15th December 2020, 276 days of lockdown/isolation.

As usual, there are only two themes of real importance to think about as we are stuck here in Tier 3.

London, and the South think they are special (and immune from infection) and are objecting to all 11,000,000 of them being moved into Tier 3 from tomorrow. They hate the fact that they will not be able to go to pubs and restaurants or visit a theatre. Yes, it is hard but necessary. Poor loves. Typical southern softy reaction. Yes, we can all come up with statistics in some communities, where the figures are low: but you cannot separate them. A blanket solution is all there is. The problem is that the public cannot be trusted to be careful and if the “line” goes down the middle of a road, there will always be some who will cross it. We should have been tougher from the start and wait for the vaccine to come.

The five day Christmas “break” from restrictions, looks set to be cancelled. No surprise there as I always thought it was a stupid idea that would have undone a lot of good work and rendered a lot of sacrifices made by UK citizens, worthless.

A Brexit settlement is still being bickered about and the late John le Carre put it best when he wrote…Brexit is “an act of self-immolation” in which “the British public is being marched over a cliff by a bunch of rich, elitist carpetbaggers posing as men of the people”. I love that. Boris and his team are still dithering about fishing in our waters when we have no trawlers left anyway and fishing in any case, only represents around 1% of UK income, I think.

I went for yet another blood test yesterday and today got a call from the GP to go again for another test in 4 weeks so they can check results about my liver. Not much left to check on now. I hope I am representative of “The Creaking Gate Club”.

Made 20 cheese scones this afternoon and had hoped that I could get some to Maisie who thinks the idea of them is disgusting! I used strong breaded flour instead of self raising flour but they turned out well anyway and we have eaten half of them already. Sorry Maisie!!!

3rd December 2020. 263 days of lockdown/isolation.

A vaccine has arrived sooner than expected and I expect that Jenny and I will be in one of the earlier tranches of recipients. In theory, we could be done and dusted by the New Year. I am concerned about how mum is going to be included. She is not in a care home as such but with four carers a day attending to her then her own home is the care home and her being 94, there should be no problem. Maybe a call to the care providers (private) might be useful. 

I find it very distasteful that the government is spinning this great development into a victory for them. Hang on a minute! The vaccine is being produced in Belgium having been developed in Germany by the children of Turkish immigrants under the auspices of an American company. No mention of the UK anywhere in the vaccine’s development. Gavin Williamson (Tory Education Secretary) thinks “..we’ve got the best people in this country and we’ve obviously got the best medical regulators. Much better than the French have, much better than the Belgians have, much better than the Americans have. That doesn’t surprise me at all because we’re a much better country than every single one of them aren’t we”. AND THIS LOT ARE IN CHARGE. HELP!!!!!!!!!

Tier 3 is upon us today. It is still cold and damp and we are in lockdown so nothing is changed. Spain has announced that nobody can enter the country without having a certificate of a negative corona test from the previous 72 hours. We won’t be going there any time soon then.

There continues to be debate about visiting Mum on Xmas Eve, With Tier 3, I don’t think any one should go. \that would be unpopular but necessary, I think. Whether or not she has had the vaccination.

I went to the Hull Eye Hospital for some laser work on my retina, yesterday. I was there for three hours which culminated in a part lasering of a split in the retina causing spots and blemishes to my vision. The split is caused by dryness in the retina which can be pulled apart which in itself is not a massive problem but if eye fluid gets behind the retina it can “lift” causing blindness. As it is, even if they can “weld” the split, I can be left with a blind spot. The split itself cannot be repaired. I have to go in again in 14 days for a consultant to finish the job. The procedure is painless except for some stinging eye drops.

We have posted all our Xmas cards to the UK and abroad at a cost in excess of £50. I don/t object to the cost this year as we will not have a chance to see many of our friends and family so we could write a message on a card. When we were in Spain, we sent a “round robin” email card and donated the saved postage cost to charity. If we are out of the pandemic next year, we may revert to doing that.

29th November, 2020. 259 days of lockdown/isolation.

Another week has passed and we are looking forward to our Tier 3 status. Despite all the “explanations provided by politicians, scientists and tv pundits, I am still unclear as to our visiting rights over the Xmas holiday period. What is certain is that we will not be travelling to the Midlands to see the Clarkes from Spain. Like I have always said, we should write off 2020 and start again next year. We have already bought tickets to see Paloma Faith in concert in Hull next November. We should be OK as should our one week away in the Harz Mountains in Germany in May with our friends Val and Nick. We should be OK for that too. The “Farewell to Hull Inland Revenue” Dance. which had been rearranged for the third time, to January, has finally been cancelled. It will be a shame not to see old colleagues but there is a hint of a “reunion do” later on in the year. That would be nice if it came off.

