Derbyshire 181 Chesterfield /Day 181 - Sunday swimming - no talking in the lanes / Making gates and Chancel repairs

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Week 40 of the year . It hardly seems like five minutes since week 1 - January . Cold miserable days . We had just returned from a fantastic Christmas in Normandy . We had plans . Lots of them . They did not include lockdowns, shops rationing food, face masks and everything that Covid chucked at us . All we thought was it was 2020 and we had the whole year ahead of us before Brexit . A year on free travel . And what goes and happens ? . Covid . February - a quick trip up North which did not go altogether as planned . March - who would have expected it or saw it coming ? Not me . I had my heads firmly in the travelling clouds . No-one , nothing was going to stop me seeing Scandanavia . I was going over and under the Oresund bridge . I would add Sweden, Denmark and then Poland to the list of countries travelled . Looking back it never happened . I remember the disappointment of ringing Eurotunnel . It all seems to real as we reach Week 40 of the year . Not quite 40 weeks of an odd world but not far off it .

As I read my thought for the day - well it was not quite thought for Sunday but thought for Saturday and Sunday . My calendar is economical when it comes to weekends . Saturday and Sunday are one thought and that was Lao Tzu -another regular. "Your own positive future begins at this moment " I thought it would begin in January . He says "All you have is right now . Every goal is possible from here " Had I read that at the start of the year I might have agreed but lying here on a quiet Sunday morning that feels no different to yesterday I feel I dont know what the future is any more . It seems an alien place that I dont know how to get to . I remember the disappointment of lockdown but also the challenges it presented and the different lifestyle we adopted . We did not feel too hemmed in during March and April . We would have a future which would include a much needed holiday in September. Got thrown out of the baths for talking . Talking in a group of three is not allowed under Covid .

Monday morning Dear Chesterfield Covid Diary - its Monday morning again and another week. It was dark . My thoughts were swimming and another day of something . I was not sure what . My brain was flitting back and forth . Spring - that has long gone along with the pretty freshness it brings . The clocks had gone forward . I remembered as a child being told how to remember the change in the clocks . "Think of lambs " mum said . " They jump forward in the Spring " She gently explained Autumn clock change as "Remember the fall . The Americans call the Autumn the fall . That is the way you will remember if it time to move the clocks fingers forward an hour or backwards . . The shops are showing more signs of Christmas - Christmas puddings and German biscuits . Panetone and spicy mulled wines. It is only October I thought as I lay there pondering where we would be with Covid at Christmas . What would a Covid Christmas look like ?

Tuesday Dear Diary - well Globecar never let me borrow a nice new van . I had forgotten I had written in my head that letter to them suggesting it might be a good idea . It was walking day today . The weather has turned inclement . It rained off and on all day . The walk took me round the houses . There was little to see . A sign of Autumn here and there . The pale lilac of the Michaelmus Daisies . The bright primary colours of the Dahlias . Deep reds and plums . Bishop of Llandaff - The Bishops daughters . Lovely names . I was taken back to Dahlias as a child . Everyone grew them in pit villages . Mum grew small Pom Poms which she picked to bring inside for much needed Autumn colour . They were like a bowl of sunshine in the house . Gran grew larger ones . We picked them and shaked them to get out the Earwigs . The Cactus type much loved by the colliers who showed them . Summer was the time of the show where Sweet Peas dominated . Grown up and around the pigeon lofts . Autumn was Chrystanthemum time . Again the golden , the yellow and the bronze Pom Poms . The varieties with one long stem and a big blousey head. They were covered with a brown paper bag to protect them from the elements in readiness for showing . Funny how Covid and Autumn had brought back memories of things long forgotten . There was fungi growing on the trees and in the lawns .

Wednesday - another day , another swim. Another work day . Another day of catching up . Nothing from the solicitor about our house purchase or our sale . Wales is on the verge of closing down again . Only essential travel within five miles . I thought to myself what a mess as I swam up and down . I wont be able to get my hair cut . Just when I thought it was getting back to the new normal we are taking another step backwards . So what would a Covid Christmas look like ? A sad one . We pulled our trees out and wondered where we would put them if we put them anywhere . Would people go over the top to compensate for the misery they felt they were having to endure ? Would they just ignore Christmas? Christmas without Christmas carols ? Socially distanced services - Midnight Mass half empty . No carol singers in the streets . No Christmas office parties . Who would have thought that this year that the 10 of us who worked together before our office closed would not manage a night out . February cancelled due to illness - was that a pre-cursor to Covid ? May cancelled because of Covid . We assumed we would meet up over the Summer . It never happened and it wont happen now with the rule of only six meeting together . We are all from different households so maybe we wont meet again . A sad thought as we were coming up to three years since the office closed . Cant believe its three years .

Covid Thursday - the same as Covid Wednesday . Swim , work , read , write , I do all the normal things but they dont feel normal . More High Street shops close . More face redundancy as furlough comes to an end . The Chancellor comes up with other plans . We are 1 trillion in debt . It is going to be an austere few years . We receive a reminder that Gabby is due her habitation check and service . That is the second reminder . We booked in the summer . Computer is getting muddled up. We must start to empty her out . A Covid habitation check is different to a non Covid one . She needs to be emptied but then she did last year . We cannot go into the office . We cannot use their facilities . We must drop her off and leave her . They will sanitise her and we must cancel if we have a high temperature or any sign of Covid . She is due her first MOT - the yearly test due at 3 years and every year after . I hope she passes . We need her on the road .

Dear Friday Diary - end of week , dark morning and more rain . The moon is out as I go swimming . A ring around her and she looks bright up there in the sky . I think Mars is that twinkling star behind her . The world goes on as Covid rumbles on and the number start to rise . We are in the second wave and the hospitals we are assured will be struggling . Can you come Sunday for your flu jab ? We get the call . Of course we will . Why ever not ? And then the envelope arrives . NHS emblazoned all on it . I look at it . Nothing is due as far as I can remember . I open it . I am invited to take part in a study by Imperial College London who are testing the community for Covid . Lucky me I am a chosen one . I will if I agree receive a swab kit through the post . A swab to stuff up my nose and one to shove down the back of my throat . Am I interested ? I suppose one side of me thought that it would be interesting to see if I were asymptomatic and have Covid without noticing but the other half dreaded the swabs . I signed up . Better do my bit . If it comes back positive that means 14 days isolation .

Saturday - shopping . Everyone in masks with the exception of one young lad who refuses to wear one and the staff proudly displaying their lanyards to say they cannot wear a mask . The scan and shop is not working . Pandemonium as the queues build up. The driver begins to make gate number one. He promised the new owners of our house that he would make three gates to keep their dogs in . The first will be an ease of access one where Suzy used to reside . He started today . It will keep him busy for a few days . A certificate arrived . We had paid the princely sum of £24 for a chancel check on the property we are buying . Old medieval churches have chancels . Some fall down and require repair . Lurking in the background quietly and causing no trouble can be a chancel liability on your house . It lies dormant until such time that the roof falls in or major repairs are called for . At that point the unsuspecting householder can receive a request from the church for a payment to help repair the chancel roof . It can run into hundreds and thousands of pounds and you cannot refuse. The cheapest way to avoid it is pay the £24 for the check to be done . It returns with either the certificate which frees you from any call the church might have or tells you there is a problem . Easily solved £58 for an insurance policy to cover you . The other searches - the local one has not been returned yet . That is holding up the sale . But thats not a problem at the moment .

Perhaps something will happen next week .

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