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A slight improvement in mood today – not quite so lethargic and meh. I even managed to pop out to the shops and visit Mum today so can’t be too bad. Although the weather hasn’t helped, has it? I mean, I couldn’t decide if morning had actually arrived as it was so dark when I woke up just before seven.

But morning had arrived and John eased himself out of bed ready for the morning visit. He even brought me a cup of tea in bed. That’s two days on the trot now. How lucky am I?

I did a little pottering about before I decided I would risk going to the Co-op. The car park was slightly less full than it had been the other day, but interestingly, there weren’t that many people in the shop when I got there. Presumably people had parked and were doing errands elsewhere before filling up their baskets at the Co-op. I managed to get most of the things I was after, and only had to wait until two people went ahead of me in the queue. Anxiety levels therefore, were not too heightened.

After the ‘shopping washing’ I did a little more pottering about and sat down to watch an hour of tennis before steeling myself to go over to Mum’s. Just as I was doing that, John appeared, so I thought I’d go over later. We had lunch – well , brunch in John’s case – while I was still glued to the TV.

Before long, however, I couldn’t delay the inevitable any longer and so I set off with a bag of clean washing and a few groceries for Mum. She was in the loo when I arrived, so I was able to put everything away before she re-appeared. I knew I’d have half an hour if she was in the bathroom – she certainly takes her time! I had coo-eed when I arrived, but I don’t think she heard me, so after about fifteen minutes I coo-eed again and she finally called out, “Is someone there?” I replied, “Yes, it’s me.” to which she responded that she’d be out ‘in a minute’. Fifteen minutes later she emerged.

She was on good form again, no hint of criticism at any point this afternoon and we had a pleasant enough time. She hums a lot though. The minute the conversation stalls, she starts to hum the tune to Lee Marvin’s ‘Wandering Star’. We must have had at least six renditions of it this afternoon.

Mum wasn’t able to tell me what she’d been doing all week, but thought she’d watched a bit of telly. On about the fourth rendition of ‘Wandering Star’, I asked her which TV programmes she’d been watching. Only to be told that she hadn’t watched any telly this week. Now I don’t know what to believe – but it made me chuckle anyway.

She’s a little devil though, for tissues. When she was living with us she was a little devil for hankies. Millions of the blooming things floating about. Now it’s tissues – millions of them floating about now. I asked why she’d given up on her hankies and she blithely told me she hadn’t got any. Only a drawerful stuffed with them…….. “Oh? I didn’t know I’d got those.” Would she like to have one or two by her now? No, thanks, tissues’ll do.

We had a little sort out of some of her papers, going back to 1993, which she wouldn’t let me throw away. I was allowed to chuck out empty envelopes though…… and in the spirit of looking at papers, she found some Christmas cards and Orders of Service for one or two funerals she’d attended – none of which did she want to put in the bin either. But she enjoyed sifting through her history, so that was nice.

More tennis when I got home and more tennis as we ate our evening meal. By the time we’d eaten, I’d had enough of tennis though, so we scrolled through a few programmes until we plumped on one about Borneo which was brilliant and uplifting until the end, when we realised what a hash we humans are making of our world.

John then selected a film to watch but, to be honest, it was a bit harsh for me, so I thought I’d do my blog early. As I sat thinking about what I might write, I realised it was half past ten and no nurse had been. John said he’d wait a bit longer before we started phoning anyone and, sure enough, ten minutes later the nurses arrived.

The visit wasn’t a great success though, as the nurse found the cannular was blocked and no flush or drugs could get through into the vein. Unfortunately, the nurse wasn’t qualified to insert a new cannular. This has happened before. We know the ropes now. Nurse phones the ambulance service. We wait. Ambulance arrives and paramedics do all the observations again, then insert a cannular. Nurse administers the antibiotic. Paramedic removes the cannular. No, sorry, we can’t leave it in. You’ll have to have another one tomorrow morning. Well, we know that that is likely to cause a kerfuffle, but we’ll see.

We were lucky this time, though, the paramedics were on board with the idea of cannulating and didn’t argue about it. Last time, there was a great debate for well over an hour before they agreed to do the procedure. This time, no debate and they were efficient and very friendly, completing the job in about an hour. Midnight – and I’m now doing my blog late.

We had to laugh though. At one point, we had seven people in the house…… well, put it this way, we hope we are laughing about it but only time will tell, won’t it?

And…. brace yourselves for today’s COVID-19 figures. Due to a technical issue – blah, blah, blah – the numbers weren’t being collated correctly recently, and so today’s figures (and those in the coming days) are inflated with those that weren’t previously included. Ready? 12, 872 people have been reported as infected today. Obviously not everyone was infected today, but still, that’s a lot of people, don’t you think? 49 deaths in the community and 33 in hospitals on the 1st & 2nd October.

There have been no cases in Balsall Common, but there have been quite a few round and about locally, in Meriden, Hampton-in-Arden and Knowle. Is it a matter of time before it hits our village? Fingers crossed it doesn’t.

Take care everyone. Keep up with the hand-washing etc. God bless.

A very flat day today. We have done very little and there really is nothing much to report.

I had a bit of a walk this morning, which was very refreshing even though it was drizzling. I was initially following up a message from Pete and had walked up to the Crosses house to move the green bin back onto the drive as requested, and then thought I’d perambulate just a bit further. I didn’t go far, but it was nice to breath in a bit of fresh air.

