Lockdown III Week 12, March 22nd to 28th 2021 inclusive

Monday, March 22nd

We recorded our lowest daily virus death toll since September today – 17.  OK, figures are always lower on Mondays, but, considering that we were recording over 1,000 a day at one point, that’s major progress.  However, the accursed EU is again threatening to block vaccine exports.  It’s like when some horrible kid in the school playground grabs the football or the skipping rope and says that no-one’s allowed to play with it because they’re upset … except that people’s lives are at stake here.

I have no idea what we are and aren’t supposed to do next week.  Some newspapers are saying that you’re still not supposed to leave your local area, but the official advice just says not to make too many journeys, and to avoid using public transport at rush hour unless necessary – like anyone would use public transport at rush hour unless they absolutely had to.  Places like Capesthorne Hall are reopening, and presumably they don’t expect that visitors will only come from round the corner.  I don’t see that I’ll be causing anyone a problem if I go to, say, Biddulph Grange.  But it’s as clear as mud.

And, after a grumpy woman from Public Health England said yesterday that mask-wearing and social distancing might be in force for years, a grumpy health minister’s said today that all European countries (presumably excluding the Republic of Ireland) might have to be “red-listed”.  I don’t want to be lied to and given false hope, but do these people have to be so miserable?!   Is it necessary to speculate like this?  Bah!

 

Tuesday, March 23rd –  A YEAR OF LOCKDOWN

A year ago today, we went into lockdown.  We thought it’d be for 12 weeks.  We were told that 40,000 deaths would be a “good outcome” – it seemed like an impossibly high, dystopian number.

Today’s supposed to be a “National Day of Reflection”.  There was a minute’s silence at midday, and we’re supposed to go out on our doorsteps with candles at 8pm.

Boris is insisting that everyone’ll have been offered a first dose by the end of July, but no news on exactly when for over 40s.

Infection rates in our borough are going up quite rapidly, again 😦 .  It goes in waves – we’ve had a few good weeks, but Rochdale had a few bad weeks, and Tameside before Rochdale … it comes and goes.  But hospitalisations and deaths are down here and everywhere else, and deaths from all causes are actually below the 5 year average for the time of year.

A £5,000 fine for going abroad without good reason’s to be introduced, and there’s talk of that continuing until July rather than May.

Germany’s imposing tight restrictions again, with even food shops only allowed to open for 1 day in 5 over the Easter weekend.

Windermere Lake Cruises are reopening next week!  Hooray!  We’re supposed to “stay local as much as possible” even after the stay at home order’s lifted, but enough’s enough – I stay very local 5 days a week, and it’s not like I’ll be going to mass gatherings.  I think their prices were pretty much as before, but I’ve noticed that some places hoping to reopen later in the year have hiked their prices right up.  I understand that they need to try to make up for their losses, but it’s going to put people off going.

And it sounds as if a permanent memorial to people who’ve died of Covid will be built, at some point.

 

Wednesday, March 24th

The EU’s threatening a vaccine blockade, India’s got a “double mutant” virus, and concerns are rising over the high number of cases in France.  There’ve been calls for France to be “red-listed”, but, given that most cross-Channel haulage comes via France, that’s going to be a bit of a problem, to say the least.  We can hardly move the Channel Tunnel so the other end of it’s in Belgium or the Netherlands!   Oh, what a nightmare all this is.

Spain and Greece and various other countries are now letting flights from the UK in again, so at least there’s no problem with the next round of Champions League and Europa League matches, but we aren’t allowed out!

Windermere Lake Cruises have had to postpone their reopening by two days, because of the weather forecast.  FFS!  And Germany’s Easter lockdown’s been cancelled, one day after it was announced.

Zara Phillips has had a baby boy.   So there’s some good news!

 

Thursday, March 25th

I had a really bad morning with work today, and then I went to the park, had a cup of tea and a hot cross bun by a host of golden daffodils, and felt so much better.  I really would be happy to carry on WFH indefinitely.

However … some sort of deal’s been agreed with the EU over vaccines, but India’s now said that it won’t be exporting any vaccines until the end of April, because it needs/wants them for itself.  We’ve pretty much been told that, from 29th March, it’s second doses only, so I don’t know where that leaves me, and, with all this talk of vaccine passports, it’s pretty frustrating.

Also, both Poland and Belgium have tightened their restrictions, as the “third wave” gathers pace.

The emergency powers Coronavirus Act’s been extended for another six months.  I hate the fact that these powers exist – not even the likes of William the Conqueror or Oliver Cromwell tried to stop people from leaving their local areas, visiting their friends and relatives or having their hair cut – but there really is no alternative.  If the horrible virus mutates again,  we just can’t wait whilst Parliament messes about arguing about things.  But who, 15 months ago, would have thought that we’d come to this?

 

Friday, March 26th

I don’t think anyone’s taking too much notice of the “stay local as much as possible” guidance.  We’ve been banned from leaving the area for over 5 months, and the official ban ends on Monday.  Enough.  The National Trust site has been mad today, because the bookings site couldn’t cope with the number of people trying to get on.  I had a feeling this would happen, so I stayed up till midnight and got my tickets for Easter weekend as soon as they became available.  Oh, for a return to the days of just turning up!

That idiot Macron is still trying to blame us for the fact that the EU’s messed up its vaccination rollout.  Whilst he’s trying to divert the blame, the infection rate in Paris is sky-rocketing – it’s over 600.  Germany has now declared France a high-risk country.

Shops here are to be allowed to stay open until 10pm 6 days a week, when non-essential retail reopens.  I’m not sure who wants to go shopping at 10pm, but whatever.

 

Saturday, March 27th

Hopefully, this will be the last weekend of lockdown.  I need to get out into the countryside.

Mum and Dad had their second jabs today, so they’re all done … although there’s now talk of over 70s having a booster jab in the autumn.  Another fortysomething friend had hers today, but she must also have been lucky and got an appointment before this thing of over 50s only from March 29th came in.

I was meant to be in Grasmere this weekend.  Instead, I went to Hollingworth Lake – which was actually very nice, with lots of daffodils out.

Several local cafes and restaurants have applied for permission to set up outdoor chairs and tables.  Let’s just hope we get some decent weather!   Boris has said that, as things are, we should be able to stick to the “roadmap”.  Locally, infection rates are dropping again, a bit, although I doubt they’ll drop much until younger people have been vaccinated, and may well rise as things open up.  But deaths and hospitalisations are dropping.  The big worry, other than the slowdown in vaccine supply, is the situation in France.  Spain’s joined Germany in tightening restrictions on people entering from France, and it’s a worry with all the cross-Channel haulage traffic.

On a different note, United Women played at Old Trafford for the first time today.  And won, beating West Ham 2-0.

 

Sunday, March 28th

Let’s hope that this is the last ever day of lockdown.  And a bloody rotten one it’s been too – heavy rain and strong winds for part of the day.  It did, to be fair, ease up for a while, so I was able to go for a walk in the park – where the vintage trams were having a run out.

And we won our World Cup qualifier against Albania, following up our win against San Marino.

And it’s hoped that a shipment of the Moderna vaccine will arrive by mid-April.

So, OK, it hasn’t all been bad.  But everyone is so fed up.  We in Greater Manchester have pretty much been in some form of lockdown since the middle of October.  Whilst I was angry about the whole tier thing, I understand that the nationwide Lockdown III was unavoidable, but … this while thing, not even being allowed to see your own family and friends, is something that not even the most extreme of dystopian novelists would have written about 15 months ago.

New rule to try to help keep the “third wave” out – lorry drivers, cabin crew, prison escorts and seasonal workers entering England from outside the UK will need to take a Covid-19 test within 48 hours of arrival, and those remaining in the UK for longer than two days will be required to take a further test every three days.

Well, on we go – setting off on the “roadmap to freedom”.  Fingers crossed …

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Lockdown Anniversary

  It’s a year today since we first went into lockdown.  Hopefully, we’re now on the way out of it, but, with case numbers rising in a lot of other countries, and the virus being capable of playing nasty tricks such as mutating just in time to muck up Christmas, this nightmare’s a long way from being over.  But at least now we’ve got toilet paper, televised football, and takeaways in the park; and everyone involved with the vaccination programme is doing an incredible job and deserves all our heartfelt thanks.

We knew about the Spanish flu.  But it’d happened over 100 years ago, and medical knowledge and treatments then were nothing like they are now.  And, over the last few years, quite a few strange viruses – SARS, MERS, bird flu, the Zika virus – had appeared in different parts of the world, made headlines for a few weeks, and then never been mentioned again.   When one called “coronavirus”, later referred to more specifically as “Covid-19” appeared in a Chinese city called Wuhan, it just seemed like another one of those.  Until it didn’t.  It’s claimed over 2.7 million lives – we’ll never have an accurate figure, especially as every country seems to record figures differently, but that’s the official figure – and it’s turned all our lives upside down.  The chances are that it’s always going to be a big dividing line in our lives, just like the Second World War was for people who lived through it.

