leukaemia-limbo-dance

“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.

I thought I might get out for a walk today and got up, full of good intentions. Only to watch the rain pouring down and thinking, “Oh, I’ll go in a bit when the rain has cleared.” The rain did clear, and it was a quite a good afternoon with the sun trying to poke through the clouds, but I never got my walk. I was too engrossed in having a good go at the kitchen.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I don’t know if it was yoga yesterday that helped clear my brain-fog but I have felt better in myself today, wanting to get a few things sorted out. I didn’t feel the lethargy of the last few days today, having had a reasonable night’s sleep and waking up relatively refreshed.

The reality, of course, is that everything takes for ever these days though, and the simple task of tidying and cleaning the kitchen took me all day, what with one thing and another.

John, however, was feeling less perky, having worked hard on the garden yesterday and having had great success with it. Once he was up, he slid onto the sofa and stayed there almost all day – the only break being a visit to the doctor’s surgery for some treatment. I think he did some good telly viewing though and probably caught up on a good few programmes.

He was delighted to receive a little note from the neighbours this afternoon, congratulating him on the job he’d done out the front. Gosh, that was a surprise, but a delightful one.

Then he spent some time researching gates on the internet this afternoon, which is going to be the next bit of the project. Many years ago, John built beautiful wooden gates to go across the driveway and the pathway, but they eventually rotted away and had to be ditched. And when the business was operating from the house, gates would have just been a nuisance. But replacements may now be in the offing. This time, however, we may go for something that won’t rot. We certainly don’t want to be fiddling about with painting, oiling or creosoting wood every year now!

After our lazy/busy day we got ourselves ready for quiz night this evening and, once again, we had an hilarious time. Some of the questions we’d had before, but naturally, we argued about the answers because we all remembered them differently. Sometimes we got them right having remembered correctly, and sometimes we got them wrong, absolutely adamant that we remembered that this was the answer. Only to be surprised that we’d actually remembered the answer wrongly. Such great company – nobody minding whatever the answer we come up with as it’s light-hearted fun. Well, for most of us, anyway. It’s just Nigel who takes it so seriously………makes us laugh and he laughs at himself, which is a good thing.

We had some shenanigans with the internet though, with Linda and Brendan’s connection not working well and they had to resort to the picture being projected from Linda’s computer and the sound from Brendan’s. Nigel and Hazel’s screens kept freezing every so often, although only momentarily, but it meant that crucial information was missed, leading to lots of repetition and general hilarity. Great fun and such light relief after the ‘down’ of the local lockdown. Thank the Lord for good friends.

A bit of excitement today though. In the clear out, John had come across the trickle charger that I’d borrowed from Malcolm during the first lockdown, so I thought I’d better return it as I no longer need it. Texted Malcolm, with no real expectation that he’d be packing to move house this week, but hey presto! Yep, moving on Tuesday. Crikey! That was unexpected and quick!! Very sad that they will no longer be resident in the village. It has been so comforting to know that they are just round the corner. Ah, well, times change, don’t they? Although they aren’t going far just yet, so we’ll have them around for a bit longer. But not only that, Nigel and Hazel have their house on the market too, so they’ll be off soon as well. Both couples moving to be nearer their children who now have children of their own. It’s a generational thing, isn’t it? But not us, not yet…..

Not really going anywhere much, and wondering whether we should be going out at all now. Why? Because 6,178 people have been infected with the virus today. That is a lot of people. 37 people have died. 1,469 people in hospital – 134 of them new admissions today and 211 of them on ventilators. 10 of them have died in the last couple of days. The question is, should we be risking the exposure now and should we be locking ourselves in again? Locally, there are between nought and two cases according to the app so maybe that’s OK…….

Take care all. Do what you’ve got to do, but stay safe.

When lockdown started we had to give things up. One of the things I gave up was my yoga class. When classes came to a screeching halt, Jaime thoughtfully posted lots of wonderful classes online on YouTube, so that we could all follow at home. Unfortunately, during lockdown I felt like my strings had been cut and I didn’t log in to the classes very often. Have absolutely no idea what stopped me, but there we are.

In the summer, however, restrictions seemed to be easing, the incidence of the virus seemed to be lessening and friends were encouraging us to venture out. Come September, Jaime offered to put on face-to-face classes again and so, in the spirit of being brave, I signed up, crossing all fingers and toes that we’d stay away from the virus and stay safe. Classes started up again when the school term began, but I didn’t immediately go as we were away on holiday. Today, therefore, was the day to start back and I went along this morning.