A bit later on, I thought I’d nip to the shops to buy one or two bits and pieces as the on-line shop isn’t going to arrive until Monday evening, but I took one look at the busyness of the car park and decided against it. It was rammed. It was nearly lunchtime, so I suppose that’s why it was busy.

And that’s more or less the extent to which I have done any activity today at all. I haven’t been keen to do more chores round the house. I am fed up of those. I felt equally un-keen to chat to anyone either, so opted out of going to my prayer group this afternoon, too.

John stayed in bed this morning, played on the computer this afternoon before shooting off to Shepherds to buy a piece of wood, and that was the extent of his activity. We have had a really lazy day.

As I hadn’t bought anything from the shops, we did that Friday night thing of ordering a take-away again and ate a curry sitting in front of the TV this evening. We chose to try a different curry house but, to be honest, I didn’t think it was great.

The day has been interrupted at regular intervals to keep us on our toes, of course, by visits from the nurses three times today, but apart from that, we have slouched around. I have watched lots of tennis, in between the rain showers, and then we watched a short film this evening called ‘The Hundred-foot Journey’ with Helen Mirren. But either we weren’t in the right mood or it wasn’t very good, but either way, we looked at one another afterwards and wondered what it was all about.

Maybe an early night and a good night’s sleep will give us a boost and we’ll be up and at ’em tomorrow, but we certainly weren’t today.

We have watched the news today – probably about three times, morning, noon and night, and listened to the various views on the Trump’s COVID infection. Is it a ruse? That’s what some people are wondering. Heaven alone knows what the truth is. I imagine it’s true, but because truth has been a casualty of the Trump administration you do start to doubt it, don’t you? Whatever the truth is, I just hope that a more honest, humane and morally-principled America comes out of the election in November. As much as I’d like the same for our own country.

The news reports tell us that there are 6,968 people confirmed as infected today with 66 deaths in the community. The NHS reports that 9 people died yesterday in hospitals. We have also learned that the University of Northumbria has 770 students who have tested positive for the virus with 78 of them showing symptoms. Well, who could possibly have predicted that that would happen?

Take care everyone in these continuing uncertain times. God bless.

Beautiful sunshine and a delightful day weather-wise today. An absolutely gorgeous sunrise, with the sun peeping through the trees and the sky all colours. It is likely to be true, though, isn’t it – the saying about red sky in the morning, shepherds warning? We enjoyed the gentle weather today, but we’re bracing ourselves for the grotty weather to come tomorrow and over the weekend, of course. Storm Alex is on it’s way…..

We were up early again this morning to let the District Nurse in, with the alarm going off at half-past six. I chivvied John out of bed just after seven o’clock, only for the nurse to arrive a bit later than expected just before eight. Never mind, it gave us chance to do a few jobs before breakfast to get the day started.

I still have a long list of jobs to do and thought I’d try and tackle some of them at least. One or two of them were computer-related so I ensconced myself in the computer room to unravel the mysteries of the internet this morning.

One of the jobs was to try and access the building society on-line. I had had a go at getting on line with it nearly a year ago, but found myself tied up in red tape then, so left it. Thought I’d have another go today – which actually worked out alright in the end, but crikey, I wouldn’t have managed without someone from the building society talking me through it. Four passwords and then a ‘one-time only’ password and I am finally in…..

I sometimes wonder, like everyone else who is retired, how I managed to do a day’s work. My time management ain’t what it used to be. I was shocked to see that it was already noon by the time I’d sorted out me bits and pieces on the computer. Where’d the time go?

We had an unexpected visitor this afternoon, for a few minutes, just after lunch. The doorbell rang and, as I made my way to the door, expecting it to be the nurse, I called to John, “That’ll be for you!” It wasn’t, it was Caroline. She was just passing through the village and thought she’d just knock on the front door to see how we are. We had a lovely doorstep chat and it was so lovely to see her in the flesh. Lifted my spirits and I hope it lifted hers too. She’s still standing after the ‘big move’, I am pleased to say.

After lunch and my doorstep chat with Caroline I watched a bit of tennis again, but this time I made myself useful at the same time by doing the ironing. Much of what we own generally doesn’t get ironed, but there are one or two things like shirts or certain tops that just won’t take ‘no’ for an answer.

In the spirit of being useful while watching TV, I did a ridiculous thing this afternoon. I decided to watch the Harold Shipman story that had been recently aired (that wasn’t the ridiculous bit), and whilst doing so, I folded my carrier bags into one bag ready for Ocado to take them away next time they come. That seemed a bit crazy, folding and ramming plastic bags together but they are plastic so re-cycling is needed. I have been hanging on to them all lockdown ready to re-cycle, so I’m definitely doing it now that Ocado is offering to take them back.

John was busy trying to fit a cupboard door in front of the boiler for much of the day today. To be clear, we used to have a door there before, but it was very unwieldy and had to be removed entirely when the boiler broke down and the plumber couldn’t get at it with the door on. The door has been sat for a while waiting to be re-instated. The thing is, John has had to fashion new hinges/a new way of hanging the door so that it’s neither unwieldy nor impossible to get past. Not as easy as it sounds, and so it’s not finished yet. Maybe tomorrow?