Maybe there’ll be permanent changes directly linked to it, like needing an annual vaccination, which in time will just be part of normal life.  In all likelihood, there’ll be permanent changes as an indirect result of it.  At the moment, we just don’t know – which is extremely frustrating, especially for anxious, over-planning people like me.   There is no certainty.  Scientists keep coming out with long-term doom and gloom predictions.  I’m sure there are some cheerful scientists out there, but none of them ever seem to make it on to TV!   Other people are more optimistic.  But we just don’t know.

Hopefully the vaccination programme is the way out of this.  I fully understand that, with such a big operation, there were bound to be hitches along the way – and Boris was quite right to praise the vaccine-producing organisations, rather than, as certain other people have done, criticise the very people offering hope.  But, oh, it’s so annoying that it’s happened just as I was practically at the front of the queue!   Some areas were already on to Group 10, and our area looked set to get there any day, and then the goalposts were moved.  Can’t be helped, and, as I’ve said, everyone involved with the vaccination programme’s doing an incredible job, but it’s rather frustrating for all those of us still waiting our turn!  More uncertainty.  Every time we think we’re getting near the finish line with this, something else happens.

And it all came from nowhere.  Yes, we’ve seen the pictures of people having fun in the sun over the August Bank Holiday weekend of 1914, little knowing that four years of war lay ahead, but people who followed international politics closely knew that trouble was brewing and, when you look back even as far as the 1890s, you can see that war was almost certainly coming.  But you can’t see a pandemic coming.  You can see that, say, having unclean water supplies in Victorian cities was asking for trouble, but this?   Maybe it was something to do with wet markets, but, until early last year, had you ever even heard of a wet market?  I hadn’t, and I’ve been to China.

All those lives gone – every one of them someone’s beloved relative, friend, neighbour, colleague.   And probably many more lives lost as a result of delays to medical treatment due to the pressure on health services, or mental deterioration in vulnerable people, especially those in care homes, cut off from their loved ones.  Many more people – we don’t know how many – left with long-term physical health issues.  And we can’t yet know the extent of the mental health problems caused by the unavoidable restrictions that we’ve been under for so long, and, in particular, the effect on front line workers who’ve had so much to deal with.

Other things have been lost too.  People forced to mourn without a “proper” funeral, or the usual mourning rituals of their religion/culture.  And time that you can’t get back.  People who’ve died without being able to spend their precious last days with loved ones.  Time that grandparents and aunts and uncles would have spent with babies and toddlers during their precious early months.   The experience of university.   Time that children should have spent in school.  OK, you hear stories about kids who came to the UK as refugees, not speaking a word of English, and got straight As in their A-levels a few years later, and think that one year of disrupted education might not be a big deal, but it will be to some children.   Everyone’s different, and it’s going to be very difficult to sort out the problems that this has caused.

And it’s hit some communities much harder than others.  Here in Greater Manchester, we were put under additional restrictions at the end of July, five months before some areas were.  Infection rates and death rates in some areas have been much higher than others, for a variety of reasons.  Urban areas of North West England, Yorkshire, North East England and South Wales have been particularly badly affected.  And the economic effects are going to be much worse in some areas, especially tourist areas, than others, too, and recovery isn’t going to happen overnight.

We don’t know what recovery’s going to be like.  We aren’t even at the recovery stage yet.  And no-one knows how it’s going to be.  Non-essential shops will hopefully be reopening on April 12th, but are we all going to rush to the high streets and the shopping centres?  Well, if it’s like last July, when you had to queue outside because only limited numbers were allowed in, you couldn’t use the toilets, and you couldn’t try clothes on, then, quite frankly, no.  I did so much walking during Lockdown I that I was desperate for new trainers by the time shops reopened.  I went to Sports Direct at Manchester Fort, and found myself having to spend half an hour stood out in the rain before I could even go in.  It obviously wasn’t the fault of the shop’s owners or staff, but it wasn’t exactly great.   And have we all got used to ordering things online?   So many big High Street names have gone since all this started.  What does the future hold?

And what about the future for city/town centres in general?  Will we carry on WFH?  I would love to carry on WFH.  It’s saved my sanity (such sanity as I actually possess!) during all this.  Being able to go for a walk during the day (not that I’m losing any weight from doing so, bleurgh), instead of being trapped in a depressing office.  Not having to listen to other people’s incessant coughing, sneezing, snivelling and shouting.  Bliss!   Some people think that WFH is the way ahead.  I’m not so sure.  Some jobs, obviously, just can’t be done from home.  With others – well, will bullying, controlling employers be happy to go on like this indefinitely?   Decent employers will, but how many of them are there around?  There’ve been reports of many employers refusing to give people an hour out of the working day to go and have their vaccinations.

We shall see.

Zoom meetings are surely here to stay, though.  Big savings in terms of time and travel costs.  There’ll be some people, especially in particular sectors, who want to get back to face-to-face shmoozing, wining and dining, but there’ll be a lot who won’t.

That’s mainly in sectors which haven’t taken a big hit.  But some sectors are on their knees.  Tourist businesses and shops, as already mentioned.  The overseas travel industry.  Personal care businesses, and health and fitness businesses.  A lot of businesses just won’t make it, or have gone already.   The leisure industry in general – how much permanent change is there going to be?  Professional sport will bounce back: you can’t recreate the atmosphere of actually being at a live sports event.  And, as nice as take-aways are, I think there’ll be a rush back to restaurants, cafes and pubs when they reopen.  But, when cinemas and theatres reopen, how will they stand up against Netflix and other watch-at-home services?    Have people’s habits changed permanently?

And then there’s foreign travel.  Oh, travel, how I miss thee.  I had it all planned out for 2020.  Iceland booked for July, Japan booked for October, and a Mitteleuropean Christmas market to be booked for December as soon as I got the 20/21 football fixtures.  Iceland’s rebooked for this July and Japan’s rebooked for this October, but I’ve pretty much accepted that neither of them are happening.  Even if we’re legally allowed to travel, are things going to be open, and do I want these experiences of a lifetime spoilt by stressing about masks and social distancing?  But how long is this going to go on?  And how long can airlines and travel companies keep going?

Oh, I want to go on a coach tour abroad.  I want to go somewhere here: we’ve been banned from even leaving the local area for over five months.  I haven’t seen my sister, brother-in-law and nephews since August, and I haven’t seen many other relatives and friends since well before that.  I haven’t been to Old Trafford for over a year.  I haven’t been to the theatre or the cinema for over a year.  National Trust properties are open, but you have to decide a week in advance that you’re going, and book, so it’s not quite the same.  I want to be in a crowd.  I hate being in crowds, unless it’s at a sports or music event: I get stressed and feel trapped if there are too many people about.  But I want to be in one anyway.  Without dogs.  I am so, so sick of dogs.  I walk and walk, because there’s nothing else to do, but, everywhere you walk, there are dogs.   So, no, dogs, but I want to be in a crowd.  Just briefly.  And I want a haircut!   I don’t read dystopian novels, but I can’t imagine that there are any which mention not being able to have your hair cut.  I get the reason that salons are closed, but I’m sick of it!

Most of all, I want a day out in the Lake District.  Hopefully, that’s not far off.  But any sort of normality, whatever normality is any more, is a fair way off.  Thankfully, we don’t seem to be getting the “third wave” affecting parts of the Continent, and hopefully we won’t.  But this is nowhere near over.  And, a year ago, whilst we’d had to accept that this was bad, and that life was going to change, we thought it was going to peak over Easter weekend and that the worst would be over by the summer.  Yes, I know that the second wave of the Spanish flu was worse than the first.  I knew that a year ago, too.  But that was over 100 years ago, and medical knowledge and treatments then were nothing like they are now …

There are nice things.  WFH is wonderful, as I’ve said: I wish that could last indefinitely.  I love being able to go out for a walk every day.  I love that I see a lot of the same people, and that we stop to say hello to each other.  The park’s like the social centre of the universe at the moment!   I like the takeaway cafes .. OK, I don’t like the queues, but I rather like going up to the hatch, and then going off to sit on a park bench.  And how could we have got through this without social media?  OK, there are the people who post spiteful, political points-scoring stuff, but I’ve learnt to try to ignore that, and to focus on the positive stuff people post, and the kindness that so many people have shown.

But I want my “real” life back.  And we don’t know when it’s coming back, and how much of it’s coming back.  But at least we’ve still got our lives.  2.7 million people haven’t.  That’s a bewildering number.   And, whatever could or should have been done differently, this is the fault of a virus, a very nasty, clever, shapeshifting virus, and nature’s stronger than we are.   It’s not exactly Ragnarok, but … well, Whig history, onwards and upwards, human and industrial progress, moving forwards … and then something like this happens, and everything changes.

