First day of UK schools being shut. Very funny posts on WA Family Sanity. Suze looking to blow into a paper bag because her sons had made their own lunch while she was on a work skype call, and William gatecrashed Louise’s video call to colleagues to ask if they had had a poo this morning.
Did the rest of the covers this morning, swapped some contents of cupboards about and myriad of other small jobs while Mike made a shelf for the larder. After lunch he mowed the front garden. It’s all looking a lot better, even got stripes into the weeds. it’s made up mainly of daisies, clover and moss, very little grass there!
My niece Lucy is tired, has sore throat, can’t be sure what it is, so she’s isolated in her room.
We had salmon steaks with salad potatoes and green beans. Wanted to make a parsley sauce, but we have no parsley, so made white wine sauce instead but it was thick and lumpy like wallpaper paste. not channelling my inner Delia today.
Apparently the London tubes are still full and someone had a barbeque for friends in Birmingham. The fine was only £30 – no deterrent at all.
Wednesday 25th
The day we should have wifi, but of course we have not and I can’t get through on the English line. Tried to get onto JT to extend my roaming and restore it but can’t do that either.
It’s lovely and sunny but with a cold wind and it will get colder in the next couple of days. It’s still only March, we can’t hope for warmth yet. If we are stuck inside I can always write but Mike hasn’t brought his Ethel and Emma project with him so he will be scratching round for something to do – there’s always the housework!!
Viv used to work in government in Cornwall in charge of Objective 1 funding. £300 mill received from the EU apparently, and then the idiots voted Brexit. I despair!
Planted some potatoes but can’t remember which way up the chits go so I’ve planted one up and the other down. Mike spent the morning sorting pots and other detritus left here. Found a couple of bases for sunbrollies but one is broken, so we need to buy another.
Mike rang one of the Portsmouth apartment owners to find out about the freehold sale but there has been no movement on it yet. The guy will text me if necessary because of course, Mike’s phone doesn’t work. We checked with the Apple store before we left and it’s too old to be upgraded, so can’t roam. If we don’t get wifi soon, I’ll be reduced to writing to family soon!
Mike mowed the upper garden on a lower setting while I planted some bulbs I had left and transplanted primroses which were in the lawn, before he mowed them down. They look a bit sick, but they are hardy, I’m sure they’ll be ok. I also cleaned the white plastic table that had been chucked at the edge of the garden. I was all for chucking it out, because we have plenty of tables for the garden, but I cleaned it anyway. I love Mr Propre! It’s the equivalent of Mr Muscle in the UK.
Mike went to do some emailing next door and I watered the pots and took chairs down to a sunny spot by the fence. Viv and Stuart brought their chairs to the opposite side of the fence and we all had a drink each on our own side. A fence party – hilarious, especially as Mike filled 2 glasses with kir, put them on a tray that he now swears has a bevel in the middle. Hmm! The glasses fell off and smashed. They were plastic, it didn’t matter. What mattered was that we had very little white wine left so Mike had a beer.
They are an interesting couple. They met in Jersey in 1970 where she worked in the Gloucester House Hotel, (I stayed there years ago with the girls). A good chat, then watered the ever-growing collection of pots and borders.
Mike cooked while I did something useful although I don’t remember what …
The news is dire from Italy and Spain. Jersey still not locking down although Guernsey has. The Chief Minister says not the same circumstances and ‘more people could die if lockdown occurs too early’. He doesn’t say what those circumstances could be – it’s bollocks!