Monday 21 December 2020

An Early Christmas Gift

Today has been a very much better day - on a personal level, at least, although between mutant fast transmitting Covid, blocked ports, flight bans and Brexit the national news is grim. This morning TG's Covid test result came back negative, as we hoped and expected given that it was just a precautionary test. However, the best and most extraordinary thing is that M is getting his first dose of the vaccine tomorrow! Health service workers who are vulnerable due to medical conditions are considered a top priority group so he was authorised this evening to book in for vaccination. Amazingly he was able to get an appointment at the local hospital tomorrow morning. We had expected he would not have to wait too long - my guess was early January - but to get his first dose as an early Christmas present? What a gift! As you can imagine, it is a big boost to our spirits. 


My energy levels slumped a bit again today, but I still managed a 2 mile walk, so that is good. This morning I read for a bit and then spent some time wrapping gifts. Usually I try to wrap as I buy, but this year it didn't happen. We have a family tradition of me buying the girls quite a lot of smaller gifts and stocking fillers - it started because we have so few relatives that when they were small they often only got gifts from us and from my mother. Somehow the tradition has stuck - habit, I think! - even though there isn't the need for it any more. It means wrapping takes me a while. While I wrapped I listened to the first book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy on Audible. I have read the books, but a long time ago. I have been enjoying watching the BBC adaptation and decided it was time to read (or listen to) them again. 


This month I have knitted two pairs of socks as gifts for friends - same pattern but different colours and sizes - and finished a cross-stitch badger for our neighbour who often gets an entire family of badgers in her garden at night. Sometimes I get into a sock-knitting frenzy. I find them relaxing to knit, and can knit while I read or watch TV so I can get through them quickly. I am now knitting a pair for myself, while also working on a cardigan and trying to finish a Mickey Mouse cross-stitch bookmark for one of the girls for Christmas. 

After we got back from our walk this afternoon TG wanted to watch the old Jim Carrey version of the Grinch, so we watched together while I cross-stitched. H was working, and was out for part of the day. This evening's treats were my advent calendar gin, which I used to make a gin hot toddy with honey and lemon as it suggested, an episode of Only Connect in which I failed hopelessly to solve any of the questions, and a Christmas episode of Upstart Crow with Will Shakespeare locked down in London during an outbreak of plague and ranting to good effect about people failing to wear plague beaks and hoarding moss for the privy! Altogether a very much better day. 

7 comments:

elli said...

So glad to hear TG's result was negative. And, that M gets the vaccine now! Fantastic! My stepfather is a medical professional working in hospital, and while he is in the first group to have the vac — said hospital have not yet received their shipment — & the numbers our state is supposed to have keep getting lowered! — ongoing criminal malfeasance on the part of the outgoing administration. *growl* (numbers: health care professionals as first group eligible in our state with no-one else receiving until they do (except **maybe** those in care homes) = 400,000 ... numbers received vac so far = 10,000 .... this is going to take some while .... of late I have been thinking: next Advent, next Christmas — as opposed to “next summer”, which is what gets bandied about ...

elli said...

PS, I meant to finish off: "next Advent/Christmas" before life begins to look quasi-normal ...

Penelope P. said...

So pleased to hear about the vaccination, I hope it all went smoothly this morning. What a relief it will be to not have to worry quite so much. I hope you have a lovely Christmas, even though it will be not quite as we wanted it. My son is now staying in Wales. He pointed out that meeting up halfway wasn’t such a good idea as the roads will be full of slightly drunken drivers! We’ll be happy to zoom, and see each other in a few months time. Here’s to a peaceful 2021 xx

Kathryn said...

Penelope P - it all went very smoothly, thank you, and he is booked in for his second dose in January. I'm sorry you won't be able to see your son, but a safe Christmas and meeting up next year is a much better plan. Hard to imagine that a year ago we had never heard of Zoom! I hope your operation went well. How are you feeling now?

Kathryn said...

Penelope in the US - I'm sorry to hear about the delays getting the vaccine through. I think there are some hiccups here, but it is probably inevitable with such a logistical challenge, and our government don't have a good track record when it comes to getting things organised. Top priority groups here are care home staff and residents, over 80s, and NHS staff with underlying health problems. In practice the Pfizer vaccine is difficult to get out to care homes because it has to be stored at such low temperatures, so care home residents are not getting them as quickly as was hoped. H's boyfriends grandmother is over 90 (living independently) and she got her vaccine last week. Next on the list will be over 75s and other frontline health staff, then over 70s and extremely clinically vulnerable people. It seems fair and reasonable, though from what I have read is working better in some areas than others!

Penelope P. said...

I’m feeling remarkably well, thank you, Kathryn. The operation went really smoothly, keyhole surgery is an amazing thing, and I was back at home five hours later. They glued all wounds, so I didn’t even have to have stitches removed! I still feel tired sometimes, but that may be life rather than the op!

Kathryn said...

That's wonderful. I'm so pleased to hear that! Even keyhole surgery can take time to recover from, so do get as much rest as you can.