I really, really enjoyed the class. So great to be bending and stretching again, and resting my mind. Brilliant. All socially distanced, sanitised and mostly masked. I enjoyed it so much that when I came home, having made myself a bite to eat and a cup of tea, I then sat down on the sofa and promptly fell asleep. Heaven knows what Jaime put in the yoga class!! I slept for over an hour – and on such a sunny day too. But I hear the chorus: you must have needed it!

And now, of course, we’re all hoping that it’s not the last class before another lockdown….. I really don’t want to have to face the self-motivation required to exercise on my own! Oh dear, kick-starting tips anyone?

John, meanwhile, has been on his determined journey, to finish sorting out the front garden. The stones, having been thoroughly washed and blow-dried, sitting pretty, looking suitably coiffed and attracting compliments from the neighbours no less, are done; so John can now move on to digging over the front flower beds which haven’t been touched for years.

To say that the front garden has been neglected is a bit of an understatement. My view being that, while we had workmen and work vans coming and going, skips and trailers adorning the drive, and all sorts of equipment around and about, there wasn’t a lot of point in trying to make the front look pretty. It’s been a working yard for many a year. And then, when lockdown came, I shut the front door and refused to go out of it, pretty much, so wasn’t interested in doing anything there. But John is rectifying that now. He’s on a mission.

I have no such mission just at the moment. Still feeling incredibly flat and deflated and unable to drive myself on in any direction particularly. Still can’t be bothered to read and yet I have a list of interesting books as long as your arm on the reading list. I still haven’t quite finished decorating the kitchen. Must get around to doing that. Maybe tomorrow? And I haven’t even started decorating the former office-cum-gym-cum snug yet. Maybe the day after?

Anyway, after I woke up from my little nap, I faffed about a bit and then took myself into the back garden to see what I could do there. Did a bit of snipping and watering, and planted up the rosemary plant I’d bought while we were in Norfolk when we visited The Old Rectory. I also replanted the peony corms that John had dug up for me before we went away. Some of the plants needed rescuing having suffered from lack of water in the last couple of weeks, but hopefully they’ll all survive. We’ll see.

So that’s as exciting as it’s got today. After the delight of the yoga class it just been trundle, trundle, trundle. How’s your day been? Enjoy Boris’s little talk? I didn’t. I am jaded by the shilly-shallying, and the inability to have a firm policy on handling the COVID situation. It’s not as if we don’t have examples from other countries to follow. I know nothing is perfect and can’t ever be, but social and work restrictions aren’t the answer to killing off COVID, even if they are the answer to mitigating the risks for a while. But how long for? Anyone taking any bets?

Nearly 5,000 people have been infected with the virus today. 37 people have died in the community. 1,319 people in hospital with it. 181 people on ventilators and 14 people have died over the weekend in hospitals. The infection figures are on a par with the beginning of the first wave. It’s warming up and it ain’t good because I don’t think it’s going to stop there.

Holding on……

God bless – keep safe and let’s not get blasé about the hand-washing, mask-wearing and social-distancing, eh?

We say, “God, I’m tired. Not sure why……” and scratch our heads as to what is making us weary. Of course, in our sane moments we know exactly why we’re tired. John has had a couple of disturbed nights and, during the day, has been demanding that his body work very hard when he’s been shifting stones. Me? I just go to bed late!

Today was one of those days. Both feeling tired, but ploughing on, and then collapsing in a heap at the end of the day.

I was up relatively early to go to Mum’s. A medical appointment at 10.30 meant getting to her flat at 9.30, to be sure she was up. Which she wasn’t. She smiled lazily as I opened her bedroom door. “Hello, dear,” she said, “How lovely to see you.” Regrettably I had to shatter the illusion that I was there just for a casual visit. I knew she wouldn’t remember she had to be up early. She was a trooper though, as she gamely threw off her bedclothes and swung her legs over the side of the bed.

Fortunately for me, the carer arrived just then and she took over the washing and dressing routine. There was no time for breakfast, but I did make Mum a cup of tea. She made laugh though. I made the tea with lots of milk so that it would be cool enough to drink before we set off. She never drinks her tea hot, always leaving it to go cold, so it was a surprise when she said, “Well, this is a bit cold,” Both I and the carer burst out laughing – oh, the irony!!

