Month: June 2020

Feest Isolation Days –30 June

The weather has been blowing a gale!  Maybe it will blow the virus away and out of the world!  Wishing sadly won’t make that so, instead we find the joy and delight in the moments where we can. 

My eighty eight year old neighbour receives a socially distanced doorstep visit from me each week along with a little posy and something nice to eat. This week when she came to the door she was most apologetic but very excited and said she was  sorry but she couldn’t stop because she was in the middle of a zoom call!  This woman didn’t own a mobile phone or any other device a few weeks ago. Later she phoned me and said a friend had set her up with a tablet and showed her how to zoom.  She now has an email address and is learning the ins and outs of her new found technology.  Brilliant!  Her enthusiasm and excitement were like that of a little girl at Christmas. A sheer delight. She made my day.

Something that didn’t make my day was a drip drip drip in the main spare bedroom.  I’d left the window open as it had been so hot and when the arctic air arrived along with the rain I went in to close the window.  The drip is from an old leak in the roof above the bed that we’ve had repaired quite frequently.  The last time was only last year and involved scaffolding.  The repair men will be back soon again it would seem!  Just as well our expected visitors couldn’t come this weekend.  Silver linings and all of that.

My dear husband was able to put a smile on my face as well this weekend.  He called me downstairs and when I arrived there was my shiny new bike with its new kickstand!  I had been moaning about the bike not having one; and without saying anything he ordered it, and put it on my bike.  A star!  Now my bike experience will be much easier when I want to park up – as soon as the rain and wind stop I will get to try it out. I’m hoping for sooner rather than later.  The exercise bike indoors is not as much fun that’s for sure.

These helpful little moments do help to combat the malaise that sometimes sets in during these lock down times. I’m sure you have them too. Both the helpful little moments and the malaise.  Here’s hoping the first outdoes the second for you this week! 

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –29 June

The kids are coming next weekend, and of course that’s a day when there is a stay and sing planned, and a Zoom dinner party! Why does everything always come in threes?

It’s been a crazy time with crowds continuing to flock to beaches, and Liverpool fans thrilled with their teams win as the Champions of the Football League celebrating and throwing caution to the wind romping all over the streets of Liverpool.

It’s as though none of this has happened and many people still seem to think it’s all over!  But it just isn’t.  We are managing to find our way through it all as many of our friends are as well. I suspect that some people can’t stand being cooped up anymore and without any true leadership they are rebelling.  There are parties in London and in Bristol and the police seem to be unable to stop many of them from happening.  Boris is not giving a lead. Instead, he is allowing deceit and complicity in his Cabinet.  When he doesn’t want to talk about something, like the widely reported instance of Robert Jenrick abusing his office, he simply says, “the matter is closed”.  Why aren’t the Daily Briefings at least weekly?  People seem to think the government has given up so why shouldn’t they?  The Dominic Cummings effect continues to be wide and deep.

Who knows what will happen after the 4^th of July when things really do begin to unlock.  From the 6^th of July, travel around Europe is beginning again.

Not for this household!  We haven’t even ventured to a shop so we certainly aren’t heading into the world beyond these shores. We will wait another three weeks after the unlocking proper and see what happens to the infection rate before we make any further decisions on what we can and can’t do.  I suspect our little steps will continue for a time.  I could do with a haircut though!  We shall see when that will occur…

Thankfully the wind and rain arrived over the weekend which paused the movement of so many people.

The numbers of infection worldwide have reached ten million with half a million deaths so far.  Across the pond, America is in a mess. The cases are mounting and the response is not what it needs to be in many places.  Arizona and Florida have finally begun to stop the opening up of their States, but in a half-hearted kind of way.  The projection of people carrying the disease in the States is high.  We watch in sadness as the Arizona hospitals become filled to capacity and no real leadership emerges.

In other American news, in New York, Milton Glaser, the man who came up with the iconic “I love New York” logo, died at the age of ninety one. In 1977 he designed the artwork on an envelope while in the back of a New York taxi. His remit was to promote tourism in the city.  When Milton was a young boy, an older cousin drew a bird on the side of a paper bag to amuse him, He says of the experience, “Suddenly, I almost fainted with the realization that you could create life with a pencil. And at that moment, I decided that’s how I was going to spend my life.”

Not a bad decision!  If you want to know more about this wonderful man’s work, you can read his very uplifting obituary in the New York Times here.

Thank you and well done that man. Rest in peace.

Stay safe!

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –26 June

Okay! Enough is enough. Time for thinking about something other than THAT virus! A friend dropped by for coffee and brought her own drink…okay I can see why it’s hard not to let THAT intrude into positively everything we do, so how can we tame it a little?

I guess taming it means quieting our over anxious minds and returning to basics. At one hundred and four days maybe now would be a good time to stop and reflect once more about all this.  When I say all this I guess I mean life in a pandemic.  Picked an easy topic for myself today didn’t I?

Over the years I have had coaching, counselling, mentoring, friendships (that fulfilled  all those roles) and a lot of love.  What I’ve learned is that identifying what is troubling you is the first step in sorting out how you feel. And life is all about how we feel don’t you know.  And in order to find out what is troubling you, or even what is making you feel great –  it’s a really good idea to remind yourself what you consider to be your core values.  We all have plenty of time at the moment and reminding ourselves of what we truly value in life is never a bad thing to refresh.

So here goes.  No I’m not going to share mine with you, but I am going to offer you the opportunity to think about what your core values are.  This is not a bad way to spend a sweltering afternoon! And it might help you reboot your feelings about where you are at the moment.  Certainly helped me!

Here is  the link: https://www.cmu.edu/career/documents/my-career-path-activities/values-exercise.pdf

Sophie Hannah who’s a gazillion selling author and runs a great coaching course for writers gave me this idea. She’s got more ideas and books here…https://sophiehannah.com/about-sophie-2/

Now that we’ve got that all sorted out it must be time for some fun! The country does seem to be going mad with the heat and the beaches are overwhelmed in Brighton and Bournemouth.  Half a million people have descended on Dorset.  Leadership required! Please stay away from the crowds…have a go at this it might fill a few minutes.

Geography quiz questions and answers to follow (thanks to the Radio Times who have plenty more of this sort of thing if it’s of interest!)

Questions

1. What is the largest landlocked country in the world by size?
2. Which US state was Donald Trump born in?
3. If you completed the Three Peaks challenge, which three UK mountains would you have climbed?
4. Which UK city is situated further west – Bristol or Edinburgh?
5. How many countries are there in the region of Europe? (Recognised by the United Nations)
6. What is the capital of Finland?
7. What is the currency of Vietnam?
8. What language is spoken in Brazil?
9. What do the French call the English Channel?
10. How many permanent members are there on the UN security council?

