Jenny Burrell

I finished my zoom yoga class and rushed upstairs to get changed. My husband and I had half an hour to find the COVID vaccination centre about fifteen miles away. It had moved from a large gazebo in a supermarket car park to a pharmacy building.

Luckily half an hour later two young lads welcomed us at the door. They asked the basic COVID questions, checked our masks and told us to sanitise our hands before going to the desk for registration. Within fifteen minutes we’d had our second jabs and were on our way home. Three weeks later we’ll be fully protected, or as best as possible! Just in time for the next lifting of some restrictions.

But restrictions haven’t been lifted yet! I decided to treat my daughter to an early birthday present. We went to a local boutique last week. Non essential shops are now open so we donned our masks and sanitised our hands before climbing the stairs into the shop. It’s small with not much circulating air so I felt a bit uncomfortable. That was before I saw the owner and a friend, maskless and drinking tea!

We were met with a warm welcome and a suggestion that we remove our masks and join them in a cup! This resulted in an immediate shocked response from both of us as we hastily declined both offers! I wanted to turn around and leave! However, we didn’t stay long but left with an armful of clothing to try on at home. Over the last few years I have been a regular and good customer so could be trusted!

A fashion show followed later as my daughter modelled the dresses and tops. Oh to be young and suit any style! She decided she’d only take one blouse so the rest would have to go back. But we’d had fun and have a good idea of this summer’s fashions and colours.

I headed back to the boutique silently hoping that only the owner would be there. I was going to mention our discomfort of the previous day. Unfortunately not! She had a customer and both weren’t wearing masks. And they certainly weren’t social distancing as they wandered around the racks of clothes, chatting and laughing. Don’t they know that we are struggling through a pandemic?

I couldn’t contain myself. I told them that I felt very uncomfortable as masks were mandatory in all enclosed areas. The customer spun around, eyes blazing! ‘I’ve had my mask on for the last couple of hours! It made me so hot and my hair curl!’ She glared at me in self righteous indignation! ‘And I’ve had my second jab!’

I was furious! How selfish! The boutique has lost a valued customer because I am not going back there anytime soon! I’m sure that I am not alone in expecting people to abide by the law and cover their mouths and noses even if they have been vaccinated! It doesn’t stop them from being carriers and passing on the virus!

There is a new Indian variant circulating around the country. We have been warned that further lifting of restrictions could be jeopardised. People do need to take responsibility and abide by the law otherwise I could be writing about lockdown the same time next year! They also need to get vaccinated. Not only one dose! They need two! This is to protect others and not just to look after themselves! Like wearing a mask! Sanitising their hands! Keeping two metres apart! No man is an island! 👠

The beginning of an exciting week! Monday couldn’t have come any sooner! The starting blocks back to normality have been laid. After months trying to maintain my short, broken finger nails and avoiding looking down at my feet, I am the proud owner of a neat and tidy bright orange set! All thanks to a young lady who is an excellent listener and takes great pride in her work. One step closer to facing the outside world!

The pedicure was by far the best experience. I leaned back and closed my eyes. The weather had begun to improve. It’s spring so to be expected but, this is England and our weather has a mind of its own! Just seeing blue skies and shedding a layer of clothing was enough to trigger a more positive response. An hour and a half later I left the salon considerably more relaxed and glamorous than when I had arrived! And the sun was still shining!

A few days later it was my hair’s turn! Out with the unsightly ‘salt and pepper highlights’ on with the golden tint! My tresses soon looked uniform and presentable! Another therapy session and another step closer to normality! Two visits down but one still to go!

I had Botox. After a few years seeing a GP at a private clinic, she had decided to continue working for the NHS. I had to do research and find someone else! A daunting prospect! My new clinician is also a GP and closer to home. A bonus! The only bonus! I felt every prick of the needle as it punctured my skin! And there were a lot of punctures! My previous GP had been more gentle and I had hardly felt a thing! Oh well, beauty comes at a premium, especially at my age!

