Today you can not visit a single internet or social media page without seeing the Time Minister for the UK’s face above the glaring red ‘Breaking News’ banner. The declaration? Boris Johnson has tested positive for COVID-19. Along with, I am sure, most of his fellow cabinet ministers considering they have practically been living in each others pockets these last few weeks. However, they are not as shocking or news worthy as BoJo.
That point right there is why I am no longer partaking in the endless scrolling of Facebook or reading anything in the media surrounding the current outbreak, and I have to say the lifting of the online social shackles is quite freeing.
Day 3
Today started much like any other, 9:10am seems to be the new 7:30am according to my internal body clock, and cue usual ablutions, cup of tea etc etc.
My first task of the day was to try and get hold of someone at my car insurance company, my renewal is due this week and I need to change my payment details. Something their website has assured me can easily be done online, but not in my case it would appear. After several failed attempts over the last few days it is now obligatory that I sit in the telephone queue for ‘possibly over an hour’, as the nice lady on the pre-recored message tells me. So I’m on hold, listening to some god awful tune on a loop which is being interrupted every 3 minutes by the nice lady telling me ‘your call is important to us’, but I’m twenty-five minutes in and beginning to doubt her sincerity. I’m poised and ready with my credit card and policy number on a scrap of paper in my pocket, when at forty-three minutes the incessant music changed to ringing I took the call off of loudspeaker and put it to me my ear. However, as soon as Matthew answered my call I was struck by the fear. I don’t know if anyone else has this irrational response to getting through to a call centre, but every time I begin to flap. This time was no exception, I began fumbling in my right hand pocket for my details with my left hand and tying myself in knots. After the scrambling was over, it only took Matthew a further 3 minutes to amend my payment details and then I was free to begin my day.
Thankfully the next few hours passed without incident, reading and writing and sunning myself. That was until my mum decided she needed to prune next doors tree. Now I should probably explain here that this tree is my mums nemesis. It is huge, blocks a lot of the sun to our garden and often interferes with our power lines that run through it. Cue mother bringing out the 3-step ladder, brandishing the secateurs and donning some rather fetching green floral gardening gloves. Another thing I should make you aware of is our garden is shingled and on quite a slope, and after watching mum over reach on the steps for about 5 minutes I decided this was a job for two.
This is where we began getting creative and a little hysterical. I used a broom to hook and lower the branches, and when mum had managed to grab them I made sure she was secure to work at height by holding the steps and her leg. We were making good progress, but as I pointed out to my mum the lower branches we were cutting weren’t actually going to make a difference. So we aimed higher, but as we did I could only keep a grip on mums trousers to counter balance her. At some point during the next flurry of cutting, I was ducking to avoid the overhead branch droppings from hitting me in the face and I felt mum wobble. All I felt after this was a tickling at the knee as she somehow ended up the floor, almost headlong into the breeze block wall, grappling at my leg. Luckily, there were no tears of hurt, only farcical ones.
The rest of the day passed much as the ones before it. Walking Buddy, followed by dinner and then a film. At the end of Day 3 I’m still feeling fairly upbeat and just enjoying my time off.
References:
Film - Lady and the Tramp (2019) (Disney+)
Book - The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward
Comments