Diary of a self-isolator – week 41

A lighthearted look at a few memories and the situation over the last seven days in our house.

Sunday 20/12/2020 – Day 281

Woke with a heavy heart this morning, it was seven years today we said our final farewells to our daughter Vickie, it was to say the least a very emotional time which was shared by almost 600 others. It took Mrs H and I all our strength to get through that day.

Well, Boris has in effect closed down the south of England pushing the whole of the south-west and London into tier 4, I read a report today that said eleven per cent of Londoners intend to ignore the Government, perhaps if that 11% had been more cautious in the first place then they wouldn’t be in the situation that they find themselves in today, still, as long as they have a nice carefree Christmas eh! This also means of course that those in tiers 2 and 3 can now only visit their loved ones on Christmas day, the five days originally planned has been cancelled.

A Christmas Carol was published on this day in 1843. I personally think it is one of the greatest stories ever told, the 1951 Film version with Alistair Simm in the lead role was outstanding, there have been many versions before and since but they all pale into comparison, except the Muppets Christmas Carol starring Micheal Caine, it was very funny. My hero Charles Dickens devoted much of his later life to giving public readings, beginning with A Christmas Carol at Birmingham Town Hall in December 1853. He made the performance to raise funds for the proposed Birmingham and Midland Institute to carry out pioneering work in adult education, insisting there were tickets available at a low enough price for working people to afford.

On this day in 1955 Cardiff was officially named the capital of Wales, this was about the same time Johnny Ray became the Prince of Wails!

Also, on this day in 1979 The introduction of Britain’s Housing Bill – forcing local councils to sell their houses to any tenants who wished to buy them. Sadly, I didn’t take advantage of this wonderful offer as I didn’t have a Council house.

And finally, on this day 2007 Elizabeth II became the oldest ever monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days.

The virus is getting worse and worse, New case figures have got really high today, they were at 35928, which is twice as many as a week ago, Deaths were 326 more than double last weeks figures.

Monday 21/12/2020 – Day 282

Got up a little earlier this morning as today is officially the shortest day of the year, yes, all you gardeners out there, as from tomorrow the nights will start to draw out once again and the days will get longer. Mrs H can’t contain her excitement!

In 1844 At 8:00 p.m. On This Day, the Rochdale Pioneers commenced business at their co-operative, on Toad Lane, Rochdale, thus starting the Co-operative movement, often referred to simply as the Co-op. This of course prompted me to remember Santa’s grotto at the Co-op. I mean who didn’t go there as a child in the 50’s 60’s and seventies. To be quite honest it wasn’t really that enthralling, the child was sat in a wooden sleigh and what they could see was the backsides of two reindeer, the scenery of trees either side was moving as the sleigh gently rocked from side to side, then the bells would start ringing and Santa’s voice would command the reindeer to carry on. It wasn’t much and probably wouldn’t fool the kids of today, but, to a five -year- old in the fifties it was magical, when you got off you were guided toward Santa’s grotto where he would give you a present which was more than likely to be a Co-op selection box. I remember Woolworths introducing their own ‘Sleigh ride’ but not many seem to remember it as much as the Co-op’s.

Also on this day in 1988 A Pan American jumbo jet bound for New York was blown out of the sky by a terrorist bomb and crashed onto the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing all 259 passengers and 11 people on the ground. It remains the deadliest aviation incident ever to take place in the United Kingdom. The Garden of Remembrance and the Lockerbie Air Disaster Memorial are at Dryfesdale Cemetery, Lockerbie. We visited it a couple of years ago and it is a beautiful and tranquil place for visitors.

Boris is making another update on TV at 4.30, Mrs H is speculating on what he has to say today, she has gone from the closure of every pub in the UK, to a full lockdown.

Well, just watched the broadcast and Boris was merely there to quell fears -fuelled by the media – about the shortage of food because of France closing the border for 48 hours, he says that all the supermarkets are already well stocked for the festive period, that won’t stop idiots panic buying of course.