For the answers, please click here!

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –25 June

The hottest day of the year so far! It was a glorious day and we are promised lovely weather for a few more days.  It does help.  Sounds of children paddling in their pools in their back gardens has returned.  Summer!  Holidays will be mostly in the UK this year, staycations have become the new normal.  Apparently, all Devon Air B and B’s are already booked!  A combination of people hanging onto their bookings in hope, and speedy folks getting the first available dates as soon as the easing of lockdown was announced. Let’s just hope when the time comes, the weather is still with us.

We will not be heading out just yet.  The plan is to wait and see what happens after the 4^th of July when the big easing occurs.  We hope it doesn’t make us uneasy!

The daily briefings have now stopped so we have to search a little bit more for the information that is coming out of Downing Street.  Professor Chris Whitty has a twitter feed and he shares papers and other documents with his followers there.  A man that can be trusted who will be followed!

This week is the fourth “anniversary” of the Brexit referendum. Britain has left the EU but there is still no answer to the question of will we have a hard Brexit or will there be a deal. The government has until the end of the year to finalise the plans with our former EU partners.  Perhaps it is time to get a move on.  While this household was firmly in the “remain in the EU” camp, now that we have left it would be good if the government organised a decent deal.  We wait and see.

It’s a bit like waiting for the Coronavirus vaccine.  The disease is still here, but when will the solution arrive?  There does seem to be some good news from the UK on that front!  Around the world, there are 120 different vaccine trials going on as I write.  In Britain there are two groups already at Stage Two of clinical trials.  The Oxford group has been working closely with Astra Zeneca and if their vaccine is successful, Alok Sharma the Business secretary said earlier this week that  thirty million doses will be available for use in the UK by the end of September. Matt Hancock explained this earlier in the  month and it seems that the plans for manufacture are still on track…if it works. The vaccine has a name… ZD1222 Vaccine. The Oxford team have said they will know in six weeks whether it will be effective.

The Imperial College vaccine is based on the genetic material of the disease itself.  Clinical trials started on this today and if successful, the Imperial team will move to further trials by October. 

All I want for Christmas this year is a Coronavirus Vaccine!  Let’s hope the scientists who are working on this can act like Santa and deliver us all that much needed present by then! I have no idea how they do what they do but am SO glad they are doing it!

I don’t understand this one either…if you do please let me know!

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –24 June

“They think it’s all over…well it is now!”  For some that famous football sentiment will be ringing loud and clear.  But the fact is, it ISN’T all over even though the new rules make it seem like it kind of is. 

There was a summer solstice party in Bristol and the Police apologised the next day for not stopping it before it was in full swing. Hundreds of people gathered as loud music blared into the night, revellers peed on peoples lawns and doorsteps.  And this was BEFORE the unlocking measures announced yesterday.  Kids will be kids I suppose, but doesn’t that mean the adults have to look after them? When the adults act like kids it does make it tricky.  The Police have a lot to answer for there, instead of apologising, perhaps it would have been better to uphold the law.

And now the laws have changed. Again. Or they will do from the 4^th of July. Or are they rules? Or suggestions? Or measures?  Such clarity! Other news from the government yesterday, there will be no more Press Briefings!  It must be all over…

The death rate and the infection rate both seem to imply that the worst is indeed over. Why do my fingers hover over the keys that type…for now?  This isn’t over. It is a new phase.  When does risk outweigh benefits?  And when will we be happy to oblige these new measures?  Before we make pronouncements on our plans, it’s useful to set the new rules out.

These “measures” will all begin from the 4^th of July. Fitting that in one corner of the world (America!) the 4^th is called Independence Day! The wittiest thing my first husband ever said to me when I woke one 4^th of July and suggested we go for a picnic, was “lie back down woman, you’ve been captured by the enemy!” These days the biggest enemy is a virus called corona and it’s still here.  

Okay are you ready for new easing measures? It’s a wild ride!

1) Pubs, restaurants and hairdressers will open again! – if Covid secure (see below).

2) People can visit each other one family at a time in each other’s homes but maintain social distancing but you can stay overnight! (how does that work?)

3) Hotels, holiday apartments, campsites and caravan parks open but shared facilities must be cleaned properly. (they weren’t before?)

4) Theatres and music halls can open but not allowed to hold live performances ( !)

5) Libraries, community centres, bingo halls, cinemas and museums, galleries, theme parks, skating rinks (do they know its June??) may open.

6) Zoos,safari parks wildlife centres, model villages, aquariums will all open

7) Places of worship can open but no singing. Weddings with up to thirty guests are now possible (don’t sing!)

All of the above must have in place Covid Secure measures. If you want to know more…here’s a good place to start!

Swimming pools and Gyms remain in the list of establishments that cannot open along with nightclubs and casinos.  But the government is working on it!

Social distancing is still important.  This now means stay one meter plus apart. What they mean is two metres is recommended but where that is not possible one metre with mitigation should become the norm.  Mitigation includes things like wearing face masks, using Perspex shields, sitting side by side, and not singing!

I sort of had a meltdown after all of these announcements. I was upset because the reality is we aren’t going to manage to do many of these things!  Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance both stressed that the plans were not risk free.  Could we just have the kids stay over for a normal visit?  No.  We can’t.  Not yet.

The economy needs to keep going, and besides all of the openings announced, people were asked to continue to work from home where they can. This is all tricky business. It will be interesting to see how many people return to the places they can now visit.

The headline news this morning is that ministers were warned by health leaders urgent action is needed to prevent further loss of life. The Presidents of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons, GPs, Nursing, and Physicians all signed a letter published in the BMJ seeking a cross party examination of how to move forward with the preparations for a second wave of virus.  They think it’s coming and who knows it might even be at a cinema near you now!

We won’t be going to any restaurants, pubs, hotels or shops just yet.  We won’t be taking public transportation. Seeing the animals in the zoo will have to wait. 

In short, we will be doing more or less what we have been since the beginning of lockdown. Our toe in the water (that we can’t yet swim in) will be to see friends in the garden for a socially distanced meal together. If the weather holds. Other than that, we don’t have any plans to make use of these many new freedoms. If we were younger and not financially secure, we would probably take a different view. But we are where we are. 

We will have an “in house” review in three to four weeks after all these measures are in place and see how the virus is doing.  It isn’t all over…no matter how much we wish it was! Good luck!

