Monthly Archives: Apr 2020

Covid-19

Lock-down U.K. Days 21 & 22

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Day 21 Monday 13/04/2020 (Easter Monday)
Adams Park, High Wycombe

Easter Monday dawned as bright and sunny as Easter Sunday, just fifteen degrees colder. Instead of being here, in New Malden I should have been at High Wycombe following the Wombles. Easter Monday was to have been Volunteers Day. Every Year one of our sponsors, Cherry Red Records, pays for coach travel, a match ticket and lunch for all the clubs volunteers. Two years ago it was a very good day out. Covid-19 and lock-down put paid to that

Instead, we had an Easter egg painting competition, against Diane’s grandkids, on Zoom. Diane and I did our eggs the night before. I thought they were pretty decent. My egg was the Easter Bunny, Diane’s was Grayson Perry.

They were all very good, and we didn’t actually decide on a winner. I also had my new lock-down haircut to show off. Diane attacked me with the hair clippers on Sunday. She did a good job, especially considering the last hair cut she gave was to one of her dolls. (She actually used to cut her late husband Dave’s hair).

Looking mean and moody with my convict tee-shirt and my convict hair cut.

We decided to have a break from gardening today. We went for a bike ride along the Hogsmill river to Berrylands and on past the Hogsmill Sewage Treatment Works. The delicate aromas from the works often filter over to Kingsmeadow when the wind is from the south. We did about 10 km, which is probably the furthest I have cycled this year. After we got home, I made a rather nice steak pie for dinner.

In other news Boris Johnson left hospital yesterday. He made a fairly emotional speech praising the NHS and it’s staff for, well, saving his life. Perhaps the next time there is a vote in Parliament about giving NHS staff a pay rise he won’t vote against it.

Day 22 Tuesday 14/04/2020

We are now three weeks into lock-down. In general, most people seem to be following the recommendations about physically distancing themselves from other people. However, I do find it slightly strange. People are taking great care to stay at least two metres apart out in the open. The chances of being infected by a passing jogger are probably minimal. Conversely, people are not so careful when in a shop. The chances of passing on the infection seem, to me at least, to be much higher. In addition, there are fewer cars on the road. This seems to encourage our boy racers to show off their *skills*.

It was back to work today. Not that I have much actual work to do at the moment. This time of year is normally slack for various reasons, and with many workplaces shut down even more so.

The allotment needed watering, so we cycled over there after I came home. We had a cup of tea and finished off the chocolate cornflake bites in the late afternoon sun. It is still fairly cold, but not as cold as yesterday. We then came home to salmon for dinner, and a Zoom get together with Diane’s cousins.

Covid-19

Lock-down UK. Days 18 to 20

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Easter Weekend is often slightly weird at any time, Easter Weekend in lockdown, is doubly so.

Easter to Christians is the main festival, indeed focus, of their faith. It used to be that way for me. However, over the years my faith has become Agnosticism. I still hold a fair amount of sympathy for some expressions of Christianity. To others, it means a four-day window to complete a DIY project. It also provides an opportunity to sort out the mess that the garden has become. For football fans the two games over the weekend often decide the outcome of the season.

Easter moves around a lot. The earliest calendar date on which Easter can fall is March 22nd. The latest date is April 25th. With over a calendar month’s difference, the weather can vary greatly as well. This year we have seen wall-to-wall sunshine, with temperatures well into the twenties (Celsius). Other years we have had snow.

Day 18 Friday 10/04/2020 (Good Friday)

My day would normally have focused around AFC Wimbledon’s Good Friday match. This year we should have been playing Sunderland. We may get to play the game sometime, but I am not holding my breath. Instead, after hot cross buns for breakfast, we spent most of the day at the allotment. The B&Q round the corner has opened a mini garden centre on their ground floor. You can buy all the basic essentials for your garden (or allotment) like compost, fertilizer and plum trees. We bought some blueberry bushes and a plum tree as well as some flowers for the garden. We took our lunch and our newly acquired plants up to the allotment. I spent a bit of time fixing the parasol. We needed some shade to sit under while we ate our lunch.

