leukaemia-limbo-dance

This morning, we knew that the plumber was coming round to service the boiler. I had tossed and turned in the night, conscious that there had been little vacuuming done in the last week, given the amount of ‘other’ things had occupied both my mind and my time, and I thought I’d be highly embarrassed if he saw the grubby carpets. So, when the alarm went off quite early, we both groaned. John huffed because he is fed up of being woken up early every day. And I huffed because I really was still fast asleep. A few more minutes? Then, I remembered – the reason the alarm was early was because you never know with a plumber what time they are going to arrive. I’ve known them turn up at just after half past seven before now.

I had time though, as it turned out, to vacuum the hall, stairs and landing before the plumber came just before mid-day. I also had time to wrap a few parcels and tackle technology with a view to sending them off.

I thought Parcel2Go was the best option – I didn’t want to be joining the queue outside the Post Office. So, I put in all the details on the computer, which it accepted and was on the point of ‘nearly there’ when it told me that the parcel I was planning to send, wasn’t going to be collected from my front door. Oh. Bother. Ah, well, the drop-off point was only three miles down the road in Knowle so I opted for it.

Blithely managed to get the second parcel labelled and ready to go in the same fashion and then started on the third. Only to find that delivery to Jersey by such an organisation was going to cost the earth. Dammit. I was going to have to go to the Post Office and queue after all. ‘I know,’ I thought, ‘I’ll check out the Knowle Post Office. There might not be a queue there.’ Oh, hahahahahaha…….. how naïve am I? The queue in Knowle snaked round the corner and half-way up the street too…..

Resigned, I drove home to join in with the all the other miserable-looking lot, hopping from one foot to the other, outside our own beloved Post Office. I wandered to the back of the queue, which was nearly at the butcher’s shop. But when I got there, I really couldn’t face it. Did I really have to queue, when all I had to do was drop the bloomin’ parcel off, having paid the postage online already? I shrugged, and made my way to the front, “Are we allowed to go into the shop, or do we have to queue for that as well?” I asked the lady at the head of the waiting hundreds (well, it seemed like hundreds, but you know how I exaggerate). “Oh, you can go into the shop.” she replied, “We’re just waiting to go to the Post Office counter to have the parcels weighed.” Right. Thank you.

I made my way into the shop, whereupon I met a very nice young man, Employee of the Month, in my opinion, and asked him if I had to queue to drop my parcel off. “I don’t want to push in, and will queue if it’s necessary but…” No, I didn’t have to wait. If I wasn’t bothered about a receipt, just drop it on the counter. Or, better still, he’d take it from me and put it in the sack ready to go. What a result. What a relief. I hadn’t held anyone else up or jumped in, and yet it was sorted. Phew.

How time flies. Once I had done all of that, having left John at home wrestling with showers, yes, showers, plural, I thought I’d have a little sit down on the sofa…. no, I didn’t fall asleep! Very nearly, but not quite. John joined me and we watched a programme about a woman claiming to be innocent of a crime she’d been given life for. American, of course, but great afternoon TV for tired bodies.

But, to return to John’s current project – the showers….. We have, as I’ve said before, been awash in the ensuite bathroom as the water leaks out under the shower cubicle. With the cubicle having a set of double doors, John thinks the water flows through there too, so has dismantled the lot, in a bid to put some magnetic pieces in between the doors to keep them together. The work is still in progress. Can’t use the shower in there yet.

We haven’t been able to use the shower in the main bathroom either, for months. Unless, of course, you fancy a cold shower, that is. So John has dismantled that one, too, and sent away for the relevant part to repair it. Can’t use the shower in there yet, either.

Fortunately, we still have a bath and a shower downstairs, so we needn’t go dirty just yet. But watch this space. We may, or may not, be able to use our usual showers soon.