A bit later on, we took a video call from the Sutton Sleaths as they were finishing their tea. Not to make us jealous or anything, but they were eating bread and butter pudding with ice cream. William was a-smacking his lips, clearly enjoying it and thrilled at sharing his experience with us. Thomas was also alert to the luxuries of such a dessert and looked like he’d like to have joined in too. Seeing them all was another little uplift to the day.

Because I had been folding my plastic bags – I’ve got hundreds of them – we ate a belated evening meal. In fact, it was so belated that John went to prepare it in the end. We finished eating very late – another case of, “Where’d the time go?” and it was then that I realised it was Zoom time with the girls from college. I joined in fifteen minutes late. Making a habit of that this week…..

The evening natter was good. Enjoyed seeing everyone who could make it, but sorry that Linda and Sue didn’t, due to illness and a bereavement.

We had a little debate as to whether we wanted to continue chatting for two forty minute sessions, or whether we should just go for one session in future. After tonight’s experience, I think the consensus was that we should stick with two sessions. What chatterboxes we are!! And how thankful I am to have such good friends.

The virus is still enjoying its journey among the population, by the way, and it infiltrated 6,914 people today, killing off 59 in the community and 28 in hospitals on the last two days of September.

Faith, not fear. God bless.

‘Here we are again then!’ was a favourite saying of ours when we were youngsters, and the phrase sprang to mind again this morning as I woke up. Nothing much to do today, other than chores – although being a Wednesday there was the quiz evening to look forward to.

We were, of course, up early, to let the District Nurse in to administer John’s antibiotics. John came back to bed after the procedure and snoozed on for a bit while I did a bit of meditation and then decided to get up. The oven racks were awaiting my attention, having been soaking overnight in some weird and wonderful liquid to remove all the burnt-on oils. Cleaning the racks took a bit more elbow grease than I expected, however, as not every single bit of burnt stuff had come off with the soaking.

Once John was up we pottered a bit and then decided on another trip into Kenilworth to buy a chest of drawers. Unexpectedly, the salesman advised that delivery might be before Christmas if we were lucky. In these days of instantaneousness, I was surprised that we’d have to wait. Not that we mind, but it’s one of those isn’t it? Order from the internet and the item usually arrives on your doorstep within a couple weeks no matter what it is. Order from a shop and there’s a sucking in of breath and an air of ‘we’re doing you a great favour’. How times change.

We popped to the garden centre afterwards to see if we could get some gardening gloves and attachments for the garden hose. Gloves? Yes, thank you. Hose attachments? No, not the right make in stock. That’ll be another trip then – or maybe I’ll just order over the internet. No wonder shops are going bust…. Mr Amazon has actually got it right.

We had our lunch catching up on last night’s TV (Bake Off) before another round of nurses arrived at the door; then a bit more TV catch up. Soon after, I started to watch a bit of tennis. It wasn’t long, however, before another late night and an early morning caught up with me and I dozed in front the fire that John had made. Very nice, thank you.

Although a little afternoon nap is very nice, I always wake up a bit irritated. ‘Look at all that time you’ve wasted’ I scold myself, ‘You could have done half of those jobs on your list.’ But they’ll have to wait. Sleep and tennis seemed to be far more important today than jobs.

This evening then, was quiz night with the Centre Stage crew. Even Malcolm and Caroline were able to join in, despite the fact that they’d only just moved into their new abode and the internet signal wasn’t great. The move had gone well but they hadn’t eaten well this evening as the cooker in their new kitchen didn’t get up to temperature. Caroline was eating crisps and downing red wine instead. Sounds good to me.

We had a lovely evening as usual and learnt a few things from the quiz questions but, equally well, promptly forgot quite a few answers as well. Some answers just flit in and then immediately flit out of our memories. Our age? Probably.

Political kerfuffles today with the Trump-Biden debate having been aired last night on TV and it was handbags at dawn by all accounts. Equally, there is constant bickering among our own politicians over the handling of COVID. There seems to be a swell of opinion now suggesting that lockdowns are not the answer and who cares if the old ‘uns catch the virus and snuff it….. Ah, well, I suppose they are right. We have had our lives so time make way for the young ones. As long as COVID doesn’t create health problems for the new generations coming up – we just don’t know about that yet, do we? Goodness knows where it will all end.

Just so you know, and for consistency of reporting, there have been 7,108 people confirmed as infected with the virus today; 71 deaths in the community and 27 in hospitals in the last couple of days.

Take care everyone. Keep on with the hand-washing, mask-wearing and social-distancing. I think it’s all we’ve got at the moment. And peace be with you.

The alarm shrilled in my ear at seven o’clock. I grabbed my phone and, with a frown, switched it off, knowing that another alarm would be chiming an hour later giving me plenty of time to get up and get ready for yoga. Relieved, I settled back under the bed covers and slumbered on. What seemed like one minute later, the doorbell rang. What the….? I leapt out of bed, grabbed a pair of trousers and the keys, hot-footed it downstairs and peeped round the curtain to see who was at the door at this ungodly hour. The District Nurse. Oh. Yes. Had forgotten that. That was why I’d set the alarm for seven o’clock. I’ve often heard the expression ‘I’ve slept since then’ and the full significance was there for me this morning in all it’s glory…… eeeh, if only I had a brain, I’d be dangerous.

