Valleyman’s blog: still lockdown. 1st June 2020

Finally! I see my two-year-old granddaughter for the first time in months! The Wales rules allow a visit from today. It has to be within five miles and fortunately my daughter’s family live around the corner. The baby and I are both pretty happy, and I sing her a song I’ve made up for her. Also we extensively dance the hokey cokey until a sunburnt Bampo runs out of breath. She hasn’t forgotten me, despite my fears. We read books, do a jigsaw of a sheep, and run around the garden with the rotating lawn-watering contraption spraying over us. Joy!

Back to trying to understand Lockdown. There has been one thing that has really irked me. Washing the shopping. I’m not even sure I was supposed to put my bacon in the bath, but I will do it no more! I’ll give my whiskey bottle a rub down with an alcoholic wipe, but hopefully the drinking of the stuff will kill some bugs!

More seriously, the virus has been shocking and affected everyone in some way. At the moment there seems to be a feeling that we are over it, but no, it still lurks in the shadows.

The radio reminds me that Hong Kong flu in 1969 was terrible. I was in Secondary Modern school, and to be honest I don’t remember it. With no rolling 24 hour news, and no social media, maybe it was easy not to think about it? Unless of course you were infected.

I often think of those long ago days of my youth when I lived in what would now be described as ‘poverty.’ But I never felt poor or underprivileged. Except when I was surprised by a hedgehog in the pitch black outside toilet. He was quite a large grunting creature and I had to stand up to let him out of the door. I’m sure he gave me fleas.

I shared a bedroom, and my family shared a house. My mother was a twin and the the two girls never lived apart. Mom and my aunty could carry on a long conversation, finishing each others sentences, and without the outside world having a clue what they were talking about. Fascinating.

Next time: Click and Collect (honest), and also, my dad is outraged at having to buy ‘proper’ toilet paper.