[FLYING BANANA]

Today I have received very sad news. Elizabeth’s husband to be, Tim, has passed away from Covid-19. He was admitted to hospital last Friday after being taken ill at home. Elizabeth has also been tested positive but is staying at home as her condition is not as bad. This is the second time she has tested positive for the illness. She works in the care industry.Their baby boy is being looked after by relatives. I’m very shocked by the news. I would have never thought that Tim would catch the illness as I know he has been very careful. But it appears that one of his students had tested positive a week before.

The news gets no better as two of my very good friends, Emma and Kevin, have also both tested positive. Emma you may remember makes the MG-Rover cushions. And she was very supportive after I lost my Val. She also works at the Range in North London so it comes as no surprise that she has contracted the illness. Emma also has underlying health issues to do with her breathing. As far as I know both her and hubby are still at home. At the first lockdown back in March Kevin lost both his sister and brother to this illness.

I checked on the COVID-19 government website just over a week ago that in my current postcode 2 people had tested positive. I then entered my old London postcode and that figure was 508 people testing positive. This is very frightening.
I’m becoming more and more a recluse. Very rarely venturing out other than for essential shopping. Although I did drive into Plymouth yesterday to collect a new element for my grill. This follows on from the electrical issue I had on Christmas Eve.

On the 24th December I got up in the morning, had a shower and got dressed. Went downstairs and put on the central heating, turned the kettle on and switched the grill on. Well, that all went bang with the grill smoking. The element had split and caused the consumer box to shut down. I turned everything off and set about resetting the trip switches. The power points were working but I had no central heating or lights downstairs. Upstairs I had no power at all.
So onto Homeserve whom I have a contract with. The saga of actually speaking to a human is time consuming. Eventually I got to speak to a very nice lady.

I gave her my address and mobile number. The engineer that turned up had been given the wrong mobile number. I live at no.15 and he was looking for the Green. I was looking out of the window when I saw the van pull up. The engineer was asking people where the Green was, he was parked across the road from it. I live nowhere near the Green.
I ventured out and told him where I was. He showed me a copy of the details he had received about me and the job. The only thing on the paperwork was my name that was correct.

He isolated my grill element and reset my switches and everything was working now. He tested all the power points throughout the house plus reset the central heating for me. Having made sure that everything was working as it should then he was gone onto the next job.
I had lovely Xmas day with Allen, Val and Barbara. Allen and I were not able to go to the pub but we made up for staying at home. I started off with a coffee with Kraken spiced rum in the mug. Then I was drinking cider. At the dinner table I was drinking Rose wine.

Then it was cider with spiced rum chasers until I went home at 22.30pm. Val, bless her, gave me a lift home. I was very grateful for the lift.
New Year’s Eve was spent on my own. I was happy to see the New Year in on my own.
And I then set about finding where to buy my grill element. Allen put me onto the company, Vanrigge’s, in Plymouth and that was where I was yesterday.
Allen came round this morning and fitted the new element for me. Glad he done it as I had no idea. And he reset my cooker clock, as you need a Phd to reset the perishing thing.
And Allen took the last of the eyesore aka the greenhouse wood.

Still running the club shop which helps to keep my mind occupied. Still building the model cars. The last one tested my patience to the limit. Took me over two hours how to figure out how to attach the opening hatch at the back. The model being a 1/12th scale Jaguar XJ220. Still it’s built now.
The next project is a 1940 Ford pickup which will become a present for Allen to say thank you for all his help. Photos to follow.

So under the current circumstances I’ll NOT BE RETURNING TO London at any point for the foreseeable future.

Keep safe my friends. Please look after yourselves.

Thanks for reading.