So I’ve got decent nails, my hair looks okay and my forehead is relatively wrinkle free. I was going to meet my chic friend and her husband at a pub for a meal so I could hold my own! We had a wonderful evening sitting beneath a heater in a gazebo and plenty of fresh air. I felt like Monsieur Bibendum with all my layers but I was warm and so enjoying finally being able to see our special friends again.

I’m a lot more positive about the future. Slopping around the house in my ‘glad rags’ over the last year has taken its toll. I began to feel as unkempt as I looked and was finding it harder to shake off feelings of despondency.

My second vaccine is due this week! I’ll have turned the corner and I can’t wait to invite family and friends over for meals inside the house! It still gets very cold in the evenings! I am also relishing the idea of booking weekends away. Britain is a beautiful country and I am more than happy to spend time exploring it! Travel abroad still has to wait! One step at a time! 👠

Sitting in my favourite chair in the conservatory looking out at a grey, lifeless sky, nothing is moving. I feel as if I could be the lone survivor of an apocalypse! A bit dramatic but that’s the effect months of lockdown has had on me! Not even a bird is at the recently filled feeder. No breeze ruffles the rose bushes new leaves. The strains of Dvorak’s Serenade for Strings is having a soothing effect and is the only sound I can hear!

It’s begun to rain, but more a wet snow or sleet than the fine spring drizzle which had been forecast. This time last year we were basking in sunshine with the promise of more to come. Strange thing this weather, one year it’s glorious in April, the next its leaving a lot to be desired!

I arrived in England from a boiling hot South African summer on the 1st January 1991. My children and I landed at Heathrow in the early hours of the morning and had to find the connecting flight to Leeds to meet my husband. The airport was bitterly cold. My two children were chatting away animatedly, excited to be in England and seemingly impervious to the weather. After waiting outside in the wrong queue for at least an hour we caught the correct bus and just made the connection in time!

When we arrived in Leeds I can honestly say that, to date, I have never felt so cold. My parents in law lived in a large Victorian stone house with limited heating. I was frozen to the bone and could hardly move. Only a hot bath and an electric blanket warming the bed brought my circulation back to some kind of normality.

Throughout all my years living in my adopted country I have become very aware of weather. In South Africa there were a large number of ‘ex pats‘. I was forever questioning their obsession with the weather! It hardly changed and yet, at the start of every conversation, they passed a comment about it! During the summer it was hot and dry. In winter it was cold at night with occasional rain but usually bright sunshine during the day. The weather seldom caused any concerns other than occasional spectacular storms, periodic droughts or floods. These were the exception rather than the rule! Weather did not dominate our lives and certainly was not worthy of animated, lengthy discussions!

But, living in England, I too have become obsessed with the weather! It affects so many aspects of my life! In a flash it can change the course of my day! I can wake up in the morning to brilliant sunshine. With a spring in my step I can plan a long walk and even, in those far off halcyon pre COVID days, a picnic with friends. By the time I had showered and dressed the clouds had bubbled up and rain set in! I sometimes bravely soldiered on and prepared the picnic because, just as the rain so swiftly appeared, so could it vanish! Weather forecasts are a waste of time. They predict retrospectively! I have three apps and they will all be different and none of them correct!

Since starting this blog the weather has come full circle. I have seen all the seasons! I sat down to spring which soon morphed back into winter. Autumn arrived some time later and now it’s a lovely summer’s day. Birds are at the feeder. A playful breeze is tickling the new leaves on the rose bushes and the sun is shining through the skylight above my chair. It’s snug and warm inside. Outside, according to two out of the three weather apps, it’s 2C.

Never a dull moment and well worth the start of every conversation! ‘Strange weather we’re having for this time of year…….. Must be global warming or climate change!’ Or maybe its just the good old British weather! Never boring! Always a challenge!👠

Trying to get through this third lockdown has been really difficult. There are some grey mornings when I lie in bed and try to motivate myself to start a new day with a positive attitude.

