Covid Update on a Sunday afternoon

We are having a relaxing Sunday afternoon. I’m sitting in the back room beside Flora, who is using the vantage point of the back of the couch to watch birds flying around the trees in the garden. Ally, James and Cat are chatting while eating their lunch. Tom is wandering about going in and out of the cat flap. 

We are still deeply in lockdown and I think that this will go on for at least the whole of February. The number of deaths per day in the UK is much higher than during the first lockdown. In those days deaths per day were mostly under a thousand, which was bad enough. But now, although the number varies, it’s at least 1200 per day and recently has peaked at 1820 deaths on 20th January and 1725 deaths on 27th January. More than 106,000 people have died of Covid in the UK in the last 10 months.

However, there is much hope regarding the vaccines. Almost all people over 80 have now had the first of their two doses of vaccine, and so have a lot of the most vulnerable people. The over 70s are now receiving letters to get vaccinations over the next few weeks, and it will continue down through the age bands. If this works, the number of deaths should hopefully fall drastically. I hope so. 

Archeology and bird boxes

We all watched a lovely film this evening. It’s called “The Dig” and it’s based on the true story of the discovery of the Sutton Hoo burial ship and treasure. It has a star-studded and excellent cast including Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan, and it has everything you could wish for - history and archeology and treasure and friendship and romance and sadness and war and happiness. It was great. All credit to James for choosing it. At the end Cat said that she was emotionally exhausted and so was I! We had to play a couple of rounds of University Challenge to recover our equilibrium. 

In other news, James was given a bird box camera by Ally and Cat for Christmas, for the bird boxes that he has recently made. He was delighted with this, and has especially installed an internet booster that can reach the top of the garden, so that hopefully in the springtime we will be able to watch baby birds hatching and being fed inside the bird box. 

Pollok Park in the rain

I went for a walk with Ally W this afternoon in Pollok Park. It was raining but we had our rain jackets and we had a good walk. The park was remarkably flooded; I know it has been wet but I didn’t think there had been that much rain, to cause streams to overflow and huge puddles on the paths. 

When I got home I ran myself a nice hot bath and changed into properly dry clothes so that I wouldn’t get chilled. 

After watching the last episode of “Traces”, a murder mystery set in Dundee (I have recommended it to Davie and Chanel because it has lovely views of Dundee throughout), Ally was showing me footage of a recent SpaceX launch on YouTube; it was an unmanned flight after which the rocket landed back down again, although it did explode as it landed. There’s another one coming up soon. For some reason this put me in mind of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster which I remember well from watching it on the news at the time in our wee house in Snaefell Avenue. I feel as if I saw it happening live, but I’m not sure if that’s the case. Anyway, I looked it up on YouTube and to my surprise I realised that, by coincidence, today is the 35th Anniversary of the disaster, which took place on 28th January 1986. It was very sad. 

Burns Supper Lockdown Style

On Monday we had haggis, neeps and tatties for dinner in honour of Burns Night. Of course it couldn’t measure up to the many lovely Burns Suppers that we have enjoyed with the hill-walking club over the years. Last year was a particularly happy occasion, in those halcyon days when we still had no idea that a pandemic was about to strike. We didn’t do any speeches or poems this year, but the four of us did have a pleasant and companionable evening together, which is definitely in the spirit of Robert Burns. 

Yesterday we went for a 12 km walk at Drumpellier Loch on the 7 Loch trail with Heather and Ewan. This time we reached the elusive Bishop Loch and walked beyond it towards, but not all the way to, Hogganfield Loch. We complied with the current rule of only two people being allowed to walk together by walking in two separate groups of two; me with Heather and James with Ewan. Then for the last couple of km we swapped over. The weather started out grey but dry and slowly turned to drizzle, but we were well equipped for the dampness. When we arrived back at the cars the rain started pelting down, so we felt that our timing had been excellent. 

When we got home we had a Zoom call with Alison and Hugh; it was brilliant to see them. A Zoom call is definitely better than a phone call, but obviously not as good as seeing people in person. We will be hopefully be able to call into Nairn on our way north when we are allowed to head back to Ullapool.