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –23 June

People who have been shielding are beginning to be able to move out of their houses and cautiously back into the world.  Yesterday’s announcement is the first in what promises to be a big week.  Later today, the government will let us know the plans for the next stage of unlock. The Monday death figures are the lowest since lockdown began with “only” fifteen deaths from Coronavirus.  These figures, together with the number of new cases below one thousand after nearly 140,000, tests are all moving in the right direction.  Maybe we could begin to think about the first things we might do out in the world?  Hand washing, socially distancing, mask wearing, non touching of surfaces will obviously still apply. 

I suspect that the first shop I will go into will be to buy cut flowers for the house.  While Reg the Veg have very kindly supplied us weekly with a posy chosen by them, and our lovely neighbour has popped roses and even lilies round a few times, I want to choose my own bouquets.  We always have fresh flowers in the hall and the drawing room.  They have become a feature of our lives and our home.  Some women buy shoes, or handbags, I buy flowers!

If you have missed the news from America, Trump’s first rally in Oklahoma was not a success.  He was expecting over a million people to attend, thanks to teenagers on tiktok apparently who pre booked tickets.  They built up his expectations, but there was always going to be plenty of room for his supporters.  But they didn’t come.  The Fire Department in Tulsa said there were 6200 people at the event that could seat 19,000.  I’ve never seen the man look so dejected.  Maybe he’ll throw in the towel?

The walk of shame. pic.twitter.com/u0GRFnnKeY

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) June 21, 2020

Here, the day has been windy and wild and the promised heat wave doesn’t begin until tomorrow.  When it arrives though it is supposed to be very very warm. Up to something like thirty degrees!  Whew.  Too hot to do much at all.  Let’s hope that the beaches don’t fill up with people who aren’t socially distancing as happened during the last heat wave during the pandemic in May. I’m not sure what the ramifications were from that, but I suspect the scientists do!

Hard to imagine everyone being sensible in that sort of heat though.  We’ve passed the longest day so a bit of summer warmth is welcome but so is a good bit of common sense. The weather will no doubt change at the weekend in time for the outside garden visits to and from the kids.  I’d put money on it.

There’s no point in stressing about the weather though, it will be what it will be.  There may be some areas we can control in our life, but not ever the weather! Stress levels might be increasing over the next weeks as the country tries to move back into the world with tiny baby steps.  Enter Ted Talks to give us a bit of help. I don’t know where you stand on Ted Talks, but I’ve found many of them to be deeply appealing over the years.  Two are relevant to now and I thought I’d share them both with you.  They are brief yet pack a helpful punch.  The first one is all about making stress your friend. Who doesn’t want to understand stress better? A friend? You’ll have to watch to see how that works.

The second talk promises to increase the life of the participants by seven and a half minutes.  If you follow the full advice, ten years more might be coming your way.  Certainly interesting work!  And who couldn’t use an extra seven and a half minutes? Or ten years!

Even more time to smell the flowers I’d say!

The lilies in the garden are certainly lovely at this time of year.  Enjoy!

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 22 June

Yesterday was Fathers’ Day! It’s been fourteen weeks since we’ve seen any family and yesterday we finally spent real face to face time, not Facetime or Zoom or any other new media, with four of the grandkids and their fabulous parents.  It was wonderful to SEE and be with them! 

We cleaned and cooked and sorted garden furniture and made everything ready before they arrived for lunch in the garden.  It was an exhausting pleasure!  Normal!  We included chocolates and Pringles and diet coke and the lemonade they like on the food order from Mr. Sainsbury. We had corn on the cob and chicken and baked potatoes,  I baked a cake – Terry made a special only ever made at Christmas and big celebrations pudding. They were more than delighted.

Wonderful to see them! And yet…

When they left we were both feeling a bit flat as we were reminded once more of what the new normal is.  Social distancing.  There were no hugs. There were no stomping feet on the stairs, no kids voices yelling up and down. Minimal clicks of pool balls in their games room down in the basement.  The kids and their parents didn’t come into the house except through their door into the basement to use the downstairs loo. We won’t head down there for three days. 

Since when did our family become people we can’t touch, can’t hug, can’t sit next to?  Since this damn virus arrived!  I can’t imagine what it must have been like for families to send their ill folk off to hospital and never see them again. This isn’t remotely like that and it still hurts.

The visit WAS special and yet we are reminded what we still face as we move further afield into life as it is now. What will happen in the winter when we can’t sit outside and there is still no treatment or vaccine?   What will happen when the world tries to unlock and the two metre distance for socially distancing is slashed to one metre? These are still questions that are with us and once again we need to adjust our expectations and try to live with the virus as it still circulates.

Normally when the kids are here everyone helps serve and wash up and that  camaraderie is an important part of the visit. Part of being with grandparents is the impromptu conversations with the grandkids without the parents around when you’re clearing the table or taking the rubbish outside together.  Our home is a place for parents to let go while we sort out the kids and they watch a football match or read a magazine and generally retreat from their ups and downs of life. Our home is usually a sanctuary from all that is unpleasant and we couldn’t offer that yesterday. Not anymore. Not now. All of these simple pleasures that we hardly ever noticed before are now coronadashed.  This damn virus!

One hundred days today and it’s transition time…again! We WILL see the kids and the grandkids again and next time we will be ready for the new normal. Being outside for the next few months together is going to be different of course, but we will adjust. There will be new ideas for the next visits, as we all get used to this new normal. Strange times!

Transition periods offer us time to think and plan differently and just as there are changes to our family life my musings will change a bit as well.  As weekends are going to be busier from now on with family visiting us or our travelling to see them, socially distancing in their gardens, my writing will continue – but not daily. I’m not going away just yet, but I am going to ease my foot off the throttle a wee bit.  The government stopped doing Downing Street Press Briefings awhile back on the weekends, and I am going to follow suit as I end my weekend writing.  Monday through Friday I’ll continue my daily musings, but from next weekend, my weekends will be family centred. Nice! We must be getting somewhere- even if we aren’t there yet.

The next phase of our lives  will not be the same as the last and who knows what tomorrow will feel like and be like?  Stay tuned for the weekday thoughts from this corner of the world. 

It was the most unusual Sunday, yet one we won’t soon forget.  It felt wonderful being together yet strange that we still had to remain apart.  As life continues to change, we hope that there are systems put in place that work to keep everyone safe as they move further into the world once more.

We hope that over the coming weeks and months the kids can get back to University and resume their lives, the little ones can get back to school, those needing jobs can find them and one day soon we can have those all important hugs. 

Until then, it’s time to get back to our routine, alter it slightly as the world we find ourselves in alters, and carry on.

We are not over this thing yet.  Not by a long chalk.

