungle Bells and jingling along and melting my heart. Some days, it’s just good to know that people have got your back, isn’t it?

Today’s stats are less encouraging than recently though:

• 16,298 people have been confirmed as infected with the virus
• 504 people have died from its effects today in the community
• 181 people died from its effects on 2 & 3 December in hospitals
• We’re into Day 3 of Tier 3 here in Balsall Common, after Lockdown 2
• And Day 261 of keeping ourselves to ourselves as much as we can since we started in March

Take care everyone, and really look after yourselves. Follow the science…..it might save a life. God bless.

……. 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.