Lockdown III Week 11, March 15th to 21st 2021 inclusive

Monday, March 15th

A terrible thing has happened 😦 .  Thorntons are closing all their shops.  Their chocolate will still be available online and from some supermarkets, but all their shops are going.  I can’t believe it.  There’ll be no High Street shops left at this rate.

Sunday’s Census Day, but you can fill yours in early if nothing’s going to change.  I decided to fill mine in today, then read it over later in the week, then send it in.  I appreciate that the decision to go ahead with it was taken before Lockdown III, but it’s going to be rather a mess.  You’ve got to fill in it as things are now, so loads of people will be putting that they’re not working, even though they have actually got jobs, and loads of people will be putting that they’re working from home and therefore not using any form of transport to get to work – so how are the authorities meant to make decisions about the transport network?

Nice sunny day today.  More and more daffodils coming out.  And we’re stuck in this limbo.  And hairdressers in Wales have reopened … but we’ve got to wait another four weeks.

Some countries have suspended use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, this time because some people’ve got blood clots after having it, but there’s no evidence that the blood clots are linked to the vaccine or that the incidence of blood clots is any higher than it would be anyway.  You can now e-mail the doctors’ surgery, so I’ve e-mailed to ask if there’s any news on vaccinations for Group 10.  No harm in asking.

And Portugal’s off the “red list”.

 

Tuesday, March 16th

Bleurgh.  First, Indian Wells was cancelled.  Now, Rafa’s pulled out of Miami.  He says that it’s so he can focus on getting ready for the clay court season, and that sort of makes sense, but I’m bothered about just how bad this back injury is.

Also, infection rates are up in 7 out of the 10 local boroughs.  Not ours, but it’s probably only a matter of time.  It’s because secondary school kids are now being tested regularly.  There doesn’t seem to be any panic, because kids are rarely badly affected, but a) it shows how many asymptomatic cases there are around, b) a small number of kids *are* badly affected, c) it could be passed on to a vulnerable classmate of family member, d) it means that some kids have been sent home from school again, already, and e) with no plans to vaccinate under 18s, and no vaccines even licensed for under 18s, the issue of infections in children is a problem.

On a happier note, Prince Philip has been released from hospital.  And the first tulip’s out in my garden.

Boris’s hair is horrendous.  Mine is pretty bad, but his is ten times worse.

And the surgery e-mailed me back to say that they’re still on over-50s.

 

Wednesday, March 17th

I don’t believe this.  Just as my turn for the vaccine was getting close, the NHS is warning of a “major contraction” in supplies and saying that it might have to suspend appointments for first doses.  This may or may not be connected with Ursula von der Leyen again threatening an export ban, in her continued attempts to blame everyone but herself and her team for the complete balls-up they’ve made of the rollout in EU countries.

We’re also being told that people in their 40s will have to wait whilst the NHS chases up people in Groups 1 to 9 who haven’t yet come forward.

I am not very happy about this 😦 .

It’s been a nice sunny day – blue sky, and more and more daffodils in the park.

But this latest news about the vaccines really isn’t very good.

 

Thursday, March 18th

Oh, how annoying is this?  I do appreciate that it’s not aimed at me personally, and I also appreciate that we were always going to hit a supply hitch at some point and have done very well to get this far without one, but I was so close.  The word was that some people aged 47-49 in our area had been contacted, and that people aged 45-46, i.e. including me, could probably hope to hear next week.  And now it’s probably going to be another month.  Another month of not being protected.  And, whilst I do get that it’s not about holidays, if I’d had my first vaccination in late March or early April, I’d have had my second in time for the summer holiday season.  So near, and yet so far.

It seems that one shipment of 1.7 million doses is being held back for extra testing, and that a shipment of 5 million doses from India’s been delayed by 4 weeks because of production problems.  I thought it was great that Boris praised the “herculean” efforts of the production facility in India, rather than slagging off the people whose hard work’s offering us a way out of this nightmare, like that nasty piece of work Ursula von der Leyen’s doing, but it is, nevertheless, annoying.  The original target was to complete groups 1 to 9 by 15th April, and we’re 4 weeks before that and I’m group 10, but … ooh, it’s so, so frustrating.   So nearly there … and now I’m not.

On a happier note, we won 1-0 at AC Milan, 2-1 on aggregate, and are into the Europa League QFs.  And it’s been another nice sunny day.  More daffodils out in the park.  Please, please be nice in April!

 

Friday, March 19th

After a third fortysomething friend posted on Facebook that she’d had the vaccine, I rang our surgery to ask what was going on.  The answer was that a small number of people in their late 40s had been contacted, because the walk-in centre had had some doses which were nearing their use-by dates, but that, following the announcements on Wednesday, no-one outside the top 9 groups would be being called for the time being.  Existing appointments are being honoured, so my friend must just have been lucky in that her area was slightly ahead of ours and she’d been contacted before Wednesday.  Which is great for her, and I’m very pleased for her, but it’s very frustrating for me!

The number of cases is edging up now.  However, we still only recorded 4,802 cases across the UK today, compared to (yesterday’s numbers) nearly 35,000 in France, nearly 30,000 in Germany and nearly 25,000 in Italy.  There’s increasing talk of a “third wave”.  Will this nightmare ever end?!

I just heard a squeaky noise, panicked that the boiler had thrown a strop, and then realised that it was some birds tweeting in a tree!

For all this talk about third waves and vaccine shortages, there’s been no suggestion that the “roadmap” will be altered for the time being.  Everyone really is fed up, so let’s hope that things can go ahead as planned.

And we’ve been drawn against Granada in the next round of the Europa League.

 

Saturday, March 20th

Over 700,000 vaccinations were given in just one day yesterday, which is amazing stuff, but so, so, frustrating for my age group, left waiting outside with the door shut in our faces!   On a more positive note, over 50% of the adult population’s now had their first dose.   Cases are creeping up again, but hospitalisations and deaths are falling, which is more important.  However, the news from the Continent is grim, with the term “third wave” being used more and more.  With fears that rising numbers of cases there could lead to new variants arising, hopes of foreign travel (bearing in mind that most foreign travel from the UK is to the Continent) being allowed to resume any time soon are fading.  Poland and many parts of France have gone back into lockdown.  Oh, will this nightmare ever end?!

I went to Clifton Country Park this morning.  Took my own scone, from The Coffee Sack, with me!   It was nice to have a change of scene, but the place was absolutely plagued with people with dogs, and the paths there are very narrow.  I went for a walk in Heaton Park later.  Much as I like going for walks, I am getting very fed up!  And my hair is an epic disaster.

Japan’s said that no overseas fans will be allowed in for the Olympics.  My trip to Japan, booked around 18 months ago and postponed from last October to this October, looks very unlikely to happen.  Ditto my trip to Iceland, rescheduled from last July to this July.  I’m used to going abroad at least twice a year, usually more – I know that sounds “privileged”, but I wear the same grotty old clothes for decades, and use gadgets until they stop working – and suddenly not being able to do so is very odd.  I haven’t even been allowed to leave the local area for 5 months.

On a different note, I saw our local Big Issue seller today, sitting on the pavement in the precinct.  I got him something to eat, and he’d got some hot drinks, so hopefully people are keeping an eye out for him.  He’s a well-known face in the local community: he’s been selling the Big Issue outside M&S for years.  But Big Issue sellers aren’t allowed to work during lockdown.  How stupid is that?  Newsagents are allowed to open, and, OK, magazines aren’t “essential” in the same way that newspapers are, but surely the Big Issue should be a special case.   During Lockdown I, a big effort was made to find homeless people somewhere to stay, but it doesn’t seem to be happening this time.

 

Sunday, March 21st

Census Day.

A record 844,285 vaccinations were given yesterday.  That is amazing.  However, it makes it all the more frustrating that – whilst I quite appreciate that it’s no-one’s fault – most under 50s now face a long wait.  All this talk about vaccination passports is frustrating as well: it makes you feel like a second class citizen.  And it’s pretty silly, given that much of it involves activities that are mainly the preserve of younger people.  Vaccination passports for summer music festivals?  WTF?  The vast majority of people who go to music festivals are under 30, and will therefore be last in the vaccination queue, so how’s that supposed to work?!

Everything feels frustrating.  When you’re trapped doing boring work for 5 days a week, and get very little time off, weekends are precious.  A dry Sunday in daffodil season is like manna from heaven.  The Lakes?  Chirk Castle?  Biddulph Grange?  Bolton Abbey?  No … another walk round the park, and another walk into Prestwich village for another cake that I don’t need.  Everyone has had enough.  People are sitting at tables outside cafes, which they’re not meant to.  Kids are playing football in big groups, which they’re not meant to.  Plenty of people have had their hair cut by mobile hairdressers, which they’re certainly not meant to.  The odd sanctimonious person tuts at all this, and says that they’re prepared to endure restrictions for as long as it takes, for the Greater Good.  I’m sure people only say that because they think it makes them sound virtuous.  It actually just makes them sound annoying.