The visit to the surgery was quite successful, but Mum was a bit distressed by having to wear a mask, and made a bit of a fuss. “I can’t breathe,” she cried. Ah. Well, she could, but was panic-stricken by the warmth of her breath behind the mask, and her imagination went into overdrive. We were seeing the nurse for a blood test and check up for diabetes. The nurse took pity on her however, and said halfway through the consultation, that she could take the mask off. Mum was all smiles then.

I was finally away from Mum’s at mid-day. I had offered her breakfast when we got back and while she was eating it I popped to see the warden. By the time I got back the hot lunch had arrived. Oh dear, that confused her. She didn’t know if she was coming or going, bless her.

John didn’t stop for lunch until he’d finished sorting out the stones. I ate lunch and afterwards, did a spot of ironing. Then, excitement of excitements, it was time to go over to Sutton to meet the Sleaths in the park. No longer allowed to meet in our homes and gardens, we were lucky that the weather was so beautiful today. We sat on the grass and played with the bubble kit I’d bought William (and one for Freddie). William ran and ran and chased the bubbles for ages. Had great fun.

Thomas grinned and gurgled when he was awake and slept soundly in between times. It was such bliss to spend a relaxing hour or so there.

At Michael’s we looked through the front window at the new toys William had had for his birthday, pressing our noses up against the window pane like kids at a sweetie shop. Well, it was just like that, as William offered us ‘ice-cream’ from his new ice cream cart!

Then it was time to go home and have a chat to Andrew before we had our tea. After which, a little doze on the sofa was the order of the day before it was time for bed. “Wake up! Wake up! It’s bedtime!!”

We kept well away from others in the park and wore our masks and did lots of hand sanitising again. Hoping it’s enough to prevent infection. Today’s cases nationally are still high – 4,368 – with 11 deaths in the community and 3 in hospitals yesterday. Locally, the app suggests it’s still between nought and two cases here.

Ready for lockdown number two anyone??

Today was William’s birthday and I felt sad that we weren’t going to be there to celebrate with him. However, looking at all the photos of the day they have had, it looks like we wouldn’t have been able to keep up. He looked so happy in every photo – and I was particularly moved by the little video of him as his birthday cake arrived to the song ‘Happy Birthday’ – it was an absolute picture of pleasure and anticipation. Heart warming.

Harriet called in first thing this morning to collect the one or two gifts we’d got here for William as she had a very large gift for him that needed transporting across. I was delighted to see her again today and, once she’d arrived in Sutton, there was a lovely doorstep photo she took of Freddie and the Sutton Sleaths. Melted my heart.

So, despite the disappointment of not being there in person, I was a very happy bunny with the updates early on – set me up nicely for the day ahead – and throughout the rest of the day.

We needed it as we’d decided that we’d go on another furniture hunt today. John looked up as many furniture stores as he could find in the locality and we set off on a little jaunt to sit on a lot of sofas and at a fair few dining room tables. Had great fun, but after a while, all the sofas started merging into one, and we weren’t sure which ones we liked and which we didn’t and which stores they were in. Might have to do it all again now that we’ve come home and measured up again.

In some ways it was quite an enjoyable trip. We sank into each sofa to try them out and we put our feet up. We’d sit there for a while to test them and even, on one or two occasions rested our eyes to test them for sleeping size. We found quite a lot of sofas that we definitely don’t want, and some that were positively revolting. John, however, was seduced by one arrangement that had a little centre piece in it which was designed to hold your cups of tea. I was seduced by one that was in the shape of an arc. But we both agreed on the fact that we’d like leather again. Our existing sofa has served us very well.

As we left Coventry to make our way to Solihull, John noted a McDonalds. “Would you like a Big Mac, John?” I wondered. “No, it’s alright,” he said, with longing in his voice. As we arrived in Solihull we drove past another McDonalds. “There’s a bit of a queue at the drive-thru, isn’t there?” John observed. I gave a non-committal answer. As we left Solihull, we saw McDonalds in the distance. “Do you want a McDonalds John?” He smiled, “Oh, go on then, if you insist.” So we bought a Big Mac each and parked in a lay-by to eat it. It’s long time since we’ve done that (it’s not on the diet sheet, you know) and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We’re both keeping our fingers crossed that we don’t pay the price for it tomorrow one way or another.

Not much else to report today. We came home, and John did a little bit more stone-shifting while I inspected the back of my eyelids for a couple of hours. I was woken up by the cat making himself comfortable on my lap, using his claws to mash a nice little place to sit. Ouch.

We decided that the TV viewing that was on offer this evening wasn’t our cup of tea so we resorted to picking up programmes we’d recorded, such as the one about the serial killer Dennis Nilssen, which we found fascinating.