John made it downstairs just after I’d opened up the door and let the nurse in. Bless him, he was as bleary-eyed as me. I made him a coffee while the antibiotics were being administered at which point he said, “I’m going back to bed after this,” which I thought was a jolly good idea. However, I decided to stay up and tackle a few jobs before yoga.

Of all the jobs I could have chosen (I have a very long list) I selected one of my least favourite. Cooker cleaning. Generally speaking, this job hasn’t been properly tackled since the beginning of the year. It’s one of those jobs that I am very happy to relinquish to A.N. Other, should anyone offer. Historically, well, in recent years, it has been dear Philomena who has regularly cleaned the cooker. Ever proactive, she’d arrive at the front door with special liquids and rubber gloves and plastic bags to contain the oven racks, and she’d set to with enthusiasm. I could never quite understand why this job would be appealing in any way, but Phil always took her duties seriously and was always happy to help and deal with any of my least favourite jobs. Missing her in many ways, but especially missing her when I’ve got to roll my sleeves up and deal with real dirt.

I left the racks soaking in some kind of noxious liquid while I skipped off to yoga, which was a great success once again and I could actually do it. Except one thing, mind you. It appears that my core muscles are missing. Try as I might, I was unable to pull myself up from a lying down position…… ah, it seems that a little more training might be required.

After yoga I came home and did a bit more on the cooker cleaning, but decided, at the last minute, to leave the racks to soak overnight. John got up at lunchtime and thought he’d have a day of rest today, so we sat and chatted for a bit before I got the brunch. This wasn’t as exciting as it might have been, but John just fancied marmalade on toast. So that’s what we had, followed by a banana. We were settled then on our backsides for a bit, until the nurse arrived to deliver the second dose of antibiotics.

I did a few more jobs, but John rested some more on the sofa, armed with a pint glass full of water. This is an attempt to improve his blood pressure, which is rather low. “Anne!” the nurse called from the dining room, “You need to make sure John drinks plenty of water every day.” Oh, right. We’ve been told.

I spent sometime sorting out John’s tablets. We have decided though, that we are going to give in and ask the pharmacy to make up his drugs into monthly blister packs, because the time it takes to set them up is amazingly time-consuming. And there is always the fact that you’ve got some of one sort of drug left over and not enough of another, so we are always playing catch-up and match-up. John took over the job of drug-sorting from me a good while ago now, but he is seriously fed up of doing it. So why not ease the pain, eh?

I think I was watching a bit of Roland Garros, so lost track of time, and prepped our evening meal a bit later than normal. John fell asleep on the sofa, but when he woke up I said dinner would be a bit late. “No worries,” he said, looking at the clock, “we’ll still be in time to Zoom in on the chat with the Uni crew at 7.30.” Right.

There should have just been enough time to eat our meal and whip upstairs to the computer room to get chatting but – there’s often a ‘but’ – I hadn’t bargained on one of the cats bringing me a ‘gift’ into the kitchen. Not sure which cat was trying to please me, although I suspect Rio, but there, in the middle of the doorway was a fledgling pigeon. Definitely dead. Mutilated, in fact. I’ll spare you the gory details. Had to do a bit of cleaning up, didn’t I? Well, we’re going to be a bit late for chatting now.

As it turned out, we were only ten minutes late but had trouble logging on, so we joined in the conversation fifteen minutes in. It was good fun to see everyone though and great to see everyone looking so well – and amazing to think that it’s fifty years since they all met as they settled into halls of residence at Leeds Uni. Some great laughs this evening and, surprise, surprise, John and Pete agreed with each other at least three times today. Heavens, Evans, what’s going on??

A bit more Roland Garros before bed-time (and the gorgeous Nadal) and a nice cup of tea which John made and handed to me before disappearing from the lounge. When he didn’t reappear I thought he must have gone to bed. But no, he was wrestling with the online supermarket ordering system and had decided to see if he could get a shopping slot. He has, but it’s a week away. Uh-oh, it’s started. Loo rolls anyone?

7,143 people infected with the darned virus in the last twenty-four hours; 71 people have died in the community and 26 in hospitals since Sunday. Lockdowns in the Northeast and probably the Northwest sometime later this week. Fun and games, eh? Thought you’d still want to be kept up to date…..

Wherever you are, stay on your toes – watch out, watch out, the virus is still about! God bless.

I was up with the lark this morning, despite having gone to bed late and not able to sleep awfully well. John wondered why I was up so early. My answer was, “Because I want to.” That was it – that was all. I thought I might find a bit of motivation if I greeted the day a bit earlier than I have been.

It proved to be so. I spent a lovely hour or so in the garden. The sun was very warm and it was fantastic to be among the trees and plants, tending them and snipping away at dead heads. The idyll was over a bit too soon, though, as we were due to be at the hospital for John’s antibiotic infusion just after lunch.

I had the bright idea that, after I’d dropped John into the clinic, I’d nip along to the very large Tesco in Yardley and see if I could buy myself some jeans. I had promised myself and the world that I wouldn’t buy any clothes this year, with the exception of a pair of jeans – and the time has come. My cut-offs are shredded at the knee, which would be alright and fashionable, and I would probably get some more wear out of them if it was just that. But they’ve gone on the bum too, and I am sure that’s not a very pretty sight. My longs have also gone in exactly the same places, much to both my amusement and my irritation.