Cosy Afternoon

Jane’s and I went out for a good walk this morning - through the parks to Burnside and then back the longer way - just over 8 km. The weather is absolutely beautiful; blue skies and very cold, with the merest dusting of snow on the ground. Needless to say I became quite warm as we marched along, and soon unzipped and then removed my jacket. But when we got back home I felt quite chilled. So the fire is on and I’m sitting wrapped in a fleecy blanket in the front room. James, Cat and Ally are here too, variously reading, colouring in pictures and processing the washing, in pleasantly domestic Sunday afternoon scenes. 

Happy lockdown birthday James

When this whole Covid pandemic started last March, I would never have guessed, in addition to Ally and Cat’s locked down birthdays in March and April, that David in October, me in December and now James in January would still be having locked down birthdays. However, like the rest of us, James has actually had a really good day. 

The two of us went out for a goodly walk in the morning, which was cold but sunny. Then after a bit of gardening, James (not me) was treated to his presents and we all enjoyed a delicious meal by “Home by Nico.”

This was in fact a present for me for my recent birthday from Ally and Cat. The 22nd January was the first date that they could book it for, which serendipitously is James’ birthday. Two large boxes of ingredients arrived yesterday, and this evening Ally and Cat cooked it all according to the instructions into a gorgeous meal. There were vegetarian meals for me and Cat, and omnivore meals for James and Ally. There were four courses and it really did taste like a meal in a restaurant. James and I were both really touched by Ally and Cat’s thoughtfulness. 

Then they produced a cake and candles and Happy Birthday was sung and indeed it was a very happy day. 

Inauguration

Today was Joe Biden’s Inauguration Day and how differently it has been reported in the media from Donald Trump’s inauguration four years ago. As I have said before, I am no fan of Trump’s, I don’t agree with his policies and in fact he has behaved like a (very dangerous) spoiled child over losing the election. However the vitriol of the media towards him today was cringe-making at times. There was no graciousness in victory just as he had none in defeat.

Anyway, new beginnings for America I hope, and the Inauguration was quite moving. Of course due to Covid there could be no crowds, and there was extra security after last week’s invasion of the Capitol Building by Trump supporters. And bad loser Trump didn’t even attend. 

So first Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first female and first South Asian Vice President, and then Joe Biden was sworn in as President. He called for unity and pledged to be a “president for all Americans”. 

The celebrities who rocked up for the musical part were Lady Gaga who sang the National Anthem, Jennifer Lopez who sang a medley of patriotic songs, and Garth Brooks who sang Amazing Grace. A young poet called Amanda Gorman read out a poem she had written about unifying America and making it better. It all went well - and now the hard work begins. 

Sunny Sunday

I’ve just arrived home from a sunny walk with James around the local parks. There is not a trace of the snow from a few days ago. We have spent so much time in the main Cambuslang Park and Holmhills Park this past year. A side effect of the lockdown. There were quite a few other people out walking on this (comparatively) mild January day. 

Our photo project has stalled a bit but we’re going to press on with it tomorrow. The restrictive feeling of being locked down is not great but by now we’re used to it, and are making the most of our quiet time. We are going out for walks, spending time with Ally and Cat, making meals, reading, watching films and television series. I’m having phone calls and Zoom calls with Jamie, Davie, Jennifer, school friends and book clubs. But even though we are gainfully occupying our time, there is a feeling of waiting for the next part of our lives, when hopefully we will be freed by the vaccines to enjoy the spring and summer. 

Art Class

I have resisted joining any online classes during our ongoing lockdowns (I count this as our third but of course we have never been completely “unlocked”) This is because I enjoy being in a class with other people rather than just seeing them on a screen. I loved my French class last year. However, since there still seem to be weeks ahead of lockdown, I accepted Catherine’s invitation to join an online Art class. This afternoon was my first class, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was on Zoom, so I could see my classmates, a couple of whom I already knew. The teacher is called Nina and she demonstrated various methods of painting and then people showed work that they have done. The two hours flew by and I think I’m going to like it. I would still prefer to attend a class in person though. 

The Covid news is still not good - 1564 more deaths today, which is the highest daily total since the pandemic began. But apparently the number of admissions to hospital is beginning to drop, probably thanks to the current stricter lockdown, so hopefully the tide is slowly beginning to turn. 