This sounds churlish and ungrateful but it’s where I have sometimes found myself over the last few weeks. January and February are my least favourite months. Historically I’ve booked a holiday somewhere sunny and warm. Something to look forward to! On the 23rd March 2020 the country went into its first lockdown. We have been living under restrictions ever since! No foreign holidays abroad and probably not for many more months! For over a year our lives have been very different and very isolated!

But, if all goes well and most of the adults are vaccinated, life should return to some kind of normality. I can finally meet family and friends and visit pubs and restaurants again! Such a common occurrence and so taken for granted! I’m not even going to imagine boarding a plane and visiting my son and his family in the States! That’s a pipe dream and won’t become a reality any time soon!

I must think of positive ways to keep motivated ! I have to start appreciating the beauty around me and banish this despondency that keeps rearing it’s ugly head! I must count my blessings and be grateful! I am not alone in longing for the freedom of a past almost forgotten era!

When outside I must become more aware of my surroundings! Daffodils are bobbing gently in the breeze. Delicate white blackthorn flowers have already started to bring colour to brown, lifeless hedgerows. Primroses and cowslips are shooting up in gardens and along roadsides. I am lucky to live in a beautiful part of the country. Snowdrops will soon make way for glorious carpets of vibrant bluebells. The dawn chorus is getting louder and more melodic! Winter is definitely making way for warmer, sunnier weather. The grey shroud that blanketed the country for so many months has begun to dissipate.

We’ve had a warm spell which has been wonderful! Spring has finally arrived and there is no excuse to wallow in the self pity of a locked down winter! I have had two dance classes outside in the sunshine and been able to legally spend time with neighbours again! Last night we sat outside with friends and had a drink and a good laugh.

There is no longer any justification for feeling melancholic! Britain is in a unique position. More than half of all adults have already had their first COVID vaccination. Freedom will return! I just need a bit more patience and a positive attitude, neither of which are my strongest attributes! I do feel that the country has turned a corner! I am sure that the future will be bright and filled with the joy of families and friends reunions! I am going to hold that thought!

Today has been good! Tomorrow will be better …….. 👠

My husband needed to renew his mobile phone contract. He decided that he’d just get a new SIM card. He went to the local store only to discover that it was closed so had to purchase one on line.

Ideally he would speak to a human being and discuss options. He spent a couple of days trawling the internet and finally decided on a ‘really good deal’. He painstakingly completed the online form and entered his bank account details. He received a message telling him that the account name didn’t agree with the address.

After trying again he clicked onto their help desk icon. Someone with a local accent answered his call. The relief was noticeable! He explained the problem and was asked to re-input his bank account details. He received the same error message and advised to contact his bank. My husband was beginning to get agitated.

After insisting that there was nothing wrong with his bank account, the very apologetic voice at the end of the phone suggested he try another account. Perhaps his credit card would be a better option? He produced his card and updated the online document. The same error message rejected his card.

It was at this point that I saw an email arrive from the company welcoming him and offering further special offers. I felt some relief as I was beginning to feel uncomfortable. I looked up at my husband’s thunderous face as he replied to the suggestion to contact his credit card company as well! I glanced down at my screen and the email had vanished! I definitely hadn’t imagined seeing it arrive!

I found it in the recycle bin, marvelling as to how it could possibly have got there! I checked the helpline number on the screen. By this time my husband had hung up. The two numbers were different. That’s when the alarm bells began to ring. He checked his bank account and three £1 debits had appeared. Each time he had entered his account details. How could the helpline numbers have changed? Or maybe the number got diverted? Is this a scam linked to the bank account details? We’d probably never know!

£1 had debited his credit card as well. This is what scammers do to check the validity of accounts! My husband rang the number on the email. The number was not recognised. Looking visibly distressed he went into his office to contact his bank and credit card providers. Another challenge awaited him! Call centres are rarely a pleasant experience!