I duly dropped John off and made my way over to the shopping centre. I looked on the app to see how densely populated the COVID situation was in that area and it told me that there are five cases. I hesitated. Should I venture into Tesco after all? I decided not. I went into Peacocks instead, where there were no customers. Found a pair of jeans that looked like they might be alright, but realised that there’s no trying on. Ah. “It’s OK,” said the shop assistant, “you’ve got two weeks to bring them back.” Oh. I am not going to be coming over to Yardley for another three weeks-ish. Not making a special journey if they don’t fit. So I left it and scuttled back to the car sharpish in case any bugs were following me. Now, where’s that pair of jeans I was looking at on-line?

I drove back to the hospital, parked in a side road and sat in the car reading my book for just a few minutes before John texted to say he was all done – ‘Waiting in reception. No rush.’ I didn’t rush, but I was there in about two minutes. All in all, the trip was over and done with extremely quickly, which we were both very pleased about.

Once we were home, we had ourselves a luscious lunch – smoked salmon, poached eggs, freshly-picked tomatoes and a bit of beetroot all stacked high on one of John’s paleo rolls. A knife and fork job and absolutely delicious.

After lunch John went out into the front garden again to finish sorting out his trailer, getting ready to sell it, and plant the flowers we’d bought the other day. The front flowerbed looks lovely.

I watched some more tennis at Roland Garros, bemused by the fact that the players are all wrapped up against the cold, and there is no audience. It brought to mind memories of happier times watching tennis on holiday in Provence with Mike and Lynda and Linda and Brendan. In the heat of flaming June, Linda and I, fortified by large glasses of white wine, struggled to get a TV signal to watch the exciting matches then, amid the heat-generated thunderstorms rumbling all around. No white wine today and the tennis seemed laboured. All in the eye of the beholder, I have no doubt, as I looked back at times past with rose-tinted spectacles.

Other than that, I did a few chores – particularly cleaning, to a spotless shine, the downstairs cloakroom, which the District Nurses would use later on in the evening when they came to give John his night-time antibiotic.

We ate our evening meal on our laps in the lounge, gawking at the TV and feeling indignant over the Test and Trace situation portrayed by the Panorama programme. No-one knows what to believe any more, do they? The government says the system is the best thing since sliced bread. The reporter on Panorama was suggesting otherwise.

Afterwards we chose to watch a film, which was interrupted half-way through by the arrival of the nurses. The drug was quickly and efficiently administered by the now familiar nurse, Joy, and she was pleased that John was actually reasonably well. I was pleased too. Having been here before, Joy knew our home and just got on with the job – no need for any particular niceties or introductions.

I was also pleased to hear that the incidence of COVID infections is less than yesterday with 4,044 people having been confirmed as COVID cases; 13 deaths in the community and 8 in the last couple of days in hospitals. Fingers crossed that the rate is coming down again.

Goodnight, God bless and peace be with you all.

It being Sunday today, I thought I’d do Sunday things. Got up early, had my annual wash and brush up (it is September, after all) before setting off for church. I had a quick scrabble around in the cupboards to see if there was anything suitable to take with me, as it was Harvest Festival, and I managed to fill a box full of stuff. I was relieved about that. We were all supposed to be taking fresh fruit and veg though, but I hadn’t been to the shops to oblige that particular part of the bargain, so tinned, dried and packet food is what they got. Whatever the donation though, I am sure it will be helpful to someone.

It was a weird old service though. I mean, we normally sing our hearts out to ‘We plough the fields and scatter’ but it’s just Kim singing and playing while we follow the words on the screen, now. We didn’t walk up and offer our harvest goods, while we grin at each other shuffling up and down the aisle, either. Just held ’em up while Father Peter said a blessing. No hugs or handshakes when we acknowledge each other for the peace either, just a bow of the head and blink of the eyes in the hope that you’ll catch someone’s eye and disappointed when you don’t. It all felt a little hollow – and then that sets you thinking doesn’t it? I’m always a wobbly Christian, but even more wobbly now.

It was still Sunday when I came out of church and so promptly did another Sunday thing – visit Mum. Before lockdown, that was often my habit – to call on her on the way home. But of course, I have only been to church twice since March, so the habit is a bit broken.

She was delighted to see me of course. She was sitting in her now beloved all-singing, all-dancing chair that used to be Aunty Mollie’s, and which she wonders from whence it came, every time I visit her. She was very cosily wrapped in a blanket and very happy. I stayed for a couple of hours doing a few jobs for her, including filing some correspondence away and throwing other correspondence out. My rummage in her filing cabinet revealed a little stash of photographs, which I thought she might enjoy looking at, so I took them through to her. She certainly did enjoy them and turned the pile over several times. One photo was of a brand new teddy sitting on her sofa at her house in Coventry, bought for her many years ago. “Ah…. look there’s Ted.” she said fondly. Then, again, as she turned pile over for the second time, “Ah…. look there’s Ted.” and then, on the third time, it was, “Ah…. look, there’s Ted again.” I gently told her she was probably back at the beginning of the photos……. so she relinquished them then.

