A funny week

It’s been a funny week; not funny ha-ha, funny peculiar… including a trip to a National Trust place for a socially distanced walk (sterile and a bit surreal), a Grandson back at school (he’s very happy), a trip to the dentist for some emergency antibiotics (ouch!) and some very bad news about a relative’s health (sigh).

None of these things are remotely connected, but they do have one thing in common… they’ve all been made much more complicated than necessary by the Covid19 situation or, more correctly, by the Govt’s shambolic handling of it. I wonder where or when all this crap will end. How much more can we take?

The final straw (until the next ‘final’ straw… there’s a never-ending stream of them!) was hearing today that people will be required to wear facemasks on public transport. The BMA, however, wants masks to be mandatory in all public places. Jesus bloody Christ! 

It makes no sense – if masks weren't necessary at the beginning when cases and deaths were much higher... why are they necessary now when trends for both are heading steadily downwards? Answers on a postcard to the House of Commons please, because no-one in Govt has a bloody clue.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again… there is no way on this earth that I will be seen in public looking like a bank robber in a mask. 

It’s all beginning to sound very Monty Pythonesque…. “And on tonight’s show we have Fish Slapping, the Ministry of Silly Walks and… Let’s all Wear Ridiculous Masks!!” (cue raucous laughter). Eric Idle and Michael Palin would have made a great job of it.

I can’t wait to see what next week will bring forth. One thing’s for sure – there won’t be anything sensible coming from the people who are allegedly in charge.

In charge... now, that is funny! Who are they kidding?

Happy Birthday to me!

Well, I didn’t get to go out for the birthday lunch I wanted, but I had lots of nice presents and four unexpected treats today! We decided to break lockdown 24 hours early and my lovely foursome arrived!! I was ecstatic. We sat in the garden, socially-distanced, drinking tea and eating cake. 

For lunch, after they'd gone, the two of us had dainty sandwiches (I even cut the crusts off) and scones with jam and clotted cream. A glass of Prosecco may also have been involved…

Mr S-V bravely offered to bake me a cake (for the first time in his life!) but then had a flash of inspiration and ordered an afternoon tea hamper from M&S instead. It was great – I’d recommend it.

It’s been a lovely day.

Tomorrow the lockdown officially eases and people can start to slowly take steps forward to some sort of normality, although politicians are still giving the doom and gloom narrative. It’s starting to look like this is the beginning of the end – we can’t stay locked up forever “just in case”. New cases and deaths are on a steady downward trend now and other countries have relaxed their lockdowns with no spike in deaths. Everything in life carries risk – you can’t eliminate it all.

Counsellors and therapists in this country are going to have their work cut out for them to deal with all the mental health issues that this has thrown up; when they can finally get back to work, they’ll be working 24/7, poor devils, just to keep people from jumping off tall buildings. I feel so sorry for anyone who was already suffering anxiety or depression before all this started – this won’t have made their lives any easier.

I really think it's time the Govt stopped the daily “Coronavirus Briefings” aka the litany of gloom they serve up in the guise of ‘keeping us informed’. It’s not information, it’s just a way to reiterate that they’re the ones in control.

Politicians for the first time in living memory have the entire country in fear and under control… unsurprisingly they’d like to hold onto that control.

Well, who’da thunk it...?

Angry...? Moi...?

Well, my mood hasn’t improved very much since my last post – I’ve been crying, furious and spitting nails for a few days. Does anyone in authority give a toss… in fact, does anyone at all (other than Mr S-V) give a toss? No.

So I’ll just bloody get on with it then.

Only one story has been dominating the news since last weekend – for what it's worth I think Dominic Cummings did one of two things… He drove to Durham because he needed childcare OR he drove to Durham because he thought the lockdown was pointless and unnecessary and he wanted to visit his parents.

Either way I don’t have any problem with it. Kudos to him for doing whatever the hell he wanted. The scum media are having a field day with it, but that says more about them than it does about him… and that’s the reason why they’re called ‘scum media’.