Christmas Eve with my mum and everyone in the family, has been cancelled. Our main focus will be David and the Grandchildren and they will as usual, get their presents on Christmas/Boxing Day at our house if Covid 19 allows. We have yet to find out what the plans are for Mum on Christmas Day. I don’t think she should leave her home this year so I may suggest that we take her a plated Xmas lunch in the afternoon and spend a couple of hours with her. That frees all the rest of the families up to do their own thing and if we stay away on Christmas Eve, then it is less complicated for everyone to visit.

So, Diego Maradona has died at 60 years of age. Quite young, probably due to his drug induced lifestyle in later life. There is no doubt that, at his peak, he was the greatest and most gifted footballer the world has ever seen and the adulation shown by Argentinians is understandable but over the top. Weeping and wailing and throwing replica shirts at his coffin by young people who were too young to have ever seen him almost seems orchestrated. But he is their man and they can mourn how they like. It is a bit odd to me though, that so much air time was given to him in the UK. Here was a man who cheated the England football team out of a possible world cup final place and went on to wish death on British forces in the Falklands war. I will remember his undoubted skills, but not the man.

A vaccine seems to be getting nearer. I know of people who are not going to bother with it until it is shown to be safe. So it’s ok to let us old folk be the guinea pigs. Happy to oblige, people. If no vaccine had been on the horizon, some of the anti-vaxxers would have complained that it was taking too long to develop. Some of them of course will choose never be inoculated, and presumably also objected to the MMR jab. Bring it on, I say.

Spent a lot of time on health this week. Doctors appointment meant two more prescription items. A further visit to the optician has resulted in an appointment at the Eye Hospital tomorrow morning. Jenny and I both needed blood tests for which we are still awaiting the results. A busy week.

There are some big Xmas light displays down our street. A bit early but very spectacular and cheerful.

22nd November, 2020. 252 days of lockdown/isolation

We’ve been busy this week. Jenny has been wrapping presents and buying more gifts online. I have been writing cards which by the time I finish, will probably exceed 50 including 7 or 8 to Europe and a small parcel to Sally and Jim in Bucharest. We had to buy more cards and stamps but will be ready for posting them all together on 1st December. Plenty of time for them to arrive at their destinations.

Having visited Mum on Tuesday I went again on the following day to await a delivery of flowers from York for Mum’s birthday. I waited for nearly three hours but they did not arrive in the time slot M & S had promised. Still, it gave me a great opportunity to fill in lots of gaps to Mum’s story in 1944 to 1949, The year we moved as a family to England.

At the back end of 1944, my Uncle Martin who, like every boy in Prussia, was in the Hitler Youth, was sent to Germany for Army Officer training. It was an SS training camp but as the war was coming to a close, he had not completed his training before he was ordered to go and fight the advancing Russian Army. Mum didn’t know how the story went but Uncle Martin told me he led his platoon of boys (they were all 15/16) into the arms of American forces where they all became prisoners of war. We don’t know where he was imprisoned but as he was a minor, the Americans would not allow him to be released unless a German soldier would take responsibility for him and get him to Kassel where his Aunt Lisbeth lived. At this point, Mum’s family assumed he had been killed. In reality he had not even fired a shot in anger. He found his way to Kassel with the help of a German soldier and was able to contact everyone in Kiel thought Auntie Lisbeth. He immediately got a job as a printer but not in Kiel. He moved to the Ruhr area near Duisburg where he spent the rest of his life with his late wife Elfriede, 3 children and 5 grandchildren. I am still in infrequent contact with them. ore next time.

I called again on Wednesday morning on Mum’s 94th Birthday. The flowers (I assume) had arrived whilst the morning carer was there. Not the service I would expect from M & S. Angela was there to see Mum too so I stayed two hours chatting.

Stayed more or less at home the rest of the time. Caught up with a few phone calls and paperwork. Obviously we had no visitors nor did we go anywhere else other than we had a Covid safe shop at Aldi and got some stamps from the Post Office.

We have been informed that we are likely to go into a Tier 3 situation on December 2nd. It doesn’t really affect us as we are still going to stay in our own lockdown and are prepared not to go out at all and have groceries delivered as we did in March. Despite some indications that there will be some easing of restrictions for Christmas, we don’t anticipate being anything but “home alone” right through the festivities.