Kisses, hugs and tremendous amounts of love. And to all you Fathers out there, feeding your babies is a great thing to do! Happy (belated) Fathers Day. Enjoy!

Do take care, we are.

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –21 June

The alert level is DOWN!  We have moved from level four to level three!  Hurrah!  So just what does that mean? Covid is still here.  It’s circulating in the community but not to the degree it was back in March and April and May.

The Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) is an organisation that uses various tests to identify changes in infection rates around the country and feeds in environmental and workplace data to their statisticians before advising the Chief Medical Officers who in turn advise the Ministers. Where is SAGE in all of this?

Tom Hurd (Douglas Hurds son) and a pal of Boris’s – they were at Eton and Oxford together – set up the JBC.  Tom is a specialist in anti terrorism. The JBC is now run by Dr. Claire Gardener, and according to the Financial Times, Dr. Gardener is a “Senior Spy”.

Dr. Gardener has a research background in medical statistics and epidemiology at least, but since when was Covid 19 something that spies needed to get involved with? The virus isn’t going to change how it functions or come up with neat ways of bypassing computers! Clair was working as the Head of Cyber Resilience and Strategy at the National Cyber Security Centre — a branch of signals intelligence agency – GCHQ.

I guess she is a spy!  All I wanted to do was find out what Level Three meant and low and behold, it would seem that I have stumbled across something quite unexpected.  A bit of a mismatch between stopping a virus and stopping terrorists don’t you think?

Hopefully Professor Whitty will be at a briefing soon and can tell us what he thinks. He is a trustworthy and sensible man. Thank heaven he’s the CMO.

So I ask again, what now as we are at Level Three? Much the same for this household as Level Four.  We don’t plan to go into shops or anywhere else until we are at Level Two. 

Zoom dinner parties to continue then!  I wonder if anyone will be listening to us as we chat away and mention the word spy…I doubt it!

Let’s hope that while all this intrigue carries on, most people continue to socially distance and wash their hands…

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –20 June

When a vaccine becomes available there will be two groups of people who will top the list of those who can access it.  The first group of course will be those working in the Health and Social Care fields.  The next group was somewhat surprising.  All those people over fifty will be given the vaccine.  This means that both members of this household will be eligible.  We had wondered if they might begin with over seventies first, but that isn’t the plan announced today by Matt Hancock the Health Secretary. 

Fingers crossed and thumbs pressed in hope that the Oxford group has a vaccine that works and is effective soon. No one knows where the fingers crossed came from exactly, but it is a Christian sign for luck.  If you find yourself in Vietnam (lucky you!) don’t cross your fingers as it’s a rude gesture, a bit like giving someone the finger here.  In Germany, Poland and other Slavic countries, pressed thumbs does the trick! 

Astra Zeneca have already started production on the Oxford vaccine just in case it works. It seems to me that they wouldn’t spend money on making doses already unless they were fairly confident that the trials will be successful.  A further two hundred vaccines are being trialled around the globe. If at first you don’t succeed try try again? 

Reports seem to be optimistic at the moment and this has to be good news!  My hope is that it becomes available worldwide sometime in November.  That would stop Trump from claiming he solved the world’s problem before the American election.  And of course he would say that.  The man is a disgrace in every way. 

The birds are quiet again today as the rain has not stopped.  The usual happy chortle outside our window is a little peep. Jenny wren clearly doesn’t do rain.  Can’t say I blame her.  It’s grey and wet.  We will need an umbrella again today to head down the garden for our morning tea.  We will however sit on the swing without our devices with cups in hand and chat as though we haven’t seen each other so constantly for day upon day.  I suspect that’s what happens when you have a really good relationship.  It never becomes tired even when everything else wears a bit thin.

Terry made apple spread yesterday. Jars and jars worth. Let’s hope the vaccine is found before he makes the next batch!  We can only eat so much apple spread on our toast in the morning!.

 In the meantime we keep talking and we keep moving. Indoor exercise bike, Pilates on Zoom and mat work. We dance occasionally too.   Not quite as much as the couple below who are in their 90s –  but we live in hope! 

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –19 June

Ever since the last watering connection was set up in the garden it hasn’t stopped raining. In true English summer style, the rain has set in along with a darkness and both yesterday and today we’ve had lightning and thunder as well. 

Living with coronavirus is easier when you can get into the garden and into the outside world. There are no visitors in our garden sharing cups of tea. There are no  walks and outside biking and fishing is curtailed. There is no escape to the continent for some fine weather.  We are in lockdown again! 

Small pleasures will have to be found indoors. This is England. Maybe the afternoon will be less dark and rainy?  We shall see!  In the meantime, the exercise bike beckons and the blue exercise mat with all the accoutrements required for a work out wait patiently.  Today they will all see active duty.

Paediatricians are calling on the government to make a clear plan to get all kids back to school.  Over sixteen hundred doctors signed a petition asking the government to set out how students will all be able to return to the classroom. They acknowledge that many teachers have been doing a great job, but all children need school in order to thrive.  Some parents of those student years who have returned seem to think schools are unsafe. Primark shopping is okay but school classrooms are not?  I’m not quite sure what the logic is here.  I’m sure Boris will sort it out!  His decision making skills are once again in the news.  While he was contemplating not feeding poor kids over the summer with the food voucher scheme, he was making plans to spend a million of tax payers money on paint.  The plane used to ferry him around is to have a Union Jack emblazoned on it.  Where do these brain-storms come from?  Little travel is permitted by the foreign office.  How does spending money the country doesn’t have on a plane that shouldn’t be going anywhere make any kind of sense?  Perhaps the Ministry of U turns will sort it out!  (See yesterday’s cartoon)

Thinking about kids reminds me of a lovely conversation we had with my young American nephew when he visited a few years back. He was about six or seven at the time.   We were out in the garden with his lovely parents and brother on a glorious English summer day (we do have them!) and he was having a conversation with Terry about his job.  “So Uncle Terry, you used to be a doctor but now you’re a gardener?” As Terry had been fiddling in the garden his question was well observed.  Terry said yes that was one of the “jobs” he now had.  The little boy asked what kind of doctor he had been.  Terry explained he had been a kidney doctor and after a long silence the thoughtful response was, “Uncle Terry, why did you only treat kids’ knees?”  Uncle Terry wished he hadn’t yet retired as he certainly would have told that story more than once at conferences over the years! 

No kids’ knees being treated today or any other day by Uncle Terry, but let’s hope kids get back to school sooner rather than later. This is a global problem, and kids in all countries need to get back to their schools.  The paediatricians are right. Perhaps the Manchester Footballer who got their food back might spread the word, Boris is busy organising paint for his big boy airplane.

