My first day where some sort of normality returned. As the Covid aches had receded and having had a good nights sleep I decided it was time to leave my sick-bed, dress and move back into the office. That didn’t mean pushing myself, far from it. I took the day steady. Part of the morning was spent catching up on the latest madness investing the world’s politics over a coffee (with the state of things, you should have added a Brandy to that! Ed) and a light breakfast before commuting across the landing to my workspace in the back bedroom. The very act of being up and about again helped to restore my spirits – as did the view from a different window, where I could watch a cross-section of our local bird population guzzle the oats I’d left out for them yesterday.

One of the jobs I was keen to start on was a spot of spring-cleaning by going through the cupboards and shelves in the office to see what was no longer needed. Stuff that could either be junked or saved to go on eBay if it had collectability. Lots of old paperwork ended up being binned and I have a stack of old diaries which joined the queue to be digitised. I kept a diary throughout my travels across Asia to Australia in 1991-92 and I’ve always meant to rewrite them into blogs showing what backpacking overland was like 34 years ago. I’ve even older ones from India in 1985-86 which would also tell a tale or two, but the ones I want to digitise now are more personal ones from the late 1980s which take up a lot of space in cupboards.

Having taken another Covid test I’m still showing up stongly positive so I’m shunning contact with others until I’m no longer infectious. I know the vast majority of people simply don’t bother anymore, but when a lot of your friends are either elderly or vulnerable, it seems the only decent thing to do. Besides, I’ve plenty of things to keep me occupied at home and Dawn’s not showing any signs of having caught the ‘rona’ off me. Dee’s been a star whilst I’ve been laid low and I’m keen to be able to take the pressure off her in return.

Spring clean over I hope to add a number of different items to eBay over the weekend, when the weather’s due to deteriorate. I’m also eyeing up restarting scanning old slides, a project which has stalled recently. I still have several albums here in the office which I’d really like to get done and dusted whilst I’m confined to barracks. So, whilst I might not be going anywhere physically I can travel around the world in old pictures, letters and through the memories they bring back!

For now I’ll leave you with a sample of one of those slides in the queue. I’ve loads of odds and sods from different times and places that were either misfiled or were part of the slide collection returned by ‘Lonely Planet’ many year ago. So, here’s one – not for rail enthusiasts, but petrol-heads!

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