Wednesday 6th January 2021

Leaving off on Wednesday, Jools said there was still light in the western sky. The first time she has seen that in a couple of months, really.

Spring is coming.

So, Wednesday was the first day of lockdown 3.0, meaning that other than for essential travel, exercise and shopping, we would be housebound.

Just as well there is noting really to do at this time of the year.

Sigh.

The lockdown is likely to be for six weeks at least, maybe longer, maybe not. Talk is until the end of the half time school holiday, and if things go well, then we shall see.

I have to say, all things considering, I am in good spirits, as is Jools, we have all what we want, and cats, and each other. The rest is just a frills on the edge of life, that makes life worth living. Those days will come again, although in the depths of mid-winter that seems a long, long time away, but time will pass.

Until then we have work, our lives andeach other. We will prevail.

And so to Wednesday.

And today was the day of the catflap incident.

What happened was, or what has been happening, was that three of the cats are careful when they go through the flap. Poppy, however, takes a run and dives through it, and always has done. Over Christmas we saw that the flap had a crack in it, and we had been meaning to look at it.

But too late.

So, just after Jools left, the cat flap went, but there was a loud nose, so I went to investigate, and found the flap split in half, and a cold wind blowing in.

I search the house for superglue, when I do find, only the air has got to it and it had set like, well, glue. The only thing to do was to keep the kitchen door closed as much as possible to keep the cold morning air out of the living room. I search Amazon, as I needed a new one ASAP, and order what I hope will fit, delivery in under 24 hours, apparently.

I put the kettle on.

Better news what that my new work phone arrived; an i-phone 8, with no instructions, but that's par for the course for an Apple product, I suppose. It has a flat battery, so I put it on charge, and wait.

Also arrived was a book on British Orchids from 1950, with 40 plates of drawings of the orchid species. It is beautiful. A friend was selling his copy, so I said I would pay what he wanted for it, and it arrived in the post.

And to work.

And there is the usual stuff going on. No need to describe that, or the rain falling, making it seem grey and dark as well as cold. I turned the heating up. And with the cat flap nw stuck in a horizantal position, more cold wind swept through, the cats though it better as they could see if another cat was laying in ambush. Jools asks if she should get superglue, but I don't think it would hold, and might not fit exactly, the new one was just six quid, so made do for a day.

The morning passes into afternoon, not much happens.

I have a brew.

The day fades, I should go on the crosstrainer, so meh.

I make chorizo hash for dinner, boiling diced potatoes first and just getting it done, while I stand in the chilly kitchen. Its not that bad, but clearly could be better.

And for the evening there was the Manc Derby, Utd v Citeh, in the League Cup. Both both strong teams out, and Citeh won out 2-0 winners, really deserving to win.

But by then I had lost attention, as there appeared to be a coup going on in the USA. Oddly, they used to arrange coups in other countries, but America First and all that.

Seriously, seeing history unfolding in real time was a scary thing. Not knowing if it was going to end well or not.

Still don't.