As soon as I got home,
I started to have some symptoms of covid and am now on full lockdown
No cough but spiked a temp, joint pain and now loose stools and have a mild hangover feeling
Worried about the dogs a bit
Have been referred for rapid testing which is fabulous
Off to have a sleep, if this is the sum of my experience of covid
I hope I have it
Hey ho
Something rather unmentionable covered my work trousers overnight , and I had to resort to borrowing a pair of pyjama bottoms for most of the shift.
One of the patients offered me a pair of her fleece lined lounge pants but I declined gracefully stating they were not quite my colour.
I have worn a uniform of sorts on every day bar one in my entire adult working life of 37 years bar for one day.
That was my first day as charge nurse of my own ward, where I went in for management day wearing a shirt and tie.
The mainly Yorkshire staff were somewhat nonplussed by my effort of looking smart and for the most part laughed good humouredly at my efforts.
One middle aged lass, a support worker who had been a colleague for over a decade sniffed loudly as I passed " You going to a funeral ?" She asked dryly
My ward uniform then was a navy tunic. Going into navy , is a proud step for a nurse in the Uk for it generally means you have reached the rank of " sister" , a position that then signified that you ran your own ward.
Now , with the plethora of clinical nurse specialists and advenaced nurse practitioners sisters can be found in abundance, but still there is a kudos and respect for the role and the experience.
In the early 1990s I went to Pittsburgh to visit the city's rehabilitation units and in one wore my own natty white British uniform in the clinical area
The mainly black collection of patients found it hilarious and often referred to me as "stay puft"Guy A reference which took me a while to work out
There's always one that will bring you down to earth Everyone's a critic!
Overheard but not seen through the living room window
" Hello Darling are you sunbathing"
Winnie gives the stranger a grunt
" Arhhh Geoffrey he's trying to shake paws"
More grunting
"Look Geoffrey shake his paw, he's holding it out to you!"
"Hello" ( males voice - presumably Geoffrey's)
More grunting
" She 's showing you the shaved bit on her leg where the vet took blood" I called out from the living room
" Awwww poor baby let's see your poorly leg then. Come on show us your poorly leg!"
Lots of satisfied grunting followed
Choir meeting last night on Zoom.
Bit of a technological disaster but it was always good to see everyone
Hattie recorded our final song's visuals rather than the singing and speeded up it looks rather sweet given the fact we were all belting out our usual final song
" You Raise Me Up!"
Which often leaves a few choristers all a but teary eyed
The physicality of the lockdown hit home on Monday for obvious reasons
I needed a hug. A physical, it will be alright hug
And it didn't come
But what did come was the texts and the videos and the messages and the gifs and all of those wonderful things the mobile phone and the iPad now gives us all
Almost having friends in the same room .
I've had a shave and a bath and changed my clothes today.
Ive combed my hair and used moisturiser ( see I do listen Mavis)
I've listen to ghost stories videoed from a friend, Colin in Liverpool
And still have paperwork to complete , which has been laying out since Monday
I am officially single and have let go of the want to have closure of certain things too faraway now to need to deal with. History has been rewritten and will be now believed. I emailed my former husband a last email and wished us both " happier times"
I made bread last night
And I'm already looking forward to going back to work tomorrow night
On the whatsapp Trelawnyd community warden forum Bunty shared a photo of her extra short haircut and Affable despot Jason asked me for some spare paintings to put up in his new, home made summer house
Albert looks thinner , maybe needs a wormer
Will treat Trendy Carol ( in natty maroon shorts yesterday) and her hubby to Easter eggs from the girls when I go shopping for dog food later. They continue to be stars
Villager Jim passed the cottage last night and looked through the window to see the lit flamingo
We shared a thumbs up sign " all is well" we mouthed
South West of Trelawnyd there is a flat, wide valley which runs gently down towards the coastal plain nearly six hundred feet below.
One of the fields that border the road seawards has been newly ploughed and seeded and perched proudly in its centre is a somewhat incongruous smiling scarecrow wearing a multicoloured Kagool
I saw him today
Arms outstretched in a Jaunty welcome he faces passing motorists quite cheerfully
The attachment on my solicitor's email caught me somewhat by surprise this morning.
