Lockdown Diary - Wednesday 31st March 2021

How many ways to spend a day? Actually  It feels like I've been under lockdown one way or another for ever. Ahead of my operation I've been told I mustn't go out unnecessarily since last Friday and if I go anywhere where there are people I must wear a mask at all times.  Yet again when restrictions are being eased I have entered a phase of more limitation on what I can do, which only get worse from Tuesday next week.

The phone rang at about eight fifteen and it was the district nurse wondering if she could come and change my wife's catheter early: she said she only lived around the corner and would make this her first call of the day.  I am happy for her to do this as it suits me.  Another new DN that we've not seen before, though she said she was returning from maternity leave and had previously worked in a different local district. The catheter change went pretty much without hitch, though the balloon didn't seem to want to give up 5ml of fluid and it took several attempts to get to the point where there seemed to be no more. I won't go into the gory details, but it's much more pleasant if the balloon is fully empty before removal.  I can testify to this fact though in my case the route to the outside world was a little different.

After the nurse left I went and posted a letter, and on returning home made myself some breakfast (I'm trying to eat least 12 hours (preferably 14) after the last meal on the previous day - it's supposed to be good for your digestion) which was about as good as it got until around 11 a.m.

According to a NOTAM I saw yesterday the Red Arrows are due to do a flypast at the Runnymede Air Force memorial (to commemorate 100 years of the Royal Australian Airforce (RAAF)) this morning at just after eleven and their return route was planned to go very nearby. In preparation I had the scanner tuned to the team's air-to-air frequency and listened to their interplane manoeuvring and traffic calls. I went outside ahead of their arrival but didn't take my camera as it appeared from the route they'd pass a little too far to the east.  I'm listening to their calls stood in the back garden and then hear the sound of approaching fast jets.  Too late to get my camera they flew directly over our house in two sections heading north, damn!  Should have had my camera just in case!  Oh well, an interesting diversion.

The rest of the morning was frittered away, until the carers arrived for the lunch call, after which it was time to meditate.

After lunch I had a tedious job planned: filing. I get so much correspondence regarding my wife and other stuff and, despite my best intentions, I only ever seem to file it when there's a big pile of stuff, rather than the sensible thing which would be to file it or bin it as it arrives.  The one good thing about filing is that it's a fairly mindless task, or at least it doesn't consume too much of the brain cell's capacity, so I listen to the weekend's episode of 'Freak Zone' whilst doing it.  The whole job took longer than I had imagined it would, but when it was finished I decided to try and read a little more of this month's book club book.  

A brief escape to get fresh air before getting the bins done and getting organised for dinner. 

Dinner / 'Narcos: Mexico' / Sleep (eventually)

The Smiths / 'Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want' / 'Louder Than Bombs' or 'Hatful of Hollow' (take your pick)

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