18th April 2020

Today was different. It rained heavily throughout the night and was still pouring down this morning. On such a damp, cold, and miserable day, it seemed annoyingly fitting that I felt unwell. Having endured a mildly grumbling stomach for the past few days and largely ignored it, my insides decided to voice their complaints more insistently. Waking with an aching belly and gurgling innards, I decided, after breakfast, to return to bed, warm up, and sleep. And that is exactly what I did.

While I slumbered and gurgled through the morning, Sue drove into town and did the weekly shop at Lidl. By lunchtime, when I eventually made my way downstairs to open a tin of soup, she had already unpacked everything and neatly stored it in the cupboards. It was still raining, and with both bowl and bowel now empty, I left Sue reading the newspaper and retreated once more to bed to sleep away the afternoon.

By tea-time, I was feeling considerably better and opened another tin of soup. Sue, meanwhile, made herself a Tikka Masala, something I thought far too explosive for my recovering digestive system. Solids would have to wait until tomorrow, especially anything as bold as a curry.

During the afternoon, while I slept soundly, the rain drifted westward, leaving us with a cold and gloomy end to the day.

To cheer ourselves up in the evening, we watched First They Killed My Father, an Angelina Jolie film about the tragic history of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. As you might expect, it was a harrowing watch, made all the more poignant by its focus on the fate of one little girl in particular.

Moving on, what did the rest of the family do on a rainy day indoors?

Lucas cooked a huge pot of chilli beans for everyone, while Charlotte baked banana bread for dessert. Sarah indulged in her favourite pregnancy craving, happily scoffing Fizzy Laces. Meanwhile, Jamie seems to have discovered a new genre of music and is currently fascinated by Bella Ciao.

19/04/20

Today is Jamie’s birthday. Weather-wise, it was a much better day. I felt somewhat improved and busied myself in the greenhouse planting it up with the tomato plants I sowed several weeks ago. Sue drove to Jamie’s place to feed Maddie the rabbit, as he and Ruth had gone to Bottesford for the weekend, to check on Ruth’s house.

After soup for lunch, I planted some lettuce, potted on some succulents for Ruth and then went to bed feeling fairly exhausted and slept the rest of the afternoon away, while Sue caught up on some reading.

Captain Tom Moore’s fundraiser for the NHS has hit £25 million just over a week after it was launched.

Lockdown has prevented family and friends from meeting up to celebrate any kind of event. However, Ruth found a way around the restrictions and organised a surprise birthday gathering for Jamie. Using an app called Zoom, we all met online in the evening to celebrate his 31st birthday. It was certainly a surprise; he had no idea it had been planned!

Being able to see and hear a large group of people at the same time is a great advantage of modern technology, and perhaps something we will all have to get used to in this new world.

After about fifteen minutes, Zoom unfortunately crashed. Quick-thinking Ruth rallied us all on WhatsApp, and the party continued. Though the cake was cut and eaten many miles from Jamie’s location, we all raised our glasses, toasted his good health, and had plenty of fun experimenting with the app’s settings, transforming faces into various creatures and playing a game of eating the floating burgers! Happy birthday, Jamie!

Meanwhile, Sarah and Lee chose their allotment today and will officially take ownership in July. It’s a little late in the season to be hugely productive, but they should still be able to grow some salad crops. Hopefully, lockdown will be over by then, and I can lend a hand in getting it sorted. No doubt Charlotte will have a few ideas as well!

20/04/20

The UK government announced 449 more coronavirus deaths today, the lowest daily figure in a fortnight. Have we passed the peak of the infection? Fingers crossed, we have.

However, not everyone has to take their chances. I came across an article while searching for some good news:

“As coronavirus infections tore across the U.S. in early March, a Silicon Valley executive called the survival shelter manufacturer Rising S Co. He wanted to know how to open the secret door to his multi-million-dollar bunker 11 feet underground in New Zealand.”

The full article from Bloomberg, titled Underground in New Zealand: The Doomsday Plan of America’s Richest, makes for interesting reading. I suppose it’s to be expected, if you had the financial means, wouldn’t you do the same? There have been plenty of blockbuster films with end-of -the-world plots over the past few decades, and as I recall, they don’t usually end well!

On a personal note, I felt well enough to eat normally today, though my back was sore. I decided not to aggravate it with physio exercises or a bike ride. Sue drove to Newbold Verdon to drop off some presents and plants at Sarah’s before taking Mia for a long walk. I stayed at home and spent a pleasant morning sowing maize seeds into trays, ready to be planted out in the vegetable plot in about a month.

Just before lunch, I dropped off some tomato and cucumber plants for Jim Crawford, leaving them on his doorstep. Sue returned around 12:30 p.m., reporting that the roads were eerily quiet and that Sarah was getting quite huge now. Not long to go!

Jamie was meant to be in Berlin today, celebrating his birthday, but with his flight cancelled, he spent the day at home doing DIY and making a video for his FXLearning company. I was pleased to see that a bottle of my wine made a cameo appearance in the video! I imagine it wasn’t quite as exciting as a trip to Germany, but at least he managed to tick off a few jobs and polish off a bottle of rosé in the process.

Meanwhile, Sarah and Lee, besides catching up with Sue, finished decorating Lee’s study.

21/04/20

Today, Captain Tom Moore remotely opened one of the government’s new Nightingale hospitals.

Charlotte had her spinal surgery follow-up today. The specialist reviewed her MRIs and confirmed that the lower discs in her back had degenerated. The only long-term solution is to fuse the lower spine to prevent the discs from bulging onto the nerve. Without surgery, the problem will continue to recur, as the discs are simply not strong enough. She has been advised that she can carry on working as usual for now and will see the specialist again in three months to discuss the procedure. Although she had always expected that spinal fusion would be inevitable at some point, she is disappointed that the need for surgery has come so soon.

Once again, in sympathy, my lower back was sore, so I skipped my physio exercises and cycle ride. Instead, I spent the morning hoovering the inside of my Fiesta before giving it a thorough wash. After lunch, I waxed and polished it.

Spending the day on the driveway, I couldn’t help but notice just how many people have taken up running. Every five minutes or so, at least one person, or more, would sprint past the end of the driveway. At times, it felt like a never-ending procession. More than once, I was tempted to wander to the end of the drive just to check whether a marathon had been organised without my knowledge! If there’s one positive to take from lockdown, it’s that it seems to have encouraged people to appreciate the benefits of exercise. Hopefully, they’ll keep it up once this pandemic is well and truly behind us.