I brought washing home with me, intending to get on with it, but John suggested we might go out and look at more furniture. We still have a few things on our list and are after a new nest of tables to place alongside people when the hordes visit, as well as a new coffee table to set between the two sofas. We’d also like a new dining room suite – again, to accommodate the hordes when they come for dinner. We didn’t see anything we agreed on, although I did see a lovely dining room table. But the trip set us both thinking. Will we ever have the whole family round again? Will we ever have the parties we used to? Not least because once we’re allowed to we might feel we’re a bit beyond it. So then, what style of furniture do you buy? Should we be downsizing? I don’t know, it’s been a funny old day, with what seems like the wind of change very much firmly blowing us into uncharted waters.

On our way home, Paul phoned to say they were just passing by our house and where were we? We laughed, “We’re just passing your house!! On our way back from Leamington. We’ll be home in fifteen minutes.” But not to worry, they’d been shopping and didn’t want to wait. They were just dropping a bottle of one of my very favourite wines, Pouilly–Fuissé, to us. God bless them. Such thoughtfulness. Thank the Lord for sons – and daughters-in-law, of course!

Had to laugh though, as Paul and Harriet were hovering outside our house, who should be trawling the streets for food bank donations, but The Lions? Harriet, apparently, had to to scrabble in amongst her recent purchases to make a donation. Mind you, I bet they feel virtuous now…..

They didn’t see us, but we passed them just as they were leaving the village and we were just arriving in it. Once we were home, John decided he was going to do a bit more work out the front, and I decided I was going to sit on the sofa and watch the tennis from Roland Garros with a Magnum to keep me company. When John finally came in, we did a bit of TV channel-hopping at which point I promptly fell asleep. Another afternoon nap…… eeeh, I must be feeling my age. Or was it because I didn’t go to bed until two in the morning last night?

When I finally woke up, it was beyond that other Sunday thing of a roast dinner, so we ate up left-overs instead. And John decided to welly a bottle of white wine, so he, too, had a snooze on the sofa, before we finally ended up watching another round of the archaeological dig at the HS2 sites. This time, it was Birmingham, which was intriguing – and distressing to be reminded of the terrible conditions the people lived in. They came to Birmingham in hope but often died beyond hope, with evidence of physical ailments such as rickets, cholera and TB.

The news offered us fewer COVID infections today with 5,693 people affected, 17 people having died in the community and 12 in hospitals in the last couple of days. But it’s the weekend, so I am hoping it’s the true number, and not the limited reporting that’s making the figures look slightly better.

Tomorrow is another new day, bringing a new week with lots of things to look forward to. Face the wind of change and embrace it. Best foot forward folks. God bless.

“We’re busy doing nothing, working the whole day through……. trying to find lots of things not to do….”

Yes, that’s us. On some days, anyway. Some of the time we toil away at whatever presents itself to us and then, some of the time, we just while away the time sleeping or puzzling or chatting or TV watching.

This morning was a case in point. I was awake at seven o’clock and contemplated getting up early to go for a stroll, but rolled over again before I getting myself out of bed, and then falling back to sleep. The next time I awoke, it was to my own tuneful snoring, and it was nine-thirty. I thought I’d stay cosy for a bit longer, however. John, after all, was still snoozing too. All in all, it was mid-day before we finally got out of bed. I have no idea what I was avoiding, but I certainly didn’t want to get up today, despite the sunshine streaming in through my bedroom window.

By the time I wafted down the stairs, John was trawling the internet for products to buy from B&Q and hoping to do a ‘click and collect’. However, we found that the B&Q nearest to us was ‘browse the store yourself’ only. So we set off to browse and to buy sand, cement and paint. What a palaver on the sanitising of the trolleys…..much needed, I know, but oh, dear…….

Having had a rather unsettling experience recently with the temporary loss of one of his hearing aids in the long grass at Abbey Fields, John has decided that while we’re out and about and mask-wearing, he’ll leave his hearing aids at home – just in case the act of whipping off his mask also whips off the hearing aid into the ‘never-to-be-found-again’ ether. That may have been the reason that he didn’t register a nice young man offering to help with the heavy bags of sand and cement. It was only when we got to the car and were hefting the bloomin’ things into the boot, that he said he’d ignored the offer. Shame. Could have done with a young, burly man attending to our sandbags.

We took a detour on the way back from Coventry, via Kenilworth and the furniture store, to take another look at sofas and cabinets. We tried a few sofas out, but came back to a suite that we’d seen last week and decided to buy it. I think John is trying to cheer me up. In fact, I was cheered up by the purchase and by the fact that we got a good deal on it – including the promise of them taking away our old sofas, which will save all that angst at the point of the new ones being delivered. Regrettably, delivery isn’t until early 2021. Although, to be honest, we don’t really mind. We’re not in any rush.

We were just about to close the deal in the shop when my phone rang. “Hello? Mum? Where are you? We thought we might call to the front of your house and stand on the pavement to wave at you on our way home from swimming.” It was dear Paul and Freddie. I wasn’t going to pass up the offer. “We’ll be back in about twenty minutes,” I said. Although I hadn’t counted on the salesman taking twenty minutes to write up the invoice, but there we are – they were waiting outside when we got back.

What to do? The pavement is very busy. So we opted to go to a local recreation area instead. One where we could sit in our own chairs and get out our own toys, to avoid cross-contamination from the general, unwashed public.

