13th May 2020

The number of Covid-19 patients to have died in the UK has risen by 494 to 33,186 in the past 24 hours, the Department of Health has confirmed. Today’s overall figure represents a decrease of 133 from yesterday’s confirmed 627 deaths.

Boris stated that people should start making an effort to return to work today. Given this, and on what was a particularly chilly morning cycle, I naturally expected to see a lot of people out and about, but there weren’t. In just over an hour, I encountered no more than half a dozen walkers and fewer cyclists than I have seen for well over a week. Traffic was practically non-existent, although Sue mentioned that at around 9 am, quite a few vehicles seemed to be racing past the end of the driveway. However, the building sites I passed were as quiet as ever, the shops appeared shut, and supermarkets still had queues.

Perplexingly, we still seem to be in the Twilight Zone, or are we?

Jamie’s en suite is finished at last.

Yesterday, I had four parcels delivered, one after the other. It was the most exciting thing to happen in weeks. There’s nothing quite like tearing excitedly into something left on the doorstep by the post or delivery man (while maintaining social distancing), even when you already know what’s inside.

The deliveries included a bottle of liquid curcumin to ease my aching bones and ligaments, a memory stick for video storage, a WiFi Smart PIR Motion Sensor Wireless Infrared Detector Security Burglar Alarm, and a Flysocks Smart garage door opener kit, which allows remote control of the existing garage opener via smartphone voice commands. The latter two are compatible with the Google Home setup already in the house.

Today, I installed their respective apps on my phone and linked them to my Google Home account. First, I tested the PIR sensor, which triggered perfectly. Then, I set about fitting the Flysocks kit onto the existing remote-controlled garage door opener. The instructions were clear and easy to follow; the only challenge was deciding where to run the cables. The garage can now be opened and closed via a wall switch, key fob, phone app, or voice command. I also receive a notification whenever the door is operated and can control it from anywhere in the world. You may ask why? Well, I’m hoping our cars and my dwindling supply of wine are now much safer. At the very least, I’ll know when they’re being stolen. Hmmm.

Meanwhile, Sue continued sorting through the family paperwork, moving on to shredding the accumulated pile of redundant ‘sensitive’ material. It was far too cold for either of us to work in the garden, even in our winter thermals! However, with frost predicted overnight, I covered the potatoes in the late afternoon with large sheets to protect their withered remains. Yes, I know the ‘horse has already bolted,’ but ever the optimist, I’m giving them a chance to recover. The vines, however, will have to fend for themselves.

14th May 2020

Another 428 people have died from coronavirus in the UK, bringing the official government total to 33,614.

Dr Hans Kluge, director of the WHO European region, issued a stark warning to countries beginning to ease lockdown restrictions, stating that now is the “time for preparation, not celebration.” Wise words from an expert in disease control, one of the very people Donald Trump has previously dismissed, from an organisation he refuses to help fund.

“I’m very concerned about a double wave. In the autumn, we could have a second wave of COVID and another of seasonal flu or measles. Two years ago, we had 500,000 children who hadn’t received their first dose of the measles vaccine,” he warned. Many experts, including England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, have cautioned that a second wave could be even deadlier than the first, citing the 1918–20 Spanish flu pandemic as a precedent.

Reopening schools while the virus is still circulating is not a decision to be taken lightly. In China, an online video demonstrates the measures they have implemented: Back to School Video. It is certainly a resource-heavy strategy; I can’t believe every school in China could apply such procedures. How many schools in the rest of the world could?

There was another hard frost last night. After a long and immensely pleasurable cycle ride, I spent the rest of the day with Sue in the house and garden. I didn’t check on the vegetable plots or vines to see what further damage Jack Frost had wrought; tomorrow will be soon enough to assess what is salvageable. We spent the day quietly getting on with various lockdown activities: completing a jigsaw, sowing seeds in pots, shredding paper, stroking Millie, watching Bargain Hunt, watering plants, feeding the pheasants, and observing the neighbour as he cut his hedge.

In the evening, I rang Bridget, who was isolating in a hotel in Cyprus. She has four more days before she is released to go home and see Jim. Unfortunately, I forgot the time difference; she was already snug in bed, but keen to chat as she couldn’t sleep. She seems to be making the best of her enforced stay; the food and activities have been good, and she has an English girl next door to talk to. Her accommodation is quite spacious, with a lounge, an en suite bedroom, and front and rear balconies. She is allowed out for exercise classes around the pool along with the other isolationists. She claims Jim has had plenty of practice cooking while she’s been away and is looking forward to sampling his efforts.

15th May 2020
Paul J. Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, was released from prison on Wednesday and granted home confinement in Northern Virginia due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to his lawyer, Todd Blanche. So why does Trump consider it safe enough to reopen businesses and schools across the states, yet too dangerous to keep Paul Manafort in prison? Back in January, Trump repeatedly ignored urgent intelligence warnings about the looming pandemic, dismissing claims from experts, trusting no one outside a tiny coterie led by his daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, the property developer whom Trump has empowered to sideline the best-funded disaster response bureaucracy in the world. The result: America leads the world in deaths and infections. This crisis has been exacerbated by the incompetence, corruption, and callousness of an egotistical leader.

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for as long as the state can shield the people from the political, economic, and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the state to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the state.”
—Joseph Goebbels (12th Jan. 1941)

It takes five hours to transplant 148 sweetcorn plants and water them thoroughly. That’s just under 30 plants per hour (30 pph). Any pleasure I got from nurturing my little seedlings was dulled each time I passed the rows of heartbreaking, shrivelled potato stalks, murdered in their sleep two nights ago! Perhaps it would be wiser to delay planting my little cherubs for another week or two, but I need the greenhouse space, and I do love a gamble! I lost once, surely not twice in a row?

Early in the morning, Sue made a trip to the supermarket and took some flowers for Doreen while I was otherwise engaged in the garden. I’m not sure what else she got up to, as after a quick snack on my return, I took a nap to refresh my spirits and ease my tortured limbs, only waking just before tea-time!

Sarah had a court case and a complex multi-agency meeting on her last day before maternity leave. Ellis, meanwhile, has been a very busy little bunny; he sanded some chairs, painted some stones and the front path, and completed a load of school maths work!

Friday night must be bath night in Rothwell for the Palmer-Shah family. After they had all scrubbed themselves clean of the day’s grime, Charlotte, who was on the phone to Sarah, noticed that the bath was leaking, with water coming through the ceiling. Fortunately, they are covered by their insurance policy, and a plumber has been called in.