New Passport

James and I applied for our new passports on 9th December. They don’t actually run out until March but what with Brexit we decided to reapply early in case there were delays. Mind you, now that we have been locked down for many weeks to come, there really was no hurry after all. We applied online, uploading photos of ourselves that we took of each other. The next day I went down to the Post Office and posted our old passports to the addresses provided. I say “addresses” in the plural because strangely I was instructed to post mine to Liverpool while James was told to post his to Peterborough. And that’s where our troubles began; I just posted them using normal second class post, rather than recorded delivery. We heard nothing for weeks, and the message on the passport renewal website simply continued to ask us to send our old passports. James became increasingly convinced that the passports were lost forever. When Cat then applied for her passport to be renewed, and used recorded delivery to return her old passport, her new passport was issued swiftly and efficiently. At this point my name definitely became Mrs Mud in the eyes of my dear husband. Finally James got the message that his old passport had been received and just after new year his shiny new passport arrived. This took the edge off his reproaches but by this time even I was getting a bit twitchy about the lack of updates on the website. At last I got the much awaited message that my new passport was on its way, and it arrived this morning. What a relief! It had taken more than a month since I posted my old passport but all has ended well. 

Let’s hope that we get to use our passports this year! 

Huzzah!

And just like that the snow is all gone! It rained during the night and the temperature has risen, and when James and I went out for a walk along to Burnside this morning there was no snow left at all. It wasn’t even cold. 

After lunch we worked on Grandma and Grandpa’s photos and again made good progress. We have selected all of the photos that we want to keep and we now need to consult with James’ Uncle William to try to identify some of the early Andersons from the 1910s, 20s and 30s, and his cousin Andrew Eadie to help us identify some of the early Larkhall Eadies and Forrests (Grandma’s family). So we still have a bit to do, but so far so good.

The Rangers match started at 3 p.m. and was enthusiastically watched by Ally, Cat and James. We have continued watching “The Serpent” this evening, and also the second episode of “The Great”, a lighthearted and historically dubious version of the story of Catherine the Great. Her allegedly idiotic husband’s favourite exclamation is “Huzzah!” which James has been saying all week! 

Winter scenes

Today James and I walked via Gilbertfield and Flemington to Dechmont Hill, approaching the summit from the lane behind Dechmont Farm. It was still snowy and it was very cold at the top of the hill because there was a chill wind. So we descended to less exposed spot at the top of the golf course before partaking of our cups of tea. As we continued down the golf course we saw a lot of families out sledging. These were wholesome and heartwarming winter scenes but I reckon that there were about thirty-five to forty people standing around or sledging in fairly close proximity and I wondered how safe or indeed legal it was in light of the current covid restrictions. The thing is that these families probably all decided that going sledging would be a lovely idea, and when they arrived on the golf course they found that there were other people already there. And since they were outdoors it probably wasn’t doing any of them any harm? I’m just not sure. The other thing that occurred to me is that James and I never ever took the boys sledging on the golf course when they were younger - we would have been too scared that an angry official would have appeared to shout at us. I wonder if golf course committees are more tolerant of visitors than they used to be? There were certainly no angry men in evidence. 

Back at home, I had a delightful bath, lit by tea lights and a lemon scented Carthusia candle from Sorrento. This evening Cat, Ally, James and I started watching “The Serpent”, a true crime drama about a serial killer in the Far East in the 1970s, who targeted backpackers. I don’t recall these events at all, even though I was about twelve or thirteen at the time. It was high quality stuff, and reminiscent of The Killing of Gianni Versace” that I watched with David, as it moved back and forwards in time and looked at events from different perspectives. It was a great wee evening. 

Fresh Snow

It snowed during the night and we woke to a decent layer of fresh snow and blue skies. James and I put on our walking boots and set off into the cold, crisp morning. The snow was so fresh that it was not at all slippery and we walked along to Burnside then up the hill past High Burnside to Fernbrae Meadows Park - the same walk that I went on with Marjory one day in December. From there we had lovely views across Glasgow to the snowy Campsies and to Ben Lomond. We drank tea from the flask that we had brought with us, and took photos of the snowy scenes. There were quite a lot of parents and primary age children out sledging, because the schools are closed to most pupils at the moment, apart from vulnerable pupils and the children of key workers. We made our way home via Holmhills Park, it was a very pleasant walk. 

This evening I had a lovely Zoom call with my school friends Libby, Maggie, Helen and Wendy, our first of 2021. Needless to say we talked of all things Covid, and of how nice it will be when, one day, we will be allowed to meet together again in Zizzi’s for one of our long lunches. 

