… CONTINUED FROM DIARY No 18 …
(Photograph by Camilo Jimenez via UnSplash)
THURSDAY 28th MAY
Today, the total of UK deaths caused by coronavirus reached 37,837 – up 377 in the last 24 hours.
FRIDAY 29th MAY
My home is, in effect, in a square and, in just the one week I was in hospital (with kidney problems – not with any COVID-19 problems), anarchy has broken out.
The elderly woman (90+) in the house directly opposite me has been taken up to the North of England to an old people’s home near her son. She had been very confused the last few weeks when I met her in the street.
And a man who lives in a house on another side of the square died of a brain tumour in my week away. Apparently he had been ill for a few months but I did not know: a sign of 21st century life. He had been seeing people and things that weren’t there for the last three months. He was buried two days ago. The day I got back from hospital.
On a lighter note, Romanian entertainer Dragos Mostenescu has posted another video of lockdown life with his family in London.
SATURDAY 30th MAY
I talked to Ariane Sherine’s 9-year-old daughter on FaceTime. In the middle of a playful conversation, she said: “Any person who never makes a mistake has never tried anything new.”
“That’s very good,” I said. “Did you just make that up or did you read it somewhere?”
“Albert Einstein,” she said.
She will go far.
SUNDAY 31st MAY
In the nights I have been back home, I keep waking up at least once every hour with a bone dry mouth and have to drink water.
All through the night. Bone dry mouth. Needing to drink water.
And now I have developed constipation, very smelly farts and hay fever.
My life is complete.
The UK COVID-19 death total is now 38,489 – up 113 in the last 24 hours.
An illustration of why social distancing is now UK policy…
MONDAY 1st JUNE
Coughing, sneezing, spluttering hay fever and constipation – This makes it easy to maintain ‘social distancing’ in the street. We are told to maintain social distancing by keeping at least 2 metres apart from other people. I try my best to keep the farts to myself.
TUESDAY 2nd JUNE
Hay fever tablets have stopped the sneezing and spluttering but not the farts.
Well, they wouldn’t, would they? I am still keeping them to myself.
Total UK coronavirus deaths have now reached 39,369 in total, up 324 in the last 24 hours.
WEDNESDAY 3rd JUNE
I had a petscan at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead. This is the scan where they put radioactive stuff in your system and look at it going round inside the body. I have been telling people that, because of financial cutbacks at the NHS, you now have to provide your own pet – and that I rented an iguana for the day.
So far, no-one has laughed. This is an excellent example of why I am not and never will be a comic. Comedian Lynn Ruth Miller tells me the joke would have worked if it had been a puppy not an iguana.
Travelling to the hospital, the Thameslink and Overground trains were almost entirely empty.
(Photograph by Maria Oswald via UnSplash)
On May 25th – over a week ago – an unarmed 46-year-old black man – George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis.
He died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes while Floyd was lying face down and handcuffed on the street.
His death has resulted in tightly-packed mass street demonstrations.
Not just in the US but around the world.
I have a British friend who happens to be black – we have known each other over 30 years. I got this message from her in the North of England:
Hi John, I’m sobbing my heart out. About 30 minutes ago I was coughed on deliberately by a young idiot. The pavement was narrow and he clearly didn’t want to walk in the bus layby. I turned my back to him and faced the church wall and felt his warm breath on the back of my neck. I was so shocked I stood there for about five minutes and ran home, jumped in the shower and wiped myself dry with anti bacterial wipes. My clothes are in the washing machine and I’m now paranoid about whether he’s genuinely infected me with COVID-19 or thought it was a great prank to play. I know it could have been worse. He could have spat on me rather than cough. If he’s infected or not… What a cruel thing to do.
THURSDAY 4th JUNE
Total virus deaths in the UK now 39,904 – a 176 increase in the last 24 hours.
Martyn Jacques of The Tiger Lillies
FRIDAY 5th JUNE
Cult Weimaresque British band The Tiger Lillies have released a second – yes, a second – album about the COVID-19 pandemic. I find it surprising there has not been more musical stuff inspired by the pandemic. Too soon?
SATURDAY 6th JUNE
When in hospital, I mentioned to the doctors that I seem to have a slow heart rate. The average is supposed to be somewhere between 60-100 beats per minute. Mine (as per my Apple Watch) is usually around 51-54 beats per minute; sometimes 47-49. The doctors were not really worried provided it was fairly regular.
My cousin tells me that she too has a slow heart rate.
So it must be a family thing.
And a minor thing.
Very trivial.
Comparatively.
UK coronavirus deaths are now over 40,000.
… CONTINUED HERE …
SO IT GOES - John Fleming's blog 