At last our COVID self-test kit was delivered yesterday after a botched attempt by courier Sue the day before, so Lois and I decide to give the self-test a try, focussing specifically on testing me. The reason being that I developed the cold a few days after Lois did, so there's just a chance that Lois may already be clear of any infection in any case, but this would be much less likely in my case.
a woman taking a typical COVID lateral flow self-test
Since the pandemic first hit in early 2020 neither of us has ever taken a COVID test, as we've been extremely healthy all that time, mainly consorting with each other, so not leaving ourselves open to catching any stray germs from anybody else, which was nice!
The tests have 3 possible outcomes: (1) positive for COVID, (2) negative for COVID, and (3) sample not valid. I always rely on Lois to understand instructions - I quickly become confused, even if the writer of the instruction can speak comprehensible English, which is quite a rare event these days - what a madness it all is!
I personally predicted the "not valid" outcome, as I fully expected that we would "screw up" the test. So it's a nice surprise to see that the results are a very definite "negative for COVID", and we conclude that we have just been suffering from a normal cold, probably of the type we've usually suffered from several times during an average winter in those heady pre-pandemic days!
Hurrah!
Lois showcases to me my COVID-negative test result, which is nice!
By the way, you'll notice something in the photo above that speaks volumes about what it's like to downsize from a more traditional, older house and then to have to get used to living in a smaller, new-build home - in the photo I'm sitting in the kitchen-diner, but just a few feet away in the distance you'll see the living-room.
If you're used to an older house, you have to factor in a bit of "journey time" between going from one room to another, e.g. from the kitchen to the dining-room or from the dining-room to the living-room. If you're in a modern new-build home, however, you may find that it doesn't take very long at all to move from one room to another - and almost before you start your journey, you find that, hey presto, Bob's your uncle, you've arrived!
It's total madness !!!!
10:00 Excitement is mounting here as the day of our first doorstep milk delivery nears - it will hopefully happen on Monday. We haven't had milk delivered since we moved to Malvern to Cheltenham at Halloween.
We just need maybe 2 pints to keep us going till Monday morning so we drive over to Hanley Swan Post Office and Convenience Store to post a couple of letters and pick up the milk, plus potatoes and some fresh fruit and veg.
Hanley Swan Post Office and Convenience Store - note some key elements:
the Royal Mail van to the right, and a postman (centre) emptying the pillar box
11:00 To celebrate our negative COVID results, we go for a walk round the neighbourhood. Our plan is specifically to explore the footpath that surrounds the estate, but which has only recently been opened up for residents' use. It goes along behind all houses that are on the western fringe of the estate, including ours.
the footpath looking north...
...and looking south
we go for a walk round the neighbourhood, specifically
to explore the perimeter path that skirts the west side of the estate
20:00 We relax watching some of BBC2's Rod Stewart evening, at Lois's suggestion.
It's nice tonight to see Rod tackling some older "standards" of the type his mum and dad used to like, and which were always on the radio when he was growing up, like "As Time Goes By".
We learn tonight that, as a teenager, Rod had lived in the small flat above his dad's shop in Archway Road, Highgate, North London.
Strangely, the BBC had managed to unearth an old local news story on a local TV station, where Rod, by then a 19-year-old singer performing in local bars, is being interviewed. The reporter asks Rod whether he'd consider moving out and getting his own flat.
He is aghast at the thought of moving out, however. He says, "No, no, no, it's terrible, you know, all your clothes. I've got no idea how to wash my clothes, mum's always here to do it, you can't go wrong. Dinner's always there on the table, and it's great!"
Poor Mrs Stewart !!!!!
21:30 We go to bed on the first half hour of one of those typical Channel 5 documentaries about alleged "freak" weather events that have hit the UK at various times, this one being about the allegedly "horrendous" snowy winter of 1981-2.
And shock-horror, I notice an actual factual error in the Radio Times, where in the listings the year December 1982 is given as the time of the alleged "snow bomb", instead of the actual month which was December 1981. The correct month is given in the "blurb", however, which is some comfort.
Is the first ever case of a factual error in the Radio Times? I don't know, but I think we should be told, and quickly!!! Luckily, the influential American news website, Onion News, has the story already, which is a relief - no need for me to alert them!
These shock-horror weather stories on Channel 5 always resurrect some celebrities from the time, like weather-man John Kettley, or "Bucks Fizz" singing star Cheryl Baker, to say how horrendous it was to live through these freak weather events, and to do so pretty much in the style of a pub bore ranting on about how young people today "don't know they're born", you know the kind of thing!
Lois and I remember the winter of the "snow bomb" well - it was our last winter in the UK before we embarked on our 3 year adventure of living in the US. Our younger daughter Sarah, then 4 years old, had to spend Christmas in the local children's hospital because of an eye infection, and Lois and I took turns so that one or other of us was with her in the ward 24/7.
Sarah, spending Christmas in the local children's hospital,
seen here with some of her presents, including a doll you could feed
..and Sarah again, a few days later, after she came home,
seen here with her elder sister Alison (6)
That's a Christmas none of us will ever forget, that's for sure!
And it's true that there really was quite a lot of snow in January 1982, much more than usual. We couldn't get our car out of our estate, and Lois had to ring up the local primary school headmaster to say she couldn't get Alison and Sarah to school - the levels of snow were way higher than the tops of their little welly-boots.
What a crazy planet we live on !!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment