New Year’s Eve, Thursday, December 31st
Starting on a new post on New Year’s Eve is very weird, but here we are, day 1 in Tier 4. Why are electronics/IT/communications shops classed as “non-essential”? Surely they’re absolutely essential, especially at the moment!
It snowed this morning. However, most of the snow had melted by 10 o’clock. I went for a walk in the park, and there were some rather disappointed-looking kids with sledges. We get so little time off work that I usually try so hard to do something exciting on every day off, but there just isn’t anything exciting to do at the moment! Oh well, at least, for once, I won’t be feeling like a saddo for spending New Year’s Eve sat in on my own, watching Jools Holland, whilst everyone else is out partying … because everyone else will be stuck in with Jools Holland as well!
Tommy Docherty’s died. He was 92 and’d been ill for a while, but it’s a sad end to the year.
Andy Burnham says that 25% of virus cases in Greater Manchester are now due to the mutant strain. That’s not good.
But, on a happier note, Dunham lights is going ahead … which surprises me, but is good news!
Well, goodbye 2020, and here’s to 2021. Let’s just hope it’s a better year than this one’s been!
New Year’s Day, Friday, January 1st
Happy New Year! A bit of snow fell overnight, but not much. However, the south side of town is still pretty snowy from the snow that fell earlier in the week, and Dunham Massey was like a winter wonderland this morning – it really was pretty.
Later, I went for another walk, just locally. Everyone is so bored. You go for a walk. You waste money on a takeaway drink and a fattening cake. You come home. At least United and Villa are on TV tonight.
I would give a great deal to go for a walk somewhere devoid of horrible barking dogs. Does it not occur to people that letting their odious mutts disturb everyone for miles around – the volume at which some dogs bark really is astounding – isn’t very fair? I don’t know what I’m more sick of, barking dogs, or people who, after 4 1/2 years, still refuse to accept the result of the Brexit referendum. But at least you can scroll down or change channels to get away from the “Ooh, I’ve changed my Facebook profile photo to one of the EU flag” brigade. There is no escape from the dogs!! OK, moan over.
It’s been decided to focus on giving as many people as possible one dose of vaccine, rather than vulnerable groups two doses.
Opinion is split as to whether or not schools should be closed. Some people are questioning why London, again, is being treated differently to other areas, but the situation in London and parts of the Home Counties really is far worse than it is here. A frightening number of people in my sister’s community have got the virus, and that’s not even one of the worst-affected areas of London. And I get the sense that people there are panicking: two friends have said that they’re thinking of cancelling mammogram appointments because they’re nervous of going near hospitals. It’s not like that here. People are concerned, but not panicking.
There’s also serious concern about businesses. The whole thing’s such a nightmare. “Experts” are saying that we need to vaccinate two million people a week, but the vaccine just can’t be produced that quickly. If only it could!
Later – hooray!! We beat Villa 2-1, and are now level on points with Liverpool at the top of the table!!
And Last Christmas is number 1! After 36 years. I gave up following the charts about 25 years ago, but that’s made me smile.
All primary schools in London will now stay closed, not just those in certain boroughs. Make your mind up. Why not say that in the first place?
Saturday, January 2nd
It was minus 3 C this morning, but bright and sunny. I decided to walk round some different parts of Heaton Park for a change, and that was really nice. However, it snowed heavily for about an hour in the afternoon, and the wretched stuff is all over the road and not likely to melt tonight. It’s OK once you get to the main road, but, especially if you’re a nervous driver and have inconsiderate neighbours who park on the road, that’s easier said than done!
City’ve had no more positive virus tests, and their match against Chelsea tomorrow is going ahead, but Fulham had to call off their match at Burnley, and several lower league matches are also off.
Ryanair are running a “Jab and Go” advertising campaign. “Covid vaccines are coming.” Lots of pictures of grinning people on the beach or diving into swimming pools. “So you can just Jab and Go!” I cannot wait to go on holiday, but those adverts are in such poor taste that you just have to laugh!
I’ve put in a claim for tax relief for working from home. It’s £1.20 per week, which just about covers the cost of milk and teabags, and doesn’t touch the cost of heating, lighting, phone calls, water etc, but, hey, owt’s better than nowt. I’d love to know how many employers have offered to reimburse people and how many are just pocketing the amount they’ve saved.
I do wish people would work together and stop trying to score political points. Teaching unions were a nightmare earlier in the year, and are at it again. The National Association of Head Teachers is taking legal action against the Department of Education, and the main teachers’ union is threatening to advise its members to refuse to go to work. As for that idiot Sadiq Khan, all he cares about is having a go at the Government. There’s certainly a growing feeling that schools need to close – admittedly very easy for me to say when I’m neither a teenager at a crucial stage in their education nor a working parent with young children – but this hostile attitude isn’t helping anyone.
