More of the same

 

All the talk just now, is about the second nationwide Lockdown this year, said to be aimed at slowing the Covid spread of the second wave. The first lockdown, I seem to recall was supposed to flatten the curve and prevent a second wave. It is most interesting though that it simply shows that whatever the issue, the nation will be divided roughly into two halves. Each election build-up and result support that theory. The same is happening in the USA both with the Covid situation and the election drive. Half and half here, half and half in America, half and half world-wide.  

 

Will the second lockdown be any more effective than the first? I doubt it, just because I think that as per flipping usual, only half will take the precautions and that other half will carry on regardless spreading the virus as the brainlessly go.

 I went into Lockdown on March 1^st 2020 I was deadly seriously hoping that doing my bit as advised so it would help keep the death toll as low as possible. No chance because so many people took no notice what so ever to the advice. My husband and I stuck by our guns and continued to hold fast to our belief that we were doing the right thing. We have taken our exercise regularly to keep ourselves fit and well and we have kept strictly to a good healthy diet determined not to eat our way through a tough time but sadly I notice that many people have put on weight by comfort eating. Keep busy, is my best advice not eat yourself up a couple of sizes and drink yourself into oblivion.

 

It has been hard and I don’t expect to see the light at the end of the tunnel until spring at the earliest. Writing this diary page has been a tremendous help to me mentally. I have also kept cracking the whip over my own head to drive myself on with my handicraft activities which are absorbing and comforting, as well as giving some creative satisfaction. I have a procession of sewing projects in my head to continue with.

 My husband and I, who both love reading a good book, have got ourselves seriously into the books of Ken Follett that we have been enjoying together over the past eight months, listening to them on Audible. On the advice of my friends over the road we first started Pillars of the Earth. Any journeys and all mealtimes have been filled with these great books. Pillars was published I believe in 1989 and can also be found in a much shorter form on TV. The second book in the Kingsbridge trilogy

was published I found with a Google search in 2007; World Without End, and is equally absorbing and makes the hair on the back of your neck stand on end when it delves into one of histories great plagues. First and second wave! Those who helped and did their best to stop the spread and those who ignored it and indeed those who were immune to it.

 

As a child, I did not catch the ailments that went around and infected my brother, cousins and friends; several nasty illnesses.

The only thing I ever caught, was a form of chicken pox when I was not unwell but had just four big spots all of which left scars.

 

Yesterday I was spending some time sorting our some of my poetry into groups. The reason I mention this poem is that as I have mentioned before I am a bit deaf. Not altogether, but if there is another noise nearby I will not be able to hear anybody who speaks. The swimming pool was a good example of that; deaf as a post in the water with the water movements splashing of arms swimming and background music to boot! At home with Steve I have come to enjoy foreign TV series and films because it is easier to read the subbies than keep on saying “What did he say” to my husband or “Can you turn it up a bit I can’t hear it”.

 

I lost some of my hearing during a bout of Labyrinthitis about ten years ago. The poem below speaks of the constant companion I have lived with since then, Tinnitus.

 

 

Tinnitus

It’s like it’s not true

Because whatever you say or do

Nobody else can hear

This endless, relentless din, those who

Can’t turn it down or off, can’t win

Only I, am here to hear

The cruelty of the level

Of ringing noise from the devil

Me alone to bear and hear

It seems that nothing can be done

My invisible torturer has won

Everlasting, on my own I hear

Even my husband, gentle as a foal

Hasn’t a clue how it plagues my soul

S’a miracle I can hear over what I hear

There isn’t any actual pain

A constant irritant will still remain

In here,

So near

Sheer noise

I hear.