I started preparing the evening meal. I was furious! My husband is not gullible and yet he had been conned into giving both his bank account and credit card details! The website had looked authentic. There was nothing to suggest that there was a problem! If he hadn’t tried his credit card we would not have given it a second thought! My husband’s bank account would have been been emptied! He doesn’t check it every day!

I can now understand how so many people get hoodwinked into handing over vast amounts of money. These fraudsters are very plausible. Stores aren’t open to get personal assistance. It is the perfect environment for scammers to con frustrated, lockdown exhausted people just trying to get on with their daily lives! Truly despicable!

We were lucky. So many aren’t! Let’s hope that the adage ‘as ye sew so shall ye reap’ will come back to haunt each and every one of them! Ideally they get scammed themselves! Sweet justice! Probably naive of me because the devil looks after his own! 👠

Over the last few weeks I have been doing the weekly grocery shopping for a friend whose husband had recently been diagnosed with leukaemia. I don’t enjoy shopping. Throw in COVID with people not wearing their masks properly and not keeping their social distance, it doesn’t take long for the red mist to surface.

During previous lockdowns (we’ve had a few!) and over the last few months, my husband and I have alternated the weekly grocery shopping. I just need to get out! Even if it’s only once a week and it entails shopping! When my turn, I go to the local ‘upmarket’ supermarket. I shan’t mention names! My husband really dislikes my choice. He insists that the prices are outrageous and the quality inferior unless you buy Prince Charles’ organic ‘Dutchy’ brand. We’re all entitled to our own opinions….. Because I now need to go every week I decided to join my husband. I would give his favourite store another chance!

Bad move!

I didn’t set my alarm as I’d had a wakeful night. We left late. I was warned that it meant empty shelves! Surely shelves were continually being re-stacked? Where I frequent, the aisles are always busy with employees filling all the empty spaces! They are also invaluable help. My friend’s grocery requirements aren’t the same as ours. Her lists often include items I can’t find!

So, Friday morning was different. Very different! Because we were late (I had been warned!) many shelves were bare. Few staff were visible and when I did manage to find one, unhelpful. Now, I could try to understand if the empty shelves contained perishables. What I cannot understand was that it applied to things like tomato purée, lemon juice, a specific cereal, gravy granules and black currant jam! This is just bad management and heads should roll! Throw in those wearing their masks beneath their noses, others on their phones with their masks pulled right down and masses of little super spreaders running around unattended, it was not a pleasant experience! No one checked the numbers allowed inside the store and the tills were heaving! Is it any wonder our infection rates remain high?

Next week I’ll go back to the local ‘over-priced’ supermarket. I’ll wait patiently in the queue outside. I’ll have my list and any number of willing assistants to help me find non standard products. They will have tomato purée, a common brand of salted butter, blueberries, raspberries and daffodils! I’ll go at a time that suits me!

I’ll always be a ‘shopophobe’! One day we’ll get rid of this virus, or learn to live with it and life will return to normal. My husband, like his mother, loves grocery shopping! On our numerous holidays (when the world was our oyster!), the pair of them would gravitate towards supermarkets, even if we had our meals provided! Something I could never understand!

So, when the world reopens, I’ll spend Friday mornings in the gym. Or having a long walk. Or even doing housework! It’s that bad! Anything other than grocery shopping. My husband will leave early and go to his favourite supermarket alone. He will wander around the aisles without any distractions, happy as Larry.

Boris is sharing his roadmap with us on Monday. It’s only a roadmap, I have to keep on reminding myself. It will not be the fastest route out but we’ll get there in the end. And lockdowns will be consigned to the history books!

But it’s the weekend. I’m sitting with a glass of wine and looking forward to ……… no rain tomorrow so that I can get out for a walk. Some sun would be good! Maybe a cowboy movie after dinner? I’m not really asking for much ……..👠

During this pandemic and into our third lockdown, mental illness has escalated. Being physically unwell is easy to understand as the patient invariably looks ill. Most of us are visual so can see the disability which makes sympathising so much easier! Mental illness is the challenge! The patient often looks fit and well yet their behaviour can become unacceptable getting them ostracised, ignored or even intensely disliked. When a mental illness is diagnosed it is so much harder to accept.