Once again, the figures for the last 24 hours are very high at 33364, even the registered deaths are high at 215, these are weekend figures.

And dear reader, that is the end of the shortest day of the longest year of our lives!

Tuesday 22/12/2020 – Day 283

Woken quite early this morning by the consistent rain beating against the window, it’s been raining most of the night again, the Lake Geneva outside mine and my neighbours house has now become a permanent feature and leaves any poor passers bye a mere nine inches of pavement to pass through.

On this day in 1716 Lincoln’s Inn Theatre in London put on England’s first pantomime which included the characters Harlequin, Columbine and Pantaloon. Oh yes They did – Oh no they didn’t.

Also, 55 years ago today the government introduced an ‘experimental’ speed limit of 70mph on motorways in England. They must have forgotten about it because the limit is still in force today. There is probably some poor chap in a back office, a bit like Miss Haversham in Great Expectations, covered in cobwebs and awaiting the order to change the limit.

And finally, in 1962 Pop group the Tornados started a three- week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with their record Telstar. It was also the first major hit from a UK act in the American charts where it went to No1, they used to practise a couple of miles from here in Bewdley.

So, as promised last week here is the second part of my write up about Christmas. Christmas day in our house was nothing like other people’s houses, although we only had one present each (there were 11 of us) the rush to the tree the next morning was reminiscent of the Klondike Gold Rushes in America 1900, only the fittest survived, the poor tree was stripped of any remaining chocolate figures

Christmas lunch was a bit of a strange affair, try as I might, I can’t for the life of me remember us all sitting down to a table to eat it, perhaps we did, I remember my dad always went to the pub at lunchtime (as did every other father I knew), he would come back at around 2.30 after we had all eaten. He would eventually have his dinner on a tray in front of the TV. That was, if he hadn’t brought anyone back from the pub with him, this would happen quite often on Christmas day, I felt sorry for Mum, she would have to pander to their needs even though she had been up since 5am.

Television

Christmas TV throughout the fifties was a bit of a dire affair in the first half of the decade, BBC had a monopoly on what was shown, presenters in evening suits and wearing dickie bows would introduce the programmes. The day would start with Carols from a famous place like St Pauls, this would last an hour and then television closed down until the afternoon. A film would be shown at 3.00pm and then a close down for 45minutes, children’s TV would come on for 90minutes then – yes you’ve guessed it – a 45minute shutdown. At 7.30pm there was a show called Christmas party with the BBC true to form showing snippets of programmes and stars who had appeared throughout the year, this was then followed by a farce (comedy play) usually involving the BBC favourite Brian Rix.

Closedown was at 11.15 with the national anthem and the screen closing to a white dot.

And that was basically it every year until 1955 when ATV began broadcasting.

Their Christmas offering in 1955 included Sunday Night at the London Palladium with the ever popular Beat the clock, this would be followed with a thirty -minute playhouse presentation and a comedy like I love Lucy or Sergeant Bilko with Phil Silvers.

By 1957 ITV were wiping the floor with the BBC in the ratings by showing shows like Take Your Pick, (Micheal Miles) The Army Game, The Larkins, (with Peggy Mount and David Kossoff) and Life with the Lyons (Life with the Lyons featured a real American family. Ben Lyon and his wife Bebe Daniels, they had settled in London during the Second World War). The BBC at the same time offered a mixture of Ballet, Opera, Sport, and a feature film.

By The end of the decade the BBC still hadn’t learned from their mistakes and were very rarely seen in the ratings. Things were beginning to change on commercial TV though, parents were beginning to get bombarded by their children for popular toys they had seen in advertisements – sound familiar? Not of course in our house – we knew better than to ask – and we knew how hard mum struggled to get us anything.

It would be 1957 before her Majesty the Queen gave her first televised speech, although both ITV and the BBC broadcast her speech previously but without pictures.

After lunch

So, we were left to our own devices in the afternoon, Compendium sets were played with but try as we might we never got our parents to play, Jigsaws were set up on the table, While Mum and the eldest girls washed up, we made our own fun.

