April 2021

Easter Monday, and we travelled to Leeds to see my stepdaughter and family, seeing granddaughters for the first time in months. It was difficult to resist hugs, but they came running out, elbows out for what has become the covid-safe greeting of lightly-touched elbows. Me and my eldest granddaughter are both in the Scout movement, and we tapped left elbows, the safe version of the traditional Scouting left-hand shake. The forecast of an “arctic blast” proved to be over-dramatic, and although we had dog-walked in snow earlier, the sun shone onto the sheltered patio of their home, nestled in a wooded valley. As darkness fell, so did the temperature, and we threw caution to the wind, and we briefly retired to the heated summer-house, but with doors wide open, before we headed back south.

We can now order a pack of lateral flow home test-kits for Covid, and ours were delivered today. Home testing is more convenient than visiting the walk-centre in Leicester, where I have been a regular, popping in whenever I have been to the office. Gagging in the privacy of one’s bathroom is also preferable. The problem will be remembering to test regularly at home. I pass the walk-in centre between car park and office, or cycle past it on my way in, and so get a visual reminder to pop in for a test. Without such a reminder I’m not sure that I’ll remember to test regularly at home.

Back up to Yorkshire today for a visit to my sister. The weather was cold but sunny, and we moved the table around the garden chasing the sunshine as shadows lengthened in the late afternoon. A bracing dog walked warmed us up after sitting for a couple of hours in the garden, just as it had done during the Leeds visit, but but we sat on the patio for only a a few minutes after the walk before it became uncomfortably cold. We had the car heater on full blast to warm up again as we drove back south in the evening.

At last pubs have opened. Well, some of them. With service restricted to outdoors, many pubs do not have enough outdoor space to seat sufficient socially distanced customers to make the operational financially viable, particularly with the vagaries of the British springtime weather. The two pubs closest to us are in this situation, and will remain closed until indoor hospitality is, hopefully, allowed next month. Nevertheless, this was a Covid-Relaxation Milestone to be celebrated, and so four of us walked nearly two miles along field footpaths to the nearest village that had a pub that was open. The taste of the first pint of freshly poured draught ale for several months, or, in the case of The Ladies, fruity gins not normally available at home, made the journey worth it. It was a very contented group that wandered back home across the fields as the sun set.

Despite pubs being open, we continue with our weekly Zoom pub sessions. Drinking, or indeed dining, is restricted to outdoor areas, which is fine for a lunchtime pint, but not for the evening, when, with the clear skies and northerly wind that we have been experiencing for weeks, the temperature drops significantly. Our nearest local pub is not big enough to have significant numbers of socially distanced outdoor customers, and there are those in our party who grumble at the half mile short walk home from this pub, let alone the 1.5 mile stroll each way across the fields to the nearest pub that has sufficient outdoor space to make opening to customers worthwhile. We hope to resume visits to our local pub following it’s planned re-opening in May.

Once again, we have been visited by friends on a mild sunny afternoon, and once again the weather deteriorated just as an al-fresco evening meal was served, not just turning cold, but distinctly damp. We retired to a well-ventilated kitchen. After all, we have all now been vaccinated, tested, and re-tested. And we have, very occasionally, shared a car with the other vaccinated and tested, households, for a short journey. We know that we are breaching the rules again, but there is no doubt that there are circumstances where the risk of Covid transmission is greater even if rules are being followed to the letter.

I am now regularly testing using Covid lateral flow test kits at home, testing before and after working in Leicester or before I meet up with friends. The first time I carefully followed the instructions and got a negative result. The second time I merely glanced at the instructions as a reminder. It was only during the third test that I realised that the instructions continued after the testing procedure to state that all results, positive or negative, should be reported to the NHS. I suppose this could be described as a Man-Look at the instructions. I duly submitted the negative result online and received a text shortly afterwards to notify me that the results were in, and I would be pleased to know that I was negative.

We are, on the whole, still avoiding pubs. There are, conveniently, six of us who, for many years, have walked to the local pub every Tuesday, and so we can now meet in a pub garden on a Tuesday evening, still following the “rule of six” – no more than six people, each 2m apart, gathering together. But instead we continue to Zoom. This is not an aversity to risk, but weather avoidance. We are of an age when even good ale fails to compensate for a cold breeze blowing between the tankards. Anyway, a good ale should never be served cold. We will continue to visit the Zoom Arms for the time being.