In sad news, today there were 1325 deaths from Covid in the UK - the most in a single day since the pandemic began. Let’s hope that the vaccines start to bring down these numbers soon.

Online

Another cold day, this time with a light layer of snow on top of the ice. James and I continued with our photo project. This feels exactly the right thing to do during our winter lockdown. It would be so nice to have achieved some long planned goals like this during our enforced quiet time, making a positive out of a negative. The next project will be converting my Dad’s slides to photos, and then tackling our own photo collection which will also be a mammoth task. 

At lunch time we attended Sue’s funeral online. It was a moving tribute to her. Because only twenty people are currently allowed to attend funerals in person, the majority of funerals are being broadcast online. This happened sometimes before 2020, but it is now the norm rather than the exception, another change to our society due to Covid 19. 

Cat and I have a new series to watch: Bridgerton. Set in the 18th century with a diverse cast, it’s historically inaccurate in many ways but it’s good fun and the costumes and settings are delightful. 

Still Cold

James and I made tremendous progress on Grandma and Grandpa’s photos this morning. We really worked as a team and we think that we are more than half way through phase 1 (the sorting!) which will be followed by phase 2 (putting the selected photos in albums or boxes). Feeling very pleased with ourselves, we ventured out into the chilly afternoon to the post office, where we posted a package to Jamie containing some bank stuff and also Grandma’s Baking Book. That will mean that all six of Grandma’s grandchildren receive a copy. The pavements were still very icy and slippy but I felt fairly confident wearing my ice grips over my shoes. However a freezing mist was descending so I didn’t stay out too long, unlike James, who extended his walk up around Holmhills Park. After his adventures yesterday Tom had a quiet day today, mostly asleep on our bed.

In the wider world there have been dramatic events today. Not only did the number of Covid deaths in the UK rise above 1000 for the first time since last April, but Trump supporters have marched on the Capitol in Washington and actually managed to break in to the building. The police are now rounding them up before a 6 p.m. curfew that has been imposed. (the East coast of America is of course five hours in time behind us). One person was shot and wounded in the Capitol building earlier; let’s hope that the protestors go home sensibly. 

A Rollercoaster of a day

We have had a difficult and worrying day but - spoiler alert - it has ended very happily. It was another cold day and James and I threw ourselves determinedly into our photo project. It wasn’t until lunchtime when Ally pointed out that Tom wasn’t around that we felt the first stirrings of worry. Tom does his wandering at twilight and before dawn; he usually likes to spend most of his days sleeping in various favourite locations around the house. As the afternoon went on we grew more concerned, and Ally and Cat went out to search for him. Cat put a notice on Facebook on the “All About Cambuslang” page, and they went to investigate a sighting that turned out not to be Tom. James and I also went out calling and whistling for Tom along the terrifying sheet of ice that is currently on our pavements and road. 

I went round about half a dozen of our neighbours to ask them to check their sheds and garages in case he had sneaked inside and got locked in. They kindly looked for him to no avail. The evening was rather miserable and we went to bed feeling very sad. 

At about quarter past eleven I heard the cat flap opening and closing downstairs but I thought that it was probably Floof. I went downstairs and sure enough Floof was sitting on the kitchen floor, but I opened the back door just in case ..... and there was our Tom sitting on the doorstep!

I gathered him up into my arms and ran upstairs to bring him to James, who was delighted. I knocked on Ally and Cat’s door and they both came running through to see him, we were all so happy! I phoned David who was worried in Dundee, and messaged Jennifer too. 

Tom is absolutely filthy. We think that it’s coal dust or soot. He must have been shut in somewhere, but where he was and how he escaped may remain a mystery. Amusingly, Flora seems to be very confused and suspicious about his identity, perhaps because his white paws and chin are currently very grey, or perhaps because he smells like a chimney! She keeps staring at him and hissing! 

Oh we are so glad to have our furry boy safe home. 

Burst pipe and big lockdown

We usually aim to take down our Christmas decorations about the 5th January, which is Twelfth Night. This is apparently when the Three Wise Men arrived to bring their gifts to baby Jesus, after following the Star of Bethlehem which led them to his stable. This year we decided to take them down a day early so that the room is all ready for 2021. Taking down the decorations and dismantling the tree was remarkably quick. First the baubles and tinsel, then the lights, then James took the tree outside and cut off its branches. Down came the Christmas cards from their wall display, a quick hoover and voila, the lounge is back to its usual condition. 