We didn’t watch any news today but I gather that the Corona virus figures are still high and the debate goes on about what we must do to mitigate the risks. I also understand that the government ministers are now saying it’s ‘all our fault’ that the virus is spreading. Possibly. Nothing at all to do with the push to get everyone back to work and out into pubs and restaurants, of course….. But we’re going to be briefed tomorrow morning by the scientists, I hear, to ‘explain how the virus is spreading and the potential scenarios’ as we go into winter. That’ll be Christmas cancelled then.

Anyway, 3,899 people have been confirmed as having been infected in the last 24 hours; 18 people have died in the community but just one in a hospital setting yesterday.

We are hoping that our shopping trip was COVID-free. We did our best to sanitise, mask up and keep our distance, but we were sitting on sofas….. that was a scary thing to do. But we are now taking the view that we can’t hide at home for ever – there has to be a balance for our mental health’s sake – until they tell us otherwise and the inevitable second lockdown is announced!!

What else to say, other than take care everyone? My daily prayer, of course. Look after yourselves and all those you love. God bless.

You know what happens when you drink too much pop of an evening don’t you? You find that you might not be able to focus on your blog after all…… let’s see, shall we?

In essence, it’s been a rather good day. John chose to do as much stone-washing as he could in the time available, i.e. before we set off to meet the Kenilworth Sleaths in Abbey Fields. I chose to do housework. This entailed clearing out the clobber in the utility room and generally vacuuming and mopping floors. But there is still more to do. I fall back on my time-worn phrase of: maybe tomorrow? Oooh, now there’s something to look forward to! Who’s with me?

Come lunchtime, we abandoned our chores and prepared ourselves for an afternoon with the family. Just before we met up, we thought we’d pop into the furniture store in Kenilworth and look at the goodies that are in the sale. Of course, we didn’t buy anything. We never do. But we had a good long look at a few things which gave us ideas and things to dream of. “What are you actually looking for?” asked eldest son. To which we replied, “Oh, we don’t know! Everything!” I think we are just fed up of feeling tatty. Mind you, tatty is our middle name and we are likely to stay that way. Might not know ourselves if we change now.

We then joined up with the Kenilworth Sleaths on their picnic blanket in Abbey Fields. We sought out the sunshine for warmth and used the wind to experiment with Freddie’s holiday gift of a large bubble-making kit. That was fun and he was excited by it. The unfortunate thing was, so was the Mac, the dog. He was so excited that he couldn’t stop woofing, and Paul had to take him home again.

Had a great afternoon watching Freddie play in the playground and chatting to Paul and Harriet. The sun was shining and, all in all, it was a very pleasant few hours. The farewell was sweet sorrow, as usual, and, because I haven’t seen them for a while, I found myself welling up as we said goodbye – honestly, I really need to pull myself together!

Home again and we both found ourselves quite tired. John was tired, in my opinion, because he’d been sorting stones out before we’d set off for our fun-filled afternoon. And I think I was tired because I’d been a-hoovering and a-mopping before thoroughly enjoying myself this afternoon.

Disappointment plays a part in fatigue too, though, doesn’t it? And we had disappointedly accepted that we would now not be looking forward to wall-to-wall sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren all weekend, as Michael has a cold, which he has passed on to William and Thomas. So we’ve reluctantly agreed to avoid meeting up tomorrow for William’s ‘birthday bash’.

And so on to the evening, which was filled with more love and laughter with Pete and Dawn and Jack via Skype. Not sure how we managed it, but we spent nearly three and half hours chit-chatting. Mind you, it’s possible that in the last hour everyone was trying to get away and close down the discussion, but I had imbibed a few glasses of Prosecco by then, so I wouldn’t have noticed….

We lamented the new lockdown restrictions that mean we can’t meet up in our houses or gardens even though we only live round the corner from each other, but thanked God for Skype and ability to operate the technology. It really is a blessing.

In other news, those of you who have held your breath wondering whether I have pills for the month ahead, will be relieved to know that I did remember to go to the pharmacy today and collect my prescription. I didn’t, however, get to the Co-op for cereal for Mum in time to deliver it, so it’ll be toast and jam for her again tomorrow morning. See? You wanted to know that, didn’t you?

Anxiety on the COVID-front was relatively high for me ‘out-in-the-field’ as it were, today, and it transpires that the incidence of cases continues to rise, with 4,422 people confirmed as infected, 27 deaths in the community and 10 in hospitals over the last couple of days.

