Day Sixty-four

Feest Isolation Days – 17 May

Do you see how many days this is? What must absolutely come to your mind on hearing that number? Of course I hear you say -The Beatles!  When I get older losing my hair many years from now…will you still need me will you still feed me when I’m sixty four!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCTunqv1Xt4vhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v

Just listen to these lyrics… no wonder we loved these guys so much!  YES is the answer I will still love you at sixty four (days) and as the years are many, many more than that we are doing just fine!  I bet you are, too!

A friendly voice called over our garden wall as we sat on the swing drinking our morning tea yesterday, Kathy!  Terry!  We were delighted that friends stopped by on their daily walkabout.  We carefully opened the side gate and they arrived in our garden. The first people inside our property in nine weeks.  We kept ten feet away from each other and chatted the way old friends do – but kept returning to discussions about the damn virus.  What a bore and what an all consuming topic of conversation. Remember when we used to talk about other things?  Seems a long time ago.

We shared nearly forty-five minutes of conversation and laughter and left each other with kisses blown across the physical gulf we’d necessarily created between us.  I didn’t realise that what we were doing was not within the new rules. Apparently, we were okay to meet with one other person in a park, but not two.   It seemed perfectly acceptable to social distance in our large garden.  We were keeping to the spirit of the rules, if not exactly to the letter of them.  We haven’t had a knock on the door or been told we would be fined, so I think we got away with our digression from the rules. 

The press is filled with reports of people travelling a long way to England’s beauty spots and we are already worrying that their actions are not going to be helpful in keeping down the “R”.  In Devon, there are no lifeguards at the beaches and the police are telling people to stay away.  Yet, in the Peak District car parks are full.  If we aren’t careful, the lockdown will get heavy handed again.  Our sensible garden visit pales into insignificance by comparison.

Our friends in New Zealand went to a stunning restaurant for dinner and when I looked it up on the internet I had to stop myself. The amazing range of food and the beautiful surroundings with someone else doing all the cooking opened old memories of a different way of life, and I could feel a sadness creep into my day. I clicked off the website and realised it will be a long time before that sort of dining is possible in this country.  We have a way to go.  Thank heaven for the lovely visit with our friends that countered that heaviness of heart.

New Zealand gets so many things right!  Jacinda and her man pitched up for brunch at Olive, a restaurant in Wellington, and were turned away as the place didn’t have any availability.  The restaurant staff did soon race down the street after the couple and when they returned they were given a safe socially distanced space that had become free. No hissy fits, no using one’s office to get what they wanted.  My kind of woman! 

We decided that each week from now on, we would make a new dish that we haven’t ever cooked before.  As we enter week ten of lockdown, it seems a good idea to vary the routine a bit.  This week I made a frittata for the first time. Simple, delicious and to be repeated.  Our evening meal last night was also a first. Chicken with dates and orange and coconut milk.   Yummy and definitely to be eaten again, as there was plenty left over! As I haven’t made a cake in quite a few weeks, it seemed it was time for baking again.  The recipe for my Dorset apple cake came from a friend in Kenya and was delicious!  Let me know if you’d like a copy of any of the recipes I’ve tried and please feel free to send any you adore.   Several friends have asked for some of them in the past, and sharing feels a particularly good thing to do at the moment. 

See you again tomorrow as we head into week Ten.  Oh my! 

With love

Kathy x