When I was a young girl I watched a friend picking her alcoholic father up out of the gutter and tenderly walking him home. My friend was slight and frail, her father a strapping six foot giant! Yet she was determined that he came to no harm and wouldn’t let any of us help with her precious charge.

My father had vascular dementia. He was an artist and painting had been his passion for years. One day I vividly remember spending ages trying to explain that the leopard he had painted looked strange. My father had lost his perspective and the animal appeared to be in three unconnected parts. The man before me looked and spoke like my father. I had just not fully understood, or perhaps, fully accepted, that he was ill and needed to be encouraged, not ‘criticised’. This had been an unintentional oversight because, over the years, I had always given my honest opinion.

And then my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. I was slightly better prepared but still found it so difficult to accept the full ramifications of her disease. She looked well. In fact, as her stress levels diminished, so did her wrinkles! Because she was given wholesome regular meals in the care home, she looked physically better than she had done for many years.

I have been married for a long time! I was devastated when my husband was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago. He had to suffer months of chemotherapy. He had a very physical disease. I saw this strong, healthy, indestructible man unable to get out of bed in the morning. His body was being slowly destroyed by the poison pumped into it! But he had a physical illness. Far easier to comprehend.

I know of many circumstances where people won’t accept that they have a mental health problem. Alas, there comes a time when decisions have to be made. Sadly, it often takes a crisis and someone to get hurt, or worse, to be the wake up call. The earlier help is sought the better! Everyone is entitled to and deserves a quality of life, not only those who are ill but the many people they affect.

I feel very sorry and helpless when I see partnerships unravelling, be it friendships or marriages. Like my husband, who has thankfully fully recovered, I really appreciate the time I spend with him. That there is help available for mental illness and addictions brings hope to those battling debilitating, personal torment. With proper support they can go on to lead normal, happy, healthy lives. Unfortunately, throughout these lockdowns, accessing treatment is not straightforward. Fear, embarrassment, long waiting lists and perpetually being told that the NHS is becoming overwhelmed, are all deterrents.

On the news channel yesterday I saw an interview with one of the country’s top divorce solicitors. There are going to be many non-COVID casualties and unfortunately the breakup of partnerships is going to be one of them. She explained how mental health problems and addictions had exacerbated a large number of separations. So sad, especially if children are involved.

So, everyone who is eligible for the vaccine, please take up the offer! This will be the only way we can edge closer to normality and everyone who needs help and support can get it. Do this for your loved ones and for the rest of the country. Feeling helpless and struggling with any kind of illness under lockdown must be so lonely and very frightening. The only light at the end of their tunnel is the vaccination of as many people as possible. This will stop the spread of the virus and slow down new mutations. We can all play our part. Let’s show our gratitude and support our scientists who have worked so tirelessly and unselfishly for many months. Having a united front can and will help save lives! 👠

Over the last few weeks we have struggled through lockdown with the weather not doing us any favours! We’ve had snow, ice, sleet, frozen rain, rain and more rain! Until today!

This morning I awoke to the sound of first one and then the second grandfather clock belting out eighteen chimes! Nine each! It took a while for me to work out the day. It was Monday so I should have set my alarm! I like to differentiate between weekdays and weekends. I’m careful with my diet over weekdays and allow myself wine with my meals over weekends. And I have a semblance of a routine during the week. I need some discipline to help me through our third lockdown!

My husband and I have started doing exercises in the mornings, just for half an hour, before lunch. This has been incorporated into my weekday routine (I know, I’m sad)! But today was going to be different! We are the proud owners of a new ‘bosu ball’ and a ‘strength ball’! I have become even sadder to get excited about different exercises! Alas, this strange insular existence is having weird side effects!

