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I have been having a very quiet couple of days at home - even more quiet than necessitated by our mandatory lockdown. This is because I have been suffering from a bad cold, although thankfully I’m on the mend now. Of course it did cross my mind to wonder - bad cold or Covid-19? Having googled the symptoms it’s actually quite hard to tell. In addition to traditional cold symptoms I have been very achey and shivery. If it has been Covid-19 would this actually be a good thing because I might now be immune? I’m not sure. I have kept apart from the rest of the household during the worst of it but that probably won’t have made any difference since until the last couple of days we have all been in close proximity.
Meanwhile Covid-19 has unfortunately continued its inexorable progress. In the last 24 hours another 181 people have died in the UK, bringing the total to 759. And of course there have been many thousands of deaths around the world, more than 25000. It’s terrible. Today the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary both tested positive, as has Prince Charles.
I have started reading The Mirror and The Light, the long-awaited final part of Hilary Mantel’s trilogy about Thomas Cromwell. I have been looking forward to its publication for a long time. I am loving it so far, although of course I know it will have a sad ending for this Cromwell fan girl! Rumour has it that Hilary Mantel took so long over finishing it because she didn’t want to write about Cromwell’s demise. Anyway, as I read it, there are strangely topical references to the Tudor court having to move location or avoid London because of sleeping sickness or plague. Something that we have not had to live with in my lifetime until now.
Finally, on Bryan Burnett’s Get it On radio programme, a favourite at Casa Anderson, the appropriately chosen theme earlier this week was “Home.” And the far and away most requested song was “Caledonia” by Dougie MacLean. I found it very moving.