Today was the day upon which we had planned to visit Meg’s uncle and everything worked out as planned – or rather better than planned.Given we had our first night in a strange but very comfortable bed, we eventually got ourselves showered and ready for breakfast. We had been shown how to help ourselves so the cup of tea was particularly welcome and we complemented this with some cereal and slices of toast which is not our normal breakfast but very welcome all the same. By the time we had finished all of this, we washed up after ourselves and then went off to meet Meg’s Uncle Ken. Considering we had not seen him for about a year and a half we found him to be in remarkably good heart. At nearly 95, he is evidently very frail but not as frail as we suspected that he might be. We were joined almost immediately by a very close family friend who we knew very well and we chatted for most of the morning until it was decided by all of us that it would be nice to have a family meal together. We decided to have fish and chips so our family friend telephoned through the order and collected it half an hour later. We were then treated to some home-made ‘Bara Brith‘ (translated from the Welsh ‘Speckled Bread’) which is like a moist fruit loaf and which is one of the most delicious we had ever tasted (to a home-made recipe of course) So we took our leave of Uncle Ken and made our way to the classic little city of Conwy. There we parked in our usual spot and the sum had come out his afternoon so it was quite sunny. We repaired to our delightful but little known tearooms where we have several stairs to negotiate but if has a delightful, what I call a Jane Austin atmosphere inside. There we not only had a delicious pot of Earl Grey tea but treated ourselves to some fruit and ice cream. We also made a booking for lunch tomorrow about which we are delighted and although the owner does not know it yet, we are going to treat her to a bottle of our own damson gin (labelled up as ‘Chateau le Ceuf‘ or ‘Hart(=male deer) Chateau)‘ for evident reasons) After we had our afternoon tea, we popped into the camping shop to see if we could buy a little camping kettle (we couldn’t) but we saw some excellent bargain weather proof anoraks that we have bought before from that store and which has proved to be excellent. Then we popped round to a chemist’s shop and bought some toiletries and finally into a Spar supermarket where we bought a few things to eat in case we get hungry in the evening. If there had been a little hardware store, I would have bought a little cheap kettle to keep our blood diluted with tea during the evening. We will probably be able to manage now until Saturday morning when we depart. I must say we are quite looking forward to our little ‘poddle around’ Conwy in the morning. There is always a bit of sea wall to walk along if we want to get some fresh air but also the centre of the city is particularly compact. Of course we have our favourites, amongst we would number the National Trust shop (great for little gifts for people), the Welsh Wool Shop (the equivalent of Edinburgh Woollen Mills) and a range of little curio and antique type shops.

I have entertained myself this evening if ‘entertained’ is the right word manipulating the intricacies of a Sky box which is what controls the TV in our B&B. Apparently, the previous TV remote had gone walkabout (and this rather reminds me of what happened three years ago when the control to the TV in the hospital day-room had been pinched by past visitors, thus depriving the recovering patients of a much needed source of diversion). Meg is in bed (which is her wont after she has got over-tired throughout and I am rather struggling with the hit-and-miss vagaries of a control I do not really understand so quite a lot of trial and error is involved) At the moment, I happened upon an old recording of Fawlty Towers which I had seen only about a couple of weeks ago but any port in a storm. However, I now get a message on the system to say the system was going to turn itself off – which it did. So I am now watching another episode which I also happen to have seen in the last week or so – but again, I suppose I mustn’t grumble. Anyway, I am fairly used to making out in hotel rooms having survived a hotel in Jakarta whilst I was doing a stint of teaching out there for De Montfort University in the 1990’s.