We planted the plum tree and the blueberry bushes. With luck, we may get a plum or two this autumn. However, I am not expecting blueberries until next year at the earliest. Some seeds that we planted earlier are germinating. If nothing else we may be able to live on beetroot and carrots next winter.

Day 19 Saturday 11/04/2020

Somewhere over the last week or so we have managed to find eggs. So, we had scrambled eggs for breakfast. We haven’t really done much in the garden, as opposed to the allotment. Today we thought we should do something. Plant a few flowers, cut the grass, that sort of thing. It was a warm day, the warmest of the year so far. We saw some things yesterday at B&Q, stones and compost that were too heavy to carry home. We took the car round to collect them.

I mowed the front lawn, Diane planted lavender, and refilled the pots. We also filled a gap between the kitchen door and the patio. It was easy to trap a foot in the gap if you weren’t careful. A productive day.

Day 20 Sunday 12/04/2020 (Easter Sunday)

My Easter Egg

On Shrove Tuesday we eat pancakes. This tradition signifies that the next day is the beginning of Lent. We will be giving up luxuries like eggs and butter for the next 40 days. (Not that I actually did, but never mind). It seemed appropriate to mark the end of Lent by having pancakes for breakfast. (I have since discovered that Lent actually ended yesterday). Chocolate eggs were saved for later. Later we went to the allotment to make sure that everything was watered. The past few days have been exceptionally warm for mid-April. We had a family Zoom meeting in the afternoon. Diane’s grandkids, or at least the boys, may have eaten a bit too much chocolate. One of them appeared to be wearing it rather than eating it. We also decided to have an Easter Egg decorating competition for Easter Monday. We spent the evening producing our entries.

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Lock-down UK. Days 15 to 17

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Loo rolls left: You can find them in Sainsbury’s now.

Day 15 Tuesday 07/04/2020

I am still trying to get my work computer to work. I spent most of the morning talking to various IT *help* desk type people with no success. I also spent quite a while responding to emails that were telling me that they had solved my problem. Passing my problem onto someone else may have solved the problem for you, but it hasn’t solved it for me.

Eventually it was agreed to try the possible solution that I had suggested about a week ago. I would go into one of our offices. Then, I would connect directly to the Local Area Network using a cable. This would check if that would reset the logon. There was only one minor problem to that solution. Due to the current situation, all our offices are closed. It was eventually agreed that I would be given access to the Croydon office and telephone support on Thursday morning.

I sorted out some work that I could do without the computer. This was planned for Wednesday. Then I went to the allotment for the afternoon.

Allotment time

The allotment has been our escape hatch during this period. We often take our lunch up with us and have a picnic. We are set up with all mod cons. A portable gas stove and kettle to make tea. There is usually a packet of biscuits, unless we have eaten them, and a bucket for emergencies. (It is apparently very good for the compost heap).

Tea time

We planted a few seeds and dug over one of the beds in preparation for planting runner beans later on. We decided we would like a flower bed in front of the table where we have our lunch. So, we made a start on that.

Day 16 Wednesday 08/04/2020

Apart from a couple of emails on my phone, which I don’t like having to do. It is not that I dislike email per-say. I just don’t enjoy answering anything that requires more than a yes or no response using my phone keyboard. Anyway we managed to confirm the access arrangements for Thursday. I was all set to return to full existence. Having sorted that I went out and did some actual work.

When I got back home we decided to go to the allotment to make sure everything was watered. We also finished off our little flower garden.

We found a lot of flower seeds in the shed. I also brought some from my house. Most of the packets were past their use by dates, but we sowed them anyway. Hopefully some will come up. We also planted a pair of roses that Diane found in Poundland. Then we went home for an early night. I had to be up bright and early the next day for my (or my computer’s appointment with destiny).

