Day 33? really? I’m beginning to lose all sense of days now after so long. Before beginning to write today’s epistle I had to say to Dawn “remind me, what the hell did we do yesterday?” – and no – it’s nothing to do with my age! I’ve decided that I need to keep a notebook with me to write down the salient points I want to blog about each day as I’ll be damned if I can remember many of them by the time I sit down in front of  blank screen to begin typing.

OK, Day 33 was Saturday which (surprise surprise) was very much like any other day in that we’d nowhere to go and pretty much nothing to do out of the ordinary. Despite it being the weekend – which really doesn’t mean anything anymore. We didn’t have a lie-in as both of us had things we wanted to do. Dawn was up exercising whilst I was getting an article together for RAIL magazine that required a lot of research plus extensive trawling through my picture archive, which kept me busy for several hours.

What was different was breakfast as (for a change) we’d bought some lovely English Asparagus to have with poached eggs and a toasted bagel. I’d show you a picture, only I scoffed it before I thought of taking one!

As the weather was still stunning we were determined to get out for our daily constitutional as the forecast suggests the brilliant run of sunshine that we’ve had is about to come to an end. It took a few hours to complete the chores that form a large part of the mundanity of modern life. Daft one’s that beg questions like “if there’s only the two of us – how the hell do we manage to go through so much cutlery in a day that I spend so much time washing it”?

Finally, we went for our stroll, sticking to what’s now a well-worn path up through Scarr woods to the Promenade, only today took an awful lot longer as it was so sociable because we bumped into several friends. First off was Sally and Simon who live in a house on the Prom. They were out in their garden so we had a typically English chat over the garden gate. Whilst we were thus engaged we met another couple of friends in passing who were also indulging in exercise. We ended up in a small group taking up an awful lot of room thanks to the delights of social distancing!

Returning from our constitutional we plonked ourselves in the front garden to soak up the sun and indulge in a group chat with friends via Messenger. Old friends came together from London, Par, Warrington and Halifax to keep in touch via modern technology. Does this mean this will be the future? Bugger off – we’d all have much preferred being in a real pub rather than a virtual one! Even so – it was lovely to be able to swap tales for an hour and know that we’re all managing to get through this in our different ways. I feel for one of my friends as he lives in an apartment block in South London where his nearest green space is Clapham Common. It makes me feel very lucky living where I am now as 25 years ago that would have been me. Well, in East London not South, and not with two teenage children either…

If nothing else the lockdown should teach people to appreciate their lives and what they have.

*to be continued*…