Yes, I’m sure we’re all aware that we’re in a pandemic, and that the restrictions are not just there to annoy us, but people are getting down.  And do scientists think they’re helping by saying that we’ll probably have to wear masks and observe social distancing for years to come, that there’ll probably be a big flu epidemic in the winter because immunity’s dropped due to lack of contact, that overseas travel will be off the menu for months yet, that even vaccinations won’t stop the pandemic, and all the rest of it?  They’re the modern equivalent of those people in the 17th century who went around proclaiming that the end of the world was nigh!   People can’t deal with hearing all that at the moment.

It’s not been a bad day.  Lots of daffodils in the park 🙂 .  Just frustrating.

OK, off to watch the Cup QF.  At least we’ve got football, which is more than we had this time last year!   I know I’m moaning a lot today, but I’m fed up.

… and we lost the Cup QF at Leicester, 2-1.  Bleurgh!

Bleurgh indeed …

 

A hitch in the proceedings

 You know when you’ve been waiting in a long queue, and, just as you’re practically at the front, someone closes the doors, draws a rope across, or says “Sorry, we’ve sold out”?  Well, that is me with the Covid vaccine.  The original target was to give over-50s, plus any younger people who worked in healthcare (and) or were extremely clinicially vulnerable, their first jab by April 15th.  But we were steaming ahead, and my group, the over-40s were next in line.  Two of my friends, both in their 40s but living in different parts of the country, had their first jabs last week.  Yesterday morning, the word in my area was that some people aged 47, 48 and 49 had been called, and that people aged 45 or 46, i.e. including yours truly, could hope to hear within the next few days.  I was so close to having that protection, to feeling that relief.

But then, yesterday afternoon, news outlets started reporting that the NHS had sent out a letter saying that there was about to be a big reduction in the number of doses of the vaccine available, and that vaccination centres should stop taking appointments.  Next thing, Matt Hancock and the website for the local vaccination centre were saying that no-one under 50, other than those in other priority groups, was eligible to be vaccinated until further notice.

It’s transpired that a shipment of 5 million doses from the Serum Centre in India’s been delayed for four weeks due to production problems, and that a batch of 1.7 million doses, which we’ve already got, is being held back because of some sort of additional testing.  The doses available are needed for second jabs and for people in the top 9 groups who haven’t been vaccinated yet.   So, having been a few days away from getting my first jab, I’m now probably a month away.  And it’s a significant month, as well: had I had my first jab in late March and early April, I’d have had my second in late June, giving me a lot more options for the summer holiday season.

Yes, obviously I do get that this is not about me.  It affects everyone in my age group, including people who’ve got health problems, or who work in jobs which mean they’ve got a lot of unavoidable contact with other people.  And, yes, I do get that the point of the vaccination programme is to save lives and avoid serious illness, not to enable people to go on foreign holidays.  And, yes, obviously it’s better that it’s happened now than before we’d vaccinated the more vulnerable groups.  And, yes, originally I didn’t expect to be called before late April anyway.  But it’s still, so, so frustrating, to have been so near and now be so far!

There was bound to be a hitch at some point, and we’ve done very well to get this far without one.  We’ve gone from having no approved vaccines available to trying to produce enough for everyone on the planet within a very short space of time: there were always going to be hiccups.  And it was lovely to hear Boris praising the “herculean efforts” of the Serum Institute, rather than, as that deeply unpleasant woman Ursula von der Leyen keeps going, criticising the very people whose amazing efforts have offered us hope of a way out of this nightmare.

We’re still on target to give everyone in the top 9 groups their first jab by the middle of April, and to give all adults their first jab by the middle of July.  The “roadmap” isn’t affected.  Compared to, say, France, which recorded over 35,000 cases today, when we, with a higher population, recorded 6,303, we’re doing OK, touch wood.  But, ooh, the frustration of being so, so close, and now knowing that it’s going to be at least another month!  Sorry for moaning, but … gah!!

 

 

Lockdown III Week 10, March 8th to 14th 2021 inclusive

Monday, March 8th

Kids went back to school today.  And you’re now allowed to meet one other person outdoors, without going for a walk.  Let’s just hope that there are no more issues with schools.  Secondary school kids now have to be tested 9I mean for the virus, not school stuff!) twice a week.

Worrying news from Poland, where infection rates are up by around 30% in a week, and there’s talk of a “third wave”.

Some rain earlier, but sunny now.

And I’d intended to watch the Harry and Meghan interview, just out of curiosity, but we’ve heard most of what they said and I’m not sure that I want to dignify their lies by spending time watching it.  For example, they’ve claimed that Archie was denied a title.  WTF??  He was supposed to be the Earl of Dumbarton, but they said that they wanted him to be plain “Master”.  There are numerous similar examples.  It’s all deeply unpleasant, and I’m very sorry that the Queen’s having to deal with their vindictiveness at her age.

It’s also Commonwealth Day.  And International Women’s Day.

And another day of marking time.  I’m usually deep into holiday planning at this time of year.

 

Tuesday, March 9th

That miserable pair Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance have said that there’ll probably be a third wave of the virus in the UK at some point.  I think they want us locked down until kingdom come.

Horrible weather’s forecast for the rest of the week.  Bleurgh 😦 .  Just hope it’s decent over Easter weekend.

Rates locally and nationally continue to fall, as, more importantly, do deaths and hospitalisations, but the picture in parts of Europe, including Italy, is very worrying, with cases rising again.

Japan’s said that no overseas fans will be allowed at the Olympics.  I think I can forget my October coach tour of Japan, which I was originally supposed to go on last year.  I booked it in the autumn of 2019, and I was so excited and so much looking forward to it, and the same with my summer trip to Iceland.  I’ve got a load of books on both countries in the spare room wardrobe.

 

Wednesday, March 10th

Wet and windy today.  At least it meant that there was no queue for drinks at the park café!  I hope it doesn’t do this over Easter weekend, though, just when people will be reuniting with relatives and friends.

Just watching Dan Evans v Roger Federer.

Cases are rising rapidly in Hungary and the Czech Republic, as well as Poland.

 

Thursday, March 11th

Strong winds and heavy rain overnight.  Brightened up later, although it stayed windy, but it’s raining again later.  I got drenched in the park yesterday (despite my brolly) and windswept today.  Several people have remarked on the fact that I go out walking even when the weather’s awful and hardly anyone else does.  So why am I still so fat?!!  It’s not fair 😦 .

United v AC Milan is one of those glamour ties you dream about, even if it is in the Europa League and not the Champions League.  I’m grateful that I can watch it on telly, but it’s not the same as being there.  Later … finished 1-1, conceded an away goal in injury time, bah!!

And the eternally miserable Mark Drakeford – does that man ever smile? – wants to keep a “stay local” order in force in Wales, even when the “stay at home” order’s lifted.  And I don’t think he wants to let people from England into Wales ever again.  Will I ever see Chirk Castle, Bodnant Garden, Llangollen and Erddig again?!  Will the tourist businesses in places like Llandudno, which depend on visitors from North West England, ever make any money again?!

On a happier note, some daffodils are out in Heaton Park.

 

Friday, March 12th

Hmm.  Mark Drakeford may be miserable, but he’s said that hairdressers in Wales can reopen on Monday, four weeks before they’re reopening in England.  I’m sorely tempted to nip over to Wrexham – the state of my hair must surely class an emergency!!  He’s also said that self-catering holiday accommodation in Wales can reopen at the end of March … but not to people from other parts of the UK.  I’m not very comfortable about this.  Not that I want to go to a holiday cottage in Wales in March, but just the whole thing.

Very windy again today.

Italy’s going back into lockdown.

I feel like I’m just waiting.  Waiting to be allowed out.  Waiting until it’s my turn to be vaccinated.  Just waiting.  But rates in our borough are right down to 77 now (touch wood).  Above the national average, which is around 52, but the lowest they’ve been since … it must be September, if not August.

 

Saturday, March 13th

Hooray!!  There are usually plenty of daffodils out at Dunham Massey by mid-March, so I’d booked to go today, but was rather upset when the forecast was for rain and wind.  However, although there’ve been a few bad spells, it was fine whilst I was there, and there were indeed lots of lovely daffodils.  I was so excited!  I’m a bit obsessive about daffodils 🙂 .  *And* they had scones.

We’re supposed to be “staying local as much as possible” after the “stay home” rule’s lifted on March 29th, but I really have had enough – and people who are trapped in offices need to make the most of Easter weekend.  Anyway, we’ll see how it goes.  Please, weather, just behave …

Salford’ve won the 2020 EFL Trophy.  The 2021 final’s tomorrow!