Nothing much has changed in the USA and I am frankly bored of it all and await Biden’s accession in due course. My list of narcissistic villains has increased with the inclusion of Priti Patel who seems to be another narcissist joining the club members of Boris, Cummings and of course Trump. There are many other not so well known club members who are extremely self-centered with an exaggerated sense of self importance and are not too concerned with the state of the world. They exist in both parties. Give me strength.

17th November 2020. 247 days of lockdown/isolation

Went to see Mum today. I thought I would test her memory of the events of 1945 and her and her families escape from Ponarth, Koenigsberg in early 1945. Apart from the actual escape route which has always changed slightly, she is still very sure of her arrival in Kiel/Laboe and how she was allocated “lodgings” in Laboe with the Arp family. She can even remember the rooms they were given and who slept where. The Arp family were very kind, Walter and Edith and their daughter Antja. They remained family friends until Mum stopped her visits to Germany and they have mostly passed away now. Every time we went to Laboe, almost every year, we visited them for coffee and cake and my sister Angela and I grew up as friends of Antja’s children Franki and Kirsten (Schueler). Kirsten lives in Kiel now and very rarely goes to Laboe and Franki lives in a flat in the same house and has become a recluse, barely seeing anyone. He passes cousin Petra’s flat each day as he makes his daily walk to the bakers. He is badly “stooped” and walks like a very sick old man. Very sad. I would love to see him to talk to but I have been advised that he would not want to make contact and would probably not remember me anyway. Shame. We had some good times together.

The Arps were a well off family. Walter had his own business, building and repairing ships. Even so, they welcomed the 6 refugees with open arms. (The British Expeditionary Force..BEF, were due to arrive and hundreds of soldiers including my father, would be looking for billets but this house was full). They were Oma (my grandmother), My Mum (18), Auntie Mariechen(15), Auntie Christel (11) and Uncle Gerhard (8 years old). The 6th member of the group was Gerda (22), the daughter of a neighbour in Ponarth who’s separated mother had thrown her out to make room for a new boyfriend. We grew up knowing Gerda and as was the “tradition” we called her Auntie.

I was at Mum’s for over two hours. Nearly twice as long as normal. I may quiz her some more next time about how she met my father.

16th November 2020. 246 days of lockdown/isolation.

A doing nothing day today so I filled the afternoon writing Xmas cards. Lots of wasted money, time and paper but strangely, it was nice writing short greetings to all those we have not seen during the pandemic. How times have changed already. Maybe we will not revert to a standard group Xmas email. We still donate a decent amount to Children in Need, as we did before. We suggested we may see everyone in 2021. It certainly is looking that way.

Moderna also seem to be about to bring a vaccine to market, albeit not until the spring. And there are others waiting in the wings. The more the merrier, I say. It is certainly boding well and maybe we will get some mileage on the car at last which has been filled up with diesel four times since March. In the last few months we have used a bus only a couple of times so our carbon footprint must be quite small.

So, Boris is isolated again because he was close to someone who tested positive. So now he is able to extole the virtues of track and trace (bollocks) whilst being locked down in number 10 nicely avoiding all the awkward questions about Cummings and his departure. And I want to know what was in that cardboard box. Answers on a postcard please. (Can you still buy postcards without pictures?) And no more televised briefings headed by Boris with more awkward questions at the end of each briefing. And what will happen to BREXIT which is allegedly close to a deal.

My knees are better today after two days rest, strong painkillers and lots of “Deep Heat” cream. I love the smell of it. There is still a lot wrong with my knee but is it a waste of time trying to get an appointment with the GP?

I am in the process of deleting most of the 3500 songs on my ipod and replacing them with cds I have not heard for a while. A few Beatles, Ry Cooder, Tangerine Dream, Seasick Steve and others to tickle my fancy. I cant wait although my recently discovered Spotify App needs more exploration. There is a rich vein of music I don’t have. George Harrison (All Things Must Pass) for example. Lovely stuff!!

15th November 2020. 245 days of lockdown/isolation.

It has been a very interesting and to some extent, exciting six days.

First, the vaccine. I am hoping this is not fake news. I don’t think it is. Particularly as we, as over 70s, will be two of the first in the queue. Obviously NHS workers and all those in the care industry will be first along with the over 80s. After that it will be administered down wards in five year bands. With 20,000,000 jabs available (we need two each) we should be OK. Congratulations to Pfizer and in particular Ugur Sahin. Other vaccines are not far behind and I look forward to others such as Moderna and Oxford University/BioNTech coming on board soon. Despite this optimism, the Anti-Vaxxers are mobilising to oppose the programme. Seriously? This is the same lot, I assume, who opposed the MMR vaccine and have since been proved wrong. My advice is to ignore them. They are nutters. The same as that PETA lot. In fact I think they are just anarchist looking for a cause to attach themselves to. Anti fracking, anti abortion etc.

