One of my favourite ways of spending a Saturday if we’re not going anywhere, which obviously we weren’t, is to sit in the recliner with my laptop, TV remote, drink and snacks and watch some sport. Sue was till off sick with her back strain and the neighbour had said she would do another BBQ. Thankfully the wind outside was pretty savage for most of the day. That was a real shame.
So that was pretty much my day. i took the dogs out a couple of times. When we went out in the afternoon there were very few people around.
The news of the day was that Boris’ advisor drove from London to Durham (allegedly twice) so that his elderly parents could look after their 4 year old as both he and his wife had coronavirus. He also found the time (allegedly) to go on a 30 mile day out while he was up there.
Boris held the Sunday briefing from Downing Street and not surprisingly all the questions, bar one, was about Cummings. Ministers had been defending the PM’s advisor all weekend and Boris did the same. Quite an incredible error of judgement in my opinion. There are a lot of people in the UK who are fed up with the lock down rules and are just looking for any excuse to justify to themselves that it is OK to ignore them. That excuse seems to have been handed to them on a plate. Let’s hope I’m wrong.
The weather was much better on Sunday which meant Sue spent most of it in the garden. She also spent most of it talking to her new best mate next door. She was cooking a Sunday roast pork dinner that was smelling amazing. The neighbour also smelled it and commented on it. Sue asked her if she wanted some. She always makes plenty. No potion control at all. We don’t have dinners on normal dinner plates. We use those huge oval platters that you use for parties.
Later that evening I took the dogs out. One of the houses opposite had 3 extra cars outside. One 4×4 was one I recognised from the previous week when they had their son over with their young grand daughter. That time they had all stood in the front garden which was against the rules. Apparently she is a nurse. Anyway as we came back from the walk I could see into their back garden from the road and there seemed to be about a dozen people standing around in their back garden.
When I got back home and into our garden one of the other neighbours was texting both Sue and our neighbour about this party. They were both getting angry and to be honest seemed to winding each other up. Then it sounded like a couple of garden parties were starting up on our side of the road. Sue was ranting about how if wasn’t fair. We were sticking to the rules and hadn’t seen our family and they were ignoring the lockdown etc etc. I asked her which house it was at. She said she didn’t know. I pointed out that there are approximately 10 to 12 back gardens that all backed on to one another. Just because a couple were playing music didn’t mean they were breaking any lock down rules. For all we knew everyone was in their own gardens. Playing music and talking loudly or even shouting doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong. After a very frustrating hour I managed to calm her down. I told her that even if they were breaking rules there was nothing we could do about it. If listening to them was upsetting her then the only thing she could do to protect her own mental well being was to stop listening to them.
“But it’s not fair!”
“When was life ever fair?”
” I should be able to relax in my own garden”
“Then sit here and get more upset or let’s go and watch a film and you can relax a little more.”
After having that conversation at least 5 times she agreed that maybe I was right. As it turned out there were no loud parties last night. One family did seem to have friends round but kept the music low and were far enough away that you had to strain to even hear them. The worst family for ignoring the lock down completely have been incredibly quite for a week or so. They must have had a warning either from the police or from their landlord.
Sue’s back at work tomorrow. At least that will keep her mind occupied.
Stay safe.