This was the day when we were due to travel to North Wales and we made a reasonably early start at 9.20 this morning. Everything proceeded satisfactorily until we made a stop at a Starbucks near Shrewsbury in order to make use of their toilet facilities. There we had a panic when Meg lost her handbag (not for the first time!)and eventually found an assistant with a master key and opened up all of the locos until the missing handbag was located. Then we proceeded on our way only for the car information system to display a big tyre meaning, I suppose, an inflation problem. I pulled into a service station and checked all of the air pressures but the ‘tyre’ symbol remained. So this means either a faulty sensor, or the sensor needs to be turned off, that actually do have a slow puncture or any combination of the above! We proceeded on our way cautiously but seemed to be OK. We arrived at the restaurant in the country park where we had pre booked a meal in the restaurant and had a delightful meal of sea bass. We then set off for our AirBnB but got there about 30 minutes too early. As we were fiddling about parking we met another couple from Birmingham and decided to have  quick cup of tea with them before we ser off for the AirBnB which we had previously located. When we got there, there was no space to park and we were greeted by the mother of the host who was friendly but! We have found somewhere to park the car down the road and in the meantime we have t work out how we can use internet access without a password. In the short term, I am managing to write this blog by ‘hot spotting’ my iPad onto my iPhone but feel this is only a short term solution. However, now a little later I have managed to establish contact with the owner, se3veral little things have improved. First and most importantly, I have managed after several false starts to get this IBM Thinkpad connected to the BT network. This involved quite a long and involved password with a variety of upper and lower case characters but eventually after some errors (all of which were my own because I had failed to copy some of the characters correctly. Also I had forgotten my mouse but I m having to learn how to use the ‘nipple’ on the Thinkpad keyboard but of its type, its quite good really. We now have a front door key so I can pop out to the car and get some bits of pieces. Also, I begged from the owner a black plastic bag which we can now use as a dirty washing bag (important if you are aware for several days) The absence of a kettle so that we can have a hot drink is a little irksome – but of course we are applying the norms of a ‘normal’ B&B to an AirB&B which of course we should not. When I get to know the owner a little better, I can ask her whether it is legit for us to pop down and make ourselves a quick cup of tea downstairs and then take it up to our room – once is a little frightened to ask. The TV remote has gone walk about so we are having to manipulate things through an obscure (to us) Sky box so far from ideal or restful.

The European Cup finals were in the final stages of the initial group stage tis evening. In the event there were several dramatic touches in the matches. At one point, when Hungary were beating Germany 2-1 10 minutes from the end, it looked as though Germany might not progress beyond the group stage. Instead, we have the situation in which Germany equalised, they progress onto the knockout stage and will meet England next Tuesday I suppose it is pretty self-evident how this one will end, given the nature of the encounters between England and Germany in the past.

The COVID news seems pretty grim, in some respects, this evening. The number of new infections has leapt from 11,000 to 16,000 in a single day. Nonetheless, the death rate and the hospitalisation rates do not show commensurate increases so it does look as though as the infections seem concentrated on the younger sections of the population and therefore it can  be argued  that ‘the vaccines’ are winning this particular battle. Tomorrow we will see Meg’s Uncle Ken (who is in his 90’s) and then we hope to a meal in our favourite little restaurant in Conway (specialising in lovely home-cooked recipes like fish pie) and have a toddle around our favourite shops in Conway. We hope the weather will improve tomorrow because here in Wales we have run into a ‘North wales drizzle’ the likes of which Meg remembers well from several wet holidays in Wales!

Today was one of those days when I seem to have been like the proverbial dog chasing its own tail. We were a little late getting up this morning but knew that we had quite a lot to fit in. Our domestic help had promised to come along for a few minutes to work her magic with a hair-dryer and make Meg’s hair more presentable before we set off on our jolly little holiday break tomorrow. I was just on my way into town when our domestic help asked me if I could wash Meg’s hair first. This I did – Meg and I have a well-worked routine but it meant I was delayed by several minutes. I walked fairly quickly into the town and picked up our daily ration of newspapers. Then on my back, I made a slight detour into the park to see if I could espy our University of Birmingham friend  on one of the high benches. As it happened, I couldn’t see him so I struck straight off for home knowing that I had to have a quick turn-around when I got home (changing into my track suit bottoms in which I do the Pilates exercises, gathering my mat and a few things together) before I met one of my fellow class members on the way down. The other two regular members of the class were away on holiday so we formed a little bubble of two in the class and it is so much more difficult to hide when there are only two of you. We had a fairly rigorous Pilates routine today and I remembered to pay for my sessions, some in arrears and some in advance. Then it was a brisk walk home in order for me to prepare my traditional, ‘fast’ lunch for a Tuesday which involves fish-cakes heated up in the oven and some microwaved vegetables. After the briefest of rests, I took the car down into town because I needed to fill up with petrol and check the air pressure and water. I know is is outrageous these days but at the BP garage at which I like to fill up on petrol one has to pay £1.00 to get a supply of air and you have to race around and try to get it done in a minute. Then some frustration set in as I needed s supply of water to top up my detergent bottle and this needed an (outrageous) £2.00. The machine was filled with £1.80 worth of coins but refused/was not designed to cope with the 5p coins I had to make the amount up to £2.00. All I got a smidgeon of detergent water left over from the last user to top up my washer bottle but the machine refused to deliver the proper complement of water as it hadn’t been loaded with the correct money – so I finished off losing £1.80. Having got the car filled with petrol and checked over, I then repaired to an ATM where I got out a supply of money to help us with casual purchases over the days whilst we are away. I then went on a tour of cosmetics shops trying to buy some cosmetics of a particular type and was eventually successful after quite a frustrating search. Whilst in Boots chemists, I got a FaceTime call from our Waitrose friends with whom we had an arrangement to FaceTime at 5.0pm each Tuesday. As soon as I did get home, it was time for a quick cup of tea and then a meal of ice-cream and fruit before setting down the football at 8.0pm.

