5th January 2021. 300 days of Lockdown/Isolation.

On our last trip to Aldi before lockdown. I opened the car door only to be hit by a falling branch. I looked up and a very large bird was just flying away. The car did not appear to be damaged but blood was drawn from my thumb. Was I being reminded that I should stay at home? That is our intention. This should certainly be our last “big shop” in a while. The last time we had full lockdown there were long queues to get into the store and we are not going through that. We will have deliveries from our local garden centre which provided high quality produce at a very slightly higher price. There was nothing we couldn’t get from there and it was always delivered within 24 hours.

Boris’s announcement that we are all on Tier 5 from (legally) tomorrow morning, is going to be hard but was no surprise. All schools will be closed and there will be no restaurants open although they will be allowed to do takeaways (but no alcohol). All gyms will be closed and ours has already sent us an Email saying they are shut down after tonight. I had already cancelled my subscription and Jenny’s will now also stop. That’s a total  saving of £47 a month! We are also saving on minimum car use having driven only about 2000 miles in nine months. We shall use the bus but maybe after we have been vaccinated

Things are not so bad in Romania and Sally and Jim are touring around in their friends car. I think that when they get home they will be in lockdown and teaching from home. I wish we could be there also.

Petra has been in touch and they are as bad if not worse than the UK. Both she and Manfred still have to go into work and Petra’s colleagues are less than cautious.  She is quite rightly worried. What is wrong with these people?

I called to see mum today. She is well and commented again on how she enjoyed the plated Christmas dinner we had taken her. She has not yet received a vaccination letter but Sue, one of the carers said that surgeries should be issuing letters now that the vaccine has started to arrive. Apparently the government have promised that all keyworkers and people in care in a home and at home and everyone over 70, will be vaccinated by mid February. I am not holding my breath.

We took our Christmas tree down on Sunday. That and all the trimmings are now in the loft. Mum still has everything (such as it is) on display and will keep it out until the 6th. Some traditions are hard to give up.

Sally in Romania.