26th October, 2021.

585 days since our first lockdown day.

Sally and Jim came last week for a few days. They had been to London to see Jim’s family. His mum is very ill and his sister is now also very unwell. His dad is about 90 and there is a lot of weight on his shoulders. They do have some Social Services involvement but nowhere near enough. After Sally and Jim arrived here, both Mum and Sister ended up in hospital. It was almost impossible to get sufficient help so they both had to plan to go back to London asap. There were some obstacles, especially with their school in Bucharest.

Romania has no government at the moment and so their Covid statistics are frighteningly poor. They have shut down all state schools but the public schools were resisting, no doubt under pressure from owners and parents. One to protect profits and the other toe protect fees paid. In the end and after alot of poor decision making by the school authorities, Sally and Jim decided they could teach from the UK on line which enabled them to go back to London to help out with the family situation. They went from Cottingham yesterday but missed the connection in Hull as the train from Bridlington was delayed. Luckily a lovely lady at Cottingham was doing the same journey and was able to ring Hull Trains and confirm they could use their tickets on a later train. It all worked out very well although they did arrive at Kings Cross about 30 minutes late. Not bad!

Sally and Jim are on the case at the Croydon family home, getting rid of mould and sorting out bedrooms. We are hoping we will see them again this month but it depends on the progress of both patients.

As far as my situation is concerned, I saw the doctor last week and she ordered a blood test after I had listed all my “ailments”. I had that on Thursday morning and they rang me to say the GP wanted to talk to me about my low B15 levels. An appointment has been made for two weeks time. In the meantime we all researched Vitamin B12 deficiency symptoms and there was, more or less, my list of ailments. So, we have bought some B12 supplement pills to start taking immediately. I may check with the GP that it is ok. I hope that is the problem solved because the next time I fall down, it may not be onto a carpet. And I may not fall asleep at the drop of a hat. Who knows, all my joints may feel better, including my knees.

Budget day tomorrow I can’t wait! I wonder how much richer Sunak, Johnson and their cronies will be at the end of the day.

We had a lovely Sunday lunch (shoulder of lamb) with David and Sally and Jim. We dpn’t get together like that and sadly I forgot to take a photo. A lovely memory nevertheless.