Lockdown 13

Almost 10 years ago and a different world

Hello Everyone,

Hope you are all okay and surviving this crazy world. As I write this Beijing has gone into lockdown for the second time. I think that is a warning for all of us. This pandemic is not going anywhere soon. Somehow, we have to get used to a new way of life with the good old days as a distant memory. The pic this week is the champers on my 60th birthday at the Alexander Hotel in Paphos. That was a wonderful day and I think all we have now are our memories.

I'm sharing last weekend's logs of this pandemic. Enjoy.

Day 82, Saturday 13^th, Weekend time again.


Morning peeps. I’m up bright and early today because I wanna watch the Queen’s official birthday celebration at Windsor Castle. Now, Britain is almost obsessed with tradition. The trooping of the colour is a tradition which normally takes place on the Queen’s official birthday at Horse Guards Parade in London. It is an event when most of the Royal Family are present, today just her Majesty. We watched the Welsh Guards march round the castle before assembling on the grass area for the actual presenting the ensign. It was all done with social distancing. So, instead of the guards being shoulder to shoulder they were two metres apart. It was different but just shows what you can do. It’s our Queen’s first public appearance since March. Hey, she’s still working.

What else is happening today? Hopefully, Antonio will arrive and I’m pleased to announce it’s sunny and feeling warmer. I am distressed to see that the protest marches are continuing. Why are marches not banned? I am also disgusted because we have to protect our statutes erected to eminent people like Churchill and Baden Powell. They have become objects for racist graffiti and destruction. This shows a total lack of respect for our country and heritage. I would like to respectively remind the black lives matter brigade in this country that firstly, all lives matter and secondly, we are traditionally a white, Christian country. We have welcomed other societies into our land and accommodated their religion, culture and way of life. If you’re not happy here there is a simple solution.

On the Covid front Brazil is in an alarming state with 820,000 + cases and 40,000 + deaths. They now have more deaths than Britain and numerous more cases than anywhere other than the USA. Beijing has had another breakout of the virus in the largest market in the city. Six cases have been confirmed after fifty days of freedom in the city. Now, certain parts are in lockdown again. I think it’s a warning for all of us.

Oh no. Disaster. I was upstairs when I heard my love’s melodic tones. I rushed downstairs, in desperation collected my coins and went out of the backdoor just as he drove off. No ice cream. Back to proof reading. Made my phone call. No answer. It’s just not my day.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Oh dear. I’m not the only one having a bad day. There’s been numerous protest marches up and down the country in various cities and towns. Violence has erupted and police injured. A man has been pictured urinating on the Westminster memorial to PC Keith Palmer killed in the terror attack on Westminster in 2017. He has been arrested. What is the matter with people?

And we end the day with rain and thunderstorms!

Goodnight Peeps!



Day 83, Sunday, special day of the week

Today is a new adventure, a blank canvas, a day of opportunities and a day to enjoy. Positivity after yesterday.

The sun is announcing a glorious day. I’m up early ready for the morning service. Downstairs. Breakfast and candles burning by 10.45. A beautiful service for the first Sunday after Trinity from Manchester’s Holy Trinity Platt Church. Later Songs of Praise.

Hey, I hear him. Rushed out and got my ice cream today. All is well with the world.

I can’t believe it but it’s three years since the Grenfell Tower fire disaster. It is newsworthy and the point is made that lives were changed that day. It’s not over. There are still too many, I think they said 200 tower blocks with the same dangerous, fire hazard cladding. There was a service to remember the 79 who lost their lives that night. I still remember my horror when I put the tv on the next morning and saw the fire still blazing away. It was like the film, The Towering Inferno. Fiction becomes reality.

Sadly, Covid 19 is taking second place to the riots and marches. Covid is far more destructive and dangerous. Why are these peeps congregating in masses and not practising social distancing. Those of us with brains know what’s coming next. Why are these global activities not being banned? The whole situation is out of control. Another black man has been shot by a police officer in Atlanta. He was being arrested, struggled and took a police officer's taser as he tried to escape. The whole thing was filmed and has become headline news as the officer chased him and, presumably in fear of losing a man who had failed a breathalyser, shot him with either two or three shots. Didn’t count them but it was like watching a movie. Another police officer, too trigger happy and dismissed from his post.

Over here during the riots in London an opposite scene has become the main news item. A white man was on the ground and black men lifted him up. One black man, Patrick Hutchinson put him over his shoulder and carried him away from the masses where he would have been trampled on and probably lost his life. Please note I am allowed to say black and white now.

This, like so many things over the last months, has taken me down that memory lane to the sixties. I recall the famous Martin Luther King I have a dream speech. Later, in 2003 I visited the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee where he was assassinated. Just a wreath lay on the balcony. It just looked so small and insignificant for such a major piece of history.


I’ll be back tomorrow. Have fun my friends and stay safe.


Lady M xxxxx

Lockdown 12

A holiday memory, Yeriskipou Church, Cyprus

Hello Peeps,

Lady M still here and somehow surviving Lockdown in what I can only describe as a desperate country. It is now thought that we should have gone into lockdown a week earlier, and then the number of deaths would be half what it is now. Well, we are only second to America. Fourth in the global table and we have the worst situation in Europe. We see New Zealand on the news, a country totally free of the virus. They have moved back to normality. The secret? Early lockdown and good testing. 

This week I would like to share my log for last weekend. 