And thanks to Vera Lynn for her amazing ability to keep us going over the years.  She was 103 when she died yesterday.  Rest in Peace and Song Vera!

We’ll meet again…the anthem she made popular that we all still need!

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –18 June

Then there are those days when things come together and life is lovely and we feel less worried about our future and the future for those many young people who have lost jobs, or have been separated for far too long. The “hug bubble” as the meeting with one other household has been called by some, has created some lovely moments.  One friend has a daughter deciding whether to bubble with family or friends – finally there are choices!  Another managed to bypass the family pressure and meet with his girlfriend rather than family.  Our son and his girlfriend finally reunited after nearly five months.  Bliss!  We wish them all well and long and happy days.  Hug tight!

Earlier this week the government was forced into a U turn on providing kids with free food over the summer holidays.  A footballer pressed and pressed until he got his way.  Marcus Rashford is a striker for Manchester United and England.  He managed to stop the Tory government from quashing the £15.00 a week that poorer kids get for food over the summer.  The extra £120 million it will cost the government seems a small price to pay to feed kids! Now Rashford is pressing for more concessions for people with no money.  He may have started something bigger than he could have imagined! Well done that young man.

Two people from the UK have undone the run of no new infections in New Zealand.  They were New Zealanders living in the UK heading back to NZ on compassionate grounds. For some reason, they didn’t quarantine as they were meant to and weren’t tested before they left the hotel they were staying in. They were both tested later and a positive diagnosis was confirmed.  The NZ government has now rescinded “compassionate grounds” as a reason to visit New Zealand from abroad.  These two women drove in their own private vehicle to Wellington from Auckland. And anyone who has ever done this journey will know they certainly didn’t do it without stopping!  Jacinda doesn’t mess about.  She has brought in the army to oversee all quarantine matters at all the borders, while the tracing of over three hundred people these women could have infected carries on. Let’s hope they haven’t passed the virus on to anyone. So sorry Kiwis friends.  It shouldn’t have happened.

The big guns were at the press briefing on Tuesday night with Boris doing his best. Sir Patrick Vallance the Chief Scientific Officer, and Professor Peter Horby from Oxford who has been working on drug trials were able to tell us all about the drug Dexamethasone’s role in Covid.  Boris did say the experts would be doing most of the talking.  A good idea because by the end of the briefing he couldn’t even remember the name of the drug and had to turn to Sir Patrick to bail him out.  Bojo, you blew it weeks ago. The Dominic Cummings debacle won’t go away anytime soon. No one trusts you anymore.  The Professors on the other hand…that’s a different story.  I do love my Professors! Smart people who lead us through the science and work methodically and tirelessly in their chosen field.  

My very own in house Professor was clearly missing his old nephrology work over the past few days. He has been setting up the garden with hoses and pipes and water trickles everywhere to make watering easier.  He did look like a man used to dealing with water I can tell you! The garden and the gardener’s wife are best pleased!

On the indoor home front, the Zoom dinner party calendar is filling up with three dates set up for the next few weeks.  Ah, the new normal!  I still can’t wait until the day comes when we can hug freely and entertain inside with glorious abandon.  Soon?  Who knows!  But in the meantime, Zoom it is…chin chin! 

With love

Kathy

Feest Isolation Days –17 June

The sun was shining and the evening was glorious!  Just as I started to set the table outside for dinner…the rain arrived!  Some things never change.  England in the summer means rain and intermittent sun.  The weather is so important to us at the moment.  We can’t meet indoors with our friends so we must sit in gardens. How does this square with people standing in long queues where socially distancing appears to be a thing of the past?  It doesn’t – pure and simple.  Too many people seem to think it is all over and all they have to do is wear a facemask and they are safe.  Let’s see what happens over the next few weeks.  All of Europe seems to be reopening.  Restaurants in Paris are open for indoor as well as outdoor meals.  And they don’t even have the rain to contend with!

Yesterday on my bike ride, I saw some older drunken tramps using benches and tables that belonged to a closed restaurant as they drank their cans of beer.  Yet they were still socially distancing!  Amazing to see.  They weren’t sober but they were sane.

We had planned a theatre event with our theatre pals in a few weeks time and were delighted to discover that Matt Smith and Claire Foy were going to do a two hander at the Old Vic in London.  Lungs.  The Old Vic website said that all the patrons would be seeing the same thing but tickets would cost between £10 and £65 per household.  They planned to sell 1000 tickets which represents the number of seats in the Old Vic.  Of course the only tickets left were £65. Neither we or our theatre pals thought we wanted to spend that sort of money to watch two actors socially distance on a bare stage without an audience even if it was the Old Vic.  The theatre got it so wrong!  We would have happily spent £20 or so as would our friends.  Many more people could have opted to see the play as well. Why limit it to 1000 people?

Sir Alan Ayckbourn, the award-winning playwright, reckons streaming shows to your own living room during lockdown “just isn’t theatre.” When “you watch a streamed play you might as well be watching television,” he adds.  I agree!  Still, I would have been happy to support the Old Vic and give it a try.  It’s not theatre but they are trying to pretend it is. Someone got that one wrong!  However, several days were “sold out”.  Maybe Alan and I underestimate the public’s need for theatre?

Theatre folks are struggling and the profession will no doubt be one of the last to return to normal…whatever that will be.  But theatrical folk will be waiting in the wings to make theatre again, somehow, somewhere.  Because that’s what these lovely folks do.  Let’s hope that it’s sooner rather than later.  With the lack of social distancing around we may require more, not less entertainment in a few months time! Maybe it’s time for a letter to the Old Vic!

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –16 June

Today the shops open once more!  It would seem that many people – okay from the photos mostly but not exclusively all women – were desperate to go shopping!  The queues at places like Primark, TK Maxx and Foot Locker began at seven for their opening at eight.  These are notably shops that sell goods at very low prices.  No news yet on the queues at the more upmarket shops.  John Lewis isn’t opening all of its shops for ages, but the two that have opened haven’t reported on numbers. 

We converted to online shopping ages ago.  There isn’t much we can’t buy online and the deliveries have continued throughout the lockdown.  Shopping in the High Street is not something we will be doing again for a very long time I suspect.  Thankf18ully, I don’t miss going out to clothes shops, although I do miss the garden centres with their odd assortment of goods amongst the plants.

 Our plant babies bought online are thriving and are probably better than the larger and more expensive specimens we’ve had in the past.  It is such a delight watching them grow!  The tubers are especially fun to see poke through the earth. A marvel for certain, and perhaps something we will keep up when we return to something approaching normal.

