We were in America watching CNN news and they were forever going on about road maps. I don't even remember what the subject matter was but the phrase annoyed me. Now we have it with reference to coming out of virus lockdown. It's another word for a plan or a strategy (mind you I hate the word strategy as well as it's usually used to describe a set of rules which are subsequently totally ignored).
I don't know what annoys me about the phrase road map but it does. A road map is something that appears in a road atlas and helps you to plot your way from one place to another (we are talking pre-Sat Nav days here, although I still use a road map to confirm directions as Sat Nav does have a habit of taking you up blind alleys). Now it's become an overused phrase.
I am personally disappointed that seemingly arbitrary dates have been picked to get us out of lockdown. Why do we have to wait until some date towards the end of March to be able to play tennis and golf again? Why cannot golf courses and tennis courts open again now? Why do we have to wait the best part of two more weeks before we can meet up with one other person to have takeaway refreshments. Why can't we do it now?
And most ridiculous of all, we have been given a date from when we can hug people again! Is this bureaucracy gone mad? I suggest these dates have just been plucked out of the ether. It's laughable to think that one day hugging is dangerous but suddenly on the next day it's safe.
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I find that now the weather is improving I'm getting into very much a routine which definitely helps with the mental side of fitness.
In the morning I go for a walk for anything from two to 10 miles (the first is probably too short and the second probably too long). I try to do two lengthy walks a week (usually on Mondays and Fridays) and pick one day when I do a much shorter walk (usually a Sunday - well it is the day of rest).
With the morning pretty well taken care of I have some lunch, catch up on the news and then spend up to two hours tidying up in the garden. I have had thoughts in the past of selling the house and buying a flat - possibly in Norwich - but I think I would miss the garden although at times it's hard work - particularly when the Oak tree at the bottom sheds its leaves. It takes us until Spring to pick them all up and get things back to some semblance of tidiness.
I would never call myself a gardener despite being brought up in a family of obsessive gardeners with both my father and grandfather spending most of their leisure time in the pursuit. I do find it therapeutic though. It's often just the thought of getting changed into old clothes and going outside that phases me. Once I make the effort I enjoy it, particularly listening to music while I work (who remembers Music While You Work on the radio)?
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My tribute piece to John Mountain appeared in yesterday's Norwich Evening News and Eastern Daily Press and a copy of the cutting is included with this blog. John was actually my third cousin - we share great great grandparents. He worked for Lotus for many years. A fuller tribute to him will also appear in the next edition of Hethersett Herald which I am planning to get online by the end of the week.
It is frightening the number of good people we have lost recently. John I have already mentioned, but there was also Alan Utting and Bea Ewart and I will have full tributes to them in the next Herald. Yesterday I heard that Pauline Mack has died. Pauline was a great supporter of footpaths in and around our village and was often seen cutting back overgrown areas to make them passable. I did a few pieces for the Herald with Pauline only last year when she gave me details of a number of walks she had undertaken around the village.
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My article on school discipline prompted a number of replies, including the following very interesting one from Angela Farrington.
"When I was a child my dad made us write lines for unacceptable behaviour. I remember having to buy a red covered, ruled book out of my pocket money and filling half of it with the words 'I must not be disrespectful to my mum' . I only had to do them once because I was a good girl. The one and only occasion I raised my voice. In a family of seven children there had to be strict boundaries and I believe his form of punishment was to the point and justified. My mum on the other hand would tie squabbling siblings back to back on dining chairs with the promise we would stay there until we could speak nicely to one another. Needless to say it was drastic measures but very effective as we never sat there for long. She was lethal with the wooden spoon. It was always in the pram when we went anywhere as a deterrent. She is a lovely mum but fierce when riled. Happy days."
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Finally today a question that I am sure most of the nation is asking: "When is our Prime Minister going to get his hair cut?"
Is his present state of untidiness his way of saying he is suffering lockdown alongside us or is it just because he is a scruffy b----r?
Boris Johnson's hair gets worse by the day and his appearance doesn't instil confidence. Yesterday it looked as if somebody had stuck a load of hay on his head with superglue.