And breathe... 

Anyway... you still have to eat, even when you’re so brassed off you could scream.

straight out of the oven

I made an oven-baked frittata for lunch yesterday – been meaning to try it for a while.

I was afraid the eggy element might go a bit rubbery and I wasn’t at all convinced it’d work, but it did. Although thinking about it, I don’t know why I was worried, it’s just a quiche without the pastry. 

A decent quantity of roast veg (sweet potato, red peppers, red onions and a few stray mushrooms) a handful of broccoli florets, half a block of organic feta, six eggs whisked with half a tub of crème fraiche – it was easy and tasty and it didn’t look too bad. Nice with a few new potatoes and salad. Enough leftovers for today, too.

I’d like to say my mood will improve over the next few days but don’t hold your breath.

It’s my birthday on Sunday… a year older and still unable to hug the people I love. 

I may spontaneously combust.

Update:

Boris has had a rush of blood to the head. He has decreed that we are now allowed to have the family visit (only in groups of six, we must stay two metres apart and stay in the garden...ye gods!) Micromanagement much? Good luck with trying to enforce that one, matey.

Just how much control does he want over my life? Will the police arrive if my grandson comes into the house to use the loo?! Watch this space.

Bank Holiday Monday

It used to be called Whitsun. I don’t know when it changed, or why.

We should be on holiday this week with The Troops. However, owing to political panic and ineptitude, coupled with media hysteria, we’re at home. Our one chance this year to spend some extended quality time with the family. Not happening.

I couldn’t be more gutted. This is a really bitter pill to swallow.

I hate the way people are chirpily talking about a “new normal” when this needless lockdown is lifted. It’s like they’ve been drugged, forced to parrot the party line, all afraid to think for themselves. There is nothing normal about marker tape on supermarket floors, about crossing the road when someone walking their dog approaches, about wearing a mask in public…

… and there is nothing… absolutely NOTHING… even remotely normal about only speaking to my son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren on Skype when we should all be having fun together on holiday.

Accepting any of that as ‘normal’ means you’ve ceased to be human. Maybe the sheeple out there are happy to surrender their humanity, but I am not.

There’s a quote I like, variously attributed to Gandhi or George Orwell… it was probably neither, but it’s a good quote nonetheless… “You may be in a minority of one, but that doesn’t mean you’re wrong”. Well, at some point I may be the only person still standing who’s refusing to wear a mask but, if it happens, I will be bloody proud of myself… and I will not be wrong.

Maybe Dominic Cummings has done us all a favour by treating the lockdown with the contempt it deserves. Good man. The more people that do the same, the better.

I despise our politicians for what they’ve done to us. Curse them all to Hell. Bastards.

Random stuff

Nicola Sturgeon. I can’t stand the woman and now her hair is bugging me! Under normal circs my hair is cut exactly like hers (mine’s mostly white though). Now… I look like Worzel Gummidge’s much scruffier sister while she looks like she’s just stepped out of a hair salon – so how does that work? I’m pretty sure her husband isn’t a hairstylist so does she have a snipper coming round dressed in full PPE? It’s a question that needs answering, I think.

The body-snatchers in Govt changed the law on organ donation yesterday; very helpfully sliding it out under cover of the Covid19 situation. Devious weasels that they are. So, instead of altruistically offering to donate your organs after your death, you are now ‘assumed’ to have given consent if you don't go online and opt out… which I already have. Bloody cheek! You’re not having mine, matey.

Schools are supposed to be opening again on 1^st of June. Unsurprisingly the teaching unions are throwing every possible tantrum and squawking that it’s unsafe. Is it really unsafe or could it possibly be that teachers just like being at home on full pay? No… surely not?!

The sooner schools go back, the better – it means it’ll become harder and harder to continue the draconian measures under which we’ve all been living for the last two months.