Forgetting to set my alarm I was later than usual. I did have a slight panic. Old habits die hard. I had to remind myself that I have stopped rushing! This is a very minor challenge because there is nowhere to rush to and time just chugs along predictably. So, when I opened the curtains, what a marvellous surprise! I saw bright sunlight! It was bitterly cold but the sky was blue! The birds were singing and I felt my spirits slowly beginning to lift despite being a Monday! I really don’t know why I have never liked Mondays!

Even the news is better. Lockdown appears to have lowered the infection rates for the second consecutive week and the deaths, always so desperately sad, are also very slowly coming down!

Opening the blinds I peered through window. I could see two nut hatches hungrily pecking at the sunflower seeds on the bird feeder. A large wood pigeon was siphoning up scraps and a squirrel rushed frantically around the pigeon trying to bury his spoils in the lawn. Four long tailed tits joined the nut hatches who suddenly decided that the feeder had become overcrowded so flew off. Maybe they were social distancing!

The exercise session this morning was different. Not only was it slow and disjointed, but brought home to both of us our lack of balance and general fitness. Almost a year of just walking with occasional bouts of sit-ups, press-ups and the odd plank obviously hasn’t been enough! Maybe that’s also why the bathroom scales are no longer my friend!

But, all is not lost! A few hours have passed. The sun is still shining and we had a good laugh as we drunkenly fell off the ‘bosu ball’ and the ‘strength ball’ in equal measures! At least we were both useless! It wasn’t only me! I can just see my husband practicing quietly so that he can show me how it’s done! Highly competitive whereas I just want to be able to do the basics and not break any limbs!

So, tomorrow we’ll try again. At least we are trying! Anything is better than nothing! Mondays also don’t last forever! They morph into Tuesdays and then Wednesdays ……. Soon it will be Friday and I can sit in front of the fire with a glass of red and look forward to the weekend! 👠

I’ve discovered another radio station! No, it’s not new and has probably been on air for many years but I have only just found it! A revelation!

For many months I have listened to the radio every day and tried to soothe my jaded lockdown nerves with classic fm. I get news highlights every hour on the hour. A lot of the adverts are irritating but I put up with them and usually just have the classical strains of well known composers as a background ‘noise’. But that was until a few hours ago!

I am sitting in the conservatory ‘chilling’ to Phil Collins ‘Groovy kind of love’. I have been transported back in time to a world where there were no pandemics, the sun always shone and I would endlessly daydream. I’d imagine dancing cheek to cheek with the boy I really fancied when I was thirteen years old! He was so handsome and looked like Davy Jones from the Monkees!

My mother wouldn’t let me hang posters up on my bedroom wall but I was allowed to hang them inside my cupboard! Davy Jones took pride of place! When I opened the door and sat on my bed, I would gaze lovingly into the eyes of ‘X’! And he would gaze lovingly back at me!

When I turned thirteen I was allowed to have a party! The excitement was great, I invited a few of my friends and asked them to bring a friend or a boyfriend. There would have been about twenty of us. My father tidied up the garage and we hung bunting on the walls and balloons from the ceiling. My mother baked biscuits and cakes and we had a good supply of Coca Cola, Fanta Orange, crisps and peanuts!

The only concern my parents had was potential gatecrashers. These would have been older boys on motor bikes and, heaven forbid, drunk! This was South Africa in the mid sixties and we lived in a small town. It was a different world and we were all so naive! I still believe that it was a good time to be young and an ideal place to grow up!

Looking back to that party makes me smile now but it remained cringeworthy for a long time! I didn’t ask ‘X’. I was too shy, as were most of my friends! Only two classmates brought a boy with them. The music, limited to my tiny collection and a few borrowed records, was repeated over and over again! By the end of the evening we had memorised all the words! Eventually my mother joined the party and got us all dancing in a circle! I would have dearly welcomed the excitement of a few gatecrashers!

I had forgotten how uplifting music could be. Since I sat down to write this blog I have moved from one memory to the next! Otis Redding’s ‘Sitting on the dock of the bay’ was followed by Yazoo’s ‘Don’t go’! Currently I’m listening to Elton John singing ‘Don’t go breaking my heart’.