Most of the daffodils in Prestwich Flower Park are out too.  They weren’t on Monday, so that’s quick!

Two friends who are both in my age group have had their vaccinations today.  It varies across the country, depending on demographics, and plenty of friends in their early 50s, i.e. the group before mine, are still waiting,  but I’m getting a bit impatient now.

Cases in the Netherlands are now on the up, as well as Italy and East/Central Europe.  This isn’t good.  But, this morning, my heart with pleasure fills (“filled” doesn’t rhyme) and danced with the daffodils.

 

Sunday, March 14th

Went to the park this morning.  Some of the daffodils in the woods are out.

Unfortunately, it then absolutely poured down from about 1 o’clock to half 4.  Yes, there are books, newspapers, magazines, TV programmes and films, but I feel so trapped by work stuff during the week (although not nearly as much as I do when I’m trapped in an office) and am really not good at sitting in the house at weekends.  Just hope it doesn’t do this over Easter weekend.  On a happier note, United 1-0 West Ham!

There’ve been big anti-lockdown protests in the Netherlands.

Everyone is really, really fed up.  This has gone on and on and on.  The good news is that around 45% of the population’ve now had their first vaccinations, and I’m just desperately hoping that this is our way out of it.  People are really struggling.  And it’s Mother’s Day/Mothering Sunday today, when a lot of families like to hold get-togethers.

Murray Walker died.  I hadn’t realised he was 97.  Seems like only yesterday that he was still doing Formula 1 commentary.

In the middle of it all, a huge row’s broken out after the Met Police rather badly mishandled a vigil-cum-protest on Clapham Common, following the abduction and murder of a woman there last week.  The suspect’s a serving police officer.  People were told not to attend the vigil/protest, because of the lockdown restrictions, but many did anyway, and it somehow all went wrong and there’ve been some very unpleasant pictures of policemen removing women quite aggressively.   They didn’t try to stop Black Lives Matter protests, or try to stop those idiots from Extinction Rebellion from blocking the streets, and it’s also been pointed out that no-one tried to stop crowds of Rangers fans from celebrating their SPL title victory last week.

Ten weeks of lockdown.  And weeks of Tier 3/Tier 4/Lockdown II before that.  And it’s almost a year since we went into the first lockdown.   I see things sometimes, pictures of huge crowds at football matches, or at concerts, or cheering at parades, or even crowds of people on public transport, and wonder when we’ll ever get back to any sort of normality.   Sometimes, even now, it still feels unreal that this is happening.

Lockdown III Week 9, March 1st to 7th 2021 inclusive

Monday, March 1st

Another nice sunny day.  Local rates are coming down again, thankfully.

I am way too fat, and my hair is a horrendous mess.

Six cases of “the Brazilian variant” have been found in the UK.  One or possibly more of these relates to someone who flew into London on a connecting flight from Zurich, having flown to Zurich from Brazil.  The issue of connecting flights is a big problem.  And we don’t actually know who one of the other people infected is, because they didn’t fill in their form properly!  FFS.

On a more positive note, data shows that both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines are very effective in preventing hospitalisation and death.

Several friends have said that they’ve already booked hair appointments.  I’ve texted my hairdresser, but she hasn’t got back to me.  I’m sure that there’s a very good reason for this, but it’s stressing me out!

Prince Philip’s been transferred to St Bart’s, which is rather worrying.

 

Tuesday, March 2nd

Yet another sunny day, but very cold overnight: I had to de-ice the car before going to Tesco this morning.  Still too cold to put new plants in!

Thanks to that idiot Macron and his Anglophobic ranting against the AstraZeneca vaccine, large amounts of the said vaccine are lying unused in both France and Germany.  Macron’s now eaten his words but, understandably, people are now nervous.  Meanwhile, Slovakia’s following Hungary in getting stocks of the Sputnik vaccine from Russia, and it looks as if Austria and the Czech Republic may follow suit.  Austria and Denmark are also in talks with Israel over vaccines.  Normally, I’d be a little amused to see the European Disunion is such disarray, but not when people’s health and even lives are at stake.  What the hell was Macron playing at?

And kids are getting ready to go back to school.

 

Wednesday, March 3rd

Seriously stressed about the lack of contact from my hairdresser 😦 .

I had a phone call from Old Trafford today, just to say that they’d be in touch about info for next season once more was known about how many people would be allowed back into stadia etc.  I’m not sure why that merited a phone call, TBH, but maybe they’re just trying to be caring.  The last match I went to was on March 8th 2020, almost exactly a year ago.  A year without going to a football match.

Today was Budget Day.  The furlough scheme and the other support schemes will continue until the end of September, but corporation tax for large companies will go up from April 2023, and personal tax allowances will be frozen.  This whole thing’s an economic nightmare.  It’s no-one’s fault, just something we’ve got to deal with, but we’re going to be dealing with the aftermath of this for years.  And no-one really knows how much has changed permanently – we’re just going to have to see how it goes.  Will people go back to going to physical shops rather than ordering online, and seeing films at the pictures rather than on Netflix?  Will people go back to holding meetings in person rather than over Zoom?   Only time will tell.

 

Thursday, March 4th

Hooray – rates in our borough are down 41% week-on-week, touch wood, and rates across the whole area are falling more quickly than they were, so fears of a return to the Evil Tier System are (I hope) receding.  And rejoice, rejoice, I’ve got a hair appointment for April 13th!!

However, rates are rising in several Continental countries, notably Poland.  And Italy has blocked the export to Australia of vaccine doses which have been legitimately ordered by Australia, under this unbelievably selfish European Union “I’m all right, Jack” policy.

My holiday company’s cancelled all tours up to the end of May.  I’m so sorry for them – they’ve lost over a year’s business.  I’m still officially booked for Iceland in July and Japan in October, re-booked from last year, but, sadly, I can’t see that either trip’s going to happen. However, Matt Hancock’s talking about “A Great British Summer” again, so fingers crossed that staycations will be on even if foreign holidays aren’t.

 

Friday, March 5th

Prince Philip’s back at the other hospital, after a heart procedure.

A lot of moaning’s going on over the lack of public sector pay rises.  I’m afraid I haven’t got much sympathy.  Private sector employers will be using the pandemic as an excuse to freeze pay for years.  Public sector workers get unlimited paid sick pay, good pension schemes and loads of holidays: private sector workers get none of those things.  And they have considerable job security, whereas a lot of private sector workers have lost their jobs or fear losing their jobs.

Cyprus has said that it’ll welcome British tourists who’re fully vaccinated.  Here we go … most people who go to Cyprus are in the younger age groups and are therefore unlikely to have been fully vaccinated by the summer, and there’s going to be a lot of resentment about it.

The mystery person with the Brazilian variant’s been traced.

People going abroad from England now have to fill in a form saying that they’re going abroad for legitimate reasons.

And it’s cold!

 

Saturday, March 6th

I hope this nice weather doesn’t end when lockdown ends.  It’s so, so frustrating having dry, sunny(ish) weekend days and not being able to get out into the countryside or the seaside.  Yes, I know that there’s a pandemic, but, when I hear about the police patrolling beauty spots, it makes me feel like we’re back in the days of the Kinder Scout Mass Trespass, denying urban working people access to the countryside.  I feel that all the more when I hear over and over again about how much worse urban areas have been affected than rural areas.  Burnley’s virus death rate in January was double the national average.  OK, OK, I don’t suppose that that would have changed if people from Burnley had been allowed to go to Blackpool or the Lakes or the Trough of Bowland, but lockdown definitely weighs a lot harder on some areas than on others.

Having said all that, I did get to Hollingworth Lake earlier.

I went off the main path to where the farms are, in the hope of seeing some lambs, but it’s too early!   And I’ve been to the garden centre, and put the new plants in the garden.  And I’ve been to Tesco, where (how sad is this?) I got quite excited over the new self-service machines, which do not go berserk if you take things out of “the bagging area”!  Once you’ve scanned something, you can put it in a bag in your trolley or basket.  Wa-hey!!

Local infection rates are now falling more quickly than the national average.  No idea why, but long may it last!

Someone flew a helicopter from Barton Aerodrome to Chipping and back (about an 80 mile round trip) to collect a roast beef barm with caramelised onion gravy.  Seriously.

Other than the pandemic and the derby match, the main talking point is Harry and Meghan.  The Royal Family, the country and the entire Commonwealth are well rid of those two, but the nastiness is upsetting, and I’m sad to think of how distressing it must be for the Queen and Prince Philip.

 

Sunday, March 7th

Rejoice, rejoice – City 0 – 2 United!!

On the day of last year’s Etihad league derby, I was in Vienna, and celebrated victory (yes, we beat City twice in the league last season) with a late evening gluhwein at the Rathausplatz Christmas market, in the middle of crowds of people from all over the world having fun.  This evening, I celebrated with a cup of tea in the front room.  But, hey, the main thing is that we’re celebrating!