It was an unsurprisingly dry document stamped from the family court in Newport Gwent stating I was no longer officially married.
The decree absolute in black and white.
My solicitor kindly wished me well and as instructed I printed up the document for safe keeping without really thinking about what I was doing but I read again her words " I am sure you will be pleased that this matter has reached its conclusion" "This matter"
Two words that encompass nearly twenty years of my life
In my mind , I have fantasised how I would react to today's news.
On Going Gently I have never bad mouthed my husband's behaviour in deciding to end our marriage
I get that people change and so do their wants and needs and emotions
I have hinted it that has been the way he initiated the split that was so disappointing and awful for me to deal with and I stand by those words now.
The way we split was truly awful to experience
He eventually got what he wanted, a new younger partner and a new, totally different life style
And he rewrote a history in his head, in the same way his mother had done when she was divorced
A history that I always thought of as ongoing.
I pulled up papers from my box files , and arranged them neatly on the kitchen table.
Today I have planned to sort outstanding bills and statements and filing and already have penned a do do list on a simple square of wring paper
Each line with its own square box to be ticked off
My sister has just video called me by accident, she is crocheting me a new cushion cover for the yellow living room
The bulldogs were lying sleeping in their chair in the kitchen and I went upstairs , changed the bedding, had a bath and got changed into some proper clothes, then me and Mary slipped out, unnoticed by the front door and took a walk up the lane.
The sky is blue here in Trelawnyd but it's kind of cold and we walked up through the Churchyard and sat on the far bench not far from the grave of auntie Gladys's daughter
Tumbled thoughts from the past two years filled my mind until it felt like bursting but Mary as she has a want to to jumped up next to me and leant inwards as only Welsh terriers do and we both looked out over the livery stable fields where the ponies were trotting with their heads high and their nostrils flaring.
They looked, I thought, like my pottery pony which stands proudly against the art wall in the kitchen
And with Mary as my only company
The old girl pitched it just right.
Balanced, no mention of the virus, and concentrating on our strengths
She underlined all of the low key virtues she feels it means to be British
She also reminded us that she has been making such speeches since 1940
And she was going no where during this crisis
Her final, stoic and unflappable sentence made me tear up
Looking directly into the camera with no dramatic pausing
She said simply
" We will meet again"
Nice one Betty
I've finally summoned my inner most Mildred Pierce and in a fit of gay energy have cut down the overgrown evergreen bush in the front garden to a manageable height.
I could almost hear neighbours Mandy & Sailor John breathe a huge joint sigh of contentment after I had finished
It had been an eyesore for a year
It's a hard job given that Dorothy and Albert are following my every movement.
Winnie is sitting my the gate watching for any passerby to stop.
When they envairably do, she isn't shy at showing each one her shaved leg site where the vets took a blood sample.
She's very conscious of it's haematoma
She's such a drama queen
As I was humping the cut foliage across to my field bonfire I spied Rhodri driving down the lane .
He waved rather self consciously . " Rhodri " is my friend with very occasional benefits. I won't say any more than that, after all he's single and outwardly very straight but it was nice to see a friendly, masculine face today
I'm very sanguine about Rhodri
Him being firmly in a closet is his own affair and not my problem.
Now writing this snippet of gossip should get the locals' gums gnashing!
I wish lockdown could be lifted for a sweaty 40 minutes!
Already this morning there are several dozen what 's app messages from the warden's group to catch up on as well as a few pithy one liners from friends to answer.
I caught up with my old friend Nigel yesterday for nearly an hour
Apparantly I remind him of Angela Landsbury WTF?
I'm tired after my gardening ablutions but will finish the job before sinking into my armchair for a snooze.
Ive not got to the Miranda Hart" fruit friends" stage quite yet
But I will leave you with this somewhat worrying photograph of two Welsh policemen on duty.
In light of the fact the London parks are still full of sunbathers yesterday, our Welsh boys have taken loitering in public places an arrestable offence