The COVID news is quite interesting to analyse this evening. The rate of infection is at more than 11,625  which is the highest since mid-February. But there is some limited evidence that the rate of infection in the North West may be starting to abate somewhat. The more startling news is that the highest rates of increase are in the 20-29 years old olds (i.e. the unvaccinated) in multiple hot spots throughout the country. This points to the importance of getting the vaccine into the arms of the younger generation in all parts of the country. Also for most of the pandemic, the admissions numbers were dominated by those aged 65 and over. Today, for the first time in this pandemic, those under 65 are outnumbering those over 65. Also it does appear that the link between infections and the ultimate death rate is becoming more tenuous – whilst the infection rate has increased, the death rate does not seem to have increased at the commensurate rate. 

There is quite a lot of concern expressed by the WHO amongst others about the UEFA semifinals and finals to be played at Wembley. The stadium will be quite fullish at 60,000 and there will be a fairly full complement of Uefa officials who are demanding a quarantine-free stay in the UK – this, at a time, when the infection rate in the UK is worse than the European average. One suspects some kind of financial stitch-up here i.e. the rules get ‘bent’ in order to keep the economic advantages of semi-finals and finals to be played at Wembley.

Today is the longest day but it does not quite feel like it as we have endured quite a humid cloudiness for most of the day. Meg and I did our usual walk into town, bumping into one of our near neighbours on the way down and it was quite useful to inform her that we would be away for a few days, starting on Wednesday, although our son and daughter-in-law would be keeping the home fires burning. Meg and I are settling into a rather different routine now as we go straight to the Waitrose cafe and have our elevenses there. I have started to partake of their spicy soup which I have instead of a coffee and a pastry which I reckon is probably better for me carbohydrate-wise. Then I go up and pick up our newspapers which is 2-3 minutes around the corner and then I call back and meet up with Meg again. In the cafe, we did bump into one of our previous Waitrose acquaintances for a brief chat – also we just missed a young lady complete with young son with whom we share quite a lot of interests as she teaches Politics and History at Bromsgrove school. In the past, I have off-loaded to her some of my collection of politics books which are probably of much more use to her and some of her pupils than it would be for me. I must get round to slimming down my collection of other academic books once I found a reasonable home for them. Actually, some months ago before the lockdown I was in contact with a firm who would take them off my hands – but every book had to be catalogued first and I reckoned that for several hundred books this would probably take for ever so I never got started doing it.

When we eventually got home, we had a rather delayed lunch and then after a bit of a rest got going with the major task that we had set for ourselves in the afternoon. This was to get packed up for our mini-holiday starting on Wednesday. We have a fairly simple rule given that we are not going to be away for long and that is to have one clean set of clothes for when we start off and two copies of other items (e.g. underwear) to go in the suitcase. Things like our nightwear always goes in last of all, of course, and I am never quite sure whether we provide our own towels or not but we had better be prepared. We have made an arrangement, confirmed by telephone conversations, to see Meg’s uncle and godfather on Thursday morning. I am sure he will be delighted to see us and he is, of course, Meg’s oldest living relative. On Wednesday, we are already booked in for lunch at an establishment at which we have dined several times before. It is a restaurant attached to a golf club in a country park just off the A55 North Wales expressway, so all being well we will have a good rest there before we progress to make the rest of the journey (another 30 miles or so) after we have been fed and watered.

The COVID news continues to be mixed. The number of new infections is still quite high at 10,000+ but at least the rate is not rising exponentially. Boris Johnson is simultaneously trying to sound optimistic about July 19th (which he is calling the ‘terminal’ point) but pessimistic about the prospects for international travel until next year and the prospects of a resurgence in the virus to coincide with the winter months cannot be discounted. We are now in the position where all 18+ adults can at least book a vaccination – there may be a waiting time and then of course quite a lag between the first and the second jabs before the immunity really builds up. A Scottish player in the Eurofinals has tested positive so he will miss the remaining games – meanwhile a couple of English players are having to self-quarantine as a precaution. The interesting question is how the virus has managed to evade the protective bio-security cordons that ought to be protecting both of the football teams.