Ally went out to go for a walk with a friend, and on his return he was our hero, because he noticed that a jet of water was spraying across the back of the house from our outside tap. It had burst in the cold, probably when it unfroze. Ally could see it appearing past the side of the house as he came up the path! He ran inside and alerted James and they rushed to find the stopcock and turn off the water. 

Meanwhile Nicola Sturgeon and Boris Johnson have each announced that the lockdown will go from strict Tier 4 to even stricter Tier 4 from midnight tonight! This new very infectious strain of the virus is still spreading fast, and the NHS is in serious danger of being overwhelmed. From midnight, everyone in Scotland (and the rest of the UK) will be legally required to stay at home - except for essential purposes. Schools are to remain closed, apart from vulnerable children and children of key workers. Cafés, restaurants and pubs are already closed, and will remain so. We are only allowed to meet one person from another household outdoors, so no more walks for four people like yesterday. In other words we are back in a National Lockdown almost identical to that of last March. This is to continue until the end of January - hopefully by that time the amount of people who have had the vaccine will have increased so that the numbers in hospital will go down. 

Winter Walk

Ten years and two days ago, on 2nd January 2011, Ewan started his blog. (I didn’t start mine until two months later, inspired by Ewan.) He mentioned this in his blog post today, and noted that the four of us had a New Year’s meet up exactly a decade ago. And ten years later, this afternoon Heather, Ewan, James and I went out for a New Year’s walk together. It was very cold and the paths at Frankfield Loch were very icy, so Heather and I were glad of our ice grips which we fitted over our trail shoes. I will tactfully draw a veil over who fell over while putting them on! We hadn’t taken a trail map and didn’t quite manage to find the correct route to our next target on the Seven Lochs trail, Bishop Loch. However it didn’t really matter; we made our way across frozen fields in the low but warming sunshine and were rewarded with sightings of roe deer and beautiful pathways and thickly frosted foliage before circling back towards Stepps. We had brought flasks and stopped for an al fresco coffee on the way, with mince pies and Christmas cake. It was a lovely afternoon. 

Cold outside

When I closed the blinds before dinner our street looked absolutely freezing in the dark. The road and pavements are white with thick frost. It was cold when we went out for a circuitous walk to Burnside and back this morning, but it was sunny and pleasant to be outside. 

By lunchtime we were all cosy in the front room to watch the Old Firm game on television; the annual New Year’s match between Rangers and Celtic. There was a wreath laying ceremony today because it’s the 50th anniversary of the Ibrox disaster, when 66 Rangers fans were crushed to death on the steps of one of the exit stairways. The crowd was pushing to leave the stadium and then probably someone near the front stumbled, resulting in lots of people falling and being injured or killed. As a result the new stadium was eventually built. 

The football game went well for Rangers today; they won 1 - 0 which pleased the fans in our household! 

A Fresh Start

I had such a lovely birthday yesterday, thoroughly pampered by Ally, Cat and James, and with lots of birthday messages from friends and family. Jennifer phoned me and so did Jamie and Davie. Cat made a carrot cake for my birthday compete with buttercream icing and candles, it was so delicious. 

I have made the usual New Year’s resolutions for this new year. I hope that I can keep at least some of them. 

Health and Well-being come top of the list of course. No more snacking - I can eat from morning until bedtime, it’s awful! Walk at least 5 km per day. Go to bed earlier. 

James and I also plan to work together on projects during the year, the first one being the mammoth task of sorting out our parents’ slides and photos. We shall see how that goes!

We went out for a very pleasant walk, although it was very icy underfoot in places. We took a flask of tea and drank it on the bench in Holmhills Park overlooking the east of Glasgow with the Campsies beyond. 

Later James made his fantastic leg of lamb with juniper berries for New Year’s dinner, which unfortunately I can no longer eat now that I’m vegetarian. Cat and I had a very nice nut roast instead. I made gratin dauphinois which is one of my signature dishes, but foolishly forgot that it takes two hours to cook in the oven - despite having made it hundreds of times before. So with only an hour to go before the lamb was ready I had to make roast potatoes instead. The gratin finished cooking and we will reheat it tomorrow evening, sometimes it’s even better when it’s reheated! 

We had a relaxing evening playing Scrabble and then having a couple of lively rounds of University Challenge. The New Year has begun.