Then we’d all settle down to watch Billy Smarts circus on BBC usually followed by Billy Cotton’s Christmas show.

My Mum had hardly been sat down five minutes when she was up again preparing the tea, this would normally consist of cold turkey sandwiches and pickled onions, followed by tinned fruit with carnation condensed milk poured over it.

All too soon it was time for bed, the familiar pyjamas, the hot water bottle – it was like Christmas had come and gone in a jiffy, all those weeks of excitement over in just a few hours! No-one wanted the day to end – except Mum!

Boxing day.

The next day was always a bit of a non – event, children would be out in the streets on their new trikes with those bread bins on the back,  or they may have been lucky enough to have a  new bicycle, father’s would be off down the local sporting their new jumper and a sort of quiet would descend on our house, young eager eyes would scour the Christmas tree (in vain) looking for a last chocolate that may have been missed, while others would be searching for the most important part of the compendium box – usually the dice – which had gone missing in the excitement of the previous day, or the final piece of that jigsaw which had been mischievously hidden somewhere.

The eldest girls would help to tidy up, the tree was already beginning to shed its needles! TV was a no-no as it was always horse racing or some skiing from a mountain no one had ever heard of, basically Boxing day was a bit of a let-down, it was another 364 days until we could do it all over again.

By December 27^th the only thing left in that massive box of fruit was a packet of dates, no one was ever hungry enough to eat those things, they would be kicking around for weeks until finally ending up in the dust bin. There would also be a few nuts left, the ones that even dad couldn’t crack open! But apart from the inevitable pile of pine needles beneath the tree, Christmas was well and truly over for another year and there was nothing to show that it had ever happened!

The figures are for the third time this week are horrendously high, there were 36804, while the registered deaths stood at 691, there is talk of many more regions going into tier 4 over the next few days.

Wednesday 23/12/2020 – Day 284

I was lay awake in bed this morning thinking – if it’s naughty to have midnight snacks then why do they put lights in fridges – it was at this point I decided to rise.

Mrs H and I have finally decided that we will be spending Christmas on our own, after chatting with our family we have all decided that it’s not worth the risk for one day, but we did all agree that when this lot is finally over we will have the biggest family party ever seen – along with the other 60 million or so in the UK.

The other news of the day is that there is just one more sleep until husbands start to shop for their loved ones Christmas present.

Well, I was resting nicely in the back office, Mrs H was still swanning around in her Dressing gown, when suddenly there was a knock on the door, when I say a ‘knock on the door’ I have seen more subtle knocks on TV when police are entering a drug dealers property with a sledge hammer. I opened the door to a big burly fellow – which was lucky for him or he may have got the sharp end of my tongue – he stepped back and uttered those immortal words “Delivery, Harvey”, before I could even confirm, he was pulling a 3 meter long package off his van, “I’ll put it down the side”  he muttered, “Name?”, I didn’t have the heart or the nerve to tell him he had mentioned it just two minutes ago.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, it was the first part of the canopy I had ordered, they didn’t bother with an e mail to tell me that it was being delivered, but the chap hadn’t been in his van one minute before my phone pinged to tell me it had been delivered! I sat back in the office and within a few minutes the doorbell went again, this time it was the roof sheets, from the same supplier but with a different courier, no wonder this country is in trouble.

George and Rose have been at it again, I really don’t know how they survive, he rang yesterday complaining about her once again, “What’s up now?” I asked warily.

“It’s her” he said, “I don’t understand it, when a baby drinks a full bottle and falls asleep it’s cute, but when I drink a full bottle and do the same I’m an alcoholic, and she’s got no sense of humour, when she asked me if I’d seen the dog bowl I said I didn’t even know he played cricket”.

The number of new cases in the last 24 hours is the highest of the week at 39237, the number of people dying has also risen sharply to 744, we are now almost at the same levels as back in April.

