In tiers...

Day 22

I received a letter from my GP surgery this morning asking me to arrange a flu vaccination. As I am now over 50, I am entitled to one! It will be the first time I've ever had one, and Mike received a letter, too, presumably because of his asthma problems last winter.

As promised the weather has been glorious today with mist hanging over the frosty fields first thing, and blue skies and sunshine through the day. Just the thing to lift our spirits a bit after the gloom of yesterday!

My manager, Sara, called this morning about the return to work next week. The government have extended the furlough scheme until next March, and I had a feeling that our organisation would make use of it, and I was right... I will be going back twice a week, on a Tuesday and a Thursday for six hours each day, so 10am until 4pm. The rest of my hours will be paid by furlough. Only two of us will be manning the phones but as December is traditionally the quietest month of the year for us, this shouldn't be a problem.

I was delighted, to be honest. This means I start back next Thursday instead of Wednesday so Sophie has booked off next Tuesday and we plan to put up the Christmas decorations, drink hot chocolate laced with brandy, and watch a festive film!

We watched the news at 11.30am and discovered that Northamptonshire is now in Tier 2, as I had predicted. Most of the country is in either Tier 2 or 3, with only Cornwall, the Isle of Wight and the Scilly Islands in Tier 1, the lowest. Writing this, it feels like we have entered some kind of weird dystopian world. Market Harborough, in Leicestershire, is in Tier 3, which means we can't go there, even though the town is barely 12 miles away! All the cafes and restaurants will be closed, so there'll be no trips for afternoon tea or lunch at Farndon Fields. Sophie and I were due to go for a meal there in December with Sue, but this will have to be postponed until the new year, but is that even safe to book?

We are talking about this all now like it's normal, but a year ago, we wouldn't have dreamed we'd be in a situation like this or using words like "furlough" and "tier"! I still sometimes think I'll wake up and discover it's been a terrible dream.

Of course, in Tier 2, it means that we can't mix households inside, so Mike won't be able to see Abbi (that did not go down well), and Sophie won't be able to see Zain unless she meets him outside, but who wants to spend the whole day outdoors when the weather could be horrible?

Hopefully, after the review on the 16 December, things might change, but I do feel sorry for the hospitality industry who rely on Christmas bookings in the run-up to the festive season to make their profit. I have booked to go out with Lynda, Fiona and Andrea on the 18 December, so we will wait to see what happens before cancelling.

After we'd absorbed the news I cleaned the upstairs of the house and Sophie and I went for a walk at lunchtime, which was lovely:

It was certainly chilly, but the feeling of the sun on our faces was bliss! We walked up to the village and then returned home for lunch of soup (Keith and Sophie) and leftover chicken and rice for me.

While we waited for Mike to finish work in the afternoon, we noticed a strange man wandering about the golf club, drinking from a can of what looked like beer. I texted Mike but his boss had gone home early. Luckily, there were some men building a new shed near the clubhouse, but the man was acting very strangely, wandering up and down the patio area and then looking at the building closely. Hmmm! We passed him as we drove home and he could just have been out for a walk, but he looked very suspicious indeed!