Zoom Party

L and I head over to my parents on Christmas Day to cook them Christmas Dinner. We part cook a leg of lamb then drive it over., cooking everything else when we get there. It all seems to go down very well.

As usual I get lots of beer, chocolate and cheese for Christmas. As ever, the perfect presents. The dogs get a box of rabbit treats each from my Dad, which I assume is a mistake but they seem to like them.

On Boxing Day we have a party which is on Zoom obviously. We go over to L's parents’ house to get them online with L’s sister's family plus Son and Daughter who have dialled in from Leamington and Manchester respectively.

I'm back home in time to watch the match where Derby lose their first game in seven after conceding a goal in the sixth minute of added time and it’s harsh having played most of the game with ten men. Despite the defeat and my doubts, Wayne Rooney has done a decent job so far as manager.

On Sunday we complete the Six Pack Challenge with the Fowl Play 10K which starts from the Beeston park run start, does the main loop of the park run course before heading off to Attenborough Nature Reserve and back.

Monday is a Bank Holiday and a chance for a day time walk with the dogs on the park.

In the evening I start watching Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America. I am fascinated by the subject matter but I’m not sure why they made it this dull. 

(Monday 28^th December)

Microwave Crisis

Sainsbury’s is mad on Monday, presumably because everyone is expecting another Lockdown to be imminent as our Great Leader announces a press conference for 5pm. He announces that we now have our own world beating mutant strain of Covid-19 named after the county of Kent. Forty countries across the world promptly close their borders to us and lorry queues start to form at our ports. It seems that many truckers will be spending Christmas in Dover.

More bad car news for Daughter as she’s receives a letter from the council saying she’s been driving in a bus lane. Only she hasn’t but the photo does show her car slipstreaming a bus. Be careful who you lend your car to.

L has her last day at work before Christmas on Tuesday while I work until Wednesday.

On Wednesday evening we head over to Leamington for a doorstep chat with Son and to exchange Christmas presents. This is as good as it gets these days.

Thursday is Christmas Eve and we meet my brother and his family for a walk on Darley Park. The Lad has to spend the entire walk on the lead after he restates his dislike for their dog.

After the walk we join the hoards waiting outside the only coffee place that is open. Ironically social distancing would have been easier if they’d been allowed to open inside as well.

From there we were due to visit L’s folks but have to detour home first having forgotten one of their gifts, L’s legendary Cottage Pie.

Then, in what proves to be a very busy Christmas Eve, my Dad rings to say that they have a major crisis. Their microwave has caught fire, is no more and they can't live without it. Having not had a microwave for about 20 years I’m not quite sure what the urgency is particularly as we’re cooking for them on Christmas Day and my brother is on Boxing Day. However he decides to risk his health by heading to Asda to buy a new one.

Oh, and we have a Brexit Deal. Which as expected they have left until the last minute so that no one gets time to read it before it comes into force.

(Thursday 24^th December)

And Now We Have Tier 4

Work is fairly quiet on Friday which is a good job as I spend almost an hour chatting to a friend who’s about to have his 50^th birthday on his wet and windy doorstep. It was good to catch up.

The weather is foul, as I keep telling MD but who still insists on going out in it. As does L, who keeps bravely venturing into the city to finish her Christmas shopping. Rather than her than me, not that I do shopping in the city anyway, Covid or not.

After insisting for weeks that Christmas wouldn’t be cancelled, the Government cancels Christmas for London and the South East as they move into a newly invented Tier 4. Most of this area was in Tier 2 until Thursday and I’m sure we’ll be in it too before year end, if not before Christmas. For now Christmas is scaled back to one day for those of us not yet I Tier 4. That is, if you’re prepared to risk it.

 On Saturday I bike over to my parents place to watch the match only for it to be cancelled while I’m in transit. The Rotherham squad has had a Covid outbreak, so the game will be rescheduled. At least I got a bike ride in and got to see my folks.

On Sunday we complete our fifth chunk of the Six Pack Challenge in the very familiar surroundings of Holme Pierrepont. Although it started at somewhere called The Hook in

Lady Bay that we’d never heard of before but we have now. It was 9K in total and again we get lost but ad-lib it enough to get round. 

(Sunday 20^th December)