The snow is falling and I’m snug and warm inside. My husband and I are obeying the rules and staying at home. It would have taken a lot to get me out today. The hill outside our house is like a sheet of ice. We’d have to dig ourselves out of the drive before we even contemplated that hill!

The sun is slowly sinking behind the trees. It’s not a brilliant sunset but it’s stopped snowing. My husband is building a fire in the sitting room. I’ll get up shortly and open a bottle of red wine. I’ll sit in front of the crimson flames and let the music wash over me. Life could be a lot worse!👠

Alas, we are back to square one! Back to the 23rd March, 2020! This nightmare was going to be over by the summer! And then it was going to be by the autumn and then Christmas …….

I’ll try not to be judgemental but do feel that the position we find ourselves in could have been largely avoided if everyone adhered to the rules. Don’t mix with other households and stay at home! Only go out for essentials and exercise locally! This is not rocket science! There are still covidiots who refuse to believe there is a pandemic and do their best to dissuade those eager to ignore the rules. Most of them don’t need much persuasion! So, here we are, back at home with the only escape a vaccine which will take months to reach the whole adult population!

A neighbour was away over Christmas. He got back a few days ago. There is a second car parked in his driveway. He lives on his own but sometimes has his girlfriend staying over. This is not the girlfriend’s car! Looks as if he has a few ‘bubbles’! Another neighbour had her family from two households over the five days of Christmas, initially allowed but then cancelled. They all took regular walks during those five days so obviously thought that they were immune to both COVID and the rules! This is just in my immediate neighbourhood and a handful of houses! I’m sure it has been replicated around the country! So selfish!

I feel as if I’m becoming very bitter and must make a concerted effort to get my head around this because it’s life! It happens! There will always be those who flout the rules and live their lives as if they are islands! I’m a big girl now so should take this in my stride! But it’s hard to accept what is happening in this country and around the world! So many people are dying and many more desperately ill in hospitals! So much of this pain and suffering could be avoided!

As I write this blog I’m trying to sit in a comfortable position because, a few days ago, I fell into a pothole while wading through a flooded road on one of my daily exercise walks! The council had been made aware of the problem weeks ago but nothing had been done. I had walked through the stream many times and never had any problems until, finally, due to the icy conditions, a deep pothole had developed on the one side. Wearing wellies, I waded confidently through the stream and chose that side of the road, landing unceremoniously in the ice cold muddy water! When my husband helped me up I knew that my shoulder was not good! I was soaked to the skin! It was freezing cold and I had to walk about a kilometre back home!

It’s a week later and I am still suffering! I am surprised how much I use my left hand despite being right handed! Simple things like washing and drying my hair, dressing, cooking, housework (currently the least of my worries) all become Herculaneum tasks!

I took my life into my own hands and visited a physiotherapist. She thinks it’s ligament damage but can’t be sure as she was not able to do a proper examination due to the pain and restricted movement. I have been given exercises. If, after a week, it is less bad her prognosis is correct. If not, I’ll have to make an appointment with the doctor. This is well nigh impossible at the best of times but when the surgery is concentrating on the vaccine rollout ……… So, I’ll try and stay positive and hope that the next few days will show an improvement.

I am finding it harder to stay positive but don’t have a choice! Not being able to exercise properly is the worst. I had planned to join my daughter’s zoom yoga class. There are also a number of classes on line thanks to the gym I haven’t attended for nine months! The weather has been bitterly cold with snow and ice making walking quite treacherous! So I feel as if I am expanding at an alarming rate and will have to get a whole new wardrobe when the world reopens! This is not a good thought!

I wish I could hibernate and wake up in March! There is a pile of ironing waiting for me in the kitchen. Maybe if I ignore it, it will go away! Maybe my husband will offer to do it for me! Was that a flying pig I’ve just seen at the window? Oh well, thankfully, tomorrow is another day!👠