There have been a good number of times over the past months where I’ve looked at the news and thought “Am I the mad one?” As it seems like a large proportion of the World is thinking and acting in the same crazy way.

It’s probably (hopefully) not the majority. I’ll write about things like that in a later post.

Herself and Myself are still sort of locked down. Lockdown wasn’t too bad for us at all. It helps to have the garden. No children so no worry there. We just have to keep ourselves sane. We’re both now quite worried about so-called long COVID. It’s not a massive surprise that a novel virus keeps throwing up little surprises – like long term heart conditions and cognitive issues.

One of Herself’s colleagues had a mild dose of COVID right at the start. They recovered from the initial ‘flu’ but haven’t felt the same since. Has trouble remembering the simplest things. Now this is a person who has worked many years to get to the top of their field. It’s a scientific/engineering discipline. It could be career ending as they are in a senior position – people (including Herself) are covering for now. But whilst we are still in the middle of the pandemic there is not a lot of medical attention going to be focused on that. That person (along with countless others) has to live with it for a good few years yet – and whatever consequences it brings.

And they’re a bloody lovely person apparently.

Life isn’t fair. We just have to deal with it.

In other news I’m still enjoying unemployment. I can’t believe it’s only been a couple of months – it feels like such a long time. I’ve been very productive though. The house was a mess. If you have ever moved into a new home – and that moment in time when you have only unpacked 15% of the boxes? Well that’s what our existence was like. Three houses trying to be merged into one. The sentimental nature of Her parents belongings was just something she couldn’t get to grips with, and as we were working very long hours it didn’t get tackled.

So I started to tackle it.

A good portion of the house is now grand. I could see the stress level drop in Herself the more it was done. I’ve slowed down on that a bit as the next stage is to start packing a lot away so we can get the renovations done next year.

I also tackled the gardens where it was a bit neglected. I like a good garden, but I don’t like the extended effort it takes to get anything done. But needs must. Before we lost the Summer weather it was really nice to just sit out on an evening – and I’ve become quite a dab hand at cooking over the open fire.

We also bought a water rower. Herself raced for her University team back in the day and I messed about and raced in another from dragon boats to gig racing. So we both enjoy it. It’s providing much needed cardio!

I have to get back into the habit of writing. I don’t have the excuse of having to go through hundreds of emails a day – but it’s nice to not be on the computer all day.