What a change in our routines this lockdown has provided!  Thinking about the changes that we may keep in our gardening plans also prompts a thought on what else we might incorporate into our lives when we no longer have to stay locked down. We have saved so much money on not going out for food! Eating every meal at home is fine – after all I’m grateful that we have plenty of food – but I do long to head to a restaurant and let somebody else cook my breakfast or lunch.  Dinners in are probably better than most of those we’ve had in restaurants so I suspect our evening meals out will decrease in the future. Massive financial savings there as well.

We’ve become excellent at not over providing food and there is very little that we throw away.  We will no doubt continue to organise our food buying on a weekly basis.  I know what we plan to make each day throughout the week!  That is quite helpful for ordering the deliveries but also stops the endless what shall we have for dinner tonight daily questions we used to ask each other.  We can be flexible with our planning and do make changes occasionally but not often. 

The other routine that will remain is washing all the food and salads and fruit as they come in the door.  It will be good to stop worrying about washing all the other goods, but whereas I used to wash food before I cooked it, now it gets into the soap and hot water before its put away. It makes cooking easier!  Who knew?

We will carry on our morning coffee and afternoon tea routines sitting on the swing until it becomes blisteringly cold.  When the weather turns to winter we may have to begin some new routines. 

This is the longest in many years we haven’t travelled and here’s hoping that part of our new routine doesn’t last too much longer.  There are limits.

Enjoy your own new routines and if you are going into a shop don’t forget to socially distance…two metres…wear your masks…and keep your sense of humour!

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –15 June

Next year is the fiftieth anniversary of my graduation from High School in Pennsylvania.  Five girlfriends from those bygone days decided to get together this year to celebrate and mark that occasion. We hadn’t all met since we left school. I’m not a fan of Facebook, but it did get us together again.

One of our number has a daughter who married a Brit and lives in London. When she visited her daughter awhile ago we met for the first time and made our plans.  Last year I met another of our fabulous five who visited London.  That left just two of our group who were friends who hadn’t been in touch since we were eighteen! 

The plan had been for the four women and their husbands to come to stay with us in Bristol where we would all spend a few days together before each couple headed off to somewhere or other in Europe.  This weekend would have been the planned reunion time.  A Spa day!  Nice meals together!  A concert or a play!  All our plans were coronadashed.  Instead, we met on Zoom. 

Somehow we all picked up right where we had once been and it didn’t matter that nearly fifty years had passed. Sadly, before lockdown and before the virus arrived, one of our number lost her husband.  We reached out and hugged as much as one can on Zoom.  When the virus is over we will all try for a face to face reunion again.  Meantime we will Zoom in another three weeks or so.  We have reconnected.  Not quite what we wanted, but beats nothing.

At this stage of life, reconnecting is a wonderful thing to do.  Reaching out to old friends makes you realise that you were pretty clever as a young person.  You chose to hang around people you liked.  I can recommend getting in contact once more. You will most likely have a deeper connection than you expect and as we all have plenty of time on our hands, it’s quite a good time to do this!  Silver linings and all that. 

At home, the rain that has been intermittently around for the past week has done wonders for the garden. It is green and lush and the flower pots and the grass are flourishing.  As I suppose we are, too.  In our quiet ways we are living our life and enjoying different things.

We watched David Tennent and Michael Sheen in “Staged” on the BBC iplayer and marvelled how the technology is helping us all through this.  The six part series is told in fifteen minute or so episodes all on Zoom and perfectly captures some of what our lives in lockdown have been like.

Hope that you are finding ways to reach out that work for you.  We don’t seem anywhere near finished with this virus yet!  I’d recommend connecting with old pals.  They will love to hear from you!

I couldn’t find a reunion comic or image that I liked, but I think ALL of my women friends will hoot with laughter at this one!

Enjoy…sorry chaps….

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –14 June

The deliveries have all been made. Again! The groceries have all been washed. Again!  The protesters head to London to protest Again! All of these things seem to have become the new normal.

There are some who are finally seeing others and getting hugs and cuddles where before there were none.  This must be a good thing.  Those people who live on their own are now able to create a bubble with another household and those cuddles and hugs have to be some of the best those folks ever had! Human contact is something we all need and thankfully, those poor folks who haven’t had any hugs can now enjoy them to the full.

Small tiny steps many of us are taking, yet there are those who are heading to protest ignoring any and all advice. It has been forever thus.  Sometimes it feels like the dinosaurs still walk among us.  Life in all of its splendid and not so splendid glory carries on.

This week was cleaning week (Again!) We have had household helpers for many years, but this week I had a new unexpected and unhelpful helper!  While I was dusting with my special cloth – that seems to be the only thing to use these days – a neighbour rushed by on her way to play tennis, (small steps!) and we exchanged pleasantries from my open window.  I said I was being Mrs. Mop and we both agreed we don’t like that job.  While we were speaking I pushed a dead bee off the windowsill with my lurid pink dusting cloth.  When she went on her way I returned to my cleaning and my duster did its duty along with my can of Pledge. 

When I was working on my husband’s room, dusting away I got a sting on my hand.  It stopped me in my tracks. I looked at the table I was dusting, and at my cloth, but couldn’t see why I should have felt anything.  No bees. Maybe a fly-tying something or other was on the table?  Who knew.  I carried on and finished the upstairs and dusted away in my study, finished his, and then eventually headed to the downstairs.

While I was dusting downstairs, Zap!  Another sting on my other hand!  This time I thoroughly investigated the duster and sure enough, there was the bee that I thought I’d pushed out the window. Can dead bees sting?  Well yes and no.  They can’t seek your skin out and sting you as they are dead, however if you were unlucky enough to put your skin in contact with their stinger, you will feel a sting.  My bee was probably not dead at the time, just dozy and not very happy joining me in the dusting routine.  If I was a bee and being swirled around a lot of dust laden with a ton of Pledge, I’d probably have stung as well.  I took off my rings on both hands as I now had two welts on my skin. 

My bee didn’t last long after I showed my cloth to Terry.  This time there was no escape for Bee.  The cloth hit the washing machine, at about the same time the antihistamine hit my system and stopped the stinging.

I know I don’t like cleaning the house very much, I didn’t realise it could be a dangerous occupation as well!  I won’t be so trusting of dead bees another time. I do not want that happening – Again!

Stay safe!

If you have a bee in your hand, what do you have in your eye?

…………………..Beauty, because beauty is in the eye of the bee-holder!

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –13 June

Sometimes after our quiet reflections, jokes are what we need!  Today is a collection of a roundup of funny things that have something or other to do with Covid 19 and what we’ve experienced over the past ninety-one days.