It was a great success, and a very lovely get-together. I did a lot of clucking like I always do, and Paul took the mickey, like he always does. We wrapped John up in blankets to stave off the windy weather, and he warmed his feet and legs by the fire we made. I played with Freddie and the men had ‘men-talk’. Freddie insisted on looking for blackberries and, although the season seems to be more or less over now, we found one or two for him to take home. We also picked a lovely ripe apple growing locally, which was deliciously crunchy and which he ate when he got back.

The thrill of seeing them is always tempered by the farewell as the visits can never be long enough for me these days. But I felt just totally, totally, blessed to have had an hour and a half together. Huge virtual hugs were sent and received, along with lots of blown kisses as we waved them on their way.

After being out in the fresh air, and after the exertion of having to open his wallet wide this afternoon, John sat down in the lounge to watch the qualifying rounds of the Russian Grand Prix, while I did a spot of tidying up and cooking the tea. Bless him, he missed the outcome of the qualifiers, as he fell asleep. By all accounts, it was very exciting with Vettel spinning off in the second round, and Hamilton not even having posted a time by the time the round was red-flagged. Knowing Hamilton though, I expect he’ll have done his Houdini thing and posted a good time to be fairly near the top of the grid at least.

We watched TV this evening and, despite the fact that we struggled to find something we fancied, it was midnight before we switched it off, having got involved in one of these American murder-mystery documentaries.

Haven’t watched any news today, but the internet tells me that there are 6,042 people infected today with the virus and 34 deaths in the general community and 10 in hospitals over the last couple of days. Still nought to two cases in Balsall Common, however.

What words of inspiration can I find, to keep me, and us, going? Well, I am sourcing much comfort from Charlie Mackesy’s book, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, just now, and his recent offering is: “Everyone is a bit scared,” said the horse, “But we are less scared together.” Take care and God bless.

After a lovely holiday, relaxing and not a care in the world, being home is a little more eventful as we settle back into our routine. The routine, of course, includes hospital visits. So, this morning, it was the regular trip to the Haematology Clinic.

We didn’t have to be there until eleven, so we whiled away most of the morning in bed just luxuriating in our lovely bed and bedroom, enjoying the fact that we are lucky to have a great roof over our heads. When we finally scooped ourselves out of bed, we realised that we were certainly going to be late. We’d enjoyed relaxing just a few minutes too long.

Fortunately, the hospital wasn’t very busy and no-one complained that we’d arrived after the appointment time. At least, I don’t think they did. I sat outside in the corridor while John went into clinic for height, weight and blood tests. He then beckoned me in when he was called into the consultant’s room, so that I could also listen to what was being said. Two heads are better than one in these situations, we find.

We saw Dr Lovell again, who is always upbeat, and has a great sense of humour. After a bit of banter, he concentrated on the results of blood tests and so on. It turns out that he wasn’t so happy about John’s chest and, on reviewing the sample John had sent off earlier in the month, said how did John fancy a couple of weeks in hospital?

Oh. Well, we weren’t expecting that. Admittedly, John’s breathing has been getting less and less good since we got back from our jaunt to Norfolk, but I put that down to him overdoing it and perhaps breathing in mucky air from the mucky jobs he’d been doing. Ahhhh. no. It transpires that John is growing exciting things in his chest – four of them, in fact – and needs yet another course of antibiotics. We both looked a bit stunned. “Well, how far can you walk, then, John?” Dr Lovell probed. Not far really. Gets out of breath coming up the stairs. Coughing a bit. “Hmmmm. Let me phone the respiratory nurse.”

The conversation went like this, “You know our mutual friend? Yes? John Sleath? He isn’t breathing quite so well, can you fit him in for a course of antibiotics? Not, like in the next twenty minutes, but next week? You can? OK.” Fortunately and to our relief, the arrangement isn’t for a fortnight in a hospital bed. It is for one day in Outpatients to have a canular fitted and the first dose of antibiotic administered. Then a fortnight of Community Nurses visiting every day for the rest. Hey!! You know what? We’ve been here before!!! Better than a stay in hospital though. Fingers crossed…….

Naturally, John felt a bit fed up on the way home, but he’d perked up by the time we got home and got on with being Mr Determined again and went out onto the front to potter about with a few jobs there. He had planned to jet-wash the drive, mend the trailer and plant the flowers we’d bought yesterday. He went out to do all of that at three o’clock this afternoon. He came back in after nearly three hours, having spent the time mending the trailer. Jet-washing and planting? Maybe tomorrow? Methinks his eyes are too big for his belly……. or his thoughts are too big for his body, anyway.

Of course, the home routine includes lots of hospital visits. Our diary is now full of them. Haematology in 4 weeks time; Respiratory clinic in 3 weeks; the Musculoskeletal team want an MRI scan in just over a week’s time and an ECG is booked at the end of October – oh, and we have flu jabs booked….. not to mention the fact that before he left clinic today, John was trundled round to the nurse for three immunisations……. John certainly keeps them all busy over at Heartlands!

I am exhausted just thinking about it. John is exhausted being a part of it. However, we both faced the world this afternoon and got on with a bit of what we wanted to do. John, as I say, got on with his great plans and me, I thought I’d do a spot of ironing but, if time allowed, I’d shampoo the upstairs carpets. In the end, I just did the ironing while watching a film about Judy Garland, starring Renée Zellweger, which I thought was really good. Well-crafted and well-portrayed.

