1st November 2020

After testing positive for coronavirus, 162 people have died in the UK. There are 372 active cases in the Harborough area, a decrease of 270 from last week.

2nd November 2020: After testing positive for coronavirus, 136 people have died in the UK. There are 450 active cases in the Harborough area, a decrease of 217 from last week.

A £1 million bet on Joe Biden to win the US presidency has been placed in the UK. The bet was made at odds of 8/15 for the Democratic nominee to win. If successful, the punter stands to win £1,540,000.

This morning, Sue played pétanque with her U3A activity group and was pleased to throw the winning boule for her team. Afterwards, she took Doreen some flowers and leeks from the vegetable plot, as she wasn’t feeling very well. She left them at reception to be collected.

In the afternoon, Sue visited Jim and Bridget with some leeks and invited Bridget to accompany us to see Sarah and Alice on Wednesday.

While all this was going on, I caught the bus to Leicester to visit the Yorkshire Bank. Annoyingly, I discovered they had moved, and the building was up for sale.

Inquiring next door at Santander, I was informed that the branch had amalgamated with Virgin Money. I had spoken to them on the phone earlier, you’d think they would have mentioned that! Luckily, Virgin Money was located on the way back to the bus station.

After purchasing some mangoes, passion fruit, and Sharon fruit from the outdoor market for Sue, I caught the bus home.

I had a disturbed evening. First, Jamie rang to say his car had run out of diesel in Harborough, so I took him an empty fuel can. After filling it up at a nearby petrol station, he quenched the vehicle’s thirst, then accompanied me back to Willow Bank with some early Christmas presents.

Fifteen minutes after setting off for home, he rang again to say the clutch had gone on the car and asked if I could pick him up. Whilst on the way, he called again to say that a friend was coming to his aid, so I about-faced and returned home. Eventually, he informed us that he had managed to get the car into gear and left it outside a local garage to be fixed over the next few days.

3rd November 2020: After testing positive for coronavirus, 136 people have died in the UK. There are 468 active cases in the Harborough area, a decrease of 96 from last week.

In America, tonight is sure to be memorable, with both those who love Donald Trump and those who hate him glued to their television sets. For the good of the planet, I hope he fails to be re-elected. The next few days will tell, but the man is not known for his integrity, and nothing seems to be beyond him.

Sue spent the morning on a ramble near Foxton with one of her U3A groups. I drove to Little Bowden to fix Paddy’s iPad, which was refusing to FaceTime with his son in Florida, before continuing to Rothwell to pick up a mapping SD card that Suraj had tried to clone for me.

I then spent most of the afternoon on the phone, first speaking to a holiday insurance company to confirm whether our holiday to the Falkland Islands would be covered if cancelled, then calling BT to complain that (as before) I couldn’t access my account online. It seems that since COVID-19, making any phone call to a company takes an age, forcing one to listen endlessly to recycled music that I can’t stand.

Jamie had a lift from work this evening and afterwards arrived at Willow Bank to borrow Sue’s car until his is fixed.

4th November 2020: After testing positive for coronavirus, 492 people have died in the UK. There are 441 active cases in the Harborough area, down 81 from last week.

Scattered protests took place from Washington, DC, to Washington state in the hours after polls closed in the US elections, but there were no signs of the expected widespread unrest or violence.

Today, Bridget accompanied us on a visit to see Sarah and Alice. Arriving just after 10 am, Lee let us into the house, as Sarah and Alice were enjoying a session at a Baby Sensory Group in the village. I set off for a walk with Mia to Bagworth Heath Wood, a 10-minute drive away and part of the National Forest. As it was a dry and fairly warm morning, Sue and Bridget enjoyed the garden until Sarah and Alice returned at 11 am.

My ramble through the wood, planted in the early 1990s, took Mia and me past picturesque fishing lakes and through the village of Bagworth, eventually returning to the car via Royal Tigers Wood. This arboretum, containing 17 species of trees from countries in which the now-disbanded Royal Leicestershire Regiment served (as the 17th Foot), lies at the edge of the wood. A lovely walk, and one I am looking forward to doing with Sue after this current bout of lockdown.

Mia and I arrived back in time to walk to the village café with the ‘girls’ for another splendid lunch. Mia kept Lee company while he snatched a quick meal at his desk (the joys of working from home!). After lunch, we spent some time chatting and playing with Alice in the garden before returning to Harborough.

5th November 2020: After testing positive for coronavirus, 378 people have died in the UK. There are 449 active cases in the Harborough area, down 76 from last week.

With the counting still in progress, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has won more votes than any other president in American history. However, the question remains: will Trump make a gracious and swift exit, as befits a president who understands the need to preserve the rule of law and the fabric of democracy? I fear not.

Today, Jim Hankers planned to take his car (currently parked in our driveway) to a garage for an MOT. He rang during the morning, just as I was enjoying a gorgeously cold, crisp, and sunny bike ride through the Leicestershire countryside, asking if he could borrow some jump leads, as the battery was flat. Unfortunately, my leads were with Jamie, so when I returned, I hooked up the battery to a charger, but it failed to start the engine. Left with no other choice, he had to purchase his own set of leads and soon had the engine ticking over. He returned the car late in the afternoon, but unfortunately, it failed the MOT. It is now booked for repairs in a couple of weeks.

Here in the UK, we usually celebrate ‘Bonfire Night’/’Guy Fawkes Night’/’Fireworks Night’, but this year the festivities have been curtailed by lockdown, and the usual bombardment of colour and explosions has been limited to family ‘bubbles’ in back gardens.

6th November 2020: After testing positive for coronavirus, 355 people have died in the UK. There are 492 active cases in the Harborough area, up 11 from last week.

On a day when the USA is recording 85 COVID-19 cases per minute, Donald Trump looks set to lose the presidency. True to form, he is vehemently contesting the legality of the electoral count. Ironically, he does not question the COVID-19 infection rate in his country.

7th November 2020: After testing positive for coronavirus, 413 people have died in the UK. There are 421 active cases in the Harborough area, up 6 from last week.

Millions of Americans have risen up and declared that democracy will not die on our watch. Inveterate liar, bully, and narcissist Donald Trump has lost the race for the White House. While Nero fiddled as Rome burned, Trump, fittingly, played golf.

I doubt we have heard the last of him. He will continue to tweet his whinging falsehoods for many days to come until the crowbar of democracy finally levers him from the Oval Office. He once tweeted that if he lost, he would leave the country, but where would he go? Russia? North Korea?

There are interesting days ahead for the USA, but the rest of the free-thinking world has heaved a great sigh of relief.