Shocking figures...

Day 2

Even though we're at home, the time is speeding by very quickly! Keith reminded me this morning that we needed to do the list for shopping - it seems to come around rather too rapidly for my liking!

We made a start on the list, decided on the meals, and then Keith and I spent a good hour cleaning out the fridge, throwing away jars that were well past their best, and also sorting out the cupboards, so we knew exactly what to buy tomorrow.

Sophie and I went for a walk at lunchtime as usual. We only go for half an hour, but we both need to get out for some fresh air, and a slight change of scene! I had ordered a litter picker from Amazon as I figured we may as well make use of the walk and pick up rubbish at the same time! I was quite pleased that we didn't find that much, just half a shopping bag's worth!

On the way home, we chatted to our neighbours who were also out for a walk - apart from essential shopping or getting medication, it's really the only thing we can do at the moment!

Today has been a little cloudier of late, and the threat of snow hasn't gone away, although we may get some at the end of the week. I jumped into the bath in the early evening and afterwards, I watched the news. I wish I hadn't, because the figures for deaths yesterday were just shy of the April peak with 1041 people losing their lives. I'm still not sure if the figures are exactly Covid deaths, as they occurred within 28 days of a positive test, but it was alarming, nonetheless.

We all suspected the second wave would be worse than the first, and that's being proved correct. I tried fruitlessly to get an online slot for a Tesco delivery, and the next available was the 17th of January. I couldn't even get a click and collect slot this week or early next week. I am extremely reluctant to go anywhere at the moment, but Keith and I decided to go to Aldi and Tesco very early tomorrow when hopefully it will be quiet.

I escaped from the harsh reality of life at the moment by watching Winter Walks again. This time the walk was a coastal one towards Robin Hood's Bay in North Yorkshire, and the man on the walk called into a lovely pub at the end and enjoyed a pint. How I would love to go to the pub at the moment, have a drink and be normal!

Un-decking the halls...

Day 1

I managed a lie-in this morning, which was a bit ironic, as I should have been going back to work after the Christmas break today. Sophie said that Monty was yowling madly at about 7am as both Keith and I were still in bed! He's used to having his breakfast at about 5am! We have been keeping him in at night recently as it's been so cold.

After a quick cup of coffee, I made a start on taking the decorations down. I felt so sad doing it, and I did wonder how we would be as a family next Christmas. I have a feeling Mike will move out this year to be with Abbie, so we'll just have to see.

I boxed everything up, and cleaned downstairs, but I am still going to have the lights in the tree outside, and the little fairy lights in the front window are now on the cabinet in the study, where they look very pretty. I think that, at the moment. we need all the lights we can get to cheer us up.

Sophie and I dressed up warmly and went out for a walk at lunchtime. On the way home, it was trying its hardest to give us a sleety shower, but half of the sky was still blue. It was bitingly cold!

I carried on with cleaning the house and pottering about in the afternoon and then went and had a lovely soak in the bath. Keith cooked a delicious dinner this evening - a chicken casserole with a honey and mustard sauce with dumplings. Perfect cold-weather food!

I also found a lovely programme on BBC4 called Winter Walks, which was highly enjoyable. This evening's episode was based in Cumbria, and it was great to see as we can't go anywhere at the moment!

Another lockdown looms...

Today has certainly been eventful! I was woken by Keith at 7am to say he was going back to get Mike from work as our son thought he had broken a rib. Apparently, he fell up some stairs yesterday and bashed his chest on the brick steps. Why he never said anything when he returned from Abbie's house, I'll never know. When they arrived back home I asked him what had happened, and then he returned to his bedroom to rest. He didn't have any bruising but said the area was swollen and tender.

Keith and I popped to Tesco to get some shopping for the next few days, and tried to get it done as quickly as possible by using the scanner. Keith wasn't that impressed, especially when one of the staff came to do a check! However, I think it's a great idea, and I would definitely use it again.

We headed home to find Mike looking in the fridge for food so he obviously didn't feel that bad. He said his chest still hurt so we called the GP surgery for him to try and arrange a phone appointment. He was more concerned about getting a sick note for work! I waited on the phone for ages, then Keith took over while I went out for a walk with Sophie. We walked down to the village, and it was bitterly cold with a north wind cutting right through us!

Back at home, the surgery had said that Mike needed to call 111, which he did, telling us that they had advised him to go to A&E, to be on the safe side. I was not very happy as A&E is the last place I wanted him to go at the moment. However, we felt it was the right thing to do so I drove him down to the hospital and dropped him off. I doubted very much I would have been allowed in with him, and he said that Abbie would collect him when she finished work. He really didn't want to go and said that he felt he didn't need to be seen, but I said they would probably give him an x-ray to make sure.

As soon as I got home, though, he had texted me to say he was advised the wait time was 3-4 hours before even being seen by a doctor, so he'd left and gone to Abbie's house!

Keith and I had called the garage this morning to try and get the plastic panel re-fitted onto my car, and they'd asked us to go over at 4pm. I had noticed that the car was shuddering a bit when I braked going downhill and I felt that something wasn't right. One of the mechanics tore off in my car, while Keith and I stood outside in the freezing wind. It was so cold! 