Excellent episode of Casualty tonight – a “coronavirus special”, set during the first lockdown. Some of it, admittedly, was the BBC trying to score political points, but most of it was very powerful, and I actually ended up in tears when a longstanding character died of the virus at the end. Yes, I know that it’s only a TV programme, and that the actor is alive and well although probably rather fed up about losing his job, but he represents real people.
Moan coming up:
As bad as the first lockdown was, after 10 weeks of it I was able to go to Blackpool and eat fish and chips and ice cream on the beach. It’s now around the same length of time since we were put under travel restrictions in October, and things are only getting worse. And are expected to get worse yet. A few sanctimonious people are saying that they’re prepared to do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, but most people, whilst genuinely concerned about the very serious situation, are fed up and whingeing and moaning. It’s the feeling of being trapped. It’s the horrendous boredom. Weirdly, it’s the guilt – I’ve got a very Victorian mentality that says that I should be doing something all the time, but there’s nothing to do. Yeah, I know, I could try to learn Japanese, but I haven’t got the heart for it when I’ve got no idea whether my rearranged holiday will go ahead or not. I’d volunteer to do something to help in the community, but I can’t because I’ll be chained to the office laptop again from Monday.
And we want to see our relatives and friends. People with long-term partners with whom they don’t live aren’t supposed to see them unless it’s for a walk in the park. Parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, siblings, aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews, cousins and close friends aren’t supposed to see each other at all if they don’t live in the same area.
Those sanctimonious people may be very virtuous, but they’re also rather annoying! This is crap. In 20 years’ time, maybe we’ll all say what jolly good fun it was, like people did about spending the night in air raid shelters but, right now, sanctimonious people are annoying!
Sunday, January 3rd
The political points-scoring going on over the schools issue is sickening. This is a time of severe national and international crisis – how is all this spite and venom and divisiveness helping anyone, least of all children? How exactly are social media posts saying things like “Tory incompetence is killing teachers” supposed to help? Good job these vile groups weren’t around during the war, isn’t it? Do any of them actually care about what’s best for children, parents, teachers and local communities? No, they do not. Unfortunately, these groups dominate teaching unions, which isn’t very good for anyone. Interesting article in today’s MEN about a woman from Bolton who lost her job due to school closures. I fear that a lot more people will be in the same position if schools close indefinitely but workplaces don’t. But I don’t see how we’re to get infection rates down if schools stay open.
The infection rate across Greater Manchester as a whole is now 278, up 36% on last week. The rate, and the rate of increase, varies quite a bit between boroughs, but the general picture is very worrying. Cases are increasing more rapidly than the national average for the first time since October – although still well below the national average rate of 509. Some parts of the SE are well over 1,000. And parts of Merseyside are higher than any part of Greater Manchester, but remain in Tier 3. And Burnley is 562. Is there some sort of overspill from Burnley and Rossendale into Bury? Probably not, actually, because then it’d be affecting Rochdale too, and Rochdale isn’t as bad. Carlisle’s over 500, as well.
The acting mayor of Liverpool (the mayor being off due to corruption investigations) has called for a lockdown. So, now, has Keir Starmer. Could people please define “lockdown”? Because if they mean saying that you can’t go out for a walk but you can go and spend all day in a non-essential office or factory with a load of other people, then it’ll do more harm than good. If they mean closing workplaces but ensuring that anyone who cannot work from home gets furloughed rather than laid off, it may well be an idea.
I broke bounds by about a mile today, and went to Styal. There isn’t even a sign to say that you’ve crossed from Manchester into Wilmslow: if you didn’t know, you wouldn’t. I am not saying that this was a good thing to do, but everyone is breaking bits of rules – lots of groups which were clearly two households or more – and I’d pre-booked it before we all got moved into Tier 4, and I was in the open air, away from other people, and the boundaries don’t make much sense anyway. It was really lovely there. Strangely, though, the tea rooms both there and at Dunham were very quiet, even though there were plenty of people around. Nice for me, because they can be horrendously slow and I don’t like waiting in long queues, but very strange. Takeaway places in Heaton Park and Hollingworth Lake are always busy. Is this some kind of north-south divide thing?! There were scones there, hooray!
Back to being chained to the office computer tomorrow … which I wouldn’t mind if they’d so much as bothered to send round an e-mail wishing people all the best for Christmas and the New Year. Bah. The next Bank Holiday is Good Friday, which is April 2nd. Where will things be at by then?
The Year Without Wimbledon 