Tuesday November 24th 2020

It's supposed to be my "walk day" today - my physiotherapist, Connor, has recommended me to do a walk every other day. But I actually don't have time to do it - and I've been retired for 14 years!!!

What madness!!!

At least I get some exercise in the shower, because it's my turn to clean up after Lois and I have finished.

flashback to February 2014 -  Lois showcases the scene when our current shower 

was being installed, together with "his and hers" cubby-holes for shower-gel etc

10:30 Then, after a spot of "Danish" on the sofa, we spend the rest of the morning preparing parcels of Christmas gifts for our twin granddaughters in Perth, Australia; then we get online and print out the address labels and customs labels and pay for the postage - it's a big job for two old codgers like us: my god!!!!

Finally we take the parcels out to the nearest post-box that's got a 5 pm collection time, and that's it: the morning's gone cor-blimey, guvnor !!!!!

Jessie (left) and Lily, our 2 grandchildren in Australia: the latest pictures - how cute they are!!!

The car still feels a bit new - with its 4 shiny-new tyres and shiny new battery, but it's still got that "old car smell" - that's for sure. 

Luckily later today Steve, our American brother-in-law, comes up with a solution he found for us on the American amazon: a 4-pack of Aroma chips "new car" scent (currently unavailable), which sounds like just the ticket. At last a solution, I'll put in an order straightaway!

16:00 We talk on the phone to Gill, my sister in Cambridge. She's 12 years younger than us, but basically life under coronavirus lockdown is the same for her and Peter as it is for us. The last big event was when one of our daughters visited our two households 2-3 weeks ago, just before the current lockdown started: Alison and children in our case, and Maria and husband Tom in Gill's case. 

Gill, my sister in Cambridge, with daughter Lucy, who lives at home with Gill and Peter.

And Gill takes part in a few online group meetings, like us. We do Danish and Middle English, and Gill does "English Literature", and "Russia During the Cold War". In her literature class she's currently looking at American novels of the 1960's, concentrating at the moment on Flannery O'Connor. For the Russia class they're lucky enough to have a Russian native as tutor, a woman who was actually living in the USSR at the time, and who can say what it was really like.

Like us, Gill and Peter are not expecting to see their other 2 daughters at Christmas time, whatever Boris says about the tiers and the lockdown rules: basically nobody wants to risk the safety of their aged parents by bringing any coronavirus infection with them as an undeclared Christmas present - my god!!!! 

At the moment both Cheltenham and Cambridge are in Tier 1, the lowest risk tier. But Gill thinks Cambridge may go up into Tier 2 - partly because of the University being there in the town. Lois wonders if the same will happen to us: we're not sure, and in any case people say Tier 1 restrictions aren't much good anyway.

What a crazy world we live in !!!!!!

Like us, Gill doesn't really go anywhere except for a walk in the park. Both they and we order everything we need online or by telephone. And it's heat-warming to know that those facilities are available - that's for sure! A recently headline in Onion News gives the reassuring background to this incredible network that's been put together to satisfy our every whim!

OMAHA, NE—According to industry leaders, the nation's $7 billion phone-assisted-sales industry is thriving, with more than 450,000 desperately sad and lonely people standing by at this time, eagerly awaiting your call.

"Call now from any rotary or touch-tone phone," said Charles Flannery, president of the American Association of Telephone Representatives, "and a friendless, deeply depressed wretch trapped in a sterile cubicle will be happy to assist you with your order, be it for flowers, magazine subscriptions or collector plates."

"Hi, Miraclean Cookware, this is Jill speaking, this call may be recorded for quality-assurance purposes, how may I help you?" a heavily medicated Jill Montrose, 41, intoned into her telephone handset, the pre-scripted greeting long stripped of any enthusiasm or inflection.

Staring at the grey, fabric-like covering on the far wall of her cubicle, she again spoke into the lump of beige moulded plastic in her hand after a 14-second pause: "Yes, ma'am, I'd be happy to process that order. Just to confirm, you'd like three of the Miraclean stainless-steel EZ-Broil pans at $22.95 each and one Miraclean Minute Wok at $31.95. Thank you, and have a nice day."

It's so reassuring to know those people are out there, taking calls and wishing us well. And also all the other people, the ones finding products in gigantic warehouses, assembling the wanted items in packages, loading them on to delivery trucks and vans, and stopping outside our doors to deliver them.

Lois and I just love getting deliveries! It's a dull day indeed when there isn't an email from Amazon or whoever, when we get up in the morning, saying to expect a delivery some time that day. 

It keeps us going - no doubt about that!!!!

And we've got our meat, cheese and pies coming tomorrow from Waghorne's - hurrah!

20:00 We watch a bit of TV, the second of 3 programmes about the Great Plague of 1665.

It's interesting that even back then the authorities knew the value of quarantining and social distancing. Infected households were marked out with crosses on the entrance, and residents had to stay indoors. 

Samuel Pepys, the diarist, used to walk down the middle of the street, so he didn't have to get too close to anyone, which was smart. He remarked on how many London streets had become deserted. Taverns were closed, but at least one was opened up by force by a bunch of plague-denying rioters. The rioters, however, were severely punished by the local JPs, that's for sure - so they didn't get away with it haha! 

The plague was spread by body lice and human fleas, we know now. The body lice liked to live in their victim's underclothes, so that they were close to a source of food: the bloodstream. Body lice are thoroughly lazy - not only do they like to be close to their food source, they feel uncomfortable when they're not on a body: it's thought they don't normally move more than 10-15 feet a day, at most. So they rarely travelled to the house next door, for instance - it was all just too much trouble for them, the lazy sods!!! This made quarantining of infected households super-effective - people weren't normally infected by their neighbours, as long as the neighbours stayed at home. But of course the plague spread pretty freely within the infected household. 

It was the poor areas of London that suffered the most, needless to say. Many of the rich tended to move out to the countryside. 

Also poor people didn't have many changes of clothes, so they kept the same shirt on for long periods, sometimes day and night, which suited the body lice. The rich changed their underclothes daily and they could have their clothes laundered, which  the body lice didn't like so much.

The Lord Mayor had the power to issue "certificates of health" to those believed to be free of plague, but there was always such a crush of people waiting at the Guildhall each week to collect theirs, that the whole system was probably an early example of a "superspreader event" - what madness !!!!

Eventually, however, anyone, rich or poor, who stayed in London became threatened by this relentless disease, and the people who left London later on just spread the plague to the rest of the country.

Oh dear, what a sad story !!!!!

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz!!!!