Feest Isolation Days – 5 January 2021
The Christmas Tree is down. The festive decorations have been put away for another year. The golden boughs in the amaryllis are now tucked away until the end of 2021. The wreath is off the door and the house is sparkly and clean and no longer festive. I thought I’d offer a tip for those of you who haven’t taken down your trees yet. I’ve been storing the lights for many years now on empty wrapping paper rolls. You wind them round and round and next time you want them unwind and voila! The lights are not a mess and the tree trimming is easy peasy.
While I’m on top tips, here’s another one for cleaning days. We have invested in a new broom that is rubber and is magic on carpets. I suspect if you have a dog, you probably already know about these sort of brooms, but as we are poochless, it’s not something I knew about. They are totally effective. Sweep your carpet and then hoover and you won’t believe the gunk that they remove. The house is sparkling. Shame nobody can come and visit us.
We are back in full lockdown. Boris Johnson spoke to the nation last night and told us what we already knew. The R rate is escalating at such a pace that the NHS will soon be overwhelmed. Doctors, nurses and healthcare workers are struggling to keep up with the number of patients that the new variant has created. While the festivities are now over, the result of many people mixing into households is beginning to be felt across the country.
Idiots who seem to think that partying and mixing together is fine for them, have not helped. We are getting closer to the end but we are not there yet. The next few months are going to be tough for the NHS and tough for those with this disease.
Lockdown is required and Scotland beat England to it…again. Wales is on Lockdown and now, from midnight last night, so is England. Schools will not be back again until at least after the February half term. Home schooling, remote distance learning once more.
In New Zealand, six cases of the new variant have been diagnosed at the border but no community transmission. Please be careful friends! You are unlocked and we want you to stay that way!
I’m not feeling particularly humorous today so you’ll have to excuse my lack of jokes. Tomorrow is bound to be better!
Roll on vaccinators! Another three months of this will make it a year… Enough!
Be careful and stay safe.
With love
Kathy x
hello dear Kathy, People like you and Terry are role models of what others in the UK should have done but did not because they were simply idiots or too naïve in believing the conspiracy theorists stories and Trump!! Those people are paying the highest price now and forcing the rest of country into a lockdown that could have been avoided. Perhaps I am being too harsh but it infuriates me that so many people have died from the virus unnecessarily often because of the selfish act of others. I must say, I shook my head in disgust at reading a story in the NZ news this morning of a women who must be a NZ resident now but hails from Scotland (where she is currently located having travelled home to care for her Mum late last year) complaining about the new rule for NZers returning to NZ having to have a negative virus test 3 days prior to their departure and how this will cause further delays for her and inconvenience. Well tough, why should we compromise our hard earned freedom for people who are probably fine to stay where they are until the virus has sorted itself out in the UK. As you say, we need to make sure we stay safe and protect our borders. it does worry me that we have people in the country now who are carrying the new strains from more than one country. I don’t trust this virus and I don’t think we know enough about the way it mutates to ‘release’ people carrying a new version into our communities. Sorry about the rant.
While it might not seem like much comfort I am glad you are in lockdown again during your winter. My experience of doing the same here in NZ was that it was a bit easier than being stuck at home for weeks on end during summer. I felt grateful not to have to venture out to go to work on cold, wet miserable days!! there are always moments when you feel you have a bad case of ‘cabin fever’ but a wonder in the garden to to the park with Russell helped alleviate that a bit.
I hope you and Terry can continue with your walks, despite the mud and rain and enjoy to countryside around you. take care x
Thanks AnnMarie! Rants are allowed. It’s a strange time for everyone. Cabin fever is setting in here…but the cabin is hardly a cave…warm and cosy.
Love Kx