The big ‘infected blood’ scandal that hit our country in the 1980’s is finally facing the scrutiny of a public enquiry. In a nutshell, haemophiliacs who suffer constant bleeds and need  to have their blood supplemented by blood products such as plasma received supplies that were infected with AIDS and hepatitis-C from which many (thousands) subsequently died. The point of all this is that the initial days of the NHS, this would have been impossible because all blood was donated. Then someone had the (not very bright) idea to import blood products from America where it is common knowledge that blood is often sold by drug addicts, down-and-outs and the like because no doubt it was ‘cheaper’ than the administrative costs associated with taking blood from the volunteers in the UK. A prime example of where ‘the market’ does not provide the best (actually, the worst) solution to problem of shortages.

Sunday morning when I walk down for the newspapers on my own is always my opportunity to engage in some indulgence as I listen to certain classical tracks I have on my aged iPhone. Today the first track along happened to be the overture to ‘The Marriage of Figaro‘ and the first time I heard it when I was aged 14 in the music room at Thornleigh College, Bolton (the school which I attended whilst my mother rained to be a teacher). The music teacher, a stocky Glaswegian built like a tank, told us that the syllabus had just been published for the ‘O’-levels we would take in two years time. We were informed that although it was a sparkling 7 minutes worth, we had better get used to it as we would study it in detail for the next two years (which was the length of time deemed necessary to prepare you properly for the GCE ‘O’-level in Music). This was thought at the time to be one of the most demanding ‘O’-levels that there was, on a par with Physics. My memory may not serve me correctly but I suspect that at the time we had to know the score in some detail and might even have to engage in some composition as well. I know that when I changed schools the following year (when my mother had returned from her teaching training course) then I had a massive culture shock as I moved from school with an average plus reputation in music (we did have a school orchestra, choir and brass band – of which the brass band was by far the best known and the most prestigious) to a school where the only music was a lesson in singing for the 11-yr olds taught by an obscure little teacher in a back room somewhere. Later on, I listened to the aria ‘The Queen of the Night‘ and the film ‘Amadeus‘ on the life of Mozart had a brilliant scene win which the incradibly high, not to say shrieked nature of the soprano part was transmogrified into the face of his mother-in-law. A similar psychological transformation takes place in the same film where the voice and image of ‘The Commendatore’  is transformed into the face and image of Mozart’s own stern father. The Commendatore is a military hero, the father of one of Don Giovanni’s conquests, who is slain by him in the opening scene of the opera whilst the closing scene is the statue of the Commendatore who comes to life and drags off Don Giovanni to the flames of hell) You really have to see the whole opera to appreciate the drama of all of this. On my way home, I was ‘overtaken’ on the road by one of my acquaintances who I used to see quite regularly when we were members of the same Pilates class together. She was on her way to the hotel at the top of the road where she has worked for the past few years. She had her hours progressively reduced from five hours to two with the same volume of work expected in the two hours. She had had a new boss who was threatening her with disciplinary action for some of dispute she had had over time off over  holidays – so eventually, she had decided to leave. It does make you a wonder whether this a microcosm of what is happening in the overall economy where (some employers at least) very much have the whip hand, but I found it all rather saddening.

Eventually, Meg and I drag ourselves off to the park, really in search of some of our regular park friends who we have temporally abandoned whilst we patronise the Waitrose coffee bar. We did not run into any but we did run into several interesting dogs and their owners. One of these was a ‘labradoodle‘ (a cross between a Labrador and a poodle) which really is quite an interesting looking dog with curls of woolly hair and quite a striking physique. Another hybrid puppy cane along ( a cockapoo?) and the owners happy chatted whilst the dogs enjoyed each other’s company. All very touching, really.

This afternoon, the weather looked gloomy but not actually raining so I took a chance and decided to get the lawns cut before the football started at 5.00pm. Fortunately, I got the lawns cut in time, the mower (and myself) cleaned up, a cup of tea prepared and was sitting in my chair one minute before kickoff. As we might have expected, plucky little Wales was completely outclassed by a very dominant Italy but by keeping the score down to 1-0 victory  for Italy (although in truth it should have been several more), Wales managed to quality (on the basis of one win, one draw and one loss) in the pool stage and will then progress to the knockout stage of the competition – where I do not think they have ever been before so that are quite happy bunnies tonight.