The longer this ridiculous lockdown goes on, the more it becomes obvious that it was never necessary. We’re only where we are because of Govt incompetence and now we’re looking to the same incompetents to get us out of this.

This is not going to end well, I fear.

If only he was a plumber...

It's a shame my son’s not a plumber, a domestic cleaner or even a potential housebuyer; all of those are allowed in your house, apparently… but your adult children are not, according to the Govt. Maybe I should put our house up for sale – my son could come round as a potential buyer!

I wonder how long people will abide by this ridiculous edict. The new advice Boris came up with last weekend is already starting to unravel as it becomes obvious that none of it hangs together. People are going back to work on public transport and certain groups of children will be allowed to go back to school, there’s little point in trying to keep extended families away from each other. Anyone with a modicum of common sense can see that.

Common sense… ah, now there's a thing. None at all to be had at the moment. Rarer than bread flour in Sainsbury’s.

On the subject of common sense, I keep seeing people online discussing the best way to make a facemask; they’re hilarious – they’re so very serious and dedicated to the cause. I find the best way is not to go along with this nonsense and refuse point blank to wear one. I will not go out looking like a bloody bank robber. The more we comply, the further the Govt will push us. Do not submit… Resist, resist!

Next thing you know, they’ll be telling us what time to shower of a morning! Just remember, you heard it here first…

Had a very nice burger for lunch yesterday – no Linda McCartney burgers delivered in my shopping last week, so I improvised with griddled halloumi, a couple of griddled mushrooms, shredded lettuce and red onion and lots of mustard in toasted buns. Bloody lovely.

Lovely lotties

The lotties were looking especially nice when we walked over there on Thursday - the sun was out, it looked like a classic summer's day but there was a bitingly cold wind, the sort that makes your eyes water. I was glad to get back for a warming cuppa.

It might be mid-May and you could be forgiven for thinking it’s late spring/early summer, but the stupid weather we’ve had recently (easterly winds and night frosts) has massacred my little tomato plants. They look so sorry for themselves, poor things, I think the compost bin beckons.

Oh well, there’s always next year…

I've been out...

... to a supermarket! Because I’m so sick of this bloody nonsense.

I believed all this crap at the beginning and I’m really cross with myself for going along with the disaster narrative we were fed.

They said it was deadly, it was really serious, we were on the edge of the abyss – the only way to save ourselves was by cowering at home. In the event of us falling off the edge into said abyss, the PPE clad ‘heroes’ in the NHS would collectively come riding in on white chargers to save us… or so we were led to believe.

It's not been quite like that, has it? In fact, it was bull.

The NHS has not been overwhelmed – mainly because it’s been almost closed down to non-Covid patients. Sadly, people suffering serious illness have been too frightened to go to a hospital or their GP, because they’ve been so brainwashed by the Stay Home message. Oh, and now we’re being exhorted to ‘Stay Alert’ – whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean!

It's a long old road out of this predicament but, if we don’t start moving towards some sort of normality soon, there may not be much to get back to! We can’t just sit around waiting for Covid to go away… it won’t. Viruses aren’t like that, so do we stay locked down forever?!

That’s why we did our bit towards getting back to a modified form of normal this morning; I shot round the shop buying milk, cheese, fruit and veg… oh, and a couple of buns; it would have been rude not to after they’d gone to the trouble of making them!

OK, so I didn’t climb Everest, but it was a start. I’ve sat here for 8 bloody weeks, but I am not having my life put completely on hold any longer for something that may never happen. It’ll be a while yet until I can hug my son and grandchildren (yeah, thanks Boris!) but I feel I’ve at least taken a couple of small steps.

Under the new rules I’m allowed to meet my son, outside and 2 metres apart, in the morning and Mr S-V can meet him in the afternoon, apparently! Sod right off. I will not allow the bloody Government to micromanage my life to that degree.

I am not frightened of Covid, but I’m scared to bloody death of having a breakdown if I don’t get some kind of control over my life.

You carry on cowering, Boris – I’m going out, matey.