Thursday 24/12/2020 – Day 285

It’s finally here, after what seems like – well a year – Christmas eve has officially arrived on planet earth, I officially finished any work yesterday, I locked up the Repair shop for at least a week. As my regular readers are aware, I am not one for resting, I like to be active, my old mum used to say I’d got ‘ants in my pants’. The upshot is that I’ve started doing a bit more washing up than I usually do, I mention this not to get brownie points but to inform the readers of this festive garbage that Fairy Liquid  has taken a nose dive since I last used it. The green stuff famous for ‘Now hands that do dishes can feel as soft as your face with mild green Fairy Liquid’. has lost its froth, the last time I used it (can’t quite recall the exact date, but TV was in black and white) you put a couple of drops in hot water and there was bubbles and lather everywhere, but today, well I put a fair old squirt in it and it was very insipid. My point is that when I was at home there was loads of washing up and the water was still frothy at the end, in fact you struggled to get the froth down the sink, today there is only the two of us and the water’s as flat as a pancake long before you’ve finished your chores, just saying.

While I’m on whinge mode I’d like to also mention the demise of the dense toilet roll, I mean, I know we’ve come a long way since the News of the World cut up into squares and hung on string, or that slippery shiny harsh Izal stuff they provided at school (so no one would pinch it I reckon) but since the shortage at the beginning of the year has anyone else noticed how extremely thin toilet roll has become? It just doesn’t work for me, it has become a second rate product hardly fit for purpose. Ok that’s me done on the moaning front, after all it is Christmas, bah humbug!

Mrs H and I have been trying very hard to get into the Christmas spirit but neither of us could get the top off! I have to say that after the announcement by the government last week, Mrs H and I apologise, but this Christmas there is no way that we are not seeing family and friends. You can do what you like, but We will be welcoming them. So, on Christmas Day, the following family will be at the table……

Auntie Stella & Uncle Jameson, with cousin Bailey, Malibu & Smirnoff, and the twins Gin & Tonic,

Scottish cousins Johnny Walker and Glen Moray, & from across the pond, bringing some old – fashioned southern comfort with them our old cousins, Jack Daniels and Jim Beam,

Our French mate Remy Martin & his friend Pernod, my Spanish mate Jose Cuevro & his cousin Martini, Bianco and her daughter tequila, also my Greek friends Ouzo & Sambuca,

Our friends Brandy, Fosters, Snowball and mickey slim, and finally our neighbours Captain Morgan, the Grants, the Bells, the Cointreau’s, and the Henneseys, Time to party!

Once again the new case figures are drastically high and are 39036 for the past 24 hours, new recorded deaths were 574

Friday 25/12/2020 – Day 286

Woke up very excited this morning, I actually rushed downstairs to make Mrs H’s Latte, at 7.45 I woke her up and wished her Happy Christmas, then I fetched the 4 presents that she didn’t know about, I have to tell you at this stage that the dear Mrs H always tells me what she wants for the big day, this will be via the daughters or even the Granddaughter’s in the form of subtle hints, in short, if I buy her anything in the two months prior to Christmas it is always received with the words ‘I’ll have that for Christmas’. But this time I actually fooled her by transferring money to our granddaughters account and telling her to ‘shop till she drops’. So, at 7.45 we exchanged gifts and presents and Christmas day had officially begun.

At around 10.00am we had a video call from our daughter Gemma, our two grandsons were waiting to see what we had bought them, they didn’t want to open them until we were watching which I thought was very nice of them. By 11.00 am the turkey crown was in the oven.

As I said earlier, Mrs H and I were spending Christmas alone, as usual I went upstairs to have a quick look at facebook, just to make sure I hadn’t missed anyone wishing us a Merry Christmas you understand, anyway. I was scrolling down and came across this announcement;

URGENT NEW HOME WANTED !!!!!

This is Bella, she’s an 8 week-old German Sheppard puppy, I bought her as a surprise for my wife for Christmas but it turns out she is allergic to dogs so I am now urgently looking to find her a new home I don’t want any money just free to a good home.

Her name is Angie she’s 45 years old, a beautiful and caring woman who drives, she is a great cook, good with kids and always keeps a clean house.

