In short, nothing has happened... there are only so many times I can walk around Skipton Woods... there are only so many inane conversations I can have (from an anti-social distance) with people wandering around looking bewildered and fed up...
Having just spent nearly 5 months self isolating on the boat (remember - that winter thing?) being forced to endure more of it is not really conducive to a chipper mind set. Yes I know folk are poorly.. I know the world is being ravaged by Covid 19... I know compared to many folk's personal struggles with mental health/other diseases/illnesses, it's trivial - it's just difficult when you have a different opinion to many of the brainwashed masses to "suck it up" as our Canadian friends would say.
There WILL come a point when the masses revolt...me? - well as much as disagree with the way "we" are dealing with this, WILL do as I 'm ordered by Boris and his cronies... I've always been a law abiding citizen - I revel in "queuing"but wo betide the person who pushes in.. THAT'S just not cricket.
I'll stop harping on about this in a minute but there will have to come a time when a brave economist/politician ... realist - HAS to say "OK - erm I'm afraid it's transpired HAVING had it and recovered, you DONT get immunity from it - we can't find a vaccine in a reasonable time frame so we'll have to let this play out and see what happens" - the subtext actually being "we need enough people to develop it so as to find the one that has a physiological response to the virus which will enable us to replicate it"... until that time, we're just "buying a bit of time" rather than actually getting closer a solution = AND bankrupting millions of people in the meanwhile...
I doubt that will happen though as we all think our own lives are SO important... The planet may not agree!
A chap I was chatting to the other day suggested a referendum on how to tackle it would have been FAR more sensible than BREXIT - OH how I miss BREXIT!!!!
Right - enough of that tosh... "stay safe" won't you?
BACK in "non-moving" boating land, we moved to get Diesel and then tied up opposite Peninne Cruisers. It's quite a nice place to be ... full sunshine all day for the solar panels, somewhere to peg out the laundry to dry, a tap (courtesy of the good folk at Peninne) to use so I can fill up without moving the boat - well other than letting the front line go and pushing the boat across the canal.
I'm beginning to see regulars now - in fact, even a couple of old girls who live alone but have timed their visits to coincide so they can sit at opposite ends of an 8 ft bench, tucking into their respective picnics and sip gin from a mug so as not to attract attention - I LIKE their style!
BEFORE we moved, I decided I'd better try and get some plants on the roof before B & M get shut down totally... they being one of the shops able to stay open due to selling "Essential items" - alas, all they had were a few pansies - still, better than nothing so I lugged a bag of compost and planted up just 3 tubs on the roof. I had a bit of a brain wave of HOW to stop them "bulging" in the middle - drilling a couple of holes through and passing cable ties through to keep them supported in the centre... genius EVEN if I do say so myself!
I imagine that will HAVE to do for this year...
BACK in side the boat - the shower mixer that I'd de-scaled the other month, finally decided NOT to play any longer... the result being cold showers for a couple of days. LUCKILY - being OCD an organised sort, I'd already bought and "filed" away a new mixer bar... it only took 20 mins and 10 of those were spent looking for my big plumbing plier type thingys ('can't for the life of me think what they are called)...
I've HAD to brave the shops a few times - MAINLY cause I'd worked through the gin supplies I'd got on board for the first few guests... Tesco and Morrisons couldn't be more different... the former being quite (OTT) strict in regards queuing in the car park... Morrisons setting up a sensible perimeter route which doesn't take too long...
Having looked at both queues, I decided to go and shop in M & S instead... only 3 people queuing outside and a far more civilized experience... AND btw, household basics aren't actually any more expensive - I MAY keep shopping there once this is all over.
I STILL need to paint the roof with non-slippy stuff so that'll be my fun for this week - rather than do it all in one go, I'm going to stretch it out over a few days.
I'm ALSO trying to lobby my local councilors and MP to "get help" - I can't claim the covid grants being given to businesses in the Hospitality industry because I don't pay a business rate - it being done in the form of a business licence fee to CRT - ergo, I don't have a reference number to claim They have passed me back to CRT to ask them to lobby on my behalf... who in turn passed me back to the Councillors ... ERGO, it's going NO where and I can't get hold of a penny. The only positive thing is that I can have a mortgage holiday for 3 months (note it's a holiday NOT free payments- which means I'll still have to catch up at some point) but so long as tenant keeps paying her rent, it means I have something (however small ) to live off until I can earn/invoice future guests again.
To add insult to injury, on Thursday I got confirmation from the Solicitors that our consent order/clean break agreement had been approved by the family court. My options were to make the payment when we get decree absolute from the court (any time) or make the agreed payment (money I've borrowed which i CAN'T get a repayment holiday on) now.
I chose the latter as it's not Andy's fault the way the world has gone off a cliff ... at least one of us can feel secure as we begin our separate lives in this strange, uncharted world. Sitting on the money borrowed would only have risked me dipping in to it to live... He may even benefit from the impending drop in property values and get a better new home for the money, whilst I cling to the wreckage and try to claw my way back to normality. It's heart warming that we have remained on relatively good terms throughout this process - it must be truly awful (and extremely expensive with solicitors bills) for people who fight at each stage... I've spent ni on 3k NOT to fight... We'll keep in touch and know we're there to support each other as we navigate our ways through our solo lives...wherever they lead us.
My dad bless him has offered to make the loan repayments if I can't get the money together (from his pension) ... an offer which I can't accept but may have to if things don't get back to some kind of normal within the next 3 months or so... I've told him I'm OK until July (which is true) but after then, I'll have to resort to "building debt" to keep afloat so we'll revisit it then. He also offered to pay the final solicitors bill - luckily, I'd just paid circa 500 quid (for bugger all) so the last one won't be (can't possibly be) TOO much - famous last words.
I'll leave you with a funny photo I took whilst having (my daily exercise walk) around town - it did make me chuckle!
Until Next time...
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