After our somnolent afternoon, we were just getting our tea ready, when the front doorbell rang. There was darling Paul standing on the front doorstep. He’d just called in to share with us a moment of success in his business. How wonderful it was to see him and be excited with him. *Does a little dance.* We are so pleased for him, and so wanted to hug him. In fact, John couldn’t contain himself and went for it, almost squeezing him to death.

So, a good day, when things have been done and success celebrated. I’ve even managed to speak to a proper human being in the chasing up of John’s eye drops. Might even have them by this time next week….. fingers crossed.

And the figures today? Much the same. – although news is suggesting that cases are rising, not only here, but abroad, too.

• 18,450 people have been confirmed as infected with the virus today
• 506 people have died in the community today from the virus
• 1.637 people have been admitted to hospital with it today
• 162 people died in hospitals from it over the last couple of days.
• We are on Day 14 of our Tier 3 – no announcement of the next Tier yet?
• And it is Day 272 since our original decision to avoid contact with people as much as we can.

Take care everyone. God bless.

Well, I went to bed with a spring in my step last night. Danielle had texted to see if we wanted to another socially-distanced walk in the park today – this time with William! Of course, I said yes!

So I was up ‘n at ’em this morning, humming round the kitchen as I got my breakfast and John’s tablets. Smiling to myself as I sorted out a few more Christmas cards and one or two bits and pieces to take with us. Oooh, I was thrilled to be going over to Sutton. John got up and was ready on time, too, which made my day, and we arrived spot on at 11 o’clock at the Sutton household.

They were all ready, coats on, buggy buckled with a snoozing baby, and smiles on their faces. I unloaded the car of the items I’d taken with me: the now-repaired tarpaulin for the gazebo, a packet of those half-baked bread rolls (‘due by’ date: soon), an ice bucket and a very large bottle of champagne ready for Christmas. There was also a sit-on/ride-on fire engine that had been Freddie’s. I’d glued the steering wheel on, which had drifted apart from its housing, and it was as good as new, ready for his cousins to play with. William was impressed. With a tuneful, “Oo-oooo-oooooh! What’s that?” he was keen to get his hands on it.

We walked to the park. I had thought John might push the buggy and Danielle and I might stride out chit-chatting but, in the end, Danielle pushed the buggy, with John keeping her company, and William and I raced on, looking for bears in the woods and crocodiles in the swamps. We did a good circuit and a half, ending up at the playground, which William and I absolutely loved. We played on everything. Danielle and John and Thomas looked on indulgently.

Finally, it was chilly and Danielle needed the loo, so murmurings were made about making the walk back. William was having too much fun to want to leave, so I said I’d stay on a bit more and bring him back shortly. Honestly, he was as good as gold. He played and played and laughed out loud as I pushed him on the swing. “Higher, Grandma! Higher!” When we’d had our fill of the playground we played hide and seek in amongst the trees, attempted to climb a couple, picked flowers for Mummy and settled into a companionable walk back home. I think William enjoyed himself by the sparkling eyes and the ready laugh. I know I certainly did. The encounter has set me up for a good few days now. What bliss.

Once we were home, I got on with finalising the Christmas cards and John played a bit more poker on the computer. I was pleased that we had finished the cards, and John offered to post them for me. “What was the queue to the post office like, when you went to the postbox?” I asked John when he got back. “They were still queuing past the Pharmacy,” he replied. Hmmm….. same as when I’d been up to buy some stamps then. Except I decided that I wouldn’t wait in the queue, either inside or outside the shop. Too many people. I popped into Tesco Express instead to buy books of stamps, which did the trick just as well.

We had a cup of tea and a mince pie after that, and I thought I might watch a bit of telly. Someone had suggested that the film ‘Klaus’, on Netflix, was a great kids film, so I thought I’d check it out. Loved it. I was glued. I am definitely going back to my second childhood. Swings? Roundabouts? And kids films? Yes, please. John finally wandered round from the computer at nearly 7 o’clock, tummy rumbling, to ask what was for tea. “Shall we get fish and chips?” I wondered. So we treated ourselves to a fish and chip supper. Nice.

When you are pre-occupied with the grandchildren, you really don’t want to know about the ‘nasty’ stuff going on in the world, but I suppose, for the record, it’s worth just checking out. So the figures today are still a lot and too many.

• 20,263 people have been confirmed as having contracted the virus today
• 232 people died from the virus today
• More people are being admitted to hospital with the virus – the admissions being up by just over 14% in the last week with nearly 11,000 people taken in
• 138 people died in hospitals in the last couple of days
• Today is Day 13 of our Tier 3 and, with cases still rising on our area, it looks like we’ll stay there
• And we have been ‘holed up’ for the last 271 days since we first hunkered down in March.

Take care everyone. God bless.

It being Sunday, I took myself off to church this morning and had an uplifting hour. The sermon was particularly apt – mostly it was about us not being in control of everything. Really? For us control freaks that’s a bit rough, don’t you think? Must take note.

When I got back I was surprised to see John was up and about, which was nice. So I sat at the breakfast bar with him and ate my belated breakfast, while he agonised putting his eye drops in.

Thereafter, it was a mission to get our Christmas cards written. Ah…. but before that, of course, it was time to visit Mum and see if I could get her Christmas cards written.

She was funny. Fast asleep when I got there, head lolling, bless her, but on hearing the door open she snapped upright as if to say, ‘What? Me? Asleep? Never!’ And then even funnier when I asked her if she’d had her lunch. “Oh, yes, I’ve had my lunch.” I wondered if she was sure she’d had it. She firmly announced that she was absolutely sure she’d had it. Hmmm….. I wasn’t convinced. And sure enough, there it was, nestling nicely on the work surface in the kitchen, still warm and unopened. Now, this seems to be a recurring scenario…..

After Mum had eaten her lunch, I wondered if she was up to some card-writing. Yes, she thought she was. And actually, she was up to it. Got tired by the end, and I culled some of the people on the list, but she saw it through and signed at least a dozen cards.

We had a laugh over it, too. She wasn’t sure who she was sending the cards to. I explained. She looked puzzled. I told her just to write ‘With love from Hazel’ on the cards and I’d put a sticky label on the envelope, so she didn’t have worry about who it was to. But she did worry. “Who is this one to?” she’d ask. I’d tell her. She wouldn’t know who it was. We giggled about it. She’d write the greeting and pass me the card back shaking her head as I popped it into the envelope. Then we’d giggle again. The pattern was repeated every time. At one point, I popped out of the room. She stopped writing. “What is it I am supposed to be putting here?” she asked. “With love from Hazel,” I replied. Ah… she looked relieved and carried on. And we giggled again.

I count the visit to Mum’s as a success. Cards were mostly written and, for those that weren’t I shall just send a little explanatory note to explain why. And, once I was home, another success. I got out all our cards and labels and set to on our list too. John even helped me. I wrote the cards; between us we enveloped them; and John stuck the address labels on. A proper little production line. Whoop! Whoop!

Not a lot else, other than watching the Grand Prix, which seemed to be a bit toothless this week, Strictly, which was fairly predictable, and then, the jewel in the crown: Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing. What a wonderful programme that is. A celebration of a friendship and a shared hobby. Marvellous. We both thoroughly enjoyed it.

John has also had another go at the shower cubicle but it’s not quite completed yet. Maybe tomorrow?

In the meantime, people are still being infected with the Coronavirus and dying as a result of it. I don’t think it’s ever going to end. The weekend figures are always slightly lower, so don’t look quite so bad, but there’s still a lot of people suffering.

• 18,447 were confirmed as having contracted the virus today
• 414 people were confirmed as having died from the virus today in the community
• 104 people died from the virus over the last couple of days
• Today is Day 12 of our Tier 3. Only 2 days to go before they announce any further restrictions. Which of course they will. We’ll still be in Tier 3 until Christmas.
• And it’s 270 days since we started this little game of hiding at home as much as we can.

Take care everyone. God bless.

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.