Fingers crossed that the dreaded lurgy was nowhere near Kenilworth Fields today….. take care everyone. God bless.

A better night’s sleep. The spring clean seems to have done the trick. Perhaps it’s psychological….who knows?

Once again, we took our time getting going this morning, shilly-shallying around and generally not wanting to get into our jobs today. John was semi-keen on shifting stones today, in that he wants the job finished, but it’s jolly hard work and he wasn’t so keen on that. That being said, once he did get going he really stuck at it, and it’s almost there.

I faffed about with clothes washing and a bit of tidying up before I ran up to the Post Office with the key to the Norfolk house all parcelled up ready to be sent off to Nuneaton, following my abortive attempt at its delivery yesterday. While I was at the shops, I wanted to collect my prescription too, but it wasn’t prepared, so would I like to call back later? Oh, yes, I said blithely, then bought a couple of visor-masks, which promptly wiped my memory. Have just spent fifteen minutes this evening puzzling over what the heck I did with the tablets I ‘brought home’, and thinking over all the steps I’d taken once I had walked through the front door this morning. It’s only just dawned on me that I didn’t bring the darned things home at all! I’d forgotten to go back for them, hadn’t I? Eeeh, but this ‘lockdown’ fever is very worrying…… my brain is definitely addled.

In other news, I had done a ‘click and collect’ order from Waitrose, due for collection at lunchtime, so I toddled off to the Kenilworth branch, where I was disappointed to find that I had to actually go into the shop. I wasn’t best pleased about that. In Norfolk, where I’d had my first experience of such a novelty, there were members of staff on hand outside the shop at the waiting area, to run in to collect your ‘click and collect’ order for you. And not only that, the staff member dealing with my request here, promptly helped herself to fingering my phone!! I was holding it out to her to show her the order number and she just started scrolling through it without so much as a ‘how’s your father’. Goodness me, keep your hands to yourself, luv.

I brought the shopping home, dumping all of the bags onto the kitchen floor and just had time to wash and sanitise the fridge stuff before I took myself up the hill to church, where I was meeting the ‘Exploring Faith’ discussion group. One of our members, Kaye, has sold her soul to get us access to the church hall for our fortnightly meetings and, on pain of death, we must sanitise every square inch that we’ve been in and certainly not touch anything we shouldn’t. Or go to the loo. I only realised that half-way through the meeting, when the children were streaming out of school and a random child tried the hall door to get in to use the toilet. Christine B said, to no-one in particular because, of course, the child couldn’t hear her, “No, you can’t use the toilet. We can’t, so you can’t either.” Kept my legs crossed for the rest of the meeting and, at the end of it, ran home very fast.

With the shopping order I had bought a few things for Mum and, as I hadn’t actually visited her since we got home on Tuesday evening, I thought I’d better drop the groceries round this afternoon. I had thought this morning that I would contact the manager at Mum’s accommodation to check how things were before I got there but, in fact, she beat me to it. She phoned to let me know that Mum was beginning to wonder where we were. And that she’d run out of loo rolls. And cake.

Mum was surprised, but delighted to see me. She said she wondered what had happened to me as it had been a while. I admitted that we’d been away on holiday and I also admitted that I hadn’t told her beforehand. She nodded and said, “Well, I think that was probably wise. I think I probably would have worried every day if I’d known you weren’t here.” Crikey. Could have knocked me down with a feather.

Mum was very well and quite happy. Even happier when she knew I was the bringer of all things good in her eyes. “Ahhh…. toilet rolls!!” and her eyes lit up, “I was needing some of those.” she said with a grin. “Oooh, and cake!! Oh, thank you!” Thrilled, she immediately tucked into a couple of mini bakewells with her cup of tea.

I stayed for a little while, and was still there when the ‘bedtime’ carer came. It’s the first time I’ve met one of the girls and she was lovely – bright and breezy and teasy, and knew just how to manage Mum. So I left then with three bags full of washing and some shopping ‘returns’ – “I don’t like Shreddies, so you can take those away, and I’ve got enough cheese for now, thank you.”

Back home, it was time to finish the ‘shopping washing’ and think about eating. John had suggested we might have a curry take-away this evening and, at the time he suggested it, I’d turned my nose up. However, the thought of having to get cooking didn’t appeal, so I stepped out of the front door to shout over the sound of the stones being riddled and jet-washed, and let John know that I’d changed my mind, and we’d have the take-away. And. by the way, did he know it was already ten past seven and he really should be calling it a day now?