Hope there is something that takes your fancy.

Let’s start with one of the most recent and funniest …

If you didn’t laugh even once at that I fear I’m on a loser or you are in a very bad mood.  Come back again another day when you aren’t feeling so grumpy!

This next one should particularly appeal to all the medics out there….

Should we reopen the country?  Here’s what the experts said:
 
 The Allergists were in favour of scratching the idea, but the Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.
 The Gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling about the idea, but the Neurologists thought the Administration had a lot of nerve.
 Meanwhile, Obstetricians felt certain everyone was labouring under a misconception, while the Ophthalmologists considered the idea short-sighted.
 Many Pathologists yelled, “Over my dead body!”  While the Pediatricians said, “Oh, grow up!”
 Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, while the Radiologists could see right through it.
 Surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing and the Internists claimed it would indeed be a bitter pill to swallow.
 The Plastic Surgeons opined that this proposal would “put a whole new face on the matter.”
 The Podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but the Urologists were pissed off at the whole idea.
 Anesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas, and those lofty Cardiologists didn’t have the heart to say no.
 In the end, the Proctologists won out, leaving the entire decision up to the assholes in Washington.
 

There has to be one musical entry as a fun and enjoyable way to spend a minute or two…earlier this week I shared Randy Rainbows latest…this one is not Randy and perhaps a tiny bit more refined….

These are Classic FMs best guesses as to how Trump would Tweet about beloved Classical Musicians and their music! (They have nothing to do with Covid 19. Whatsoever. Is truth telling still a thing?? As its Mr. Trump truth doesn’t matter!)

https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/humour/donald-trump-reviews-music/

Equal billing must be given to our very own Boris! This does have something to do with Covid..see if you can remember what!

See you tomorrow….

Or maybe the day after… or not, or in a few days… or not or maybe I’ll go …or not

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 12 June

I had intended an entry today packed full of jokes and funny things but instead this musing will, I’m afraid, be a less joyful reflection.

Some of you may have read the comments section yesterday and seen the message our friend Bernie posted. A day of jokes following on from that seemed inappropriate. If you haven’t read his comment, his friends have a fifteen year old son who was merely out running, tripped on the pavement, hit his head on concrete and died later in his parents arms.  Bernie said “there are no answers no words”. That statement made me pause and consider a few things today in a different way than I’d originally intended.

There are no answers and no words.

41,279 people have now died in the UK from Covid 19, the coronavirus disease, since the pandemic began. Each of these numbers belongs to a person who had a family and friends and a life that the virus took away. 

There are no answers and no words.

I’ve written before of our friend David Thomas who didn’t die of Covid, but died of a brain tumour earlier this year.  His life continues to be remembered by so many of us.  As the time passes the hole he has made in our personal universe closes a little bit, but our universe can never be entirely as it was.  I liken his leaving to the comfortable jumpers he used to wear, that we all wear.  Our garments get torn and we mend them as best we can, yet as more tears occur over the months and years we keep mending, but our garment will never ever be quite the same as it once was.   One day we must give up our own jumper and that will create a tear in someone else’s garment.

There are no answers and no words.

Sorrow is something we will all meet and have met. The degree of our grief and how we respond to it is, I think, what makes us who we are. Our capacity to feel other’s pain makes us human.  And it hurts to be human sometimes.

When there are no answers and no words

The love that we have given and continue to have for another human is crushingly, suffocatingly, painfully expressed when their life is extinguished as there can be no answers and no words.

For those of us who remain, there is only ever now and our memory and sometimes a stillness. A quiet reflection and a gathering of our inner resources. Until tomorrow comes to soothe us and we carry on as we must.

Because there are no answers and no words.

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 11 June

Tiny steps are beginning to occur with non essential shops opening on Monday. We won’t be going near them. Not yet.  O- line and deliveries still appeal to us as the virus remains in our midst.

Life has changed and the “new normal” is gradually seeping into the way we live.  People move out of the way outside and help each other to continue to social distance. 

The garage at the end of our road is now open and my car will get its overdue service.  Gary the owner tells me he was so bored being at home he is grateful to have returned to work. We are pleased he has, too!  Terry and I spent ages looking in every pocket of every pair of trousers and I checked car pockets and handbags for the extra key to my car.  Gary had it!  For all these weeks.  Whew.  Chris, his helper suggested that they might keep everyone’s spare keys as so many customers lose them!  At least that little mystery has resolved itself.  I was certain it was lost forever. Never give up hope!

The weather has changed once more and was grey and cooler yesterday, but at exactly the moment we were having our late lunch of homemade bread and soup, the sun came out!  We were outside in the warm summer sun and then it went away again. The weather is expected to change once more for the end of the week. British summer is here and we are used to the highs and lows –  literally. 

We had our one- on -one Pilates class this week.  The fabulous Richard put each of us through our paces. He’s young.  And fit.  I was knackered – but in a good way.  He had a long sleeved top on and I mentioned to him that it’s the first I’ve ever seen him without short sleeves.  He said it was cool there. 

Why do Aucklanders pretend it doesn’t get cool and downright cold there in the winter? When we had our year there, our gorgeous landlord and now great friend Bernie, brought us a heater when I asked what we were supposed to do against the cold.  When I despaired that one was never going to do it we had more appear almost as if by magic.  The building was quite swish and I didn’t understand the lack of heat! The days you need the warmth are too many to ignore it in my opinion.  Stay warm kiwi friends!  And thanks Bernie! 

In America, the landscape does appear to be changing with regards to the Black Lives Matter campaign.  George Floyd was buried this week in Houston next to his mother.  His name however, will live on for a long time to come. Sometimes a horrific incident occurs and galvanises people.  There have been far too many black people killed at the hands of police all over the world, but especially in the States.  Watching  one man’s life be taken so ruthlessly by a policeman kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes has sparked a movement.  Let’s hope this one creates lasting and long overdue changes.

In Bristol, our famous artistic Bristolian Banksy has shared his idea with what should replace  the toppled slave trading Colson statue.

Meantime, in America Trump is not taking any actions of a President.  While the country and the world stand up for each other he tweets his garbage from his bunker.

I shared Randy Rainbow with you before.  He’s got a doozy for you today. The tune he uses was originally sung by Judy Garland from a song that was cut from the iconic The Wizard of Oz . See if you can spot the nod to Oz.

We only misplaced a car key, the White House seems to have misplaced a bit more than that. 

Randy gives you …The Bunker Boy!

Enjoy!

