Week 20 . It is almost a week since I put pen to blog . Where has yet another week gone to? Trickled away and I have missed it . Monday - swim day. Lie in bed . Hard to get up. Sometimes you wonder what is the point ? Stay in bed late . Why not ? But somehow the inner body clock stops you going back to sleep. So used to getting up you cannot just lie there . As much as you want to . You know you have to get up and face another Covid Day . Motivation . Swings and Roundabouts . Perhaps I felt OK yesterday . How would I feel today? The days take on the same unrelenting boredom . We could go out . What will the weather ... read more

Day 131 Thursday- good news Cadw the welsh heritage site have decided to give us a helping hand. They are giving us six months extra free membership to compensate us for not being able to use the card . How nice is that? I doubt that the National Trust will follow suit. They bleat about the loss of income and they are such a big organisation . Much bigger than Cadw . Their answer to the lack of funds is not to be kind to their members but to sack thousands of staff . Not those at the top . Swimming this morning before work . The one way system seems to be working . The young in the queue though seem to congregate and talk to each other . The duty manager yells - "Shall ... read more

The new normal. Normal in inverted commas. Will it ever be normal again ? We seem to use the word normal a lot these days but it does not mean what it used to mean. It has become normal to wonder what normal actually looks like. Being able to swim without booking a session. To go to a National Trust property without booking. To work from an office rather than from home. To go away on holiday. We have had a few weeks of something like "normal" when people have chanced their arms and booked a holiday . To Spain for some sun . And then out of the blue a rise in Covid infections and we are back to quarantine again . 14 days holed up when they return. No shopping , No work and ... read more

Day 125 - yes you read it right . Nottinghamshire rather than Derbyshire . Underwood instead of Chesterfield . We are out and about . It is Friday . Non working day. Walk done and coffee drunk . It is time to get out on the road and do something . After yet another abortive viewing yesterday we need a change . When the viewers came they seemed less than interested . A fleeting five minute viewing . I guessed they were not interested and it turns out they don't want a bungalow . They want a house . I did mention downsizing to them but ....................... So where are we ? Are we in Gabby? No Gabby has moved not one inch . Her wheels still stand on the drive . They need pumping up ... read more

Days 119 and 120. Saturday we watched the qualification for Motor GP. It is not a normal Motor GP . Then it never was going to be normal . . Two GP's one after the other in Spain. No crowds. Masks . A GP without an audience . It lacked any kind of atmosphere. Then there is F1. Masks, no crowds and two races in Austria. One called the Austrian Grand Prix and the second the Styrian GP. Two or three people sitting on a grassy bank watching proceedings . Is this the new normal? Walking as exercise . Is this the new normal? Will folks continue walking when things get back to "normal"? Who knows? So many questions went through my mind as my feet walked their walk. It feels like there is less to ... read more