A bit of a funny old day really, one way and another but the essence of it has served to remind me to be thankful and stop belly-aching about perceived hardships. So there we are.

And here we are – 4,322 people infected with COVID-19 today and 21 deaths in the community and three in hospitals yesterday. And Wolverhampton now on the ‘lockdown’ list. I think my brain might implode just thinking about it…..

In the meantime, I’m looking forward to meeting the Kenilworth Sleaths in Abbey Fields tomorrow and the Sutton Sleaths in Sutton Park on Sunday.

Take care everyone. God bless.

We had a plan this morning. I was going to meet Danielle and the boys at a garden centre. Got quite excited at the prospect. John was going to stay home and talk medical stuff with one of his consultants. Well, the latter happened but we didn’t get to the garden centre, as William has a sniffle and we thought we’d better not risk it….. ah, well, next time maybe.

The upshot of John’s medical consultation was, ‘Let’s send you for (another) MRI scan.’ If in doubt, scan it! Hopefully, the scan will tell us what is making John’s back ache and feel crunchy. Fingers crossed. Then, they may be able to offer suitable physio, or an ointment, or a tablet, or something. And then maybe he won’t be so uncomfortable. Hope so anyway. On the other hand, they may say that shifting stones in the front garden isn’t to be recommended for a bad back? Best not say that too loudly though, as he’s half-way through and doing a grand job and we’d both like it finished.

So John was up and at ’em pretty promptly this morning, keen to get the reluctant stones sifted, cleaned and put back into place, and I was still in a ‘drifty’ sort of mood since my original plans were thwarted.

However, having had another disturbed night last night, coughing and spluttering, I decided the best course of action was to try and track down the source of the problem today – so that became my mission for the day. As far as either of us can tell, the irritation to my asthmatic chest isn’t coming from the garage. There are no discernible pots of paint, cans of petrol or thinners open to prompt a reaction. I wondered, then, if it was simply the house dust mite. Having been away for a few days, perhaps they’d had a proliferation spree.

I set to, therefore, in spring cleaning our bedroom. I mean, it’s not long since I did a deep clean, but perhaps it wasn’t deep enough. On and off, we both laboured at our individual tasks trying to break the back of them until all of a sudden it was half-past six. Good grief. Where did the time go? “Are you Zooming with your girls this evening?” John asked. Oh. Do you know, I had totally forgotten it was Thursday. “Gosh, yes! And I am supposed to be hosting as Anita is away!! Better get on with some food then!” I exclaimed.

We ate and then I dutifully set up the Zoom meeting. Had a grand evening with everyone, who were in good spirits despite anxieties about medical issues and the latest COVID situation. “Will we be still Zooming at Christmas do you reckon?” Liz asked. “If we are, we’ve all got to wear Christmas hats.” Linda laughed – she had found a whole load of silly Christmas hats in her cupboard just today as she was looking for something. As sure as eggs is eggs, I think it likely that we’ll still be video-conferencing at Christmas, more’s the pity. Strikes fear into your heart, doesn’t it?

Despite that sinking thought, we had a very good natter this evening. The Zoom session didn’t time out as anticipated after forty minutes and we chatted on for two hours. It was very comforting.

The reality of the COVID situation, and the local lockdown in force which says we can’t visit each other’s homes, hit me like a train this afternoon. I was planning to drive over to Nuneaton and drop the key back to the house we had borrowed in Norfolk. Blithely made all the arrangements and was mentally preparing my afternoon, when it suddenly hit me that I couldn’t go. That’ll be sending the key in the post then. Grrr……

With 3,395 cases of the virus confirmed today and 21 deaths in the community, and six in hospitals yesterday, the figures remain alarming, and more measures are being put in place to try and contain the spread. Newcastle was another town being put into localised lockdown measures today, and we are seeing the whites of the politicians’ eyes as they try to defend their management of the pandemic in our country. Locally, it’s generalised to state that there have between nought and two cases here.

Well, we’ll keep plodding on and hoping for the best. But it’a bit wearing now, isn’t it? I’d just got my hopes up that we were going to be able to widen our social circle physically but, nope. Not yet. Testing us just a bit more. However, I am thankful for everything we have – the kids, the grandkids, friends, neighbours and relations who come up trumps – it puts it all into perspective, doesn’t it? Reminds us as to what is important in our lives.

Keep washing your hands, keep your distance and keep soldiering on – that’s now my motto. Take care everyone. God bless.