This time last year, we kept getting storms at the weekends.  It was so frustrating, especially as the Lake District was particularly badly affected by them.  This year, we’re getting all these lovely dry, sunny days, but we’re banned from going anywhere.  Gah!   However, hooray, we have got Heaton Park, and you can sometimes find a quiet area away from people with horrible barking dogs.  I was in the park for ages.

Loads of kids playing football or cricket in big groups.  Loads of people walking or even sitting in groups which weren’t big but were clearly more than one household.    Everyone’s just had enough.  I’m not excusing rule-breaking, but the virus doesn’t spread much outdoors, and it’s all just gone on for so long.

Schools go back tomorrow.

It’s a start.  I hope.

A match-less year

  A year ago on Monday, on March 8th 2020, United beat City 2-0 at Old Trafford.  Maybe we’ll get a similar result at the Etihad on Sunday: you never know!  It was the most amazing afternoon, with an electric atmosphere.  Five days later, rather appropriately on Friday 13th, it was announced that the season was being suspended.  Thankfully, we’ve now got football on TV – and an awful lot of it 🙂 – but fans haven’t been back inside Old Trafford since that wonderful Sunday afternoon a year ago.  Something’s a huge part of your life for almost 40 years, and then it’s taken away – by a virus.  The last time I went to the gym was the following week: I’m not exactly breaking my heart over that, but I should be.  People keep telling me that they’re always seeing me out walking, but The Scales aren’t getting it 😦  .  And we should have had a book club meeting two days before the gym visit, but it was cancelled.   It’s been an unimaginably long time since I’ve seen some of my friends and relatives:  Greater Manchester was shoved back under restrictions very soon after they were lifted.

The last time I went to the theatre was on February 25th 2020.  It was so exciting that the Back to the Future musical was premiering in Manchester.  The last time I went to the pictures was on February 15th 2020 – I went into town on the tram, went to see a film, then went to The Vienna Coffee House for a drink and a bite to eat.  The last time I went abroad was in December 2019.  Every year, I spend hour after hour reading up on the history of the culture reading up on wherever I’m going that year, trying to learn a bit of the language if it’s one with which I’m not familiar, trawling Amazon and Google for historical novels set there, and making lists of “must see” places and highlighting them on maps.  I was able to take two “staycations” last year, and I was very grateful for that, but I really want to get back to being and seeing somewhere different.

Everyone’s got things that they’re missing.  Maybe it’s something like going to professional football matches, which hundreds of thousands of people do every week.  Maybe it’s a very niche special interest thing.  Maybe it’s something which always seemed very ordinary and unremarkable, like meeting a few friends for a cup of tea and a piece of cake, or browsing round the shops.  It doesn’t matter what it is: if it’s important to you, then it’s important.  No-one’s interests matter any more or less than anyone else’s.

Maybe it’s being in a workplace rather than WFH: now there’s something which I am really *not* missing, but there’ve been some suggestions  (although I think they’re mainly coming from the landlords of office blocks) that other people are.

And it’s OK to say that you’re missing things, and especially that you’re missing people.

There will be a few sanctimonious people who will guilt-trip you about it, but they’re best ignored.  OK, not being able to go to the pictures hardly compares to being bereaved, being ill, or losing your job or your business, but our lives have been turned upside down.  We don’t know how long it’s going to take for things to get back to normal, and we don’t know what will have changed permanently.   Are cinemas going to be as popular as they used to be, or have people got too used to watching stuff on Netflix?   Will High Street shops (those that are left) ever be as busy as they used to be, or have people got too used to ordering online?   I was saying to one of the people at Cuckoo that I hope they keep the takeaway hatch going even after they can reopen the inside of the café, because it’s a “thing” now – everyone goes there!   Are we going to go back to having packed out public transport at rush hour?  No-one knows, and that’s scary – you never know what’s round the corner, but you normally have a lot more idea than we’ve got at the moment.

This has been my first match-less year since I was a very little kid.  I’m hoping that we’ll be back inside grounds next season, but I don’t know.  We get crowds of around 75,000 at Old Trafford – will that many people be allowed in?  And what about everything else?   National Trust and English Heritage properties reopened last summer, but with a limited numbers, pre-booking system – how long will that go on for?

How long will any of this go on for?!

We don’t know.  But fingers crossed that the wonderful vaccination programme will bring us out of it. In the meantime, stay safe and well, and thanks for reading xxx.

 

Lockdown III Week 8, February 22nd to 28th inclusive

Monday, February 22nd

Boris’s roadmap out of lockdown has been announced … subject to levels of hospitalisations (rather than infections, which makes sense now that most infections should be amongst lower risk groups) not rising, the vaccination programme continuing to go well, and no nasty new variants appearing.  The Evil Tier System has been scrapped, hooray!!!  Unless any nasty new variants appear in particular areas.  Please, please, do not let this happen.  We can’t take much more.

March 8th – schools to reopen to all pupils, 2 people to be able to meet outdoors to chat/have a drink/have a picnic rather than exercise (which, TBH, people are doing anyway).

March 29th – STAY AT HOME ORDER LIFTED!!  Still a recommendation to “minimise” travel, but enough’s enough – those of us in much of the North and Midlands have been confined to our local areas since October.  Six people/two households to be able to meet outdoors.  Outdoor sports activities to resume.  Still seems to be the idea to WFH is possible – good.

April 12th – hairdressers to reopen.  Bloody hell, another 7 weeks of no hairdressers.  Non-essential shops, gyms, zoos, theme parks and outdoor hospitality to reopen.  Presumably this includes Lake District boats?  Watch the weather be vile all through April!  Weddings to be allowed, with a maximum of 15 guests.  Campsites and self-catering accommodation to reopen.

May 17th – hotels to reopen.  I was hoping for May Day weekend 😦 .  Indoor hospitality to reopen.  Foreign travel may possibly resume.  Up to 10,000 people to be allowed into sports stadia.  Cinemas and theatres to reopen.  Two households to be able to meet indoors.

June 21st – everything else to reopen.  Restrictions on social contact lifted – although mask-wearing and social distancing may well remain for a while yet.

We’ve been here before, and … well, not got there.  But fingers crossed.  I really can’t take much more.

 

Tuesday, February 23rd

Just as if things aren’t stressful enough, I had the police round earlier, to tell me that one of the neighbours had had a break-in.  All the doors and windows were locked, but the burglars managed to break one of the locks.  Thankfully, no-one was hurt, but they found the car keys and stole the car.

That’s really frightening.

The official US virus death toll passed 500,000 yesterday.  500,000.

Here, most people are feeling more hopeful after yesterday’s announcement.  However, I think the scientists want us locked down permanently, and, at the other end of the spectrum, the owners and staff of businesses which won’t be able to reopen until May or June at the earliest are very disappointed.

 

Wednesday, February 24th

Whilst people are generally feeling more hopeful, the local situation is worrying.  Lockdowns just don’t seem to work here.  Also, there’s now a spike in cases in some areas, pretty close by.  Last July, when the first local restrictions (other than those in Leicester) were announced, which eventually led to the Evil Tier System, it was the day before Eid, and everyone knew jolly well that it was because rates were exceptionally high in areas with large Islamic communities.  This time, it’s in areas with large ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities.  It’s very awkward, because no-one wants to seem to be having a go at any one group of people, but the infection rates are what they are – three times the average for the area.

The Leeds and Reading Festivals are apparently going ahead.  Someone’s optimistic!

A lot of talk’s going on about helping kids to catch up at school.  Teaching unions, needless to say, are moaning!

 

Thursday, February 25th

Happy birthday to me 🙂 .  After a wet day on Tuesday and a windy day on Wednesday, we got blue sky and sunshine today!  It was hard not to think what a lovely day it would have been to spend at Windermere, but had we not been in lockdown, I’d have spent the day trapped in a depressing office, having spent time and money getting cakes and other stuff for everyone else in the office (sorry for sounding grumpy about that!) and being barked at if I opened Facebook to answer birthday wishes sent by kind friends and relatives.  As it was, I was able to do myself a nice afternoon tea in the garden.   I ordered a Slattery’s “treat box”, which I collected yesterday.  But, unbeknownst to me, Mum and Dad and my sister and brother-in-law had arranged to have food delivered to me!   So I ended up with the most enormous amount of stuff!   I’ve eaten some of it: I’ll have to sort the rest out later.  And I was able to have a nice long walk in the park during a somewhat extended dinner hour.  Lots of crocuses out, and some daffodils out now too.  And I could answer the Facebook messages, WhatsApp messages and texts as and when they arrived – very kind of people.