Today was another overcast day and we assumed that we would not rained upon but nonetheless we had to endure one of those rather ‘glowering’ kinds of days. Meg and I did a tour of the park to see if we could make contact with any of our normal park acquaintances but it was not to be. Having done a tour of the park we went to pick up our newspapers and then made sure that we frequented the local Waitrose cafe that we wanted to see if we could keep in business – as attendance seems to be right down at the moment. Waitrose used to sell a range of cups so that people could avail themselves of the ‘free’ coffee when this was offered. They offered rather a super collapsible cup (a brand called ‘Stojo‘) which comes complete with lid.These used to retail at £12.00 each and perhaps it is not surprising that hardly any were sold at this price. But then Waitrose have reduced them to £1.19 and at that price, they are an absolute bargain. We bought a couple for ourselves and they will be very welcome when/if we resume coffee drinking in the park. I asked our domestic help if she would like any at that price and this morning we bought  couple for her as well. I have taken to having a soup at Waitrose rather than relying upon a cappuccino and some excess carbohydrate – so far the two soups on offer have been so incredibly spicy that I ended to request a glass of cold water to make sure the soup could be ingested OK. Then it was home and a fairly quick lunch so that we could settle down to the football.

I am not an excessive football fan but the European championships have a certain fascination at this stage because in in the initial phases you get well-fancied teams together with teams who are delighted to have qualified and, you might say, are in different league to some of the major footballing nations (Germany, Italy, France, Spain). What happens in the pool stages is that you occasionally get a match where you assume it is going to be a ‘walkover’ for one team but it doesn’t work out that way. For example, in the last few days we have England versus Scotland, Framce versus Hungary, Spain versus Poland and the assumptions before the match is that the ‘first’ team in the matches just announced are by far the stronger term and the result seems to be a foregone conclusion. However, they all seem to have played out to a different script but one with a pattern in it. the ‘stronger’ team is all over the ‘weaker’ team for a portion of the match and may even score a goal. Then there is a quick breakaway and the opposing team scores an equaliser – and then hangs on for dear life so as to secure a draw. The ‘stronger’ team is disappointed to only have a draw (although they score one point with it) and the ‘weaker’ team are absolutely delighted to have held their ‘stronger’ opponents to a draw, and of course. they too have scored a pint – sometimes for the first time ever in the history of that country’s European cup runs where they have struggled to qualify and expect to be soundly beaten in the pool stages. What I am saying is that we have a series of “David’ and ‘Goliath’ contests which have a certain fascination – and the delight of the ‘weaker’ team is always a joy to behold when the referees’s final whistle is blown. and just to reinforce the point, plucky little Wales is scheduled to play torment favourites (and do far, very impressive) Italy to morrow evening.

The CID pandemic is still making an impact on our travel and vacation pans. The good news is that Meg phone up her uncle in North Wales who will be delighted to see us (particularly as he is his mid-90’s and is now confined to the house). We are travelling up to North Wales to lodge in an AirBnB for the first time next Wednesday and will pay a visit to Meg’s uncle the following day. We have already got booked into one of our favourite restaurants on the day that we travel so we will not be hunting around for somewhere to eat. We will have two clear days on Thursday and Friday before we return home next Saturday. We did have plans, though, to visit a cousin on the other side of Meg’s family in the neat future but Bolton in Greater Manchester is the last place to visit at the moment. Meg’s cousin’s daughter is in contact and they are having some domestic upheavals so we have pencilled in a date for about two months time and hope the things might be clarified by then. We know this is affecting lots of people – one of our friendly staff in Waitrose is South African and he has to re-arrange and cancel 3-4 trips already. Many of us are now writing off all our international travel and trips until next Spring of 2022 in any case.

Today was one of those days that I describe as ‘chewy’ i.e. we felt a bit out of sorts with the world. Matters were not helped when Meg woke up this morning with a very bad neck – it might have been that she had slept in a somewhat awkward position but from the word go her neck has been troubling her. More of this later. Our domestic help texted as she was without a car today so after breakfast I had a quick shower and went to pick up by car (never a chore!) She was chattering excitedly about her job as an activities assistant in a residential home and from what she tells me about it I am sure she will prove to be excellent and a real asset to the home. Having got her into the house and had our normal chat, Meg and I decided to go down into car as it was drizzling quite heavily – and it has been all day. I am sure that the gardens need all of this rain and we are not massively disappointed but it does come as a bit of a shock over the last few days. Having picked up our newspapers, Meg and I went to reestablish our customary relationships with the Waitrose cafe – but we have to say it was incredibly quiet and I hope that trade picks up or the powers that be may decide to devote the floor space to something else, which would be a great shame. After we had had our comestibles, we decided to go to the park to see if anyone we knew was foolhardy enough to be taking a turn in the park. We parked in the car-park and did a circular tour (in the rain) to give us ourselves a breath of fresh air as much as anything. The park was practically deserted and, needless to say, we met none of the usual crowd so we made for home. Then I cooked lunch for Meg and I but she was quite a bit of distress with her neck. So we got prepared by downing some paracetamol and organising some heat in our living room, the electric blanket bing switched on in the bedroom, a specialised ‘neck warmer’ warmed up in the microwave and finally a tube of ibuprofen gel that had been presided for my ‘trigger finger’ but which could be pressed into service. Meg had a good sleep in the early part of the afternoon so a lot of our remedies did not need to be used but we might have try some of these if things do not improve.