With love,

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days –10 June

Heading out into Bristol on my bicycle really has done what I had hoped.  I feel liberated!  I was out for an hour on Monday before the weather went all cold rainy and cloudy again.  The city is beginning to tentatively step out again…but social distancing still seemed the norm.  I saw a little girl in her unmistakable green and white checked uniform on her way back from school, as excited and interested in telling her Mother all about her day just as she no doubt would have in “normal” times. 

I’m a very careful cyclist and notice that a lot more drivers are very careful as well.  There are clearly more drivers who are cycling these days.  There is always the outlier who’s an idiot driving too fast and over the speed, but they are in the minority.  Drivers waited (sometimes very patiently) when they waved me ahead of them before they made a turn.  I waved a thank you when cars were being kind and not bearing down behind me, and moved over to let them pass me when I could.  Clearly something has changed.  Perhaps the lockdown has truly got people slowed down in terms of the rest of their lives.  We aren’t all racing to whatever it is that we do and it really does show.

There were two ice cream vans on the Downs and people social distancing as they queued for their cold comfort.  People also talk to each other in ways that I don’t normally associate with this city.  I talk to people all the time, but so often when I’ve been out, from a social distanced two metres, people have initiated a moment.  The sun does of course help, too.

One of the most uplifting sights I witnessed of the many I saw on the Downs, was a remote control model car whizzing around the brown grass at some speed.  I watched as it turned and manoeuvred backed up and then raced forward.  Eventually, when I saw the person who was controlling it, my day was made by the breadth of his smile.  The man was probably in his fifties, and in a wheelchair.  The sort that people sit in and control, much like the car model he whizzed around.  He was lost in the joy of his moment with his model and the delight on his face was like a little boy who had never done this sort of thing before.  Wonderful!

I realised it is those chance encounters, those moments that you treasure as you go about your day that I have missed so much.  Seeing other people is a delight.  We hope that this continues apace.

The news from the lab in Oxford where the vaccine trial is underway is good.  Astra Zeneca have already begun production of several million doses of the jab.  If the trials go as well as is hoped, the vaccine will be ready by September.  Let’s hope so. 

Thanks to all those people who are involved in the trial and to the scientists and the lab folks who have pulled out all the stops to get this vaccine into production in record time.  A game changer as they say and one that we will all welcome.  In the meantime, the rain stopped, Tuesday was warm again, I was back on my bike and travelling among my fellow city dwellers – nice!.  There was lots of uphill – Bristol is a very hilly city and we live at the top of Clifton, it’s always uphill coming back.  Fancy a socially distanced ride?  Let me know!

Shh! Don’t tell the editor……!

With love

Kathy x

Feest Isolation Days – 9 June

From Monday, everyone entering the UK from all ports (unless they are on the list of exemptions) must quarantine for fourteen days or face fines of a thousand pounds. The government is holding firm on this despite uproar from the travel industry and claims from some quarters that they don’t have the capacity to enforce the measures.  Nevertheless, the plans are in place and have begun. 

The official Foreign Office website reminds us that the government view is that we are all to avoid all non-essential international travel. As some fifty million trips are made abroad each year by Brits this is a big but important ask. Most countries don’t want visitors from these islands – yet.  Get the rate of infection down first is their sensible approach.

So who decides what is “essential” international travel?  With the obvious exceptions and exemptions in place like medics, freight and so on, it’s up to the individual. It’s a very British way of answering a question. It’s up to the individual to decide what is “exceptional” travel but as insurance companies usually follow foreign office advice the “advice” remains…in other words, stay home. But if you must go, go!  But we don’t think you will be able to be insured and we highly recommend you don’t travel without insurance. It does sound remarkably like a policy discussion from that classic – Yes, Minister. 

Freedom of the individual seems to be protected in government directives. Maybe that’s why the government didn’t intervene when the protestors were demonstrating this weekend.  Against all government advice. Or could it be that was different? Perhaps the government has simply lost much of their authority. As individuals, many of us are certainly taking the matters into our own hands these days. Many of us continue to follow the science and social distance and abide by the rules. The simple reason for this is that the virus has NOT disappeared!

Several years ago we took visitors to see the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London. They are worth a peek.   There were signs everywhere that said “no photography”. An American man in shorts with a big belly and a huge camera strapped around his neck asked the Beefeater what would happen if he took a photograph.  The Beefeater, using typical English irony, subtly replied, “Then I would have to tell you not to do it again, sir.”  The man walked away and there wasn’t even a single click from his camera.  The Beefeater exchanged a smile with us, and I so wish I had a camera on me then!  Yes, there are rules, and one needs to know how to get round them.  Safely. 

Meantime, I had an email from Jacinda today (Okay from her party, but it’s from her!). I liked it so much I thought I’d share the whole email with you.  Now that’s what I call success!  And yes, I am a tiny bit envious of my kiwi pals, for all sorts of reasons!

Good evening Kathy,

There are two pieces of good news that I’m happy to be able to share with you today. First, there are now no active cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand. Second, we announced today that as of midnight tonight, New Zealand will move down from Alert Level 2 to Alert Level 1. 

This means that New Zealanders can return to a life that feels as normal as it can in the time of a global pandemic. There will be no more physical distancing. No more gathering limits, and no more restrictions for hospitality. It means retail is back without limitations, and public transport and travel across the country will be fully opened up.

And, it is thanks to you. We were only able to make this decision because over the last 11 weeks, our team of 5 million has managed to achieve something that many believed would not be possible – we stayed home, we broke the chain of transmission and together, we saved thousands of lives.

When faced with the threat of a virus that was spreading rapidly around the world, taking people’s lives and taking people’s livelihoods, we knew that we had to go hard and to go early to protect New Zealand from the same kind of devastation we were seeing elsewhere. 

And together, we’ve done just that. As we return to a life which looks much more normal, there is – of course – much still to do. We must also remain mindful of the global situation and recognise that the virus will be in our world for some time to come. We are confident we have eliminated the transmission of the virus in New Zealand for now, but elimination is not a point in time – it is a sustained effort. We almost certainly will see cases here again, but when that occurs it will not mean we have failed. We are prepared for future cases.

The global economic impacts of COVID-19 will, of course, be felt for some time, and as a Government, implementing our economic recovery plan to rebuild the economy is our top priority. We all have a part to play in this. I encourage you to buy, play and experience New Zealand-made. Consider it an extra form of support, to visit our country, buy our local products and support our local businesses. 

Over the coming week, and beyond, I will be announcing more of the steps we’re taking to support jobs across the country, back our businesses and get the economy moving. But for now, I want to leave you with a final thank you, for helping us reach this milestone.

Thank you,

Jacinda

With love

Kathy x