21st September 2020. 191 days in lockdown/isolation.

Jim Soanes turned up today with six men to do the front garden. That’s 7 altogether. Under the “rule of 6”, do I report them? They got to our house at 0730 and they got to work immediately. The first thing to go was the huge cactus. we were glad to see the back of it. They had five vehicles here and they really worked hard. They had hoped to be ready in one day but did not quite make it. Some minor finishing off remained for the next morning. It is all looking really good.

The worries about the pandemic seem to be escalating. Jenny and I have talked about curfews for ages and it seems that to some extent, the powers that be, are considering it, starting with shutting pubs at 10pm. Why not just shut them completely and introduce a general curfew at 10pm. Anyone found outside their home after that time would have to prove they were working of have any other genuine reason to be out. In Romania for example, to be outside at all, some weeks ago, you had to have a paper which had a full explanation of why you needed to be out. If you did not produce it, you were heavily fined for the first offence, I believe. Boris is giving a major speech tomorrow so we will see what his proposals are. Hopefully the scientists and the politicians are at one with their proposals to reign the virus in.

One thing that is apparent is that the rate of increase of the virus is the lowest in the 70 – 80 age range and the highest amongst those between 18 and 39. This latter group is precisely the one that ignored all the instructions as they thought they were immune. Numpties.

Sunday was a busy day. In the morning I went to watch Ronnie Play football for Tickton. He started of up front and in the second half played in goal making a save in the final seconds that kept the score at 2 – 2 against a very good Kingswood side . Their supporters were a vociferous lot who gave the referee more abuse than I have ever seen at that level. It was disgraceful and I hope the referee puts in a report to the governing body.

In the afternoon David brought the three grandchildren for lunch. As usual they didn’t leave much food but we discovered the girls do not like mustard seeds in their gravy. But they do love crumble.

Am I the only person in the world who is now bored sick of sports men “taking the knee”. OK, at first it was relevant, even moving (and current) but now I find it embarrassing. It is never edited out of every match shown on “Match of the Day” or at the beginning of every Formula 1 Grand Prix. How long is respectful? I can’t help wondering how many weeks we would be in mourning for The Queen should she pass away. Would we have a minutes silence before the aforementioned events for months on end? I doubt it. It’s time to call a halt. Who will dare to be first?

We had a lovely meal here with friends Val and Nick last week and then went to sister in law Carol for a meal the next day. All socially distant and within the rules and safe.We have speculated for months that there would be a “Second Wave” and here it is now. Boris gave a big speech today but really swerved making any decisions about any sort of lockdown. He seems petrified about closing down any institution (pubs) that will make him unpopular. There will be some decisions made tomorrow. Hopefully nothing will affect our trip to Scotland. The way our luck has been with holidays this year we could be staying at home again.

Our new two piece suite has arrived. Crucially, Maisie likes it, thank goodness. We sold our old three piece suit on the internet to the first enquirer. Jenny has claimed the recliner. I’ve not sat in it yet!