I hadn’t posted over the holiday weekend as I assumed people would be marinating lamb and hiding Easter eggs in small gardens for even smaller children to find. The weather was good and I thought as I planted some hemlock to see me through the winter months that Spring had finally sprung. There were a couple of triumphs – the fountain in the grounds of Castle Strange had not worked for years but a bit of fettling (and a £50 pump from Amazon) had got the thing working thanks to a top operative. He received his weight in toilet rolls and left leaving a merry tinkling sound to enjoy which rapidly resulted in me wishing I hadn’t given him all those toilet rolls as the sound of trickling water does have an unfortunate effect. Once I’d been released from the toilet like a greyhound from the traps I found the sound very soothing (as long as I didn’t think about my bladder). At least I know my kidneys are in fine and continuous working order. Always a blessing considering my fondness for Vineyard Strange’s finest products.
The second triumph was I was able to book a click and collect slot with Tesco so I wouldn’t have to show my rebellious side in the store and walk the wrong way around the one way system they’ve installed. I only got away with it last time as they had only half installed it leading to confusion all around. Anyway I look forward to picking it up tomorrow and seeing what interesting substitutions they have decided for me – not! A weird version of every little helps! Hmmm no Warburtons Toastie but a torque set? I’ll take it as a fair swap.
It wouldn’t be Strange if something unusual hadn’t happened over the weekend. Mater received an interesting letter from her GPs surgery – the stay indoors or die letter. This letter states that because you suffer from a catalogue of underlying (or just lying) health issues then catching Covid 19 could be the end of you. They don’t want it to be the end of you in case it takes a while and they haven’t got enough staff, ventilators, PPE, beds or George Clooney as Dr Doug Ross. I haven’t got an issue with the letter per se. It’s perfectly reasonable about the actions to take to prevent catching it as much as you can. No, the issue I have with it was that it was only received on Saturday 7th April. Other minions of the Strange universe have received their letters approximately a fortnight ago. So Mater is 14 days behind being able to go out with everyone else. She’s already been in lockdown for 2 and a half weeks. Do we knock those off as a bonus or does she have to stay in for 12 weeks from last Saturday – not a pleasant prospect, for any of us. We shall approach this with a degree of common sense but I did wonder why she hadn’t received the letter that everyone else did. I had thought that maybe they were fed up with her at the surgery but it appears those fears were groundless. All in a day’s musings for Darkling.
Anyway as ever, remember! This too will pass. Stay safe and well and I’ll see you on the dark side.