WEEK 10 OF LONDON LOCKDOWN

WEEK 10 OF LONDON LOCKDOWN…or is it Week 11?. It’s definitely Week 11, as we did 10 weeks of clapping and this week we stopped. But never mind, whose counting?….Day 75.

Life is slowly returning to some semblance of our new abnormal as we have been released from our homes to sit in our gardens or someone else’s garden.   Even the outside garden parties of no more than six will be tricky when it starts raining and everyone moves inside to share food, glasses and a hopeless, non socially distancing seating plan I suspect.

Several of my friends went on the protest march in London yesterday in memory of George Floyd. I was very tempted, but that would have meant my children would have come too and in the end we all felt it was too risky. After so much effort involved in trying not to spread the virus  we decided to have our very own protest and will save the group gatherings for when my mother is no longer at such a high risk and finally freed from her lair. I understand that everyone on the march has now been told to self isolate for two weeks, although it did look, for the most part like distances were kept.  If that applies to a large group, then does it also apply to everyone in large groups on beaches and parks around the country and to those teachers who are now working back in schools?

Basically, the rules are now being broken left, right and centre. What about the rule that you can go to people’s houses and use their downstairs loo, but not stay the night.  What about all those people hoping to get back together with their partners after time apart?  They have introduced a rule saying you can’t have sex with someone from another household.  Will that mean that we will see a rise in alfresco sex – especially in convertible cars where you can still argue that you are outside? I imagine a second spike some time in late July/August is almost inevitable.

News too on Madeleine McCann which is desperately sad as it sounds like they may have the sick f*ck they’ve been looking for all this time.  At least, if they find the evidence they need or get a confession,  the family can find some sort of peace.  Just dreadful.

There is some talk from my office about going back quite soon.  I’m thinking about borrowing an electric bike to get to work, along with all the other millions of new cyclists. Imagine all that extra lycra on the roads.  How hideous.

Most exciting thing this week that’s happened was spotting a snake in the park – think it’s a grass snake:-

But can’t forget the deer and the stunning scenery found on the walk around the park with my daughter:-

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, carrot cake remains the strong favourite, but we have expanded our repertoire and made fudge this week too:-

We had our book group meet up in my garden which was great – everyone brought their own drinks so that we could socially distance and chat about our latest read “The Salt Path” (mixed reviews). Was so lovely to see everyone, but we did share cake, which might have been against the rules:-

My planting is going well and watching seeds grow is a vast improvement to having to sort out kitchen drawers. I’ve chosen some fast growers….look at the difference just a week has made:-

Zoom Pilates classes are going quite well. Screen didn’t freeze so much this week which was a relief for those that didn’t want to hold the side plank for 5 minutes, this time I just couldn’t hear anyone.

My daughter and I had a Zoom makeup class from a friend. On reflection why would I do a makeup session with my beautiful daughter? Just nothing about it that was positive. When suggesting how we could do eye makeup my daughter was told she could basically slap anything on and it would look lovely whilst I was told about eye surgery I could have done in South Africa.  Same applied to neck and lips.

This week my friend Smriti Halls has released a free book for children called “Rain Before Rainbows” that’s free digitally and in partnership with Save the Children’s #SaveWithStories campaign.  It is a gorgeous story and very relevant and uplifting for now, beautiful imagery by David Litchfield:-

Sadly we’ve lost our amazing run of incredible weather – apparently the hottest May on record. That has been a real bonus and now it’s going to rain, where will everyone go?

Sparkling Sunday remains a thing in our house, because personally I think it’s important to celebrate another week we’ve managed to stay alert (just) and that the numbers are finally coming down (despite still being far too high) and that the test and trace facility is in place (although it’s not is it) and that dentists can start again (although they can’t can they because they can’t get hold of PPE, haven’t been supported by the government if they’re private and can barely get enough patients through the door what with all the 20 minute cleaning they will have to do in between sessions….so quite a few won’t make it I imagine) and that hospitals are slowly coming back to normal to treat everyone else who needs treating (although not fast enough and how many extra cancer cases, mental health issues, heart attacks will there be after all of this?). Hospitals are not only seeing a rise in drug taking issues, child sexual abuse, domestic violence, but also apparently a huge increase in strange objects being stuck up people’s bums. Guess everyone is getting a bit bored, but I gather surgeons are getting a bit tired of all the bizarre excuses as to why and how an inanimate object got there in the first place.  Personally, I think drinking champagne is a preferable way to spend the time.

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