Been away from here again...

I used to enjoy my blog posts...

Looking back it was a form of boring the guys in The Naafi orThe  Malcolm Club ( long gone institutions), sharing without the need to actually chat in person to somebody!! Then your mates just looked at you and said 'aye', on here anybody who could be arsed just scroll past the crap and look at the pics!!

Pretty same on Facebook, which has taken over from this little blog...( here FACEBOOK ) 😀

I pretty religiously put up logs of my walking, follow loads of strange people in wierd and wonderful groups, such as lost shopping trolleys, The Dull Club, Steps we love, park benches, weather around the world right now...football obviously! Pared down the crap over the years, it works for me..

Then there's Twitter! Been a trifle stressed time on there!!  

Politically I'm disctinctly Centre Left, and right now its hard to really come out and say "I'll Vote For Him/Her"..but that's bye the bye, Twitter has gone from a fairly relaxed chatty newsy place to a something resembling The Spanish Inquisition, complete with Heritcal Burnings!!  Again, I've just spent time paring down who, and what I follow...There seems to be none of that middle ground, eg if you have a tendancy to Boris, you must be a raving Trumpite as well, and if you think Biden is right, you're a raving Corbynista, of which I'm neither...I suppose being of the Harold Wilson, Jim Callaghan generation of Labour, well, bring their kind back.

I do find it hard to socialise.

In The RAF it was easy, walk into a Naafi anywhere in the world and you already had a connection, something to chat about, a commonality of cause, be you an airframe fitter or (as I was) a "blanket stacker"...logistics, supply etc... Now, Ive been here for heading towards 20 years(!!!) and I see people I know, but with a couple of exceptions, still haven't a clue as to their job, profession, history etc...in our local Club, there's always the same group in there when I go in, who've been that same group long before me and know each other intimately, I'm always the outsider, and I admit I sit by myself and tend to only add the occasional comment to the conversations - often because its a very parochial and insular conversation !!  Right now Social Distancing suits me!!

The other half of this blog, Suzie, has had a much harder time of it than me. Made redundant just before lockdown, actually on her way to an interview when they pulled the plug as such. A couple of interviews since, always pleasant reviews, but no job. Now no dole, only available for 6 months, so we are relying on my pensions...which I spend at a rapid rate.😓. 

We've spent more time enclosed together in our little nest than ever - I resented the intrusion for a while - missed my solitary life of seeing Suzie off to work, breakfast, walk, or domestics, or visit Mother, then home after a pint at the above club, sit in big chair, sport on TV nap, prepare evening tea, welcome home the worker...bed!! But we've worked it out - I get up early, she gets up late  :)

Mother has spent nigh on 2/3rds of a year stuck in her little flat, no social life at all - at least we've been out shopping, holiday in Norfolk, gone to pubs etc..she's had nowt, with the odd exception of me twice a week, a visit from Janice for a week or so, odd phone cll from Grandchildren and her friends, who have been the worst at this!!

A rare lunch out...keeping her safe

So, as this second lockdown comes to an end, a vaccine is in sight, what of our future?  

Me...going to walk from Westminster to Tower Hill eating and drinking it all back in again...Pepys, Boswell & Johnson, Shardlake...🚂🍺🍱

Suzie, dancing. Lots and lots and lots of dancing!!💃💃💃

Mother, tea, sandwiches and bingo with her friends, before its too late.  She's 93 next moth.

Hightlight of past 8 months...Suzie's birthday feast :)