Enjoy!

Day 75, Another weekend!

Wow! I’m looking at the news and am seriously alarmed. Protests are going ahead worldwide over the death of George Floyd. Yes, okay. All for it. "Black Lives Matter" but we are in a pandemic. What do I see? Thousands of peeps in close proximity at Parliament Square, London. Both the Home and Health Secretary have pleaded with peeps not to gather in large numbers at this time; in fact not more than six peeps. Their pleas have been ignored. Clearly, peeps desire to protest over racism against blacks is stronger than their concern over the pandemic. We all know what that means. Soon that ‘R’ figure is gonna rise again. Look out! Lockdown will be back.

An interesting point has just been made. Technically, these peeps are breaking the law. Are the police going to arrest them? Unlikely. I see a poster at the lead, as they’re marching to the Home Office, JUSTICE FOR and beneath it pics of about eight peeps who have presumably lost their lives through injustice and police brutality. I’m now hearing that George Floyd is not alone in this situation of being unable to breathe and pleading for his life. The PM of Australia is on the news. He has given the same message to peeps, but Sydney is alive with throngs and masses of protestors. The Australians and the rest of the world are united. Covid 19 has taken second place to racism. Okay, things are wrong and need to be put right, but now? Surely, this will add fuel to the fire of racism when more peeps lose relatives as a result of increased victims of Covid 19.

Actually, I think it’s confession time. I am a white British individual and deffo not racist but I am guilty of that ostrich approach to the racist situation largely through ignorance. I have had Sikh neighbours for many years. In more recent years we have had serious parking issues on our little street. The police have been involved and my neighbours have said that the police both listened and treated me differently from them. I didn’t believe it, but then I’m educated to degree level, an author, and former teacher. The lottery of life. I guess it’s been a case of ignorance being bliss. How many others can identify with me? 

Moving on. It’s after 2.00. What have I done today? Lazed. What am I going to do? Laze. I blame the weather. It’s drab and that wet stuff occasionally falls from the sky. So different from last weekend when all the windows were open and the sun ruled the sky. Oh well, it will return; it’s just having a little rest at the moment.

Gonna watch the film "Carousel" later. Have fun, folks.

Had lunch. Hey, Antonio has been in between that wet stuff falling. Made my day. The film is as good as ever. Waiting for the famous song, very appropriate for today, "You’ll never walk alone".

Will make my phone call when the film finishes.

Such a sad ending. Made the call, and had dinner. Now I’m looking at the figures. Today the UK has 1,557 new cases. Worldwide the figure is 86,239. Lockdown is easing? What planet are those peeps on? After today’s worldwide protests it will probably be double that in a couple of weeks. There’s a time and place for everything. This is not the time for protest marches whatever the reason. So much has happened virtually in the last weeks why can’t the civil rights movement use virtual reality for now and protest later? 

Okay, I’m saying goodnight now. Back tomorrow.

Day 76, Sunday June 7th Trinity Sunday.

Today is a day of many happy memories. I’ve been looking at my photo album from the sixties. I have pretty pics of me in chorister robes walking through our lovely little village, Ashford in the Water, at the Blessing of the Wells. This is an ancient Derbyshire tradition; peeps gave thanks to God for the gift of wells and life giving water. I wonder if it’s happening this year? Our church was the Holy Trinity Church, hence the reason our thanksgiving was on Trinity Sunday. 

We moved to this village in March 1960. I recall talk of wells dressing and had a vision of peeps taking clothes to put on the wells. Alas, that is not the case. The dressing is large clay boards with flower petals and foliage pressed into the clay to create an image, usually Biblical. Each Well had a name and a specific group in the community was responsible for it. Once completed and erected they would stay in place for a week. Visitors would come to view them; they were also a source of income. When it was over they were removed and stored until the next year; six weeks before the event they would be taken down to the river and placed in the water to soften the clay. Clever! That first year, sixty years ago I helped for the first time. My allocated well? The Children’s Well. I stayed with that one through to my last time, in 1969, prior to College days. Treasured memories. 

Last year, I was looking at a page on Facebook on the history of that village and saw a short film of one of those years. I couldn’t believe my eyes; there was my father crossing the road. Yes, my father alive again. Wonderful. What’s that phrase, “Today’s moments are tomorrow’s memories?”

This morning I watched the service from St David’s Cathedral in Pembrokeshire and later "Songs of Praise". Today, “S of P”was a special one and not the one originally planned. It highlighted the murder of George Floyd and the racist issue. Illuminating and certainly a better way to look at the problem than marching in large crowds and adding to the pandemic problem. A phrase has just come to mind… Houston, we have a problem!

It is still wet and drab here but my darling delivered. His melodic tones brighten any day. How many more peeps chose to buy ice cream today? Probably not many. Who cares?

There’s no update on the virus this weekend. I wonder why? Has our government gone into hiding, in fear of the community, after so many mistakes over Covid19? There are more protests this afternoon in various cities. Why have they not been stopped? The figures? Total cases has now passed the 7,000,000 mark. 

Okay, off for lunch now and possibly a bit of ironing I think plus games, tv and work. I shall end the day with a bubble bath.

Have fun. Just think. The easy option is always the easiest but it may not be the best. There’s no problem that does not have a solution but finding it is the hard part. For the sake of your sanity accept what you cannot change.

Stay safe, peeps. Lots of love, Lady M xxxxx