Thursday, a strange day as it seems I remember little about it. There was toast to start the day and then a work meeting, which was okay. So there I am in the middle of the day already having written and submitted my Invoices for March. My partner and I go for a walk in the village to pick up prescriptions and some bits of shopping. its cold, wind and raining and no incentive to do anything. In the afternoon I have a brief nap and talk to a friend who continues to try and recover from long COVID. It is a slow and challenging process and not made easier by a world that insists that recovery has to be faster or on a timetable set by it and not on the actual state or needs of the person. It strikes me how quickly people want to move on regardless of evidence that there are still real issues to be faced and recovered from. We chat for a while until my friend goes on her way and I return to my nap. I finally rouse from my nap and go to the Shed to feed the hedgehog. It is still eating heartily and appears to be prospering. I drift into the evening, my partner forgoes her singing lesson and we watch a combination of mysteries and football. Late in the evening I clear the kitchen and wander off to bed. I have meandered the day away and know that Friday needs to be different.

Friday and I wake feeling less tired and get up to make a tasty bacon bagel breakfast and prepare to attend a work meeting. I make fresh coffee and settle down in front of the laptop adn log into my Teams link. I wait, I continue to wait, I start doing other things, and wait some more. Eventually the laptop throws me out, its clear I’ve been stood up. So I now spring into action. My partner has holiday time at the start of June and asked me to surprise her with a break or holiday. I scroll through many options and eventually come to a hotel in Windermere, which fits the things we like. I book it for a week, so now we have settled our breaks for the year so far. We intend to see how things go now and adapt our plans for later in the year.

Next it’s time to relocate the fish and to recycle the fish tank. I relocate the fish to the garden pond. I’ve been cross breeding guppies with a cold water fish so I am hoping that there is enough genetic strength in the strain to adapt to the pond environment. I clear the fish tank away and reclaim the lounge alcove. This means I can reorganise my “soffice” and return the sofa to being a piece of furniture. Friends suggest it is a harsh move for the fish, however in the current energy environment it is a luxury to keep heating 96 litres of water to 26 degrees, filter it and light it 24 hours a day every day. That is not an insignificant amount of electricity to be saving and at todays costs, its a financial saving. So its done, an era is over, we move on. I lunch on coffee and iced bun. I clear the kitchen and head for a Shed, where I write a brief letter and feed the hedgehog. I wash out my ink wells, yes you read right, I wash out my ink wells as they tend to sludge up over time. I have also found that dipping my nibs in a candle flame seems to clean them and make the script sharper. I pop out to the post box and return to find the new starters for the garage light have arrived. I fit a new starter but to my chagrin the tube still refuses to light permanently, it just flickers. It means the tube has gone. I take the old one out, do research and source new ones. My partner and I drive to the nearest Wickes and buy a couple of replacement tubes. We know how to have fun. I get home and put in the replacement tube. Bingo, there is light. In another universe I’d be a god.

Too late and too hungry to train we settle for an Indian takeaway, women’s football, TV and finally, as I write the blog, Iron Man 3. During the day I get messages from friends. One has gone down with COVID the other continues to battle the affects of long COVID. It is a battle and the cruellest element is the way it robs people of their energy at a stroke, unexpectedly and wholly. My cancer does it to me on occasions and it is a very disconcerting feeling as the ground gets cut from under you and any plans you’ve made. All I can do is trust myself, rest and go again, again and again until its as good as it gets, again.