I almost choked on my Weetabix lol!.

Had the usual Christmas day message – no, not the queen, but from George, who rang to say that on Christmas Eve he’d..

‘’Just done my good deed for today! I’ve just come back from Sainsbury’s where I was behind an old lady in the queue. Her bill came to £56.83, but when she counted out all her change, she only had just under £40. I thought she was probably someone’s Nan, and I’d like to think someone would help my Nan in that situation. She didn’t want me to help her, but I insisted, and in no time we had all her shopping back on the shelves…’’

I just never know whether or not to believe him, still, at least he wasn’t arguing with Rose.

Christmas Day is now a football-free zone, but this wasn’t always the case. In the days before TV, there would be a full programme of matches on 25 December with fans popping on hats and gloves to watch football at grounds across the UK after eating. But throughout the 1950s, attitudes towards playing sport on Christmas Day changed. The final Christmas Day football match took place in 1957, leaving Boxing Day as the traditional festive fixture. There you go dear reader, another snippet from the useless information department.

Our daughter and granddaughter Sarah and Mollie facetimed us in the afternoon while our son Mark rang just after.

We were introduced to ZOOM at about 6.00pm when the granddaughter Alisha gave us instructions, so the next hour was spent playing a quiz which was read out by Alisha’s boyfriend Sam, needless to say she won – but no sour grapes there!

The rest of the evening was spent watching depressing soaps, why oh why don’t these writers make Christmas day storylines happy, we have just gone through the worst year ever so why would they want to leave everyone severely depressed on the most wonderful day of the year? Sheer desperation and lack of imagination springs to mind.

You would have thought that the figures would have eased for Christmas day, but of course, this virus doesn’t know what day it is, the number of new cases for today is 32725 with a further 570 new deaths. It is so hard to imagine how all those families will cope on Christmas days to come.

Saturday 26/12/2020 – Day 287

I lay in bed at 5.40am wondering if it was true that frozen lobster can come back to life when thawed (don’t ask), I just had to know so I jumped out of bed , switched on my computer and googled it, the answer is apparently yes.But what is more important is – how the hell did that question enter my head in  the first place? – answer, I have no idea.

So, of course today is Boxing day and Christmas is officially over with.

Over the years Boxing Day has become synonymous with carrying on the Christmas feast, slobbing out on the sofa watching movies or going on a country walk (the first being my preference).

Nowhere in the bible is there a mention of Boxing Day which makes the holiday, celebrated the day after Christmas, all the more curious – just why do we celebrate it?  

The name is derived from an age – old tradition of rich masters giving their servants Christmas boxes which they could share with their families on December 26, after all the formal festivities.  

There is an array of different answers to this question, but the most commonly believed is that the tradition started in the Middle Ages.

Boxing Day. Through the year they would take money from churchgoers in the form of a collection and hand it out at Christmas. Many of them stored the collection money in a box, which they opened on Christmas Day. The money was then handed out to the poor the next day – on Boxing Day.

Today, those boxes aren’t as popular. However some people leave out extra money for people like paper boys and girls in the weeks before Christmas, and call it a Christmas box. The Victorians were the first people to really start creating designated public holidays.

The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the 1830s. Neale clearly recognised the association of the day in the public mind with charity, and in 1871 St Stephen’s Day was designated a bank holiday.

Only a few countries celebrate Boxing Day which falls on December 26. Mainly countries that have historical links to the UK celebrate the day such as Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and a few European countries.

The number of cases do not seem to abate, there were 34693 today bringing the weekly total to 251,787. The number of registered deaths today was 210, the weekly total for the week being 3330, that is a lot of lives for Christmas week and we are now being told that the new strain is creeping like a dark stain across the world.

Well, dear reader, that is it for another week and indeed another year as I won’t be in touch now until 2021, So I would like to wish you all a very Happy and prosperous New Year and let’s all pray that it is much better than the year we are leaving behind, thank you all for your continued support and God bless!

It’s been emotional!