Day 17 Thursday 09/04/2020

My alarm went of at 06:30. I was already awake. Diane had woken up even earlier. She had kindly brought me a cup of tea up to bed. I was washed dressed and breakfasted by eight o’clock and set off for Croydon. One advantage of this lock-down is, that if you do have to drive anywhere, driving is a doddle. New Malden to Croydon in twenty minutes. Normally it would take at least an hour at eight a.m. Also, when I arrived at our offices there were parking spaces, unheard of.

That was where the smooth sailing ended. Security told me that the office had been unlocked, great, but I needed a swipe card to access it. My ID card does not have swipe access, because I don’t need it. I very rarely need access to our offices. If I do, there is always someone there to give me the access that I need. Provided everyone isn’t working from home. A facilities engineer was sent from central London to let me in. Even with lock-down traffic, he took about two hours to get to Croydon. I called my telephone support person to tell them that there would be a delay. They said fine, they didn’t have all that much to do anyway.

Eventually my engineer arrived, and let me into the office. I plugged my machine in (fortunately I had the foresight to bring my own cable). I switched it on, typed in my password, and it let me log on. Problem solved in less than two seconds. We ran a couple of other checks to make sure that everything was fine, which it was.

I spent the rest of the day typing in the last weeks reports, and doing my expenses. Boring, but I now exist again.

Covid-19

Lock-down UK. Days No.s 11 to 14

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Loo rolls left: Still OK

There has been a hiatus in posting. I shall blame it on Diane’s birthday and our engagement party a couple of days earlier.

I now have achieved a ghost like status. I do exist but am not as yet fully formed. Hopefully I will be returned to full functionality on Thursday. It may be a complicated and long-winded process, so I will update you then.

Day 11 Friday 3rd

Friday  was of a lazy day, had a lie in then made a cooked breakfast.

Our forthcoming wedding was discussed. Admittedly it is not until next summer, but we need to decide on a venue. We have about five places we have seen on the internet that we quite like the look of. We were supposed to visit Scotland today to see some of them in person. Unfortunately, Covid-19 has changed those plans. It might end up at Kingston Registry Office, followed by the reception in the Watchman at this rate,

We went to the allotment in the afternoon. We didn’t achieve much but did get to witness a rather magnificent sunset.

Sunset
Sunset too

Day 12 Saturday 4th

We had our Engagement Party tonight. We would have liked to have had everyone on the same room, but with lock-down in place we couldn’t. Zoom was a pretty acceptable alternative. In fact, it allowed us to get more people together than we probably would have managed if we had held the party in the flesh. My family from Scotland joined in, as did Diane’s friend from Wales. We had a good time. Zoom lets you split a large group up into rooms, so we did that, which allowed people to get to know each other better. It worked better than I expected. Though some people were not quite so pleased. One friend decided it was just an excuse not to buy him a drink.

Da ring

Day 13 Sunday 5th

Our Prime Minister was admitted to hospital today suffering from Covid-19. Other than that nothing much happened.

Day 14 Monday 6th

Today was Diane’s ??th birthday. Fortunately her present arrived, via Amazon, on Saturday. After having been told that it would not arrive until the 29th. I was quite pleased to have something to give her.

It was also her daughter-in-law’s birthday, so we went round to her house and left the presents in the porch. We then proceeded to have a slightly stilted conversation through an open window. A virtual afternoon tea was arranged, via Zoom. We dragged the bone china tea-set out, and had scones with jam and cream. We even had a birthday cake, which Diane found in Waitrose last week, reduced to 25p (from £5.25), it was fine. For evening meal we decided to have a steak.

I spent part of the afternoon, even though Monday is a day off trying to re-establish my existence. As I mentioned in the introduction, I am now recognized as existing, but my presence is not fully established. I got nowhere.

Covid-19

Lock-down UK Day No.10

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Loo rolls left: Still OK

I still do not exist, at least as far as our I.T. department are concerned. Question, if I no longer exist is it possible to catch Covid-19? I don’t seem to manage to catch the IT department. It has been another frustrating day. Information Technology is wonderful when it works but when it doesn’t…….