I’m not really a birthday person.  Once you’re past 21, birthdays are a bit miserable – another year older, still fat, still not successful etc!   But, hey, it’s an excuse to eat cake!!  And it’s been a really nice day …

… except that Rafa’s pulled out of Rotterdam, with the back problem.  Please tell me that this isn’t going to be another long-running injury saga.

It’s been confirmed that exam grades will be awarded purely on the basis of teacher assessment.  A lot of moaning is going on about this – why does everything involving schools involve so much moaning?!  I’m very, very sorry for the kids concerned.  Exam conditions worked for me and I’d have been devastated if my exams had been cancelled, and there will always be a feeling that 2020 and 2021’s results might not quite compare to other years’, but there’s just no alternative, in these rotten circumstances.  On a more positive note, the country’s been moved from level 5 alert to level 4 alert.

2nd leg of the Europa League match tonight – we only managed a 0-0 draw, but we’re through on aggregate.

 

Friday, February 26th

Hooray – the next phase of the vaccination will be by age, so I’m in Group 10, 40-49 year olds, and will be next in line once the current phase has been completing.  Teaching unions, needless to say, are moaning, but the NHS hasn’t got records of people’s jobs, so it’d be an admin nightmare to do it by occupation.

The Queen’s spoken out about people needing to consider others rather than just themselves, when deciding whether or not to be vaccinated.

One in five health areas are now seeing an increase in infection rates.  I have to admit that, when I first read this, on the MEN website, my immediate reaction was “At least it’s not just us”.  But it’s very worrying – and, in both the maps shown by the MEN and the maps in tonight’s Downing Street press conference, it’s clear that, infections in many areas having sky-rocketed in December and then fallen again, it’s now as you were – rates are far higher in densely-populated, urban parts of the North and Midlands than elsewhere.  All sorts of reasons have been suggested for this, from the sensible (a lower proportion of people being able to work from home) to the plain silly (people in the North spending more time indoors because of the weather).  But no-one seems to be sure, no-one seems to be trying very hard to get to the bottom of it, and Jonathan Van-Tam seemed to be suggesting that it was due to people breaking the rules.  I object to that.

Another nice sunny day.

We play AC Milan in the next round of the Europa League.  Erk!

 

Saturday, February 27th

What a gorgeous day.  Very warm for February, and clear blue sky.  Very frustrating that I couldn’t spend it at Windermere, but I’d booked Styal, where (despite part of the gardens being closed off due to flood damage, and there being no scones!) it really was lovely – lots of snowdrops, and some early daffodils.  I’m a bit (actually, rather a lot) obsessive about daffodils 🙂 .   Oh, please let things go ahead as planned, and please let the weather behave over Easter weekend, and please let me be able to go to the Lakes.

Captain Sir Tom Moore’s funeral took place today.

And we’re nearing the 20 million mark for first jabs.

And Rafa has now pulled out of Acapulco as well.  Bleurgh..

 

Sunday, February 28th

“Vaccinometer”- another new word introduced by the pandemic.  Over 20 million people in the UK have now had their first jabs!

Another lovely sunny day today.  Very frustrated about not being able to go to the Lakes (especially as I gather that loads of people went outside their local areas to go to the seaside, and probably to the Lakes too, and the police did nothing about it), but at least I was able to go to the park.  Glorious weather.

Loads of people were in groups which were obviously more than one household/bubble.  A lot were kids with grandparents as well as parents, and others were mostly teenagers and people in their 20s.  Everyone’s just had enough.

Then I cleared all the weeds and dead leaves out of the garden, ready to put some new plants in once it stops being frosty overnight.

Drew 0-0 at Chelsea.  City are stupidly far ahead.

There are daffodil shoots everywhere.  Waiting for them to flower is like a metaphor for waiting to be able to go out and about and see our relatives and friends again.

Lockdown Birthday/Group 10

  Dear Weather.  Thank you so much for behaving on my birthday (February 25th)!  It’d blown a gale the day before, and poured down the day before that.  I don’t want to push my luck, but, if you don’t mind, will you, please, please, also be nice during Easter week (especially over the four-day weekend, for those of us who’ll be chained to office computers until then), when, all being well, we’ll finally be allowed out of the local area for the first time since mid-October?  We’ll only be allowed to meet up outdoors and, whilst we’ll hold our long-awaited reunions with loved ones wearing cagoules and clutching umbrellas if need be, it would be rather nice if we could at least stay dry.  Thank you.

Also, as a slightly late birthday, it’s been announced today that people in my age group are Group 10 – i.e. we’ll be next in line to be vaccinated, once the second phase of the programme’s been completed.   Bring it on.

I’m not really a birthday person.  Once you get past 21, they’re just rather a reminder that you’re another year older and are still not thin/successful/whatever.  Unless you are, obviously.  However, they’re an excuse for a meal out, eh?  And, hey, let’s celebrate the fact that we’re still here, especially after a year on which no-one will be looking back with undiluted pleasure, as the Queen might say.  Having a late February birthday, I’m one of the last people to turn another year older in the Covid era.   Some people, depending on when their birthdays fall and which part of the country they live in, will have been lucky enough to have had a small celebration with family and friends.  Everyone else, hard luck.  It’s a shame for little kids, who usually make a big deal of birthdays, and for people marking “landmark” birthdays.  I was rather amused to see a small plane flying over the local area, trailing a banner proclaiming “Happy 90th Birthday, Doris” a few weeks ago.  I hope Doris had a lovely day 🙂 – but it won’t have been the day she’d have had otherwise, and it’s not as if you can rebook a special birthday in the same way that you can rebook a concert or a stage play.

It did turn out quite well, though.  Whilst pleased to see the blue sky and sunshine when I got up, I could have howled with frustration at the thought of how wonderful it would have been to spend this nice, sunny day in the Lake District, or looking at the snowdrops and early daffodils at Chirk Castle, or walking along the prom at Blackpool. However, as I reminded myself, had it been normal times, I’d have been spending the day trapped in a depressing office, eating a piece of cake at my desk, being expected to provide cakes and fruit for everyone else, and being moaned at if I picked up my phone to answer a message from a kind relative or friend.

As it was, I got to have a lovely walk in the park during my dinner hour.  Lots of crocuses, and, hooray, some early daffodils!   There are daffodil shoots everywhere: it’s going to look amazing in a few weeks’ time.  And, thanks to the weather, and thanks to vast quantities of food – some of it bought by myself, some of it delivered to me thanks to my lovely family – I was able to have a very large Lockdown Afternoon Tea (I didn’t eat everything all in one day, honestly!)  in the garden.  So it was really very nice.

But let’s hope that Lockdown Birthdays will soon be a thing of the past, eh?  Three cheers for the vaccination programme, and fingers and toes crossed for Easter weekend xxx.

Lockdown III Week 7, February 15th to 21st 2021 inclusive

Monday, February 15th

Hooray, Rafa beat Fabio, and in straight sets 🙂 .  A very tough looking QF against Stef Tsitsipas now awaits.

Depending on what you read, eating places will be reopening in March/May/not until August, hotels will be reopening in time for Easter weekend/in time for Whit Bank Holiday weekend/not until August, and all schoolkids/some schoolkids will be going back to school on March 8th.  Very little is being said about these bloody travel restrictions.

The quarantine hotel system began today.  People using it have to fly into either London Heathrow, London Gatwick, London City, Farnborough or Birmingham.  Yes, you did see “London” three times in the list of five.  No, you did not see any mention of Manchester, the biggest international travel hub in the country after Heathrow, nor, indeed, of anywhere else in the entire North of England.  And how many international flights go into Farnborough?!   FFS.

The issue of people from certain ethnic minorities not taking up the offer of the vaccine is getting really problematic.  Leicester Hospital Trust’s said that only 36.9% of black staff members, and only 43.2% of staff members with Pakistani or Bangladeshi heritage, have taken up the offer of the vaccine.  The numbers of white staff members and staff members with Indian heritage who’ve been vaccinated are way, way higher.  And this is amongst healthcare workers, who are presumably very well educated about the virus and the vaccine.  I don’t think anyone foresaw this problem, but it could throw quite a spanner in the works.  Big efforts are being made to convince people from ethnic minority groups to be vaccinated, but they don’t seem to be working.

And the weather has perked up.  And this is the first week in months that it’ll be light enough for me to sit in the flower park with my weekly frozen yoghurt.  I normally go on Tuesdays, but tomorrow’s Pancake Day and I’m fat enough without having frozen yoghurt (even if it is fat free) and pancakes on the same day.

 

Tuesday, February 16th

My sister had her first jab today, which is good news! She’s only 43, but classes as clinically vulnerable because she’s borderline diabetic.  Goodness only knows when I’ll get done.  Obviously I don’t expect to be given priority over clinically vulnerable people or frontline workers, but the waiting’s very frustrating.

