Day 23 Wednesday 15th April

Yesterday Diane started complaining about being bored. Today we wished we were bored. Last night about eleven o’clock after I had finished the blog I decided to go to bed. This is what I found.

At some point, during the evening, probably while we were at the allotment, the ceiling collapsed. We assume it was while we were at the allotment. It was still where it is supposed to be when we were changing to go to the allotment. After we came back, we had dinner, then a family chat on Zoom. The dining room, where we were for most of the time, is directly below the bedroom. So we think we would have heard it. We are glad that it decided to come down when it did, rather than after we had gone to bed. It would definitely have seriously injured us, and conceivably, have killed us.

We couldn’t do much at midnight. We salvaged our pyjamas and some clothes to wear today. Then, we closed the door and went to bed in the spare bedroom. The clean-up could wait.

It didn’t look any better in the morning. Diane called her insurers, to be told that she wasn’t covered. Direct Line may have lost a customer. A plan, of sorts, was hatched over breakfast. Someone was found who can repair the ceiling. However, the problem is that sourcing the materials could prove difficult at the moment. We then made a start at tidying up the mess. The rubble sacks, that I bought by mistake, when looking for bin liners, a couple of weeks ago came in handy.

Diane’s son Chris came round to help. We needed to move the furniture out. Some of it, like the bed we dismantled and stored downstairs, other bits we moved to the spare bedroom. I had to go off because I had a job booked at two p.m. I felt guilty about leaving them. By the time I came back most of the work had been done, but there was still a lot of cleaning to do, so I didn’t feel too bad.

As a side issue, I understand that Dyson have been commissioned by the government to design and supply ventilators to NHS to help in the current crisis. All I can say is that I hope they build better ventilators than vacuum cleaners.

Something pleasant to end the day. I did a bit of shopping on my way home, and I found some Jersey Royal potatoes, the first of the season. They weren’t cheap, but they are always worth the expense. I boiled them up for dinner.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a bit more boring.