under another sun

Slightly nauseous, sore throaty and off colour today, sparking the predictable hypochondria. Lorraine took my temperature which was fine, and eventually even I had to conclude that I was okay.  Spent the day clearing out my study, arranging and archiving books. Things looking considerably tidier. When the mood takes me for a root and branch tidy, it has to be obeyed as it rarely happens.  Lorraine went off to see her pal Carolyn today, for a bit of a walk and a chat, but spent most of the day listening to poor Lorraine taking and making calls all day about the school opening again on Monday. Assorted unions, local authorities, scientists and so on are advising against the reopening schools. The Government think resolutely otherwise (except for the last minute U-turns on the policy in London). There is now a vaccine, swathes of the most vulnerable of children's family members are about to be protected (and hopefully teachers too) so why make this the last hill the Government st...

A poor night's sleep. Lorraine sleepless and the alarm went off at six, getting back into the old routine  at school, with year 6 now attending, as well as the children of key workers. It went well apparently, but Lorraine was tired when she got home, showering and putting all her school clothes to be washed at 60C. I am very proud of my wife, it has been a gruelling time with lots of responsibilities, and she has done very well. I spoke to Pat today for almost an hour. He was telling me about his brush with COVID-19 and being in hospital for a week. Luckily he didn't have to be intubated, but he was on the maximum dose of 10L of oxygen for a while. This was March, and he is still recovering slowly now. It was a bit of a brush with death, and he told me he had a conversation with one of the doctors who told him he was not out of the woods. Pat said, 'are we talking Wimbledon Common or the Amazon?' It was an ordeal, but he is resilient and now very pleased to be stea...

Worked on a new story this morning, then went to the gym this afternoon. Did a rough scamp for the Bolney school tapestry banner. Lorraine had asked me to amalgamate several of the children's designs into one. Cooked a chicken tonight, and L and I fell on it like wild animals.

Up early this morning, I went off to buy some bread and took up tea and bacon and egg sarnies to my lovely wife, before we got up and drove off to her school. A team of parents and other volunteers were assembling to lay paths of rubber chippings, made from shredded car tyres. I found myself shovelling for well over an hour. I left off for a while only to return and find four children happily shovelling it all back into the sacks again. Once the ground was prepped, by pulling out a forest of tiny sycamore shoots, it all went quite smoothly with an ant-like processions of people with wheelbarrows. Once the paths were laid, a few other jobs were done and the school was made safe, Lorraine (who had to lock up naturally) and I crossed the road to The Eight Bells village pub, and had a couple of drinks with some of the parents, which was fairly cheery. We were standing in the garden, and the sun even made an appearance. Then home for a late lunch round of cheese on toast, and then I simpl...