Thursday, April 16, 2020, Day 32, Week 5, Month 2 of Self Isolation.

Global Cases 2,084,744
Global Deaths 134,685
UK Cases 98,476
UK New Deaths 761 Total Deaths 12,868

The Numbers

The numbers continue to grow and there is a growing body of evidence that confirms that those that are reported are far less that the actual numbers.

Included in today’s deaths, is a 28-year-old nurse, Mary Agyapong who died 5 days after her baby daughter, also called Mary,  was delivered by Caesarean Section to save her life. To say this is a tragedy does not even begin to be enough.

The News

There has been a huge reaction to Trumps withdrawal of WHO funding but nothing has chnaged in regard to that yet, as far as I am aware.

The big fuss is about the lack of PPE for Care Homes. Covid is tearing through care homes across the country and the staff there (and therefore the residents) have little, or no protection against the virus.

Most of the talk though, is about the impact on the global economy and the likelihood that we are about to enter a depression worse than the Great Depression of the 1930’s.

There is no doubt in my mind that our world will never be the same again on many, many levels.

It is expected, but no surprise, that the government will announce a 3 week extension to thr lockdown today, amid concerns that people are beginning to relax and not adhere to the rules as strictly.

It’s actually getting on my nerves now that we are told what is going to be in the daily briefing before it happens. At the beginning, it was a bit of a daily “event”. We would sit down and turn on the TV after our daily exercise to hear from the government about how the “fight” is going and what is going to happen next etc. Now, we get told the big news before it happens and the rest of the briefing is a stream of extremely dull and uninformative pre-prepared questions with pre-prepared answers. Most of it isn’t even the whole truth and smacks of desperate propaganda.

On a brighter note, one of the big stories today is that of Captain Tom Moore. The 99-year-old war veteran has been walking 100 laps of his garden with his Zimmer frame to celebarte his 100th birthday and raise money for the NHS. He has captured the attention of country and, so far, has raised over £12 million! His original target was £1000.

The New Way of Life

I had a more productive day yesterday. I did some work on Wait for Me. It’s a slow and frustrating process. I finished the first draft it in 2015 and some of the writing is not great, putting it politely. I think I have fallen out of love with it, but really want to finish it. I have to resist the urge to rip it up and start again, or give up on it completely. I know that’s an overreaction. All I need to do is to get it into a better shape, get it proof-read and self-publish it! I’m only on Chapter 4 and have another 11 to do. I’m also planning to add an additional chapter towards the end.

I did that, on and off, for most of the day in between phone calls with various people and conversations with M but have still only completed half of the chapter.

Oh, and I ordered a lovely new duvet set for our bed! I decorated the room in an Indian inspired theme, after our trip there a year or two ago, and am always on the lookout  for suitable bedding. This one has been popping up on my social media feeds over the last week or so and yesterday I finally gave in and bought it.

One of the phone calls yesterday was from my accountant. She is ready to receive my accounts for 2018/19. There was some talk about not being able to give them to her until this is all over, but she’s happy to take them as it does not pose a real risk to either party. So, that’s my work for today sorted. I have to finish my books for March and tidy it all up to give to her – in a socially distanced way of course!

The remote control for the TV in the bedroom broke yesterday. We’ve had to order a new one on Amazon. Normally, we could just pop out and get one. Don’t know when it will arrive. I don’t actually mind. It means we are getting up earlier and not watching the morning news in bed until 9am, or watching rubbish late night movies after we have gone to bed!

My friend, who had a bad case of the virus that started 4 weeks ago, has been taken ill again after seeming to recover. She’s back in bed with a headache and vomiting. Very worrying.

The weather has been glorious. I read in the garden for a bit after we came back from our walk. We had a lovely walk around the village, crossing paths with a few people we know, and having “socially distanced” chats with them.

I was a bit troubled though, by the number of people that are using the canal tow paths to walk or cycle on. We walked near the canal for about 10-15 minutes and saw at least 12 people squeezing past each other on the narrow path in that short period of time. There is absolutely no way they can keep a safe distance apart on such a narrow path. I don’t think I am alone in my concern, as this morning the Parish Council have shared a post from British Waterways about avoiding using canal paths unless absolutely essential.

So, its only 9.50 and I’m done here for today. Off to do my accounts before enjoying the last day of sunshine for a while apparently.