The political news is interesting this evening as overnight and, almost out of the blue, the Liberal Democrats have scored a stunning victory in a true-blue Tory seat of Chesham and Amersham, replacing a Tory majority of 16,000 with a Liberal Democrat of 8,000. Of course, it is often said that people vote differently in bye-elections compared with the General Election i.e. prepared to cock-a-snook at the government in a bye-election but returning to the file at the time of the next General Election. There two particular factors that riles the good voters of Chesham with Amersham. Probably the most significant is the whole issue of HS2 which, as they see it, destroys some of the beautiful countryside surrounding them (and not benefitting them but only people from the Midland the North with whom they share no fellow feeling!) A second factor about which the Tories have been repeatedly warned is the provision new housing. The Toy Party needs people who are house owners (they feel) before people vote Conservative but this is difficult when prices are so unaffordable so the solution is to build a lot more houses- but where? The present government policy is to encourage housebuilders to build houses almost wherever they want to but this means that the Tories who are sitting in good housing in beautiful countryside do not want this ‘ruining’ by lots of new housing all over the place, even including areas that were formerly protected by the so-called ‘Green Belt’  Yet a third factor is that fact that the voters felt they were ‘taken for granted’ as the Tories poured resources,and promises of investment, into the former Labour-held ‘red wall’ seats in the Midlands and the North. But of course, the feelings in the minds of suburban Tory voters, is that ‘more money for them means less money for us‘  and Tories in the South have never shown themselves to be over-keen to share their own good fortune with less fortunate areas. Yet a further factor is that the more educated the population, the less likely they are to have voted Brexit or even regarded it as a good idea. Boris Johnson himself, on the quiet, is not well regarded by well educated (and well-heeled) Tory voters. So this while cluster of factors have come together in a perfect storm to help the Liberal Democrats to claim a famous bye-election victory.

The long, sunny spell is gradually coming to an end and it may well be that the day finishes with thunderstorms. When we awoke this morning, it was evident that overnight we had a smattering of rain but no more. The longed for thunderstorms had not made it as far as Bromsgrove but it is quite possible that some will make it by this evening. As the day has worn on, the atmosphere has got more and more oppressive and there is a feeling all round that our gardens, in particular, would welcome a sustained downpour for an hour or so. Meg and I are resuming our daily pilgrimage to the shrine of the coffee bar in our local Waitrose and we went shopping for bits and pieces to complement the main Waitrose order which arrived at about 10.0am this morning.  When we got home, we could not stand a full meat-and-two-veg type of meal so I made something in which I put together some left-overs and served them a bed of cauliflower rice – which actually turned out to be a lot tastier than it actually sounds. 

Later on this afternoon, we were ‘at home’ to a new found friend who lives just around the corner. She is an Asian lady brought up in South Africa and has lived for a period in California so we were interested in getting to know each other a little better. We had bought some things  that I suppose I can label as ‘party food’ but seemed interesting for us to try out including some duckfilled sushi and similar delicacies. Our friend came around on cue and we spent a couple of very happy hours chatting, eating and drinking red wine until the weather really started to threaten and it was time for us to bid farewell to each other. I have recommended the book ‘Watching the English’ by Kate Fox which I have always found to be one of the most interesting and stimulating of books (and I have purchased several copies and given them away to numerous friends in the past). This book is written by a social anthropologist well used to observing the mores and minutiae of a culture but made particularly interesting when her attention if focused not on an exotic country but on our own society. Hopefully, we can have a good chat about the things that our friend finds particularly interesting having been brought up in the Asian community of Cape Town.