Some good news, the local fish and chip shop is still open for business, for take away only. I stopped on my way home to pick up tonight’s dinner. The social distancing system worked fine today, but if it were raining it might be less fun. Only one person is allowed in the shop at a time. You go in and place your order, then wait in the street until it is ready. As I said, fine if it isn’t raining. The fish and chips were good though.

Another potential problem has reared its head (pun intended). Haircuts. My barber is closed, all the barber shops are closed. My hair isn’t too bad yet… Diane has offered to cut it for me. She has experience she says, she used to cut her dolls hair. Her son sent us photos of the haircuts he has given his boys (and himself). If the construction business is slow in picking up after this is over, he will have a future……. shearing sheep.

Covid-19

Lock-down U.K. Days 8&9

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Loo Rolls Left: n+4

We are now one week into this lock-down thing. I’m still at work because inspecting boilers is an essential occupation, but where and how we are allowed to inspect is changing by the hour. Another conference call this afternoon brought a new set of guidelines, tomorrow may well bring another set. The basics are, wash your hands, keep two meters apart and if you are not sure, don’t go ahead with the inspection.

Today started off reasonably normally. I made a few calls to try and sort out some work. I don’t know if it is due to the current situation, but clients have been unusually cooperative. I have decided to reduce the risk of my cross-contaminating sites I am only going to visit one site per day if possible. So I sorted out my work for the day I set off to the job for the day.

When I opened my car door, I could hear this regular beep beep sound. Two things about it puzzled me. Firstly, I had never heard this sound before. Secondly, it seemed to carry on whether the ignition was on or off. There were no warning lights up. The car started and ran normally. So, I decided to ignore it for the time being. I turned the music up louder to drown it out. That worked to get me to the site. I did the inspections. When I got back to the car, the beeping was still there. It seemed to be coming from somewhere between the roof lining and the roof.

I carried back to my house with the beeping beginning to do my head in. I still couldn’t see anything about the car that might be causing it. I stopped to buy petrol. As I leaned down to release the fuel cap cover, I saw my oxygen meter flashing away. The battery had died and as well as the flashing red lights it was going beep beep. I switched it off and silence reigned.

I went home/my house. (I’m not quite sure where home is now.) I wanted to cut the grass and pick up some of my gardening tools. I also planned to have a coffee with a slice of Diane’s excellent fruit cake. While I was home, I received a text from my manager. It said that we needed to have a conference call about our new working arrangements. Great fun. After about an hour of conferencing I’m still not any clearer about what I am supposed be doing.

By the time I made it home, it was too late to go up to the allotment. We had a G&T instead.

Day 9

The day started well. I woke up with the alarm. Diane just rolled over and went back to sleep. I got up, had a shower and went down stairs and made breakfast. Then brought a cup of tea up to Diane. After that things started to go downhill.

I tried to log on to my work computer. It told me that I no longer existed. At least, that’s the case as far as the company I work for is concerned. My contract was due to end yesterday, but it was agreed to extend it for another six months. Someone forgot to tell the IT department.

I went back to how we used to do it back in the days before laptops were invented. Note book and pen were sourced, with the plan being to write up the report when I went home. When my log on problems would be solved. Unfortunately this was not the case, although it did get a different error message when I tried to log on.

You may have noticed that I have not mentioned the news very much. I am not uninterested or not paying attention. I just don’t consider most of the output of our media at the moment to be news. There is some good news. For example, a team of Mercedes F1 engineers and researchers from Imperial College and UCL have produced a machine. This machine assists breathing and can be produced cheaply from off the shelf parts. Panic buying of toilet roll seems to be over for the time being. However, getting eggs remains difficult. Finding flour is also still a challenge. Other than that, there is a daily update. It tells me more people have died. It also tells me more people have been infected.

So far, Diane and I have been OK. I still have my work, I think. We have each other and we have the allotment, so hopefully food, come the apocalypse.