February 2021

As “Key Workers”, out and about in the community, we have been offered twice weekly Covid testing. To take advantage of the test all I need to do is to drive into Leicester to one of two centres, and take the test. Will I take advantage of the offer? No, not at this time. The tests are lateral flow tests, which identify only 75% of infections, only slightly reassuring. We, my wife and I, have found that reporting the vaguest of symptoms on the Zoe App, part of a nationwide study to track Covid symptoms, is more helpful. Merely reporting an occasional chesty cough or a regular sniffle initiates an invitation to take an accurate PCR test, at home or at a testing centre. I have taken three since August, and my wife four, getting a reliable negative result within 24 hours.

Sadly Mum-in-Law’s close friend, in her 90’s, who I reported as being admitted to hospital with Covid, has died. As with centenarian Captain Sir Tom Moore, who has also, sadly, died, it seems that if you are of a certain age, merely being admitted to hospital with Covid-19 is not a good sign.

My wife’s cough deteriorated, albeit confirmed as not being Covid related, and she called 111 to report breathing difficulties. In previous years the advice would have been for me to take her to A&E, or the nearest walk-in centre, for an assessment. Instead, an ambulance was dispatched, and a full assessment was undertaken in our kitchen, a process taking two hours thanks to the dog-loving crew being distracted by our pooches, and taking photographs for the Ambulance Service Patients-Pets Facebook Page. My wife’s breathing improved with the aid of a nebuliser, and tests confirmed that survival was likely. An on-call GP was called to arrange antibiotics, resulting in a full and frank exchange between the crew and GP, the latter requiring a hospital assessment, the former pointing out that they had just performed an assessment at considerably less risk to the patient. A compromise was agreed, and 7 hours later a GP made a house call, agreeing with the ambulance crew, but, unlike the ambulance crew, he was able to prescribe drugs.

My step-daughter and family have recently moved house, and felt sufficiently financially confident to employ a decorator to, well, decorate. He was a nice chap by all accounts, an able decorator despite not having gone through any apprenticeship, or indeed any other formal training in the trade. He had, however, completed plenty of training in a previous career. He was a Ryanair airline pilot, furloughed, but with no promise of a return to work.

I met our pub landlady, each of us out with our dogs. This lockdown, together with pubs having already been closed for weeks beforehand, has been harder than “Lockdown 1”. This time the brewery has not purchased the ales in the cellar, the longer life lager-beers are now out of date, and even the syrups used in mixers are past their best. I queried whether insurance would cover wastage. Many insurance companies have paid up, following a recent court case, but not the one insuring “our” pub, which, ironically, is the company recommended by the brewery. However, as long as she isn’t trading, the brewery does not charge rent, and with foresight she and her partner do not run the pub together, and so they still have an income from her partner. She promised me that the pub would re-open, and that, in due course, we will be served once again by our favourite barmaid.

A new Lateral Flow Covid test centre has opened in Leicester, on my route to the office, and I popped in today. This first visit was time consuming since I opted to register with an NHS “account”, and in my case form-filling on a phone is prone to repeated errors. Future visits will be quicker. The procedure is more straightforward than the full PCR test at a walk-in centre. The sampling is the same, tonsil-tickling and snot-stirring with a swab, but the packaged swab is handed to you by someone behind a screen, who takes the swab from you afterwards. None of the confusion, in my case, of working out what goes in which bag, and where the labels need to be. A texted negative result was received within an hour. I shall re-visit. In the old days if you popped into somewhere on the way to the office, it was probably to grab a coffee or bacon butty.

Spring seems to have arrived early, and yesterday I strolled down towards the village on my chosen dog walking route. It was mild and sunny, the ground was drying, and the dogs trotted beside me. This was the route to the pub. For the first time in months, I really yearned for a stroll with mates and dogs down to the pub for a pint of draught ale. Maybe pubs will re-open in time for summer.