Second, Trump seems to have sounded his last hurrah. He is very quiet of late and although he is still claiming the election was a fraud, his pals and Republicans generally, are deserting him bit by bit. Biden on the other hand is carrying on in a dignified manner and I believe will be inaugurated without fuss next January. I predict, that as a last gesture of defiance, he will not turn up. He is also threatening to contest the election in 2024, which suggests he is planning to give up the fight for this year. I don’t think even his current supporters would risk his nomination in the primaries. He should concentrate on running his (garish) hotel in New York. Mind you, I think he is rubbish at that too.

Third, Dominic Cummings (and a couple of others) have gone. Not before time. Boris will have to appoint replacements and that will be interesting. However, Cummings, I believe was largely responsible for forming our Brexit policy so we will be left with the legacy of that smirking toad for a long time to come. I hope we never hear from him again!!

Next, a pupil in Thea’s class at Beverley High School has tested positive so she has been sent home with her classsmates and they must isolate for 14 days. This means that we won’t see David and the kids for that period of time. It was Maisies 12th birthday on the 11th and we were able to see her for a short time whilst child minding them when David went to pick Ronnie up from school. We took chocolate cake, which went down very well.

Then on Friday night we took part in a ZOOM quiz with Sally and Jim from her school. Technically a nightmare but Sally and Jim set it up for us. We had Sally, Jim and two of their friends, live on my tablet and the quiz master on You Tube on my Smartphone. Mind blowing!! We did OK in the quiz too. We were just six points behind the winners. Strangely enough, the Music Round was what let us down. We had to name famous songs that were played on a hurdy gurdy, A large vegetable and boogie woogie piano. I got one right despite being given 14 answers to choose from for the 10 answers. Pathetic!!!

The weather in the last week has been awful and along with a very painful right knee, I only managed two days walking in excess of 5000 steps. 6335 and 8136. Both of those resulted in a day of rest the next day. The average daily figure was 2700 steps. Not bad but definitely not good enough. On the plus side, admittedly with the help of Codeine, I am averaging 8 hours of good sleep most nights.

In the current lockdown we are not using the big supermarkets (Sainsbury’s and Aldi). All local shops are open and we will be using the butchers, bakers and greengrocers wherever possible. Our freezers are well enough stocked not to need meat. I shall again be baking scones to use up some of the proliferation of strong breaded flower we have accumulated. Today we are using up the veg from the garden centre and some frozen chicken wings, lightly cooked in the oven with some garam masala, turmeric and garlic. Ive also got some lovely frikadellen which I shall fry up and put in what is left after today’s meal. Maybe some chick peas as well. Yum yum.

Hamilton is F1 World Champion. Again. Equalling Schumacher’s record of seven wins. Well done Louis.

9th November 2020. 239 days of lockdown/isolation

It seems that we may have a vaccine waiting in the wings. Let us hope so. However, It may be only 90% effective after two doses some days apart and we would still need to wait for 14 days after the second jab, before we can feel we are safe. At least the elderly, that’s us, will be given some priority. This comes as it is reported that Hull and the East Riding have some of the worst Corona numbers in the UK. You only have to walk around and see big groups congregated for a chat, completely against the lockdown rules. It has been like that for some time in this area and guess which people will want to be first in the vaccine queue? The younger ones. That’s right. Well, they will have to wait their turn.

Had a lovely WhatsApp video call with Sally and Jim in Romania. They are both well but sadly told us of the death of “Licky” the kitten that they found in a plastic bag, abandoned with his brother. He had been run over and Sally and Jim found him. At least he had plenty of love in his short life. I will visit Mum tomorrow and try a video call to Sally and Jim whilst at her house.

Trump is still in denial but has told the Republican Party faithful that he will stand again in 2024. This would mean, by definition, that he has accepted his defeat by Briden. Some of Trumps interviews and speeches beggar belief but he has an excuse. He’s a narcissistic loony. The same excuse cannot be given to some of his cohorts who try, unsuccessfully, to support his claims of voter fraud. Pathetic!!

The front garden is about finished. All planting was completed in the gathering gloom so we went for a walk to see the Cottingham Christmas lights. A really good display, mostly done by volunteers.