When he came back he said he couldn't detect anything was wrong so I had to accept his verdict. If things don't get better, though, I'm taking it back! Before we left we booked Sophie's car and my Dad's car in for their MOTs on the 22 January. However, the mechanic said there was going to be an announcement from Boris this evening at 8pm with the news of a total lockdown, the same as we went through in March. He reckoned that people would be cancelling their MOTs as they wouldn't be driving anywhere!

We returned home and Keith and I sat and watched A Perfect Planet. The filming was truly stunning, and we learned that there are over 1500 active volcanoes on the planet! I thought there were only about three or four!

Amazingly, tonight was the episode of Pointless we had seen last January, on the 8th, so nearly a year ago! Although we think we saw the back of Keith's head a couple of times, it wasn't really clear, and I certainly didn't see me! I did remember the contestants and some of the questions, though and it was great to see it again!

At 8pm we gathered around the television and learnt that the whole of England will be back into a strict lockdown. All schools, colleges and universities will be closed and there's talk of a review in the middle of February. Here we go again!

Searching for turkey

Well, despite the warnings out for snow, we didn't get any at all. What a disappointment! Although, sometimes I do feel the anticipation of a snowfall is better than the real thing!

Mike went to Abbie's house today, and after dropping him off, Keith and I went to Beckworth in search of a turkey as I had fancied one for dinner this evening! If we thought that we would get another the same as we enjoyed at Christmas, we were much mistaken! They only had a large frozen one in the freezer so we settled for a chicken instead!

We headed home and had a late breakfast with a lovely loaf of bread we'd bought at Beckworth. The rest of the morning was spent mooching about, but just before 2pm Sophie and I headed to the care home to see Mum and Dad.

I could tell my Mum was a bit sad today - she is very concerned about my Dad who is getting worse. I think she's finding it very hard to accept he will never be the man he used to be, and also the fact that they both need to be in a care home and looked after properly. Sophie and I did manage to cheer them up a bit, though, and we're all hoping that the vaccine will be given to them soon so they can start to go out again.

The weather today has been worse than yesterday, and plans to go out for an afternoon walk were put on hold. It was raining and very cold - not pleasant at all!

Back home we indulged in a Martini and Sophie and I played Scrabble. We're getting better but it's a laugh at times when we come up with funny words! Keith cooked a delicious roast and tried his best to re-create a Christmas meal - he even cooked Brussels sprouts with bacon! While he was cooking I watched Countryfile to get the weather for the week ahead. Although it will stay cold, we're in for some sunny spells and showers, but snow was only hinted at!

The promise of snow...

Mike was working this weekend so Keith took him in at 6am, and I went and picked him up at about 8.30am. There really wasn't a lot he could do, poor thing, and when I collected him he looked half-frozen! It is still very cold and set to stay this way for at least a week. There is even talk of snow!

Sophie and I enjoyed Saturday Morning Kitchen while we ate breakfast. One of Sophie's heroines was on today, Grace Dent, the restaurant critic. What a job! Although at the moment, she is probably not doing a lot of reviews!

In the late morning, Keith and Mike managed to fix one of the plastic panels underneath my car so now we can take it out again, but I want to get it fixed permanently. With all the dirty weather about and the water and mud on the roads, it needs doing properly.

Keith and I popped over to Brixworth afterwards as I needed toothpaste, and also bird food. If it's going to get much colder our poor birds need food! Unfortunately, the small hardware shop that sells everything was closed for Christmas so I went home without any. We have all been urged to shop locally at the moment but that's all very well if the small shops are open! I went home and ordered a load of food online for our feathered friends as I really didn't want to trek down to Wilco's on Riverside! 

Sophie and I applied a facemask in the early afternoon and lolled about on the bed watching Saturday Morning Best Bites. It looks so strange when all the guests are seated near to each other at the table! How things used to be!

 At 3pm Sophie and I decided to go out for a walk, and we headed to Brixworth country park first as I fancied a stroll there and a hot chocolate afterwards. We were hoping that at 3pm it would be quieter, but although there were some spaces in the car park, the place was still crowded! There was a sign when we went in saying the car park was full so it must have been another busy day! As we weren't sure whether they took Apple Pay we headed back to Old and parked on the outskirts of the village so we could walk down Mill Lane, a lovely single track road that's very quiet.

The sun was going down, and the sky was beautiful again. Before we'd ventured out I'd checked the weather forecast, and was astonished to see heavy snow forecast at about 6pm! The sky was looking a bit ominous and I really hoped it would snow at some point in the next few days! It was lovely to lean on one of the field gates and just gaze at the sky, one of my favourite things to do, especially at this time of the day as the sun was setting. I always think there's a little bit of magic in the air!

We walked quite a way along the road and just saw the odd car go past, as well as one of our neighbours who was out jogging with his daughter. It was blissfully quiet until a nearby bird scarer started up, and then made gunshot sounds every couple of minutes, which was a bit unnerving! At one point we heard what sounded like thunder and the sky was growing ever more cloudy so we decided to call it a day and headed back to the car. Plus, it was freezing cold!

