First (past the) Post

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Sod's Law dictates that if something remotely shitty can happen, rest assured it will. And so it transpired. I start the countdown to retirement, initiate the getting-all-my-ducks-in-a-row process in readiness for it, and boom - a global pandemic...

Statistically, I guess there must be millions more reaching this stage in life at this precise time and I would also guess that not one of us would have seen this one coming. My late father always used to say he could feel '...a bloody great draught...' as more and more friends and family popped their clogs over time - a feeling I must say I've grown to understand myself in the last few years. But this is more hurricane than sodding draught...

We're probably justified in feeling a tad anxious here in Fairview Heights, but we are acutely aware that we are very fortunate to live where we do - relatively safe in the hills of Snowdonia, itself in a pretty sparsely populated part of the UK, namely God's own country, Wales... however, life goes on and I'm still working out there [for Openreach] trying to keep things ticking over in the world of telecoms - something that in itself is getting increasingly difficult to achieve due to Covid-19 and the restrictions it places on our doing our job to keep peoples' broadband and phones up and running. If we can't get you fixed because of all of this, we apologise, but your and our safety comes first.

I can't say that I don't dwell on what could and might happen, but I try and always have tried to live life as it comes at me - we none of us can control this thing directly, so we just have to take on board the advice that's given, take all the help on offer and hope this thing will run its course and piss off of its own accord.

It's been a lovely day here, however (I'm rostered off work today,) and we've done a bit of post-winter repair in the garden and got the shopping in from the local Aldi. It will take some getting used to the new social norms involved in being around people, especially as we've become much more touchy-feely in this country in recent times - something I've welcomed (with open arms) as I remember just how stand-offish people used to be. Still, it is where we are and we're going to have get used to it for the duration. What I do hope for, if this thing is eventually of the past and the hospitality industry hasn't died in the interim, is that more people take advantage of pubs, cafes and restaurants than has been the case in the last few years and get out from behind their devices and talk to each other in real facetime - after this is over we will all be grateful for some of that.

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