The latest polls show that 89% of people intend to be vaccinated, but there is this concern over the low take-up amongst some ethnic minority groups.  It’s been announced that a character in Emmerdale is going to be vaccinated, and I would assume other soap operas will do the same: it’s only a soap storyline, but a cast member who is from an ethnic minority group’s criticised the scriptwriters for “pushing” the vaccine and said that no-one should be forced to have something that’s “experimental”.  I don’t think anyone foresaw this issue arising, and it’s worrying.

Also, there’s another mutant version of the virus on the loose.  And the mutant of the Kent mutant has now appeared in Moston and Harpurhey, which is very close to home.

The Pancake Day football match in Atherstone, Warwickshire, which dates back 821 years, 15 years before the signing of the Magna Carta, has had to be cancelled, for the first time ever.  It carried on through plague, failed harvests, the Civil War, Cromwell’s repression and both World Wars, but was cancelled by bloody Covid-19.  That really upset me, for some reason.

However, it’s been a lovely, sunny, springlike day, and there was quite a holiday atmosphere in the park, with kids off school for half term.  The youngest age groups in Scotland are to go back to school next week.

Awful day at the tennis, though!  Sascha had so many chances … he should have won every set, but Nole won 3 of 4 … and now plays Karatsev, who beat Grisha, who was injured.  I’d love to think that Karatsev could beat Nole, but it so isn’t happening.   Meanwhile, Rafa’s got to play Stef, and, if he beats him, probably Medvedev.

Finally, another 1.7 million people are to be told to shield.  I quite appreciate that, when the pandemic started, no-one knew that certain conditions/factors made people more vulnerable, but it seems a bit late now.  Anyone in this group will be prioritised for vaccination … although a lot of them are in the groups vaccinated already, so they’re going from the hope of getting their lives back to some sort of normal to being told not to go out.

I have these moments of joy, because spring’s coming, and it’s so precious … my favourite season, daffodils and lambs and trips to the Lakes, to Chirk, to Bolton Abbey, to Biddulph Grange, etc.  Then it hits me, all over again, that, because of the bloody travel restrictions, it won’t be happening.  For a second year in a row.

 

Wednesday, February 17th

Why does the Australian Open always break my heart?  Well, practically always.  I wasn’t expecting miracles, after Rafa had so little match practice beforehand, but he was 2 sets to love up on Stef, came so close to winning it in 3 … and lost it in 5.  I am very sad 😦 .

Nice weather again.  The park’s been very busy all week, because of school half term.  This is the problem – in densely-populated urban areas, there are very few places to go during lockdown, so everyone ends up in the same place.  Some crocuses are coming through, but no daffodils yet.

There are all sorts of rumours about which restrictions will and won’t be lifted when.  I’m trying to ignore them.  We just don’t know, and getting upset over speculation doesn’t help.

On and on and on … when will this nightmare ever end?

 

Thursday, February 18th

United won 4-0 away to Real Sociedad … in Turin. 4-0!   Good start to the Europa League 🙂 .

The National League North and South seasons’ve been declared null and void 😦 .

Serena just can’t get this 24th Grand Slam title … she lost to Naomi, who now plays Jennifer Brady in the final.  Karatsev put up a decent fight, but was never going to beat Nole.  Fans back in today.

Northern Ireland’s lockdown’s been extended until April 1st.  But schools are to reopen for some academic years on March 8th.  There hasn’t even been an announcement about schools reopening in England yet, but whingeing teaching unions are already objecting to everything.  All this talk about reopening, but when will these evil travel restrictions be lifted?  People in Northern Ireland are to be allowed to meet up outdoors in groups of 10 from March 8th, but that’s not a lot of use unless all your relatives and friends live nearby.    There are now clear signs of infections falling in the older age groups, and over 30% of the population’s now had their first jab, so progress is being made, but we cannot carry on with these restrictions indefinitely.

 

Friday, February 19th

Bleurgh, I am totally fed up.  WHY are infection rates not dropping here as quickly as they are everywhere else?  After the Kent variant took off, we had rates well below average, but now they’re dropping rapidly in most places, especially the south, but not here.  WHY?  We have been under extra restrictions since bloody July.  There are various theories:

1. Population density.  This makes some sense.  Obviously it should apply to London too, but it seems likely that a lot of people in London contracted the virus in early 2020, before either lockdown or mass testing, and therefore had antibodies, and also that London was further along on the “curve” when things reopened in July.
2. More people at work … not necessarily essential workers, but people who can’t work from home.  There are a lot more blue collar workers in the North and Midlands than in the South.  Also, a lot of offices are open when they shouldn’t be.
3.  Multi-generational housing/overcrowding … this may well be an issue, but the areas currently worst affected aren’t those where the occurrence of this is highest.  Having said which, it’s noticeable that the area least affected is Trafford, which includes the wealthiest parts of the conurbation.
4.  Linked to point 1 ), a “reservoir of infection” … sounds vague, but kind of makes sense.
5.  Issues related to particular ethnic/religious groups, who have been particularly badly hit.

If the f***ing tier system’s brought back, we’re knackered.  And it doesn’t work, anyway.  Nothing seems to work.  The Mayor of Preston’s suggested that the worst-hit areas should be prioritised for vaccination.  It’s a very sensible suggestion.

Nothing seems to bring my weight down, either.

There’s some talk of everyone in their 40s being vaccinated as soon as people in their 50s have been done.  The JCVI want to keep going down by age brackets.  But selfish teaching unions may pressurise the authorities into taking a different route.

The lockdown in Wales has been extended for another 3 weeks.

I hope Prince Philip’s OK.  He’s to remain in hospital until next week.

The second Aussie Open SF was, sadly, a bit of a damp squib … so frustrating that Stef, having beaten Rafa, lost rather tamely to Daniil.

Weather cold and windy.

I really am fed up.   We’ve had 11 months of this.  I want to see my sister and bro-in-law and the kids.  I want to go to the Lake District.  I want to go on holiday.  I want to go to Old Trafford.   I’d quite like just to go into town.  Some days, I can Keep Calm and Carry On.  Some days, I just want to kick and scream!

 

Saturday, February 20th

Thoroughly fed up.  The borough of Bury now has the 20th highest rate in the country.  Bolton’s got the 10th highest rate in the country, but at least rates there are coming down.  Tameside’s seen the biggest week-on-week increase in the country.  WHY is our area being hit so hard by this?  Nearly all the areas down south which had rates way above ours in late December have now got rates well below ours.  Why won’t ours come down?

Also, every time I lose a few pounds, they go straight back on.  What am I meant to do, starve?  I look like a Great Fat Hair Monster.

And I’d intended to go to Hollingworth Lake after the Aussie Open ladies’ singles final – which saw Naomi Osaka beat Jennifer Brady – but, due to miserable weather, just went to the park, again.

Bleurgh.

Bleurgh indeed.

Why is our area being so badly affected?

Also very concerned about Prince Philip.  Prince Charles went to visit him today, and visitors aren’t generally being allowed.

 

Sunday, February 21st

Boris says that all adults in the UK should have been offered a vaccination by the end of July.  Let’s hope so!  Vaccinations are the only way out of this – we thought last summer that maybe we could live with it, but then it came roaring back with a vengeance.

Israel’s reopened hotels, gyms, zoos, museums, etc … but only to people who’ve been vaccinated.  To be fair, I think most adults there have now been offered a vaccination, but it’s incredibly hard on those who want to be vaccinated but haven’t been called yet.

The Aussie Open final was a damp squib.  Bah.  Daniil put up a fight in the first set, but Nole took it 7-5, and then broke back after Daniil had led in the 2nd set, and it was one way traffic after that.  Better news with United beating Newcastle, 3-1, but City are running away with it.

Today has been a better day.  The weather was better, and I went to Hollingworth Lake and it really helped just to get a little way away from home.  I love the park and the local takeaway cafes, but I really am feeling trapped.  And I had a terrible day yesterday.  Everyone’s having bad days, and all you can say to people is to try to move on and hope that the next day will be better, but that doesn’t work for me because of The Scales.  The main reason I was so upset was because, after my weight had stayed the same for a few days, I’d somehow put on 3lbs between Friday and my official weigh day on Saturday.  That on top of everything else triggered the worst compulsive eating binge I’d had in ages, and, because The Scales love to kick you when you’re down, of course I’d put on another lb today.  So I can’t move on.  It’s hard enough to lose 1lb, never mind 4.  I’m struggling with OCD issues as well … it’s hard to control anything when you’re trapped like this, and all the things you normally do to cope are banned.   And it’s hard to feel positive when rates are rising here even though they’re falling practically everywhere else.  You feel bad for moaning, but a lot of people are struggling.

Boris is making his big announcement tomorrow.  I feel sorry for him: whatever he says, people will moan.  But we can’t go on like this.

No daffodils at Hollingworth Lake yet, but there were crocuses.

We know that the risk of transmission outdoors is low.  Lift these horrible travel restrictions.  Please.