It being Friday, John had said on the way home, “Curry night, tonight?” to which I had said yes. We ordered about six-thirty, and then sat down for a rest after our afternoon’s exertions before its expected arrival at 7.30. We were pleasantly surprised when it arrived half an hour early so we tucked in with gusto to assuage our rather rumbly tummies. Lovely.

This evening, still being Friday, was kick back and watch TV. Once again, not a great deal to entice us to watch this evening, so we checked on catch-ups and recordings to see if there was anything there. Unexpectedly, we enjoyed Episode One of ‘Britain’s Biggest Dig’ – a four-part documentary about the archaeological finds as they plough up swathes of Britain for HS2. This first episode concentrated on the area of St James’ in London and it was fascinating – just the scale of the dig, let alone what they found. Looking forward to watching Episode Two sometime soon.

We did watch the news today and understand that more restrictions are being placed on cities like Leeds, Cardiff and Swansea, with London on the ‘watch list’. Nearly 7,000 (6,874) people have been infected today; 34 (on the 28-day rule) have died in the community; and 25 in hospitals in the last couple of days.

Take care everyone. God bless.

We had a lovely morning. We braved it and went to the garden centre to meet up with Danielle and the kids so that she could choose a couple of shrubs for her very decorative pots which sit outside their front door. I was anxious, having discovered that there are COVID cases in the vicinity, but we double-masked, quadruple-sanitized and got nowhere near anyone. It was so good to see the children and William was pleased to see us, but Thomas had a quivery bottom lip when I leered over the pram, wearing my outer space gear, to cooee at him. I quickly retreated, not wanting a bawling baby as we walked round the shop.

We loved seeing the grandchildren again, but we are definitely missing that beautiful intimacy that we had. Especially with Thomas, who really isn’t going to recognise us for a while, because we have a different coloured face every time we see him. Mine was red and pink with flowers on today, John’s was spotty and wordy with ‘keep your distance’. Charlie Mackesy, artist and author, represents our hope, though, beautifully…….

We enjoyed our little trip. Danielle found a couple of nice shrubs and we bought some bedding plants that John plans to plant out in the front garden. I also made an impulse buy – a little solar lamp in the shape of a hare. Apparently it has to stand outside for a couple of days in the sunshine before you switch it on. Well, that’s going to be fun isn’t it? Waiting for it to work? Is there going to be any sunshine in the near future?

We were also looking at hedging, as some of our hedge in the back garden has died off. The garden centre had a good selection, but we thought we’d better do some research first into what’s best to buy before plunging in. That brought us to thinking about visiting a different garden centre, but I was thinking of a cup of tea before we went anywhere else, so we came home. We settled on the sofa with our drinks and had a little snooze – again. Oh, dear, this is getting to be a habit.

A little while later we woke up and sheepishly thought we’d better get on with a few things, having abandoned the idea of going to another garden centre today. John was keen to get planting the front flower beds, and he also said he’d have a go at jet-washing the block-paved drive. It’s a while since it was done. Off he went, and it was a good while before I saw him again. I think he even stayed out there during the heavy showers and the hail storm. He’s a very determined man.

I, on the other hand, stayed in. I was keen to try out my new carpet shampoo machine. Well, I say new – not exactly, because I’ve had it for quite a long time and, before I actually used it, Michael and Danielle borrowed it. And then, of course, I used it at their house while they were on holiday. But it’s the first time I’ve tried it out in my own home.

Obviously, it will depend on what the carpets look like when they are dry, but generally, I think they came up quite well. The machine certainly had a lot of dirty water in it anyway, so I am sure that the carpets are cleaner than they were. Shadow, the black cat, certainly seemed to approve, as he spent all evening laying first on this bit, then on that……

As the daylight began to fade, John came in. Made me laugh. He looked like the ‘Monster from the Deep’ and was a tad grubby. I think he was wearing most of the dirt from the drive……. He peeled off the outer layer of clothing and then made his way, very carefully and rather gingerly, to the shower, trying not to drop any dirt anywhere on the way and trying to ease his aching limbs into working again.

It transpired that he hadn’t done the planting up after all, though, being keen to get the jet-washing done. Difficult to see in the dark, but what I can see looks good. Finish it tomorrow maybe?

We chose not to do any more physical work this evening and just plonked ourselves in front of the TV. Not that there was much on, really. We started to watch the series ‘I hate Suzie’ and ploughed our way through one episode. We weren’t keen, although the reviews have been very good. Anyone recommend we persevere with it?

It was a fairly pleasant evening, despite the fact that we thought TV was a poor show. John lit a fire to banish the chill in the air, and we sat cosily in front of it. Lovely. And we both ate chocolate. Uh-oh…. it’s started……

We watched the news today and note that there are more cases of COVID. 6,634 to be precise. 40 deaths in the community. 1,542 hospital admissions; 228 people on ventilators and twenty deaths in hospitals in the last couple of days. Balsall Common is still showing as nought to two cases.

And today the tracing app was made available to everyone who has a smart phone. I haven’t downloaded it yet, but I expect I will. It feels awfully scary though – although I suppose it is no different to the existing technology that tells Big Brother what I am doing every day, is it? Or is it?

Life is no longer as we knew it, though. Gotta adapt, I tell myself…….gotta adapt. I expect I will, but I’m finding it hard, despite the wonderful people around me whom I love and care for me.

Keep at it everyone. Stay safe and God bless.