Back home we enjoyed a glass of mulled wine and Sophie and I played Scrabble in the conservatory. Sadly, there was no snow today but next week is still set to be cold with sleet and snow showers in the forecast!

Keith cooked a delicious beef pie for dinner, which was perfect food for such a very cold day!

A different kind of New year's Day!

Although I'd gone to bed late last night, I was still awake at 7am this morning. It was nice, though, to ease slowly into the first day of 2021 and enjoy a cup of coffee and a film. I chose Downhill, starring Will Ferrell, and I remembered putting this film onto our cinema at work. However, I was very glad I hadn't paid money to go and see it, as it was a bit of a disappointment!

I also managed to break one of Sophie's cocktail glasses when I took out our new calendar from the cabinet in the study. I was horrified as I know how much she loves them, but I went straight onto eBay and was extremely lucky to find the exact same ones for sale. There were seven available, so I was able to order some more. Not a brilliant start to the New Year, but I may have escaped with it!

The weather outside was dull and cold, and it took a bit of persuasion to rouse my family. We had decided to go to Towcester for a walk and take-away fish and chips. There really wasn't much else to do today! We set off in my Dad's car, and took some salt and vinegar with us for lunch! I was just hoping the take-away would be open!

We drove past first to check and then parked in the middle of the market town. I had never really been to Towcester before, despite living in Northamptonshire for over 40 years, and I'm sure in normal circumstances it would be bustling and lively as there are several pubs and numerous shops and cafes on the main street.

We walked down to The Marlin Fish bar and ordered three lots of cod and chips. We had to wait a while as we were the only customers, and the food was freshly cooked for us. As soon as it had been wrapped in paper we hot-footed it back to the car and tucked in. The meal was delicious!

We wrapped up the food we couldn't eat to take home to feed our hungry birds (they gave us large portions!), and headed home via the A5. The thought of walking in the rain with a full tummy didn't bear thinking about! I wanted to show Keith the new road by Junction 16 so we went that way, and Sophie suggested driving through Duston to see the old mental hospital, St Crispin's. I had thought it had been converted into apartments, but some of the old building was still standing, albeit it empty and deserted. We were amazed at how many houses had been built in the area, there were hundreds!

Back home Sophie and I watched a film upstairs on Netflix called Wild Target starring Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt. It was very funny and perfect for an afternoon lolling on the bed in the warm!

As we'd eaten at lunchtime, we enjoyed Sophie's Indian rice pudding in the evening. We settled down to watch a new series, The Serpent, and all of us had a tot of whisky as a nightcap. Perfect!

New Year's Eve!

So, we find ourselves in Tier 4 as from midnight last night, which means no bars, restaurants, cafes, pubs are open (as in Tier 3), but with the additional closure of non-essential shops, leisure centres, hairdressers, beauty salons and indoor entertainment centres (like Berzerk). Golf courses can stay open so Mike will still be working (well, he did last time anyway, when they closed).

Sophie regretted not going to the gym yesterday, but to be honest, it was freezing cold and nasty on the roads, and I'm glad she stayed at home! We mooched about all morning again and then headed off to Waitrose at Wootton in the early afternoon. We needed Champagne for tonight, and a couple of ingredients for the rice pudding Sophie was making.

As expected there was a queue, and we stood in the freezing cold trying to keep warm! A man joined the line behind us and Sophie said she recognised him, but couldn't remember where... it was only when we got home later that she realised - he was Sean Dyche who manages Burnley football club!

We bought lots of goodies in Waitrose - Keith had given us £20 to spend on Champagne, and I also bought a bottle of Vermouth for cocktails, some Heston Blumenthal mince pies and the ingredients we needed, as well as bread and cold meats for lunch.

Back home we enjoyed a lateish lunch sitting in the conservatory, and then Keith and I took Mike into town as he was spending New Year's Eve with Abbie. Sophie made the rice pudding and had spent ages preparing the Chicken Tikka Marsala for our Indian feast tonight.

We played cards in the conservatory with a cocktail (a dirty Martini), and at about 7pm enjoyed different Indian (and Asian) starters (onion bhajis, pakoras, samosas). We didn't start cooking the curry until about 8.30pm, and I threaded the marinated chicken onto skewers while Sophie prepared the curry sauce.

We sat down to eat at about 9pm, and the food was delicious. This is one of our favourite recipes and it didn't disappoint this evening. Sophie went upstairs to talk to Zain while Keith and I watched a couple of programmes on the television, and at 10.30pm we tuned into Graham Norton who had some great guests on his show - Jamie Dornan, Tom Hanks, Emily Blunt and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Midnight was quite subdued compared to previous years, but there was a light show, and also some fireworks going on in London. I was expecting to feel very emotional at midnight as it had been such a challenging year, but I didn't cry, which was a relief. I did think I'd burst into tears!

We drank some Champagne, Keith did first-foot, and by 12.30pm we were all ready for bed! Here's to 2021!