Month: April 2020

Today started out well, much better than most days lately. Then it went a bit shit but finished on a high. For the first time in 11 days my back felt OK when I woke up. It felt well enough that I even managed to do the exercises I was given by a physiotherapist when I had a bad back a few years ago. Clearly I had not been doing them and couldn’t even find the list I was given showing how to do them. But I googled and found them and did them for the first time in years. And I will keep doing them, I promise.

It was another rainy, chilly, windy stormy day so even though my back was better there was no way I was going to attempt a much-needed run. Despite having done the exercises my back tightened up again in the afternoon. So to cheer myself up I watched the first episode of Chernobyl with Charlie. It was just as grim as the first time around. Definitely not something that can be binged.

Decided I needed to get out of the house so, despite the pouring rain, I walked in to town. By the time I got back home the sun was shining again. Weird weather.

Boris Johnson finally decided to turn up at the daily coronavirus briefing and it was a disastrous performance by most accounts. He really is a hopeless buffoon. Meanwhile in Michigan heavily armed covidiots stormed the state capitol. This is all on Trump. He wants to start a civil war.

This evening I got an email confirming the Guardian is furloughing me for two months at least. So that’s a huge relief. Finished the day watching Radiohead’s 2012 Coachella gig with Charlie. I reminded him we were a mere 263 miles away in Phoenix at the time. All in all a good end to the day.

Woke up to heavy rain that lasted most of the day. It’s the first rain we have had in nearly two months. It definitely brought a new feel to this whole lockdown thing. Not being able to go out in the garden and not really wanting to get soaking wet going for a walk, let alone a run, made it all too real. I did manage to get out in the afternoon when the rain eased off for a short walk around the cemetery, which I thought would be free of living people but wasn’t. It seems several people had the same idea and as the paths are narrow I had to keep turning around and doubling back to avoid them.

It’s starting to seem like the US and UK are competing to see which country can do a worse job of dealing with the pandemic. Although Boris Johnson returned to “work” on Monday he was nowhere to be seen when it came to the government’s daily coronavirus briefing. Instead he left it to Matt Hancock, the health secretary. Like most Tories, you can tell when he’s lying: his lips are moving.

Meanwhile, Mike Pence refuses to wear a mask while visiting the Mayo Clinic, setting an example for all the MAGA covidiots. Apparently he later explained he didn’t wear a mask because he wanted to be able to look people in the eye.

Here on the home front, my hair is getting a bit long, but I can’t get it cut and I certainly won’t let Alice anywhere near me with a pair of clippers. And anyway, let’s face it, it’s hair a lot of people would kill for!

All of my non-activity on Sunday must have really worn me out because I slept until 9.30am. Think I went to bed before midnight, so that was one of my better nights lately. Back is still improving but I think it might take another day or two of doing as little as possible. I am dying to get out for a run but still don’t feel like risking it. By the time I feel up to it our great run of good weather will be over.

Sat outside with my morning coffee enjoying the peace and quiet. All the neighbourhood kids are back to home schooling after having the past two weeks off for Easter break. It was so wonderfully quiet!

I spent a few hours looking in to getting my $1,200 stimulus payment and downloading the forms to do my US taxes. Still could not enter my bank account number so will have to hope a check arrives in the mail. Also discovered that Charlie is eligible for it too but we might need to set up a US bank account for him to pay it into.

Our blue tits are still looking after the eggs in the nest box (below). Read a worrying story about some disease killing thousands of blue tits in Germany. So even the birds are having a tough year too.

Slept much better and woke up thinking my back problems were behind me (geddit?) but not quite the case. It is a bit better but still stiffens up if I sit for too long and hurts if I make a wrong move.

But it was a beautiful morning so I sat out in the garden with my coffee, then made Charlie and I breakfast (eggy bread aka french toast).

I had charged my phone overnight but just minutes after I started using it this morning it was down to 1%. So I charged it again and it instantly lost the charge. I checked and found it was still under warranty from John Lewis, where I bought it in August 2018. So I called them and got tech support, who had me reset all settings (always a scary move) and it briefly appeared to fix the problem. But I was told if it recurred I would have to send it in to be checked/repaired, meaning I would be without a phone for at least a month, maybe longer. How the fuck does that work out as being a two-year warranty? Have had it on charge all evening. We’ll see what happens but I am thinking they had better give me a new phone pronto.

So after that ordeal my back was hurting more so spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the garden. Saw three very large raptors circling way up high overhead. Might have been honey buzzards. Then another big bird with a huge wingspan that I could not identify. Lots of interesting things passing overhead lately now that there are no planes.

Here’s a photo of me in my natural habitat. In an unflattering light.

Another day gone and I struggle to remember anything about it. All I know is that my back has gone from bad to worse. So I didn’t do much, just the same old sitting in the garden. Walked in to town in the afternoon, very slowly, and managed to take a bad step and tweak my back even more. Somewhere I have a piece of paper with exercises I am meant to do to strengthen my back that I got when I had physiotherapy a few years ago. Tomorrow’s mission is to find it and start doing the exercises again. Or maybe I will try putting some bleach on it. I also get to go to Crawley and get the groceries again! Some day we will look back on all this and laugh.