Interesting but disturbing news is now emerging about the Delta version of COVID. It looks as though the symptoms are changing somewhat and it is more than possible that this is not fully appreciated in our communities. A headache, sore throat and runny nose are now thought to be symptoms of the virus, according to data collected by ZOE, instead of a cough and loss of smell or taste – though a fever is still common. Last week, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the Delta variant now makes up 91% of new cases amid a warning from Public Health England that infections are rising ‘rapidly’. So, what are the most common symptoms of the Delta variant? According to Prof Spector, a headache is now the most reported symptom, followed by sore throat, runny nose and fever. A cough is even rarer, coming in at the fifth most reported symptom and loss of taste or smell doesn’t even make it into the top 10. 

The UK has reported 11,007 new COVID cases and a further 19 deaths in the latest 24-hour period – but in four weeks infections could be lower than they are now, according to an expert. The figures compare with 9,055 cases and nine deaths reported yesterday, and 7,393 cases and seven fatalities this time last week. Today’s number of new infections is the highest reported since 19 February when 12,027 cases were recorded. It comes as a leading COVID researcher says he believes the current wave ‘should be peaking around 10 to 14 days’ time and in a month’s time cases could be lower than they are now and more manageable‘. All of this looks to me like the third wave of the pandemic.  Prof Ravi Gupta, from the University of Cambridge, said although new cases were ‘relatively low’ the Indian variant had fuelled ‘exponential growth’. But what appears to be interesting is that the fact that we might be at the start of a third wave is not receiving as much media attention as it surely deserves.

We are starting to look forward to our few days away which will start on Wednesday next. The fact that some of our friends have had little trips away is making us feel a little relatively deprived so we having to make sure that we have all the arrangements put in place. For example, I had to remember to cancel next week’s Waitrose order which we will no longer need. At the same time, I have taken pain to purchase a few biological and handy wipes so that on our journey and in our AirBnB abode we will be able to wipe down whatever surfaces we feel need our attention. 

Today is another one of those days this week to which we have been looking forward for some time. We needed to update our Waitrose order ready for delivery tomorrow and this was quite soon accomplished. Then we made our way through the now familiar sunshine to pick up our newspapers. Finally, we made our way towards the Waitrose store, knowing that today was the scheduled date on which their coffee bar was due to reopen. We imagined that there would be a red carpet, a brass band playing, a bottle of champagne for each customer with chocolates and flowers to match.Did we get all of that? The answer is – no, we did not but we did have lots of cheery smiles and ‘Nice to see you back‘ after a gap of some 16 months. We sat and surveyed the street scene and the rest of the store, much as we always used to do. It did not feel as though we had been away for any length of time as the decorations were the same and the staff were largely the same. We did have to check in the QR code using the Covid app on my iPhone. Although it worked on the ‘big’  version of this displayed at the front of the coffee bar area, it did not seem to work at all on the little QR codes which they had got pasted onto each table, so perhaps a little bit of fine-tuning is needed there. We saw two of our regular Waitrose friends there but they were just on the point of leaving as we were arriving so we only had the time for the briefest of chats. We had thought it might have been teeming with members of the Waitrose fraternity but instead it was fairly quiet. No doubt news of the re-opening will take some to circulate and it is always possible, of course, that everyone had developed new routines and perhaps patronage of the local watering holes. We chatted at length to one of the employees whose first day it was in the coffee bar. She told us that she had been employed in the (huge and iconic) John Lewis in the centre of Brirminham next to New Street station. It had come as an amazing shock to the staff to be told that they had all lost their jobs and our friendly assistant told us she had cried for two days when she got the bad news. But at least, she is now re-employed with tin the Waitrose family as it were and I am sure that ‘good’ jobs in retail are as rare as hen’s teeth.

After we had eaten and drank our fill, we slowly made our way to the park. There although we did not tarry as we normally would upon a seat we did bump into two or three of the old faithfuls. There we received some sad news from one of our regular friends as she comes to it nearly every day in her electrically powered buggy. A very common sight adjacent to the island used to be that of ‘Henry the Heron’ was was very distinguishable because he had an injured foot – either a genetic fault or the result of a past injury we know not. Some of the park regulars had noticed that Henry was painfully thin and was off his food – and therefore seemed to be wasting away. The RSPCA had been called and anaesthetised the bird – upon a good examination they was able to ascertain his age (about 11-12 we think) and his overall condition was such it was decided that it was in the bird’s best interest to say goodbye to this life. So that is a regular sight of which we will now be deprived, unless, of course, another heron comes to take his place.

Today’s political news has rather been dominated by the Biden-Putin summit abroad and Dominic Cummings at home. The latter has just published a 7,000 word blog (that is about the length of 8 of these daily entries) and In the most explosive of these entries, Boris Johnson is shown to have said of Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary that he was ‘totally f****** hopeless‘ A similar sentiment was repeated on more than one occasion as well. Of courses, this is hard to deny given that we now the evidence in black-and-white as it were. What Cummings has to say about Boris Johnson is no less revealing. Cummings claims that then PM wants to quit shortly after the next election to ‘make money and have fun‘  He also claimed Mr Johnson has a clear plan to leave Downing Street ‘at the latest a couple of years after the next election’, which is scheduled for 2024. The ex-adviser claimed this mattered because a public inquiry into the government’s handling of the COVID crisis had been ‘designed to punt the tricky parts until after this PM has gone‘. Asked about the claim Mr Johnson had already planned when to quit, a Number 10 spokeswoman said: ‘The prime minister has been asked about this before and described it as utter nonsense.‘ Finally Cummings claimed that the PM ‘pegs it out of the room before anybody can disagree‘ Stories from the inside!

Today was the day to which we had been looking forward for some time as we shall see. But first of course, we had to get some of our daily jobs done. One of these was to get a basketful of clothes washing to be done and then hung out on the line. As I was doing this, I was kept under the watchful eye of Miggles, our friendly neighbourhood cat who has adopted us (or at least our garden) and pops around in the early morning for a stroke and a bit of fuss. As it was so sunny even first thing in the morning, the cat stretched out for a sunbathe. I asked him/her to keep an eye on the washing and if it were to rain, could it be brought indoors for us? The cat replied saying it would bring in any items of washing that it could reach.

Having collected our newspapers, I popped into Waitrose in order to buy a ‘Happy Anniversary‘ card for our son and his wife. The we established a rendez-vous with our University of Birmingham friend and then we repaired to the garden of our friends for coffee and cakes. Actually to call it ‘cakes’ is rather a misnomer because our wonderful hostess had got up at 6.30 and had baked a magnificent cake replete with both strawberries and cream. So we ate our fill with these delicious goodies and then filled up on even more strawberries and cream so a good time was had by all. As it happened, our University of Birmingham friend and our Catholic friends had quite a few acquaintances in common – with lots of good conversation the time absolutely flew past as we started off at 11.30-ish and didn’t finish until three hours later. I think we are all conscious that this wonderful spell of fine weather must break down in a day or so and, in fact, the weather services are maintaining that we may have an outcrop of thunderstorms sweeping across the country from about 6.00pm tomorrow night. 

As you might imagine, after a very belated lunch (if you can call it that), we were destined to have a very lazy afternoon. But towards the end of this afternoon was the time when we generally FaceTime some of our ex-Waitrose friends and this we did, catching up on all the news since we saw them ‘in the flesh’ as it were when the came around to our garden last Tuesday. We explained to them how we had got an AirBnB trip booked on the North Wales coast starting a week tomorrow. The location of our accommodation is only about a mile away from Meg’s godfather/uncle so we can see him for the first time in over a year. Having stayed in the area several times before, we know some of the good eating places/parking places/ ways of getting into Conway so we are looking forward to this little trip in just over week’s time. Our friends too were looking forward to their trip to both York and to Harrogate in early July and as they have seen neither town before, we are sure they will be delighted and enchanted by what they will see. It is our friend’s birthday in about three weeks time so we have made plans to pop around and have some tea and cake either in the garden or the house (depending on the weather). Tomorrow is also going to be a special day for us because it is the day when the Waitrose coffee bar is due to reopen after period of at least 15 months when the COVID restrictions precluded its use. We are not quite sure how they are going to manage the social distancing regulations for us tomorrow but no doubt they will have a little plan worked out. I have asked that they raid their store and roll our the red carpet for us when we attempt to pick up the pieces again after such a length of time – mind you, we still know most of the staff because we still go into Waitrose about once a week to pick up anything special that we may have short of during the week. 

I have just tried to replay myself a videoclip (presumably from YouTube) which shows a BBC journalist (Nicholas Watts) being verbally assaulted and abused by a crowd of anti-lockdown protesters who, presumably, think that BBC reporting of the news is contributing to all of society’s ills. Whilst one must tolerate freedom of speech in an open society, it is very disturbing when a fascist-inclined mob tries to shout down legitimate reporting of the news, particularly if you do not happen to like the message. As one of my previous work colleagues used to argue ‘Should one tolerate intolerance‘ and this particular question is even more salient now that we have lived through  an era of ‘fake news’ and the whole episode of Trumpism (which I must say now feels like a particularly obnoxious nightmare)