March 2021

We knew that a couple who we regularly meet with their dogs, both nurses, had suffered a family bereavement, having heard this from other dog walkers, but no-one knew details. We met again yesterday, and my wife offered condolences, asking if either had lost a parent. After a pause they tearfully told us that their son had committed suicide after returning to University. There had been nothing to suggest that he was considering taking his life. Clearly the pandemic alone cannot be blamed, but they contrasted his socially active sporty first year with a second year spent learning remotely from his room, with no distractions from any negative feelings that he may have had. The influence of the pandemic extends far beyond the infection.

My car has passed the annual MOT, which is totally unremarkable except for the fact that, despite two UK holidays and my car being the vehicle of choice for most family errands, thanks to months of having to stay safely at home, my car has travelled less than 6000 miles in 12 months in contrast to the usual 12-15000 miles. The dominance of short journeys was once again reflected in the state of my battery, flat and requiring a jump-start for a second time. Once again, my local garage reassured me that the battery was healthy, merely requiring a few longer journeys. Hopefully we can look forward to more long journeys in 2021 than we enjoyed in 2020.

Overall, the news continues to be positive. Nursing friends tell me that at the weekend there were 112 Covid cases in the main local Hospital Trust, down from over 500 several weeks ago. My Mother-in-Law will receive her second vaccine later this week.

I have a wardrobe malfunction. Now that I am more likely to visit folk at home when at work, I decided that it was time to start wearing a shirt for the first time in months, instead of the more casual attire that has become a habit. I have discovered that nearly all of my shirts have shrunk since last being worn. Or maybe not. I have now stopped eating nibbles while watching TV during evenings. Life is starting to get back to normal, bit clearly I have not been as active over the last few months than pre-lockdown.

We pre-empted a forthcoming lockdown relaxation by 48 hours when my youngest son and partner, who recently moved into their first house with a garden, visited on Saturday afternoon to collect some garden tools, stored in my shed for the last four years. They then sat down, each of us 2m apart, for a socially distanced chat and cup of tea in the garden. Collecting the tools was probably within the rules (at this time of the year gardening tasks cannot be postponed), but chatting in the garden was not.

My second consecutive birthday in Lockdown. My older son and his wife visited this evening, five hours before lockdown was relaxed, to deliver a present for me on my birthday. A cold wind was blowing onto the front of the house, but they refused an invitation to sit in the sheltered back garden, saying that they had stuck to the rules for 12 months, and would continue to do so. Consequently, we wrapped up in warm jackets, and stood on a cold and windy front drive, and chatted for almost an hour, inevitably sometimes getting closer to each other than we should. In any case the front drive was not a public space, as required by the rules for another five hours.